I resolve to make no more resolutions.

So much for those big promises in the last post. Let’s just pretend there is no four-month gap and move on, shall we?

There are product reviews and articles forthcoming, but working 50+ hours a week and mothering a 1.5- and 2.5-year-old leaves little time for much of anything else.

While I’ve been off in my own little, busy world and failing to inform you, Internet, of great home improvement tips, the DIY-ers have still been at it, keeping old posts alive and well with interesting discussions!

Ralph Lauren paint is still our most popular topic to date. Check out the exchanges in comments following Michelle’s article, My Walls are Suede. There are some lengthy comments on her post, Ralph Lauren River Rock Paint Notes, as well. There are a few good tips around on how to touch up Ralph Lauren paint, too.

My post about the Ilo MP3 player has attracted some opinions - most of them negative. The funny thing is, my Ilo MP3 player bit the dust shortly after the review got a few comments from other users who’d had problems with it. I’ve since replaced it with a Microsoft Zune (product review to follow - no, really!) with which I am sublimely happy. In fact, we now have two of them - one for me, and one for Hubby.

The Baby Poop Decoder generated some fun comments and, eventually, a battle over breastfeeding, which is not a battle I wish to be involved in, but oh well! More amusingly (and fun for me), my little baby poop silliness became an entity of its own when I created the Baby Poop 101 lens at Squidoo. The lens was honored as a Lens of the Day and was later nominated as Lens of the Year. Woo!

To wrap up this unorganized post, here are some things I’m currently researching:
Step2 Naturally Playful Playhouse Climber

Nikon D50

Canon Digital Rebel XTI

JBL Spyro 2.1 Speaker System

Ann Douglas: Parenting Expert, Author du Jour, Wonderwoman!

Having had two pregnancies almost back-to-back (my kids are just less than a year apart), I read a lot of books on the subject. My favorite pregnancy book was The Mother of All Pregnancy Books by Ann Douglas. It’s written in a conversational style and is probably the most thorough of all the pregnancy books I read (or started to read and then put down because they just didn’t measure up to this one!) Since then, I’ve picked up another of Ann Douglas’ titles, The Mother of All Toddler Books, and am about 90% through that one and just as impressed (and thankful!) as I was with her pregnancy book.

Not long ago, I became a lensmaster at Squidoo and much to my surprise, Ann happened upon my lens, What to Exclude When You’re Expecting (born from the article of the same name that I published here) and contacted me. To say I was honored that she enjoyed my silly little lens is an understatement!

Mrs. Douglas has penned 28 books - 28 books, people! - and has co-authored 2 books with John R. Sussman, M.D. She also writes children’s books and parenting articles, is a columnist, and has been featured in such high-profile publications as The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, and Parents magazine. She has speaking engagements, teaches parenting courses and appears in radio, TV and live chat sessions regularly. Did I mention she is a mother of four children?

Okay, it’s official: ANN DOUGLAS IS A SUPERHERO!

If you’re pregnant, trying to get pregnant, or already a parent, I highly recommend that you add some of Ann’s work to your arsenal of parenting books:

• The Mother of All Pregnancy Books
• The Mother of All Pregnancy Organizers
• The Mother of All Toddler Books
• The Mother of All Baby Books
• The Mother of All Parenting Books
• Sleep Solutions for Your Baby, Toddler, and Preschooler
• Mealtime Solutions for Your Baby, Toddler, and Preschooler
• The Unofficial Guide to Having a Baby
• The Unofficial Guide to Childcare
• Choosing Childcare for Dummies
• Trying Again: A Guide to Pregnancy After Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Infant Loss

You can read more about Ann Douglas at her website.

Here’s a massive list of articles - written by, contributed to, or written about Ann.

Check out Ann’s lenses at Squidoo for more great advice and parenting resources.

Ann also has an author profile page at Amazon, and a great blog!

more of what to exclude when you’re expecting

in earlier articles, i’ve rambled on about what types of products to exclude when you’re expecting, but this is a list of consumables, activities and such that you should exclude while expecting - for your health, and for your baby’s.

if you’re pregnant, you’re probably absorbing a lot of information from books and the internet right now, so chances are you’ve seen some, if not all, of the items on this list. but if you do learn something, great. and if not, maybe you’ll just have a chuckle or two.

REALLY Obvious Things to Exclude When You’re Expecting
(The I’ma slap-you-in-the-face if you do this stuff stuff)

Drugs - HellOOOOOOOO!
Alcohol - Fetal Alcohol Syndrome anyone?
Smoking - Would you give a baby a cigarette?
Heavy Lifting - Getting your butt off the couch is about as much lifting as you need to do.
Prescription & OTC Medicines - Must. Ask. Doctor. First.
Caffeine - Starbucks will make pretty much any of their drinks sans caffeine, so no excuses.
Excessive strenuous exercise - Now is not the time to take up extreme sports.

Somewhat Obvious Things to Exclude When You’re Expecting
(Stuff you oughta know, but hey - it’s your first time to be pregnant)

Sushi - It’s a no on stinky, raw fish for now.
Tuna - Speaking of fish, you should limit your tuna intake to once a week. Folks within breathing distance will thank you too.
Unpasteurized milk or juice - Chug on something else.
Soft cheeses and runny eggs - Yes, that does mean no feta.
Too much salt - It’ll make you swell up and have feet like Shrek. Not pretty.
Extreme temperatures - Do what you can to avoid freezing or overheating. I live in Texas and had summer babies two years in a row. It’s a wonder I survived.
Stress - HA! good luck.
X-rays - Hmm, nothing cute to say about x-rays really.

Not-So-Obvious Things to Exclude When You’re Expecting

Laying on your back - get used to sleeping on your side while pregnant. Throw down some dough on a really good pillow.
Mega-doses of Vitamin C - don’t OD on the OJ.
Deli meats - I considered saying “no deli for your pregnant belly” here, but I decided against it.
Herbal remedies - hippie chicks, ask your doc first.
Bad dental hygeine - toothbrushes and toothpaste aren’t that expensive.
Hair color - pregnancy reprograms your hair. Red may be blue. Brown may be green. (If you shop at Hot Topic, this may not concern you.)
Sex - hehe, gotcha! You don’t have to avoid sex, but if you’ve lost your mucus plug or your water has broken, take a cold shower instead.
Latex paint - you are dying to paint the nursery, aren’t you? Just don’t do it without proper ventillation, and take plenty of breaks for fresh air.

introducing the baby poop decoder!

wow, an entire post devoted exclusively to poop!

if you’re expecting your first baby, you probably have no idea just how important poop is about to become in your household. never before has poop had such priority, such meaning.

sudden, drastic changes in baby poop can be concerning though, especially for new moms. fear not! the official baby poop decoder has you covered. well, hopefully NOT “covered”, but informed!

Tarry black poop, your baby’s first poop, is called meconium. You’ll never see it again once it passes.

Mustard poop is common for breastfed babies. Supposedly breastfed babies make sweeter smelling poop. I don’t know about you, but I’ve yet to meet a poop I’d call sweet.

Green poop is normal in the realm of baby poop. “Green”, “poop”, and “normal” all in one sentence. It’s so surreal.

Orange poop is also par for the course. I don’t know if it’s a par 3 or par 4. It’s definitely not a birdie.

Yellow poop - hello yellow! (It’s late, I’m tired, and I’m running out of cutesy ideas.) Yellow is normal.

Multiple color and color-changing poop - as long as the colors are listed above (sans meconium reference), there’s nothing to worry about. Baby poop changes colors on a frighteningly regular basis.

Chalky white poop could indicate that there is no bile from the liver to digest food. Call the doc.

Tarry black poop, when NOT the first poop, could mean there is blood in the digestive tract. Call the doc.

Bright red blood in poop means blood has been expressed very close to the anus (i.e. no time to turn black.) Call the doc.

Blue poop can only mean one thing…

new (double) stroller

in my “what to exclude” article, i mentioned that our two single strollers had to be replaced when our 2nd baby came along last summer. initially, we bought an evenflo tandem stroller. at the time the “exclude” article was written, i was happy with said stroller, but it didn’t take long for that to change.

i’ll put it this way. if you have twins or two children small enough to require a double stroller, and you suspect you’ll only use a double stroller say a couple times a month, indoors, or outdoors on nicely paved surfaces and not on even the slightest of rough terrain… then the evenflo stroller might be for you.

if like me, however, you need a double stroller to use like a work-horse on almost every outing, skip the evenflo and shell out a little more dough for a nicer alternative.

in my case, the alternative is a combi twin savvy sport. i cannot begin to describe how much easier it is to fold, store, tote, set up, use, push, maneuver…

it’s lightweight and convenient, and as an added bonus it is not dark blue or plaid!

it will set you back more than the 89 bucks for the evenflo - i think i paid around 250 at babies r us. you can find them for 150 or so on ebay, with shipping closer to 180-200. but in my experience, it’s probably the best $250 i’ve spent in a long time. i’ve had the combi for several months now, and besides the occasional narrow doorway encounter, it’s a godsend.

for more information:
Combi
at Babies R Us (my bad, it’s $199!)
on eBay

What to Exclude When You’re Expecting

Expectant mothers, especially first-timers, have much to think about. There’s so much planning to do that you may not know where to begin! You’ll probably do a lot of reading of those pregnancy and baby care books that everyone will recommend or pass on to you. You may find yourself submerged in online birth clubs and baby blogs, scouring the internet for those precious gems of wisdom that often are found at 2:00 a.m. (when you can’t sleep because of the little one doing gymnastics in your belly.)

And yes, you’ll learn plenty from those sources and many others, but you may eventually find yourself on baby info overload, especially where “the things you should buy” are concerned. Hey, you have enough to worry about. Your navel’s turning inside out, there’s morning sickness to contend with, and strange things are happening with your boobs. The last thing you need to fret over now is whether or not you really need a $900 stroller because it’s the cutest thing ever, and because you saw Gwyneth Paltrow strolling Apple in one on E! last night.

Look around, and you’ll find plenty of lists out there - things you “need” for baby - from retailers, manufacturers, magazines… and many of them can be quite helpful. But keep in mind that many of those seemingly necessary products were put on that list by marketers who just want your money. I can’t blame them really, as I worked in marketing for years, and it’s nice to make money! What’s not nice is to spend it on things that are wasteful, inefficient or just plain useless.

So with that in mind, here’s a list of things you really don’t need…

Childproofing
“What?!” you ask, “no childproofing - are you nuts?!” I’m still sane as far as I know. And that is due, at least in part, to my having learned to put aside unnecessary worries. Newborns aren’t mobile, so it’s unlikely they’ll be trying to get into household chemicals under the kitchen sink as soon as you bring them home from the hospital. Do yourself a favor, and use your first few months to take care of baby and yourself. You don’t need to bother with childproofing until Baby can get around and get into things. Of course you’ll need to ensure that your nursery is safe, but in the beginning that’s easily accomplished without all the white plastic gadgets. Relax, you have time. (If you are one of those obsessive planners, however, and simply must have the childproofing out of the way before baby comes home - fine, do it if it makes you feel better. I don’t understand you, though. Sometimes I envy you and your organization, but then I also know how your planning will go out the window when baby arrives and sets his own rules… so allow me to snicker about that.)

Wipe warmer
Unless you live in an igloo, wipes aren’t that cold. They’re moist and cool to the touch, which is logical since they’re made for babies’ bottoms. Wipe warmers do more than their namesake implies… they dry the wipes out, too. Nobody wants to try to remove sticky baby poop with a dry wipe, I don’t care how warm it is. And honestly, Baby just wants the poop gone as much as you do. Start him on moist and cool wipes, and he’ll never complain.

Bottle warmer
This thing was the bane of my existence for a about a week when my daughter was first born. Measure the water, fill the container, wait for steam, wait to refill since it didn’t work the first time, etc. Meanwhile, a baby is hungry and letting you and the neighbors know about it.

The books all say not to use the microwave. Most bottles say “do not microwave” right on the bottle, because bottle manufacturers do not want to be sued. This is one area where I was quick to learn that breaking the rules can be a good thing. The danger of the microwave is that it heats unevenly, and you don’t want Baby to get a “hot spot” and burn his tongue. This is where a little science and some common sense can come in handy. Experiment while the baby is napping and thus not screaming for nourishment. Fill a bottle and nuke it for 20 seconds or so. Then in the words of Def Leppard (one for you soccer moms), take the bottle, shake it up. Ahhh… yes, that’s right; if you shake it up, uneven heating can be fixed! What a concept. Of course you need to test it by squirting some on your hand or wrist, and adjust your microwave time accordingly, and of course all microwaves are different, and you should also take into account whether or not the formula was cold or room temperature to start with. This is where the common sense comes in. Just play with it a little until you figure out what works with your microwave and your bottles. (Obviously the construction of the bottles you use should be taken into consideration as well. I wouldn’t nuke a cheap, thin plastic bottle, but the Playtex Vent-Aires and Avents we use have always worked fine.)

Bottle sterilizer
While we’re on bottles, what’s with the sterilizer? Wash them well - by hand or in the dishwasher - and if you want to sterilize, you can do so by nuking them (empty) for 5 minutes or so in the microwave. A separate thing to put them in isn’t necessary.

Diaper Genie
This one’s iffy. I didn’t like having to reach into the Diaper Genie to push the diaper in to where it needed to go. I got over that, and then my daughter started solids, and even though I switched to the next “stage” of refill bags for solid food-eaters, the smell was in no way contained. In fact, there was nothing odor free about the Diaper Genie, nor any other brand or form of diaper pail I have tried. Pee and poop stink, that’s just the way it is. Keep in mind that you have to empty the diaper pails often, and clean and disinfect them as well. Eventually I just got a regular old diaper pail that I can use tall kitchen trash bags in - they’re cheaper than Genie refills, and I have to buy them anyway for the kitchen. I put pee diapers in the pail, and all poopie diapers get tied up in grocery bags and go straight to the trash. Grocery bags are easy to come by, but the little disposal dirty diaper bags work too - you can find a box of 50 or so for a buck at your local dollar store. In the end, diaper pails are somewhat necessary. In my case, I opted for something that didn’t require me to buy branded refills. It doesn’t make neat little linked sausages of the diapers, and it stinks - but they all do, no matter what it says on the package.

Diaper stacker
If you keep diapers in a basket or some other kind of organizer near your changing table or crib, the diaper stacker is just another unnecessary accessory. When it’s empty, you have to fill it, and they’re not that cute. Are they?

Cover for changing table pad
I honestly cannot think of a more useless product. Here’s a cheap piece of terry cloth that’ll cost you 10 bucks, fit the pad poorly and get raggedy after only a few washes… all so you don’t have to look at the plain white changing table pad, and maybe so you can cover it with something that matches your nursery décor. Well, it’ll get poop on it, and that will not only not match your décor, but it also makes for more stinky clean up and laundry. Most changing table pads are covered in a slick material that can be easily wiped down and disinfected. I clean mine with a bit of bleach water, and to me that seems more sanitary anyway… and there’s no worry over when was the last time I washed the changing table pad cover.

While we’re on the subject of changing table stuff, I was told by at least two people while pregnant with my first that a changing table is a waste of space. I read in several magazines that a separate changing table is not a necessity. That may be true if you are comfortable bending over to change Baby in his crib, on the floor, on the bed, or wherever you may do it. In my case, the changing table has been used probably more than any other “baby thing” in my house. It’s great for those of us who have back trouble, and it provides storage space as well.

Strollers
I suppose a stroller is much like buying a car in that you have you own preferences for features and desire for a certain level of luxury. Luxury isn’t much of an option in my case, and functionality is more important. My required features were safety, smooth “ride”, easy to “drive”, and recline function. (Don’t buy any stroller that doesn’t recline. Just don’t! You can thank me later.) I can’t believe there are strollers that cost $400, $700, even $1000 and have to believe that much of that cost has to do with status symbols. If that’s what you’re into, more power to ya - but I tend to think that a kid could benefit much more from that money going into a college fund instead. I have splurged on some baby gear, but I can’t imagine what is some folks’ rent or mortgage payment amount going for a stroller. It better be automatic and come with a nanny for that kind of money!

We started with a Graco travel system, which is really nice, and added a lightweight “umbrella” stroller to the mix later. Eventually my one became two, so we’ve since replaced them all with a tandem double stroller that does its job well and was a whopping $89 at Wal-Mart. It’s not a Bugaboo, but the kids love it, and besides the fact that it takes up a lot of my shopping bag space in the back of the SUV, it works fine for me.

Expensive high chair
When Baby can sit up and is eating solids, of course you will need a high chair or feeding seat of some sort. I started with a mid-range high chair (can you believe these things can go upwards of 200 bucks?!) and ended up with an $18 chair from IKEA. Know why I tossed the more expensive one? I got tired of washing the chair cover… over and over and over. Even worse was the divided tray. Sure, it had an insert that was dishwasher safe, but it was still hard to clean because of the divided areas. And when you think about it, there’s the tray insert and the tray to clean, so that’s double the work. Who needs that?

High chairs are for feeding, and they’re going to get dirty. Babies care about eating, and little else, when they’re in a high chair - so it seems excessive to me to provide more than what they want and need to make happy mealtimes for them and for you.

I now have two IKEA Antilop high chairs and feel that cleaning both of them up is less of hassle than it ever was to clean the one semi-expensive high chair that I had (before my second child was born.) They wipe/wash clean, and there are no extra parts to worry about. Smaller feeding chairs that strap on to big people chairs work well too and are portable which can come in handy.

(Note: the IKEA high chair pictured does not recline. It is probably best to use when Baby can sit unsupported. My son the super baby started in this high chair at 3.5 months, though he didn’t sit fully unsupported for another month. He may be a special case since he held his head up from the day he was born and had full control of it soon thereafter - he has never really liked to sit in anything reclined actually. Use your own judgment… you’ll know when Baby is ready.)

I’m not a doctor or an expert, just a mom like you. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the choices you’ll be faced with as you enter motherhood, just do the best you can for you and your baby - if you find ways of making things easier for you along the way, it just means you’ll have less to worry about, and more precious time to spend with your baby. I hope you’ve found some information that will save you some money, and a headache or two.

signs of pregnancy common pregnancy symptoms