I know it's been a long time....but I can explain

START VOTING SEPTEMBER 1, 2008 PLEASE!

My business, 9 Months & Beyond, LLC which offers breastfeeding and childbirth support in the non-cyber world, is growing like crazy! We have moved into a pediatric office in a great part of town. We have converted an exam room at Maryland Farms Pediatrics into a small office for Lactation Consultations and doula interviews. We also use the lobby for Hypnobabies Childbirth classes and the conference room for our already popular Weigh To Go, Baby! Weigh-ins and Breastfeeding support group. It is going so well and we are helping so many moms and really having a great time.

So, you think I would be happy, right? Well, I want to take it even bigger! I want a free-standing (or in a strip mall) center where we can offer classes, support groups, lactation consultations, prenatal and mama-baby exercise, yoga, dance, art, etc. We would have a small amount of retail for hard to find objects like slings, positive parenting books, mama-baby exercise videos etc). I am working on firming up the business plan and possibly looking for an investor.

BUT, here's where you can help. Go to Ideablob.com and vote for 9 Months & Beyond! We could win $10,000 which would help us move into a larger location, buy furniture, library items, and have leverage with an investor.



Please vote for us. Please blog about it so others will vote for us.
If you have one of these centers, please let me call you or email you and ask questions because I need a mentor.

For an idea of what my vision looks like see these places: Happy Bambino, Natural Resources, Tulip Grove, Day One and Zenana Spa.

Of course, mine will be different, because it will meet the needs of families in Middle Tennessee!

Vote for us here:

Thanks for reading this blog (even though I haven't kept it up) and thanks for all your support!

Shameless Self-promotion

Today is the soft-launch of my new website: 9 Months & Beyond .I have the BEST web/graphics/marketing man on the planet: My husband. He currently works at Gibson Guitar and occasionally does some freelance on the side through his company Core 29. He is BRILLIANT and puts up with the toughest clients in the world, namely ME.

Let me take a moment here to give a word of advice to all my fellow professionals in the childbirth/breastfeeding/parenting world. PLEASE have your marketing materials professionally done. It is time we look legitimate. The year is 2007. Just because you can make a webpage at geocities or freeweb yourself, DOES NOT mean you should. Find someone who will make you look as professional as the hospitals in your area. Get quotes from several designers, CHECK THEIR WORK and then have a logo, website and card professionally designed. My designer husband begs you, please, stop the madness and the comic sans and the butterfly trails. I know this is all easy for me to say as I can pay my designer in lovingly home-cooked meals and well, I did give him three beautiful children, but in all honesty, it is worth the money and something to consider as an investment in your business. It will be a lovely day when my husband no longer makes fun of "birth websites" because, let's be honest, most of them fit the stereotype of being poorly designed with music in the background and several pages that don't load.

Sorry for the lecture - back to my regularly scheduled self-promotion....

Please sit back, have a cup of tea and spend some time at my new site. We will be adding more pictures soon. Pictures of birth tubs, pictures of me with clients and other professionals like Ina May and Bill and Martha Sears. Many of our services will start up in the next month or two and a few are available now like CAPPA CLE Trainings and Birth Plan Consultations.

Feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think about the site. Don't forget to bookmark it, tell your friends about it and refer moms and dads to it, especially those in the Nashville, Tennessee area.

Thanks!