Trust Me, I'm the Mom

If you're anything like me, it happens like this. It's summer. Life is wonderful. It's warm, and you play outside, and your husband is always in a good mood because his team is neither winning or losing because they aren't in season. It's great. It's beautiful. And then, faster than a speeding ticket, your life is consumed - CONSUMED - by colorful jerseys, and mad dashes home from (insert event here) because "The Game" is about to start (which one? I swear "The Game" was last week. I'm so lost.) and in approximately 3.5 hours or 4 if there's overtime your better half will either be elated and or sulking, followed by reading ESPN's recap and asking what you thought about the Reverse Flea Flicker that altered the entire course of the game in the 3rd quarter. This will repeat several times a week for about 5 months and by the end of it you will start involuntarily dry heaving when you hear the words, "football" or ...

We did it! Biologically engineered superhuman progeny #2 has made it earthside and he's the most adorable addition we could have hoped for.  Long story short for those who don't care to read it: He was born on October 12th at 12:12 AM, 8 lbs 4 oz, 21 inches long and came at 37 weeks and 5 days. He's healthy, doing well, eats and sleeps like a champ, and has a head full of dark hair. The long story: I decided pretty early on in this pregnancy that this time around, I really wanted to have an unmedicated birth. Among other reasons, I wanted to see how it affected recovery time and my baby with hopes that it would speed recovery, help avoid some of the post-partum anxiety/depression, etc. I didn't take any courses, but ready as many birth stories as I could, talked to several moms who had done it, and just did my best to mentally tell myself over and over as the months went on that yes, I could totally do this. The week leading up to my 38 week appointment was ...

Today, we celebrate our 8th year of marriage and I think we've both been pretty introspective over the last few days leading up to it. I read something several years ago that really built up the level of anticipation for our 8th anniversary - pretty sure it was somewhere on MSN or something so you KNOW it was both true and worthwhile... Anyways, the gyst of if was that if you survive your 7th year of marriage (otherwise known as the 7 Year Itch), your likelihood of staying married improves drastically. Well, we've done it. We made it through year 8, so our chances are pretty  good from here on out. Our marriage looks a lot different, I think, 8 years in than it did the first couple. The first few years you really work out the kinks - or become aware of the kinks-  resulting from two completely different people moving in together, living together, working together, and building a life together. There's so much "together" that it becomes apparent really ...

In honor of National Breastfeeding Week, I'm sharing some of my top non-technical tips as just a normal lay person who has nothing but actual experience in hopes that they will be helpful. As a brand-new momma, some of the very best advice I received was from friends, relatives, and chatboards - and some of the WORST advice I received was from nurses and lactation consultants. Last year I was somewhat annoyed that this week even exists and was pretty sensitive towards my momma friends who did not breastfeed (a fed baby is a happy baby was and continues to be my belief). However, I also strongly believe in the number of benefits available to both mom and baby via breastfeeding, and am acutely aware of the many ways it affected and nurtured the personal relationship between my son and I. As time progressed, and especially as he nursed well into his second year, I became more passionate about advocating for nursing moms and babies and am excited to see the cultural shift b...

This week is a big milestone for the infertility community - it's the 40th birthday of the very FIRST baby ever conceived via IVF. Here's a really cool article about Louise Brown , that first baby who paved the way for so many others. Over the past 40 years, improvements, tweaks, and all kinds of different protocols have been discovered by doctors all over the world in an effort to bring the treatment to a greater population, improve success rates, and somewhere around 6 MILLION babies have been brought earthside thanks to this awesome procedure. One thing that isn't addressed very often is marriage and the many ways fertility treatment can impact it. Beyond the obvious frustration of having tried to get pregnant "the old-fashioned way" for the prescribed 6 months to a year before seeking treatment, I was surprised at the depth and variety of ways fertility treatment impacted my marriage. Our family with the doc who made it happen. 1) FINANCIALLY O...

If your kids are anything like my toddler, he may devour an entire case of raspberries without asking  on Monday and then not want to touch them again for a week, which makes it a little hard to grocery plan for exactly what we need. Most weeks, by the time we get to the weekend I've got some fruit that is just past the point of being tasty eaten fresh and I know that if I don't do something fast, it's going to go to waste. At the same time, I sometimes struggle with feeling like Cade is getting enough healthy fruits and vegetables so I'm always trying to sneak some in him and have gotten pretty creative (veggies in pasta? I'm not above it. Fruit-packed smoothies masquerading as chocolate "shakes"? Nightly staple.). One of my favorite things to do is to salvage the fruit before it's too ripe and freeze it for later use - almost always in the form of smoothies. Cade loves bananas and berries, which is usually what we have leftover and on-hand. I typ...

It wasn't until my son was about 3 months old that I realized exactly how addicted I was to my cell phone. Once he started becoming more alert and active, it became super apparent how compulsively I opened my phone to check Facebook, Instagram, email, or any other number of apps. I've never been one for games, but those can be totally distracting too. I made it my mission to break that addiction - I didn't want my son looking up at me, trying to get my attention, only to see me staring at my phone. The behaviors and habits we exhibit will be absorbed by our children. If I didn't want him to worship screen time or feel the need to constantly be entertained, then I certainly couldn't model that to him. Don't get me wrong - I'm not perfect at this by any means, but I have come a long ways and figured out several tips to keep my cell phone from running my life. Try one or two and see how much it changes yours! Get Rid of Social Media This might so...

Every Tuesday, our local library puts on a Musing and Movement class for toddlers. Because I’m a social pariah and have difficulty a) finding friends and b) establishing playdates and opportunities for my progeny to make friends, events like these that are recurring AND preplanned by someone who isn’t me are something of a staple to my son’s social calendar. We go just about every week. Today, we had an experience that left me scratching my head and wondering if I did the right thing. (But only for a minute. After a minute, I was like, yes girl - you did right.) All of the kids had been given their own musical shaker to dance with for a song. These shakers came in various shapes and sizes and for the first time in the several times we have attended, Cade was up and dancing and loving on that shaker. A good time was being had. A little boy a couple years older than him walked over and said, “I want to trade.” I looked at Cade, who was vigorously shaking his and had no...

With so much of the focus on a visibly pregnant mama to be - showers, well wishes, sympathetic glances from strangers in the grocery store - it's easy for new dads to feel a little left out! When I was pregnant with Cade, a few weeks before he was born I put together a "daddy bag" for Jeff- a manly diaper bag full of manly baby things. I was a little worried that he would think it was corny, but he actually loved it! He still uses the bag and items I put in it today, nearly a year and a half later. The daddy bag included some fun things like a card, his favorite snacks, drinks, and candy for the delivery room and then the essentials. Here's a few things I included (and wish I had!) in this cute bag for dad. A fun shirt! I actually got him a short sleeved one that was army green in color - he wore it home from the hospital and the pictures I have of him holding our son and loving up on him are the most previous things EVER.   I got h...

Motherhood did not come easy to me. We had a plan - a 3 year plan - when we got married. As college students with much work yet to do and not a whole lot of income coming in, we felt it would be prudent on just about every front to complete school and get our grown-up jobs before adding children to the mix. Yes - I was baby hungry like you wouldn't believe - but I was also working 8-5 and doing classes in the evenings, so realistically, children needed to wait. We eagerly pulled the goalie, so to speak, the summer we graduated. We obviously expected to be pregnant no more than four weeks later. That was not the case. It wasn't the case for three more years, following several rounds of fertility treatment and a whole bunch of tears and heartache. When our little boy, Cade, finally joined our family, it became abundantly clear that this is exactly what I was meant for.  Motherhood. Every long night, every milestone, every mundane activity, every step of the way, my heart an...