Upcoming Meetings

Thursday, April 7, 10:00am
Location: TBA
Topics: "The Great Divide" (Choosing AP when others begin baby training), and Positive Discipline (Creative alternatives for punitive punishments for 2-4 year olds)

Thursday, April 21, 6:00pm
Location: MS Breastfeeding Clinic in Madison
Topics: Dealing with Criticism (of your parenting choices), and NVC (Non-violent Communication, aka Compassionate Communication)

Thursday, May 5, 10:00am
Location: TBA
Topics: Babywearing (including a sling "petting zoo" and demos) and Infant Massage (including a demo by Massage Therapist and Reiki Master, Jamie Roth--thanks Jamie!)

Meeting Tonight!

I am so excited about our first meeting tonight! This has been a LONG TIME coming for MS!

6:00 at the MS Breastfeeding Clinic in Madison

Several people have asked 2 things since the word has started spreading about the group:

(1) Are children allowed? --Everyone is allowed to make their own decisions about readiness to separate. So, YES, children are welcome. That being said, I will personally be leaving 1-2 of my older children with my husband and bringing my nursing baby. Because this particular meeting is in Dr. Saenz's waiting room, I don't feel like my rambunctious boys will be able to entertain themselves the whole time without my intervening alot, and they were quite disruptive last week when I took them to the LLL meeting. So, if you have a husband or someone who would be willing to keep more active children who might be disruptive, great. If you, like me, don't always have a husband/spouse home from work yet or you don't want to pay a babysitter just to attend the meeting, etc, you are more than welcome to bring them and give it a go. Of course, we don't expect young children to sit still for an hour, but we also expect them to not destroy Dr. Saenz's waiting room or fight with the other children as well. It is completely up to you. We do ask that if discipline is needed, that only positive discipline be used and never any physical or punitive punishment. I am hoping to end up with a location in a church nursery or open gym of some kind, where the children have more freedom to play and mess around with the stuff they see, so that we, in turn, may have more meaningful/less distracted conversation.

(2) What is attachment/AP? This is what we are talking about at tonight's meeting. You can visit attachmentparenting.org to read about it OR just visit the group to learn more!

Must-watch!

Dr. Sears is going head-to-head tomorrow at noon with Dr. Weissbluth, author of a very popular sleep training book, "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child"

Watch if you can, and we will discuss it on Thursday night!

Babies' sleeping issues

First meeting, coming up!

Thursday, March 17

6:00pm

@ the MS Breastfeeding Clinic in Madison

Topics to be discussed:

~What is Attachment?

~What is Attachment Parenting?

~How did we get here? (The history of AP and our own journies to AP)

~AP Principle #1: Preparation for Pregnancy, Birth, and Parenting: The importance of parenting "on purpose"

Some of the upcoming topics to be discussed:

~Feeding with Love and Respect: How breastfeeding (or bottle "nursing") on cue creates healthy eating habits for life (p.s. Can you over-feed a breastfeeding baby?)

~Responding with Sensitivity & Using Nurturing Touch: How practicing these two principles make for a happy traveler and easy transitions from car to bed when asleep

~Practicing Positive Discipline: Labeling, Praise, and Expectations-- The natural human response and how this information applies to parenting

~Using Nurturing Touch: Saving $$ on baby gear "essentials" while increasing attachment

~Responding with Sensitivity: "Self-Soothing"-- Is this really the goal?

~Practicing Positive Discipline: Can this principle be reconciled with Christianity or are the two mutually exclusive? Can a person practicing AP be a Christian and vice versa? Where is the disconnect, and how can we bridge the divide?

~"Everything changes when you have a baby": Whether you are a new parent or changing your approach to parenting, AP is a lifestyle change; how have you made the adjustment and how is it currently going?

~Permissive parenting, over-indulgence, and AP: What is the difference? Is AP "child-centered" or is it the opposite?

~Practicing Positive Discipline: Do as I say, not as I do? Total obedience? What is the goal here? What is the significance of Modeling?

~"Control issues": From eating to sleeping to pottying to discipline...who is in control? And who should be?

~Freedom: How has AP set you free? How can we use AP principles to give and receive more freedom?

~Joy: How has AP contributed to your joy and to the joy of your children and your spouse?

~Practicing Positive Discipline: Creative solutions to avoid punitive punishments

~Feeding with Love and Respect: Breastfeeding beyond one year

~Practicing Safe Sleep: The benefits of co-sleeping

~Feeding with Love and Respect: Getting the right start

~Practicing Safe Sleep: "Musical Beds"-- Figuring out what works best for your family and keeping the flame alive between you and your spouse

~Healing the regret: We have all made what we perceive to be parenting "mistakes"; How can we forgive ourselves and begin healing/helping our child heal? Is repeating parenting mistakes with subsequent children, in order to be fair to the older child, a good idea?

~Feeding with Love and Respect: Weaning-- whether from the breast, the bottle, the pacifier, the fingers, etc-- What is the gentlest way to go about it?

~Using Nurturing Touch: The Art of Babywearing

~Finding Balance and Boundaries: Remembering to take time to care for yourself and avoiding parent "burn-out"

~Finding Balance and Boundaries: Is it okay to say "No"?

.........And Many More to come!

This group is open to anyone and everyone who is curious about AP, but the discussion will mostly be specifically geared toward those already practicing the principles of Attachment Parenting. Welcome! Come one, come all, and let's start talking about quite possibly the most important issues of our lives--how we love and nurture our children!