Hey, Miami Mamas! My name is Rachelle Haime, and I am so excited to be part of the Miami Moms Blog team!
I am Miami born but raised half in South FLA and half in Bogota, Colombia (we moved back and forth A LOT).
I went to the University of Miami (Go Canes!), where I studied public relations and creative writing before moving one final time to Colombia.
Bogota is where I met and married my hubby and where we had our son, who is now 10 and our daughter, who is now 7. We lived there for seven years and moved to Florida about four years ago.
Some random facts about me: I love my coffee, Disney is my happy place, yoga feeds my soul, and I am passionate about making sure moms know they are not alone.
Mom Life and PPD
I am so fortunate to have a beautiful family that I have, but while I have always loved my kids, becoming a mom was a hard transition for me.
After giving birth, I was diagnosed with postpartum depression, and it was possibly one of the scariest and loneliest things I have ever experienced. At the time, like most women who go through PPD, I felt there was something wrong with me.
I was ashamed to talk about it, and I battled my emotions on my own. It took me months to finally realize I could not do it alone, and I sought out professional help.
The biggest thing I took away from therapy was that I needed to remember to nourish myself. I learned what helped me feel nourished and made a conscious effort to include them in my daily life.
Office-Life to Blog Life
After college, I worked in TV production in Miami. Then I moved back to Colombia to work in Public Relations before becoming a SAHM.
When we moved to Florida 4 years ago, I had a rough time with the transition. I realized that my depression was coming back because I was slipping back into old habits. I was not asking for help, not speaking up, not taking care of myself, and burning myself out. We carry this heavy mental workload as moms. Some of us think we have to handle it all on our own and if we can’t, we feel like failures. That pressure can lead us to burn out and struggle with our mental health.
After getting through that experience, and finally feeling comfortable enough to be more open about all my earlier mental health struggles, I decided to start blogging. I wanted to help other moms who were struggling with their mental health to know they weren’t alone, and so The Plentiful Cup was born.
I started my blog and social media pages for 2 reasons. First, maternal mental health is still an incredibly taboo subject, and that stigma has got to go. No woman should ever feel alone when battling maternal mental illness. I wanted to create a place where women could share their stories, feel supported, and know that it’s ok to speak up and ask for help.
Second, our needs go last when we become mothers which can lead to mom burn out. Mom burn out is a very real thing and can lead to very scary maternal mental health problems. We must nourish ourselves first before we can nourish anyone else, and no mom should feel guilty for taking care of themselves first. We cannot fill anyone else’s cups if ours is empty!
Fill your cups mamas!
My hope is to connect with others in this beautiful community, to support all mamas so none of us feel alone, and to share ideas of how we can practice real self-care when mom life gets so busy we feel we can’t.
Again I am so excited and thankful to be part of this team and this amazing mom village!
See you all soon!
Rachelle
