The Crunchy Life

I was browsing Facebook this morning on my Blackberry and one of the groups I am a fan of, Midwifery Today, posted a link on their wall about a nurse-in in Iowa. This article really fired me up
about an issue that has really bugged me for a while now. In the blog entry (linked above) they describe how a poll posted on the news story indicated that a stunning 32% of respondents answer that they felt nursing mothers should re-locate to a designated feeding area to breastfeed their children. I am completely appalled at this. It is stories like this that test my faith in humanity.

First off, at this point it is common knowledge that BREAST IS BEST!!! No matter how hard formula companies try, they have not yet and probably never will match the benefits of breast milk. I don't think there is any way for them to include all of the anti-bodies that the mother's body produces specialized specifically for their infant at that moment in time. It's an amazing system. Mother Nature knows exactly what she's doing and although it may sound judgemental, I think that any mother who consciously chooses not to exclusively breastfeed for at LEAST the first six months of life (as opposed to those who are unable to for medical reasons) is short-changing their child. The breastfeeding relationship between mother and child has so many benefits, not just to baby, but to mommy, too.

Breast milk is highly specialized for each individual child by their age, health status, and dietary needs. The mother's body knows intuitively what the baby needs. Breastfeeding, especially in the hours and days following birth, encourages a deep bond between mother and child that can be difficult to reproduce otherwise. (I have plenty to say about this and the institutionalization of birth, too, but that's for another entry another time.) In addition to those thing, studies have shown that breastfeeding for at least six months in a lifetime can significantly reduce the mother's risk for breast and cervical cancer.

Regardless, however, of a person's choice to breastfeed their own child or not, the idea that there are people out there AFRAID that their child might catch a glimpse of a mother's breast while feeding their child is, in my opinion, absolutely ludicrous. And, as far as I can tell, this nonsense can be traced to the horrible sexualization of nudity and breasts in particular in our country. People have this irrational fear that the sight of a human breast is so inherently sexual that it will emotionally and psychologically scar their children for life. What are we teaching our children by shaming the human body in this way? Little girls learn to hate their bodies and little boys learn to objectify them. I think that there is NOTHING more beautiful than a mother breastfeeding her baby and I LOVE when my 16 month old daughter gets to view other babies and children nursing. It is teaching her about the nature order of things, yes, but also showing her what the primarily function of the breasts are; feeding our young.

In fact, I am also disgusted by how the entire human body has become sexualized in our culture. The idea that the simple state of being naked is sexual. I undress to shower all the time, and I am in no way intending on getting laid as a result of it. I fancy myself to be something of a nudist anyway, and I think our society's general attitude towards nudity not only fosters poor body image, but also teaches our children than to be human and to be in a human body is somehow dirty or naughty. As a good example, I have a friend who has a 3 year old daughter. She told me an anecdote about her MIL coming for a visit. Her daughter loves to run around the house naked and she encourages it because (1) it's comfortable and (2) why not?? While her MIL was visiting, however, she kept chasing the little girl around the house with panties trying to get her to wear them. The whole time, my friend couldn't quite peg why it bothered her so much that her MIL was trying to cover her up. It wasn't until after her MIL had left that it hit her; she didn't want to teach her young, impressionable daughter that her vagina is dirty. That's right, folks! Vaginas aren't dirty!

The article about the nurse-in hit the nail on the head when it said that the issue of breastfeeding is a FEMINIST one. I am irritated when I see the display of colorful nursing cover-ups sold by most children's stores. To those women who are not comfortable enough with their bodies to not use one (which I don't and, I might add, still aren't flashing any copious amount of flesh without), I encourage you to be brave. Just remember when you gave birth and room full of nurses and doctors were staring at your vagina. You weren't modest then and there's no reason to be modest now, LOL. Okay... so I guess that's a little harsh, but I guess there's some small part of me crying out here and saying that nursing cover-ups are just perpetuating the sexualization of breasts by suggesting pretty explicitly that they need to be or should be covered.

AAOJWER()&*!@#$%IH@#$TLKNASf This issue just makes me so MAD!!!! Seriously. Breasts are for breastfeeding. Children should see breastfeeding to know what breasts are for just like they are taught what their eyes, ears, and noses are for. If you don't like looking at it DON'T LOOK, but I think a breastfeeding mother and child is one of the most beautiful sights I've even seen. Babies are made to breastfeed. Breasts are made to breastfeed. Get over it.

Welp, here I am. I have been tossing the idea of starting a genuine blog up recently and I have made a small leap in the right direction by getting so far as to even post this. Amusingly, the idea first hit me while watching 'Julie and Julia' on Netflix but was presented to me once again when I met someone on Facebook (Betsy) who is a sponsored blogger by DreadHeadHQ. Granted, I have a regular job so its not like I need the income, but I thought it would be a fun and productive way to capitalize on my newly-found passion for DREADLOCKS! I started my own dreads 8 weeks ago today! I had been considering dreads for a couple of years, but wasn't ready to take the plunge. I felt pretty strongly that dreads was a one-way street that you don't just change your mind about. That was the biggest deterrent for a long time. Then, one day, I was visiting with some friends who have dreads and I just felt something click and I just KNEW I was ready to do it!

At first my hubbins was very against the idea. He felt that I would change my mind about it a couple of months in and want to take them out and then be upset that I had short hair. He worried about how short my hair was, too. While I was still deciding one way or the other I had let his opinions sway me, but when I clicked all of that fell to the wayside. In the past he had always said that whatever I wanted to do he would support, so I figured even if he didn't like it he certainly wasn't going to leave me over it. At first his biggest complaint was my dreads poking him up his nose in the middle of the night when he was trying to snuggle me, LOL.

I, unlike many, only wash my dreads every 7-10 days. The wonderful dread heads who put my own dreads in for my recommended only once every two weeks. I haven't worked up to that yet, but I definitely can see how my choice to wash less often to this point has worked in my favor. At only 8 weeks my dreadies are looking pretty awesome, especially compared to some photos I've seen of others with dreads the same age. Here is a brief photo-history of my dread progression so far!




I am constantly and dilligently maintaining my dreads.... as you can probably tell I REALLY like them to look neat and clean! I'm sure as this blog continues on living I will discuss the particulars of my maintenance for other people to benefit from. PLEASE feel free to ask me any and all questions about dreads, mine, yours, or otherwise! I sent an email the the honorable Knotty Johnny Clean (KJC) about the possibility of becoming a sponsored Team Member of DreadHeadHQ. Here's hoping that my message is well received!

My name here is KnottyMama because although I do love my dread babies, I love my ACTUAL baby infinitely more! She is the love of my life. I subscribe faithfully to the philosophy of Attachment Parenting (often abbreviated "AP"), of which the main components include breastfeeding, baby wearing, and co-sleeping/bed-sharing. I am very opinionated about these matters and about the horribly medicalization of birth that is and has been going on in the U.S. As far as I'm concerned anything less than a minimally AP parenting style is almost like torture to a young child. (This is not just an arbitrary belief, either. It is based strongly on 'The Continuum Concept' by Jean Liedloff.) I know it sounds extreme, but that's just my humble opinion. I assure you that in person I am actually quite tight-lipped about voicing my opinions too much because I don't like to offend people by insulting their parenting! Anyway, there is a good chance that this blog will contain ramblings about my adventures in parenting my baby/toddler, too!

In the title of the blog I mentioned WWOOF, too. The name of this blog is 'The Crunchy Life'. Lest you should think this is the blog about HOW to be 'crunchy' (which is a slang term meaning green, eco-friendly, liberal, etc.), I should clarify that it is more accurately intended to be about how we TRY to be crunchy. Granted, I consider myself pretty 'crunchy' already there is always room for improvement!!! WWOOF is the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. My understanding is that you can use this network of organic farms to find farms you can stay on for a vacation or extended stay in which you lodge and eat for free in exchange for working on the farm. It's a great way to teach your children about sustainable living and learn how to garden organically. I really want to begin growing a lot more of our own food, but I admit that I know little to nothing about it beyond what I read. I learn pretty well by reading but I feel like learning about it in a more structured, kinesthetic way would be HIGHLY beneficial for me. Ideally, I would love to someday be able to live off the grid with completely renewable energy and sustainable living. We have a LONG way to go, however. So, I will keep you updated as I attempt to learn more about that.

Finally, there is one last thing I think is important to mention here in my initial post. In addition to trying to live green and crunchy, we are looking at a severe cut in living space. In December of 2008 we moved into this condo and I was 8 months pregnant. Previously we were living with my mother in her two bedroom condo with her and my 11-year-old brother. I was absolutely unwilling to live in her condo (in which the air quality is highly questionable because of mold) so I rushed into moving out and we ended up in a condo we couldn't afford. I could give all the details of why, but suffice it to say that certain factors that were supposed to fall into place to assure we could comfortably afford this mortgage did NOT fall into place. Most notably, was my husband finding a job in his recently chosen job field; medical assisting.

So, now we are officially 9 months behind on our mortgage and the mortgage company (who has been wonderfully helpful and understanding to this point) officially advised us to SELL, SELL, SELL!!! So, we listed our condo on the market. Because we are so horribly behind on ALL of our bills (especially our credit card bills) the only way we can afford to live at this point is with my mother again. Fortunately, she is in the process of concurrently looking for a new house/condo meaning that we are looking to all get a place together. However, she has only been pre-qualified for $120,000. So, looking for a house/condo with at least 3 bedrooms for under $120 thousand in this part of the country/state is difficult at best. That means that we will most likely end up living in a basement or garage while we are with her. That means a seriously loss of space. I love my mom... and sometimes my little brother, but I am generally much happier when I DON'T live with them so I know its going to be very important that I have my own space some way or another. I don't know what's going to happen just yet, but that is by far the biggest issue weighing on my consciousness lately. To compound things, hubbins lost his job a week or two ago. Before that I considered the vague possibility of renting a small, cheap apartment instead, but that possibility was completely shot when I became the only employed member of our family.

I mentioned to DH that perhaps the reason he lost his job is that he is meant to go back to school so he is vaguely looking into the nursing program at one of the local universities for this fall. So, we'll see where the chips land. In the meantime there are lot of things up the air. This blog should allow me to keep tabs on things and organize my thoughts about what's going on.

I guess I've rambled enough... keep checking back frequently for updates! I hope to post at LEAST once a week!

Blessings

~KnottyMama