Two years ago today..

at the very time this will post, my whole world changed. I became a mommy. Not only was I responsible for myself, but a whole other tiny life.

He isn't tiny anymore, but he's still my whole world! Happy birthday Cooper!

The Scoop on the Poop

I hope you are interested in my adventure into cloth diapering, because I like sharing about it. If it doesn't interest you, feel free to not read these posts. You won't hurt my feelings a bit :)


If you are still reading, I must warn you this post is about poop and may contain some TMI. If you have a weak stomach regarding poop, please look away now.


Now, on to the poop. Last night I had to change my first poopy cloth diaper. It was EASY! Just as easy as disposables for sure! I removed the diaper just as usual. Wiped his wee bottom, just as usual. (We are still using disposable wipes for the moment. I plan to get some cloth wipes when I get more diapers.) I put a clean diaper on his bottom and threw the wipes in the trash. As Cooper went on his marry way, no doubt to go find something to make a mess of, I took the dirty diaper to the bathroom. I plan on getting a diaper sprayer soon, but right now I'm making due with what we have. What we have is one of those shower heads that you can move around because they are attached to a flexible hose. Something like this. So since our toilet is right by the bath tub, I sprayed off the poop into the toilet with the shower head. Cooper's poop resembles clay is sorta stubborn about sticking to the diaper so the help of the water was very useful. After I sprayed off the poop, I took the diaper to the pail. It just so happens that diaper was the last clean we had so it was time to do laundry!

I took pail liner (also known as a pillow case for now) full of diapers to the laundry room, dumped the diapers into the washer and threw in the pillow case pail liner after them. I did a cold rinse with no spin cycle so the diapers would be heavier during the next cycle and trick my HE washer into using more water. Since I don't have that many diapers, I also threw in a couple towels for the same reason. Next I put in a scoop of my Rockin Green into the place for the soap and did a warm/cold wash cycle with an extra rinse to avoid any build up that might cause irritation. The diapers came out spotless! And smelled so good! Because we were expecting rain last night, I hang the diapers and liners on several hangers to dry overnight in the laundry room. This morning the were waiting on me to stuff them with the liners!

I'm definitely addicted. This is way easier than I thought. I HATE laundry, but this laundry was NOTHING! If you are on the edge about trying cloth, just buy a few and give a shot! You will be surprised how much you like it :)

ETA:: This is my 100th post!!! Personally I love that I celebrated this milestone by writing about poop ;)

Look Who…

…is feeding himself! With untensils!!!

Cooper's First Haircut!

Cooper recently got his first haircut. I had a hard time saying goodbye to his newborn hair, but around his ears was looking pretty pitiful.

This was taken prior to the cutting.

He really didn't mind it at all.

"What are they doing to me Dad??"

He gets a sucker for being such a brave little boy!

(that's a great face on me right?)

He thought he was such a big boy!

Looks like my baby is growing up!

Rear vs. Forward

Since Cooper turned one, I get asked atleast daily when I am going to turn his car seat around and let him face forward.





Well the answer is I don't know! Well, when he is too tall to be rear-facing (I think on our car seat that's around 35 inches). I believe the longer he can stay rear-facing the safer he will be. Just because he has control of his neck and head doesn't mean he would in a crash at 55 mph. In my first year as a mom I've learned through trial and error that the AAP guidelines aren't always what is best for my child. I don't want this to be one of the errors.





So Mommys, what is your opinion of this? Did you turn your child(ren) around at his or her first birthday? Did you wait a little while? Or even turn them around before he or she turned one? Let's hear it!

WE MADE IT!

It's just now hitting me. Cooper is a year old. That means... WE MADE IT! We breastfed for an entire year! My original goal was 6 months so I am ecstatic to make it to a year!

Yes, breastfeeding was not hard for us. Cooper nurses like a champ. He latched on quickly and hasn't wanted to stop since. But it was by no means easy! The lack of sleep was NOT EASY. Not being able to let someone else take a turn feeding him so I could sleep was NOT EASY. Taking him out in public knowing I would have to pull my shirt up in front of strangers was NOT EASY. Yes, the technical parts of it were easy for me but there is way more to it than that.

Having said that, breastfeeding has been (and will continue to be) the most rewarding experience of my life! I think we bonded much faster and stronger than we would have if he had been given a plastic nipple full of formula. Jerry was very supportive in spite of the fact that he would not get to share in the feeding for a while. Of course the benefits of breastfeeding are endless. it has been wonderful and I'm so so so glad I did it!

Happy Birthday Little Man!

Today is Cooper's first birthday. He turned 1 at 12:05 pm. It is kinda a bitter-sweet day for me. Yes, we are starting a new exciting chapter in his life, but my baby is now a toddler. (Of course he will always be my baby).

I tried to think of ways to mark this huge milestone on my blog. I decided to make a list of things I'm glad I did with Cooper and will be repeating with baby #2 and a list of things I wish I had done differently and will change next time around.

Things I Am Glad I Did:
*breastfeeding. This one is a biggie for me. Its the most important.
*co-sleeping(I will be making some adjustments on naps though)
*consignment sales!
*lots and lots of snuggle time despite "spoiling" him
*baby-wearing. I love my "kangaroo pouch"

Things I Will Do Differently:
*I'm doing some research on cloth-diapering. We will see about that.
*introduce solids later (more on that later)
*let baby sleep on his or her own some during the day so they will nap by his or herself
*not let my husband teach the word boob! LOL

Well that's all I can think of for now. We may discuss this more later though :)

This year has been the best, yet the most difficult, in my life. Cooper, you are the best thing that ever happened to Mommy! In the many years together ahead of us, I promise to always try to parent you lovingly and fairly. I love you baby boy and I hope you have had a great birthday!

Mac & Cheese!!!

If you know me, you know that I am very picky about what my son eats. When I could I made his baby food. He does not have anything with cow's milk. This includes yogurt. I find it ridiculas that people give their baby's those yogurt melts and the yogurt made for babies. They are not supposed to have cow's milk until they are 1! I would also like to know what Gerber is thinking putting cow's milk in baby food made for infants 6 months plus!??
Anyway, since Cooper is only about 2 weeks away from turning 1, *sniffle, sniffle* I decided to cave and let him have his first mac and cheese! It was organic so that made me feel better about it. I had a harder time with this than I did when I started him on solids and gave him rice cereal! I was very emotional. I guess because I knew after I give him cow's milk he won't be as dependant on my milk.
He liked the mac & cheese ok but he was starting to get fussy so he wasn't very interested in eating. He ate about ten bites and then refused to eat another bite. I guess its good he wouldn't eat much to start him on milk slowly so it doesn't upset his tummy. Its the end of an era :(

Cooper is 11 months old TODAY!!!

I can't believe my little booger will be a year old in one month! This past year has flown by! It has been the best year of my life though. Even with all the ups and downs it has been wonderful.
As of November 17, he weighes 21 pounds and is 28 3/4 inches tall(I guess since he is standing more than he lays down its tall not long anymore). He takes steps but refuses to walk more than 3. He will walk holding onto 1 hand now instead of having to hold both hands. He has stacking cups in the bath tub and has figured out the big ones can't go into the little one but the little ones will go into the big ones. It was so sweet watching him figure it out all by himself!
He is getting better about eating solid food. Sometimes he will eat two jars and sometimes not even a half. He is still nursing. Anywhere from 4 to 6 feedings a day. My initail goal when I was pregnant was to nurse until he was 6 months old and after I started I moved it to a year. Now I've decided I'm going to try baby-led weaning, within reason though. I will not be nursing a 3 year old. Some women do, and that's fine; it's just not for me. So I guess we will just see what happens.
I can't believe he is on the verge of toddler-hood. But I am excited to see what God has in store for our future!

Wordy Baby

I made a list of all the words Cooper says and was amazed to find he says 20 words!!! I was so proud! Some of them he only says repeating them after us but about 15 of them he says using them correctly! Such as kitty, bath, mama, dada, book, and yes he says boob. I tried to teach him to say milk but everyone else said "mommy, Cooper wants some boobie!". And it stuck. Today I was trying to get him to say milk to which he kept replying "boob." I guess he was done waiting for it because after going back and forth about it 3 or 4 times he screamed boob and pinched both of my boobs(through my shirt)! Then I screamed and he started crying. It was quite a scene...

MY BIG BIG BOY!!!

My baby boy just became a big boy a couple hours ago and took his first steps!!! I am so proud of him! (Yet also dreading what is to come a little lol) I will post a video if I can get him to do it for me on camera! His daddy got a tiny shuffle step on video right after he took his first. He was standing by himself between my legs in the kitchen and took 3 steps AWAY FROM ME! His daddy and I were the only ones that saw even though his Mimi and Uncle were in the room. They had their back to him but he was nice enough to do it again for them!
On another subject... My little genius also tried to hurt my best friend... My breast pump. Lol. He went behind the recliners and unzipped the bag and proceeded to remove all of my pump pieces. All the while plotting who knows what. You should see the looks he gives it if I pump in front of him! It's like he could tear it apart with his bare baby hands! Those are his boobies and he doesn't want to share so he was going to take care of the problem!
He is getting so big so fast! Wear has this past year gone?? It seems like just yesterday I was eight months pregnant and miserable...

Cooper is 9 Months Old!

Cooper turned 9 months old Monday. and today he added quite a few tricks. He has been crawling up the step in our living room for a couple months now but when he wanted to come down he would sit at the edge and squeal. Today he has came down the step by himself twice! Also, he does not like to feed himself smalls things like gerber puffs. He opens his mouth like a bird and expects someone to put one in his mouth. This evening he sat in his highchair and ate puffs by himself(with mommy in the chair beside him) for about 15 mins. He is getting so independant!