Exploiting My Baby : A Blog by Teresa Strasser

I wake up every night with esophagus-searing heartburn and the sensation that I’m suffocating. I cry, smearing the mascara I was too lazy to remove on my pregnancy pillow. My husband tells me it will be okay, which he can now do without even waking up. I take a bath, eat a peach, listen to [...]

Being pregnant for the first time I’m scared and I want my mommy. I just don’t want my mommy. My mom hates babies and kids, always has. She didn’t put her cigarette out on my arm or throw me in a pit of snakes, but having kids just wasn’t her diaper bag, and it showed. [...]

When I first found out I was having a boy, there were the stages of grief. You know, shock, denial, numbness, staring paralyzed, mouth slightly agape, at all the racks of cute girlie shit in the baby store until the clerk probably thought I was having a mild stroke. Now, that has all gone away. [...]

When it comes to moms, I don’t really have much to brag about. My stepmother was evil and my mother’s style was characterized mainly by benign neglect. For that reason, I fantasize about women I wish were my mommy, and sometimes I get psyched when I realize some crazy bitch wasn’t my mommy. Here is [...]