July 21st, 2010

No Sleep ‘Till Manhattan

There’s nothing more privileged and self indulgent than writing a whole post about how painfully busy you are. Being busy is a good problem to have, especially if the busy is work/career related.

But this blog is my place for catharsis. This is the one place I can whine when my husband can’t stand hearing me whine anymore. So I’m going to whine now about how I’ve taken on too much, and how the stress is probably causing my intestines to develop cancerous cells as we speak.

In two weeks I fly off to the Big Apple for BlogHer where I will spend days on end schmoozing and networking and trying to be on my very, very best behavior in order to trick people into thinking I’m totally cool. And before I leave to go do that, I’m opening my own brick ‘n’ mortar business. What??? Is she NUTS?!!?

Yes. In case you’re just tuning in. I am completely insane.

Because all the while that I’ve been working on preparing for BlogHer AND trying to open a real business with rent and commercial utility bills and tax ID numbers and licenses, I’ve also been working on my childbirth educator certification.

Oh wait. I’m not done yet.

While doing all that, I’ve also been attending births as a doula. I started out taking on births just to complete the requirements for my childbirth educator certification, and before I knew it, I was taking on far more births than I actually needed for the requirements. In the last month I’ve helped three mamas meet their babies, and I’ve got two more moms on deck in the next few weeks. Tomorrow, I’m interviewing for another mom due in a month. As it turns out, I don’t suck at this doula stuff, and I’m actually really enjoying it. It’s insanely fulfilling. So, because I’m a multi-tasking junkie, I also decided to go after my doula certification this fall, on top of everything else that I’m doing, which includes returning for my Senior year at Loyola next month. August is going to be completely out of control.

Did I mention I have two children who are in the most defiant stages possible right now? Send Help.

I don’t know how I do all this to myself. I think that I just see an opportunity and say “Yes! Yes! I must take that on because THAT will finally fulfill me!” And here’s where I end up.

Don’t get me wrong — I’m so happy about everything that’s happening. Honestly, it could not have worked out any better. One of the reasons I’ve taken on so much is because everything just happens to be falling in my lap so easily. I got a full sponsorship from FuzziBunz to go to BlogHer, and people seem to be coming out of the woodwork to help me make Birthing Babes a great success. Every time I turn around, people are offering me ways to help make my dreams come true, greasing the wheels on Steam Engine Gina.

How can a girl turn any of this down?  I can’t.  And I won’t.   It’s just not in my nature. So while the stress eats away at my intestines, please don’t judge me for how much I’ve taken on, and please don’t roll your eyes when I ask you to pat me on the head and tell me it’s all gonna be okay.

I just need to get myself to New York. I just need to get through BlogHer. And then I will sleep for a solid day in the lovely Manhattan hotel room that I’ve worked so hard to earn.

And if you’re in the Chicago area – pretty please come to the Birthing Babes Open House on Sunday, August 1st. You can meet all the instructors, enter to win some amazing prizes (seriously, people have been so very generous to us), and get 10% off any class you register for that day.  Having a full house that day would definitely ease some of my New Business jitters.

Please, and thank you.

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Now you can tell me about how busy you are – because ALL moms are busy, even if they aren’t opening childbirth studios and flying to New York to play with other bloggers.  Tell me what’s happening in your worlds because God Knows I haven’t had the time or mental space to keep up with anybody else.

June 30th, 2010

This is Me, Opening a Childbirth Education Business

Today was one of the most exciting, and terrifying, days of my life.  As I’ve been finishing up my CAPPA childbirth educator certification process, I began searching for a place to teach my classes.  I called all over my area pricing yoga studios, and found that most charge somewhere in the neighborhood of $25 per hour.  If I want that space 3 hours a week, then that quickly adds up to around $300 per month, and nearly $600 per class session.  It didn’t seem very economical.

So then I got the hair-brained idea of renting an office space with another educator or two.  I asked around on the Chicago doula list, and immediately got responses from a few interested parties.

Fast forward a few weeks, and now I’m looking at spaces.  A few more phone calls and emails, and I officially had 3 other ladies who wanted to go into a space with me. Now things were moving forward, but given the amount of space we needed, and what we hoped to pay, it was slim pickin’s in the Chicagoland area.  Last week I found one storefront space that would have worked, but by the time I called the owner back to say I might want to take it, he had already rented it.  Bummer.

So I drove and drove all over the areas I hoped to rent in, called a thousand different places, and finally found one little space that would have worked, but I wasn’t super excited about it. I felt it was really our last option though if we wanted to start our classes in August.  Then I thought (for no particular reason), “I’m going to drive down one more street, just to see…”

And then – I drove by this…

I hopped out of the car and ran to check the window. It looked perfect size – actually slightly bigger than we hoped for. I immediately dialed the number on the For Rent sign, but it rang to the flower shop next door that was closed. I would have to wait until the next day to find out if the space was in our budget.

Other than my labors, that 24 hours of time passed more painfully than anything else I’ve ever suffered through. I wanted this place. I wanted it yesterday. I fell in love with it. In the words of the mouse Chrysanthemum, “It was absolutely perfect.”

When I finally got the owner on the line this morning, I found out that the place was just a bit beyond our price range, which I had expected. I couldn’t let it go without a fight though, so I immediately ran to the space and begged the owner to work with us. She did, and we brought the move-in price to something that I could swallow. By 4:00 pm today, my name was on the lease, and I became the proud renter of the space that will become West Chicagoland’s premiere childbirth & parenting education studio.

Between the four of us, we’ll be teaching comprehensive childbirth education courses, Hypnobirthing, prenatal fitness classes, breastfeeding classes, newborn care classes, sibling classes, and anything else that may come up. I’ve even talked to a photographer who may come in and do affordable maternity shoots once or twice a month for our students. We’re also hoping to work with local green parenting retailers to share business. The possibilities for our space are endless, and I’m feeling great about this decision.

Introducing….
Birthing Babes Childbirth & Parenting Education Studio
728 South Main Street
Lombard, IL
Classes start August 1st! More details coming soon!

May 22nd, 2010

Announcing My 2010 BlogHer Sponsors

I really could not be more thrilled to announce that, not only did I land a full sponsorship for this year’s BlogHer Conference in New York City, but it happens to be with two companies that I absolutely adore.  So many people wonder how one goes about landing a private BlogHer Conference sponsorship, so I’ll explain my journey here.

When I set out to find a BlogHer sponsor, I knew that would be no easy task for a multitude of reasons.  One reason was that I simple had never tried to do this before, so I had to enlist the help of experienced bloggers to tell me how this all worked.  I’ve also never been all that comfortable marketing myself so that was a hurdle I’d have to overcome.  Another major reason I felt that landing a sponsor would be particularly challenging for me was that I have very high standards when it comes to brands I will attach my name to, and I couldn’t go after just any ol’ sponsor.

Whoever I partnered with had to be an organization that I truly believed in, with a product I have already recommended to my best friends.  This company had to produce only environmentally responsible goods, and not be in violation of any of my very strict standards regarding baby-friendly products and ethical marketing practices.  I have had companies with deep pockets try to advertise on my blog, but if I don’t like where those pockets have been, or what they stand for, I cannot compromise my blog’s integrity, no matter the dollar figure.  When I left my soulless corporate gig last year I made a promise to myself that I was going to be true to my passion and steadfast in my conviction to try to make this world a little better place, and this blog is the best way I can do that right now.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to search too far or too wide before I found the perfect partnership.  One night while on Twitter, I asked a past radio guest, lactation educator and Hygeia rep Kate Gulbransen, if she knew who I could talk to at Hygeia about a possible sponsorship.  Hygeia Breast Pumps are a product that I have talked about to my friends, and also placed on my pregnant friend’s baby registry when she asked me to create it for her.  I love Hygeia because their pumps are FDA certified for multiple users, meaning they are recyclable and green, unlike other popular breast pumps.  They also proactively promote the WHO code on the marketing of breastmilk substitutes, which is a very important and responsible international effort to help keep moms and babies healthy.  In a nutshell, Hygeia is a good egg.

So Kate, being The Awesome that she is, happily passed along an email address for a woman at Brilliant Baby Products, which works with many products that I love, including Hygeia and the cloth diaper company, FuzziBunz.  I sent an email telling the woman about my blog and asking her if FuzziBunz or Hygeia might be interested in working with me for BlogHer 2010.  I had only just begun my quest to find a BlogHer sponsor, so I wasn’t expecting for anything to work out right away.  Thankfully, though, the woman from Brilliant Baby Products wrote back almost immediately, thrilled that I wrote her, and letting me know that FuzziBunz might be interested in working with me.

The prospect of FuzziBunz sponsoring me was hugely exciting because I adore cloth diapering now, and I try to tell everyone I know about it.  Of course, cloth is environmentally responsible and very baby-friendly to boot.  I also think more parents are going to start to discover the benefits of cloth diapering after some recent scandals with a certain brand of disposable diaper causing chemical burns on baby’s skin.  FuzziBunz, unlike those disposable diapers, aren’t filled with chemicals yet still keep babies dry and rash free.  Besides being better for baby and better for the environment, they are all kinds of adorable – especially with their new colors for 2010.  I heart them.

Within a week or two, I got the official word that FuzziBunz wanted to sponsor me, along with Hygeia Baby.  The two brands decided to purchase and split my “Exclusive” BlogHer 10 package.  I sent the two companies a contract, and just 20 days after my initial email to Brilliant Baby Products, the contracts were signed.  I honestly could not be more thrilled with the two brands I get to represent at the conference.  I feel so lucky to have partnered with products that I’d help sell even without their sponsorship.  This truly could not have worked out any better.

I’m going to have some very exciting things to give away at the BlogHer conference, so if you’ll be there, make sure you find me and ask me about FuzziBunz and Hygeia breast pumps.  I’ll be happy to share samples or information about the two products.  And even if you won’t be at the conference, check out their websites because you know that if I love them, then they are truly love-worthy, baby-friendly, and eco-responsible.  That’s how I roll.

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Will you be at BlogHer ’10?  Did you land a sponsor?  Have any experience with using my two sponsors’ products?  Leave a comment and tell me all about it!  Or, just congratulate me on partnering with these two awesome brands.  I’m a lucky girl.

May 15th, 2010

As the Beatles Say: Here, There, and Everywhere

Settle in for a few paragraphs of shameless self-promotion.  I’ve been lucky enough to get some writing gigs elsewhere over the last few weeks and I wanted to share links to them here.  Some of the gigs were paid, and some I did out of the kindness of my attention seeking heart.  However, all of them meant a lot to me, and I was honored to write each one of them.  Also, I’m hoping you’ll make with the clicky-click, do some light reading, and then comment on them so the editors of these sites think people are interested in what I have to say.  Then, they may extend more invitations to me.  Yo, that’s how it works.

Over at ShePosts:
“Bloggers Move to Get Midwives Online”
I’m MOST excited about this article because this site is NOT AT ALL a birth junky/lactivist site, which means I am not over there preaching to the choir.  This is a whole new audience of women who are generally more interested in what’s going down on the internet than researching the standard management of labor.  In this post I’m able to bridge the social media interest with some birth activism, and I think it’s a testament to the inclusiveness of the ShePosts editors that I was able to put this kind of article on their site.  I would love to see some more comments over there so the editors see that some people care about these issues, and let me write more things on that site.

On Dr. Greene: Perspectives
After my crazy-blown-up-breastfeeding-post, I got a lovely invitation to do a week’s worth of guest blogging over at DrGreene.com.  Here are those articles:

• My VBAC Birth Story (the short version)
• How to Have a Better VBAC (Part 1)
• How to Have a Better VBAC (Part 2)
• There is No Such Thing as Free Infant Formula (this one got LOTS of comments!)
• Make Your Own Pop-up Cloth Wipes (an updated version of my famous demo)

For Mothers Day at RH Reality Check
“A Child is Born; A Mother is Born”
A little ditty about why we should be supporting and promoting better birth experiences for mothers.

On Savvy Source:
“How I Became a Pirate” book review
Here I contribute to the Offbeat Favorites section of the site, which focuses on toy and book reviews of items that aren’t quite mainstream (yet.)

Enjoy! And don’t forget to tune into my live radio show on Sunday night for my “Cloth Diapering is Cool” show.  I’ll be announcing my BlogHer ’10 sponsor, and talking to Kim Rojas of Dirty Diaper Laundry about #OperationFluffy.

April 19th, 2010

Another Step in Branching Out

If you were reading my blog around the turn of the year, you might remember me saying that I had a feeling this would be a banner year for me.  I made my own New Year’s resolution to let great things happen for me, and not be too bummed out if (or when) all the things I was planning on didn’t materialize.

Well, I didn’t get to go to Rome, and I didn’t win the Truman Scholarship – two things I thought were going to make my year.  But instead, those two losses were replaced with a bunch of great little experiences that make me just as (if not more) happy.

So far this year, I started a radio show which lands great guests.  I went to a conference and met great friends, then got to write about it at RH Reality Check.  I appeared on national television and didn’t look an asshole (well, to most people anyway.)  I stared my CAPPA certification.  I kept my 4.0 GPA through the two worst classes I’ve ever suffered through. I even broke the internet.  So far, I’d say this has been a pretty good year.

And last week I landed a job.  A real, paid writing job as the Chicago City Editor for SavvySource.com.  Before you ask, the pay is tiny.  I mean really, really tiny.  It’s about enough to pay my water bill and insurance each quarter, but that’s fine by me.  It doesn’t require a ton of time, and the fact that I had to fill out a W-9 meant something very special.  Somebody is paying me to write.

Today is my first “Featured” article for the Chicago City Guide, but I have added many other brief listings as well.  Each Monday, I’ll be publishing a new feature which gives me the chance to write about some of Chicago’s most fun children’s activities.  I’m awful proud of myself.  SavvySource.com has a city guide in most every urban metropolis, and many well-known bloggers are contributing editors in their towns.

And next week you can find me guest blogging at Dr. Greene, which is all kinds of awesome.  Some of my favorite bloggy folks including Amy Romano of Science & Sensibility, Jill Krause of BabyRabies, and Jennifer Taggart of The Smart Mama have all guest-blogged there.  If you have any ideas for articles you’d like to see me write, let me know today.  My deadline is approaching and I’ve gotta get everything submitted in a few days.

Has 2010 been a good year for everyone else?  I feel a paradigm shift in myself, and I hope that other folks are feeling as optimistic.