Whoops, I went a few months without blogging. Truly, I went nearly an entire year barely blogging. I’ve just been keeping my head above water since February with work and life (honestly, barely on the life part — this was a year of cancelled plans. But why? Someone recently told me that “hard launching” a baby had become a trend. And, apparently, that’s what I did.
Surprise, We Had a Baby!
We had a baby back in October, and, nope, you didn’t miss an announcement (if I had a nickel for every message I received asking if they’d missed it!). I did post photos from my baby shower on Instagram but, that morning, I also posted a photo from a friend’s baby shower I went to right before mine, so I think some people missed that it was my own. I finally posted photos of the nursery and of these quick maternity photos…but those were both after baby arrived. Really just throwing people off over here.
I intentionally kept this news off social media for a few reasons. First of all, anyone close to me was told firsthand. Second, I don’t love a pregnancy announcement or gender reveal, so why would I do one? Third, I work for myself, and that means maternity leave is a little bit dicey given I have clients who hire me because they want to hire me. While I could pretty easily work around taking a bit of time off, I didn’t want to end up with a weird lag in new clients because I took a few months away from business development. And, lastly, I don’t need to drop myself into “mama” culture or open up the forum to unsolicited advice.
But we’ve been settling in over here, and, besides the annoyance with not having use of both hands 95% of the time, it’s been a smooth transition. I’ve told friends lately that perhaps it’s because motherhood wasn’t a lifelong goal for me; I went in with no expectations. I didn’t have a romanticized version that I’d built up for decades. It’s all just a new experience, and an addition rather than a complete shift.
Plus, we’re fortunate to live in a neighborhood with so many families. Two friends and neighbors of mine had babies within two weeks of us (and live within two blocks of us!), and we’ve been strolling around the Hill three-across. We could not have asked for a better scenario.
Will the Baby Ever Be on Social Media?
And to address the question I’ve gotten over and over again in my DMs — when am I sharing the baby to social media? I actually don’t plan on sharing anything baby-related here or on Instagram. Personally, I don’t like baby and kid content, and I absolutely do not want my algorithm to start showing me baby advice content (from what I’ve heard, isn’t that were all anxiety starts?). I may share the occasional find if there’s something really darling, but you won’t find the baby making an appearance.
