I was starting to get a little bored… home from work by 1:30, Steve gone at work, and hanging out with a baby that lacks great conversation skills (googahhbluuaahh can only get you so far).
It’s much better now because my two best friends are home (one is a teacher so she’s off for the summer and the other just moved back into town) and my mom and a few other friends are also teachers and are off for the summer now. My friends practically tripled! Haha. And it has been wonderful – making plans, getting out of the house… re-learning how to speak without using baby gibberish (although I often catch myself “blowing bubbles” — without the bubbles, of course — out in public).
But I’d love for Ryan to meet some friends — and meeting some moms wouldn’t hurt me either. So the search began. I seriously felt like I was online dating! You find people in your area on the internet and you just throw yourself out there, like a blind date, and hope it all goes well.
My problem? Most mom groups I found meet on weekday mornings. Apparently working moms don’t make mom groups? Maybe I should start one.… but this is what I did find:
~Bubble Club. It’s a swim class for babies! It’s for 2 weeks (8 classes) in July and we signed up, I can’t wait!
~Story time at the library. This is Tuesday evenings and I haven’t gone yet, but I want to. It’s just close to Ryan’s bedtime (7pm) and last time I tried to take him out near his bedtime (see below) it did NOT go well, haha. But I’ll try it.
~LLL (La Leche League). Meets the evening of the second Wednesday of every month. I’ve been twice and there are lots of babies near Ryan’s age, but the 2nd time I brought him with me and he cried the whole time until I finally walked out in the middle of it.
~Rockford Moms Club. They meet most of the time in the mornings when I’m at work, but they do have SOME gatherings in the evening or on weekends – like going for walks at the park. I hope I can make it to a meetup soon!
What are all of you involved in? What ways do you get out and meet people? Hmmm… I wonder if there are Dad groups too? And I wonder if Steve would go… sometimes he needs to get out of the house too! 
My neighborhood is chock full of moms with kids between the ages of 1 and 10, so we all just kind of walk around to each others houses. It works for me.
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I found a Meetup group on meetup.com for new and expecting moms in my area. I actually started going when I was still pregnant. You have to have had a baby after June 2009 so all our babies are similar in age. It’s great to talk to moms of 10 – 12 month olds and see what it’ll be like in a few months. It’s also great for Jack to be around other babies. There are about 75 moms in the group! A lot of events are during the week because a lot of the moms stay at home. But there are weekend playdates and events too. I actually signed up to be an event organizer and I’m hosting a playdate at the water park this Sunday. So you could always schedule something when it’s convenient for you and Ryan. And dads are invited to a lot of the weekend events too. If it wasn’t for this group, Jack and I wouldn’t be socializing with other moms and babies. I’m so lucky to have found such a great group. You could also see if there is a stroller strides group, or something similar, in your area. Other than that, I don’t know where else to look! I hope you find something that works for you!
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I live in such a little town in Canada, I tried meetup but there was nothing close to me!
There are some baby groups through churches or schools in my area but I work during the day so my husband normally takes our son! lol
ALSO.…
I know how much pain your c-section has caused you and when I read this article today I thought of you and how it would be a good opportunity for you to share your story..
http://descentintomotherhood.blogspot.com/2010/06/responses-to-survey-on-unnecessary.html
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