I feel compelled to tell you that I’m writing this in my iPhone notes while wearing my baby in a sling outside in the sunshine. The purpose is twofold: It’s an attempt to get her to take a much-resisted nap, and it’s vitamin-D exposure (plus a chance to drink the glass of wine in my […]
Author: theclosetmermaid
My name is Michaela Mapes. I’m a daydreamer, writer, wanderluster, fairytale fan; a lover of long stories and walk-in closets. Quite bookish. Mermaid hair, and mermaid at heart.
Hermione Roux birth story!
Our second child came into this world after much, (much) anticipation on January 11, 2021 weighing 7 lbs 6 oz; 19.5 inches long. Her name is Hermione Roux Mapes – and she is a dream! This is her entrance story: We had been preparing Goldie for months and months; I’d had false labor contractions intermittently […]
My thoughts on toddlerhood
The other day, I realized I’ve never really written specifically about my daughter, Goldie, but rather have reflected on my own experiences and sort of just mentioned her as I mused on motherhood. But the thing I’ve felt most acutely about transitioning from having a baby to living with a toddler (Goldie is 19 months) […]
Hello, second pregnancy
Hello, third trimester! Hello pumpkin-sized pregnant belly! Hello again, belly button (*waves good naturedly*). This will also serve as a hello again to my blog, which I’ve once more neglected as life moved briskly and I failed to run along beside it recording the details like my own personal paparazzi. And I am sad about […]
13 things I’ve learned in 13 months of motherhood
I have to just start this out by saying that this post almost wrote itself while I was rocking my baby to sleep for her first nap of the day in the semi-darkness of the early morning beside the thrumming space heater we use to keep her room warm in the winter. (Yes, winter: keep […]
Goldie’s Georgia nursery
Goldie’s nursery is by far and away my favorite room in our apartment. That might be mostly because I spent 9 months of pregnancy dreaming of all things baby, and a nursery is a huge part of that vision. However, due to some small (ahem) space constraints in our apartment in Hawaii, her “room” was […]
Life Update – Moved to Georgia!
When I last wrote you (you being, perhaps, a loyal reader or a new-to-this-space friend), I described a scene of messy chaos, as my husband and I were in the final stages of packing up our island life to move across the sea to follow his career to the Ranger Regiment in Georgia. As I […]
Farewell, Hawaii
Farewell, Hawaii. *Insert mental image of glistening tear rolling down cheek* </3 With Christian being selected for the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment, we have a PCS move on the horizon. As I sit here writing this, our apartment is in complete disarray: we have postal service boxes on the floor that we’ll use to mail […]
Postpartum – Part 2
I know everyone’s postpartum and parenthood experience is different, and it could be that what I’ve described as mine in this series won’t resonate with anyone else. But I am so curious how it’s felt to other moms – because it is just so big and difficult to delineate. As for what postpartum looks like […]
My postpartum experience
Sitting down to publish a blog post about my postpartum experience as a first-time mom has taken me 12 weeks (nearly a fourth trimester!), and has coincided precisely and unsurprisingly with the first morning that I’ve awoken from a true full-night’s sleep since my daughter was born. She slept ‘through the night’ for the very […]
