1. August of 2008 I discovered I was pregnant!
2. The very next day I craved pepperoni pizza but now that I was pregnant, the option of Mountain Mikes suddenly was not good enough for MY baby! OH NO! MY baby needed an organic pizza with fresh basil. To Whole Foods we went and a large pepperoni we bought! YUM
3. Week 7 of pregnancy the nausea set in so I started taking ginger capsules. Whew!
4. Started researching the dangers of epidurals so Birthing From Within became my new pregnancy bible and What To Expect was tossed aside, mainly used for reference only.
5. I drank more Traditional Medicine's Pregnancy tea than frat boys drink beer. Ok maybe not that much but...
6. I started drawing weird birthing art as taught in my hippie birthing books, chanting mantras, and feeling very drawn to the Redwoods for long afternoon hikes as I felt my baby boy needed me to take him there...
7. To empower myself with the idea that I wouldn't need drugs to birth, I starting watching intense homebirth videos with the birthing tub and all. I read many accounts of women who had birthed at home with midwives or some even unassisted and slowly began to realize how birthing is a natural process with minimal interventions needed. (Except in the case of medical emergencies of course) I felt the pure joy of these women as they brought these angels into the world in their own way and realized the potential that a homebirth had to be a much more intimate and spiritual experience than one in a hospital. I cried happy tears.
8. I brought my own little angel into the world at John Muir Hospital in Walnut Creek in April of 2009. I pretended I was in the woods the entire time and not in a hospital where some disconnected pushy doctor was trying to rush me along in my labor because she wanted to go out that Friday night! I imagined I had a mother-earth doula with long silver hair by my side the whole time gently whispering in my ear that I was strong and God had already given me the strength to do this on my own. I had a drug free labor and delivery and was transformed into a much stronger woman because of it.
9. After reading more and more books about vaccinations, my husband and I decided we would be delaying all vaccinations until our son was at least 6 months old. Today he is almost caught up and has had no complications at all.
10. A month into battling extremely sore breasts from nursing, I was about to quit. Until I got the advice to keep it up because, "My baby needed this from me." He's almost two years old and we're still at it.
11. Many evenings of my newborn baby crying endlessly had me worried it was colic or something scary. Looked more into attachment parenting, bought a sling, Bijorn and wore him more. The crying stopped.
12. I heard my sister in law was doing cloth diapers. Why in the world would anyone do that to themselves I wondered...until I started researching it for myself. Soon I was a cloth diaper addict, we own 40 of them and I've even taken them on vacations the whole bit! I'll never look back.
13. At 5 months old it was time to start solids. Started reading about all the benefits of making your own babyfood and there I was, knee deep in cloth diaper laundry and now half of my freezer was stocked with endless amounts of little plastic cubes of my homemade babyfood.
14. Well with an almost fully organic, all natural diet then why are we still putting chemicals on our skin I thought? Move over Bath and Body works lotions and potions, hello Alba, Burts Bees, Tom's natural toothpaste, Method cleaning products, Chlorine-Free Seventh Generation maxi pads, ect.... one thing leads to another. Right now we have just began to make friends with veggie burgers and tofu. I make weekly batches of flaxseed granola and have began substituting more whole grains for whites like brown rice flour instead of white flour. Or Quinoa instead of rice and pounding green smoothies like never before :)
And so I wonder, what would have happened if hubby would have just made me eat the Mountain Mikes pizza on that summer's evening early in my pregnancy? :)
Where are you in your journey into hippie-inspired motherhood?
2. The very next day I craved pepperoni pizza but now that I was pregnant, the option of Mountain Mikes suddenly was not good enough for MY baby! OH NO! MY baby needed an organic pizza with fresh basil. To Whole Foods we went and a large pepperoni we bought! YUM
3. Week 7 of pregnancy the nausea set in so I started taking ginger capsules. Whew!
4. Started researching the dangers of epidurals so Birthing From Within became my new pregnancy bible and What To Expect was tossed aside, mainly used for reference only.
5. I drank more Traditional Medicine's Pregnancy tea than frat boys drink beer. Ok maybe not that much but...
6. I started drawing weird birthing art as taught in my hippie birthing books, chanting mantras, and feeling very drawn to the Redwoods for long afternoon hikes as I felt my baby boy needed me to take him there...
7. To empower myself with the idea that I wouldn't need drugs to birth, I starting watching intense homebirth videos with the birthing tub and all. I read many accounts of women who had birthed at home with midwives or some even unassisted and slowly began to realize how birthing is a natural process with minimal interventions needed. (Except in the case of medical emergencies of course) I felt the pure joy of these women as they brought these angels into the world in their own way and realized the potential that a homebirth had to be a much more intimate and spiritual experience than one in a hospital. I cried happy tears.
8. I brought my own little angel into the world at John Muir Hospital in Walnut Creek in April of 2009. I pretended I was in the woods the entire time and not in a hospital where some disconnected pushy doctor was trying to rush me along in my labor because she wanted to go out that Friday night! I imagined I had a mother-earth doula with long silver hair by my side the whole time gently whispering in my ear that I was strong and God had already given me the strength to do this on my own. I had a drug free labor and delivery and was transformed into a much stronger woman because of it.
9. After reading more and more books about vaccinations, my husband and I decided we would be delaying all vaccinations until our son was at least 6 months old. Today he is almost caught up and has had no complications at all.
10. A month into battling extremely sore breasts from nursing, I was about to quit. Until I got the advice to keep it up because, "My baby needed this from me." He's almost two years old and we're still at it.
11. Many evenings of my newborn baby crying endlessly had me worried it was colic or something scary. Looked more into attachment parenting, bought a sling, Bijorn and wore him more. The crying stopped.
12. I heard my sister in law was doing cloth diapers. Why in the world would anyone do that to themselves I wondered...until I started researching it for myself. Soon I was a cloth diaper addict, we own 40 of them and I've even taken them on vacations the whole bit! I'll never look back.13. At 5 months old it was time to start solids. Started reading about all the benefits of making your own babyfood and there I was, knee deep in cloth diaper laundry and now half of my freezer was stocked with endless amounts of little plastic cubes of my homemade babyfood.
14. Well with an almost fully organic, all natural diet then why are we still putting chemicals on our skin I thought? Move over Bath and Body works lotions and potions, hello Alba, Burts Bees, Tom's natural toothpaste, Method cleaning products, Chlorine-Free Seventh Generation maxi pads, ect.... one thing leads to another. Right now we have just began to make friends with veggie burgers and tofu. I make weekly batches of flaxseed granola and have began substituting more whole grains for whites like brown rice flour instead of white flour. Or Quinoa instead of rice and pounding green smoothies like never before :)
And so I wonder, what would have happened if hubby would have just made me eat the Mountain Mikes pizza on that summer's evening early in my pregnancy? :)
Where are you in your journey into hippie-inspired motherhood?
This is great! This makes me think more about my journey. Although, I can't really remember when it started....
ReplyDeleteI'd love to hear more about the natural products you use (both body & home ones!)
hey! came back to comment and let you know that i read this with a smile because i'd been working on a post about my green journey too and it was fun to read about yours. isn't it amazing how far those little baby steps have brought us? meant to comment the first read through that you look amazing in these pictures (and in real life too!) but the kiddos interrupted me. =)
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