Moms Helping Moms via Mom’s Bloom

As I’ve mentioned several times before — motherhood is SO much harder than I ever thought it would be. I can’t believe how physically and emotionally draining it is to have such an important 24/7 job on top of everything I do each day.

Things are definitely getting better now that Nora is sleeping more at night, but those first couple of months were rough.

Thankfully, Dave and I had/have lots of help from both of our families. I also received help from the wonderful women at Mom’s Bloom — a non-profit organization with the mission to “provide practical help and emotional support during times of transition for growing families.” A.K.A. They match experienced “mentor moms” with newbie moms like me!

My mentor mom, Sue, usually came on Thursday nights for a couple hours while Dave was gone at school. She would literally hold Nora, get her to stop crying, feed her, giver her baths, and play with her while I did laundry, cleaned up the kitchen, took a shower in peace, or just sat on the couch and talked.

It was WONDERFUL! 

Plus, it was really nice to have someone who obviously knew so much about babies {she was a nurse, Lamaze coach, daycare provider, and more!} tell me how great I was doing and simply listen without giving advice as I explained all the challenges I was dealing with.

I’m sure she heard the same things over and over again, but she just smiled and told me that I was the best mom for Nora and I was doing just fine — I never got tired of hearing that!

Sue and I have so much in common — we both like the farmhouse style, we both love the color red, antiques, Craigslist, and sewing cute baby clothes {she’s expecting 2 grandchildren soon!}

I’m beyond thankful for the 3 months Nora and I had with Sue and I’m so grateful there are wonderful non-profit organizations like Mom’s Bloom to help new mom’s like me.

So why did I write this post?

1. To encourage any moms out there to find help if you need it.

I felt really weird asking for help at first, but I’m SO glad I did it. And even though our families have been so helpful, it was really nice to have an “outside” person with completely unbiased opinions!

2. To raise awareness about Mom’s Bloom for any readers living in the West Michigan area.

Yes, unfortunately Mom’s Bloom is a local organization — however, if one of Dave’s coworkers hadn’t told me about it, I never would have known it existed.

If you live in West Michigan and are interested in the services provided by Mom’s Bloom, you can contact them directly, follow them on Facebook, or just head on over to their website to learn more.

3. To present an opportunity for you to share helpful resources in your area.

If you have an organization like Mom’s Bloom in your area — or if you know of helpful websites, programs, or organizations in any part of the country — please share them in the comment section below.  You might be able to help and bless many other moms with that information!

4. To give you an opportunity to help.

As I mentioned before, Mom’s Bloom is a non-profit organization that relies on donations. They are having their annual fundraiser in a couple weeks and I know they take online donations too 🙂

If you would like to donate to Mom’s Bloom, you can do that here.

Or if you live in West Michigan and would like to become a volunteer mentor mom, you can get more information about that over here.

5. To express my thanks.

It was such a blessing to have someone I didn’t even know invest so much time and energy into helping me succeed as a new mom. I feel blessed to know Sue and the other wonderful women behind the Mom’s Bloom program.