A Midwife Becoming A Mama: Meet Danielle

I spent my summers in New Fairfield, Connecticut, on Candlewood Lake with my cousins when I was a child. I still remember the feeling in my stomach as we drove alongside the lake on CT-39. I would watch intently as the spaces between the trees revealed fragments of the lake. It all felt so far away from the Bronx apartment that my mother and I shared. When I got older, I often fantasized about living in Connecticut, in a place like New Fairfield.

My husband and I got married on October 2, 2010, on the lawn of my family’s lakefront home, the same house I spent my summers in. It was a quaint, DIY wedding on a perfect, crisp Saturday. There were bales of hay for sitting on (from Halas Farm Market in Danbury), delicious smoked meats from Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, cider doughnuts (from Blue Jay Orchards in Bethel) for dessert, and as the favor, homemade chocolate-covered bacon.

What we didn’t know at the time was that the following May, we would buy our first home—in New Fairfield. The house is unique—situated on 12 acres of land and built into the side of a hill, there’s a barn from the Danbury Fair on the property. Two Bronx natives moved to what our family and friends in the city would refer to as “the country.”

Since then, we have learned how to maintain a home, drive a tractor, and share the woods around us with the wildlife that inhabits it. It’s a work in progress, and it couldn’t be more fun. Coincidentally or not, the house happens to be a seven-minute drive from my family’s summer house on the lake, where I spent my childhood summers, where my husband and I agreed to spend the rest of our lives together.

And if that wasn’t enough, on April 8th, 2013, we added our first child, Luna Dill, into the mix.

I take care of pregnant women daily. I’ve attended hundreds of births in my career. But none of it did anything to prepare me for motherhood. A midwife becoming a mama is a somewhat unique tale that I would love to tell. I’ve gained an entirely new perspective, and it’s changing every day. There would be nothing more exciting than documenting that process, along with my love of DIY crafting, baking, gardening, and decorating, and sharing it with other mothers.