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Here’s another guest post from Molly W, who wrote on Pregnancy Fitness here, and recently about Elimination Communication here. She and her husband practice co-sleeping with their little 5 month old girl and she shares why it works for her. “Aren’t you afraid you’re going to roll over on her?” People inquire. Yes, of course, which is likely the reason I haven’t yet crushed our little daughter who sleeps in our bed with us. You’ve heard of it, and probably have done it lots if you have a new baby since they seem to sleep best on mommy’s chest. I thought cosleeping was kindof weird, for poncho-wearing parents who add chia seeds to their homemade granola. Now I guess I just need to dig up…
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Dr. Strangelove, anyone? One of my dad’s favorites. And one we watched as children (and didn’t get, of course). Parenting is sometimes loving a bomb. Not to be confused with the 90’s term “da bomb.” Parenting is a tough joy, right? It’s the eternal paradox of “I-love-my-life and I-hate-my-life.” A friend’s blog said it perfectly the other day: Mothering Spirit “Conversations with Myself at 2am & 8am.” How do we come to more fully embrace the low lows and not just yearn for the perfect days? I have two thoughts to share on this. Big disclaimer though: I find parenting joyfully a continual and challenging goal to strive towards in my own vocation as a mama, so I don’t write this from a position…
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This is part 3 in our Birth & Parenting Series. Part 1 (Thoughts From a Mother of Four) is here and part 2 (Mother of Seven Shares Her Empowering Birth Stories) is here. As a first-time mother, Anna G. shares about going through pregnancy, labor, and delivery with twins! She provides insight into preparing for the birth of twins, and sheds light on some of the myths and concerns about both caloric intake and birth. Her birth story is powerful, but most powerful is how she handled her particularly difficult immediate recovery. This is one tough mama whose story is both inspirational and moving. 1. Tell me a little bit about your beautiful children. I have two children, ages 3 and a half months. Yes,…
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Everyone’s journey of pregnancy is different, and indeed, even the same mama can experience pregnancy differently with different children. There are many stereotypes of pregnancy: discomfort, irritability, nesting instinct, frequency of bathroom use, breakout, hair thickening, breast swelling, leg swelling, feet swelling, nausea, smell sensitivity, and the list goes on. Your particular body goes through its own cycle of hormonal increase during pregnancy so some of the aforementioned may pertain to you, and others may not. Five things that may change when you’re pregnant, and that did for me this time (who can remember last time?) around: 1) Procrastination habits change. God willing, your little baby will come into your family after a long (and short) 40 weeks, That means at some point you have to…
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I’ll admit, when I first heard there was anything controversial about vaccines for infants and toddlers, I was surprised. Why wouldn’t everyone want their child immunized from such terrible things as polio, measles, chicken pox? I remember having the chicken pox as a little girl (the same day I came home from the doctor with the diagnosis, my little brother informed me that my imaginary best friend “Ben” was now his best friend. How can you forget a double-whammy like that?) and that it was quite unpleasant. The more I’ve read, and the more people I’ve talked with, the better I understand the vaccine debate. For many children, there’s no fall-out from vaccination, but for a small group, there can be serious reactions, or…
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Molly W, who’s guest posted before on Pregnancy Fitness, joins us again with her thoughts on elimination communication, the training system for young babies and early toddlers to learn to signal their bathroom needs. Her daughter, V, is a little over 5 months old and they are glad they’re trying it out! What is Elimination Communication? I’ll admit it. I had to google it after I first heard of it from a friend who’s postpartum doula. I imagined an idyllic world where naked babies were the norm and poopy diapers a thing of the (more barbaric) past. I was already mentally accepting congratulations for having potty trained our daughter V by one year. After 5 months of EC’ing our baby V, we aren’t quite living…
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