Welcome to Made by Motherhood

A weekly collection of motherhood finds, simple joys — and how on earth are we balancing motherhood with career?

When I was about seven months pregnant with our one and only daughter, Ollie, I turned to Ben while we were cooking dinner. With tears in my eyes, I said, “I think I want to be a mom more than I want to be anything else.”

This came as a surprise to both of us, because I had worked tirelessly for 10 years to build a small business; 12-hour workdays and 7-day workweeks were absolutely my norm. And yet, during pregnancy, I could sense a deep change on the horizon — a change in how I saw myself, how I saw the world, and what I wanted for myself and our growing family.

Prior to pregnancy, I believe I easily could have spent 10 more years on my computer, immersed in the safety and predictability of checking off to-dos as a small business owner. But someone once said, the beauty of motherhood is that we’re not just giving birth to a baby; we’re giving birth to a new self… and 10 months postpartum, I couldn’t believe that to be more true.

During pregnancy, Made by Motherhood was born — yes, another small business… but a small business dedicated to helping multifaceted mothers experience better organization, ease, and comfort in an extremely change-filled season of life. It gave me such comfort to design organizational tools and cozy apparel — resources and products that helped me feel understood and supported as I journeyed through pregnancy and postpartum.

This substack is a community for fellow mothers who have found themselves in — let’s be honest — a bit of an identity crisis. Mothers, like me, who are trying to balance and blend who they used to be with who they are — and who they want to be.

Every week, I’ll be sharing motherhood finds, simple joys, and more — and I hope you’ll join me here! In the meantime, you can also find me on Instagram, my personal blog, and at Made by Motherhood.

This is Made by Motherhood with Kelly Zugay.