*GASP*…..

Wow, life with two kids is harder than life with one kid. Go figure. Life with two kids and a start-up is bordering on ridiculous. There are days that I think “What the h*ll am I doing??!!! This is not humanly possible!” And then there are those days where I feel like I could conquer the world — or at least my Inbox and the laundry.

To back up a *wee* bit…

Tesla Jane was born about seven hours after my last blog post. She is now three months old. Time has sort of collapsed in on itself.

She was a very civilized 5lbs 14oz — for which I will be eternally grateful to her — and absolutely, deliciously, perfect. Here’s a taste:
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Yum! Right?

She is such a different animal than Quinn. In one word: TEMPER. In two words: Veruca Salt. In a few more words than that: She is sweet and snuggly and happy but when she decides she wants something — whether it’s to be burped, picked up, have my boob placed in her mouth — she wants it NOW. I don’t mean in 30 seconds, I mean NOW. And as soon as she figures out that her limbs belong to her I’m sure there will be foot stomping and arm waving involved. To be fair, she is usually easily placated when, you know, she gets what she wants. Except when she’s not, which means she’s over-tired. Then, all bets are O-F-F. But there’s another way she’s different from Quinn — and for this, as well, I am eternally grateful to her — she started sleeping through the night at six weeks old. (I’m trying not to sound like I’m bragging because I don’t want anyone to hate me. But I am kind of bragging.) It is a godsend. She’s not a great napper — which is similar to Quinn — but at least I don’t start the day feeling like I’d been out all night without the actual benefit of having been out all night.

Well, I did experience a bit of that at SXSW over the last several days when I actually was out all night — or the better part of most nights. (Thank you to my Austin friend, Susie, who hooked me up with her stellar babysitting network. And thanks to Jonathan & Kestrin — and their brilliant RV{IP}lounge — who were primarily responsible for most of those late nights. And a few rides to and from dinner. More photos coming soon.)

Yeah, we took her with us to the conference. In 22 years when Tesla’s back in Austin with her internet friends and colleagues and the entire internet is attending SXSWinteractive she will have ultimate geek cred when she says “Yeah, I remember being at ‘South By’ back in 2008 when there were only 7500 attendees…”.

It’s funny, SO many people complimented me on being so brave to attend the conference with my baby. I guess you could call it brave. Or, you could call it, you know, selfish. I didn’t want to miss out! And frankly, it’s just how we Mullers roll. Have baby, will travel. And for the most part it worked out really well. She got tons of love, Thor got to spend more time with her than he does in a normal week since I’m still working from home half the week (and she goes wherever I go), and I got to, you know, rock SXSW! Besides, there were some important business reasons to be there — like Thor’s presentation “Judo Moves for Defending your Online Reputation”, and our Get Satisfaction meet-up where I led a session with our Community Manager, Eric Suesz, on none other than Customer Community Management, and of course, our party (photos coming soon).

However, there were moments that were difficult to be sure. Like the evening we went to dinner with one of our investors but Tesla had failed to take even one decent nap that day. So by 7 p.m. she was an unhappy baby to put it mildly. I, too, had needed a nap that day that I didn’t get. So I was an unhappy mommy. Not a good combo. Thankfully, in two of my three most difficult moments — leaving the hotel for dinner and returning to the hotel after dinner — I ran into Maggie and Heather who doused me in some much-needed supportive-mommy-mojo. The first encounter was a sober one. The second was not. But both were equally comforting. (Oh, the third most difficult moment? Yeah, that would’ve been DINNER).

All in all it was a successful trip. And I think Tesla brought a little extra joy to an already seriously fun event.