Crunchy and radically AP

I always dreamed about being a mom but never put much thought into the type of parent I would be. I knew I wanted to be hands on and involved in my kids lives, but I guess I always pictured the later years. Babies were a bit of a foreign world to me. So after getting over the initial shock of discovering I was pregnant I started reading. I read all the books on pregnancy and all the books on parenting and not so much anything on labour and delivery. My mom always told me I had child bearing hips and since her babies were born quickly I just assumed mine would be too. I mean, really, how hard could it be? I honestly can't say what triggered me to get midwives. I'm not a huge fan of hospitals or needles and the doctors visits seemed uninformative and clinical and the picture of the hand protruding from the belly will forever be scarred in my mind. These weren't things I had thought would bother me, but for whatever reason they did. I brought up the idea of a homebirth to my husband completely expecting him to veto the plan, but lucky for me he trusts my judgment and was pretty willing to buy into the fact that I had probably done my research. So a homebirth was planned and it was an amazing experience that left me with this tiny perfect baby girl and as soon as I saw her, all my previous ideas about parenting went out the window. Gone were the "this kid better learn to do that or she's going to get it" thoughts, replaced by a desire to love, nurture, and protect. So this beautiful baby girl was carried everywhere with me. She was nursed on demand (and boy could she demand!) and when she wouldn't sleep unless snuggled up with her mama, she moved into our bed. I braved the flack from many about my choices and ignored the worry in the back of my mind that she would be needy and still in my bed at 30 and did what I thought she needed. These choices brought me into the attachment parenting crowd. I remember joining the group and thinking it was so great that there was this group of people that felt the same way I did about parenting their babies...but boy were they a bit crazy!! I distinctly remember commenting on these hippies that birthed babies unassisted, left their babies diaperless, and unschooled their children (not homeschooled, but no school at all, seriously??) Now almost three years later, my beautiful baby girl is a still beautiful, curious, energetic, sensitive, caring, responsible almost 4 year old who sleeps in her own bed and I am her homebirthing, cloth diapering, babywearing, ECing, cosleeping, extended breastfeeding, unschooling mama who was recently described as one of the "more crunchy and radically AP" members of the aforementioned group. So that's my intro, I have officially entered the ranks of hippie-dom :) Not too sure where this blog is going to go yet, hence the title. To be continued...