Category: Motherhood

Attempting to make sense of the complexity that is being a mother – being a good mother – to little people, finding joy in both the joy-filled and not so fun moments, and not losing myself along the way.

  • Maternity Leave for Small Business Owners

    Maternity Leave for Small Business Owners

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    On May 9th, I gave birth to our third daughter, Adelaide, while running on just an hour of sleep, following a 10 hour work day into the wee hours of the morning.  Adelaide was born at noon; I rested, ate food, worked to get our breastfeeding relationship started, and spent an hour responding to client…

  • Torn: Stay at Home Mom, Working Mom, and Everything In-Between

    Torn: Stay at Home Mom, Working Mom, and Everything In-Between

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    Tuesday has become one of my favorite days of the week.  We get up, I pack lunches for not one but two little girls, then I drop them both off at their respective schools and return to a quiet house where I have six blissful hours with just me and my computer. This past year, one…

  • Family Planning

    Family Planning

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    Days are speeding by and we are nearly at Zara’s half birthday, which means the littlest member of our family is almost 18 month old.  Instead of buying her just any old book for her half birthday present, I decided to put make a photo book of her birth story, which is something I hope…

  • Mother’s Day

    Mother’s Day

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    There’s been a lot of perfection lately. Monday we had fun discovering a new park after an awesomely killer stroller strides class.  There was gorgeous summer weather, friends, and a fossil-filled wall perfect for climbing. Even our little bee was able to climb off the ground.  I was at once amazed and terrified by her…

  • Some Random Happiness

    Some Random Happiness

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    My sleep schedule is all sorts of messed up and I’ve been living off peanut-studded brownies with peanut butter frosting, but the last few days I have felt so incredibly happy.  Here’s a little bit of the random happiness I’ve been feeling: Chris finally has two consistent days off each week again (after the short…

  • Exhaustion and Mommy Guilt

    Exhaustion and Mommy Guilt

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    In my 28 years, I have moved nearly 20 times.  I lived in nine different houses in three different states before graduating from high school.  Once I went to college, I did the traditional move every year, and in the six years Chris and I have been married, we have lived in four different states…

  • Building a Parenting Library — Recommended Reading

    Building a Parenting Library — Recommended Reading

    I mentioned awhile ago that I received a $500 grant to start our La Leche League library.  I had a lot of fun thinking about the books I would recommend to local moms and what was helpful to me the first or second time around.  Of course, there were significantly more books that I wanted…

  • Breathless

    Breathless

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    There are moments as a parent when I just don’t know how to breathe. Sweet moments when the breathlessness accompanies deep rivers of love, like when I melt at the perfect baby girl nursing in my arms.  When her dark gray eyes lock into mine and she pauses to give me a magical milky grin.…

  • Nursing in Public

    Nursing in Public

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    Yes, that’s an arbitrary nursing picture with ***gasp*** a boob in it.  Given the topic of this post, it only seems appropriate to share a picture of my little Zara Bea doing her favorite thing.  If that offends you, then you might not want to read this post. Every now and then, a news report…

  • Pumping and Time Apart

    Pumping and Time Apart

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    Tonight, I pumped for the first time since Zara’s birth.  I sat on my bedroom floor, answering question after question from my curious preschooler as I followed a ritual at once both familiar and foreign.  Unzip the black bag that was once my daily companion: in the office, on the train, through airports, and across…

  • Behavior Modification, Santa and the Elf on the Shelf

    Behavior Modification, Santa and the Elf on the Shelf

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    It’s the time of year where I’m due for at least one blog post about how we’re fumbling our way through winter holiday traditions and figuring out what works for our family.  I wasn’t originally planning to write about about Santa today, although he’s been much discussed in our house over the past week or…

  • Labeling a Life of Work and Family

    Labeling a Life of Work and Family

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    It seems I’ve forgotten how to blog…and maybe dial the phone, too.  Thank goodness for Facebook where I can at least post an occasional status update or photo as a means of reassuring my mother (all the way down in Texas) that, yes, we’re still here and still doing fine. I had realized toward the…