Navigating new motherhood one cold cup of coffee at a time
I do a lot. I'm raising two tiny humans and supporting my military husband's career that picks up and moves our lives every few years in random corners of the country. Literally, we've gone from one corner to the other. Hawaii to Maryland to now Texas. I had a career and I had a life… Continue reading Distinguishing distractions from progress
I have graduated so many parenting chapters in the last three years. Big ones, like childbirth, recovery – not once but twice. Newborn-hood, teething, colds, tummy bugs, crying, whining, tantrums, toddlerhood – you name it. Everything from "I need you to do everything for me" to "I need you to let me do it myself."… Continue reading What I didn’t see coming about the first day of school
I just read one of the most beautiful blogs I've seen in a while: "To my friends who had kids before me, I'm sorry I didn't know." It speaks such a raw and honest truth that most of us experience in the throes of childbirth and recovery, especially for those of us who are the first… Continue reading Empathy, like wisdom, comes in time
My first born is turning two, which means I am entering the chapter of motherhood that has been pre-determined as terrible, albeit light-heartedly, I think? As the weeks draw near to this adorable and exciting birthday, I can feel his baby-ness melting away. His rolls have vanished with the only trace of baby fat left… Continue reading The not-so-terrible two
Last year at this time I wrote about how I had fallen out of the spotlight. Having a baby made me so narrowly focused on growing confidence as a mother that I lost confidence as a woman. I couldn't be in a picture without feeling like I needed a baby on my hip. As I… Continue reading Staying in the picture
You know what drives me crazy these days? When people can't take a joke. In parenthood, this happens all the time. There was a viral post that a wife left for her husband who was tasked with watching their kids all weekend. It was filled with the most fantastic dose of sarcasm I've read in… Continue reading The thing that drives me crazy, and also makes it all worthwhile
Survival mode: when everything is going wrong that could go wrong, we give ourselves permission to ride out the chaos. It sounds silly, but this was one of the most transformative lessons in my first year of parenthood. I remember the first time I was introduced to "survivalist parenting." We were in the early weeks… Continue reading Parenting style: survivalist
By far, the hardest part of becoming a mother with my first born was bringing him home. My recovery was long and difficult. My expectations of what having a new baby would be like and what it was actually like couldn't have been further apart. And my marriage was ill prepared for how to adjust… Continue reading A re-do of the fourth trimester
Several blogs and articles recently swept my newsfeed about how studies show that even in today's attempted egalitarian households, moms are the ones taking the brunt at home. "... when Saturday arrives, new research shows men are often on the couch while women are the ones doing housework with a 'leisure time' discrepancy of more… Continue reading What moms can learn from dads
As the countdown to my next childbirth draws near, I've been thinking, asking, talking, and listening on all things labor and delivery. I'm blessed to have a large support network of mothers in this community who have such varying experiences and wisdom, in addition to a well-rounded care team of midwives and my doula. I've… Continue reading The one birth affirmation that is excluding women
