Wonderings on how babies feel about living in foster care
What does a baby think when he sees his biological mother for only the fourth time in his six months of life? Does he feel a connection? Does he realize this is someone special? Does he feel any of the conflicted feelings that his almost three-year-old brother feels? Maybe he just basks in the love.
My mom doesn’t like me: parental estrangement and lessons learned
Sometimes, your own best intentions and healthy patterns can’t cancel out the choices your parents make. It isn’t an easy decision to come to, to make, or to act on, but sometimes estrangement is the right choice for you. It was for me. These are the lessons I learned along the way.
Nursing gave me a supposedly-perfect body (but I wanted my A-cups back)
I was astonished by this transformation into my ideal body. I felt lighter on my feet and more comfortable in my skin. In one year, I had gained 50 pounds, and then lost 65. I had gone from a size 6 to a maternity Large, then back down to a size 4. I went from a bra size A to B and then C. I felt like a real woman, feminine in a way that finally matched how I had always felt on the inside.
Here’s the place for tons of practical, body-positive maternity clothes advice
No one article of clothing is going to fit the same way all through your pregnancy. You’ll need different clothes at different times, and you’re not going to get the same level of fit you would when your body’s not changing shape. At least not for long.
Ditching the boulder holders: 36D and bra-less for two years
I had always just accepted that bras were a necessary part of life, having had my mother tell me repeatedly that if I didn’t wear them, my boobs would sag, and… Wait, no, that was pretty much the main reason. So I got to thinking, and then, after asking myself this all important question, I got to reading. The more I read, the less there seemed to be any kind of information supporting the idea that wearing a bra would prevent one’s breasts from sagging, or indeed have any kind of benefit.
Small family bedroom full of extra space and storage hacks
When we moved into our apartment, the bedroom was a poorly-lit beige box. Further challenges: The room needed to accomodate a king sized bed, clothes for two adults, plus a changing area and a bassinet for our son Izzy, who’s now three months old. It’s also a rental, which severely limited our willingness to make major modifications. With paint, decals, mirrors, and creative storage, we came a LONG way towards counteracting the room’s tendency to be a small, dark cave. Since the room initially seemed to barely accomodate two of us, this seems like a huge achievement! This is how we pulled it off…
Taking a vacation in our city helped get my marriage and parenting focus back on track
Parenthood came with all of its work and exhaustion and then postpartum depression hit and we haven’t been managing those new challenges well. We went from being each other’s warm, safe, place to fall into at the end of the day to adversaries who yell and scream and take out all of our frustrations on the other person. It’s not like this every day, of course, but the grumpy, angry, days are creeping in more and more frequently.
A ton of gift ideas for your expecting friends
The problem with baby showers and registries is that you don’t know your baby yet and as novice parents you really don’t know what you are going to need. And you aren’t going to know whether or not your child will hate the really expensive bouncer that their grandparents purchase them off of the registry.