In truth, I’m mentally prepared for the possibility that we won’t be able to return to China until next summer at the earliest. This is...

NOTE: Please note that this blog post was written in February 2020. Ben has since then spoken to multiple counselors, and he’s now found...

Note: In November of 2019, I wrote an essay as a part of an online developmental psychology course about a time the I went through a...

When I first told my family that I would be teaching online for the foreseeable future, my mother responded “That’s great news.” I didn’t...

When Ben’s parents met Alaya at the hospital in her first 24 hours of life, they fell immediately in love. I couldn’t believe my previous...

On the morning of Wednesday, February 5th, I, and other faculty members, received an email offering us the opportunity to go to Duke...

I interrupt my new Mom blog posts to talk about my situation right now in China. I think the coronavirus situation first became real to...

The night Ben and I went home from the hospital, one of our friends was working a 24-hour shift. He helped us move all of our things to...

My first concern with Alaya after she was born was establishing breastfeeding. I wasn’t able to have the Golden Hour that I wanted, and...

After 3+ days of labor, excruciating pain, no sleep, and a tear of my perineum, the first thing stated after my daughter was born was...

Note: This blog is the second to last in the series on my labor and delivery. It was important to me to write it all out in detail as a...

So, it was August 8th, Thursday night. I had been to Shanghai that day for my prenatal appointment. I had already started having...

The Plan So, in the blog “A Natural Birth,” I wrote about the kind of births possible and the kind that I wanted. I wanted to have an...

Note: This blog was written before I gave birth, and I will, in a future blog, address how much of this was true for me. It wasn’t until...

This blog will be short, and future blogs will be delayed as Alaya Marie Yixin Xie was born on August 11th, at 9:50pm, weighing 2.66 kg...

There are many apps related to pregnancy that will encourage you to take photos of your growing bump weekly. However, I was not really...

Note: It’s important to start by saying that this blog post is not about my birth. I’m still pregnant (37 weeks 5 days) as I write about...

When is the baby due? I get this question a lot. I tell people either August 10th or August 14th. August 10th is based on the start of my...

One of my major projects this summer was to figure out what essentials I needed to buy before the baby was born. As many blogs reminded...

Before I begin this post, it’s important to note that I started this blog entirely for myself. It was a way to cope after the...