Mother's Lode
This Mother's Day for one Lyndora woman will be her first, while for a Penn Township woman with five children, the holiday will be just one more thing to check off in a whirl of dance lessons, ball games and school activities.
Katie Davidson has been a mother for all of 12 days, after giving birth to her son May 2.
For Lauren Manzer, this will be the eighth time for her family to toast her motherhood, although the recent addition of 8-month-old twins Parker and Paisley might make it hard for her to take time out to acknowledge the holiday.
Manzer has some training to fall back on as she feeds, clothes and chauffeurs Molly, 8; Carter, 7; Lucy, 4; and the twins.
She grew up in Mars and after graduating from Mars High School in 2002, went to Gannon University in Erie where she majored in elementary and early childhood education before graduating in 2006.
She's been married to Ryan Manzer, the business manager for the Freeport School District, for 11 years.
For the last seven years, she's been a stay-at-home mom.
“Most of the time, I'm the only adult in a house full of children,” she noted.
“People see me out, especially with the twins and the 4-year-old, and then I tell them I have two more at home ... they are like 'What?'” Manzer said.
Things are just as baby-centric, if not as crowded, at the home of Katie and Kyle Davidson, who brought their son, Simon, home from the hospital 10 days ago.
Davidson, gave birth to Simon, May 2 after seven hours of drug-free labor.
She and her husband of nearly four years, Kyle, seemed unshaken during the whole childbirth process.
Ann Snodgrass, the director of the OB/GYN department at Butler Memorial Hospital, said, “She was very relaxed for a first-time mother.”
“She's very laid back. She has so much support,” added Snodgrass, who has seen a lot of mothers in her more than 27 years on the job.
Davidson noted Simon was born at 9 p.m. “on the dot.”
Davidson said of her delivery, “It was good. It went really well. I had it easy. I didn't have any drugs for the delivery, totally unmedicated.”
“We are just really big into the whole natural, clean eating. We just wanted a healthy baby,” said Davidson who is part-time nail spa employee and is in charge of the youth ministry at North Street Christian Church, 220 W. North St.“I really did a lot of preparing for this. I read books and took classes, and I had a support group from North Street Christian Church whose members all had gone the natural childbirth route,” she said.Davidson said, “I swear my youth group kids were more excited for me to have the baby.”“I had morning sickness for the first five months, but after that it was pretty textbook,” she said of her pregnancy.Davidson said the biggest adjustment would be realizing “it's not just the two of us anymore. There will be three of us.”For Manzer, there's five of them and one of her but she's learning to make that work.“My older one is definitely a helper. She is a little mother hen. She definitely helps, but organization is important for that many kids going every which way.”“My day starts at 6 a.m. when the twins get up. The older ones get up at 7 a.m. for the bus,” she said.“My kids are also in tons of activities: dance, cheerleading, baseball, horse riding,” Manzer said.“We use a 15-passenger van, a lot like the ones they use at airports. We drove all the way across Pennsylvania to get the color we wanted: navy blue,” Manzer said.'With five kids home every day (in summer), we belong to Penn Valley Pool, so we spend a lot of time there.”Manzer has to get creative with budgeting, too.She said, “I wouldn't say we have a tight budget. My husband is an accountant, but I live pretty frugally, so I don't have to worry about that too much.”Technology helps the Manzers keep track of appointments.Manzer said, “We have a calendar, but we use the Google calendar on the phones, so my husband knows where we are.”“One of us, at least, is normally at all the games, recitals and lessons,” she said.“I ask my mother-in-law to watch them, but ordinarily I don't have anyone to help me,” she said.While Manzer largely goes it alone, Davidson has had plenty of help.
“One of the benefits of working with kids is meeting their parents,” she said of finding her network.Davidson said, “I have a lot of great role models, both moms were present for the birth. The grandmothers and great-grandmothers on both sides are still alive. I have a lot of experience to call on.”Kyle Davidson took a week of unpaid leave from his job at Conair in Cranberry Township to help his new family settle in when Katie came home.The new mother said she wouldn't be going back to her job at the nail salon until summer is over, but she would be going back to the youth ministry “in a couple of weeks.“I will probably take the baby with me,” she said.The mothers offered comment on the current size of their households.“I always said I wanted four, so four turned into five. I guess it worked out,” Manzer said. “We found out halfway through my pregnancy (that she was having twins) actually.”Davidson said, “We have always wanted children. We are planning on having more.”But that's an issue that can wait. Right now the main thing is getting Simon on a schedule that his parents can live with.Mother's Day has a special significance for Manzer.She said, “Every year we do walk in downtown Pittsburgh for the Race for the Cure, My mother-in-law is a breast cancer survivor, so that's what we do.”Any advice for Katie Davidson, or any other new mothers?“I'd say to remember it is just a phase. Everything comes and goes, so enjoy it,” Manzer said,“That's the best advice, that it goes quickly,” she concluded.Her wish this Mother's Day?“What I want, is spending time with my family. The five of them to be in one place at one time is always nice,” Manzer said.
