-
Balancing Joy and Grief in my Second Pregnancy after Widowhood
Navigating Complex Emotions: Joy, Fear, and Grief Hi friends– coming to you live, 19 weeks pregnant, and in this blog post, I’m bringing you all deeper into my psyche and experience, as I balance joy, grief, and a slew of complicated emotions during this second pregnancy after losing Matt and beginning this next chapter with Paul. Before we get into that, I’ve had a lot of questions about how things are going right now. Physically, the second trimester has been much easier. My nausea has subsided, I have more energy (most of the time) and, now, it’s just a matter of watching my belly grow and my body rapidly change.…
-
Advanced Maternal Age: Something to Celebrate
Hello all! Coming at you live, at about 16 weeks pregnant with my second baby by the time this publishes, and I am ready to talk about all of the positive things around “advanced maternal age.” For those of you unfamiliar with the term, “advanced maternal age” is the language used by researchers and medical professionals to define pregnancy at or after the age of 35. This term has been around since the 1950s, with some variations including “elderly pregnancy” and “geriatric pregnancy.” If those are the alternatives, I’ll stick with advanced maternal age (or AMA). The threshold is somewhat arbitrary in that, it signifies a gradual decline in fertility…
-
Bump Diaries: The Sequel
Baby number two is on the way! I am so excited to document this pregnancy in all of it's uniqueness.
-
Enjoying Life in the “And”
Dearest readers– Just kidding. I’m no Lady Whistledown. She’s great about committing to a weekly release. I did just finish Season 3 of Bridgerton so it felt timely. It has been quite a while since my last blog post– a post that was strangely challenging to write and since then, I’ve had a hard time getting back to the keyboard for one reason or another. If you’re on my email list, you already know that it’s partly due to some anxiety and fear around sharing this next chapter with all of you. Change is scary. I’ve shared so much over these past four years, specifically about my grief as a…
-
Our Next Chapter Has Begun
Eighteen months. It’s been a year and a half since I last took pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and wrote on this blog. So much has happened. So much has changed. And there is just so much to share. Last time I checked in, you all learned about my “Band-Aid” date. Welp, Spoiler alert– I’m ENGAGED! Today, I’ll give you a quick run-through of how this all transpired. Many of you may know most of this, so hopefully, this isn’t too redundant and if it is, I promise, there will be more posts to come. Let’s begin with where I’ve been for the last eighteen months. This blog…
-
The Band-Aid Date: My First, First Date as a Widow
Let’s cut to the chase friends, I went on my first date. In my last blog post, I mentioned I set a goal for my first, first date and I beat that goal. Please, hold your applause. I’ve been thinking a lot about how I want to structure this widow dating series to be helpful, slightly entertaining, and, naturally, hit at the core of all the complexities that go along with this adventure. For each post of this series, I’ll have a topic I discuss along with my chronicle of these dating experiences. I will not review every single date I go on, but I think the first one is…
-
Dating Update
Hello friends. This week has been heavy, on a macro level. I’ve tried to balance following the war in Ukraine, donating to reputable, vetted causes, finding credible sources, and carrying on with our day-to-day life, knowing that in the background, people are experiencing this unthinkable, unjust terror. My club, the one no one ever wants to be a part of, will grow exponentially as a result of this war. People will die, as so many have in the past, defending their homes, their families, their land, and their freedom. It is gut wrenching. And yet, I still feel the heaviness and the hard of my little world; it seems so insignificant…
-
Charleston– You are so Charming
Well, we are almost through February, which means, we’re almost through the doldrums of winter. High five. This year, anticipating that February would be, well, f*ing February, I decided to plan a trip to somewhere slightly warmer with Bryson. This was our first trip as a family of two, without any grandparent help, which may not seem like a big deal, but it was. It meant that I was in charge of all the planning, preparing, carseat handling, stroller maneuvering, and everything that goes along with traveling with a child. I’ve discussed secondary losses in previous blog posts, and this fits right in. Having a travel partner meant I had…
-
And Just like that, it’s been two years.
Hello blog family. I write this special blog post in anticipation of the two year mark of life on earth without Matt here. Two years of trying to figure out who I am without my person. Two years of navigating a space I never, in a million years, assumed I’d be navigating. I don’t feel like the same person I was two years ago, just as that person was vastly different from the woman I was in the years preceeding the collapse of our world. I hope Matt is witnessing all of this; that he is behind me, holding me up when I feel like I may collapse. That even…
-
The Holidays in Grief: Another Secondary Loss
It’s taken me some time to get this blog post up, partly because this time of year, in general, is still hard to process. I’ve honestly thought about taking an actual break from it all; from writing my blog, from social media in general, from publicly transcribing this very real journey I’m on. The loss of Matt, the roller coasters of emotions, my journey into dating. Is it too much? Is it too heavy? For me. For my readers. For my family and friends who have, to some degree, had to relive this devastation and walk alongside me in the aftermath. Ironically, this morning, I received an email from one…
