Stay Safe This Hallow’s Eve

Robert Nickell, aka Daddy Nickell, Founder of Daddyscrubs

As a daddy to seven, I know a thing or two about wanting to protect your children from all of the world’s evils. It seems certain seasons and holidays tend to bring out the crazies, Halloween being one of those crazy-induced holidays.

Here’s a bit of advice from a dad who wants to ensure you and your kids have a safe and fun Halloween.

Trick or Treat: I think most people would agree; getting free candy is amongst the more enjoyable things in life, and your child will probably want to try their hand at the fun. In order to stay safe this Halloween, trick or treat with your child during the earlier evening hours. Walk from door to door with them allowing them to partake in the trick or treating experience while knowing they are safe and out of harms way. If you have older children, you can drive them to different neighborhoods that you know are safe and hang out while they visit the homes in the neighborhood. Give them a meeting place, a time and a cell phone. Lay out the ground rules ahead of time so you and your child can stay safe while having fun.

Party-in: While scavenging through neighborhoods filling pillowcases with candy and more appealing Halloween tradition, it can be just as fun to have a party at home, which is what my wife, kids and I have done for the past several years. Everyone dresses up, you decorate your house to look like a haunted mansion, and you invite other close friends and family to come enjoy in the festivities. With your own bowls of candy dispersed throughout the house, you and your kids can indulge their Fall sweet tooth in a fun and safe environment.

Out and aBOOut: Generally, many towns and cities have festivals and activities for this season. You should check around your town to see if there is a pumpkin patch, a corn maze, a wagon ride or a haunted house that you and your child can attend for fun. It will give you all something festive to do without overindulging on too much sugar or making a haunted mess of your house.

Check the Bounty: If your children do go out to collect candy from strangers, make sure you inspect the goods when they get home. Throw away candies that are open or questionable. It’s probably also good not to let your child eat as much candy as he can stomach in one sitting. Teach them self control and responsibility by allowing them to pick out several pieces of candy a day. You can spread the candy out by sending some in his lunch pail and by eating a little yourself, of course!

Good Rules of Zombie-thumb: It’s always important to lay out a few good rules of thumb – or in this case, zombie-thumb – before letting loose. In the case of Halloween, make sure the neighborhoods you’re visiting are safe and well lit. If a house is dark, don’t go up to it, and make sure you select a time and place to meet if you aren’t walking around with your child. Your kids should carry a cell phone and walk with a group. Remind them not to get in anybody’s car or go in anybody’s house.

Whatever you choose to do, make sure you stay safe and have fun.

Happy Halloween!

Sincerely,

Daddy Nickell

Robert Nickell, aka Daddy Nickell, father of 7, offers his “5 cents” worth of advice to expectant and new parents. Daddy Nickell is the CEO and founder of Daddyscrubs, the “Perfect” Gift for Any Dad, and a contributor along with his daughter for the Daddyscrubs Blog where they cover topics about parenting, pregnancy, babies, and toddlers. As well as new and unique gifts, celebrities, and interviews.

Tandem nursing twins -- You can do it!!!

from Kalle Gelman, The Pump Station & Nurtury™ Mommy of Twins

I really hoped I could nurse my twins after they were born, and so in preparation, I took Kelli’s class at The Pump Station. She was able to breastfeed her twins and gave me the confidence that it was possible...even though it seemed like that would be on par with winning a gold medal at the Olympics.

Then, my twins were born almost 6 weeks early and I had severe complications including massive hemorrhaging (all of which should have lessened my milk production). My babies were in the NICU for 2 weeks and were bottle fed every drop I pumped from day one. And I pumped around the clock, determined to get them the milk they needed! While I tried to nurse them in the NICU, they were so small and so tired that I was resigned it wouldn't work to breastfeed them. I thought I would just have to pump and bottle feed.

At the urging of a night nurse who was helping us once the twins came home from the hospital, I tried to breastfeed my son (who weighed more and had a bigger appetite). To my surprise he latched on right away and ate almost a full meal! But I had a lot of difficulty with my daughter because she was so small - still just 4 pounds. That’s when I called The Pump Station and scheduled a home consultation with Barbara. When she arrived, it was as if a fairy breastfeeding godmother had come into my home. I still remember her saying, "in no time you'll have them both on a breast at the same time and it will be like, latch one...latch the other...no problem"!  While it sounded as easy as seeing a unicorn, it actually happened a few weeks later. I was so happy I cried! I stuck with it and called Barbara frequently with many questions and for advice. She was so supportive and helpful, and I know I never would have gotten here without her.

I really feel like if I can do it, anyone can! Thank you a million times over, Pump Station.

My experience being able to breastfeed them is one of the best things I've done in my life. I look forward to our nursing times because I feel so connected to them and it makes me so happy that I'm able to nourish them both. 

All the best,

Kalle

The Pump Station Marketing Photos Project

From jennyQ Photgraphy - "The Pump Station Marketing Photos Project" POSTED BY JENNYQ9 ON OCT 15, 2013

A few weeks ago, I was asked to help with The Pump Station’s marketing photos…. I immediate said YES!  The Pump Station is such wonderful resource for my daughter and I (and even for my husband!) that I knew I had to be involved with this project!  They are all about babies, children and families… and so am I!

We took photographs at two different locations…. A park in Santa Monica and a beach in Malibu.  It was so much fun photographing such beautiful families and their precious babies!

Thank you to all the families that participated for giving up a part of your weekend for us!  Here are a few photos from the photos shoots!

 

 

 

 

 

See more of Jenny's beautiful work at JennyQPhotography.com!
For bookings please email Jenny@jennyqphotography.com

If You Are Pregnant and Planning to Breastfeed, Researchers Would Like to Study Your Breast Milk

We need pregnant women who are planning to breastfeed ANYWHERE in the United States who have NOT been diagnosed with breast cancer to provide breast milk samples for a research study exploring the relationship between pregnancy, breastfeeding, and breast cancer risk.

Studies have shown giving birth before age 26 reduces a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer. Studies also have found that giving birth after age 35 increases breast cancer risk. By studying women of different ages who have given birth, a research team at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler hopes to be able to identify biomarkers—biological markers that can indicate whether or not you have a disease or are likely to develop one—in breast milk that are associated with breast cancer risk. 

Please read on to learn more about what’s involved and who can participate. If this study isn’t right for you, please pass it on to a woman who you know who is pregnant and planning to breastfeed! Please help the Army of Women and the research team find the women they need.

WHAT’S THE STUDY ABOUT?
The purpose of the study is to analyze biomarkers found in breast milk from women who are breastfeeding. The research team wants to learn more about biomarkers that may be linked to breast cancer risk and the effect that breastfeeding has on these biomarkers.

The researchers need 200 women to participate in this study.

WHAT’S INVOLVED?
If you sign up for the study “Breast Cancer Risk Assessment in Nursing Mothers,” the research team will contact you to confirm that you are eligible. If you decide to participate in the study, you will be asked to do the following: 

o Sign and initial the consent form.

o Fill out a health history questionnaire and a study diary to reflect medications you take throughout the study.

o Provide breast milk samples three times during the study:
   • Shortly after you begin to breastfeed (within 10 days of full milk coming)
   • 2 months later
   • And when weaning your child from breast milk (defined as pumping/feeding a maximum of 2 times per day). 

The research team will mail the breast milk collection kits to you. The kits will include instructions on how to collect and mail your breast milk to the investigators. You will mail the samples to the research team at no cost to you.

WHO IS CONDUCTING THE STUDY?
Edward Sauter, MD, PhD, M.H.A, University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler (UTHSCT)

WHERE?
Anywhere in the United States; all necessary participation is handled through FedEx.

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?
You can join the Breast Cancer Risk Assessment in Nursing Mothers study if you match ALL of these MAIN categories:

o You are a pregnant woman who is planning to breastfeed

o You are willing to provide breast milk samples three times (if possible, one sample from each breast): 
   •Within 10 days of starting to nurse
   •2 months later
   •When you are weaning your child from the breast 

o You are NOT under active treatment for cancer 

o You do not have an active infection of the breast


After you RSVP, the research team will ask you additional questions to be sure that this study is a right fit for you.

Remember how much your parents’ mental and emotional states affected you when you were a child yourself?

By Jennifer Waldburger, LCSW, Co-Founder of Sleepy Planet and Co-Author of Calm Mama, Happy Baby

Your baby is learning how to think, feel, and behave, and you are one of her most important teachers. Her survival instincts cause her to want to be like you, so she is paying close attention. Even when it seems like she’s just being a baby—grabbing at your hair while nursing, laughing in delight as you tickle and squeeze her—your little bright light is actually studying you quite intensely, taking note of your tone of voice, your facial expressions, the way your touch feels, and all kinds of other sensory cues, in addition to how it generally feels to be around you. As mama—the one who carried her for (give or take) forty weeks and the person she’s likely spending most of her time with—you are an indisputable star in the riveting reality show she calls life.

As you may already know, your influence on your baby’s experience started early. Science and the fields of fetal psychology and epigenetics, which studies genetic expression, can now show us that your baby began tuning into you when she was still in the womb. During your pregnancy, while the umbilical cord passed along nutrients from your body to your growing baby, she also picked up on your mood, your emotions, even your conversations—and your stress. When the baby was born, she went right on tuning into mommy, using her five senses to imprint on your scent, your voice, the taste of your milk, and the feeling of your arms around her. But her attunement didn’t stop there. Just as she did in utero, she’s continued to pick up on your mood and emotions, too, and new research indicates just how powerfully contagious these can be. Emerging science on mirror neurons, for example, suggests that when your baby watches you having an experience, she can feel what you’re feeling. Other research has documented the powerful influence of a baby’s early social interactions on both her current and future behavior.

So even though the physical umbilical cord was cut at birth, it’s as though there’s an invisible umbilical that continues to connect the two of you at all times. Remember how much your parents’ mental and emotional states affected you when you were a child yourself? Maybe you had a mother who was depressed much of the time or who always worried that something bad was going to happen; maybe your father had an explosive temper or always seemed stressed-out about money. Whatever the case, by now you’ve probably realized, at least to some extent, which of your parents’ habits of thinking, feeling, and behaving rubbed off on you and eventually became your own. Just as happened in your household growing up, now that you are the parent, your particular patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving are influencing your child, too, as chronic, similar experiences of interacting with you light up the same neural pathways in her brain over and over. This is how the brain becomes “wired,” or programmed, in a particular way, and how we develop tendencies toward positive or negative thoughts and feelings. Children are pretty well programmed by age five; the rest of their life experience—their degree of self-esteem and empathy, the quality of their relationships, their ability to accomplish goals and manage the stress of life’s ups and downs—will be determined largely by what happens during this range. This is why what you offer as a parent matters so much in these early years.

Come chat with Jennifer and Dereck O'Neil at their official Book Launch of Calm Mama, Happy Baby presented by our dear friends at Bump Club and Beyond Los Angeles at The Garage in Culver City this Tuesday, October 8th! Enjoy some drinks, mock-tails and appetizers! 

Get your tickets here https://bcbcalmmamabooklaunchparty.eventbrite.com/%20target=

Family Photo Special from Carrie Holmquist Photography

Check out some of the photos Carrie shot from our 

Mom's Night Out Event Celebrating Rachel Epp Buller's new book "Have Milk, Will Travel: Adventures in Breastfeeding" in Westlake Village!