Once you become a mom, it’s crazy how quickly your viewpoint on everything changes. Suddenly, you see the world through mommy-vision.
I don’t just mean how this troubled world suddenly comes into sharp focus as you realize your little ones will have to live in it. Or even how you suddenly can relate more to all mothers, especially your own, and how you’re a little less sympathetic to anyone who isn’t one.
Pacing the floor at 2 in the morning, with no sleep […]
Poor baby. She wakes up in the morning (be it 4 or 7 a.m…) cooing and crowing at the window, a giant grin spread across her little pink, cherubic face. Her feet are kicking, her arms are pumping, her heart is full of gladness and she turns to me with all of the richness of her angelic little being, eager to bask in the delight of the moment together, and who better to share it with then her mama, the […]
My bosses and colleagues were amazing, but they couldn’t hold a candle to my cooing little being back at the ranch. Too-tight work clothes, pumping my milk in the bathroom, and the million other crazy things working mommies live through every day did not sweeten the deal.
The other day, I met a nice lady at the park and spent 10 minutes chatting with her about mothering while I pushed my toddler on the swing and held my sleeping infant and she chased the twins she was nannying. She had been a stay-at-home mom back when her three kids were little, so we did a little bit of the easy commiserating that moms often do, and talked about how much we loved being with our babies despite […]
My whole life, I’ve felt like I was obtaining random skills and taking up random hobbies for just my own pleasure. I am one of these ever-curious people who likes to try new things, learn new languages, make new circles of friends. I like the liberal arts approach to life, reading Gray’s Anatomy one week, a graphic novel the next, and splicing my Paul Krugman/ Malcolm Gladwell with Jane Austin fan fic.
I always thought that my lifestyle put me at […]
I always figured that I would let Quinn decide when it was time to stop nursing. Then I got pregnant again when she was 14 months old, and while I know plenty of mamas nurse two babies at once, I am pretty firmly decided against it. I just foresee that Quinn will want to nurse as much as the new baby, and I know I will not have the energy for two hungry little mouths at once.
I’ve slowly realized that […]
This time around, I will tell who I want, when I want.
This time around, I will not run to the bathroom every five minutes to “just check” my underwear for red.
This time around, I will not Google every little symptom or read the “complications” chapters just to freak myself out.
This time around, I will fight nausea to the death.
This time around, I will breathe more, worry less, and enjoy my growing belly.
This time around, I will be due in “early […]
My whole life, I’ve been a chameleon. I like people and I like peace, and for some reason I’ve never found it that strange to be able to say one thing with one crowd, and something else in another setting. I’ve never really lied about my viewpoints or feelings, but I go out of my way to find common ground, sometimes stretching my ground way beyond its natural territory to make that happen.
I went right from an all-girls private Catholic […]
When I first started nursing Quinn, it became evident very quickly that she liked one of my breasts a lot better than the other one. It took me a few days to notice, because there were so many other weird breastfeeding things going on, but I remember remarking to my husband during that first crazy sleep-deprived week that she hated my left breast.
“It’s like she’s scared of it or something,” I said. I remember her tiny little overflowing mouth and […]
I have had it with this whole Yummy Mummy- Hot Mama-MILF thing. Are we really supposed to be empowered that people still find us attractive even though we’ve given birth to a kid or two? Should it really be that surprising, when the average American woman has her first child at 25, that she is still good looking? It just seems like the weirdest and most sexist insult/compliment ever.
Do we go out of our way to note whether an attractive […]