Your Blogging Story Carnival

Chilihead wants to know about your blog. She is having a blogging carnival about blogging.

How did I start blogging?

Well I sat down at my computer...... Actually the birth of this blog was not long after the birth of Evan. I was expressing breastmilk for him as he had never had the strength to nurse. That meant a lot of time in front of the computer hooked up the the milking machine (moo!). I had joined a wonderful Yahoo group called PumpMoms where there were women doing the same crazy thing as I was. While there I learned about two members who had these things called blogs. I fell in love with the whole idea. Gretchen and Neno were hilarious (they still are) and were great entertainment while I was hooked up to the milking machine. I then started to check out people from Gretchen's sidebar and then people from those side bars and well you get the point. Eventually I got up the courage to open a blogger account and give it a whirl.

The story behind my blog title is also related to Evan. Shortly before I started my blog we had finally received Evan's home INR test machine. I was super anxious about whether I could do this all on my own or not. I was hugely pregnant and not sure if he would sit still long enough for me to give him a painful poke on his toe. Our first solo test went amazing, I nailed it on the first try. I truly felt awesome! I added the sometimes in because I am a normal person and do not always feel awesome about my mad parenting skilz.

Did you intend to be a blog w/a big following? If so, how did you go about it?

Nope, although I did want to have some people reading be as that is one of the best parts about blogging.

To gain my readership I simply put a link to my blog at the end of my email. I also started commenting on other blogs. That lead kind people like Chichimama (who was my first commenter ever) to my blog. Later on I participated in things like Pediatric Grand Rounds and Change of Shift which exposed my blog to even more readers.


What do you hope to achieve or accomplish with your blog? Have you been successful? If not, do you have a plan to achieve those goals?

One of the reasons I started my blog was to empty my mind before I went to sleep. Sometimes I have a hard time falling asleep because I have so many thoughts running around in my mind. I had hoped that blogging would help clear the cobwebs. The reality has been the opposite. I find myself writing brilliantly witty blog entires in my mind when I should be sleeping. Sadly I never remember them when I finally wake up the next morning.


Has the focus of your blog changed since you started blogging? How?

I think that my focus has essentially remained the same. I blog a lot about my kids and my life as a mother. I also use it to keep family updated on how the kids are growing and how Evan's health is. I have added in some things like the product reviews but I still want to keep this a fun endeavor. I don't want to feel that I have to blog.

What do you know now that you wish you'd known when you started?

I wish that I had a better grasp on HTML. It would be fun to be able to do more on my own with my blog.

Do you make money with your blog?

Nope. I do get the occasional free thing, but I really do not want to clutter my blog up with ads on a daily basis. This is very much a hobby for me and I do not want to turn it in to a business.

Does your immediate or extended family know about your blog? If so, do they read it? If not, why?

My kids are probably aware of the blog but they don't read it since they can't read yet (slackers!).

My husband knows (although I did not tell him right away about it) and reads it while he should be working.

All of my extended family that has even the slightest interest in computers know. It is how they keep updated on the kids (yes I am really that lazy). My mother and one sister eventually started blogs too but my sister seems to have forgotten about her blog.

What two pieces of advice would you give to a new blogger?

Find your own voice with your writing. Be you and not someone else.

Try and write well. Put paragraphs in. Use complete sentences. Follow the rules of writing as best you can. No one likes reading a blog that is hard to read because it looks like it was written by an ignorant teenager.