Hello, let me introduce myself first..
For the first 30 years of my life, everything was smooth and worry-free. I was my parents’ most beloved child, found my true love in college, and happily married him after graduation.
At work, I was my boss’s most valued employee. Whenever I was in charge of a project, colleagues would inevitably say, “Oh, then I’m totally at ease.” I was constantly named “Employee of the Year,” with generous bonuses every year.
Later, I started my own business. Within just three months, I had broken into the market and started making money. By the fifth month, I was earning twice my previous salary. Growth was steady month after month. Right when the business needed more hands, I serendipitously met an amazing partner, and the company reached a whole new level.
Really, it seemed like at every step, whatever I needed, a pair of hands would always place it right in front of me, just in time.
My Two Girls: Ellie & Mia
Meet Ellie, My Firstborn
In 2020, my husband and I decided to have a child. After trying for over a year, we finally got the news in 2021 that a little one was on the way. In 2022, we welcomed our first child, Ellie. She made me a mother.
She is utterly adorable—big eyes, rosy skin, chubby little hands. Every time I look at her, I can’t help but give her a kiss. She is pure joy, and I love her more each day.
But as a first-time mom, I faced unprecedented difficulties. The postpartum tearing wouldn’t heal, and the pain was excruciating. Clogged milk ducts made my breasts hard as rocks. The severe sleep deprivation… And what was even more crushing was that, with zero parenting experience, I was clueless when faced with her unexplained wailing, night terrors, refusal to nurse, constipation, diarrhea, fevers… I desperately searched online, longing for one accurate, truly useful answer!
It was during this time that I thought, once I make it through this “dark” path, I must leave a light on for other new moms.
And Then Came Mia
Ellie had just turned one when I got pregnant again. In 2024, we welcomed our second daughter, Mia.
Completely different from Ellie, Mia is a great eater and sleeper. Although she had her fussy moments in the first two months, starting almost from month three, she became super easygoing. She feeds on schedule, gradually sleeps through the night, loves her solid foods, and adapted quickly when I had to stop breastfeeding due to mastitis.
This made me realize just how vastly different babies can be! It made me even more determined to write about my experiences.
Why I Had to Start This Blog
The Catalyst: A Life Pivoted
After Mia was born, my business also began to decline sharply. I had no choice but to close it and become a full-time mom. My work no longer involves Excel and Word, but instead revolves around changing diapers, washing bottles, making baby food, and managing household chores…
This has been a monumental challenge for me. All my past achievements seem irrelevant now. Managing two young children has brought me a sense of frustration I’ve never known before.
The Daily Reality
They are always fighting over things. When one is in my arms, the other immediately demands to be held too. When I try to cook, Ellie wants me to read her a book. When I attempt to load the washing machine, Mia has a diaper blowout, and I must drop everything to change her…
By the time I finish all that, I see the cup of hot coffee on the table has gone cold again. And it’s not until evening that I remember, “Oh my goodness, the clothes are still in the hamper, unwashed!”
Of course, being a mom is filled with happiness, but that doesn’t negate how hard it is.
My Promise to You
Because I’ve walked this path myself, I won’t just tell you how joyful motherhood is, like many websites do. I want to share my real, unfiltered experiences so every new mom can find a “companion” here.
I want to tell you: you are not alone. What you’re going through, I’ve been there too. Your breakdowns, your helplessness, your moments of losing control—I’ve had them all. You don’t need to feel guilty. This is just a small, necessary stretch of the journey for every mom.
My Hope for This Space
I really want to share my parenting experiences—not just the warm, glowing moments, but to honestly document the pitfalls I’ve stumbled into, the tears I’ve shed, and the “survival wisdom” I’ve scraped together in utter exhaustion.
The Goal: A Mom’s Toolkit
I hope this blog becomes a “mom’s toolkit,” filled not with vague theories, but with:
- Practical Tips: Like how to quickly figure out why a baby is crying, tried-and-true methods for dealing with clogged ducts, or how to efficiently manage the daily grind with twins (or two under two) solo.
- Pitfall Avoidance Guides: Sharing the baby products I regret buying the most, and those “game-changer” parenting hacks. Letting you know which parenting anxieties you can let go of, and which principles are worth holding onto.
- A Community for Moms: I hope my stories connect me with more moms like you. We can cheer each other on in the comments, share our own tricks, turning the storms we face alone into a journey we walk together.
The Bigger Vision
My previous career taught me to analyze data, solve problems, and optimize processes. Now, I’m applying all those skills to this new “position” of Mom. I want to prove that a mom’s value is absolutely not confined to the home. The mindset, resilience, and creativity we built in our careers can shine just as brightly—perhaps even brighter—in this more complex, long-term “project” of raising humans, and can even be transformed into a force that helps others.
My hope is simple: that every mom who opens this blog can let out a sigh of relief and say, “So it’s not just me.” Then, she can find a bit of practical info, a dose of comforting solidarity, and return to her sweet, chaotic mom-life with a little more confidence and a little less weight on her shoulders.
This road? Let’s walk it together.
curlylocks
member
Re: Mom doesn't like baby name :(
I think it's cute. Name her what you want to name her!
My Mom doesn't care for our son's name, Hudson Lee, but I know she will grow to love it.
Do whatever you and your H want to do!
We picked out a name for our little boy (Kyler David) MIL understood the middle name, being it is a middle name for I think the last 3 generations... but she (still to this day) makes the comment about his first name and that kids are going to call him K.Y. as in K.Y. Jelly... Ugh... I just brush it off and ignore it, my H and I love the name, and thats all that matters.
This is the EXACT reason that DH and I are keeping the names that we pick a secret. I'm going to name my child whatever DH and I decide, and i don't need other outside influences helping me to decide what I like and don't like. And whatever we name our kid is what they have to deal with. You name your baby what you and your DH want to name the baby...poo poo on anyone, family or not, that decides to put down what name you choose.
This. It's way more difficult to hate on a name when there's a beautiful baby in your arms.
I understand how you feel! My mom and I are super close, so obviously I let her know what names we were discussing, She LOVES our boy name, but her response to our girl name was "I don't hate it, but it's not my favorite" which sucked. She also followed this up by saying "I will grow to love it I'm sure if that's my granddaughters name, but it bummed me out a little.
Your name is adorable! I like ethnic names like that but both DH an I are very white, lol. So we can't do anything like that.
I really like the name and don't worry, I ran into the same thing with my Mom. We named our DD Natalia and since our last name begins with an "N" also, she wasn't a fan at all the entire time I was pregnant. She now really likes her name and admits it is fitting for our daughter.
After experiencing this I began to understand why people sometimes don't share names until the baby is born. It is much easier to like or accept a name when there is already a beautiful baby to associate it with!
You picked a name that you and your husband love and it means something to you. That's all that matters. There will always be at least one family member that doesn't like the name you pick.
I've been hesitant about sharing baby name ideas for this reason! I don't want to share until I've picked a name, because I don't want their opinions to make the name picking more confusing.
But you have already picked yours and its lovely
(read it. you know you want to.)
anderson . september 2008
vivian . february 2010
mabel . august 2012
This
We didn't tell with our first and we won't this time around either. I wouldn't even tell complete strangers when they asked!
Our Twin Baby + a Big Girl Blog
And with the delivery trifecra of one twin vaginal, one c-section with general anesthesia for twin B, Spencer and Sidney joined us at 35 weeks exactly on June 18.
I learned recently that my father, when told what my second niece's name was (Jessica), scrunched up his face and said "I don't like it." And this was the day she was born...while they were visiting in the hospital. Now, he hasn't said anything more about it (she's now 6), but I was really surprised to hear that. Of course, he and my brother don't have the best relationship -- it's been contentious through the years, although they're not enemies or anything...they visit and talk, etc. but they're not close.
The name we've chosen for our little boy isn't a traditional name, but not all that unusual. I know my MIL will like it (she loves J-names, which this is, and his middle name is for her father), my mother won't have any trouble with it, but I'm wondering if I'll get the same reaction. Although I've always been told I'm the favorite (only daughter) and he treats me way better than either of my brothers, so we'll see. If it happens, it'll probably hurt my feelings, but nothing beyond that, and DH and I both love the name, so we're not changing it!
It honestly doesn't matter what people think about names - your parents got to name you, and now you get the honour of naming someone else! I think the name is really nice! This day in age, there's lots of kids that have truly unpronounceable names, so I think it's a bit of a weak argument.
For what it's worth, when I told my father in law the name we'd chosen for our daughter-to-be (Madeleine), he looked at me with this disgusted face and said "Isn't that the name of a woman that runs a whore house?" He was thinking of a madame, but still. I was mad, so I said, "Well, even if that's what it means, we're still calling her that".
claudia poirier
Little Dude: 16 Apr. 2009 | Little Doll: 10 Jun. 2012
Once we chose a name (Baron) we decided that we'd share if we were asked, but wouldn't volunteer the name otherwise. I think we underestimated that it would be the third question asked by everyone. We won't be sharing next time. We told MIL and SFIL and they love it. I didn't want to tell my mom because... well she has absolutely no filter and I knew she wouldn't like it. She asked me last week and I said we had chosen but I didn't want to tell her. She pushed me and pushed me to tell her (for HOURS, literally!). I told her I didn't want to tell her because I knew she wasn't going to like it and I just didn't want to bother with all of it. She kept pushing and said she would like it. I finally told her to get her off my back. Surprise, surprise - she said, "Oh that's different" (read: I don't like that).
In a defensive way I said, "You know what? It's really not that different. It is an old, traditional name, that people do, in fact, name their children. I knew you weren't going to like it and I don't really want to hear any more about it." She said it "wasn't that bad" and then asked what other names we had considered. Then my dad chimed in saying Baron is a title, not a name, and he knew we were going to pick a name like that because our dogs have people names, and the only Baron he's ever met was a dog. All I could do was roll my eyes and I just said that we were firm on the name whether they liked it or not and I would go on and have my "different"-named baby and be fine with it. Then, my dad throws this zinger in: "It sounds like something a poor person would name their kid to make them sound better." All I could say was that we weren't talking about it anymore. Later my sister told me that my mom said she thought it was "a little weird," although my sister likes the name.
I'm pissed that they were THAT rude about it, and that my mom not only THINKS it's a bad name, but has no qualms sharing her opinion on it. I'm not giving their input any weight, I just think it was incredibly rude to make the comments they made.
It can be said in both English and Spanish but would sound really different. In Spanish the double L will be a Y. Is this how it's pronounced in Spanish Sa-be-ye? That's how I read it.
I named my daughter a name that can be said in both English and Spanish and pretty much sound the same for the sake of my heritage (hispanic) and my husband's (white).
CRAFTY ME
my read shelf:
That is a beautiful name!!! I love it!!!
Things like that are exactly why we are keeping the name a secret this time around. People & their opinions can shove it. Your baby, your decision.
BFP #2 12/31/2010 (EDD 9/1/11) -- Natrual m/c 1/9/10
BFP #3 12/20/2011 - EDD 8/25/12
u/s 1/6/12 - HB & beautiful bean
A/S 4/2 - It's a Girl!!!
RCS on 8/20/12
My mom hated DD's name. I just laughed at her and now that DD is almost 3, mom is totally over her dislike of the name. In fact, she got over it pretty much as soon as she met DD. Name your child what you love, everyone else will learn to deal!!
I know there are going to be some people who have a problem with the names we have picked out but I don't care. And when they ask the names and I tell them they better suck it up and deal with it. A name isn't a reason you love a child. I know everyone will love my child no matter what its name is. And if people do give me problems about the names we have picked out I will simply say "You asked what the names were, I did not ask for your opinion"
Just like everyone else who gets to name their OWN children... you get to name YOUR own children too. Who cares what others say.
It is a very pretty name.
And you confirmed our decision to keep the baby names to ourselves until the baby is born.
Make a pregnancy ticker
That happened with me, too. MIL and FIL loved our boy-picked name. When I told my mom she said she wasn't a fan. I was hormonal and bawled and told her how much it hurt. Later, she admits it was never her place to say something. Now, she likes it, maybe even growing on her more than that
Once that baby's here, they name won't be a matter 
Our boy name? Maximos Scott (Husband is Greek heritage).
The name is NMS, but who cares what I think or what your mother thinks? She named her kid(s) and I named mine. Crazy people.