HI-new Atlanta area mommy

[HomeBirthMommy]

Hi. I just wanted to introduce myself and say hello. I'm Paige, SAHM to two beautiful girls, Lydia (3) and Madeline (13 months). We are in Lawrenceville and don't know many other people like us around here! I have been a Georgia girl since birth and both sets of grandparents live here. I attend the Central Gwinnett LLL. I would love to hear from other AP, CD'ing, BF'ing parents. I know you must be out there somewhere!!!
Looking forward to getting to know you-

[ssmeest]

Hi Paige,

Well I'm not in Atlanta area, but I'm in Warner Robins. we moved here 3 years ago, and I really like GA.

Sandra

[Tatnumz]

Hi PAige
Welcome! I have not been on here in a while....have a new baby, 5 months now. He is #4.
We live in CArtersville, up 75 north of Town Center MAll.

You are correct it is difficult to find like minded families. Feel free to email me.

Peaceful PArenting,
Lisa

[alfaellen]

Hi Paige,

My name is Ellen, SAHM to Julia (13 months old). I live in Stone Mountain, so I'm not far from you. I belong to the Dunwoody LLL group and enjoy going to both the baby meetings and the toddler meetings! We attend Tuesday playdates with other mommies in my area, but I'm definitely the only AP mommy in the group. I really cherish their friendships, but I tend to duck out of conversations that involve how to get baby to sleep all night and when I'm going to wean and so on. You know what I mean! :p

I look forward to hearing from you again!

ellen

[kimbalicious]

Hi Paige,

I'm an Atlanta area native, too. SAHM & artist. My little guy is 15.5 months. It can be tough to find like minded mamas -- sometimes I cringe when I'm not hanging with my core group. If you were ever a fan of hipmama.com a bunch of us from the Atlanta area get together in person and online -- most of us practice AP to greater or lesser degrees. Anyhoo you (and all you other Mamas in the area) are welcome to check us out at the yahoo groups section under atlantahipmamas.

You know, I've never attended any LLL meetings -- I wonder if I should.

Kimba

[abeard]

Hi Paige! I'm in Lawrenceville too. I'm a Bfing, cosleeping, WOHM (DH currently is a SAHD).

[HomeBirthMommy]

Hi to all of you! Amanda, that's so cool that you're in L'ville, too AND we both have Madelines (spelled differently, though) who were born in '02. Small world, huh?
Looking forward to getting to know all the great mamas here-

[EmmalinesMom]

Hi Paige!

Another Atlanta mama here, though I'm not a native. I'm in the Tucker area of DeKalb. :)

[branwyn]

hi paige, another atlanta area mom (on the west side though, in acworth right next to cartersville) but i grew up in lawrenceville.
we homeschool and i have found so many AP parents in our homeschool group (LLG, has groups all over georgia).

maybe we should have a mothering get-together...

[HomeBirthMommy]

Nice to meet you! Branwyn, did you go to school in L'ville? I went to L'ville elem and middle schools. My mom teaches at L'ville elem now and is my biggest supporter in our future homeschooling. She has horror stories! How old was your child when you started "official" hs'ing? I would like to get involved with a group, but dd is just 3, so I'm not sure if we should yet? She is in a 2 morning preschool at our church right now and I just don't feel right about it. I mean, you can pick the school based on the teachers (I really do love them), but you can't control the other kids that go there. That concerns me-she is picking up some bad habits and knows every character on TV now from the other kids clothes, shoes and backpacks! Sorry to go off on a tangent, I'm just so excited to hear I'm not alone here!

[branwyn]

i did go to school in l'ville (bethesday elementary, 6th grade-sweetwater, 7-8 richards, and 3 months of central gwinnett high school (mom pulled me out to homeschool me in 9th grade, she had been wanting to do it for years but just found out it was legal when i was 12).
officially, we started hsing when she was 6 (thats when you ahve to send in the forms) but we had really started way before then, when she was about 3. there are many people in LLG that have children the same age as yours (the founder and owners daughter is only 4 right now). LLG stands for "lifetime learners of georgia" and we even have members who dont have children yet! check it out if you have time!

http://llg.freeyellow.com/

feel free to email me anytime! maybe we can get together sometime?
branwyn@bellsouth.net
i need to go take a nap, i am studying homeopathic medicine and i am detoxing myself and going thru a healing crisis so i am needing so major sleep!

[branwyn]

Originally posted by kimbalicious
Anyhoo you (and all you other Mamas in the area) are welcome to check us out at the yahoo groups section under atlantahipmamas.


Kimba


i searched for this group and it keeps saying that there isnt one, can you maybe please, please, please, give us a link to the homepage?

[kimbalicious]

That's incredibly weird! I couldn't find it either when I just did a search. I've listed the subscribe to address. Just drop us a "hello, my name is.." type thing.

I'll try and find out what the deal is! You know, I do remember it being difficult for me to find the group as well.

Kimba

atlantahipmamasubscribe@yahoogroups.com

[branwyn]

thanks, just sent an email!

[HomeBirthMommy]

Branwyn! I went to Richards in 8th grade-the year it first opened. Is that why you went there for 7-8th and Sweetwater for 6th? And dh went to Bethesda and Richards as well, in fact his parents still live right around the corner from Bethesda and dd goes to Bethesda UMC preschool. It really is a small world! Thanks so much for the info on hs'ing. I really feel like we have been doing it from birth, but I wasn't sure about "official". Was it pretty easy to notify the school system? Thanks for all of your help!

[branwyn]

Originally posted by HomeBirthMommy
Branwyn! I went to Richards in 8th grade-the year it first opened. Is that why you went there for 7-8th and Sweetwater for 6th? And dh went to Bethesda and Richards as well, in fact his parents still live right around the corner from Bethesda and dd goes to Bethesda UMC preschool. It really is a small world! Thanks so much for the info on hs'ing. I really feel like we have been doing it from birth, but I wasn't sure about "official". Was it pretty easy to notify the school system? Thanks for all of your help!

yep, thats why i went they had just opened richards when i was starting 7th grade :-)
i lived right down the road from bethesda as well (well down 29 behind what used to be dari-delight)!

i live in cherokee county now and all i had to do was send in the Declaration of Intent from the LLG site (sometimes the counties will put extra stuff on the form that you dont need to fill out) and then the school board sent me a packet of attendance forms and other things (things like saying i could pay them money to test my child--testing is mandatory in some grades, but you keep the tests and results). even though they had sent the attendance forms (in GA you a required to send one in every month until you meet the 180 day limit), i still used the ones on the LLG site because they were cleaner copies and didnt ask for more info than was required by the state.

oh and doesnt require a little one to be in any school until they are six. feel free to email me offlist with any questions or jsut to talk!

branwyn@bellsouth.net

[branwyn]

Originally posted by kimbalicious
That's incredibly weird! I couldn't find it either when I just did a search. I've listed the subscribe to address. Just drop us a "hello, my name is.." type thing.

I'll try and find out what the deal is! You know, I do remember it being difficult for me to find the group as well.

Kimba

atlantahipmamasubscribe@yahoogroups.com

okay i tried it again, and the email bounced back saying this:
"Your message was addressed to a group that does not exist. Please check to make sure you spelled the group name
correctly."

am i crazy? okay dont answer that
:D

[branwyn]

ha! played around with email addresses found one that works! it is:
atlantahipmamas-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

and the site is right here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/atlantahipmamas/

[kimbalicious]

Clever, clever mama! Perhaps that's like a hazing -- now you can join ;) I remember it was hard for me to get the correct address as well.

Kimba

[kayla_p]

Hi Paige,

I'm Kayla, mom to two boys in Decatur. I'm a homebirthing, breastfeeding, AP mom too. I go to the Atlanta/Emory LLL (or I have been; my baby is getting too rowdy to take to LLL). I am always glad to hear there are other moms in the metro area who parent outside the mainstream. I wish I knew more of 'em myself!

Kayla, mom to Michael, who says he's a plant-eating dinosaur
and Will, born at home in May, 2002

[HomeBirthMommy]

Hi Kayla. I recognize your name from the homebirth meet-up. I wish we would get enough people to actually do one! :) I know what you mean about LLL. My dd is getting pretty active, herself. Luckily, our group is more toddlers than babies, so it's not a big deal. They are so cute playing togetherand then taking their nursing breaks.:D I also love our group b/c we have several other homebirthing mamas and lots of cloth diapered bottoms! Thank goodness for that little bit of being with other mamas who parent like we do.
I'm looking forward to hearing more from you here and :w

[kimbalicious]

So, how do you like the Decatur LLL? I've been thinking of attending, but felt kinda goofy making my first visit when ds is 17 months.

Kimba

[kayla_p]

No problem with going with a 17 month old...there are a few other toddlers there, usually. This group meets at night, so there are a lot of pregnant women at that meeting (hey, I think it's a good idea for them to see nursing toddlers!). There are also a lot of newborns with moms asking about going back to work.

However, because my boy is getting pretty rambunctious, - and they do tend to cover the basic stuff: advantages of breastfeeding, pumping, getting your baby to take a bottle, etc. -
I am thinking about switching to the Decatur group, which meets on Wednesday mornings. My older son will be in preschool five mornings a week in the fall so I will have time to go, and by then the baby will officially be a toddler. :D I think there is information on the Decatur meetings on the LLL page. I am pretty sure they meet at the church that is at the intersection of N. Decatur Road and Church St.

[lunchbox]

Hey! I grew up in Atlanta and we are currently living in Covington, about 45 miles east of Atlanta. I attend 3 LLL groups: Conyers, Covington, and Loganville.

Lulu just turned a year. Haven't seen any folks out this way...

[kayla_p]

Hey lunchbox, a mom friend of mine lives in Covington. Her name's Helen and she has twin boys who are about 4-1/2. I know she used to go to LLL in your area and she has a playgroup for homeschoolers - do you know her?

[georgia]

Kimba---I'd say the older your nursling gets, the more you just might need support and the company of mothers who believe in what you're doing :love

Here is a link to LLL meetings in GA:

http://www.lllusa.org/GA/findlocal.html

I've been to the Conyers, Dunwoody, S. Fulton, Decatur, Loganville and Snellville meetings. Each group has its own flavor, depending on which moms show up from month to month. Please come and meet some of us! I've met the most wonderful women there. It's a great source of info, support and encouragement!



:thumb

[lunchbox]

Kayla! Too strange! I just met Helen this morning!!! (We look very similar!) She was at the Conyers LLL yard sale!! We had both heard a lot about each other and wanted to meet. I didn't get much chance to talk to her since Lulu is just now walking and has to take me everywhere!!! Too cool! And I will be attending the homeschoolers playgroup next week!

And I wanted to ditto the toddler/LLL thing. I've been going since Lulu was 4 weeks old. Never had that many challenges - it was more of something to do. The older she gets the more challenges we face and LLL has been a godsend. For example, I had a deeply cracked nipple at 11 1/2 mos. I thought I knew what I was doing! "Mothering Your Nursing Toddler" has been a great source of info for me as well! Plus, you have a lot of info to offer new moms as a veteran!!! Not to mention, I have zero AP friends outside of LLL and that can be hard.

http://babiesonline.com/babies/m/misslucille/

[kayla_p]

Oh too funny about you meeting Helen today! It's a small world, after all! :p I met Helen online at another website a year ago or so, and we've gotten together a few times at Stone Mountain playground.

I looked at your photos and your daughter is just a total doll!

[TalkToMeNow]

Hi! I'm new here. My dd is Mabel, who is about to turn 1. I just moved to Snellville. Anyone from around here? I am also thinking of going to LLL... I haven't been yet. Anyone know how the Snellville group is? Any older babies? Looking foward to meeting everyone!

Amanda

[HomeBirthMommy]

Hi Amanda. I'm pretty close to Snellville-I'm there at least once a week. It's about 6 miles from my house to the Target on Hwy. 124. The LLL of Central Gwinnett used to meet at Bethesda Methodist Church (right up Ronald Reagan), but moved last week to over near the Gwinnett Civic Center. It's still not that far. We meet on the third Tuesday of the month (this coming Tuesday). It's a great group. I would love for you to come, our girls are pretty close in age. Please feel free to PM me.

[georgia]

Amanda, welcome to the area! Unfortunately, the Snellville group is closed as of May. Groups close by (relatively speaking!!) would be Loganville, Central Gwinnett, Dacula, Decatur and Conyers. All have lots of toddlers--check out the LLL link I posted above for more info. Good luck!

Amy :-wool

[kimbalicious]

georgiamilk -- thank you and I agree! Perhaps I will check out one of those meetings.

[TalkToMeNow]

Thanks for the info, Amy. Thats too bad about the Snellville group... I did try the Central Gwinnett meeting last week and I hope to try some of the others. :)

Amanda