MamaGrizzly

I’m so excited to be a part of a new community for Christian Mothers who want encouragement in gentle mothering, loving their husbands, support for their vocations, and encouragement to reach out to others in their community.  Come on over and check out Mothering by Grace when you get a chance.

Jennifer over at The Lactivist found some software made by Babble Soft called BabyManager. This software gives parents the ability to track the exact date and time for everything about their baby - when they eat, sleep, poop, take medicine. It charts everything out for you - I think it’s over the top!

Here’s a quote off of their site:

“Babble Soft is a sight for sore eyes for parents adjusting to the numerous, often tumultuous changes a new bundle of joy brings to their lives. We create and provide software solutions that help families connect and help parents ensure that their baby is getting what he or she needs.”

You know, I have to say that I think we make having children sound like the hardest thing in the world. And we paint this horrible pictures to new parents about what it’s like to have children. The other day I witnessed a parent of 2 teens telling a newly pregnant (and very nervous) Mom, “Get your sleep now! You’ll never sleep again.” Why do people feel that they have to tell people their life is going to change drastically when they have a child. They KNOW that. The Mom ALREADY knows that because her life has already changed drastically because of the pregnancy.

And I have to say, there are just too many parenting books out there trying to dictate to parents “how” they should manage their children from birth all the way through their teens. As a civilization, we have been raising babies for thousands of years without books, clocks, watches, pens, PDA’s, and computers. How did they raise them? QUITE simple! They learned to communicate with the baby and when the baby was hungry, they fed them, and when tired, they put them to bed. And you know what? It WORKED! It’s REALLY that simple. Since the birth of both of my children, that has been the philosophy in our house. And we’ve also adopted the “whatever works” philosophy or our pediatrician! I remember being a nervous Mom of a 6 week old and talking to my pediatrician about whether or not we should swaddle, or use pacifiers. Our pediatrician was awesome - he’s older and wiser and has 4 grown children of his own. He said, “Your job as a parent is to love your child and take care of them. Make sure they are warm, fed, and safe. Crying is the only they can communicate that sommething is wrong. Sometimes they are wet,hungry, hot, or cold, and sometimes they just need to be held. Enjoy those times because the day will come soon when they won’t want you to hold them.” You know, Dr. Lee is a wise man and is so right! We can definitely tell how much our 3 yar old son is changing and we knwo that in probably a year, he’s not going to let us hold him as much as we even do now.

So, my advice to new parents? Throw all those books away! When your baby is hungry, feed him! When it’s tired, rock him to sleep! Enjoy every last minute of it because before you can blink, these days will be over and you’ll wish you could sit down and rock them again!!

Barbara Curtis has a blog entry that gives a face to the pro-abortion movement. 

“To say there are too many children is like saying there are too many flowers.” ~Mother Teresa~

“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.” ~Mother Teresa~

“Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.” ~Mother Teresa~

“We can do no great things, only small things with great love. “~Mother Teresa~

I AM pro-choice. But let me define what I mean by choice - I believe that we have the choice, as women, as to whether or not to have sex. When we make that choice to have sex, it may have a natural consequence of producing a child. I believe that life is sacred and precious and that it begins at conception. And if you don’t believe that, then go look at an ultrasound of even a baby that is in it’s first trimester.  I do NOT believe that we have a choice as to whether or not we should or should not continue with a pregnancy - THAT is not my choice. 

I read a report in the newspaper this weekend (and I need to find it and link to it) that a group is advocating that women have an ultrasound prior to having an abortion. The pro-abortion folks are all up in arms about this. Why? Because we all know that as soon as we see those tiny little arms and legs, we will realize that it truly IS a baby - not a “fetus”. Barbara Curtis wrote a blog entry about Life being Sacred and Hank has another article about the sanctity of life in his blog post titled “Too Premature“.

I always find it interesting that when a woman wants an abortion, it’s a fetus. Yet, if she’s pregnant and in a car accident and loses the baby, we want her to sue for murder or manslaughter. What’s the difference? Either life is sacred, or it’s not. It shouldn’t have any bearing on “where” that life exists…..