I don’t know about you, but when I started blogging, it was mostly a personal documentary about pregnancy (now, raising a toddler). I wrote mostly for people I knew, and now, to people I’ve met online too. However, Kat had a specific vision when she started DreamyBabies. Read why Kat started DreamyBabies, how her site grew, how she was able to help other parents, and also why she moved on.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why did you start DreamyBabies?
Being a stay at home mom was wonderful yet awful at the same time. While I loved spending time with my daughter and watching her grow, I was also suffering from severe post-partum depression that, after letting it go untreated for over a year, spiraled into clinical depression for which I needed psychiatric help.
During this time, the only other thing that kept me grounded (other than my family) was the fact that I ran a parenting website. It was not “professional” by any stretch of the imagination; it was a website that documented everything I (obsessively) researched and learned about child-rearing, sleep issues and how to overcome them, eating issues and how to overcome them, potty training and general parenting tips that worked for me. The majority of my website dealt with sleep issues in kids and what parents can do to help their kids sleep better.
When Kayla was a baby, she wasn’t a very good sleeper and my obsession began. My depression began to manifest itself into OCD and her sleep was all I could focus on or think about. I spent hours and hours combing the internet looking for answers. Time after time, I ran into websites that only offered tidbits of information and in order to see The Answers, they would ask for a credit card number. I then turned to books and I must have read every single baby sleep book that has been published. I turned to friends and basically interviewed them about their baby’s sleep and what they did to fix it. I even grilled my doctors about it; asking them questions like the effects of sleep deprivation on the body and how it affects children and how sleep training affects children. I even grilled my psychiatrist about the physiological affects of sleep training and sleep deprivation in children. Over the course of 9 months, endless hours of research and jotting down everything I came across, I had amassed so much information on baby sleep that I decided to share it with other parents.
What was the focus of DreamyBabies?
I launched DreamyBabies in March 2010. It was a free site for who ever wanted to know more about baby sleep, read about my trials and tribulations and understand how sleep – or lack thereof – affected children. I always stated that I was not a doctor, but that my site was merely a source of information available to parents who I’m sure, ran into the same road blocks as I did when I turned to the internet for answers. I launched DreamyBabies because I was incredibly annoyed that there wasn’t a single site dedicated to providing information to parents that was free of charge. I wanted to provide parents with a “one stop shop” of information that touched upon all the issues we face during child-rearing and provide lots of suggestions/recommendations for the parent to consider.
How did you make DreamyBabies a popular resource for parents?
At first, the information I posted was all about sleep: circadian rhythms and what that means, sample schedules that worked for my daughter, stories about how I changed my daughter’s sleep from waking every 2 hours to sleeping 12 hours at night and how I fixed her terrible naps. Over time, I incorporated other challenges that parents often come across – behaviour, feeding/eating, discipline, potty training, illness, teething, terrible twos etc. As I continued to add information, my site gained popularity. Other websites would contact me asking me to guest post on their blog, offered to keep me on their roster as a permanent guest blogger or asked to permanently link to my site. It became a regular routine for me to receive emails from sleep-deprived parents asking for help. I also took on “cases” where I would be in direct contact with parents helping them with their kids’ sleep. That could range anywhere from helping them tweak their kids’ schedules, to sleep training tips, to just offering support if they needed it. Parents would tell me what they were doing and I would offer information, support and/or suggestions. If they wanted to sleep train their child, I would help them through it and develop a plan with them based on the method they wanted to use. I never judged those who came to me for help; the last thing any parent wants is to be judged based on their decisions and I felt it was my duty to provide them with as much information as possible so they could make an informed decision.
How did you know DreamyBabies was a successful site?
I had many successes doing this and I would receive daily emails from happy, rested families thanking me for my helping. There is a family from Australia with whom I still keep in contact and who came to me with their 13 month old daughter. She barely slept and was under 10% in her weight category. Over the course of four weeks and several Skype chats, their daughter went from 6 hours of broken sleep at night to 12 hours of solid sleep plus two one-hour naps during the day (which was unheard of). She no longer cried at everything and instead, changed into a happy, smiling toddler. Her weight nearly tripled because she was no longer too tired to eat and was a happy, thriving little girl.
What did you learn from DreamyBabies?
I didn’t know it then but in helping parents through DreamyBabies, I was also helping myself and overcoming my depression. My psychiatrist – after finding about my website – told me that my altruistic actions would only serve to expedite my treatment and my road to recovery would be a successful one. He was right.
How did you know when it was time to move on from DreamyBabies?
Almost 2 years after I launched DreamyBabies, I was ready to change gears and blog about me. DreamyBabies slowly evolved into my own personal blog and when I decided to take it down, I contacted all of my “clients” to let them know of the change. My blog, Vodka and Soda, is now 3 years in the making and while I will always be here for those who need help or support, I instead choose to blog about random things that amuse me.
Being a stay at home mom was wonderful yet awful at the same time. While I loved spending time with my daughter and watching her grow, I was also suffering from severe post-partum depression that, after letting it go untreated for over a year, spiraled into clinical depression for which I needed psychiatric help.
During this time, the only other thing that kept me grounded (other than my family) was the fact that I ran a parenting website. It was not “professional” by any stretch of the imagination; it was a website that documented everything I (obsessively) researched and learned about child-rearing, sleep issues and how to overcome them, eating issues and how to overcome them, potty training and general parenting tips that worked for me. The majority of my website dealt with sleep issues in kids and what parents can do to help their kids sleep better.
When Kayla was a baby, she wasn’t a very good sleeper and my obsession began. My depression began to manifest itself into OCD and her sleep was all I could focus on or think about. I spent hours and hours combing the internet looking for answers. Time after time, I ran into websites that only offered tidbits of information and in order to see The Answers, they would ask for a credit card number. I then turned to books and I must have read every single baby sleep book that has been published. I turned to friends and basically interviewed them about their baby’s sleep and what they did to fix it. I even grilled my doctors about it; asking them questions like the effects of sleep deprivation on the body and how it affects children and how sleep training affects children. I even grilled my psychiatrist about the physiological affects of sleep training and sleep deprivation in children. Over the course of 9 months, endless hours of research and jotting down everything I came across, I had amassed so much information on baby sleep that I decided to share it with other parents.
What was the focus of DreamyBabies?
I launched DreamyBabies in March 2010. It was a free site for who ever wanted to know more about baby sleep, read about my trials and tribulations and understand how sleep – or lack thereof – affected children. I always stated that I was not a doctor, but that my site was merely a source of information available to parents who I’m sure, ran into the same road blocks as I did when I turned to the internet for answers. I launched DreamyBabies because I was incredibly annoyed that there wasn’t a single site dedicated to providing information to parents that was free of charge. I wanted to provide parents with a “one stop shop” of information that touched upon all the issues we face during child-rearing and provide lots of suggestions/recommendations for the parent to consider.
How did you make DreamyBabies a popular resource for parents?
At first, the information I posted was all about sleep: circadian rhythms and what that means, sample schedules that worked for my daughter, stories about how I changed my daughter’s sleep from waking every 2 hours to sleeping 12 hours at night and how I fixed her terrible naps. Over time, I incorporated other challenges that parents often come across – behaviour, feeding/eating, discipline, potty training, illness, teething, terrible twos etc. As I continued to add information, my site gained popularity. Other websites would contact me asking me to guest post on their blog, offered to keep me on their roster as a permanent guest blogger or asked to permanently link to my site. It became a regular routine for me to receive emails from sleep-deprived parents asking for help. I also took on “cases” where I would be in direct contact with parents helping them with their kids’ sleep. That could range anywhere from helping them tweak their kids’ schedules, to sleep training tips, to just offering support if they needed it. Parents would tell me what they were doing and I would offer information, support and/or suggestions. If they wanted to sleep train their child, I would help them through it and develop a plan with them based on the method they wanted to use. I never judged those who came to me for help; the last thing any parent wants is to be judged based on their decisions and I felt it was my duty to provide them with as much information as possible so they could make an informed decision.
How did you know DreamyBabies was a successful site?
I had many successes doing this and I would receive daily emails from happy, rested families thanking me for my helping. There is a family from Australia with whom I still keep in contact and who came to me with their 13 month old daughter. She barely slept and was under 10% in her weight category. Over the course of four weeks and several Skype chats, their daughter went from 6 hours of broken sleep at night to 12 hours of solid sleep plus two one-hour naps during the day (which was unheard of). She no longer cried at everything and instead, changed into a happy, smiling toddler. Her weight nearly tripled because she was no longer too tired to eat and was a happy, thriving little girl.
What did you learn from DreamyBabies?
I didn’t know it then but in helping parents through DreamyBabies, I was also helping myself and overcoming my depression. My psychiatrist – after finding about my website – told me that my altruistic actions would only serve to expedite my treatment and my road to recovery would be a successful one. He was right.
How did you know when it was time to move on from DreamyBabies?
Almost 2 years after I launched DreamyBabies, I was ready to change gears and blog about me. DreamyBabies slowly evolved into my own personal blog and when I decided to take it down, I contacted all of my “clients” to let them know of the change. My blog, Vodka and Soda, is now 3 years in the making and while I will always be here for those who need help or support, I instead choose to blog about random things that amuse me.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kat’s journey has shown me that each websites/blogs has a purpose – educate, support, and/or entertain – and knowing that purpose can help make a website/blog successful – whatever you define success to be. However, Kat’s journey has also shown me that as our lives change, so will our websites/blogs, and that’s ok. So thanks again for sharing your journey with us, Kat!
Please share your thoughts on Kat's post
in the comments below!
How has your blog changed since your very first post?
And be sure to visit Vodka and Soda!
in the comments below!
How has your blog changed since your very first post?
And be sure to visit Vodka and Soda!
Show some love. Leave a comment below and I'll definitely respond!
-----------------------
Follow this blog!
RSS | Facebook | Twitter | Email | Bloglovin'
-----------------------
Originally posted at expandng.com - She's resourceful
-----------------------
Follow this blog!
RSS | Facebook | Twitter | Email | Bloglovin'
-----------------------
Originally posted at expandng.com - She's resourceful
Thanks for sharing your experiences. I love how blogging can become a lifeline for women in the pits of PPD. Moms are so often isolated at home with their little ones which is basically the worst thing for depression and anxiety!
ReplyDeletei completely agree with your statement about many mothers feeling isolated at home. when i was going through my PPD, blogging was my only outlet and it made things better when i was able to connect with other parents out there.
DeleteI give you a lot of credit for fighting through your postpartum depression. It's hard to reach out for help, but you did so much more than that by way of helping others, too. Really impressive. While not so lucky to have a preemie born at 31 weeks, the 5 weeks he spent in the NICU helped regulate his sleep. By the time he came home, he was a pretty good sleeper and has remained a solid sleeper. Because of our situation, we chose not to sleep train, but I can't say what I would've done if he was a lousy sleeper - probably, like you, try a little of everything until we found the right balance.
ReplyDeletethanks so much for your words of support and for reading my (lengthy) post. i can't imagine a tiny baby in the NICU but i'm glad that he's now a strong, healthy, boy :)
Deleteit's always fascinating to learn about a blogger's story and the reasons/motives behind it. even with the hardships you've faced, you're determined to get better and it's inspiring to see that you've found an anchor to stay firm and grip to. :) i'll be sure to check out your blog! thank you for a great post. :_
ReplyDeletethanks, lisa! have a great day, both of you! :)
thanks for reading, Jasmine, and thanks for your kind words of support. i, too, love reading about a blogger's story or reason why they started. it's amazing how many connections you can make in the blogosphere!
DeleteHer blog is truly resourceful, thanks so much for sharing this. I cant imagine being a stay at home mom and i totally have a high respect towards them for being able to cope with high demands of a child all day long. I know i would go insane. As much as i love my daughter, i am a better mom if i get to go to work and have some alone time.
ReplyDeletethanks, Nelah. i know we've already exchanged some emails and i agree with you- sometimes i think being a SAHM is harder! however, i honestly feel that not everyone is made to be a SAHM mom (i know i'm not) and what's important is that all mothers are happy whether they choose to stay at home or work.
Deletethanks so much, Lisa for posting this!! i'm honored that you asked me to guest post.
ReplyDeleteGreat story, thank you for sharing!!!! More pressure to write something worthwhile. Haha.
ReplyDeletethanks, A. and LOL... i'm sure your post will be awesome! looking forward to reading it.
DeleteWhat an amazing journey! Thank you for sharing your story.
ReplyDeletethanks for reading all of it :) i know i can get a little wordy at times...
DeleteWhat a positive way to deal with PPD, and I am sure you helped many, many families along the way. It's also great to see you had the courage to change your blog focus, I can't wait to check your blog out...
ReplyDeletethanks for you kind words of support. blogging was one of the only things that kept my mind away from those awful things one thinks when they're going through something like that. i hope i did help many who stumbled upon my blog during that time. now i must go check out your blog too!
DeleteWhat a great post! I have to now visit her blog...I can't wait to read tomorrow's feature!
ReplyDeletethanks, Bessie, for reading. i just went to your blog too and i love it! i don't know what it is but i've been lurking more and more fashion blogs lately and yours is great.
DeleteYay, Kat! I am amazed on how you had a problem and fixed it by starting a blog. That awesome. I'm so proud of you!!! I love how honest and caring you are. Most people wouldn't take the time to help others, especially strangers. That shows what a great character you have! I'm so glad/proud to have you as a friend!
ReplyDeleteawww thanks girl. you know you're my fav hawaiian bloggy pal. you've always been there to support me no matter what! hugs xoxoxox
Delete