Day 1 So this little nugget arrived in the wee hours of the morning. I try not to call things “the best” because I feel like it minimizes old memories and sets you up to never surpass new ones. But I’m totally fine calling last night the best Saturday night...
I pulled the fitting room curtain shut and removed my dress from the plastic covering it’d been hiding under for the last few months, waiting to be altered. I was six months post-partum and just weeks away from serving as a bridesmaid in the wedding of two dear friends—the first...
In one of the final sessions of our childbirth class, the teacher walked us soon-to-be-mamas and our partners through putting together our birth plans. Most of us ended up in the class because we hoped to experience birth with minimal medical interventions. With that in mind, she encouraged us to...
If motherhood has taught me anything it’s to not assume. Ever. That old adage of what happens when you assume became an old adage for a reason: it’s true. For whatever reason, when mothers (myself very much included) spot other mothers out “in the wild”, we tend to give each...
I will never forget my son’s first Thanksgiving—not because it was his first holiday, and not because it was the first time most of my extended family met him. It was because I closed out that particular Turkey Day with a 103-degree fever that almost landed me in the emergency...
Towards the end of my pregnancy, my husband and I took a wonderful childbirth class with a local nurse and doula. We finished this six-week course feeling as prepared as two soon-to-be parents can be for the birth of their child. For the vaginal birth of their child, I should...
A couple of years ago, a friend of mine from high school posted this question on Facebook: “When did you really feel like a parent for the first time?” Most people answered with statements like, “As soon as I saw those two line on the pregnancy test” or “When she...
Last weekend, I sat on your back deck as our three kids played. We laughed, chatted, and discussed the very imminent arrival of your third baby. When we married brothers, I honestly had no idea that I would enjoy your company so much. I am so happy that I get...
If you look back at pictures of my son in the hospital after his birth, you might notice that he’s swaddled in the standard blue-and-pink-striped baby blanket in almost every shot. That’s because, other than diaper changes, baths, and an occasional loosening of the blanket during nursing sessions, he was...
I’ll go ahead and say it: pumping sucks (pun totally intended, by the way). Compared to the feeling of your little one tucking into you as you marvel over every inch of his or her sweet face, the idea of hooking yourself up to a nicely-packaged milking machine is about...