Ever since Viv was three months old, we’ve been enrolled in a Mommy & Me class.

Are Parent/Baby classes “a thing” where you live? 

Here in Southern California, these groups are super popular among new moms.  I think it’s because so many of us are transplants, far away from our families of origin.  With geography screwing us out of learning to feed and soothe our babies in the kitchens of our own moms and grandmas, we turn to the next best thing: Mommy & Me.  In my case, a class called Babygroup.  And it was seriously special to me. 

Viv made friends.

I made friends.

And we raised our babies together, wrecked and amazed by the constant challenges new moms face.  The sleepless nights, ever changing schedules, reflux, mastitis, mystery crying, separation anxiety, first time on an airplane, figuring out work and childcare and navigating the world-rocking shifts in our own bodies, relationships and identities.

These were the girls I could talk to about peeing when I sneeze.  Or my terror around sleep training.  Or worrying that sex would never feel normal again.  Or resenting how much easier it sometimes seemed for Dad. 

When things got crazy in my house, Babygroup was my crutch.  All I had to do was make it through the week and get there.  I don’t know who cried more, the moms or the babies, but it was a safe place.  And there was chocolate.

With the kids starting preschool this fall, the mom party is over.  And while I’m a lot more calm and capable than I was two years ago, there’s still so much I don’t know.  Potty training?  Big girl bed?  Who has time to read an actual parenting book?

Thank God for blogs.