Momfessions

After rereading a few of my posts over the past 6 months, I realized that 99% of the content I've posted has described the glorious moments and milestones we've reached. Not only does this misrepresent both me and Caleb, it also neglects the many times we are not put together. So here is the first of what I am sure will be many posts providing details of our less-than-glamorous moments (aka "Momfessions"):

• I confess that for the first 7 months of life, Caleb has spent most of his days in spit-up-soaked clothing. Whereas other moms may have changed their child after they doused the front in regurgitated milk, my son wore it like spit-up was the new black. 

• I may be the only one to admit it, but I bet I'm not the only one to do it... Caleb and I sometimes share his baby food packet of pureed mangos. It's a little piece of heaven in a 4 oz. package.

• This is a story I am keeping in the memory bank for Caleb's wedding: There was this one exceptional blow-out diaper a couple months ago... I'm talking all up the back and front and even in his hair since I had to pull the onesie over his head (in hindsight, I should have just cut it off of him). To get him clean, I grabbed him by the ankle and carried him upside down to the bathtub. It seemed like a brilliant idea at the time but oh how wrong I was. To my horror, as I looked down at him laying in his tub, I realized he had gotten his poop all over his hands. And what do babies do with their hands... they put them in their mouths. That's right... CALEB WAS EATING HIS POOP! And surprisingly, he wasn't fazed one bit. He laid there with a mouthful of crap and the usual toothless grin plastered to his face. It took everything in me not to leave him that way long enough to snap a pic.

• We let Caleb cry. There. I said it. For the first 4 1/2 months we jumped at every whimper, and while I definitely believe that was the right the thing to do at the time, we knew it couldn't continue forever. The crying started at nap times and eventually took place at night too. We never had to do the full extinction cry-it-out (thank you Lord!), but we did let him cry a couple times for about an hour in the middle of the night. Even though listening to him cry was one of the hardest things to do as a mom, I am so glad we did now that we have a sweet boy that can put himself to sleep, sooth himself back to sleep and sleep through the night. Win-win for all!

• Warning - the following content may be TMI for you men reading this. I confess I loath pumping! You may know that I couldn't nurse Caleb due to his reflux and aspirating, which meant hundreds of hours of pumping over 6 months (hours spent in the middle of the night, in the car, in public restrooms, etc.). Thankfully, we made it to our 6 month goal when I finally weaned off the pump and switched Caleb to formula, woo hoo! 

That's enough for now. I'm sure there will be more to come. In the meantime, I'd love to hear your confessions in the comments below. Come on now, don't be shy...