Encouragement

I anticipated that Jack would be a late walker. I don't know what it was, but from the time he was a tiny newborn I was determined not to rush his gross motor development. He took what seemed like forever to roll over, but I was unfazed. I didn't worry a bit when he waited until 8 months to sit unassisted. And as the months continued to pass, I breezily reassured relatives that "some babies never crawl, they just skip straight to walking." He eventually did start crawling and, later, pulling up and cruising, but at 18 months that's still all he does. Sometime around 15 months my confidence started to waver. I found myself avoiding the park and any other situation where strangers...

I am now 38 weeks pregnant. Hard to believe, and yet of course I knew (or at least hoped) that I would eventually get here. I knew that, God willing, everything would progress, my belly would grow, and this being inside me would grow into a tiny person. But even though I’ve been pregnant now for the better part of the last year, I still find myself surprised sometimes that there’s going to be another person living in our house! My husband and I belong to a local Methodist church and we celebrate the season of Advent every year: counting down the Sundays between Thanksgiving and Christmas. There were moments when I thought about Mary, the mother of Jesus, in a...

Supporting the single mom. It's hard to be there for someone when you don't know how and when you don't "have time." I lost a lot of friends when I became a single mom, but I have been so blessed to have a few faithful mommas stick with me and support me; and I am even more thankful for the new moms who joined me in this new journey. So how can you help the single mom? Obviously, I cannot speak for every single mom, but this is what has gotten me through it! These are all ways my friends helped me -some I didn't even know I needed. Stop asking me what you can do to help! There are at least...

It’s that time of year again, ladies. You know where our head starts to spin and our bank account begins to deflate.  I’m talking about the holidays.  I feel the question of “What are your plans for the holidays?” starts in July. Between my husband and me, we have family in St. Amant, Lafayette, Covington, New Orleans and St. Louis, MO. Obviously, we can’t see everyone for each holiday. Before moving to Baton Rouge and having kids, holidays consisted of visiting, eating and driving to the next house , visiting, eating and driving to the next house, and again visiting, eating and driving to the next house. All fine and good when you are in college and can handle long,...

I'm sorry to say that this post doesn’t have any magic tricks or super tips that will coax your child into dreamland, but I am here to say that you WILL get through the rough patches and your baby WILL eventually nap or sleep. You are tired, drained, defeated, and sleep-deprived.  I was there—for 13 solid months. Despite all the encouraging advice from my friends with sleeping babies, Judah just did not want to nap.  The ONLY thing that seemed to put him to sleep during the day was the car (or nursing), but the problem with that was I was still attached.  There were no dishes I could clean from the car or clothes I could fold.  I was...