Naturally flowing our heart. Attachment Parenting is all about connecting together. We love being close! Natural motherhood from the heart.
My only advice to all mamas? Follow your heart and trust your intuition. Because you are the one who knows your baby best! Let’s empower each other to follow our heart!
Read on to find out:
Natural motherhood
Natural motherhood is nothing more than following your instincts. Following your heart. Because when you feel deep within. There is nothing else you want as holding your baby close. Holding your baby close is basically the summary of Attachment Parenting (AP). Also called natural parenting, gentle parenting or intuitive parenting.
Read on: General information about Attachment Parenting
Or how I like to call it: Natural Motherhood.
This is motherhood how it always has been. The way nature designed us to be. How our brains are wired. And how we feel it has to be, intuitively. From our heart.
All we (& baby) need is love
Natural motherhood seems the opposite of modern-day society.That like to trick us into thinking we need to buy a lot of products. Claiming that it makes life easier. And making expecting mama’s think they need to buy it all for a happy baby. However, there is nothing else your baby really needs other than your love and attention.
And, you can never give too much love.
7 Baby B’s: Attachment Parenting (AP) tools
- Birth bonding
- Breastfeeding
- Baby-wearing
- Bedding close to baby
- Belief in the language-value of your baby’s cry
- Beware of baby trainers
- Balance
How we imply the AP tools
Attachment parenting and natural motherhood are the same in my eyes. As the AP tools are nothing more than what came to us by following our heart. I love to share how natural parenting works for us. Every family, every baby and every situation is different. So always check in with your own heart to feel what works best for you.
Birth bonding
We had a natural home-birth on a hot sunny day in Spain.
Connection before birth
Already before birth, I was connecting with Saoirse. Through meditation and reiki. Setting intentions about us communicating intuitively. At the time of her birth, we felt super ready to welcome her to earth.
Read on: 11 holistic ways to prepare yourself for natural childbirth
Skin to skin
Right after birth, we enjoyed a lot of skin to skin time. Basically all the time. Because of the heat was no reason to put any clothes on.
The cliche was so true.
It felt like I’ve known Saoirse my whole life.
And everything came very naturally. Like breastfeeding, how to hold her and reading her cues.
Also, our Elimination Communication went well from the start. She didn’t poo in her diaper once. But in the “potty” we had near our bed.
No stress due to Oxytocin
We had a wonderful start. With high doses of Oxytocin. The love hormone reduces stress levels.
My stress levels were so low. Even when the mountain next to ours was on fire. Which happened a few hours after birth. It didn’t bother me. I had trust the fire wouldn’t come. But I guess the oxytocin helped me to stay calm. Even when the police came to tell us we needed to evacuate if the wind would change. Luckily it didn’t and we could stay safely on our pink cloud.
Breastfeeding
I’ve done so much research into how to breastfeeding. And how to boost your milk supply. As I knew all the benefits of breastfeeding. I really wanted it to work. And luckily it came so much easier than expected. It all came naturally. Baby knew what to do. I knew what to do. And the love was overflowing.
Heart to heart connection
Breastfeeding is such a magical experience. It is really a way to connect heart to heart to baby. For me, it is an energetic recharge. Since the moment I started to meditate during nursing.
What happened during one of the cluster feeding weeks. When I felt so exhausted from constantly feeding. I felt like meditating during her feeding. And it was such an energy boost! As I felt all the love and energy that came from her. Instead of feeling like a milk machine. Which I felt during her cluster feeding moments.
Cluster feeding
Around the second week, it got challenging. As Saoirse was cluster-feeding. In these development and growth spurts, baby’s are feeding all the time. And get way fussier. I wish I knew about cluster-feeding a bit earlier.
Breastfeeding is practical
Besides the connection with baby. The love you share together. And the sweet smiles she gives me while nursing. Breastfeeding is also super practical. As we always have enough milk with us. At the right temperature, sterilised and ready to get whenever she wants.
Feeding on demand
We are feeding on demand. This basically means we feed her anytime she is hungry. Or just wants the comfort and protection of nursing. We just go with her flow.
Saoirse is a super happy calm baby. So I feel it really works well for us.
Baby-wearing
Saoirse loves to be in the baby carrier. Which is the only thing we really needed. And used almost all day:
Baby carrier
Babywearing is ideal. It is easy to integrate your baby in your day to day life.
Saoirse loves to sleep close to me. She is an amazing sleeper. Besides sleeping in the carrier she loves to look around. Going on nature walks. But also cleaning up the house. While I explain what we are doing. Oh yeah. And she loves dancing in the carrier too.
Wearing your baby has so many benefits. Not only to integrate baby in your day to day life. But also a great way for baby to learn about the new world. While being in a safe environment.
I’m a huge fan of babywearing. I just love to have Saoirse close to me. And she is very happy and calm there too.
Bedding close to baby
Family bed with DIY baby crib
Our bed is a family bed. We have a kingsize bed with an Ikea hack DIY co-sleeping crib. But honestly, we never really used her crib. Saoirse just sleeps in my arms. Which makes nighttime feedings so easy.
As a breastfeeding mum, I feel in-tuned with her. I trust myself that I never roll over her or suffocate her with my blanket. It is more like a lion mum protecting her cub.
After 4 months I’m happy with the extra baby crib next to our bed.
As Saoirse starts to roll. I don’t have to be afraid she might roll out of bed. Also, our dog Woofer found her new favourite spot on our bed.
Co-sleeping
We sleep around 8 hours each night without any problems. This week we even slept until 9.30 in the morning. With the whole family. In our shared family bed. Co-sleeping really benefits mummy, daddy and baby
There is no reason for Saoirse to cry at night. As mama responds to her first signals. Which are cues of hunger or potty time. She doesn’t poo in her diaper. As we also practise Elimination Communication from newborn. She needs to go to the potty (poo) in the morning between 5.00 and 7.00. She lets that know by wiggling her legs. After toilet time she nurses and sleeps again. And wakes up when we wake up. Usually around 8.00 in the morning. This is with our 3-4 months old baby.
The whole family wakes up happy and energised. Much better than how we expected sleeping with a newborn to be.
- Read on: Co-sleeping benefits of sleeping together
- Read on: Baby on the potty ♡ Everything you need to know about Elimination Communication from newborn
Disclaimer
I’m just a mum sharing how co-sleeping works for us. Be sure to read the safety co-sleeping guidelines. In our modern society sleeping together has a lot of criticism. Although it has been this way for ages.
As with everything in motherhood. Go with your own gut and instincts. Only you know what’s best for your family.
Belief in the language-value of your baby’s cry
Having Saoirse close all the time works super good for us. She rarely cries. But when she does we try to work out why she cries. If she cries we know why. And we do our best to respond ASAP. Working on our relationship of love and trust.
Hungry
Nine out of ten times she cries because she is hungry. And we are not fast enough with putting her clothes on. So that we can nurse her. We follow her lead on feeding. And feet her anytime she asks for it.
Overstimulating
Sometimes, it happened twice. She needed to cry – a lot! Because of overstimulation. That was because we went too late to a shopping centre. She got way too overstimulated around her bedtime.
This was a good lesson learned.
Especially for our mountain baby. But this actually counts for all babies. No intense environments before bed-time.
Beware of baby trainers
Attachment parenting warns for baby training methods. That promotes “convenient parenting”. Which is easy in short term. But not a good investment for the future. So they say. This point resonates with us.
No schedule
Which means we don’t schedule anything at all. We go with Saoirse flow. So we are feeding on demand. And she is sleeping when she gets tired. I do keep a careful look on when she starts to show signs of getting tired. These signs are for example; rubbing her eyes and looking away.
When she gets tired I start walking with her in nature. Or I dance a bit to relaxing music. In this way, she falls asleep feeling safe. And we don’t overstimulate her. She always sleeps near to us. In the baby carrier, in our arms or in bed at night.
Although this is different from the “normal way”. It really works for us.
I know in this way she sleeps very good. She is super happy and doesn’t cry. Personally, I rather spend more time having her near me. While she is happy and calm. Instead of putting her on a schedule. Or laying her down on her own. And then needing to settle her.
We did try to put her down in a cot near us. During the newborn phase. Honestly, due to social pressure. In my heart, I just wanted to hold her. Which felt so natural after having her in my belly for 9 months.
Anyways, we tried to put her down but she would wake up in 5 to 10 minutes. While in the carrier she easily slept 90 minutes.
Balance
I really try my best to keep a family, relationship and me-time balance. Although this was challenging in the beginning. While being with Saoirse almost 24/7. I used the moments when daddy was playing with her to do some house chores. And really missed my meditation, reiki and yoga practice.
Recharging my battery
However. I did shift my perception on “me time”: recharging myself. Into “us time”: mama and Saoirse. In the evenings we have our bed time ritual. With baby massage and Reiki. During breastfeeding, I often meditate or practise pranayama. Not every time but at least once or twice a day. These quality moments. Connecting heart to heart are so recharging. Actually, these moments are way more profound than meditating on my own. I’m so happy with it!
- Read on: Selfcare for mindful mama’s
- Read on: How and Why to create a holistic bedtime ritual
- Read on: Bonding with your baby Connecting heart to heart
Lots of time together
Relationship wise we feel blessed to work together too. So we are basically 24/7 together. Which is amazing! We now just have a little extra person with us. Who we both love so much. So it doesn’t feel out of balance.
I really feel this B of balance is of major importance. But also difficult. As being a mum is more than a full-time job. To be the best version of myself I do recharge myself daily. And we spend a lot of time doing fun things as our new family.
Summary
Natural motherhood is parenting by following your heart. No guidelines, no schedules. But just following your natural instincts. Attachment Parenting (AP) is another word for natural parenting. Which basically all the same. Follow your instincts and keep your baby close.
As modern-day society like us to think our baby has different needs… The only thing baby really needs is love. By giving lots of love and attention baby’s feels safe. They feel happy and cry less.
In this article I’d love to share the Attachment Parenting tools. And how the 8 Baby B’s work for us as a family.
- Birth bonding
- Breastfeeding
- Baby-wearing
- Bedding close to baby
- Belief in the language-value of your baby’s cry
- Beware of baby trainers
- Balance
Our baby Saoirse is so happy. And while many people think the choices we make are strange. As modern society like to trick you in buying lots of things. Natural parenting is actually very good for a baby’s development.
That it inspires you to follow your heart to mama!
What is natural motherhood to you?
Like I said. Everyone is different. All situations are different. And all baby’s are different.
Therefore I love to hear what natural motherhood is to you. What does your heart say? And how is parenting from the heart to you? Please share it all in the comment section below.
It is so inspiring to hear how we mama’s are following our heart!
