I'm officially on maternity leave, friends! This pregnancy has flown by and we are so close to meeting baby 2! I cannot wait for the world to know whether this baby is a little boy or girl! I'm bursting at the seams! Chris is being surprised again, but I have known since mid-December! I'll have to write a blog post one of these days on how I kept from slipping up with 2 babies within a year! I've become so used to keeping my mouth shut, but it is quite the feat!
Today though, I'm talking about how I'm preparing for maternity differently than last time. To sum it up- with Caroline, I didn't really do anything preemptively to get ready. I've posted over on Instagram and in this blog post about this, but I delusionally thought I'd be back on the computer and back at it within days of giving birth. I mean, I'd knew I'd be home so why wouldn't there be lots of time to work, right? Looking back I had no idea what I was thinking and in those weeks after Caroline was here, I felt overwhelmed because nothing was in place and I seemingly fell off the face of the Earth. In a lot of ways that was wonderful, but it was so stressful from a business standpoint.
So this time...
BRIDES
I'll start with my brides. I have kept open communication with my fall 2018 and 2019 brides. They knew about baby 2 before we announced and I have developed strong relationships with them so they feel comfortable coming to me if they had any concerns. All of them have been so amazing and have celebrated this pregnancy with me along the way and I've loved keeping them in the loop with everything. For my fall brides, I scheduled venue walkthroughs and meetings in the spring and I'm happy to say those weddings are ahead of the curve. So I can head into maternity leave relaxed and confident in my work for those brides.
PRE-BLOGGING
Those gorgeous spring weddings we just got done, a few of them are lined up and scheduled over the coming weeks for the blog and I can't wait for you to see them! There will be no more content on the blog after this week until September and I'm ok with that (I will, of course, be doing an introduction post on baby 2 though!)
Will any work be done this Summer?
Yes! I am so so lucky to work for something that I absolutely adore and WANT to work on. There are 3 projects to work on over the summer, but they don't have strict timelines and I will feel ok taking my time on them. These projects will be brought to the light later this year and I'm looking forward to some quiet time this Summer to give them attention. I know going into this new chapter that it is ok to work a little here and there and it's ok to enjoy that work and not feel guilty.
RUFFLED LANE
Ruffled Lane is still open, though there is only a select inventory available in the shop. Orders will be shipped out once a week instead of twice and if everything sells out it will stay that way until September. This company is time-consuming and requires a lot of love daily and I'm thrilled that it has grown the way it has. We have some exciting things in the works this fall so stay tuned!
LOW EXPECTATIONS
A year ago I had high expectations. High expectations for jumping back into things super fast, high expectations for getting the hang of breastfeeding, really high expectations for everything that comes along with running home-based businesses and being a new mom. Big mistake. Huge mistake. This year, I have low expectations. I know some weeks I will barely look at my phone or talk to anyone and then others I will find pockets of hours and be strangely productive. I know this now and I feel really good about it. The one thing that is terrifying about having another baby (and so close in age to Caroline) is knowing it will take a while to get back into a groove. I feel like that took forever with Caroline and it will seem like forever until we get back there and that is a daunting feeling. But, I know that at some point in the coming months I will get into that groove again. We will get back on a scheduled as a family that works for us, works for my brides, and works for me. Until then I hope to give myself grace every day and accept that I will be in a mama of 2 under 1 fog for as long as it lasts.
So the maternity leave vacation email responder is on and I'm feeling really good about where both businesses are and what the next few months will look like! Check back tomorrow for a post on my favorite baby products I've been obssesed with the past year!
Warmly,
Michelle