Embracing motherhood: One woman's triumph over her fears

It's 9 a.m. and 2-year-old Halle is up on a stool helping her mom make breakfast. She cracks an egg against the counter and proudly presents it — still unbroken — to her mother, who finishes the job. She pokes at the egg with a wire whisk, pushing the bowl across the counter and flicking yolk everywhere in the process. She dumps the half-scrambled mixture into a frying pan.

She does it all using just one hand. Not because she has to. But because that's the way Mom does it. Mom only has one hand.

"I try to get her to use both hands, but sometimes she just insists," said Halle's mother, Katy Pluim, who lost her right arm in a car accident when she was 16 years old. "She thinks she has one hand, too."

The toddler's odd habit is just one of the extra little things that Pluim, 23, will have to figure out as she tackles the job of being a mother. Babies don't come with instruction manuals and every mother has a learning curve. But in Pluim's world, even simple things like changing diapers, making a bottle and folding laundry require creativity. Sometimes Pluim finds the task overwhelming — like the time Halle started choking on her own phlegm and Pluim couldn't give her the necessary CPR with one arm. But she tackles it one day at a time.

Though she's a private person, a few months ago Pluim decided to start writing a blog chronicling her journey. Her entries are short and simple and address the same topics most mommy bloggers talk about: children, homemaking and self-improvement. But instead of giving out crafty tips, Pluim talks about the frustrations and joys of overcoming challenges. Few will ever have to go through what Pluim has, learning to navigate life with just one arm, but her triumph over her fears of inadequacy are universally inspiring.

Pluim always wanted to be a mother, but from the time she lost her arm to the moment she discovered she was pregnant, the petite blonde has avoided thinking about the topic. She struggled to put her own hair in a ponytail. How was she going to take care of another human being?

Halle was a surprise. Pluim took six at-home pregnancy tests before she accepted the truth: she was going to be a mother. As her tummy swelled, the questions from well-meaning friends and family started rolling in.

"How are you going to change her bum?"

"How are you going to hold her?"

"How are you going to dress her?"