2011: the year it really happened
Just for fun, I launch up the Timehop app pretty much daily, just to see what I posted to social media on this day in years past. Today, as I was scrolling through photos of my son, tweets about weight loss and running, and photos of snow, I swiped to see this face staring back at me, with the one-word caption, “Worried.”
It was a feeling I remembered well. It was the day I learned I was pregnant. Continue reading
Five years ago today, I had no idea I’d be a mom by tomorrow. https://t.co/3VEtvD9DDq
Welcome to Part Two in my series of Unsolicited New-Mom Advice! As I said in Part One:
I’ve had more than one occasion where a friend or acquaintance has announced her mom-to-be status, and has welcomed any advice I might have. When I was a new mom-to-be, I found a lot of that sort of advice that was given to me to be invaluable — especially the things that might have taken me a while to work out for myself.
In the first installment, I talked about having a (flexible) birth plan, packing your hospital bag waaaay early, taking home everything from the hospital room that isn’t tied down, making sure Baby has a place to hang out in your — ahem — crib, swaddling and swinging and bathing and zippered crib sheets. In this installment, I recap a bit, sing the praises of second-hand baby clothes, and kind of go on a tangent about breastfeeding.
Continue reading
I’ve had more than one occasion where a friend or acquaintance has announced her mom-to-be status, and has welcomed any advice I might have. When I was a new mom-to-be, I found a lot of that sort of advice that was given to me to be invaluable — especially the things that might have taken me a while to work out for myself.
I had contemplated just emailing this to the person I’m directing the advice to this time around, but then I thought, why not just put it out there for anyone who might find it useful? Plus, I can direct other new moms to it in years to come, when my memories of those early months fade with time (which I never thought would happen, but it’s starting already).
First, a bit of a disclaimer, or sort of non-specific meta-advice:
No one’s child is exactly like yours. You can read up on what to expect, you can listen to all the advice everyone gives you, you can try to internalize it as well as you can — but at the end of the day, your child is a unique snowflake who may or may not love to be swaddled, or who may or may not care about being too hot or too cold, or who may or may not fall asleep during car rides.
Corollary to the above: Take any blanket statements about parenting with a grain of salt. Yes, including what I have to say. You as a parent will learn what works for you and your child — breastmilk or formula, crib or bassinet or co-sleeper, cry-it-out or patience-stretching or no sleep training at all — and others have very little right to be judgmental of your parenting decisions (especially without knowing your situation).
Now, on to the more specific stuff. Continue reading
On Friday night, right before bed, my water broke.
Within 13 hours, at 1:47pm on Saturday, September 3rd, our son Connor was born. Weight, 5 lbs 15 oz; length, 21 inches.
All three of us are still in the hospital and doing fine; we’ll be discharged tomorrow. Once we get home and I can write on a device a little more conducive to long-form blogging, I’ll post a full-length birth story with photos.
No worries about his gestational age, by the way; he was assessed at 38 weeks instead of the 36w5d we had originally thought.
Aaron and I are parents! And we’re perfectly OK with it so far.