A resource to inspire, inform and empower parents.

My Introduction To Parenthood

By Mellissa Harris

My husband and I are high school sweethearts and were together 7 years before deciding to get married. We were married on September 7th, 2013. That’s when the roller coaster started. I was pregnant the next month, we used the money we were supposed to spend on a honeymoon on a down payment to buy our first home which was purchased by November, and I got a new position at work while I was pregnant. I was projected to start after my maternity leave. Every aspect of my life changed that year! I became a mother, a wife, and a homeowner to a pretty big fixer-upper, and changing jobs. I was a hormonal mess! My current job, while I was pregnant, was an infant/toddler teacher to 8 babies at an Early Head Start center. I was frequently sick and did TONS of lifting. I was frequently asked when I was going on maternity leave because I needed a long term sub to cover my position. In my current position, we did not pay into state disability so I was not able to use that during my maternity leave. I had to calculate the hours I had with my baby postpartum and that was a frequent argument with my husband during my whole pregnancy. The maximum I could take was 6 weeks. That left me with ZERO sick time or vacation for the remainder of the year.

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Lea’s Birth Story

By guest blogger Lea

I was 25 and had just gotten out of an extremely abusive relationship. I hooked up with someone who was only 5’6″ and 120 lbs thinking that if it came down to it I could protect myself. Come to find out he was popping holes in the condoms. I found out I was pregnant at 6 weeks. I spent two weeks throwing up every day at least 405 times a day before it struck me what could have happened. I took 6 store bought tests and all of them came back negative. So I finally decided to go to the health department. They did a urine test that came back negative, but things weren’t lining up so they did a blood test. It came back that I was pregnant. I immediately got myself insurance and found an OBGYN. My OB was my mom’s OB when she had my baby brother and had delivered most of my cousins. He was someone I trusted and still do.

LeAnn

This is LeAnn 1 hour after I had her. She seemed so tiny. Measuring 21 inches long and weighing 7lbs 14ozs.

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