*Knocks on the door quietly .. can i come in?*

[aob1013]

Hiya girlies

Now i know i am not usually on the boards speaking so positively about attachment parenting, cloth bumming, co-sleeping, natural parenting, BLW, BW, and all the other things you ladies do .............

BUT

I have had a bloody good chat with a midwife today who gave me a whole new light on this, and i've decided (well we have decided, Oh and myself) to give this a try. I want the closest and most natural relationship with my son possible, and the way i saw Femme E talking about Molly today and the way she parents her daughter made me think how much i want to parent Leni in that way. I want to give natural parenting a real good go, it just seems so wonderful and natural to bring my son up in this way.

I've been having a good old read up on this way of parenting, and i'm falling in love with it!

I don't know what i'm trying to say, other than forgive me if i have been so narrow minded in the past - i can't wait to give it a go!

 

[littlestar]

Welcome Chick,

We don't do anything special, just what we find comes naturally to us and following our instincts a bit more; rather than following the crowd because it's the norm!

I have two sil's who both have LO's a little bit older than ours and they're almost shocked at my style of parenting as it's so very different to theirs.

 

[jen1604]

Hello honey!I know your face from Teen Parenting I think?
Welcome welcome xx

 

[aob1013]

Yep that's it! I'm in there quite a bit .. just recently with the vaccination threads, people eating meat/not eating meat and seeing everyone's opinions, i'm starting to rethink my own and doing some hard research into it all. It's good to be different!

 

[BabyHaines]

Hello & welcome!!
Firstly, I must say that I admire your honesty and openess
'Natural Parenting' means different things to different people, but I think we all have the same end goal - to bring our children up in a healthy, loving environment to make them happy, secure, well rounded adults.
Some people on this board BF, some FF. Some use cloth, some use slings, some Baby Led Wean, some Co-sleep and some do all of the above. There are lots of different ideas and ways of doing things, but for me personally, natural parenting means listening to my lo. I want George to grow up knowing he is loved more than life and give him the best start I feel I can, and I do that by breast feeding, co-sleeping, baby wearing and by answering his cries when he needs me.

Anyhoo, welcome to the green side.....(ahaha!! I'm good aren't I!!) lol
enjoy

 

[Lu28]

Hi hon, thanks for your openess about all of that

I think alot of us have found ourselves in here by accident, no-one in real life can believe that this is my parenting style as its so different to how they would have expected me to be (I'm as surprised as they are! ) but for most of us its been a case of doing what comes naturally.

As BH said some of us bf, some don't, some babywear, some don't, some BLW, some traditionally wean, some use cloth, some don't. The great thing is we don't tend to judge each other for what we do or don't do So just go with what's natural for you!

 

[aob1013]

Thank you for being so nice to me about this ladies, i know i have been a right cow recently .. having a narrow minded and black and white personality doesn't actually get you anywhere.

xxx

 

[jen1604]

Hello & welcome!!
Firstly, I must say that I admire your honesty and openess
'Natural Parenting' means different things to different people, but I think we all have the same end goal - to bring our children up in a healthy, loving environment to make them happy, secure, well rounded adults.
Some people on this board BF, some FF. Some use cloth, some use slings, some Baby Led Wean, some Co-sleep and some do all of the above. There are lots of different ideas and ways of doing things, but for me personally, natural parenting means listening to my lo. I want George to grow up knowing he is loved more than life and give him the best start I feel I can, and I do that by breast feeding, co-sleeping, baby wearing and by answering his cries when he needs me.

Anyhoo, welcome to the green side.....(ahaha!! I'm good aren't I!!) lol
enjoy

Couldn't have put it better myself x

 

[sjbno1]

Helllooo - I'm new to NP in bnb so havent seen your previous posts etc but its good that you've been so honest hope you get on well with NP

As the girls have said theres so many variations of this that theres no right or wrong way so i'm sure you'll find your own perfect way with your little man

 

[Kota]

Hello and welcome!
I think its so easy to get caught up in what you think you *should* be doing rather then what just feels right for you and your baby. If I had my way from the start we wouldn't be co-sleeping but P. had other ideas and now I wouldn't change it. As for the rest, it just made sense given my situation and lifestyle but I still kinda fell into it all.

oh, and the nappy addiction I blame Squish for.

 

[BabyHaines]

I'm the same though. I find myself being too judgemental at times and I am constantly reminding myself to stop it!!
At the end of the day, we all try our best. If someone does something I personally wouldn't, then fine - so long as they aren't hurting their lo, it's not my place to stop them. I do however, hugely support free speech and if I disagree, I'm not frightened to say so and it's good sport having a good ol' debate, so long as things don't get nasty. Hell, the fact we're all so different is what makes the world go round hehe xx

 

[ellie]

hey :wave: welcome,
i think its great that someone is prepared to challenge their own beliefs! it makes life exciting
i never set out to be a 'natural parent' as such, its just how ive lived for ages really, i admit only in recent years ive questioned everything. i worry about the future of our f'd up planet and its little K and all our lo's that'll have to deal with it (unless things go very much more wrong very quickly). i feel pretty useless mostly but try to do my bit, and always question 'the norm'. and i want the best for him, as we all do for our lo's, i feel that part of my role as his mother is to be there in whatever way he needs me to be. it just happens that he much prefers being very close to me at all times, preferred breastfeeding to formula (he tried both!), and loves pooing in cloth

 

[BabyHaines]

Yep....Squish gets the blame for nappy spending!! lol

Although, I hold Vici personally responsible for starting me off in the first place!! Oh, and for getting me hooked on Itti's.....it's that cutie pie Imi in her minky....!! Hehe

 

[twiggy56]

Hi and welcome :wave:

feel your way through parenting, whatever comes 'natural' to you....this section really just supports you through those choices, whatever they may be!

 

[Lu28]

I blame Sara for my nappy addiction!!

 

[MummyKaya]

Hey and welcome

Bewarned, upon entering this section you will become addicted to cloth

 

[ellie]

Hey and welcome

Bewarned, upon entering this section you will become addicted to cloth

I never believed this, and was happy with some plain birth-to-potty ones, but now OH thnks I am a mental nappy fetishist that spends all my time lusting over funky nappies on forums

 

[bky]

I actually joined BnB (among other reasons) as the natural parenting section seemed more accepting of those not doing EVERYTHING on the 'natural parenting checksheet' as it were.
When LO gets here it will be nice to talk about cloth nappies/babybwearing etc without being shunned for other things I choose or choose not to do.

 

[Blob]

:wave: Its quite good in here we all do different things but nobody seems to judge/have a go at anyone else for their views I kinda just 'fell' into doing this also and it made sense it just seemed to be what i naturally did

 

[FemmeEnceinte]

Oh, that's so nice! I obviously think the way we do things with Molly are brilliant but it's always nice to hear (particularly after a day with my family harping on...).

I wish I'd known before Molly came along to do all of the things we do now. I was very much "I'll take it as it comes" while pregnant and because I had no strong feelings either way (other than that I desperately wanted to BF) I found myself easily confused by all the different advice on what to do for the best.

All I long I had been letting Molly lead me and feeling like a bad or lazy mum for not forcing her to sleep by herself etc. as I was constantly hearing it was better for her. BUT, it didn't feel right. So, one night I was up with her wondering why she was more grumpy than other babies and I stumbled across Dr. Sears' site and I could honestly have cried. I might even have a little. I was doing everything an experienced paediatric doctor was doing and found myself relating 100% to his initial confusion as his other children had been so placid. Molly was such a high needs newborn and I found such comfort and relief in knowing that I wasn't being crap for letting her do the things she wanted to do... I was doing the very best thing.

Now, the more I look back the more I realise just how good it was. I fell into it myself and I'm really glad I didn't try to force anything with her. OH and I slept in shifts for 3 solid months because she was so comforted sleeping on us. He bonded amazingly with her and whenever he comes in from work he gets the biggest smiles and squeals of anyone! Not long after she turned 3 months we started trying to co-sleep as she seemed to be becoming less demanding and she loves it.

Things aren't "perfect" and Molly is still quite demanding at times but I've basically given up expecting anything. I don't expect to be able to do things I've planned some days, I don't expect to sleep through, I just take things as they come and I'm very content with that. I'm quite lucky in that OH is incredibly supportive and really believes 100% in what we're doing too so it just works.

Babywearing we decided on when Molly just would not settle in her pram, outings were stressful and I was just avoiding it as I didn't want to put her through it. I had tried some slings and didn't like them much but the Mei Tai is literally the best £65 I have spent in my entire life... we went from not being able to do anything and Molly barely napping to being able to go anywhere, anytime and Molly would would enjoy her surrounding and then nap when she'd taken it all in.

Cloth nappies... well, Squish sold me a few girly ittis and I was hooked from the second I saw them! I wouldn't call them and AP essential but I am just 100% content in feeling that Molly has the very best that I am physically, emotionally and financially able to give her. I could not imagine parenting her any other way. It's great that different things work for different babies and families but I really hope the next baby we have is just the same, I have loved and savoured it so much. I feel like I'm making the most of everything.

So, even when I get the criticism, because I'm so happy and Molly is so happy, it's really easy to just laugh it off... it's like water off a duck's back.

I've really gone on and on, but I couldn't recommend AP enough! It might not be for you and your baby might not like being worn but absolutely go with your baby's needs and let them lead you and if whatever that is isn't technically "AP" then I don't think it matters. You'll just find your own way x