Category Archives: maternity

Abortion Is Not Selfish

Abortion is not selfish. There I have said it, and now let the lynching begin. But before the virtual stoning commences, you have to read why, along with my disclaimer.
I am a mother of two (the second one is scheduled to pop out any day now). I personally could not envision my life without Munchie and Ducky. I am not even sure I could go through with an abortion.
But there are a lot of people out there who should not have children, either because they are bad parents, or simply because they did not want children to being with and these children will now grow up being resented and/or neglected. Which basically means these are bad parents. Regardless of how you look at it, these children will have deprived childhoods, and this will ultimately affect them the rest of their lives.
Essentially these mothers who are having abortions are saving their unborn children from years of emotional, and in a lot of cases, physical, anguish. Which is the responsible thing to do. Why bring a child into the world that you are going to neglect or resent?
What about adoption? Well, here is another question. Aren’t there enough children in this world who need to be adopted into loving homes? Isn’t there enough starvation, poverty and neglect? Do we need to add more children to the mix?
I agree that abortion should not be the option used in lieu of birth control, and there is a fine line between full on acceptance of the practice and outright misuse. However, before condemning anyone and everyone who has ever had to go through with it, put yourself in their shoes, realize that it was probably a very difficult situation and decision, and the outcome is most likely what is/was best for the unborn child. The mother is not being selfish by looking out for herself. She understands herself better than anyone else, and knows she is not the right person for the job.
How do you feel about abortion?

Don’t Drink Coffee While Pregnant

I was standing in line at Starbucks when I realized two things. One, it seems a lot of my blogs start out this way. Two, appropriately this blog actually has to do with coffee.

I am nine months pregnant and I get a lot of reactions when I order coffee. The Baristas typically do not comment, probably because they don’t want customer complains. The other patrons, however, never fail to deliver an off glance, or provide some type of admonishment. I do not take it personally, or get argumentative with them because I used to have the same belief: if you are pregnant, you should not be drinking coffee.

When I was pregnant with my daughter I stopped drinking coffee altogether. I read some articles stating that one cup a day was alright, but nevertheless I put coffee in the same boat with alcohol, and together they sailed away to the forbidden land.

I was very proud of myself for successfully giving up a life sustaining substance like coffee. What I failed to take into consideration was the amount of caffeine I was consuming aside from my morning, afternoon and evening cups of joe. I was still drinking loads of soda, and ingesting pounds of chocolate in various forms. And I was gulping down glass after glass of iced tea.

During my second pregnancy, taking all of the above into consideration, I figured that if I just cut down on my caffeine consumption in other areas, I would not have to deprive myself of one cup of coffee a day. In fact, by downsizing my intake in other areas I was able to have my morning pick-me-up and still be ingesting less caffeine throughout the day than I previously had been.

So, before you swear off that tall mocha, consult with your physician. You may be surprised what you learn.

How do you feel about caffeine and pregnancy?

I Could Never Name My Kid That!

Naming your baby is difficult. My husband and I deliberated for a long time with naming both our children, and performed numerous searches. I often times found myself reading articles about how other parents name their kids in the hopes of being inspired.

There were a lot of articles that advocated waiting until you meet your baby before naming them. Thinking back on everything which went through my head when I met my daughter, that approach would have gotten her stuck with a name like “Scrunchie” or “Fronky” or any other cutsie name my husband and/or I came up with. Currently our daughter is “Munchie” short for Munchkin, and our son is “Fronky” a split between mommy’s little froggy and daddy’s little monkey. I would never in a million years consider actually legally naming my children either of these names. Unless I was just coming off of the epidural, hopped up on pain meds, and my husband is too ecstatic to notice me signing any paperwork.

Is this why we have so many strangely named children? Did the parents wait until they got to see their baby and then blurt out “Squishy” in a rush of adrenaline and excitement, forever maiming, um, I mean naming their child an odd adjective used to describe them in their first hours after birth?

Naming a child is a hard decision to make. Especially when you have two people trying to compromise on the “perfect name.” I just cannot see the several months process condensed into a mere few hours.

How did you come up with your child’s name?