Natural CHEAP carpet freshener.

A natural SAFE/HEALTHY way to freshen your carpet without store bought powders: I take an empty spice shaker/container. I add baking soda until it's about 7/8 way full. I then put in ground cinnamon until it's full. Sprinkle this on the carpet (the carpet should be a dark color. If it's light, the cinnamon might stain it) and let it sit a few minutes. Vacuum up and the house will smell amazing. :)

A friend's stash

I have a friend that used to use disposables. She thought I was crazy (CRAZY!!!!) for using cloth. She switched when her baby was older. Not a newborn anymore (I've heard a few people say they won't switch because it's too late since they didn't start at birth, but you really don't have to start at birth for the diapers to be worth it). I think it all started when I let her borrow a prefold and cover to try at home. Anyway, she started building a stash and now does cloth full time. She is just as obsessed with cloth diapering as I am. In fact, she just bought a bunch of fabric for me to make her some nice fitteds.
Here is her stash:

The poop

So someone I know expressed a desire to know more about how to deal with poop.
Well the disposal of poop with cloth diapers is much the same as that of disposable diapers. A lot of people do not know it you are NOT supposed to put feces in the trash. EVER. You are never permitted to do this. It is supposed to be put in the toilet to be treated at water treatment plants. So, with solid and semi-solid poopy, you have to toss the chunks in the toilet. So, if you use disposables and your child poops, you have to toss the poop in the toilet. If you are like most disposable using people, you just toss it all in the trash. tisk tisk tisk. So, if you follow rules and don't break laws, if you wish to keep our planet clean and land fills less disease-y, put poo in the toilet where it belongs. If you use a disposable, you then put the diaper part in the trash. If you use a cloth diaper, you toss the diaper in the pail or the washer.
Simply by following rules and putting poo in the toilet, whether using paper or cloth diapers, you are dealing with poo. So I just don't understand when people are 'turned off' by cloth diapers simply because of the "poo". Just by saying that you are telling me that you are one of those dummies that puts turds in the trash. No wonder most people have diaper pail-smell problems. They have a sewer system in their kids room.

Many people I know that use cloth have a nifty diaper sprayer hooked up to their toilet for the peanut buttery poo that is the transition poo from completely-breastmilk-poo to mostly-solids-poo. If you have ever smelled or seen a baby's poo that is from a completely breastfed baby, you know that this poo is pure awesomeness. No bad smell. And it's almost all liquid. Before Skye started solids, I just threw the whole diaper in the pail. No biggie.
Now that Skye has started some solids, she has slightly chunky, stinky, sort of thick pastey poo. It's gross, I'll admit. I have not had the pleasure of obtaining a diaper sprayer (they are super duper easy to assemble from parts bought at hardware stores), so I use the dunk and swish method. Easy peasy.

I just dunk the poopy diaper in the toilet and swish the caca off. Skye likes to watch me and tell her poo "bye-bye". I wash extra well afterward and put the rinsed diaper in the pail until wash day. I thought I would think it gross, but it's really not. It's just baby poop. Poo is the least of my worries. I'm more afraid of spiders.... and global warming. If you are afraid of touching a bit of poo, maybe you should re-think your choice to be a parent. I've been doused in a nice shower of poo, pee, vomit, and drool plenty of times since Skye's birth. Somehow, just somehow, I managed to survive.

Diaper making update: Lots of diapers made today and more tomorrow. I"m a diaper making machine. Starting to get a little obsessed with it.

Cloth diaper care :)

I wash my diapers every couple of days. Any longer then that and the pail may start to smell. The pail is also too small to hold more then a few days worth of diapers.
I have a special way of cleaning diapers. I do a baking soda soak, a detergent wash (phosphate free, dye free, fragrance free), a wash with 1/4 cup vinegar, and one extra rinse at the end. I got this method from a friend. I did think that it was A LOT of washing, but when I cut out the baking soda and vinegar, Skye started getting red-butt, just as she was getting with disposables. Granted, I would much rather she had a red-butt from cloth diapers then the terrible chemicals in disposables. I do love not having to deal with red-butt at all, though. So I started using the baking soda and vinegar again. They do seem much cleaner with these ingredients added to the wash water.

Here's what I do:
Every two days I throw the diapers in the washer.
I put 1/4 cup baking soda in and let it sit overnight. If you can't do this overnight, a soak of 1-2 hours is good.
I rinse this.
Then I do a wash with a few tablespoons of detergent (never use too much. It can build on the diapers and cause repelling)
Next I do a nice wash in 1/4 cup vinegar.
Then I do one extra rinse.
Yay! Clean diapers!
Now, either hang to dry outside or dry in the dryer. :)

NEVER EVER use:
Bleach
Fabric softener (this will cause repelling)

One thing to always remember is that if diaper rash cream comes in contact with your diaper, it will also cause repelling of urine. If you use a diaper rash cream, be sure to use a barrier. They sell little paper (sort of like toilet paper) pieces to lay in your babies diaper to catch poo, so that they poo can just be lifted with the paper and placed in the toilet. You can also use these as a barrier for diaper rash cream. I just use a cloth wipe. I lay it down between Skye's butt and her diaper. This works just as well.

Even filthy diapers like this green teething diarrhea come out nice and freshly clean.

Ya. I just had to add this picture. hehe

Look! Working on cutting out diapers to sew.

 And I'm working on a Mei Tai Carrier too!

Babies need their mama!

I was just thinking today, how my views about life have changed. I used to think that a woman that didn't work (as in, didn't have a paying job outside of the home) was lazy and useless. Oh, boy. I was incredibly ignorant. I think I thought women should work because my mom worked my whole upbringing. We were on the poorer side of the equation, so it was absolutely necessary. My dad was also going to college off and on throughout my childhood too, if I remember right (he now is a registered Nurse). Anyway, I do think that I thought the way I thought because that is what I knew. I only knew life with a working mother. It didn't phase me, really. I mean, not that I can tell. Maybe I am messed up, but it sure is hard to tell if you personally are or aren't. I'm a nice person. I care about others. I do have problems with anxiety. One thing that I do wish is that I wasn't as isolated from physical contact. I do remember being scared at night and not being allowed to stay in my parents bed. I remember later, when I was about 10, being very scared of a thunder storm and wanting to be with someone but being equally as scared of waking my mom. I don't want Skye to ever be afraid of coming to me when she is scared. I also distinctly remember feeling that my mom's room was off limits. I was allowed in there from time to time, but it felt weird. I can't really explain. I do have a problem with personal space. I feel as if I need a lot. I get very anxious when someone is sitting near me that I don't have an extremely close relationship with. I don't like that about myself. I want to feel normal. I want to be able to sit with my friends. To hug them without feeling weird. I firmly believe that physical closeness is something that is learned. The book I just finished reading, called the Family Bed, delves into the world of a baby. Living in a warm, snug cushioned mom water bed for 9 months, only to be birthed and put in a cold isolated bed. The old physician recommended "all members of a family needs their own space" is nothing but hooey. Read the book. It's very informative. Those recommendations stemmed from a scare about hygiene in England. It was believed that when families slept together in the same bed (mind you, this was the practice for ALL families of ALL countries) they increased their chance of spreading disease. They thought that virus' and bacteria were spread directly from person to person, not realizing that virus' can be transferred from door knobs and utensils that a sick person has touched. Therefore, sleeping alone does not really decrease your chance of contracting the illness.
This belief that separate beds for every member of the family turned into a belief that holding a baby causes them to be "overly dependent" and "spoiled". Absolute nonsense. What research has proven is that when a baby is held often and picked up at the first cry, the brain develops better. Babies and children left to cry and sleep alone for fear of spoiling them actually have stunted brain development and later have emotional problems as well as an array of psychological problems later in life. Whether the problems be minor or major, who would risk such a negative impact on your child's development simply so that he or she can be more independent. WAIT WAIT WAIT! What really gets me in a tussle is that people actually believe that BABIES (BABIES, people!) should be more independent. I. Don't. Understand. Why does this little person (that can't move from place to place, can't feed its self, can't bath its self, can't communicate other then crying) need to be independent? What is a mother for?! Why don't we just send them off to college? That gets me to my point.
Have you noticed all the mother replacers on the market these days? Don't know what those are? Well, anything that makes it so that mother doesn't need to be there. Beds with rails (a crib), bottles, pacifiers, bouncers, mechanical rocking devices, frequent babysitters. All designed to replace mothers body, her breasts, her nipples, her motion while being carried. These things are great SOMETIMES. .......................sometimes. People use these things every day. All the time. Because mother is too busy to be a mother.
I found myself thinking today, and on and off a few times since Skye was born, that mothers need to be at home. I know, I know. Not all families can afford to have mother at home. It's hard living here in the United States right now. I know this. Many families can NOT afford to have only one salary (this isn't counting if mom is the only parent available for baby. Then, obviously, she has no choice but to work). But what about the family that just wants more and more and more? For instance, have you seen a family where mother and father both work? They say that they can't make it without both of them working. But then you see they have a 5 bedroom house, 2 brand new cars, every single new gadget that comes out, 12 pets, a new boat, a 69 inch television. You get the point. I, personally, would forgo all of the extras and be a mother to my children. Think, deeply, about what is great about life. Is it the new I-phone? Or sitting with your beautiful family eating a homecooked dinner? Is it driving in a brand new Escalade? Or is it cuddling with your 2 kids for an afternoon nap after a picnic at the park (on a weekday)? Things are just.......things! It is baffling me how some families choose things over a well rounded happy family that has mommy (or daddy) home. Life shouldn't be a status symbol contest. If should be about family. Family doesn't need S-T-U-F-F. Family needs warmth, stability, closeness. Family needs each other (with an occasional family vacation!)
I'm so thankful every single day we were able to have me at home with Skye. I'm so thankful every day that we chose for me to be at home. I would have missed out on so much. Things you can never every get back. I would have had to share raising my angel with the person that watched her while I was at work. That may be ok, but I don't know that for sure. Everyone has different ideals and Jon and I want our children raised a certain way. Maybe the person would spank her when she's bad. Maybe she would get yelled at. Maybe she wouldn't be watched carefully enough and get hurt. You never know. I hear all the time from breastfeeding mom's that I know  how hard it was to leave their child the first day back to work. They liken it to physical pain! I can't even imagine. Even just going for the brief outings I went on without Skye, I felt the need to be with her. I have random let downs of milk. I felt as if I was missing something in my life. It's a little less so now. She's not as young. But I still would not have a weekend away or anything.
I don't know if much of this makes sense. I just am very happy with our (Jon and I) decisions on Skye's upbringing so far. She has the comfort and stability of me always being there. NO bouncing from sitter to sitter. No changes in routine. She has security. And I have learned the wonderful ways of attachment parenting, so she has that going for her as well. The warm closeness of breastfeeding (nothing like that in the world), co-sleeping, and babywearing.
I feel very confident I am doing what is best for her. I'm not that mom, frustrated that my baby isn't sleeping through the night. Skye nurses contently as we both sleep. I'm not that mom, sobbing outside my child's door as I teach her to "sleep through the night". I pick her up and take her to bed with me. I'm not that mom, scrubbing bottles and plastic nipples so I"ll have clean feeding implements. I lift up my shirt: the fastest most convenient meal in the world. I'm not that mom fussing with a cumbersome stroller so that I can take a walk through the mall. I sling my kid onto myself and enjoy some nice cuddles (yep! Even while traveling from place to place, I enjoy cuddles!). Attachment parenting = easy parenting. Attachment parenting = happy, psychologically healthy baby. Attachment parenting = happy mommy.

I Love Babywearing!

So, in case you don't know what babywearing is, it is carrying your child in a fabric sling or pouch. Most people think this is an amazing new "thing". It is not. Jon and I have a good laugh everytime someone praises our carrier and says how they "wish there were carriers like that when I had kids". Well. ... ... ... This way of traveling with a child is in not new. We snicker because people have used baby slings and pouches for thousands of years. The invention of the stroller is new. Babywearing is not. In fact, I read somewhere that the stroller was invented in England or somewhere because of advice from child-development "professionals". These people cautioned against holding your child too much as it was thought to "spoil" them. Holding a baby when you are traveling from one place to another, such as a market or park, was thought to encourage too much physical contact. Of course, physical contact causes people to grow to be over-dependent, just as masturbation causes blindness/retardation. And male children that cry end up being sissies or homosexuals. *eye roll* In fact, lack of physical contact causes over-dependence. When masturbation is punished, sexual problems can ensue (most often psychologically). And when a male is discouraged from crying, he is likely to suppress emotion and "harden", which can cause relationship problems.
 Anyway, holding your child near you is wonderful. Babies and young children crave physical contact from their parents. Lots of love, affection, and physical contact is proven to greatly improve a child's emotional development. Physical development is also improved. Despite what some people may say, holding a child "all the time" will not delay walking. Babies and kids are healthiest, both physically and mentally, when all of their needs are being met. One very important need is that of physical touch.

Here is a ring-sling I made. I have a sewing machine, so making these carriers is very simple. I bought special sling rings and a few yards of different colored fabrics.This is the latest carrier I have made. Skye loves sitting on my hip in this one.

This shows how it is just a simple pouch. Well, I'm not sure how well this shows the structure.

This is a carrier my friend gave me. It's simply a long piece of flannel that I tie around my body. This is the most comfortable carrier. For me, at least.

This shows that it is just a long piece of cloth. The trick is wrapping it correctly.

 This is the Mei Tai. I made this a while ago. I made it small, so Skye is growing out of it. I picked up some more fabric with some of Skye's birthday money and I"m going to make her a toddler-sized one soon.

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A friend of mine is pregnant with a little boy. I made this Mei Tai for her. It's a larger size, so it can be used for both small infants and larger toddlers.

Edits

I use way too many commas. I'm abusing the commas. Why does no one tell me this? I went back to read something I had written and saw the garbage pile of commas. What is the use of a college education if I completely disregard all that I was taught. I apologize for any more grammatical errors. I do these fast and usually late at night after Skye has gone to bed.

The family Bed

What a highly debated issue. Whether or not to take your child(ren) to bed with you. Well, I sure didn't think think the way I do now just over a year ago.
I was a pregnant woman with the typical American ideas of cribs and nurseries stuffed in my brain (either by the media, or by family and friends). We made up a "nursery". I loved it and I still do like Skye's room, but it's not used as I thought it would be used. Skye was born in the hospital and spent her time in arms arms while awake. While sleeping, she was either in her bassinet-type bed or in daddy's arms. I didn't really hold her while she slept because I was asleep too. Skye, Jon and I came home and Skye slept in her bassinet. She then was moved to a co-sleeper attached to our bed because of how incredibly easy this made night time breastfeeding breaks. I just reached over from where I was sleeping and pulled her to me.
I remember a specific memory that makes me laugh now. I was nursing Skye in my bed and fell asleep (nursing releases wonderful feel-good hormones, some of which make you sleepy). She was asleep too and I was woken up by Jon shutting the bathroom door as he got out of the shower. I jerked myself up and started to flip out. "What have I done!". I literally thought that I could I have killed her. As if I was some sort of land mine ready to destroy her any second. I was so dissapointed in myself and terrified of  "what could have happened".  Skye was about 2 weeks old at the time.
This continued to happen over and over and over and over. I slowly discovered my maternal instincts. It was amazing. Like finding out you have an extra arm or something. I would wake a few seconds before she did EVERY TIME. I would not move a millimeter during the night. This had previously been unheard of. I thrash and kick and roll in my sleep. Not anymore. My instincts work at night. I would go to sleep curled in a c-shape around skye, nursing away, and wake up a few seconds before she stirred in the exact same position I had fallen asleep in. I would wake feeling refreshed and happy. And so would Skye, having had who-knows-how-many feeds during the night. I began to think, there was something very wonderful about this co-sleeping thing.
Then came to criticism. "It's dangerous".
"You should teach her to sleep in her crib!"
"She's manipulating you" (This one I never bought.)
"You'll never get her out of your bed. What about your love-life"
Even being a new parent without having read any books (I have now) I knew that it couldn't be dangerous. It is dangerous if you are drunk, excessively tired, on drugs, a smoker, obese, have an unsafe bed, if you're a lion, if your saliva is acid, etc. Obvious reasons why it would be unsafe. But I"m a relatively slim woman with a slim husband and our bed was made safe by non other than myself.
Manipulating me? ... ... ... bahahhahahah. ... ... .. BAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAH... ... no. Wanting love and affection from mommy and daddy is not manipulation. It's human nature. Deeply ingrained and there for a purpose.
As for our love-life. We have that taken care of, thank you. The bed is a place of sleep. When did the bed become a shrine for sex? Sex can happen anywhere at any time. As I've heard many co-sleeping parents say "if you want it to happen, it's going to happen. Move the child, go to a different room, whatever".
Then there are those filthy mainstream sleep books. Baby wise (or whatever) was the one that was recommended to us. Written by some bigshot that thinks depriving your child of nursing sessions, telling you when it is "ok" to pick up your baby, and advocating cry-it-out to get a baby to sleep. Basically, telling you to abandon every single one of your parental instincts so you can parent the way someone else thinks parenting should be done.
I have to admit, we tried this. I was talked into it (well, sort of). We put her in her crib for one cry session and I couldn't take it. I'm not joking; I physically hurt for her. Every fiber of my being told me this was wrong and we were doing something very bad to her. Any book that tells you your basic parental instincts are wrong should be thrown from your house into an extra stinky pile of dog doody. Sometimes she does cry before bed, but it's not a cry-it-out method. It's just what she needs to do to get it in her head that it's bed time when she had a long late nap.  She'll be jumping off the walls, then cry for a few minutes (maybe not even a minute long. It' really just a fuss period. Just like if it's late and you feel like you can't fall asleep. I'm sure it's the same for her. I feel like that all the time.), then go to sleep. That's our bad-night ritual. Our good-night ritual is she nurses, gets a bath, then falls asleep on daddy.
 If you are unsure of this co-sleeping practice, remember:
Co-sleeping is thousands of years old. I'm sure Jesus slept with his parents. Most (if not all) families in China, Japan, Mongolia, Greenland, Africa, India, and many other countries share a family bed. Even those European countries not bathed in Western Ideologies co-sleep, I'm sure. I don't know much about Europe. For all I know, most have a family bed.
New studies are coming to the surface that reveal when a parent meets all of a child's needs ( from birth through the toddler years), those children grow to be more caring, nurturing, and empathetic as well as better at communicating emotion.  These needs are, specifically, that of closeness and love. If a baby/child needs comfort at night, that should be given. Being held too much....there's no such thing. Beware of some book or friend (or even family member) that tells you to go against what you feel is right. If it seems unnatural, it probably is no good. If your baby cries and you go get him or her to stop the crying, then you have done good things for your child's developing brain. You're not being manipulated. You're not spoiling. You're raising a child that will grow in to a happy, healthy person.

This isn't a good example of safe co-sleeping. There are too many blankets around Skye (she was an infant) and she is next to a pillow. These things pose a suffocation risk. I just posted it because it's cute. I was actually next to them reading while they napped. She was perfectly safe (I just got up quickly to capture the adorableness on camera.

Skye in her crib. She was playing. This was the first time she pulled herself up to stand in her crib.


Oh, we do put Skye to sleep in her crib for the first part of the night. She wakes, usually, around midnight to come to our bed. She is 13 months old, and I still wake up a few times while she is in the other room sleeping. I creep into her bedroom and check on her, then go back to sleep. Mama instincts are strong.

The Cloth Diaper Amazingness

So, whenever I tell someone new that I cloth diaper, they think I'm crazy. "But isn't cleaning them gross!?" "I just don't have the time for that" "What about POOP?"
Those are the things that disposable diaper using parents say to me. Hmmm. When I straighten out their very wrong thoughts about cloth diapers, they do get very excited.

1) No, cloth diapers are not gross to clean. I think it's gross to put those unhealthy chemicals that are in disposables on any babies precious little perfect bottom. Yes, disposable (Paper) diapers have some very unhealthy chemicals in for absorption since there is no real cloth for absorption. Not to mention disposables are swimming in dioxin, a chemical KNOWN to cause cancer.
2) If you have time to do any amount of laundry, you have time for Cloth diapers. If you still don't have time and someone else does your laundry, then that's taken care of now isn't it? The diapers today are simple and easy to use. No extra time is spent putting them on. I don't know why people think this. You just.... put the diaper on the child. A little like clothes. You have time to put clothes on your little one, right? The "time" excuse is just ridiculous.
3) What about poop? Hmmm. Well, you clean it up. Solid poop must be flushed. HOWEVER, you must (yes, must) flush the poop from disposables as well. That is a law. Feces is never ever ever allowed in our trash. It's never allowed in any trash. There are actually specific instructions on disposable diaper packages that tell parents to *FLUSH feces in the toilet. So, when it comes to poop, the care of cloth and disposables is the same. So, that cannot be used as an excuse to not cloth diaper.

What really irritates me is that disposables are SUCH A WASTE OF MONEY. Even if you are swimming in cash, why waste it? Use that extra thousand or so you save per year on cloth diapers to go to Hawaii. Start buying organic foods. Pick up a new expensive hobby. Anything but fill our landfills with diapers. Ick. Think of your babies butt, think of your pocketbook, think of our planet!

And, hey! Cloth diapers are super duper cute. Way cuter then any old nasty paper diaper. One thing I really have appreciated is that falls on the tush are padded by cloth. Skye almost never gets upset if she falls on her butt. There's just too much to break her fall. :)

Washing is as easy as can be. I do a nice wash in Tide Free laundry detergent (no dyes, no fragrance, no phosphates), then I rinse a few times. Viola! Nice clean diapers. I, of course, never use any bleach or fabric softeners as these substances can ruin diapers. Fabric softeners in particular inhibit moisture absorption. To rid the diapers of any stains, I hang them outside. The sun is a miraculous stain remover. Even the most horrible breastmilk poo stains come right out in the sun.

I could never put Skye, or any future children I may have, in disposable diapers. That paper junk is just too...I guess I could say "yucky". I don't like the way they feel. I don't like what they are made of (the chemicals inside). I don't like how little padding there is. I don't like that every singe time I put one on Skye (I use disposables on plane trips) she gets horrendous red butt. I don't like that there are billions of used paper diapers in landfills and they are not leaving anytime soon. They decompose at a rate that is so slow, it doesn't even appear that they are decomposing at all. In other words, your children's children's children's children's children would be able to go to the landfill that held your very own poop filled disposable diaper and see it in almost the same shape it left your garbage can at home. Does that not gross you out?

I love my changing table. Filled with all kinds of brightly colored cloth diapers.

In the green bin, I have diaper covers. The changing table holds pocket diapers, inserts, prefold diapers, and doublers. There is also my cloth wipe basket in the upper left corner that has my 50 or so handmade cloth wipes. My diaper pail in on the right. And that is about it.

My eye has been twitching all day

I think the twitch may have something to do with my stress level. Maybe? I also think I may be cycling because I cried for no reason today (moodswings) and my face is clearing up for the first time in over 2 years. Orrrrrrrr, Maybe I'm dying.

Jon, Skye, and I went on a late trip to walmart today for some cheap food and motor oil and odds and ends. It was a food emergency! I know I know. Walmart = bad. But we are broker then broke. We're THOSE people. Anyway, I decided to wear Skye in the Mei Tai on my back during our shopping trip. I had about 7 different people make comments, at least 20 people gawking, and a few kids laughing their kiddie heads off. The comments by the adults were pretty much expected. They were talking quietly to their shopping partner, but in no way quiet enough for me not to hear. "Do you think that's safe!? No way I would risk that". "Weird". The funniest people to watch were the elderly people wide eyed and mouth agape, just staring away as if I were an ape playing the piano. Lots of people, when we walked by, did the stop, turn, and stare. One little boy kept pestering his father to "Look at that little baby. It's on it's mom's BACK! Like a backpack. It's like a backpack! Look at the baby! That's funny". Perhaps I should be "normal" and put my child in the cart or bring along a cumbersome stroller. ... ... .. Naw.

^I'm not exaggerating about this. I made it a point today to take note people's reactions since I usually ignore. This was a great place to get the most attention because people of lower income (sorry, but walmart shoppers are typically lower income *includes us right now) usually don't know about parenting practices such as baby wearing and attachment parenting. I'm sure everybody knows that the less educated people are the more likely they are to formula feed and such.

Ok. Here's my purpose.

The purpose of this blog is to inform people (basically anyone that wishes to be informed) about natural parenting. I started out on my parenting journey knowing absolutely nothing about babies or pregnancy. I got pregnant thinking what most women in the United States think when they get pregnant (either by accident or purposefully). I thought I would have this cute little chubby thing that breastfed (yes, even as an ignorant girl, I knew I would breastfeed. That's a no brainer) with no problems, that slept in it's little crib in it's little nursery. I thought I would use disposable diapers (I just called them diapers because I didn't even know cloth was an option). I thought infant poop stunk (not breastmilk poop!). I thought I would take my child around in it's little stroller and had these beliefs in my mainstream-infected mind that holding a baby too much makes them "spoiled". I remember harshly judging parents that I knew of that co-slept with their children. I thought "What are they thinking? What a bunch of wierdos." What is funny, is I never did think it was unsafe, as is popular belief here in the United States (and only in the United States). I just thought it was weird. My parents didn't co-sleep  (out of personal choice, which is perfectly fine) and I rarely if ever saw co-sleeping depicted on any media, be it television sitcoms or magazine articles/ads ( All you ever see if ads for baby nurseries and the like, as if babies WANT to be shut away in a different room from you and you're doing them a wonderful favor by making up a nice pink or blue room for them).

We painted Skye's room green. We wanted a neutral color as we made it a point to NOT find out her gender before her birth. I see it as cheating. A wonderful part of the birth of your child is hearing the words "it's a boy" or "it's a girl" or, better yet, seeing the perfect little genitals yourself and thinking "I knew it!". I'm glad we painted Skye's room green, even if she didn't really sleep much in that room, because it was a wonderful way to mentally become prepared for another person in the house. Jon and I needed that. Oh! Getting off topic. Anyway, the point is, we set up a nursery thinking she would be in there a lot of the time. Thinking back, it's funny. I remember thinking all these things and thinking how perfect and leave-it-to-beaver everything would be.
My first nudge in the right direction was a friend of mine, Natalie, asking if I would breastfeed (duh!) and if I had thought about cloth diapering. This really did throw me for a whirl. I had these mental images of huge square clothes that had to be folded 6 million times and pinned to a baby in a process that I imaged would take about 20 minutes per change. She whipped out these awesome prefolds and demonstrated on a doll. Ya, I was hooked. Easy to put on. No pins. Cute diaper covers. Saving by WASHING diapers instead of buying them. I secretly loathe disposable diapers now.
Natalie also invited me to a Le Leche League meeting. This meeting introduced me to baby wearing. If you don't know me, I'm obessed with baby wearing. I have three carriers already and am gearing up to make another carrier soon (I already bought the fabric). It's going to be a toddler sized Mei Tai. Anyway, baby wearing is natural parenting because being close to your baby is very important for infant development. Infants and young children yearn to be touched and cuddles. They crave affection. It's in our biological makeup. There is a reason that women who babywear have a much higher chance of being successful at breastfeeding. When you wear your baby and are able to learn subtle cues, including hunger cues, you are more likely to initiate a feed before your baby becomes starved and distressed (making latching in the early days difficult).
 I don't dislike strollers. They have their place in my life. I used my full sized stroller to carry all my junk when we went to the zoo. I used it at the mall.........to carry all my junk. It's a great junk carrier. You don't see strollers as the norm in Africa or India like they are here in the United States. What is awesome to me is seeing video of African's wearing carriers almost exactly like the ones I use, or Chinese women working in fields in China wearing their infant in a Mei Tai.
This has gone on long enough. I'm done for tonight.

May take a while before I get comfortable with this

Hmmm. I'm very confused with this thing. I hope everything is looking ok.