Hippie Mom

When did I become a hippie mom? That's what I ask myself all the time. I'm a cloth diapering, breastfeeding, baby-wearing, attachment parenting, BLW, co-sleeping mom! If you would have asked me what my life would look like as a parent, not sure this would have been the picture I painted. But, I have to say that I absolutely LOVE it. I can't believe how hard Jayden was as a newborn and how much I thought I would never survive it, let alone add all these other elements into my day to day activities.

Cloth diapering seemed like a great thing that some of my mom friends where doing, but not necessarily something I would have time for. I remember talking to my good friend Jamie about cloth diapers and thinking, "hmm, she's crazy for cloth diapering two kids and taking care of it all by herself." I mean no service, no nanny, no nothing to get those bad boys clean every few days. But, she made it work and, for that matter, made it look doable. So, I introduced this crazy idea to my husband, Matt. And, when I say introduced, I mean told him we were doing it! Matt, being the amazing generous and caring man that he is, told me he would be fine with it, as long as I was patient with him learning how to cloth diaper. The great thing about these diapers are that they are SO not like the ones we all had when we were growing up. Gone are the days of the pins and the rubber pants. Here is link of this wonderful new invention http://www.bumgenius.com/products.php. Although I am still learning about how to make them work perfectly for us, I love using them. Plus I think Jayden looks super cute in the diapers, don't you!

Breastfeeding did not come easy for me - at all!!  I was SO close to quitting bf, except for the fact that I knew in my heart that it was the best thing for Jayden.  So, I stuck it out and fought through the endless nights of sore nipples, utter exhaustion and the fact that I overproduced milk. Now I know there are those of you out there thinking, "Oh how sad for you, you overproduce milk (insert sarcastic tone while reading)."  But the thing is, it really did suck. Jayden's tummy was tiny and ingesting as much milk as he was given at the lightning speed that it was shooting out, was tough on him.  Too much milk at too fast a rate equals very colicy/cranky newborn.  I will say that had I not been told about an absolutely AMAZING lactation consultant, I would have most definitely given up.  Doris came in and literally saved the day!  It took her mere minutes to position Jayden differently easing the nipple pain and giving me great suggestions for the rocket-like milk I was shooting down his throat. Thank the Lord above for great lactation consultants!


Attachment parenting was not necessarily something I decided on pre-baby. I think because of my super-sensitive personality, it was just a natural way for me to parent. Now for all you folks out there scratching your head and wondering, "what the heck is this hippie talking about?"  Attachment parenting is a style of parenting that focuses on forming strong nurturing connections between mom/dad and baby.  It's more of an approach rather than a set of rules or structured steps to follow.  I am very passionate about AP and will most likely write another post about it down the road.  In the meantime, I've attached a link for those of you curious about it. http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/attachment-parenting. I know that there are critics out there who do not agree with AP, but this is what we use in our home and it works wonderfully for us. Everyone has their own style of parenting and I am not here to criticize anyone.  More on AP at a later date.


Now because of the AP and cloth diapering, I figured I might as well go all out and add co-sleeping to the list! It's not as bad as you think. We start Jayden every night in his crib and eventually bring him into bed with us whenever he wakes up. Since he's a bf baby, he LOVES nursing throughout the night. I have no intentions of putting him on a schedule or stopping him from nursing if he wants to. I figure this kid is only going to be a baby for so long and I'm only going to be nursing him for so long and the cuddles/snuggles that I love SO much are only going to happen for so long, so I say bring on the co-sleeping. The thing is, he and I actually sleep much better co-sleeping than not. If I did it differently, Jayden would still be waking up at some point during the night and I would still have to get my self up and into his room to feed him, so why not make it easy on all of us and just sleep in the same bed.  This way he nurses when he wants, and I sleep when I want. Plus, we have the added bonus of lots of snuggles. I must say, that is my all time favorite thing to do with this little man. I actually look forward to sleeping next to him. Of course, we have our dog joining us as well so it's an all around party in the Spaetzel bedroom every night! There will come a day when Jayden sleeps in his own room all night long and my hippie self will shed a tear and tuck him in. Until then, bonding, attachment, and co-sleeping is where we're at.


BLW stands for baby led weaning. Again, it's an approach of transitioning your kid from strictly breastfeeding to eating solids. It's skipping the puree/baby food/rice cereal stages and just serving them fresh fruits and veggies. We have just started this adventure with Jayden a few days ago. Again, my hippie self read a book about it and thought, why not! It makes sense for us because we want Jayden to be eating table food at some point anyway. The book talks about how good it is for them to learn to chew from the get go (where puree does not promote that) and they learn and experiment with colors, flavors, textures and types of food. So far we have given Jayden broccoli, squash, cantaloupe, watermelon, banana, avocado, and chicken. He seems to be a fan of the chicken, broccoli and squash. This is REAL good for Matt and I as we say goodbye to our Chik-Fil-A and blizzards. With BLW we cut everything into 2inch long strips (or leave it whole, like the broccoli) and let Jayden go to town. Right now he is mainly sucking the juices out of everything and playing around with the use of his two bottom teeth. He seems to love exploring and this gives him a positive association with food since it's fun, easy, no pressure and he does it himself. The hippie part in me just lets him make a mess and try anything and everything that we are eating that day (with the obvious No-No's like nuts and peanut butter). The key is to give him healthy, natural, whole foods. I'm liking the no prep action. Here's a video of Jayden trying fruit at lunch this past Saturday.

As I wrap up this first novel of mine, I end with a little something about baby wearing.  Genius!!  Genius for the simple fact that I don't have to carry a baby around all day and I can still do the things that need to get done. I love having him up with me anyway so that he can explore the world around him. It's also great when we are out and about so that I can grocery shop and carry other items, and it keeps him super happy.  He can face out to look around or in to take a nap. Thanks to my friend Erin for telling us about this cool contraption below.

So, that's me...hippie mom.  Loving the way this whole parenting thing turned out - for now anyway.  Those of you with teenagers know I may be changing my tune down the road! :)