Julie Kieras

I remember going to my local baby superstore when I was pregnant for the first time. Complete overwhelm.

A sales clerk told me I needed a baby carrier. It sounded like a good idea, so I just scanned the cheapest available. I didn't even realize there were different styles, different positions, safety concerns and reason to babywear.

Five-plus years later, one of the first things I recommend to new moms is that they get themselves a soft structured carrier. And then we usually have a conversation about the merits and reasons to babywear. It's a conversation I love to have with new and expectant mothers.

Looking

Especially if daddy’s doing the babywearing. On a hot day! We set out one morning (a bit later than we’d planned) to harvest fresh, ripe blueberries from our local berry farm. Set on a windy hillside, the acres of land include a playground, farm store, pond, and fields after fields of fruit trees and berry bushes. It’s truly a sight to behold as you drive in, and then later as you ride the truck out to the berry patch. Daddy and sons took a stroll out to find frogs while we waited for the farm truck. Babywearing while berry picking is a must, as you’re not likely getting a stroller onto the bench-seat-only farm truck. At least not without some frowns from the other passengers who’d love the space! Plus, the

  Dinner. Dishwashing. Christmas cookies. And … cue the chaos! My days were going something like this: Hold baby on hip and collect bowls one-handed. Perform world record juggling act that will never be recorded. Switch baby to other hip and get ingredients from the pantry. Take two trips because I can’t carry them all at once. Put baby in bouncy seat to rummage through freezer. Soothe baby’s crying. Back to the freezer. Pick baby back up. Attempt to hold baby while cracking eggs into bowl. Wipe up spilled egg. Hold baby and bowl with one hand while stirring with other. Wipe up spilled batter. Put baby down to spoon doughballs onto cookie sheets. Put baby’s binky back in about eighty-seven times. And on. And on. Cookie baking was quickly becoming a world-class mess. And dinner prep was taking forever and it was just quesadillas! I needed a new recipe for cooking with a baby in the house! I was missing the main ingredient – my baby

When I read the first Mamas Who Inspire post by (and about) Rachel Coleman, I was awe-struck at the challenges this mama has risen to meet. Two special needs children, one deaf, one with spina bifida/cerebral palsy. Nobody would blame her if she had given up; instead, she carried herself (and her children, literally!) gracefully above the obstacles! I had the wonderful opportunity to chat with her about life and motherhood – here’s more about this inspirational mama!   Motherhood is so all-consuming at times, it’s easy to forget the person we were before we had children – what was life like for you before kids? I was

See the mom in this photo? She’s been a mom for exactly one year. You see a happy smile, bright eyes, and a one-year old in a baby carrier. She is me. I am the mother in this photo. But… there is so much more you don’t see. Let me show you. Like most mothers, I dreamed only of snuggling my baby close to me when he arrived – that mysterious child who rode underneath my heart for nine months – I wanted him to hear my heartbeat as long as possible. However, struggles with breastfeeding, as well as severe scoliosis (curvature of the spine), made this impossible. Tears, as I tried to hold my baby close, only to recoil in pain caused by months of struggles with breastfeeding. Discouragement, as I tossed aside yet another carrier style because within minutes my back and shoulders were in searing pain. You see, most carriers I tried (I even made one myself), either put the baby’s weight on my shoulders, or asymmetrically across my body. Since my spine is curved badly, one shoulder