I am a hippie mom

I never thought I would be. Really, I didn't. But it is official. I meet those hippie mom standards. I co-sleep, breastfeed, I wear my babies, and soon I will be cloth diapering. Yup, that about sums it up! Ok, so I never really wanted to co-sleep (see previous posts), and I am working on getting Kaiden out of our bed.

I always wanted to breastfeed, but I had supply issues with Makaylee and we started solids at 4 months, and I was hanging onto breastfeeding by a thread when she turned 6 months, and about a week later I was done. But here I am, Kaiden has breastfed for 6 months, and still going strong. Or should I say still refusing a bottle. He has started solids though. Rice cereal is love, grean beans, not so much...........at all.

I wear my babies. I wore Makaylee in a hotsling. She loved it, and I loved it. Kaiden is an even bigger "hold me" type of baby. Basically if you are not holding him, he is not happy. He enjoyed the hotsling as an infant, but not so much anymore. I have been using my snuggli, but after a couple hours my back is killing me. I have been lusting over an ergo baby carrier
http://www.ergobabycarrier.com/ It can carry a baby up to 45lbs on your front or back. When Mikes Mom was visiting we went to a baby boutique and they had them there and she got one for me! Thanks Penny, I love it! I put Makaylee on my back and Kaiden and carried them around for awhile and my back doesn't bother me at all. Kaiden really seems to like it. We are even working on nursing when he is in the front, and so far it works really well.

I plan on cloth diapering soon. I have been going back and forth for months. If you do not know my diaper frustration, then I must not complain enough. ;) Kaiden has managed to pee or poop out of every single diaper I have tried. Pampers, huggies, (different types of both), generic, etc. So after pushing from my sister, and research, I decided to jump into the world of cloth. I ordered a cheap cloth off of ebay and hated it. Kaiden pee'd once, and peed right out of the diaper. Then I found a little baby boutique around here that had different types of cloth diapers and I checked them out. When Penny came up here to visit I showed her the cloth diapers, and she decided that she could make them. One try that was way to bulky a visit to the baby boutique and the purchase of one thirstie diaper later she was in business. So Penny is making some cloth diapers for me. Then I saw someone on craigslist who has 7 large fuzzi bunz diapers for $70 and i am going to get those tomorrow.

So, there you go, I guess I can display this here:

2 steps foward 3 steps back

So this is the crib update. Kaiden slept in the crib until.............you guessed it 3:30am. At which point after going to bed at 9pm I had fed him three times, and had to give him his paci two other times. But at 3:30 am he decided he was done and wanted out so he started crying. So into the bed he went so Mike could get some sleep. Today, all naps successfully done in the crib. I swaddled him, and put him in the crib and he went to sleep with minor comforting. YAY! on that front. At this moment (10:45pm) he is in our bed *blush*. I put him to sleep at 8:20, and Makaylee to bed at 9 (don't ask). At 9:10 Kaiden was up crying. Makaylee was still awake playing in her room, and I want some alone mommy time since Mike won't be home from the airport till after midnight. So rather than fighting him to sleep in the crib, I quickly lost, and put him in the bed so I could watch some adult television and fold laundry. I know, exciting times :) I do plan on moving him into the crib after feeding him before I go to bed though.

Night 1 in the crib

When we had Makaylee I was very much against actual co-sleeping. Both Mike and I were terrified we would roll on her, or something bad would happen. So I got my arms reach co-sleeper. Lucky for us, Makaylee was a great sleeper, and she loved the co-sleeper. I rarely had to feed her, and she made a great transition from the swing and co-sleeper to the crib.

Kaiden, not so much. He hated to co-sleeper. He did sleep in it in the beginning on two wedges. The one that goes under the sheet, and a memory foam sleep positioner to keep him from rolling around. When he outgrew the memory foam wedge, he stopped sleeping in the co-sleeper so well. I got desperate for more than 2-3 hours of sleep a night, so I pulled out the happiest baby on the block book, and tried the swing as recommended. He started sleeping for 4 hours, followed by an additional 3 hours in the swing, and I was so happy with that. The problem is that if I tried to put him back in the swing he would wake up, and in the co-sleeper he would wake up. Kaiden is still pretty much a very restless sleeper from about 3 or 4am on. So one night out of exhaustion I fell asleep with him breastfeeding. After that it was all over. He started coming into our bed sooner and sleeping less and less in the swing. Somehow we made it back to not sleeping longer than 1-3 hour stretches again. Then Kaiden started fighting and screaming when it was time to sleep at all, so somehow I ended up laying with him on the bed until he fell asleep and sneaking out. Don't ask me how I accomplished this with Makaylee still running around, but I did. This new laying with him to go to sleep has been going on for a month, and I am sick of it. I am also tired of him waking up every 1-3 hours all night long. He is so restless that neither Mike nor I get very good sleep from around 3 or 4 on. Mike has been sleeping on the couch more and more, and I want my bed back! So I pulled out the handy dandy baby bible AKA Baby Whisperer and decided to try sleep training him with her pick up/put down method. It is not crying it out. I sit in with him and comfort him with my voice, or perhaps a song and if he completely freaks out, then I pick him up just long enough for him to stop crying and put him right back down. He successfully took three naps in the crib today. YAY! (Let me also mention that he is a 45 minute napper just like Makaylee use to be). I put him in the crib tonight. So everyone please keep your fingers crossed that we both survive the whole night through with him in the crib. We might not tonight because Mike has to get up at 4;30 am for a flight, so if he is screaming and keeping Mike up he will probably end up in our bed, but the goal is to have him sleep a whole night in the crib. Then from there I will need to start weaning out his nighttime feedings. Because at 6 months, he should be able to go longer than 3 hours without eating. Everyone wish us luck!

Scrapbooking pages of auntie Sarah

So Mike's sister Sarah came to visit us for a week. I scrapbooked some pages of her visit. The journaling says:

Auntie Sarah came to visit us. Kaiden, at 6 months was not to impressed, but Makaylee is in love with Auntie Sarah. We all had a great time playing around the house. Makaylee showed Auntie Sarah how she can cook pancakes in her own kitchen, and how she loves to sing along to her Elmo CD's. We went to the park and fed the ducks, went to the freedom festival, watched the fireworks, visited the spray park, and went on several walks looking for the neighbors kitty. Makaylee also discovered a new activity of rolling penny's down the driveway. Auntie Sarah brought Makaylee a giant Elmo coloring book and markers, and Makaylee is still having a blast coloring in it. This was also a new experience for us because this is the first time someone came to visit and Makaylee realized they were gone when they left. She has asked for Auntie Sarah several times since she left. We are now looking foward to the next visit. Nana Hale comes next week!