My Journey to Motherhood

About 38 Weeks With #1

Let’s do a quick overview of how it all began. Back in May 2018, I got pregnant for the first time. We had moved from Pennsylvania to Vegas in fall 2017. It was a new job (for my husband, I was able to stay at my job and work remotely), a new coast, and a new life. We had been married for a few years, we wanted to start a family, and we were excited that by chance, our timing was right. We had a cruise scheduled for the end of June 2018 with my husband’s family, and we just closed on our house as we found out about the pregnancy and were getting ready to move to the Phoenix area. Our realtor recommended a highly respected OBGYN in Scottsdale, who I got an appointment with just as we returned from the cruise.
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We went to that first appointment, I had a vaginal ultrasound, and the baby measured at 6 weeks instead of 8. The doctor’s office was awful. They beat around the bush so much, but the bottom line, after I asked a ton of questions and begged the nurse practitioner to tell it to me straight (my husband, actually had to pull it out of them) - I would likely miscarry. Which I did, two weeks later. What an awful start to motherhood.

Being the research nut that I am, I found out how common miscarriages unfortunately were, especially as first pregnancies. As someone who barely thought about actually being pregnant (versus the want to have kids) beforehand, this was serious news to me. When we found out we were pregnant with our daughter in February 2019, I was nervous for most of pregnancy, but especially up until the 12 week point. Thankfully, we had a healthy, happy baby arrive in early October 2019.

A few months later, just as we started getting the hang of the parenting thing, we found out I was pregnant with our second. Though unexpected, we were excited and our son arrived at the end of October 2020, barely over a year after our first. Almost “Irish twins”. He’s turning into a stoic, chubby, cutie and is polar opposite of our daughter who was a serious cryer in those first months and is a very active baby and child.

Through the first few months of motherhood, I felt lost. Was I “doing this right”? The amount of judgement in the parenting community is unreal - shocking, in fact. Parents, especially first time parents, need a reminder that whatever is working for you is the “right” way. My mom told me she got a poster from the parenting class that her and my dad took that said, “Babies don’t come with instructions”. No, they most definitely don’t. 

I hope you enjoy this blog and the systems I have created help you love your life with littles. As I grew up, advanced my career, and took on more “responsibilities”, I felt the need to become more organized, and at the same time purge from my life what wasn’t working for me (in may different ways). I started using my design skills to make helpful resources so I could be more on top of my home life, and I hope that in sharing them with you, they’ll help you too!