This is important because it will give you a chance to see what the room looks like that you will be staying in, meet some of the nurses, and see where the baby will be when the nurses are giving them baths.

More importantly,  this is a great time to tell them if you plan on using any pain medication, and who you plan on allowing in the room as you give birth.  If there is anyone in particular that you do not want to come and visit, this is the time to tell them.

Did you know that it is safer to put the handle of your carseat down while it is in the car? This is because if you are to get in an accident the handle can break and hurt the baby, or possible another passenger.

Carseats do expire. It is important to check the date, especially if you have recived one from a friend or are buying from a second hand store. Generally they last about 6 years.  The date can usually be found under the carseat, and should be engraved on it, not on a sticker.

Keep your infant rear-facing as long as possible, as this is the safest position for them. The law is that the baby is to be rear-facing until they are both one year and 20 pounds, this is the minimum standard.

These are just some safety tips that I feel are important and wanted to share with all of you. I know you all want your babies as safe as possible!

It can be hard for the father to feel like they are getting the bonding time with your new baby that you are getting. He may even feel a little left out. I’m going to give you some tips to help with this.

The first and most obvious one is to pump when you have extra milk. This way you can bottle it and this will allow the daddy to do some of the feedings too!

Another way is to let your husband do the burping. This way the feeding is more of a team effort. You do the feeding and he does the burping. He will be able to rub your baby’s back for about 5 minutes or so to try and get a burp, but it will also be a great bonding time for them. This will also allow you to get some rest.

The last one is when you start your baby on solids, involve dad. It could just be that you are so used to doing all of the feedings that you don’t think about having that extra help.

Some dads really do want to be involved, but just don’t know how to going about asking. They may feel like you are the only one that can do the feedings since you supply the milk, so it may be up to you to get that ball rolling, and in the end everyone will be happier!

Let me start by saying that if you have a newborn then this will probably not work, as newborns sleep about 14 to 18 hours a day.

As your infant gets a little older, I would say about 3 to 6 months you can start trying to aviod those middle of the night feedings.  The reason being that this age is sleeping about 12 to 15 hours, and may be doing less sleeping throughout the day.

Just because your baby wakes up in the middle of the night doesn’t always mean that he/she is hungry.  In some cases the reason that they wake up is because it is the pattern that they are used to.  Instead of instantly feeding your baby when he/she wakes up, try soothing them back to sleep.

If you feel like your baby truly is hungry then please go on and feed them. I suggest giving this a try, because in some cases the longer that you wait the more you baby is going to want to get up and eat.

This is an interesting question. I don’t think it could be the difference in a life threating diseases, but it is better for you baby.

The reason that I say this is because when you have organic products, there aren’t all of those chemicals that are going into them. When you have organic products they are generally grown with none of those pesticides or other toxins that tend to stay on the product, weather it be food or clothing.

Buying organic is a great way to keep the toxins away from your family, but also help protect our environment. What a great deal!

This blue ribbon symbolizes child abuse awareness. Child abuse is a growing problem in our nation today. We all have such busy scheduals, but try to take a moment out this month and help raise awareness about this serious problem.

Handing out blue ribbons is a good place to start, even proudly wearing one to show your support. We all need to get together and be the voices for these children, and show them that there are people out there who care.

1-800-4-A-CHILD is the national hot line for child abuse when you call from a home phone, there is no need to worry about this number showing up on your phone bill so don’t be scared to call.

There is actually a fairly easy way to teach your child how to keep to their word. Show them! If you tell your child that you are going to do something follow through with it.

This is in every since, if they are in trouble, and can’t use a certain toy until 7 o’clock, then don’t give them that toy before then. You can use this in a good way too for example, if you promise to do something with or for your child (or even the people around you) then stick to your word.

This will help your child see that it is important to be dependable. It is hard to do 100% of the time, as things do come up. Always know that you have those set of eyes watching everything you do. Be a good example.

It is true that you should be eating more calories to give your baby the nutrition that he/she needs to grow, but you should still be doing this in a healthy way.

I am not a doctor and I don’t know any of you personally, there for I am not going to tell anyone how much weight you need to gain. But I did some research on where pregnancy weight goes and would be glad to share that with you.

The baby averages about 8 pounds, the placenta is about 2 to 3 pounds, breast tissue will also be about 2 to 3 pounds as well as the amniotic fluid 2 to 3 pounds. The blood supply is about 4 pounds and the uterus will get bigger adding another 2 to 5 pounds. The fat stores for breastfeeding and delivery will be about 5 to 9 pounds, which will be a total of about 25 to 35 pounds.

This is just a guideline, don’t be discouraged if you go higher than this, but if you are loosing weight you may need to consult your doctor.