November 5th, 2009 • Comments: 0 9 • by Wendy • Inside Snugabell

PumpEase Lands at the ABC Show in VEGAS BABY!

I've been home from Las Vegas for about 5 weeks now (yes, I've been trying to get to this post for a while).  And I must say, I'm not big on tourist traps...  AT ALL.  If I end up in a touristy area incidentally - like when I travel to destinations off the beaten track but have to fly in to a touristy area - I'm gone the very next day.  Why? You simply don't experience the real city/country in the touristy areas!  And I want to experience the real culture.  Examples:  New York City's Times Square, resort towns in Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican... and well, Vegas is pretty much the King (or should I say Ace) of all tourist traps.  Just soooo commercial (yuck)!  BUT.I.HAD.A.FANTASTIC.TIME!  Las Vegas Rule #1 - Keep an open mind.

Why were we in Sin City?  Well, PumpEase made its official debut at the premier tradeshow of the juvenile products industry - The ABC Kids Expo! (woot, woot!)  We were at the show with our Distributor - Sandy of Le Duck Distributors.  Sandy represents PumpEase and our colleague Diane Sam's product MoBoleez.  Together we are the Le Duck Team (see below, L to R:  Sandy, Darlene, Diane and myself).  And don't we look brilliant in our flora & fauna tops?  Pauline Siu, a hot, new Vancouver designer, created these amazing tops for us to wear at the show.  Visit her site to check out the rest of her locally, ethically and sustainably-made Eco-Fashion label!

Not only was the show fantastic (read: we wrote lots of orders, made many great contacts and are following-up with more potential retail partners), but the networking was phenomenal!

Now, on to the show itself - we were in a great location and had great neighbours!  Milkies was on one side, LilyBugs was across the aisle and My Brest Friend was kitty corner to us.  We also cruised the show and chatted with Francie Pants, Simple Wishes and Four Peas among many others!  And it was fantastic to finally put a face to a name as we met some of our retail partners for the very first time - like Britt Pegan of Milkface and Jill Broussard of BreastPumps.com and BreastPumpsDirect.com!

Although this was a business trip, all work and no play makes Wendy a dull girl, right?  Enter Darlene, my BFF who flew down from Kelowna, BC (about 4 hours from where I live) for a visit and to help work our booth.

The first day in Vegas, 2 days before we had to set-up the show, we decided to go for a walk - you know, scout things out a bit.  Las Vegas Rule #2 - just because you can "see" your destination, doesn't mean you should "walk" to your destination.  I think we walked for 9 hours that first day!  Our poor feet!  I have to admit, I was a bit worried about working a 4-day, 1,000,000 square foot tradeshow after that first day, but my feet persevered! (yay).

I have to backtrack now to a couple of weeks before we left.  Dar emailed me and asked me if I "wanted to get my nose pierced with her" while we were down in Vegas.  Um. No. Not really.  Who knew that my closest friend of 24 years wanted to get her nose pierced?  Anyways, after several taxi rides, a wild goose chase and a 16 year old "piercer" who told Darlene she looked like a teacher (lol), our mission was accomplished (and in lieu of getting my nose pierced, I held her hand and took the pics)!  That's her to the right - under the knife, er, I mean needle.  Las Vegas Rule #3:  If they look 25, they are 16.  And yes, we are old.

Darlene and I also bought tickets to see La Rêve after chatting to a very nice lady at a discount ticket outlet outside of Circus Circus where they had $2 Strawberry Margaritas with quite the kick (the real reason we stopped).  The discount ticket lady told us the story of Steve Wynn and how, after owning 3 of the majors in Vegas (Treasure Island, The Bellagio and The Mirage) and then being ousted in a hostile takeover by MGM, he persevered to build the Wynn and Encore Hotels.  Further, he created his own Cirque show and designed a ROUND theatre to showcase it in, so that there was NOT ONE bad seat in the house.  We paid just under $100 each for our tickets - fantastic seats - AMAZING show! (The pic to the left is the finale - those flowers were probably 20 ft in diameter).  The seats with "partially obstructed views" at the Bellagio for "O" were OVER $100 each (umm... who would pay over $100 for a partially obstructed view?)  AND I confirmed "discount ticket lady's" story on Wikipedia.  Las Vegas Rule #4 - You don't always get what you pay for.

One of the highlights of the trip was our breakfast meeting with Bettina Forbes and Danielle Rigg, founders of the Best for Babes Foundation, of which we are a corporate sponsor.  Until that morning, we had only chatted on the phone and via email, Twitter and Facebook.  The energy in the room was palpable as I also got to meet other BfB corporate sponsors like Sheri & Melinda of Earth Mama Angel Baby, the ladies of My Brest Friend, Line of GlamourMom, Shari & Joe Criso of My Baby Experts and The Birth Boutique (one of our new retail partners - stoked about that!), Leslie of NutraBella and the lovely ladies of Hygeia!

Another fantastic morning was spent taking the Zappos tour!  I was absolutely inspired by every moment that we spent at their head office in Henderson, Nevada (just outside of Vegas) - WOW!  And that's what it's all about at Zappos - making their customers say "WOW!"  You can find out a bunch of super interesting information about the Zappos culture here - which is at the core of everything they do.  Here are some points that really stuck with me (in no particular order)...

• they had a nicely appointed  "Mother's Room" for employees that are breastfeeding and/or pumping - and moms can pump when they need to.  Do you hear that Totes-Isotoner?
• if you're tired while you're at work, you can take.a.nap.on.company.time
• all the departments are decorated in a unique and fun theme ---> there's the mullet of Zappos Recruiting - and they had mullet wigs for everyone to wear!
• 2 weeks into your training, they offer you $2000 to QUIT if you don't feel you are absolutely passionate about being a part of the Zappos team (this saves them money in the long run - smart)
• the company lunchroom is stocked with food (for free) and the vending machines don't take money
• their customer service department is empowered to do "whatever it takes" to make the customer happy - they recounted a story of a customer that had recently lost her mother and the Zappos employee had flowers sent to her - WOW!
• they ship free (in the USA) BOTH ways - yes, that means even for returns!  Why would you shop anywhere else?
• they have no call "stats" to meet in their call centre (as a former call centre employee, this is UNHEARD of)
• Tony Hsieh's desk (he's the CEO in case you didn't know) is in a cubicle, just like everyone else, amongst employees (there's Diane sitting in Tony's chair)
• at the end of the tour we were invited to peruse a "library" of Tony Hsieh's favourite books and take as many as we desired (no joke!)

I could go on and on - truly a great place to work.  And has the company sufferred by empowering their employees, bending over backwards for their customers and making Zappos a fun place to work?  I hardly think so.  Zappos.com has been around for just over 10 years and now does $2-3 million PER DAY in online sales.  They broke $10 billion annually in 2008.  Absolutely mind-blowing!  Las Vegas Rule #5:  Think Big!

We also enjoyed a great dinner with Madeleine Shaw of LunaPads (my friend, colleague and informal mentor) and her BFF Ann.  AND we were smart enough to get off the strip to where the food was less expensive and of MUCH higher quality (see tourist trap rant above).  We had an amazing Indian dinner at Gandhi. Mmmmm!  And we had a very cheeky and funny waiter to round out the evening!

If I havent mentioned LunaPads to you before, I must tell you a short story.  I met Madeleine at a Fashion Industry meeting in the late 90's.  At that time she was just bringing LunaPads to market and was struggling with the packaging design.  Madeleine also owned a women's clothing store that had a small factory in the back and had done a small run of production for me (this was when I was designing and manufacturing a women's sportswear line).  Madeleine gave me a LunaPad.  I was kinda grossed out by the whole idea of reusable menstural products but graciously accepted the gift.  I never used the pad.  I put it in my bathroom cupboard.  I looked at it from time to time.  I moved 5 times.  I never threw it out.  ---> Fast forward to 2008.  I had reconnected with Madeleine as I was struggling with the packaging for PumpEase and a colleague suggested I speak to her as our products both shared a "non-mainstream" vein.  I went to her website.  I read the testimonials.  I was intrigued.  I placed an order.  I gave away my Costco-size box of tampons to a friend.  I have never looked back.  I'm more aware of my body.  I'm doing something good for me.  I'm doing something good for the environment.  I'm doing something good for my daughters.  My bathroom garbage doesn't overflow with garbage every 4 weeks.  Check out LunaPads. Really.

Two more dinners, one at Mon Ami Gabi (yum) and the other at the Cheesecake Factory (double yum) were spent with Dawnn Whittaker and her husband Marc of Cheeky Chops.  Dawnn is a former Nanny turned Baby Contentment and Child Sleep Consultant.  Dawnn was a client of my other company, Moda de Vida Design and then I became a client of hers and I can tell you that she walks on water!  My girls, aged almost 5 and almost 3 sleep 12+ hours/night and my almost 3 years old still naps 45 min in the afternoon.  If you're having a problem with children and sleep, contact Dawnn.  It is never too late to give your children the lifelong gift of good sleeping habits!

We also went on the rides at the top of the Stratosphere (that's the view of the strip from the top).  You may not know this about me, but I am a bit of a thrill seeker - I LOVE things that scare me.  I will go on ANY rollercoaster that they build.  I have bungee jumped, I'm a certified scuba diver and I am planning on trying skydiving very soon (a tandem jump so I can experience freefall).  I also want to get my motorcyle license, a plan that was kyboshed when I found out I was pregnant with my first daughter.

If you are not familiar with the rides at the top of the Stratosphere, they are 1149 feet above the Las Vegas strip (just sayin').  We went on the Insanity and the X-Scream.  Oddly, I.HATED.BOTH.OF.THEM.  I REALLY hated both of them.  So weird.  I'm glad I did it though (just so I can say that I did).  Then we went down one level to Fat Tuesdays and each got a 26 oz margarita for the road.  Something tells me we did that in the wrong order.  Las Vegas Rule #6 - Booze first, white-knuckle rides second.

So off to Fremont Street we went - that's the old (original) strip in case you didn't know - and except for my 3-day whirlwind trip to Vegas last year for the ABC Show (when I worked Diane's booth to get my feet wet for this year), I hadn't been to Vegas since the old strip WAS the strip (see paragraph #1 re:  tourist traps).  So I figured out it had been about 28 years since I had been on Fremont Street and the last time I was there was with my Dad.  And then I got all melancholy - I still miss him so much!  So I shed a few tears for Dad and then we continued to have a blast because Darlene and I always, always, ALWAYS have fun together (and that's what my Dad would have wanted).

So are you wondering why I haven't mentioned any gambling yet?  I WAS in Vegas after all.  Well gambling really doesn't interest me.  Last year, the first time I had been in Vegas since I was "of age", I sat down at a slot machine, put in $10 and it was gone in 5 minutes.  B-O-R-I-N-G!  This year I figured I had to try it again considering I was there with my BFF that I ALWAYS have fun with!  So I started with $2.  I chose a penny slot, but a "real" one - with the actual wheels that spin and a handle to pull (what's the point of playing a slot machine that is all computerized???) - and it took me 45 minutes to lose the 8 bits.  It was fun... a little.  I staked a claim on that machine and walked away.

The night we went to Fremont Street, I won't lie to you, I was a bit tipsy!  When we got back to our hotel, I found "my" slot machine and thank goodness no one was sitting on the stool as I may just have booted them off!  I put in $20 this time (I guess I thought I was a high roller fueled-up with margaritas and all).  I played and lost and won and lost and won again.  And I started using the button instead of pulling the arm (too funny!)  In the end, during my entire 7 day stay in Vegas, I lost a whole $19 and enjoyed it enough to try it again next year (not the losing part, the gambling part).  Pretty.cheap.entertainment.

Well there you have it.  I finally learned (albeit temporarily) how to balance my business with downtime and had to go all the way to Las Vegas to do it!  I made some new friends, reconnected with some old ones and enjoyed some new experiences.  Now I'm counting down to the show in 2010 where I will hopefully meet Deidrea Haysel of Hot Mama Gowns and Katie O'Neill of KT Steppers, just two of the many fabulous Mompreneurs that I have met on Twitter and Facebook over the past year or so.

Have you been to the ABC Show?  Are you familiar with any of the great companies and products that I mentioned?  How about 26 oz margaritas from Fat Tuesdays?  Leave a comment below and tell us about it!

November 3rd, 2009 • Comments: 0 0 • by Wendy • Inside Snugabell • Pumping • Resources

How to Take an Overbust Measurement

Today we updated our Fitting Room with a great video, that you can view below (and you're not allowed to laugh about the still image, ahem), demonstrating the correct way to take an overbust measurement.  About a month ago we also added a third size chart containing the measurements between the horn openings on the different sizes of PumpEase.  You asked.  We delivered.

It IS all about YOU, our customer (and no, I'm not being corny).  Our goal is to make your visit to our website as enjoyable, informative and satisfying as we possibly can.  So take another look around and don't forget to leave a comment with your feedback about what you DO see/like/dislike and also about what you WOULD LIKE to see... so we can make PumpEase.com even better!

xo
Wendy

October 28th, 2009 • Comments: 0 6 • by Wendy • About this Blog & Me • Just for Fun • Warm & Fuzzy

"All About My Mom" (by my soon-to-be 5 year old daughter Antonia)

Today's ramblings are in response to Annie's post over at PhD in Parenting earlier this week in which she invited us to "interview" our child about their mother (that would be me) and share the responses.  So this evening I sat down and asked my daughter the questions below...  She was a little hesitant after about the 3rd or 4th question, asking if this was for school or Sparks (lol).  Anyways, you can now disregard all the info over on my Meet Wendy page as THIS IS THE TRUTH... according to Antonia.

What are mothers for?

Taking care of kids.

How are mothers made?

With skin.

What ingredients are mothers made of?

Skin, blood, eyes, a nose and a mouth.

Why am I your mommy instead of another woman being your mommy?

Because I love you.

What kind of little girl was I?

You had long, dark brown hair, brown eyes and were wearing a black shirt with blue pants.

What did I need to know about Daddy before I married him?

To know if he was real.

Why did I choose Daddy to marry?

Because you liked him.

Who's the boss at our house?

Daddy.

What's the difference between mommies and daddies?

Girls have earrings.

What do I do in my spare time?

Play.

What would it take to make me perfect?

Wear pretty, long earrings with diamonds and lipstick and have long, pretty eyelashes.

If you could change one thing about me, what would it be?

Your eyes would be green like Daddy's.

So there you have it... she thinks Daddy is the boss!  I am going to have to have a serious talk with that girl!  (where HAVE I gone wrong?)

I welcome you to join in the fun - ask your son or daughter the same list of questions and link back to this post.  You can put the url of your post in the comments.

October 3rd, 2009 • Comments: 0 16 • by Wendy • Breast is Best

Driving Without a Seatbelt - The Blinders of Our Cultural "Norms"

I was recently in Las Vegas and took the Zappos.com tour.  When their bus came to our hotel to pick us up, I was both surprised and pleased to see that it had seatbelts (and yes I put one on)!  I can't remember ever riding on a bus with seatbelts and in fact, I always wondered why they didn't have them especially when you hear of the busloads of school children seriously injured or killed after being involved in an accident.

This got me thinking about an oft-discussed, "remember when" conversation amongst my sisters and I... "Remember when we were kids and Mom and Dad both smoked in the car WITH THE WINDOWS ROLLED ALL THE WAY UP?  And remember how we used to tuck the seatbelts in behind the seat because no one wore them?  And remember how mothers used to ride in the front passenger seat with babies on their laps? And remember when Dad used to go out for drinks with the guys after work and drive home drunk all the way from downtown Vancouver?"

IT ALL SEEMS SO WEIRD NOW.  I feel quite uneasy if I ever ride in a motor vehicle without a seatbelt (e.g. in a taxi, bus or limo).  Our babies are in 5-point harness, rear-facing car seats.  My Mom NEVER smokes in the car - in fact, she doesn't even smoke in her own house, or anyone else's for that matter (even if the homeowners themselves do)!  In fact, many US States and Canadian Provinces (BC, Ontario and Nova Scotia) have passed laws prohibiting smoking in your car if you have children with you.  And who risks driving drunk anymore?  Not I, and I'm sure, not you either.

It's all what we're used to - the cultural norm.  These changes didn't happen overnight.  When the change first occurs, people resist because generally, people don't like change.  I remember HATING to have to wear a seatbelt when it became law.  Today, when I get into the car, I couldn't imagine even backing out of the driveway without a seatbelt.  It feels weird NOT to have it on!  So gradually things change and then everyone thinks back to "remember when" and how, in contrast, their past behaviours feel so odd and distant and CRAZY today!

And speaking of "what we're used to", what other mammals do you know that drink milk from another species?  And what other mammals do you know that drink milk past infancy?  The fact that we have been brainwashed by the Dairy Industry to think we should ingest cow's milk as the "norm" is a perfect example of the blinders we wear in our culture.  When you REALLY sit down and think about this, humans drinking cow's milk is NOT NORMAL.  Yet many of us do it without ever questioning it.

The same goes for the Formula Industry and their marketing campaigns that have brainwashed both health care professionals and consumers to really believe that artificial feeding is as good as breastmilk.  I believe that formula should only be available by perscription and in a tin with a generic label - no brand names, pictures or promotional messages such that it is in Iran.  But I digress.  That is a whole other post.

Another example is fashion, albeit a bit less significant societally, but may resonate with some readers all the same. Do you remember when skinny leg jeans came into style? (yes I know I am dating myself).  I remember thinking I would "never" wear them.  Yuck! I loved my bell bottoms!  But there we were a few months later enmasse.

So why then, when we hear of a woman cross-nursing a baby, something that was a cultural norm only a little more than 60 years ago, are we squeamish or worse, even mortified?

My sister sent me an article that she had ripped-out of the October 2009 issue of Canadian Family magazine entitled "Bunch of boobs".  It is a true story by Catherine Connors, citing a situation she found herself in - with painfully engorged breasts, sans a breast pump and an offer to nurse another woman's hungry baby - an act that would solve both problems - settling the hungry baby and relieving her painful engorgement.  The article also appears on her blog bearing the title, They Shoot Wet Nurses, Don't They?

I think Angie Felton of ParentDish sums it up quite nicely in her article, Cross Nursing - Natural extension or disgusting and weird?, in which she writes, "When I was in the midst of my own nursing years (I nursed all four of my kids) nursing a friend's baby wouldn't have been more intimate to me than giving them a bottle, simply a means to END THE CRYING. However, I was in a completely different mindset where breasts were purely utilitarian baby feeding devices. I'm no longer at that point, and can understand people being grossed out at the thought of breastfeeding someone else's child."

But shouldn't we all take a step back, adopt a similar mindset and realize that breasts ARE utilitarian baby feeding devices?  I know it is hard to wade through all the sexual images we are inundated with in our culture to achieve clarity on this, however, this is the reason women have breasts and men don't.  Think about it.  I also realize that this task may be more difficult for non-moms - I didn't become a mom until I was 38 years old and thus had formed opinions (albeit misinformed ones) about many subjects around breastfeeding and motherhood.  For example, my opinion about the length of a mother's breastfeeding relationship with her child was summed up in a statement such as, "If they're old enough to ask for it, then it is time to wean."  How naive was I?  Today I am quite irritated by the term "extended breastfeeding" because it labels it as an "outside the norm" activity.  How can we view breastfeeding a toddler as "weird" when the experts at the AAP, the AAFP, Health Canada and the WHO all recommend exclusively breastfeeding your baby for the first six months of life and continuing to breastfeed for up to two years and beyond?  I was wrong.  I was misinformed.  Educate yourself.  It's your responsibility to do so before voicing an opinion.

I too am finished breastfeeding my children, however, if I had milk today and found myself in a situation similar to Catherine's, I'm certain I would partake.  As far as how I would feel about it, I think it "could" feel a little weird, almost illicit (only because of the cultural perception) to breastfeed another mother's child, however, I don't think that feeling would last more than a few seconds before it changed into exhilaration, empowerment and inspiration!  I believe I would actually feel quite proud - as though I was a trailblazer for all women!

With regards to HIV and other communicable diseases, the "knee-jerk" reason most commonly heard in opposition of this issue, I trust that the mothers of today are intelligent women and will use her common sense in choosing a wet nurse or a cross-nursing partner that she trusts.  I simply don't accept that as a valid reason not to cross-nurse.  Mothers will protect their child in every aspect of parenting including this one.  Case closed.

So the next time you witness or read something in the media that makes you feel uncomfortable or upset, perhaps take the time to do a little research.  Find out the where's and the why's; if it has ever been the "norm" in the past, find out WHY it went "out of fashion" (for lack of a better word) and decide for yourself if that reason is something you agree with or if its the result of unfortunate shifts in our cultural thinking.  Change isn't ALWAYS for the better.

So would you nurse another woman's baby?  Tell me about it below.

September 28th, 2009 • Comments: 0 0 • by Wendy • Just for Fun

Breast Is Best in Any Language!

I was recently reading an article that noted that the German word for breastfeeding is stillen (pronounced shtil′-in) which translates literally as "to quiet and comfort (the baby)".  I thought it was a lovely translation and was immediately curious (I'm a Gemini - it's a curse) to find out what the word for breastfeeding is in other languages as well as what they would translate to literally.  Therefore, I set forth to pick the brains of all my cosmopolitan friends.  Here is what I found out...

Japanese

bonu (bow-new) translates to "mother milk".  From what I understand from my friend Pearl, this is a more casual way of saying breastfeeding.  She went on to say the following, "Ok, so... bonu o noma seru is the formal way of saying breastfeeding. The "o noma seru" means "to make drink". Even though none of those words is a literal translation for "baby". One would just understand the phrase to mean breastfeeding."

"Another more casual way would be ochichi o noma seru. The word "ochichi" is an informal way of saying breast, but when used with "o noma seru" would mean to breastfeed. It's hard to give literal translations, because it's the way words are used in the context of conversation that creates the definition of words. I guess that's why Japanese is so hard to learn unless you live there and speak it all the time."

"The phrase in the article below akachan ni oppai o ageru is yet another way you could say it - "akachan" means baby, "oppai" is another slang for breast."

This is a great article about the Japanese culture and brieftly speaks to the fact that the Japanese aren't all "hung-up" on nudity (like we are in North America).  It also explains that there are not that many slang words for breasts because the Japanese feel that breasts are nothing to be ashamed of.  Hmmm...  a lesson there perhaps?

And finally, a short and humourous article about formal and informal Japanese speech.  Thanks again Pearl.  I learned a lot!

Spanish (Mexico)

darle el pecho (dar′-lay el pay′-cho) translates to "give the breast".  Thanks Delia!

Welsh

bwydo o'r fron(boo-eed-ore-vrom) From my friend Claire:  "Bwydo literally translates to feed and fron again literally translates to breast and if we conjugate this to a verb then we would write in the form of bwydo o'r fron... which translates to breast feeding.  A lot of words in Welsh do not translate directly, but this one does.  So there is no rough translation (similar words that would be a close translation when required) this one is as clear a translation as ever."

Chinese

Bu Ru 哺乳 (boo′-roo) translates to “feeding human milk”.  Thanks Jackie!

Italian

allattare al seno (a-la-tar′-ray al say′-nyo) translates to "give milk on the breast" but in general people say simply allattare.  Thanks Giovanna!

So I guess my mission to find another language that was as lovely as the German translation must continue...

Therefore, if you speak another language that isn't noted here and know the word for breastfeeding and how it translates literally to English, please share in the comments below!  We'd love to hear more!  Or if you find an error in our post, please let us know that too!  Maybe I should have majored in Linguistics?