Monday, January 31, 2011

Instinctual Mama's Weekly wrap up January 25th -31st 2011


So Exciting! We hit 50 followers on the blog and growing strong on the facebook page, We will be giving away our first set up diapers tomorrow, and we will be trying to do so every month! When we hit 100 Followers I promise a huge giveaway!  If you would like to donate diapers or natural products for Giveaways or reviews please contact us at InstinctualMamas@gmail.com

We are also working on ways to help fellow mom's who blog about natural parenting, as well as supporting work at home moms. One way is to sign up for our Instinctual Mamas Honor roll and weekly wrap up...
if you'd like to be added to the weekly wrap-up you can get more info on our post Community blog?

And if you haven't yet please add our button to your blog! We are planning on special surprises for people with our button.. If you add it let us know! <3

I had a very nice wrap up that took me, 2 days to work on here and there, Something happened with the HTML while trying to post a "grab my button" on this post and there was trouble loading and it all disappeared!!  It's very upsetting, because I worked so hard on it and it's gone!  My apologies to the blogs who participate.. but I cannot sit here and write what I had just worked so hard on .. again.. I will resume next week.

Please visit

Fine and Fair
Confessions of an Earthy Young Mom
This Side Of Crunchy
Adventures in Mommyhood
All-American Momma
Harmony and all that Jazz

To see what these fine ladies wrote this week

Tanya.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Spreading the Fluffy love..Cloth Diaper Giveaway

CONTEST IS OPEN TO EVERYONE- One NON cloth user and One Cloth user will be picked!



There is my "stash" as we cloth diaper users call it. Not too fancy, not too complicated but HIGHLY functional and HIGHLY cost effective.

I did not cloth from the start with this baby and I did not cloth with my first, do I regret it YES!

See with my first daughter 5 years ago, I searched the Internet and all I found was a bunch of fancy 20 something dollar diapers. Sure they would eventually pay for themselves and save me money but the upfront cost was too much!

These were my usual responses... (this is honestly what I used to say)

*It's too much initial investment, I don't have the money
*It looks too complicated
*I already have enough laundry
*It's going to stink up the house
*My husband wont want to change diapers
*It's gross
*I don't want to be a martyr mom <---Yeah I used to call cloth diaper users Martyr moms lol.. What changed? well.. the diapers changed! and my money situation changed I did not want to worry about having enough money for a pack of diapers, because at one point I didn't, a dear friend had to buy me 2 packs of diapers and wipes, those were the last disposables I used. People over at Bumgenious <---I'm like one of their biggest cheerleaders, and nope they don't know I even exist lol.... so obviously they're not sponsoring this, it's just my views. They made these great pocket friendly diapers called Flip and econobum I started with one stay dry pack in the summer with 50 dollars I scrunched up and I would hand wash them everyday and hang them to dry outside, you can read about it on a review I did about flip diapers on my personal blog. I hand washed because it was hot outside and I didn't want to keep running the washer everyday, so I took advantage of the sun. Back then her poopie was the breast milk poop and It wasn't too bad, my own child's poop isn't as gross as I thought.

I eventually got 5 additional inserts and 2 covers as well and 2 econobum inserts and 3 prefolds. I wash them every other day, and I just put them in a bag in the garage.

Runny poop goes directly in the wash I don't even fuss with it
Sticky poop I just grab some toilet paper and wipe the excess off into the toilet
Hard poo is the easiest, just dump in the toilet!

IN NONE of those situations do you EVER touch poop! the sticky poo is the most difficult but think of it as wiping your toddler's booty lol...

Laundry really just became routine and I am happy to report my Hubby DOES change cloth! I did it for the first week so he would see and then he was all for it! plus he was all for the savings!

Total cost! $100 I started 5 months ago almost 6!, so lets see I was buying a jumbo pack a week $10 x 24 weeks, they payed for themselves AND saved me 140 dollars so far, not to mention I got at least 1-2 more diapering years on this baby... and a possible future baby who already has diapers! haha.

WITH THAT SAID
We want to give back, to the environment and help some of you make the switch! If all you need is a little push this might be it! we're going to give away 2 Econobum Starter packs to 2 winners!! , it's one cover three prefolds, that is like having 3 diapers! It's not a fancy diaper but it is very functional and maybe you will find that you had a love for cloth in you all along

Ah but there are some requirements,

Mandatoryyou must follow us on here via google friend connect and you must post a comment below telling us why you want to try cloth diapering and why you haven't and to those who do Use cloth, why they love it so much!! and leave your e-mail) you must to this or any other entries will be disqualified. <--that is 2 entries! for additional entries

1 you must like us on facebook (and leave a comment on our page)
2 you must post this giveaway as a status and send us a link to it.
3 If you twitter you must tweet about this contest and post your link as a comment (you can do this everyday and it will count as additional entries just remember to post a link to it below
After, please write a blog or send us an email on what happened after you used the cloth, did you like it? are you going to keep doing it, If you do so I will send you one ADDITIONAL GIFT!
If you already cloth but had never used econobums tell us how you like it! And you too can get a gift!

Contest Closes 4pm PST
Winners! will be Announced February 1st 2011 6pm PST
Well let's get going! Go Cloth!

Friday, January 21, 2011

Blogging friend's Weekly Wrap up Jan 14-24th 2011




If you'd like to be added to the weekly wrap-up you can get more info on our post Community blog?


Christy over at Adventures in motherhood had a lot to say this week!
She vented on My daughter hates books! her curious to, gets a kick out of destroying the children's library, maybe you have some suggestions on protecting the books but still making them accessible to the older children. She wrote a heartfelt post about why people get offended when doing things differently than us with their children on I am not a bully mom and neither are you! a very needed post amidst all the negative comments about Mayim Bialik being added to the bloggers over at Today Moms.
She Vented again on You're being Spammy! Someone on her friend's list most likely offended with her new found passion for expressing her views, got report button happy and Facebook took away her privilege to promote her own blog on her own status feed. I am happy to report it has been restored. I am crunchy because I am lazy is a quirky tale of how she became the definition on a "crunchy mom" for two reasons, convenience and cost.. something most mainstream mothers would be very surprised about!


Rainbow Over at Confessions of an earthy young mom, talks about Elimination Communication on Bottom Business and how she will be trying that path, and also touches a very IMPORTANT subject, car seat safety! She also wrote about Baby Yoga and posted her thoughts about mommy wars in Don't Attack me: The mom battle


Joella at Dear Delilah Fine and Fair wrote a review for her Featured Friday Segment, for the Baby be mine belly band. Shared her new found button making skills on I'll grab yours if you'll grab mine. complete with a link so you can make your own! Managed to keep peace in the football community with A fair Compromise? and today wrote about her Not so manic Monday.

Shelly at All American Momma has been actively participating in project 365, check out her cute pictures!

Atina over at Harmony and All that Jazz Wrote a great piece on the differences of opinion between mothers on Yep, I went there

Tanya and ROckin' Momma wrote I am lazy therefore I breastfeed and a new perspective about facebook's flag happy community on Hey Facebook enough with the Witch trials!

Check one check them all!
want to be included! you know what to do! <3

Monday, January 17, 2011

What it means to be an Instictual Mother



Here's a blogroll of the blogs currently participating in the blog challenge

What does Instinctual parenting mean to you? <--Want to participate click for details.

How I became and Instinctual Mama by Christy at Adventures in Mommyhood (tearjerker! a moving story of instincts out of love)

Instictive Parenting by yours truly over at Rockin Momma (are big companies dictating how people parent?)

Content by Atina at Harmony and all that Jazz (Doing differently than our Parents)

Instinct Parenting by Shelly at All-American Momma (Accidentally finding your inner crunchiness)

It's Just the way I love you by Rainbow at Confessions of a Young Earthy Mom (Instinct means going with the flow)

Instinctual Mama by Joella at Dear Delilah Fine and Fair (a letter about enjoying all the moments the good and the bad with love)
My Heart has always known you by Emily from This side of Crunchy Touching post about how a momma's heart always knows best.

Doing what feels right  by Gilligan's All Natural Island

Sunday, January 16, 2011

A Community blog?

I did not want to link the "Instictual Mamas" page to a blog because the point of the page is just support on facebook. I already have a personal blog Rockin Mama as well as a Shared blog 3 moms an a kitchen both which give me joy and a place to vent.

However Christy has a blog as well, Adventures in Mommyhood and Atina has one as well Harmony and all that Jazz and then I got to thinking.... A lot of you have mommy blogs, another one I like is All American Momma , Confessions of a Young Earthy Mom. and Jersey girl in Louisiana

So... I was thinking, since Instinctual Mamas (can I call it IM for short?) is a page for all of us, why not make a blog for all of us... I can add all of your blogs here on a blog roll and if you have a button, I can place it on the blog itself AND I can link to your blogs every week by doing a summary as to what is going on.. All because I believe in Mommy blogs and I believe in Crunchiness..

The Catch? It has to me mommy related and you have to be somewhat crunchy, You don't have to do everything! You don't have to cloth diaper but if you breastfeed that's great, maybe you're not breastfeeding anymore but you believe in Gentle discipline.. etc etc..

It can be your WAHM business too.

It can be a "give aways" blog HOWEVER you have to have posts on it too! I don't like blogs that just do it for the giveaways they are cold and impersonal (no offense if anyone has one)

I think if we work together we can all promote each other but most important promote gentle parenting.

and with that I leave a challenge... In order to be added to the blog and get full support (heck I'll even tweet for you!)



You have to write a blog post about what being an Instinctual Mom means to you!

Christy and I have started..

How I became and Instinctual Mama by Christy at Adventures in Mommyhood (tearjerker!)
Instictive Parenting by yours truly over at Rockin Momma

We picked the name Instinctual Mamas because it pretty much covers everything, maybe you're hardcore crunchy maybe not, but the important part is that you mother out of instincts, you listen to what your baby needs.

You can do this whenever you feel like and the words flow, Just post the blog on the IM page and link this blog and the facebook page on your post.


Facebook url http://www.facebook.com/InstinctualMamas

Blogger URL http://instinctualmamas.blogspot.com/

by the way the BlogHer convention is in my town this year so I will be attending! as Well as the Baby wearing convention !

Yaay for mommy bloggers!