I texted a girlfriend (who’d already had two kids) my postpartum support plan and she wisely said, “Get more help than you think you’ll need.”
She was right. I thought I had lined up what I needed. But when I found myself upstairs needing frozen witch hazel “padsicles” from the freezer in the kitchen yet again, and the pain of walking down the stairs one more time was more than I could handle, not to mention the crying baby, I realized:
I needed more help than I thought I’d need.
I’m running out the door to get to swim class with the preschooler and the baby is in tow. If we don’t get in the car in the next 30 seconds we’ll be late. But then the baby has a blow out. And the preschooler needs a snack. And I don’t have her swimsuit bottoms. And I realized I’ve left the car keys and my phone in the house.
I needed more time than I thought I’d need.
I was 10 weeks postpartum and still feeling tired when I stood for too long or it was a busy day. Despite extensive reading about the postpartum period and building in lots of recovery time, I was under our culture’s spell that things should be “getting back to normal” by now, whatever that means. But they weren’t.
I needed more rest than I thought I’d need.
I felt waves of guilt about my experience during my first year as a mother and how I wasn’t able to show up and have it all together as I ridiculously had expected I would. There were moments I wished I could have gone back and redone. I could have been more present with my baby and kinder with my husband. I could have savored waaaay more. But I didn’t, and yet, I was still a good mom.
It is not our brilliance, our ability to communicate, our marketing savvy, our talent, or our ideas that will determine our business success in the end. It’s our systems. The top reason businesses fail isn’t because their idea stinks. It’s because they have cash flow problems¹. And you know what leads to cash flow problems?…
Good marketing can make anyone appear to be an expert. They’re not necessarily. Good marketing can make anyone appear to be any way they want you to think they are. They’re not necessarily the way they appear. Just because someone has a big following does not mean they know what they’re doing. Just because someone…
This is my last week of a 5-month maternity leave that I’ve taken after having our second daughter, Ruby. I noticed myself getting twitchy to have more structure in my days a few weeks ago, so I know it’s time. But that doesn’t mean I’m not sad. I planned a 5-month maternity leave mostly because…
Downtime can be one of the most restorative, and even one of the most productive, gifts you can give yourself. But we’re often so busy being busy that we can’t find the space to take a break. And often when we do, it’s not a real break because we’re still sort of kind of working…
I went to a women’s business gathering last week that was one of the top 5 events I’ve attended in recent years (and possibly ever). It wasn’t the fact that it was in one of my best friend’s beautiful backyard, the perfect summer evening, the glowy bistro lights, or the fact that it ended by…
We’ve all been there. You get to the end of the day and you’ve not done any of the things you wanted to do. Instead, you’ve spent the day distracted, running from appointment to appointment, doing everything for everyone else, attending to the urgent. You’re spent. You’ve been going all day. Yet you don’t really feel…
Baby Ruby is now 3.5 months old. I have 8 more weeks of my official maternity leave. (However, I give myself total permission to ease back into my new version of work because I don’t believe you can come back after birth the same, and therefore the old ways of doing things will likely not…
I’ve just revealed something about my life to someone I’m getting to know. “That must be so amazing for you!” she replies. The truth is I feel really complicated about it. Yep, parts of it are amazing. And parts of it are really hard. It’s caused joy and it’s caused pain. It’s not so straightforward…
Mike and I will celebrate our 4-year wedding anniversary tomorrow. When it came to dreaming about my wedding when I was a girl (yes, I was one of those who thought about it starting in childhood), I never thought about my dress or the flowers or the food. It was all about the seating arrangement….
