Goodnight Mom

In my last post, I wrote about my experience becoming a mom during a global pandemic, and during a year of racist police violence and social unrest. There was so much more to say about our experience in the pandemic that I split it into two parts. Here, I reflect on what it was like to travel with our young infant and adjusting to life back at the Fishbowl.   (check out part 1 here!) Pandemic Travel In January, Steve and I traveled to England by way of Paris, France. We had chosen that route so that Porter, our 15lb miniature schnauzer could travel in the cabin with us (UK does not allow pets in cabin). My dad was our hero, driving from home all the way to the channel tunnel aka chunnel, and down to Paris. He stayed one night at an airport hotel, collected us in the early morning, and drove us back home again. It was over 14 hours of driving in two days for him! Our plan was to return, via Paris, to New York in mid-June, when baby would be about 3 months old. As the pandemic...

Needless to say, Steve and I didn’t expect to have a baby at the onset of a global pandemic. I imagined months of Max crawling around circles of my closest friends. Of nights where he slept through the noise while we partied in the basement below. Of day trips and adventures to places and other people’s houses. Playdates with other moms & babies.  The pandemic took away a lot of things that make life really enjoyable. Being around friends, sharing meals, being in crowds of strangers, feeling a sense of community at a local park, farmers’ market, or art museum.  For me, it was very challenging that the beginning of the pandemic - when we knew very little about covid - coincided with the beginning of becoming a Mom - when I knew very little about babies! Note - I took inspiration for the title of this post from collaborative writing project, Born In Lockdown , a collection of experiences from over 200 women who became mothers in 2020. Baby Moon Before Max was born, I had rea...

Actually, it's been 13 Months! I wish I had written a post before Max’s first birthday to celebrate this tiny child’s one year of sun rotation. But, you know, work work work work work work . I had a little writer's block early in the year and then took on two consulting projects, which made life a little more busy! I think with my writers block I started to get concerned about what I was saying. Was it insightful enough? Useful to other parents or wannabe parents. Today, I’m writing on this inspiration of this book, Born in Lockdown from Mothership Writers in the UK. I read an article about it on the BBC and was so intrigued. The website says the aim of the project was to “encourage writing for pleasure and purpose: to find, amidst the clamour, the space to hear one’s own voice.” That’s why I write! For pleasure and purpose. To share my voice. One of the things that often impedes my ability to finish a blog post is the feeling I have that it should be long and full of informat...