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Brittany L. Bergman

Savoring motherhood, building marriage, and living simply

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Practicing What I Preach + A Blogging Maternity Leave

Oct 21 41 Comments

I’ve been dragging my heels on writing this post for the past week. I set aside time to write it on Sunday morning, and even still, I found a thousand other things to do because I just didn’t want to write this. It’s conjuring up all kinds of feelings in me—excitement, fear, failure, sadness, relief.

Over the past few weeks, my busyness levels have been slowly creeping up. Busyness is sneaky, because it usually starts out slow with an extra commitment here and an extra task there. On top of what I normally do in a given week, I’ve noticed a significant drop in my energy levels (thanks, third trimester) at the same time that my commitments have increased. I said yes to too many writing projects, and I’ve also had baby showers to attend and baby clothes to sort and thank you notes to write and a nursery to finish. These are all very good things, things I’m grateful to have the opportunity to do. But I didn’t cut anything out to make room to do all this, and it left me feeling exhausted and stressed instead of joyful.

Maternity Leave 2

Over these past few weeks, I’ve felt like everything in my life is constantly halfway done, and I’m not really finishing anything. It feels like I have 12847 browser tabs open in my head, and I just need to close a few. It all came to a head when I found myself crying over little things that didn’t matter—a long line at the grocery store, an unexpected errand, an offhand comment. I think I cried every day last week, because of the hormones and stress and general feelings of “I can’t do it all.”

I’m finally ready to admit that I can’t do it all, not well, and not if I’m going to maintain any sanity. I was planning to take a maternity leave from my blog whenever the baby decides to come until I felt ready to start posting again. I really wanted to keep this leave as short as possible, blogging up until my due date and keeping up with life as usual. Blogging and writing are life-giving for me, and I didn’t want to give them up for any longer than I had to.

But in the recent busyness, blogging has become more of a burden than a joy, and I don’t want to lose my love for it. For the sake of my emotional well-being and stress levels, I need to press pause on the blog earlier than I expected. I’m not closing this space by any means—I’m really looking forward to getting back into it in a couple of months when I feel ready—but I’m letting go of my current calendar and expectations. I may post a few times in the coming months if I feel able, but I’m not going to force myself to write and create pinnable images for and promote three posts every week.

Ultimately, what I want is to create space for myself to breathe in these next few weeks leading up to Baby Bergman’s arrival. I don’t want to be so busy that I’m exhausted and death-crawling my way to the “finish line” of her delivery.

I want to savor every moment that is left of pregnancy, which has been a time of more joy than I could have possibly imagined.

I want to treasure every moment that is left of me and Dan just being me and Dan, husband and wife, not mom and dad.

I want to joyfully anticipate this baby’s arrival instead of worrying my way through the next four weeks.

I want to write to reflect on this special time, not just to create useable content.

Maternity Leave

I started this blog back in February, and I am so amazed by the community that has grown here since then. I am deeply grateful for every single person who has read these posts, written heartfelt comments, shared posts with friends and family on social media, and encouraged me to keep writing. It’s a joy to grow with you all, and I’m so excited to return to this place in a few months.

In the mean time, I’ll still be active on Instagram, and I’d love to stay connected to you all there until I’m back in this space. Thanks for all your love and support during this crazy, unique time.

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Filed Under: Motherhood, Simple Living & Minimalism Tagged With: blogging, choices, family, freedom, joy, priorities, simple living, stress

« Cultivating Gratitude & Sharing Love // 22
Relaxing My Expectations + A Blog and Life Update »




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brittanylbergman

Brittany L. Bergman
This Very Cool and Very Silly little boy moved up This Very Cool and Very Silly little boy moved up to the early preschool room at daycare today, and he turns 2 in less than a month, and he says new words every day, and he pushes me away in the mornings so he can rest a little longer, and he’s outgrowing his 2T clothes, and he’s not really a baby anymore, and what I’m trying to say is I’M NOT OKAY.
Oh yes I did cry like a baby. 😭 One step closer Oh yes I did cry like a baby. 😭 One step closer to normalcy and very much feeling the weight of the trauma that has yet to catch up to us and the relief that’s coming on its heels. But mostly, feeling thankful for science and every single person who had a hand in creating this modern-medicine miracle. 💜💉
A poem in honor of #internationalwomensday. May we A poem in honor of #internationalwomensday. May we be a generation of womxn who embrace our humanity, our inherent power, and our purpose outside of the confines of capitalism. 💪🏼 🔥
✔️ Kamala shirt ✔️ Kamala pearls ✔️ Ka ✔️ Kamala shirt
✔️ Kamala pearls
✔️ Kamala mug 
✔️ Kamala curls

It’s a great day to witness the shattering of a glass ceiling, to embrace empathy and decency, and to breathe a collective sigh of relief.

The work is only just beginning, but today, we celebrate. Congratulations, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris! 👏🏼🎉💙
What a beautiful, exhausting, festive, heartbreaki What a beautiful, exhausting, festive, heartbreaking, cozy, chaotic-but-strangely-quiet Christmas we had. ✨🎄✨

That’s a wrap for me on 2020—I’ll be off social media until sometime in January. May you be filled with peace and hope as we close this year but still wait for the close of this chapter in our history. 💜
I have faced Christmases full of grief and loss; d I have faced Christmases full of grief and loss; depression and rage; exhaustion and loneliness. But I can honestly say this is the weariest Christmas I can remember. I say that not to shine a spotlight on me, but to say that I have a feeling this might be your experience too. I’m with you.
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And so the words to my favorite Christmas hymn hit me different this year. They resonate in a place much deeper, more tender and true than ever before. I rejoice in the giggles of my meltdown-prone child. I rejoice in stolen moments alone in the dark, the room lit only by the glow of the Christmas tree. I rejoice in every video and every social media post I see of a frontline worker receiving the COVID vaccine, our ticket out of this nightmare. I rejoice in the vision that next Christmas might look more familiar than this one does. I rejoice in the hope of Christ, whose universal, creative, motherly love holds the whole universe together.
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On this Christmas Eve, I’ll leave you with this quote from Howard Thurman. I hope these words bring a slant of light to your day.
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“The symbol of Christmas—what is it? It is the rainbow arched over the roof of the sky when the clouds are heavy with foreboding. It is the cry of life in the newborn babe when, forced from its mother’s nest, it claims its right to live. It is the brooding Presence of the Eternal Spirit making crooked paths straight, rough places smooth, tired hearts refreshed, dead hopes stir with newness of life. It is the promise of tomorrow at the close of every day, the movement of life in defiance of death, and the assurance that love is sturdier than hate, that right is more confident than wrong, that good is more permanent than evil.”
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Whatever and however you celebrate at this time of year, I’m sending you all my love and peace. 💫
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Brittany L Bergman is a for-profit blog. Any company that I collaborate with is chosen by me and fits the theme and readership of my blog. At times, posts may contain affiliate links or sponsored content, which is never at any charge to you.

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