mom

Prenatal Vitamins: We’ve Come a Long Way Baby!

/ Toni Williams / 14 Comments
The benefits of prenatal vitamins for mom and baby

I’m pleased to partner with Nakturnal on this post.

 When I became pregnant with my oldest nearly 17 years ago, the first thing I did after my first doctor’s appointment was run to the pharmacy and get my prescription for prenatal vitamins filled. Taking those rather large horse pills once a day was annoying, yes, but it was a badge of honor that I wore proudly as a mom-to-be. After I gave birth, my doctor suggested that I continuing taking the vitamins as long as I was nursing. Soon thereafter, I became pregnant again…and nursed again…and then become pregnant a third time…and nursed that baby too. In the summer of 2003, I was glad to relinquish the prenatal vitamins because they were a symbol of the past three years of pregnancies. I was happy to finally not be pregnant or nursing or taking vitamins that actually required a prescription. When I returned to work full-time, I stopped taking the vitamins and starting taking a regular multivitamin.

Note: I realize I’m dating myself, but prenatal vitamins did require a prescription way back then when they can now be purchased over-the-counter. To make it  more convenient, you can even purchase prenatal vitamins from Diapers.Com. 

While I’m sure that the multivitamin served its basic purpose for my postpartum body, I noticed something very quickly. I didn’t have as much energy, I saw more hair breakage than I had seen in several months, and routine blood tests revealed that I needed to take supplements for vitamin d, calcium, and low iron.

After my youngest was born, I ended up taking four vitamins a day compared to the one I was taking when I was pregnant. How ironic.  Continue reading →

How I Get My Extroverted Mind to Rest

/ Toni Williams / 26 Comments

When an extroverted entrepreneur and busy mom of three tries to embrace the sleep revolution, but struggles to achieve her calm

It’s 11 pm on any given night in our house. My alarm will go off at 7 am, so I believe there’s more than enough time for me to get an adequate night’s sleep.

I put on my comfy pajamas, kiss my kids goodnight and tell my dog I’ll see her in the morning. The exact moment I lay my head on my pillow, there’s a bit of a problem and the battle begins. My mind starts racing and all of a sudden I’m instantly thinking of things to put on my to-do list for the next day.

I kind of thought I handled all of this before I got ready for bed (that was kind of the point of me going to bed and thinking that I was done for the day), but apparently I wasn’t.  Continue reading →

I Am Not a Jerk Whisperer

/ Toni Williams / 19 Comments

Really good advice on how to deal with jerks in your life.

Summer is here! I’m thrilled to be approaching the summer vacation that will allow me to spend a lot of time creating memories with my family. But let’s face it, I live with three teenagers, who are not always the kindest people in the world, and whose brains sometimes amass into a flurry of hormone-controlled impulses that can make for stressful times.

I spent most of my Memorial Day weekend on Pinterest gathering ideas for summer projects and challenges for our family to participate in, and I realized that none of our projects are going to be accomplished if we don’t have some basic ground rules. Actually, there’s one basic rule for summer survival in our family – all the others fall upon this one.

I am not a jerk whisperer.

Nor will I try to be. I can’t even remember where I first heard that sentence, but it is now my parenting and life mantra. While this is the absolute key to living with three teenagers, especially when we’re all creating wonderfully, happy memories together, I’m also employing this rule when dealing with adults as well.

Continue reading →

The Intersection of Safety and Sexy

/ Toni Williams / 25 Comments
A mom and her three teens review the 2016 Mitsubishi Outlander.

I am pleased to partner with DriveShop and Mitsubishi Motors of North America on this post. While this post is sponsored, all opinions are my own.

I have been a minivan mom for the past 12 years. There have been times when I have beamed with pride at my minivan mom status, and then of course, there have been times when driving a minivan just made me feel blah. In the words of one of my friends, “Minivans just aren’t sexy, and I don’t feel sexy when driving one. It’s the mom jean of cars.”

Whoa. The mom jean of cars. That one hit hard because if there is anything I hate, it’s mom jeans.  No one, I repeat no one should be able to know that I had two c-sections by looking at my jeans. And while I don’t feel that my childbirth status is visible by the type of car I drive, the fact that I have more than two children is.

All because of the infamous minivan.

Over the years,  my feelings have changed about driving a minivan. While I recognized the need our family had for space and great gas mileage, something was missing. Minivans have come a long way over the years, but to me, they still feel limiting.  Continue reading →

A Mother’s Day Tribute to M

/ Toni Williams / Leave a comment

book of m

Today is Mother’s Day. Among the flowers, the hugs, the brunches and everything else we love about mothers everywhere are the lessons. When no one else would support us, our moms have. When no one else would tell us the cold, hard truth, our moms have. And we we just needed a hug, a moms were there.

If you read this blog regularly, you may know that I will occasionally mention my parents, but there is never a specific mention of them by name or with photos. That’s because the don’t “do” the internet. Sure, they check email and will visit a website every once in a while, but that’s it. Limited internet and by any terms…no social media.

That no social media thing has been an adjustment for me over the years, but I’ve learned to accept it. And FOMO is especially real this time of year when there’s all kinds of “post a photo of your mother here” challenges all over the internet. Alas, I respect her wishes (some years  I have not and I had hell to pay) so no photos, no social media, nothing of the sort.

This year I decided to do something different.  Continue reading →