Crunch, crunch, crunch

I'm not out to conquer some list of crunchiness but it seems that with each step in that direction the next few steps come easily.

At the beginning of my journey I simply decided not to take hormonal birth control. Mostly because I was afraid of what the chemicals would do to my body. It also didn't make sense to me to alter what my body is meant to do, ovulate and either get pregnant or have a period.

When I got married I was still pretty cycle stupid, it's a wonder we didn't get pregnant. We would have loved that but we also wanted some us time. Someone suggested the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility. Light bulb! After ready the book I began charting my cycles.

When I got pregnant, planned mind you, I knew I wanted to try to have a natural birth. One other person in my family had a natural birth so I wasn't confident in this. However, the more and more I read I decided I HAD to have a natural birth. The only way I wouldn't is if it was a medical necessity. It wasn't worth the risk to me to ease myself of the discomfort of labor.

I also knew I would breastfeed. I made it my goal to nurse C for 6 weeks. Because most nursing issues are settled by then. When we made it that far we pressed on to 6 months. Now we're at nearly a year and I doubt we stop any time soon. I'm even open to tandem nursing.

After C was born I used natural supplements to battle baby blues, to help him with teething and now any other ailment. Even my husband sings the praises of essential oils. :)

We co-sleep. It just seemed wrong to put such a little baby alone in a crib. So from day one he was in bed with us. Even at the hospital. I'm amazed the staff didn't fuss at me. But no way was I going to let my child sleep in a portable bassinet that someone could just roll out of the room! 11 months later and he's still in bed with us. Daddy has even come to love it and will often put him in bed with us despite having a pack and play handy.

We started cloth diapering. My first try at this was a fail. I was pretty sure that my crunchy license was revoke and replaced with a crunchy permit. After Pampers started burning his butt I had to give it another try. Success! Sure we have the occasional stink issue but there's not a better feeling than knowing that we are saving money and that my LO is not at an added risk of chemical exposure and infertility.

C wears a teething necklace. People think it's cute. Then ask about it and look at me like I'm nuts. Oh well. It seems to work even if it's a placebo effect.

We have made other crunchy choices that are probably best left unsaid. People tend to get their panties in a wad if you tell too much.

In a perfect world I would be even crunchier. I would love to live in a place that we could walk lots of places. Throw C in his BabyHawk and go to the grocery. Sounds appealing since he hates his car seat. I would love to know even more about oils and supplements instead of using medication. I would LOVE to have a home water birth. I would also like to eat organic food and perhaps give up meat. The whole "no poo" thing would work for me in a perfect world. The way I see it, there's always time to get crunchier! :)

I'm crunchy because it's easy. I'm crunchy because I don't want to put me or my family at unnecessary risk. I'm crunchy because I want to be.