Tag Archives: Babies

5 Things I Learned While My Baby Was In The NICU

Pregnancy And You

Courtesy of Dr. Pooja Sharma Heartbreaking doesn’t even begin to describe that sinking feeling you get when you see your baby behind a door, in a glass box, in nothing but a diaper, with tubes shoved up her nose, a name tag on her wrist (so she doesn’t get mixed up with other babies — my biggest fear at the time) just lying there. Maybe she’s thinking “Where’s my mother?” “What are these scary beeping sounds?” “Why am I not in my warm cosy home anymore?” My […]

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I Needed Someone To Take Care Of Me Like I Took Care Of My Baby

Pregnancy And You

Scary Mommy and Big Joe/Getty This is what I wish I knew before I had my daughter, Addison. This is what I wish I could vocalize to Michael throughout her entire newborn stage. We might have had a baby together, but darling, your child, your priority right now, is not that sweet precious bundle of joy. It is me. It is your wife. It is the woman who is up at all hours breastfeeding and changing and burping and soothing our absolutely perfect, beautiful, screaming, crying, new […]

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This Is Not How I Pictured My First Year With My Last Baby

Pregnancy And You

Katie Cloyd/Instagram Having a baby during the COVID-19 pandemic has been really emotional and weird for me. I had my last baby in early January. When I first laid eyes on her, I knew she was the last piece of our family puzzle. We were complete. I was totally sure that 2020 was going to be the best year of our lives as we got to know our last teammate. We spent the first couple months mostly at home. I was recovering from my third c-section, it […]

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What I Learned From My Postpartum Meltdown

Pregnancy And You

Courtesy of Nina Turcsanyi This photo was taken on a Tuesday morning, ten minutes after my husband left me at home with our new baby to go back to work (taken after I dried my tears and wiped my snot-covered face). I didn’t prepare myself for that seemingly insignificant moment— always focusing on my impending return to work. But now here I was in a quiet house just me, my baby, and the revelation that I had zero idea what I was doing. The few days he was […]

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Pressuring New Moms To Breastfeed Is A Dangerous Practice––From A Certified Lactation Counselor

Pregnancy And You

Fanny Renaud/Unsplash I’m a lactation counselor. And while some people might have a heart-touching story about what landed them in the career they’re in, my story is different. I decided to help moms breastfeed after my horrendous experience trying to breastfeed my own daughter. And the cornerstone of the advice I give moms is support: no matter what their decisions are about feeding their baby. I’d done all the research about childbirth that I could. I attended classes, devoured books, and talked to professionals. I knew exactly […]

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When Choosing A Newborn Photographer, There’s More To Consider Than Artistic Ability

Pregnancy And You

Nicole De Khors/Burst Newborn photography has become somewhat of a parenthood staple in America. I mean, is there anything quite as wholesome as a photo of your fresh squeeze all curled up, swaddled like baby Jesus in a muslin cloth, while showing off their best gummy grins to the camera? It. Is. Bliss. And what makes it even more adorable and memorable is when you’re able to get those shots during that perfect window of time at five to 14 days following birth — that week-and-a-half “sweet […]

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As A NICU Parent, Sometimes You ‘Forget To Breathe’

Pregnancy And You

ER Productions Limited/Getty As a new parent, you are filled with hopes, dreams, and excitement.  You don’t know what to expect, but, ultimately, you figure it will all work out.  Then, sometimes, the rug is pulled out from underneath you and all of your hopes, dreams, and excitement come crashing down. This is what happened to me at 25 weeks pregnant when I went into labor. Two weeks later, I had my twins via C-section. When a child is born significantly premature, as a parent you are […]

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A Fellow Mom Showed Me Love, And I Carry That With Me To This Day

Pregnancy And You

Scary Mommy and Westend61/Getty I’ll never forget the mom who saw me struggling with my one-year-old at the library over a decade ago, when I was an exhausted, stressed out new mom. My son had just learned how to walk, and he was taking full advantage, waddling around, pressing buttons on the computer, sticking his finger in the electronic book drop, and somehow repeatedly setting off an alarm at the entryway of the library. Every time I would walk past this other mom, sitting calmly at a […]

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My Twins Were Born At 27 Weeks

Pregnancy And You

Courtesy of Jennifer Canvasser Trigger warning: child loss Despite my healthy pregnancy and doing everything “right,” my twins were born at 27 weeks gestation, about 90 days before their due date. I didn’t even make it into the third trimester. Like most parents of preemies, I was completely unprepared for our new life in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). My babies were delivered via emergency C-section and whisked away to fight for their lives. I didn’t get to see them until several hours after they were […]

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There’s A Biological Reason Babies Do The ‘Breast Crawl’

Pregnancy And You

Scary Mommy and Shopify Partners/Burst If you’ve been lucky enough to witness it, watching a newborn crawl up to the breast and latch on is one of the most amazing things you’ll ever see. It’s a phenomenon called “the breast crawl” and most healthy babies are able to do it without any help at all. A mom just places their newborn on their belly or chest, waits patiently, and eventually the baby scoots and shimmies up to the breast and is able to latch on, all by […]

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