The latest joke in my life right now is how I'm turning into a hippie. I think it was always there- I used to love the way hippies from the 60's dressed- those long flowy skirts and their hair pulled back in braids with a flower in it. And the shoes! Or better yet, the lack of shoes. In middle school my friends and I would pass notes and sign the bottom with a flower and write the word "child" next to it. Cause we were flower children. And then one day someone (probably me) sent a note with a flower that had no petals and that made an even bigger laugh- we were naked flower children! Cracked us up. We were 13 and in 8th grade, what do you expect? In college I wanted to join the peace corps. I still wonder some days how differently my life would have turned out if I had taken that plunge. Thankfully, I love my life the way it is, so it's all good.
So, back to now.
I think it started with Jared. With the homemade baby food. It just made sense to us. If you look at the cost of a jar of mushed carrots, and you look at the cost and the amount that's in a bag of fresh carrots, and you have a blender and some water, I mean, come on. It's not rocket science. It's easier. Slightly more work, but not much and you feel like you're doing something good for your baby.
Then we got pregnant again and that's when everything changed. Homebirth, herbs, no meds, chiropractor, cloth diapers, Hygiea. The homebirth makes sense to us for a lot of reasons. People have written books on the matter, so a couple of sentences here is not going to explain that choice. But the herbs, that got to me more than anything. As soon as my midwife found out I was anemic, she recommended an herbal iron supplement. That stuff was/is incredible. She has recommended other herbal supplements along the way for other issues that have come up. Now here's what I don't understand. None of this stuff is approved by the FDA. But why in the world not?! It's been used, for years, by women for the same issues that I have had. But companies would much rather create a medicine that will make you feel better and give you a possibility of 14 side effects. Seriously? And then, 10 years later, there are commercials that say things like, "Did you take Zoloft while you were pregnant? Did your child blah blah blah?" Seriously? They are creating things that God has already created. Why can't we study the actual effectiveness of the herbs that people have been using for years? I'm not in the mood to blindly accept anything, so I would love to know that what is recommended to me is actually safe.
The chiropractor is next. Again, it just makes sense. When I would try to stand up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom I wouldn't be able to walk. I would literally open my hands and fall into the doorway and catch myself, then drag my feet. Then I would hold the wall and drag my feet to the toilet. It was lovely. After I went to the chiropractor I almost cried that night when I stood up, pain-free, and walked to the toilet. I felt like Jesus walking on water. It was incredible. The same story for my migraines. I didn't need Tylenol, I needed my body fixed.
The cloth diapers still makes me laugh. It's hard to get more hippie than that. But the fact is, we're not rich and I'm sick and tired of throwing money into diapers, then throwing diapers in the trash. I couldn't care less about the landfills- out of sight, out of mind. But I do care about my house smelling because of dirty diapers and I do care about wasting money. So again, cloth diapers makes sense to us. No smelly house, laundry is done once a day, and I don't have to buy diapers every month. It's wonderful.
And finally, Hygeia. The newest thing for me. Apparently, there is a "Green" breastpump. Again, I don't care that recycled materials are used to make the thing, all I care about are cost and effectiveness. It appears to work really well and the best part is, you can reuse someone else's without worry. There's a bunch of technical stuff about how the pump is made, but bottom line is, I can find a used one, or I could sell mine when I'm done with it. AND I don't have to buy the stupid bag if I don't want to. It saves quite a bit of money that way, actually. So yes, now I want a green friendly pump.
See? Hippie. I know it. The biggest difference that I can see between me and the other women who think a lot like me is the God thing. I believe God created my body. I believe God designed my baby for my body and for my family. I believe God created the earth and all the herbs and supplements on it. Not Mother Nature. I don't believe I'm "lucky." I believe I'm "blessed." I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks this way, but I definitely feel like I'm in the minority.
I will end on this note- if I really want a Tylenol, I'm going to take one. If we are out of clean cloth diapers, I'll use a disposable. I'm not against the products or things that are non-green, I'm for the products that make sense. And that's why we should use anything that we use. It shouldn't be because Al Gore tells us to, or because they put a green tree on the front of the box. It should be because they work and they work well.
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