How I came to Attachment Parenting

 This post is part of the Attachment Parenting is for Everyone blog carnival, hosted by Attachment Parenting International. Learn more by visiting API Speaks, the blog of Attachment Parenting International.  

I thought this was such a great topic and have been wanting to address it further for a while now!

I would love to start with how I came to love and adopt Attachment Parenting as our way of life in the Pace family.

But I guess the easiest way to explain this is to first tell you, in short, the main principles of what AP (attachment  parenting) include. http://www.attachmentparenting.org/principles/principles.php 

• Prepare for pregnancy, birth, and parenting
• Feed with love and respect
• Respond with sensitivity
• Use nurturing touch
• Ensure safe sleep, physically and emotionally
• Provide consistent and loving care
• Practice positive discipline
• Strive for balance in personal and family life

If you know much about me, you can probably guess where I started out on my AP journey. It all kind of snow balled and mixed together after that. 

After the birth of my first son, which was almost 4 years ago, I really dug my heels into everything birth I could find. In searching for natural childbirth and finding the best way for me to bring my next one into the world, I learned about AP and fell in love with every aspect of it. I found that some of the principles my husband and I were practicing already just naturally from what felt right to us. We had been responding to his cues and co-sleeping, we also did a lot of nurturing touch and loving care. After reading more and finding lots of AP mama friends we worked on incorporating it into all our parenting. With my second child born we started AP from the beginning and have loved it. 

I find that AP is the easiest, natural and most caring way to parent my children. I believe it makes them better human beings, more loving, present and overall positive impactful people on the society around them. Of course there are always kinks. We are learning every day what works best for us, and how to stay positive and consistent when children have other plans. But we do the best we can, just like every parent should do. We know though that Attachment Parenting is a sound choice for our family, and I will cherish this journey of our lives together, knowing that my children were fully loved and knew it.