-
Go Nigel, Go!
-
Would You Like To Buy My Monkeys?
Apr
6
5 Questions From Karly
by Leslie
My blogging soulmate Karly from Wiping Up Snot was offering up interviews, so I jumped at the chance to answer her burning questions. Here they are along with my answers.
1. If you could be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, which one would you be and why?
Leonardo. I took a quiz at QuizFarm.com that told me this:
You scored as Leonardo. You need to relax and realize that life should be fun as well as orderly. Your organization and willingness to be perfect will help you along the way, but sometimes you can be very annoying to others.
Yeah, that fits me.
2. What is your earliest memory?
My earliest memory is from around age 3 1/2. My mom was helping me into my snowsuit to go outside and play in the snow. It’s isn’t a long memory - I don’t really remember the playing in the snow part, but I remember getting ready, probably because I was so excited.
3. How did you come up with the name of your blog/website?
I created my website in hopes of bringing moms together to share advice, ideas and stories in those few moments they had to themselves. My working title for it was Mommy Moments.
When it came time to buy a domain, Mommy Moments was taken. I knew I wanted a new name with ‘Mommy’ in it and I wanted a trademark that people could come to recognize. All along, I referred to my website as ‘My Place.’ Once I created my trademark - a sketch of Julia’s baby face - it became My Mommy’s Place.
4. If one day the world was taken over by an evil man who decided that women could wear only shoes or carry a handbag, which would you choose? Would you rather be purseless or shoeless? For the rest of time.
I think I’d have to go with shoes, then I’d organize all of the other shoe-wearing women to beat that evil man down with them.
5. Does Julia take after you or Dave more? In what ways?
Well, she talks and talks and talks and talks and talks - like me, but she’s got Dave’s sense of humor.
Julia is a wonderful blend of the best of Dave and me. She’s from the man that makes me feel like a natural woman and she has the parts of me that I like best about myself, and that makes her the most likeable individual on the earth in my book.
Wanna keep this going? Leave a comment asking me to interview you and I’ll come up with questions just for you, just like Karly did for me. Once you post your interview, let me know and I’ll lovingly link you up.
Apr
5
Julia’s Birth Story
by Leslie
My friend Toni at This Simple Life has a cool gig going: The Thursday Birth-Day. Check her out each Thursday for lots of information on childbirth including links to resources, birth stories, words of encouragement and more.
I bought What To Expect When You’re Expecting
I quietly tucked my birth plan away with the intention of bringing it to the birth and the expectation that it would be honored to the letter. I was planning on a natural birth and fantasized about the moment my baby would come into the world and straight to my arms. I wondered when I would go into labor - would Dave be home or at work? Will it be day or night? Will my husband be overwhelmed with excitement like men are in the movies as we speed to the hospital? But, I never got to speed to the hospital or go into labor - at least not on my own.
During my final month of pregnancy, I started making too much amniotic fluid. It became such a problem that the doctor chose to induce my labor. It was 6:30 p.m. on a Wednesday when the nurse came into my hospital room and gave me Cervadil to get things going. She said, “Have a nice dinner. Relax. We’ll have a baby in the morning.” I asked my Dad to bring me a Big Mac and I devoured it while I made some last minute notes in my journal.
Less than an hour later, I was feeling pain worse than I ever imagined and my Big Mac was making a reappearance. The labor pains hit me like a train; there was no easing into it. Still, I maintained that I intended to have a natural birth and refused offers of medication throughout the night. My water broke at 4 a.m. and the intensity of my contractions increased. My pain management strategies weren’t making much of a difference by then, but I remembered hearing in my childbirth class that the average first labor lasts 12 hours and I set my eyes on the 12 hour mark. I kept telling myself that I could make it 12 hours. By 9 a.m., I was exhausted; I had to admit that the pain was more than I could bear and I asked for an epidural. By noon, I still wasn’t fully dilated and after some pushes to try and coax that last bit of cevix to open it was decided that I must have a c-section.
I sat in my hospital bed and waited to be taken to surgery scared out of my mind. I hadn’t planned this. I couldn’t visualize this happening. Were we going to come through this? While I had studied up on childbirth, I had ignored most of the information about c-sections because I was so convinced that I wouldn’t have one. But, here I was. At 2:30 p.m. on Thursday they wheeled me in to the operating room and a half an hour later Julia was born. I wasn’t the first one to touch her and hold her, like I had hoped. Breastfeeding would have to wait until they sewed me up. My daughter had finally arrived, but not the way I had planned at all.
Dave was the first to hold her. He brought her next me and I looked at her face for the very first time. After nine long months of waiting, she was there. She wasn’t crying or fussing. She just stared at me with big, wide eyes. There was my baby. She was alive and she was healthy. It didn’t matter how she got there. She was there. Twenty minutes later, she was in my arms and at my breast and my life was forever changed in ways I could never have planned.
Apr
4
Real Moms Teach
by Leslie
My blogging friend Amanda at The Mom Blog (who I am forever wishing leaved nearby) tagged me for Kristin’s meme about Real Moms. Here is my contribution.
From the moment I became a parent I heard it from various sources: You are your child’s first teacher. Still, I didn’t truly know it until the first time I heard Julia shout “Dammit!” with the same tone and inflection I use when I say that word. I taught her that. She learned that “Dammit” is what you say when you’re frustrated from me. Luckily, that’s not all I’ve taught her. I’ve also taught her to say “please,” “thank you” and “excuse me.” So she also knows to say, “Oh, excuse me for saying dammit,” when she offends her grandmother.
My daughter has learned a lot from me; I see the product of my lessons everyday. I see it when she identifies all the letters in the headline of the newspaper or counts the stairs as she stomps down them in the morning. I see it when she puts a hand on her hip, wags her finger and makes a demand. I see it when she encourages her friends. It’s there when she offers to share the last bite. It’s there when she spells her name or replies to the question, “Guess what?” with “Chicken Butt.” It’s there when she points out each state on the U.S. map and when she points out that the kid in line behind us just picked his nose and ate the booger.
If there is anything real moms are doing, it is teaching our children. We will never have anyone pay as much attention to what we do and say as our children do. Real moms know this and we try our best to make it count.
Now it’s your turn! I’m tagging Toni, Jennifer, Ruth, Karly and Mommy The Maid.
Apr
3
Unexpected News
by Leslie
I’m not sure why, but I am a little anxious about this second pregnancy. I’m thrilled to be pregnant, but I am just so worried that something will go wrong. With Julia, I didn’t worry about that. I was absolutely confident that she was going to be fine - it was my ability to parent her that concerned me. This time, I am incredibly fearful that I’ll lose this child. I have no reasonable explanation for that fear, but it’s there. Perhaps I’m just more aware of what I have to lose this time around.
According to the calculations from my first appointment, I am now 7 weeks along. Today, I had my first opportunity to peek at the baby through an ultrasound. I couldn’t wait! All I wanted was to see that heartbeat and know everything was going okay. But, I didn’t see the heartbeat. I saw the gestational sack. It turns out that I’m not as far along as they thought. The measurements they took on the ultrasound indicated that I am 5 weeks and 1 day pregnant.
That means I was only 3 weeks pregnant at the first positive pregnancy test. Am I in tune with my body or what?
The doctor said from what she saw today, my due date will be early December rather than late November, but she’s not going to give me a firm date until my next ultrasound in two weeks. Although she assured me that things look fine, I’m still worrying and probably will until I see that beating heart on the screen.
Now Julia wasn’t disappointed at all with what we saw today. She was ecstatic to see the baby. She’s adamant that it’s a girl and told me that it’s in my belly going, “Woooosh.”
I’ll be happy when it’s in there going, “ba-bum ba-bum.”
Apr
1
April Giveaway: It’s All About Balance
by Leslie
This month, at My Mommy’s Place, our focus is on balance and I’d like to hear your thoughts. Here are a few questions to get you thinking:
*What does balance mean to you?
*How do you achieve balance? Do you have any helpful tips or resources to share?
*What prevents you from achieving balance?
*What does a balanced life look like?
*Balance in parenthood - is it possible?
Submit a comment to this post or at My Mommy’s Group for a chance to win The Motherhood Manifesto Documentary Film on DVD!!!
Be as creative as you like. Share your thoughts in words, pictures, poetry - anything that articulates your thoughts on balance. Bloggers, feel free to submit your links via comments if you feel inspired to publish a post on the subject and please pass the word along!
The giveaway begins today and runs through April 30th. Ten participants will be randomly selected to receive the documentary. Winners will be notified via e-mail and announced here on May 1st.
Balance - let’s talk about it!
-
I Write A Haiku Each Day
-
Hurts So Good
-
Categories
- Daily Haiku
- Mommy’s Stuff
-
You Should Do This
-
Ooooooh. Aaaaah.
