About me + Why I’m blogging
Hi!
I’m Drew. I am the proud mama of 2 beautiful babies, 2-year-old Dasha Autumn and 1-year-old Rook Salvo, and partner of my dream man Bryan. I’m also a government innovation leader, PhD candidate, and entrepreneur. All of this keeps me super occupied, just like your stuff probably keeps you, but I’m also trying (OK maybe Bryan is trying) to remember my other passions and hobbies like learning new skills, working out, music, art, cooking, etc.
If you’re seeing this, you probably also have baby/ies, so welcome!
Let me start with what this blog is about and what I hope we’ll all get out of it, then I’ll share a little about me, my family and our story.
What it’s all about
What I’m hoping you’ll get out of this, is practical tips that relate to your life. I’ll share what I know, post interviews with moms and other info that can help us all, but I’ll also be looking to YOU if you want to share your advice and stories. I also want this to be an actual community and not another disembodied internet thing. So I’m hoping that as people’s comfort level gets back to normal post pandemic, that we’ll actually have in person meet ups, one on one mom buddies, etc!
Why this blog?
Well first let’s start with who this is for: I’m hoping this will be most useful to other moms like me -- who are still in the midst of growing their careers in a more traditional industry -- whether that’s finance, government, healthcare, academia whatever -- something that has you working regular-ish business hours, trying to grow personally, while also taking care of your family, kids, relationship, etc. It’s A LOT! Any mom might get something out of this, but I feel moms in this category have the hardest challenges to deal with. So this is mainly for all of us.
OK so why did I feel this was necessary? Well this gets into my story, so here goes and I hope this is relatable...
My story….
When I had my first baby in September 2018, it took a while for me to fully adjust to mom life… I went from being a confident boss lady, fully focused on my relationship, career, body, self, etc -- to an anxious hyper-shy mom shifting my complete focus to this tiny human who I had just met. I had a really rough first month with Dasha - complete with mastitis, a severe clogged milk duct, latch issues, and pretty bad postpartum depression. To top it all off, Bryan was working in a secure building (meaning he was fully unreachable for 8-10 hours a day), and only had 2 weeks of parental leave. We had no childcare and no family around so I was completely on my own during the day for the first few months. After some adjustment, of course I fell madly in love with my baby, and now have almost too much mutual separation anxiety with Dasha (lol) and can’t imagine anything other than momming.
But it was a journey. For some of you it may have been easier, harder, or just different, but I know there are unique hurdles for everyone. And there is SO much to learn at every stage as these babes keep growing and changing. Fast forward 2 years with 2 beautiful angels and hopefully many more to come…
One thing hasn’t changed -- Bry and I are blessed in a lot of ways but we just don’t have anyone around who can really help us with kids. We don’t have grandparents around to babysit on the spot, play with the kids while we cook dinner, etc. I don’t have close friends who are in the same stage of raising a family as we are. Did I mention we’re both also finishing grad school? LOL. We do have a great full time (40 hour/week) nanny, which… barely covers our work day. So the “village” raising them is basically us, our nanny, a backup babysitter, and the internet, and I find myself pretty much entirely on my own for figuring out working mom/wife things.
Although I found some blogs, podcasts, etc that I still love and listen to regularly, I honestly did not see anything out there that was entirely relatable to my life. What I see is mostly online “community” i.e. influencers/youtubers, whose advice and tips are sometimes great and useful, BUT at the end of the day,
I’m not finding the type of content that I want and need - for moms who have actual demanding office jobs, but also want to be the best mom/partner they can be, look amazing, crush their workouts, plan a global takeover, complain about real life annoyances, learn about time management, wellness trends and spirituality, etc etc etc.
Even when I find content I like, there’s only so far that an online forum for random strangers leaving youtube comments can go - not the same as an actual connected community.
On top of all that, I’ve found my friends are all over the country/world and it’s SUPER HARD to consistently and meaningfully keep in touch with friends after having kids that take up all your time. Having an incredibly supportive partner is great and essential, but part of the challenge is even having time to spend together when we are so busy, and I’m realizing I really feel the void of mom friends to commiserate with and learn from.
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So I started Dream Sundays to share what I have learned, create space for like minded badass mamas to get together (virtually or in person), increase our collective boss-ness and learn from each other.
Hope you enjoy reading, and please get in touch with me! I would love to hear your story and what you’d like to learn or share.
Xo
Drew
