* you rent bought a birthing pool
It wasn’t even a birthing pool, it was a kiddie fish pool.
My reasons: 1) Why rent when you could buy? After all, if it’s something you can reuse, you can give birth in it again. 2) Where was I going to rent from? I couldn’t do this from midwives… I no longer had any. 3) I had it on good authority that the kiddie fish inflatable pool was just as good as (if not, better than) the ultra expensive birth pools. Those cost just as much to rent as to buy the kids pool. If you want to buy them outright, that’ll be hundreds.
(Granted, my experience had some ups and downs that I don’t care to repeat, so I may fork over the hundreds next time, after all.)
* you are intent on using hypno-birthing over an epidural Hypnobirthing sounds okay, but it also sounds like just another indoctrination into a particular method of birthing or coping, which doesn’t appeal to me exactly (like Lamaze, Bradley, etc.).
If hypnobirthing works for you, that’s cool. I almost tried this. Before my midwife asked me to leave her care, she was going to give me some CDs or downloadable files, because she thought it would help me get through labor more easily. Of course, I never got this info after we “broke up”, so I guess I’ll never know. It’s not something I’m seeking on my own, but am not opposed to learning more about it.
I’ve had an epidural before and can tell you that it is both great and sad. Still, I do advocate not getting the epidural if you can help it.
I advocate birthing naturally, and to me, hypno and epi both seem to be a little more involved than I find necessary. I’m an advocate for birth as simple.
*you have a doula or had a homebirthing midwife
Never had a doula. Had a few homebirth midwives. That experience was one of my traumatic births (my “wake up call”), and then we broke up before I did my third birth, the unassisted one.
* you secretely wish Ina May could be with you at your child’s birth
I don’t want anyone to be with me at my child’s birth! I don’t care how cool they are, I don’t need anyone.
* you know how to tie a moby
Nope. No idea. I think this is babywearing, right? I think it’s kind of cool as a naturally assumed method, for sure. I’m not too big on it as a craze, or a lifestyle gimmick. I’ve always wanted to carry my babies around in something like a papoose, but I never learned how. I would be open to this, though. It probably wouldn’t be part of a club, clique, or contain a name brand, I’m guessing.
* you regularly wake up with a kick to the stomach or a baby ‘self-serving’ from your left boob
This one is fairly true! And I dig it. It’s kind of cool. And, it usually is the left breast. Weird.
* your doctor speaks to you slowly (like you must be from a foreign planet) when you decline their vaccination schedule
My doctor did try to dissuade me from declining vaxes. He’d been with us before our change of heart, so he’d been the one administering some of the first vaccinations. We didn’t have a lengthy talk, but I said what I had to say and he said what he did, and then he didn’t push it. And hasn’t since. Now all three of our kids see him, as we have when we started over 7 years ago. Pretty cool, huh? Having a doctor who will respect your choices and not hold a grudge about it is a nice find!
* you have been carrying around a potty since your child was a newborn
I think portable kid potties are kind of gross. (Sorry!) I take my kids to the toilet. And yes, even my infant, who has peed there a couple of times successfully.
* your baby’s first food is a big ol’ chunk of veg (not a puree) mashed potatoes.
Each baby! Will try on #3 in a month or so.
* you have a pail full of stinky (cloth or compostable) diapers in your house
The only thing that smells is the diaper genie housing the disposable diapers. Ew.
I have a couple of small wetbags for the cloth that I’m using on our newborn (I’m a cloth diaper newbie… third time’s a charm!) and they never smell. I did, however, buy a trash bin to use as a diaper pail. Now I just need some diaper pail liners.
Does anybody have a favorite? Something cool, stylish, easy to use, no-smell, etc.? Let me know what you like best and why. Here are some I was seeing on the internet. If you have an opinion on them, tell me what you think.
* you do a dance for joy when your kid does their first sign
I always wanted to teach my kids signs, but never got around to it (just like a number of foreign languages I hoped they’d learn). I have signed and sung the manual alphabet since they were babies, but not in a way that was often enough, or ever caught on. We communicated in ways which were specific to us. I understood their “language” when others didn’t. I understood their looks, their nonverbal cues, gestures, and ways of expressing things. My daughter was a late speaker and yet we had no problem talking with her for the first few years of her life. We do have a sign language book that she has been reading now that she is older, however.
Anyway, what we have done was our thing and it has worked for us.
* your child’s toys are Waldorf approved
I don’t know nor care about Waldorf. Is that wrong? I’m sure it has its value as does most any thing or method, but it always comes across as gimmicky to me, and again, I’m not looking for indoctrination.
Plus, I like things that light up.
* your back aches from carrying your one year old round in a sling
My back aches anyway. The only slings I ever owned were store bought and had a cut-off at 20 lbs.
* you are always being told how cute your kid looks in that amber necklace
I only recently found out about the amber teething necklaces. At first I thought it seemed weird, gimmicky, or maybe a slight bit nutty. But, like many things that strike me nutty at first (unassisted childbirth, anyone? eating the placenta, anyone?), just that spark of interest and inquisitiveness gives way to learning and inspiration. I would really love to try am amber teething necklace on Sage.
And, it will look cute on him. He’s already my little Buddha, so he’ll be extra hippie-ish in his necklace. But, I wouldn’t be doing it just because it is cute, and not all babies look cute in it. (Sorry.)
*you are breastfeeding a child who can speak in whole sentences
Extended breast feeding is just really not for me. My 2 year old is just starting to speak simple, complete sentences, and I stopped breastfeeding him about a year ago.
If it works for you, I won’t judge you, but it’s one thing I’ve never really been that into, personally.
* you teach your kid that gluten dirt is yucky
And, they still get to play in dirt. They don’t have any allergies or conditions, so, we’re good.
* you find yourself singing along to the ‘hello song‘… even though there is nobody else in the car
I have no idea what the hello song is, but I have laughed at myself for realizing I was, alone, singing children’s songs to myself.
Even better, my kids and I listen and sing to music their parents like, because it’s cool.
* you think Mayim Bialik rocks is okay and that tiger-mom is a bit doolaley demented
WTF is a doolaley?
* you think exposing your kid to germs is good for him but pesticides are hazmat
I’m not a germophobe or germophile. I like to keep my kids away from sick people and nasty stuff, but I don’t carry around sanitizer with me. I use natural methods of cleaning as well as toxic ones. I get organic stuff when I am able. I’m not overly committed to or against either one, but I see the points of each. I think there’s a balance we have.
* you eat your placenta
Not the whole thing, and never thought I would… but I did!
How many of these can you tick? Frankly, two or more and you are a hippy-mamma! I know, I know, you don’t think of yourself as a hippy… I do. the question is ‘do other people?’ For the record, I am not the hippiest hippy in the valley, I tick 14 out of 20 of those. Now, fess up and leave a message if any of these sound like you :p Feel free to add your own on, too! via You know you are a hippy-mama (or papa) when… « Loving Earth Mama.
So, obviously hippies come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and like most of this stuff, it’s interesting and usually harmless to compare and contrast. I just wanted to color in my shade of hippie for you, since some of it was too mainstream for me, while other stuff was too unusual for me.
All in all, I think you are a hippie mother or father if you do things because you feel you are in tune with nature and the needs of your children, and are trying your best to fulfill them without sticking to the rigid standards and expectations of others in society (and that includes other so-called “hippies”). 🙂
theperfectbirth 