Crunchy Mamas

I got this quiz from my friend Mel's blog. I thought it was pretty fun.

Warning Guys - this is really a "girls only" kind of thing. You may want to skip this entry. ;)

How crunchy are you? [I'll post my answers underneath the questions. Feel free to share yours!]

Do you have homebirths?
15 points for “yes” (unassisted)
10 points for “yes” (with a midwife in attendance)
5 points for alternative birthing center
2 points for “thinking about/would like homebirth”
0 for “no” (wouldn’t consider it).

----This is hard for me to answer, because if I had safe, healthy, normal births I would *absolutely* have them all at home, and the last couple would have been unassisted too. [I had a home water birth scheduled for my second baby until the pregnancy turned deadly and the midwife said "no way"!]. As it is, my births have all been life threatening and so dramatic.. so *sigh* - I *have* to go with the hospital births. But I loathe it. So what points do I take on this? I have no idea! I guess I'll take 10 as a compromise.... LOL!


Will you circumcise future sons?
-5 points for “no”
-0 points for “yes”.

---NO. I feel strongly that no son of mine will ever be circumcised. I'm much less judgmental about the state of other peoples' sons' penises now than I used to be though. LOL! To each his own - I've definitely mellowed in my old age. But nobody's cutting my boy's penis! ;)


Do you use cloth diapers?
20 point if you do Elimination Communication (no diapers)
15 points if “yes” (wash and make your own)
10 points if “yes” (wash your own)
5 points if “yes” (diaper service)
2 points if “thinking about it”
0 points if “no” (wouldn’t consider it).

----Another one I can't quite answer - I used cloth with my first two children and partially with my third - until I just got overwhelmed with two in cloth diapers. So, now we use mostly disposables but every couple of months I seriously consider going back to cloth to save money - I still have all my cloth diapers readily at hand... so what points do I take here?!! I'll take 5 points here maybe - even though I always washed my own when I did it.

Do you observe your fertility signals using Natural Family
Planning/Fertility Awareness and use that for birth control/trying to conceive?
10 points for “yes” (observe and use for birth control/ttc) or you use ecological
breastfeeding/lactational amnorrhea
5 points for “yes” (observe for trying to conceive)
2 points “thinking about it”
0 points for “no” (wouldn’t consider it).

---Yep, definitely. We actually left our "family planning" up to God for the last several years, though my husband is no longer willing to do that any more after my last birth and the very near death experience and the brain damage and all. [And now that he's gone crazy and left, I'm not sure I'm up for that either...]. So, we are back to "observing signs" and using NFP to prevent. We also use lactational amnorrhea [since I breastfeed all our children exclusively], but I am pretty fertile and this only works for us for a few months.


Do you breastfeed exclusively for the first 6+ months?
10 points if “yes”
5 points for “no” (use occasional bottles of expressed breastmilk)
2 points for “no” (use occasional bottles of formula)
0 for “no” (don’t breastfeed by choice).

---Yes, absolutely and with great determination. I used to be a La Leche League Leader too. Do I get extra points for that?

Do you co-sleep/family bed?
10 points for “yes” (all night every night)
5 points for “yes” (part/all of most nights)
2 points for “thinking about it”
0 points for “no”.

----Definitely. In fact, since their dad left, all FIVE of my monkeys are back in my room. I generally *want* to sleep with them until they are about 2 years old. They generally want to sleep with me until they go to college. LOL! ;)

Do you use a sling/soft carrier?
5 points for “yes”
2 points for “thinking about it”
0 points for “no” (wouldn’t consider it).

----Yes, my children have all been sling little babies and backpack older babies/toddlers. They are held on my body pretty much the majority of their lives. [partly because at least 3 of them *demanded* this and trained me as such!]

Do you believe in/practice child-led weaning
(even if that means breastfeeding for several years)?
15 points for “yes” (complete child-led weaning)
10 points for “yes” (up to 3 years)
5 points for “yes” (up to 2 years)
2 points for “thinking about it”
0 points for “no” (you’ll wean the baby at 1 year or earlier).

---I'll take 5 points here - my oldest nursed till she was almost 3 and the others nursed till I got pregnant again and the milk dried up - sometime around 16-18 mos of age. Except for my 3rd baby who was a little weirdo, she truly weaned on her own 3 weeks shy of her 1st birthday - totally against my will! I felt like a failure at that point! But ideally, I'd nurse them all till they were two.

Do you tandem nurse/nurse during your pregnancy?
10 points for “yes” (nurse during pgcy and tandem nurse)
5 points for “yes” (nurse during pgcy, but wean before birth)
2 points for “thinking about it”
0 points for “no”(wouldn’t consider it).

---I'll take 5 points here - I have nursed through all of my pregnancies [except the first one obviously :) ] until the milk dried up and the babies weaned themselves. I had planned to nurse both my first and second at the same time but it didn't work out like that.

Do you eat organic/whole/natural foods and limit your meat?
15 points for “yes” (grow own/buy organic, shop only at health food store,
grind own wheat, vegetarian, etc.)
10 points for “yes” (grow some of own food, buy organic,
use whole wheat flour, bake own bread, eat some meat occasionally)
5 points for “yes” (try to buy natural, whole grain foods, etc.)
2 points for “thinking about it”
0 points for “no” (wouldn’t consider it).

---10 points here. I buy organic as much as I possibly can, grow some of my own veggies organically, use whole wheat everything - bread, pasta, etc. Everything I bake has whole wheat in it. We do eat some meat, not that much - but not because I'm opposed to it, more because it is expensive and also I am concerned about the antibiotics and hormones in the meat.

Do you use herbal/homeopathic remedies?
10 points if “yes” (very rarely see a regular doctor)
5 points if “yes” (but use a doctor occasionally)
2 points if “thinking about it” (see a doc for now)
0 points for “no” (wouldn’t consider it).

----I used to do a lot more natural / herbal stuff than I do now. I just, frankly, found that the natural/herbal/homeopathic stuff didn't work very well for us [at all really]. I know people swear by it and I tried and tried to use those things, but they were just no good for us. We see a doctor occasionally, but I do try to avoid it as much as possible. I'll take 5 points on this one.

Do you homeschool?
10 points if “yes” (currently homeschool)
5 points for “yes” (will homeschool)
2 points for “thinking about it”
0 points for “no” (wouldn’t consider it).

---Yes, definitely 10 points here.

What's your take on childhood vaccinations?
15 points for no vaccines
10 for delayed, selective vaccination
5 points for selective, on schedule vaccination
2 points for thinking about not vaccinating
0 points for vaxing on schedule.

---5 points here - I don't do all vaccines [avoid morally offensive ones made from aborted babies], but I do vaccinate on schedule and I am pretty pro-vaccine actually, since they took the mercury out. [We delayed with my second child because the vaxes still had mercury - but have been totally on schedule since that was removed].


Would you/have you ever breastfeed/fed someone else's baby
or have someone else bf your child?
10 points if yes (have or someone has bf your baby)
5 points if yes (would)
2 points if maybe 0 if no (wouldn't consider it).

---I would nurse another baby if there was some pressing need and the mom asked and it was someone I knew well. I can't see this happening though, quite honestly. LOL! ;)

Do you use cloth/re-usable products for mom?
10 points if yes (make own)
5 points if yes (buy own)
2 points if thinking about it
0 points if no.

---I use cloth products that I purchased. I really, really like them. They are far preferable to the disposable ones IMO.

Ratings
120 – 140 Super Nutty, Ultra-Crunchy Granola Earth Mama
90 – 119 Mmm! Love that whole-grain crunch!
60 – 89 Pretty Crispy
20 – 59 Sprinkled with Granola
5 – 19 Instant Oatmeal
0 - 4 Jell-O

I scored a perfect "100". Which makes me whole-grain crunch. :) If you feel like it, please share your scores too in the comments! If you answer this on your own blog, let me know so I can read your responses!

Oh, and I have to echo what my friend said on her blog - I used to feel so much pressure to "live up" to the crunchy earth mama standard LOL! I no longer feel like that - as I've added more kids and gotten older [hopefully wiser? maybe not...], I am very comfortable with making the decisions that work for us and not worrying about the rest. I hope you feel comfortable doing the same! ;)