My MommyCon Experience | The Glam Mom

My MommyCon Experience

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Hi there!
Have you ever heard of MommyCon?  Most people haven't.  Well, I'll fill you in.  MommyCon is a natural parenting convention. And when I say "natural parenting," that means baby wearing, breastfeeding, natural childbirth, co-sleeping and cloth diapering, among other things. These practices are also referred to as "crunchy." I consider myself a semi-crunchy mama. All of my babies have slept with me at night for ease of nursing; I breastfed all 3 of my children (for 7 months, 13 months, and 16 months); and have way too many baby carriers. I considered natural childbirth, but I just ended up getting scared. LOL! Cloth diapering, however, I have no interest in. Therefore, I'm only semi-crunchy.

My semi-interest in these parenting methods was enough to draw me into MommyCon. I wanted to go in 2015, but couldn't make it. So when I learned the tickets went on sale for 2016, I bought one right away.  I also requested a media badge, but never heard back. Then my friend Melissa forwarded an email inviting her to a Blogger Breakfast and she asked me to come along. I was already going, but who would turn down free breakfast? LOL! So, I RSVPed to the breakfast. But I missed it because hubby wasn't feeling well the day of the even and I didn't feel right leaving him with all 3 kids. Anyway, because of this, I ended up with 3 tickets and therefore 3 SWAG BAGS! (I'll be doing a video on all the swag soon, so SUBSCRIBE HERE). 

MommyCon took up an entire floor of the Stevenson Conference Center in Rosemont, IL. Here are a few photos of the rooms:



As you can see, there were a LOT of people.  I didn't arrive at the event until 4pm and it started at 9am. So this is only a small fraction of the people who attended. Most had already gone home by this time.

There were all kind of vendors present - some brands that's I've heard of, most that I hadn't. Everyone I talked to was super friendly and helpful. Here are a few items that I learned about that I really LOVED - 

Leche Libre - These dresses really caught my attention. I love anything fatigue or with studs, so this line is right up my alley. If you follow this blog regularly, then you know I'm no longer nursing my now 17 month old, so I'm sad I'll never get to really test out one of these dresses for their actual purpose. But I would still wear one anyway! See those seams over her boobs??? Those are CONCEALED ZIPPERS!  
When it's time to nurse, just pull a zipper down and your boobies are ready to go! I love that idea! Not all the zippers are concealed though, but they totally fit the style of the dresses. The girl I spoke to (pictured above - sorry, I forgot to ask her name!) said the line is working to bring the price point down (it's currently $125 for each dress) by working with a new manufacturing company and also planning to expand the range of sizes (currently they go up to a size 16). This dress is the one on the rack that really got my interest. I love the studs on the pockets and the versatile collar. I may just have to buy it! 
All parents have heard of the NoseFrida. (If you haven't, google it asap and then go buy one because you NEED it!) Now FridaBaby has developed the FEVER FRIDA, a bluetooth enabled, wearable thermometer.  I mean - WHAT?!?!?  
From the FridaBaby website:
"FeverFrida checks in on your babe every four seconds without waking him or her, thanks to a bitty Bluetooth monitor and patch placed under the arm. The FeverFrida will alert your smart phone when the temp goes above a predetermined threshold and continuously stores data for pediatrician visits and medicine dose reminders. Think thermometer meets very smart baby monitor!"
It requires buying patches that need to be replaced. There is an app to download and you link to the thermometer by bluetooth. It costs $69.99, which is no more than my Braun ear thermometer which reads all over the place and we are never sure if it's actually accurate. I would have bought it ON. THE. SPOT. Except, it wasn't available for purchase at MommyCon. So excuse me while I go buy it right now...
OK, done. 
The only purchase I made that day was from Sacred Art, a boutique in Lincoln Square that only carries products made by local artists.  I'll be honest - I don't shop at local small businesses often. I just prefer big box stores for the convenience. But this booth had so many super adorable pieces.

So, I decided to buy my littlest this adorable Chicago Flag onsie.  I'm pretty sure my friend Amy bought one of these for my oldest when he was a baby, but I'm not sure what happened to it. Even if I find it, there's no harm in having 2!

I'm going to wrap this up with some more photos and captions because there was just so much to see, I could write about it forever.
Cloth diapering is a big trend these days (obviously not new, just trendy again). So there were several booths with cloth diapers for sale and even a resource center. And notice how every single mom in this photo is baby wearing.  I'm sure there were some sore backs the next day! I went sans kids, and I'm glad I did.
Baby Wearing of course was represented in a BIG way.  This is the Baby Wearing Lounge, hosted by BabyWearing International.  I follow BabyWearing International of Chicagoland on FaceBook. It's a great resource if you have questions on carriers and carries (the way you tie your wrap) and you can even sell your used carriers there.  I have bought a NatiBaby size 7 woven wrap there. Since I never use it, I'll probably go right back there to sell it. The ladies in pink were there to help fit mamas into carriers and answer questions.   
If you didn't have a baby to test in a carrier, they had this guy to help you out.
 Non-nursing moms were of course represented (because as long as your baby is fed there is no WRONG way to do it!)  This bottle bar had mostly Medela and Evenflo bottles on display and lots of different nipple styles. 
There was no one at the booth when I stopped by (notice the Be Back Soon sign on the left), so I just snooped around on my own.

In the hall outside the room where the large presentations were being given, there was a hallway with some very helpful rooms - A Sleep Consultation Room, A Quiet Room and a Feeding Lounge.  

Then there was Vagina Village.
Inside Vagina Village, the were selling, well, stuff for your vagina. Most notably The Diva Cup. Never heard of it? Well, here's the LINK so you can read up. I'll say this: I have never used the Diva Cup, but I HAVE used the Instead cup. And if you can handle sometimes cleaning up a little mess, it's worth a try. It got me through a Hawaiian vacation with ease!

I won a prize from Vagina Village.  I'll blog about it once I've tested it out.

There was a Selfie Spot so you know I took advantage. 

OK, last thing I want to share was the SWAG BAGS!!! I mentioned at the beginning how I walked away with 3. And here's a shot of what was inside:
Like I said, I will be doing a video on these items and giving many of them away.  So make sure you keep an eye out for that! Especially if you're a preggo!

So MommyCon was a success! It was so fun and I'm glad I made it this year. I'll probably go again next year because I love checking out great mommy gear!

Let me know if you have any questions and check out the MommyCon Facebook Page to stay up to date on their events!

Until next time,

xoxo



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12 comments

  1. Great post, I wish there is a Mommycon in my country. There are a lot of parenting conventions in our country, but I'd love to see an official "mommycon" here too!
    Great blog!

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  2. Love this share! So througough and informational. Thank you for sharing all of this awesome stuff with us!

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  3. So there is a MommyCon. The concept itself is fascinating. I can understand that it would be sponsored by companies, how about the learnings?

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  4. This is the first time I heard of a MommyCon. I'm not a mommy but I know a lot of mom bloggers. So far, they haven't mentioned anything similar to this.

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  5. My wife went to this and she loved it! Now I just wish they would put together a "Daddycon"... ha!

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  6. I loved how you called yourself semi-crunchy! By those standards I am also semi-crunchy without trying. I will look for this Mommycon because I love how you got the inside scoop on the products. Those dresses are genius for nursing moms and I would have loved that thermometer, too!

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  7. It looks like a very interesting event for parents and for future parents. Seems to cover a lot of different fields, from clothing to learning books and toys. And the conference too.

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  8. This Mommycon event is intersteing. I'm also semi-crunchy. ;) I'm almost perfectly crunchy actually, except that I do not use cloth diapers all the time. :) I also agree with you that the products at Sacred Art look lovely. I would have bought from them too if I was in that event!

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  9. Wow! There is such thing as Mommycon? This is one of the awesome events I ever heard. Being a mother is the toughest job in the world. Events like this one will inspire and give support to all the wonderful mothers out there! Such a great post :)

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  10. Sounds like a great place for mums! Glad something like this exists and hope it will come to other countries as well :)

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  11. Cool, I have never heard of mommycon but it sounds wonderful. I have met several semi-crunchy moms and they are the same semi-crunchy as you. They are unsure of the cloth diapering. I was too because of the mess. I would have spent more of cloth diapers then on disposable because once a poopy happened, in the trash it would go.

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  12. I hope there will be a similar event like that in the Philippines! I'm sure lots of moms will appreciate it :)

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