Two and Three QuartersRuns: Half-marathons at most. Prefers relays.
Mom to: 3 boys - no more, no less.
Wine: I'll take a cab.
I received a review copy of this book in exchange for my honest review on this blog.
If you take one thing away from the internet today about pregnancy, please let it be this book: Pregnancy is a Real Mother by Jeffery L. Zweig, MD. The title had us hooked immediately and the content did not disappoint. We even had the opportunity to ask the author a few questions.
The first year of parenthood for every mom is a whirlwind of adjustments: less sleep, new schedule, new eating habits, new human being to learn about, etc. What we didn’t realize is that motherhood would also bestow upon us a very particular set of skills (insert non-existent Liam Neeson emoji here). More specifically, we gain ninja-like like skills that help us do anything from getting baby to sleep to finding the opportunity to cram a bite to eat in our mouths.
Not sure exactly what I’m talking about? Well, maybe you can identify with some of these stealthy moves:
After last night’s episode of “Married At First Sight” I am totally optimistic about seeing love grow between the couples who volunteered to be married as complete strangers. However, the episode ended with a season preview that has me sitting in suspense (I mean, we know marriage isn’t a cake walk, but can these strangers really work through their shit together?) Now, I will spend the next several weeks watching them work through changes and their issues and at the end of six weeks, they will decide whether to stay married or get divorced.
Sometime during the first 12 hours of my son’s life, my brain began to switch modes. My first hours of sleep in the hospital after giving birth at 3:34am were rudely awakened by a nurse asking me if I had forgotten to wake up to feed my baby. I mean, yeah, it’s only been a few hours though, right? Wait, what day is it again? But hey, that lazy baby didn’t wake up to remind me either! C’mon dude, you’re making me look bad, 8 pounds isn’t a lot of weight to pull!
The guilty feeling lingered. Okay fine, this is what a newborn feeding schedule is really like, huh? Got it. No problem, we can just establish a new rhythm, right? Every 2-3 hours: diaper change, feed, sleep (baby, not me). Oh cool, look! There’s a feeding app that lets me keep track of EVERYTHING. I can even see the pattern of sleep I get in the night. Sure, that seems useful…
Without getting you into the nitty-gritty of all of our family’s little nuances, the dynamics and relationships of our extended family tend to get a little complicated. As though living half-way across the country with a constantly changing address wasn’t complicated enough.
Regardless of all the different sides of our family we have to address when it comes to communication, it was clear that there was an all-around demand for frequent photo evidence that our son was indeed growing up and remaining healthy and cute. A million separate emails or texts simply was not an option and constantly posting to Facebook got tiresome for several reasons:
Trying to write this blog post has been very much like my approach to date nights now that we have a kid: I’ve just put it off until I have to face it.
After my son was born, my husband and I didn’t go on a date night until my son was a little over 13 months old. We don’t have close family nearby, so the opportunity rarely arises. But finally, when my son wasn’t so needy and my dad was in-town, we took the opportunity to go on a day date while my son napped and my dad could be there with him when he woke-up. Easy.
Let me preface everything by stating that I feel like I had a stellar birth experience. I seriously *heart* everyone in the labor & delivery ward at my hospital. Most things went according to plan. Healthy boy? Check. Powering through without the epidural? Check.
I’d like to begin by blaming Mallory. She’s the instigator in this whole blog thing. She said to me, “Claire, all the other moms are doing it, why not us?”
She is the cool mom, so I’m very susceptible to her peer pressure. But, yeah, why not US?
Two and Three Quarters 