10 Things You Should Know About Your Newborn

Unfortunately, babies don't come with a manual. But don't let all the hassle and frazzle rob you of the joys of motherhood!

For starters, here are 10 weird but normal things you should know about your baby, from thebump.com:

1. Cradle cap

What's the deal? There's no way around it -- cradle caps are pretty gross. But they're also pretty common. How come? Honestly, nobody knows for sure. The good news is any dryness or flakiness will usually disappear within baby's first few months (though for some, random flare ups could go on for longer). In the meantime, try rubbing baby oil on the patches two or three times a week. Dr. Alanna Levine, parenting expert and pediatrician at Orangetown Pediatric Associates in New York, suggests making it a routine before baby's bath and scraping the caps off with a fine-toothed comb.

When to worry: Luckily, there's not too much worrying you need to do about this one -- it's basically nothing more than a common rash. But if it spreads beyond baby's scalp or seems to be growing more severe, ask your doc about getting a prescription ointment.

2. Explosive poop

What's the deal? Okay, maybe our use of the word "explosive" was a bit much. But the truth is, you haven't been officially initiated into parenthood until you've had to deal with a diaper explosion or two. In other words, you're not the first mom to clean baby poop off those newly painted nursery walls. For a little schooling on the physics of it all, Dr. Levine breaks it down: "Newborn poop is mostly liquid with some mustard-seed texture mixed in," she says. "As a result, it doesn't take much power to propel it across a room." Grossed out yet? Just wait until you’ve got an "up-the-backer" on your hands.

When to worry: As long as it has color (ranging from brown to green to yellow) and some seedy particles in it, baby's poop should be good to go. But if you spot any signs of blood, Dr. Levine says it's time to get on the phone with your doc.
3. Baby boobage

What's the deal? Remember those wacky hormones that plagued your entire pregnancy? (How could you forget?) Well, they did a number on baby too. And, unfortunately, one of the side effects of hanging out in your belly for 9 months can be...well, large boobs. Baby's exposure to your hormones can often cause breast tissue to develop, since it takes a while for the hormones to wear off. But don't stress, they're generally nothing to be concerned about and should go away in time.

When to worry: Notice any redness around baby's breast? If so, Dr. Levine also suggests taking baby's temp, to see if the redness is accompanied by a fever. These symptoms may be a sign of something more serious, and reason to get baby checked out.

For the rest of the helpful tips, click here!

The adorable baby girl in the photo is wearing a No Slippy Hair Clippy Mimi Double Dot Baby Bow! Just because she barely has hair doesn't mean she can't accessorize! With the clip's non-slip grip that doesn't tug or pull at her hair, you are assured it'll stay put.

PONDER, PONDER, PONDER...
What things happened to your baby that you thought were weird, but turned out normal? How did you deal with it? If you could choose just one important lesson you learned from motherhood, what would it be?

Cheerios!
Rach

Guide for Baby Naming

From all-time favorites like Mary or James, to celebrity favorites like Aidan or Ava, to the downright quirky like Sage Moonblood or Jermajesty, one of the first decisions you will ever make for your child is what his/her name will be.

While it has become a trend to think out of the box and give unique names for your children, there are some things that you'll have to consider. Lilsugar.com gives us some things to think about when baby naming:

21 CONSIDERATIONS FOR NAMING BABY

* Will you name the baby before your water breaks?
Actress Jessica Alba named lil Honor before the sweet girl was born. The mama-to-be even received personalized presents for her daughter at her baby shower.

* Would you bring your babe home without a name?
Many moms and dads wait until they meet their babe to decide on a definite moniker. At that point some couples still can't choose, so they take their wee one home from the hospital without a name. Celeb mama Brooke Burke and David Charvet were more than excited when they welcomed son Shaya, but it was weeks before they named him.

* Will you name the baby after mommy?
While some moms give their daughters monikers after their own, it's not nearly as common as it is for fathers. Famous chef Giada de Laurentiis named her daughter Jade, which is the American way of saying Giada. While it's the same meaning, it's different enough to stand on its own.

* Does the name's meaning matter to you?
Whether it's something traditional or never heard before, every name has a meaning. Some people inherit family titles, others carry the same moniker as '80s cartoon characters, and some names are plucked straight from a book.

* Will cultural naming play a role in your selection?
In Jewish tradition, names are given to honor family members, traditionally deceased relatives. Recent generations have modified the custom by using the first letter of the relative's name for their baby, like taking the "S" from Sally and naming their daughter Sabrina. In doing so, the family can remember a loved one on a daily basis.

* When is a name off limits?
Bronx Mowgli was likely not on Jessica Simpson's short list of names for her future children. I'll also go out on a limb and speculate that Angelina and Brad won't call a hypothetical seventh child Jennifer. But would it be inappropriate for Courteney Cox and David Arquette to have a son and name the baby Brad? It's one thing to rule out your own ex when it comes to naming a baby, but what about a best friend's old beau?

* Do you like family name themes?
Families like the Kardashians and the Duggars pick a letter and stick with it. But other parents choose a theme to guide them in naming their kids. In the famously talented Phoenix clan, each child was given a nature-inspired name — River, Rain, Joaquin, Liberty, and Summer. Chef Jamie Oliver recently joked that his wife, Jools, has floral aspirations since she's named their three daughters Poppy, Daisy and Petal.

You can find the rest here!

So whether you go for something traditional or go for something unique, take the time to ask yourself these guide questions.

We do a lot of baby naming ourselves. Except, our babies are our clippys of course! Come up with something lovely and we might end up naming our best clips after your baby! Check out our website for some name inspirations for girls: hairclippy.com.

Cheerios!
Rach

Lose That Baby Weight

Have you ever wondered about those celebrity moms who are as huge as a house one day and then a few weeks after giving birth, is like they were never even pregnant at all? Have you ever wondered how they do it so easily? (And why you can't seem to?!)

Well, momma, here's a newsflash: it's possible! Yup, even for mere mortals like us!

In a recent article written in Just the Facts Baby, pre- and post-natal fitness expert Andrea Grace shared ways to gain that pre-baby body back:



Getting started
Depending on your fitness level before and during pregnancy, you may find that walking is all the exercise you need until your six-week post-partum checkup. "Start by walking as fast as you comfortably can for a minimum of 20 minutes," says certified trainer Andrea Grace.

Once your doctor gives you the all-clear, you can begin more strenuous exercise. "Just remember to go at your own pace and modify the intensity of the exercise, working up to three times a week of active movement for at least 20 minutes at a time," says Grace.

Try checking out your local gym or community centre for post-natal fitness classes. "Specialized post-natal classes take into account the changes your body went through during pregnancy," says Grace. "They're not necessarily less intense, they're just paced more slowly. They're also lower impact and incorporate a fuller range of motion, which is safer for your joints."

Working out comfortably
The most important thing is to get back into fitness gradually. Start by investing in a good sports bra. While it's safe to exercise when nursing, you should avoid exercises that make your breasts feel sore–it also helps to work out after feeding your baby when your breasts are less full.

You also need to adapt your fitness regimen to the changes your body went through during pregnancy, says Grace. If you're experiencing incontinence or pain following an episiotomy, pelvic floor exercises will help and you can begin doing them right away. But you should ease back into abdominal exercises, especially if your doctor has told you that you have diastasis recti (a separation between the left and right side of the rectus abdominis muscle, which covers the front surface of the belly area). Head lifts are a gentle ab exercise to start with:

1. Lie on you back, knees bent and feet flat on the ground.

2. Cross your arms across your belly button, using your hands to pull your side ribs in toward the centre of your body.

3. Press your lower back into the floor and inhale.

4. As you exhale, lift your chin slowly toward your chest while pulling your abs in toward your spine, keeping your shoulders on the ground.

5. Inhale and release slowly.

To read the rest of the article, click here!

Image from sxc.hu.

PONDER, PONDER, PONDER... How did you lose the baby weight? Did you follow any fitness regimen?

Cheerios!
Rach

Born to Dance

You know how sometimes people would say, "She was born to sing." Or "He was born to write." Or "She was born to skate." And you appreciate the flattery, but deep inside you wonder if it's even possible for someone to be "born" to do something? Well, it looks like this might actually be true for babies!


In a recent article in Yahoo!, studies have shown that dancing comes naturally to infants. A research showed that babies respond to the rhythm and tempo of music and find it more engaging than speech. Amazing, right?

Here's an excerpt of the article:

BABIES ARE BORN TO DANCE

"The findings, based on a study of 120 infants between 5 months and 2 years old, suggest that humans may be born with a predisposition to move rhythmically in response to music.

"Our research suggests that it is the beat rather than other features of the music, such as the melody, that produces the response in infants," said researcher Marcel Zentner, a psychologist at the University of York in England. "We also found that the better the children were able to synchronize their movements with the music, the more they smiled."

To test babies' dancing disposition, the researchers played recordings of classical music, rhythmic beats and speech to infants, and videotaped the results. They also recruited professional ballet dancers to analyze how well the babies matched their movements to the music.

During the experiments, the babies were sitting on a parent's lap, though the adults had headphones to make sure they couldn't hear the music and were instructed not to move.

The researchers found the babies moved their arms, hands, legs, feet, torsos and heads in response to the music, much more than to speech."

To read the rest of this interesting article, you can click here!

PONDER, PONDER, PONDER... What do you think? Is your child into dancing?

A St. Paddy’s with the Babies

Since I love St. Patrick's Day, I'm entering this to Things I Love Thursday hosted by The Diaper Diaries here! If you'd like to share something you're loving today, feel free to join in!



Time to don some green again as St. Patrick’s Day is here! Although originally celebrated as a religious holiday in Ireland, it has crossed over to America and has taken on a more festive flavor. If you haven’t noticed yet, at mid-March, streets are splashed with green and people shift into high spirits. Boy, do we know how to party!

Today, St. Patrick’s Day is welcomed with much merriment through parades, lots of drinking and feasting, and the wearing of green. It is also become a custom to playfully pinch anyone who isn’t wearing green on this day!

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

But if you’d like to know its origins, St. Patrick’s Day is actually an annual feast day that celebrates an Irish saint named Patrick. He is the most commonly recognized among the patron saints of Ireland and his feast is generally celebrated on the 17th of March. It is observed by people of Irish descent all over the world, although it has increasingly crossed over to other ethnicities as well.

It is a well-loved festivity and has been received warmly in the United States. One reason may be because it takes place just a few days before the first day of spring. So it is almost as if it has become the first green of spring.

ST. PADDY'S IN THE U.S.

In Chicago, it would be impossible to miss the Chicago River dyed a cool vibrant green, plus a jolly parade with Irish dancers, pipe bands, spectacular floats and other Irish entertainment. In Washington, the most notable celebration is their Shamrock Festival, which features over 50 bands, Irish dancers and Irish-themed games. In St. Louis, their parade includes various marching bands, character balloons, Irish steppers/dancers, and equestrians. And several bars offer festive drinks and food. And then, of course, there’s New York. Whether a New Yorker goes to church, the parade or a pub, this is undeniably one of the city's most exuberant celebrations. New Yorkers go green: green clothes, green flowers, green hats, and even green beers, green bagels, green water fountains, and a green Empire State Building. Truly, everyone’s Irish on March 17th!

GOING GREEN WITH BABY

But if you can’t join the merry-making because you don’t want your poor little baby getting scrunched up in the crowd, why not have a little celebration of your own? I’m sure that a lot of boutiques will take part of the holiday and offer adorable St. Patrick’s Day-themed baby items.

* Drench your little one in all-green baby gear
From four-leaf clover hair accessories to baby leprechaun costumes to glittery green shoes! And if you are lucky, maybe you can even find a toy pot of gold among the baby items! (If you find a pot of real gold, call me.)

* Crank up some Irish music and do a little Irish jig with your baby
And what baby can resist the fun in some lively dancing? Of course, you will have to make sure that she stays a baby leprechaun without her costume flying all over the place as you dance.

* Here, Clippy, Clippy
I'm sure having to clip and re-clip your baby’s hair accessories is not a favorite chore of yours. Especially when it ends up in her mouth and might even choke her! Those clips seem so small and harmless, but you can never be too careful. So when you choose her baby gear, make sure that the hair accessories are guaranteed non-slip.

You’d want them to stay put on her hair, but you would not want them too tight that they hurt her. Some brands have clips lined with material to ensure the clip’s soft grip. So they rest soft on her head and she might not even notice them ;o)

* Let the fun begin!
Now go look for that rainbow, pick some four-leaf clovers and enjoy this day of fun and festivity while keeping your baby safe!

New Year, New Baby!

Congratulations to Matthew McCounaghey and Camila Alves!

The couple welcomed their darling baby girl early Sunday morning. Reports say that the 40-year-old actor and his girlfriend named their baby "Vida," which is Portuguese for "life."

On his website, Matthew explains: "Vida is Portuguese for "life" and that's what God gave us this morning... Camila's recovering wonderfully, and we are both truly honored to welcome this little lady into our family."

Little Vida now joins big brother Levi, one-year-old, in the couple's happy home.

What a great gift for the new year! Our best wishes!

(Image from tvguide.com.)

Rock-a-BYE BABY?

A crib is one of the very few places that parents can trust to be a safe place for their children. So the recent news about the largest crib recall in US history is truly alarming, to say the least.

According to the article in Yahoo! News, a staggering 2.1 million drop-side cribs are being recalled by the government after four infants were reported to have suffocated while inside them! Apart from that, the Consumer Product Safety Commission added that there have been 110 incidents of drop-sides detaching from the cribs. Drop-side cribs are the kinds that have a side that moves up and down to allow parents to lift children from the cribs more easily.

What do you think? Read the rest of the article here.