WHAT IS ATTACHMENT PARENTING ANYWAY?

Welcome to the July Carnival of Natural Parenting: Parenting Philosophy
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have shared their parenting practices and how they fit in with their parenting purpose. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
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Before I had kids, I had a slight idea of what my parenting philosophy was: I basically knew that I wanted an open, respectful relationship with my kids. But that was it. I was never much of a babysitter; I had never been around kids before. I had no idea how to breastfeed and deal with sleep issues, much less discipline and deal with the teenage years. I started to become addicted to the forums on mothering.com. I scoured the Gentle Discipline forum and the one about sleep. I was forming an idea of how I wanted to parent.

I read a lot about attachment parenting and natural parenting. A lot of it resonated with me. I decided I wanted to be an AP mama. The idea that being there for your baby whenever he needs you made sense to me. If baby feels secure with mama and at home, he’s more likely to venture out and explore the world at his own pace.

Then Baby T was born. The one parenting issue that I knew my indecisive self would never waver on was breastfeeding. It was my only option. Luckily, there were no challenges in that department. I say luckily because there were challenges in every other department.

SUNDAY SURF: My Favorite Reading This Week

I've had a crazy week. Actually, every week has been crazy since I quit my job. I'm busier than I was when I was working outside the home, but half of it is errands and stuff around the house that I wouldn't be able to do if I was still working. So I'm saner. A little bit, at least. And I do have more time to read. A little bit, at least.

Here are some posts and articles that I've been into this week:

INSPIRATION THURSDAY: A MOMENT OF CALM

I first met Liz at an Earth Day celebration where she had a booth. I brought my wool soakers to show her, because we had talked on the phone, and she had expressed an interest in consigning them at the shop. When we started chatting, she was so welcoming. We chitchatted about babies, diapers, and cool art (the booth next to her was selling some awesome jewelry). I was struck by how calm and collected she was on that hot, busy day. She had recently had a baby, and didn’t seem frazzled at all, the way I would be in her position.

We kept in touch. I would stop by the shop periodically. We would talk about baby sleep, breastfeeding, and diapering tips. Every time I hung out with her, I noticed how she was just so calm. She always had a smile on her face, never had a bad thing to say about anyone, and just seemed so put together.

She was trying hard to run a business, take care of her family, and raise her son gently and naturally. During one of our first conversations, she mentioned how she was struggling with breastfeeding and hoped to make it to six months. (She’s still nursing her toddler now). She was struggling with letting her son cry it out for naps, because she wasn’t getting much sleep. Again, she had just opened her business. She brought her son to work with her every day and still managed to brush her hair and look cute every morning.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY: FOURTH OF JULY SPARKLERS!

Baby T's and Little M's cousins came to visit this weekend. After Baby T was in bed, his cousins played with sparklers. Paranoid mommy didn't think Baby T was old enough. Mean mommy.

These pictures are pretty cool, though.

MONDAY MOMENTS: AN UNEXPECTED REQUEST

I haven't really posted about this, because there was so much going on at the time. But guess what?

Baby T has weaned.

He stopped nursing about 2 or three months ago. It has kind of been such a nonevent that I didn't even mark it in my baby book. That's not what was unexpected, though.

It's when he asks to nurse again. Which happens at least once a week.

INSPIRATION THURSDAY - A Renaissance Soul

I’ve been working nonstop for the past few weeks—between 12-hour nursing sessions and attempts to exercise that are foiled by wildfire-smoke-filled air—and I was clicking between my four email accounts today with my left pinky because Little M wouldn’t nap unless he was on the boob. Surprise surprise. And Wimbledon was on, so I couldn’t veg in front of Dr. Phil (I know, I know, but it’s like watching a train wreck. I like to turn it on and cringe when there’s absolutely nothing else to do). And I only have four TV channels since they took away my Bravo (all you people who don’t have cable, you know what I mean. ANNOYING!)

So anyway. I was clicking around in my email, and came across BlacksburgBelle.com. I found the website because an adorable onesie caught my eye in the email, so I clicked onto SoRad’s website, then I noticed that there was a blog post about marketing, so I clicked on that, and I found this girl’s website.

I started reading her blog. And I came across this post.

And I started thinking, “Who is this girl?” This post. Is. Me. Exactly. I think April Bowles-Olin is my doppelganger.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY: BABY LAUGHS

I've been slacking on the insightful blog posts this week. Mainly because I've been busy, but I've also been spending time with my happy baby. Little M loves to laugh. He laughs at the dog, he laughs when you surprise him, and he laughs the hardest when we tickle him. Check it out:

Check out other Wordless Wednesday posts at Hobo Mama and I Thought I Knew Mama!