Jun 23, 2026 · 41 min · 13 segments
Paula always wanted to be a mom, and she always assumed her path to motherhood would look like getting married in her late twenties and having a baby before 30. When that timeline didn't materialize…
Julia WinstonHost
About a month after Paula gave birth to Maria Lucia, Claire started regularly reaching out to Paula with questions and prompts so we could create an audio diary of her first year of motherhood.
Hi, Claire.
I'm so happy that you sent that message.
I listened to your voice memo as we had our first, I would say, public outing fail.
She was just not having it.
I think she may have just been overstimulated.
So I listened to your voice memo in the backseat of my car while breastfeeding and changing her diaper and trying to bring her back to her happy self.
And it was just, I was like, oh, this is very timely.
This is real life.
Babies cry and babies have good days and bad days.
And so does mom.
And it's just, I'm lucky that for the most part, we have great days and she's really not that fussy.
But then there are days when she is and it's, you know, it's on me to, I always tell her, it's not your problem.
It's my problem to figure out.
Don't worry about it.
Mama's got you.
I would say like there was one point in the first couple of days with her
down in my couch with a friend and I still get teary when I talk about this.
And I remember saying, there's no way I would have missed out on this just because I wasn't married.
this is exactly where I wanted to be.
Like being a mom and just, there are so many things that she's taught me already.
Like how I have learned to, well, not fully slow down, but slow down a little bit.
Just being present.
About a month after Paula gave birth to Maria Lucia, Claire started regularly reaching out to Paula with questions and prompts so we could create an audio diary of her first year of motherhood.
Hi, Claire.
I'm so happy that you sent that message.
I listened to your voice memo as we had our first, I would say, public outing fail.
She was just not having it.
I think she may have just been overstimulated.
So I listened to your voice memo in the backseat of my car while breastfeeding and changing her diaper and trying to bring her back to her happy self.
And it was just, I was like, oh, this is very timely.
This is real life.
Babies cry and babies have good days and bad days.
And so does mom.
And it's just, I'm lucky that for the most part, we have great days and she's really not that fussy.
But then there are days when she is and it's, you know, it's on me to, I always tell her, it's not your problem.
It's my problem to figure out.
Don't worry about it.
Mama's got you.
I would say like there was one point in the first couple of days with her
down in my couch with a friend and I still get teary when I talk about this.
And I remember saying, there's no way I would have missed out on this just because I wasn't married.
this is exactly where I wanted to be.
Like being a mom and just, there are so many things that she's taught me already.
Like how I have learned to, well, not fully slow down, but slow down a little bit.
Just being present.
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