Calling all pregnant Chazers: Post your belly pics!!

[Fran101]

Living proof mixed babies are adorable!! me!! Lol

[Dakotah]

^^ Like.

You will all do fine in your own way. Thank you for creating this thread, it's so sweet to read and remember. My oldest baby is 28 and the youngest is 11. If anyone needs any nursing advice I used to be really active in LaLeche. I tandem nursed a newborn and one year old and everyone else to at least two and a half.

Funny that Dr Sears promotes the parenting ideas I was following way back when. Most important lesson in that-You will learn what works best for you and your babies, don't listen to advice that doesn't work for you personally...ultimately all the babies still turn out just fine!

[Paige]

Originally Posted by Kaydee

You will all do fine in your own way. Thank you for creating this thread, it's so sweet to read and remember. My oldest baby is 28 and the youngest is 11. If anyone needs any nursing advice I used to be really active in LaLeche. I tandem nursed a newborn and one year old and everyone else to at least two and a half.

Funny that Dr Sears promotes the parenting ideas I was following way back when. Most important lesson in that-You will learn what works best for you and your babies, don't listen to advice that doesn't work for you personally...ultimately all the babies still turn out just fine!

Amen. Short of downright neglect it's okay to do things how you want to. Not how other people tell you to because all the advice conflicts anyways. Crunchy parenting gets a really bad rap for spoiling children and more traditional parenting methods are called mean. You learn as you go and do what works for your situation.

[ihartgonzo]

Originally Posted by Dakotah

I honestly don't think I've ever met a mixed baby that wasn't cute. Seriously. A friend of mine has a mixed 4 year old baby girl and oh.my.god. she is so precious and has the BEST attitude.

Oh, Do you have a Facebook? lol I tried finding you on FB but I didn't know your last name and I didn't see you in the Chaz Addicts FB group lol

Srsly! Most of my friends are mixed, and even if their parents aren't that cute... they are gorgeous. My BFF is half Asian half Hispanic, and she could seriously win America's Next Top Model and is the coolest, sweetest person. My two best dude friends are Asian mixed and they're fine. And Fran is insanely beautiful, of course! What mix are you Fran? Frank is half Black half Native American/French and he's so cute. Hopefully our kid will be as cute and perfect as him. I really hope we have a boy, Frank's going to teach him/her to start skateboarding when they start walking, and a girl might not be a fan of that. Haha. I can't wait to find out the gender!

I do have a FB! I've been super inactive on it lately... I haven't told a lot of my friends that I'm pregnant yet, so I've been on the low lately. I just joined Chaz Addicts yay http://www.facebook.com/erica.busch.14

Wow Kaydee... did you let your children wean when they wanted to? I have a lot of research to do. I really don't know where I stand on a lot of things. At this point I feel like I'm in between granola and traditional. I want to breastfeed for at least a year, co-sleep as long as it's safe, not circumcise, not let the baby cry it out or use harsh discipline, and use organic products... but I really don't feel comfortable with home birth, breastfeeding after 2, not vaccinating, homeschooling and a few other crunchy beliefs.

But I'm sure with more research I'll be certain about how I want to parent. I know for sure that I want to be a loving, comforting mother who is always there for my child and who never instills fear in them. I know first hand from my childhood how much fear and abuse can damage a person for life, and I don't want my child to experience that.

I do want to offer one bit of advice take it or leave it...there was some clown back in the day named Ferber who wrote books promoting letting your babies cry it out...undertones of not letting them control YOU...an infant is crying because they need you, not because they're trying to make you nutz...if anyone tries to pass a Ferber book on to you...for the good of future civilization...burn it

[sparks19]

I find the beat thing is to be flexible. I had all kinds of things I wanted to do and not do before Hannah was born. First off I was hoping for a boy lol but now I could NOT imagine not haVing my little girly girl brightening up my day each day. I wanted to exclusively breastfeed for at leat the first year if not longer. Her short stay in the NICU and my inability to figure it out and after three months we were done. Co sleeping wasn't something I ever wanted to do an luckily that was one thing that worked out in my favor lol. Hannah was not and is still not one for sharing the bed. Bad dream, thunderstorms... She just wants me to come in and rub her arm and soothe her back to sleep but if I bring her in my bed there will be no sleep for anyone lol.

Just love them and cherish every second you have together, have fun, be silly, discipline when it's nessecary but always do it with love and never leave them wonderig how you feel about them even when you are angry... And they WILL make you angry eventually lol. There is no such thing as a perfect parent. Accept that you will make mistakes and that sometimes you have to ditch the game plan and fly by the seat of your pants lol

[Laurelin]

What the heck is 'crunchy'? lol

[sparks19]

Lol crunchy granola... Make your kids clothes out of hemp, start them
With dread locks as soon as they grow hair, name them things like flower or apple lol

No not quite like that LOL. Earthy, organic, au natural sort of thing

[zoe08]

Originally Posted by Kaydee

I do want to offer one bit of advice take it or leave it...there was some clown back in the day named Ferber who wrote books promoting letting your babies cry it out...undertones of not letting them control YOU...an infant is crying because they need you, not because they're trying to make you nutz...if anyone tries to pass a Ferber book on to you...for the good of future civilization...burn it

While I wouldn't read books on the CIO(cry it out) method , you have to learn what works for your baby. If your baby is overtired and screaming whether you hold them or not, sometimes they *need* the dark room and to be left alone so that they can stop keep being stimulated to staying awake, when what they *need* is sleep. They aren't always crying because they need *you*.

I am not a big fan of parenting books, unless you are good at taking everything they say with a grain of salt and being able to pick and choose what works for your family and not just follow the strict advice of some stranger who isn't raising your children.

Originally Posted by sparks19

I find the beat thing is to be flexible. I had all kinds of things I wanted to do and not do before Hannah was born. First off I was hoping for a boy lol but now I could NOT imagine not haVing my little girly girl brightening up my day each day. I wanted to exclusively breastfeed for at leat the first year if not longer. Her short stay in the NICU and my inability to figure it out and after three months we were done. Co sleeping wasn't something I ever wanted to do an luckily that was one thing that worked out in my favor lol. Hannah was not and is still not one for sharing the bed. Bad dream, thunderstorms... She just wants me to come in and rub her arm and soothe her back to sleep but if I bring her in my bed there will be no sleep for anyone lol.

Just love them and cherish every second you have together, have fun, be silly, discipline when it's nessecary but always do it with love and never leave them wonderig how you feel about them even when you are angry... And they WILL make you angry eventually lol. There is no such thing as a perfect parent. Accept that you will make mistakes and that sometimes you have to ditch the game plan and fly by the seat of your pants lol

I agree that being flexible is the best thing! Starting from the very beginning, your pregnancy, birth, sleep habits, feeding, discipline, etc, etc.
Being educated on the subjects is important, but forming a strong opinion which will break you if it doesn't work out that way is a good way to end up with PPD.