The Cottage on the Hill

All 3 of my kiddos wear some form of diapering at night. My 5 year old still has accidents. He is the heaviest sleeper I know!! Thankfully, he's starting to grow out of it, so I've replaced his disposable pull ups with Antsy Pants. The Antsy Pants didn't work before. Even with the nighttime doubler for heavy wetters, he'd soak right through it all. He also complained that they hurt him. Now that he's older and wakes upon wetting them, it's not so bad, other than being summoned from bed and having to help him change. My 3 year old still wets at night, too. She's also a heavy wetter and I have yet to find a cloth solution for her, so she's in disposable pull ups. My 1 year old is also in disposable diapers at night. He, too is a heavy wetter, and sometimes soaks through his sposies. I have two problems with cloth diapering at night: 1. Not enough absorption for my heavy wetters. 2. They sleep for 12 hours. That's a long time to have urine-so...

Another boy!! Very clearly a boy! Baby is doing well, but my placenta is low lying. I'll receive another ultrasound in a couple of months to see if it'll interfere with the cervix opening. Not sure what all this means for the delivery of my baby.

I splurged and bought a bottle of Dreft laundry detergent. There's just something about the smell that I love. It relaxes me and makes laundry doing more enjoyable. There's just something about baby clothes washed in Dreft. There's just something about using Dreft that makes me want to redo my laundry area! There's just something so vintage and homey about Dreft. Do you have a favorite detergent?

As of today, my baby boy has officially given up crawling for walking! It's so strange seeing him upright, walking around the house. I am so used to seeing him crawl! Just yesterday, he was still crawling most of the time, only taking a few staggering steps. Today, he's walking all over the house!

Sometimes, it takes an incredible amount of patience to deal with a fussy baby who refuses to fall asleep. Sometimes, those nights are rare when you can lay your baby in the crib and he falls asleep on his own. Sometimes, it seems that he's so worked up, it seems he doesn't even want you! He's exhausted, yet won't sleep. So you pace. And you rock. And you hum softly. And you feel your blood pressure rising with every wiggle and every cry coming out of that little body. Well, I don't know about YOU, but sometimes, I really don't like dealing with that. Then, I remember that this is what I signed up for. This is what I dreamed about in my girlhood. This is what I prayed for. And then, he falls asleep and I am overjoyed at having been a part of that; to have witnessed the peace and quietude falling over him as he gives up the fight, and falls limp and blissfully asleep in my arms. I can finally lay him down, but find myself reluctant to do so. The baby I ...

Next time I'm pregnant, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I kind of don't want to go back to the hospital I've been birthing at, or even the same OB. Though I've been blessed with fast, vaginal deliveries with no pain meds, I still have "stories" about giving birth in the hospital. I'll just itemize them quickly here: 1. My OB only delivered 1 of my 3 children. The others were delivered by OBs on staff that I had never met until they walked in while I was 10 cm dilated. 2. My first baby was premature and required a little special care and a full staff in the room and his birth was only $10,000. My 3rd son (just 4 years later) was born pretty much on his own with no intervention and just the OB and a nurse waiting by the bassinet and he was $20,000! 3. My OB wanted to induce with my 2nd and 3rd babies despite the fact that I can go naturally quite well on my own AND they both weren't full term yet. (I've NEVER made it to 40 weeks...I...

Every evening Baby Boy fusses and grunts in pain and discomfort from gas in his system. Every morning he wakes up farting up a storm. It doesn't seem to matter how often hubby and I burp him. Gas seems to build up in his lower digestive track. Last night had me looking through some resources and I found that if I take vitamin B6 it should help not only his gas issues, but his developing cradle cap, too! I'm on it! He's only a month old, so I don't want to start shoving supplements and anything other than breast milk down his throat. Therefore, I'm looking for things I can take that'll get into my breast milk and help him. I think I'll start drinking the mother's milk tea, too. He seemed to have fewer gas issues when I was drinking it after he was born. Any other advice or suggestions?

It is funny how some women, no matter what, can make milk like crazy. For me, breast feeding is a delicate matter. I dried up within 3 months after the birth of my oldest and my middle child. Yesterday once again proved that I have to be mindful and careful when it comes to my milk. Big brother and big sister were rather disobedient and difficult and it caused me great stress. It felt like every time I put baby to breast a fight broke out...a fight bad enough to need physical intervention to tear them off each other. My milk was reduced by half and my let downs were fewer and much weaker. So, once the older kiddos were tucked into bed, I made every effort to relax. I also nursed baby boy on demand, as I've done since he was born, and turned out from 5 pm to 9pm, he nursed every hour on the hour. Then, overnight, he nursed every 2 hours until 3:30 am when he obviously had a good, full feed and was able to sleep for 3 hours until the next feeding. I am fuller this morning. B...

Apparently if you post a picture of yourself or someone else breastfeeding an infant on facebook, facebook considers it obscene and deletes it. If you continue to post such pictures, you'll be removed from facebook. However, facebook does allow the use of provocative photographs of women (and men) in their advertisements that show up on the sidebar. Breastfeeding is not obscene. That being said, I am not one to "let it all hang out" when I nurse my babies. I do believe some discretion and modesty should be observed while breastfeeding, but not to the hindrance of mother and child. I'm sorry, but when it is 90 degrees outside, I am NOT sticking my infant under a smothering blanket to nurse. I will turn my back to the crowd and be as discreet as possible. The best way to sum it up is that I try to respect the feelings of others when I nurse, but if you happen to catch a glance of something, oh well. My baby eating is far more important than your possible embarra...

Sleeping in didn't go so well when I felt little feet press into my back and heard, "Mommy, it's morning. I'm hungry." My husband and I are so excited about our baby boy joining our family in June or July! There were plenty of whoops for joy. You know, it's funny how special boys and girls are in their own unique ways. We can rejoice at the coming of a son. We can rejoice at the coming of a daughter. We can rejoice at the changing family dynamic, and altered roles (daughter will be a big sister!). I'm looking forward to hauling those boxes of baby boy clothes out of storage, laundering them (they haven't been used in 4 years!), folding them neatly and placing them in their drawers. I'm looking forward to all the changes I'll have to do in the house to get it baby ready again. Hubby's looking forward to having a tiny baby curl up on his chest again for a nap. Our son is always asking about the baby. Our daughter is fairly clueless, b...

I've met two other women online who are due this summer just like me! Babies!! I'm so glad my online gals are excited for me. It's rather sad that those around me here aren't. It's not that they're not happy. Rather than the cheers and hugs I received after announcing my pregnancy with Baby Girl, I get, "Oh." Just a simple, "Oh." It's gotten so bad that I don't even want to tell anyone else I'm pregnant, especially a certain person who only days before I found out I am pregnant told me she hoped God would hold off pregnancy for me. I guess I just don't understand, especially in the Christian community, the neutral to negative attitudes towards pregnancy and babies. I'll admit, I wasn't aiming for pregnancy this early after giving birth, but every since we started "breeding re-enactors" hubby and I knew we'd take what we were given, when we were given them with such joy and thanksgiving. I received...