This is a topic I’ve been meaning to write about for a while but have not really managed to gather my thoughts coherently so far, having been so busy “living” it!
However, as it’s a topic I know only some of you will be interested in and not everyone, I’ve created a podcast so those of you who are interested can listen and everyone else can skip it and wait for the next post…
Some of the things I talk about in the podcast:
- Decisions we faced & made when finding out about being pregnant
- Some of the practical implications of having a LIP (location independent pregnancy)
- Where/how a baby will fit into our location independent lifestyle
Hi Lea
Thanks for the info… I’ve taken notes – just in case I ever get pregnant :-)
I’m really interested in hearing or reading about your experiences, whether your views change once the baby is born, and if not – how you cope with a small baby while on the move…
For me, creating a home and having a child – are the 2 areas of location independent living that I haven’t quite got my ahead around yet…
Hi Lea,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and feelings on the LIP life and having children. My husband and I are currently working on restructuring our lives to become location independent within the next year or so and that kind of overlaps with our plans to start a family too. So I really appreciate hearing how others do/plan to handle the same situation. I hope everything goes well with the remainder of your pregnancy and look forward to hearing how things develop and your thoughts change.
TFS.
Zoe.x
Hi Lea,
I enjoyed hearing about your process and I am glad that you are keeping things open and planning time to bond. MUCH will depend on your birth process and your babies personality.
If it is an easy birth and mellow baby, the first year will be ideal for moving about. The main thing a young baby needs is mom and breast milk and they tend to sleep a lot. The calmer you are, the calmer the baby can be.
All babies are good, but some are just easier than others.
As I mentioned on Twitter, the less “stuff” the better, so think like they did until recent times or how native cultures include babies into their lives.
DO take time for a babymoon, for all 3 of you to adjust to this new way of being. Get help if you need it with the nursing, it takes a little while to recover and adapt, getting new rhythms down which might seem very foreign at first.
When I first tried on a sling, I thought ewwww & wondered how the heck people used them. Within a few months, I was a pro & could nurse my baby when it fussed WHILE I was standing in line for groceries ( and no one knew because she was in the sling).What is totally foreign at first, becomes second nature with practice.
Nursing, receptive mommy brain is VERY different than business woman brain. Couplehood to parenthood is even a bigger transition than singlehood to couplehood. Take TIME.
Let other people help with chores and food at first, you three take time together! Just like a honeymoon, spend lots of time in bed in a babymoon….only it is a different kind of making love.
It is a primordial time & time for healing. It may even awaken unconscious memories of your own birth.Powerful transformations happen as a new sacred soul enters into this life!
Only once will you have a newborn first born child, take time to breathe in the miracle and honor the occasion.
Neither of you may get a decent night sleep for years, so learn to sleep when the baby sleeps and be a power napper.
The next hard shift will be when the baby starts moving. Most crawl around 8m and walk at 12 & that will step up the challenges as they must be watched every second. ( Mine crawled at 4 months, walked at 6, ran faster than me at 9m, so we got no grace period).
The first 3 years can be intense, but it is also when the brain grows the most so probably the most important work that you will ever do!
We had a very high needs baby, but we still manage to start traveling with her as early as 2 weeks old. We were taking a class once a month and brought her with us to class every month for the first year ( she obviously was the only baby and we had to get special permission).
She slept in her first hotel room at just two weeks and it all went very smoothly and easily ( we are huge believers in the family bed which makes even more sense for a nomad life).
Your great planning abilities will serve you well. Keep it simple and use your creativity and out-of-the-box ideas to solve all problems.
Find a community of like minded moms ( we liked the attachment parenting types & there are wonderful forums from mothering magazine as well to help you find your baby “tribe”.)La Leche League can be a huge support as well ( and not just with breastfeeding). Homeschooling moms are usually a big help as they often think more outside the norm.
Get a natural, easy rhythm going that you can do anywhere. We never had a crib, stroller, pram, babybath, diaper changer etc etc and our child thrived!
The good news with one child is you can play some tag team parenting as you out number your little angel, but if you have more the challenges will increase.
It will change your life tremendously and the days will be long at first, but the years will pass unbelievably quickly.
Your child will teach you more about unconditional love and service more than any thing else could and fill you with such love & gratitude for this miracle.
Sending you lots of blessings! It will all work out fine!
Hi Jeanne – thanks for taking the time to share your advice…”tag team parenting” is my favourite bit!!! Fortunately, I feel really lucky that the 2 of us will be around all day – we don’t plan to have any more (but then neither did we plan to have this one!!) so hopefully the outnumbering thing will work in our favour for a while.