Category: babies

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Cocooning Is Something New Parents Are Doing, but It Might Not Be a Great Idea

Forever, new parents have been catered to, helped out, and propped up by the rest of their tribe, family, community, and/or neighbors, and you’ve undoubtedly heard the phrase “it takes a village.”

But while in many Eastern cultures the norm is still to invite willing family members for an extended postpartum stay in order to ease the pressure of the transition on new parents, Western parents are trending the opposite direction. 

Image Credit: Pixabay

It’s being dubbed “cocooning,” and basically means that new parents live in isolation with their newborn for weeks (or even months). Their home turns into a place the world cannot penetrate – not even family members and friends who would offer help during what is an extremely lonely, anxious time.

The thought behind the movement is that the practice keeps baby safe from pathogens, gives new parents the chance to bond, and keeps a calm environment for a newborn just figuring out that they’re no longer safe and comfortable 100% of the time.

That said, listen…as someone who has birthed two babies, I’m here to tell you that grandparents and other people who would change some diapers, put baby to sleep so you could shower, cook dinner, bring groceries, or fold a load of laundry aren’t hurting anyone.

Image Credit: Pixabay

If my own mother had not been around multiple days a week, my child would have been rolling around on a floor that was ankle deep in dog hair and dust, for example.

Not to mention that bonding with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other extended family members is also important – the more people that love and support your child, the better. Multiple studies exist on the importance of active grandparents in children’s lives, and all show that kids who are close to Grandma and Grandpa have greater chances at early success in life.

Cocooning also seems to be a strange doubling-down on the trend toward insulation we’re already seeing in society. Parents of young kids are already lonely. We’re already struggling to make mommy and daddy friends. We already feel as if we’re doing this alone, with only the internet to turn to for answers to our questions and fears.

Image Credit: Pixabay

As a society, we’re becoming more and more isolated, but when you’re turning your entire life upside down, the best thing you can do is invite the people in who are willing to help you right all of the furniture, clean the rug, and feed you dinner while you get your bearings.

It takes a village. Don’t hide from yours.

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A Mom Brought a Nerf Gun to Her Delivery to Keep Her Husband Awake and Alert

Delivering babies is no joke…but also, if you’re not the one being kept awake by pains, poking, prodding, shifting, baby’s cries, or some combination of the above, well, it can be tough to stay alert through it all.

I mean, labor can last a long time, I get it. Everyone is tired afterward (except your baby). But if you’re there to play the role of supportive partner, napping really shouldn’t be an option.

Which is exactly what expectant mom Samatha Mravik-Miller was thinking when she included a Nerf gun in her hospital bag.

Mom hack level 1,0000Worried about the nights in the hospital with your new born & dad sleeping?Well… then don’t forget one of these in your hospital bag ?

Posted by Samantha Mravik-Miller on Sunday, December 15, 2019

Her post read,

“Worried about the nights in the hospital with your newborn & dad sleeping?

Well…then don’t forget one of these in your hospital bag.”

She included a photo of her holding the gun, ready to wake him up the moment he dared think that a women who had just birthed a baby should be the same person losing the most sleep.

Samantha told Romper that she’d gotten the idea “because when my 5-year-old was born my husband slept through him crying in the hospital.”

The comments were full of their own stories, convincing everyone that this was a widespread issue – and that Nerf guns might be the answer.

Image Credit: Facebook

Said one mom,

“Threw 2 shoes at my husband to get him to wake up.

First night at the hospital after a c section and I couldn’t get out of bed easily.”

Another chimed in, tagging her husband.

“I needed this for when you were sleeping, and I couldn’t get up cause of the scar.”

If there’s one thing that reading this post has taught me (and probably women everywhere) is that even if husbands sleeping through those first days is normal, it doesn’t have to be.

I’d say it’s long past time to take matters into our own hands, wouldn’t you, ladies?

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A Couple’s Gender Reveal Party Ended With A Plane Crash

Gender reveal parties are getting way out of hand, and this hard-to-believe story about a gender reveal party that ended with a plane crash is proof.

A couple in Turkey, Texas, rented a crop-duster plane and pilot for their over-the-top gender reveal party. The plan was for the plane to fly over the guests and drop pink water — for a girl, duh! The water would turn into pink mist and float all over the guests. And even we can admit the Instagram photos would have been pretty amazing…if the plane hadn’t, uh, crashed.

Photo Credit: iStock

The plane stalled out after dumping its 350 gallons of pink water, possibly due to a shock to its system. It was going “too slow,” CNN reports, and subsequently crashed into the ground. Luckily, it was flying at low altitude for the stunt — but still, a plane crash is a plane crash.

One passenger on the plane had minor injuries, but the pilot made it out without a scratch. The plane was apparently designed to carry only one person, so it’s not clear why there was a passenger in the first place.

Photo Credit: iStock

This disaster is just one in a long string of gender reveal parties gone horribly wrong. One led to a wildfire, while another resulted in an accidental pipe bomb that exploded and killed a grandmother.

All this, despite the inventor of gender reveal parties literally begging people to stop the madness!

Let’s stop, shall we?

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Babies Nap Outside in Scandinavian Countries – Even When It’s Below Freezing

Some folks prefer to sleep with the thermostat turned down or with a fan blowing on them. Cooler temps promotes more restful sleeping.

But could you stand napping outside when it’s almost zero or even below zero degrees F? Would you make your child do it?

Let me ask you another question. Do you want your child removed from your custody and raised by other people? Because that’s what would happen – at least in the United States.

Midday nap
But in the cold-climate countries that make up Scandinavia, no one would bat an eye. In fact, infants’ that are only days old commonly put outside to catch a few z’s in sub-zero weather.

If that sounds cold, it’s because it is cold. You’re not nuts.

According to the BBC, it’s not even just parents putting the freeze on their kids. Preschools will routinely wheel the babies outside at nap time in the winter. In the Stockholm area, one school pushes the kiddies out until the age of three.

Head teacher Brittmarie Carlzon says,

When the temperature drops to -15C (5F) we always cover the prams with blankets … It’s not only the temperature that matters, it’s also how cold it feels. Some days it can be -15C but it actually feels like -20C (-4F) because of the wind.

To be clear, that’s a day the kids can nap inside, When it feels -4 F.

Photo Credit: Pxhere

So, what exactly is the deal?

Linda McGurk, author of There’s No Such Thing As Bad Weather, wrote on Rain or Shine Mama about these outdoor naps. She explains that it’s one of those charming Scandinavian concepts that’s hard for Americans to understand at first and impossible for Americans to pronounce ever.

She calls it friluftsliv, which translates to “spending time outdoors to get a change of scenery and experience nature with no pressure to compete or achieve.” It’s a return to nature, learning about nature, an immersion in nature, while also cultivating love and respect for it.

Sticking your baby outside for a nap is part of friluftsliv. There’s no need for music players, wave machines or heartbeat noises because the sounds of nature are lulling and relaxing enough.

Scandinavian style nap: outside

There is also the belief that kids who spend a large amount of outdoors and away from the petri-dish that is preschool are less likely to get sick.

If you want to try this, make sure your baby is reclined in a stroller. They should wear a wool layer under a snow suit with attached mittens, plus a hat and bunting bag. You should be able to see their face and they shouldn’t be able to turn their head. Check your baby often for signs they are getting too cold. Watch for wild animals, nosy neighbors and child protective services.

Or, embrace your American-ness, put them in a onesie and let them sleep inside. That’s okay too.

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Here Are the 100 Most Popular Baby Names of the Decade

Baby names come and go, and it’s always interesting to see what sticks and what’s ultimately a flash in the pan. Have you wondered what the most popular names for kids have been the past ten years or so?

The numbers have been crunched from information from the Social Security Administration from 2010 to 2018 to give us the most popular baby names of the past decade.

Did you have any new kiddos in the past ten years? If so, did any of these names make the cut for you?

Tell us all about it in the comments!

1. Emma

Photo Credit: Pixabay

2. Sophia
3. Olivia
4. Noah
5. Isabella

Photo Credit: Pixabay

6. Liam
7. Jacob
8. Mason
9. William
10. Ava

Photo Credit: Pixabay

11. Ethan
12. Michael
13. Alexander
14. James
15. Elijah

Photo Credit: Pixabay

16. Daniel
17. Benjamin
18. Aiden
19. Jayden
20. Mia

Photo Credit: Pixabay

21. Logan
22. Matthew
23. Abigail
24. Emily
25. David

Photo Credit: Pixabay

26. Joseph
27. Lucas
28. Jackson
29. Anthony
30. Joshua

Photo Credit: Pixabay

31. Samuel
32. Andrew
33. Gabriel
34. Christopher
35. John

Photo Credit: Pixabay

36. Madison
37. Charlotte
38. Dylan
39. Carter
40. Isaac

Photo Credit: Pixabay

41. Elizabeth
42. Ryan
43. Luke
44. Oliver
45. Nathan

Photo Credit: Pixabay

46. Henry
47. Owen
48. Amelia
49. Caleb
50. Wyatt
51. Chloe

Photo Credit: Pixabay

52. Christian
53. Ella
54. Sebastian
55. Evelyn
56. Jack

Photo Credit: Pixabay

57. Avery
58. Sofia
59. Harper
60. Jonathan
61. Landon

Photo Credit: Pixabay

62. Julian
63. Isaiah
64. Hunter
65. Levi
66. Grace

Photo Credit: Pixabay

67. Addison
68. Aaron
69. Victoria
70. Eli
71. Charles
72. Natalie

Photo Credit: Pixabay

73. Thomas
74. Connor
75. Lily
76. Brayden
77. Nicholas

Photo Credit: Pixabay

78. Jaxon
79. Jeremiah
80. Aubrey
81. Cameron
82. Evan
83. Adrian
84. Jordan

Photo Credit: Pixabay

85. Lillian
86. Gavin
87. Zoey
88. Hannah
89. Grayson
90. Angel
91. Robert

Photo Credit: Pixabay

92. Layla
93. Tyler
94. Josiah
95. Brooklyn
96. Austin
97. Samantha

Photo Credit: Pixabay

98. Zoe
99. Colton
100. Brandon

The post Here Are the 100 Most Popular Baby Names of the Decade appeared first on UberFacts.

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A Single Dad Adopted a Baby With Down Syndrome After She Was Rejected by 20 Families

This is an adorable story about the power of love and how important relationships are in our lives. An Italian man named Luca Trapanese adopted a beautiful little girl named Alba when she was only 13 months old.

Alba has Down Syndrome and was rejected by 20 potential families before Trapanese came along to give the girl a new life. Trapanese has been working for and volunteering with organizations that focus on children with special needs since he was a teenager. He’s wanted to be a father for many years, but seeing that he is still single, Trapanese decided to go the route of adoption.

In July 2017, Trapanese was given permission to adopt a child even though he was still single, under one condition: he had to adopt a special needs child who had previously been rejected by other families. It was then that he became aware of little Alba. When he first met her, the connection was instantaneous. He said, “When I first held her in my arms, I was overcome with joy. I felt she was my daughter straight away. It was the first time I held a newborn baby. Before that moment, I had always been scared. But, when I first held Alba, I knew I was ready to be her dad.”

Trapanese said, “Alba revolutionized my life and everything revolves around her. She brought me happiness and a sense of fulfillment. I am proud to be her dad. I wanted her to be my daughter.”

A beautiful story, don’t you think?

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Teens Took Fake Babies Home for School Project, and Their Teacher Shared Their Desperate Text Messages

My brother had to do an assignment similar to this when he was in high school, and I believe his fake baby was broken by the second day. Sadly, he received an F for the project.

Bottom line: my brother was and still is very smart, obviously…

But let’s get to the story. At the Chippewa Secondary School in North Bay, Ontario, Canada, teen students got a little bit of a reality check when they had to take fake babies home and take care of them.

The teacher, Andrea Lefebvre, said, “Our students are in a grade 11 class called Raising Healthy Children. The students bring home one of the Real Care babies for the weekend to apply their learning for the caring for a newborn unit.”

Posted by Chippewa Secondary School on Monday, November 18, 2019

Let’s see how they did, shall we?

1. Don’t do that.

Posted by Chippewa Secondary School on Monday, November 18, 2019

2. A whole lot going on here.

Posted by Chippewa Secondary School on Monday, November 18, 2019

3. A little confused…

Posted by Chippewa Secondary School on Monday, November 18, 2019

4. Took a tumble.

Posted by Chippewa Secondary School on Monday, November 18, 2019

5. It’s your fault!

Posted by Chippewa Secondary School on Monday, November 18, 2019

6. Please shut off the child.

Posted by Chippewa Secondary School on Monday, November 18, 2019

7. SMH…

Posted by Chippewa Secondary School on Monday, November 18, 2019

 

And now let’s see some of the great reactions from people out there.

Photo Credit: Facebook

Photo Credit: Facebook

Photo Credit: Facebook

Photo Credit: Facebook

Photo Credit: Facebook

This is so entertaining. Did you have to do this when you were in school? If so, how did it go?

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You Can Buy a Baby Mop Onesie and Put Your Kids to Work

Parents with little kiddos, listen up! You might want to pay attention to this article because this product could potentially save you a bunch of time and hard work.

It’s called the Baby Mop, and it might just change your life for the better.

Posted by Baby Mop on Friday, November 13, 2015

It’s exactly what it sounds like. A onesie designed like a mop that cleans the floor while your kids do what they do best: crawl around on the floor and get into things.

Posted by Baby Mop on Wednesday, April 22, 2015

The website describes the product like this (in very tongue-in-cheek fashion):

“Make your children work for their keep

After the birth of a child there’s always the temptation to say ‘Yes, it’s cute, but what can it do?’ Until recently the answer was simply ‘lie there and cry’, but now babies can be put on the payroll, so to speak, almost as soon as they’re born.

Just dress your young one in Baby Mops and set him or her down on any hard wood or tile floor that needs cleaning. You may at first need to get things started by calling to the infant from across the room, but pretty soon they’ll be doing it all by themselves.

There’s no child exploitation involved. The kid is doing what he does best anyway: crawling. But with Baby Mops he’s also learning responsibility and a healthy work ethic.”

… at work ….

Posted by Baby Mop on Friday, November 13, 2015

You can buy the baby mop onesies HERE and another company is selling a similar product on Amazon.

What do you think? Would you buy one of these for your kiddo? Let us know in the comments.

Put them to work, right? Sounds like a plan to me!

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Here’s a Weird Beauty Trend: Makeup on Babies

Can anybody help me out with why this is a thing?

I’m not sure if some or all of these pics are Photoshopped (I think so?), but it’s still just…weird.

Take a look at the evidence.

1. Get a load of that…

2. OMG, what is happening?

3. Wise beyond her years. I think.

4. He’s not feeling it.

5. Wide-eyed with trepidation.

6. A wee bit too much eye shadow.

7. A total nightmare, in my humble opinion.

8. Looks like a doll.

9. Spruce up those baby blues.

10. Okay, I think we’ve all had enough.

Do you find this strange like I do?

Sound off in the comments!

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A Woman Woman Born with Two Vaginas and Two Wombs Becomes a Mother of Four

In all seriousness, I had never heard of such a thing. Two vaginas?

34-year-old Australian Lauren Cotter was born with uterus didelphys, meaning she had two cervices, two uteruses, and twi vaginas. It is a birth defect that affects 1 in 3,000 women, and it can cause excruciating periods and abnormal bleeding. It can also cause infertility and/or miscarriages.

Lauren was diagnosed at the age of 16 after she went to the doctor for her excruciating menstrual cycles. The doctor performed a pelvic exam and ultrasound to come to the diagnosis. He also told her that conceiving children would be difficult, if not impossible.

Posted by Lauren Cotter on Friday, January 18, 2019

She decided to have surgery to correct her double vagina, which would give her a more fulfilling sex life. When she was 17, she met her future husband and shared the news that pregnancy may not be an option.

“From quite early on, Ben and I discussed having children and it was clear that he really wanted to be a dad,” she told PA Real Life.

“I knew I had to be open and honest and tell him that might not be a possibility for me.”

So what happened? They married and tried anyway.

“We have found it easy to fall pregnant,” she said. “I am not sure why, or if it has anything to do with my two vaginas.”

With her diagnosis, Lauren understood there would be complications, but they stayed strong.

“We knew it might be a bumpy road and tried not to get our hopes up too much,” said Lauren.

In 2014, their first daughter, Amelie, was born via C-Section, completely healthy. Lauren and her husband decided to try again.  About a year and a half later they had no trouble. The crazy thing was that Harvey was born from her left womb when Amelia was born from the right!

“I carried Amelie in my right, and just assumed the left one was a dud,” said Lauren

Harvey was born prematurely at 4 pounds, 12 ounces and had difficulty swallowing. But after 3 weeks he was released in good health.

After that, the Cotters felt it best to go on birth control due to her medical history

“The [birth control] pill was giving me migraines and I couldn’t use [an IUD] coil, so in the end, the implant was the only option left,” she said.

Posted by Lauren Cotter on Sunday, May 12, 2019

But low and behold, she became pregnant with TWINS! Apparently, this family has no problems with infertility.

“‘Shocked’ doesn’t begin to cover it. During 17 years together, Ben and I had only ever got pregnant when we’d planned it. Now, here we were, having surprise twins. My doctor was very honest and said he couldn’t know how the pregnancy was going to play out.”

The doctors ordered her to bed rest for 19 weeks in order to help with any potential complications. But luckily, Lauren didn’t seem to suffer any. After 37 weeks, Maya and Evie were born each weighing about 5 pounds.

Ben and Lauren are through the moon with their family and decided to take measures to prevent future pregnancies; Lauren had her fallopian tubes tied. She said, “Ben and I are one super-fertile couple, and now we’re happy with things just as they are.”

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