Meet the Mom – Christina N.

Where did you grow up:
I am a local girl. I was born at Good Samaritan Medical Center. If I would have delivered my girls there; they would have been 4 generations born at Good Sam.

Town you live in now:
Steeplechase in Palm Beach Gardens

Why you love living there:
I feel like we are fortunate to be so close to everything. Palm Beach Gardens has so much to offer from the mall, or the green market, to being perfectly situated between West Palm and Jupiter.

Tell me about your kids:
I have three sweet girls. Caroline Grace (6) Ansley Elise (3), and our newest edition Olivia Catherine (4 months). My husband is completely outnumbered and loving it. (You will often hear my girls refer to him as “Honey”.)

Already so different and unique, my oldest truly is “Sweet Caroline”. She is an old soul who has the biggest heart and is always my little helper. Then there is my Ansley… Well, she is my spunky baby. She definitely keeps us laughing and on our toes. We can always count on her to be our entertainment. Finally… Olivia or as the girls would say “Livi Lou” must be my most laid back baby. Maybe I am just willing it on her, but she already has a soft relaxed affect that I’m praying she keeps.

Favorite things to do with the kids locally:
We truly do live in paradise. We love to spend the weekends boating and in the pool. During hunting season, we will go out towards Lake Okeechobee and hunt. (My girls actually love to go thanks to the big hunting buggy and the chocolate fountain at the Golden Coral.) We love to frequent the Palm Beach Bike Path, the Juno Beach Turtle Museum and Lion Country Safari, which are some more of our favorites. I have loved following “The Weekend Updates”, because there are so many activities I am not aware of going on in town.

What’s your ‘day job’? How did you get started with it?
I am a Plastic Surgery Physician Assistant. I started in Plastics approaching graduation in 2008. My husband, now boyfriend at the time, helped set up an elective clinical rotation in Charleston, SC with a well respected breast surgeon. In surgery one day, the breast surgeon was performing a mastectomy for a breast cancer patient and the plastic surgeons followed immediately to perform the reconstruction. Long story short, the breast surgeon I was assisting, told the Plastic surgeon he needed a PA and he should hire me. I graduated shortly thereafter and 2 weeks later moved and started my career. I loved working in Charleston for my first 5 years out of school.

Fortunately prior to having children, the opportunity presented for my husband and I to return home to Palm Beach Gardens, where I have remained in Plastic Surgery for the past 6 years with Dr. David Lickstein. I find my job extremely rewarding and am blessed to have so much flexibility. My days are spent performing Botox and filler injections, laser, coolsculpt, and assisting in surgery (The “mommy makeover” is my favorite). My daughter Caroline loves when I tell her work stories, and along with braiding she can throw a perfect square knot, which is good for both boating and suturing.

What is your best parenting advise. Lay it on us.
Pray.
A good friend, Trish Bender, gave me the book The Power of a Praying Parent, and I have found it to be so freeing. This is an example of a paragraph from the book: “We can’t be everywhere. But God can. We can’t see everything. But God can. We can’t know everything. But God can. No matter what age our children are, releasing them into God’s hands is a sign of our faith and trust in Him and is the first step towards making a difference in their lives.”

It is so hard not to worry as a mother. I am positive every mom reading this is up with me at 3am not able to sleep, because they are worrying for their children and their future. In those moments, we all realize there is nothing we can do to protect them, yet we do not go back to sleep till 5:30 with kids waking us at 6.

I have found so much peace in turning that time into prayer. Yes, I still worry and stay awake, but with prayer I feel like I am at least doing something productive to better my children’s future with that time.

What do you do for self care?
The usual things we all try to do. It is funny being a mom, you are exhausted and crave “self care”, but as soon as you have that quiet time you either miss your babies or think how much more relaxing it would be to be tackling your “to-dos”.

I will say I did bring my 10 day old baby into the office, and had a Halo Laser treatment. Yes, it is my third child, and the girls at work wanted to hold and meet Olivia anyway! I mean, it is the only safe procedure to be done while nursing, and when else do you get a couple days of downtime.

Anything else you want to share?
Thank you for having me! I am so thankful for a community that builds each other up, whether you are a working or stay at home mom! There is no one right way to do this life, and I feel blessed to be able to be apart of this positive community. There are many great cosmetic practices in the community, but do feel free to contact me with any questions. Also, in the month of August if you mention Palm Beach Momma Group you can receive 50% off one area of Back to School Botox.