Anyone from Rochester NY??

Hi Luanne! There are a few of us in the Corning area, about an hour and 45 mins away.

I'm in Rochester. Is anyone interested in a play group? Ideally, I would like to find some moms with kids near my dd's age (9 months) who are into bfing and slinging. Age proximity is less important to me than a similarity in parenting style.

I would describe myself as slightly crunchy--enough to freak out my mom, not enough to give up disposable diapers quite yet (although I totally admire those moms who aren't using them). I tried to have a drug-free childbirth, but ended up with an epidural. Would definitely try again without drugs (but would NOT waste time feeling guilty if I ended up with an epidural again), and I think I might be open to a homebirth next time, but don't want to give up my OB. I'm trying to begin EC with my daughter now and wish I'd known about it earlier. Couldn't live without my slings. I know I'm kind of on the fence about some AP issues, but I appreciate a push in the natural parenting direction so long as it is non-judgemental and I could also use company on the fence, if that happens to be where you are too.

Hey Caren,

My daughter is almost six months -- I would definitely be interested in trying a playgroup type thing.

We bf, cosleep, babywear, cloth diaper -- most of the AP "tools." I like to think I'm not judgemental. I too had an epidural during my "hoped to be natural" birth.

I've opened a Yahoo Group for APs in Rochester, if anyone is interested. I only did it because I couldn't find anything similar!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aprochester/

Yes, that's my group. Are you and your girls the ladies who were all in pink last time? I'm trying to think who I've seen there with two dds (altough perhaps they don't both come with you). I'm the one who often spends most of the meeting on the floor crawling after my daughter in the center of the circle. I have dark, shoulder-length hair that isn't sure whether it wants to be curly or straight and my dd has a full head of dark hair too. It's a good thing you mentioned the change in schedule for this month because I hadn't heard that. I'll see you there.

Hello, hello...!

My name is Nick. I'm a new(-ish) SAHM -- my son Julian is 5 months old -- and feeling somewhat isolated. Few of my pre-motherhood friends decided to stick around and I just haven't had the opporunity to meet any mom-friends. So please, please count me in for the play-group! I have also just signed up for the yahoo group, so hope to see y'all over there as well.

Like Caren, I too am fence-sitting on a lot of AP issues. We cloth diaper and were co-sleeping for a while (although no longer). My approach to motherhood is much more earthy-crunchy than I ever would have imagined...I was actually talking to SO about getting some wheat germ the other day. For a girl who used to live on beer, Marlboros, Diet Coke and Pepto Bismol, that's pretty radical.

Have to chime in on the birth story: during a long (36-hour) and grueling labor, the anaesthesiologist fouled up my epidural and it ended up falling out... by the time I was in dire need of pain relief, there was nothing they could do for me. So I inadvertantly had a natural birth....

I have been wanting to attend a LLL meeting, but haven't been able to as we are currently a one-car family and SO has a wacky work schedule which just happens to preclude any of the existing LLL meetings. Hmmmph.

Hope to hear from everyone!
~nick

hi there T sorry.... don't mean to interupt your thread......

but dh, dd and I are looking to move out of the city but still to a commutable area. What can you tell me about Rochester? How long is the commute to the city?

What can we get in terms of a home for 175 - 200,000?

Is the area AP friendly?

How are race relations? My husband is arab, I am white and we are muslim so we kinda feel like this limits us a bit. Some of those more country areas dont like "our kind".

Questions I know.....but this momma is feeling overwhelmed with research. And it my "job" to relocate this family.

Thanks so much in advance

Hi Jean! Yaaaay for Rochester!

Boo on more snow. But yay for Rochester!