Off the Map: Longtime friends run blog for moms

By Katie Mills Giorgio, correspondent

Editor's note: Each week we target a town on a map of Eastern Iowa and go there in search of a story. We hope to discover and share stories of people and places we might not ordinarily take note of, but who make our communities special.

IOWA CITY - Sara Meehan and Kaitlyn Swaim have been friends for as long as they can remember and have a lot of things in common.

They grew up as neighbors in Davenport. They moved to Iowa City to attend the University of Iowa. Then after graduation they moved away from the area for a while.

In the last few years, however, they each moved back and became moms - just two weeks apart in fact.

Being new to mommyhood, Meehan said she began searching out different information and ways to connect with other moms. She heard of the Quad Cities Moms Blog - part of the Moms Blog national network - and began writing for it. It got her thinking that it might be interesting to start up a similar blog for the Iowa City area.

In a case of great friends think alike, Swaim texted Meehan right around that same time asking if she wanted to start a blog.

'We call it a God thing that we were both independently thinking about this,” Meehan said.

And so Swaim and Meehan decided to become business partners and co-found the Iowa City Moms Blog.

They started the process of building the site in February 2013 and officially launched in April 2013. All the content on the site - which posts daily Monday through Friday - is written by local moms. Meehan and Swaim have amassed a team of 13 contributors who range from stay-at-home moms to those working full-time outside the home.

'We want to include different types of stories so our readers get the whole spectrum of being a mom,” Swaim said.

'And we need other voices because this is not a personal blog,” added Meehan. 'We really want this to be a resource for moms. Our writers come up with content that is relevant to other moms and they are sharing their lives with us.”

Posts on the blog range from content about parenting issues and challenges to things to do with the kids around the Iowa City area.

'Our main goal is to create connections in our community,” Swaim said. 'We love the Corridor area.”

The blog has found great success, with an average of 32,000 page views. Iowa City Moms Blog also has more than 2,300 followers on Facebook.

The friend's endeavor has grown beyond the popularity of the blog as well. They host a variety of events throughout the year, including moms night out events every six months and a blogger dash 5K. These in-person events are meant to create further connections and encourage moms to get out of their comfort zones.

Iowa City Moms Blog also hosts a variety of family events including a health fair, events for new moms, as well as casual play date events. This past Friday they held a Halloween party in North Liberty.

'The connections that are forming are the coolest thing,” said Meehan. 'Just in the last year and a half we have seen friendships formed just from coming to our play dates.”

Swaim added that the Iowa City Moms Blog Play Group in North Liberty has 100 members so far.

For more information visit http://citymomsblog.com/iowacity/.