Who knew it would be a bad idea to travel across the country in my first trimester? That it might not be too bright to take a tiring flight with my toddler and then drive up a canyon to a cabin that’s about 8,000 feet above our house in Seattle?
Well, I knew. I knew that my morning sickness, already making me miserable, would most likely get worse. But Todd and I planned this trip to visit his family in Colorado […]
Quinn is madly in love with me right now. Randomly, throughout the day, she will grab hold of my arm, or stroke my hair, or touch my face while proudly proclaiming “MY mama.”
It is the cutest, sweetest thing, ever.
She also loves to give me kisses and hugs, to point at my nose and her nose, solemnly informing me “noe.” She is also really into nursing right now, though she’s still only doing it 3-4 times in a 24 hour period. […]
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 was in a local consignment shop the other day, checking out the clothes in the 12-18 months size, when I came across a T-shirt that read “Big Sister.” Did I mention that I was in the 12-18 months section?? I was like, Et tu, Carter’s?
It seems like as soon as the fog of new parenthood clears just slightly, I mean just enough so that you can see your hand in front of your face on some days, the entire […]
I know that some of you ladies are home on maternity leave, trying to decide whether to go back to work. I thought it might be useful to you to read a little bit about why I made the decision I did. I want to emphasize, however, that this is the decision that worked best for my family and is not a judgment against choices made by anyone else!
I went back to work when Quinn was four months old and […]
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 […]
When I was about seven months pregnant, my childbirth instructor told our class that we would be amazed at how quickly our babies would change.
“You will literally go to pick them up for a nap sometimes and they will be a visibly different baby,” she said.
Never has that been more true these first few weeks of Quinn’s thirteenth month. I feel like every time I see her after a brief respite, her eyes sparkle with newfound knowledge. She watches me […]
When Quinn was three months old, my husband gripped my arm one day and told me solemnly “We are already 1/72 of the way through Quinn’s childhood living with us. Isn’t that so sad?”
At first I laughed a little, but then the significance hit me too. We couldn’t believe that any measurable chunk of time had already passed, that we would only have 71 of the same little chunks of time with her and then–bam– she would be off to […]
When Q was a teensy tiny little newborn, she had this amazingly endearing cry-sigh-laugh that would turn my heart into raspberry jelly every time I heard it. She would start with a crying “Wah!!” then gradually move on to an uncertain “Wahh??” and then a sort of calm “Wahhhh” before she ended with a content, sighing “Whahhhah.” All of this would occur in the space of about 10 seconds. It was SO cute.
She did it no less than 20 times […]
Quinn has always been a cuddly, clingy baby. That’s worked for me for the most part, as I’m pretty much a cuddly, clingy mama. But there have been times over the past 10 months when I wished I could move more than two feet from her side without evoking a total breakdown. There were times when I wanted to start dinner before my husband finished work. There were times when I would have loved to go to the bathroom without […]