Baby Mia Needs a New Heart!!!

My friend Christy recently told me about a sweet little family in Seattle, Washington who needs help!

Their baby girl, Mia McDonald, was born with a heart defect that means she will need a heart transplant at only a few months old.

Already she has been waiting months for a donor heart in Washington state, and it costs $450,000 for them to get her on the national waiting list which will greatly increase their chances of getting her a new heart.

If she is lucky enough to get a donor heart, the financial strain on her family (young parents Mimi and John McDonald, and Mia’s elder brother and sister) will be immense.

Mia has been featured on two Seattle news broadcasts (Komo 4 and King 5), but those stories were both months ago and I worry that awareness of Mia’s struggle has faded with the newness of her life. If you are interested you can follow up on more of her story at http://helpbabymia.blogspot.com.

If you can donate anything, even a single dollar, please do so! You can find donation information at the Help Baby Mia Blog.

Also, if you’re willing to post a blinkie on your blog, please copy & paste the following HTML on your site to help spread awareness:

<a href=”http://helpbabymia.blogspot.com/&#8221; mce_href=”http://helpbabymia.blogspot.com/&#8221; target=”new”><img border=”0″ alt=”Photobucket” src=”http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj186/neparker99/BabyMia.gif&#8221; mce_src=”http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj186/neparker99/BabyMia.gif”/></a&gt;

xoxo

Annie

Fun Ways to Teach Kids About Voting

I’m so excited about the enthusiasm voters have this year–election day has never been so exciting for me! I voted absentee last week, but my hubby went out to vote early this morning and I’ve been trying to keep from avidly watching the reports on CNN since so many people haven’t even voted yet!

Get out and VOTE!

Speaking of voting, do your kiddos understand what’s going on? My little bun is still way too young, but I’m getting excited to teach her about our privilege to vote when she gets bigger. Luckily there are a lot of fun ways to teach your little ones about voting!

The Teddy Bear Elections

Kids respond to pretending–it gets their creative juices flowing and lets them take on the grown-up world at their own pace. That’s why a teddy bear election can be a fun and exciting way to involve your kids in politics!

Let them choose two stuffed animals, and help them create platforms that speak to them (more picnics? later bedtimes? less broccoli). They can make posters, have a teddy bear debate–take it as far as you want, and let them involve their friends!

At the end of your “campaign” why not let all their stuffed animals vote? Your little one can tally them up and make the big announcement!

Schoolhouse Rock ROCKS for Mamas with No Time!

Remember those catchy little Schoolhouse Rock songs about grammar, numbers, and American government that came on between Saturday morning cartoons? They’re probably the only way I could ever remember what a conjunction is–and now they have a DVD focused on teaching about the election through song! So if you can live with hearing How a Bill Becomes a Law sung loudly every night at the dinner table, this is a great way to get your kids to learn and remember about our country, even if you don’t have time to mount a full-scale teddy bear election. 🙂

Take them to the Polls!

There’s nobody your little tike looks up to more than his parents, so lead by example! Take your kids to the polls with you, show him how a voting booth works, and have him explain it to daddy when he gets home from work or grandma on a special phone call. Explaining the process to someone else will help your kiddo soak in the info (plus explaining things to grown ups makes kids feel important, and who doesn’t enjoy a little confidence boost like that?!)

So get out there and vote, mamas!

xo,

Annie

photo: Stars and Stripes by Dave Hiebert

Fall Back: Daylight Savings & Baby Bedtimes

I used to love the “Fall Back” daylight savings time–until I had a baby. Suddenly my carefully crafted bedtime routine (and WORSE, my precious morning sleep time!) is out the window, because while I’m on new time, my little one’s internal clock is still an hour ahead.

What to do about this little dilemma? Here are a couple ideas:

Be Consistent at Bedtime

Before you choose a strategy to change baby’s bedtime, resolve to have a consistent routine for him every evening. Whether it’s bathtime, rocking, and bedtime or just a soft song and a kiss before snuggling down in the crib, make sure you give your baby that transition time so he knows its bedtime. Babies really seem to respond to this! I’ll talk more about bedtime routines (and how they worked for us) in an upcoming post.

Adjust Naptime

If you’re brave enough to tinker with naptime, you could risk waking your baby early or letting her take a little catnap later than usual to adjust her to her updated bedtime. According to the book Sleeping Through the Night young babies typically go about two hours between naps, so waking your little one two hours before new bedtime could help you get her down at the right time.

Move Bedtime… Slowly!

If you decide to shift bedtime itself, it might help to do it slowly. If your baby is used to going down at 7 and the time change means his body clock says “bedtime!” at 6, put him down at 6 the first night. Transition slowly (you can determine the gap, whether it be 5 minute of 15 minute blocks) each night until you have your new bedtime ready to go.

Move Wakeup Time

This is likely to be much harder than moving bedtime. At night, babies are already tired from a long day, but early daylight savings time risers will probably be pretty rested and may resist going back to sleep.

Our little bun used to wake up at 7:30 every morning (pretty nice!)–too bad the daylight savings time switch means that is now 6:30. So, how to get that time change adjusted for your little sweetheart?

I’m not a fan of leaving baby to cry–that often just makes them worry and fuss even more. Instead, try training them to sleep longer by making that extra awake time boring and soothing. Go into her room and rock her without making eye contact or interacting (cooing, talking, etc.). Just quietly rock her. Hopefully she will drowse or even fall asleep. You may be able to lay her back down, but more likely she will need to be rocked to stay asleep. You’ll probably have to repeat this for quite a few days to get any potential results.

If a large block doesn’t work, try to get her to sleep for any extra amount of time. If she naturally starts moving her wakeup time back as you do this, try to add five minutes more each day until you reach the wakeup time you want–but keep in mind that once she is well rested, she’s going to wake up… so don’t even bother trying to get her to sleep until noon! That’ll have to wait until the teenage years…

Any of you shy mamas have sleeping tips for us? If so, do tell!

xo,

Annie

photo: Fall Maples by Patrice Dufour

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from our chubby little Bun!

If you ask me, Halloween is one of the best days to have kids–there’s almost as much giddy exitement as Christmas morning!!! Here are a couple ways to make Halloween super fun for your kiddos (thanks to my own shy mama for the childhood inspiration!):

• Brew Up a Spooky Dinner!
  Its hard to hold the wiggles in when all you want to do is trick-or-treat, but a fun dinner can help! When we were kids, my mama whipped up a fully orange dinner every year. One year she even scooped out mini-pumpkins into bowls to hold our mac-n-cheese. Check out Parents Magazine’s idea for a ghoulish meal (via This Week for Dinner)!
• Whip Up a Last Minute Costume
  Think you’ve waited too long to put together a costume for your little one (or yourself?). Parents Magazine to the rescue again! Check out their last minute costumes you can make from things around your house! (via Tangled and True)
• Snuggle Up and Scare Yourself
  Don’t forget to enjoy the evening yourself! Once your princesses and cowboys have settled down to bed, pop in one of these fun and frightening flicks (and maybe sneak a Snickers out of one of those plastic pumpkin pails…):
  1. The Skeleton Key
  2. I Am Legend
  3. Invasion
  4. The Haunting (I recommend the original black & white version… scary!)
  5. The Others
  6. What Lies Beneath
  7. Poltergeist
  8. The Ring
  9. Jaws
  10. (or if your kids want to stay up) It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Happy Halloween!

Annie

What is WIC?: Government Help With Groceries

If you need help buying groceries for your little ones (of yourself if you’re a pregnant or breastfeeding mommy) then WIC is an awesome resource you should look into: it is government assistance with your food bills! I just looked into it about a week ago, and it was easy to set up an well worth it!

What is WIC?

WIC (which stands for Women, Infants, Children) is a Federal program that provides funds for nutritional foods, information on healthy eating, and in some cases even health care referrals for pregnant, post-partum, and breastfeeding mamas, infants, and children up to age five.

How Do I Qualify?

The basic requirements for WIC are that you live in the state in which you apply, are one of the categories of W.I.C. listed above, and meet the income requirements of being between 100 and 185% of the Federal poverty income guidelines. The table below gives a partial list of the current WIC income requirements.

(Find the full list of WIC’s eligibility requirements here.)

How Does it Work?

Once a WIC officer has determined that your family qualifies for the program, they will give you printed checks for specific food items the State government has deemed nutritional, such as milk, cheese, cereal, and peanut butter. You then take the checks with you to a WIC approved grocery store, and purchase those items using your WIC checks. (The cashier should be able to help you if you’ve never done it before!)

How Do I Apply?

To apply, you’ll need to contact your local WIC office. You can find contact info for your local WIC office at the WIC website http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/.

Does it Work?

Our family just started using WIC a couple weeks ago. I had to take little Bun into the WIC office to be weighed and measured, and had a short interview with a WIC officer. They showed me a video about how the program works and sent us home with two months’ worth of checks for foods like beans, tuna, juice, carrots, peanut butter, milk, cheese, and cereal. I took my first batch of checks into the store last week, and found it super easy to shop for and pay for my WIC items. It takes a little extra time at first, but it probably ended up saving us about $30 in grocery bills!

love,

Annie

photo: cheese by kirsche222

Things I Bought: Most Comfortable Maternity Jeans (and Pants) Ever!!!

Those stretch-band maternity pants can be the pits and at two months post-partum I am (sadly) still more comfy in pants with a stretch waist than my pre-baby jeans. So I wanted to share with you maternity and someday-may-be-maternity-again mamas the best, most comfortable pair of maternity jeans I have EVER tried on (seriously!):

These are Motherhood Maternity’s jeans with the “Secret Fit Belly™”, and the first time I put them on I told my husband I might just keep wearing them after the baby came. The tummy panel is sooo comfortable, and fits well enough to wear from early baby-belly all the way through the ninth month. I literally wore these to the hospital! And at about $25-30 a pair, they’re relatively cheap. Best of all, they actually look good on your butt (unlike Old Navy & Target’s maternity pants which gave me grandma-booty).

The Secret Fit Belly™ comes on a lot of different styles of pants, jeans, shorts, skirts, and capris, too, and they’re mostly pretty cute.

I had a pair of black capris that I wore to work all the time. I was actually really bummed on days these pairs of pants were dirty so I had to wear different pants with tight elastic bands that hurt. So ladies with baby tummies unite & try on the Secret Fit Belly™ and see for yourself!

xo!

Annie

photos from motherhood maternity

Your First Transvaginal Ultrasound: You’re Going to Put That WHERE?

How amazing is it to see your brand new peanut baby for the first time on that fuzzy black and white screen? If only someone had told me how they were going to get that picture!

Can you find the baby? (We had to ask where it was!)

At approximately five weeks in my pregnancy with our little Bun, I was having some abnormal discomfort, so my doctor sent me into the hospital to get checked out and make sure Bun was in my uterus and not an ectopic pregnancy. When I went into the exam room, they asked if I wanted a chaperone.

Weird… why would I feel the need for a chaperone for some goop on my tummy and a peek at the baby? Enter the endovaginal ultrasound. *Gulp*

What is a Transvaginal Ultrasound?

Besides being a big shock, an endovaginal or transvaginal ultrasound is a pelvic ultrasound taken using a probe (a.k.a. transducer) placed into the vaginal opening. Doctors use this type of ultrasound when the baby is still very small—so small that your body tissue would block it in a regular outside-the-tummy ultrasound.

Not everyone will have an ultrasound at this stage of pregnancy, so don’t get your knickers in a twist just yet!

How is it performed?

After a quick disrobing from the waist down, you’ll probably find yourself in the traditional pelvic exam position: on your back with your feet in stirrups and draped with a bed sheet for privacy (though as you’ll notice throughout pregnancy, “privacy” is a relative term).

The doctor or technician will then place a condom over the transducer and cover that with a gel. She will then place part of the transducer in the vagina and begin the ultrasound. She may need to move the probe around to find the fetus, so be prepared for that.

Does it hurt?

In most cases, no. The transducer is shaped to *ahem* fit a condom, which means it is also shaped to fit correctly in the vaginal canal. You may feel some pressure which may not be super comfortable. If you feel pain, let your doctor or technician know immediately.

How can I make this process more comfortable?

Even the non-shy-mamas among us don’t look forward to a pelvic exam or anything like it, so remember that there is nothing wrong with being nervous—but also remember that it shouldn’t hurt, and that you get to see your baby!

A few tips for making a transvaginal ultrasound more comfortable:

1. Have a chaperone. Whether it’s your baby-daddy or your very own mama, having someone there to hold your hand—and admire your first glimpse of baby—can help you feel more comfortable and secure.
2. Ask to help. When I went in for my first endovaginal ultrasound, the tech let me guide the probe in myself, and it made a big difference. My second endovaginal ultrasound was performed by a midwife, and she placed the transducer herself—and it was much more uncomfortable. If you want to, go ahead and ask if you can guide the transducer yourself.
3. Relax. Easy for me to say sitting comfortably in front of my computer, fully clothed, and no where near a pair of stirrups. But really, you should make an effort to relax while this is going on. If you can, focus especially on relaxing the muscles around the probe so it won’t hurt when it is moved around during the ultrasound.
4. Ask questions. Ask what the tech is doing, what you can do to help, where the baby is on the screen, anything you want! Asking questions will not only help distract you, but also help you feel more in control of the situation.
5. Focus on your baby! It may not be the most fun way to catch a peek at your own little bun in the oven, but the point of this weird and wacky ultrasound is to check on your baby! So don’t get caught up in nerves or worries—look at that beautiful baby. You might even be able to see or hear its heartbeat!
   

   Our little Bun at nine weeks!

For more information about transvaginal ultrasounds, check out About.com’s encyclopedia entry or WebMD’s Women’s Health topic about them.

Good luck, and enjoy your first baby picture!

Love,

Annie

The “Birth” of the Shy Girl’s Guide to Pregnancy & Parenting

Once upon a time a shy girl—and I mean shy like I can practically count the number of people who have seen me naked on one hand, and most of them are doctors—saw a beautiful blue line on a pregnancy test. It was New Year’s Day 2008, and she and the hubs were delighted (and okay, a little scared) by the glorious little life that would soon flip theirs upside down in every conceivable (no pun intended) and beautiful way.

Little did they know how wacky the world of pregnancy could be…

Shockingly, that shy girl is me—and eleven months later I’m proud to say I’ve made it through pregnancy and the first two months of parenting, but not without a little trauma to my once-super-shy sensibilities. So now I want to share what I’ve learned with you in the hopes of sparing you the smacked upside the head shocks I got along the way.

I thought I knew what to expect until I was actually expecting–my very first ultrasound at a mere five weeks was probably the first wakeup call that there was going to be a lot of weirdness going on. And then parenting came along, and guess what? It brought with it a whole new set of challenges for us shy (and not-so-shy) mamas.

So stick with me for insights into everything you need to know—but no one ever told you—about pregnancy, parenting, and just being a girl. Welcome to the Shy Girl’s Guide to Pregnancy and Parenting!

Lots of love,

Annie