Last year, a friend and I took our eleven month olds to MommyCon Philly and had a great time. We were hoping that the next event would be even better. Spoiler alert: our expectations were far exceeded.
We opted for the VIP Package because we were interested in seeing The Honest Toddler's mom speak at the Saturday VIP event. The VIP tickets included Saturday and Sunday events, two nights in a hotel, and a swag bag including a Beco Soleil baby carrier. Was it worth it?
Absolutely.
We left our house at 5:00am and drove through the foggy morning up towards Philadelphia. This time, instead of eleven month olds, we had two two year-olds and one three month old. Surprisingly, none of them slept for more than 20 minutes on the four and a half hour drive. It took a bit of driving around the block to figure out how to pull up to our hotel, but we finally figured it out.
In case you've never traveled with small children, packing light can be a bit tough. We filled up two luggage carts. We'd brought food, lots of changes of clothes for potty trained toddlers, cloth diapers for the baby, baby carriers, a pack and play, and a cot. Finally, we got everything unloaded to the room, and rushed to registration at the Convention Center, right across the street from the hotel.
We got checked in, and the registration ladies were nice enough to give my little girl a lanyard as well. We settled down in the back of the room to hear Honest Toddler's Mom (Bunmi Laditan) as she did giveaways via a game of "Who Has It Worst?" Prizes went to those who had gone the longest without showering, the most years without sleep, had the longest pregnancy, and the longest labors. In between each prize, she had the audience in stitches with her keeping it real humor about motherhood. She was even funnier in person than she is when writing in toddler persona.
The Leaky Boob was one of the biggest improvements over the previous year. Jessica Martin-Weber is an inspiring speaker, but last year it felt a little bit like she was speaking to the choir about breast-feeding. This year, she spoke about the measures we need to advocate for to support breastfeeding. She spoke about maternity leave, desexualizing breastfeeding, and education of health professionals. I left feeling empowered to pursue those measures.
The day wrapped up with Baby Guy NYC doing a Q&A. My favorite question was about what gift to splurge on for a new mom. He recommended a good baby carrier or carseat, or a postpartum doula.
More tomorrow!
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