Once again I'm excited to introduce a mom who is near and dear to my heart! Christina and I have been friends for several years now, since high school to be exact. Even though now we are separated by several states, and numerous hours, we have still managed to keep in touch and remain friends. Continue reading as Christina shares with us a few of her motherhood experiences!
1. Tell us a little about yourself!
I was born and raised in Virginia where I met my high school sweetheart (and Jessa!). I married my husband in November 2011, moved to New Mexico with the Air Force in March 2012, gave birth to our first Child (Nate) in April 2013 and we are currently expecting our second child, a little girl in December of this year. It’s been a whirlwind driving cross country 3 times, living in more places than I can count, and figuring out life as a wife and mother but it’s been a blast!
2. Describe how you’re feeling now that you are expecting with a toddler! What scares or excites you?
I have had a few moments where I think “what in the world am I doing having kids 20 months apart,” but I am also very excited at the idea of them being so close and hopefully best buddies. All those freak out moments are teaching me to trust in God more and more each day and realize that my strength can only come from Him . He will get me through one day at a time. When I got pregnant I couldn’t imagine what the next 9 months had in store for me. I wondered how I would be able to chase a toddler, keep up enough energy to clean the house, do the laundry, grocery shop, cook, etc. and at 14 months old my son was still not sleeping through the night! THAT really scared me! Will I EVER sleep again?! Oh and I still had to find energy to grow a child! But things have gotten easier along the way. I am over the nauseous period of pregnancy, Nate now sleeps through the night, and the excitement of meeting our baby girl is overwhelming any worries I have about another child.
3. The personalities between boy children and girl children are so distinguished at an early age – have you seen or felt any differences with your two pregnancies this far? Similarities?
Yes! Right from the beginning! My pregnancy with Nate I craved carbs like crazy. I would drive through town and see Wendy’s and need it ASAP, but then I’d look over and see a sub shop and I couldn’t get there quick enough. Did someone say brownies?! I NEED THEM NOW! But this time with my daughter things have been very different. The first few weeks I was sooooo hungry but nothing was appealing to me. I would go from the fridge to the pantry over and over waiting for something to hit me but until it did, I just couldn't eat. I get cravings occasionally, but not every day or immediately when someone mentions’ a food. Nate was a little ninja in my belly the last few weeks of my pregnancy. He was so far up in my ribs that I had to sit up as straight as possible at the dinner table while he poked his little feet into my ribs. I’m only 31 weeks pregnant now, but so far baby girl isn’t as busy as Nate. So far the differences have been very distinguished.
4. Now that you have gotten through the first year with one little one, what would you do differently with your second? Anything you would do the same?
There are so many parenting books about everything under the sun, and people are so quick to judge your decisions and tell you the “right” way to parent. I made sure to do the research myself on each topic and phase we went through with Nate, and my husband and I would discuss the big things and make a decision as a family. I welcome any advice and think that sharing parenting tips on what helped and what didn’t can be a great resource, but I am glad that we dug into articles and made our decisions as a family and not just because it worked for some other person. I want to do the same with our second child if we run into new circumstances.
I could probably list a whole bunch of things, but the things that hit me first are these: I was worried about introducing a bottle too soon and causing nipple confusion, so I waited until about 4 months….and my son never took a bottle. I had to revolve my schedule around his nursing because I wanted to keep breastfeeding. Going to a girl’s night at a movie? Will it be more than 3 hours, sorry I can’t go. Needless to say this baby will be given a bottle much sooner! I also wasn’t very strict about nap time with Nate until he was about 8 months. I personally can’t do the cry it out method, so I would just do whatever was needed to help him get to sleep. I now know how important schedules are for kids and although I still won’t do the crying it out, I will def. try to get baby girl into a nap/bedtime routine much earlier on. I nursed Nate back to sleep in the middle of the night for months and I think this contributed to him not sleeping through the night until 14 months. As an exhausted mother it was much easier to nurse him to sleep and were both happy, than to hear him cry. I really can’t say what I will do with this baby, because I’m probably going to be a LOT more exhausted this time!
5. Having a baby throws your whole world for a loop! Can you describe how parenting has been for you living on a military base, or just away from family in general? Have you found support in other military mothers?
Being away from family is hard, but I know that if we ever need anything they are always there for us. It would be great to be within a few hours (not 39!) of them, but family is family and they are there for us no matter how far we are, even though it means missing a few life events which is sometimes hard. When Nate was born our families were not here for the birth. My mom flew out 3 days later, stayed a week and then my mother in law came for a week. Our fathers and sisters came out again with our moms a few months later, and grandparents and friends did not meet Nate until 8 months at Christmas. Not knowing when a baby will arrive, flying out here, and then missing the birth because it was time to go back to work was an option we didn’t want to go with. So although family may not be close by, we do what we can to stay as close as possible. The military support I have received as a mom has been amazing. Of course nobody can replace your own mom, but I have a great group of friends here who I know I can depend on. The joke on base is “be careful, it’s in the water.” Currently there are 6 women on my circle of about 20 houses who are expecting babies between December and March, and 2 more friends who live a street over. We have a walking group that meets every weekday on the corner of our street with strollers, dogs, kids on bikes etc. and we walk 3.5 miles and just chat about anything and everything each morning. The past 2.5 years there have always been 2 women pregnant in that group. Each Wednesdays we rotate hosting our own version of Kindermusik (music playgroup for the kids), and Thursday mornings we attend our squadron playgroup. We also have a great group of moms and kids at our church. I think because everyone is far from family, we learn to lean on and support each other and have built strong relationships.
I was born and raised in Virginia where I met my high school sweetheart (and Jessa!). I married my husband in November 2011, moved to New Mexico with the Air Force in March 2012, gave birth to our first Child (Nate) in April 2013 and we are currently expecting our second child, a little girl in December of this year. It’s been a whirlwind driving cross country 3 times, living in more places than I can count, and figuring out life as a wife and mother but it’s been a blast!
2. Describe how you’re feeling now that you are expecting with a toddler! What scares or excites you?
I have had a few moments where I think “what in the world am I doing having kids 20 months apart,” but I am also very excited at the idea of them being so close and hopefully best buddies. All those freak out moments are teaching me to trust in God more and more each day and realize that my strength can only come from Him . He will get me through one day at a time. When I got pregnant I couldn’t imagine what the next 9 months had in store for me. I wondered how I would be able to chase a toddler, keep up enough energy to clean the house, do the laundry, grocery shop, cook, etc. and at 14 months old my son was still not sleeping through the night! THAT really scared me! Will I EVER sleep again?! Oh and I still had to find energy to grow a child! But things have gotten easier along the way. I am over the nauseous period of pregnancy, Nate now sleeps through the night, and the excitement of meeting our baby girl is overwhelming any worries I have about another child.
3. The personalities between boy children and girl children are so distinguished at an early age – have you seen or felt any differences with your two pregnancies this far? Similarities?
Yes! Right from the beginning! My pregnancy with Nate I craved carbs like crazy. I would drive through town and see Wendy’s and need it ASAP, but then I’d look over and see a sub shop and I couldn’t get there quick enough. Did someone say brownies?! I NEED THEM NOW! But this time with my daughter things have been very different. The first few weeks I was sooooo hungry but nothing was appealing to me. I would go from the fridge to the pantry over and over waiting for something to hit me but until it did, I just couldn't eat. I get cravings occasionally, but not every day or immediately when someone mentions’ a food. Nate was a little ninja in my belly the last few weeks of my pregnancy. He was so far up in my ribs that I had to sit up as straight as possible at the dinner table while he poked his little feet into my ribs. I’m only 31 weeks pregnant now, but so far baby girl isn’t as busy as Nate. So far the differences have been very distinguished.
4. Now that you have gotten through the first year with one little one, what would you do differently with your second? Anything you would do the same?
There are so many parenting books about everything under the sun, and people are so quick to judge your decisions and tell you the “right” way to parent. I made sure to do the research myself on each topic and phase we went through with Nate, and my husband and I would discuss the big things and make a decision as a family. I welcome any advice and think that sharing parenting tips on what helped and what didn’t can be a great resource, but I am glad that we dug into articles and made our decisions as a family and not just because it worked for some other person. I want to do the same with our second child if we run into new circumstances.
I could probably list a whole bunch of things, but the things that hit me first are these: I was worried about introducing a bottle too soon and causing nipple confusion, so I waited until about 4 months….and my son never took a bottle. I had to revolve my schedule around his nursing because I wanted to keep breastfeeding. Going to a girl’s night at a movie? Will it be more than 3 hours, sorry I can’t go. Needless to say this baby will be given a bottle much sooner! I also wasn’t very strict about nap time with Nate until he was about 8 months. I personally can’t do the cry it out method, so I would just do whatever was needed to help him get to sleep. I now know how important schedules are for kids and although I still won’t do the crying it out, I will def. try to get baby girl into a nap/bedtime routine much earlier on. I nursed Nate back to sleep in the middle of the night for months and I think this contributed to him not sleeping through the night until 14 months. As an exhausted mother it was much easier to nurse him to sleep and were both happy, than to hear him cry. I really can’t say what I will do with this baby, because I’m probably going to be a LOT more exhausted this time!
5. Having a baby throws your whole world for a loop! Can you describe how parenting has been for you living on a military base, or just away from family in general? Have you found support in other military mothers?
Being away from family is hard, but I know that if we ever need anything they are always there for us. It would be great to be within a few hours (not 39!) of them, but family is family and they are there for us no matter how far we are, even though it means missing a few life events which is sometimes hard. When Nate was born our families were not here for the birth. My mom flew out 3 days later, stayed a week and then my mother in law came for a week. Our fathers and sisters came out again with our moms a few months later, and grandparents and friends did not meet Nate until 8 months at Christmas. Not knowing when a baby will arrive, flying out here, and then missing the birth because it was time to go back to work was an option we didn’t want to go with. So although family may not be close by, we do what we can to stay as close as possible. The military support I have received as a mom has been amazing. Of course nobody can replace your own mom, but I have a great group of friends here who I know I can depend on. The joke on base is “be careful, it’s in the water.” Currently there are 6 women on my circle of about 20 houses who are expecting babies between December and March, and 2 more friends who live a street over. We have a walking group that meets every weekday on the corner of our street with strollers, dogs, kids on bikes etc. and we walk 3.5 miles and just chat about anything and everything each morning. The past 2.5 years there have always been 2 women pregnant in that group. Each Wednesdays we rotate hosting our own version of Kindermusik (music playgroup for the kids), and Thursday mornings we attend our squadron playgroup. We also have a great group of moms and kids at our church. I think because everyone is far from family, we learn to lean on and support each other and have built strong relationships.
Thanks again, Christina, for sharing! If you would like to share your story on the blog, fill out the contact form to the right of the blog, or visit my Contact page, to send me your information and I will be in touch with you soon!