• Tying Rafts Together

    Yesterday I posted the following on Facebook, which seemed to resonate with fellow moms and women in general: If I could give any advice to new mothers it would to tie your rafts together. When the waves get high, don’t cut each other loose. Those friendships are precious and there will be a time when the waters calm and you get to float for a bit and sip your margaritas, but don’t go at it alone when times are hard,…

  • The Slaughter of Silence and Sleep

    After tears of confusion, much drama, pain, clinging, drooling, gnawing, and the slaughter of silence and sleep, Wookie has pushed two teeth through. There is no picture because there isn’t much to see yet, just two little white lines on his bottom gum line. I suppose I should be mourning the impending loss of his sweet gummy smile, but babies with just their two bottom teeth are quite adorable too. Last week, Wookie and I visited my family in Chattanooga…

  • Bag it.

    This morning as I was getting my son ready for Mom’s Morning Out, I pulled out some fresh pull-ups and he promptly told me, “No, I want to wear these” – these being his Lightning McQueen and Mater underpants. This was a pretty big moment because ever since the baby was born, Scooby has resisted underwear showing a strong preference for the pull-ups, even preferring them over being naked. I thought all little boys preferred to run around naked, but…

  • The Professor of Poop

    Let’s all do the group groan… yes, you knew it was bound to come at some point – Wookie’s first poop story. My number one job is mom, but my number two job (bahahaha) is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Bio and Ag Engineering. Several weeks back I was approached by one of my students to serve on her graduate committee, and after hesitating and throwing the “I have a baby and toddler” excuse, she told me just to bring them…

  • PPD and Me

    For the sake of learning to be more transparent and hopefully so that other new mamas don’t feel alone in their struggle to adjust to a new “normal”, I’m going to keep journaling my experiences with postpartum depression. Newborns don’t give a mama much sleep. I knew this, I’d done it before. I probably could have used some help last time as well, but the difference is that with the second baby, you don’t have the luxury of napping when…