Toothie Woothie

Toothie Woothie

After 4 days of teething HARD (up most of the night, fussy all day, etc) a tooth finally popped through today!!

I woke up this morning and stuck my finger in his mouth to see about the tooth situation and I felt it! It's just a little nub, but it's there, and it's gotten bigger as the day has gone on. Woot!!!

Milestones so far -

1 hour - held head up for the first time
4 weeks - slept in crib
8 weeks - first smile
3 months - slept through the night
10 weeks - first laugh
3 months - first tooth bud (below the gums)
3.5 months - started teething
4 months - stopped sleeping through the night
4 months - rolled over for the first time
5 months 1 week - pushed up on hands
5 months 2 weeks - sat up with little to no support
6 months 2 weeks - first tooth popped through

My Dad

Just talking... nothing too special....

I just have to say that I my dad. We haven't always had the greatest relationship... well that's not exactly true. If I'm 100% honest he didn't have ANY relationship until I was 20. When I got married he gave me away which was really the first big step to forming a relationship with him. Even though my dad wasn't in my life much growing up I still love him and wanted him to give me away.

Anyways, so him giving me away was the kick off to our relationship. Now we talk on the phone a few times a month and email on a regular basis. It's great to have him in my life. So when we got pregnant and I told me dad he was super excited about being a grandpa and insisted we were having a boy. Two days after I told him we were pg he went and bought a fishing pole for the baby! My dad is a HUGE fisherman.

My dad lives in TX and is about to be SLAMMED by hurricane Ike. He was planning to come to MI to see Cooper for the first time on Sunday and staying for a week, but now he can't. He spent the day today working (at a processing plant) getting everything ready for Ike and he has to go back to work on Monday.

They are fully prepared for Ike, so that's not a big worry. My dad is big into camping, so they have a generator, Coleman gas stove, stored water, lanterns, lights, coolers full of extra food, etc. But still, please for him and everyone else affected by Ike.

So now he's planning to come in Oct or Nov. He's thinking about Nov because he wants to see some snow I told him snow is *possible* in Oct but not guaranteed but you're almost guaranteed some snow in Nov... Dec and Jan for sure, but he's not willing to do the dead of winter

While we were on the phone I told him that we were saving up to get a new carseat for Coop (Britax Boulevard) and he asked how much we need... I laughed and asked if he was sure he wanted to know, he said yes. So I told him about $300. He said that he would buy it for us when he gets here!!!! That's so great of him, and takes such a worry off of me... I wasn't sure how we were going to come up with the money for it, but was hoping to have it by xmas.... He also said that he's bringing Cooper his first fishing pole and that he's going to "buy that boy some toys" (in his words )

I just felt like rambling about dad.... It's great that even though we didn't have a relationship when I was growing up we can have one now and that he wants to be involved in Cooper's life. I think me asking him to give me away made him realize that I was all grown up and he missed out on so much. My dad was always there for me financially, sometimes physically, just not emotionally... but it seems to have changed.... makes me wanna and

Anyways, I hope everyone is having a wonderful Friday and has a great weekend!!!

MIL surprise and 6 month check up

Yesterday was Coopers 6 month check up. He weighs 15 lbs and is 26 inches long. My boy is growing!

Anyone who knows me knows that we don't go to well baby visits. We're not vaxing so it's not necessary IMO, *I* don't need a doctor to tell me that my baby is growing just fine, getting big, doing what he's supposed to etc. when I can see this for myself. But I decided to do the 6 month check up just to see how much he weighs... literally that's all I wanted to know lol...

So as I was saying - 15 lbs and 26 inches long!!! WOW!!! He tripled his birth weight in 6 months! His weight puts him on the low end of percentage (10%) and his length is perfect (50%). I really don't give a crap about the percentages though. I can see that my baby is growing, thriving and developing just fine. And last I heard these percentages were based on white formula fed babies in the 1950's... yea that sums up every baby in the country... what a joke lol. (I don't know if this is 100% true or not, it's just what I've heard. So don't bombard me with emails calling me a liar please! If you've heard differently I am interested in hearing what you've heard)

Anyways, Cooper is doing great. Dr. Margolis wasn't concerned at all about his weight... he's a little chubbos with rolls anyways lol. He said we should try to get him to eat more solids (we're working on that) but isn't too concerned. He said we're doing everything right and to just keep feeding on demand and following his lead... which is what we've been doing all along!

We've been trying to get Cooper to eat some solids for the past week or so now; he could be more intersted in watching paint dry! LOL. He'll take a few bites (usually 5 or so), spit most of it back out, make the cutest funniest face, and then he's done lol. Which is fine with me. I know his body won't digest or absorb anything from the solids anyways so we're just going through the motions, trying to get him used to swallowing something other the milkies and getting him used to the spoon... so far it's not working lol.... but we'll keep trying!

Cooper has had baby rice (whole wheat organic of course lol) with milkies and avocado mashed up... He did okay with the rice the first night but after that wasn't interested, and he's not too fond of the avocado. We'll do the avocado tonight and then tomorrow we'll switch to carrots or sweet potatoes, haven't decided which one yet.

We are making all our own baby food... all organic of course! lol... So when I get ready to do the carrots I'll steam them, mash them up with a little coconut oil or milkies and give it to him that way... Must remember to ask Dr. Sandie about this today... When I do the sweet potatoes I'll bake them and then use coconut oil or milkies to smooth it out... we'll see which I do next... it'll most likely be carrots.

Anyways... moving on....

I called my Mother In Law (MIL) on the way home from the dr. to give her an update on C's weight and stuff and was met with a wonderful surprise! After telling her that he was only in the 10th% for weight and that I wasn't concerned and neither was the dr. she told me she wasn't concerned either. She said that Coop is obvioulsy a growing, strong, happy baby and there's nothing to worry about. Then she went on to tell me that she thinks I'm a wonderful mother and am doing a fabulous job with Cooper!!! I was shocked!! I told her how much I appreciate her saying that to me, she truly has no idea how much I needed to hear that (see previous post).

I always thought that my IL's thought I was the crazy one for not vaxing, natural parenting, baby wearing (not sure if they know I baby wear though lol), making our own baby food, pumping as long as I have, cloth diapering, etc. My FIL likes to make little cracks about stuff, it's his sense of humor, but it's always maked me wonder how he feels about our parenting style cause let's face it, Paul and I are parenting TOTALLY different then they did in the 60's and 70's... Hell, we're parenting different then the way his brothers and sister has as well... It's nice to know that they don't think I'm crazy for parenting the way we are.

I know I'm the *crazy* parent to a lot of people and I know that not everyone agrees with the way we parent, I am okay with that. I've come to admire the quirky looks I get from people in the stores when I'm wearing Coop or they realize he's in a cloth diaper. I know we're different then most parents, we are in the minority and I like it that way!!!

Okay, I'm outta here, I've written enough!

xoxoxo

Amanda

I'm a failure

I'm such a failure

Let me count thee ways....

I couldn't give birth to my son. I wasn't even given the chance to push him out, they went in and sucked him right out of me. I was made to feel that I wasn't able to push him out in a timely manner and therefore somehow failed my son. Stupid, stupid doctors.

I wasn't able to protect him in the hospital. They took him off to the side and deep suctioned him, put gunk in his eyes, and gave him a vita K shot... all of which were against my will. I wasn't able to protect him and failed him once again... That's twice I failed him in 15 minutes... 15 minutes! My son was 15 minutes old and already I had failed him.

I can't breastfeed. This is a failure all of it's own. I have failed my son so many ways in this category. Not only can I not breastfeed, I barely even tried. I gave up before I was able to completely fail because I was afraid of failing... yea, that makes a ton of sense. I tried in the hospital, I really did, but when it didn't work I resigned to pumping for the next year. I gave up when we came home, I didn't know how to do it or who to turn to. Well, that's not entirely true; I've had people offer to help me and my son learn to breastfed but I have yet to take them up on that offer because what if I fail again?

I can't take care of my son by myself at night. Paul always has to get up and help me. That drives me absolutely insane. I am a mother, I should be able to do this alone. I'm the one that wanted kids and I begged and pleaded with Paul telling him that I could do it, and now I can't. I get snippy with him at night when he gets up because it just reinforces that I can't do it myself. Paul ALWAYS has to get up, I wish he would just stay in bed, but then I get mad that he isn't helping. It's a catch 22, no matter what that poor man does I get angry with him. I can't warm up a bottle and take care of a crying baby at the same time... and I can't leave Coop in his crib to cry while I warm up the bottle.

I'm going back to bed... this sucks....