Every birth experience is different and that’s why I love reading about and hearing mom’s and dad’s birth stories. I gave birth to my firstborn, Kai, at 37 weeks, 1 day and she was 5 pounds – 15 ounces, and 17.5” long. It was a spontaneous, 12-hour labor, non-pain-medicated vaginal birth, but only the last 2 hours were above a 7-level pain. We were in the hospital 2 nights, then went home and she has been extremely healthy ever since. I attribute much of her health to the fact that we don’t use OTC meds and we use essential oils and other natural remedies. Kai is now 3 and she is the highlight of my day and the thing I look forward to waking up for each day. Kai has changed Marcus and my world and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

When we found out we were pregnant with our second child though, the world was a little different; specifically Marcus’s and my world was a little different in a very good way. With Kai, I had just come off of a divorce in which my lawyer essentially got everything and I was left with 39,000 in debt and very few assets to cover it. So I was flat broke, in the hole, and struggling to figure out how to raise our new child. Fast forward to April 3rd, 2020- the day I became 100% debt free. It was an amazing feeling, which I’d never felt in my life. I worked my behind off for 3 solid years. I said “No” to a LOT of things I was asked, or invited to do. I said “No” to a lot of eating out, social events, and such simply because if it wasn’t in my budget, I probably didn’t need to do it. I followed Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University course, plan, and budget. As he and his daughter say, “A budget gives you permission to spend, rather than wondering where your money went.” I live and spend freely, without guilt now, because I have given myself permission to spend it, prior to the month’s beginning.

Although I was in a better emotional and financial place to have our second baby, the world was a different place- especially in April 2020. When I first found out I was pregnant in December (on my birthday too!), the Coronavirus in China started making more of an impact in our US News. I honestly didn’t think too much of it, since I didn’t have plans to travel to China anytime soon and honestly I didn’t even think much about how it could affect our country and the hospitals too. Until this year, I had never lived through a pandemic so there were a lot of unknowns but I really wasn’t concerned yet.

My due date was August 4th, 2020 and at my 19-week March 9th Prenatal appointment, everything was great. The world was still seemingly normal and we didn’t have a lot to fear. But just 1 week later, new words started becoming more and more familiar: social distancing, pandemic, and COVID-19. Along with a lot of other people, I started paying more attention to the news (mainly written news… and from different sources. I prefer having different sides to the same stories.) We started realizing people might have to stay home for a while. I already worked from home, working as a sub-contractor Web & Graphic Designer with a few side hustles so staying home was not a problem for me. I maintain several client’s websites and created and designed many flyers, ads, graphics, and even a billboard. I am unbelievably blessed to get to do work that I am passionate about, from the comfort of my home while raising my 3-yr old daughter.

After going to my 23-week appointment, my doctor talked to me about the pandemic and we discussed the potential need to do virtual appointments if our area’s infection rate got higher. Thankfully, we never did have to do that. So I continued to distance myself socially from most people and Marcus and I decided we would just keep our pregnancy a secret from the masses and see how long we could keep it, just as a fun little challenge between ourselves. On April 1st, I even told my brother and his wife and they thought it was an April Fools joke so we let them think that. They continued to believe that for 7 more weeks until they surprised us on Kai’s birthday! So on May 21st, they found out we were expecting.