Life made better by mom bloggers.

When I had my first child almost nine years ago, she arrived early and unexpected.  I was not ready to leave all the unfinished business at my job.  I did not have my hospital bag packed. I was simply not emotionally ready for this baby!

I struggled with so many things in those early months after her birth. My family did not live in the same city so we were on our own.  I remember being awake many nights at 3am with an electric breast pump stuck to me, working away at the computer trying to figure out how to deal with it all.  Back then, I was not a blogger.  Heck, I wasn’t even reading blogs.  There were some parenting sites I visited but generally, I didn’t find much that connected with me on a personal level online.  And during those moments of panic, when my daughter was ill or I was simply so far gone from exhaustion that I needed an outlet, there wasn’t much for me to turn to. 

Fast forward a few years and child number two arrived.  While I wasn’t yet blogging, I was certainly aware of mom bloggers and read many of them.  I found great solace reading about their experiences and coping mechanisms.  I was discovering a world of mothers I could sympathize with and who were going through similar experiences.  I would search out answers to questions I had about high fevers and nasty coughs and how to get rid of that nasty cradle cap.

A few more years after that (cue child number three) and I was a mom blogger myself.  While it started as a way to keep my own family abreast of my kids’ crazy goings-on and my own “please help me!” moments, it quickly became a place of relationships.  A place that I not only used for sharing experiences, but a place where I got to know other moms and developed some great online friendships. 

Between blogging, tweeting and facebooking, the internet has become an interactive mommy group I can turn to for all kinds of answers and conversations about my kids, especially about their health.  And mostly in real-time.  As the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child.  I often get the help I need or questions answered within minutes of posting my issue online.  I can almost always count on a wonderful mom out there who will answer my question or help me find the resource I need.  The ‘momblogosphere’ has become my village, in many respects.

It’s not only the responsive health issues, either.  I can find inspiration for many parts of healthy living, from eating right to getting fit to creating healthy environments for my family.  Mom bloggers aren’t just the nurse or experienced boo boo kisser, they’re also the fitness guru and nutritionist.  They’re the carseat safety expert and the life balance coach. They are amazing.

Eight years ago I felt so very alone in raising my kids.  Today, I feel all kinds of support and a big part of that is due to blogging.  So, thank you, mom bloggers for being such a fantastic resource and for being my “village”.  I’m so very grateful for you.

If you don’t yet connect with me in the Twittersphere, I’m @CynthiaCrumb there.  And on Facebook, I’m Cynthia Crumb.  It would be great to see you there, too. 

Ddrops is hosting a contest to send four mom bloggers to the 2011 BlissdomCanada conference.  This post is my entry.  But the opinions expressed in this post are absolutely my own: mom bloggers are the best.