Hello. I’m Jennifer Mayes and MomGenes is my site. I began it in April 2006, shortly after learning I was pregnant. Pregnancy was both wondrous and terrifying for me. Writing about it helped me keep my sense of humor and allowed me to create a record of the crazy changes I went through during that period in my life. I plan to use this as my go-to response to any grief my daughter gives me later in life. “Oh, you think cleaning your room is hard? Why don’t you read about the time I gave birth to a 10lb baby?!”

Speaking of my monstrously large baby, Lana Kathleen Mayes was born on August 29, 2006. She came into this world with a head full of dark brown hair and a serious attitude problem. Luckily, after two long months our colicky baby transformed into the utterly charming and sweet little girl that we know and love today.

My life after baby is very, very different and leaves me with a lot less time for indulgences like baths and sit-down meals. I receive few complaints about my unkempt condition, though – probably since I now work from home and share an office with a dog that bathes far less frequently than I do. While I’m at work, Lana is spoiled rotten by my mother and aunt.

Like any new mom, I enjoy sharing stories about my baby. I like to think I'm carrying on in the grand tradition of mothers everywhere by telling those stories in excruciating and often embarrassing detail. Unfortunately for Lana, I’m a digital mom and I share these stories with a potentially large audience via the Internet. I considered creating a scrapbook, but the only cutting and pasting I’m familiar with involves a CTRL-C and CTRL-V.

I hope that one day Lana will read my postings and come to realize exactly how much her father and I wanted her and cherished her arrival into our family. I’m sure she will also be mortified to see that I’ve written so much about her bodily functions, but that just comes with the territory.