Thank Heaven For Little Girls...And Garden Moms!

I have to ask: Does a better forum exist?  Before I had “Birdie” I knew of Garden Moms, but had yet to experience it for myself.  Working in a baby and child-related field, I heard about it on a daily basis.  Moms and nannies were telling me how great it was to get advice and receive opinions on “all things” pregnancy, baby and child, but because I hadn’t been expecting or parenting yet, I didn’t let myself join.  I could only imagine what this online mecca of expertise held...

Finally when it was my turn and I became pregnant, I joined the masses and created a cutesy user name, searched the archives, and started posting my first inquiries.  It was a place I could go to ask questions during early pregnancy, before my best friend or parents knew I was expecting.  I trusted these women with my most embarrassing questions and irrational fears--but what I didn’t know is that some of these expecting moms would soon become a few of the leading ladies in my life, aiding me in the late weeks of pregnancy and the overwhelming first weeks (and beyond) of motherhood.

You see, I was the first out of any of my friends to get pregnant (on purpose, that is), and I have to say, I was shocked beyond belief to realize how lonely I was.  I felt uneasy discussing my pregnancy with single friends of mine; so far from my position I didn’t see how they could possibly understand what I was going through.  And speaking more than a little about being pregnant with married friends made me question whether they would feel I was rubbing it in; “I’m pregnant, you aren’t.”  One day when I came across a post on Garden Moms, the elation I felt couldn’t be measured--an expectant mother asking if others were due around the same month as her and lived in a similar area of Boston.  I, along with about twenty others, responded.  Fourteen of us met for hot chocolate while we all had a few months of pregnancy left, and then twelve attended brunch right around the time some girls started having their babies.  Ten of us really hit it off and brought our husbands with us to meet other expectant dads, and about eight of us continue to see each other at a weekly meet-up.  Six of us send our “Garden Dads” out with each other for beers and small talk on a continual basis, four of us signed up for Isis, Baby Wiggles, and swim class together, and two of the girls and I “lunch” with our babes around the city, discussing everything from our marriages, to having to stop breastfeeding, to the latest episode of “Don’t Be Tardy For The Wedding”.

I have heard that the women who created Garden Moms met up during their own pregnancies at one of my favorite past-times, The Garden of Eden (come back please, I miss your sandwiches and baked goods!).  I feel such gratitude towards them; for going out on a limb, taking a chance and starting small, probably with the hopes that one day this would turn “big.”  So, to the original Garden Moms:  We, the mothers who need a nanny who speaks no less than three languages, the first time pregnant girls asking how early it is acceptable to buy maternity clothes, and even the crazy new mamas inquiring about exactly how many Gro-Eggs one household needs (totally pointing finger at myself)--all of us, we thank you!