So this has absolutely NOTHING to do with being "slightly crunchy" but...

it has everything to do with a mom who is finally getting ready for baby #4!

So today I decided it was time to start painting the jungle landscape for little man's sleep space. I say sleep space, because it a crib in our room, right next to my side of the bed. I had Scoot move the crib filled with baby gear out of the way and I set to work. First I had to scrub all the crayon marks from the little girls (I left the other crayon art on the wall on the other side of the room).

I did not paint the animals, they are cute stickers that I bought at the store (I could have painted them if I wasn't so darn busy). I did however paint all the landscape that the animals are displayed on. I am not finished. I have a green shelf to hang and some glass jungle animals to set on it.

Here are the pictures of little man's "nursery" aka sleep spot.

The pond (I took this before I added the birds)

The elephants and rhino

The monkeys, snakes and koala (plus a couple birds and a giraffe)

The giraffes

The lion and tigers

The full view (left)

The full view (right)

How do you tell your baby’s daddy that you will not be circumcising his son?

I posed that question to my friends a few weeks ago, because I had recently found out that I am expecting my first son. I hadn’t ever had to think about circumcision, I mean none of my other kids have a penis, and I sure don’t. I know my husband had it done, but I honestly didn’t want to do just because daddy had it done. I had already been doing a lot of research and had come to the conclusion that cutting off the foreskin is not necessary. Here are my thoughts on that:

1. Circumcision only slightly reduces the risk of infant UTI’s. The risk of UTI’s in boys is so low anyway that the reduction isn’t significant to warrant the procedure.
2. Circumcision only slightly reduces the risk of penile cancers in men. The risk of this cancer in men is so low anyway that the reduction isn’t significant to warrant the procedure.
3. While circumcision has been shown to help prevent transmission of STD’s. I do not feel that a procedure at birth is the solution. The BEST prevention is education on safe sex and abstinence. So if I do my job as a parent and teach my boy about keeping his junk in his pants and wearing a condom when it’s out, then there is no need to cut a chunk of him off. I mean come on we wouldn’t pull all of our kids’ teeth to prevent cavities, would we? Nope. We teach them good oral hygiene!
4. As for a circumcise penis being cleaner than one that is not, well um a penis is no different than any other part of a boy’s body. It must be washed. Just like I can teach him to wash between his toes and behind his ears, I can teach him how to properly clean his penis and under the foreskin.
5. Circumcision is a very traumatic procedure for babies. Some doctors don’t even bother using anesthetic, because it doesn’t really work, or it takes too long, or they are too young to remember it. WTH? Would you willingly allow one of the most sensitive parts of your body to be cut off fully awake without anesthetic? I know I wouldn’t. So I sure as hell am not going to do that to my baby.
6. Even if a doctor was willing to use anesthetic, the area is still painful for several days while it heals. I wouldn’t be able to look at it knowing that I was the reason my perfectly innocent little baby was hurting. I don’t want to hand my baby over to daddy so he can deal with it either.
7. I don’t think that there will be an issue with looking different. I mean the ratio of circumcision to intact is nearly 50/50 now. Even if he does run into problems in the locker room earlier. I plan to empower my son to stand up for himself, just like I have his sisters. I am sure there is a witty come back he could throw out.
8. I don’t want to be responsible for a reduction in his future sexual pleasure. I mean honestly if he is angry that I didn’t get it done, then he can willingly get the procedure done, where they will put him under general anesthesia and give him pain medicine afterwards. Most of all it will be HIS choice!
9. The Academy of Pediatrics, does not recommend circumcision to be done as a routine procedure.

So after, receiving a ton of backlash from friends about how I should just get it done. I decided to drop the subject and send my husband an e-mail with a ton of information about the PROs and CONs and asked him to keep an open mind and to look at all the information before making a decision. After reading all the facts, he came to the same conclusion I did… What’s the point of doing it? So I am very relieved that our baby boy will be coming home from the hospital exactly the way NATURE intended him to be.

This is what little man thinks of our decision:

Why am I blogging? What does crunchy mean?

Well crunchy is a term that comes from the 70's when everything was all about nature and health and well granola is healthy... and crunchy... so crunchy refers to doing things as nature intended, doing things that are best for your health... So as a slightly crunchy mom I try to do things as naturally as possible.

I decided to start this blog as a way for me to journal about my thoughts on parenting and the practices I have adopted over the years as I have become more experienced in this wild world of being a mom. I have 3 little girls and being a mom to girls came naturally to me. Why wouldn't it? I mean I am a girl, right? Of course I am. I never really consciously thought about my parenting beliefs or practices because I just knew what to do, and I did it.

So what changed? What made me start thinking about how I parent? Easy, I am 26 weeks pregnant today with my 4th child and I found out about 6 weeks ago that I was going to be entering uncharted territory. My little baby had a penis! Now, I know thousands and thousands of little boys are born... so no it's not like it has never been done before, but for me this was something new. It was weird. I'm not a boy. I have no idea what makes boys tick. OMG! I have to figure out how to raise a BOY!?!

I realized that I was embarking on a journey and I had no map, no compass, and most importantly no personal prior experience to guide me... It is kinda scary, kinda exciting, kinda overwhelming, and kinda awesome all at the same time!

Follow me as I explore myself as a parent past, and present and discover if the way I parent my girls will be the same as how I will parent my boy.