Archive for June, 2007
Friday, June 29th, 2007
It lures you in with the promise of inexpensive and reliable phone service. The advertisements remind you that Verizion and other land-line companies can add more than twenty dollars in fees and taxes. And, with catchy tunes, Vonage offers you free service if you get your friends to sign up too. Sounds good, right? I thought so. In fact, my husband and I have been loyal customers for almost three years.
Until now. After a year of the worst service that we have ever had from a company, we decided to cancel our Vonage phone service. For those of you who don’t know what Vonage is, it is a VoiceIP phone services that works using your Broadband Internet service. You don’t need to have phone jacks or telephone lines. All you need is Broadband Internet and the Vonage Router which you can buy through their website or a computer/electronics store.
Vonage is actually inexpensive. The Residential Basic plan gives you 500 minutes a month for $14.99 and the Unlimited Plan gives you all the minutes that you need for $24.99 a month. Included are Caller ID, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, and Voicemail. You can also keep tabs on all of your account activity through the Vonage website.
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Posted in For Dads, For Moms | No Comments »
Saturday, June 23rd, 2007
I wanted to use cloth diapers. While I was pregnant, I was adamant about using them because, not only were they better for the environment, but they were better for her body. With her arrival 4 weeks early, I was caught off guard, and somehow the idea of cloth diapering fell to the wayside. But, at 1 month, she got her first diaper rash and it was MISERABLE. We were all miserable. Aquaphor, ButtPaste, Nyastin- they all worked sometimes, but none of them prevented the horrible diaperr rash from returning. Even after changing soaps, lotions, diet, and Mimi’s diaper every 30 minutes, that rash kept coming.
Diaper rash is painful enough, but when it happens at least twice a week, it is no longer just painful. It is stressful for both baby and parents. MiMi has very sensitive skin: eczema via her father and asthma via me. So when she kept getting diaper rash after diaper rash, I figured treating the actual rash was no longer working: we had to treat the cause. We needed White Cloud.
White Cloud diapers offers the benefits of cloth diapers with the convenience of disposables. They are latex-free, fragrance-free, gel-free, and hypoallergenic. After wearing these diapers for just a few hours, Mimi’s bottom was already on the road to recovery. We have been diaper rash-free for almost two months now and I’m finally getting sleep. We all are.
A few things to keep in mind are the following:
(1) If your baby is close to the high side of the weight range, go with the next size.
(2) Make sure to pull the elastic out. We had a few mishaps because we forgot to do this.
(3) While these diapers are mainly found at Walmart, Stop and Shop also carries them. And, they are cheaper than regular diapers.
Posted in 6 mnts - 1yr, For Children, Healthy Living, Toddlers | No Comments »
Saturday, June 23rd, 2007
Trying to understand what is so cool about this site.
Posted in Self-Promotion | No Comments »
Friday, June 15th, 2007
Nothing makes me happier than talking about my life as an [former] Exclusively Pumping mom. I did it for almost a year and I enjoyed every minute.
I made the decision to EP while I was on bed rest during my pregnancy. I knew that i wanted my daughter to have breast milk, but I also knew that being a well-endowed (48J) woman, holding a baby to my nipple would be VERY uncomfortable. Exclusively Pumping would provide Mimi with all the benefits of breastfeeding without the stress of an uncomfortable mother. The only question that remained was what pump did I buy.
Lots of research lead me to Medela. According to their site, hospital-grade pumps were best for those who needed to pump often. Many people told me to forgo renting and just buy the Medela Pump-in-Style. However, after speaking to a midwife friend of mine I learned that the PIS’s motor is not meant for hardcore pumping.
Enter the Lactina Pump. This pump is quiet and does not hurt. When EPing, for best results especially, in the beginning it is necessary to pump as often as a baby would eat. That is anywhere from 8-12 times a day. I pumped 10 times a day for 5 months and my nipples never pinched or hurt.
The only downside to this pump is that it is big and not very easy to carry around. To combat that I also purchased the PIS to take with me to work. Know that there is a real difference between a hospital-grade pump and a professional-style pump. The hospital grade pump is designed to be used 8-12 times a day or more. It is made so that the constant tugging at your nipples will not cause excruciating pain. If you use the PIS the same way, you will give up EPing sooner than you want.
Posted in For Moms, Healthy Living | No Comments »
