Safety: Who To Listen To, Carseat Giveaway, And Pregnant Lady Talk

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Dear Leakies,Have you found confidence in yourself through the challenges you’ve faced in your parenting journey? Has feeding your baby taught you something about yourself?  You’re not alone and we want to hear all about it, email your story to us at content@theleakyboob with the subject #ConfidentMoms.

The first time I drove after finding out I was pregnant I discovered 5 things:

  1. I had no confidence and was suddenly nervous about driving because my baby was an extra person to take care of and
  2. Driving safely was challenging with constantly needing to vomit.
  3. Safety was more important to me than it ever had been before.
  4. Keeping our babies safe starts before they’re even born.
  5. Everyone else in the whole world drives like they just don’t have they’re in a clown show! (I’m working on letting go of this one.)

It can be hard to tell what’s really a safety concern and what’s an old wives’ tale when you’re pregnant and so many well intended people will hurry to dispense even more confusing information that could just be a myth and not information at all. What practices are dangerous? What food should you really avoid and why? Are there any chemicals you should be worried about? Is your shampoo ok? What about your hair dye? Face wash? Sleeping on your back, yes or no? Is that thing about raising your arms about your head just something silly or is it a real thing? How to tell?

No really, how do you tell?

Four ways to figure out if the pregnancy warnings are real:

  • Talk to your health care provider. They’ve heard it all and if they don’t already know the answer, they know how to find the answer from a reliable, evidence based source. And if you aren’t sure about their answer, get a second opinion and of course…
  • Talk to your family and friends. We’re not alone in this life for a reason. Feel out your friends, ask their experience, and ask around. The answers may be diverse but that’s not a bad thing as you…
  • Do your own research. Use the CRAAP test to be sure the source and the information provided is something you should trust. But in the end…
  • Listen to your gut. If you can clear the noise around you, take some deep breaths, and just listen to yourself, that mom-sense is probably already starting to heighten. Listen to it. And don’t do something that makes you uncomfortable.

You’ve got this Leakies. You can keep your little ones safe when they’re inside and out.

#TLBsafeKids is coming to a close, we hope the information and support has been helpful to you. Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for a chance to win a clek car seat, Newton Crib Mattress, Crane humidifier, California Baby gift set, CatBird baby carrier, and Rhoost home safety items. Also, we teamed up with Euphoric Herbals to offer all of you a special discount to use in their online store! (Organic, sustainably-resourced all-natural products for mama and family!) CLICK HERE for the exclusive coupon code!

Happy Parenting Leakies!

For more tips and resources, read the rest of our exclusive newsletter HERE.

Peace,

Jessica Martin-Weber
Founder, TheLeakyBoob.com

SAFE SLEEP: What it IS. What it ISN’T.

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Bonus giveaway code for the Baby Guy Box hidden in this week’s email, don’t miss out! 
Sleep. It’s on the brain. What is enough? How do we get more of it? Can you actually MAKE little people sleep? (HA! Trick question.) What is safe? What works for me? We’re talking about Safe Sleep for all ages this week with our TLB family. Want to get more advice on parenting or connecting with your family? Jump down to Our Stable Table and Beyond Moi or get connected on our NEW Facebook Group for more tips on #TLBsafeKids

                This Newsletter and #TLBsafeKids brought to you by the generous support of                     
                               
Hey Leakies,How ya sleepin’? One of the most common questions new parents get is if their baby is a “good” sleeper or if they’re sleeping through the night “yet” (asked as soon as day 2). As if sleep is some determiner of quality parenting, these questions are poised with utmost concern, as if the number of hours an infant sleeping being the ultimate in parenting success.But nobody is asking if our babies are sleeping safely.

Well, we are. This month we’re focusing on safety with #TLBsafeKids with our sponsors with clek car seatsCalifornia Baby skin careNewton crib mattressesCatBirth Baby CarriersCrane USA humidifiers, and Rhoost and we’re talking about it all, including safe sleep. It is a controversial topic, not everyone agrees on what constitutes safe sleep arrangements for infants. Not even public health officials. Campaigns focused on completely different ends of the spectrum abound. We’re not here to tell you one right way, we’re here to engage in a conversation and share information together. We respect you to make the best, informed decision that is right for your family according to the resources, circumstances, and information that are a part of your reality.

So, is your baby sleeping safely?

Safe sleep can look several different ways. Here are some of my favorite resources for safe sleep information. Pick what works for you.

  • Co-sleeping: room-sharing. Setting up the space to work for your family is key. If the baby’s sleep space is attached to the parental bed or not depends on your needs. Room sharing could be a bassinet by your bed, a co-sleeper (such as Arm’s Reach) attached to your bed to facilitate breastfeeding, a converted crib set up to side-car with the parental bed, a free-standing crib (safe crib set-up here), or a safe mattress on the floor. There are options and it is likely you’ll need to adapt as your child grows. There’s a good amount of evidence that room-sharing can be a great thing!
  • Co-sleeping: bed sharing. Anthropologist and leading infant sleep expert, Dr. James McKenna from the University of Notre Dame has many resources for co-sleeping families here. Detailed safe co-sleeping arrangements describedhere. This WikiHow has a thorough step-by-step guide for setting up your bed sharing space safely and Rebecca Michi shares how to safely figure out what works for your family with bed-sharing here.  Why the normal infant wants to be at your chest– one of my favorite articles on normal, healthy, term infants sleep and feeding behavior.
  • Separated sleep: own room. Be it in a crib or a Montessori bed (what’s that and why?), setting your baby up in their own room also requires intentional safe set-up. I love this in-depth check-list for safe crib set-up. And here are some tips for when it is time to transition your child from a crib to a bed.
  • Separated sleep: shared room with other child. As a mom of 6, whenever our babies have transitioned out of our room, they’ve pretty much transitioned into sharing a room with a big sister. There are some special considerations to make when setting up space for siblings sharing a room together at a young age. You’ll need to check for additional safety concerns for room sharing with siblings such as checking that choking hazards haven’t been introduced to your younger child’s bed (*cough* Legos *cough*) or that the sleep space has otherwise been compromised. The same safe sleep standards for cribs apply if you’re using one and it isn’t recommended for infants to co-sleep alone with siblings. Here’s what a Montessori bed set up for twins looks like and the mom shares what she has learned along the way.

As a family we have also made some other arrangements for our sleep space safety. For our basement bedrooms, we use air purifiers (we’re in an old musty house) and during the winter when we’re running the heat, we have humidifiers running in all of our sleep spaces. Babies in particular benefit from having a humidifier running when they are sleeping (tiny nasal passages mean tiny pathways for their air!) see here for info and ideas, (but make sure you’re avoiding potential problems by caring for your humidifier correctly!) so we make sure to have a humidifier set up where our babies are sleeping.

However you and your littles ones are sleeping at night may it be safe and eventually, enough.

To read more in our newsletter and find the bonus code for The Baby Guys Box inside, VISIT HERE 

Peace,

Jessica Martin-Weber
Founder, TheLeakyBoob.com