Mental Health

“My body failed me during my first pregnancy. Why again?” “I take care of myself … why me?” I struggled during my pregnancy with my twins who were born at 30.1 weeks, but before that I also struggled with the birth of my first-born son. I asked tons of questions, not just those two. My first son was born on time, head down and I did not have to be wheeled back for an emergency c-section like my twins (two years later). The only problem? My epidural did not work, and I felt everything. I felt the contractions, the sharp pain, the “ring of fire” and my episiotomy because my son would not come out. I felt everything. When my doctor...

I have four-year-old twins, one boy and one girl. My boy has been on the struggle bus hard lately. He has had a lot of feelings that little kids shouldn’t have to worry about. He’s been scared, anxious, worried, and even angry. He expresses worry about death and about whether or not mommy and daddy will come home. He’s had major separation anxiety, mostly with leaving me to go to school. We have tried narrowing down the trigger to this behavior, it could be the fact that I recently had surgery or that his dad was on an outage at work and was gone from home more than usual. He panics, he screams, kicks, hits, and you cannot get...

As a mother of an older toddler and twin toddlers who also has high-functioning anxiety, telling me to stop is something I hate. I mask my anxiety by “flooring it,” and not stopping. I had to come to a complete stop when the pandemic happened and learn how to live with my anxiety. I had to work on myself, majorly, before I went through another green light again. I underwent EMDR therapy, routine therapy with another therapist, and continued to see my doctor. I had a team of women specialized in the perinatal/postpartum. I spent 14 months working on me. I am ready to share my story. Forever, I will be thankful for my prayers being answered, but it has not...

I deactivated my personal Instagram account for the foreseeable future. You are not about to read another “social media is the devil” post… but you are about to read a “Instagram is the devil” one. Here’s the thing: I love social media. I love my Louisiana gardening groups, my neighborhood group, my budget decorating group, and keeping up with people I wouldn’t otherwise be capable of easily keeping up with. I think social media is awesome… But screw Instagram. I’m over it and there are two reasons why. I’ll briefly get the first out of the way and done because it is very overstated. It’s such a warped reality. Almost nothing on there is real anymore. I unfollowed fitness inspiration (“fitspo”), Instagram influencer, and other toxic...

Let’s be honest … moms are not perfect. We aren’t superheroes. We don’t have all the right answers. We all make mistakes. I don’t care if you can pack the most colorful, healthy, Pinterest award-winning bento box for your kid’s lunch or if you’ve hosted the best play date filled with learning activities and paint, you have done something on your motherhood journey that makes you hang your head in shame and hope that no one was paying attention. Confession: I hide it well, but truthfully, I feel this way quite often. They don’t tell you about this in books or movies. No one mentions the ugly truth: you are going to make mistakes and feel like your kids will end...