Reduce Reuse Recycle - unless it's nappies?

Waste is something to worry about in Ireland and the EPA are even working towards A Resource Efficient Ireland in their national strategy to 2020! You can read more about it here. So, we are all (including children in our schools) told to Reduce Reuse and Recycle as often and as publicly as possible by everyone with any interest in protecting our environment because we can really help to reduce waste...

TRX - not 'circuit training'

'Circuit training' turned out to be TRX and not circuit training at all. I'm not sure whether I was completely muddled or picked something up wrong but I'm very glad I didn't know it was TRX. I'd have googled and found this on youtube: 

......and there is no way I'd have gone to the class if I'd seen this first. 

Circuit Training

In desperation I cried out to Breastfeeding in Ballincollig for a "reason to walk somewhere" and I have now found myself all set for circuit training on Tuesday. God only knows why I need BFing support for my lack of fitness....I suppose it is related to being pinned under a little person on my couch a lot of the time....

...excuses...

...excuses...

Just Eat

Someone mentioned this ad on "one of the BFing groups" and I had to have a quick look at it before bed. It's great to see BFing getting such a subtle, natural mention ... product placement! lol

Newsflash

Shops are currently unable to sell formula as breastfeeding rates soar!

Chapter 1 Avoiding Daily Battles

I'm reading "Loving your Child is Not Enough". I'm reviewing each chapter as I go along and sharing with you -partially coz it might be of interest and partially so that I retain some of it.   

I love the title of this chapter -do we even need another chapter? I really love that there are more chapters as I think there has to be more to it than getting though the days. Daily battles can be all consuming in our house at times so I like that it was tackled first. This chapter talks through multiple conversations and situations and it is really easy to see how our own daily battles mirror those in other houses -I felt a little more normal immediately. The following subtopics are covered in some detail:

• Which battles are worth fighting?
• When it isn't negotiable
• Consequences
• What can I do to get my kid to listen?
• Fight starters
• Choices
• Letting the child solve the problem
• Defusers

Book: Loving Your Child is not Enough

Loving Your Child is not Enough: Positive Discipline That Works 
Nancy Samalin with Martha Moraghan Jablow (1987)
I borrowed an older edition of this book from my local LLL library (sincere apologies if you were looking for it while I had it longer than expected). I don't tend to read a lot of books as time is limited between work, 4 kids and my facebook addiction. I enjoy reading but I'm selective about what I read. I'm careful to form my own perspective on things as I'm well aware that some books are utter tripe and could have me looking at things from an unhelpful perspective. For example if I read Gina Ford books I'd surely be thinking I'm lacking routine and structure and a terrible mother. I might find myself trying to improve that and it's something that hasn't been a problem for us. We are baby led and I think that's best for my children, my own sanity and possibly coz it's just easier.

EBI secret

I'm so excited about the new EBI twiddle cluster. It's a nursing necklace only available to members of the facebook group - Extended Breastfeeding in Ireland. It's a FB group that I started in January 2012 and has really been the main source of members for other groups -it's the most fantastic interesting village of BFing mammies and it has the capacity to eat hours and even days. The idea is that this necklace will be a little something that might be spotted out and about and group members will be able to identify each other in real life. It also gives baby something to twiddle with while feeding.

I'll be wearing mine proudly -though I'm not sure if I'm ready to take off my old EBI twiddle Buster. I just love the design -the colours represent all the real life breastfeeding support organisations. It'll be another few days before they arrive and then I'll be busy busy busy getting them out to people who have ordered!

If you like them but are not a member of EBI you can always order something similar from Monkey Mama on Etsy.

Cuidiú Coffee Mornings

Cuidiú coffee mornings, La Leche League meetings, Sling meets and Nappuccinos are my real life "Bubble". I don't feel strange BFing, co-sleeping, BLWing, using cloth nappies or slings and I feel generally supported in my parenting choices -everyone does things their own way of course but I don't find myself explaining myself. No strange looks. It's lovely to have RL company with so much common ground, "likeminded" people who don't burst my bubble. If they think I'm nuts they haven't mentioned it so far! :P

Somehow I don't remember any details about my first Cuidiú Coffee Morning, 

it must have been in Cork.....

Erin Darcy Designs

Erin Darcy Designs 

Isn't there something very cool about that name? She should be in a novel or something! Erin is a "Starving Artist" somewhere in Galway -you can read about her life and work on her blog here. We *met* on EBI back in 2012 when the bubble first began to grow and we are yet to meet in real life. She's part of my village. Part of my bubble. I'm a little star struck and in awe tbh. I think of her often and hope life is as magical as it should be for her.

She said it was me!

At some point Erin painted this lovely picture of a lady wearing a sling and hanging cloth nappies on a line. She said it was me.

I find that very special and soul touching. It's hard to describe. There is something perfect about it. There is comfort in it's simplicity. I like to think she wasn't far off capturing the real me but on a busy day she got me all wrong. She missed the mayhem and the noise. But some days, some moments are just like that, nappies on a line, baby on my back. Serene. I treasure those moments. I cannot fathom how Erin Darcy captured them all the way from Galway. We've never met IRL! 

Earth Baby Fair

Cloth Nappy Library Ireland organised it's first baby fair this year -April 18th 2015! 

My job was to organize the talks and I was happy with the topics covered and the speakers were very interesting, I thought. I took advantage of all the group I admin and the picture shown above was the cover picture for a lot of group in the run up to April, 2015. It was relevant to most, I think. All for a good cause :P

The fair as a whole went very well and feedback seems to be quite positive for our first big event!

Back to Work and Breastfeeding

Well, I'm at it again -boobs out in the carpark! 

(Not that I'm not being accommodated by my employer

- it's just little miss would be very distracted anywhere else so the car works best for us.)

Who loves a homebirth story?

I first became aware that home birth was an option when I did an antenatal class with Geraldine Cahill from Cuidiú. It all seemed very lovely but it was a little late for us to go about organising and we'd have needed time to consider the whole idea. I did meet a few very normal people who were "HBers". That helped and somewhere between baby number 2 and baby number 3 I began to think HB was a good idea!

Back in the Bubble!

Back in the Bubble

I began this blog a while back, it was actually 2013 so a little longer ago than I thought tbh. A bit like my children, a blog comes with a date attached and doesn't let you pretend two years ago was only a few weeks! I abandoned it all in November 2013. I suppose I was busy with work and the kids -we had 3 back then. Number 4 was born in May 2014, so I would have been in the first trimester at that stage too. That first trimester is a bit of a blur now, almost 20 months later -but I vaguely remember crawling into bed after work at any chance I was given and eating lots of crackers. 

The Cork Bubble

There are plenty of supports that are specific to Cork. There are possible similar supports elsewhere that I'd be less aware of. I often wonder if Cork is actually the real capital and if there are more "in the bubble" here...

hhhhhmmmmmmmmmmm

Facebook Pages& Facebook Groups

A lot of people confuse a facebook page with a facebook group. This drives me nuttier than any grammar or spelling mistakes (which I can be oblivious to, sorry :P ). The difference between groups and pages is significant and needs to be clarified as I can no longer smile and nod :) while screaming at my screen here in RL.

Potty Progress

I'm not sure where we're going with this one but I've prioritized this topic amongst the oddities as our "potty progress" is most certainly the oddest thing about us at the moment.

I'll start at the beginning.

Some boosters: in case you're lost.

They soak up a lot.

Some time in early August my little man's bum was sore and to allow it to get better I took his nappies off. I didn't want him sitting in a wet or dirty nappy at all if that was going to hurt him. I didn't stuff my pockets (you might need to join the cloth nappy chat group if I've lost you there) and instead piled up the boosters on the radiator in the kitchen in preparation. I expected pee on the floor and the couch at the very least. I did not expect any pee in the potty. I hadn't honestly considered what I was going to do about poo on the floor or the couch. I must not have expected any poo at all or perhaps I was fearless that day (oh yes, lets go with that instead, ) but I didn't expect anything as exciting as a poo in the potty.

Corcaigh abú

I love being back to work, mostly because it means I'm back in Cork. I won't say I feel like a "Corkonian" or anything that extreme now, as I wouldn't dream of supporting anyone other than the Kingdom (that's the official thermometer for those "where are you from" questions). Cork is definitely our second favorite county and we're happy for *them to win -when Kerry are out of the running. We prefer living here in Cork to living in Kerry, mostly because there is enough going on here to keep us busy. Of course it is nice to head west every so often too and we do miss having our families that bit closer -they are mostly all in Kerry.

The Rebel County!!

In Cork there are plenty of options for us and the kids -we haven't tried everything yet! Perhaps more importantly for a Facebook addicted Mama who works in her "offline-time", there are also plenty of local groups on facebook -it keeps me in touch with things and it feels semi real since I've met a  lot of the people I converse with in person. There are plenty of members in each of these groups. To be honest I don't feel odd here at all, even with my BFing, cloth nappies and all the rest. The facebook groups help with that, more than anyone might imagine.

Cloth Nappy Chat Group (Ireland)

Cloth Nappy Chat Group (<--link to group)

Impact on RL!!

This chat group was not one of the first to crop up as a common denominator on EBI (you might like to click on that to see what it is if I've lost you already) and Cloth Nappies are actually something I knew little about until about May of 2012 (5 months into the existence of EBI) but it is one of the many groups that started out there. With membership of almost 600 at the moment (just over a year in), there my not even be a lot of overlap with the other groups I have been involved in -though I'm sure all my nappy spamming has drawn a few to the fluffy side.

This is very possibly the one group that has brought me most joy and personal pleasure and impacted most on my personal life (in real life that is). This group has had quite an impact on others and on the environment, as it was the birthplace of the Cloth Nappy Library in June 2012 :)

Breastfeeding Mammies in....(click on a county!)

Click on a county to go to the corresponding group!

Links are also available on the Friends of Breastfeeding website:  http://www.friendsofbreastfeeding.ie/wp/support-2/online-support/