November Crunchy Mamas

cduquin

is anyone here a crunchy or crispy mama?! Breastfeeding, babywearing, cloth diapering, natural childbirth, doulas, ...etc.?! A few mamas and I have a private Facebook group for crunchy mama support. Absolutely no bashing and kind words of support and love to all! It's a drama- free zone and we are looking for some more members! If you're interested in joining or seeing what this is about, please reply here!! 
Xoxo Carrie

talkthewholetime

I like science and medicine way too much. Which sucks, because I truly enjoy some aspects of being "crunchy". I just can't get on board with a lot of crunchy society's blatant disregard of peer reviewed science. Best of luck!

whaat

I don't have Facebook, but I am mildly interested in these things (baby wearing and cloth diapering specifically). Can we have a thread here too? 

talkthewholetime

@whaat TB has a cloth diapering board  

shevaCC

I do all of that but am belligerently pro-vax. Crunch sometimes being code for anti-vax, I figured I'd put that out there.

talkthewholetime

shevaCC said:

I do all of that but am belligerently pro-vax. Crunch sometimes being code for anti-vax, I figured I'd put that out there.

This is exactly what I was getting at. I hate how they're always stuck together. Sending you a PM.

grannysmith912

I'd be interested! Like PPs I may not fit all of the crunchy stereotypes, but I'm at least a little bit crunchy (hoping for natural birth, breastfeeding, cloth diapering, etc.), and I think a thread like this could be a helpful and encouraging resource!

Ash9614

I think I fall somewhere in the middle.  If I'd been able to find a water birthing center in my area that looked clean and  reputable, I may have entertained that thought a bit more. Instead, I'm doing a midwife and may consider a Doula  for additional support. 

 I plan to breast-feed and baby wear,   but won't be doing cloth diapers.  I may also make my own baby food further down the line.

Still on the fence about the med free birth... I may give it a go,  but will try not to be too hard on myself if I need some meds. 

 Would love a thread here so I can pick and choose when I'm going to be crunchy vs  embracing the advantages of the 21st-century

cduquin

I'm pro vacc too! We are open and loving and nonjudgmental!

cduquin

Our group isn't like that- that's why I said crispy too

mamabear0813

I'm a free flowing mom. I eat my granola, but I like my preservative loaded lucky charms, too! I will have a medicated birth, but will put it off as long as I can (no 4cm epidural, for example). I'll breastfeed, but I'll pump to let others give babe a bottle as well. I'll use hospital provided disposable diapers for the first several days, then will switch to cloth. I'll use a stroller and a baby carrier. My children get every vaccination that is recommended on the schedule it is recommended. I will breastfeed as long as my baby wants, even if it's longer than 1 year. I will be doing baby-led weaning. I don't eat (or feed my kids) organic unless it happens to be the cheapest option for what I'm buying at the moment.

Mostly I parent in the laziest way possible. If it makes a lot more work or costs significantly more, I probably won't do it. I am neither a hands-off nor a helicopter parent.

earichar23

I'm crispy:) pro vax. Breastfed, baby wearing, baby led weaning. No cloth diapers but only because of the hubs. 

mrsasolomon

I guess I'd probably be considered crispy. I'm Pro Vax but planning a natural birth, plan on breastfeeding and baby wearing. No cloth diapers this time as I work full time now and can't get the hubby on board with it this time around but I have CD in the past. I don't feed all organic or anything but try to feed some organic when I can. 

AandDM2014

So I guess if crunchy is all the way hippie (googles definition, not mine), and crispy is partially hippie, I'd like to consider myself crispy. I plan to breastfeed (I have a pump should I choose to use it) and cloth diaper, baby wear and stroller when necessary, vaccinate on schedule and do some organic foods. I also plan to do homemade baby food, for which I have an awesome tiny food processor that works with my immersion blender stick. I'd also love to do a natural childbirth, but I am potentially higher risk (GD and preeclampsia), so that may not be an option.

rooftop

In a world of cereal ranging from granola to captain crunch I feel like I'm somewhere around frosted shredded wheat lol. I'm full term breastfeeding my toddler and plan to tandem nurse, did baby led solids,  baby wear, use a mix of cloth and sposies for diapering, had a med free birth center water birth and plan for another and am actually in the process of qualifying as a certified doula. But there's just some crunchy things I don't have the time/patience/energy etc for.

whaat

talkthewholetime said:

@whaat TB has a cloth diapering board  

I follow it.

maggmagoo21

I'm a crispy mom. Nursed DD for 15 months (pumped and bottle fed at daycare when I went back to work at 12 weeks) until she weened herself. We baby wear and made our own baby food. Did disposable diapers bc neither of us wanted to commit to the extra laundry. My medical professionals this time around are a midwife group and will give birth in a hospital with them (hopeful for the water birth I wanted last time) with hypnobirthing and a doula. 
I'd be interested in the fb group. 

whaat

And oh yeah to be clear I am pro vaccines, and pro BEING NORMAL AND NOT A DICK but I like some aspects of this. We grow a lot of food, want to use cloth diapers, and are pretty DIY, but we are 100% on board with modern medicine. I actually work in clinical trials.

edit: I think most of us here are in the same boat.

hopefulmama02

I am very interested in this... we are really hoping to use cloth diapers and I love the idea of baby wearing but we have no idea where to start

hopefulmama02

What board? @whaat

Seattleite86

Are all these things considered crunchy? I think they might have morphed slightly into the yuppie category (not meant to offend, but some crunchy choices sadly rely on financial status/ability to take off longer from work). Baby wearing is a serious trend! I am using a midwife group but they are part of the university medical center and deliver at the university hospital and are covered by my insurance. Im also going to use a doula group who will go to the hospital with me. I think more people would go with doulas if insurance covered the cost, doulas can be pricy! We are going to try to mostly cloth diaper- for the environment's sake. Plus cloth diapers are cute.

GreenEyedUnicorn

I just still don't understand why people would want to join a Facebook group already. Smh. 

whaat

GreenEyedUnicorn said:

I just still don't understand why people would want to join a Facebook group already. Smh. 

I just don't understand why people still have Facebook (UO?) 

whaat

hopefulmama02 said:

What board? @whaat

Under "specialty" there is a cloth diapering board and also an "eco friendly family" board but tbh they are not updated enough for my liking, esp when I'm trying to learn.

CarrieJM1981

I am interested.  I have already switched to a mid-wife and plan on doing most of the things mentioned.  

LikeICantEven

whaat said:

GreenEyedUnicorn said:

I just still don't understand why people would want to join a Facebook group already. Smh. 

I just don't understand why people still have Facebook (UO?) 

How else can I play Farmville? 

mrs_hoyahoo

Seattleite86 said:

Are all these things considered crunchy? I think they might have morphed slightly into the yuppie category (not meant to offend, but some crunchy choices sadly rely on financial status/ability to take off longer from work). Baby wearing is a serious trend! I am using a midwife group but they are part of the university medical center and deliver at the university hospital and are covered by my insurance. Im also going to use a doula group who will go to the hospital with me. I think more people would go with doulas if insurance covered the cost, doulas can be pricy! We are going to try to mostly cloth diaper- for the environment's sake. Plus cloth diapers are cute.

Yeah, this has been my experience too. Breastfeeding, baby-wearing,and cloth diapering are all pretty main stream around here.

I'm a big fan of baby-led weaning though and will happily share my experience with it when our LOs are 6 months

ShinyBlackAnt

Probably I fit more with 'yuppie' than 'crunchy' but am definitely interested in these things. Though it still seems early to me.

shevaCC

Haha, I'm definitely guilty of being much more yuppie than hippie.

Hedgessm

I'm somewhere in the middle. We co-slept and I still baby wear. Plus we did baby-led weaning. But I had no milk last time soooo formula had to happen. Hoping for a different outcome this time. I'm way too lazy for cloth diapering. 

jstinkz

I'd definitely be interested. We did a lot of these with DD and plan to do the same again.  DD just weaned herself from breastfeeding about a month ago (16 months) She actually self weaned from all feelings except for bedtime feeding right around 13 months. Little earlier than I expected. Baby wear, cloth diapers from day one, baby lead weaning at 6 months, med free birth. Pro vax as well. Meh on organic food. 

srcr2011

I'm a crispy mama. Natural birth, possible doula this round, baby wear, breastfeeding,  homemade baby food/baby led feeding and weaning. I can't do cloth diapers though and I am very  provax. But it's way too soon to join any fb groups.

asreinholm

This has me cracking up. Apparently I am a crunchy mama and didn't even know.

lilwonder

I think I'm crispy/crunchy... I'll be baby wearing, breastfeeding, (contemplating, only because I've never done it before, so I need to keep doing my research) cloth diapering, natural birthing, using doula support and I'll make my own baby food when the time comes. I am, however; VERY pro-vax. I think someone previously mentioned it, but it stinks how anti-vax and crunchy Moms/parents seem to be closely related.

Thewizardofrhythm

So id say we are in this camp in many ways but I do not like calling myself a crunchy mom or defining my parenting style. I've found that when I do, people make all these assumptions about what you do and don't believe based on their personal understanding of what it means to be "crunchy/crispy" or parent naturally. And also I am inadvertently aligning myself with belief systems I am not on board with. 

Jazz1016

Sign me up! I'm crispy - EBF, baby-wearing, natural child birthing, pro-vac, non cloth diapering, momma. 

CJR2014

Hello, could I be a part of the crunch drama-free facebook group?   I am pro-vax but pretty 'pro-natural' in most of the other ways you mentioned.  How does this work?  I've been trying to find a secret facebook group, but it's so hard!  

TinyAlligator

mamabear0813 said:

I'm a free flowing mom. I eat my granola, but I like my preservative loaded lucky charms, too! I will have a medicated birth, but will put it off as long as I can (no 4cm epidural, for example). I'll breastfeed, but I'll pump to let others give babe a bottle as well. I'll use hospital provided disposable diapers for the first several days, then will switch to cloth. I'll use a stroller and a baby carrier. My children get every vaccination that is recommended on the schedule it is recommended. I will breastfeed as long as my baby wants, even if it's longer than 1 year. I will be doing baby-led weaning. I don't eat (or feed my kids) organic unless it happens to be the cheapest option for what I'm buying at the moment.

Mostly I parent in the laziest way possible. If it makes a lot more work or costs significantly more, I probably won't do it. I am neither a hands-off nor a helicopter parent.

So much this.
My dd was in the NICU for a month and tube fed for a week or two. I never got a latch so I pumped exclusively until I had enough in my stash to make it to a year and move onto wcm. She was too small for me to spend too much time leaving her so hungry she'd have no choice but to latch (what is often suggested for both getting them to take bottle or boob) I'd eat organic, but don't have the $$ for that. We use the stroller and babywear. I used disposable because my tiny child was too small for even nb cloth until she was like 4 mos. But now I LOVE cloth. I love the prints, it holds up her pants better, and it saves me $$. I did a combo of purees and blw. I let my kiddo have ALL the TV time and mine was one of those who refused to get rocked to sleep so I ended up doing a very mild version of CIO (or as we called it, fuss it out)

Anyways no way it's too early for a fb group. We can chat this stuff on the board as it'll help others decide what they want to do with baby (if they have the choice)

sweetlyuntied

As some others have been mentioned, my only caution here is against diving too far into any sort of classification before you actually have babies. (And don't worry, I am giving myself this same advice as a STM because I know that all babies and births are different). It's great to have goals, but also be prepared for contingencies. Too many women put such pressure on themselves to have a certain type of birth or follow a certain parenting philosophy, and will kill themselves to keep going even when it's clearly not working. 

Also, I feel that it's too early for a Facebook group. 

BUT. I am all for an open forum to discuss different ideas re: pregnancy and mothering. Oh wait, that's why we're here!!