Jazz Up the Mom Look with Women's Sunglasses

What is one great tool to have on hand when you have to run out to do errands but haven't had the time to fix your face with make-up the way you used to (and how could you...new babies keep you busy)? Toss on a great pair of women's sunglasses to cover up the fact that you didn't get more than a few hours of sleep the night before. Change the stained shirt and nobody will know that you slept two hours, had been spit up on twice, didn't have time for make-up, and then leaked breastmilk at the first sound of your baby's cry.

This picture here is of mom to two, Jennifer Garner and her daughter, Violet, both out and about wearing their shades.

Danger to Kids: Huffing

If you have kids that are a bit older - upper elementary through high school - have you talked to them about the dangers of huffing yet? Kids take things they find around the home and get high from it. It's important to learn what they use, how they use it, to lock this stuff up, and have a good talk with your children about the dangers. See the video here.

Ready for baby shower invitations?

It's a few months away from the big day - your child's "birth" day - is your baby shower scheduled yet? Have the baby shower invitations been mailed out and RSVP's noted? This is the traditional baby shower.

However, many people are waiting until after the birth of the baby to throw a shower for the new mother. Having had several children, this seems like a really good idea actually. Holding a baby shower after the birth allows the attendees to know exactly what gender they are buying for. It also allows the new mom to figure out what she really needs and what becomes superfluous.

Whatever you decide, congratulations on the little one!

Keep Toddlers Busy for Cheap

If you little one is a fan of Nick Jr's shows (Dora the Explorer, Fresh Beat Band, Blue's Clues, Olivia, etc.), did you know you can print coloring sheets of their favorite characters to color? I do this with my four-year-old and have for about the past year. She loves to keep busy coloring and it doesn't cost anything more than a couple sheets of paper and a little printer ink.

Baby's First Hair Cut at Kids Franchise

Baby's first hair cut is always fun but bittersweet and it comes for moms or dads to hurdle over that milestone at different times. It really depends on how fast your child's hair grows (and when you're emotionally ready to let go of the baby locks).

Some babies and toddlers may not mind it and others may be afraid of what is happening. Taking them to a kids franchise hair salon with the bright, fun colors can help ease the fear for them. I'm afraid there isn't much you can do to ease your emotions over it - take lots of pictures and save that first chunk of hair cut loose from your little darling's head. Don't be surprised if curls get cut off and straight hair grows in its place. It happens.

Just don't schedule it during a time when they'd normally be napping or eating. You want to set up the situation for the best possible outcome (and least amount of tantrum opportunities).

Out of the Mouth of Little Ones

My four-year-old daughter just came up to me and asked:

"Mom, will it hurt when I have a baby and go to the dentist so they can get it out? Can I just let it fall out?"

Oh, if only childbirth was that easy, lol.

Folic Acid Cause Asthma?

A small study in Australia is looking at the possibility that folic acid may increase a child's risk of developing asthma if taken in late pregnancy (only late pregnancy, NOT prior to or early pregnancy where it is still thought to be useful in preventing neural tube defects). I sure hope that study is wrong for the thousands of women who were told by doctors to take it throughout pregnancy. Read more about it here.

What Every New Mom Deserves

After the birth of my first few kids, I had all my hair hacked really short. It seemed easier and I regretted it each time.

I needed to go somewhere for pampering. After all those months of morning sickness (I had it for nine months, 24/7) and feeling frumpy, it would have been nice to perhaps go shopping for a new pair of boots (let's face it, who wants to shop for clothes RIGHT after having a baby before you're back to pre-baby weight and with a gelatin-like stomach). I am a boot fiend and would love to have a closet full of them. It'd have been a nice pick-me-up after months of feeling frumpy.

I should have gone to a stylist who knew hair really well and could give me something that would be easy when "mom hair" was all I wanted that day, but still something that had great style when those times called for it too. Spa day!

Manicures are always fun. I haven't had one of those since before I started having children over a decade ago. Have a friend throw a pamper party and get all the girls together for a few hours of fun to let you recharge your batteries.

There were weeks when I didn't even bother wearing make-up. Going shopping for new make-up would've been a nice boost and a lot of fun too. If getting out of the house is hard to do, you can find it online. Cosmetic Cosmos has some great choices and Newport Rhode Island make-up has all the choices you need.

The point of all of this is that after you have a baby, all your attentions are centered around the new baby and helping siblings adjust. Don't forget that taking care of yourself is important. We all do out best to eat right when we're nursing but you have to take care of your emotional/mental needs as well!

No Time for Wedding Planning!

If you are a new mom and trying to plan a wedding, you might find time to be a problem. Babies sure do keep you busy!

If it were me, I'd definitely delegate what I could to a trusted person instead of micro-managing every step of the planning process. Pick out some areas that are most important to you (the dress, the cake, the band, dinner choices, the vows) and leave the smaller details of the rest (like the bridal shower, wedding favors, limo services, etc.) to your trusted Maid of Honor, a sibling, or a parent, with final approval by you. You don't want to stretch yourself so far that things fall by the wayside.

Enjoy your time as a new mom, enjoy the planning of your wedding and don't drown yourself in the tiny details. Let somebody help you.

Baby Shower Favors, Baby Names, & Other Joys of Pregnancy

Pregnancy isn't all morning sickness, aches and pains. There is so much fun in planning your baby's nursery, finding popular baby names from past and present to choose from, the first flutters when you begin to feel her move, seeing your child on ultrasound, and having a great baby shower with unique baby shower favors like these pictured above. How adorable are these!

For baby names, my husband and I went through hundreds of names before deciding on a name for each of our children. We both had to agree to it or it was discarded. By the time we got to our fourth child, we'd run out of names to agree to so my husband gave up. He said I could pick the first name and he'd pick the middle name. I was good with that!

From Diapers to Drugs...My First Baby Grows Up

My pre-teen daughter had an interview for me tonight for her health class. It was about the use of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs. Boy do I miss the days when my biggest worry was which brand of diapers to buy and which cute little shoes would match the outfit I picked out.

Kids grow so fast. Take your little ones and give them a big hug frequently. Eventually they'll get to the age where those affectionate squeezes won't be so welcome as much anymore. My youngest is not in school yet so I still have some time left with her before the harder stuff comes.

Should I change blog layout?

I've never been a big fan of two column blogs. They just seem too crammed together without a lot of room to play around and make things more easily viewable for the readers. If I run across a nice three-column template for my blog here, I am going to have to definitely consider a template change.

Natural Childbirth, Water Birth

One of my younger sisters is the ultimate in natural from what she puts into her body, how she conceives, how she gives birth, and how she feeds her children after birth. As a result, she's had great pregnancies and good experiences in childbirth for herself, her husband, and their children.

She eats healthy. She doesn't diet. She doesn't need to. She eats organic whenever she can, eats well-balanced meals, doesn't eat processed foods, and cooks at home ensuring she knows what is going into the food (and into her body). She's a great cook. She is lean and healthy. That girl can put a lot of food away so you know to be lean, she's definitely doing something right to keep her metabolism going so well!

Her pregnancies are easy. I had morning sickness for nine months straight 24/7. Her pregnancies have little to no morning sickness. I just thought of something: Could my 24/7 morning sickness be my body's way of purging itself of toxins in my system to protect the baby I carried? It's something I never thought about until now. Makes me wonder.

She is a big believer in natural childbirth. Her second and third children were born at home naturally. She had at-home water births! How amazing would that be? They brought in a birthing tub. Her second child was born at home on Christmas morning. While their first child impatiently told his mom to hurry up so he could open Santa's presents, she gave birth at home naturally, taking the child from her body herself with dad, her son, and a midwife there. It was less painful and peaceful. She enjoyed the experience so much that she also had her third child naturally at home in the water. She did what women were designed to do - give birth - and nobody was going to intercede in that and turn it into a medical event. It was a great experience for the family.

One of these days I'll tell you about how unnatural my delivery for my last child was at the hospital. While it is a funny story now, it was scary then.

Adding Helpful Links

I am adding helpful links for books, articles, and other web sites that I hope some would find helpful and answer questions you may have. I asked my sister, who is THE definition of a crunchy mama, for names of books that she found useful and posted the two she gave me too. As I find good information, I'll post it!

Trying to Conceive

I dreamed from the time I was in high school of having children. I waited six years beyond high school, until I'd met the man I wanted to be a father to my children, to try to conceive. I was healthy, a good age, and financially able. I was ready. My body wasn't.

We had a hard time conceiving. When other women around me seemed to get pregnant so easily, it was hard to see when I spent month after month in tears wanting a baby so badly. I resented my periods when they came. They were a sign that my body had failed again. I'd failed again. Taking 1-1/2 years to get pregnant took its toll emotionally.

I believe that if I'd known then what I know now, we would not have had any problem conceiving. I had two problems going on that I believe affected my ability to conceive several of my children. The first was an intense amount of stress we were both under from an outside source plus the heartache month after month of not getting pregnant was stressful in itself. I believe that played a part in the difficulty we had conceiving our first two children. My idea of romantically conceiving a child flowing into an easy pregnancy and natural birth was a dream. What's so romantic about tears month after month when my period would come and I'd be left feeling like I'd failed again?

Not only were we under a lot of stress, I developed thyroid disease eight years ago. My thyroid hormones were not at optimal levels and my periods were far apart and very heavy. How could I count days when my cycles were so irregular? Nobody once thought during that time that it may be my thyroid hampering my ability to get pregnant even though it was known I had thyroid disease.

With TSH levels around 3 - 5, my doctors considered that "normal" but normal doesn't necessarily mean optimized. The range is broad and there is no one right number for the entire population. Some doctors have found that when you bring the TSH levels to the lower levels of the 'normal' range (ex: 1, 2), and there are natural thyroid medications that can do this if you need them, women who've failed to conceive previously do so. Since optimizing my hormone levels for my thyroid, bringing my TSH level to the lower range, my periods are regular and normal. That makes ovulation more easily determined if I wanted to try to conceive again.

I wish I'd had more knowledge about optimized thyroid hormone levels for all those years we spent trying to conceive. If you are having a hard time conceiving, check your thyroid hormone levels and educate yourself on optimal levels within the normal range. Get copies of your labs and don't rely on being told they are "normal" - look at them yourself and see where you fall within the normal range.

This is my beautiful baby girl who took 18 months to conceive. She was worth all the tears but I sure wouldn't have minded it being a little easier!

Toy Commercials Are So Annoying!

Oh my gosh, I am about ready to turn off the television until after the Xmas holidays! Why do they have to put three toy commercials in a row into each commercial segment? Do they not realize how annoying it is for the parents to hear, "Mom, I want that" over and over and over again? Are the toy companies endearing themselves to me in that way? Heck no!

I know it's a marketing ploy. It's no different than stores like Wal-Mart putting all those interesting items kids HAVE to have right at their eye level throughout the store. With the economy so bad, there's no way we can give our kids EVERYTHING they want. I'm just hoping we'll be able to give them a little of what they want.

It's not so bad with my older kids but with my littlest one who thinks everything should be hers because she has no concept of cost, the economy, or bills (and believes Santa can bring her anything and everything she wants), it's a little irritating (and a bit sad because this Xmas is going to be a lot leaner than past holidays).