A Sunday Letter: In My Planning Era

My Year Long Preparation for Baby Moon

Hey Gloomers and Bloomers!

I’m writing to you live from my couch with my emotional support electrolyte water and a piece of my wife’s coconut poundcake. I had a very social weekend: I attended Cowboy Carter on Friday and went to a friend’s wedding on Saturday. While both were amazing experiences, it takes an introvert like me some time to recover from big social outings. Today, we chill, we hydrate, we announce something big with you all.

The other day, I learned that sperm health can be a major factor in whether someone experiences morning sickness during pregnancy. I saw a TikTok video of one man intentionally improving his health before trying to conceive so his wife didn’t have to battle through it. That stayed with me. Recently, I shared with you all that my wife and I will be growing our family again. As the parent that will not be carrying, I wanted to do the same. I want to care for my body in a way that supports my wife, our future child (who we refer to as Baby Moon), and our family as a whole.

As I did with our first pregnancy, I will be documenting our journey. Only this time, with a little twist. I’ll be documenting the year I will spend preparing to conceive. This year will be about preparing my body, my spirit, my marriage, and my life for what’s ahead. It’s about nurturing a me that can support myself and my wife. It’s about building strength and joy. It’s about intentionally doing the work to be the partner and parent I want to be.

My journey will include:

• Building daily rituals for my body and my spirit

• Expanding my palate so I can model adventurous eating for our future baby (I am such a picky eater, it will literally take me this entire year to widen my palate)

• Moving my body

• Building and visiting my altar and strengthening my spirituality

• Strengthening my marriage, inviting in more joy and abundance

• Financially planning for conception, pregnancy, and our baby

I’ll be documenting this process in a dedicated series for all subscribers. I want this to be an intentional circle where I can share honestly and openly as I move through this year. I’ll be sharing reflections, photos, rituals, small joys, and lessons from this process.

I feel tender sharing this. It is very vulnerable opening this up after our loss. But I also feel deeply excited. I believe preparing for parenthood is about so much more than just getting ready for a baby. I believe it’s about becoming who I want to be for them, but also for myself.

A year feels both like a long and short amount of time. Is a year all I need to prepare my spirit for trying to conceive AND pregnancy? Is a year too much time? When my wife and I talk about pregnancy and parenthood, we talk about parenting with intention. Intention is in the preparation as well. I’m well aware of the Black maternal mortality crisis. I want to do my part in preparing to support my wife through whatever experience she will have. My body, to support her physically. My mind, to support her emotionally. My spirit, to support us in everything else. My coin, because conceiving outside of having sex with known sperm is expensive (IUI, cryobank fees, IVF are not cheap)! Our marriage, because there are so many experiences and things we want to do before we parent a living child. When I consider all of these things, a year feels like the perfect amount of time.

I’m calling this journey, and this series, Moonbound.

This name holds everything I want this year to be: an intentional movement toward our future baby, Baby Moon, and toward the parent, partner, and person I want to become. It’s about preparing with purpose.

If you’d like to follow along, I’d love to have you in that space. If you’re on your own journey of preparing for something big, whatever it is, I’d love to hear about it!

Wishing us all a week filled with intention, and small moments of joy.

With excitement and giddiness from the space between the gloom and bloom.

Jenn