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Home Schooling with a Toddler in Tow

Have you ever been teaching algebra and been interrupted by the sound of your toddler riffling through your bookcase? Or teaching biology and look up to see your walls decorated with Crayola markers, complements of your toddler? Or worse yet, realize you have not taught a decent day of school since your baby turned into a toddler? Home schooling is not for the faint of heart. Our families are constantly changing, growing, and living life in between fractions and Moby Dick. One of the biggest changes a home schooling family can go through is the addition of a new baby. … Continue reading →

Remembering Your Kid is Just a Kid

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As the parent of a special needs child, I can’t help but think of my child as special or unique. In late 2008, my daughter Lily was born with a detached esophagus that had to be surgically repaired three days after she was born. As a result, Lily never breastfed, never drank out of a bottle, and, until she was six months old, was only able to drink half an ounce of liquid by mouth each day. So without question, Lily is special. There are times, though, when I have to force myself to take a step back and recognize … Continue reading →

Bonding with Your Baby with a Disability

Attachment is a lasting bond that develops early in a child’s life. Attachment can occur between the mother and child as well as with others: dad and child, grandparents and child, even foster parents can enhance a child’s life through attachment. Attachment is more than just an emotional bond, it is a critical component to the healthy development of the child. Children who experience attachment and feel the love of a caregiver have a better chance of growing into adults who are capable of sustaining lasting, close relationships. Some parents find it difficult to bond with a child who has … Continue reading →

How to Have a Natural Birth in a Hospital Part 1

Many mothers and most proponents of home birth would argue that the current medical model of maternity care in the United States makes it difficult to have a natural birth in the hospital. Interventions are so routinely used in some hospitals that it is almost impossible to make it through the birth without any. However, with some planning it is possible to have the birth you want. The two most important factors in having a natural birth in a hospital setting are the health care provider and hospital in which you will deliver. In the first part of this blog, … Continue reading →

You Are Still a Parent In the NICU

Ideally, you gestate for nine months, you give birth, and in a few days, everyone goes home. But as we know that doesn’t always happen. Premature birth can happen to any mother, but some women are at a greater risk. Multiples almost always come early with a mere 5% making it a full forty weeks. Nonetheless, whether you are prepared for the NICU experience or not, when it happens, it can be nothing short of devastating and depressing. A Difficult Birth Babies who are born early are almost always born via cesarean section. While I realize that the surgery goes … Continue reading →

Benefits of Breastfeeding Are Over Stated

This is the post that almost wasn’t. If you’ve ever read my blog here, you know that I advocate breastfeeding whole heartedly. I do not believe that formula is just as good and I believe that many women who think they “can’t” simply didn’t have the support necessary to continue. Many of you have written me personally to tell me that I’ve helped you to continue by providing good information and support. (To those of you who have written me, I offer a big heart felt thank you–I’m so glad I could help.) But neither have I said that breastfeeding … Continue reading →

Dads and Makeovers

There are few things that a little girl likes more than playing dress up and doing makeovers. How could any dad resist spending time with his little girl in this fun way? Just be absolutely sure that there is no one around who might snap a picture of you while you look a little, well, ridiculous. Now if you are going to allow her to perform a make over on you, you can’t do this half heartedly. You might as well let her go the whole nine yards. Let her do the make up, let her mess up your hair, … Continue reading →

Going Back to Work: When the Baby Cries at Daycare

I really think that there is something instinctive in mothers that makes us hate to hear our baby cry so much. Studies have shown that moms experience a rush of hormones when a baby cries inexplicably or is left to cry. Cortisol and even adrenaline rush through us as we seek to comfort our dear little babes. This is in part, why it’s so distressing to leave our baby in the hands of someone else when he is crying and upset. As long as mothers have had to leave their babies in day care, there have been babies who cry … Continue reading →

Bonding With Your Baby Through Feeding Times

There are few things more intimate between a father and his child than when he feeds his baby. When you hold your child and give her the nourishment she needs, it is so precious, and you feel so close to her. You hold her close, and keep her safe and warm in a blanket, and she eats and eats until she’s about to fall asleep. You take a moment to clean her mouth, and then gently burp her. The whole time, she’s nestled up against your chest, safe and sound. It feels like everything is right in the world, and … Continue reading →

Coming Home: Don’t Underestimate Jet Lag!

The first day we brought our one-year-old daughter home from Korea, we were pleased that she fell asleep at 8 p.m., just like our three-year-old son. “This is great,” we thought in our ignorance. Then a couple of hours later, my husband and I were just getting into bed when she screamed, panicked from waking in an unfamiliar place. “Oh, no,” we said as it slowly dawned on us. “That was her afternoon nap!” Sure enough, she was awake until five o’clock in the morning. You’d think that having just returned from Korea ourselves we would have remembered that we’d … Continue reading →