Natural cold remedies

I saw this post on the board and thought it would be good to also have it here for those of us that don't have colds...yet.

• 1 tsp raw organic honey and 1/4 tsp cinnamon.  Both supposedly have antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal properties.  They say it can knock out a cold in a few days or as little as 5 hours??  Here's the link 
• A cough medicine with honey, apple cidar vinegar and cayenne pepper. It worked as well as anything else. 

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons water

• The apple cider vinegar would be good too.  I've heard really good things about Braggs and a friend of mine uses it for literally every remedy.  She TOLD me to take ita few days ago and I didn't listen. I have a feeling I would be sick if I'd listened.  What was your concoction?  I had to dilute the honey/cinnamon with lots of water.  It was WAY too sweet otherwise.
• Garlic is natures antibiotic. It's wonderful for so many things. I suggest consuming as much fresh garlic as you can handle. For anyone who is battling heartburn, be careful with garlic. It can aggravate it.

Baby Gear: Crib Bedding

First, I want to say that I borrowed a little bit of the info in this post from another BMB I found it helpful at the time and I have added my thoughts on a few items.

I recommend that you get a copy of Baby Bargains. It is a book with the most up to date reviews on pretty much EVERYTHING you need for your baby. Car seats, strollers, cribs, etc. It will help you navigate the overwhelming world of baby gear. It will also help you figure out what you actually need for baby. Trust me, it is very easy to have WAY too much baby stuff. Chances are very high that you will get/be given stuff that you will never ever use.

I know some of us are already starting to look for ideas for baby's room. The safety debates haven't started yet: to use bumpers or not to use bumpers, infant seat vs. convertible seat. Ultimately, you'll get what you want and use what you feel like using but I thought I'd share this little tidbit of info.

Some people will tell you that crib bedding sets are a complete waste. Some will tell you that the LOVE their set. You spend $100-200, if not more, on stuff you will use in addition to stuff you won't or shouldn't use. They are fun to browse through and are great inspiration for nursery themes. We bought one for our daughter. It was cute and I wanted cute and fun.
 
Look at this top rated set at BRU. What do you get for $181? A comforter (shouldn't have in the crib with a newborn, I think most people hang this on the wall), 4 piece sectional bumper (can be a suffocation hazard, then a climbing hazard once the baby is older.), skirt (cute but necessary?), fitted sheet (only 1), toy bag (um...ok....), decorative pillow (again not something that will be in the crib so why have it?), diaper stacker, (do people use these things?) and 2 window valances (nice if you really want those on your windows).

Eventually you can use the blanket, but by then you may want to move LO to a "big boy/girl" bed and possibly do a different theme, or move them up to a twin bed and it will be way too small. You're also going to get more blankets than you know what to do with because every other person who gives you something for the baby will probably include at least one blanket in their gift. A lot of those sets also sell a lot of accessories that aren't included in the sets (mobiles, lamps, wall decals, etc.), or you can buy the things in the sets separately (like the window valance or the fitted sheet) that you can use to keep with the theme if you want.

What you actually need for crib bedding: At least 1-2 mattress pads ($10-20$ each), at least 4-5 crib sheets ($10-$20 each), a few lightweight blankets for swaddling or swaddling blankets/SwaddleMes ($5-$25 each, square are easier to swaddle with than rectangular), sleep sacks (about $20 each, these are GREAT for little babies in the winter).

Our crib set came with a comforter, bumpers, sheet, and skirt. What we used from our crib set in the crib. Sheet, Bumpers (We used our bumpers but our daughter was never one of those that crammed her face up next to the side of the crib and they came out as soon as she started using them to pull herself up on, at about 5-6 months. Breathable bumpers are generally the recommended way to go if you choose to use bumpers and we would have gotten some had she slept with her face crammed next to it), and Skirt (until I got sick of fixing it All.The.Time). We hung the comforter on the wall. Our set didn't come with a diaper stacker, valances, or a toy bag. I bought additional sheets and sleep sacks.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's that time of year again when we have the opportunity to gather around the table for a delicious meal with family and friends. It's a time to reflect on everything we are thankful for.

I would like to wish all of the wonderful bump ladies on the July 2013 BMB board a very happy Thanksgiving.

To those of you planning to tell family tomorrow, enjoy every second of it! It should be great fun.

Happy Thanksgiving ladies!!!!

Baby's Growth

Here are videos of our baby's growth, very interesting!

From weeks 1-9: http://www.babycenter.com/2_inside-pregnancy-weeks-1-to-9_10302602.bc

From Weeks 10-14: http://www.babycenter.com/2_inside-pregnancy-weeks-10-to-14_10308108.bc 

From Weeks 15-20: http://www.babycenter.com/2_inside-pregnancy-weeks-15-to-20_10308111.bc 

From Weeks 21-27: http://www.babycenter.com/2_inside-pregnancy-weeks-21-to-27_10312242.bc 

From Weeks 28-37:http://www.babycenter.com/2_inside-pregnancy-weeks-28-to-37_3658874.bc 

I thought this picture was very helpful and interesting. It shows the growth of your uterus over the course of your pregnancy.

Mocktail Recipes

I am straight up steeling this mocktail recipe list from another BMB blog. I thought with the holidays being here, these could be used. If you have any additional recipes let me know and I'll add it to the list.

Momma Margaritas

1 1/2 oz Sour Mix

1/2 oz lime juice

1/2 oz orange juice

Serve in a salt rimmed glass (I also added peach nectar to mine to make it peach margaritas!)

Sex on the Beach

1 part orange juice

1 part cranberry juice

1 oz peach nectar

1 tsp grenadine

Bellini Baby

2 oz peach nectar

top with mineral water/sparkling water/ginger ale

Mai Tai

3 oz orange juice

3 oz pineapple juice

splash of grenadine

splash of lime mineral water

Purple Heart

1 part Pina Colada mix

1 part Pomegranite juice

2 parts club soda/mineral water/ginger ale

Ameretto & Coke

1/4 tsp almond extract (try to get the kind without any alcohol)

Coca Cola

maraschino cherry

Fizzy Navel

Peach nectar

orange juice

club soda/mineral water

Morning Sickness Remedies

There have been a few, myself included, asking about morning sickness remedies so I thought I'd compile a list of suggestions that have been given from the ladies on the board and a few other sourced I've asked over the past couple of days. I hope this helps you when and if you need it! But I hope you are lucky and just don't have morning sickness.

• Sea Bands, Biobands, Psi Bands
• Emetrol
• Unisom blue tabs B6 combo
• Lemonade or water with lemon 
• Suck on hard candies
• Try not to let your stomach get really empty
• Zofran Script - side effect of constipation
• Ginger candies
• Ginger ale
• Ginger tea 
• Ginger gum. 
• Preggie Pop Drops
• Queasy Pops
• Mint gum
• McDonalds French fries
• Saltines
• B6/Zinc combo
• Morning wellness tea (ginger root, peppermint, orange peel)
• Ice cubes (stay hydrated)
• Baby carrots 
• SLEEP
• Ginger root supplements
• Ginger snaps
• Ginger ginger ginger
• Ginger altoids
• Cold water
• Nuts
• Dry cereal like Cheerios
• Pickled ginger - the kind they give you as Sushi restaurants
• Jelly Beans.

Second Time Moms Advice to First Time Moms

Here's the summary of the awesome thread. I'm sure there will be lots more information shared through the coming months. I skipped the info on which trimester was the worst.

Pregnancy Gas: It's uncontrollable- either learn to not be embarrassed, or for delicate situations, I find stuffing some TP in your panties muffles the sound a bit. ;p Starts in first tri!!

You will pee on yourself. You will pee when you laugh, cough, or sneeze. You will pee when you puke if you're extra lucky.

Book Suggestions

Here is a list of book suggestions from some of us 2nd + mamas. I compiled the list and reviews from this thread.

Exploiting My Baby because its exploiting me

Belly Laughs. It was crude but pretty funny at times. Not a necessity and she was a bit over dramatic now looking back, but if you like that kind of humor you might like it. Entertaining if nothing else.

I have What to Expect When you're Expecting. It's great to help you figure out what is going on with your body. is a good all around reference for information. Some felt like it didn't really tell anything that they hadn't read on the bump and babycenter updates, etc.... very high level.

If you plan to BF, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding is great. The most useful info.

Baby Bargains, gives the ratings on almost everything baby.

Your Pregnancy Week by Week

The Mother of all Pregnancy Books

The last one gives you more overall info about pregnancy, while previous two go more in depth.

What to Expect the First Year. As after the baby comes there is no more time for reading and it is good to know what is in the future. It will save you a million phone calls to the ped.

 Dr.Oz's 'You - having a baby

Happiest baby on the bloc.' There is even a DVD. We found this 3 months in last time and it SAVED our sanity. 

Great Expectations by Sandy Jones. It has a lot of same information as WTEWYE, but also has a lot that isn't there, including information about what to do when you first get home and product reviews.

If your partner is looking for a book to read, my husband really liked The Expectant Father by Armin A Brott. I glanced through it and it did a good job of explaining things without going too in-depth.


Natural Childbirth The Bradley Way. The most useful info.

The Results Are In

It was very close between the July Sparklers and the Summer Sparklers but the Summer Sparklers have it with 39.7% of the vote. Thanks to everyone who voted!!!!

Welcome!

Alright July 2013 mamas! Welcome to the "unofficial" blog for...YOU! Hopefully this will be a place to stay updated on each others progress, including due dates, gender (if you wish to find out), bump pics, etc. My name is Stacy. I started blogging when I found out I was pregnant with my first child. I volunteered to start this blog up as a fun sort of thing for all of us :), in addition to The Bump. If you have any suggestions, questions, feedback, etc, please send me a message to let me know. The blog is going to be lacking a little in content until there are a bunch of us and we update it a lot, but until then, enjoy!! And congrats mamas!