The very personal reason 2020 was both wild & not all that bad

Hey oh hey y’all. 

Yes it’s been a while since I last wrote. For anyone who has been an regular reader of The Reclaimed, you know I would never stay away without good reason. 

Well I have the BEST reason why I’ve been away: 

This is Emerie (or Emmie as I like to call her). She was born November 22nd and Earl and I are over the moon in love with her.

Life with Emmie is already so different than my life before. I certainly didn’t think mommy-hood would be easy. I knew there would be many adjustments. But I certainly didn’t realize the how many adjustments we needed to make. Interestingly enough, I am typing this as I pace the hallway of our home with Emmie sleep in my arms (she runs our lives now). 

That’s not the only type of adjustments we have made. I personally had to disengage with a few people, and that was hard. For context, I already keep a small circle. But it shrunk even more after the baby was born. Some of us don’t vibe any more. Even fewer folks had the space or relationship for some of the “advice” they sent my way. Protecting my peace has always been a thing, (and it’s even more so now after giving birth to a tiny human durn a global pandemic!)

Speaking of: because of the pandemic, neither one of our moms have been able to meet Emmie face to face. Only a few of our relatives have. Outside of my best friend, none of our friends have either. For better or worse, we have been in our own. And coming from a big family with lots of women who typically bombard new moms houses, armed with pans of cooked food and their overnight bags, it has been really lonely.

Thank God for my very supportive husband, who nursed me back to health after my c-section (more on that later). He’s been beyond a great dad to Emmie and a phenomenal husband to me during these first weeks. From taking over late nights with the baby to running all of the errands to cooking all our dinners and more, he’s awesome.

And that’s been the first five weeks with Emmie. And as a parent. 

Does that mean this is turning into a mom blog? Not officially. There’s still a lot of things in the world we need to discuss but I think a sprinkling of baby stories and family anecdotes won’t hurt.