My apologies to anyone who texted or sent me messages yesterday - I wasn't trying to be rude or ignore anyone, but I was at doctors appointments from 7 AM until after 5 PM. I was less than impressed with the perinatal center. My appointment took about 3 hours longer than it should have, the staff was less than friendly and the place itself looked really shabby. At least the doctor was thorough. After a long, stressful day I was cranky and frustrated. And by the time I got home I was beyond tired and hungry and didn't feel like talking to anyone.
So after a series of ultrasounds, and a biophysical markup on Dominic the perinatal specialist was unable to find any other red flags or problems. His heart looks good, he's moving a lot, taking practice breaths, growing like a weed and all of his other organs look good! So what does that mean? Basically they don't know what's causing the swelling on the brain. They said most often when this is the only problem (as it is in this case) it will resolve itself after birth without any negative effects on the baby. However, there are some things they can't test for until he's born so they will continue to monitor him for the first year or two to make sure the swelling doesn't get worse and there aren't any other issues. So the appointment went as well as it could have - huge sigh of relief there. Still keeping my fingers crossed that he's born safe and healthy, but at least I'm no longer losing sleep over the issue. They see no reason to induce me early at this point, so now I just wait....and NOT very patiently, might I add...for my little man to arrive! I'm full term now so the big day could come anytime now :)
Haven't posted about business in awhile but I've been making some serious progress. As far as the marketing firm goes, everything is in place for business to take off, except two things. I still need salespeople and I need to create a more effective and user-friendly training program. Should be fairly easy to resolve those issues. On top of the changes I made to make our services more custom and personalized, I've been doing a lot of work with start up companies. It creates more work for me, but it would be amazing PR for the company if even one of the start ups takes off and we are credited as their marketing/advertising firm. As far as the boutique goes, we're getting bigger everyday! I've have two models who have modeled and promoted for me. I have new inventory. I've found a few new charities to support. And I've been networking like crazy. I'm glad I didn't launch the "new and improved" boutique in October as I had originally planned. By all means, I still plan on launching it. But I think doing it too soon would be business suicide. The more happy customers I have when I launch, the more my idea will take off. I would love to see my "competition" try and steal or recreate this idea once I launch it. To do so would create an even bigger mockery of their already failing business. It's a pretty pathetic state of affairs for their business when I've had multiple people approach me and ask me if this boutique (which shall not be named) has been stealing my ideas. Yeah, it's that obvious. But I guess that's bound to happen when you have good ideas, drive and leadership ability. I'm starting to find the whole thing flattering.
"Integrity is the most valuable quality of leadership. Always keep your word."
I can't wait to see what the next year brings for me and Dominic. I'm starting to see some of my goals come to fruition. And I've come to realize who and what is important in my life. I know WHAT I'm going to be doing, but I still don't know where yet. Boston and San Diego are still topping my list of places that would be great for business and education for Dominic. But I'm keeping my options open to ALL possibilities at this point. All I need now is my little man and I'll be ready to take over the world...
