Surviving And Thriving In The First Year of Motherhood: One Mother’s Celebration Story

How to Survive & thrive in the first year of motherhood: one mother’s celebration story On this episode of the Learn With Less podcast, Ayelet sits down with Rachel Kammeyer, a speech-language pathologist, long-time listener of the Learn With Less podcast, regular attendee of Learn With Less® “parent & me” classes, and mother to William, who has just celebrated his first birthday at the time of this recording. Ayelet says, “I’ve had the good fortune of getting to know Rachel over the last year, and I think her perspective, like all of the guests I bring onto the Learn With Less podcast, is one that can help us learn more about ourselves and our own experiences. I asked Rachel to be on today because her story is one that I think resonates with all of us, and her needs and desires as she grew into the incredible parent she is today, reflect exactly why I’ve created the resources you can find here at Learn With Less. I hope you’ll enjoy this great chat with Rachel. QUICK LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE Learn With Less podcast on iTunes Learn With Less podcast on Spotify Learn With Less® “Parent & Me” classes Understanding Your Baby book  Learn With Less podcast episode, “How to Provide Early Literacy Experiences for Infants and Toddlers” Text transcript of this episode Ayelet: Today, I am speaking with Rachel Kammeyer, who is a speech-language pathologist, a mother, and a long-time listener of Learn With Less. Welcome, Rachel! Rachel: Thank you! This is great! Ayelet: I’m happy that you are joining me today, Rachel, and I just wanted to sort of pick your brain about a few things, and about your transition into motherhood. So, let’s start there. Why don’t you give us the back story – what did life look like for you when you were about to become a mom? Rachel: So, I was working at a skilled nursing facility, and for people who might not be familiar with that, it’s kind of like what we used to call a nursing home. So, I was doing a lot of rehab therapy. And then, when I was about 6 months pregnant, the company bought another facility that was way busier, and they decided to make me the sole speech therapist at both facilities. So, around Christmas time, I was working 14, 15 hour days, and I would joke to my boss that I was going to carry this baby to term. I asked them to bring in more help – so eventually, we were getting more help, and then, like many things, it was feast or famine. So, I went from working these crazy hours, to, by the eighth month of my pregnancy, only working 3 or 4 hours a day. And I was not complaining, at all. And then one night, I went to the bathroom, and I was bleeding. And it was… it was pretty significant, and it’s one of those things that, that late in the pregnancy, like, red flag, call the doctor right away. We went to the hospital, and I was having some Braxton Hicks-type contractions, but I was having a lot of them. And so, they were really worried that my uterus was just kind of freaking out, but I wasn’t dilated. Ayelet: How many weeks were you at this point?...