Moms Unfiltered

It takes a village an army.

Hi my name is Taylor aka Cora’s mom! My boyfriend, Danny, and I live in the small town of Halstad with our 2 year old daughter, Cora Layne. You can literally say I’m just a small town girl living in my child’s world. I will keep the introduction short because if you are anything like me you like to skip to the good stuff. Longest story short-I graduated in 2010 from Northern Cass High School (where I met Lynsie) and attended Mayville State University and Rasmussen College for my degree in Business Management. I’d love to tell you that my hobbies include hiking and baking but let’s be real- I live in the Midwest. We have 3 months of humid and unbearable summer and 9 months of winter so spending time outside is limited and I do the world a favor by not baking, period. Besides, if you are a mom- or parent in general- you know that our hobbies are mostly based on what our kids schedule is and what they like to do!

When Lynsie brought up starting a blog I will be completely honest when I say it kind of scared me shitless. What would we talk about? Would anyone actually read it? Will we run out of things to talk about eventually? The list goes on and on. I asked myself why even do this blog? The main thing that came to my mind was how many times I googled things when I first became a mom. It’s embarrassing how many things I looked up (and still do) on a daily basis. There was a point where I opened Google and instead of the search bar saying “What is your question” it said “Good Lord, what hell is your kid doing now.” I know from personal experience that I just wanted a straight up answer for what I was looking for. I didn’t want a statistic or big medical terms. I wanted to hear from parents directly what they noticed, saw, did, etc. Reading articles from parents made me feel more at ease and like I wasn’t going crazy or being overly paranoid about something I noticed (because I noticed every small thing and as a first time parent even the smallest thing could be terrifying).

So to get to the point- I wanted to be a part of this blog because, lets face it, it takes an army to raise a child and I’ve found that the best army to help raise said children are moms, unfiltered.

Since Lynsie dove into a “This or That: Baby Edition” it’s only fair I do a “This or That: Toddler Edition.” Side note: We both would like to make it ABUNDANTLY CLEAR—we are not here to judge. The things that work for us/what we prefer may be completely opposite of what you do or prefer. We get it–you do you, boo! We are just sharing our take on things.

Button Footies or Zipper Footies:

Picture this. You are a first time parent to your very own tiny human. You haven’t slept in what feels like 30 years, you’re overwhelmed, and overstimulated. It’s in the middle of the night and your kid just shat their pantalones. You have your diapers, wipes, creams, etc. and through tired eyes you pull open the cute buttoned footies with ease and change the stink bag. You button the bottom button and move up to the last one, but its off by one button. So you unbutton the entire thing and start again only to get to the top and its one button short on the other side. Repeat said process until start crying and ultimately take off the entire contraption and swear to yourself you will throw the rest of the button up footies you have in the morning. Needless to say I prefer zipped footies over buttoned. BONUS POINTS if it had a double zipper where you can just unzip the bottom part for diaper changes. They make the cutest button up footies with the cute little feet in any theme you can think of and I’m here to tell you…do not fall for it. There is a reason they are buy one get one free half the time. I’m almost certain the devil himself made those so he can sit and watch every tired parent struggle like a college kid fumbling with his first bra. If you prefer button up, congrats-you’re a damn wizard!

Screen Time or No Screen Time:

I’d like to tell you that I limit screen time like I intended to do as Cora got older but I’m not much for lying. Sometimes a mom just wants to do the damn dishes or cook supper without a child screaming at the back of her knees. Do we monitor the things she watches? Absolutely. I think she has learned a lot of neat things with the programs she watches. PS: Steve and Maggie has become a fun staple in our household. Give them a look!

Sleep Method:

We tried every option in the book with Cora. She was a rough sleeper, getting up about every 1-2 hours a night. We could not bring ourselves to do the cry it out method—until we did. We had enough and didn’t know what else to do. We read so many articles and talked to her PEDS who confirmed she did it with her children as well and it worked wonders. The first night was ROUGH. It was hard not to sit by her door and cry. The second night **BAM** she was able to put herself to sleep whenever she would wake up. Yes, we made sure that all her needs were met before putting her down for the night. Now as a 2 year old there are the occasional nights that she wakes up and we usually let her fuss it out for a few minutes before going in there to rock her (because toddlers are pretty persistent). We rock her for a few minutes and she’s usually out for the rest of the night unless we are going through a sleep regression (which I will complain about in a different post). Another long story short—do whatever works for you. Not a fan or have doubts about the cry it out method? Try a different one until you find the one that works for all of you!

Parenting is hard. It doesn’t come with a handbook or how to video. I spent entirely way too much time worrying if Cora was doing things the way other kids were. I know we both worried if we were doing things correctly as parents or meeting the standards of other parents and to be COMPLETELY honest there isn’t a specifically correct way to parent. As cliché as it sounds-what works for one person or child certainly doesn’t always work for the next. You can do all the research in the book, take all the parenting classes that you can but in the end—the only way to find out what works for you and your family is trial and error.

You got this!

Taylor