Crunch-o-meter

My good friend K blogged about where she falls on the crunch-o-meter by addressing 6 different factors. In response to her post, I thought I'd address them for myself.. especially since the hubs and I have been joking lately about how motherhood has turned me into hippy. :)
The 6 factors are birth, vaccines, sleeping, diapering, feeding, and transporting.

Birth: Well, I was able to deliver vaginally as we'd hoped but the real crunchy mamas rock it med-free and I asked for the epidural. Twice. I don't know where I fall on the crunch-o-meter though because both epidruals failed. Sooo.. technically I delivered without the relief of pain medication BUT I really really wanted those epidurals to work.
Score: We'll go halfway on this one. Not a full point since I asked for the epi's, but half credit for the vaginal birth. {.5 crunchy to .5 not crunchy}

Vaccines: After much research, much thought and prayer, much discussion with our pediatrician, we decided to follow the AAP's recommended vaccination schedule. A lot of factors played into making that decision including my planned return to working in childcare (thus Camy's higher exposure to loads of germs), our financial situation at the time and whether or not we could afford monthly doctor visits (little did we know, we'd be there monthly anyway!!), and on and on the deliberations went.
Score: Not Crunchy {.5 crunchy to 1.5 not crunchy}

Sleeping: We started out with an Arm's Reach Cosleeper attached to our bed. Within the first week it had turned into a nightstand of sorts, housing my clipboard/feeding log, my huge mug of water, the boppy, and a night's stash of diapers/wipes/blankets/clothes. Camy ended up sleeping in our bed very early on for the convenience and the cuddles. I always said those 3 big words mothers-to-be should know not to say "I will never.... let my child sleep in my bed." Bwahahahaha. That "never" certainly came back and bit me in the rear. And ya know what? I LOVE having her in bed with us. Love love love it. When she was 20 weeks old, after about 12 weeks of dodging the issue, I was finally convinced to move Camy to her bed. After a night of very disrupted sleep thanks to one very wiggly baby, we made the move. We put Camy to bed in her crib for the very first time and she rocked it! She did well the first couple weeks and usually slept the whole night through in her crib, but somewhere between eczema and colds and teething, she began waking up more frequently. At first we would just try to soothe her in her bed but when that was keeping us more than we'd like (or more than we could function on the next day!), we started bringing her to our bed when she'd wake. So she'd start the night in her crib, and wake up in our bed. I'm not quite sure when the big switch took place, but sometime between then and now her and I have managed to win the battle and she's just been coming to bed with us from the get-go. (Hooray!) Sooo... we went from bed-sharing to crib sleeping and back again.
Score: I say we get the crunchy point on this one. ;) {1.5 crunchy to 1.5 not crunchy}

Diapering: We are part-time cloth diaperers, and part-time sposie diaperers. I'd say its about 80-20 cloth to sposie. She wears disposables to bed because I am too chicken to leave her in cloth for 12 hours at a time, remember the girl has some crazy-sensitive skin! Cloth doesn't pull all the moisture away from her skin the way a sposie does so I'd be afraid that by midnight (if not much sooner!), she'd be soaked and just sitting in that wetness. We also use sposies for more difficult outings like when I watch all 3 M girls in the mornings or when we are going to be in the car for long periods of time. If we are just running up to visit my family or friends, she's usually in cloth. And at home during the day, cloth. We recently put up a clothesline for drying her dipes, which totally makes up for the occasional sposie use! At least in my mind it does, and its my blog..  so there!
Score: Another for the crunchy side! {2.5 crunchy to 1.5 not crunchy}

Feeding: Aside from one week that Camy had to be on formula as a new-newborn (stupid jaundice and slow milk production!), Camy was exclusively breastfed her first 6 months. I cried every time I had to give her that formula (not because I thought it was bad for her, but because I so desperately wanted to be able to BF and worried that she wouldn't make the switch back once she was used to formula). As soon as her jaundice levels improved, that can went straight into the garbage! And lucky for us, my sweet girl switched straight back to breastmilk without missing a beat! We have been able to keep it up ever since and even when things got rough with mastitis and her eczema, we stuck it out. Around her 6 month-day we started introducing solid foods in addition to her nursing. We wanted to take the baby-led weaning approach but put that on hold due to how slowly and cautiously we were told to introduce solids. It would have taken the ease out of the BLW concept to do things the way we have so far, so we decided to go with purees until solids were better established and allergies were no longer a concern (Camy has what they keep calling "allergic disposition" so we have been on high alert). However, in the last week or so, we have been talking about transitioning to a more BLW style, so just yesterday we picked up some veggies for her and planned a menu for ourselves that is conducive to sharing with the babe. We'll see how that goes! ;) For the purees, we have been giving her a blend of store-bought organics: Sprout is our preference but has limited choices, so Earth's Best and Gerber Organics have filled in the gaps. Now that we are starting to make her foods for her, we have been shopping our local farmer's market and scouring the HEB Organics sections. :)
Score: One for the crunchies. {3.5 crunchy to 1.5 not crunchy}

Transporting: Remember I devoted one Saturday to making my own Mei-Tai carrier? I love love love baby-wearing!! In the beginning I wore her all. the. time. That Moby was my BFF for months one through four. About that time she started enjoying her playtime on the floor much more (and we wanted her to practice her rolling and sitting and scooting) so the BWing at home has taken a dip but we I still wear her out and about whenever I can. At the farmer's market or the grocery store? She's in the MT. For places like the mall I have been starting out with her in the MT but bringing the stroller in with me in case she falls asleep and I need a break to lay her down or in case we end up needing to change a diaper and don't have a clean changing station to do so. The last couple mall excursions, though, the stroller was just a cart to hold our bags and she stayed in the MT the whole time. I wear her when I bring her with me to work so that I can tend to the other 3 girls with both hands while keeping Camy happy, close to me. And wearing her at work is the only way she naps. I wear her at parties/gatherings so I can have 2 hands handy (and to keep her away from all the germy folk, but shhhh, Andy thinks that's rude so I don't tell him that's part of the reason!). Camy and I, we love the BWing!
Score: Last point goes to the crunchy.

Final tally: 4.5 points to the crunchy, 1.5 to the not.
:)

I feel good about that.
Can I get a bonus point for convincing the husband to start recycling? Even though it hasn't been a week yet so we haven't even set out our first recycling bin for pick-up? What about a bonus point for eco-friendly cleaning supplies/detergents? Using reusable bags at the grocery store? Getting ready to plant our own little vegetable garden?

What other ways are there to green one's parenting style? One's home? One's life?
Anything you do or that you can think of that maybe we should try?


[And thanks, K, for the blog inspiration today! It was fun to make my way through your 6 points and grade myself! ::smoochies::]