Allison Cooper

I’m well aware that this should probably be the last thing on my mind as we get ready to deliver Baby Number Two in a few months, but it’s there. Yes, it’s mixed up in my brain with thoughts of getting the right crib and making sure that our organic crib mattress gets delivered on time, but it is a dominant thought, something that I’m legitimately worried about.

Clear the country bumpkin idea out of your head, because that’s not what I’m referring to here. A great plaid button down shirt can be just what you need to update your wardrobe this fall.

I grew up dreaming of living in that house with the perfect blue shutters and the white picket fence, three perfectly interspaced children running

For some reason, when you become a parent, comments start coming your way (or you start throwing them in someone else’s direction) so fiercely that it completely consumes you.... Co-sleeping is one of those hot-button issues, and, just like breastfeeding, most parents typically sway one way or the other with vigor.

Oh yes — you read correctly.

Luck.

When I brought my son into the world, I thought that he would be an awful lot like me. He had to be, right? He grew inside me; I nourished him; I was the one home with him day in and day out during those very impressionable years, while my husband worked a grueling military schedule — yet there are few similarities to be found.

One thing is for sure: it’s a heck of a lot easier to bank your child’s teeth that to deal with coordinating banking umbilical cord blood as soon as a baby is born.

I've noticed an evolution within myself over the past year: I’ve been avoiding leaving my house at all costs.

Parenthood is so chaotic that we find ourselves spewing words sometimes that we probably never, ever pictured ourselves saying. Then parenthood happened.