Upstairs in my bedroom behind the always-open closet door sits one of my prized possessions. It is an art print on canvas of a mother nursing a baby. This thing has been through a lot – I would venture to call it “weathered.” Over-stretched, it looks like a pair of wrinkled khakis under the glass.
Tag: postpartum depression
A few weeks ago, I was cleaning up my six-month-old’s blow-out on a public bathroom floor when an older woman walked in. My baby’s interested eyes and charming smile clearly blinded the woman from the poop that was smeared on the floor, the used diaper, and the small heap of dirty clothes and wipes we
As those of you who follow my writing know, I was diagnosed with postpartum depression when my now-5-month-old daughter was about 8 weeks old. I am a mental health professional, so I have quite a bit of experience helping those with a wide range of mental illnesses. On top of that, I became a school
Several weeks ago, I wrote a blog post that got a lot of attention, and my surprise about that should have been clue #1 that something was very wrong. When I wrote down and shared my postpartum experience on social media, I never expected so many comments of support from people I haven’t seen in years, all
It’s been eight weeks since I became a mom of two, and I have a not-very-surprising confession: Baby number two has been really hard. Not that I thought it would be easy, but I figured the experience and perspective I gained with my first would somehow make me better at this newborn thing. As it turns
When you really stop to think about life, it is filled with so many coincidences, chance meetings, unexpected connections. Or, if you’re like me, you may feel like they aren’t coincidences at all. Maybe, instead, it’s actually fate and that they actually happen for a reason. Perhaps they have a greater purpose than we realize at the time.
It’s been almost four years since that June morning and I am no longer depressed. I have a second son now and didn’t have postpartum depression with him. I have since bonded with and love both of my boys more than anything in my life. My bond is strong and secure with my sons.
(My story …continued) Like all forms of depression, there are varying degrees of postpartum depression. It can fluctuate from of a mild case of the “baby blues” to a crippling case of serious depression, or a million situations in between. To be honest, I don’t know where my case fell on that spectrum as it’s
It was mid-June, a little before 6:00am. I didn’t know the exact time because I stopped looking at the clock by then, but I knew the approximate time by the amount of sunlight coming through the window. It must have been a Tuesday because it was Garbage Day. I watched the garbage truck thump up the
This Thanksgiving was a whirlwind of low-level drama. It started with the terrible weather on Wednesday and a slow, slick drive up to my parents’ place. Thursday my daughter woke up in super-crank mode. She was crying at nothing and everything, alternately refusing and demanding food, and wanting constantly to be held – but only
