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NMM2
This post is part of the New Mom Monday series! A series about moms and their advice to new moms! Books and videos can only teach us so much, but there’s something special about hearing from real life moms. Honest, true, and always beautifully inspiring!!
What’s your Name?

Tamara Goyette

Tell us a little about yourself!

I am a first time mom to a wonderful, spunky, redheaded daughter, and married to the love of my life. Becoming a mom has been hard as we have experienced two miscarriages, but have been blessed with two rainbow babies, our first born, and another daughter due this October. I love reading a good book, or watching a movie while curled up on the couch drinking a cup of tea. I love getting to travel, even if it is just exploring places local, and close to home.

How many kids do you have? What are their names and ages?

I have a daughter, Evie, who will be 3 soon. Daughter number 2 will be making her grand arrival in October.

How do you find your “me time”?

Some days I have to ask for it, and make sure dear hubby knows this Mama is in need of a break. Recently though I was blessed with a whole day that I got to do whatever I wanted. It was glorious. When I do get “me time” I often find myself running errands that are much easier to do without a toddler with me, and that my husband does not normally enjoy going with me for. Such as going shopping for clothing. It’s also often when I book in a hair appointment, or a pedicure. It’s nice to just relax, and focus on myself for a bit. I always end up feeling recharged in no time. Other days, “me time” doesn’t happen until my daughter is in bed for the night and then I get a chance to focus on whatever I’d like to do or get done.

What is the best baby related book you’ve ever read?

I honestly found baby fact books to not be very helpful, they were more so intimidating than anything else. What really helped, and was best for me was talking to friends, and ladies who have been mom’s much longer than I have. They were all open and honest about everything, and willing to answer any questions I had, and still have come up.

What’s the most useful baby product you have? Why do you love it?

I LOVE my Ergo baby carrier. It has been a huge help since very early on. I was able to put my daughter in it when was a newborn, and dry my hair after having a quick shower. She would fall a sleep thanks to the white noise of the hairdryer. We still use it today now that she is a toddler. I have even used it recently and had no issues with my baby belly, and a 28lb toddler on my back. Best investment ever!

If you could say something to yourself when you first brought home your first baby, what would you say?

Just roll with it. Our daughter had severe reflux, and it made things very interesting. Everything from the first drive home, to her sleeping in the bassinet had to be altered so that we knew she was okay. We learned quickly to just roll with things, and we figured out what worked best for her, and for all of us as a new family.

How much planning did you do before your baby was born, and how do you think that it helped or didn’t help?

We bought all of the basics before; car seat, stroller, crib, etc… it was all there. Even when we thought we were prepared, and had everything we needed we still ended up having to go out shopping the day after our firstborn arrived. We had no newborn hats, no burp cloths, and I needed pain medication. As much planning as we did, we still were not fully prepared. I’m sure our second child will surprise us too despite having baby items already in the home.

What do you believe are the top three pieces of advice a new mom or someone trying to conceive should know?
  1. Go with your mommy instincts, they really do exist.
  2. Take all advice with a grain of salt, you will figure out what works best for you and your baby.
  3. Don’t hesitate to ask for help, even if it is 2am
What is your best memory so far of being a mom?

I cherish the times during the day and night, that I spent with my daughter curled up in my arms and she would sleep for hours. Sure I could have put her down to sleep in her bassinet or crib, but I didn’t want to. I knew those moments in time would be short, and not last forever.

Give us the short form version of your birth story.

My daughter arrived on the night of a full moon, oddly enough the birthing unit at the hospital was not busy. Even the staff were commenting on this. I had to go to the hospital right away to get antibiotics, due to having strep b during pregnancy. This was a good thing because it meant I was not going to be sent home if I was not dilated enough. I didn’t have a very strict birth plan, I decided to see what happen and decide in the moment what was needed. I did eventually have an epidural, and was I ever thankful for it. By the time came for me to push, my daughter’s heart rate was crashing. The doctor was using a vacuum at the same time of my pushing to try and get her out fast, but our daughter was posterior making things interesting. At one point I was giving verbal consent for a c-section, that thankfully was not needed because after 30 minutes of pushing she did finally arrive. Her umbilical cord was up over her shoulder and around her neck. This was what was causing her heartbeat to go down. She was placed on my chest for a moment before being rushed to the side to be checked over, her daddy kept a very close watch on her. Soon enough she was back on my chest, and in my arms. I will never forget the moment her eyes looked up at me for the first time. I was in love instantly. You can read all the details about my daughter’s birth story here.

Lastly, for fun, define motherhood!

Motherhood is the honour of getting to raise a child, wether the child is their own by blood, adoption, or they are the honorary mother. It is a challenge filled with many ups, and downs, but so many incredible rewards.

To hear more from Tamara Goyette be sure to visit her blog Discovering Parenthood and follow her on Facebook HERE

NMM2-2

 

If you would like to participate in New Mom Mondays please feel free to message me by using my contact form! I would love to not only feature you on my blog but learn from your answers, as I’m sure many readers would too! 

 

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NMM1
This post is part of the New Mom Monday series! A series about moms and their advice to new moms! Books and videos can only teach us so much, but there’s something special about hearing from real life moms. Honest, true, and always beautifully inspiring!!
What’s your Name?

Hannah K.

Tell us a little about yourself!

Hello, I’m Hannah! I married my high school sweetheart, though we met at church and he was from the country and I was from the city. God perfectly placed him in my life. We were married at 20, I had our first baby at 21, and now we are expecting our second baby in the Fall 2015. 3 things I like: sports, chai lattes, and fashion. 3 things I dislike: shopping, onions, and swimming pools.

How many kids do you have? What are their names and ages?

I have one little girl who is almost two, Annaliese. And then we are expecting our second child in late September 2015.

How do you find your “me time”?

I sneak it in while my little girl takes her nap during the day, since it is a 2 hour nap I am able to take care of me. Or if I am in the need for some “girl time” with my friends and I will plan a coffee date, shopping trip, or movie night for when my husband gets home from work. That way when my coffee date turns into a 4 hour coffee date, it doesn’t upset the schedule of my family.

What is the best baby related book you’ve ever read?

The What to Expect When You Are Expecting series, they have books for pregnancy and the first few years of your children’s life. I found them informative and useful.

What’s the most useful baby product you have? Why do you love it?

I love our white noise machine, we found it at Shoppers Drug Mart around Christmas time (Annaliese was 2 months old at that point). It is small and compact and ran on batteries so I was able to throw it into the diaper bag if we were going to visit family. Since both my husband and my own families do not know how to control their volume while in the presence of a napping baby, it was super helpful to create a familiar setting for our little girl to nap in.

If you could say something to yourself when you first brought home your first baby, what would you say?

Keep it simple and remember to pray when you’re overwhelmed. I remember the first week of having our new baby I would cry and cry when it was night time because I had this overwhelming fear of SIDS – even though we kept her bassinet clear, we didn’t smoke and we didn’t have any high risk factors that related to SIDS. Thankfully my husband understood my high emotions and we would pray to God for protection for our baby girl and for trust in Him.

How much planning did you do before your baby was born, and how do you think that it helped or didn’t help?

I am a planner. And while I was pregnant I had a reception job that was very relaxed so I would go through the millions of articles on Pinterest and on parenting website. I educated myself pretty well with newborn information and I think it paid off very well.

What do you believe are the top three pieces of advice a new mom or someone trying to conceive should know?
  1. Talk to your spouse about everything child related before you conceive and especially before you give birth. You both need to be on the same page about how you are going to raise your baby/child. Are you going to use sleep training? Are you going to use the cry method? Will you discipline your child with spanking when they grow older? Do they know that a woman does not do everything child related, that helping husbands make for happy wives?
  2. When thinking about your life as a mother/soon-to-be mother, don’t let the confinements of your ideal, perfect life ruin what you are going to have. Let God’s plan for you be the only plan. Let your plan go. It’s okay to dream of a life and plan, but don’t get stuck on it. Don’t feel ruined when you only wanted to have two children, but you suddenly got pregnant with a third. It seems silly to say but I have met a lot of women who would feel lost and destroyed if their plan didn’t become a reality. Motherhood is wonderful, let it take you places that you would have never gone before.
  3. If there is one thing that will make you feel normal after having a baby it is taking a shower. Do it once a day and you will be able to make it through that day. Makeup is optional. But showering is a necessity when your breasts are milk machines, your body is still an oven (even though there’s no bun in it), and you probably have spit up or poop somewhere on you. Just lay your baby down in a safe place like their crib or on the floor with some toys, and take a quick shower. You’ll be happy you did.
What is your best memory so far of being a mom?

Every year we go to a Christian Retreat in Central Alberta for a week. And this one particular year I went alone for the week with my husbands family while my husband worked for the week and would come down for the weekend. Annaliese was 7 months old. Each night we bathed her, it was part of her night time routine, but when we were at this retreat they only had showers in the rooms. I remember this one night we were both ready to get into the shower and I turned on the shower. The noise of the water coming out of the shower head must have startled her and she released her full bladder’s content on me (aka she peed on me). I was shock but had to laugh it off, what else could I do? I was alone, naked and freshly peed on with an equally naked baby on my hip. That’s life!

Give us the short form version of your birth story.

My birth story started when I got up at 11:30pm to go to the bathroom, I was one day overdue at that point. When I rolled out of our bed and stood up, my water broke on the floor. I stood there in disbelief thinking “Did I pee myself? There’s no way I peed myself, I have excellent bladder control!”. But when I realized what had happened I woke up my husband immediately. We cleaned up the mess and grabbed our hospital bag (which was already pre-packed). The Royal Alexander Hospital was literally across the street from our apartment building, so a quick skip and a hop and we were at the hospital. I was not having intense contractions at this point.

After we were registered, at midnight my cervix was checked and I was 4cm dilated so I had to stay in the hospital. Then the fun part started. My cervix was dilating very slowly, a centimetre every 3 or 4 hours. And by the time it was noon (I think), I was having intense contractions. Our birth plan was to have no drugs or epidural or c-section. We were going to do this birth natural. And I only wanted my husband in the room.

I hate needles so when I had to get an IV inserted into my arm, that may have been the most horrific part that I can remember. I remember not wanting my husband to touch me as I road out the contractions one after the other. And I would sometimes look over at him in between contractions and he would be on my iPhone playing Candy Crush, and then I would feel mad at him. But it was that was my own choice.

After a long time of slowly dilating and contracting, I was offered a shot of morphine. And I happily accepted. And once that wore off I was offered another drug, similar to morphine and again I happily accepted. One was added to my IV and the other was a shot in the butt. But I can’t remember which one was which.

At around 10pm they had the anesthesiologist come and talk to me because they were going to need to give me an epidural or prepare me for a c-section if I did not dilate quicker because our baby was becoming stressed in my womb. Just before the anesthesiologist came in, I was given one of the drugs from above and I was unable to keep my eyes open because it helped me relax in between the contractions. But I assured him I was awake and listening, just closing my eyes.

Then everything happened so quickly. After he left, a nurse came and checked my cervix I was at 9cm. Then it seemed pretty quick again because my doctor came and checked my cervix and I was at 10cm, and ready to push! I watched as the nurses set up the equipment and tools for the doctor to deliver. I was so used to riding out my contractions that when the doctor was ready and in position, she had to remind me that it was time to push because I was in a different mind set. It took 15 minutes of pushing for my baby girl to be born. It hurts, ladies. But it was the best part of the whole labour. Because it meant it was over. Annaliese was born at 11:34pm. It was a great surprise too because we had not found out the gender of our baby and I was so certain the baby would be a boy but when the doctor announced it was a girl it was the best surprise ever!

Lastly, for fun, define motherhood!

Motherhood is about changing your selfish ways into selfless ways. It will bring out the best and the worst of you but you will never feel a love and joy more powerful than being a mother to your children.

To hear more from Hannah be sure to visit her blog Honey & Betts and follow her on Instagram @honeyandbetts

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If you would like to participate in New Mom Mondays please feel free to message me by using my contact form! I would love to not only feature you on my blog but learn from your answers, as I’m sure many readers would too! 
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NEWMOMMONDAYS
I don’t know what it’s like to be a mom.

I can read endless books, I can pin thousands of articles. But I will never know until I am one. There is one thing I can do that is bound to help me lots when mentally preparing myself. It’s meeting other moms. Asking them questions and learning from their answers. It’s hearing real stories about birth, best moments, and THEIR advice to new moms or those Trying to Conceive (or TTC). I have found over 30 moms that want to share their story. Some are fellow and prominent bloggers, others are coworkers and friends, some are family, but no matter where i found them, and how drastically different they are, they have one thing in common: They are moms. They are beautifully strong women who BIRTHED LIFE. And that makes them all incredible. Follow along to meet them all, Their stories will be up every other monday!

I hope you like hearing from them as much as I do.

If you would like to participate in New Mom Mondays please feel free to message me by using my contact form! I would love to not only feature you on my blog but learn from your answers, as I’m sure many readers would too! 

Check out past New Mom Monday posts here!

Love,

Mariangelica

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IAMNOTAMOTHER
Have you ever had one of those really vivid dreams? The ones that when you wake you don’t really know if you’re still dreaming. My experiences with dreaming are pretty unique: from lucid dreaming, to astral projections, traveling and the like, don’t worry, I won’t scare you with my stories, that’s not what this post is about.

Last night I had one of the most beautiful dreams I have ever had. The sun shone brightly above though I never once looked up at it. The rays punctured my skin with that playful and loving heat. There was little wind but I could smell her scent. A most beautiful one. She had long black hair and fairly tanned skin. Her fingers were so tiny and were wrapped around two of mine. As we walked on the small path surrounded by tall and thin wild grass, she hummed to herself, a tune all of her own. She had flowers in her hair and wore an ivory dress. Both of us were barefoot and it brought back memories of my wedding day. Sharing vows barefoot, letting ourselves connect to nature in the best way possible: with blades of cool grass slipping through our toes. My mind was back to her. I don’t know if we lived in this beautiful forest or if we were just visiting; but it felt like home. I felt like this is where we belonged and that there was no reason at all to leave. I don’t remember what I wore. I don’t think that I took notice. My eyes were fixed on her, she was so perfect so amazing and so incredible. To think that a human can create another little pretty human is still such a wonder to me.

As we walked I noticed a rock come into view. She raised her arms towards me and i was struck by her eyes, so big and round. Without thinking I helped her with ease. She was so light. As she stood, she stated that she was at eye-level with me we gazed each other’s eyes. She had tiny little freckles by her left eye and a smile that could likely hypnotize anyone. She begun telling a story about a baby deer. I can’t remember her little speech word for word, but she wanted the baby deer to be her pet. She had already named him. She continued to tell me about the baby animal and how she played with him. I listened intently, I wanted to hear every single word she had to say. I wanted to see how her lips moved, where she put the accent in her words, and how she pronounced certain words. She had a hard time making the “C” sound. This lovely creature that in my dreams I created.

When I woke up, for an instant, just an instant I thought I was in the forest. The sun peeks through my window and hits me straight in the face, it’s how I wake up. Some people would hate waking up to such shocking brightness, but I love looking into the sun warming my face every morning. I came to be and I realized it had all been a dream. The most perfect and beautiful dream I had ever had. Who really knows if it wasn’t some other magical dimension that I just got a little glimpse of. Maybe somewhere, sometime, I did walk in the fields with my young daughter with her tiny perfect fingers wrapped around mine. I hope that we continue to visit that forest and share in the small moments like that. Full of life and attentive to one another with nothing else to distract us. For now I will wait for her in this dimension, for when she’s ready to visit me and be part of this life. Until then, I love you sweet child.

Love, mom.

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