Ok, so I’m a little way behind on this post, but it’s time to congratulate the winners of the Bower Baby Pool! As some of you may know, Katie Bower was nice enough to run an open baby pool here at WhatsInMyBelly.com and we offered up some prizes for the top 3 winners. (If you missed it, here is the original post about the whole deal.)

Well, we were shocked to see how many people jumped into the pool. Here is a breakdown of all the numbers:

Total Participants: 907
Total Guesses: 763

We’re not quite sure why people joined the pool, but didn’t submit a guess. If you were one of those people, leave a comment here and let us know. We already have some changes in the works for the game, and any comments we get help us fine tune it, so please share your opinions – good or bad!

So, Katie’s due date was originally November 5. As with many pregnancies, that day came and went and as she closed in on 2 weeks late, they went ahead and called in some magic to move things along. Weston Bower was born on November 18, showing all 763 of us that we are not very good at predicting the future. Maybe the 144 people who joined the pool, but didn’t submit their guess had it right? But, no one guessed the right day this time around (the last guess was November 15), but as always, there is still a winner due to our point system.

I also have to make a comment on the baby weight. Since Weston was brewing so long he arrived at a grand total of 10 pounds and 3 ounces! Most people did not guess that high, but there were a few who got it right: Karen Brown (11th) and Nicole Ruehlow (322nd).

To see the full list of guesses and see how everyone did, click here (you’ll need to log in to see the full scoreboard).

Now, on to the winners:

1st Place ($100 Visa Gift Card)
Holly McGee Austin (Monroe, NC)
499 points

2nd Place ($50 Visa Gift Card)
Laura Shilling (Battle Creek, MI)
422 points

3rd Place ($25 Visa Gift Card)
Ashley Davis (Pleasant Grove, UT)
406 points

Laura, if you’re reading this, email me! We need your mailing address to get your prize out! morgan@whatsinmybelly.com.

And we can’t play this game with out poking some fun at the person who came in dead last. Looking at the results the person who came in last was… Katie B. And I think that was Katie testing out the site and putting in something crazy so she didn’t win her own pool. So, the official dead-last winner is:

Last Place (Surprise coming your way!)
Massie Bailey (Buffalo Junction, VA)
30 points

I should probably add in a disclaimer here – I’m good friends with Massie. I have to call her out for not doing her research because she guessed it was a girl, when we already knew it was a boy! Good work, Massie! You will get a surprise in your mailbox soon!

I’m sure Katie, like other expectant mothers, has gotten the usual text messages, e-mails and in-person questions: How’s it going? Any contractions yet? When do you think the baby will come? Will you induce?? etc. etc.

Obviously, I’ve never been pregnant, but I know my wife had the usual questions and comments as she got closer and closer to her due date. With both of our  kids, they were a little early. With Kyler, the doctor ordered an induction because Ashley’s blood pressure was shooting up (after being high for months). With Ella, she starting having serious contractions early and they helped her along with some medication. I know some people would argue against medical intervention, but that’s a discussion for another time. Now, I just want to list a few things you should never say to a pregnant woman past her due date:

10. I know you’re ready to pop!

Yes. She has a human being growing inside her body. It’s been over 280 days now. She literally feels like she will pop any second, but she doesn’t want to hear about it … Don’t say that.

9. Now when was your due date again??

If you don’t know it – don’t ask. At this point, she’s heard this question a few trillion times. Besides, you should be participating in her baby guessing game on WhatsInMyBelly.com and you can check there. (Sorry, had to do it!)

8. Any news yet?

When you’re waiting on a baby, that’s pretty significant news. Children kind of change your life a little bit. So, you (and everyone) will know when there is any significant news. That’s why daddy-to-be has a cell phone. He’ll be calling/texting/e-mailing/Facebooking as soon as there is something to say. And (assuming everything goes well), mommy will be doing the same. You’ll know when you know. Enjoy the wait.

7. Wow, your belly is huge!

Keep this one in your head. Always. Not just after the due date. Always. Trust me.

6. Are you sure it isn’t twins?

Re-read #7.

5. The baby will come when he/she is ready

I know. You’re trying to say something that might make mommy-to-be feel a little better. This isn’t it.

4. You should do some jumping jacks

By week 39, Ashley had already starting taking walks and doing any safe activity she could to move things along. I’m no doctor, but these things don’t do much of anything to bring a child into the world any earlier than normal. Play it safe, and just keep your clever baby-birthing suggestions to yourself.

3. When will you be induced?

Most doctors won’t induce until 42 weeks. Before that, there would have to be a medical reason. So, that question is answered, and you don’t need to ask it.

2. At least you’re getting a few more days of rest

If you make this comment, you obviously haven’t spent the night beside a pregnant woman. By this point, she’s not getting much rest. She’s in constant discomfort because a human being is growing inside her body. And even if that weren’t the case, she’s ready to meet her new child and would gladly sacrifice a few days of rest to be done with the pregnancy.

1. Are you sure the baby is ok? My friend was past her due date and (insert horror story)

The other questions so far have been annoying. This one is annoying and frightening. Mom (and dad) to-be have already had nightmares of the 1 in a million chance of their story being the bad one. Every parent goes through that. Don’t add to it.

So, with that, I do have one thing to say. To Katie, and any other pregnant ladies out there who are past their due date, we are thinking about you and praying for you and we wish you the best. We are all excited for you and can’t wait to meet the baby!

Moving on…

First, I have to say, I love Katie Bower and her Bower Power Blog. Back in August, I was reading her blog and saw that she was expecting baby #2. So, I contacted her on Facebook and asked if she wanted to run a pool on WhatsInMyBelly.com for her readers. We offered to put up some prizes to make it a little more fun for everyone. Knowing how popular her blog was, I kind of expected her to either not respond at all or come back with a “sure… but what’s in it for me?” Instead, she responded and said she’d love to do it and was excited that her readers would have the chance to get some prizes.

Now, I expected this to be a little popular and drive some new visitors to our website (hopefully a few of which would be pregnant and start a pool of their own), but the response we’ve gotten has been well beyond our expectations.

We launched the first version of WhatsInMyBelly back in March and it’s now in version 2. The website was steadily growing as search engines began to pick it up, and other local media outlets like RichmondMom.com and Macaroni Kid Richmond began to mention us. We’re very thankful for any mention we get out there, but when Katie mentioned her baby pool at the end of this post, our traffic exploded immediately. So much so, that people trying to make a guess in her pool took the site down for about an hour until Daniel worked his magic and got things running again.

October has been a huge month for our website in general, but most of that is due to Katie’s baby pool, which now has 729 predictions. This surpasses my baby pool which held the lead at… 56 predictions (weak, I know). As you can see in the screenshot above, each time Katie mentioned her baby pool on our website, the traffic skyrocketed. Even after the mention we noticed about double the traffic we usually get on an single day.

So, to say the least, we love Katie Bower and her website, and we simply can’t do enough to thank her for running her baby pool on our website. 

There is Still A Little Time to Join the Bower Baby Pool

One of Katie Bower's Pregnancy photos. I took this from her blog, so click the photo to see her blog post with more photos.

Now I also have to mention, if you are reading this before midnight on Halloween, and you haven’t made a guess in her pool, we extended the original deadline to midnight on October 31, so head on over to her pool and make a prediction for your chance to win one of 3 Visa Gift Cards. When you’re done with that go bookmark her blog – it’s well worth the read.

Are You an Expectant Blogger?

So, with the huge success of the Bower Power Baby Pool, I think it goes without saying that we want to do this again. If you have a blog (don’t worry about how many readers you have) and you’re expecting, please e-mail me. We simply don’t have the cash to offer prizes for every pool out there, but if bloggers are using our website and linking to us, we’d like to thank you in some way. If anything, we can link back to your blog. So, get in touch with me and let me know if you have a website and you’re running a pool with us. Send me an e-mail: morgan@whatsinmybelly.com

One More Thing – Tell Us What You Want

This is a bit off topic for this blog post, but we are currently planning the next changes and upgrades to WhatsInMyBelly.com and we want to know what you, the users, would like to see improved on the website. If you have a second, please take this survey. The only required fields are the ones where you pick the new features you like the most, so it will literally only take you a few seconds to do it. Your answers will help us decide what to add to the website next.

When you create a baby pool on WhatsInMyBelly.com, you will automatically get automated e-mail notifications about your baby pool, and so will any participants in your pool. This has been a part of the website since day 1. We don’t mean this as spam, we just want users to be able to get some kind of notification when there is activity in their pool.

The default setting of these notifications were set to send all pool administrators and pool users an email if there was a new prediction or a new message in any pool they use.  You could also turn these notification on and off at any time under the “My Info” link after you login.

However, it quickly came to our attention that some people couldn’t find this setting (my fault for putting that setting under such a vague title – UI designers make mistakes too!) and if they were participants in a pool with a lot of predictions they were getting flooded with e-mails they didn’t want. We planned to tweak these e-mails to reduce the amount of notifications everyone received, but as of Monday, we still hadn’t gotten to it.

Well, Monday evening The Bower Power hit us. Katie Bower of bowerpowerblog.com started her baby pool, we offered up a little prize money, and within a few hours we realized we had a bit of a problem on our hands. Baby Bower #2 pool had over 60 predictions in just a few hours. [As I'm editing this post to go live, it's pushing 300!] Apparently the combination of a super popular blog and a little prize equaled a lot of sudden traffic on our site.

We expected a fair amount of traffic but never expected the surge that came immediately after Katie’s blog post went up. Needless to say, Daniel and I went to work around 9:00 Monday night to try and tweak the e-mail notifications and hopefully avoid flooding inboxes with unwanted e-mails. Daniel immediately halted outgoing notifications and instead queued them while we worked

We decided to combine all the individual notifications into one daily notification e-mail that would summarize all the activity in a user’s pools. So, instead of getting tons of separate e-mails, the most you would receive is 1 e-mail per day, if there was activity to announce.

Here is the way the previous notifications looked:

WhatsInMyBelly.com old email notifications

Unless the user turned off notifications, they would get one of these e-mails for every message or prediction in any of their pools. Too many e-mails were going out and I’m sure quite a few people out there were a little frustrated. (In our defense, if anyone actually read the details at the bottom of the email, it did tell you how to turn off the notifications.)

Anyway, so by about midnight Monday night we had a new e-mail notification system in place. We think this will make everyone much happier. From now on, if there is activity in any of your pools you will get no more than 1 email per day with a summary of all activity. You can still cut off these notifications if you prefer (login to your account and click “My Info”)

Here is a sample of the new email activity notifications:

WhatsInMyBelly NEW email notifications

So, for now, we think we have a better e-mail notification system but I’m sure we will have to make plenty more changes in the future.

The Trouble with Popular Friends

Ok, so calling the Bowers “friends” is a bit of a stretch… and by “stretch” I mean they probably read that and now consider me a stalker. I don’t personally know them, but like many of their readers, I consider them friends, particularly after what has happened in the past 24 hours. As I stated before, Katie started her baby pool on the website Monday night and mentioned it on her blog. Today, as people continued to make guesses for Katie and Jeremy’s baby, their traffic combined with a few other sources of traffic, and started to slow WhatsInMyBelly.com down. At one point on Tuesday morning, it wasn’t loading at all. Luckily, Daniel made some changes and had things running smoothly again within an hour.

Monday night was a late night, and Tuesday kept us on our toes, but we’re thrilled with the response everyone has had to The Bowers Baby pool. We can’t wait to see photos of the baby, and see who comes out the winner in the largest pool we’ve ever hosted.

Thank You, Thank You

A sincere thank you to ALL our website users. Thank you for using the website and thank you for being patient while we continue to improve how it works. And, of course, a huge thank you to Katie, Jeremy, Will and Baby Bower #2!!

As you all know, this website is completely free for anyone in the world to use. We’ve spent a ton of time building it and tweaking it, and hope to make it even better. However, if we can’t successfully build up enough traffic to attract a few sponsors and advertisers, eventually this little side project will have to give way to “real” work. As someone who has been a freelance web designer for over 10 years, I’d love nothing more than to work full time on this website and other self-initiated projects. (Don’t get me wrong, I love client work, and I’m eternally grateful for every bit of work I’ve ever received  but after 10 years of bringing other peoples’ ideas to life, I’ve really enjoyed making my own idea into a reality for once.) We’re still a LONG ways from making that a reality, but what we saw yesterday does give me some hope that maybe something could come of this little project.

Thank you all for keeping my little dream a reality … at least a bit longer.

[And one more note: If you have any feedback at all - positive or negative - please e-mail me at info@whatsinmybelly.com or just leave a comment on this or any blog post. I read all comments and appreciate all feedback. We want to make this website the best it can be.]

On top of running their blog, raising their son Will, and being a professional photographer, Katie is expecting baby #2 in early November. We thought this would be  the perfect opportunity to start our Expectant Parents Spotlight. At WhatsInMyBelly.com, we want to feature Expectant Parents who are taking advantage of every day and doing great things – all while growing their family. If you or someone you know would be a good Featured Expectant Parent, shoot me an email – info@whatsinmybelly.com.

As part of our first featured parents, we asked The Bowers a few questions about pregnancy, parenting and life in general. Here is what they said:

1. So, tell us about the Bowers. Who are you guys in a nutshell?

We are just average run-of-the-mill folks that are like everyone else out there – working hard and playing hard   We actually met on a blind date and it was the perfect unexpected beginning to a life full of surprises.  I think if you had to describe us to perfect strangers, I would say that Jeremy works in sales and I am a stay-at-home mom who plays photographer who also blogs…we both have amazing families and hope to teach our kids to love God, their country, their family and others.  And 80′s music

2. You already have one son, Will, so you have been through pregnancy and early parenthood. What is the #1 best tip you could give to parents who are expecting their first child?

“This too shall pass.”  It works both ways – the bad stuff (like the sleep deprivation, the morning sickness, the cholic) eventually it will pass.  But so will the good stuff – the sleepy baby bubbles, the slow crawling, the fat rolls on fat rolls…it all flies by so it’s just the perfect advise to cherish each moment.

3. Did you do anything special or creative to announce pregnancy 1 and 2?

I told Jeremy about our first with a slideshow. We surprised Jeremy’s dad & stepmom with a couple Gramps & Grammy t-shirts.  I videotaped our #2 announcement just so I could remember his face.  We tried for a longer time with our second so it was definitely more exciting. [Katie announced her pregnancy on her blog in a this heart-felt video. And more about their pregnancy announcements here.]

4. You have been through a few baby showers by now, so what is your best baby shower tip? What is your favorite event or game that anyone could add into their shower?

Best baby shower tip?  Probably to not register for a single toy.  Toys will inevitably become part of your house…and they are cheap.  Diapers on the other hand…notsomuch.

As for my favorite baby shower event – I love the idea of birthday cards.  Each person gets a blank notecard and draws a number between 1-18.  They then write a note for the baby to open on that birthday.  It’s such a special thing to see what family & friends were wishing you before you were even born.

5. Most of these questions seem to be geared more towards Katie, so we have to get Dad involved here. Jeremy, becoming a father is an exciting (and stressful) time. What is the #1 tip you would give to guys out there who are going to become a father for the first time?

Be willing to help without being asked.  Do things you wouldn’t normally do, just to help out around the house.  If you have an older child, be aware that you might need to spend a lot more time at first caring for them when the newborn arrives.  Arrange for help for your wife if she normally does cleaning, cooking and laundry.  And frequently remind her that she is beautiful and that she is doing a great job.

6. My son is 2 1/2 and like everyone says about 2 year-olds, he has his “Terrible 2″ moments. So, I have to ask all parents this: What is your favorite way to get your toddler to burn off some energy? And, when he does act out, how do you handle it?

We love cousin time, play dates and swimming at Nana’s house to burn off energy!  And Will lives up to his name – he is very willful.  So when he acts out, internally we question everything we know about discipline and want to curl up in the fetal position and quit….but we know that he responds best to consistency and firm boundaries.  That means that time outs happen in the Lowe’s plumbing aisle, Lightening McQueen is a very very special treat and Jer and I have daily talks about what we did right, did wrong and how we can improve.

7. What is your favorite food and drink during pregnancy? (Jeremy, you can chime in here too.)

Katie

First pregnancy: soft jumbo pretzels & hot vanilla chamomile tea.  This pregnancy: cold green grapes, donuts & chocolate milk.

Jeremy

Pizza & Dr. Pepper

8. Favorite book, tv show, and/or movie to enjoy while you are expecting? (If you even have time for these things!)

We watched everything with our first pregnancy…we had time.  Now?  Does Jungle Book 2 count?

9. Ok, last question. One look at the Bower Power Blog, and you guys seem like Super Parents. (Seriously, are there really only 2 of you?) You are running your blog, taking photographs, working on your house, raising one child while expecting another, and I am guessing there is even more going on. How do you do it???

We don’t.  A lot of stuff gets pushed to the back burner.  We prioritize family time and project time above personal activity time, date nights and cleaning the house.  And sleep doesn’t happen a whole lot either.  Our parents are extremely hardworking and they set amazing examples of how to put in sweat equity and invest in family.  From the outside, it may look like we are Super Parents but in reality, we are only super at two things - keeping our head barely above water and loving our boy

Great answers and great advice! I don’t know about you, but I find the Bowers very inspirational.

Now, on to the baby pool contest details:

Celebrating the arrival of Baby Bower #2 wouldn’t be complete without a baby pool. As part of this pool, we’re tossing in some prize money! This pool is open to anyone, so go make your prediction!  (Sorry, prizes will only be sent to those in the continental United States):

• 1st place (highest total points): $100 Visa Gift Card
• 2nd place: $50 Visa Gift Card
• 3rd place: $25 Visa Gift Card
• Last place (lowest total points): Surprise Gift Bag

The rules:

1. Guesses will be accepted through October 29, 2012 October 31, 2012 or until Katie goes into labor – whichever happens first.
2. All are welcome to take a guess, but only residents of the continental United States are eligible for prizes.
3. Winners will be determined by the point system outlined here.

Click here to join in the Bower Power Baby #2 Pool!