Posts Tagged ‘2010’

December 29th, 2010

2010 Wrap Up!

2010 has certainly been a crazy year… not only for my blog, but for my family and our personal lives. Up’s and down’s… happy times, and extremely sad times… loss, and new life all to bring us to where we are today. I wanted to write a post and pick out some of my favorite posts from the year. I am sure this is going to be long, so go get yourself a cup of coffee, or tea, have a nice comfy seat, and enjoy!

Love Me or Hate Me – A post about who I am… and why I am not going to change because of what others may think.

My Birth Playlist – The hysterical play list my husband and I put together for the birth of our second child, and the music my husband kind of threw in as labor progressed.

What No One Tells You About Parenting – This certainly became probably one of my most hot topic posts… Over 50 comments being a record high, and all kinds of idiots coming out of the wood works. Sarcasm anyone?

Birth Advocates or Extremists in Disguise? - While it started as a vent, it made its rounds on the internet through the Birth community… There is a thin line between being able to call yourself an advocate, and being an extremist that gives the community as a whole, a bad name…

Vaccine Ingredients – Through my research on vaccinating my children, I came across a great website with the listed ingredients of many vaccines. I decided to write a post for my readers to see what some vaccines include.

No, I am NOT a Hypocrite – Discussing personal birth choices, and hoping for respect.

Violence Against Women is Never Acceptable – Wrestling, Jersey Shore, and keeping your hands to yourself!

Father’s Are Not Babysitters – My break down of why father’s should be consider parents, and not part time caregivers.

Kourtney Kardashian Renew’s my Faith in Birth – Never thought I would be happy about the birth experience of any of the Kardashian girls… and my mind was quickly changed.

Poop Doesn’t Discriminate – Exactly how it sounds too… one of those lovely parenting poop posts!

Motherhood Made Me MORE Pro-Choice – How my views on abortion became more solid once having children.

The Problem with Facebook – Typical anti-breastfeeding Facebook agenda…

The Twitter Abortion – My take on a woman who tweeted about having an abortion… not for all.

Loss of a Grandmother – While she may not have been my biological grandmother, she might as well have been. She was an amazing woman, and I miss her every day.

Is Organic Out of Reach for Low Income Families? – Breaking down the costs of good food and why many of the communities that need these foods the most, don’t have real access.

Goodbye Sanity – Hello baby #3

Post Cesarean Feelings Survey – The initial results of an almost 800 mother online survey I helped conduct.

Are the Disposable Diaper Companies Worried? – Are the diaper companies worried about the comeback of cloth diapers?  I think so!

BlogHer 2010 Wrap Up – My wrap up of my trip to BlogHer 2010 in NYC

John McCain is NOT a Feminist – The post title kind of speaks for itself… LOL

The Midwife Difference – The difference I experienced when using a midwife, over the care I had under the eye of a sub par OB/GYN.

Placenta Accreta: A Real Threat in Cesarean Mothers – One of the complications not spoken about in terms of repeat c-sections and the risks they pose.

Lamaze Isn’t Just About Breathing – When I started my journey into becoming a childbirth educator. Great educational post about Lamaze, and the real philosophy behind birth.

Internet Harassment & Terrorist “Activists” – A vent, and post about people using advocacy to harass others on the internet, including the mother of a dead baby.

Want to Breastfeed? SKIP THE FREEBIES! – Again, another kind of self explanatory title about free baby clubs, and offers of diaper bags.

Why Aren’t More Women Choosing Natural Childbirth? – A post breaking down some of the statistics surrounding childbirth in general.

Summer Recipes – A couple of my favorite summer time treats, including my famous Red Raspberry Leaf Iced Tea mmmm!

Contrary to Popular Belief: Co-sleeping Doesn’t Kill your Sex Life – Co-sleeping and sex?

I had to skip over a lot of posts I really enjoyed from the year, but I didn’t want to make this post any longer… LOL!

I hope you enjoy, and be sure to comment with some of your favorite posts!

December 4th, 2010

Tackling C-Section Rates by State/Hospital

I love the Unnecesarean. I am sure most of my readers already know this though. Jill, the name behind the blog is always open to helping women, and overall does an awesome job.

In the past year she has started looking up, researching, and finding the c-section rates per state and then breaking it down to hospital numbers. During 2009 Michele from Birthcut.com and I sat down and started investigating the cesarean rates in Connecticut where we both live.

It took us 4 months to get the numbers which we published online, and still use because updated statistics aren’t available at this time.

Yesterday Jill published all of our hard work with the c-section rates, by hospital for Connecticut.  If you are interested in seeing the rates in your area, or your local hospital, check out her website and I am sure she will have your state on there somewhere!

Click on the picture to link to her post

October 6th, 2010

Women Politicians in Connecticut

This year during our election season, I have been seeing two women taking the front page in politics in my local community. One has been making a splash nationally, Linda McMahon as in WWE Matriarch. Yes, the wrestling wife is running for United States Senate in my state, against the much loved Attorney General who has made a huge difference in protecting Connecticut residents as long as I can remember. Even helping my family when we had a dispute with a contractor my husband worked with. Needless to say the race has turned into a circus, but isn’t that always what happens in politics around October?

So first Linda McMahon. A woman, who exploits women, and of course men for money. Her income is something to the tune of $46 million dollars a year, and if you have ever turned on Friday Night Wrestling which I despise, but sometime my husband flips through you will see next to naked women fighting each other in a ring for the entertainment of men everywhere. Even recently when we were traveling on the highway to go apple picking as a family, we were passed by three huge WWE trucks and trailors, all of which had next to naked women in compromising positions just driving down the road.   To my knowledge there are male wrestlers too right?  But since the majority of fans are men, it is more appealing to exploit the women.   Not cool with me by any means.

Next comes a woman by the name of Martha Dean. I had no idea who she was, or what she was even running for until my husband and I were cut off on the highway by some rich snob with a HUGE Martha Dean magnet on the side of their car.  Turns out it was Martha Dean herself driving like a complete asshole on I-95 in rainy weather. That was my first strike against this woman. Once I learned she was running for Attorney General of Connecticut, a huge and sometimes powerful position for laws in our state, I had to investigate and the more I learned, the more I did not like about this misogynistic mother.

First things first, I am all for single mothers, but I am not for anyone who plays out their nasty custody battle in the public eye, and I also am not for someone who plays their child against the other parent. Which is something apparently which has been well documented through our local news media. Next, she is something I like to call a hypocrite. She is running her campaign on traditional religious backgrounds, while she herself was an unwed mother. Makes my head spin a little bit.

Next, her slogan : Freedom, Faith, Fortune.

In the economy the way it is today, drop the fortune. Connecticut has a population living in poverty, a large unemployment number still, and the majority of residents are middle class, not the wealthy that everyone thinks of when they hear about Greenwich, or whatever area this woman is from. Not someone that represents the majority of us in Connecticut, that is for sure!

Next, Freedom… someone who believes gays shouldn’t be allowed to marry and plans to examine the legality of gay marriage in Connecticut if it comes up is not someone who believes in freedom. Not to mention, someone who also wants to look at the abortion legislation which has been in place in our state since before she was even born?   No thanks. Move on lady.

As a strong feminist there is no way I could vote for either of these horrid female misogynists for any kind of office in my state, and it is truly a sad day for Connecticut politics when the male candidates are more concerned about feminist issues than the women!

August 9th, 2010

BlogHer Wrap Up

First things first!  I want to thank all the amazing companies that helped me make my trip possible.  Lamaze, Kandoo, Go Mama Go Designs, and RJS Designs. Without all of you, I would not have been popular because I had swag, but I also would not have been able to afford to go.

I was able to give women Potty training wipes, coupons, and awesome Lamaze pregnancy skin care sets.  Total scores all around especially since I became the queen of swag before I left!  LOL  (I will get to that later in the post)

Friday I hooked up with Gina, Jill, Jenn, and a ton of bloggers I have talked to over the past year and really become friends with. Of course my luck I ended up continuing to run into this woman I had no interest in associating with. She blew me and my roommate off sticking us with $450 of charges for our hotel room. She made a commitment and backed out the day before the conference. Shitty if you ask me. Of course I ran into her at The People’s Party, the newbie breakfast, EVERYWHERE!  I finally hooked up with Gina at the breakfast and we hung out basically all day. The Expo hall sucked us in, and I totally missed the first session I wanted to go to on Friday.  We made rounds till lunch time then grabbed some lunch.

Then went back to the Expo hall, I think I entered for almost everything, but of course I knew I wouldn’t win. I never win anything. We also spent some time at the Ecco shoe’s suite and get pedicures, and of course I stopped by the Windows Suite.

We have had such bad luck in the past couple years that I was almost certain I would go home without all the swag everyone was telling me about before I left for BlogHer.  WRONG!  4 on Friday I headed up to my room to relax, and blog, which didn’t get done. About a half hour into my “relax” hour I got a phone call from a random number, it was the Playtex booth calling me to tell me I won a Flip Cam!  No way!   So I headed down to the Expo hall to pick it up and it was for real!  I won a flip cam!  Something I have wanted, but just couldn’t afford to dish out the $200 for!  Score!

I headed out to the Babble.com party as a plus one of Jenn, it was fun, different, and certainly something I didn’t expect, but we had some totally exciting news at the party…  Gina found out she was pregnant! For those of you who don’t know the back story of Gina & her husband… they have been trying to get pregnant since January.

I also went on a great tour of NYC with NYCityMama and won a huge basket of toys valued at $300 for the kids. Needless to say between all the toys that were given away, the basket, and swag… I got my Christmas shopping virtually finished.

Needless to say, it made for an exciting night. I hung out with my roommates, made some rounds in the hotel, and conference space, and went to bed. I knew I had a long day on Saturday.

I woke up Saturday morning to some crazy exciting news…
“Congrats to @birthbabiesblog on winning 2 Dell Inspiron 14R PCs. Stop by the #Win7BlogHer suite (4331) by 2pm EST to collect your prize!” – BenThePcGuy on twitter

Um… no shit? Really? No!  It couldn’t be!
So I strolled up to the 43rd floor to the Window’s suite, and of course, it was right. I had won not one but TWO Dell laptops!  I couldn’t believe it. I really still can’t believe it, and I am home, checked them out, and gave one to my rockin’ husband.  Our desktop died about 2 months ago, so it has made it hard for him to get online, and download music because that is what he does best.  So, now I was up to 2 laptops, a flip cam, the toy basket, and all the free stuff I got in the Expo hall which included toys for the kids.  I hit up two sessions, and decided to make one last lap around the Expo hall.

I stopped by the diapers.com booth… and won $100 gift card!  Woot!  So needless to say, it was super eventful.

I had a dinner that eventing provided by Tavern Direct, and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. A great cause I plan on getting involved with once things calm down a little.

Saturday night was for SparkleCorn, CheeseburgHer, A Bloggy State of Mind… and every other party I could get into, or sneak into considering I made friends with the event staff, and the guys watching the door. Smart huh?  Oh and don’t forget the wine party I rocked in my room provided by The Wine Sisterhood!

Sunday morning I was on The Feminist Breeder & Friends radio show, then headed over to 11th ave, to pick up my Lincoln MKT press car for the week.  Score huh?  I can’t wait to share some more about that!  Stay Tuned!

So overall, BlogHer was amazing. I met SO many awesome women I look forward to following, linking, and getting to know better, including another Fire Fighter wife, a couple women from Connecticut, and some rather interesting women.

Huge success all around, and DH and I are already planning our trip to San Diego for next year’s BlogHer 2011!
Check out some of the pictures!

July 19th, 2010

BlogHer Thursday Night Dinner

As most of you know, I am putting together a dinner date for Thursday night. I want to start getting a head count, and where we will be going all set up so I can put in a reservation.  Please take a moment and fill out the poll below if you are interested in joining us!

I will also be making a facebook event for this, which the link is :   BlogHer Dinner Get Together

June 4th, 2010

Announcing my BlogHer Sponsor!

I know everyone has been anticipating it as much as I have, and also has been waiting for my big announcement. I has been killing me to keep it to myself because I have wanted to scream it from the roof tops because, yes, my sponsor is that awesome.

So yesterday I was making my new business cards for BlogHer, I realized not only did I need to make business cards for my blog, which I do not have, but I need to reserve the space on the back of the card for this amazing company that has put their support being me because of my popularity in the childbirth, and new parents community.  So, the front of my business card is going to look like this :

How do you like it?  I am kind of partial to it because of course I designed it. I want to thank Theresa at the Healthy Baby Network again for making my awesome Momotics logo too!   I think it fits perfectly into the design I picked out on VistaPrint.

So are you ready to see the back of the card and see who I am holding hands with for BlogHer this year?
You sure you are ready?
Yes, I have to drag this out as much as I possibly can, because that is what I do!

Lamaze is an amazing company that manufactures all kinds of great products for mothers, and children. Educational books, toys, and mother friendly products including a body care line that is aimed at pregnant women and new mothers.

I have been working with Lamaze recently in their new online community Giving Birth with Confidence, which is an amazing resource for new mothers, as well as veteran pregnant women. They have groups, forums, and all kinds of great informative posts written by amazing women in the childbirth community.  I am honored to be blogging next to women like Judith Lothian!

But I knew finding a sponsor this year was not going to be easy, I am still one of the “new kids” on the block, and why the heck would anyone want to sponsor me?  I sent out a couple e-mails to companies that I love, and truly believe in their cause and when I heard back about Lamaze, I was over the moon. They are just such an amazing company, as well as organization all around. I am even more happy to be working on becoming a LCCE because the women there are just so amazing.

Stay tuned in the upcoming weeks for a great giveaway of an awesome Lamaze product, and in the time following the BlogHer conference!

I am so excited to be able to go this year as New York is amazingly close for me making this a reality! So who is going?  Who am I going to be meeting up with?

SEE YOU IN NEW YORK CITY!

April 29th, 2010

BlogHer Conference 2010

For a while it had looked like I would not be able to go to BlogHer in NYC this year. The biggest perk for me was it is in New York City and that could eliminate a hotel cost, because I could travel from Connecticut on the train directly into the city with no problems. Score for me!

Downside? I didn’t get a sponsor or ticket in time before all the tickets sold out!  There are tons of people out there that are selling tickets right now because they can’t go for whatever reason, or bought more tickets than they really needed.

Now that I have secured a sponsor, a super awesome sponsor at that (will reveal in time) now I have to go through the project of finding a ticket all over again!  So, if any of you are reading this post, and have an extra ticket, please let me know, or even if you know a friend of a friend of a friend who has a ticket, send them my way!

In my search for a ticket I found that Sears Portrait Studio was running a contest to win a ticket to BlogHer.  Part of the contest is to write a blog post about why you want to go to blogher, and you love professional portraits. So, I wanted to include that into this BlogHer post.

Why do I want to go to BlogHer? In the past year my blog has gone from some ramblings of my own, to a high traffic Mom blog focusing on the childbirth community and pregnancy as a whole for the most part. I went from a click here and there, to an average of 300 people a day clicking on a slow day. I feel like BlogHer would be an amazing opportunity for me to not only meet awesome bloggers like The Feminist Breeder, but to also learn about expanding my already passionate project. Luckily for me others agree.

Why do I love professional portraits? There is nothing worth more than pictures of your children as they grow. These moments can never be replaced, but through pictures we can have memories that bring us back to those moments with our children.

So who else is going to BlogHer?