Parenting Children

You made it through the nine months, you survived the labor and delivery and you are finally home with your new bundle of joy. Now what?
Your body is not the same, you are tired and you have a new person to take care of. Welcome to the fourth trimester.

After you have your baby recovery starts, but it may not feel like it. You are sore, you have minor contractions, your breasts are tender and you are fatigued.
New mothers can bleed for weeks after delivery, this is called lochia and it is made up of blood, mucus and tissue. The bleeding is normal but if you go through more then one pad an hour, call your doctor.

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Any parent knows that kids songs, are usually just for kids. I know I want to poke my ears out hearing “Cinderella” sing some day my prince will come or some high pitched kid singing pop goes the weasel, over and over again. The same goes for lullabies.
We would play classical piano music instead of traditional lullabies for our kids, because if we had to listen to it, we at least wanted to enjoy it! I guess you can say we are music snobs, but how much can you take?

Rockabye Baby! saved our day. Rockabye Baby is not traditional lullabies, but rock classics that YOU love that are transformed into beautiful instrumental lullabies. Everyone from The Rolling Stones to Metallica to Coldplay are reconstructed into lullabies using instruments like the glockenspiel, vibraphone, mellotron, harp and bells.
Yeah, I don’t know what they are either, but it sounds amazing.

The kind people of Rockabye Baby sent us a few CDs to check out and we were instantly in love. My husband sings Pink Floyd songs to our kids every night, and he loved the Pink Floyd cd more then my kids did. I even caught him bringing it in his car to listen to while at work.
The Nirvana cd turned all of my favorite Nirvana songs into music for little ears. They are beautiful, calming music that would be perfect for any baby and the parents that love them.

Do you want one of these cds for your very own? You are in luck, I have two Baby Rock Christmas cds to give away. Filled with rock classics like 2000 Miles and Do They Know It’s Christmas? I am sure you will love it so much you won’t just listen to it at Christmas time.
To enter to win one of these cds simply leave me a comment on this post!
Deadline for this contest is midnight November 23. Good Luck!

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I have recently wrote about all the toy and baby gear recalls and how frustrating it has made me, and I am sure I am not the only Mom. When the Fisher Price recalls came out I sat and thought about all the Dora and Diego toys I had that were being recalled, hundreds of dollars worth of toys. I found out later that my toys were not effected because they were purchased before the recall dates. I was not that relieved.
I sat in my children’s playroom and looked at all the toys that could be dangerous for my children; Thomas trains, plastic food for their kitchen, superhero dolls, dress up jewelry and baby dolls.
What was I to do?

Now that Christmas is coming up I am really reevaluating what I have in my house already and what I need. I am compiling lists of websites that only sell toys made in the USA. I am suggesting clothes, books or savings bonds instead of toys for family to give them. I am trying to buy handmade items for people on my list.
With a new baby on the way I have thrown out my Avent bottles and I am researching safer bottles, bibs and baby gear.

Maybe this was my wakeup call that my kids have too much, that we all have too much. The simple toys, blocks, puzzles books, arts & crafts and games are usually the best anyway. Does my daughter really need a life size Barbie? Does my son need 1000 Thomas trains?
The answer is no.

I hope you will join me in the fight to make our children’s toys safer, you can start here.
I hope you will try to buy handmade items or make them yourself this holiday season. I hope that someday soon I can buy something for my baby or preschoolers and not have to research it for weeks first, or find out it was recalled a week later.
I hope all of our children are safe.

What are you doing to keep your kids safe this holiday season?

This post was for a Parent Bloggers Network blog blast “get the lead out”.
Check out the Consumers Union to learn more and take action!

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I am on the fence about vaccinations. I have written about them before and although I do vaccinate my children, I do it on my own schedule and I always have. I wish I lived in a state that let me pick which vaccinations to omit, but New Jersey is a all or nothing state like twenty seven others that only let you waive vaccinations if your religion dictates so.
My children get ONE vaccination at a time and I will delay some vaccinations. I finally found a pediatrician that not only supports me in doing so, but does not lecture me on the “safety” of vaccinations and hand me a piece of paper from the AMA.

I, just like any other parent, want to do what is right and healthy of my children. If you give them 4 shots in a single office visit, if that child has a reaction to the vaccines, how will you know which one gave her the reaction or which she is allergic to? That alone is enough reason to give one vaccine per visit.

I have read many books and web sites that are pro and anti-vaccine. I find some of it very important, and some just confuse me more.
The single best book, in my opinion, out there today that is about vaccines just came on the market. It is called The Vaccine Book by R. Sears. It is neither a pro or anti vaccination book. it simply tells you about each vaccine that your child gets, what is in them, what the possible side effects are and how to treat them. It allows you to make your own informed decision about these drugs we are putting into our own and your children’s bodies. It is an open minded book that I will recommend to any parent.

Have you read this book, if so waht do you think about it? Do you read about the vaccines that are given to your children or do you trust your doctor enough to go on their schedule?

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This is my favorite Thanksgiving craft for kids. All you will need is a few sheets of colored construction paper, ribbon or thread and branches from a tree.
Collect some small branches from around your neighborhood that will fit into one of your vases.

Next cut out of help you children cut out leaves from the construction paper big enough to write on, about 5 inches.

Have your children write what they are thankful for on each leaf.
Then punch a hole in the leaf and string ribbon through.

Hang on the branch.

This will make a great centerpiece for Thanksgiving dinner and I am sure all of their relatives will love to see how thankful your children are. Then you can save each leaf set for next year and add onto it, or save it in a dated bag and keep in a memory box.

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I am really about to take all of my children’s toys away and give them cardboard boxes to play with, after all of these toy/baby gear and clothing recalls. Cardboard boxes are probably toxic anyway!
Now, a Chinese-made toy was ordered off store shelves in Australia after tests showed that had a chemical that converts into the “date rape” drug, gamma hydroxy butyrate (GHB) when ingested.

Over the past two weeks, three children in Australia had to be hospitalized after they swallowed beads from Bindeez. Bindeez are a very popular toy in Australia and they are beads that can be arranged into designs and then fused together by spraying water on them. However, scientists found that the beads contain a chemical that humans metabolize into GHB, which can cause drowsiness, unconsciousness, seizures, coma and death!
Now aquadots a popular toy here in North America, is also being recalled. This was a toy my daughter was asking for Christmas! This is the same toy just manufactured under a different name in Australia.
What are you doing about all of these recalls?

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I never realized how much keeping my children safe would be on my mind when I became a parent. It is the number one thing on any parents mind, but it seems like every news show I put on, or every magazine has something dedicated to a abducted child. According to www.kidsave.com seventy five percent of all abductions are committed by a family member or friend of the family. So maybe we should be talking to our kids about stranger abductions as well as if a acquaintance tried to take them.
Here are some tips to keep your kids safe:

The Buddy System- never be alone or in a position that anyone could take them without anyone seeing. Walk home with a friend, go to the park in a group etc.
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If you are a parent then by now I am sure you heard of the dangers of plastics in baby bottles, sippy cups and everything else. What parents don’t want their children exposed to is bisphenol-A, a plastic softener used in the production of polycarbonate plastic very commonly used in baby bottles and cups. I am also trying to purge my drawers of plastic food containers and replace them with glass ones since I am not aware of any bisphenol-A free ones yet.
You can find out why this chemical is so terrible for you, or your unborn baby or your children here.
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I recently wrote about a Maine middle school who would like to pass out birth control without parental consent to its students. I have read some other articles about it as well. I am not in favor of schools giving any medication out to my children without my permission, there are many health risks involved with medicating anyone. I also don’t think a middle school child some who are as young as eleven years old are mature enough to remember to take a pill the same time every single day to prevent pregnancy.
Also if we let eleven or twelve year olds have birth control are we lowering the age of consent? I think we are.
Are condoms as readily available? I wonder if boys are being taught about STDs and prevent pregnancy as much as the girls are.
Is taking a pill every day giving these children a false sense of security to prevent pregnancy but STDs?

A new poll that came out on Thursday shows that my opinion is not in the majority. The survey of 1,004 adults found that those who were younger and from cities or suburbs were more likely to support no restrictions, while minorities, older and lower-income people were more likely to favor parental consent, the AP reported. Sixty seven percent of adults favor allowing public schools to provide birth control to students. Sixty two percent said they believe providing contraception would reduce the number of teen pregnancies.

I wonder what you think of schools handing out contraceptives without parental consent. Let me know in the comments.

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We are always looking for things to do with the kids that eat up some of the monotony of the day. Especially during the week when I am in the only one who is with them all day. They LOVE arts & crafts and can do an art project for hours. I try and only do projects that I want to keep not something that they spend time on and I throw it away 12 hours later, or something that is not functional. Here are some craft ideas for kids three and up:

Decoupage buckets or pails.
- Cut out illustrations from a damaged or favorite book or magazine like Highlights. Or maybe cut out handprints of your kids.
- Glue stick them on to the pail like a collage.
- Once pail is covered, brush on a few layers of modge podge
- Once dry, add your favorite pom-pom trim or ribbon
- Use this to house a gift for a grandparent. Use it to collect treasures you find outside or at the beach. What about delivering cookies or treats to a neighbor in it?

Make Crayon “Muffins”
Don’t you hate the broken or small crayons you always seem to have with the new perfect crayons? Don’t throw them away make color “muffins”

-Peel the papers off broken crayon pieces and place no more then three different colors in each cup of a mini muffin tray.
-Place in a preheated oven at 300 degrees for a few minutes and then cool.
-Place in the freezer for 30 minutes.
Then pop them out of the tray and you have new (to you) crayons and they are perfect shape for little hands.

Have fun!

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