There are many things I have forgotten about having a baby, which I am consistently reminded of as my sisters — both with infants — ask me when mine met certain milestones I have very little remembrance of. But the whole “new mom” feeling is not one of them. Despite all the classes, message boards, books and the sense that if others did it, I could too, I felt nervous, exhausted, overwhelmed and sorta lonely.

Our labor class didn’t meet and fall in love and become a traveling pack of new parents like I had imagined. And while the women I related to the most at the time — my pregnant best friend and the moms I met on an online message board for a now-defunct pregnancy magazine — were wonderful and helpful lifelines, were all thousands of miles away. Once I had a second kid, figured out what PEPS was and had naturally made friends through my older son, I learned the full value of the “village” it takes to raise a child.

When Sarah Mustain, owner/operator of Shangri-La Massage in Edmonds, had her now 16-month-old child, she joined Swedish Hospital’s New Moms group looking to make some friends. “Most of my friends are men,” she told me over the sounds of kids playing at the play date with other moms she’s kept in touch with from the group, and “my other friends already had older kids.” As kids aged out of the group or moms went back to work, the New Moms group kept in touch through a private Facebook group where Mustain would eventually find out Swedish Edmonds had cancelled the New Moms group.

Knowing how important it is for new moms to “relate with others,” she decided to start a local group for new parents herself. It is very clear to me how important this must be to her, considering on top of having a business and toddler, Mustain has found a site, speakers and — for the first meeting — purchased snacks for the group because “a lot of moms forget to eat because they are so focused on the new baby.”

Parent Baby Edmonds/Lynnwood is a support group, led by Mustain, now meeting at Edmonds Church of God, 8224 220th St. S.W., Fridays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The group is geared for moms (and dads) with infants 0 months up to 12 months of age, who live in Edmonds, Lynnwood, Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace or other nearby areas. Mustain said that she isn’t a stickler for the age requirement and they are still working out the logistics for older siblings or busy toddlers.

Per the Parent Baby Edmonds/Lynnwood Facebook page, the group is designed so that new moms can:
-meet other moms and their babies
-share ideas with other new parents in friendly environment
-find out about the many resources in the community that are available to you and your family
-receive information on a wide variety of topics that are important to you and your baby.

The format of each session is to start off with the guest and finish up with “catch up time.” Mustain went over some of the guest speakers lined up to for the group, which are listed on their Facebook page, and they are exactly what you’d want in a group like this. On Friday, Nov. 11, Mustain — a licensed massage practitioner — will be teaching infant massage and the week following the group will welcome lactation consultant and coincidentally a friend of mine, Catherine Fenner. Other future speakers include Sarah Richard from Alley Bell Music and an estate planning attorney, and a presentation on baby carrier fit checks.

While this support group is free, they are asking for donations if possible to pay for costs like snacks and items in the diaper changing station.

There are a few ways you can help this support group. They have started a Go Fund Me page to cover costs, they are always looking for speakers to cover topics pertinent to new moms such as feeding, starting solids, help with sleep etc., and they could use volunteers to watch/wrangle the busier/older kids while the parents focus on the information of the day.

For more information, including meeting times and their guest speaker list, you can visit Parent Baby Edmonds/Lynnwood on Facebook.

There is no charge to participate in this group and registration is not required; however the group is asking for donations to pay for costs as they come up (like providing snacks and beverages for each meeting). No amount is too small, but they suggest $5 each time you attend.

— By Jennifer Marx

Jen Marx, an Edmonds Mom of two young boys, is always looking for a fun place to take the kids that makes them tired enough to go to bed on time. You can find her on Twitter trying to make sense of begging kids to ” just eat the mac n cheese” @jen_marx.