Reading for Mums (and 2Bs) - Part 1

Thought I'd do a round up of all my favourite parenting resources.

I think this is gonna take a while so here are some websites for starters... books and other stuff to follow in another post.

So here are a few for starters.

Hmmm. Need a pic. What to use?

Parenting
http://www.mothering.com/
http://www.api.org/
http://www.naturalparenting.co.au/

Breastfeeding
http://www.kellymom.com/
http://www.lalecheleague.org.nz/
http://www.llli.org/

Babywearing
http://www.wearyourbaby.com/
http://www.slingbabies.co.nz/

Birth
http://www.sarahjbuckley.com/

Blogs
http://www.kiwimummyblogs.blogspot.com/
http://www.phdinparenting.com/
http://www.drmomma.org/
http://www.breastfeedingmomsunite.com/

Baby-led weaning
http://www.babyledweaning.com/forum/
http://babyledweaning.blogware.com/

Sleep
http://www.dreamparenting.com/

Things I'm loving on Friday

Been a while since I did a 'things I'm loving' post...

Breastfeeding

I'm loving breastfeeding. It's such a great way to connect with my cherub.

My two favourite things are watching her little eyes roll back and her eyelids fall shut as she is overtaken by sleep. It seems to be such a peaceful way to fall asleep - I admit I'm a bit jealous.

The other favourite is when she's been sucking a while and then gets another let down. Suddenly she has to start swallowing regularly again and her eyes often widen as she concentrates hard. Ooh and I love hearing the milk swishing around in her mouth before she swallows it.

Can you tell I think about this a lot? I love the La Leche League principle "Mothering through breastfeeding is the most natural and effective way of understanding and satisfying the needs of the baby".

Here's us at the Hamilton Gardens.

And this is our very first breastfeed. She was so clever and breastcrawled and self latched within 10 minutes of birth! (BTW, breastcrawling is super cool - google it! Hmmm, maybe I'll blog about it sometime...)

Send a card

This is a cool service from NZ Post where you can go online, pick a card, upload your own photo, write a message and they'll post out a card to someone for you. I've done it a few times now. I took a photo of Adele holding a cardboard sign saying 'Happy Birthday Aunty Susan" and uploaded that as the front page of the card. Super cute! And a very handy service.

A note though - you do need to do it a good few days in advance. It takes a while for them to print and send.

API speaks

A fav website of mine at the mo is API Speaks. It's the blog for Attachment Parenting International. The say they are the voice for gengle parents everywhere.

A variety of writers contribute blogs and they offer interesting perspectives on parenting.

On the bookshelf...

At the mo I'm reading The Discipline Book by Dr William Sears and Martha Sears.

In many ways it's seems a bit early to be thinking about discipline with Adele but Marianne and I were having a conversation about discipline the other day so I thought I'd get a head start.

Plus, as soon as she started crawling I've noticed myself saying no, a-ah, not for Dellie a whole lot more!

Oh yes, and one day while boggling on the interwebby I stumbled across the concept of 'No punishment parenting'. Oh, no, I thought. Another crazy idea I'll latch on to to make my life more difficult for myself. (I'll never understand why I can't just do things the normal, easy way!)

So, The Discipline Book. I've read the first section which is about setting the environment for positive parenting. The Sears' say the the role of parents is to help the child feel right so that they will act right. Discipline is best if it is internally motivated rather than externally. So the kid should want to be good because it makes them feel good and makes their parents happy rather than behaving because they're scared of getting in trouble.

Some of their ideas include:

• understand where the child is developmentally - what are they capable/incapable of doing and understanding?
• create a 'yes' environment so that you don't need to say no all the time (baby-proofing etc)
• ensure good nutrition
• practice attachment parenting
• use alternatives to 'no'
• build self-esteem
• help your child to express themselves safely

One other cool thing they talk about is that the ultimate goal is not independence. It's interdependence. First is dependence, then independence then interdependence. The last stage is recognising that you could do something on your own but that you'll get a better outcome if you get others to help.

I'm just now moving on to the section titled "Correcting undesirable behaviour". Sounds fun...

Babywearing

Adele and I seem to be babywearing a lot lately. Since she started crawling (proud Mummy smile) she's been far too excited all the time to want to sleep or even feed. So getting her to settle down, relax and get sleepy has been really difficult.

So out comes the green wrap sling. She lived in this when she was a wee one. Every daytime nap for the first few months was in here. I figure she'll settle down again soon so until then I'll just enjoy the cuddles! And the massages from Mike in the evenings are a bonus too! (She's about 11kgs - my poor back can testify.)

More babywearing triumphs: at Susi and Rob's wedding last weekend Miss A didn't want to go to sleep, but did want to be carried all the time. We'd forgotten the wrap sling so I simply picked up a picnic rug tied the opposite corners together, threw it over my head and voila! A sling. Saved my arms and made for a happy baby. Just quietly, I was pretty chuffed with my 'attachment parenting' skills!