Ingenue Mom

After my wonderful experience with my guest bloggers last week, I have decided I would like to highlight some other bloggers through guest posts on my blog from time to time. I'll always try to post these on Friday with my Weekend Reading posts! This week, I'm kicking this off with Gretchen from That Mama Gretchen . She is currently pregnant with her first child & is planning to have a waterbirth at Andaluz Waterbirth Center . I asked her to share her story of how she came to choose a waterbirth. Please visit her blog for more posts & follow her on Twitter ! It isn’t every day you hear of someone giving birth naturally, let alone in the water. It kind of makes you think of something a sea creature does while wondering how exactly the baby avoids drowning. These are all common questions, even similar to the ones I had before deciding that a waterbirth was the best choice for my family. Today, the bun is in the oven and my husband, Dominic, and I are just 2 mon...

Last week I was having my guest blogger week with birth stories , so I didn't write my Mommy's Piggy Tales post. This week I'm going to just lump 7th & 8th grade together. This actually works out because they flow together in my mind. This is the only picture I could find on my computer or Facebook that was around this time - I'm in the middle with the khaki shorts. This was at the end of 8th grade. Age 12 or 7th Grade Age 13 or 8th Grade The biggest thing I remember about middle school is that my uncle died in my 7th grade year. He was only in his 40's. I have 2 cousins, one a year or so younger than me & one a couple years older than me. This was my mom's brother, so I remember my mom falling apart & I remember not knowing exactly what to say to my cousins. They're both boys & seeing how we were young & not as close as we are now, I just couldn't find the words & didn't know what to do. It's incredibly difficult to o...

Last week was my birth stories guest blogger week, so I didn't post several things I normally do. One of those was my CSA share update! So I'm going to try to quickly cover 2 weeks in 1 this week. Last week, our share box had tomatoes, lemon cucumber, pickling cucumber, slicing cucumber, sweet corn, green beans, green pepper, banana pepper, poblano pepper, lemon basil, spicy globe basil, thai basil, chives, st johns wort, dill & stevia. Unfortunately, last week was also a week where we had a lot going on & we weren't home for as many meals as normal. I did make some mac & cheese with turkey bacon, corn & green beans one night. Isis also ate some cucumber with her meals several days! I made quick pickles & we had a teriyaki chicken & green pepper stir fry! This week, our share box has tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, slicing cucumbers, sweet corn, green beans, green peppers, banana peppers, swiss chard, sweet basil, sage & oregano!...

I haven't taken any pictures of myself breastfeeding, so you'll just have to settle for pictures of Isis. My friend Emily asked for an update on my breastfeeding experience so far. Since August is also National Breastfeeding Month, I felt this was a perfect time to share an update! I am still currently breastfeeding. Isis is now on an every 3 - 4 hour schedule where she eat at 7:30am, 11:30am, 3:30pm & 6:30pm. She also eats solids at every feeding except 7:30am. The reason why I do it this way is because at the first feeding, she doesn't even eat everything that is in there, so I don't offer her more. The other 3 feedings, she eats all I've got to offer & still seems hungry, so we do solids. As for breastfeeding in particular, things have definitely gotten easier in some ways. Here are some of my observations about how breastfeeding went at different stages: 3 weeks old - right after feeding, you can even see the nipple shield behind her head First 2-4 w...

I'm sure this isn't hard to believe, but having a baby really changed a lot of things for me. Amazing, right? One of the things that changed which I never expected was that suddenly I had a strong passion to educate & empower women in their pregnancies - specifically first-time moms. I've been really thinking a lot about getting my childbirth educator certification. I was emailing Queenie at The Planet Pink the other day & she got me really excited about this!  I feel so blessed to have had a really wonderful nurse-midwife who introduced a Centering Class in her practice. Through this class, I was given extensive information with an air of grace. We were informed on all our options. We were taught natural labor techniques & what to expect in that experience. We were also taught about all our options for medication ranging from IV-administered medication to epidurals. We were taught everything about c-sections & what to expect both in emergency & sched...

Notice the yummy papaya from Whole Foods in her mouth & then the Cocoa Puffs in the background. We definitely find ourselves somewhere in the middle... I'll admit that I've just recently heard the term " crunchy ." According to Urban Dictionary , the term refers to anyone who has "adjusted or altered their lifestyle for environmental reasons." It is a derivative of the word " granola ," which I actually have used before to describe things. A crunchy mama would then, in my mind, just be any mom who chooses to follow more environmentally conscious efforts with their children.  According to Urban Dictionary , and I guess many others, " crunchy mama " refers to a mom who "supports homebirth, breastfeeding, baby wearing, cloth diapering, co-sleeping, gentle discipline, etc. One who questions established medical authority; tends to be vegetarian and/or prepare all-organic foods." Well, I consider myself to be fairly environmenta...

Just a fun pic for you! How incredibly wonderful were my guest bloggers this week?? I absolutely LOVE birth stories!! I think the experience of birth, no matter how you end up doing it, is such an empowering experience! You carried a baby for 9 months & then delivered it into this world! I mean, medication or not, hospital or home, vaginal or c-section, no matter what, you are a woman whose body made a baby!!! How incredible to be a part of that experience! Thank you SO much to the women who shared their stories this week!! I hope that my preggo friends like Emily J, Emily H & Meredith in my personal life & Amy & Gretchen in my blog friend life got some great insight into the wonderful experience they're about to have!! On another note, part of the purpose of my guest blogging week was so that I could write some posts to schedule for the fall so I don't get so overwhelmed! Yeah, I didn't do that. Instead, I worked a lot at the company I used to work f...