Is your baby gaining enough weight?

As a mother of a preemie weight gain was a very important issue to me. If your breastfeeding sometimes its hard to tell if your child is getting enough to eat because you don't know how many ounces they have taken in. I found a great article on baby weight gain by a board-certified pediatrician and fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. This article covers topics such as
How much weight should a baby gain?, How often should a baby eat?, When should you worry about your baby’s weight?, What to do if your baby is gaining too much weight, and What to do if your baby is gaining too little weight. It's important to remember that most babies lose two to three ounces of weight in the first 24 hours. Your newborn is getting enough to eat if she has frequent bowel movements and is content for two to three hours after feeding. Your baby may be hungrier and need to eat more during growth spurts (usually around three, six and nine weeks of age). Babies typically double their birth weight by five months of age and triple their birth weight by 12 months of age. If your baby is not gaining enough, talk to your doctor about ways to increase your milk supply, such as drinking fenugreek tea, or about supplementing with formula.

Breastmilk Storage

You can find a guideline for breastmilk storage at Ameda.com.

Milk should not spoil before the times listed, but the longer milk is stored, the more nutritional value is lost. The living parts of a mother's milk kill bacteria, making it much hardier and longer-lasting.

The guidelines say that freshly pumped milk can be stored without cooling for 10 hours, if your room is 66°F to 72°F. If your room is warmer than this, the guidelines change. In a 79°F room, your milk is good for a shorter time — 4-6 hours. If your milk is kept at 66°F to 72°F for up to 10 hours, you can then put it in the fridge for up to eight days. After eight days in the fridge, the milk can still be frozen. Fresh milk that has been cooled can be added to frozen milk, as long as you add less milk than is already frozen.

Important Tips
* Any clean, sealed container can be used to store milk. But avoid thin bottle liners, which are not intended to be frozen and can split.

* Store your milk in amounts no larger than what your baby might take. This means less waste. It also should help make the milk faster to warm. If your baby wants more, more milk can be added.

* Write the date and time on your milk container with a sticky label or non-toxic marker. Add your baby's name if he is in daycare or in the hospital.

* You can combine milk pumped at different times. If you combine milk from different days, use the date of the oldest milk.

* If your milk is used within eight days, keep it in the fridge. Otherwise, plan to freeze it in the coldest part of the freezer. Avoid the door.

* You can add fresh milk to cooled milk. And you can add fresh milk to frozen milk if it's cooled first and is less than the amount frozen.

* If your baby takes some milk from a bottle and there is milk left, don't save it. His saliva mixes with the milk during feedings, and that affects storage recommendations.

* Your milk is not "homogenized" like the milk in the store. So it may separate into layers. This does not mean it's spoiled. If this happens, just gently swirl it to mix.

Craft Project - Recycling Greeting Cards

Christmas is now over and are you wondering what do I do with all these Christmas cards? It seems like a waste to just throw them away. A good craft is to let your kids cut out the pictures, or if they are to young you can cut them up, and make their own wonderful picture.

Materials
Construction Paper
Christmas Card or any other greeting card (Birthday, Valentine's, Baby Shower, Etc)
Glue
Scissors
Any other decoration you want to include (glitter, paint, crayons, cotton balls, pom pom, stickers, sand, craft foam)

Directions
1. Cut out the pieces of the card that you want to appear in your picture.
2. Glue the picture(s) to your construction paper to create a new picture.
3. (Optional) Decorate your scene with glitter, paint, cotton balls, pom pom, craft jewels, etc.
4.  Frame your picture by adding a white or black construction paper border.

Product Review - Ocean Wonders Take-Along Projector Soother

My husband bought this Ocean Wonders Take-Along Projector Soother at Babies R Us because he thought it would be a great addition to her nursery. It was much cheaper than other soothers, only $20, so he decided to buy it. The suggested age is Birth+. It plays classical music as well as ocean sounds for up to 12 minutes at a time. It projects a lighted image onto any surface. It has two ocean images you can project and one image has more animals and is suppose to be for older children. My 5 month old daughter liked the classical music but the ocean sounds didn't catch her attention. You have to project the image very close to your child's eyes or else they can't see the image. The projected image didn't rotate so when my daughter could see the image she wasn't really interested in it. The projector is suppose to be able to stand on it's side to make projecting on a side wall possible but I could never get the projector to do so. It kept falling down and I eventually gave up. I don't recommend buying this product. It is not worth the money. I am going to return it and get a full refund.

Ocean Wonders Take-Along Projector Soother

Making Time for Yourself

As a mom I know how hard it is to find a moments peace throughout the day. I also know how important it is to make some time for yourself everyday. As moms we expect ourselves to do everything for everyone else and we often neglect ourselves. I found it very hard to make time for myself when my daughter was born. I never could find any free time and when I did I would always make cleaning the house my number one priority. When I couldn't handle the stress anymore I realized how important me time was. It helped me be a better mother and wife. Now I make sure I have at least 15 minutes to myself everyday, even if it's just to sit and drink my tea. I found it easier to make my me time the same everyday so I never missed it. If you find yourself putting yourself last make sure you take a moment to realize how important you are. Your family needs you to be 100% and your me time helps you be just that.