For those of you who are new to the page, or you’ve been following our journey but you don’t know much about us… my name is Shelby, I’m 24, and I’m a first time mom.
When I got pregnant last year, I had no idea where to start or how to mom – enter @tryingtomom ! I started this blog and my Instagram page to share pictures of my daughter and to share stories of mom life. But what I didn’t expect, was how much support and love I would get from other moms… strangers, on social media.
I am currently engaged, and planning my dream wedding, with my sweet fiancé, Neil. We have been dating since our sophomore year in high school. We both went to different university’s after high school, and did the whole long distance thing. Neil even did internships in different states twice, but I visited a lot! After Neil graduated, we moved in together and got a puppy! {Actually we got our puppy, Zoey, a little bit before he graduated because we were so excited to get a dog of our own lol}. We lived in an apartment for about a year, and then we bought our own home! Buying our first home was super exciting, and we spend a lot of our weekends doing house projects… even though we have lived here for almost 2 years now.
In April 2017, Neil proposed to me in our backyard… he had the sweetest set up and surprised me to tears!! {Let me know if you guys want to hear more about that!} And about 2 weeks later we found out that I was pregnant!
Becoming a mom at 24 was a sweet surprise for both of us. We had just recently had a long conversation about when we wanted to get married, and how long after that we wanted to have kids. One missed period and a drug store pregnancy test confirmed what I thought was just paranoia, and all of our plans for the future changed. After a whirlwind of emotions between Neil and I, we settled on super nervous & super excited!
Anyone who knows me well, knows that I’m an extreme planner. I have a million lists, notes, and ideas saved in my phone. From grocery lists, to weekly meal schedules, to home projects… the list goes on and on. So when I got pregnant, I felt completely unprepared. I have ALWAYS wanted to be a mom. I really thought I was going to just thrive at motherhood. But I only had 8 months {give or take} to plan, and to change our life plans before this brand new baby was here. So we turned our lives upside down. We painted bedrooms, we installed carpet in our strictly hardwood floors home, we installed new cordless & room darkening blinds, we meal prepped and froze a ton of meals, we cut back our spending on things for us and started spending on our unborn child… I mean the amount of “nesting” that I did before Amelia was born is unreal.
After a long & trying pregnancy, our beautiful baby girl was here. There is not enough planning in the world that could have prepared us for the amount of sleepless nights and sweet baby cuddles we would receive. The love I had for Amelia when she was born was so strong. But over the last 8+ months, it has grown into a kind of love that knows no words.
I have always dreamed of being a mom. God sent me this beautiful baby girl, and made all of my dreams come true. She is seriously an angel.
Over the course of early motherhood, I have learned SO much about babies, being a mom, and mom life in general. I love being able to share my experiences all of my followers!
Alright guys… as usual, leave me a comment if you have any questions, want to share your own experiences with social media / mom life / babies / etc.
Can’t wait to hear from you!!
Shelb xoxo
Trying To Mom 