im not the only mumma pondering God design for mums and bubs
see yellow porch

"You could take it as an insult, but God does not credit us with being rocket scientists when it comes to taking care of the next generation. Instead he pre-programs caregiving behavior on the part of mothers AND he pre-programs babies to elicit caregiving from their mothers. An obvious example is how a nursing mother's breasts gush milk in response to hungry-baby sounds. Just in case she can't figure it out from the way her baby is frantically mouthing anything that gets near...her breasts start to tingle and next thing she knows, the front of her shirt is milky. It is not the most subtle of hints. But considering how tiny and vulnerable babies are, it's a hint to heed. This milk-ejection reflex subsides after the first few months of nursing. By that time a nursing mother and her baby have sync'ed up well and the mother knows her baby's subtlest signs of need for nursing. "


How come parents never talk about parenting? A Father discusses AP



a interesting blog by Tulip girl
Restoring Gently and Carrying Burdens

""At this stage in my life, so much of my reading and studying is filtered through the perspective of mothering. This includes my studying of the Bible and theology. I find the deeper I dig into God’s Word, the more light it shines on my life--and how I ought to mother


Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:1-2

“Brothers. . .” This passage is written to Believers. As parents, God has given us special responsibility towards our children. But they are also our “brothers” and in the Covenant.

After restoring gently, we are told to “carry each other’s burdens.” I see this, in light of mothering, as an especial entreaty to know our particular children and their particular weaknesses."

she has also included exhurps from Martin Luther Commentary on Galatians

what i found online today: ATTACHMENT PARENTING: A PRACTICAL APPROACH FOR THE REDUCTION OF ATTACHMENT DISORDERS AND THE PROMOTION OF EMOTIONALLY SECURE CHILDREN

A MASTER'S THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF BETHEL COLLEGE
BY TAMI E. BREAZEALE

celebs and slings

when mothers nurse ;;
Mothers and fathers demystify nursing by sharing their stories and opening their world to us through intimate photographs. A holistic understanding develops as you see mother, child, family, friends, and strangers witnessing and interacting in an everyday atmosphere.

Lucy smell so yummy

I spent Sat night at my dear friend Kathy's house. As you might know she has a little person (Isis Jasmine) born 15 March.

My heart swells (a good thing) when i see/hear the way Kathy cares for and talks about Isis. She made the comment saying how much she missed Isis when she was having a shower and i was holding her! Surely God created Mums and Bubs to be together and have strong bonds of attachment and understanding,

The more i read into how our mind and bodys work (and also how our babys work) i feel even more convicted to do all i can to nurture my baby and grow in truly figuring her out, truely knowing her, and do all i can to build a strong close bond of trust between her and me.

In my reasearch I see how i have been designed and how Lucy has been designed by God to work together:

physically - science of breastfeeding, NFP, body temp regulation, synchronised sleeping patterns, breathing regulation, importance of human touch etc, how immune systems work, and how they can be built strong in babyhood and remain strong through life through the right nutrition etc. Interesting enough i'm reading about how regulating your emotions also learnt in babyhood can effect your immune system (but thats another post!)

and emotionally - secretion of mothering hormones (both calming, delay ovulaton, promote bonding etc etc) released in haveing baby in phsical closeness and breastfeeding. Soothing a baby stress/cortisol levels so they develop a normal base level, regulation of babys emotions, being sesitive and responsive to their comunications = healthy development of pre-frontal cortex part of the brain that empathises with others feelings. Being emotionaly avaliable/responding to baby's emotional needs as well as physical. Help form health pathways in the brain, these effect the way they react and interact with others, control their feelings both positive and negitive throughout their whole life.


If anyone is interested i can send you or refure you to numerous articals, studies and books on any of these subjects email me on starbellys @ paradise .net. nz (take out the spaces)

artical i found intersting :
WHAT ATTACHMENT PARENTING IS NOT

this is a new book i own
Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby's Brain by Sue Gerhardt
find review here

exherps from this review

"In Why Love Matters, Gerhardt, a psychotherapist, has bravely gone where most in recent years have feared to tread. She takes the hard language of neuroscience and uses it to prove the soft stuff of attachment theory. Picking up your crying baby or ignoring it may be a matter of parental choice, but the effects will be etched on your baby's brain for years to come. Putting your one-year-old in a nursery or leaving them with a childminder may turn out to be a more momentous decision than you thought.
Drawing on the most recent findings from the field of neurochemistry, Gerhardt makes an impressive case that emotional experiences in infancy and early childhood have a measurable effect on how we develop as human beings. ....."

"Gerhardt is not interested in cognitive skills - how quickly a child learns to read, write, count to 10. She's interested in the connection between the kind of loving we receive in infancy and the kind of people we turn into. Who we are is neither encoded at birth, she argues, nor gradually assembled over the years, but is inscribed into our brains during the first two years of life in direct response to how we are loved and cared for. "

"Good parenting isn't just nice for the baby; it leads to good development of the baby's prefrontal cortex, which in turn enables the growing child to develop self-control and empathy, and to feel connected to others. Interaction, it turns out, is the high road from merely human to fully humane. "

"The policy implications of Gerhardt's book are as important as they are bound to be, for many, unpalatable. It's hard to read this book and feel complacent about the conditions in which many children today are raised. Not enough is being done to help parents prioritise and meet their children's needs in the vital first two years of their lives. Gerhardt touches only briefly on the issue of daycare for very young children but this, too, clearly needs far more attention. The government's unbridled enthusiasm for nursery care means that the most vulnerable children in our society end up with the biggest deficit in terms of the quality of their early interactions - precisely the same children most likely to end up with behavioural, educational and social problems later on. "

on our way home 

paparatzi shot of handsome husbamd with baby 

Picture from our Water Taxi 

a rare site Ange with a champagne  

evening looking out from Furneaux Lodge, Endeavour inlet 

david and Lucy in picton 

i pay no attention to keeping stats on how much Lucy feeds, how often at night, how long for, how long she sleeps, how often, where, to me i responed to my baby not the clock.

But Stats i can tell you are she weighs 9.7 kg is 7 mths old tomorrow, has 5 teeth, is very cuddly and warm to snuggle up to at night, is 100 % breastfeed (no Solids yet), is trying very hard to crawl, loves the sling and is a great hotwater bottle, always laughs at her dad ,chews on everything ,is starting to grow hair , and is happy and healthy what more do people want

a breastfeeding doll i found online today cool 

well its been awhile
so whats happening in our sphere. Were going to a wedding in the Sounds this weekend.
i'm looking for more sponsors for my 7 day sugar famine raising money for world vision. go here to do just that.

I'm eating home made perserved spagetti which is real good.
Lucys got 4 teeth's.
im reading Biblical parenting.

yesterday was international womans day
so heres a collection of site on that subject;
http://www.un.org/av/special/women/
history of it

i had a lovely little person(2 approx) come up to me in the Cafe as i was feeding Lucy yesterday and say
"that baby's drinking mothers milk, i like mumma milk" this made me smile happily all day..