Author Archives: Valerie Catrow

Favorite Baby Names

Let’s go ahead and get something out of the way right now… I am not pregnant. I don’t plan on being pregnant any time soon. But while I am not currently with child, I am currently (and always will be) obsessed with baby names. Boy names, girl names, name meanings, matching first names with middle names—I love it all and

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When It Felt Real

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine from high school posted this question on Facebook: “When did you really feel like a parent for the first time?” Most people answered with statements like, “As soon as I saw those two line on the pregnancy test” or “When she wrapped her little hand around my fingers for the first

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His crowning glory

Our six-year-old son is sort of known for his hair. Even before he was born, it’s gotten him attention. I had an ultrasound when I was 35 weeks pregnant with him, and I distinctly remember the doctor chuckling as soon as the kid’s image popped up on the screen. “That…that is a lot of hair,” he said, shaking his head.

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My body, our history

Picture it. My bedroom, 2009. Early morning sunshine streams through the window, casting an angelic glow over my son as he toddles into the room just as I slip my arms into a button-up shirt. He tilts his rosy-cheeked, cherubic face to the side and peers at me with twinkling blue eyes. “Nose.” I stop buttoning my shirt and look

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The “did-do” list

During the first few weeks of my son’s life, I went to bed every night totally exhausted (shocking!) and totally disappointed in myself. Even though the clock flipped through a full 16(ish) hours since I’d set foot out of bed, I felt I had very little to show for it by the time I got back in. The dishes were

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I want a skin-to-skin do-over

If you look back at pictures of my son in the hospital after his birth, you might notice that he’s swaddled in the standard blue-and-pink-striped baby blanket in almost every shot. That’s because, other than diaper changes, baths, and an occasional loosening of the blanket during nursing sessions, he was swaddled. Pretty much all the time. And I really, really

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