Thread: say hello!!!!

Hi I'm Dani, 29, SAHM to CJ.

We cloth diaper
Extend Breastfeed
Delay Vax
No-Circ
Babywear when possible with a wiggly toddler
Co-Sleep
Eat Healthy (about 50/50 organic)
Doing our best to Gentle Discipline but it's been an uphill battle...

Hi! I'm Jodi, and I am due with baby #1 on 8/10! Yippee!!

In our house, we hope to do the following:
Cloth diaper.
Boys will be intact.
Breastfeed hopefully til one year.
Babywearing (seems easier than the stroller to me!).
Try to eat healthy/organic when possible.
No cio before a certain age. Not sure what that age will be but I can't imagine it being under 1!

Hi, Im Tiffany, sahm to Chance almost4 and Addison who just turned two

we.....
did extended breastfeeding/self led weaning
did babywearing till my back couldnt take it anymore!
all of our veggies come from my dads garden, and most of our meat comes from their farm.
we practice nfp
I recycle or freecycle everything!

I'm a lil crispy!
We cloth diaper, I'm looking into mama pads when we finally move again
Use gentle discipline
Just started babywearing a few months ago-thought my back with a rod in it couldn't handle it-but I'm carrying a huge toddler now!
Don't vaccinate anymore, stopped a year ago
Tony coslept off and on as a baby, now he's cosleeping full time
Recycle anything that is possible
going to compost when we move
Use homeopathy/natural remedies
No crying it out here either!

I'm Melissa, mom to Kylie (3.5), Elise (2.5) and Caden (almost 15 months).

We:
DON'T circ (I'm sure most everyone knows that )
aren't vax'ing at this time (and the more I read, the less likely I feel we will ever vax again)
don't spank
use gentle discipline
cosleeping/share bedroom
hopefully bf my next child past a year (I have bf longer and longer each child, but never to a year)
homeschool
don't CIO
cloth diaper, but have my lazy moments (at this time, not cd'ing fully like I used to with the girls, but hopefully I will get more into it again once summer hits and I can hang them outside to dry again)
trying to move to a healthier diet. I bought a couple organic items at Costco last week, and will try to incoporate a little bit in here and there as we can afford it!

I am only a little crunchy!

My name is Stephanie and I am in New Orleans.
I am a SAHM
I baby wear...love love love my Moby!!!
I breastfed Aiden until he chose to stop due to Reflux.
I am switching to organic where feasable in our budget.
I make my own baby food.
I want to homeschool, but DH is not on board...yet
I co-sleep when the boys want to...Kurt jr had his tonsils out so he was in my bed 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after. Plus he is in my bed every morning from 4am until we get up.
I do NOT run to the doctor for every sniffle any more and am more open to wait and see if colds etc go away on their own.
Oh and I try to make most foods from scratch, haven't used hamber helper in years!

I am little crunchier than I thought!

Hi- I'm Laura.

In our home we...
practice child led weaning
gentle discipline
the family bed
no CIO
no circumcision
try to eat whole foods
we homeschool
still sling
we use homeopathic meds
we do not vaccinate

I am Pam, mom to Josh - 5, Ashley 2.5, and Samantha 1.

In our house we:
Breastfeed
Gentle Discipline
Don't do CIO
Buy as much organic products as possible
recycle
I have been switching over to more environmentally friendly house cleaners
Try and use homeopathic herbs

I'm Niecey. 25 years old and just moved to Maine from Scotland, UK.

I breastfeed, child led weaning
homeschool
cloth diaper
baby wear
gentle discipline
no cio
co-sleep (after 8 weeks, because of SIDS statistics)

i'm amy - sahm to ava (2 1/2) and julian (10 wks)

I breastfeed, child-led weaning - ava is still nursing 1x/day at 2 1/2 yrs old
cloth diaper
baby wear
gentle discipline
no cio
co-sleep
eat organic food whenever possible
eat a lot of vegetarian meals
selective/delayed vaxing
no circ
recycle and freecycle
do some alternative medicine
had a homebirth with julian

Hi I'm Tanya (29) married to VInce(29) - SAHM to NYla (31 mths) & pregnant with #2 (EDD May 21st, 2007)

Attachement Parenting
extended BF
Co-sleeping
Making my own baby food(organic) or using only organic baby food and cookies
eating organic withen our family
NO CIO
gentle discipline
baby wearing
using homeopathic teething products (no ora-gel)
Giving vitamins starting @ 6 mths
going to "alternative" pre-schools and school - no public schools
Making sure I remain a SAHM until both kids are our of school

Hi, I'm Janice (26), married to Jon (25), mother to Caitlin (almost 19 months).

We:
follow Attachment parenting
Extended breastfeed, plan to do child lead weaning
Co-sleep
Delay or no vax, not sure if we will do any more vax at all (she got her 2 and 4 months ones before I knew better).
No CIO
Baby wear
Eat healthy, partially organic
recycle, reuse, freecycle
Don't go to doctors (even though I'm a nurse, hahaha)

So glad to have you all here!!

I'm late, as usual! :-)
I'm Patty (31), married to Shawn(31), mom to Kirsten(5) and Colby (19 months). We live in Ontario Canada.
We Homeschool,hubby wasn't onboard but now he is :-)
Breastfeed for as long as possible,
use enviromentally safe products,
Co-sleep (bed is getting small,:-)),
Delay vax,
No Circ,
Gentle discipline!

welcome Patty...Canadian here too...In Winnipeg!

Erika!!!!! Sooo glad you made it over!!!! WOOHOOO!!!

I'm Christina, working mother to Kameron (3) and edd of June 9, 2007 for Faith and dh is Steve.

Right now the only "crunchy" thing I do is:

Breastfeed.--- I was only able to do this for 4 weeks or so with Kameron because of my supply (i hardly had anything-- figured this out when I tried pumping one day) so I wanna try to do everything I can this time around so that doesn't happen!

Hi! I'm new!

I'm Cristal, moma to Jacob, wife to Sal. We live in Louisiana.

We:
cloth diaper
breast feed (not anymore, though )
baby wear
buy organic when possible
clean with baking soda and vinegar
gentle discipline
co sleep
I use mama cloth
homemade baby food
no paper towels
Jacob will soon be starting Montessori school

That's all I can think of right now.

Not sure how crunchy you'd consider me but I think I'm a bit. I'm Melissa, 28, and a SAHM. I've been married to Chris for a little over 4 years. We have Cooper Thomas, 22 months, and we're a month away from our 2nd son arriving, Jackson Miles.

Extended breastfeeding, Cooper self weaned at 14 months.
Gentle discipline
We're considering cloth diapers with Jackson.
We buy organic when possible.
Delayed vax, some not at all. (no MMR or Varicella)

Hey guys, I am Jill.
I am a momma to Madalynn who is 3 yr. & I am a wife do Jose'.

I am not very crunchy or anything, Yet...
I am trying to change how I do things & live.
I am trying soooo hard to GD Madz...But she likes to try to push it...
We are trying to eat way healthier, like rarely any sugar, we dont eat hardly any red meat, Husband when not deployed is the one who mainly eats that.
I would LOVE to BF my next child. I tried with Madz but was told by drs. that it wasnt worth it if it was only going to be 3 months or so.
I was a single mom till my husband came along, so I worked alot trying to provide.
I want to CD my next child as well.
Basically I am trying to change they way that we live & do things in my household.
So here I am ....Reading you guys post & threads, learning other methods & ways of doing things.
Any advice or suggestions are welcome. esp. with the GD cause Madz is a handful

Wow!! I commend all of you!!
I am new to Yada and just now checkin' out this forum.
Can anyone tell me exactly what the definition of crunchy is?

I breastfeed
co -sleep
babywear
don't run to doctor with every sniffle
have aspirations to eat healthy-my dream is vegetarian-the rest of them would flip out on me tho'(hubby is such a meat eater)

Also what is attachment parenting? and what does bf mean and nfp?
okay that's it. I look forward to getting to know you all and learning more about this way of life!

Sounds like you fit right in with the rest of us Crunchy Mamas! "Crunchy" is just another way of saying that we do things that aren't always mainstream - crunchy people tend to be "hippie-ish" but I know most of us don't think of ourselves as hippies! The main crunchy ideals are breastfeeding (especially extended), co-sleep, baby wearing, no spank/gentle discipline, cloth diaper, organic foods, delayed/no vax, environmentally friendly. But most of us (as you can see from our lists) don't do all of them, just whatever works for us!
BF = Breastfeeding
NFP = Natural family planning

Attachment parenting from http://www.attachmentparenting.com/support.shtml
An article by Diana West refers to Attachment Parenting as a "Frame of Mind". There are behaviors that many parents who practice Attachment Parenting tend to use in some form or another, such as breastfeeding, co-sleeping, and babywearing, but it really isn't about the behaviors as much as it is about the attitude. Attachment Parenting is about forming and nurturing strong connections between parents and their children. Pam Leo suggests that when considering any parenting advice we should ask ourselves, "If I follow this advice, will I be providing nurturing, guidance, and limits in a way that maintains a secure bond with my child?" Attachment Parenting challenges us as parents to treat our children with kindness, respect and dignity, and to model in our interactions with them the way we would like for them to interact with others.

The link given above also lists the "eight AP principles" according to AP International.

I know different people have different views of crunchy and AP, so these definitions are not held in stone.
Hope this helps!

I think I used to be more crunchy.

I used to BF
I used to co sleep
I've switched my cleaning products to natural ones
I only use natural soaps
I sometimes baby wear
Organic foods
Diva Cup
I can't think of anything else right now. I'm a hippie at heart but I can't live without a few things.

Hiya,

I'm Peace. We're semi-crunchy, too:

Natural unattended home birth
Attachment parenting
Gentle discipline
Co-sleeping
Modified EC and mostly cloth diapering until five months
Still nursing (37 months)
Natural products (mostly baking soda, vinegar, and peroxide with a little Dr. Bronner's when needed) for cleaning and health/beauty (aside from our Swiffer WetJet, a bottle of Windex, and my mascara, eyeliner, and lipcolor)
Untreated well and creek water & septic system
Mostly wood heat (electric supplement)
Delay/selective vax, if at all (he got some against our will, but none since five months)
Doctors for emergencies only
Organic food where we're able

At the same time we're huge consumers of electricity, we like juice and Gatorade in the little bottles (more waste), we eat lots of frozen microwavable stuff, we like candy in moderation, our next vehicle will be a pickup or larger for practical purposes, and we go through seemingly tremendous numbers of batteries 'cause we've never found a rechargable that's worth a darn. (Everything in moderation, including 'unnatural' amenities, I suppose. The substances they're made of were all part of nature at one time or another, eh? )

I kind of feel like in some ways like the downside of getting plastic molecules in one's food might be mitigated in the instance of quick-frozen microwave meals by the fact that the vitamins are maintained in a more intact (closer to fresh) state by the quick freeze process and broken down less by the process of microwave cooking, but then I think of birds dropping dead out of the sky, fried in their skin by flying too closely in front of a microwave tower and think, "Eh, six a one, half dozen of the other," ya know?

Anyway, nice to see y'all. I don't post here a lot, but I'd like to get by more. Hope to see ya soon!

Love,
Peace

I had NO idea what "Crunchy" meant, so didn't have any idea this forum was even here. Now I can't wait to get involved! Thanks again to Janielle and Michigan Mommy for pointing me in the right direction for "green" stuff.

I'm Christie, Mama to Ben. I'd say we're a little crunchy and mostly crunchy wanna-be's.

Attachment Parenting
Gentle Discipline
Extended Breastfeeding (currently almost 13 months)
Baby-wearing when Ben was smaller
Recycling (no yard for compost)
Political involvement to advocate for crunchy policies
Try to limit the amount of electricity we use (turning things off, energy efficient appliances, etc.) but it's difficult as we rent and we're poor right now living on student loans, basically
We try to eat healthy and buy some organic food items, esp. milk products- but we do also eat out a fair amount. I make most of my son's food.
Working on switching to green cleaning products, need to learn more about that.
Working on getting involved in environmental groups and advocating for them. We'll be able to start donating money to groups in the next few years and can't wait.
We'll start homeschool our son at 2 and plan to homeschool all of our kids all the way through.
We plan to participate in Doctor's without Borders when we can.



I must say that Ben is fully vaccinated and will get any other vax's that become available, and he is also circumsized. We believe strongly in preventative medicine. We do go to the doctor for regular check-ups and take medications and vitamins- and my husband will graduate from medical school in May. We believe strongly in research and read lots of it, so that along with our gut is our compass as far that goes. I definately didn't have a natural birth- I had as many meds as they would give me and after 50 hours of labor had a c-section . But I really admire those of you who weren't wimps like me and wanted to experience everything. I was hoping for a c-section from before I was pregnant. I have fibromyalgia, and rely on medications to allow me to function normally.

hi i am katie! i have two boys billy 3.5 & finn 6 wks old

i am only alittle crunchy, i need to read more but wanted to introduce myself.

we do:
EBF hoping to as long as i can
co-sleeping (both boys... billy sleeps in his bed right now. we need a bigger bed. two kids, terry (df) & sasha my 98lbs rott who thinks she is a tea cup poodle lol)
trying to displine in different styles, using total transformation.
TRYING to baby wear, need to find a better sling

thats all... can i still join?? i have lots of questions

forgot to add: SAHM