Introducing Ilyse Kaplan

I’m Ilyse Kaplan and I’ll start off by saying, after 10 months as a Mom, I don’t know what I’m doing! I didn’t grow up knowing I always wanted to be a Mom, I didn’t know if I ever wanted to have kids.

I did know I always wanted to be a writer. I guess I’ve officially gone from “music blogger” to “mommy blogger.” I’m excited I’ll be exploring this unknown territory of motherhood through Austin Mom’s Blog–in front of all of you.

The day I found out I was pregnant I was excited and terrified–perhaps it was that day, through that feeling, I truly became a mother.

The night before, I’d been dancing to Drake and Lil Wayne at the Austin 360 ampitheatre, trying to tell myself it just couldn’t be. There was no way I could be pregnant. I was still in my twenties, I had life left to live before conceding to a tiny person who would drain every ounce of selfishness out of my body.

Now, I live not for myself (or Drake, for that matter), I live for Camilla June. I sometimes worry that she thinks “Hotline Bling” is a lullaby but hey, we’re all doing the best we can.

Two weeks after I found out I was pregnant, I was accepted in to a Master’s in Counseling program. My due date was predicted for the week after finals so I prayed the baby wouldn’t come early and began the program. Our girl was born at 5:02 PM on 5/02–right on time–after laboring for 10 hours. With Larry David as my comfort technique, I cringed my way through a natural birth. I expected to be a fully natural mama but sometimes, life throws us curve balls we don’t expect.

My husband Brandon and I have been together for six years and in Austin for four. My parents always feared I’d marry a musician, luckily I found a good one. We married in September in front of the people we love–most of whom flew from our former home, Los Angeles. Our girl stole the show in a tiny flower crown that matched her mama’s. They say the first year of marriage is the hardest, being newlyweds with a baby is even harder. We have a strict once-a-week, in house date night policy, consisting of wine and a movie. The “night” usually lasts at least three, because what parent with a child under 12-months-old can stay awake during a movie on their own couch? If it wasn’t for that amazing man, I would never be able to do all that I do along with being a mom.

It’s been 10 months but every day feels new. Camilla has caused me to grow in to the woman I want to be. It hasn’t been easy, in fact it’s been really really hard! Like, harder than I make it seem on Instagram. For all the wonderful days we get, I’ll take the bad ones.

We live in South Austin with two dogs and three chickens and any given day you look through our front window, you’ll probably see us looking disheveled and dancing to Taylor Swift. I wouldn’t have it any other way.