The Spaghetti Method

I remember in my Bradley Class the teacher asked what type of parenting style we were planning on adopting. I said attachment parenting - a method I am still a big advocate for. Attachment parenting just works for us. I'm all about co-sleeping and baby wearing. Our attachment keeps her happy and just seems so much easier for me than anything else I've read about. During the day she takes naps when she is tired. At night she lets me know with a little back arching and fussing that she's ready for bed (usually around 7 p.m.) and she sleeps until 6 in the morning.

One of the major reasons why I'm glad that I was able to have Sweet Pea in the birthing center is that I've never been separated from her. Since we started our relationship with her on my chest, it was easy to continue our relationship that way. I believe that it is because of this continuous attachment that I trust my intuition to tell me what she wants and how she is feeling. Since my parenting is intuition based, sometimes it's hard to elucidate why I've made particular parenting decisions. For example, my mother keeps asking me when I'm going to start solids. I keep telling her that we'll start solids when the Pea is ready.

Since I feel confident in my ability to parent based on intuition, I tend to experiment a lot. For me, parenting is like throwing spaghetti on a wall to see what sticks. I'll try something out and if it works I'll keep doing it. If not, I'll try something else.

So, if any of you new mommies out there are having any anxiety about your abilities to parent an infant, don't sweat it. Just use your intuition and your library card and everything will fall into place.

In postnatal yoga today, Jessica G gave us a mantra for class: I am the perfect mother for my baby, and my baby is perfect for me. In one of my yogic disciplines we are taught that the soul chooses its mother based on what it needs to learn in this lifetime. I remind myself of this anytime I find myself having anxieties about my abilities as a parent. I know that if I am quiet enough and still enough to listen, she will tell me what she needs.