Tl; dr – I had covid, and my beautiful baby daughter was born. And I want to keep writing. And newborns smell epic.

Blogs tend to fail early on.

There were a whopping 600 million blogs as of 2019 (GrowthBadger, 2019).

That’s huge.

The New York Times claims that as much as 95% of all blogs are abandoned. When I started writing this one, I had dreams and plans for it. But only one real goal for the entire first year – whatever happens, don’t give up. Just keep working on it and don’t look back. Evaluate later.

And then I didn’t. Only a few days are left until this blog hits its first birthday. Bummer.

Not to complain or look for excuses, but I felt like a bit of an explainer would be fair at this point.

Covid nose is scary

First, covid hit me while I was (very) pregnant. As a result, I completely, entirely lost my sense of smell. There wasn’t a trace of it. Nill. Nada. Zero.

It was brutal. I felt terrible. I was worried sick about the circumstances and what-ifs.

I do regard myself rather conscious of how important my nose is in my daily life, constantly sniffing pretty much anything. Still, it surprised me how crippled I was without it. From the morning coffee to hobbies, cooking, and even caring for kids. It changed everything – from situations that were simply more difficult and no fun to downright scary and threatening.

Losing sense of smell takes a toll on people, science says. It is linked to many mental health problems – from mood disorders to increased suicide rates and even difficulties in romantic relationships.

Letting my kiddo sit on a potty for half an hour after he was done didn’t hurt anyone, but I wonder if the central air made our neighbors question our parenting styles. Not being able to enjoy a cup of coffee or a glass of wine was a nuisance at first but utterly depressing after a few days.

I craved flavor. I ate raw garlic. All I got was just a tingle on my tongue. I opened the fridge door over and over again, looking for something for my taste buds. And then I closed it. And again and again, until I was starving.

I didn’t use the stove because I knew that with my pregnancy brain and all the distractions around, it would be too likely an accident could happen, and I wouldn’t be able to tell something was wrong in time. And then – of all the bad moments, someone triggered a fire alarm while I still had zero sense of smell. My toddler had to tell me we had to leave the house. I sat him on my huge belly and ran down the fire stairway. Six floors to go, and I had no idea if I was running towards the smoke or away from it. Wild.

As I got better, among the plethora of defenses I took to help my nose come back (let’s talk about that some other time), I was also protecting my overly hormonal self from the additional dread that I could be one of the unlucky people who never fully recover. Or not in time to be able to smell the heavenly, addictive scent of a newborn baby. I didn’t allow myself to think that I was starting this blog and thoroughly enjoyed writing it. I decided to ignore the blog.

But hey, wonderful things were happening in my life. My smell started returning just in time for our precious #2 baby’s arrival. And the kiddos have kept me on my feet since.

Dang, I missed this little space of mine. I indeed had fun working on it. I want to keep going; however little time I have to do so.

Enough belly-aching; let’s talk scent—specifically, the most beautiful smell out there, second to none.

Who smells the best?

Newborns. They smell like pure love. They are addictive. They make you fall in love with them. It’s like love is their job.

It’s one of life’s mysteries that we yet have to understand fully. Some interesting theories exist about where this smell comes from and how it functions. It’s a bit of a lengthy-ish read, so let’s continue on that later.

Now over to you – what is your favorite scent? Is it a perfume or something from your daily life?