Its a Small, Small World

During my 37th week of pregnancy I began to get a bit anxious and was really ready for baby to come. All through my pregnancy I had heard of these things called Braxton Hicks contractions; they are supposed to become more intense as you approach labor and it concerned me that I wasn't having them. So I did what any hysterical pregnant woman would do in this day and age and Googled it. What I found astonished and relieved me: someone's personal blog chronicling her pregnancy from conception on, and she was going through all the feelings, fears and emotions that I was. I followed the rest of her pregnancy and ultimately her son was born only twelve hours before mine. And now as new parents we are again going through the same things at almost exactly the same time: the challenges of breastfeeding, wanting to toss parenting books out the window, wanting our babies to walk and talk immediately but wanting even more to cherish every moment. It has been an incredible comfort knowing that someone out there can really relate to what I have been going through and I am grateful to have found her blog.

Recently, I began to wonder if there were other new mothers in the area who might be interested in meeting others like themselves. Again I Googled mommy groups and found that there are several groups in the area of mothers, mostly first-timers with very young babies, who meet regularly for coffee, to chat, or to commiserate. It blows my mind the amount of support and camaraderie that can be found out there just by using your computer. What would we do without it? And would things have been any easier for our mothers when we were babies if they could have Googled?