Here at The Bedford Mom we believe that moms deserve to be recognized and celebrated! This month we are so excited to feature Maude Lemaire, a mom of 2 sweet boys. Read all about her and her family below!
Tell us about yourself!
Bonjour!
I’m Maude! My husband and I have been Bedford residents since January 2021. We have two sons: Henri is 3 and Louie is 4 months old.
I’ve been working as a software engineer for over a decade. I’m currently a principal engineer at GitHub— a software platform for creating, storing, managing and sharing code.
I recently joined the board of directors for Mothers’ Milk Bank Northeast— a local nonprofit providing breastmilk to over 100 hospitals in the northeast. I’ve been involved with the organization as both a milk donor and financial supporter since 2022. If you’re looking to donate breastmilk, or support the organization financially, please reach out!
I was born in Drummondville, QC, Canada to a French-speaking family. We moved to Plaistow, NH, when I was in the second grade. Now, I’m carrying Quebec traditions down to my boys. We’ve been very lucky to meet a few fellow French-speaking families in Bedford!
Tell us about your work!
I’ve been working as a software engineer for over a decade. I’m currently a principal engineer at GitHub— a software platform for creating, storing, managing and sharing code.
Before GitHub, I worked at Slack, where I built workplace communication software. I joined in 2016, when the engineering team had only about 100 engineers. When I left in mid-2024, there were over 1200!
My area of expertise is around scale and performance: ensuring the software we write can (comfortably) support millions and millions of simultaneous users. There are few things more satisfying than knowing your work enables millions of people to effectively do their jobs every day.
Work-adjacently, I frequently speak at software conferences, moderate panels, and serve on conference advisory committees. I co-hosted one of my favorite conferences in September– at around 30 weeks pregnant! With an 80%+ male audience, it was an incredible opportunity to bust stereotypes!
What are your favorite local restaurants?
Flight Coffee! (My oldest loves the crimson berry ice tea and their cronuts, unsurprisingly.) We don’t eat out a ton.
What is your favorite way to practice self-care?
I listen to a lot of audio books, especially while getting the boys to nap or on walks around the neighborhood (not mutually exclusive).
I don’t do a lot of pampering, and rarely wear any makeup, but this summer in anticipation of a few weddings, I started getting my lashes done. It’s such an easy way to look really put together all the time! I highly recommend fellow Bedford mom Kelli at The Gilded Beauty!
When I have the time, I love trying new recipes— there’s a large set of recipe books I’ve only just cracked into. I’m known to gift a jar of Royal Cinnamon from Burlap & Barrel to everyone in my family every Christmas.
I also enjoy a meditative yoga class, and a challenging Pilates session with my mom, who owns a studio in Plaistow.
What brought you to Bedford?
My husband and I were living and working in San Francisco before we decided to move back to the east coast. We decided to settle (back, for me) in New Hampshire. We visited open houses from the seacoast all the way out to Hollis, and fell in love with our current house on Joppa Hill. It needed quite a bit of work, but the bones were there.
Many home projects later, we’re now in the process of building an addition, including an apartment for my parents who’ll be joining us in Bedford (hopefully) this summer!
I wasn’t terribly familiar with Bedford before we made an offer on the house, but I knew the school district was solid, that it was close to major highways leading north to Quebec, and we loved the neighborhood. (We’re walking distance to the Educational Farm and the entire trail network connected to it.) We’ve been pleasantly surprised with everything the community and area have had to offer! It’s been especially fun to ride around town on our electric bikes.
What are your favorite local spots in town?
- Educational Farm at Joppa Hill
- Flight Coffee
- Public Library
* I was going to add the Live Free Refillery here, but they closed down recently.
What is your best piece of advice for moms who are new in town?
As many have said before me: introduce yourself to your neighbors! Everyone is friendly here– and you might be surprised to meet folks with kids in a similar age group.
Sign up for library events, especially if you have little ones. Our oldest has friends across Bedford thanks to their incredible programs!
What is your best piece of advice for new moms?
Trust your intuition, and shake off advice (even if well-meaning) that doesn’t sit well with you (even if you might not yet wholly understand why). It’s so easy in today’s world to lean on “experts”– authors, social media influencers– because we want to do what’s “best” for our kids, and what do we know as first-time parents? But the thing is, most of the time, there doesn’t exist any strong data one way or the other. So sit down (with your partner if you have one) and make a list of your values as a parent, and stick to those. You’ll have a much easier time standing by your decisions as a parent, and won’t fall prey to (as much) mom guilt.
In closing, we hope you enjoyed reading this article about Maude! If you’d like to nominate a Bedford mom to be spotlighted, please submit your nomination via email to info@thebedfordmom.com. Thanks so much!