big news!

Ok… maybe it is medium sized news. You decide.

I am antsy with anticipation as tomorrow we take off for 10 days in Japan! It was a spur of the moment booking when we found direct flights for $600 round trip in October. We cleared our calendars and booked the trip!

But that’s not my big news. I have been going back and forth on this decision since maybe December of last year and today in advance of our travels I *think* I have decided that I am going to condense my instagram presence and take the next couple weeks to close things down on @makinglamadre IG and convert all my future posting to my original IG, @lydialauer.

I started the blog and IG four years ago when I was entering my third trimester. I was really concerned about losing myself in motherhood and apprehensive about how this new role was going to mess with my identity. I kept the blog and IG a secret for a long time. I curated a group of followers that were also new moms. We connected over hashtags like #breastfeeding #newborn #momlyfe #hannajams & #honestmotherhood. Hashtags I would never use on my other IG. I rarely even posted the bebo to my personal IG. As silly as it sounds I didn’t want him imposing on my feed or taking over all my content, although it is a FACT that posts with Momo do get significantly more engagement and likes!

In the past year, recent months especially, I have gotten more lax with his presence on @lydialauer. These days he is the runaway star on my instagram stories and I have broken my self imposed rule for 2018 of only posting Momo once a month on my personal account. I also often find myself going back and forth on which account to post my fotos too. Not just Momo but pics of the house, selfies, outfits. Asking who will like this the most? Who am I trying to relate to today? Kind of annoying.

This really came to light after I was invited to talk on a panel about being a career mom over the summer. We were asked questions such as: if we try to hide our ‘mom status’ in the workplace or not? I talked about how I compartmentalize my life and IG is a perfect example of this. I realized after saying that out loud that I am not really being my authentic self. I started MLM when I was insecure about the fact that I was becoming a mom. And now almost four years into #momlyfe I am finally comfortable with the role of MOM.

So with all of that… I think I am going to press pause on the Making La Madre IG. Our trip to Japan tomorrow (eek!) will be a great testing ground to see if you want to follow me over to @lydialauer to keep up with our travels and the entire me. I will continue to write on the blog and of course post updates to @lydialauer when I have new blog posts.

Thank you for your support, would love to know what you think about this funny conundrum I am in. And now after reading this over again maybe I am on the fence. Lets call it a social experiment and who knows where I will land

xx Ly