When I was pregnant with my first daughter, family and friends who’d been there all had the same piece of advice: Sleep when the baby sleeps. It seemed so simple, and so obvious. Of course I would do that. When I was tired. Which wouldn’t be all the time. Then my daughter was born, and, like a lot of babies,…
by Kimberly Chan This post was originally published at https://www.oktobeimperfect.com/preparing-baby-emotional-changes-challenges/. Emotional changes and challenges should be expected with the arrival of a new baby. As I prepare to lead a PEPS Newborn group discussion on Emotional Changes and Challenges and prepare for the arrival of our second child, I want to share my approach with other new and expecting parents…
by Laurie Ganberg, LICSW “I love my baby but I feel trapped.” “Maybe having a baby was a mistake.” “Every part of my life has changed. I miss my old life.” I often hear these statements hesitantly shared by women experiencing ambivalence and regret after a new baby—along with, “I can’t talk about this in the new moms group.” But it is…
by Megan Sloan I was a prenatal and postnatal yoga teacher long before I was a mom, and a student of yoga for even longer. Through years of teaching yoga to pregnant students and then seeing their transformations into new parents postpartum, I witnessed the gamut of what becoming a parent looked like. And if there’s one thing I learned,…
by Conni Navarre, Founder of Mother Soulstice The transformation into motherhood is a time of tremendous joy and love that can be coupled with the distress of one’s own personal need to heal both physically and emotionally post birth. Many women don’t receive adequate education and support during this time, which can leave them feeling isolated in their recovery. In…
by Melinda Ferguson The time after a baby arrives is one of enormous change for the entire family. Relationships shift, priorities shift, many aspects of daily life change, and there is much to learn about the care and feeding of a new little person. All of these transitions happen regardless of whether someone gave birth themselves, just by the nature of bringing a…
I couldn’t stop turning the words over in my head. “It’s your life, too,” my friend had said to me. It was an off-hand, supportive reply to me cataloging my overwhelming 24-hour-a-day job as mother to three young daughters. But why couldn’t I let the words go? Was it really my life too? There was so much I enjoyed about…
by Megan Sloan Pretty much any new parent will share with you the aches and pains that have become part of their daily life with their new little one. We develop sore necks, tight shoulders, wrist issues and low back problems as a result of lifting, carrying, rocking, feeding and caring for our little ones. It’s amazing the havoc a…
by Shawna Gamache Like a lot of moms, I found that surviving pregnancy and early motherhood meant that I put my own needs off as long as I could. And then I just couldn’t anymore. At a certain point, after eight years immersed in raising three young daughters, I could no longer ignore the reality that I was not my…
So how does a completely immersed mom claw herself out of the abyss of early motherhood? For me, it started with writing a book and ended with raising a hammer. Let’s start with the Book… Last November I told my family that I would be writing a novel that month. You see, every November there’s a month-long writers marathon called…
