My superpower is connection. I can build and nurture deep connections with most people, especially children. This was always something I depended upon, until life threw me a curveball. At age 26, when I was still “parenting” (re-parenting) myself, I gave birth to my oldest child, my life’s teacher.

Charlotte was what I like to call a “NON-user-friendly” baby. Her cues were confusing and intense: she cried most of her waking hours—about 20 hours/day—didn’t like to be held or soothed, struggled to nurse, take in nutrition, sleep for more than 15-minute increments, be consoled or coddled by us or others, and struggled to just BE. As a new mom, I was hard-wired to help my helpless child and felt like I was failing. EVERY. TIME. At the time, I was in my fourth year as an elementary school teacher and felt such a sense of joy and connection with children.

I was Mrs. Baer in the classroom: connected, intuitive, and skilled.

At home: fumbling, stressed, heartbroken.

I longed for a connection with my own child. All I wanted was for someone to tell me how to make TOMORROW feel better for Charlotte (and ME!) All I wanted was to feel less alone. Finding help was NOT EASY.

Years were spent seeing and traveling to specialists, doctors, therapists, naturopaths, healers, social workers— the list goes on. Most of these experiences were isolating and futile until we stumbled upon a social worker here in Vermont who finally SAW ME. Over tea and tears on her living room couch, with a crying Charlotte in tow, she gave me love, support, validation AND connected me to my first vital resource that then led me to others.

The path to parenting Charlotte has been hard-earned and uniquely created. My husband and I have spent over a decade (and counting) in specific parenting support/coaching/therapy programs to help navigate parenting and connect with our child. Charlotte has complex special needs and now, at age 14, life is still challenging for her as we continue to explore the next best steps to her health and happiness. Learning how to best show up for Charlotte has been a journey filled with love and mistakes, but there is no other way I could have arrived here. She is my “why?” for starting this life’s work of holistic parenting support that is led with love.

In the next several years, we added two more children to our brood. While my younger two were much more straightforward babies, one truth became glaringly clear:

Parenting ANY CHILD is the hardest work I have ever done.

Though Cade and Cora didn’t present as intense needs as Charlotte, they were/are unique in their own ways, leading me to develop my own child-specific toolkit (still growing and evolving), for each of them. All three of my children have been my greatest teachers, they have made me a better parent and a better human.

This work is a love letter to my children, my partner, and myself.