Mrs. Social

Today I abandoned all of my to do's to get out and get social! As a stay at home mom it is easy to get stuck in your bubble and forget to take care of your social life. There are a lot of days where Ayden and David are the only people that I talk to. For the most part, I'm okay with that because I've always been more of a quiet observer in social settings and also value alone time. At the same time, I think it would be healthy for me to have more mommy friends so today I took initiative.

We have a local cloth diaper store/Yoga, Pilates, massage studio and boy have I always felt at home there. We always run into a wide variety of folks whenever we stop by and everyone is usually crunchy to some degree. David and I took our natural childbirth class there and when we signed up for it I was given a free class. I'm not sure why I waited this long to go. In the early days I suppose it was sleep deprivation that prevented me from making it to a 10am class across town. Then I suppose it was Little Miss because she came on the days they offered the mommy and me type classes. I'm just glad I finally decided to go because I loved it!

The class I chose was Mommy and Me Pilates and was set up so the kids just played or did whatever during the class.  Each mom was in charge of their own baby and it was just understood that there would be some distractions.  There were 4 moms with kids, including myself, and the instructor had a baby with her as well. 2 of the kids were boys around a year old and the two other babies were both 8.5 month old girls, so pretty close in age to Ayden.  It was so cute seeing the three babies because though they were the same age, they were all so different.  One of the little girls just sat and quietly chewed on her Sophie giraffe the whole time.  Her mom said that she isn't on the move yet and that her pediatrician said not to worry about it because even if she is physically able, without motivation she's not going anywhere.  Some babies are perfectly content to observe the world around them and see no need to be mobile. The other little girl army crawled like nobody's business and her mom, the instructor, speculates that she'll go straight from army crawling to walking.  Then there's our little cruiser who was all over the place as well.  When we first got there he stayed right by me but after a few minutes I suppose he decided it was a pretty cool place and he made his way to the baskets of toys that were provided.

It's hard to see but he has a HUGE smile on his face.

He crawled around all over the place, checking back in with me every now and then.  He liked that I was lying down for most of the class and would spend a couple of minutes using me as his own personal obstacle course before venturing off again to find another toy or pull stuff out of another mom's diaper bag, etc.  I wish the class packages weren't so expensive at this place because this type of setting (mommy and me) is definitely more my style.  But, alas, I probably won't be back with it costing $11 per class since that will add up pretty quickly.

After Pilates, I stayed for my first La Leche League meeting.  Again, I have no idea why it has taken me so long to attend.  Our LLL meets twice a month, once in the morning and once in the evening.  I've always had a lot of support so there wasn't a *need* for me to go I suppose, but as with everything else, it is nice to be around other people who share your interests.  I am also very enthusiastic about breast feeding and enjoyed being part of a gathering that was supporting and encouraging women through their journey.  We sat in a circle and went around one at a time sharing stories, concerns, asking questions, etc.  Mine was about what changes to expect now that Ayden is starting to take in more table food.  I plan to implement extended breastfeeding up to 2 years, as long as there is mutual interest, and since mobile and therefore busy babies can become distracted and "forget" to nurse I wanted to know if I needed to do anything to keep my supply up.  The general consensus was that after six months of well-established breastfeeding, your breasts are so regulated that it takes a lot to adversely affect your supply.  In other words, I don't need to worry too much if he goes a day or two  of nursing less because my supply should stay pretty steady.  One of the leaders also mentioned that I should expect more frequent night nursing after days like that which actually explains a lot...

 I suppose since we had been there for so long Ayden felt nice and comfortable.  He still crawled all around, smiling at random women, looking at sleeping babies, attempting to climb on shelving the way he does the dishwasher door at home, etc.  He hung out in a corner of the room watching a couple of older boys play for a while.  At one point he even crawled to the middle of the circle and started doing his guinea pig laugh while looking at everyone.  He probably thought we were all there to play with and look at him...  I was so proud that he had such a good morning and allowed me to attend both the class and the meeting.

He liked looking out the window

By the end of the morning I had exchanged numbers with 4 ladies and had some great conversations.  Even if you are confident in your parenting decisions, it is always nice to have them validated.  Being in such a large group of women, I was bound to find at least a couple of like-minded mothers to relate with.

I'd say my efforts to be social today were a great success and hopefully new friendships can form in the future.  If you are breastfeeding, or pregnant and thinking about it, you should definitely attend a LLL meeting!  Here is a glimpse of how our evening ended:

When I was pregnant I would sit in Ayden's room in the glider and daydream about the three of us hanging out in his room before bedtime, reading books and playing together and that is exactly what we did tonight.  Ayden's sweet giggle is definitely music to our ears!

~Sarah