Pregnancy Blog

Just over a week into the new year and I have no idea how to achieve my resolution of bringing balance to my life. Perhaps if I had a full night’s rest I could think clearly enough to plot my course of action. Alas, we have been dealing with multiple night wakings and truncated sleep patterns for about a year now.

So, I’ve decided I must first take action to get more sleep. After that, we’ll talk about balance. Sleep first, a sane way of living next! This is only made slightly more difficult since Gianna is cutting two new teeth at the moment, and has been communicating her pain very clearly for the past week. (I’m trying to sound detached about how much sleep I’ve lost in the past 7 nights. Is it working?)

Anyway, we began the sleep shuffle last night and will stay the course until Gianna is either Ferberized or has her days and nights mixed up again, having stayed awake all night and refusing to sleep until morning, whichever comes first. Last night she cried for two hours and after one hour we were both so exhausted we just let her hang out in her crib, listening to the sound of her humidifier accompanying her cries. She was asleep an hour later.

Today, the naps have been a battle to the death and I’m the one showing my battle scars, not her. She cries for about five minutes after I put her down for a nap and then babbles and whines for the next hour. I never once even peek my head in to see what she’s up to in there and still she cannot find sleep. I think Ferber has met his match. I know I have. We’re giving it a week to try out the strategy and I’m nothing if not stubborn enough to see this through. But, as of today the future for sleep in our house looks bleak.

Read the original:
Balance Shmalance

In the last post, women are not getting the best maternity care, we looked at some negative findings from the 2008 Milbank Report: Evidence-Based Maternity Care report. The gist is that women and babies are still experiencing too many unnecessary labor and birth interventions.
While interventions continue to rise, research says that the following practices will [...]

The rest is here:
How to have fewer labor and birth interventions

The 2008 Milbank Report: Evidence-Based Maternity Care is currently available for downloading or you can browse topics from this report online. It’s a long, scientific read, but if you’re a expecting a baby this year, it’s at least worth a good browse.
Key findings:
In spite of evidence that says women should be allowed to labor [...]

Go here to see the original:
Women are not getting the best maternity care

I just printed some coupons off Coupons.com and thought some of them were worth sharing:

Little Debbie - If my Weight Watchers leader was correct and the 100 calorie snacks are $1.79 per box, and if your store doubles, you’ll pay just 79 cents or less for a box after the 55-cents off coupon. (I know, 55 cents doubled is actually $1.10, but the stores around here only double up to $1. Alas.) You can also get the coupon directly through the Little Debbie web site. And don’t forget to enter my Little Debbie 100 Calorie Snack Sampler giveaway!

Cottonelle - I know a lot of Kroger stores sell the 4-pack for $1 or even 99 cents, so when the 50-cents off is doubled, you’ll get free toilet paper. Turn this into a moneymaker by loading an electronic coupon for 25 cents off onto your store card via Shortcuts or Cellfire. Some people have reported both electronic coupons coming off in the same transaction, but I’ve only been able to use one at a time.

Wanchai Ferry Chinese Dinner Kit - The coupon is for $1.10 off, it looks like the regular price on these is somewhere in the $4.50 range, so you can probably get it pretty cheap with a sale and the coupon. If you don’t enjoy your meal, Lori at Hooray for Freebates has the info on how to get your money back.

General Mills cereals - There are several different coupons available, and if you have kids who eat a lot of Cheerios (and other cereal) like I do, you’ll want these coupons since they are a better value than the ones that come in the newspaper (e.g., $1 off two boxes instead of three).

Fiber One and Nature Valley products - I mention these because they are a higher value than what came in Sunday’s paper. And next week, Walgreens has a “Buy 6, get $2 Register Rewards” deal on selected Fiber One and Nature Valley products. (See the last page of the ad preview.)

I was able to print all of these coupons and others more than once, so if you think you’ll use them, print them while you can! And printing from the Coupons.com banner in the left sidebar supports CFO at no cost to you (just click on the gray “see all coupons” bar at the top of the ad). Thank you if you do!

Read more:
New coupons at Coupons.com

Flaunt It’s motto - “Stylish - Chic - Sassy Maternity Tees” pretty much tells you all you need to know about the great maternity tees you’ll find at this shop.
From really funny pregnancy tees, to sweet and lovely designs, to green-minded mama maternity wear, Flaunt It, appears to have it all.  To show you the [...]

Excerpted from:
Cute maternity tees from Flaunt It