Let's give this a try ...

I've always wanted to be a successful blogger. Not success in numbers, but success in actually keeping up with a blog. I started a blog years and years ago when I was around 15. I updated it daily, if not more than that. I read it now and laugh at how I ever had any followers, but I loved it. I tried to start up again when I went away to college in 2005. That lasted about a week. My last attempt was in January 2010 when I was pregnant with Chloe. I wanted to start a blog to write letters to her and journal about my pregnancy and all the excitements that came along with it. That lasted about 6 posts and then I just didn't have time.

So here we go again. Forth time's a charm right? In preparation for this blog I read my old ones. Maybe for inspiration, maybe just to see what I felt was important then. It's amazing how life can change so fast in just a few minutes on an amazing day, and it just puts everything into perspective and changes your entire view on the world. This blog will be about life, family, photography, and whatever else I plan to throw out there. Can't hurt to try again!

I named this blog 'Making of a Mama' because that's how I'm feeling about life right now. I gave birth to my beautiful daughter on August 10, 2010. A planned c-section that thankfully went routinely. My little girl decided at 32 weeks gestation to be head up and there she stayed. Very breech, but still perfect in every way. The doctor called her the "breechiest baby" she had ever seen when she was forcefully evicted. Her little legs were up by her ears and had to be trained back down. They still go up there when she's really mad. I remember looking at her for the first time and just smiling and staring. I didn't want to blink incase she did something and I missed it. I didn't believe in love at first sight until I met her.



I'm a firm believer that simply giving birth does not make a mama. There are too many bad mothers out there, that just don't deserve the title. It's the days, months, and years after your baby comes that makes you a mama. I'm still learning how to be one. Like everyone else, I'm sure I make mistakes, but I'm trying my best to learn this new role and be good at it. Thanks to my amazing hard-working husband I will have lots of time to gain experience. Originally I was going to be working full-time when Chloe came, but I just couldn't do it, so we tried part-time, and it just wasn't financially worth it to pay for daycare when I was only making a little more than what that cost us. Money is tight, but we're making it work. No extras, but that's okay. I'd live in a box and eat dirt if it meant I could spend all day with my baby.

All mama's have their set of "titles" that they like to share. All over the baby forums you'll see someone's name and then it's followed by "CD, CS, BW, EBFing Mama". I used to think they're silly, but in mama world it's sort of like a doctor putting M.D. after their name. It's important to share with other mama's your baby raising philosophies and what's important to you. Breast feeding is one of the most important things to me. It's been a tough road, but so far Chloe has never had a drop of anything else. I'm so proud and lucky that I've been able to do it. I've read about lots of mothers trying their hardest and being unsuccessful and my heart hurts for them. I know that if one day my body fails me I will be heartbroken and depressed. We've struggled but thankfully I have a ton of support from my husband, doctor, and lactation consultants and we're making it. My goal is at least one year, I sure hope we get there. I don't want to come off like I'm against formula feeding. I'm most definitely not. Every mother needs to do what is best for her and her baby. Whether it be medical or personal reasons that a mother chooses not to breast feed it's really nobody's business. Many women on the community I'm a member of post their sadness and guilt of now being able to breast feed and I always feel bad because someone always beats them up about it. The most important thing is that the child is fed and healthy, not the method in which is gets to the belly!

I'm going to wrap this one up here with one of my favorite mama quotes, from the lovely Princess Diana, "A mother's arms are more comforting than anyone else's."