Brett Cooper

All right, now we get into mother three.

Mom3 says, I tried telling my friends that I wasn't coping well with motherhood and was still processing the birth, she had a traumatic birth, and they'd tell me, that's what motherhood is.

One of my friends texted my husband, wow, she's changed, and not in a good way.

It came from a place of care, she and many friends and family told me I had postpartum depression, to seek therapy and to go on medication.

But at the same time, they'd quickly flip it back to, you need to be there for your son, pick yourself up by your bootstraps, move on, it's over and done with.

Everything I went through was just like, no big deal, because the baby's here, your existence doesn't matter.

I mean, all of this is real stuff.

Genuinely, I read this article and I was like, wait, wait, why is everybody so mad at these mothers?

Like, I'm still angry at New York Magazine, but why are we angry at these moms?

Like, I genuinely think that you would be hard pressed to find a mother that hasn't had any feelings of doubt or pain or loneliness as she transitions into this period of her life, even if you've had three babies.

I still hear moms talk about how difficult

That transition is welcoming a new life into your family, somebody who is completely dependent upon you.

I am a new mom, my baby is only six months old, I can only speak to my own experience, and this is coming from somebody who, you know, has always wanted to be a mom, and also who had a relatively easy pregnancy and delivery.

Even with all of that, I still got home from the hospital 24 hours after giving birth, and I felt like a shell of a human being.

Even though I have sat on this show and on comment section talking about how desperately I wanted to be a mom, how excited I was, I still got home and said, I have no idea what I've done and I have no idea what I've gotten myself into and I have no idea what to do.

I was so desperately excited.

I was so in love with our baby, but I have also, in those early weeks,

I have never felt so disconnected from me and my body.

I was irritable, I was angry in a lot of ways.

I definitely had the sundown blues, like the moment that it started to get dark outside, I would get so anxious and worried about the night ahead and how many times he was gonna wake up and if he was gonna be okay and if co-sleeping was gonna work out or if he would go in the bassinet.