we are the christian family | est. 2007 » our life. blogged.

Mommy’s Day - We went for a walk at Korth Park. Ethan snoozed the entire time and Riley was exhausted.

Ethan also mastered the roll over on Mother’s Day! How sweet of him.

Play Date - Ethan had a play date with my friend’s little one, Tenlee.

Famous Sliders! - Our first time this year getting sliders from the Legion and Ethan’s first time ever!

Other random photos… we have lots of these but I won’t bore you.

Snuggled in for our nightly walk. Every night that it is nice out we try to make a walk around town. Sometimes we go to the store and get milk or run to the post office, other times we just go wherever Riley leads us. Ethan is getting quite used to them and falls asleep almost immediately. I bet he thinks we’re boring.

Becoming a mother has changed my life in the most remarkable ways and some I can’t even describe in writing. I told my best friend the other night that I never realized what she was talking about all these years until I birthed my Ethan. You love your husband, but you LOVE your child. I can now say that I know what you were talking about Val.

I know every emotion you have toward your boys. I know why you struggled to leave them when we wanted to see an adult movie, by ourselves one afternoon. I know why bedtime is so special and that reading a book to your baby who can not even talk is still amazing. I know that anytime they cry you just want to cry with them. Any ounce of pain they feel you wish you could just take it away.

And I wouldn’t be half the Mother I am today without the guidance and such caring souls of the two women that raised us. My Mom and Mother-in-Law are the best of the best. They truly are the world’s best Mom’s. Thank you for everything you do for me, even if it’s just lending an ear to listen.

And when my Mom’s aren’t around I have an amazing group of friends. My sister, who I consider my bestest friend probably knows me better than anyone. She’s an amazing Mother of three wonderful children: Tyler, Carson and baby Tenley. She is SuperMom and I hope I am just half the Mom she is.

Then I have Val, who most of you reading this probably already know. And if you know her than you know that I could write a book on why she is awesome. She’s a wonderful friend and even better Mom to Landen and Joey.

Then I have my two “accidental” friends. Sometimes in life you are just meant to meet new people. Those people in my life are Shelli and Stacy. All three of us lived in the same town and went to the same school, a couple years apart but were never friends.

A few years ago Stacy introduced me to Shaklee, the multivitamin company that Justin and I have used for years now. Ethan is a Shaklee baby as they call them. Stacy helped me loose twenty pounds, she is a motivator and a marathon runner. She is also a Mom to two amazing boys, Nolan and Ryder. She is spending her Mother’s Day at Atazlan watching her son and husband race motocross even though she’d probably rather be a Sundara. We don’t see each other as often as we’d both like to but when we do it is as if we never missed a day, probably because we can both talk really fast.

And then I have Shelli. The story of how we became friends is really remarkable. Back when I did photography for the public, I did a session for her. At that time it was just her husband, Derek and her son, Parker. I did the session and time went on… we both ended up getting pregnant and then both lost our babies during pregnancy. Somehow we found out about these terrible times for us and we friended each other on Facebook. We would chat back and forth and comfort each other. Then we would talk about getting pregnant again, which we both were longing for. Months and months of talking about the same thing, soon became a year. Then her and I became pregnant at the same time, but neither of us wanted to tell the other one because we didn’t want the other one to feel bad. So we kind of ignored each other (in a good way) for a good month. Finally, the truth came out and we were so shocked at the news we had for each other. We cried with joy. Our due dates were just a couple weeks apart! (I’m now crying writing this.) She had a baby girl four and a half weeks before Ethan was born. She named her Tenlee. We joke that those two are meant to marry each other. Shelli is a great friend and an even better Mommy.

Sometimes in life you meet amazing people, whether you are joined together because of blood, marriage or just by accident. I’m so grateful for these women in my life, who are also Mommy’s. I hope you enjoy your Mother’s Day and that you can relax and take in every moment possible with your family today. Happy Mother’s Day.

“Being a Mother is the hardest job you’ll ever love.”

 

Have you seen this Time magazine cover being flashed all over the internet, local and national news? Probably. What did you first think? Were you disgusted? I hope not.

Every social media outlet has been covered with this photo and the comments it has been receiving are so upsetting to me. This photo has been ripped apart, criticized and this mom has been threatened, been called a pedophile and why for? Why do people think nursing a baby beyond an infant stage is gross and unacceptable? I don’t understand how people can stare at exposed breasts in movies, look at pornography and think nothing of it but when the breast is out for the reason God created it they get all sorts of upset.

I’m glad breastfeeding is getting national attention. It’s about time and it should be more widely excepted. One thing that I do not like about this cover photo is that is doesn’t show breastfeeding how it really is, nurturing. When I nurse Ethan I love it, it’s a time for us to bond and snuggle. But the photo did what it was meant to, it got attention.

Did you know that the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) says that you should nurse up to a year and the WHO (World Health Organization) says that you should nurse up to two years and beyond. I’m not saying I’m going to nurse Ethan into his toddler years but if I did choose to I would hope my family and friends would be supportive in our decision. And I have no problem nursing in front of others or in public, to me, it’s the most natural thing in the world. I find it silly when people get all uncomfortable around a nursing mother.

And I would bet most of the people who are making judgements off the cover photo have not even read the article. I read the article and it isn’t about breastfeeding your toddlers, it is about AP (Attachment Parenting). Which is basically, how Justin and I raise Ethan. We didn’t read about it in a book or agreed to parent this way. It just happens. This type of parenting is not for everyone but it’s working for us and our son.

AP is nothing new, it’s been around for years and is probably one of the oldest types of parenting there is. Attachment Parenting in a nut shell is parenting off your instincts and creating a very nurturing environment for your children. Helping them grow up in a loving, affectionate environment where you respond to their every need immediately and affectionately. There are eight principals of Attachment Parenting that you can read about here. Attachment parenting also consists of nursing on demand, baby wearing, co-sleeping or bed sharing, very limited time away from baby, responding to every cry, no sleep training…etc. This all may seem crazy to you if you are a parent who has your child on feeding and sleep schedules, or you let them cry-it-out and self soothe to get to sleep.

About Our Parenting Style: Our parenting style mimics AP in many ways. If you know us, you know we have done everything but the norm. For starters Ethan was born into water and he wasn’t born at a hospital or with a Doctor. I never had an IV or any sort of pain management during labor. I labored at home until I couldn’t handle it anymore, then Justin drove me 45 minutes to a birth center. I birthed Ethan just 90 minutes after I arrived and I was back home in my own bed just six hours later. Ethan never had a bath until he was six days old and then he bathed with one of us. We chose not to circumcise him. We did a lot of naked, skin-to-skin contact with him for the first two weeks of his life and longer. We have him on an alternate vaccination schedule. We’ve been wearing him in a wrap or carrier since he was very young, he loves it. He is fed on demand and is exclusively fed breast milk. We snuggle a lot and rock him to sleep every night. Even though he sleeps in his own room most of the time, we have and will continue to have family nights where we all sleep together, safely, in the same bed. (Yes, safe co-sleeping does exist.) Ethan rarely cries but when he does we respond to it right away, to us, there is no reason to just let him cry. Crying is his way of communicating even if it’s just to tell us he wants to be held. That’s okay with us. He has no nap schedule or bed time. He eats when he’s hungry and sleeps when he’s tried. This all is working for us and we have a very calm, content and happy baby.

Many non-attachement parenting people do not see eye-to-eye with the AP people and visa versa. These are two extremely different parenting spectrums but I think it’s important to know that whatever is working for your family is the best. Please don’t judge that woman in the article. If anything stick up for her and support the fact that she is doing the best for her child and family.

And if you made it this far into my rant, thanks for reading!