Meet Stephanie, Founder of How 2 Mom!
I am a wife and a mother to eleven-year-old, McKenzie and seven-year-old twins, Deacon and Brynley. I am also a Birth Doula, Postpartum Doula, Certified Lactation Counselor, Childbirth Educator, Placenta Encapsulator, Health and Wellness Educator, and Blogger. Most of all…. supporter of women, especially moms! I was born and raised in South Minneapolis and then graduated from Winona University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science degree.
During college, I started dating a good friend (Brian) who I now get to call my husband! I spent many hours driving back and forth to the cities on the weekends to see him. After dating for five years and moving across the country with him, he proposed in December of 2009. We were married at Majestic Oaks Golf Club in July of 2011 and purchased our home in Cottage Grove in 2012.
After trying to conceive a baby for a year and a half and three rounds of IUI treatments, we were finally expecting!
June 27, 2013, my life changed in more ways than I could have ever expected. That was the day my daughter McKenzie was born.
The process of becoming a mom was so amazing, but also so overwhelming. I remember feeling so much pressure to take on all the new responsibilities of caring for my baby on top of continuing with the stress of life before baby. Not to mention the financial strain of unpaid maternity leave and having to make the choice between a career and being a full-time mom.
I had expected the typical changes that come along with motherhood: sleepless nights, lots of poopy diapers, fewer date nights, and so on. The changes I didn’t expect was feeling lost, overwhelmed, and passionless in the career I had invested so much time and money in. My goals and desires were much different than before. I needed to find purpose again.
I needed to be home with my daughter!
It took awhile to process all these new feelings because I had everything I had ever wanted! I had the amazing and supportive husband, the healthy and beautiful baby girl, and a great place to call home. Yet, at the end of the day, I didn’t feel fulfilled. I felt like something was missing!
I wanted so much more for my life! I wanted to be able to stay home with my daughter, live the healthiest life possible, have passion again, and help and support others, especially moms. I no longer wanted to feel like I was running after someone else’s dream!
In March of 2014, when my daughter was a year and a half, I finally said enough is enough. I spent countless hours searching for ways to chase and implement my new dreams. During that time I sat down with a group of inspiring women, and they encouraged me to live life by design, not default. They taught me how to take hold of my life and write my own story. More importantly, they reassured me that I was capable of running my own professional life and gave me the support I needed to pursue it!
With their help, I was given a work from home opportunity which gave me the ability to leave my career, transition home, become a birth doula, and create How 2 Mom.
Fast forward to March of 2017, when I became a “new” mother again. Not new in the sense that I hadn’t been a mom already, but new in the sense that this time around I wasn’t just blessed with the addition of one more baby, but two!
The birth of my precious twins not only fundamentally changed me, again (in ways I couldn’t fathom,) but ushered in another season of motherhood and womanhood that I’m still trying to fully grasp. With each new transition, I find myself discovering parts within me that I never knew existed. In each exhausted breath, I find myself opening new compartments of joy and strength and exhilaration that had never been there before.
As I write this today, I’m so thankful I put myself, my happiness and my dreams back on the priority list. Over three years ago now, I left that unfulfilling career to pursue my true passions of health, wellness, birth, and most importantly motherhood!