Sherry and I have both been tagged (heads up, Sherry!) by Marijke at Womb Within to answer some pregnancy questions. Here are mine!
1. How did you find out you were pregnant?
During my first pregnancy I was working at an ob/gyn office as a receptionist. I was only a few days late but at the urging of my two coworkers (who were teasing more than anything) I went over to the lab during a break and took a test. I really had no other indications that I was pregnant and was really shocked when I found out I was! For my …read more

The Weary Parent posted the Family and Relationships Channel’s carnival, but server difficulties mean I’m just now getting to mention it.
It’s an interesting look at education, from every which way. Go have a peek at what your favorite bloggers are saying… and thanks to Char for putting it together.
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We had dinner with friends tonight. It reminded me of the early days of parenting, when my husband and I would get together with another young couple whose baby was just a month younger than ours. We’d share baby wrangling and dinner preparations, watch a movie, and feel a bit more sane …read more

I hae a great post about depression stuck in another window. I am annoyed and tired. Therefore, there will be no post of great sympathy and substance tonight.
I would urge you to read Babylune’s post about checking yourself for post partum depression, and then exploring all the great advice in her related posts.

I was sitting at the airport this afternoon, waiting to fly home. Airports give you a lot of time to watch people… and across from me a new family doted over their baby girl. She looked to be about five, six months old, and the mother cradled her baby in her arms and cooed and fussed while the babe drank a bottle. A peaceful enough scene, no?
Until the baby decided she only wanted to drink half the bottle. I watched a silent, unnecessary battle unfold. The mother pushed the bottle into her babe’s mouth, and the child arched, and fussed, …read more

My friend Kat and I were talking about the articles circulating the Web that try to cast this, that, or the other as the Next Dangerous Thing, to the exclusion of all rational thought or well-informed conversation. The lastest doozy? Vaginal birth causes babies’ heads to bleed internally!
First off, whose brilliant idea was it to inflict an MRI on newborns not yet ten minutes old? Cause I’m here to tell you, sister, I’d rather have that babe nestled on my skin for those first ten minutes, thank you very much.
A properly prepared, vaginal birth is by far the best way …read more

I’m a fan of baby carriers. Forget Dr. Sears’s weird baby carrier. Forget the Ergo or the Baby Bjorn. Today’s hip mama wears her baby with a Maya wrap or an EllaRoo. And now you can get those beautiful EllaRoo baby carriers at jwkbaby.com and help a stay at home mom of three follow a dream.
There are adorable, customized baby shirts and onesies, and Barefoot Books, too.
Did you wear  your baby? I had to… I had what Dr. Sears lovingly refers to as a ‘high needs baby’. AKA, Oh. My. God. He wouldn’t be put down, had to be in …read more

If you are a mother, you deserve Lush. Oh yes. Go to your bathroom. Lock the door. Better yet, go to a friend’s house when they are out of town, preferably a friend with a big, big bathtub. Lock the door. Open the plastic bag and drop one gorgeous ball of teh sex into a hot tubful of water, and fizz your cares away.
It’s that good. Sex bomb. At just under $5 a pop, these sexy, not-so-little numbers will wash away your troubles and are much less expensive than a shrink’s couch.
Go on. Get two. You’ll want to take another …read more

EDIT:  More on the 10-state outbreak here
A mom in Oregon underwent almost a week in the hospital, Acute Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome , 4 blood transfusions and 8 plasmapherisis exchanges after eating tainted spinach, at least her lawyer alleges that it’s the source of the eColi.
My oldest daughter got Salmonella when she was 8 mos old from a Wendy’s bag. Yep, sounds bizarre, but that was the decision of the City’s Board of Health, as odd as it seems. She was breastfed-only at the time and all we can figure is that the bag I let her hold and …read more

Bad news for cat aficionados – if you have cats at home, your children may be at an increased risk of developing eczema, especially if they were exposed to cats soon after birth.
A study presented at the American Thoracic Society International Conference by the University of Arizona tracked 486 children from birth and recorded how many cats and dogs were in the house, following up a year later to see which children had developed eczema.
Of the 134 children with cats in the household, 27.6% had eczema by one year of age, compared with 17.8% of 286 children without cats. …read more

We all know a pregnant mother shouldn’t smoke, but here’s an article about a study showing that babies who are exposed to passive smoke from birth may in later life become smokers themselves or worse, suffer from smoking-related cancers. Now you know what to do when Aunt Maude or Uncle Fred light up when they drop by your home for a visit and to play with Bubba. Stub out, or step out!