Mixed bag

I'm a mixed bag when it comes to parenting and household-running-type stuff.

And secretly (although now it's not so much a secret) I kinda like that I break the mold.

I've had 2 home births.

But...I've done CIO (cry it out - or versions of CIO) with both my boys.

I've breastfed both my boys until at least 1 year.

But I've also introduced bottles & formula at around 10 months with both.

I've done jarred baby food and homemade baby food.

I cloth diaper about 50% of the time (because I can) with one of my boys.

I use cloth bags for grocery shopping (but that's mainly because I can't bring myself to pay 5 cents per bag although sometimes if I'm desperate I do).

I can't sew to save my life (but I wish I could).

I've had both my boys vaccinated on schedule plus extra for Noah when we traveled to Africa.

I have no problems buying food products to save time/make my life easier like Mum Mums (ie. I'm not really into scouring food labels to make sure everything is all organic or whatnot, although I do appreciate it when the ingredients are simple and I know what everything is). But I also like to avoid sugary things for my boys (especially Noah who is so clearly a LOVER of all things SWEET).

I just really can't bring myself to wear my babies. With both of them being gigantor children I just haven't had the time or money to experiment with slings/carriers/etc. to try and find "the right one" that doesn't KILL MY BACK. Not that there's anything wrong with it - we had a baby bjorn and a hot sling, but only used them for limited times and desperate measures (ie. bouncing our firstborn to sleep during the first couple months during "the witching hour").

I use our beloved white noise machine for both boys.

I don't co-sleep. I didn't with our first and with our second I was less paranoid so he got brought into bed for a few weeks in the later part of the early morning (read: 4am-7amish) but in general I sleep worse with another tiny human in my bed (if I sleep at all). So it just didn't work for us.

But in general, I'm glad I'm neither here nor there in the extremes of parenting. It helps me remember that everyone is different (and that means babies too!) and so there's no one right way to parent your child. Some bottle feed from day one. Some do epidurals. Some have C-sections*. Some co-sleep. Some rock their babies to sleep until they are 18 months. We do what works for us or what we can handle at that moment. We do what we've committed to. What we believe is right for us and our family and our marriage and our children. And it looks different for everyone. And I'm so glad it looks different. Because...I don't want to look like everyone else.

I want to be me.

And I want our family to be us.

And I want our family to be happy to be us.

*I realize that while some do not CHOOSE to have a C-section, it definitely falls into a certain type of "stigma" in the parenting circles, just as much as home birthing or extended breastfeeding. I won't get into all that here, just to say that I have wonderful and dear friends who have had multiple sections and I see how closely bonded they are to their kids and their kids to them. It is not "wrong" or "worse" to have had a C-section. Birth in and of itself is a beautiful miracle. That is all.