YMBlogs ~ young mommies' voices!

I’m getting a 13y.o.’s smile again! =s

Carla — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 23:46:04 +0000

I have hated my smile ever since I can remember. I got braces when I was 10 and had them until I was 16. Yup, 6 years! My teeth weren’t horrible, but to make a long story short, I had a permanent molar that never descended, and had to change orthodontysts (sp?) like 7 times. Bringing the molar down to its proper location didn’t really take so long, but every time I changed dentits they would come up with a whole new plan to start over again!! at one point one of them actually did nothing but create a gap in between my front teeth that wasn’t there before!! and the other teeth flare out a bit! Urgh!. I’m sure the fact that I was a total slacker and always missed my appointments probably didn’t help matters.

Anyhow, the orthodontist decided to take them off saying they were doing more harm than good now (duh!). I got a retainer to help correct the “overbite” that twisting the tooth to position caused. A month later I accidently broke my retainer and I didn’t feel like going for another one.
Now here I am, almost 13 years after this begun, still hating my smile. Most of my teeth are straight except for a couple on my right upper side. I went in for a consultation earlier this week and found out my case is more complex that I thought. My old orthodontist didn’t do anything to make my jaw bigger & didn’t extract any teeth. My mouth is too small for all the teeth I have and will need at least 2 extracted. Plus I’ll have to have braces for another 1-2 years. The whole thing was a tough pill to swallow, but I decided to go through with it. I think it looks kind of funny when adults have braces, but I’m tired of hating my smile. Luckily the ortho said he’d be able to give me invisible braces! (the ones that go on the inside rather than the front of your teeth), or if I can’t afford those he can at least give me the clear braces in the front, but will need to use the metal in the back for the force. Wish me luck!

Thank you!

Kayla — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:51:06 +0000

My grandmother always told me to be thankful for what I have, sometimes its not easy but here it goes…Thank you for early mornings, explosive diapers, constant whining, and the occasional puke that somehow always lands all over me. Thank you for the ability to clean my house just to have it totaled again 5 minutes later. Thank you for a boyfriend who will allow me to get the bathroom clean just before he takes a crap in it. Thank you for moutains of laundry, piles of dishes, finger prints on EVERYTHING & for my children/boyfriends ability to spill something on the floor or walk through the house shoes on with mud all over their feet right after I’ve cleaned it. Thank you for stretch marks, an audience while I use the bathroom and sleepless nights. Thank you for constant questions,stories,noise,etc and never a moment of peace & quiet..I might get bored withought it! Finally thank you for my family. Life gets rough and being a mom has its ups and downs but when my kids reach out for me, give me kisses and hugs & tell me they love me more than candy. Thats what makes life worth living

Changes

Alexis — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 23:46:26 +0000

If I looked in a crystal ball 3 years ago I would never have believed that the life I’m leading today would be my reality. Sometimes I don’t even recognize myself, it’s like I went from kid to mom in the blink of an eye… When I found out I was pregnant I knew that my life was going to change, I knew it wasn’t all about me anymore, but I never thought that I would go into mom mode so quickly and I never thought that I’d be the last person I’d think about… I have always been the type of person that thought about others, who was always there to help my family or friends, I was a shoulder to cry on, a good listener, but I usually expected something in return. Lets face it, I was a naive and sometimes self centered fifteen year old, so basically I was like any other kid. But it amazes me how all that changed the second I found out I was pregnant, and even more so after Lucas was born. Lucas is my world, all that matters in my life is that he’s safe, happy and healthy. I guess before I had a baby I never expected that something could take precedent over my needs/wants/feelings/etc. A lot of the things that I thought were important to me before are now things that I couldn’t care less about or that I just have no place for in my life. I thought I’d die if I didn’t get to watch my favorite show, I would get pissed at my parents if they didn’t let me stay up late or go out with friends. Back then I didn’t have any real responsibilities, my priorities included working, school, homework, and friends. But now every single one of those things has taken a back burner. Yes I want to do well in school, yes I want to work hard and make money so I can give my child everything he wants, yes I want to still have somewhat of a social life, but when it comes down to it Lucas trumps all those things. If I couldn’t go to school or couldn’t work or could never see my friends again I’d be okay with that, as long as I had my son.

Another change I’ve seen in myself in the past few years is that I’ve totally become my mom! Whenever I was in trouble as a child and sent to my room I’d always say to myself that I’d never be like her, that I’d never do this or that to my children, that I’d be the coolest mom ever and never yell at them or punish them, blah blah blah. And sometimes during a fight, in the heat of the moment, I’d say something along those lines to my mom and she always laughed. She had to have told be a thousand times “wait until you have kids”, and “what comes around goes around”, but being a stubborn teen I never listened and I completely believed that I would be so different… Well, all I can say is who’s laughing now? I am EXACTLY like my mom!!! And in the past few months as Lucas has gotten his own personality and started being defiant, I have thanked God (and my mom) that she was the way she was and she raised all of us the way she did, because she taught me how to be the parent I am today. Sure I don’t want to do EVERYTHING the same, but hey, she raised six of us and none of us are too messed up, so she must have done something right, right?

YM Blog Contest Results!

krismom — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:48:59 +0000

Our summertime days have just flown on by and I have enjoyed seeing all the wonderful blog posts that have been added here to the YM Blogs. It is so fabulous to have so many different mommies contributing and adding their voices – we get to hear such a great cross-section of young moms, who have lots in common but also lots that is different from each other.

Our YM Blog Contest wraps up today and I’m just thrilled to be announcing our two winners today, so I’ll get right to that now!

Our runner-up prize, selected based on the young mom who posted the *most* (in blog posts and comments combined) is… Kayla! she is a young mommy of 2 from Atlantic Canada. Kayla, I can’t wait to send you the Summer Fun Pack I put together as a prize – I’m sure you and your two munchkins can still get some enjoyment out of it for the rest of our warmer days.

Every comment and blog post was also one entry that counted towards the *random*draw for the big prize, so in total we had 29 entries! The number that was randomly generated for us was #2, so in my list that I had made of blog posts and comments, that number points right at our 2nd blog post… hmmm, who was that who posted the 2nd blog post??

So the winner of our book giveaway – who will get a brand new copy of What to Expect When You’re Expecting is…

… Alexis! she is a young single mom in Boston MA, USA and has posted 3 great blog entries here as well as comments, so those all counted as chances to win! Great job, Alexis and I’ll send out your book as soon as I can!

Thanks so much to everyone who contributed to the YM Blogs and especially those of you that became new bloggers – Carla, Taylor, Alexis, and Kayla. How did you gals enjoy blogging? Do you think you’ll keep on being “mommy bloggers”? I hope we will get to hear lots more from you in the future!

Thanks to anyone and everyone who stopped by to read the blogs as well – please come on by again soon to hear what all of our young moms have to say… the group of women here on the site contains some of the smartest and most dedicated parents I have ever met in my life, so I know that anyone can learn a lot from the teen and young moms that are a part of Young Mommies.

Life

Andrea — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 03:23:15 +0000

99% of the time I live my life feeling beyond blessed. I have been extremely fortunate in my life. Things always seem to fall right into place, even when things seem to be a mess, it always comes together. My husband is the man of my dreams, I have beautiful children, a great relationship with my first sons father, an amazingly supportive family and friends who I trust. What more could a person truly want?

1% of the time I feel regretful. Wondering what my life would be like if I hadn’t gotten pregnant at 15 years old. Who would I be? Where would I have gone? I see my friends moving away, living on their own, discovering themselves and I feel jealously. I close my eyes imagine my life in a big city far away from here, an independent women and I long for that.

Flash back to reality. I found myself holding back tears the other day after I had settled Malik down from a tantrum during a therapy session. Even though these tantrums are a very rare occurrence I found myself thinking “is this really my life? I am only 20 years old” and then the guilt for even thinking such thoughts sets in.

Do we all feel this way? Are we always longing for something that will never be? Even if its only occasionally? Even when we have absolutely everything we ever wanted, the grass is somehow always greener. At least every once and awhile

breaking point

tadpolesmomma — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:06:55 +0000

Every mother has their own breaking point, and that point may be different for every mother at any given moment with any aged child. For me it was my 3 week old son’s non-stop crying for 2 hours from 3:30 am until 5:30 am after a similar night the night before and then a long day out and not getting home until 11:30pm. So what do you do when you reach this point? How do you keep from completely losing it? After 2 hours of his screaming inconsolably I put him down in his bassinet walked out of the room shut the door and screamed for less than 10 seconds to release my frustration because at that point he was reacting to my feelings and my stress as much as if not more than he was reacting to his own. I screamed and that went back into the room reswaddled him the way he likes it and cuddled him close while telling him how much I loved him and how thankful I was to have him, after about 15 minutes of this he finally settled down and went to sleep. But the next morning my mom freaked out on my for how I had handled the situation and told me that all the neighbors had heard me and were judging me enough as it was. I believe I handled the situation the best i could at that given moment, and if it had happened right now I could have handled it so much better but at that point I couldn’t. The judgment from my mother however made me feel like I was an awful mother, that judgment and telling mothers they can’t deal with their emotions first is what leads to resentment towards the child.

Breastfeeding

tadpolesmomma — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 04:52:57 +0000

One of the first things that went through my mind when I found out I was pregnant (once the shock wore off) was labour. “I’m going to have to push a baby out of there! There is no way a baby will fit out of there!” Little did I know, labour and delivery is a piece of cake compared to breastfeeding. When you talk to people about breastfeeding they are usually all for it, “Breast really is best!” “It’s not only great for the baby but it’ll get your body back sooo much faster!” but noone tells you how hard it is.
Noone tells you how badly your boobs hurt when they are overproducing at first and are so engorged it feels like they are trying to burst out of your skin.
Noone warns you that babies bite, and it HURTS even without teeth.
Noone tells you that the sucking will put your baby to sleep in the middle of the feed and you will have to fight to keep them awake but not screaming.
Noone warns you about them getting distracted and throwing their heads back while they still have a good grip on your nipple.
Noone warns you about clusterfeeding, when they eat every half hour or so.
Noone tells you you become a human pacifier.
Noone tells you about when they ate something their baby didnt like and they spit it all up after feeding for an hour and then scream because they are now starving again and you have to start all over.
Noone tells you that nursing covers just get in the way for you and baby and therefore usually get forgotten quickly.

And it doesn’t end, I was afraid for labour but worst case scenario labour is what 24 hours? I was lucky mine was only 5 hours long. But breastfeeding, it’s been over 2 weeks and it’s still hard.

But it is so worth it. Once they have a good feed and you look down and see them all sleepy and content and know that you are the only person in the world who can do that for them. And when someone else is holding them and they here your voice and turn to you, because they know you provide them with everything they need. IMO seeing your baby happily, peacefully sucking away at your boob is the best feeling in the world, and it’s much more beautiful than a sleeping baby.

POOP!

Alexis — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:58:44 +0000

For the past few months Lucas has HATED to wear a diaper. Every time he’s in just a diaper it is off in less than 5 minutes. I try to not leave him in one because I know this and I have had one too many incidents where he has taken it off and pooped all over the floor… I’ve tried everything to make him keep them on except for using duct tape (although I just might do it one of these days… lol) It used to be that if he had any kind of pants or shorts on he’s leave it alone, but now he has mastered the art of taking those off too, so the only way to keep his bum covered is in a onsie or overalls. Anyway, last weekend we were in Dunkin Donuts in Boston waiting for a friend of mine to get there with her son so we could take the kids to the sprinklers. Another one of my friends works there so we’re pretty well known and they all love Lucas and don’t mind if he runs around inside, as long as I keep an eye on him of course. I really had to pee so I asked my friend if she could watch him for 2 minutes and she said no problem. Well, she didn’t do too good of a job if you ask me… I came out of the bathroom no more than 3 minutes later and Lucas is standing there in his shirt and NOTHING else, and he’s waving his poopy diaper in the air, he has poop all over him, and there’s a bunch of poop on the floor. I looked at him and screamed, and he just stared at me and laughed uncontrollably! And to top it off a Boston cop happened to be walking into the store at that very moment… Lets just say I was completely mortified and I won’t be letting that particular friend to babysit again anytime soon…

Meeting Victoria

Carla — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:48:01 +0000

I will never forget the time I met Victoria… Specially because I was so nervious, it was like I had never seen or been around a child before!

Phill and I had been seriously dating for over 6 months, and she was just over 13 months old. We had discussed this over for hours and hours and hours! I was really looking forward to meeting her, almost from the start, but Phillip had a thousand reservations! (that I must confess I didn’t really understand at the moment, but now I see his point). We met at his house, and I remember being so nervious my hand were damp with sweat!! I kept dropping everything I was holding… She just kind of ignored me at first, and hung on to Phill for dear life!, and I remember thinking “Oh God, this s going to be a disaster!”. The first time I tried to hold her she started crying. Later we started playing with some cardboard boxes, and the Phill yelled at me cause he was planning to use them!, then we decided to get some lunch and she wouldn’t take anything! So Phill got all frustrated and said that we better went home… At this point I almost felt like crying myself! and the thing is, I’m usually so good with kids! I adore them and they adore me!. Thankfully little by little she started reaching out to me, letting me tickle her, and by the end of the afternoon she’d even let me hold her! but still, I was SO awkward with her! it was embarassing! you’d think I had never been around babies before! Not knowing what to do, how to talk to her, how to calm her down… I really thought Phill was going to come up to me any minute and say “You know what, I don’t think this is going to work” (I’m SO glad he didn’t obviously!)

That’s when it hit me! all the pressure I was putting on myself, because this wasn’t just some kid, just another friend’s child… This is the daughter of the man I love! and if everything turned out the way we wanted to, she was going to be my family! My step DAUGHTER! yikes! and you can imagine what a shock that was to me at first… I remember when we said good bye I patted her awkwardly on the head and didn’t even kiss Phillip, I was so out of my element!

Then I thought, if I want this child to be my family, I had better start treating her like family! and that made a world of difference! the next time we met like 2 weeks after that we really started bonding! we went for ice cream, I made her laugh, she made a mess of my dress and broke my necklace, you know, the whole thing! hahaha! But I’m glad to say we’ve been friends ever since. =)

Our Journey to Kindergarten

Kayla — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 23:48:12 +0000

       It feels like just yesterday I had my little baby boy. I was changing his diapers, feeding him his first solid food (banana’s), teaching him how to walk, potty training him, and all the other things you do for your babies in their first couple years. All of a sudden he’s all grown up and starting kindergarten!! I can’t believe how fast the past 5years has gone by!
        We already have almost everything he needs. His theme this year is toy story..lol…so he has the toy story bookbag,luch bag & shoes. He’s got tons of new school clothes and I’ll probably be buying more just incase. We all know how kids, especially boys can go through clothes..lol…The only things left on the list he needs are his student fee’s and 3pks of baby whipes for hand washing before he eats. Even though I don’t see how anyone can get their hands properly cleaned after playing outside just using a baby whipe,especially a small child who will be too hungry to take the time to get under the nails and in between each finger. I guess we will see how that works out soon!!
        It’s just about a month & a half away, and my emotions are already all over the place..lol.. One minute I’m excited for him, the next I want to cry. I can’t even begin to imagine how its going to be the first day when I have to actually drop him off and leave him there withought me One minute I feel like crying and sometimes I even think of keeping him home an extra year just so I dont have to miss him when he’s at school..lol..Other times I feel like homeschooling him even though I know how that would work out. I can’t help feeling scared for him. Will he be o.k. withought me, will he make friends (he is pretty shy), will he learn as fast as the other children. One things for sure, he is VERY excited to start school and laughs at me when I tell him I don’t want him to go…lol…He sais he is a big boy now and he has to. I just want to hug him and never let him go.
        They say time fly’s and boy are they right!! But is it too much to ask for it to slow down just a little from here on out?