Following your motherly instincts.

I recently came across a beautiful post the other day on http://www.lusaorganics.typepad.com called Reflections on Motherhood. It was such an inspiring post, especially as a first time mother about following your motherly instincts when raising your child, instead of following the advice that your are bombarded with on a daily basis.

I feel like it your are the only one who knows your child and their specific needs. For example my little one hasnt been a great night sleeper. My pediatrician told me to follow the ferber method by letting him cry it out. I know you are supposed to trust the advice of your Dr, but sometimes I feel that they dont always know what's best for your child.  I feel that if my Little man needs me to comfort him by breastfeeding him at 3 am, well that's what he needs, or if he needs to sleep in our bed to feel reassurance from us well that may be what he needs. It may not work for other people, but for our family that is what works.   I mean this is how it has been done for centuries. It wasnt until the past 100 years or so where things have changed. Women have always been close to their children whether it be during the day or at night.

I love the closeness we share when he is riding in his carrier, but there are some that want to stick in their two sense and say that it's not safe. Well if it wasn't a safe option then why are women in other countries all over the world practicing attachment parenting and we are not.

There is an interesting fact I read in Rahima Baldwin Darcy's book " You Are Your Child's First Teacher' (which I highly recommend) that says -"Americans are touch-deprived. Cross Cultural studies have shown that the United States has one of the lowest rates of casual touch in the world- about 2 x a hour- compared to Puerto Ricans who have one of the highest rates at 180x a hour"
This is a very sad statistic. I want to make sure I kiss and hug my baby as much as I possibly can. I want to keep him close to me for as long as I can, because one day he will be out on his own and wont want to be so close to his mama all the time.

 Another place that everyone wants to stick in their two sense is when you should feed solids to your baby. "It will help him sleep better they say", or "he needs to eat to gain more weight". I feel that I am his mama and I will know when he needs solids.I feel right now that breastfeeding him is all he needs, but if I decided to feed him solids at 3 weeks, 3 months or 6 that is my choice. I am going to wait until 6 months, because that is what I feel is right and what I think will work for my son.

Maybe you chose to put your child in disposible diapers ,because you felt like that was the right option for you, well I choose to use to cloth for my son, because that is what feels right to me. It is safer for him and better for the enviroment.

Maybe you choose to let your child play with plastic toys, because you like the way they look. or maybe you choose wooden and homemade toys ,because you like the way they look. It is your choice.

Maybe you chose to let your baby cry it out. That may work for you, but does not feel right for me.

As you see everyone makes their own choices based on what they believe is best for their family and their children. There should be no judgements.  I just believe that we have been blessed with a mother's intuition and that it should be followed.

Creating routine for babies

I am still here. Just had a busy few weeks with the visit of my mother (grammies), who hadnt see her grandson since his birth. We had a great time. I have just been trying to get back in the groove without her and been working on getting my little ones routine going.

I am a firm believer in routine and consistancy with young children. It makes their day and yours run a whole lot smoother. They really count on it and enjoy knowing what comes next. I have been a nanny for about 5 years and prior to that I taught preschool for 3 years. I have definately seen how routine can make or break your day.  Now that my little man has hit 4 months I am starting to establish a daily routine with him following along with the waldorf ideas.  I know that he may seem young to start on a routine, but I think the younger the better.

We have had a daily routine in place for a few weeks now, but we have been struggling with the bedtime routine. The routine was a little out of whack for a few weeks while grandma was visiting. You know how that goes, but now we are starting to work more on it.
This is a look at how our day plays out right now at almost 4 months...

Little D has been waking at about 7:30 am and he has his first feeding at about 7:45 am after a little play time in bed with mommy.
At 8 am we are up and I am getting him dressed. While getting him dressed I recite Waldorf inspired verse:
-"Good morning Dear Earth, Good morning Dear Sun, Good morning trees and flowers everyone, Good morning dear animals and birds on the tree, Good morning to you and goodmorning to me."

I usually get a nice big smile from him or a giggle.
After that I eat breakfast. Little D sits in his baby bjorn bouncy seat or on my lap while I eat. 
When I am done with breakfast we spend a little more time together before he takes a morning nap.
Morning nap happens about 9 or  9:15am. We go into his room for nap. I read a story to him, preferable the same one every day right now. I sing him a little nap song ,which goes like this
I love you Darwin o yes I do, I dont love anyone as much as you, expect for daddy I love him too, oh Darwin I love you.
Then put his lulluby cd on and he falls asleep within 10 mins.

After first nap I get him up, always with a smile, so he know I am happy to see him. Then I change his diaper and then give him a second feeding of morning at about 10:30 or 11 am.
Ususally after nap I will have a snack and then we will head outside for morning walk. We like to take a walk around the pond to look at all the ducks and birds, or we walk to library or this is the time we run our errands.

When we get back from our walk it is time for Darwin to have a little bit of tummy time on his sheepskin, which he does not like, but is getting better at. I usually put out a mirror for him to see himself and a few simple toys for him to try to grab. He especially loves his playsilks.
Tummy time lasts about 10 mins , then I roll him on his back for a little bit. At this point I try to let him play for a little bit on his own. I think it is very important that he learns to play on his own without always relying on me for entertainment.

I may also put him in the wrap to get somethings done around the house.

At 12 pm I make lunch Darwin sits with me again or in bouncy.  After lunch we hang out in his room for a bit. He has another feeding at around 1, a diaper change  and then I repeat nap time routine. Sometimes he is ready to go down by 12:30pm.

After 2nd nap which sometimes is usually an hour and a half to two hours, he wakes up and I have a second snack, while he sits with me. At this time it is about 3. We are getting ready for daddy to come home from work. Darwin has a feeding at about 4 pm before daddy gets home.

When daddy gets here Darwin is ready to see him . Together they have music time, which lasts about 10 to 20 mins, while I am getting dinner ready.

We eat dinner around 5:30. We have a verse we say at dinner as well. It is
Earth who gives to us this food, Sun, who makes it ripe and good. Dear sun, dear Earth, by you we live, our loving thanks to you we give.

After dinner little D sleeps for 30 mins in his bouncy seat. After waking he eats again usually at about 6:30 pm and then we take a nice family walk.

From about 7:30 to 8:30 he plays again on his mat, or hangs out with daddy again watching him work.

8:30 we start his bath. We are still putting him down a little later than I would like but he doesnt sleep very long at night so I try to give him last feeding at 9 or 9:15 pm.

Bathtime routine is bath, lay him on our bed sing some songs, give him a massage, and put on his pjs. Then my husband gives him a bottle (the only one of the day).
When he's done with the bottle I bring him into his room, close the blinds, read him a story, put on his music and turn out the lights. He will sleep usually only until 1 am. We are still working on his nightime, but he is breastfeed and seems to want to eat more at night.

I know that the routine can change and there are those days when things just dont work out this way. For the most part though they do and things just fall into place. It helps everyones day run a lot smoother.

Easter Wrap Up

   Just wanted to share some photos from our first family holiday Easter. That is so great to say "family".

Little D's first Easter basket, which included bunny made by me, Waldorf baby doll, wool felted ball, wooden egg and 2 books.

The babe wearing an Easter bunny hat I made using this pattern http://notesfromaveryredkitchen.blogspot.com/2010/03/bunny-hat.html

Bunny shaped pancakes (sorry not the best presentation)

"Little D's basket and homemade sugar cookies.

Babe in his Sunday best. ( This is the best place to photograph him)

The family

This pretty much sums up how we spent the afternoon. Cuddling and loving on our little boy.

Woodland Theme Nursery

     When I found out I was having a baby I was so excited. I knew that I wanted to design a nursery that was gender neutral. I started the room before I knew if I was having a boy or girl. It didn't matter anyway , because I was going to design the room to work for a boy and a girl. We were going to turn our spare room into our little ones bedroom. My husband and I both agreed on a very soft green color that was called pear tree. The paint we used was a voc free paint from Home Depot. We wanted a room that was as eco-friendly and safe for the baby as possible.  My husband spent a few weekends painting and putting down the wood floors in the babies room. He really put so much time and love into his new babies room and he was so proud of the job he had done and so was I. I am really into the woodland theme right now, so we chose to decorate with owls, deers and gnomes.

  There were a few things we purchased and there were a lot of things that were handmade by me. I am going to go through each corner of the room. We purchased the crib and dresser at a local children's furniture store. We loved the dark wood and that it was convertible for later use. The bedding I purchased from amazon. It is a simple organic bedding set with a deer print in green and brown. Thought it was very calming and matched rooms theme. We also purchased an organic cotton mattress from naturepedic. It is probably the best thing we purchased. I think it is important for my baby to sleep on an organic mattress because he will be spending most of his young life sleeping.

     First the owl mobile. I got the idea for somewhere on etsy. I loved how cute the baby owls looked made in felt. The only thing I added that was different was the branches from outside to hang it.

(Little D does love looking up at it and I have to say it did turn out pretty good)

I purchased the gnome growth chart on this wall from a online store called Nova Natural. I absolutely love all their stuff and this growth chart was no exception. I had to order it right away.http://www.novanatural.com/

Also in this corner I have included a bamboo mushroom stool, which my mother ordered from another online store magic cabin.http://www.magiccabin.com/ and the little rocking horse I picked up at a yard sale for $1.00. Yes, that's right $1.00

In the first section of the room I added a toy shelf. It doesn't have much, but I don't believe that children need a lot of toys anyway. I love the simplicity of it and later on I will add more baskets to put more things from nature. For now there are 4 baskets, one basket has playsilks in it, the 2nd has 2 crochet balls that were made by me as well as 2 fabric blocks and an felt owl rattle, the 3rd basket has shells and pinecones and the 4th basket has a wooden rattle and a wooden teething deer I ordered from etsy. On the bottom shelf is a wooden train my mom picked up as well as a little pull elephant.

We purchased the rocking chair at a local unfinished wood furniture store. This rocking chair was on clearance because it had a slight problem with the bottom. It was nothing my husband couldn't fix, so we got it for $75.00. I made the crocheted blanket that sits at the back of rocking chair. I got the pattern from an old crochet book I had.

This little baby gnome I made up real quick. Thought he would be a cute addition to the room. I found the pattern for him some where on the internet.

I also painted and added the stickers to these name letters, which hang above the crib. I love these stickers they are the Martha Stewart line and I thought they fit the room perfectly

Just above his dresser we hung these alphabet woodland theme letters. I got them off of this seller on etsy. http://www.inktreepress.etsy.com/

I also have a tall book shelf in another corner for all of his books. I am obsessed with children's books. I only have some out; there are more in the closet for when he gets older. I made the stuffed lamb and bunny that are sitting at the top of book shelf. The ceramic mushrooms I got at Pier One and the ceramic owl came from etsy. Got to love etsy. They have everything.

Well there you go, a little tour of our babies room. He isn't sleeping in here yet, but does love to listen to stories here and spend time staring at his mobile.