It's a Boy! It's a Girl!

When we announced the birth of db #1, I spent days trying to find the perfect baby announcement card. There are so many options, varying in style, color, material, and price. To help ease you, here are some creative ideas and some favorites: In a Baby Carriage has a huge selection of very cute and sophisticated designs. My favorite for girls is the abracadabra and for boys it is preppy boy. They have announcements for multiples and adoptions, and they also do your thank you notes and envelopes, too! Baby Discs are playable in any CD-ROM drive and feature pictures and music of your little one. A do-it-yourself alternative would be to compile pictures into a PowerPoint slide show; print out CD labels with the baby’s name, weight, and length; and send out to all the relatives, friends, and family. To show how sweet your newborn is, Miracle Munchkins features these candy tins you can personalize and then fill with the candy of your choice. For an Anne Geddes feel to your announcements, try Inviting Smiles. In addition to the Photo Cards, they also have more mainstream cards with matching note cards, address labels, and name plaques. Finally, if you don’t feel like dishing out the big bucks for professionally-done cards, ask any artsy friends or family members to do them. You can create really good ones yourself—for a fraction of the price!

Beware of Papaya

My good friend Carrie just sent this over. If you are pregnant or trying to become pregnant, avoid eating papaya or using a papaya product. Papaya is sometimes recommended for soothing indigestion, which is a common ailment during pregnancy. Although a fully ripe papaya is not considered dangerous, a papaya that is at all unripe contains a latex substance that triggers uterine contractions and may cause a miscarriage.1 The papaya enzyme that helps soothe indigestion is called papain, or vegetable pepsin. Papain is found in the fruit's latex and leaves.1 Researchers have noted that unripe papaya latex acts like prostaglandin and oxytocin, which the body makes to start labor.2 Synthetic prostaglandin and oxytocin are commonly used to start or strengthen labor contractions. So watch out for those papayas! And thanks Carrie!

Would You Pose Nude While Pregnant? Well Britney Would.

In 1997, a Vanity Issue came out with Demi Moore posing naked while 7 months pregnant. I remember that particular issue and thought the photos were lovely. Of course this was before I was pregnant. Now that I have experienced one pregnancy and am pregnant again, I'm not sure how I would feel to be photographed naked especially while pregnant. I waddle, I have veins, stretch marks and my bladder won't let me sit still enough to have the lightbulbs flash. But I suppose with makeup and hair and soft lighting, a beautiful picture is possible.

Britney Spears is reportedly in talks with Vanity Fair to also be photographed a la Demi. Now I know that there has been speculation about her pregnancy - some of you say "What?! is she nuts?" while others are saying, "Go Britney, go."

I think Britney is a pretty gal and hopefully knowing that this photo shoot will be in the nude, that will inspire her to maintain a healthy pregnancy, taking care of her body, eating right and enjoying these 40 weeks. Well, I suppose less than 40 weeks by now.

Could YOU pose naked for a national magazine?

What Am I Going to Name My Baby?

Have you picked out a name yet? Feeling the naming pressure? Don't worry! You're not alone. Don't feel pressured by anyone though. Go with a name you enjoy, you like, admire and that you can see yourself yelling it out loud without feeling embarassed. Happy Friday! Comic courtesy of Comic.com

My Baby's Tee is Cooler Than Yours

Other than babies, I think baby clothes are the cutest. So little. So much potential for cute or funny or just plain snarky. Here are some fun websites with some small yet still hip and stylin' threads for the little guy/girl. -Glug Baby is based in San Francisco and has silk screeen tees that are bright, vibrant tees with fun designs that simple and yet still stylish. I'm a big fan of the bird on a tree branch design. Designer/Mom, Efi Latief makes cute tees for TomatGraphic with a bit of a rocker feel for the musically inspired or tees that rock the animal kingdom. Infantile Demoralized makes me wish they had these for bigger people. This fun line has an attitude and sure to make you laugh. One neat tee is the Gold Chains tee which has full out gold bling printed on the shirt, complete with a blinged out binky. If you are a music fan, you'll enjoy these from Hifi Baby. The tees and tanks promote music legends like Billie Holiday, Hendrix, Ella. Start the music appreciation early!

The Myth of the "Non-Working" Mom

Whether you are a SAHM or a WOHM or a WAHM or whatever you want to be, being a mother is in no way, "non-working." As far as SAHMs go, mother's who choose to stay home have one of the most demanding and important jobs in today's society. This is a career that requires seven, on-call 24 hour shifts, each and every week, 52 weeks a year. The world's stereotypical image of the "stay-at-home mom" is a woman sitting on her sofa, eating bonbons and watching soap operas all day. The real truth is that the job of raising children never ends. It's not a job where you get to leave work at the office, or clock out after an 8-hour shift. There are always things needing attention, such as: meals that need preparing or cleaning up from, mountains of laundry to wash, dry, and put away, a home that needs constant cleaning, doctor visits, soccer practice, and grocery shopping - just to name a few. Full-time mothers get the first call when volunteers are needed for any school function, field-trip or fundraiser. If you choose to be a full-time mom, you probably won't be home very much. You will find yourself organizing trips, running bake-sales and driving children whose parents are stuck at work to museums. You put in all the work of "working parents" without the paychecks or the breaks. The rewards of participating in, and the impact on your children's learning, development, and values is priceless. Raising children as a full-time mom is a career that requires a multitude of skills, including patience, wisdom, and thinking quickly on your feet. All are key elements of successful parenting. Another "perk" to staying at home to raise your children is that your parenting guilt level is greatly reduced. You'll never have to question the quality of your child's care, or if you are spending enough "quality" time with them. Do you get sick days or vacation time? For most full-time, those benefits are not an option, unless you physically cannot get out of bed or are fortunate enough to have hired help or help from a loving spouse, relative, or close friend. Your work needs to be accomplished so the household doesn't fall apart. Even when you're sick, it's business as usual. If you are or are considering being a full-time mom, give yourself a pat on the back and a whole lot of credit. When you calculate just how much it would cost your family to hire someone to do all that, you do, you realize just how valuable choosing to be a "stay-at-home mom can be to your family!

*Yawn* So sleepy..

Sleep is something we don't generally associate with motherhood. Moms are asked to lose a lot of sleep while feeding their babies, worrying about their child's well-being, and juggling all of their responsibilities. But for expectant moms, sleep is a major obligation. Their bodies need the strength and energy sleep and a good diet provide. Sleep can be elusive though, and many expectant moms have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep for a number of different reasons. Your little one needs more and more space to grow as your pregnancy progresses, and this leaves your bladder with less space to expand, and you with the urge to get up and run to the bathroom in the middle of the night. To minimize the number of times you need to wake up and get up, drink a little less before bedtime if you can but not too much less. It is very important that you stay hydrated. Just don't go overboard before going to bed. You, too, are growing throughout your pregnancy, and your body now needs more support than it used to. To support your more and more impressive bosom, get a very good bra and wear it all night. If bras make you uncomfortable, try a sport or jogging bra. To give your tummy and thighs the extra support they need, consider buying a body pillow, or creating your own version with a rolled up blanket and pillows. Body pillows are long, skinny pillows that you can tuck between your breasts, under your tummy, and between your legs, and they can cushion and support every part of you. Another factor that might be contributing to your sleeplessness is your internal timing mechanism. Your body's biological clock sets your sleep cycle, and a major life change like pregnancy can upset that cycle. The result is that your body's clock and your schedule are out of sync, and you're suffering from insomnia. Here are five things you can do to get your sleep cycle back on track. -Go to bed and get up at the same times each day. -Keep yourself in the sunlight or in well-lit rooms during the hours you are not supposed to be sleeping, and in darkness or behind sunglasses during the hours you should be sleeping. -Take a walk or a swim three to six hours before sleep to temporarily boost your alertness and then help you fall asleep and stay asleep when bedtime comes. Taking a hot bath two to three hours before bedtime will provide similar results. -Don't Worry. Try the relaxation techniques you learned in childbirth class. -Eat a light snack before bed to avoid waking up from hunger. Make sure to get all of your nutritional needs met during the day.

Receiving Blankets and Swaddling

Welcome baby with a beautiful, soft blanket made just for newborns. There is nothing that can help a baby feel more secure and relaxed than being swaddled in a warm receiving blanket.

Receiving blankets come in a variety of materials, textures, colors, and prints. The size of receiving blankets varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. Some blankets are 30 x 40, large enough to cover a toddler while others may be only 30 x 34.

It's only a few inches but it can make a big difference. You can choose from lightweight brushed cotton for summer to cozy cotton fleece or a boxed thermal weave for the winter months. A new favorite is the cotton jersey knit receiving blanket. which is buttery soft.

Some receiving blankets are designed with a hood attached at one corner of the blanket. This is similar to the way a baby bath towel is designed. Using a hooded receiving blanket helps to keep your baby extra warm because the hood reduces the amount of body heat lost through your baby's head. This style of blanket would be the best choice when you take baby out on a crisp morning to run errands or head to the grocery store.

Receiving blankets are very comforting for your little one and they're just the right size to use to swaddle your baby. Swaddling is a way to snugly wrap a baby in a blanket for warmth and security. It will also keep babies from being disturbed by their startle reflex. Swaddling can also serve as a way to help keep your baby warm and toasty for the first few days of life until the body's internal thermostat fine tunes itself. Most important, swaddling can help a baby calm down.

Most likely you'll be given a lesson in this ancient mothering skill before you the leave the hospital. Try swaddling your baby after you've made sure your baby isn't hungry, wet or tired. Swaddling can help settle a baby. Many times babies will become overstimulated and swaddling can help them cope by giving a baby the opportunity to feel something close and tight like the security felt in the womb.

Here are step-by-step instructions to swaddle your baby: Lay a blanket on a flat surface and fold down the top right corner about 6 inches. Place your baby on his back with his head on the fold. Pull the corner near your baby's left hand across his body, and tuck the leading edge under his back on the right side under the arm. Pull the bottom corner up under your baby's chin. Bring the loose corner over your baby's right arm and tuck it under the back on his left side. Some babies prefer to have their arms free, so you may want to swaddle your baby under the arms so there is access to hands and fingers. A baby should not be swaddled after they are one month old since it can interfere with mobility and development as your baby grows older. By this time, most babies are routinely kicking the covers off anyways.

Adoption, Football and Sex & The City

I read this on Celebrity-Babies.com today: Former football player, and now commentator Deion Sanders and his wife are in the process of adopting a 17 year old high school student from Florida. Noel Devine is a star football player in his Florida hometown, who is expected to be a top recruit for the NFL in 2007. Unfortunately, both of Noel's parents are deceased, and he has been bouncing from friend's house to friend's house for the last three years. Deion was told about Noel by his school principal, who believed that with guidance and a father figure, Noel will succeed. Now, Noel is moving to Texas with the Sanders to play football at a top high school there, and begin the process of adoption. Deion says, "God put this young man in my heart. This is not about sports. This is about a kid's life...My wife would tell you all through our life together that I've talked about adopting a child and giving a kid a chance who otherwise wouldn't have one...It's about giving someone an opportunity to have a chance in life." How great is this? I fully support adoption and I know many who adopt want a newborn. But what about all those newborns who don't get adopted? They often grow up without parents. This particular case with Deion Sanders has a football aspect to it and so you may be wondering, why talk about it on the PregnancyWeekly blog? Pregnancy is 9 months which leads to children which you have the rest of your life. Some are not fortunate to become easily pregnant. Remember that there are many options out there. Adoption is one of them. You don't have to adopt a 17 yo football player, but you do have options. I don't know if any of you saw the Sex & The City episode when Charlotte and Harry learn that they are able to adopt a baby from China. Charlotte, in tears, turns toward Harry and says, "This is our baby." So adoption. It's a good thing.

More Boys than Girls

I read this article today on WebMD about baby trends -- More boys than girls. Are you having a boy? You might find this interesting. It may be one of America's longest-running baby trends -- the birth of more boys than girls. The CDC's latest records are for 2002, when newborn boys outnumbered girls by more than 94,000 infants. The trend dates back to 1940. That's before the attack on Pearl Harbor, when the baby boom generation was just a twinkle in their parents' eyes. Every year from 1940 through 2002, an average of 91,685 more boys were born in the U.S. than girls. That adds up to a difference of more than 5.7 million boys, says the CDC. Boy or Girl: Possible Influences There are plenty of folk tales about what determines a baby's sex. The CDC's report doesn't get into that. But it does list some factors related to the boy-girl ratio, looking at all years combined: -Mother's age: The ratio was lowest for women in their 40s and highest for late-teen moms. -Child's birth order: The more babies a woman has, the more likely she is to have equal numbers of boys and girls, says the CDC. -Mother's racial/ethnic background: Chinese women had the highest ratio of boys to girls, for all years combined. Filipino moms were a close second. The lowest ratios of boys to girls were seen in black mothers and American Indian moms. -Older fathers, lower maternal weight, stress, and environmental toxins may also lower the ratio, says the CDC, which didn't track those factors. Data came from birth certificates in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

Chinese Lunar Calendar and Your Baby's Gender

Rather than springing the $200 plus money for determining your baby's sex as I posted yesterday, how about trying the Chinese Lunar Calendar method? Is it a myth or ancient truth? See for yourself. The Chinese Lunar Calendar to determine your baby's sex was taken from a 700 year old Royal Tomb near Peking, China. The original document is on display at China's Institute of Science. Many thousands of people believe that this calendar is 99% accurate. It's based on the month a baby is conceived not the birth month. The second factor is the mother's age at the time of conception adding 9 months to her age to adjust the calendar. To use this calendar: -Take your age at the time of conception and add 9 months to it. -Locate that number on the left-hand column of the calendar. -Locate the month that your baby was conceived across the top of the calendar. -Follow the two coordinates to where they intersect. Blue for a boy, cream for a girl (no gender branding intended). -Remember: 99% accurate Try it out here and leave a comment and let me know how it worked!

Is it a Boy or Girl? You Can Know After Only 5 Weeks!

I received this press release from a friend of mine today about a new kit that can tell you what's your baby's sex will be as early as 5 weeks. It guarantees a 99.9% accuracy.

If anyone out there buys this ... let me know because I'm curious as to know how it works and if it's true!

As for me, I'm content on waiting for the doctor to either see a body part that indicates a boy or lack thereof which indicates a girl.

A new kit can tell parents a baby's gender as early as five weeks after conception. With the Baby Gender Mentor(TM) Home DNA Gender Testing Kit, available from PregnancyStore.com, women no longer have to wait until their 18th week of pregnancy for an ultrasound test to possibly determine their babies' gender.

"Parents-to-be want to plan ahead; fifty to seventy percent of couples want to know if they're having a boy or girl rather than waiting for the delivery room 'surprise'," says PregnancyStore.com President Sherry Bonelli. "With Baby Gender Mentor, about the time a woman finds out she's pregnant, she can also find out whether she's having a boy or a girl."

With the kit, a woman tests to confirm her pregnancy, then registers the kit online and pays a testing lab service fee of $250. Next, she'll take a finger-pricked blood sample and mail it to the lab along with the registration card in a pre-paid FedEx envelope. Within two business days upon receiving her blood specimen, the mother will receive the gender test results online.

Baby Gender Mentor Home DNA Gender Test employs cutting-edge, patent- pending technology to attain the earliest gender detection with unprecedented sensitivity and unsurpassed accuracy. The technique traces the amount of Y chromosomal DNA in the maternal blood to determine gender. If the Y chromosome DNA is present in the maternal blood sample, it's a boy; if the Y chromosome DNA is not present, it's a girl.

Baby Gender Mentor/Acu-Gen Biolab, Inc. guarantees that test results are 99.9% accurate. If the test result is incorrect, Baby Gender Mentor/Acu-Gen Biolab will refund double the amount paid for both the lab service and the $25 kit. Some restrictions apply.

Under no circumstances should the Baby Gender Mentor service replace a woman's visit to a doctor during pregnancy for ultrasounds and other pregnancy-related tests.

Heartburn - Ouch!

Normally I experience heartburn when I eat spicy food. But while pregnant, heartburn becomes one of my most common symptoms. Dh keeps telling me that we should have bought stock in Tums or Rolaids since I seem to consume a lot. Here is an article from WebMD about the subject. More than one-half of all pregnant women report symptoms of severe heartburn, particularly during their third trimester. Heartburn occurs during pregnancy because your digestive system works more slowly due to changing hormone levels. Also, your enlarged uterus can crowd your stomach, pushing stomach acids upward. How Can I Reduce Heartburn Symptoms Without Hurting my Baby? -Eat several small meals each day instead of three large ones -Eat slowly -Drink warm liquids, such as herbal tea -Avoid fried, spicy, or rich foods, or any foods that seem to increase heartburn -Don't lie down directly after eating -Keep the head of your bed higher than the foot of your bed. Or, place pillows under your shoulders to prevent stomach acids from rising into your chest. -Try heartburn relievers such as Tums, Maalox, Titralac, Mylanta, Riopan, or Gaviscon If your heartburn persists, see your doctor. He or she may prescribe medications that are safe to take during pregnancy.

Baby Shower

Ah the Baby Shower. Some believe that a shower is only for the first born. Others believe that every baby deserves a shower. Some cultures don't have showers. What do YOU think? If you have more than one baby, was there more than one shower? Personally, I'm a big fan of the "Meet the Baby" party rather than having a shower. Once mom and new baby are settled, friends and family gather to "Meet the Baby." Comic courtesy of Comics.com Posted by Hello