Now that Quinn is well into toddlerhood, and the burgeoning bump of my second baby sometimes edges into my field of vision, I have both the emotional distance and the sense of urgency needed to look back critically on the newborn period. My memories are often sepia-toned, infused with the magic that tiny little being brought into our lives.
But the picture isn’t always pretty. I didn’t realize it at the time (or at least I didn’t acknowledge it to anyone, […]
When I was pregnant with Quinn, I had myself convinced that I was keeping her safe and healthy by being so hyper-aware of her. I knew on an intellectual level that my body was doing all of the things it needed to do to grow and nourish her, but still, I assumed that my passion about the process was playing a major role.
I see now, as I think a lot of moms do the second time around, that I’m really […]
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 […]
I would change a few very small things. Namely, Quinn’s socks.
Think of your own socks, and how quickly one is lost, and then imagine them miniaturized, with a real-in-the-flesh sock fairy regularly taking one off and leaving it God-knows-where and you get some idea of how difficult it is to find a little matching pair of socks on any given day.
So, if I had it all to do over again, the first year that is, I would have bought 20 […]
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 […]
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 […]