Courtesy Lisa Loeb
Please welcome our newest celebrity blogger, Lisa Loeb!
Currently expecting her second child in June, the musician, 44, and husband Roey Hershkovitz are already parents to daughter Lyla Rose, 2.
In addition to her number one single “Stay (I Missed You),” Loeb also had hits with “Do You Sleep” and “I Do.” In the years since, she’s recorded two children’s albums, written a kids book, done voiceovers, developed an eyewear line and started the nonprofit Camp Lisa Foundation.
She can be found on Facebook and on Twitter @lisaloeb.
In her introductory blog, Loeb writes about her family and pregnancy thus far, and fills us in on a sanity-saving secret: cat naps in the car.
Hi, Lisa Loeb here. I’m currently pregnant with my second child — PEOPLE.com saw the bump and asked if I’d blog. Normally I’d say no, since I’m afraid this might turn into “homework,” but I love talking to other women — whether they’re expecting, moms or otherwise — about pregnancy and motherhood, so I thought this could be a cool way to continue those conversations.
I was asked to introduce myself in this first blog. Here are the basics: my husband Roey and I have been together for five years and married for three. We have a 2-year-old daughter, Lyla Rose, and we’re expecting another baby in June.
By the way, I normally don’t spend a lot of time talking about myself, except for when PEOPLE.com asks me to, or on airplanes when people sit next to me and say, “Wait! Where do I know you from?” I used to beat around the bush and let them tell me they think they know me from work or my all-girls high school (even men).
After years and years of that question, I am finally comfortable with the conversation in which I go through my résumé while they decide which thing they know me from. (Embarrassingly, we sometimes come to the realization that we know each other from a preschool tour or the Starbucks line right after security.)
I’m a musician. I’ve made music for grownups most of my life as a singer/songwriter — often with my band, Nine Stories — recorded many albums, and 10 years ago I started recording kids music too. (Wow, I had to look up the release date of my first kids’ record, a collaboration with Elizabeth Mitchell called Catch the Moon, and it came out in 2003!! I didn’t realize I’d been doing kids’ music for so long.)
My second kids’ record is called Camp Lisa. I loved summer camp growing up, especially sleep away camp outside of Austin, Texas, at Camp Champions. It was the first place I really played guitar in front of and with other people, just for fun too, so I recorded my favorite camp songs and wrote original songs with Michelle Lewis and Dan Petty.
Getting involved in camp again inspired me to start the Camp Lisa Foundation to send kids to summer camp and was also the inspiration for a musical, Camp Kappawanna, which has been performed over the last two summers in Miami at the Adrienne Arsht Center, and is currently in development for future performances in theaters all over the country (or the world — why limit yourself?)
The Camp Lisa record and some bonus tracks of traditional (and mostly silly) sing-along songs we recorded for the Internet led to writing my first illustrated kids’ book, Lisa Loeb’s Silly Sing-Alongs, The Disappointing Pancake and Other Zany Songs.
I’ve also been working on an eyewear line, Lisa Loeb Eyewear, based on the look I love — cat-eyed glasses! Additionally, I’ve been doing voice overs for TV commercials and animated TV shows, and I hope to do movies soon too.
I’ve also had a couple of shows on TV: one on E! called #1 Single about having a career and dating: kind of a real life, PG-rated version of Sex and the City, and one on Food Network about my love of food, cooking, eating, friends and family, some of which took place while being on tour as a musician.
I’m able to work as much as I do because I have a team. My husband and I are a good pair of parents who spend a lot of time with our daughter. I have a great nanny who helps take care of Lyla when I work, wonderful grandparents who fly in for special grandparent time, and to help us when I actually have to leave the family to travel for work for a few days here or there.
Work- wise, I have a business team made of up people I’ve been working with for almost 20 years, who help me keep all my projects moving forward.
It’s really hard to balance work and being a mother. I’m old-school. I want to be there to drop off my daughter at school and pick her up. My time with Lyla is so precious and it brings me so much joy! And I want to help provide for my family and I like my work.
So yes, it’s a balance. I have trouble going to my room to do my homework, like writing a song or doing interviews or approving designs, when the little talking blonde person in my house wants me to “block with her” (play with blocks) or finger-paint or read Hop on Pop just one more time.
Usually I go for time with my daughter (unless the deadlines are really looming), which is why it’ll be a miracle if I get this blog written on time! I’m depending on questions from you guys to help me focus.
As far as this pregnancy goes, it’s been a good one. Just like when I was pregnant with Lyla, I’m gaining about a pound a week eating everything — that includes cheese (pasteurized, of course), peanut butter and crackers.
I love pizza, Thai food, Mexican food, Italian food, baked potatoes and sticky rice. I also eat a lot of raw kale salads and apples and cucumbers, which I love even when I’m not pregnant. I should stop here, or you’ll just get my grocery list. (Which I’m also happy to share!)
Weirdly, my sweet tooth — which is usually my guiding force — pretty much disappeared in my first trimester this pregnancy. It’s coming back little by little now, and I’m even getting cravings for sweets. My husband went to see a friend’s band play the other night while I stuck to my early bedtime, but right before falling asleep, I texted him to ask for apple pie: crusty, not soggy or gummy, with tons of apples inside.
When I woke up in the morning, there was a piece of my pie in the fridge! I made myself wait until second breakfast to start eating it, heating the crust to a crisp in the toaster oven with a huge side of Greek yogurt. It was my second breakfast, after all, and I’m looking for protein wherever I can find it.
Another thing: I’m exhausted. I remember needing my afternoon nap when I was pregnant with my first, but I don’t think the naps started as early on in the pregnancy as this one.
When I was pregnant with Lyla, we were remodeling our home and living in another part of town. I kept silicone earplugs in my car and would pull over on any parking space I could find in L.A., put money in the meter, lean my seat back in my car, put a t-shirt over my eyes, earplugs in, and just sleep up to an hour in my car!
I remember visiting my very unfinished kitchen and crawling up on the granite countertop to sleep for a long nap. I finally borrowed an air mattress from our friends and set it up in a room we weren’t remodeling. That way I had a bed on either side of town.
Now I sleep at home in bed, and occasionally a cat nap in the car if I’m really stuck. It’s like being a cave woman. You really revert back to some weird, animal state when you’re pregnant. I can sleep anywhere, anytime.
Being a mom to a 2-year-old — who sleeps great through the night, but still wakes up closer to when I used to go to sleep — means I have to get to bed early, and try not to do anything that keeps me up past 10 p.m. It doesn’t always work, but I do my best. I think a good mom is an awake mom. At least for me, I’ve always been a kinder, better person awake than sleep-deprived!
Talking about sleep, it’s my bedtime, and you should go get some sleep too! Please leave questions for me in the comments or send me a Tweet @lisaloeb to help inspire the next blog.
– Lisa Loeb
Filed Under: Exclusive, Featured Post, Featured Post - Exclusive, Guest Blog, Lisa Loeb Blog, Maternity, News