Tag Archives: emotional wellness

Zen mama

I am not just a control freak, I am an I-need-to -stay-alert-every-second-of-the-flight-or-else-the-plane-will-crash control freak. I am also a planner, a list-maker, an organizer and a workaholic.

Or, wait, I mean I was those things. A long time ago. Back before I became a mom. (Just 14 months ago.)

I had approached motherhood the way I had approached all other milestones: with a carefully detailed five-year-plan that I followed to a T. Hubby and I married in 2004, I got my Master’s Degree […]

The hardest job you’ll ever love

I never thought breastfeeding would be so difficult for me. I also never dreamed it could be so rewarding.

My mom nursed my sister and me well into our toddlerhoods effortlessly and I always thought I would do the same. My main reason for wanting a natural birth was so my baby and I could get off to a good nursing start. I read all the books, got all the gear, and braced myself for sore nipples and some awkward first […]

Mama Bear in a pink bathrobe

It turns out I am not a super-cool 20-something wearing stovepipe jeans and an understated T-shirt, drinking a PBR and affecting boredom while listening to a live band.

On the contrary, turns out I’m now the nemesis of such a person. Let me explain.

A few weeks ago, I hit my mothering low. I mean ROCK BOTTOM. Q went straight from yucky cold to epic teething to first sore throat, and somewhere during that last transition, she stopped nursing. I don’t mean […]

How I survived the two weeks AFTER my due date

This time last year, I was very, very pregnant. My due date had come and gone and I’d stopped working a few weeks before, so my primary occupation was waiting for my baby.

Throughout my pregnancy, I had heard that the average first baby is eight days “late,” but I still didn’t expect that to happen to ME. My baby had turned head down early, she had dropped early, and my Braxton Hicks had been building for months.

At 40-plus weeks, squatting […]

Want some parenting advice?

When you have a baby, everyone who has “been there” (and plenty of people who haven’t) feel obligated to overload you with advice. These are mostly well-meaning attempts to make your life easier, or at least make the bearer feel they have done their part to pass on all the knowledge they accrued.

The only problem with that knowledge is it tends to fall into the following categories: Super obvious, super crazy or super unlikely.

Some super obvious advice that most parents get is […]

Finding your mama soundtrack

When Quinn was about five weeks old, I was out walking around Greenlake with another new mama when she hit me with a revelation: She still listened to NPR all day long.

I know it might sound a little stupid, but it had not even occurred to me that I could still listen to the radio.

With the complete upheaval of my entire home and being, and the crush of total wall-to-wall sleep deprivation, I had completely forgotten that there were some […]