Looking for the perfect baby shower gift for some green parents?
(and by that I mean eco-aware, not brand new, although they may be that too!)
I’ve been hunting around Etsy looking for gifts for my baby newphew and have found some awesome handmade goodies for babes and parents who are keen to watch their footprint on this earth.
See the full round up behind the cut >>
I’m sure every expectant parent has been there at some point. You spend hours, days even, pouring over baby name books, scanning the credits in movies to see if anything sticks out, eavesdropping on conversations in cafes just incase someone mentions a name, a name that happens to be The Name. The name that you fall in love with and immediately decide that THIS is the moniker you will bestow on your future child.
Off you race to tell your partner/in laws/parents/best friend/random stranger in the street and their response is less than enthusiastic… “Yeah… but what about _______ instead?”.
When I found out I was pregnant with my eldest, I already had a few names in mind. I liked Amelia and Robyn as girls names, and Cameron and Brendan as boys. My husband immediately vetoed all of them. I was particularly attached to Robyn (not that it would have mattered – little did I know then that a daughter wasn’t in my future) and the battles we had over that name were immense, there were a lot of tears, and eventually I conceded and agreed we’d think of a different name – we did, under a great deal of pressure the night before my induction and thank god that Declan wasn’t a girl because I hate the name we chose now!
I didn’t have too many problems giving up that fight, I wanted my husband to love our baby’s name as much as I did, but I’m not sure how I’d go getting negative feedback on a name that I had decided on from someone like my Mum or a close friend. A friend of mine recently found out that her third (and planned last) child will be a little girl, a sister for her two older boys, she excitedly told her mum the name that she and her husband had decided on and her mother has thrown nothing but negativity at it. This wasn’t a “we’re thinking of this name, what are your thoughts?”, it was a “we’ve decided our daughter will be called this”, things have escalated to the point where she and her mother aren’t speaking. Of course my friend is upset, to the point that she’s now doubting the choice that she was so in love with just a week ago.
As far as I’m concerned, grandparents, friends and relatives are free to put in their 2 cents worth, but out of respect to the expectant parents, they need to keep it at 2 cents, not try and stretch to a whole dollar. Their time has either gone or one day will come for their turn to name a child, and as much as I respect the opinions of my friends and family, they need to respect mine, particularly on something as special as naming a child.
And if you don’t think that they’ll like your babe’s chosen name, just don’t tell anyone until after the birth, they’ll have a hard time saying anything negative about the little newborn blob, no matter what his or her name is… unless it’s Diammond Sparckle, then even I will admit that I’d struggle not to say something.
Did you receive any negative feedback on your child’s name? Was it under lock and key until labour day? Or did you do what one of the women in my mother’s group did and tell everyone a fake Klingon inspired name just to get people off your back?
In totally awesome news today, the final results from the home birth trial running at Sydney’s St George hospital have been published, and the result is a great one.
From The SMH:
A study of the first 100 women booked to use the service found 63 per cent successfully delivered at home with no intervention or pain relief and minimal vaginal tearing.
Thirty women were sent to hospital before going into labour and seven were transferred during labour, one of the lowest transfer rates of any similar program in the world.
This is a great step in finding a happy medium between home birthing and hospital/birth centre birthing. I hope after seeing the results from the St George study more hospitals will consider taking up a similar program and make a safe and inexpensive home birth an option to more parents to be.
(Image credit to Krissy Allori)
I’m only a few more weeks away from having a newborn of my own, and as amusing as my preschooler is, and as much fun as my toddler is, nothing is better than the smell and squishyness of a newborn baby.
Apart from a newborn baby wearing a hat with ears!
These hats are made by Janet in Victoria, each one is crocheted by hand and come in a range of sizes from newborn to five years. She even does adult sizes and custom orders if you have something in particular in mind. She has a great range, whether you’re after bear ears, Jayne flaps or pixie hats, and the prices are very reasonable.
Check out Janet’s Etsy Store, The Funky Hooker, to see her entire range of handmade hats.
- Birth Details Print – Funky Alphabet Print – Initial Print -
Typography art is perfect for children, it looks beautiful as well as being educational. MiniMi is an Australian based designer specialising in beautiful personalised typography prints for babies and children.
All prints are standard sizes (8×10) and ready to frame.
Check out MiniMi’s store on MadeIt.com.au.
Itti Bitti nappies are having an awesome sale, with 20% off their value packs and 25% off everything else in store! It started at midnight (nine hours ago) and will run for 24 hours. Get in quick as stocks are already getting low.
Ittis are the only nappy I use now with the boys, they work great and the large size fits both my 18 month old and my almost 3 year old. I just ordered one of their 12 AIO packs for the new bub at saved $60 on the normal price and will save even more in not having to buy disposables.
Their trial packs are an awesome way to test the waters if you’re new to cloth nappies. It can definitely be intimidating looking at all the different designs and types of nappies, so buying a couple of trial packs from different brands is a great way to get started.
If you need any advice or information about using cloth nappies, NappyAddicts.com.au is a great place to start.
You’d struggle to find a single parenting forum that wasn’t covered in tickers. We all love to boast about our kids, and telling the world exactly how old they are is an extension of that. Unfortunately some of us don’t neccesarily want chains of flowers with a baby snuggled in a peapod floating down it as the year progresses, if you’re going to tell the world how old your babes are, you might as well tell it a bit about yourself as well.
Enter Alternatickers. They have an awesome selection of graphics, great backgrounds and excellent markers including tattoos, same sex parenting and cloth nappies. They also allow the option to add custom text, a photo from your hardrive or flickr and also have the option of creating mini-tickers so you don’t completely fill your forum signature.
Jennifer Perkins (Of CraftLab and Naughty secretary fame) has created the most wonderful nursery for her daughter Tallulah. Jennifer based the transformation of her spare room turned walk in wardrobe soley on a Japanese cotton print, which later became a window dressing.
She’s done a great job of blending thrifted furniture with new pieces from Ikea, and I love the use of re-purposed lockers, the bright colours and how gender neutral the space is.
Check out more photos of the completed nursery, and the before shots (OMG the shoes!) over at Jennifer’s blog post about the nursery.
Gone are the days when the only wooden toys avaliable were blocks and the occasional train set. With more parents becoming concerned about lead levels and toxic paints whilst shunning plastic flashing toys that don’t allow for imagination, the demand for wooden toys has increased considerably. Manufacturers are answering our requests for toys that adults love to look at as much as their children love to play with, and with the amazing range of wooden toys we’re now spoiled for choice.
Take a peek under the jump to see some of my favourite wooden toys currently available for bubs ranging from newborn to five years old.
