FACEBOOK STATUS UPDATE, MON, MAR 16, 2009:

3:49pm Christian reports: Berkeley (7lbs, 7oz - 20 in - 9.9 Apgar Scale) sends her love to all. She’s now feeding for the 1st time like she’s been doing it her whole life!

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BACKSTORY:

Two and a half years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting my son, Beckett, for the first time.

As a first time father, Beckett’s arrival in our Ft. Worth, TX hospital delivery room — and his mother, Karla, who did all the heroic work that life-changing day — truly humbled me.  Trying to convey to my own mother on my cell phone a minutes later what it like to see him born and to hold him in my own arms was nearly impossible.  I simply lacked the words.  Tears replaced them as I fumbled to express myself.  Luckily, she understood and let me go back to my wife and son, telling me to give her a call later that night when time allowed me to fill her in more fully.

While photographs have allowed me to ‘remember’ those first few minutes/hours of Beckett’s young life, so much of what took place that afternoon has faded into the funky contours of the human brain, lost to the natural passing of time.  Even the entries I posted on our family blog only hit a few highlights, often written long after they took place.  The sense of the in-the-moment immediacy and wunderlust, however, was impossible to translate…

…until now.

FAST FORWARD:

Two and a half years later, my wife and I returned to the same hospital delivery unit to meet our first daughter, Berkeley.

Since Beckett’s birth, our family blog has magnified significantly from a tepid attempt to semi-privately ‘journal’ a few family moments here and there to the development of a robust hub of digital stories, photos, and videos that are now regularly shared with hundreds of family, friends, colleagues, and strangers around the world.  At last count, we’ve crossed the 2,250 blog post mark…and that was before our daughter’s birth.  We suspect a ‘few’ more will be added, too.

Additionally, we’ve added an iPhone to our tool set, not to mention dualing Facebook accounts for both parents. This means that just-in-time storytelling options have been magnified far beyond the boundaries of what a family blog can pull off.  Seems that blogging is so last status update.

It was only a matter of time before we’d put it all together, letting our family and friends grab a virtual real-time seat with us as we prepared to deliver our daughter via type-n-post Facebook status updates. something that would have been inconceivable not that long ago.

• Ever wondered how you’d tell the story of your child’s birth through the lens of 140-character Facebook status updates?
• Ever wondered what it’d be like to Facebook status update every step leading to, during, and after your child’s birth?
• Ever wonder how such a story would read, one status update at a time?

This is our story, told 140-characters (or less) at at time.

Continue Reading »

It’s likely that my opinion is very different from others who contribute to this blog because we are a diverse group, which is something I like and something I think is representative of mothers the world over. But, there’s a little uproar going on that I just have to add my two cents to - and maybe my fellow moms here will provide a counterpoint.

The who-ha was apparently created by this:

I watch the ad and see a tongue-in-cheek, sassy take on the truth that not only wearing your baby, but also all the other ways we wag out children around wreak havoc on our backs and bodies. You just have to admit that.

Others, however, see it as insulting, a personal attack on what they consider the only proper way to carry a baby and as an insult to motherhood in general. Some fear it will prevent other moms or moms-to-be from experiencing the joy of wearing their babies. You’ve got to read the comments on a post titled “Motrin: The Anti-Mom?” to really get a taste of it.

Oh please. Lighten up! Oh, yeah, you can’t because you’re carrying an extra 15 or so pounds of child with you everywhere. I should probably take that back. I mean, I’ve just been more offensive than that Motrin ad, right? Flame away folks. If a sling or whatever works for you, then fine, but don’t get all righteous about it. It’s that attitude that led total strangers in the check-out line at Target to feel they had the right to inquire whether I would breast feed when they saw I was pregnant.

Bloggers and Twitterers have yelled loud enough that Motrin is now pulling the ad and issuing apologies to those who complain. I suppose they have to - to try to take on an attack of mommy bloggers would be a public relations mess. But, I just had to go on the record as saying I think this is all an over-reaction. Probably due to the fact that my mother didn’t breast feed me or carry me in a sling as a child; and, I’ve doomed my own daughter to be the same maladjusted human because the only time I carried her on my body was in a backpack as I meshed with the masses at the Austin City Limits Festival.

And while I’m here admitting to being a terrible mother because I did not strap my child on me at all times possible, let me go ahead and lay out all my dirty mommy laundry — I work long hours outside of the house, put my girl in day care at two months old, and didn’t breast feed. Egads!

How long do I have before someone calls Child Protective Services on me?

Laura P. Thomas is the wife of a former rocker and mother of one 6-year-old girl that’s already waaay too interested in The Jonas Brothers. (the apple didn’t fall far) She works in the Global Online team at Dell, evangelizes virtual worlds, and twitters too much as LPT.

We’re welcoming another wonderful mom to This Mommy Gig! Sherry has a very unique perspective on this whole parenting thing due to her experiences and we’re really looking forward to having her write with us!

Sherry Carr Deer is the overly-caffeinated mom to three-year-old Nicholas, has worked in non-profit public relations for 10 years, went from reading several books a month to several books a year when her son was born, and spends way too much time daydreaming about sleeping. Sherry would do pretty much anything for her family as long as it’s legal, worries that she doesn’t spend enough time with her son, and wishes she had more time to scrapbook. And sleep…she misses sleep.

Sherry began dating her first husband at the ripe old age of 16, married at 20, graduated college at 22, started trying to get pregnant at 28, had Nicholas at 30 and became a widow the same year. Mark, Sherry’s husband and Nicholas’ dad, died suddenly of an unexplained medical condition when Nicholas was 5 months old. That was in November 2005 (one month shy of their 10th wedding anniversary).

In the 2.5 years since then, Sherry: grieved; began figuring out how to raise Nicholas as a single mom; left a wonderful job with a non-profit that she loved to move home and closer to family; got fired from a job she was never really right for in the first place; began working at an incredibly rewarding job with a non-profit that she loves; began scrapbooking; started dating again; grieved some more; and has now found herself engaged to William, an awesome man who loves her, challenges her, makes her laugh, and loves Nicholas.

She is constantly amazed and thankful for Nicholas who is wonderful, brilliant, sweet, and all boy. Sherry isn’t quite sure how it happened with her as a mother, but Nicholas is completely consumed by cars. During an effort to organize their living room recently, Sherry counted all the cars Nicholas has and stopped at 85. That’s not counting any of the assorted cars he’s got stashed at grandparents’ houses.

While trying to spend as much time as possible with William and Nicholas, be the best PR professional she can be, plan a wedding, and sleep some more, Sherry blogs for the San Antonio chapter of PRSA. She also kept a community journal about her life as a new mom and new widow for a couple of years on BabyCenter. If you’d like to connect with Sherry, you can find her on Facebook and Twitter at @prCarrD.

Good morning, everyone!

I just wanted to post a note to say hello to all of my fellow mom writers and to all of our readers, and tell you how excited I am to join you on This Mommy Gig. As you may have seen in my bio that Kate posted late last week, I’ve aspired to be a writer for many years, but just started getting my writing out into the world earlier this year through my blog, Average Everyday Super Woman. Being offered this opportunity was very exciting for me and marked another milestone in my path to becoming (hopefully, one day) a full time writer. Wow, wouldn’t that be nice?

Anyway, thank you for welcoming me into this community. I look forward to many years of sharing stories, ideas and friendship.

Amy

More superwomen joining our ranks….we’re just about set for world domination with this crew!

Amy Giampetroni

Amy Giampetroni is a thirty-something, happily married, PAC Manager-turned-stay-at-home mom from southeastern Wisconsin. As wife to forty-something Dan, stepmother to 12 year-old stepdaughter Alexis, “real” mom to 5 year-old son Angelo, and “dog mom” to 7 year-old yellow Lab Josie, Amy’s BA in Psychology and Social Welfare from the University of Wisconsin – Madison comes in very handy.

Amy became a stepmom after marrying Dan in June of 2000, when Alexis was just 4-years-old. Suffice it to say that being initiated into parenthood by way of someone else’s preschooler, who is only with her and Dan every other weekend, proved to be an interesting challenge with unique rewards, all of which prepared her well for becoming a real card-carrying mom to her son Angelo in May of 2003. To add another twist to the picture, Amy and Dan are also trying for another baby.

Since college, Amy has worked full-time in association management, pharmaceutical sales, and – most recently - in the legal and government affairs areas of a top national distributor to the Long Term Care industry. Prior to becoming a stay-at-home mom, Amy worked as a Political Action Committee Manager, having created and run her employer’s very successful political action committee for nearly four years. Amy loved her job and took great pride in her work, but in 2007 her son’s chronic health problems ultimately forced her to make the change to being a full-time at-home mom, something she had wanted to do for a long time. Much to everyone’s relief, Angelo’s health improved 100%, and Amy and her husband were pleased to find that their lives in general became much more peaceful and enjoyable by removing Amy’s demanding career from the picture. Nonetheless, with Angelo starting full-day kindergarten in the fall of 2008, Amy will be returning to the workforce on a part-time basis in some capacity.

In her free time, Amy is an avid reader, and enjoys working out, knitting, spending time with family and friends, traveling, antiquing, movies and dining out.

Amy is thrilled to be joining This Mommy Gig, as writing has long been a passion and hobby of hers. Toward that end, she began work on her first novel in 2007 and hopes to be ready to shop it around in the fall of 2008. Amy also started her own blog – Average Everyday Super Woman - in January of 2008. In addition, Amy joined a group of aspiring Milwaukee-area writer moms seeking freelance writing opportunities in May of 2008. If anyone has any good tips or contacts for Amy, or if you just want to say hello, please email her at amygiampetroni at gmail dot com.

Laura Thomas

Laura P. Thomas is mother to 5 (and a half!) year old Anna, and wife of 12 years to Mark. They live with a hyperactive Terrier/Heeler name Lilo in Austin, Texas, because it’s just such a super-cool city. The “P” stands for Pevehouse, her maiden name, and she uses it for a couple of reasons. One is that both Laura and Thomas are very common names. Google it and you’ll get a real estate agent in Los Angeles, but Google it with the “P” and you’ll find this Laura. The other reason is that even though she grew tired of constantly spelling Pevehouse for people only to hear them say “Oh, just like it sounds”, she’s actually quite proud to be a Pevehouse from the middle of nowhere in northeast Louisiana.

Working around Dell for more than seven years, Laura has built a background in the areas of corporate communications, employee communications, public relations, community affairs, branding and online communication. She is currently part of the Global Online group and is responsible for the home page of Dell.com, as well as all Dell.com content from Investor Relations, Corporate Communications and other corporate functions. She assisted with the creation of the Direct2Dell blog and is a somewhat-regular contributor. In her spare time she led Dell into the metaverse with the creation of Dell Island in Second Life. Every time she’s in-world from home, her daughter thinks it’s time to play virtual dolls, and wants to change her avatar’s hair and clothing.

Laura is proud to have earned the designation of Accredited Business Communicator from the International Association of Business Communicators, and to have received her News/Editorial Journalism degree from Louisiana State University. (Geaux Tigers!) If she had more time, she would spend it reading, traveling around the world and writing; so, her dream job would be to have someone actually pay her to travel to exotic locales and write about it! Until then, she will satisfy her need to explore by diving into all the latest social media trends. You can find her in Second Life as Pyrrha Dell, on Twitter as LPT, in Facebook as Laura P Thomas, on brightkite as LPT and on LinkedIn as laurapthomas.

Wow, the amazing ladies just keep coming! Welcome Kymberli to our ranks……………

Kymberli Mulford

Kymberli Mulford has been an educator for over thirty years, but happily admits that her best teachers are her sons. Andrew and Alex don’t let a day go by without teaching her something – about wonder, about humor, about dreams, about friendships, and mostly about love. (And patience. And hard work. And determination.)

Her two boys, she says, are as different as night and day. Her youngest, Andrew, is boisterous, gregarious and outdoorsy. Alex is pensive and quiet, already an accomplished artist, author and composer as a young teen. She sees a little of herself in each of them, and a little of her wonderful husband — of almost 20 years! — in each of them, too. Since most of the bloggers on This Mommy Gig are mothers of younger children, Kymberli hopes to share the perspective of moms of ‘tweens and teens. Also, as the stepmom of her husband’s now-grown son, she’s been down the road of being the “other mother” and is now even (gasp!) a mother-in-law and (gasp!) a grandmother four times over. (By the way, she LOVES people who tell her that she’s not old enough for that… hint, hint.) At any rate, these children have all brought new joys and challenges into her life, and this has made her life fuller and her perspective broader.

As a teacher, an administrator, and a parent advocate for children with special needs, Kymberli has been in many different school settings and situations, but she’s happiest when she’s wearing her “Ed Tech” hat in a classroom, surrounded by students exploring a new way to use technology to learn and share knowledge. She presents workshops on all things related to technology in the classroom, and is a self-professed Ed Tech conference junkie.

You can find Kymberli on Twitter or follow her ed tech musings on Onionskin.

We would like to welcome Susan Roustan to This Mommy Gig!

Susan Roustan

Susan Roustan has lived many lives in her young life. She has worked in a non-profit, a corporate office, as a student (round two!), and now as a 7-12 teacher of French and psychology for a public school in Michigan. She gives presentations at both the state and national levels on the integration of technology in education. She does freelance writing and consulting, and sings professionally with a regional opera company. In her ‘free’ time, Susan likes to watch TV (shut up), crochet, do crafty things, garden, read, walk, run, play tennis, swim, play video games (again, shut up), spend (too much) time on the computer, and other random things.

Most importantly, Susan is a wife to the most amazing man in the world, and mother to the second most amazing man in the world who just turned three. Both men in her life are incredibly supportive and love her
despite her crazy life, goals, and ambitions.

Susan blogs about education, education technology, change in education and other random topics at Beyond Podcasting. You can find her on Twitter (@byndpdcstng), Facebook, and at LinkedIn.

I’m sure you couldn’t miss it - we have a new header design on our site! The design was done by Rachael Cahours Acklin(one of the writers here) through her business Caffeinated Design. I’m just so impressed with the work she did and the professionalism of her business that I want to shout it out to the world! Rachael does a ton of web design work, so head on over if you’re ever in need of custom graphics, site building, design, business cards, hosting……..the list goes on. Rachael also designed a few different buttons (1 shown here)for you to use to promote the site if you’d like - just contact us and we’ll get you one to use on your own site to share This Mommy Gig with your readers!

Also, in case you missed it on the sidebar, you can follow This Mommy Gig on Twitter for updates of all of the great stuff going on here! We’re @thismommygig - check us out!