Raising a Family with a Chef – Pregnancy

First trimester pregnancy – the one time in my entire life when I was more tired than my chef/husband.

Finding out you are going to have a baby is so exciting!  But when you’re married to a chef, there’s also some fears that go through your mind when you’re expecting . . .

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What is an Emulsified Family?

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Emulsion

[ih-MUHL-shuhn]

a mixture of one liquid with another with which it cannot normally combine smoothly (like oil and water);  an atypical combination of two things

After a year of blogging on EmulsifiedFamily.com, I have come to love the name “Emulsified Family” and feel it’s the perfect way to describe our family (and probably many of yours.)

Emulsified FamilyWhy?

I’m so glad you asked!

Let’s start off by looking at it from a culinary perspective.  Emulsifying is a delicate process.  It needs to be carefully prepared.  It requires ideal conditions (temperature, balance, interaction, etc).  It won’t hold together forever unless it’s cared for, but can be repaired if it breaks.

Have you ever tried to make mayonnaise?  If you just throw all the ingredients into the blender it’s not going to work.  (Maybe it would work with a Vitamix.  But in my Oster blender . . . no way!!)  But if you take your time and carefully follow the correct procedure, you’ll get something that is far better than what you started with.  All the ingredients on their own are fine.  But together, they can be AMAZING.

Do you see what a perfect term this is to describe the family of a chef?

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Infertility – A Chef, A Wife and a Child

While my chef/husband and I have struggled with miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy, we have never dealt with infertility.  Knowing how much I struggle with loneliness because of the hours my chef/husband works, I can’t even begin to imagine how hard this must be for many chefs and their wives.  I often wonder if I’m hurting someone when I write posts about my children and the struggles of raising children with a chef.  I know that my struggles could be someone else’s dream.
I could write a post on a subject I really know nothing about, or I could ask someone for help . . . someone who has lived it.  I’ve asked my sweet cousin Leanne if she would let me ask her a few questions about her and her husband’s struggle with infertility.  While her husband is not a chef, she knows me well enough and has been to enough family functions over the years that my husband has missed because of work, that she has a pretty good idea of what our lives are like as chef wives.  I am so grateful for her willingness to share with us today!

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Miscarriage and Ectopic Pregnancy – A Chef, A Wife and a Child

A chef a wife and a child - miscarriage and ectopic pregnancyHave you ever noticed that many people have gone through the same struggles as you have, but you never knew it until you started to talk about it?  This happens to me all the time.

I had no idea how many women had miscarriages until I had one.

After the initial excitement of finding out that my chef/husband and I were going to have our first child, my thoughts and fears headed straight toward miscarriage.

I know now that many women have miscarriages, but my Mom had 14.  Yes you read that right. 14.  I am an only child and she was on bed rest the majority of her pregnancy with me.  I am like my Mom in many ways, but would this be one way I was like her as well?  I of course had no way of knowing.  So as we started to pray for our unborn child, we prayed that if it was God’s will, I would carry him/her full term. (more…)

Help I’m Pregnant and Married to a Chef – A Chef, a Wife and a Child

pregnant and married to a chefI’m excited to start a new series here on Emulsified Family called A Chef, A Wife and a Child.  During the series I’ll be sharing about our life with children, but have asked other chefs’ wives to share their stories as well.

I’ll be posting in this series every Tuesday evening through September.  If you haven’t already signed up to receive my posts via email, you can do so here and then come back and read the rest of the post.  I can wait.  🙂  Other blog posts on different topics will pop up here and there as well.

We all have different stories and different experiences about having a child with a chef.  If you have children, or are thinking about it in the future, I hope you will be able to relate to one or more of us as we share our lives with you.  I’ll also be talking a bit about miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy and infertility as so many of us struggle with those issues as well.

To those chef families who do not have children yet, having a child is often an overwhelming thought because of the long and crazy hours a chef works.  And for those of us living it every day, there are ups and downs as we try and figure out how to combine restaurant and family life.  Then there are those with grown children who have lived to tell about it.  (Feel free to leave your advice in the comments!!)

So to start off the series, I thought we should start at the beginning. . . .

Help!  I’m pregnant and married to a chef! (more…)