Keeping Things Basic

When it comes to pregnancy, labor and delivery, I am of the school of thought that believes that we haven't evolved much in these areas. It is true that we now have the wonderful world of medicine to guide us through a very mysterious and precious time in our lives, if we so choose, but I truly believe that we have a very strong, innate ability/instinct for getting through all of it naturally.  If you know about Ayden's birth story, you know that we did end up needing to use medicine to get the outcome that we wanted but I am so glad I gave my body the chance to try and will do so again for our next baby.

As David and I were on our jog, training for our upcoming 5k today, I was reflecting on this and why it only makes sense, then, that I would feel that way about mothering as well.  How are we unlike any other mammal mother in knowing how to care for our young? I tried to use various "manuals"and it just put strain and uncertainty on something that should (and does!) come so naturally to me.  Ever since I decided to ditch the books and follow my instincts and heart, things have been exponentially better.  As I was telling David all of this, he divulged that I have been like this in many areas of my life.  If he has ever tried to change something about me or steer me in a direction that takes me away from what is natural or comfortable to me it always adds strain and I always end up back where I feel most comfortable.

If I could go back would I change my efforts?  Probably not because I am a researcher and I would have always felt compelled to read about and at least try these methods to see if they work.  I did spend my college years on the behaviorist side of things which is a bit hard to let go of.  As I am saying this, please keep in mind I am referring to the first year.  I do still believe that older children need guidance, discipline, and behavior modification at times.  Everything all of these books I've read offer sounds great in theory.  What I do know is that I probably won't pick up another book any time soon on how to mother my baby.  I will still read up on development and what to expect during toddler years, etc. but will limit myself to "why" books, rather than "how."  I'm going to do myself a favor and trust my basic instincts and do what my mother and her mother and even her mother did. 

We had a great weekend and Ayden is working so hard on eating and crawling.  I was eating a banana while I was holding him this morning and when I held it up to his mouth he took a little bite like he's always known that's how you eat a banana.

I'm telling you, Baby Led Weaning is truly remarkable!  Today his new foods were peaches, tomato and orange.  Oranges are, hands down, his favorite food EVER!  He scraped the peel completely clean and was jabbering away the whole time, as happy as could be.  It was completely adorable! 

 We mainly hung around the house all weekend knocking out various projects.  David and I have really been feeling how lucky we really are today and are going to bed with warm fuzzies all around. It is such a great way to end a weekend and hopefully the week will be great since we'll be going into it so happy and content. Here are a few clips from our day:

~Sarah