Call me a hippie.

You can call me a hippie if you want. The 2004 Mama Erica would have. But I just got back from Walkie's 4 month appt and I am not starting solids. Yes, I am a HUUUUGE fan of natural childbirth and breastfeeding. No, I'm not an activist, in fact I'm not worried about the health implications of epidurals, formula or baby food. I do immunize too. I just genuinely enjoy these hippie tendencies.

Do I think negatively of you if you walk into the hospital to deliver a baby with a target signs on your arm and back saying, "pit here, and epidural here?" Nope. in fact I encourage it if that is what you want to do. I only encourage you to be sure you won't regret your decision, do your research. My research told me that delivering a baby was not equivalent to amputating your leg like that girl told me in my first pregnancy. It is actually pretty awesome. It makes me want to have like 15 more babies....

And my personal experience has told me that my body wants to feed twins....... or nothing at all. Pumping in those early NICU days produced a large supply of milk. I was able to slowly decrease my pumping to twice a day, about 11-12 ounces a day. I tried pumping once a day, and my whole supply dropped dramatically. So I pump twice a day, donate the milk, and am not starting this baby on solid foods until he makes the choice to grab a french fry off my plate and eat it to my horror. (Oh wait, that was how I had my first food) The dr told me as long as I give him a few spoonfuls here and there to train his tongue, we don't have to make a habit out of it for awhile.

So onward I go breastfeeding this sweet little piggy. I hope I make a PR with this. Any time past July I will accomplish that. Go ahead, call me a hippie!


Walker William
4 months old with Rhinovirus and a fever :(
12 lbs 3 oz 10%
24 in 20%
Sweetest little pumpkin ever, who loves his mommy. Loves me so much he wants to hang out with me every night at least once in the night. And since his mommy is a hippie now, she's ok with it. :)

On our good nights he goes to sleep at 8 ish and wakes up around 3 ish. He almost always eats and goes right back to sleep, but if he doesn't he will find himself in the swing in the night. I usually try to take him in bed with me for eating and snuggles when he wakes up around 5 or 6. He sleeps like a rock in bed with me. He loves it. He will sleep until 9ish and he's up for the day.

Walker loves to stand, coo, smile, and laugh. He doesn't roll over or sit yet. He has pretty blue eyes, darkish hair on the top, and chubby cheeks. He likes to munch on his hands and loves his binky.

He is still swaddled at night, or in a sleep sack with mittens. He can sleep anywhere, and I'm trying to keep it that way as long as possible.

He loves his mobile and swing, not super into the bumbo and saucer yet, and hates tummy time. He can take a bottle without a problem, but I try really hard not to let him have them as it seems to sabotage my breastfeeding.

He is an angel and if I keep having babies like him, I might just keep having babies forever.

Potty training

Potty training is the WORST part of parenting. I am so not a fan of it. It's so unpredictable, what works for one kid, doesn't work on the next. So I'm a fan of waiting until close to 3 years old, when I get struck by a whim and springing on my child one day.

I got struck by that whim 2 weeks ago. My little Henry who followed the mold of potty training right before 3 and being night trained at the same time, has regressed. Oddly, about 8 months after potty training he started having some nighttime accidents. They have come and go, and aren't consistent enough for me to want to put a diaper on him. This fall, he started having day accidents too. OVER A YEAR after he was trained. Things were spiraling downward fast, and all of a sudden he was peeing his pants more than not. I started looking at him like a bad dog. It didn't help that him and G. growled at each other when they were fighting. I had to put a stop to the animal like behavior.

I decided to reward them both with cars for going potty. I didn't know if it would work, but when the idea flew into my head, I had to move on it before the idea flew back out (thus the workings of my brain these days). I told G. I would give him a "NEW CAR" if he went potty. He immediately took his diaper off and peed in the potty. Hmmm, I thought. That was easy. So we kept going with it. That night, he pooped on the carpet. Had to pull out the carpet cleaner, but kept moving forward. It took Henry a few days to earn his first car. But Henry hasn't peed his pants during the day since then. YAY! Still doing the unexpected night accidents with Hen, but I'm still not sure what to do about that.

Henry's challenge is impulse. He is the SORRIEST little boy ever, telling me, "I'm so sorry Mom. I will NEVER do that again." But in the heat of the moment, if he's worried about losing his toy, or his spot at the table, he would rather pee his pants than get up and surrender the moment. I'm glad we've moved past that for now, and I know how to get rid of that habit should it arise again in the future.

G. was pretty much potty trained immediately. He had one wetting accident a day for 3 days, and never pooped in his underpants. I didn't know it was possible to escape the dreaded potty training without the casualty of a few pairs of underpants.

Things are still going great, 2 weeks in. I'm very pleased. He's still not sure he likes it......Today he asked for a diaper. We had to have a complicated discussion about it. You have to be careful not to step on that boy's toes, he will blow up at you. I made the mistake of saying we should save the diapers for baby Walker, and he did NOT like that.

So he is dry day and night, just like the others. I can't quite believe it was so easy. This G. monster keeps me guessing every time. There have been so many "not so easy" things with him.

Oh yeah, and I cracked the whip on growling, so hopefully I got rid of the feral children and can raise these kids like human beings.

Now if I can teach G. to keep his pants on while he pees...... don't be surprised if you see him half naked for awhile, he just doesn't see the need to put them back on when he's done.