I am Michelle Martin and I am a stay at home mom. Having a one year old son, Peter, and another on the way causes my job to be very hard but it is rewarding at the same time. There are many things that get very tedious and can be very time-consuming when it comes to running a functional household. My husband is in the military and at times it feels like I am a single parent at times.
Finances were starting to worry me so I sought help and created a budget for my family, this worked out very well and shortly after that, I felt relief and a sense of relaxation when I needed to pay the bills. I was able to calculate what I could spend and on what. I was able to purchase a new item for the baby to prepare for his arrival. It wasn’t always a new item, some items were found at garage sales or thrift shops but the items that I found were very gently used. They were almost like new. I would clean and sanitize them and pit them in the baby’s room. Slowly I would see the baby’s room piece together and it brought me piece of mind.
I find support from my family and close friends and if I didn’t have them I don’t know what I would do. My family helped me when I was pregnant with Peter. The game me the crib that was used for me and my two brothers, my mother made blankets and knitted socks for the baby when he was born. My father built me a rocking chair and I still use it to read Peter his bedtime stories. I also have very close friends that helped me when I was pregnant with Peter as well. They gave me a baby shower and some who had been pregnant before, gave me some of their gently used maternity clothing. When my husband was deployed, I had an overwhelming amount of help and support.
When my husband was around when Peter was born, it seemed like he just couldn’t do anything right. Don’t get me wrong, he is a phenomenal father and knows what he is doing, but I was in a state of mind where anything he would do would overwhelm me even more. He sat me down and asked me what was wrong. It was putting stress on him and he didn’t know how to fix what he was supposedly doing wrong. We talked it out, tears were shed because my hormones were up and down but eventually, we smoothed everything over. He understood that I was stressed and that my body was trying to get back to normal and he tired his hardest to “fix” what was wrong. Eventually, everything got better and we were working as a team again.
I would ask everyone that had helped me what they recommended for different things during the pregnancy and after. There were many good ideas and suggestions provided to me but there were some things that I just didn’t quite understand. I took to the internet and learned as much as I could from learning how to baby proof my house to what toys were best for my child. I joined a few online support groups and they were a big help as well. They suggested many different things that I hadn’t even though about like, screwing furniture to walls so that it wouldn’t fall on the baby in the event he tried to climb the shelves.
I found that this information was very useful so I decided to provide all the information to moms or expecting moms to be in one place. From the right type of toys to get your baby to how to prepare for a baby, these articles, I feel, will be a very good starting point to answering most of the questions you may have. There is a lot more information that you would need when it comes to pregnancy, knowing the signs of when you are going in to labor and what to expect after having a baby.
I am pregnant with my second child and now I know what to expect during the pregnancy. Knowing what I know now, I am able to assist the first time mothers that are in my pregnancy classes that I take every week. I enjoy going to the meetings and helping to explain some of my experiences with the young women and their husbands who attend. My goal is to assist them with questions they may have and bring new ideas and lessons into their thinking process as they start this new journey in creating a family.
