Granola Crunchy.

In today's baby world, people like me are called Crunchy or a Hippy. I prefer crunchy because when I think of hippy, well, people don't always use that word to mean the nicest things anymore (generally it means you're dirty, gross and probably high - of these I am none. Well definitely not high. I may be dirty and gross if I am covered with spit up or have poop on my hand I didn't see. Things like that).

Crunchy parents are those who want do to everything as organically as possible. It generally starts out with wanting a natural birth so you aren't giving drugs to your unborn baby or affecting the length of your labor. That was my intention, but I would not have made it without pain medication.

Then it generally consists of people who do these things:

- Exclusively breastfeed: I am gracefully allowed the ability to do this so far and hope I make it as long as I want to. Some people feed for the first few years of life, I will probably stop around the one year age. While I am uncomfortable with older children feeding, it is the choice of the parent/child so its not my place to say anything about it. If you can't breastfeed at all, that doesn't make you less crunchy or less of a Mom. But a crunchy Mom might just use glass bottles :)

-Cloth Diapers: Eco-Friendly, Baby Butt Friendly. My next post will be on this.

-Baby Wearing: This is one of my favorite things to do, I couldn't imagine using a stroller especially one where LO faces away from me. Baby wearing helps keep their temperature regulated by being close to you, helps your milk production, helps both your stress levels. Lets you constantly cuddle and when LO is crazy fussy, wear her around the house so you can get stuff done. You have arms while taking care of your baby. And it lets your LO look around, but when they get overwhelmed, they can nuzzle into you (which can't happen in a stroller). I highly suggest the moby and ergo. Maybe a ring sling for easy use and short trips. Do your research.

-Co-Sleeping/Bed Sharing: We bed shared most of the first few weeks of her life because she wouldn't sleep any other way. And that makes sense, babies need to be near their parents to feel safe because they are so vulnerable. But, I personally am completely uncomfortable with bed sharing (I have no problems if you want to). DH is a deep sleeper and moves around a lot, I'm terrified I would as well. So we co-sleep with her in the room with us. I'm not yet sure when we will decide to move her into her own room.

- Delayed Vaccines: Some will not vaccinate their kids at all. I personally think that is really dangerous, but am delaying. We hit her 4 month shots caught up and then will catch up again at 6 months, etc. By the time she enters school she will have all the same vaccines as anyone else. But getting the shots is traumatizing for the baby and in my opinion, there is no need to so quickly overload their bodies. For example, putting off Hepatitis B for a few weeks probably won't hurt anyone. The main reason I decided to delay is because a lot of babies have reactions to certain vaccines, but if you get them all at once you have no idea what the allergy is to. This way I know exactly how she reacts to everything.

-Baby Food Making/Baby Led Weaning: Baby food making means you make all your own food, generally using organics. This was my intention, but after researching we will do baby led weaning. This means she decides when she is ready for solids - could be five months, could be nine. And I don't make special foods for her, she eats whatever DH and I are eating (still one food at a time, every three days to allow for allergic reactions).

-Right now, I also follow LO's schedule completely. When she says she is hungry, she eats. When she tells me she is tired, I try my darnest to make it easy for her to fall asleep. When she wants to play, we play. I follow her schedule. In keeping track with it, I know she does actually have a sort of schedule and by four months, we will be sticking to that. Babies do like routine.

-Placenta Encapsulation (see older posts)

-Organic toys: Right now its easy because LO is young and doesn't need as much interaction from toys to be entertained. But I do attempt to get her all natural toys - definitely organic teething elements. We have teethers and a nursing necklace that are fully organic since they do go in her mouth. With that said, we have two Fisher Price toys that she loves (ish) and one of them I have no idea what I would do without. But I also enjoy toys that either making calming noise or no noise because I easily get sensory overloaded with noise myself.

That is all I can think of for right now, I will post more if I can remember more. And I am in no way telling you to be a crunchy parent, I just couldn't do it any other way. This is what seems natural to me. But I will say, do your research. Know why choices are made and make them for yourself and your child. I think its important to know why you are doing things a certain way - and not just because its what someone else says is best.

Until then, cheers to napping baby!