“He began disappearing for days. He had no care at all about my pregnancy. I knew something was going on. Little did I know, I’d get the shock of my life. I was excited he agreed to come home for dinner. As I was emptying the pockets in his jeans for laundry, I knew what it was immediately. A glass container used to store drugs. ‘How could he?’ I thought. I sat there crying, holding so tightly to my baby bump, telling her not to worry, I would fix her dad before she got here.”
‘No, no, no.’ I was emptying the pockets in his jeans to wash them. I felt something small, cold. I knew what it was immediately. ‘How could he?’: Single mom learns of partner’s drug addiction while pregnant, ‘I begged him to love our baby’
‘I was doing her laundry FOR her. She was watching me fold her thong underwear. She just stood there holding the baby! This is ridiculous.’: Mom urges others to remember helping means doing so with ‘no strings attached’
“I was sitting at a coffee shop and overheard (I was eavesdropping) two women behind me. One was complaining about her daughter-in-law who’d just given birth to her grandchild. ‘I offered to help, but this ridiculous!’ she said. Here’s the thing. I’ve learned if we really want to help, we just show up. We ring their doorbell and start unloading their dishwasher or play with their kid while they take a shower. We shove a lasagna in the oven so they don’t have to think about dinner.”
‘Mommy and Daddy, Please look at ME when I am feeding.’: Hospital sign telling parents not to be on phone is why ‘Mom Guilt’ exists
He was understandably frustrated. It doesn’t mean we don’t love our babies. It doesn’t mean we aren’t over-the-moon to welcome a new life into the world. Perhaps that new mom is zoning out to a Netflix episode to balance the overwhelming feeling of being a new mom. It shouldn’t matter.
‘Please God, give her back! We already knew, she’s gone. I was weak from grief.’: Mom recalls loss of daughter, uses music to keep her memory alive, ‘No matter what I’m singing, I know she’s there, because she is my song’
“It was just me and Alice at the hospital. There was a soft glow from the bathroom, the door barely cracked. She laid on my chest, we were just there together, soaking each other in. Time stood still. She was so feminine, petite. I say, ‘I know whenever I sing, you are there,’ and I truly mean it. It’s as if I am sharing my beautiful, perfect daughter, and that brings me joy. I would find her singing to herself in her bed. I knew we would be connected through music forever.”
‘I hear you talking to friends. You ‘don’t feel like yourself lately.’ I can see tears in your eyes. You may not love yourself right now, Mama, but I do.’: Mom pens appreciation letter to fellow mothers
“I hear you complain to daddy you have ‘huge bags’ under your eyes. I assume it’s because you’re tired. You were up with me again all last night. I really love the way you cuddle me in the middle of the night while the rest of the world is quiet. You make me feel so safe. You may not love the sleepless nights, Mama, but I do.”
‘We were sitting in our hotel room. She pumped her milk. We were mesmerized. She was doing this on VACATION.’: Woman urges moms to remember ‘motherhood isn’t pretty’ even when you’re in the trenches
“Four of us who grew up together used to take a girl’s weekend every year. Laura was the first to get married and the first to have a baby. We were sitting in our hotel room as she pumped her milk. The rest of us, not yet moms, were mesmerized. That crazy machine was singing, ‘a little bit more, a little bit more.’ If you pumped, you know what I’m talking about. She was actually going through all of this while on VACATION. We stared at her baffled.”
‘What the heck, I’m not ready. I wasn’t expecting this.’ Everything we knew had taken a sudden shift.’: 20-year-old gets positive pregnancy test same day as husband’s deployment, ‘I couldn’t handle going through it alone’
“The first day he came home, we got pregnant. We’d been apart for 3 months straight – can you really blame us? The sun was just coming up. We were packing our car for the airport to say our goodbyes. I woke up feeling nauseous, so I took a pregnancy test. I immediately felt lightheaded and fell on my cold bathroom floor, bawling. Hayden sat next to me, wrapping his arms around me. ‘What do you want to do? It’s going to be okay.’ Before I knew it, Hayden was gone and I was on my way back home, alone.”
‘Dear mom, there is so much I didn’t understand back then, but now I do.’: Woman pens sweet letter to mother after giving birth
“I never understood why you would sit with your head in your hands. Now I understand, you were hiding your tears. I never understood why sometimes your hugs lasted that little bit longer. Now I know, you needed them more than me. I never understood why when I was hurt I only wanted you. Now I know, you’re the safest place I’ve ever known.”
‘I put my husband on the backburner. Sex became a chore. We were roommates who co-parented. Our marriage lost its spark.’: Woman candidly shares lessons she learned from divorce
“Every time he touched me, I cringed. I was so busy and obsessed with being a first-time mom, my son came first in every situation. We stopped going on dates, sex was non-existent. He sat me down and told me his needs. I brushed it off. After all, I’d just birthed a newborn! The last thing I wanted to do was have sex. Time went on and his needs went unfulfilled. Eventually, we became strangers who lived together.”
‘I can feel her head!’ You were pregnant, living under a bridge. Those precious cries are something I’ll never forget.’: 911 dispatcher shares act of kindness for homeless woman birthing twins, ‘sometimes all you need is a little love and support’
“It was 4 a.m. and 39 degrees outside. You had no pregnancy symptoms and found out barely a month ago you were expecting! The contractions hit. You thought you had time to get to the hospital. When they increased in intensity, you realized that was not the case. You quickly dialed 911 and they transferred you to me. This call was a rough one for me. You were in so much pain, cold, and all alone. As a mom too, I can’t imagine how you felt. I could tell you wanted to do better.”
