Sisterhood of Motherhood
The Baby Sense blog

We have had a fabulous response to the release of our new South Africa Baby Directory. We plan on keeping you up to date on new people via our blog as well as from the home page which displays the latest additions on the site PLUS featured services / vendors.

We would like to take the opportunity of welcoming the following service partners to the directory:

• 4 A Kid
• Ann Richardson
• Baby Banz
• Baby Sense
• Baby Smart
• Christine Meintjies Photography
• Clamber Club
• CMor Photography
• Domestic Angels
• Grant Legassick Photography
• Health Matrix
• Healthy Mom & Baby Clinic
• Hearts in a Shutter
• Help at Home
• IAIM
• Little Cooks Club Rivonia
• Little Leapers
• Little People Kids Furniture
• Lolla-Kulla Kiddie Party Venue
• Meoli Maternity Wear
• Moms and Babes
• Moms Lifeline
• mumi&bubi Solid Starter Kit
• Natural Expressions
• Old School Cool
• Peek-a-Babe 4D Scan
• Sugar & Spice
• Tabitha Hume Clinical Dietician
• The Activity Workshop Pinelands
• The Baby Room
• Treehouse

We wish you all the best on the Baby Sense directory.

If you have a service you would like to market on the Baby Sense Directory or would like to recommend a particular company to us, please contact us with the the necessary information.

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Hi Meg.
I just wanted to let you know that I and the biggest fan of the Baby Sense sling. Daniel has just turned 2 and I am still using the sling with him. It was the best gift I ever recieved when I had my babies and I used it with both Thomas and Daniel. Thomas is 4 1/2 so that sling has been well used. I used the sling every day with Daniel from birth up until around 20 months - just popping in the the shops, the school run, out and about - anywhere really. He is now more keen on walking everywhere, but I still get to use it on days when he is a little tired, or just fancies a cuddle. I love it and it is the only carrier I still use. I have 2 other carriers, but he is too heavy in them. The sling is still perfect and I hope to be able to use it for a few more months still.

It is a strange situation when you become a mum. You seem to lose your identity and become known through your children. At Tom’s sports day a mum who I have chatted to every day for the past year came up to me and admitted she had no idea what my name was. She knew me as Tom’s mum. I was not insulted as I knew her only as Joshua’s mum. I bumped into another mummy friend of mine yesterday who I havent seen in over a year. I used to go to Baby Club with Daniel and knew her from there. When we bumped into each other we remembered each others childrens names, but not each others. It seems there are other ways people know me around town … The lady with the Sling is my favourite. Daniel (almost 2) has done the school run in his sling every day since he was born. It seems my sling gets me noticed. No one seems to know my name, but they do know who I am!

Colic is one of the biggest conundrums for any mum or doctor caring for a young baby. We all search for the definitive answer to calming crying babies and a number of theories abound on why babies cry and how to sooth them. An article in the Journal of Pediatric Health Care (Sept/Oct 2007) caught my eye because it looked at all the recent research on colic and calming colicky babies. What might interest you is what works and what doesn’t according to the research:

• Swaddling - decreases crying duration in babies less than 8 weeks old ( van Sleuwen et al 2006)
• Decreasing stimulation - reduces infant crying (Wolke et al 1994)
• Carrying baby - data inconclusive unless combined with massage (Elliott et al 2002)
• ‘Regimented daily routine’ - reduced number of parents seeking help for crying (St James-Roberts et al 2001)
• A consistent routine - promotes babies to self regulate (St James-Roberts et al 2001)
• A crib vibrator - data does not support effectiveness in reducing colic (Barr et al. 1991)
• Swaddling is superior to massage (Ohgi et al 2004)
• Counseling alone - not effective (Parkin et al 1993)
• Reflux medication - does not work any better than placebo pills (Heine et al 2006)

Interesting information! In my experience it is a process of trial and error to find your baby’s ‘off-switch’. I was amazed and impressed by the calming tips moms wrote to us with for the Calming tip campaign - check them out in our book “A Mother’s Sense of Calm”

Is anyone else freaking out about Swine Flu? I am not too sure what the media coverage is like elsewhere but the UK media is having a field day. I have 2 children under 5 years old and they are one of the biggest risk groups, so everytime they get a sniffle I check the symptoms online and am convinced it is going that way. There has been 1 confirmed case of Swine Flu at Tom’s school and 70 cases within our small community. There is such conflicting advice also - some groups warning that women should postpone falling pregnant until the virus has gone, dont travel on public transfport and close all the schools, other more sensible groups are saying concentrate on hygene like washing hands and using tissues to limit the spread of the illness. I am just wondering how other parents are feeling about Swine Flu and any tips on how to not be paranoid about it?

Get your hands on a copy of “I am Pregnant Magazine” to see an article by Megan Faure on Swaddling. Then get your hands on a copy of “Practical Parenting” for an article on Colic. Baby Sense is getting some excellent coverage in the UK at the moment.

Look out for a voucher code that will save you money when you buy a cuddlewrap online.

I got into bed last night and said jokingly to my husband “maybe we will actually sleep in the same bed the whole night together”. For the last 2 weeks I have had either one of my boys in bed with me with coughs, colds, temperatures, nausea. My poor husband has been banished to Tom’s top bunk. He is 6ft 3in, trying to sleep in a 6ft bed. Finally last night I got both boys down in their own beds and all seemed to be going right. I switched off my light at 11pm and at 11:20 was woken by Daniel crying. Went to check on him and he was sweltering hot. Needless to say, husband was kicked out of bed and I spent most of the night battling with a sick toddler. Just when you think it is going right, something happens and you have to adjust and make a new plan. Maybe tonight I shall have a peaceful night. I thought that sleepless nights had finally ended… but no!

Megan Faure and I attended and exhibited at the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) Conference in Swansea on the weekend. I was so pleased to see that so many of the NCT workers were recommending Swaddling and Baby Wearing in their classes as well as doing this with their own children. Megan presented a workshop to over 40 NCT workers on “Womb to World”, describing how senses develop in utero and exploring ways to sooth newborns using techniques that mimic the womb world. The feedback from the talk has been amazing with comments like “Best talk at the conference” and “incredibly informative and enlightening presentation full of information that will be essential when working with parents in the early days of parenting”. Our best sellers at the conference were Baby sense, Sleep sense, Baby Sense Slings and our Cuddlewraps.

If anyone is interested in hosting Megan to speak at your events please get in touch with me on antoinette@babysense.com.

My son Daniel will turn 2 in September. He has never slept through the night … until now! Daniel had a pretty tough start to his life and has been on medication since birth. It turns his medication is a stimulant so this may have been the reason he continued to wake up every night. With the lovely dryer summer weather now in the UK Daniel has been so well and has come off all of his medication. Result…within a week he was sleeping though. A few nights of disruption, but for the past 2 weeks he has only woken at the humane time of 5am.

I cant believe the difference in myelf now that I am getting better sleep at night. I am beginning to lose weight as I no longer grab as many high calorie snacks and fizzy drinks just to get through the day. I want to get out an get some exercise, I want to socialise more and I feel I can devote more to my work. I feel like a new person. It is amazing what sleep deprivation does to you, and even though I was only up for a few minutes at a time each night I never got good sleep. I now feel so much more positive about things and each day does not feel like a marathon.

Did you take the online poll on our Facebook page? We asked you when your baby first slep through the night. Results will be announced in the July Newlsetter. Make sure you sign up for it.