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Jill Krause, pictured, is the mastermind behind a popular blog called BabyRabies, where she shares the ups and downs of being a mother of four in Texas, along with beautiful photography. In between blogging, photo editing, and chasing after her kids, Jill found the time to answer some of our questions. Read on to discover how she began her blog, what keeps her going, and how Withings products have helped her care for herself and her family.
Withings: When and why did you start your blog? And can you explain the name?
Jill: In 2007, I found myself with a sudden case of “baby rabies.” It was a term I’d seen online used to describe people who were obsessed with getting pregnant. It’s like baby fever, but much worse. I decided to start blogging about my quest to get pregnant and BabyRabies.com happened to be available. Imagine that!
How do you balance taking care of four kids with blogging and creating content? What is the most challenging part of juggling it all?
I get this question a lot, and the answer is always: I don’t. I don’t balance it very well at all. Something always gets dropped, and I just try not to let that be the baby. The most challenging part is forgiving myself for not being able to balance 20 things at one time.
Your house always looks so beautifully clean in your photos. Are you a supermom? Do you have a live-in housekeeper? Or do you push clutter aside when it’s time to take a picture?
I am literally laughing out loud at this. My house is either beautiful and put together 2% of the time, or it’s approaching biohazard levels the other 98%. There is no in-between. So I’ve learned how to use light, creative cropping, and editing to make my pictures reflect a home that doesn’t smell like toddlers and dogs all day.
How did you learn to create such beautiful photographs?
I’ve been teaching myself photography since right before my second baby was born in 2010. It’s a hobby that I love, and also a key business skill, so I invest a lot of time and money in improving each year.
What is the most rewarding part of keeping up your site?
The most rewarding part of what I do at BabyRabies.com is connecting with other parents and being real. I cherish emails I get from readers who say, “Thank you for showing me it’s okay to be imperfect.”
Are there certain areas of your life that you try to keep off the blog, or are you an open book?
As my children get older, their stories are less and less mine to tell. I can blog all day about my newborn’s sleep patterns, but I hold off writing about struggles my school-aged children have in class
How has your experience been with baby weighing mode on your Withings scale? How did you track your baby’s weight before using this feature?
We love the new feature where Wallace can have his own weight profile on our Withings scale! You know, before this, we were still weighing him this way, but manually. So we’d weigh ourselves, then hold him and weigh again, then subtract one weight from the other. This is much easier on our sleep deprived brains, though, and I love having his own profile in my app now.
Do you find time to fit in activity or workouts at all between time spent with your kids? Has Steel HR helped motivate you to be more active?
I am trying really hard to get 3 workouts a week in. Sometimes that’s just a run around the neighborhood, but I’m also trying to fit a couple Barre3 classes in each week. The Steel HR has motivated me! It’s hard to get 10,000 steps in when you’re sitting, nursing a baby half the day, but I find that I’m trying to sneak in extra steps whenever I can.
Do you have any exciting future plans for the blog? Any plans for more kids? Do tell!
I do have really exciting future plans for the blog! But I can’t say what just yet… except that it definitely does not involve having more babies.
