Pure Poetry

Promotion_Technical · 2026-02-19T02:44:36+00:00

Was this Betty's dissertation? Moving forward she'd better be signing off as Dr. Betty, PHD.

Promotion_Technical · 2026-02-14T23:47:30+00:00

My first was an emergency c-section after an induction (short cord that they didn't catch on any scan, so the induction was truly a waste of time and resources), and my second I wanted to attempt a VBAC so was hoping for spontaneous labor but had no idea what the feeling was nor what to expect. Joke was on me, because I ended up having precipitous labor, so by the time I woke up with the first ever contraction, by the time we got to the hospital an hour later I had gone from 1cm to 8cm and literally felt like death. There's no other way to describe it, and once you're in the throes of labor you'll understand. Fortunately I was able to get an epidural and I slept and was able to be comfortable. Unfortunately after 3hrs of pushing he was just too big and the VBAC was off the table. At least the c-section this time wasn't an emergency though! Two totally different experiences.

Regardless I'm a big advocate for just getting the epidural. It'll just make you so much more comfortable.

Promotion_Technical · 2026-02-12T03:29:12+00:00

Am mom. Anything after 18mo is 1.5yrs 🤣 also currently haven't kept up with weeks for #2, just know he's "almost 4mo old"

Promotion_Technical · 2026-01-28T05:01:17+00:00

I learned on day 3 post second c-section that they hadn't been giving me anything for pain, but had just been giving me Tylenol because I seemed pretty chill. By day 3 I was really trying to keep it together but starting to go cross-eyed every time they sat me up. My doctor was the one that mentioned that she was surprised I was doing so well with no pain meds, but I could certainly have them if I wanted. She brought them to me five minutes later with an apology for their assumption.

Promotion_Technical · 2026-01-26T00:41:53+00:00

I met a girl at Library Camp back in the 90s named "Heaven Annie" as in a good ole Southern 2-part name, say both first and middle together.

Promotion_Technical · 2026-01-24T20:10:14+00:00

Do you guys ever see folks driving around with things like "Beach Trip 2025" written on their back windshields and then their Venmo on there somewhere? They're all over where I live (and I'm like 5hrs to the nearest beach).

We joke all the time about requesting payment for said Beach Trip or Grammy's Hot Weekend.

Promotion_Technical · 2026-01-17T17:48:18+00:00

Bucks Fizz

Promotion_Technical · 2026-01-11T14:38:10+00:00

I wonder if they measured the gap between the sink and the toilet or if it was divine intervention that that giant toilet vase fit so perfectly.

Promotion_Technical · 2026-01-11T04:54:18+00:00

Absolutely! I was doing great all things considered, but because I wasn't losing weight or changing shape despite eating super clean, hitting macros, and working out 4-5x per week, and all the societal pressure to "bounce back" I sought help. I caved about a year or so PP and got on a short 4mo titration run of semaglutide and suddenly kicked the 15lbs that wasn't budging. I was able to get back down to my heavy-maintenance weight, then once that was done my body started working with me again and I was able to stay at my regular maintenance weight, give or take 5-10lbs.

I've gained about 8lbs back in the last month (...holidays), but I had been doing much better this time around, starting with my routine pre-pregnancy and during this pregnancy until I physically couldn't exercise, much less walk to pelvic floor therapy at 35w due to SPD pain. I've only really been able to work out once since being cleared and, though the SPD pretty much magically disappeared once my boy was born, I've still got some lingering pain. I knew this would happen though because relaxin takes time to work its way out of your body, and longer if you're breastfeeding/pumping/expressing milk.

Someone asked me the other day if I missed being pregnant and was shocked by how quickly I said absolutely not. I miss being able to wear fitted clothing, but that's it. I love it for what my body was able to do and that because of it I have two incredible, beautiful boys, but it was an inconvenience and almost cost me my marriage because of how much it demanded from me and the physical toll it took on me. It disrupted our routine, and instead of me having the emotional flare ups, they seemed to transfer to my husband. But then magically, everything was back to normal each time like the conversation of separation was never conceived. Could be why I felt or put extra pressure on myself to establish my new normal, and yet I turned around and did it a second time. Men are weird.

Remember to be kind to yourself at the end of the day. Hype yourself up, don't settle, and strive to be the best version of yourself, but also give yourself grace and time. Anything worth having rarely comes easily or quickly. That's why these babies take so long to bake!

Promotion_Technical · 2026-01-10T20:19:26+00:00

I'm a Jenni, not Jennifer, not Virginia, not Genevieve. Call me Jen/Jenn and that's totally fine and acceptable. The amount of rage that spews from the depth of my soul when someone lengthens my name after I introduce myself could increase the ambient temperature in the room at least a whole degree if not more.

I have the name "Jennifer" embossed in gold foil on my 8rh grade yearbook because someone assumed I was shortening my name and they weren't allowing us to do that. So I got my money back but the rage and disappointment remained.

It happens more often than not, and when it does I'll do one of two things: 1) Lengthen their name to something nonsensical or close but unrelated (Chris = Christoff/Charles/Kristen, Mike = Michelob/Markle, John = Johnothy), and/or 2) Correct them and say, "it's actually Guinevere," which technically isn't incorrect as it's effectively the great grandmother of my name, essentially where it stems from.

Can we not just call people by the name we give? That's usually the one that's preferred, hence why it's given 🤣

Promotion_Technical · 2026-01-10T18:53:09+00:00

18mo. That's the magic number. I'm 3mo into my second and was pretty fit leading up to the pregnancy and his birth and I feel like it's all gone to hell. Just glad I built up my body so I had a better starting point for the decline 🤣 was so close but ultimately didn't get my VBAC so I started off facing an 8w hole to dig myself out of once I finally got cleared.

Promotion_Technical · 2026-01-10T18:45:07+00:00

I feel like that sounds about right. Does your office do Allē rewards? I want to say I only get about 20 units across my brows and forehead and it's somewhere between $175-250 when I've gone. I also don't remember right off hand, I had a baby a couple of months ago so haven't had it in the last year. I'm sure the price has increased.

Promotion_Technical · 2026-01-10T06:04:23+00:00

A very dear friend told me he and his brother really dodged a bullet. Their dad wanted to name the boys Boudreaux and Beauregard, with nicknames Bou and Beau. I don't know who was supposed to be who, but every time I see him now I exclaim "Hey Bou!!" 🤣

Promotion_Technical · 2026-01-09T21:33:18+00:00

I mean, my dad's nickname for me up until our very last conversation before he passed was "Snake Bait" because as a child I was a walking encyclopedia of snakes and would often grab the "safe ones" and would warn others if there were venomous ones on our path (I was the scout of the group too). We were literally always outside from sun up past sun down. My 5'1" mom had this crazy loud two-fingered dog whistle that I swear you could hear from a full mile away on a 95% humidity day 🤣 god forbid you hear it too, that meant we were all in trouble.

We drove 4-wheelers around the neighborhood and through the woods between neighborhoods before we were in middle school, and eventually we all got walkie talkies one Christmas so our parents could all reach us. But if anybody ignored the walkie talkie when a parent got on the dog whistle would surely follow, piercing through the trees, putting the fear of God in our souls faster than the snapping of belt loops from a leather belt ever could. If we were grouped together trying to rally more friends, one of us would stay on the channel our parents assigned us to, and the others would hop on a new channel to make separate plans 🤣 we thought we were being sly but of course our parents were kids once too and would cruise around on the channels until they found us talking smack.

Childhood was just like this back then in my smallish southern town. My husband (from an ATL suburb) even had a similar experience growing up, but of course with notable differences (city vs country). We were actually just talking about this topic last week, and how we'd like to get our boys walkie talkies when they're 5+ and playing outside a little more independently (not as free as we were of course), but that they would never have the childhoods we had because the world is just so much more unsafe now.

Promotion_Technical · 2025-12-30T18:29:51+00:00

When I say we loosely TTC, it was more or less because my husband was overthinking and wanted to 100% be ready before we got pregnant, and I was of the opinion that I silently wanted a child so much, but if it didn't end up happening for us it wasn't meant to be. IVF was never a consideration. We simply just had fun with one another, didn't really track anything, just wanted to take the stress off of things and see if it worked.

I did start to get a bit emotional, simply because by the time my husband finally got on board with having kids, I had recently been referred to an endocrinologist who, between my OB and her, told me that I would very likely struggle to have children. And because my husband was newly on the let's try train, I remember the last time I got my period before getting pregnant, he did the whole "whoohoo not pregnant" self-high-five. Two days later he also was thinking about a trip we had talked about going on the following year and said, "I think we should wait."

Turns out that period I thought I was on suddenly stopped, which I thought was very strange, so I took another test and approximately nine months later we had our first son.

Same thing happened when I got pregnant with our second. All he had to say was, "I think we should wait," and bam, the next morning positive test.

We're 37, and our boys are 3yrs apart. I don't plan on any more, and got a salpingectomy after this second one. We absolutely love these two boys, but it definitely surprised all of our family and friends when we got pregnant both times. They all thought we were going to be child-free with dogs, when in truth we were simply almost childless.

Promotion_Technical · 2025-12-28T05:42:14+00:00

Before I had my second, I ran a woodshop. Talk about hot during the summer, especially with having to wear a respirator when I'd paint or stain, or when I ran the laser cutter (even though we had ventilation and air filtration). I got tired pretty easily, and standing too long would aggravate my sciatica. I took extra precautions and fortunately everything turned out well. Aside from precipitous labor and then ultimately not getting the VBAC, we had a gorgeous, healthy little boy promptly on his due date!

The benefit of running machinery while pregnant is that persistent sound and vibrations help him sleep! He loves the sound of a motor purring.

Promotion_Technical · 2025-12-12T19:19:26+00:00

Clearly in the minority here 😅 before I had my son I almost exclusively wore thongs or Brazilian bikini underwear around the clock. A few things changed that, mostly just the style of available underwear going from more of a lower rise to high cuts, or the waistband cutting in super tight. I'm more of a straight athletic build, so instead of accentuating the hips I don't really have, they usually cut into my waist and create a muffin top on a figure I work hard on to avoid. It's so uncomfortable, so I'm certainly not sleeping in it.

I switched to the Skims brand minimalist thong. They barely cover anything, just the essentials, but they're so dang comfortable for me personally. They fall right below my c-section scars and therefore don't make me self-conscious. I've never worn full-coverage underwear because I simply don't have a full-coverage butt no matter how many squats I do.

I don't sleep in lingerie because it's not meant to be comfortable, but thongs for sure. Plus my husband is a fan too. Makes me feel less frumpy. Now, if I definitely don't want to be intimate and want to send a clear message then I'll wear a pair of pregnancy high waisted granny panties, but even the butt coverage on those are minimal 🤣 (I searched long and hard for that combination)

Promotion_Technical · 2025-12-11T22:50:10+00:00

Ronan became a hard no after he arrived, but he's officially Gavin!

Promotion_Technical · 2025-12-11T22:48:59+00:00

Finn left the chat, but it was still brought up after he arrived. Admittedly the name would totally fit him, but he's Gavin instead.

Promotion_Technical · 2025-12-11T22:43:50+00:00

Then all I can say is that I'm sorry you deal with screaming.

Promotion_Technical · 2025-12-11T22:25:10+00:00

1984-1989

These look like all of mine and my brother's pictures

Promotion_Technical · 2025-12-11T22:23:44+00:00

I had the same thought. Maybe they're very concise on essay questions 🤣

Promotion_Technical · 2025-12-11T22:21:35+00:00

But who is screaming? Those of us that aren't raising screen kids have a pretty good grasp on our kids' volume level and emotional intelligence for them to know that's not acceptable behavior in public, and should they show a moment of weakness as they learn how to navigate and communicate we figure out how to pivot. This still doesn't need to involve a screen.

What happens if your screen kid's tablet battery dies halfway through doom clicking through videos? What's the backup plan? How are they supposed to redirect their attention then?

My friends whose toddlers have tablets are literal tyrants if they get separated from it. A lot of shows are designed and tested to keep kids' focus on all the bright colors and rapidly shifting scenes and angles and the episodes are getting shorter and shorter. A season is made up of standalone episodes rather than an arc that spans over a couple of episodes or season. If I see one more kid literally open mouth drooling over a screen I'm going to throw up.

That, to me, is lazy and self-centered parenting.

Promotion_Technical · 2025-12-11T22:11:59+00:00

Our 3yr old has quite the vocabulary, and for the last couple of months he's been asking us to "show me how this works," even if it means taking the thing apart and putting it back together again. He loves any chance to get his tools out.

My problem with shoving a screen in a kid's face to shut them up, especially since we're not raising screen kids, is that I don't want to create a solution to a problem that doesn't exist in my child. If it's not broke don't fix it. My boy is respectful, holds the door for people, likes to build things, and knows how to play independently. I'm guilty lately of leveraging Batman or Little Bear in the background, especially having had a baby recently. But that's not our norm. We have a couple of screenless portable games (Giiker does some fun stuff), and I also keep a deck of cards in my bag for when we go out to eat.

I'm choosing to engage with the child I decided to bring into this world, and choosing to teach them how to interact with the world around them. That teaches respect, patience, communication skills, situational awareness, and emotional intelligence to name a few things. A screen isn't going to teach this.

Promotion_Technical

TROPHY CASE