What's with all the Mama Drama???

Bottle vs Breastfeeding

Cloth vs Disposable

Crazy Organic SAHM Mom vs Tightly Scheduled Working Mom

Tell me I am not the only one that finds it so discouraging to ALL mothers when I come across an article or another specialist telling us the RIGHT way to raise our children. One person says that the only type of milk that should touch your baby's lips before their 1st birthday is breastmilk. Another person says that breastfeeding is a prison that reverts women back to the dark ages. One study says that children of working moms are extremely happy children, another study shows that children of stay at home moms are even happier.

Maybe it's because I'm sort of a contradiction. Some of my parenting beliefs fall right into the attachment/natural parenting category; but I still do plenty of things that are far from the natural parenting concepts. I feel like I don't really fit into any parenting stereotype. I'm not natural enough to be an attached parent and I'm not conventional enough to be considered mainstream.

My labor was not natural. I was induced and gladly accepted the epidural. I breastfed, but we also used formula. I made our own baby food and we eat mainly organic, but I don't freak out when a family member gives my son processed foods. We vaccinate. I loved our sling and I wore my son all the time, but we never once considered co-sleeping. We now use cloth diapers, but we did start out with disposables. I am now a work-at-home mom, but if we hadn't had the daycare drama, I'd probably still be working outside of the home.

My point is, why do women always have to judge each other? I could care less if another woman is making her own baby food or babywearing. What I care about is that she loves her child and is giving her child the best that she can. By now, I'm sure we all know that breastfeeding is best for babies, but it can be very hard for some women. I worked outside of the home until my son was a little over 4 months old and I could pump all day long and still only get anywhere from 4-8 oz. I pumped as much as I could and it just wasn't enough, so we had to supplement with formula. Thankfully, my son easily transitioned from breastmilk to formula and back so I was still able to nurse while I was home.

I think that instead of pointing fingers at each other, maybe we should look into ways to educate each other without all the judgment. Look into educating our doctors about the dangers of inductions and epidurals. Get involved with state agencies to help educate new mothers about the benefits of breastfeeding and where to find help if they need it.

I know there are great resources out there that are already involved in these types of education, but those resources are usually centered in large cities and rarely found in less populated areas. If I had access to this education while I was pregnant, I would've fought the induction and I probably would've tried harder to exclusively breastfeed. Alas, the only nursing help I had was while I was in the hospital by a nurse that was a little bit too touchy for my taste and told me if my son ever bit me while nursing, "just slap his cheek and he'll stop". No, of course, I never did slap my son while he nursed - but that gives you an idea of the sort of education I received.

So, maybe the next time a pregnant friend tells you there's no way she could breastfeed, or cloth diaper, or babywear, or whatever else, instead of breaking out the "Don't you want to do what's best for your baby?", how about saying something like, "Well if you decide to (fill in the blank) let me know, and I'd be happy to help."

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Welcome to the Farm

You've all heard me talk about the farm and all the normal farm stuff we do. We raise the normal crops, like corn, wheat and soybeans and the normal animals like beef cattle. But my own little claim to fame are the unusual animals that I take in and claim as pets. No, my husband still hasn't convinced me that farm animals cannot be pets and I doubt he ever will. 



Magnum



The very first unusual animal we had on the farm were the fainting goats. I love these animals! No, they don't really faint. Their true name is Myotonic goats, named for the condition that causes their muscles to contract when they get startled. Although, my goats will also 'faint' when they're excited, especially when they see me coming with the feed buckets! 

Daisy



Baby Fainting Goats - Aren't they cute?



The next unusual animal I bought wasn't really planned. I was at a goat auction with some friends of mine and they brought in this poor little miniature donkey. His hooves were so overgrown that I don't know how he was even able to walk. The auctioneer kept lowering the starting bid because no one wanted him. Then I heard some guy behind me say he'd take him home and try to ride him - and this was not a small gentleman! So, I bid, and purchased this little guy named Jasper for $30! I called my husband, after the fact, and asked if he cared if I bid on a miniature donkey - it was only $30! He knew what I was up to and said, "You already got him, didn't you." My hubby knows me so well! :) 



Jasper when we first bought him.



His poor hooves were completely overgrown!



We got Jasper all cleaned up and our vet estimated that he was at least 10 years old, but probably even older. Jasper and I had some issues those first few days, especially when he would try to kick me, but we eventually worked through them and every time he would see me come out of the house or see my car pull up in the yard, he'd just start hollering for me! Unfortunately, we lost Jasper last year, but I'm glad we were able to give him some good years where he was completely spoiled!  

After he had been with us for a few months!

My next unusual purchase was our Highland cow. I had wanted some Highland cattle for a while and there was a local exotic animal auction that had a yellow Highland cow listed on their sale bill. Hubby wasn't too thrilled with the idea, but he said if I paid for it on my own he'd go along with it. So, I went to our banker and asked for a small line of credit to buy 1 cow. Remember, we live in farm country so no one ever gets a loan to buy just 1 cow. My banker gave me quite the look, but he thought the cow looked interesting so he let me borrow the money.

Except for eBay, I have never bid on anything at any auction my whole life, but I was determined to get that cow. It came down to a bidding war between me and some big ol' rancher. I ended up winning, after getting some dirty looks from him and his friends. Called hubby and brought the cow, now named Harriette, the Hairy Cow, home where she roamed with the fainting goats and Jasper.



Harriette & Jasper



Don't let the horns scare you, she's actually pretty gentle. The only thing I ever have to worry about with her is that she gets really excited when it's feeding time and starts bouncing all over the place. You have to be careful around a cow with a 6 foot hornspan that likes to jump around! Harriette eventually had to be moved in with the rest of our cattle after she used her horns one too many times to pick up and get out of the fences I had set up for the goats and Jasper. We would get calls from neighbors saying that they saw our 'Yak or whatever the heck that thing is' in a pasture or field. She's still in with the rest of our cattle and has even produced a couple Angus/Highland cross calves.

So there you have it, some of my unusual, but lovable, farm animals. Now, if I could just talk hubby into letting me get that camel...

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I Am An Oxymoron...

A contradiction. I am Liberal. Religious. Spontaneous. Dependable. Traditional. Women’s Rights Advocate. I am a Modern Stay At Home Mom.

I never imagined I would be a stay at home mom (SAHM). I don’t know how many times I said, “I would never be able to be a SAHM. I’d go crazy!” Even when I was pregnant, I still planned on going back to work; on having some kind of career. I even remember one of my coworkers telling me that she could never imagine me staying at home with a child. And I agreed with her.

Then, my baby was born. Even though those first weeks were exhausting, it was wonderful! I loved being home with him and I cried the first day I took him to daycare. I was only back at work two weeks when they had company-wide layoffs. Guess what, I was one of them. I do believe that if I hadn’t gone on maternity leave, I would still have a job. Oh well, life goes on and I was able to be back at home with my little man. At least until I found another job. And I did – two weeks later. I was only at that job for maybe a month when my son developed a hyphema (hemorrhaging between the cornea and iris) in his eye. To this day we don’t know how it happened and probably never will, but the doctors said it was more than likely caused by some sort of trauma to his eye. We can speculate all we want, but we’ll never know the whole story. That was when my husband and I decided that the best thing for our son was for me to stay at home.

Do not take this post as a bash against working moms or that I think I am somehow better for being at home with my child. That is not the case at all. This was just what was best for OUR family and thankfully we were in a position where we could make it happen. I still have a twinge of jealousy when I see my working friends able to afford things that I now have to do without. Some days, I would almost welcome the ‘break’ that working gave me. I struggle to find an answer when people ask what I’m doing now. There’s nothing luxurious about being a SAHM. But then my son does something that completely amazes me – he rolls over, he crawls, he stands up, he says his first word, he takes his first step – and I know this is exactly where I’m supposed to be.

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