After meeting our baby three weeks earlier than expected, I was so nervous to leave the house with him ever again. But, as our baby grew bigger and stronger before our eyes, we were finally ready to take him on a little adventure. Breckenridge, Colorado was the perfect low-stakes destination to test our confidence as new parents.
No baby products can bring my old life back, nor would I want it to; life is truly better because now we get to share it with our son. But a few thoughtfully chosen items helped me regain little pockets of independence throughout the day. Those small moments make a surprisingly big difference in protecting my mental health and helping me show up as the best mom possible. These are the four baby products that give me a little freedom when I need it most:
Someone you love is going through in vitro fertilization (IVF), and you want to be supportive. You have the best intentions, but sometimes your loved one seems cold and distant when you are only trying to help. Or, you are so fearful of saying the wrong thing that you haven’t said anything at all—and you’re worried they don’t know how much you care. On my own journey through infertility and IVF, these were seven things people said with good intentions that unintentionally made me feel more alone.
Throughout pregnancy, moms are bombarded with advertisements and solicited/unsolicited advice about hundreds (if not thousands) of “must-have” baby registry products. While some items are definitely necessary, many are simply not compatible with all lifestyles. The truth is, you won’t actually know what your family needs until your baby is finally here. I was surprised by how many additional baby items we ended up seeking out after the birth of our son, and by which products we didn’t need at all.
When my now-husband moved across the country for business school, I decided to do the opposite, and move to a tiny cabin tucked away in Tahoe National Forest. We are lucky enough to still own the little cabin and ended up spending two summer months of our parental leave there with our new baby. That’s when we realized how wonderful our beloved town of Truckee is for families, too. If you’re planning a summer weekend in the Lake Tahoe area with a baby, here are the places I’d recommend after years of exploring Truckee as both a local and a new mom.
It was important to us that our new baby would be comfortable, safe, and happy on road trips…but we had no idea what that would look like, or if it would even be possible. On pre-baby road trips, we minimized stops and maximized efficiency. Post-baby, we stop for feedings, diaper changes, baby (and dog) wiggles, and even full meals for us parents—and that’s okay. Instead of focusing on the challenges, my husband and I choose to focus on why we keep doing it. After a beautiful summer of long drives to and from some of our favorite places, here’s what we learned about road tripping with a baby, and the mindset shifts we’ve made.
The first time I ever got pregnant after years of trying, I found out from a nurse who barely looked up from her clipboard. After years of trying to conceive, an infertility diagnosis, and our first IVF embryo transfer, I was sitting in an exam room waiting for a progesterone injection. Before administering the shot, the nurse asked me to take a pregnancy test. A few minutes later, she casually informed me that it was positive, and I walked out of the clinic in shock. I was finally pregnant…but a week later, I wasn’t.
Protecting my baby was my absolute top priority during pregnancy, but maintaining some level of activity was really important to me to protect my mental health after everything we had been through. As someone who had always identified as a “fit” person, I needed to adapt my identity when I could no longer approach fitness the way I always had. Here’s how I adjusted my expectations while protecting something that was more important than working out.
As a new mom, I felt so intimidated by leaving the house with my newborn, especially by myself. I was anxious about being out in public with a screaming baby, not having what he needed to feel safe and comfortable. Now, I feel so confident bringing him along on quick errands and full-on adventures—and as silly as it may sound, my diaper bag is a big part of the reason why.
I walked into my 37-week prenatal appointment expecting to be back home in time for my afternoon of work meetings. Less than 24 hours later, I was holding my newborn son in my arms. Like many first-time moms, I had spent months imagining how labor might begin. Maybe my water would break dramatically in the middle of the night; maybe my husband would time my contractions from the comfort of home before heading to the hospital with carefully packed bags and nervous excitement. I never anticipated that a routine doctor’s appointment would suddenly become our son’s birthday.