1)  An impending baby is not something you keep to yourself.  First off, once you show up at a conference with your belly the size of a beach ball, there’s no way you’ll be able to keep it secret anyway.  Instead, you might as well make sure key people are aware of your situation before you show up than to try to tough it out on your own.

The week before WDC12, I called the conference line and spoke with one of the organizers.  I told her what was going on so that it wouldn’t come as a crazy surprise to her or the rest of the conference staff should something unexpected happen.  This gave me a safety net and  meant I had a whole team of conference organizers aware of my situation.  Whether you’re about to have a baby or you have any other special need that the conference people should know about, tell them.  The WDC12 conference staff was incredibly supportive and helpful and knowing that they were aware of what was going on gave me huge peace of mind.

2) Don’t be a hero.  This is actually good advice for all conference attendees, whether you’re about to have a baby or not.  When you go to events like this, the temptation is to squeeze every last morsel of awesome out of the weekend.  This is all well and good, but when you get to day three of a fast-paced conference like WDC, you’ll be at the point of burnout and you may end up missing some of the best sessions.  I can’t tell you how many people I know skipped out on Chris Baty’s closing keynote (either because they had to travel home or because they were exhausted) and that talk was probably the best part of the whole weekend.

Don’t be a hero, or you risk losing steam and missing the good stuff.  Instead, be strategic and skip out on sessions that are not as important to you.  Twice during the conference, I purposefully missed out on sessions so I could sit down in the comfy hotel lobby chairs and put my feet up for an hour.  I chose the sessions I skipped based on two criteria: how relevant the topic was to me and whether I had friends who planned to attend the session and could lend me their notes.  I’ll admit, at the time I felt a bit like a sissy for having to skip out, but in the end I was glad I did it because I got much more out of the conference that way.

3)  Stay hydrated and eat.  Every conference I’ve ever been to has had water dispensers at the back of the session rooms.  Some conferences (not WDC, unfortunately) even offer nibbles for breakfast before the morning sessions begin.  Whether you’re 9-months pregnant or not, take advantage of all opportunities to hydrate and eat.  If you have a water bottle with you, fill it before a session and keep it handy so you don’t have to get up multiple times to refill your glass.  Tip: If they give out water bottles during lunch, grab one and refill it before the Pitch Slam so you can rehydrate while standing in line.

If there’s no breakfast offered by the conference, make sure you eat something in the morning.  Many writers are often tempted to skip out on morning food in their rush to get to that first session, but that’s a long time to wait for lunch if you haven’t eaten since dinner the night before.  Take the time to take care of yourself and you’ll be better able to focus on what’s really important at the conference.  Like pitching your book.

4)  Be prepared.  When you’re 9-months pregnant, there’s no telling what might happen, so you have to prepare for a conference as if the baby could come any minute.  You also have to prepare as if the baby doesn’t come and you are actually able to make it to the various sessions and pitch interviews with agents.  In the weeks prior to WDC, I honed my pitch, chose sessions and studied agent and speaker bios as if I were definitely going to the conference.  I think because I didn’t know how much of the conference I would actually be able to enjoy, I was more prepared for this conference than ever before.  In the end, because I thought I might have to leave at any moment, I got much more out of the experience than at other conferences in the past.

At the same time, I also had to make back-up plans in case the baby decided to show up during the weekend.  These things included: having family “on call” to come drive me to the hospital in a moment’s notice and having my doctor’s phone number memorized–in case my cell phone battery died.  Having several friends attending the conference with me was also a tremendous help because I knew there were multiple sets of eyes watching out for me and making sure I was feeling OK.

5)  Pitch Slam is great, but it’s not the end-all-and-be-all.  I know that most writers attend conferences like WDC because they want to get their book idea in front of an agent.  Pitch Slam (like speed-dating for writers and agents, where you have three minutes to pitch an agent with your idea) is a great opportunity, but for me it’s only the icing on an already incredibly tasty cake.  Because Pitch Slam involves standing in long lines, I wasn’t sure how my endurance would be and if I would be able to pitch more than one or two agents at all.  Because of that, I ended up not putting all my eggs in the Pitch Slam basket and focused more on making the most of the conference sessions, which I knew would be much easier on me.

The result?  Not knowing how many agents I’d be able to pitch meant it took a lot of pressure off of the whole Pitch Slam experience.  Each agent I got to was another bonus and whether they said “yes” or “no” to my idea, I was happy just to get their feedback and hear what they had to say.  In the end, I managed to pace myself and pitch 8 agents, getting really helpful feedback from all and several requests that I submit my work.

But that wasn’t the best part.  Since I invested so much more time in preparing for the conference sessions than the Pitch Slam, I ended up making great connections with several speakers, one of whom even offered to speak with me further about my book concept and give me input.  If I hadn’t been 9-months pregnant and had invested my all in Pitch Slam, I would probably have never made those amazing new contacts.

Take-home Message:  When I got home after the conference ended, I collapsed into bed and was near-comatose for 24 hours.  Was the insanity worth it?  Most definitely.  Would I do it again?  Absolutely (especially now that I know the baby was taking his sweet time).

The biggest takeaway from the weekend?  Attending a conference three days before your baby is due is most definitely a conversation piece and this means you’re probably going to be one of the most memorable attendees at the conference.  But when you’re that memorable you have to also be careful not to be memorable for the wrong reasons.  The moral of this tale: If you’re 9-months pregnant and attending a writing conference, whatever you do… don’t do anything stupid.  ‘Nuff said.