(WENY) -- Parenting is not easy. Becoming a first-time parent is not easy. Having a child in the midst of a global pandemic is definitely not easy. One new mom from the Albany area recently wrote a book about her experiences in the hopes of helping other moms and parents find solace through an incredible complex and difficult time.

"My son Johnny was born March 18th, which was two days before New York State had gone into shutdown," Author Kayleigh Sorel says during a Zoom interview.

"The anxiety of being a new mom in a pandemic...there's no 'how-to' guide how to get through it," she adds. 

A week left before her maternity leave was up, Kayleigh says she was rocking her son to sleep and in those moments, decided to write down her thoughts and feelings into her phone. The outcome is, what Kayleigh called, a poem which became the book. 

With the support of her husband, Kayleigh took a chance and "Born on the Curve, A COVID-19 Story" was published and released in October 2020.

"Born on the Curve" chronicles the ups, downs, challenges, unknown, joys and everything in-between. 

The book also tells a story through beautiful illustrations, depicting an expansive tapestry of 'family.'

Illustrator Alicia Van Zyle is based in South Africa and had connected with Kayleigh over the internet. 

"I asked [Kayleigh] if she would be open to making it about multiple families so we could be inclusive and she loved that too. I spend most of 2019 in New York and I fell in love with the city and it's so diverse and so I used that as the inspiration for the illustrations," Alicia says over the Zoom interview. 

Kayleigh says the response has been incredible positive and truly shows how the book has made an impact. 

"A lot of people have reached out to me whether through Facebook or Intsagram and just told me how their book has made them feel seen, made them feel heard, gives them some sort of comfort," Kayleigh says.

The book, "Born on the Curve, A COVID-19 Story," is available on Amazon, here: https://www.amazon.com/Born-Curve-COVID-19-Kayleigh-Sorel/dp/0578772698