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Making Sure Newborn Babies and Pets are Completely Copacetic

Becoming a parent and bringing a newborn into a house is challenging enough on its own, but adding a four-legged child into this situation comes with its own set of unique obstacles. There was a recent advertisement from the internet powerhouse Amazon that took a look at this problem from the dog’s point of view.

Making Sure Newborn Babies and Pets are Completely Copacetic

In this thirty-second short, a golden retriever feels alienated when a toddler is more interested in playing with a stuffed lion and goes off into a corner after the baby cries when the dog attempts to connect with the small child. When the father sees this occur, he places an order on Amazon, and later receives a package that contains a lion’s mane for the dog to wear. This is enough to get the toddler to connect with the canine.

This is a perfect example of how to ease these two strangers into a more comfortable environment together. Here are some tips on making this transition as smooth as possible.

Before The Bundle of Joy Arrives

If you haven’t already done so, think about crate training your animal, which is a relatively simple process. That way your pet will have their own space where they feel safe and have a place to retreat if they feel threatened. Before the baby arrives:

 

  • You’ll likely already have the nursery and many other items set up for the infant’s arrival, but make sure your pet has a chance to examine, smell and become familiar with them.
  • Think about carrying around a doll wrapped in a blanket in order to get pets used to you paying attention to someone else (or something else in this case).
  • If possible, bring home a blanket from the hospital before the baby comes home so that your pet can get used to their scent.
  • Dogs and cats have sensitive hearing so you may consider downloading or playing them sounds of baby’s laughing or crying to get them used to these strange sounds.
  • If your animal exhibits behavior like jumping on the furniture that might be inappropriate with an infant in the house, start training sooner, rather than later.

You’ll also want to instill a no begging policy and teach them to stay away from food that doesn’t belong to them. This will help avoid them snatching food out of a toddler’s hand and the possibility of them eating unhealthy foods that are dropped, discarded or end up on the floor.

Curious Cats

Most of these tips and tricks are canine orientated, but they certainly apply to cats in these situations, but dogs can’t usually leap into a crib as easily as a feline. Be sure your cat is supervised when they’re in the nursery and don’t leave them along with the infant.

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Babies will turn into crawlers quickly, so be sure the litter box is in an area they can’t come in contact with it, even for short periods of time. If you must move the box before the baby arrives, it’s recommended to do it slowly, in two or three-foot increments at a time over the course of several days or weeks.

Baby Steps

When the big day arrives, you may want to come into the house first without the child and warm up to your pet without the infant present. Introduce the two slowly with at least two people present and you may want to keep them separate for the first few hours while they adjust to the concept.

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Keep your pet on their same schedule and don’t exclude them from their normal activities. There will likely be a little bit of jealousy and weirdness involved at first when introducing a newcomer into an existing family environment, but it doesn’t have to be that strange if we can follow some of these simple guidelines. We’re all family and we should treat each other with equal amounts of love and attention so no one feels left out.

Share the Love: Central Iowa

I am so excited to announce that I am officially a Share the Love host for Central Iowa! What is Share the Love? I have mentioned it a few times since I returned from MommyCon Minneapolis, but I wanted to wait to go into more detail.

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Share the Love is a National Cloth Diaper Bank. In 2012, Share the Love was created and began in St. Louis, Missouri. The sole purpose of this program is to distribute and provide cloth diapers to low-income families. A study was done, that one in three American families were forced to choose between food, household items and diapers. Jennifer Labit, owner of Cotton Babies, wanted to help change this.

“It feels like yesterday that my family was in this situation,” Labit said.” Ten years ago, I had a $30 weekly grocery budget and a WIC check. My family had to choose between diapers and food. If it wasn’t for a friend who generously sent my family cloth diapers as a gift, I don’t know what we would have done. Her gift helped my family and changed our lives, and I hope Share the Love will do the same for others.”

Since 2012, there have been host sites created in all 50 states across America. Many states have several host sites. To receive diapers, eligible families must apply for assistance. All of the diapers that are donated to Share the Love sites, are donated from other families who no longer need or use their cloth diapers.

So, what can YOU do?

  1. Donate! You can donate any cloth diapers you no longer use. If they need a little tending to, that is okay. We will make sure they get put back into working condition, before they are distributed to families. You can also donate cloth wipes and/or changing pads!
  2. Be a drop site! Do you own a business or work within a business that would be a great place for people to leave their diapers for donation? We are looking for several places in Central Iowa to leave baskets and information about the program. We would provide the basket & materials and would pick-up as often as needed!
  3. Help spread the word to low-income families! Do you know of a great place or organization that we can spread the word about Share the Love? Share the Love is new to Central Iowa and many low-income families may not know of this option. With your help, we can help ease the minds of these families by getting them cloth diapers!

If you can help in ANY of these areas or have questions about the program please contact me at SharetheLove@cottonbabies.com.

 

Five Reasons to Love Cottonbabies

While at MommyCon Minneapolis I learned a lot about the company Cottonbabies. I was familiar with the company, knew they sold some awesome cloth diapers, but learned that they are so much more! Not only do they sell amazing diapers, but they strive to help people less fortunate, support mothers, honest, and owner Jen Labit is amazing! Let me break down some awesome reasons to love and support this amazing company.

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1. Jen Labit is a working mother and wife. When I attended her VIP session at MommyCon, I learned that she may own and run a very successful cloth diapering company, but she is a mother and wife first. She has the same struggles to “fit it all in” as we do. She is a very inspirational woman and believes that mothers should have the “permission to dream”.

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2. Jen Labit supports working mothers. Not only does she support them, she allows the mothers who work for her, to bring their children to work. She recently wrote a blog post, that explains how important it was for her to have her babies with her, when trying to grow and make Cottonbabies successful and how they make it work now.

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3. Cottonbabies gives back to the community through Share the Love. I learned about this amazing program while at MommyCon! Share the Love is a National Cloth Diaper Bank. People are able to donate any cloth diapers, they no longer use to Share the Love. Hosts from all around the country, volunteer and help distribute the cloth diapers to families who are in need. Think about it … families who have little ones in disposable diapers and who are struggling, could save so much if they no longer had to buy disposable diapers all the time! Yes, it is an investment to start cloth diapering, but Share the Love is here to help those families do it! I was so inspired by this program, I am now a Share the Love Host for Central Iowa families! Keep your eyes and ears open for more details 🙂

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4. They offer several types of cloth diapers. Cottonbabies has created four different brands including: Bumgenius, Flip System, Econobum and Hemp Babies. By offering four different brands, there is surely something you will find and fall in love with. It’s important to have options and when it comes to cloth diapering there are a LOT of options and systems out there. It’s important to find what works best for you and your family. I just recently fell in love with the Flip System!

5. The Genius Series is freaking adorable 🙂 I want and need all of these! I love how Cottonbabies got unique and created some fun diapers representing some genius people in history! Geniuses that are represented include: Albert Einstein, Nelle Harper Lee, Louis Armstrong, Alicia Boole Stott, Osa Johnson, Matin Johnson, Ada Lovelace, Wangari Maathai, Steve Irwin, Jules Verne, Lewis Carroll, Audrey Hepburn, Charlie Chaplin, Marie Tharp, and Dr. E. Lee Spence.

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Make sure you are following Cottonbabies and Jen Labit on Facebook!

 

 

The Leaky B@@B: MommyCon 2015

MommyCon 2015 Must See & Do!-2

I am getting more and more excited for MommyCon Minneapolis. I cannot wait for TheBabyGuyNYC, the Cloth Diaper Resource Center, The Great Cloth Diaper Change aaaaaand …. The Leaky B@@B!

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The Leaky B@@B is managed and ran by Jessica Martin-Weber, with the help of her husband and other volunteers. The Leaky B@@B site, Facebook page, Instagram and Twitter account were created to help bring breastfeeding mothers together for support.

Jessica is a passionate mother, of six, who strongly believes that it is every woman’s right to breastfeed their children wherever and whenever. She is an advocate for all mothers. Not only is she passionate about breastfeeding, but she is an inspiration and encouraging to mothers who are struggling with parenting.

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The Leaky B@@B website and blog is a wonderful resource for inspiration, real stories, and a great place to go to get questions answered! The Leaky B@@b Marketplace is a great resource to check out. It categorizes different products and businesses that help naturalize breastfeeding and making it easier for mothers to breastfeed. The Leaky Love is also a great place to visit if you are feeling discouraged and need support. In this section comments and questions from other mothers, from all over, are shared. It is a great place to look if you need to be reassured you are not alone!

I am REALLY looking forward to hearing Jessica from The Leaky B@@b speak at MommyCon Minneapolis Saturday, April 18th! Do not forget you can receive $5 off your MommyCon tickets when you use my code!

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