Alyssa Milano's Baby Boy Milo Thomas

Alyssa Milano Is Another "Over 35" Celebrity Mom

David Bugliari and Alyssa Milano gave birth to Milo Thomas on August 31, 2011 (Wednesday) at 9:27 A.M. Baby Milo weighed 7 lbs and was 19 inches long. It is just 5 weeks later and this 38 year old mommy looks almost as beautiful as her newborn baby (see image above courtesy of US Weekly). Like the rest of the "over 35" mommies in the USA, I feel like I grew up with this actress, therefore I am so excited to read the news of her first baby. She told US Weekly "she's staying nanny-free" and I commend her for that choice because the first few weeks (in fact, the baby's first year) can become quite an adjustment for a new mommy. A lot of celebrity moms hire a nanny to the "quality of life" that come with their status, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having a baby. I wouldn't want a stranger bonding with my baby, therefore I think it's really cool when a celebrity mom and dad wants to do the parenting on their own.

Congrats to Alyssa Milano and David Bugliari on the arrival of their precious baby boy.

We look forward to seeing more pictures and following your parenting example.


In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child



Source: http://www.usmagazine.com/momsbabies/news/meet-alyssa-milanos-baby-son-milo-thomas-2011289

Onward & Forward | 8 Months Old Baby Max

Video of our baby at 8 months old (I love his smile here)

Our baby will turn 9 months on September 27th. I am feeling both melancholy and excited because 8 months was such an incredible age. I am sad that our sweet little baby has to grow up. I am excited by how much he developed this month and how much more we have to look forward to in years to come. I am embarrassed to admit that I had forgotten how much an 8 month old baby learns in just a few short weeks. I just want to throw a "Sweet 8 Months" party for him ... limousine and all :) I will share his 8 month changes instead of the party, so that other moms will have something to go by aside of the textbook "milestones" chart. The following are all of the interests and changes our baby had at 8 months old:

Hair Growth
Max went from being just about bald to having a nice layer of sliky brown hair that I can make stick up like Alfalfa from the Little Rascals :) This is actually the length it was when he was born and then it thinned out, so it's nice to see our baby with hair ... again.

Teething / Cutting Teeth
Our 8 month old baby has 4 teeth (the two front teeth at the top and the two front teeth at the bottom). He bites crackers with these 4 teeth. He sometimes bites while nursing, but not as often as I would expect. He has started gnarling on the crib and playpen. All of his toys are being used to shave those 4 rigid teeth smooth, as well as on his gums that are expecting more teeth.

Increased Verbal / Talking / Singing
We are not certain that he knows what he is saying, but we hear "maaaa" (mom), "da da" (dad) and "baaaaha" (brother) all of the time. I have to think that he is calling our names as we have taught him because I hear them screamed at us in the morning if he has woken before us and wants picked up out of the crib. He also says them throughout the day and gets really excited when the right person responds and / or picks him up. I have recently heard him singing with his toys and TV shows. I swear that he is trying to do his ABC sometimes because he starts singing "ahhhhhhh ahhhhhh" and then I hear "aaaaaaaaaa" (long A sound) and "oooooooooo" (long O sound) in an exaggeratedly friggy voice. It is so cute that he stops me in my tracks ... I get that melancholy / excited feeling so badly that it gives me pangs in my heart. Max cries, calls for us and speaks LOUDLY, too. I even find that comical, though have been working on some volume control around here (in how we interact with him), so that we are not speaking too loud around him.

Crawling / Standing
Max crawls like a champ. He has totally stopped using his swing and lets us know when he wants out of his play yard and pack n play, so that he can move around. This is so great because he is getting so worn out that he is starting to sleep through the night (FINALLY). He is pulling himself up to stand. He uses furniture, walls to his play yard and our legs :) One day he pushed a Pampers box around the house, so that he could walk hunched over. He used a flipped over laundry basket and his high chair to try to walk the other day. It was so cute! I have no doubt in my mind that he will be walking in his 9th month, so the house is all baby proofed and ready for him.

Sprout / Nick Jr
Although I swore that this child would not have early exposure to TV, we do let Max watch TV and it is obvious that he has favorite TV shows. His responsiveness is amazing. Prior to this month (7 months old), Max would watch for a bit and become bored more quickly. Now, he stands in his pack n play or crawls over to the TV stand and holds himself up, so that he can watch closely. He laughs, bounces, talks and sings to his favorite shows. He gets fussy if it is not a show he likes as much and totally loves the memory card and shapes "commercials" they have in between shows. He is learning a lot from these TV shows, so they compliment what we are doing with him.

Learning / Playing
Max has always been responsive to our playing with him and has a few favorite toys, but he plays alone now and plays back with us. He is at the point that he crawls to his toy bins, pulls himself up and selects what he wants to play with each time. This is so much fun. He is pressing the buttons when we point them out, watching how we play with toys that he is not familiar with and dragging them across the room to his father, brother or me when he wants us to play. The best was when he sat flipping through one of his book the other day. It was just a few seconds, but he was "reading" all the same :)

Little Upsets / Temper Tantrums

Lastly, our 8 month old has started having tantrums (not just fussing or crying), but the cutest angry faces and feet kicking that I have ever seen BECAUSE HE HAS A DIRTY DIAPER. Our baby cannot stand to have a poopy diaper and lets us know just as soon as he has "done his duty". He sits up with his feet out and kicks left, right, left, right and makes a nuh sound until we pick him up to change him (which is almost immediately because now we know what is wrong with him). If we let it go on to long, it can be quite annoying to all of us :)

8 month old babies are fun ...

All in all, this has been such an adorable, progressive and heart warming age that I cannot stand for this stage to end (even the teething and starting of temper tantrums) , but I know that I have no choice. Our 8 month old baby will turn 9 months on the 27th of September ... I have to live with it :( The funny thing is that most people "feel some kind of way" about THEIR mortality; especially as they are approaching 40 (which anyone over 35 knows what I mean).

Watching my baby grow up is making me feel this way about humanity.

UPDATE: 9 Month Milestones and baby Max's development notes.


In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child

Teething | Baby's 1st Tooth / Teeth

1st Tooth coming in at the beginning of August 2011.


2nd tooth started to come in by the middle of August 2011 (8 months old)

NOTE: BLOG POST IS UPDATED EACH TIME OUR BABY GETS A NEW TOOTH

Max had 4 teeth by the beginning of September 2011 (9 months old) and 6 teeth by October (10 months). We were very excited and it was so cute to watch him bite.

It was like a non-stop mood swing in our house between August and October. Our baby was happy one minute and then screaming in pain the next minute. He wanted to crawl one minute and then insisted on being held for a few hours straight (a few times a day). It got to the point that we were all running to him just as soon as he shows a sign of discomfort for fear that Max would scream all day and night if we did not comfort him.

As of 11/7/2011, our baby is still putting everything in his mouth. We really have to watch because sometimes he tries to gnaw the legs on our desks / chairs and will chew his books if we leave them with him (so we do not). In fact, it took our baby a very long time to sit and read with me because all he wanted to do was eat the book while he was teething.

Here are some tips for helping your teething baby:


Teething Rings / Teething Toys

Teething rings are great; especially those with nubs and raised patterns that our baby can rub on his gums. It is important to buy teething rings that are one solid piece and hypo-allergic material. You want to check packaging of the teething ring to make sure it's not made of diisononyl phthalate because it is toxic / hazardous material. Natural rubber, latex or silicon are the best teething rings to use. There are teething rings filled with water that you can freeze to help sooth baby gums. Our baby has a lot of loves the Green Foot Munchkin Fun Ice Chewy Teether (in the picture above) and the Sassy Ring Links 0+ Inspire Touch. It is made of Ethylene Vinyl Acetate which is a BPA free teething ring that we freeze and only use when he seems like he can't handle the pain anymore.

Fingers

Babies use their fingers, but they LOVE chomping on our fingers, too. I would not recommend making your fingers a first offer instead of a teething toy / ring nor that you continue to let your baby use your fingers as a teething ring because those teeth are mighty sharp when they come in, BUT it does not hurt to wash your hands well and rub your baby's gums with your finger. Our baby loved gnawing on our fingers when all else failed.

Washcloth

Believe it our not, my 12 year old son taught me about using a washcloth. He pulled one out of the freezer one day and said, "here mom, give him this!" and it worked for a while, too.

Frozen Banana

Peel and freeze a banana (can cut one large banana in half or use a small banana). Put your baby in a high chair and let him chew away. The only thing is that you need to keep a very close eye on your baby while she / he is using a frozen banana as a teether to make sure no pieces are bit off. The advantage is that the banana is nice and mushy when it thaws, healthy and babies love the taste.

Infant Fingertip Brush / Toddler Toothbrush Set
Safety 1st sells an awesome fingertip toothbrush and toddler toothbrush set (includes case for the fingertip toothbrush). This helped us A LOT, therefore I am recommending it to you. I used the fingertip for the health benefits as well as periodic brushing and soothing the gums. Our baby loved it all the way up to when he teeth came in and then I started using the toothbrush. They also sell a Safety 1st Prograde Infant Pediatric Dental Set that has bristle-free brush with a long handle, but we went straight to the toddler toothbrush because he went for 1 to 6 teeth in about two months. As you can see by the image, the toddler toothbrush has a fat base and smaller, softer, toothbrush bristles. Our baby loves brushing his teeth and gums with this toothbrush and we sometimes use it to entertain him while changing diapers. If we didn't, he would put his hands in poop and crawl away.

Baby Anbesol & Baby Orajel

If all else fails, there is always Baby Anbesol or Baby Orajel are non-prescription anesthetics that sooth sore gums.

Ebay Horror Story | Bad Ebay Experience

"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Luke 23:34

I was feeling adventurous the other day, so I headed on over to eBay to see if I could find a great deal on baby clothes. Max is almost 9 months old and has just moved into new sizes (9 month / 12 month), therefore I wanted to get a few extras for his wardrobe (mostly PJs and t-shirts) and see what was posted for 18 month sizes. Anyways, I came across a 12 - 18 month clothing lot that looked really nice. These were not church clothes, but a decent assortment of t-shirts, pants and some one pieces that he could use for daily wear. I have been a member of eBay since they launched, but had to start a new account because I never use it. I guess you can say that I am an auction novice, therefore I should have asked my husband for guidance, but wanted to try to do an eBay auction on my own. I can be rather independent (stubborn) at times ...

I won this first auction for $0.99 and $15 shipping. I was SUPER excited and proud that I managed this on my own. I bid on the same seller's second auction for 7 pajamas. I won them at $5 and shipping, so I told her to roll them up and put in one box, so she had more of a profit on the 1st lot because I won them at 99 cents. I waited for the box to get here ... it arrived in a few days and the seller did as I suggested by rolling the clothes and sending them all (the lots of clothing from both auctions) in the one box.

I excitedly opened the box and started going through the clothes ... my smile didn't last long ... WOULD YOU BELIEVE that some of the shirts had huge stains on them, one shirt had a hole, one of the PJs had dirty feet and food on it (not stains; she did not wash it) and a couple of the items were dirty (I could scrape the crumbs).

I was hurt and disappointed to say the least. My husband wanted me to give her bad feedback, but I just did not know what to do about it. I started thinking that she must have really needed the extra $$$ or maybe she just did not know better and thought that it was OK to send the clothes dirty because I would wash them anyway. I was also thinking that she should have posted the details of the stains and the little hole on the one shirt.

I began wondering if she was just a mean person. I could not help thinking "What if this was a mother that could not afford to buy other clothes for their baby?" ... What was this woman thinking? Should I have given her a bad rating? Am I supposed to report her to eBay?

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Was she wrong? Am I wrong? Have you ever had a bad eBay experience like this? Should I give a bad eBay rating or just let this go? What if she does this to someone else?

I really feel like this was an eBay horror story that should be told. I want other moms know that there are some shady mommies peddling "bad goods" on eBay (not just your regular con artists), so you have to ask questions about the quality of the clothing before bidding. This way you can show eBay the communications if you need their help after an auction. I did not think about this because the clothes looked great on the picture and I was excited by the potential of a great deal. The reality is that she should have posted these garments in the free section of Craigslist (just in case someone wanted them as play clothes) or thrown the bad items away instead of wasting my time & money by selling them on eBay.

C'est la via!


In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child

The Girl Effect - Help Spread The Word

Watch the other video and learn how to "spread the word"
about the importance of The Girl Effect @ Viral Marketing Mom blog.

In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child

Happy Birthday Kellie | Maddie's Angel Mom

I haven't been feeling well. I though that I had swimmer's ear, but it is actually a middle ear infection that has been extremely painful and making me sick. I was pretty much bedridden, though did get to my computer a few times to check on things. During that time, I came across one of the saddest blog posts that I've ever read in my life. One line of it said the following:

"Today is Kellie's birthday, and her wish is to have her baby back in her arms again."

My heart dropped to my feet as I clicked the link over to Kellie's blog - Another Day Strong - to see what she had to say. I only made it through the slide show of her beautiful angel baby, Maddie (Kellie and husband lost Maddie to SIDS at 4 months old). I was so sad that I quickly went back to read the rest of Tiffany's blog post where she also shared her personal experience of losing her baby to miscarriage ... Needless to say, I could related to the heartbreak she felt, from my own experience. I went back to bed because the ear pain had kicked in again. I know that it is not my place to question God for the reasons why we go through such things. Yet, it still hurts that we do ... Both mothers laid heavy on my heart all day and night.

Today, I read the blog post again to understand that ...



Kellie's birthday wish was for friends to help celebrate her birthday (Sept 1st) by writing a blog post in remembrance of her sweet Maddie. I was sick yesterday and totally overlooked what was going on, therefore I hope this angel mommy will accept my BELATED HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you. We appreciate how strong you are to come forward to help educate others on S.I.D.S. through your own experience. May the Lord continue to strengthen you ...

"May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you,
and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up hiscountenance upon you, and give you peace."


In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child