From the category archives:

GP (biomom) issues

Choosing to parent

by Gail July 10, 2009

Last week, Lyn and I had a crisis of sorts. Really, it was just a late-night breakdown in which we grappled with the difficulties facing us as we deal with having a new baby. My big revelation came when we were talking about the long list of things I have on my plate and Lyn [...]

6 comments Read the full article →

Nighttime Parenting

by Gail July 1, 2009

I have now been doing one feeding a day for Ira for a little over a week. Some of the feedings have been a little challenging, but overall the project is going well. I have a much better understanding on my son’s feeding patterns. I am sometimes deciding when he is hungry and when he [...]

7 comments Read the full article →

“Is this your first child?”

by Lyn April 30, 2009

This isn’t an easy question to answer. In a medical situation, the relevant answer is “Yes” since they need to know I’ve never been pregnant before, but I refuse not to claim my first daughter, and if I don’t mention her, I miss out on all of the great bonding conversation over how cute and [...]

6 comments Read the full article →

Three Years Ago: Looking Forward to Being an Onlooker

by Gail April 23, 2009

The last time Lyn and I were having a baby, we started to keep a joint journal in order to record and remember our experiences. We sent the journal back and forth on the computer, each of us writing in it when inspiration struck. Today I opened up that file and rummaged around in the [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

Do those hormones really make you hog the baby?

by Lyn April 15, 2009

I have been thinking some about what oneofhismoms wrote about having more empathy for how hard it is to really back off and let one’s partner get the time they really need to parent, now that she’s been on both sides of the bio-vs-non-bio-mom fence. She writes: “There are so many things about being a [...]

5 comments Read the full article →

The disappearing switcheroo

by Lyn December 12, 2008

Gail and I often think about the different dynamics of TTC #1 vs. TTC #2. I wrote before about how somehow TTC this time had much more of a taint of selfishness, that somehow, when it is perfectly clear that I can fully love and parent a child whom I didn’t birth, and yet feel [...]

11 comments Read the full article →

The story of your birth

by Gail December 9, 2008

We usually tell Leigh a story before she goes to bed. Often the stories involve Baba (grandma) and Baba kitty (grandma’s cat) and usually a lion and a giraffe who have to go potty before their naps. But one of her favorites is the story of how she was born, which I thought would be [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

An old scar

by Gail December 5, 2008

We just had Lyn’s midwife appointment and got to hear the heartbeat again! We’re happy and relieved. We are also starting to get over the monster cold from hell, which is a relief. I’m still coughing my head off, but my fever is gone and I don’t feel quite so crappy. Lyn is still coughing [...]

8 comments Read the full article →

One of the reasons why

by Lyn November 12, 2008

If I had written before this worked, about my personal reasons for wanting so badly to be pregnant (other than the obvious reason that Gail and I wanted another child), my reasons would have had a lot to do with pregnancy being a way to reconnect with my body, and as a way to have [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

What we did right without knowing it Part III: Our Names

by Gail October 8, 2008

(See also Part I and Part II) When I was pregnant with Leigh, Lyn and I had many many many conversations about how we would structure our family. Naturally, the ever-popular subject of names came up. In a family with two moms, who gets called what? Do you both go with “Mommy?” Does one person [...]

7 comments Read the full article →

What we did right without knowing it, Part II (aka Accidental Economic Advantages)

by Lyn October 3, 2008

Along with putting the slightly more communicative of us on the less traveled parenting path (i.e. me as the non-bio-mom, see Part I), another thing we did right without knowing it, was to have the mom with the most economic power bear the child. In a straight family in which mom gives birth, mom is [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →