I……That sat at the beginning of this blog post for about 5 minutes before I realized, I have no idea what to say. I guess I figured that blogs need some sort of starting point or purpose, and to be honest I’m not sure what purpose or point I even want to give this blog.
If I think hard enough, I think I want to accomplish a couple of things through my blog.
A) I want to be able to connect with people who are similar to me.
I live in a small city, and I am a young mom. This can come as a disadvantage because it is hard to find people who are on my level. There may be people in my situation (young and have a baby), but they aren’t necessarily in the same frame of mind as I am. For example, yesterday I went out for some Canada’s Day celebration with two friends and one brought along her friend who had a 17 month old son. At first I was kind of excited, I am 23 and she is 25, we both have young kids and have some friends in common. It seemed like a promising situation. Until I got to know her a little more, and realized that we have different parenting methods and etc, which just didn’t make me comfortable. She was one of those moms who jokes about what a “burden” their kid is, and how “bad” they always are, and when the baby was merely exploring his surroundings as babies do, she just started to yell at him and get mad. This was just so weird to me. I like encouraging kids to explore (as long as its within child proof boundaries of course), and I don’t really like snapping the word “no” at them (they aren’t a dog…)…not to mention, not too soon after our walk through the festival when we returned to the house, she made TWO mixed drinks and hid them in pop cans/coffee cups, and then proceeded to walk over to the BEER TENT to drink for the rest of the afternoon with her son. Wtf?! That’s waaaaack, at least get a babysitter if you are going to do something like that?
I don’t know, I guess everyone is different in the way they parent, but I just can’t see myself being able to get along with someone who has such different beliefs when it comes to children!
I am a huge attachment parenting (AP) advocate, I have co-slept with my baby since day one, as well as breast feed (Trying to go 2 years, as per the World Health Organizations advice). Its hard to find people within this small city who are even close to my age and have these beliefs.
I am hoping that through this blog maybe I will be able to connect with a community of families from across the globe who also share/practice my beliefs.
B) I want to be able to help others build knowledge and confidence through my experiences.
When I was pregnant, and still now as a new Mom, I am a little addicted to Google and its resources. As an academic I am aware that I am NOT getting “book” knowledge. But through the various Mommy blogs and forums, I have found a lot of “street sense”. Stuff that you always think you will learn from your matronly elders around you, (only to find out you don’t really think the same…as in my case) you can also learn from all different sorts of people from all over the world. I came across many blogs that have been inspiring to me and I only hope that I could someday be the same for someone else…
And as much as I would love to elaborate more on all of these intentions (as well as list links to those whom I find inspiring..), I will have to do that another day. I have been working on this blog for 3 DAYS now and its been a saved draft on my Blackberry…I just want to post it so that I can get to writing about the stuff that really matters! But I figured that proper “blog etiquette” would be to have an into-ish thing near the beginning…instead of just diving into the juice. I guess I want people to get a sense of who I am, before I bore them with my Mom rants and raves…
Until next time.
R. Xoxo
Posted in Parenting
Tagged Attachment Parenting, Breastfeeding, Co-Sleeping, Motherhood
Chameleon Dream…
Last night I had the weirdest dreams I have had on a while, and since I still remember it I am going to share with everyone. Side note: when I was pregnant I started to dream about people and places I hadn’t seen or been to in at least 5 to 10 years. One of my regrets (although I try not to live with any, I have a lot that have to do with being pregnant/a mom, lol, figures) is that I didn’t keep good enough record of all these amazing dreams I was having.
So anyhoooo, now that I can blog from my fingertips via my blackberry I figured that I may as well try to record my dreams as soon as I have them, since I can still be laying in bed. 
So on to the dream,…. basically, my DH, G, had gone to some lizard store and bought 14 chameleons!! I started to hyperventilate so bad. It was kind of like one of those dreams where you have to scream but you can’t.. only this time, I just wanted to talk (and ask Gwhat possessed him to get so many lizards after we decided to get rid of three of our own!). When I was trying to talk, I could only manage to get gasps of air of air out, even though I was trying so hard to get out loud screams….
Well on that note…we are off to the flea market
I Never Believed This Was Possible – But Now I Do
1. Natural childbirth.
I said from the beginning of my pregnancy that I wanted to have a natural childbirth, and by natural I mean vaginally and NO DRUGS. Generally people would laugh and say “We will see how that goes”….even my Family Doctor! Needless to say, I decided to have a Midwife for my prenatal/postpartum care, simply because I knew they would be more supportive than an OB-GYN. I did manage to do it all natural, which I’m sure surprised everyone (even myself in a way because I do have a tendancy to point out to everyone every second I am in pain. Probably more because if I drop dead, I want people to know that there were symptoms which were ignored. Lol). It was a truly amazing experience and I realllllllly wish that more women would opt to experience this as well. Afterwards, you feel so empowered, looking at your beautiful baby thinking “Wow, that just came out of me/grew inside me” amongst so many other emotions which are undescribable to those who do not have children. I don’t think I will ever have an epidural in the future either. Not only is it extremely frightening to me to have numb legs and a giant needle/cathader in my spine….but I really enjoy being able to show people what a strong person I am, because I don’t think anything in the world can compare to the wonder of childbirth. And to be able to say that you did it, just you and your body. That’s better than winning a floppin’ Nobel Peace prize to me.
2. Motherhood.
I wasn’t as pro-choice about motherhood as I was about my childbirth experience. I guess I just had in my head all of the things I had heard over the years from family members, movies, t.v..and etc. And to be completely honest, I feel like now-a-days people make kids/babys seem like such a burden or even a job, by having these “rules” or whatnot about how everyone should raise their babies. I even remember once being in a store and seeing a co-sleeping crib and laughing and saying “What crazy people would want their baby to sleep IN BETWEEN them?!”. Little did I know I would be one of those crazy people….because everything I read was about making nurseries with cribs, letting your baby “cry it out”…..basically to give your baby a “sense of independence” , or abandon it, as I feel…, right from birth. So I had my baby and I actually went against everything I just said. She slept in between me and my partner the day we brought her home (the same day she was born) and has slept in our room, mostly in our bed or in her own crib, since. I just don’t see how anyone could want their baby so far away after being inside them for 9 months! Or how you could let a little one cry themselves to sleep when they don’t even have an understanding of the world? So, I am totally pro co-sleeping now. Would recommend it to anyone who breastfeeds especially. It makes it so much easier when you are getting up in the middle of the night. Don’t have to walk far, and if you bfeed in side-laying position, you can catch some ZZZZ’s! (Trust me you won’t roll on your babe unless your a drunk or high or don’t have a good motherly instinct…) That’s another part of (I guess early) motherhood that I didn’t understand until experiencing; Breastfeeding. When I was pregnant I was kinda 50/50 on the whole bfeed vs formula thing. I always said I would “try” to do it…because of all the stuff people tell you, I actually had it in my crazy little head that its actually possible for a woman to grow a human inside her, but not be able to produce milk. Which is ridiculous. And I also worried about “being strapped down” and always having to “deal” with the baby. But, I also knew bfeeding was best and also FREE. Much to my surprise, bfeeding came so naturally (as it should if you are comfortable with your body and the idea) and I don’t mind being “strapped down” with the baby, I enjoy our cuddle time together (even still 5 months later) and sometimes it can be frustrating being the only one who can feed her, but really, if I didn’t actually want to… I could pump, let’s be realistic this isn’t 1860.. But again I choose not to pump because; a. I feel like a cow getting milked b. As much as I love bfeeding it grosses me out a bit? Just awkward..
So, those are the two main things I didn’t understand until experiencing…
Since writing this I also realized I didn’t understand how much a persons wrists and thumbs could hurt from typing on a blackberry….until I spent 20 minutes lying in bed blogging this answer…
Posted in Parenting
Tagged Attachment Parenting, Breastfeeding, Childbirth, Co-Sleeping
Al Bundy
Well, I work at a discount shoe store…and that’s makes me feel like I’m on the path to becoming a female version of Al Bundy. Besides the awesome people I work with there isn’t anything I enjoy about it! Cleaning other peoples messes..dealing with rude people. Retail really sucks and people treat you like crap!! Which is why I am glad I am taking studies at YorkU, wouldn’t want to end up in retail forever… And I love every part of school. From the new paper, pens, and textbooks (oh how they smell so good) to writing essays and late night cram sessions. I’m a nerd like that I guesss….
Proud to say…
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