Category: Uncategorized (Page 4 of 23)

I’ll write about food again soon – for now, I want to share some tips and tricks that made life navigating our daughter’s pavlik harness easier.

Like I wrote in my last post, all babies born breech are screened for hip displasia. Regardless, you may notice the doctors bicycle kick your baby’s hips around – they are checking for “clicks” which indicates problems with the hip sockets.

If they hear a click (or if your baby is born breech) they will refer you to get a hip ultrasound between 4-6 weeks. Then, a pediatric orthopedist will interpret the ultrasound for you and make treatment recommendations, if necessary.

If your doctor is like ours, they will not give you any warning if they deem a pavlik harness necessary. They will simply send your baby home in one, leaving you to figure out the rest on your own.

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It might sound trite, but it’s true;

That quote from Ellen Cantarow about how having a child is “to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.”

The amount of love you feel for your child feels scary and bigger than you could possibly imagine.

Addie, the upside down baby came into the world via C-section with her eyes wide open. As they handed her to me, we stared at each other curiously, as if to say “I was wondering who you were.”

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This weekend’s election news brought me to tears thinking about how I would bring my daughter into a world with a new, hopeful administration and a VP like Kamala Harris.

After years of infertility treatments and pregnancy loss, I’m hopeful about finding myself just over halfway through a pregnancy.

When you are pregnant, people go out of their way to offer their well wishes, advice, and baby supplies -I am so appreciative of these things. When I was going through infertility treatments and pregnancy loss, I never felt so alone.

My body felt so tired, the grief overwhelming, holidays impossibly triggering. Most people don’t understand what it’s like to go through IVF treatments and, to be fair, how could they. The people who went out of their way to check-in and express care, I will always be grateful for. I guess what I really want to say is that if you have a friend or loved one going through this, check-ins and some understanding goes a long ways.

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In Minnesota it’s just kind of summer until it’s fall.

We spend six months complaining about the winter and four months complaining about the heat and humidity. Then, there’s fall.

Once the tips of the trees start to change colors, there’s no turning back. We’re given this  sweet, fleeting stretch of magic before everything’s cold and brown and bare.

For two weeks the cross street is lined with a canopy trees with little orange leaves that gently sprinkle down like a snow globe, forming shallow waves on the streets.

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The pandemic transitioned from faraway news to full-blown this spring. Now, we’re moving towards winter and it’s still here.

A spring onset let us quickly pivot to eating outside, talking outside, moving outside. . . being outside a lot more than we used to.

Winter is coming and I’m worried.

Can restaurants make it without patios? Will ice bars become a thing? What will holidays look like? I wonder if people will get restless and do the inside things they avoided during the summer. Will the people that don’t, go full blown Shining?

Sigh.

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