Pigeonholing Parents, or how we fell into Natural Parenting

This is my happy, healthy babby. In 5 months he has changed 80% of my views on how I thought I would want to parent and has shown me a new way of raising a child. A lot of media channels have done biased articles on attachment parenting recently, which has led to quite a few hurtful comments at us when we're out. I don't pigeon hole, I don't think it's fair and personally I think that how a family raises a child is up to them.

We decide to try a bit of everything and work out what's best for us which, for the foreseeable future, means that my little man is exclusively breastfed. Formula just wasn't an option for us, I was determined to Breast Feed and fought hard to get it to work. I found it quite hard to bond with Alfred at first, even convinced myself that he didn't like me and if I wasn't feeding him then he wouldn't want to know me. This sounds ridiculous now but I'm sure many mother swill understand where those feelings came from. Being able to feed him myself helped alot, for a lot of the day we are sat down together sharing something that no one else has and learning that we need each other. I'll admit I grimace when he clamps and twists, but watching his little feet fidget as he nods off at the end of his feeds is something magical. He's still exclusively breastfed, despite my midwife at 10 days telling me I should feed him formula so that he put on weight faster. He's developing quite nicely at his own speed and certainly seems to be thriving on boobie milk.

 Hopefully he'll be good on just milk until 6 months, he certainly isn't ready for food yet. I suppose the approach we're going to take for his food falls mostly into the baby led weaning category but once again I despise the fact that you have to pick one style and label yourself. We're going to follow the Alfred method of weaning. He's interested in food, but he's been interested in food since about 10 weeks. If you offer him food he'll take it, drool on it, taste it then get stuck unsure of what to do with it. There's no attempt to bite or suck food, so I'm quite sure he's not ready yet. Ideally he'll be able to sit up mostly unaided before we start solids, so he can sit at table and swallow his food safely. He's so close with sitting, but 10 seconds and he's over like a drunk trapeze artist. He'll share what's on our plates when we're out, get an adjusted version of our meals at home and have boobie milk in between. There are even packages of frozen milk in the freezer for baby rice / porridge when the time comes. I haven't the patience to puree everything, nor do I think it is the way I want him to learn about food. I appreciate it works for some people, but everyone's different.

The main point of difference seems to be the way in which Alfred is transported around town. We have pushchairs and they are sometime very practical and useful, but 90% of the time it's easier in the Moby. We've already convinced at least one friend on their brilliance and she now too has a happy carried baby. The term "babywearing" is everywhere right now, it's a trend apparently. Mothers have been carrying their babies since time began but it's a new fashion... go figure. I have only ever seen two other people with Moby wraps (before the convincing of friend), one of whom is a friend from an NCT group and the other was a lady just strolling round town. Everyone else seems to have argos' latest wheels. We don't use the wrap to lord our views over everyone, we use it because it's a nightmare travelling on the buses near us with a pushchair, Alfred likes to be close and doesn't like being in the pushchair for any great length of time and I feel it's safer with him upclose when we're somewhere busy or new. Why oh why we get "look it's one of them attachment parenting things" baffles me. I choose not to judge other people's choice on how they parent so we should be mocked? If only they could see whats catching Alfreds poop!

We are cloth bum converts. I'll admit I walked away from the Baby Show last October poo-poohing the idea of cloth nappies. Turns out the over engineered fiddley things that daunted us there just weren't right for us. We used disposables for the first two months, if only to get through all the cheap / free packs we'd acquired whilst pregnant. Then we saw a trial offer for miosolos, essentially they were free you just paid p&p. We gave it a go and haven't looked back. Turns out pocket nappies / all in ones work best for us in the day time (including the darling Spiderman one modelled above) and two parters with wraps work best overnight.We still use disposables now and again but they're a dying breed in out house in favour of cloth, turns out it's much easier for us, more economical (all our nappies are birth -potty) and miles better for Alfred's skin. No nappy rash since switching is enough for me. Which is good because my boy is still predominantly chemical free.

I am actually proud of the fact that at 5 months the infacol and calpol are still sealed in the cupboard. This boy is disgustingly healthy and touch wood is doing well without artificial junk. All of the lotions and potions that go on him are natural, his skin has been perfect since birth and he always smells lush. There is not even a hint of dry skin on him and the cradle cap is pretty much non-existent (thank you Burts Bees!). I wouldn't have thought this would be the way we would parent, wouldn't have guessed the crib would go largely unused as we shared a bed as a family. Ever since we started co-sleeping Alfred's slept right through, if we need to check on him in the nigh he's right there, if he needs feeding we're right there and there is nothing more lovely than your alarm clock being replaced by a tiny hand stroking your face until you wake up.

We parent naturally, choosing what feels natural to us regardless of what "trend" it falls into. And to all the people who sneer at us, check out my happy calm baby and leave us alone.