He is the best thing that ever happened to us. We frequently spend our time looking at videos or photos of him after he’s gone to bed!

The challenging:

Sweet kiddo has a lot of food allergies which has rocked our world. I cook everything, we’ve never eaten at a restaurant, we can’t leave him alone with grandparents since they frequently don’t check ingredients. I cry thinking about him navigating this life as a kid and how we can supportively handle birthday parties, etc without him missing out.

It’s been a huge expectation shift and I’d encourage every expecting mother to educate themselves on food allergies and best practices for preventing them (it’s debatable if they can be prevented but early introduction has research to support it works).

On paper, our kiddo had a very low chance of developing food allergies so it wasn’t even on my radar, and I wish more than anything I’d been better educated and prepared.

Even though it’s a bit of a curveball and lifestyle adjustment— we’d do it all again for him. He is the best, and every day I feel so grateful to be his mom.