ExpectingWords.com - Helping expecting couples find the right words at the right times

Welcome guest blogger Robin Gorman Newman, founder of Motherhood Later…Than Sooner where she blogs about life in the “later” mom lane. Robin’s honesty is stunning; her story is heart-warming.  Thank you Robin for opening yourself up to us today.

I didn’t plan to become a later mom.  Life took its course.

I met my husband when I turned 30, and he was 29 .We were on a singles trip.  He had gone to SUNY Binghamton with my sister, and if I had ever visited her at college, we might have met sooner.

I’ve always been one to believe that things happen as they’re meant to.  We married two years later, and we both had active careers.   (more…)

The funny thing about having a baby is that this special being goes from being imaginary to real, oh so real, in just seconds.

Can you remember when you found out you were pregnant?  I do.  My husband and I were about to go out for a Sunday afternoon happy hour on a warm Fall day.  I figured I might as well take a pregnancy test before having a few too many.  Nothing about me felt pregnant, so I just assumed the test would give me a go-ahead to drink.  It didn’t.

I laughed and smiled and announced to my husband, “Guess what?  I don’t think we should go for drinks.  I’m, um, pregnant, I think.”  It was surreal.  How could I be pregnant?  I was standing there, physically the same as I felt the day before.  But today, I was pregnant.

We could barely wrap our heads around the idea of it.  (more…)

I ask this question because in a recent New York Times article, “The Latest in Strollers? Mom and Dad,” by Jennifer Bleyer, some women were identified as babywearing anti-stroller moms.

I agree, babywearing makes a lot of sense.  It can be easier for the mom, it can calm a crying baby and it can help create a nice physical bond between the two.  But why would one’s love of babywearing have to go so far as to be against strollers?

It takes a lot of energy to be against something, and I’m not sure how any mom could find an extra burst to be against a piece of transportation equipment.

Either way, babywearing is in fact making a huge impact in the mommy market.  (more…)

You find out you’re pregnant.  You start shopping, or at least thinking about it.  When is it reasonable to buy maternity clothes?  8 weeks? 12 weeks? Second trimester?  Do you have to be showing before you start looking at cribs and paint colors?  Is it ridiculous to stop moms in the street to ask them about their stroller?

One of my closest friends just entered second trimester.  After nearly 10 weeks of waiting, she has released herself from the hold of “no shopping until…” and off she went to buy and buy and buy.  Her husband thinks the shopping is a coping mechanism to deal with the pregnancy.  I don’t.

I think it’s (more…)

Mothering: The most exhausting test of endurance I have ever experienced.

Not only does this sport require tremendous energy and money, it also requires parents to be constant activity planners.  That’s where moms Heather Flett and Whitney Moss come in.  They make parents’ lives a little bit easier with their creative blog www.RookieMoms.com (I guest blogged for them last week about 5 activities to stay in love, even when you have young children!) and book. Meanwhile, their book  The Rookie Mom’s Handbook: 250 Activities to Do with (and Without) Your Baby expands upon the blog by sharing helpful, funny and totally necessary advice for new moms, making it a great baby shower gift.

One of their blog posts, 25 Activities to Try During Your Maternity Leave, was oh so fitting for me because (more…)