The first time I left our newborn at home with her father, she was 2 1/2 weeks old.
I had confined myself to the house since we brought her home from the hospital. I was still recovering from an emergency C-section that had followed a difficult labor. I was sleep-deprived and trying to figure out how to nurse her without shrieking in pain.
My body felt torn up (probably because it was), and I was anxious about being separated from our baby, even briefly.
But I forced myself into a clean pair of sweats and got behind the wheel of my car for the first time since giving birth.
I drove straight to my polling station. I voted in that midterm election. Then I drove home and fell back into bed.
I had a good idea back then of the political direction my state was headed, based on polling data. I suppose I could have stayed at home, knowing that my individual vote wasn't going to change the outcome.
But since I turned 18, I've never stayed at home on Election Day.
So when GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump tells his supporters they need to "monitor" polling sites, he may not realize the other group to whom he's signaling.
He is also sending a message to those of us who have never taken the right to vote for granted. He's talking to those who don't back down because of self-appointed "monitors."
A recent Huffington Post investigation reported on "Vote Protectors" recruiting Trump loyalists to conduct fake "exit polls" on Election Day. This harkens to the Republican "Ballot Security" strategy in the 1981 New Jersey governor's race, in which the national GOP sent armed, off-duty police officers to the polls in minority neighborhoods.
Trying to rekindle illegal voter intimidation strategies can make targeted communities more resolute in their desire to stand up for their rights. A senior official with the Trump campaign reportedly told Bloomberg BusinessWeek, "We have three major voter suppression operations under way," going on to explain that the campaign is targeting idealistic liberals, young women and African-Americans.
Perhaps they have underestimated women like LaTanya Reeves, 33, of Webster Groves, Missouri. Reeves is an African-American woman who says she recognizes the battles that have been fought to secure her fundamental right as a citizen.
Voting is a sacred responsibility.
"It's my duty to those who came before me," she said. "I am responsible to listen to my ancestors. I am responsible for that."
She doesn't take threats of intimidation or voter suppression efforts lightly. It's personal when someone threatens your voice.
"I'm voting by any means necessary," Reeves said. "I know that I count. I know that I matter."
Ruba Abusharif, 33, a stay-at-home mother in Wildwood, Missouri, knows she matters, too. This is the first election in which she is eligible to vote, having become a citizen in 2013. Her parents had left Palestine as refugees to Jordan -- a monarchy -- and she was born and raised in Saudi Arabia, another monarchy. Never before has Abusharif had a chance to vote for who she believes should lead the country she lives in.
"I'll be voting for the first time in my life," she said. "I don't think there is anything that will intimidate me."
Oftentimes, it's not fear, but rather hassles that prevent people from voting.
A few years before my postpartum vote, there was a midterm election where the polling station didn't have my name on the rolls. I had stopped by after work, and I didn't have enough time to go through whatever appeals process they suggested. I left feeling disgusted and disenfranchised. I vowed to vote as early as possible from then on. Before my children were school-aged, they came to the polls with me, even if I had to stand in line with two toddlers.
There are reasons why women and people of color take this civic duty so seriously, especially this year.
It's how we honor those who fought and died for this right for us.
It's how we respect the legacy of women who were denied the right to have their voices heard before Aug. 18, 1920.
It's how we show our voices matter.
On Nov. 8, we will not be deterred.