Bottom Balm and other Delicacies

Well, we called poison control for the second time in maybe 2 months. The first call was to determine whether or not a 2 year old brushing his teeth with Icy Hot would have any cause for concern. Other than the obvious burning mouth, it did not.

The second call was to determine if eating an entire jar of Bottom Balm was cause for concern. It also was not. Thank god for all natural diaper ointments! As it turns out, Carter had eaten the contents of the almost empty jar. I tasted it to see what was the appeal. It tasted bad, really bad. We asked Carter if it tasted good, he said no, not really. Go figure.

Most every morning Carter and I have gone for a walk....since we've moved to San Diego. I used to load him up in a carrier and off we'd go. Now Wyatt is in the carrier and Carter is in the stroller with a bowl of snacks..sometimes O's, sometimes pecans, they never make it too far without being dumped in the street or offered up to the neighbor's dogs. We lost a tomato once in the street. There were a lot of tears until mama convinced him that a hummingbird would come along to eat it. I had to think quick. There were probably more reasonable birds that I could have come up with, but I was under pressure.

I love our morning walks. It gives us a chance to talk about nature and get lots of insight into Carter's fascinating brain. He tried once to reach the moon, just raised his hand up and tried. I asked him if he could reach it? "No, too too far". We've learned that the black birds are crows and they yell "cah cah cah" and that the silly birds that wander through the neighbor's flower beds are peacocks and they yell "help help!". We've seen bees working and snails crawling and have made wishes on a number of dandelions. When noticing that a neighbor's bushes had been toilet papered one morning, Carter exclaimed, "a lot of paper towels".

We usually bring something on our walk, a pinwheel, caulk, a hat, three flashlights, sometimes all of these things come together....they slowly get passed back to mama until Carter's hands are empty and mine are full.

I am so grateful for the walks I've taken with Carter. I've learned a lot.

Carter - The Wonderful Twos

So, having a two year old is like being on a roller coaster. One minute, you are as enchanted as can be with their wily, sweet, funny 2 year old ways and the next minute you are planning your escape.


Carter has wholly embraced being two. And he's good at it. I think we've got it fairly easy for the most part, but boy can he shriek. I don't even know if it's a shriek. It's a shrill, piercing scream. I don't know why he does it. Maybe for attention, maybe for the pure joy of listening to himself. We caught him the other day shrieking at his reflection in the oven. What is so astounding is that this incredibly loud boy can run from the room with his hands over his ears complaining that the vacuum is too too loud.

Carter seems quite taken with Baby Wyatt. He talks to him in the sweetest baby voice using words we've never introduced...like couchy and socky. Overall, he's been quite sweet with his baby brother....we've only had a few head smacks and a couple of hand squeezes. I do think nursing both of them has helped ease the transition.

Wyatt gave me 2 big smiles today. Just after he woke up and I picked him up. Ahh, there's nothing better in the world than a baby smile.

Wyatt Grey is here!

Wow, I really need to post more often, but with a 2 year old and a 3 week old, who knows when that will happen. Carter just turned two years old and had a nice party with a Thomas the Train cake. He LOVED it when everyone sang Happy Birthday and asked for more. So cute.

His baby brother, Wyatt Grey, arrived two days before Carter's birthday. They are 2 years minus 2 days apart. Here is Wyatt's birth story.

Wyatt Grey was born on 10/19 at 10/19am.....right around 9lbs. He's cute, a great nurser and hovering right around 10 lbs right now.We had planned a home birth with Vickii. At 32 weeks Wyatt went breech coinciding with, because of,or the other way around, major unprecedented bouts of anxiety and insomnia for me.

I/We tried it all....chiropractor, moxibustion, acupuncture, massages, slant board, heat, cold, music, flashlight, talking, pleading, crying, swimming/diving....ultrasound at 34 weeks to rule out abnormalities, and, at 37 weeks, a version to turn him at the hospital. Nothing, the little turkey wouldn't budge.I researched, discussed, and even spoke with a midwife who had her own vaginal breech homebirth. We decided we were committed to a homebirth, as we couldn't find an ob/gyn willing to do a hospital vaginal breech.

Then at 38 weeks, everyone involved had hesitations. I had a weird feeling that something wasn't right. We all agreed that maybe a c-section was best.I scheduled one at 39 weeks 2 days, as UCSD said they weren't going to allow minors on the maternity ward in the near future due to H1N1. I have a nursing, co-sleeping 2 year old and wanted him to have access to me.

So, we did it...the anticipation sucked (no other word to use). Having a planned c-s was surreal and crappy and all my plans went out the windowBut its done. I took tylenol after surgery for pain (and lots of good vitamins and minerals and arnica prior to and after surgery) and went home 2 days later. The ob/gyn said at the time of surgery that the cord was shorter than average. It took a lot of tugging, pulling, and a very bruised newborn thigh to get Wyatt out. There also went my plans of no vitamin K.

There it was, my second and probably last birth....going totally opposite of what we wanted.

Who knows what would have happened at home....he might have been fine, he may have done nothing and we would have transferred to a hospital safely, or things could have gone totally sideways with a very sad outcome for us.Nobody will ever know....just thought I'd share. But, we're co-sleeping, tandem nursing, cd'ing and loving our crazy Wyatt. Best we can do now, huh?