Rookie Moms

(contact us at moms at rookiemoms.com)

This web site is inspired by our need to have at least one activity per day. We challenged ourselves to come up with one suggestion for something that we liked doing for each day of the first year. Now we have over 500! Please submit comments to give your own spin on any activity here.

Sometimes for new moms, it’s hard to think (admit it, you agree) and it’s just nice to be told what to do. Here we are. We’re telling you.

About Heather (as told by Whitney)

This crazy chick used to track guests in an excel spreadsheet DURING her parties. Now she has two cutie pie sons and a cutie pie husband all of whom will probably go crazy over the next 65 years as she enters their every move into a spreadsheet. Baby Holden has 8 full months of data about his unique eating/sleeping habits recorded for her reviewing pleasure. He was born in May 2005. Baby Milo was tracked just as closely when he came along in February 2007. Charts comparing the two boys are available to anyone who is interested.

For some reason when Heather saw me in the hospital after my son was born, even though I felt like I had been run over by a truck, she thought “That looks like fun!” When I came to see her after her son was born and asked if she felt like she had been run over by a truck, she looked at me with shock and asked how I knew that and what else had I forgotten to tell her. I would like to put in writing that I did not forget to tell her anything. She forgot to write it all down.

P.S. Things have gotten much much better since then.
P.S.2 Heather, the overachiever, participated in a triathlon 4 months after Holden was born.

About Whitney (as told by Heather)

Whitney is crafty, fun, stylish, and original. She is always up for some creative hand-made project. She impressed me with her knit caps from the first day we met, but it wasn’t until she had a room full of “normal” people decorating onesies with fabric paint, stencils and stickers for my baby shower that I knew she could bring out the creativity in all of us. I left that day with a stack of onesies-of-a-kind (can I say that?).

She inspires me to be a better mom and have fun along the way. It’s true I have selective amnesia about how hard it all may be for her… I only noticed the smiles and laughter in between her baby Julian’s tears. When my husband went back to work, Whit took the day off her own job to teach me the mysterious ways of life on maternity leave. She took me on my first outing to the grocery store, made me lunch, talked me out of my ill-fitting maternity jeans, and helped me get a nap. What a woman!

Whitney challenges me to let go of my need to control everything (even though the pedometer was totally her idea) — please note that I am missing a full 3 days of data thanks to her intervention. She (sort of) tracked her own children for about five days and then decided she’d rather spend time working on this website. Julian was born in October 2004 and Scarlett was born in July 2007.

Reaching Us
Send email to moms (at) rookiemoms.com

What is this site?
This web site attempts to answer the question of what to do with a new baby (and what to do with your SELF) every day. For those days when you have trouble dragging your butt out of bed because you don’t know what you’d do, we have ideas. We started this site to share our own good new mommy ideas with each other and our friends. We invite you to share your ideas with us too.

Newbies: If you’re just staring at that baby with a goofy/terrified grin and no idea what to do next, we have some ideas for you. We’re not your mother, we’re not your doctor, and we’re not a slick magazine trying to sell you products (although if we like one, we won’t be afraid to tell you about it). We’re just two geeky girls going through the same thing. It’s true your life will never be the same, but that’s ok.

Experts: If your baby is over 5 months old, we now consider you an expert. It’s time to start giving back and telling other moms what to do. Please post a comment wherever you see fit. We’ll try to incorporate your ideas to make this a richer resource for other chicks like us.

Our book came out in May 2008. If you really like us, feel free to order it on Amazon.