johncsnider

Are you still struggling with some last minute gifts? My favorites are the homemade ones! I have some great Pregnancy and baby crafts as well as older sibling crafts  my Pinterest page !

Check my Facebook page to see if you won. I gave away a  FREE brand new double breast-pump: The First Years Breastflow Memory Pump valued at $179.99 .

I am sharing a great video from Stanford on how to get almost 2x the milk from pumping for premature babies and moms immediately returning to work outside the home. Of course only nursing (no bottles) is the best way to have a good supply of breastmilk as the baby can eat on demand and his or her suction is the best type for draining and stimulating more milk. Pumping is not as great at getting milk out. New moms who try to pump when their babies are very small find that little or no milk comes out. These moms should try to keep the baby on the breast as much as possible. If the baby is premature or she is already returning to work outside the home, here is a great "hands-on" method to use your hands and pump simultaneously to maximize output. If output does not increase a Lactation Consultant should be privately hired (pediatricians and OBGYNs are not specialized in milk production). http://newborns.stanford.edu/Breastfeeding/MaxProduction.html

The Wold Health Organization (WHO) recommends that 15% of births should be by cesarean. They have done endless research globally. I respect the WHO.  My sister-in-law told me her birth story in Germany five years ago. Her doctor assigned a midwife as soon as she was pregnant. The midwife did everything from prenatal visits to the delivery. A doctor was at the hospital overseeing that the birth went okay but was there just in case of emergencies and not to deliver the baby. The midwife then made several home visits after the birth to ensure that breastfeeding was successful and that mommy and baby were healthy. Her region has a 17% cesarean rate. I love birth stories .

Do you wonder why my family doesn’t get the flu? Here’s my secret recipe. Mainstream medical professionals all agree that the flu shot is safe for pregnancy women. While I was pregnant with my second baby in 2009-2010, it was during the swine flu scare and I had chosen not to get the flu shot. My caregiver tried all sorts of things: “You won the giveaway, it is free!” “No thank you”. It is always questionable as to how much the flu shot works and I personally didn't feel right about injecting merc ury ( Thimerosal, found in some flu vaccines)  and  formaldehyde  in to my bloodstream that would then go to my baby. So how is it that I have three germ carrying kids and have not had the flu in 9 years? Well 9 years ago, I was going through a transitional time and I was eating so much processed foods. This was just a year after I had been living in Africa, eating mostly unprocessed foods, and was exposed to plenty of Vitamin D daily. Now my body for the first time in several ...

There I was sitting at the end of the runway in NYC with a judge's clipboard. I was a fashion judge! Not just any fashion judge but a green fashion judge! I am not a fashion saavy person but I was selected as a judge a few years ago. So how could I judge based on being clueless about fashion? Thankfully I didn't need to because I had green fashion designers on each side and we had a lot of whispering back and forth. Cute kids paraded in front of me as did adults in functional or crazy clothes. What made the clothes green to me what was how little of an impact they had on the environment. Yes the organic cotton imported from Egypt was "green" but it was MANUFACTURED and SHIPPED across an ocean and around the continent. Then there were the repurposed clothes. Clothes that had been salvaged from thrift stores then were carefully redesigned into one of a kind treasures. I liked these and the winning designer based on style and greenness had used repurposed clothes. The ow...

GIVEAWAY ALERT! You, my readers, have given me so much support!  So much so that I am going to the next level and I am thanking you for it. I set up a Facebook Page and if you LIKE it by December 20th , I will enter you to win a FREE brand new double breast-pump: The First Years Breastflow Memory Pump valued at $179.99 . Do you just want to support me and don't need a pump? No problem. You can pass on the pump or have it shipped anywhere: a friend, a relative or a women's shelter. I had the opportunity to try this pump and it turned the head of every woman in the pumping room. The entire ensemble is incredibly light weight which was great for lugging around all day at the conference that I was at. The handle allowed for me to easily pump one handed. It's battery is  rechargeable and was able to hold enough charge for me to go all day without plugging in although I had the light-weight plug in my bag just in case. It makes a great travel pump. The First Years® Breast...