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Today we have a special guest post that I think you will enjoy…

Preparing for a new baby certainly does take a village. When I found out I was pregnant, my parents, my husband, his family and our friends rallied around me for what was a relatively easy nine months — no complications, no morning sickness and a quick delivery, although she was breach and I had to have C-section. Lily came into the world on August 4, 2005, and was a healthy, beautiful baby. We were thrilled! Our “village” surrounded us with help, but little did we, or our little village of support, be prepared for what happened next. ??With a new baby, I took a few weeks off of work, but decided to return to my hair salon, where I was a part owner, after a month. I’d run a salon that was part of a successful chain and managed over 20 employees, so when the company asked me to take over management of a new location, I decided to throw my work hat back into the ring. The workload would be less than my previous position, which suited me fine since I didn’t want to be away from Lily for long periods of time. ??About a month after going back to work, I started to feel run down. I was tired, couldn’t catch my breath and had absolutely no energy. I chalked these symptoms up to being a new mommy — until I started losing weight. Not the normal shedding of baby weight, but a good 5-7 pounds per week. So I went to the doctor, told him my symptoms and had a complete physical work-up.??He did blood work and I had a chest x-ray, which showed the cause — there was fluid buildup around my left lung. After more tests, scans and biopsies, the diagnosis came back. It was on November 21, 2005, just a few months after Lily popped out into our lives. ??I had malignant pleural mesothelioma — which is a cancer in the lining of the lung and is caused mainly by asbestos exposure. I’d been exposed to asbestos as a child, and now, 30 years later, I was diagnosed with mesothelioma. ??It was devastating and my first thoughts weren’t about me – they were about my Lily. At the initial diagnosis, I was told I’d have less than 15 months to live if I ignored it. That hit home, and after looking at my husband and child and thinking of them alone, without me, I decided I’d do whatever was necessary to stay on this earth with my family. ??Prognosis with mesothelioma is grim, so we did the most drastic thing we were offered — which was flying to Boston to undergo a treatment called extrapleural pneumenectomy. This surgery entails the removal of my left lung, all the tissue around it, lymph nodes, diaphragm on the left side, the lining of my heart and even one of my ribs. Then my diaphragm and heart lining were swapped with surgical Gore-Tex. ??During the surgery, they used a heated chemo wash to get rid of any other cancer. The next 18 days were spent recovering in the Boston hospital, two more months of recovery before beginning chemotherapy, and eventually radiation treatment… all on top of being a first-time mom. ??This is where our village comes in — we could not have done this without them. If there’s anything funny about cancer (there isn’t) it shows you who your true friends are. ??Lily stayed with my parents while we were in Boston, where they had their own village to help them be not only grandparents, but essentially parents. They rallied around my baby girl, and Lily learned to eat real food, crawl around and experience life in my South Dakota childhood home. I was sent email updates and pictures of her every move and I was thankful this village was watching over my Lily if I could not.??That period of time shaped who I am and who we are as a family. Although I am OK, I could not return to work, as it was too much with only one lung. Being a stay-at-home mom was the best option for me, and we live life to the fullest. We boat, camp and never take life too seriously, as we learned firsthand how fragile it can be. ??The moral of my story is this — embrace what life throws at you and with the bad, can also come a lot of good — your village will show you that.

Heather Von St. James is a guest blogger for the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance

photo credit: AForestFrolic

This weekend was beautiful!!   It felt like summer!!  It was one of those weekends I would like to bottle up and save.   It was so great to be able to be down by the beach and pool again!  I was scrambling for the summer clothes as I hadn’t really changed the kids clothes for the summer season.

The warmer weather made me realize it was time to get ready for summer weather and clothes.   Summer is fast approaching so I decided it was time to go through the kids closets.  It’s that time of year, again.  It seems to happen so fast!  I know before I know it, it will be time for back to school shopping for kids clothes!!    As I go through the  clothes it amazes me how much they have grown in a year!!  Some of the clothes that were big last year are small now!!   How fast it happens.   It’s going to be time for clothes shopping again!

I like to have my kids go through their clothes with me, so that the clothes that don’t fit them anymore we can donate.  It’s a good lesson for them to take part in donating their clothes to charity.  So as we look at clothes we decide, should we give this to someone who can use it?  My daughter really likes knowing her clothes will go to a child who can use them.

After going through all the clothes, which takes hours, I feel like I really accomplished something!!  I always feel like things are more organized and they only have the things they need.

Do you have any spring cleaning traditions?  Do you enjoy your spring cleaning?  How about your kids?

photo credit: drewzuckerman

Buying a stroller/pushchair for your baby is probably one of the biggest purchases you will have to make. So before buying a new pushchair it is important to bear certain things in mind before buying one.

The most important thing to do is think about the needs of your baby and your lifestyle. If you are buying a baby pushchair it is important to note that your baby will need to lie flat. So any pushchair will need a fully reclining unit.

Also, it is important to note that newborns often like to look at their parents, while older children like to see what is going on. So if you are buying a pushchair for a newborn, you need to have the option to swap the direction the seat faces. Comfort is also key, so look out for features such as padding and waterproofing so that your little one stays happy.

While the needs of a newborn baby are very different from that of an older toddler there are pushchairs available on the market that will cover all aspects of their development and growth.

While it is very important that your pushchair/stroller fits your baby’s needs it also needs to fit your lifestyle as well. So when you are buying a pushchair you need to look carefully at how you will use the pushchair. So, if you use the car more than you walk you need to make sure your pushchair is foldable and lightweight so that it will go in and out of the car easily. However, if you plan to do a lot of shopping with your pushchair you will need to make sure there is room to put your purchases on the pushchair. If you are using public transport you have to be able to get the pushchair on and off the bus or train, so it will need to be lightweight and foldable so you can get on and off the transport easily.

Also make sure that you can push and manoeuvre the pushchair easily; this is especially important if you are going to push it on rugged terrain.

Think about the space you have in your home as well so that the pushchair will fit in the space you have available and it may sound obvious but check the size of your car trunk so that you know it can fit in.

We have so many arts and crafts supplies at our house that I am always on a quest for how to keep them organized.  I have found a great way to keep all of my painting supplies organized and make it easy to take them out and put them away.  I thought I would share it here so that it might help you organized your supplies.  My goal is always to make it easy to get out and put away the supplies, and I want them to be easy to get to.  I also need to sometimes put them in the closet so it needs to be easy to move.  I found these great big tupperware boxes that have snap on lids.  I bought 3 of them and put all the paint in one box, and the plastic tablecloth we use as our drop cloth in another along with painting supplies.  The third box, gets all the extra supplies.  This makes it really easy to take in and out and I don’t get everything dirty in the process.

How do you organize your craft supplies?

photo credit: DaveBleasdale

Baby sign language is a way to start communicating with a baby that is too young to talk. Using hand gestures you can exchange simple messages which is not only great fun, but will also help reduce tantrum time, and has been show to have great developmental benefits.  A baby can start signing at six months, and have a small repertoire of signs at the age of one year old – about a year before they get a similar speaking repertoire. Best of all, you don’t need anything to get started – just a baby and a spare hand! To teach a baby to sign, we use a four part process we call FREE (Fun, Repetition, Encouragement, Expansion).

Fun – baby sign language should be a fun thing you do together.  Like all learning if it is fun, baby will learn a lot more, and will want to do more. Make it a game, and sign with baby only when she is interested.

Repetition – start by learning a few simple signs that you get lots of opportunities to use, such as mom, dad, milk, eat, or dog.   (The signs are easy to learn, take a quick video tutorial on the baby sign language dictionary Now make these signs at appropriate times as you and baby go about your daily routine, saying the word each time you do the sign. For example you might say, “look, it’s dad.” Or, “Time for milk.” Younger kids learn a bit slower than older babies.  Eight months is a good time to start, babies who start at that age begin signing back in around two months.

Encouragement – watch baby carefully for any hint she is signing back. At first the sides will be very simplified, so you have to be on the lookout. But, when you see any sign acknowledge baby by saying the word and making the sign back. “Yes, that is your dad.” Make a big fuss and give baby lots of attention – this will make baby want to do more baby sign language. Don’t worry that the signs aren’t perfect, baby is going to improve a lot in the coming months.

Expansion – once baby starts to get her first few words down, add a few more words. Keep adding words gradually and watch her vocabulary grow until you get to that bittersweet time when baby starts transitioning to words and starts dropping the signs. Sigh! And there you have it! You are on the way to become baby sign language buddies. To get more information including free video tutorials, craft your own baby sign language flash cards, or learn more baby signs check us out the Baby Sign Language website.

Thank you to Misty for writing this guest post.    Misty is a mom of a 2 year old boy who has been her baby sign language guinea pig.  It has been a great bonding  language between the two of them. She enjoys writing on her off time and relaxing with a good book.  Misty is the Editor of the Baby Sign Language website.