Archive for the ‘Adventures in Motherhood’ Category
Monday, December 6th, 2010
 You are going to be a new parent! Congratulations! Now let’s find a great way for you to surprise your family and friends with the news over the holidays. We have compiled a list of fun and exciting ways to share the news and have bolded our personal favorites:
1. If your family makes Christmas lists, submit a list with only baby items.
2. Send out a Christmas card that reads “We know exactly what to get you for Christmas this year” and place an ultrasound photo inside the card.
3. Gift a doll (probably to mom), with a tag that reads “redeemable in X time for 1 grandchild”.
4. Use baby-themed wrapping paper for all of your gifts.
5. Replace all of the traditional stockings with decorative baby stockings.
6. If you have a train that runs around the tree, use each car to hold a letter and let your guests be surprised when they read B – A – B – Y running in front of the tree.
7. Give “Merry Christmas” T-Shirts, and describe each person’s role on the back. Daddy, Grandma, etc.
8. Decorate the tree with “Baby’s 1st Christmas” ornaments. Alternatively, in all blue or pink.
9. Prepare a plate of cookies for Santa and decorate them with baby items.
10. Wrap a gift for baby and place it in the back. Inscribe the card with “For our baby, due” X date.
11. RSVP for Christmas parties as 2 ½.
12. Replace all the silverware on the table with baby spoons.
13. Invite guests to play a game of Pictionary. Ignore what the card says and only use baby terms.
14. Include a Birthday invitation in every stocking. Where: X Hospital, Date: Due Date, etc.
15. Give your family’s new “big brother” or “big sister” a t-shirt that says so and have them wear it to dinner.
16. Gift a baby prints frame or piece of art that requires in impression of new baby’s hands and feet. Under the wrapping, place a card that reads “Your (grandbaby’s, or other) little fingers and toes will be available for impression on X date.”
17. Give pregnancy gifts and new-dad gifts to each other. Open them at the same time and watch the excitement!
Conratulations and Happy Holidays from Happy Mama Gifts! If you have come across any other great ideas and would like to share them, please comment below.
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Friday, June 18th, 2010
Making a miracle can often come with a lot of stress about what you can do and what you can’t do so Emma Willmott of Mama Mio has kept it simple for us: “During pregnancy it is really about avoiding certain ingredients – There are tree main offenders that should be avoided: Parabens, Petrochemicals and Sodium Laureth Sulphates. There are also a few essential oils that you should not use, so it is adviseable to use products specifically formulated for pregnancy and without Parabens, Petrochemicals or SLS.”
Where can these ingredients be found? You may be surprised at the answer:
Parabens can be found in shampoos, commercial moisturizers, shaving gels, cleansing gels, personal lubricants, topical pharmaceuticals and toothpaste. They are also used as food additives in some products.
Petrochemicals can also be found in food products, cosmetic and personal care products and many household cleaning ingredients.
Sodium Laureth Sulphates are commonly used in soaps, shampoos, detergents, toothpastes and other products that we expect to “foam up”.
 Don’t let this list of products scare you. Know the list (personal care products seem to be the giant-sized offenders) and take a quick look at the list of ingredients before you purchase. Although these ingredients are cheap and therefore highly prevalent, there are also a widening range of companies out there sticking to their guns and keeping the bad stuff out! Mama Mio is our favorite group of pregnancy products doing just that.
Tags: Mama Mio, Pregnancy Products
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Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
Newborns are amazing for many different reasons. Here are a few:
1. Their sweet, delicate smell.
2. How tiny their feet are!
3. Their nice-smelling breath (that’s because they don’t have teeth yet so no bacteria).
4. They know how to nurse, right after being born, with their eyes still closed – they just know to instinctively look for the nipple, find it and start nursing.
5. They recognize your voice almost right away and turn at your direction when they hear you.
6. How intensely they examine your face when you lean close to them.
7. The way they allow their little body to relax in your arms as they drift into sleep.
8. Their first smile or grin, directed at you.
9. How very tiny they are, so tiny that it’s easy to support their weight with just one arm.
10. How much they love to hear you talk or sing, and how intently they listen when you do so.
11. How they hate having a bath, until suddenly, one day, usually around the age of two months, you put them in the baby tub and they start splashing and loving every minute of it!
12. How small and helpless they are and so completely dependent on you for everything – much more so than any other mammal.
I’m sure there are many more… can you think of any?
Image Credit: Nezemnaya
Tags: babies, newborn, newborns
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Monday, June 7th, 2010
 I knew what love was before I became a mom. I loved my parents, my siblings, and my friends. When I met my husband, I fell deeply in love with him. I knew love, and I loved deeply and fully before becoming a mom, but nothing could have prepared me for the intensity of a mother’s love.
Now that I’m a mom, I know love that is deeper and stronger than any love I’d experienced before. It’s the kind of love that takes your breath away when you look at your children, that fills your heart with joy and your eyes with tears. It’s the kind of love that makes you realize that the health, happiness and survival of these little people are your number one priority. The kind of love that will make you sacrifice your life if it meant saving theirs.
No one is truly prepared for the intense emotions that come with being a mother. The frustration and angst is deep and overwhelming, and the love is all consuming. When I try to describe motherhood, I often find that I describe it not in terms of the tasks it involves, but in terms of the emotion it evokes.
Of course, now that I know motherly love, I am more grateful than ever for my own mom and her love to me.
Image credit: D.A.K Photography
Tags: motherhood
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Monday, June 7th, 2010
You give birth, the nurse or the midwife places the baby in your arms, you look each other in the eyes and – voila – you’re in love. Right?
In many cases, the answer is “Yes.” For many moms, all it takes is the very experience of carrying their child during pregnancy and then giving birth, to form a strong emotional attachment to their baby, almost immediately.
One way to speed this attachment is to breastfeed right after giving birth – if you’re planning on breastfeeding. There’s no doubt that bottle feeding does not in any way prevent the formation of a strong mother-infant attachment – bottle feeding is a very loving, intimate act of caring for your child – but breastfeeding does seem to speed up the process of attachment.
When I gave birth to my first daughter, the nurses brought her to me almost immediately, and encouraged me to nurse her. Feeling her little body pressed against mine, her hands resting on my chest, her tiny mouth searching for my nipple, finding it and doing just what it’s supposed to do, was an amazing experience. It was like a miracle – this tiny human being instinctively searches for the comfort and food that only I can provide, and my body – a miracle in itself – is providing her with that!
That first experience of breastfeeding my daughter definitely helped with the process of bonding with her.
Still, even after that, and as I continued to breastfeed, attachment took some time to strengthen. There were many moments during those first few days and weeks when I looked at my newborn with some sense of detachment, sometimes even with resentment. Newborns are extremely helpless and completely dependent on their mothers. As a result, caring for a newborn is a draining and overwhelming experience, especially if you don’t have help.
It’s important to realize that when it comes to bonding with your newborn, you need to keep your expectations in check and realize that this is a very individual process and that it can happen quickly, but it can also happen slowly over several weeks. Eventually, though, all mothers and babies, under normal circumstances, form an intense attachment.
This is in fact one of the best things about motherhood – that motherly love and devotion that fills your heart with joy as you look at your baby and that makes her the center of your universe – the intense love that means you would give your life for your baby if it would save her life.
The only thing you should be aware of is the very real possibility of postpartum depression. So if a few weeks have passed since you gave birth and you still feel detached from your baby and resentful towards her, if you find that you don’t really experience joy when you look at her but just feel tired and drained all the time, please talk with your physician about the possibility that you might be suffering from postpartum depression. Postpartum depression is very real, vary painful, and very treatable, so if you suspect you might be suffering from it, you should seek help as soon as possible.
Image credit: timsamoff
Tags: bonding, motherhood, newborn, newborns
Posted in Adventures in Motherhood | 1 Comment »
Monday, June 7th, 2010
Today I was reminded of a few years back, when I was at a bar with a good friend having a few cocktails. Suddenly, I turned around to find her being attacked by another patron for drinking while she was pregnant. My friend ran out in tears. You can imagine how mortifying this public display would be; Especially since she wasn’t pregnant! She is a mom and hadn’t lost that post-baby belly.
I felt awful for her, but if I am being honest, I silently thought that she should really get her act together. It had been..like..months! I now deeply regret those inner thoughts. Why? Read on.
I was in the dentist office this morning waiting for treatment on a tooth that has been killing me for over a week. I was a little scared and a little emotional. Sitting in the waiting area next to my husband, a client from across the crowded room congratulated my husband on his mama-to-be and the bundle of joy we are waiting on. Unfortunately, I am not pregnant anymore either. I began to cry in the middle of the waiting room.
Of course, I sent out text messages to all my close girlfriends in absolute horror. I love them all dearly for the creative names and wishes they had for this man. I also wonder if everyone silently thinks that I need to get my act together!?!
It was so easy with my first child. The pounds just fell off and I was in a bikini in no time. My son was born 8 months ago and the weight has come off the other areas of my body but my tummy has stayed…”troubled.” So, consider me back in the saddle with diet and exercise. And until I feel safe being seen in swimwear again, I will never forget that trusty tummy-sucker again!
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Saturday, June 5th, 2010
 Parenthood drastically changes the dynamics between a couple. This is another aspect of parenthood that no one is fully prepared for. You spend years building a close, loving relationship, getting to know each other really well, investing time and energy in the relationship and in each other.
Then come the kids. For most couples, the arrival of children dramatically changes everything. Now you are both tired, sleep deprived and overwhelmed. The little energy that you do have goes to the kids -they are now your first priority.
This is especially true for new mothers. Many of us are so absorbed in the intense experience of caring for a newborn, that it sometimes seems as if there’s no room left for anything else – including ourselves and our partner.
Sometimes I think it’s a miracle that relationships survive these first few months (or years) of parenthood, but the good news is, healthy relationships do. The time you spent together building memories and developing the basis of your relationship should take you though the first few months. After that, it IS important to try and find the time – and the energy – to spend time together as a couple. Personally, I have found that a weekly “date night” is hugely helpful in keeping things fresh and interesting and making sure that we still view each other as a man and a woman, not just as parents.
Image credit: adam Jones
Tags: parenthood
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Friday, May 21st, 2010
 Or maybe I should say “sleeping,” because sometimes it feels as if, once you have babies, you don’t sleep at all!
You know what I mean, right? You fall into bed at night, exhausted, fall asleep almost immediately, only to be awakened a couple of hours later by your baby’s cries. A quick nursing session, changing his diaper, and you fall back into heavy sleep… only to be woken again.
It’s now 4am, so you start calculating – if I manage to go right back to sleep, I can still get three more hours. Wishful thinking, because your toddler wakes you up, happy and energetic, at the rise of dawn, ready to play!
Long gone are the days of sleeping in until noon, especially on the weekend. Long gone are the days of long, sweet, uninterrupted sleep, of waking up feeling refreshed and full of energy.
Now, in your foggy mommy state, all you can do is think about the good old days… then catch a glimpse of your child’s sweet, trusting smile and know that they are so worth it, and that as much as you miss your pre-kids life, you would never give up the joy that they bring you now, even if the price is sleeping less. Much less.
Photo by peasap
Tags: parenthood, sleepless nights
Posted in Adventures in Motherhood | 1 Comment »
Thursday, May 6th, 2010
 If you are pregnant, or have been pregnant, you know that during pregnancy women are surrounded by crazy myths about what they like and don’t like, what they should and shouldn’t do, and how they should or shouldn’t act.
While my approach during my pregnancies was to be patient, smile and just ignore the constant stream of comments and advice, I thought that now that I have a blog I should probably tackle a few of these myths and hopefully put an end to them!
1. Sex will harm your baby!
No it won’t. It is absolutely fine to have sex during pregnancy – if you want to, of course. The baby is well protected by the amniotic fluid and the mucous plug, and a miscarriage, when happens, usually happens because of abnormalities in the developing baby. So have fun as long as you feel like it! By the end of your pregnancy you will likely feel too heavy and bloated, and once you have a newborn… well, that’s a topic for a different blog post. Which brings me to the second myth…
2. Having a baby will strengthen your marriage
I wish this was true, but in reality, having a baby puts a major strain on your relationship with your husband or partner. The combination of lack of sleep, of refocusing all your energy on the baby instead of on the relationship, and the physical recovery from labor and delivery all mean that for many couples, keeping the romance going after they have a baby is a struggle and something that they really need to work on.
3. Pregnant women lose their minds!
You’ve seen it in movies, right? The pregnant woman who acts completely irrationally, who suddenly bursts into tears for no real reason… pregnant women are crazy, right? Wrong. Pregnant women do go through hormonal changes, which can affect their mood. They also have to cope with lots of changes to their body, which isn’t easy. But I can assure you that pregnant women do NOT lose their sanity and in fact remain very capable – and responsible – throughout their pregnancy.
4. Pregnant women must avoid fish
Not true. While there are a few types of fish that should not be eaten during pregnancy because of their high mercury content, most fish are fine if eaten in moderation. Click here to read the FDA guidelines on eating fish while pregnant.
5. Pregnant women just love it when you grope their belly
This is my personal pet peeve. I know that people who do this are not trying to make us feel uncomfortable or to show disrespect, but it never ceases to amaze me when a complete stranger comes to a pregnant woman and gropes her belly – something they would never do if she weren’t pregnant. It’s as if being pregnant makes that belly of yours public property, as if it’s no longer attached to a person – to you, but last time I checked, that belly WAS firmly attached to me. So please, keep your hands off!
There are, of course, many more pregnancy myths out there. We would love to read about your own experience with pregnancy myths in the comment section.
photo by Phil Campbell
Tags: pregnancy, pregnancy myths
Posted in Adventures in Motherhood | 27 Comments »
Sunday, May 2nd, 2010
Parenting involves lots of hard work – we all know that. But then there are those magical moments when your kids do something that fills your heart with so much joy, you think it could just explode! I had one of those moments a couple of days ago.
My son (shown in the picture on the left) is 7 months old. He’s not much into talking, but we knew that boys often take longer than girls to talk so weren’t worried about it. The other day I was laying down with him. We were cuddling, relaxing together. Suddenly, he looked into my eyes, put his little hand on my face, and said “mama!” He said it three times, without breaking eye contact even once.
I melted, of course. It just doesn’t get any better than that! These are the moments that make it all worth it – the sleepless nights, the endless diaper changing, the stress, the lack of privacy… you work so hard, and then they produce this magic that makes you melt and you just know that nothing can compare to being a parent, that parenthood is one of the best adventures you are ever going to experience. And you feel so grateful.
Tags: babies, baby's first words
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You are going to be a new parent! Congratulations! Now let’s find a great way for you to surprise your family and friends with the news over the holidays. We have compiled a list of fun and exciting ways to share the news and have bolded our personal favorites:
