Babywearing!

I need to get some better baby wearing photos... I'm always the one taking the pictures so it's not so easy lol. Maybe I'll have Nadia take some to show my other carriers..

I've really been feeling the babyhawk Love lately. I have an OH Snap and the babyhawk MT. (Mei Tai) I like the SSC (Soft structured carriers) For long term wear, and I like the Mei Tai's for everyday use. The SSC's are fast and easy to put on, but there is just something I love about the MT's... I don't know! I can't explain it!

I also have a freehand MT and a wild child MT. Both of which I like very much. I really want to get some pics of these different carriers so you can see them..

Do any of you babywear? What's your favorite carrier??

I've been thinking of trying a Boba...

Was just remembering

How gentle and awesome my waterbirth was :-)
Would you believe I was in transition and beginning to push in the first photo??

You can never be too careful...

When it comes to your kids.
Now. Many people in my life think I'm completely neurotic when it comes to my children. I've heard the word "overprotective" thrown around.. "overbearing" etc. etc. You get the point. Sometimes I lay in bed at night and worry. Worry about things that will probably never go wrong or be an issue, but still, I worry. I can't help it. I don't feel like I'm doing my job if I'm not worrying, or trying to keep them safe.

Seeing all these children on the news being snatched is horribly upsetting for me to see. It's SCARY to be quite honest. and it's another thing to add to my list of things I worry about. One reason I feel safest wearing my babies. They are hard to snatch when they are strapped to your chest.

There are kids Nadia's age in the neighborhood who are allowed to play outside alone. Nadia always asks if she can go. NO WAY. "But.." she says " ((insert name here)) can play outside by themselves" Me... "Well ((insert name here)) doesn't have me for a Mommy, I dont' let you go away from me" .. And I think to myself. Aren't those parents worried?? Aren't they afraid of something awful happening? Not just abductions but any other number of dangers that lurk. I don't know. Maybe I am neurotic.. But I dont' understand how kids that are 5, 6, 7 , 8, 9, 10 ... Even up to 16 or 17 are allowed out unsupervised. I know I know some won't agree with me there. But honestly I like to live by the motto "Better safe than sorry" I know accidents and bad things can happen when your RIGHT NEXT to your child. So why would I take a chance at letting them away from me?? I have a hard time even letting Nadia go to school. It's tough.

I wonder. Will I lighten up at any point? How do you feel?

Why Co-sleeping works for me.

Co-sleeping is one of those choices we made in the moment. When Nadia was a baby it was easy. I could nurse her, have her close, cuddle, snuggle, etc. All that good stuff. Husam liked it too. We enjoyed the closeness of having her near us..

I did the same with Sami, only he outgrew it much faster. He sleeps better in his own bed now, at age 2.. where, Nadia still sleeps with us at age 4.

Obviously Samirah is cosleeping as well as she's only 6 months.

There are so many perks to Co-sleeping that I honestly can't imagine not doing it. Number 1. The simple fact I get more sleep! Bwhahahaaha. There is no getting up to get a baby to nurse. THey were always / are always right there!!! I barely have to wake up at all which is awesome.

The closeness! For me, it feels super un-natural to have my children far from me. Even in a room over. It just feels wrong. I enjoy being able to have them right next to me so I can check on them and make sure they are alright. And of course for snuggling purposes! Who doesn't like that?!

Daddy bonding! Since I breastfeed, my husband doesn't get the "feeding" bonding time that some bottle fed babies get. (And we don't use bottles at all.- I don't even have any in the house believe it or not) So having them share our bed is a great way for Daddy to snuggle the kids. It's a wonderful thing. We are surrounded by our babies.

I always say "Our bed, like our hearts, Are full" It's wonderful.

Do you co-sleep???

Happy 4th of July... A little late.

So, I'm a little late with the 4th of July wishes! But I hope all of you out in blogland had a nice one. We had some swimming, some bbq's, some sun, some fireworks, and TONS of fun! Here is a picture of the kids in their festive outfits! (They dress festive for the holidays every year lol) Nadia and Samirah had matching dresses! My Mom found them , I was so excited lol

My Mom was up visiting from Florida too. So I was spending a ton of time with her. I'm sad she went back.. While she was here she bought us a season pass for the NJ state parks. And it's already paid for itself! I've been having a blast taking the kids! bbq'ing, swimming, building sand castles! It's been GREAT! I'm looking forward to lots of summer fun!! This week is going to be in the 90s so I'm going to try to get out early in the morning so we could be home by lunch!

Other than that, not too much going on. We're having a blast , enjoying Nadia while she is off of school. But keeping up with her lessons too. She has workbooks, and she likes to do her math especially. Her addition has really taken off.. And I"m not really a 100% sure where she learned it.. But man. She's GOOD! So she focuses on math these days. I let her work where her intrest mostly is.

Anyways. I'll think up a good blog to write soon. Just wanted to put out a general "life" update :-)

My Wonderful Husband.

I blog so much about my children I never get to blog about my awesome husband Husam! I met Husam when I had first turned 18. I'm 27 now! It's hard to believe 9 years have gone by.. But they have. Things aren't always perfect, and we've definitely had our share or hard times, but we've come out the other side. Closer than what we were before... I'd like to think.

Our friends had set us up. Thinking, since we were both Middle Eastern we'd have a lot in common! I thought this was a rather silly reason to set two people up, but I guess it really wasn't all that silly since I ended up marrying the guy...

I remember speaking to him on the phone for the first time. There were no awkward silences. He was so easy to talk to. It was like talking to an old friend whom I'd known my whole life. We hit it off pretty well over the phone so we had decided to meet up in person. (with our friends who had set us up of course "just in case")

We all went out for dinner and I thought he was just tops! I was completely enamored by him. I remember at the end of our first date, I turned to my best friend and I said "THAT is the man I'm going to marry" I truly believed it too. Everyone called me crazy.. But I did marry him. So I guess I wasn't as crazy as they thought.

We dated for nearly 3 years before we decided to get married. But we had talked about it so much it was just a natural step for us. We knew we wanted to share our lives together. Start a family together. The whole Sha-bang!

Our first year of marriage was fantastic, the second year (When I was pregnant with Nadia) was tough, and the year after as well.. I think he had a tough time adjusting into parenthood. It was definitely a difficult time for us and I wondered how we'd ever come out of it okay.

But we did. Six years of marriage later we are stronger than ever. He's my best friend. And I like to think I'm his. He tells me I am anyways. Our life does not revolve around outside friends. Neither of us really have many. We definitely don't go out with them. Our lives revolve around our little family.. He works so hard so I can stay home with our kids. Something we both feel strongly about. I don't think I tell him quite often enough how much I truly appreciate that.

We have our moments, trust me. But overall, there isn't any other person I can imagine being with in this life. He isn't perfect, but for all his imperfections there are many more things that make me love him like crazy. Even after all these years.

What Attachment Parenting means to me.

There are so many different aspects of Attachment Parenting.. A lot of the things I've done in Parenting were just things that came naturally to me..

When I was pregnant with my oldest, Nadia.. I knew I wanted to be the BEST Mom in the world , I wanted to be PERFECT!! (keep dreaming, right? ha ha )

When she was born and they handed her to me, it was instinct that told me to put her to the breast and nurse her. It wasn't as easy as I had imagined, but it still felt naturally for me to do so. It was instinct that made me want to hold her closely to me as much as possible. Do you know how many times I heard "You will spoil that baby if you don't put her down!!" Really?? Spoil a baby with love?

It was instinct for me to put her in my bed so I could watch over her. These things felt like the right thing to do. It wasn't something I had researched at length at the time.

As more children came along, and I learned more, and researched more I found out there were so many benefits to how I had been parenting. And how I could become an even better parent..
For me, I always thought it was normal what I was doing.. But talking to other Mom's I realized not everyone did those things. Some people felt more comfortable putting their child in a crib. I even came across some Moms who let their child cry it out. These ways of parenting were just not for me. I could never sit by while one of my kids cried. In fact, I still can't. It doesn't feel right.

So, for me, these practices came naturally to me. How about for you? Was it something you researched and learned about? Or was it just what you felt was the right things to do at the time?