A boy's gotta eat.

We used to feed you naked so you would stay awake.

Hardin, You may want to skip this next paragraph between the ages of 10 and 25, but one day your wife and/or daughter(s) will want to know how you were fed. I always intended to breast feed you. I never even considered anything else. That said, I was totally unprepared for it! I really wish I had taken a class, or read a book, or at least talked to someone in depth about it before you arrived. You were born with a hearty appetite and latched on like a champ. Unfortunately, it took my milk ten days to come in. During that time you got exceedingly frustrated with breast feeding.

I'm still not sure we did the "right" thing, but the nurse at the hospital convinced us to give you formula your second night after seeing how frustrated you were. The following day, the lactation consultant said it was "just fine" as long as I kept nursing first. Well, I kept nursing (and nursing and nursing), and following up with a bottle, and by time my milk came in you were OVER nursing. You would nurse for maybe 5 minutes, and then completely loose your composure. I mean, pitch a fit like you would not believe. Today, I might could handle it, but those first two weeks I was not myself to say the least. So started the pumping cycle. I would pump, and feed you expressed milk. If you were still hungry, which you almost always were after the first few weeks, I'd give you formula after that. For the first two months you were about half-and-half mommy's milk and formula. Since around Christmas, you have been eating more formula. A few days after Christmas, I got fed up and decided to quit pumping and nurse you again. You were bigger and stronger, and it worked much better. I started nursing three times a day before giving you a bottle. As fun as that was, it only lasted three weeks :( Today was officially the first day I didn't nurse you at all. So, as unconventional as it was, I am glad you were able to get the good stuff for eleven weeks. I get a little upset when I think about what I could have done differently, but there's not a thing in this world I can do about it now, so I might as well just get'on over it. Lord knows you are happy and healthy and that's good enough for me!


You spit up sometimes so we protect your surroundings after meals.

In other exciting news, evidently some astronomers in Minnesota did a study and found that because of the moon's gravitational pull on the Earth, the alignment of the stars has changed. According to them, you are now a Virgo instead of a Scorpio. I have no clue what that means, or if these Minnesota scientist will be proven wrong, but a fun fact nonetheless!