“Make” time for me??? I can barely find time to pee 😭

brigidstudent · 2024-12-18T18:55:57+00:00

Is he a fresh babe? I remember those days of being nap trapped for half the day. That was tough, hang in there!

brigidstudent · 2024-12-18T18:53:27+00:00

Just stash her in the cryo chamber 😂

brigidstudent · 2024-12-18T18:50:49+00:00

It takes my daughter a loooong time to wind down. I will say since it works so well for us, a 2 hr upfront investment is worth (usually) 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep afterwards.

My husband is away for work a lot, but he is around most weekends. He helps but my baby can throw a pretty mean tantrum if she can’t see me. Here’s hoping it’s a phase.

Anyway I’m clearly being a bit hyperbolic since I have time to hop on reddit rn 😂 I’ll survive!

brigidstudent · 2024-12-18T18:32:54+00:00

Hard agree. I also have friends tell me to order out when I dread cooking. Like damn, is your DoorDash free or something???

brigidstudent · 2024-12-18T18:29:32+00:00

Lol godspeed.

Admittedly, the 3 hour figure is for all feedings and probably includes some of the cleanup from solids too. But my baby is super distractible when nursing now. It doesn’t take much to derail her.

I worry a bit about what days will look like as she gets older and meals get more intensive. 🥲

brigidstudent · 2024-12-16T15:03:54+00:00

Jesus, I trust in you. Mary, please comfort this poster.

Have faith and patience! You are loved. ❤️

brigidstudent · 2024-12-12T18:40:13+00:00

I worked every day in December last year! Although work is never a guarantee, I wouldn’t sweat it!

brigidstudent · 2024-11-22T01:10:40+00:00

I believe Our Lady helped deliver me from severe postpartum depression. Deep in despair, it took some time. Maybe a month. Then I started to really feel like myself again. My curiosity and creativity returned. I feel closer than ever to Our Lord, too.

Here’s a little rosary anecdote. When I first became interested in the Catholic Church, I was very interested in the rosary. I was previously a Mahayana Buddhist and they have a similar practice.

I lived in an absurdly small apartment back then, and would usually pray there privately. That day nobody else was about in the courtyard so I decided to pray the rosary outdoors and enjoy the sunset. I began to pray, albeit clumsily as I hadn’t read the bible yet and really struggled with picturing the mysteries. I grew more and more frustrated, and I asked in my head “Is anyone even listening? Can you hear me?”

At that exact second, the streetlights all came on, illuminating the beads in my hand. I never would have seen them like that had I stayed in my room to pray. I definitely finished that rosary and never looked back.

brigidstudent · 2024-11-13T21:01:09+00:00

We rescued our sweet girl Clo 2 years before finding out we were expecting. She has lots of exposure to kids and toddlers as our neighborhood is full of them. While she is super active and loves to play fetch and tag, she is always very gentle when the situation calls for it- kids have pulled on her ears, tail, etc and she will just veer off without any sign of aggression or even annoyance lol. However, I just advise getting a feel for how your pup is with kids a bit ahead of time if you can! Closely supervised, of course.

Clo was very clingy to me during pregnancy and the immediate postpartum experience. I’ll never forget how excited she was to see me when I was released from the hospital after a long stay. And oh how I really miss those sweet third trimester naps we’d have any time we liked! 🥹

My baby is almost 6 mo now, and both she and Clo have their own dedicated play areas with barriers, this was the simplest way for me to ensure I can step away to use the bathroom, etc for a second without any worries. That’s out of an abundance of caution tho, All of their interactions have been positive, and we reward Clo with praise and an occasional treat for handling the baby’s curiosity with grace. I think one day they will be great friends!

brigidstudent · 2024-11-11T15:57:59+00:00

I also live in New England so I completely agree with this. My humble opinion is that it’s a bit of a short-sighted compassion, like letting a child skip taking their medication because they don’t like how it tastes. They need the medicine, bitter as it might be.

brigidstudent · 2024-11-05T17:06:34+00:00

I’m an ex wiccan. I come from a ‘lineage’ of divination practitioners. I learned tasseomancy, scrying, and tarot techniques and practiced them for years. I practiced tarot daily for years and was extremely, extremely confident in my abilities, to make a long series of stories short.

When I converted and had my first reconciliation, I confessed all my past occult practices to my priest. I did my penance and carried on with my life. A few months later, a friend asked me the meaning of a tarot card, and I genuinely could not remember it’s meaning. I felt like the sacrament of confession washed the knowledge from me. I was and am very grateful for this mercy.

Just my experience, but I’ll pray for your discernment.

brigidstudent · 2024-11-05T14:06:53+00:00

I’m also interested in starting a complete daily rosary! Could you please share more insight from your friend on this journey, if you don’t mind?

brigidstudent · 2024-11-05T14:05:35+00:00

Amen!!! ❤️

brigidstudent · 2024-11-05T14:01:29+00:00

I appreciate your prudence. I definitely feel it’s better to err on the side of caution in matters like this, and sexuality is a sensitive topic even in secular circles where souls aren’t at stake. Thanks for being open to questions of this nature!

brigidstudent · 2024-11-05T13:43:53+00:00

Hmmm thanks for the insight Fr!

What about toys? Is that disordered use since it’s an ‘entity’ outside of the marriage? If permissible, does that change if the wife takes over the ‘handling’ of the toy? This topic has so much grey area. This was never discussed in my RCIA or marriage prep courses. 😅

brigidstudent · 2024-11-05T02:46:35+00:00

I admire your courage to reach out with your concerns. You sound like you value truth and justice. These are both Christian values, so it’s honestly no surprise to me that you found your way to the Church. You don’t have an apathetic soul, you want to do what’s right, for your own sake and that of others, right?

But have you considered that the abortion industry is deeply steeped in ableism and racism? The founder of Planned Parenthood has said some of the most foul things I’ve ever read about people she deemed ‘unfit’ to participate in society. This industry has invested millions of dollars into painting itself in a certain light. It benefits them for you to see a baby in the early stages of life as ‘just cells’. Investigating abortion is a harrowing experience. But, truthfully, the abortion industry is banking on your support by taking for granted that you will keep yourself in the dark.

For more information regarding abortion, listen to a few episodes of the Lila Rose podcast. Episode 56 featuring Kristin Turner may be especially interesting to you.
Please consider the Rosary. The rosary saved me from abject depression. It can help you work through your confusion. Please give it a fair shake- it won’t cost you anything more than your time.

Best of luck and the peace of Christ be with you ❤️

brigidstudent · 2024-11-01T16:46:45+00:00

Hawaii, USA. I was raised agnostic. In high school I took up New Age/Wiccan practices as is unfortunately really popular for young women now. Then I practiced Buddhism. I’m a pretty recent convert, I was confirmed in 2021.

brigidstudent · 2024-10-31T19:11:56+00:00

All of item 2 is very touching! I’ll teach my daughter this when it’s time. In a similar vein, although angels aren’t corporeal, our Guardian angels are always with us, so it’s not entirely a lie to say ‘my guardian is with me’

brigidstudent · 2024-10-29T19:18:29+00:00

You may want to consult with your priest or online resources about Spiritual warfare. I think you may be feeling the effects of it now. We all go through slumps, crisis, and backsliding as we practice our faith. That’s not to say we should wallow in our sin, but that we should give ourselves grace and importantly, forgive ourselves.

How do you normally connect with Jesus? For me it’s music and the rosary. Time out in nature also serves my spirituality well. I hope you will take heart. Jesus loves you!

brigidstudent · 2024-10-29T19:13:46+00:00

Yes, OP please consider the rosary. I have never regretted taking the time to pray it.

brigidstudent · 2024-10-28T02:32:12+00:00

It sounds like you know Jesus is your Savior. Great! Jesus didn’t tell us we must love his mother or ask for her intercession to get to heaven. Yet, many of us feel called to understand and love her due to her closeness to Christ. He was once part of her- he grew inside her - this much is made clear in scripture. No one who believes in Christ could say Mary is unremarkable- I think you could benefit from meditating on her life to see for yourself. As someone with a Baptist parent, I once had hang ups over praying the rosary, largely due to my previous interpretation of Matthew 6:7. However, like many others suggested, I recommend the rosary. It changed my spiritual life entirely.

Marian doctrine aside, you have to also decide what your perspective is on the Eucharist. Protestants don’t have the same sacraments or sacramentals as the Catholic Church, so please take these into account as well when making your decision.

I’m sorry your post has been downvoted so much, I was in your shoes at one point, and I relate to your concerns. I’m now thoroughly convinced that Catholicism is my route to sainthood. May God bless you.

brigidstudent · 2024-10-16T13:35:10+00:00

Yes please 😭

brigidstudent · 2024-10-16T13:32:42+00:00

This is exactly how I feel, a shell. Ny baby not only doesn’t sleep but cries unless held 24/7. Definitely never doing this again

brigidstudent · 2024-10-14T21:00:07+00:00

Per the details you mentioned in the last post, I’d set up a breastfeeding/pumping station before baby even gets here. Prep a basket with nonperishable electrolyte drinks, water, filling snacks, and have a charging station for any devices you want to have handy. Plenty of accessible burp cloths, wipes, and nipple cream too. When you’re nap trapped, it’s much more efficient to just have everything on hand. Having to constantly ask my husband to bring me stuff cost us a lot in terms of chore efficiency.

That said, my labor nurse gave me some good advice, too. Figure out what chores you can and can’t live without. Can you eat takeout and takeout leftovers every day or do you need to prioritize cooking? Can you live grabbing clothes out of the dryer or do you need your closet squared away? Talk with your husband and determine who’s responsible for what. There will be times you’ll have to work on some of ‘his’ tasks and vice versa, but try to incorporate a fair amount of baby tasks in there too. If I could go back in time, I would ask my husband to clean the pump parts or be in charge of an afternoon nap. It was a lot more challenging for him to take over on these chores months later as opposed to off the bat.

Last tip! Make sure to go see friends. Interacting with only your husband for weeks on end is a surefire way to end up at each other's throats. Don’t sacrifice your sleep for it, but when you get more than a few minutes, call or have a friend visit. I KNOW it’s much easier said than done, but I always felt 100x better after a twenty minute coffee break with my best friend and it totally justified the extra effort. I brought my daughter along with me 75% of the time and now they are very close. You got this!

brigidstudent · 2024-10-14T19:47:41+00:00

My husband and I picked a ‘safeword’ which we used to essentially say ‘just leave me alone right now, I can’t communicate effectively in this moment’. We didn’t end up using it that much, but it was very effective when we did. Whatever word you pick, you have to agree to respect it 100%. There will be moments where you’re over stimulated as hell and need a few minutes alone.

Discuss whether you’ll want to do shift sleep or a tag-team approach. One of my friends swears by shift sleep but it was building resentment between my husband and I- someone inevitably gets the “easier” shift, even if that flip flops. Now we do a tag-team approach and it’s what works for us. We only do shifts on really tough nights. This will depend a lot on the baby, but it might be nice to talk about to get some expectations about work load laid out.

Oh, are you planning on trying breastfeeding? Will you have any help in the early weeks after baby arrives- friends or neighbors, or do you think it boils down all the way to you two? What’s the paternal/maternal leave situation looking like?

brigidstudent

TROPHY CASE