Nichole Hirsch
I have wanted babies since I can remember and somewhere along the way I decided I would give birth at home and raise them the good old fashioned way. Well, I did have my daughter at home three years ago and I want to stay home with her and have found a way to do it at first full time, then part time, and now about 90% of the time she's in my care. It's taken me three years to grow the idea that was brewing while pregnant with her to what it is now. MyHealthyBeginning.com is really a result of many hours of compiling information and meeting with those in my treasure chest of a network all the while sitting at my desk during her nap attached to 1) the breastpump for milk while I was at school, 2) the phone and 3) the keyboard. Did I mention that was all at once? I don't recommend making yourself crazy over becoming an enterpreneur, but man, it kind of takes over. I started to thrive on both the growing bond between Sunny and I and the momentum of this idea that began to take on a mind of its own. I mean, be careful what you throw out into the universe! My website grew into a publication for women, infants and children in the Twin Cities with ideas of moving to a national level with a couple of book writing ideas swirling around in my head. I had it fairly low risk, starting from home, using my current network, sharing what I knew and before I recognized what was happening, I had tripled my distribution in four issues.
Sunny is a constant inspiration to me. Of course I want her to have what I didn't, but not in a lavish way. I want the time and stress free life of travel and seeing the world. I want the time to do things a little more traditionally with her; good food, slow pace of life, siblings. Every time I'm ready to throw in the towel on finishing my undergraduate degree (seven months to go!) or get frustrated because I owe my printer or graphic designer money and there's nothing coming in, I just look at the picture of her in her lifejacket on the dock holding a (by that time) dead sunfish (ever heard of loving things to death?) with her white sunglasses on and her blonde hair shining in the sun, I just get positive that what I am doing is good and right and will serve us and the community well.
Motherhood is amazing and stressful and I can't wait to have more kids and watch them grow as my publication continues to grow and my path in life continues to broaden.
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