The b5media Lifestyles Channel is excited to announce our Second Annual Channel Wide Blogtoberfest!

Blogtoberfest will run an entire two weeks throughout our channel beginning Monday, October 6th and wrapping up Friday, October 17th.

Here’s how it will work:

Each day select blogs within the channel will post as usual, the only difference is, they’ll post our beautiful Blogtoberfest button (shown above) and a special note letting you know that it is a sponsored post. That particular post will have a secret prize assigned to it from our list of awesome prizes that will be announced prior to opening day.

All you have to do to enter to win that prize is leave a comment! That’s it! All prizes will be available to the U.S. and Canada unless otherwise noted. We do have some goodies for our global friends too!

Within a few days of leaving your comment, check back with that blog to see what the prize is and if you’re the lucky winner as well as instructions on just how to claim your prize.

Our objective is to reward our loyal readers and subscribers. Loyal readers will know when to comment, if they’ve won and how to get their prize! Pretty good, huh?

Does that sound like you? Do you want that to sound like you?

If you would like to become a loyal reader, visit our channel blogs – add them to your favorites, subscribing to their feeds and checking back are the only ways to win.

And well, with the holidays just around the corner, it’s a great way to kick off your holiday shopping! For Free!

We do hope you’ll come celebrate Blogtoberfest with us! Happy Fall Y’all

This post will be updated with links to important information about this event! Feel free to bookmark this exact post and check back for updates.

Post from: Babylune

From October 6 – 17th, we’ll be hosting our Second Annual Lifestyles Channel Blogtoberfest.

We’re planning to run this event for two weeks during the month of October (or until the prizes run out). During that two weeks, we’ll be giving away some amazing prizes.

We’ve already come up with a few prizes of our own by way of previous product reviews, public relations contacts and more to give to readers but would like to supplement them with some other prizes and gifts from sponsors interested in being a part of this event where they could get a little attention and we can reward our loyal readers.

If you’d like to participate by offering a prize (in return for a little publicity throughout our channel) please email me with the following information in the following format:

1. email gayla AT b5media DOT com (substitute AT and DOT with the appropriate @ and .)
2. make the subject line ‘BLOGTOBERFEST PRIZE’
3. describe the prize you would like to offer (what is it and it’s value)
4. include a link to the prize if you have one – if not, a company website would be fine.
5. include your name, the link to the site you’d like us to link to in return for your prize and a graphic you’d like us to use along with your mention.

NOTE: While we would like to include as many prizes as possible – however, we won’t be able to accept every offer for whatever reason. We’d like to encourage prizes that are in line with at least one of our blogs content – so our readers will benefit the fullest from their participation.

Also note that our channel has an international audience and prizes need to be able to be received by readers around the world so please factor in that you’ll need to pay for any shipping if it’s won by an international reader unless otherwise specified or earmarked for specific distribution only.

Prize submissions will be accepted until Tuesday September 30th.

Prize Suggestions: Cash or gift certificates are always a plus, gadgets and random fun things. Electronics, books, memberships, toys and just about anything that is “suitable” to at least one of our blogs.

We’d rather keep this event unique, so things like ‘hosting packages’, services and ‘ebooks’ aren’t going to exactly be relevant to participants. The more fun and creative the contribution the better (and value is a real plus).

What do you get in return?

You’ll be getting promotion in return for your prize on a number of pages/posts throughout the entire channel that yields a high number of visitors daily and monthly. Historically, once a contest of this magnitude is underway, you’ll probably get linked to from other blogs also as these events cause quite a stir around the blogosphere.

You will be guaranteed at least 2 links from every participating blog in the channel and multiple links from the blogs you sponsor for each prize you sponsor.

Example: One sponsor contributes 4 prizes, that’s 4 blogs that provide multiple links to your product website along with the channel wide promotion posts.

The better the prize the more attention you’ll get!

Now, let’s see just how creative some of you can be!

Post from: Babylune

When my children were babies, I had fun going through the shoe departments looking to see what they had for babies who weren’t walking yet. You could find little running shoes, ballet slippers – I even saw little soft-sided “construction boots.” If they hadn’t been so hideously expensive, I may actually have bought a pair for one of my sons.

Now, there are “heels” for babies. Britta Bacon and Hayden Porter are childhood friends turned took an idea, became business partner, and launched Heelarious, a company that makes and sells soft pre-walking shoes for the little princess, from 0 to 6 months.

It seemed cute and harmless to me – another way to get moms to part with their money, but then I heard a rant on the radio last week about how this was a terrible product and one that was akin to exposing your child to the unsavory things in life. That posting a picture of an infant in these heels was welcoming pedophiles to download the photos. Callers to the radio show even said it was like child abuse because the babies couldn’t use the heels and it would affect their foot and leg development (they were ignoring the fact that these are for babies who can’t walk yet).

So, I looked further into how people felt about this. According to comments left for an article in Seattle, High Heels for Babies, there are others who feel just as strongly about this. There are comments about brass stripper poles being next, and so on. Seriously?

What do you think? I’m still in the camp that they’re a cute waste of money, but if someone has the money to spend, it’s up to them.

~~~~

Marijke Durning is a nurse, health writer and fellow blogger here at b5media. She writes the popular pregnancy blog Womb Within and another one on pain, pain management and all things pain-related at Help My Hurt.

Tags: heelarious, baby shoes, high heels, high heels for babies

Post from: Babylune

by: Marye Audet

I have had eight children, and six of them at home. I always get a lot of questions when people find out. “What’s it really like?” is usually followed by, “I could never do that!”

So, after having six homebirths, what is it really like?

Having a baby at home is much different than my experiences in the hospital. I was in control of what I did and how I did it. I could decide what made me feel better and what didn’t…and I could go to the bathroom in the privacy of my bathroom rather than creating a PBS Documentary of it.

I liked being in my room, in my bed with my familiar stuff around me. I like total quiet when I am laboring and I was able to look at Helen, my midwife and say, “Shut up, Helen” without her getting offending. She would smile sweetly and get quiet until the contraction was over. I loved the part where I would be almost out of my mind with transition and Marc would always tell me that we were almost there… I liked that after the baby was born we got to take a relaxing herbal bath while the midwives fixed my room and changes sheets…allowing me to come back to a freshly made up bed.

I loved that my midwife wanted me on bed rest for two weeks and on light duty for two weeks after that. A nice long time to be pampered and get to know the little one! After that rest I could come back and ease into my regular schedule, rested and calm.

People who home birth love it because it is ultimately less stressful than a hospital birth. I found that my hospital births were more painful, harder to heal from, and less satisfactory than the homebirths that I had. I had large babies, ranging from just under nine lbs to just over eleven pounds. I am 5′4″ and a size 10 at my top weight… the births, other than Ethan’s, were not a big deal

Marc and I have Rh incompatibility. The midwife was able to give me rhogam shots as I needed them. It was not a problem.

My fourth child, the second to be born at home, had a huge chest and we ended up with stuck shoulders, or shoulder dysplasia after a very long labor. The midwife was able to use something called a corkscrew maneuver (exactly what it wounds like) to get him out and begin oxygen. So, yes, complications can happen at home but they can happen at the hospital as well.

I think that part of the charm of homebirth/midwife assisted is that you are treated as an individual. My pregnancies always went 19 to 21 days OVER my due date. It was normal for me. I did not have a doctor breathing down my neck telling my baby was going to die if I wasn’t induced…My midwife developed a relationship with me an my family and she is now delivering my grandchildren!

If homebirth is something you are interested in don’t let anyone scare you or make your decision for you. There are bad things that happen during home birth and there are bad things that happen during hospital birth. The truth is that with a midwife problems are generally caught early in the pregnancy and either dealt with or care is transferred to a specialist. I am at the point in my life where there will probably be no more babies. I am o.k. with that. I have wonderful memories of the experiences that I had.

It is important to choose what you will be happiest with because ultimately it is your experience.

Marye Audet is the homeschooling mom of eight kids. She and her husband are restoring a vintage farmhouse and trying to live simply. She is a freelance writer and the author of four b5 blogs: Baking Delights, Kettle and Cup, Simply Home Remedies, and Marriage Actually, which she coauthors with her husband, Marc.

(image: Marye Audet)

Post from: Babylune

Scientists have actually done a study on how magic affects children – scientists will study anything! Anyway, they found that children who learned some magic began to feel more confident about themselves and their abilities. This was likely because learning these types of skills can really boost a child’s confidence – and then everything just takes over from there.

Cool stuff!

~~~~

Marijke Durning is a nurse, health writer and fellow blogger here at b5media. She writes the popular pregnancy blog Womb Within and another one on pain, pain management and all things pain-related at Help My Hurt.

Tags: magic tricks, children learning tricks, boosting self-esteem

Post from: Babylune

I can’t even begin to imagine the pain that the parents in China who fed their babies tainted baby formula. At latest count, according to the New York Times, 1253 babies have been made ill and 2 have died from drinking the formula. Fifty-three babies remain in serious condition. The children are developing kidney stones – and if you’ve ever had a kidney stone or witnessed someone who has, you know how painful they can be.

News reports are detailing that the formula powder was tainted with melamine, a compound to make plastic. Chinese authorities are reporting that employees at the company where the formula powder were questioned and so far, two people have been arrested.

Apparently, the contamination was known about long before it became known and before measures were taken to warn the public. The two deaths are reported to have occurred in May and July. News of the contamination only broke last month.

How very sad. As I said, I just can’t imagine it.

Marijke Durning is a nurse, health writer and fellow blogger here at b5media. She writes the popular pregnancy blog Womb Within and another one on pain, pain management and all things pain-related at Help My Hurt.

Post from: Babylune

When I first suspected I was pregnant, I rushed to the drug store to purchase a pregnancy test.  After reading the instructions, I shuffled to the restroom to see what the dot on this test would reveal.

Because I was not married and because I’d just broken up with my boyfriend, I was genuinely hoping for a false alarm.  Knowing that the dot was supposed to turn pink for pregnant in about 3 minutes.  When the dot turned black in 30 seconds, I assumed something was faulty with the test and returned to purchase another test.  Same result.

I gave up!

I scheduled an appointment at my local Planned Parenthood – I figured I’d just cut to the chase and get the real test.  It was positive.

I told my ex-boyfriend the news and we decided to get back together to see if we couldn’t make it work. 

Just before Thanksgiving that year, we had our ultrasound done.  My doctor did one ultrasound to rule out birth defects.  During that ultrasound, I became very nervous.  Especially when he left the room and returned with his office manager.  He was pointing at the screen and talking code of some sort.  I demanded to know what was wrong – they said nothing was wrong but that I should be looking into doubling everything I was getting for the nursery.

When I went home that day, I went with a six pack of beer in hand.  While I knew this man was not the man I would want to spend the rest of my life with – he was going to be the father of my twins and I needed help with two babies – so the talk of marriage began and New Years Eve of that year, we married.

Less than three months after getting married, I was visiting with a friend and playing Rummy when my water broke.  That has to be the worst feeling on the planet for someone who is as O.C.D. as me.  Ick!

Like it or not, the babies were coming six weeks premature.

Upon arriving at the hospital, I was asked if contractions had begun – having been hospitalized with “false labor” that I never felt prior to this hospital visit – I honestly wasn’t sure if contractions had begun.  About half way up on the elevator ride, I learned quickly what a contraction was.

Let the poking and prodding begin!

After a few tests and routine examinations, the doctor came in and told me I had two options – 1. I could have one natural and one caesarian or 2.  I could have both c-section.

Seriously!  Those were my options.  I know most every woman on the planet would’ve likely had the same response I did – that being Take Them Both – Take Them NOW!

What am I?  StooPID?  NO way in hell was I going to have stitches in BOTH places and four hours of feeling like a watermelon was being winched out of my ribcage was just about enough.

At 8:30 that night I had two beautiful, but very tiny babies.  Trey was 3 lbs. 14 oz. and Dakota was 4 lbs. 7 oz.  Both were 17 inches long.

I was very fortunate to have such healthy babies who would come home at 7 and 12 days.

I’ve never been one to be kept down for very long and was released from the hospital at 2 days.  I went home and began preparing for my babies to come home.  On the 3 day following my c-section, I was running the vacuum and moving furniture.  In hindsight, I realize just how stupid that was and how much damage it could have caused me – but at the time it seemed like a good idea.

Fast forward 15 years later – today my 3 pound baby boy began his first job at a local farm.  He’s learning how to farm and milk cows.  He’s so excited to be working and saving for his first car. 

They don’t look anything alike – they don’t act anything alike – but I look at them so many times and am so thankful that I was special enough to be given two wonderful baby boys who have grown to be mama’s boys and are darned proud of it!

(image: stock.xchg)

This post was written by Gayla McCord of MomGadget.com

Post from: Babylune

Having welcomed her youngest into the world in March 2007, Eliza is a natural expert on the topic of the first phase of motherhood. After all, she’d done it four times.

I’ll not spoil all the secrets about this wonderful, personable and endearing author we’ve managed to snag – I’ll leave a little something for her to share herself.

Please help me welcome Eliza to Babylune.

Post from: Babylune