I promise you, every time I blink Solomon has reached another milestone. I am amazed each day at how much he has grown and all that he can do. It seems like we just checked into the hospital to have him and now we’re almost a month away from his first birthday! How is that possible?!

I blinked

I blinked and I was a mommy. Blinked again and he was rolling over. Messed up and blinked and he was crawling. I didn’t even finish blinking and he was walking. All before he even turned 10 months old!

Oh, he can do that now

For some reason, I cannot stop blinking. Now he can climb the steps. Solomon hasn’t been anywhere to access steps and when I tried to show him how a couple of months ago, he had no interest. Fast-forward to this week and he just knows how to climb up the steps.  It is truly mind-blowing.

It goes so fast; try not to blink

If you’re expecting or recently had a baby, just don’t blink. I am kidding, but seriously, embrace every moment. Be intentional about the time that you spend with your baby, it goes so fast. I cannot believe that he is almost a year old already. Now I have to hurry and plan a birthday celebration!

Not every mom gets to celebrate

I am thankful that I have the opportunity to celebrate my baby boy’s first birthday, however, too many Black women don’t get to do that. This week is #BlackMaternalHealthWeek, Black women are three times more likely to die as a result of pregnancy complications than White women. I was blessed to have a healthy birth outcome; however, I did experience systemic racial inequities and implicit bias during my hospital stay.

Working for an Infant Mortality program made me much more aware of what was happening and it also led to a sudden change in my care when I educated my nosey, biased nurse. If you’re not knowledgeable about systemic racial inequities and implicit biases that exist, I encourage you to do some research and become an advocate.