Sunday, 26 December 2010

Boxing Day Blogerversary!!

As I sat at my laptop this time last year, I never could have imagined what kind of a journey I was starting out on. Newly pregnant and oblivious to the sheer size of the mummy bloggy community, I started on my journey and wrote my first ever Second Time Mummy post - I was such an amateur that I didn't even give the post a title!


I started my blog, like many others out there, as a record of my pregnancy and never imagined that anyone else would ever really read it. Second Time Mummy was a little hobby, just something small that I added to whenever I had time.

In March I got so excited because I had over a hundred hits in one day to my Trip to the hospital : ( post - I felt famous! It was the most traffic I'd ever had, and all because I'd added a pic of one of the labour rooms at my local hospital! At that time I thought 100 views was massive, and it was for me, it sparked something inside of me. I loved the feeling I got from knowing that people were coming to read my blog and it made me want to carry on.

I was just plodding along nicely, blogging away about motherhood and the struggles of dressing with a bump, when at the end of May I was approached to review some maternity clothes for a store named Pretty Pregnant. I was so excited but surprised that they had even come across the ramblings of little old me. The first thing I received from them was a pair of maternity jeggings - and I have to say, I was horrified at the prospect of squeezing my huge pregnant ass in to them -but the subsequent review I wrote on them remains one of my biggest hitters as far as searches go!

I continued reviewing for them and my blog became a mummy blog with a fashion twist but I still wasn't convinced anyone was reading so imagine my surprise when, in mid June, I received an email telling me I'd been nominated for a Gurgle Award. Although I knew there was little chance of me winning, Chris and I headed down to London anyway. It was the first opportunity I would have to meet some fellow Mummy bloggers and I couldn't wait.


For some reason when I got to the Awards, I became overwhelmed and went all shy. Seeing this, a lovely lady named Pippa came over and introduced herself and we were soon giggling away with all the amazing bloggers that had been nominated. At the end of the evening when the winners were announced, I could not believe it when I heard that Second Time Mummy had won Best Fashion Blog by a Mum!

Almost over night, Second Time Mummy became noticed - PRs started emailing and invites started to drop in to my inbox. So excited by the prospect of goodies to review and new places to go, I started accepting every single thing that dropped in to my lap and my next 'meeting of minds' came in the form of the amazing John Lewis Christmas launch - IN JULY!! Heavily pregnant, I knew it would be my last chance to see my fellows bloggers for a while, so again I headed down to the big smoke on a very early train.

I got to meet so many more lovely people like Maria and Little M, Emma (Me the Man and the Baby), Emma (Adventures of an English Mum) and Becky (Baby Budgeting) - it was a great day out and of course I got to see Pippa, my first ever blog friend again which was lovely!

My life was going perfectly and I couldn't have been happier until at 37 weeks my leg swelled up and after a night in hospital it was revealed that I had a DVT. It scared me and the daily injections that followed really got me down until I was induced for the second time and Little E made her first appearance in to the World.


Our lives have changed so much since that day, the injections are still a pain but I'm plodding on.

The past few months have been a complete whirlwind of nappies and baby sick but I've still managed to find the time to keep blogging and even get to the Baby Show where I met one of the Gurgle Award judges - Mylene Klass and I met up with my lovely cyberspace friends at the Fisher Price Party.

This has been the most amazing year for me, I've met some amazing people and the support I've received when times have been tough has been unbelievable. This year has also seen me become a Quinny Caster and a Gurgle Girl and feature on the Asda Mum and Toddler site. Not only that, we're about to start in our duties as Lego Duplo Experts and Playmobil Playologist's in the New Year.

This time last year, I could never have even dreamed what the blog would bring to me or how it would develop and I am so proud to be celebrating my first ever bloggerversary today and I would like to thank each and every one of you for your continued support.

I have decided that my second year in blogging will bring less reviews and more real life - I want to bring the blog right back to where it started, a personal blog about me and my mummy adventures and I hope that you will continue to join me on my ride.



And finally I could not have got to where I am today without my beautiful family. Thank you to Chris, Mister A and Little E for making my life complete.... oh and... Happy Birthday Blog!



While you're here why not enter my blogerversary prizedraw!

3 comments:

  1. I love reading everyone's stories on how they started! That event was my first blogger event and it was good to meet you two. thank you for the lovely mention and happy blogaversary! xx

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  2. Congratulations on one amazing year!!

    I only started blogging this summer so it's great to hear that others feel nervous when meeting other bloggers for the first time - I tend to forget we are/were all in the same boat.

    Here's to many more years. x

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