I’m 4 months into parenthood, and two things have become very clear to me… 1. I love that boy more than anything in this world and 2. I am a total hippie mom/attachment parent/whatever you want to call it and I totally didn’t see that coming. Today I am sharing three of the hippie mom parenting trends that I am totes on board with and some reasons why…

Babywearing is pretty much all the rage right now (#wearallthebabies). So, naturally when I was about 12 days pregnant I ordered my first wrap because I was super excited to be able to wear my baby around like a cute little accessory as I had seen so many hip moms doing on Instagram. Well, it turns out that babywearing is more than just the cutest accessory in the world, it is a literal lifesaver.

From basically day one, my little squish has been the cuddliest boy and favours sleeping in someone’s arms or on my chest. This is all well and good and super adorable for the first few newborn weeks, then you’re like, “K, my butt is numb and I need to get off this couch and regain use of my arms.” Queue baby wearing magic. When I started wearing Eli a whole new world of two handedness opened up to me… we could snuggle, he could sleep and I could do a few things (like go to the bathroom).

Even now that Eli is not a newborn (I’m just over here bawling my eyes out as I write that), I still wear him at least once a day. We both still love the closeness and I love the hands-free cuddles! When he was little he would nap in the wrap a lot, but now that he’s older and napping aloooone (yesssss), he is mostly awake in the wrap. I call him my little helper and we vacuum, do dishes and laundry, etc (sometimes, I’m not super mom). It’s also our favourite way to get outside for a walk or head out shopping. If it’s nap time he will still snuggle in and go to sleep so it makes getting out of the house a little easier too!

I have a Solly Baby wrap which I used the most in the first 3 months because it’s so stretchy and soft and keeps him snuggled up so close. I also have a WildBird ring sling which I am using more now because it is sturdier fabric that is accommodating his ever-growing chub quite nicely.

Co-sleeping wasn’t even a hippie parenting trend that was on my radar because I thought that we would get home from the hospital and I would just plunk that little swaddled angel into the bassinet/crib and he would sleep. Isn’t that what babies do?! Well, turns out I was wrong… really wrong. For us, co-sleeping began out of necessity… but, we are continuing it out of love.

As soon as we starting co-sleeping with our little love bug, we turned a corner. He would actually sleep for more than 10 minutes and surprisingly, both me and hubs slept just fine with him in the bed. When he woke up to eat it was no longer a long and strenuous production of feeding, rocking, shushing and praying he would stay asleep. Instead, I would nurse him laying down and we would both just fall back asleep. Yes, he wakes up probably more times at night to nurse than he actually needs to at this age but it’s literally for 5 minutes and all that is required is that I pop a boob out. Sometimes (if I didn’t put it away last time) he can do this all by himself… the little genius. Also, there is nothing better than waking up together in the morning and having so many sleepy and smiley snuggles in bed.

When I was pregnant I was pretty sure that I wanted to cloth diaper. I mean, he would be spending 24/7 in diapers, so I thought it would be great if they weren’t chock full of chemicals, if they were reusable, if they didn’t cost a fortune, and extra bonus if they had cute patterns! I didn’t start right away because #newbornlife but every time we had to empty the garbage in his room, I would just cringe. Ah, the amount of garbage one little pooping and peeing wonder can create!

I started with cloth when he was 3 1/2 months old and wish I had started sooner! I kept stalling because I was anticipating so much more work but it is actually just great. On laundry day I just dump a bag full of diaps into the wash without having to touch them and boom, done. The only part that is a little more time-consuming is prepping the diapers because you have to put the inserts back into the covers after you’ve cleaned them (because I am using pocket-stype diapers). But, I just watch some HGTV and make it a diaper prepping party. The diapers we are using and looooving are Glow Bugs.

This post is not meant to judge anyone who is not doing these things, I just wanted to share about a few things I am doing and loving. Anyways, that wouldn’t be very hippie-ish of me to tell you how to raise your own little love bug. All the peace and love to all the peeps who are doing whatever they’re doing… or whatever hippies say.

xo

P.S. The teacher in me loves researching stuff and knowing all the things, so I am including some little factoids that I learned.

• Babywearing reduces infant crying by between 40-50%.

• Babywearing promotes healthy attachment (aka bonding).

• Babywearing can help with breastfeeding (skin-to-skin contact promotes milk supply).

• Babywearing helps keep baby germ-free. When your little one is strapped to your chest it is a lot more difficult for those random strangers at the mall to come and get their stinky germs on your little’s face and hands… take that, cheek-pinching-grannies.

• Babywearing can increase language development because we tend to talk more to our babe when they are strapped to us and narrate what we are doing (I literally do this all the time, including in public).

• Co-sleeping babes sleep more peacefully & very rarely cry at night (thus not increasing adrenaline and making it more difficult to fall back asleep).

• Co-sleeping helps babies to regulate temperature and breathing as they are next to their mama.

• Co-sleeping may actually reduce SIDS (it is highly uncommon in countries where co-sleeping is the standard).

• Cloth diapered babes rarely get diaper rashes.

• Cloth diapering a baby saves money (apparently it costs about $2000 to diaper a baby with disposables. Cloth diaper costs range quite a lot… but, we spent about $500 with one-size diapers that will fit until potty training! Added savings if you use the same diapers with other babies which we plan on doing!)

• Cloth diapering saves a ton of diapers from ending up in the landfill before they decompose in 500 yearssssss.

• Cloth diapered babes tend to potty train easier because they are used to feeling when their diaper is wet.

• Also if a cloth diapered bum isn’t the cutest dang thing in the whole world, then I don’t know what is…

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