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.