Results tagged “babies” from Momtourage: Blogger Knows Best

 

I went to the store yesterday to purchase a gift for our friends' baby shower this weekend.  With only a few items left on her gift registry, I was stuck with either bedding or bottle items.  I was pleased to see that all the items she chose for feeding were phthalate and BPA free...however, I was shocked at the prices: $12.99 for only two glass 3.5oz Dr. Brown bottles!!  Are you kidding me?!  Our friend is expecting twins too!  I purchased 4 packages of bottles for her and spent over $50!  You see new moms, you can be safe and phthalate free but it's gonna cost ya.  How can a family with a new baby (how about those with existing children as well) possibly afford these prices in this economy?!  I don't know who's responsible for such mark ups: Dr. Browns or Babies R'Us but either way....shame on them.  The phthalate free pacificers were over $4 for two as well!....and I can't tell you how many of those we lost over the years.  Is there a pacifier heaven along with a sock heaven?  At $2.25 a pop I'd sew them onto their clothing.  Time to start price comparison shoppping on line or to find more economical substitutes.  I guess I've been out of the newborn market for a while because I was simply outraged by the exorbitant prices - well nothing ever goes down does it?...unless it's my money in the market.  No wonder why new moms need baby showers?!  Hillary was right - it takes a village.

 

My great grandmother (apparently) used to frequently say, "There's only one beautiful baby in the world and every mother's got one."  The words of a wise woman.  However, It appears, she was wrong.  Yesterday, while at our local pool, I got a gander at one of Lily's swimming mates' new baby sister.  I had to stop myself from recoiling in disgust as she was one of the ugliest babies I've ever seen.  She looked like an alien:  all scrawny; skinny; with horribly splayed fingers and toes.  I found myself struggling for compliments: "She's awfully cute....she's terribly adorable... she's a great eater....she's very long."  Now some of you will read this and think, wow that Funny Mom is a horrible person.  How could she say these things?  Especially on a site that focuses on Motherhood.  May god have mercy on her soul......(pause)......now tell me none of you have ever felt this way about an infant?! 

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by Amy Gates

Janet Fraser, a home birth advocate and founder of the site Joyous Birth, recently experienced a personal tragedy when her baby died at her home in Australia on March 27 during her free birth or unassisted childbirth (where a woman gives birth at home without the aid of a midwife or doctor).

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As you may or may not know, my husband and I have been "trying" to have another child for some time now.  Our first pregnancy was a spontaneous one so we thought the next one would be as well.....wrong.  Ever since I gave birth to the uber baby six years ago (nine and a half pounds), I have been suffering with very painful periods.  The pain is so bad I thought I was pre-menopausal or something.   To which my sensitive G.P. told me, "You're not pre-menopausal you're just overweight."  Thanks.  After seeing many specialists (including Infertility Specialists) and having all sorts of humiliating tests done (now when I see a gloved hand I just disrobe....which made skiing somewhat awkward this year) finally I have the answer:  Endometriosis.   

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by oneofhismoms

Oh honey, I'd love to play superhero with you, but right now mommy's too busy pushing peas through this strainer.  Not. 

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by oneofhismoms



I thought today I'd blog about sleep training.   How it sucks.  And how when the woman who gives you help with it has twins.  And when you have a friend with twins you realize that everything you do with your baby could have been twice as hard.  Or maybe I'd blog about  the two week wait advent calendar I invented.  How very proud I am of the idea, for my friends who are still TTC.  Then I had to go to a funeral today.  A funeral for a baby.  Then, I couldn't think of anything trivial.

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by Melissa Ford

The whole online community recognized it at once. Many organizations came out with a formal statement. Reproductive endocrinologists took time out of practicing medicine to comment for local news stations. Everyone, for once, was in total agreement. The octuplet mum is bad for the infertiles.

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As if there isn't enough pressure on kids today, there seems to be a push to get babies to read now.  Remember when teaching your baby to sign was all the rage?  I remember seeing tons of babies in restaurants signing the 'eat' sign and thinking, "What a shame.  There are so many deaf children in the northeast."  I had no idea at the time that it was a movement!  I woke up late last night, after passing out on the couch around 8:30pm.  Lily is on vacation this week from school so we took her and her friend for a fun-filled day at the New York Hall of Science, needless to say I was wiped out.  The place was so crowded we could barely move but the kids didn't seem to mind.  I guess the native New Yorker in them doesn't mind 20 person ques for the toilet and various science/math games.  Any rate, I digress, around 2am I came across an infomercial for Your Baby Can Read or some such thing...I can't remember the exact name and I don't care to give them a plug here anyway.  It was so ridiculous it was laughable.....

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...The kind who lives off of her mother (and us taxpayers)

In a matter of days, the Nadya Suleman story has gone from "Ooooh" to "Eeeew." I think we all smell something here--and I'm not just talking the stench of soiled diapers.

After a two-week long roller coaster ride of public scrutiny, I am happy to report the high-flying commercial prospects of The Adventures of Octomom may have skidded to a crash landing.

Why? Because many moms don't like her much.

"Her chance of gaining corporate partners is slim to none," says William Chipps, senior editor of IEG Sponsor Report, an endorsement- deal tracker service. He adds that marketers generally run from any hint of controversy, "which is obviously the case with Nadya."

Just last month Nadya Suleman--aka Octomom--was an oddity. Few could relate to the litter-spawning mystery woman from La-La Land. Momtourage Producer Laura Motta said it best in an early post: "You sort of had to wonder..."

We were indeed curious. Then came details, like the $2 million pay-to-play price tag for her story; reports from Suleman's own long-suffering mom that the jobless, single mom was "obsessed" with children; and, worst, she already had six kids! It wasn't long before many of us became furious.

In the wise words of the great Queen of Soul (inauguration millinery choices, notwithstanding), let's call this song exactly what it is:

 

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The first thing I thought was, "Why are they so happy?"

Watching the ecstatic doctors at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Bellflower, CA, last week after their successful delivery of octuplets--only the second documented case in history--you sort of had to wonder.

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Can you imagine having eight babies? At the same time? One California woman did just that yesterday, giving birth to octuplets. Apparently the babies were born quickly--in about five minutes--by caesarian section.

Learn more about this story from MSNBC:

Laura Motta
Producer, Momtourage

 

My sister gave birth to another daughter yesterday at 3:43pm......all 7lbs 15oz of her!  The biggest one yet for my sister.  This little girl, who is yet to be named, is baby number three.  There are two names being bandied about right now.  Thankfully, my nine year old niece's favorite, Hannah Montana, is not one of them.  She was induced two weeks early but mum and baby are faring well.  I have yet to see the new tot so I haven't been able to play babyrazzi yet but I will soon.  The last time my sister gave birth I was her partner as she was widowed on 9/11.  I'm overjoyed at the birth of this baby but I can't help thinking of when Patrick (or as we like to call him 'the terror') was born.  So, I'm slightly melancholy today but truly happy about non Hannah Montana.

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Our daughter Lily is 5 years old and born late in the year... December 22nd to be exact.  She was promoted from Kindergarten to first Grade this year... much to my dismay, despite my begging and pleading. However, the New York City Public School system, in it's infinite wisdom, states that everyone born in 2002 regardless of month is in first grade this year no exceptions...nothing like taking the individual into account. You vill go to first grade und you vill like it!

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If you are a Hybrid Mom print subscriber you would have read in our Fall issue that I am expecting baby number 3, rather unexpectedly and unplanned! For those that aren't subscribers, I still want to hear from you. I need to know how each and every mom out there juggling 3 kids and EVERYTHING else we juggle - does it. We are all spread so thin and I had thought that I was as thin as I could be (of course not physically - but mentally)! I am amazed everyday from all of our Hybrid Mom readers that write in and tell us their stories and am inspired by them, which certainly helps fuel me and helps my thinning problem! I have another 18 weeks to go until this peanut comes out - please comment here and give me your uplifting words of wisdom. I need my momtourage now! THANKS!

Submitted by oneofhismoms



Seven weeks ago, I gave birth to our second son. Being pregnant with the second child carries an entirely different set of emotions than those we had when my partner was pregnant with our first son.  I was surprised to find that, although I was extremely happy about being pregnant, the pregnancy brought with it a world of neuroses and laughable, yet very real-feeling worries. I worried for my future child.  How will he ever be able to follow an act such as my clever, handsome, charming son, Cakie? There is no possible way he can ever be as smart or well-behaved.  He's doomed. Doomed, and not even born yet. I worried about Cakie. How will he adjust to not being king of the castle?  Will he love his brother?  Will he hate his moms?  Will all of our potty training efforts have been in vain?  What if he tries to kill the baby, you know, by accident?

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We went to a great swimming pool/sprinkler/waterslide park in the burbs over the weekend. They had something there to keep children ages 6 months to 16 years happy. It was wonderful except for the kiddie/baby pool. I'm really not a fan of these. Now this little pool, no deeper than 12 inches, did have a fully functioning filtration system but the pool itself was loaded with babies in sagging swimmies. The water temperature was 88 degrees too as we've been experiencing record temps here in the northeast....great breeding conditions for e coli. It was disgusting. I think we're all just better off taking the babies in the big kids pool for short amounts of time.

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Lily graduated from Kindergarten on Tuesday.  It was a lovely ceremony.  They sang songs that all contained a graduation theme or the lyrics were altered to suit the occassion like instead of the Marine Corp march, "I don't know, but I've been told...."  they sang "Kindergarten is all done first grade here we come".  It was just precious.   I found myself weeping often during the ceremony, I was quiet about it I didn't make a scene, but I was quite emotional....so were other mothers too.

It's sad to think Lily's baby days are really just a memory now.  She looked so grown up on that stage until she started picking her nose.  She brought the house down when they handed her her certificate of completion.  She turned to the audience and did a deep bow and waved to the crowd like she was on American Idol, it was very 'vote for me'.....and she's never even seen that show.  It's easy to see Lily comes from a show biz family.

I went to a baby shower this weekend.  I was a little disgusted and surprised when I received the invitation as the mother-to-be is not a first time mom and her first child is only 4.  It was weird.  I had the strangest sense of deja vu as I can even remember what I gave her for her first shower.  This is her second child but she's expecting a girl this time so her family felt compelled to have yet another one for her.  They were kind of aware they were pushing the limits of taste too as they called it a Baby Sprinkle.  They just should have called it what it was, "Another Opportunity For Someone Else To Spend Money On My Children" or  "Oh you're pregnant again, here take my wallet."

This is up there with the people who get divorced and married again but have the nerve to invite their friends to another bridal shower.  I'm like, "Just use the gift I gave you for your first marriage...if you didn't already break it over his head."  Actually, I stand corrected.  Maybe a second bridal shower is appropriate after divorce as he may have taken half her stuff. 

Any rate, back to the second baby shower.  Have you ever heard of such a thing?!  Is this just a New York thing?  People in this state spend $30k on confirmation parties so I guess the new trend of having more than one baby shower per mom per child is not such a stretch.  7 of the 7 women at my table were all surprised too.  In fact, when my friend Carol (also a friend of the mother-to-be) asked the sister-in-law why she was having yet another shower the woman became all defensive and said, "It's the new thing.  Haven't you heard?" 

Have you heard?  Am I behind on this?  What do you think?  I'm a little peeved.  The mom-to-be-again was also very shocked by the shower (and slightly embarrassed), she said to us on the Q.T., "I'm grateful and it's lovely to see everyone again but this isn't my first."

 

I was a volunteer chaperone on Lily's Kindergarten class trip to Green Meadows Farm this week in Queens, NY.  Our city kids had a fabulous time: milking cows; collecting eggs; going on hay rides; and generally torturing all the cute baby animals.  Lily is no Jeffrey Dahmer but oh my goodness she can be rough with baby bunnies....good thing I was there.  There were some tears...and not just because I forgot my Claritin.  Her teachers are truly underpaid.  Here are some adorable snaps:

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