Blogging about Birth and my Boys

What was life like before the internet? How did we parent before the internet? One of my sons once defined the Internet as the place I go to learn how to breastfeed.

Our household purchased the first computer when my first son was about 1 1/2. I went back and forth about purchasing the computer. "What will we do with one?" One of the first sites I found was an attachment parenting article by Dr. Sears. What an eye opener. I found someone who described what I doing. I thought I found a goldmine. (the article link isn't valid anymore)

I was pregnant at that time. I also found padded ring sling sights and ordered my first sling. I was still suspicious of this gimmick as I knew absolutely no one that used a sling, but I knew the carrier I tried first with William was not functional. I found the DONA.COM site during my pregnancy in pusuit of finding a doula.

My sister came to stay with me around the time of my second birth. She set up my hotmail address that is still my primary address I use today. I did not know how to create an account or use it. At the time I told her, to just call me if you want to talk to me!

One of my first uses with my new e-mail address was to contact a tandem nursing mother site for information. I typed in all capitals and it took my a long time... and I got blasted in the reply. I was told not to shout. So much for that contact. I earned an "A" for effort.

Slowly but surely, my real life friends and I connected by e-mail. Getting out with two boys, talking on the phone with boys crying and demanding is not practical... e-mail worked.

Eventually, I was joining several several statewide and internatinal groups for breastfeeding. That's when I got the idea to start a local breastfeeding yahoo group. That's the http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BFTaskForce/. I thought I'd be laughed at for forming "another internet group." But it was a success and the group is still held together by e-mail.

When medscape offered free websites to physicians, I was one of the first. My staff at the medicenter encouraged me along, "It's so nice to have a physician who can tell all about herself on the web."

I've had several freebie websites before twofloridadocs.com. E-mail has been a continuous form of communication with like-minded women I probably would have not had a chance to stay in touch with otherwise, and of course, now I'm Blogging about Birth and my Boys. What would I do without the Internet?