When Jack was about 4 weeks old I was finally able to stand for longer periods of time without feeling like all of my internal organs were going to fall out of my vagina. I started getting dressed more and going on walks. My episiotomy had mostly healed so I could sit flat on my butt without having to tilt my ass to the side like I was about to let out a fart. We chose to celebrate one weekend by going to the grocery store for the first time as a family. [Read more…]
Sometimes I look around my house and find scraps of the old me lying around and it gets me to tripping on how much I have changed since Jack was born. Priorities change. It’s such a simple sentence and concept, but when I get glimpses of how astounding an affect this has had on the way I live my life I am truly in awe of my son.
Over the weekend I took some time to dust off and store away my shoes. My husband came in saw the giant pile of mainly black platform high heels and said “wow, do you think you had a problem?” [Read more…]
It recently came to my attention that people are under the impression that since I practice gentle parenting techniques with my son that I always remain calm. When I told my husband that I suspected people were thinking this he laughed and said “I wish they were here last Saturday, that was a real stomp-fest,” referring to the way I stomped around the house annoyed at Jack’s incessant whining. No, my friend, I do not remain calm all the time. I don’t even know if I remain calm most of the time. My buttons are pushed about 75 times a day (as any mother) and I feel on the edge of losing my shit about 67 of those times. I believe strongly in being as gentle a mama as I can, but I am a human being not a robot. So, let me clear the air. [Read more…]
I have yet to blog about the issue of nursing in public (NIP). The reason is because it has been blogged about so much that I have struggled to find my own voice on this issue. I have instead spent time in Facebook threads defending women who choose to breastfeed in public. I have engaged in soul crushing arguments with trolls and defended my own photographs on sister pages that have been so kind as to share my message. [Read more…]
I am more convinced than ever that I teach Jack absolutely nothing. Jack is connected to the universe on a level that makes my “lessons” completely irrelevant. I am the student: a student of Jack and nature. I hold him, protect him, feed him, stay near him and answer him. This helps him develop trust in the world, but, no, I do not teach him “lessons.” Jack is one with his instincts, he follows his intuition, nature’s law. He is closer to a wild animal than an adult human. My lessons are, as I said, irrelevant. Someday I can teach him the things that I know and want him to learn, but this is not the time. This time is for following him, allowing him to show me what he needs. [Read more…]
In my opinion, Dr. Jennifer Thomas is often literally the final word in breastfeeding advocacy. In my group of Admins on my Facebook page, The Badass Breastfeeder, we have what we call a “Dr. Jen Smackdown.” This refers to responding to a question or comment with quotes or articles by Dr. Jen. This information generally brings the conversation/debate/argument to a complete stop, as there’s no way to deny the logic and scholarship of her work on breastfeeding. “Smackdown applied!” someone will message me when they just resorted to posting Dr. Jen’s material. [Read more…]
I have always struggled to connect one part of my life to the next. I was a pretty wild teenager and young adult. When I graduated from college and began working it was like I just dropped the former life completely and started a new one. There was little of the previous life to find when the new one established itself. Now I am a full time Mom. [Read more…]
