Four days of labor ended in an emergency Cesarean section
Two hours after every time I ate, I would have the Cytotec inserted, and be checked for progression. By Friday evening, I was having steady contractions, so after dinner, I wasn’t given any Cytotec. I was only dilated 1 1/2 cm. I was in pain, and panicky at this point. I told Jonathan, “I’m sick because of the baby being inside me. The quicker she gets out, the quicker I get better. I want a Cesarean section.” He told me that wasn’t in my birth plan, and tried to calm me down.
Blending work, home, and marriage: How to work with your spouse
I finally finished my PhD and found myself at a loose end. My husband Jamie was wrapping up his own project and he made a proposal: why not work on an iPad word game idea together? So in a week we had a working prototype and we thought hey, this could work; we can always quit if it doesn’t. That first week of working together gradually became months as our daily lives melded work, home, and marriage. Along the way I learned a few things, through trial and error, that made working with a spouse easier…
How I used physical sensations when explaining colours to a blind child
How do you explain the concept of colours to a small child who had never seen anything but black? When we got told that there was to be a blind child at our kindergarten class, we got sent to a course in how to best stimulate such a child. The number one thing we learned was to play with her other senses, which is often more developed than in people with normal eye sight.
I’m an attachment parent who didn’t co-sleep or baby wear — and that’s okay!
I share my story because I don’t want other new parents to go through what I went through. My advice is simply to trust yourself and trust your child. You know what’s best for your family and your child knows what they need. Babies are born with personalities and preferences that can’t be accounted for in a one-size-fits-all parenting philosophy. Children are more resilient than we think. If Plan A doesn’t work, keep trying until something does.
Talking about being safe online freaked out my kid
We started with a basic conversation on how not everyone online is who they seem, and that she shouldn’t give out personal information. I kept it light, like “In your game you’re a wizard with purple skin, and we know you’re not really a wizard and you have peach skin, so the person you meet who say’s they’re an 11 year old boy with a Mohawk could really be an eight-year-old girl with a ponytail”, etc. Through the course of our conversation, she asked why safety is an issue online, and I let her know, in generic terms, that sometimes people use online personas to manipulate or bully or hurt other people, and that sometimes it can spill over into offline life.
When you’re not your biological child’s “first” parents
Even though our story is somewhat unique, the idea of bringing a child into your home years after they’re born isn’t a new one. So often folks are hesitant to bring older children through their home, through adoption or other means, because of a fear that it’ll be more difficult to bond with a child you don’t receive as an infant. Through my limited experience (my own family experience!), I understand where this fear is coming from, but want to say that children bond with people who take care of them. Even without a genetic connection, a child, regardless of age, wants to feel love and likes the idea of being part of a family.
Rainbow ice chalk and 3 other easy child-led science experiments
We’re big fans of science experiments and experiences in our home so I’m always on the lookout for fun things to try. I found these experiments at Reading Confetti and Science Bob, and knew we had to try them. I feel like it’s only fair to warn you that each of these experiments has a certain degree of mess involved — there’s a lot of corn starch in this post.
Small-space living tips that even families in bigger homes can learn from
My partner and I are raising two young kids in a third floor walk up apartment in Brooklyn. We have two small bedrooms. How small, you ask? Well, when I insisted that we get a queen-sized bed during month six of my second pregnancy, the trade-off was that we would no longer be able to shut our bedroom door. We have a living room space, a kitchen and a bathroom. While our apartment is bigger than what many people make do with in the city, its not spacious by any extent.