Healthy Pregnancy - Healthy Baby

Pregnancy is the most natural stage of life for most women and so as the desire for a healthy pregnancy. Yet the discovery that a baby is on the way is the most exciting moment in one’s life. The surest way to have a healthy baby is to have a healthy pregnancy by following a healthy lifestyle. A healthy way of life adopted by would be parents before conception, lessens the risks to the baby during early weeks of development, when a woman might be still unaware of her pregnancy. Preparing For A Healthy Baby Both partners should be nutrition conscious before planning for a baby. This will lead to you in good health from day one and give the baby a healthier start to life. Even though most women of childbearing age are healthy and most pregnancies are considered low risk, then also a few precautions mentioned below are desirable to have a healthy pregnancy:

Get good medical care before you get pregnant · Eat well-balanced and nutritive diet · Exercise regularly under a doctor’s supervision · Avoid alcohol, caffeine, drugs and nicotine · Avoid medications, x-rays, hot tub baths and saunas · Avoid infections.

Good Medical Care The best way to have a healthy pregnancy is to have your health in order before conceiving. A health care provider will guide you towards healthy diet, healthy habits, check your immunity to rubella or measles, mumps, control general illnesses before conceiving, and help you keep your weight within a desired range. Once you are pregnant, your doctor will schedule your regular visits to perform series of examinations to monitor mother and baby’s health constantly.

Well-Balanced Diet Plan An average pregnant woman gains 25 to 35 pounds in nine months. A healthy and fit pregnancy requires about 300 extra calories daily to maintain the baby and mother. The balanced diet during this period should consist of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, protein, some amount of fat and extra vitamins and minerals. Supplements of iron and folic acid reduce the risk of birth defects. Have 8-10 glasses of water, avoid caffeine, aerated and sweetened drinks to maintain a healthy pregnancy.

Avoid Infections Many infections caught from all possible sources like raw food, kitty litter, atmosphere, workplace or sick people should be avoided as they can cause serious harm to the fetus.

Medications Do not take medication of any kind like antibiotics or steroids, without consulting your doctor, as they can be devastating for the unborn baby. Maintain a healthy pregnancy by refraining from even the minor medication, habitual drugs, alcohol and nicotine.

Exercise Stay in shape by resorting to simple exercise plan under the doctor’s supervision to maintain proper pregnancy health, stamina, labor and quicker regaining of pre-pregnancy shape. Wear comfortable bra and clothes, avoid strenuous exercises, pain or discomfort, modify exercise plan to suit your growing size and general health.

Adopting routines of relaxation, breathing, diet will result in healthy pregnancy, and easy labor and birth of a healthy baby.

By Apurva Shree
Source: http://www.articlesbase.com

How to Buy Baby Clothing for First Time Moms

Where do you start?

Buying baby clothing can be tricky business, especially for first time mums, there are so many baby dresses and outfits to choose from! I know I had a difficult time and made some blunders with my purchases along the way. Take advice from the guide below there are plenty of tips from mums on 'how to buy baby clothing' successfully.

1) What kind of baby clothing will I need?

Buying baby clothing can be a boggling experience, as your bump grows you will probably start to panic - 'I don't have any baby clothes!' You will probably do what I did and start wandering around all the stores that sell baby clothes, baby furniture, baby gifts and so on. The choice is endless, this is where the danger lies in buying too many clothes for baby.

Too many baby clothes means your baby will only wear them once or twice (or sometimes not at all), babies grow very quickly and the next size up in that special outfit is needed before you know it! Leaving you with the cutest outfits ever, but no VALUE FOR MONEY.

The ideal way to buy baby clothing is to make sure you have enough outfits to get you through the week in a couple of different sizes, but not so many that you have overflowing drawers of baby outfits that haven't even been unwrapped before your baby gets too big to wear them; or duplicate clothing that you didn't really need.

Well, to be fair, duplicate baby clothing isn't that big of any issue really, especially in the early days when baby clothes can only be worn once and usually for a couple of hours and all clothing needs to be continually washed and washed! In the early days make sure you have numerous baby dresses, bodysuits, comfortable playgro suits, and sleeping suits, basic tees, comfortable cotton pants, warm cardigans and coats or sunhats, depending on the season.

Before you buy new baby clothes check what time of the year your baby will be born, it could be around sale time, which is the best time to buy bulk lots of newborn baby clothing that you are going to need.
Once all of the confusion has settled you will have an exciting time buying your first newborn baby clothes, it is much more fun than buying clothes for yourself (honestly) - and then in time you will be having more fun when your baby grows out of that first lot of clothes, you will find yourself a more experienced shopper in the baby clothing department.

Sizes of Baby Clothing :

Sizes of baby clothing vary from manufacturer to manufacturer so we haven't listed a definitive sizing guide here. Newborn sizes generally start from 0000 but this is actually quite a small size and unless you have a smaller than average baby, you might only get a month or two from this size. The best advice is to pre-buy in size 000 and then buy extra supplies in the 0000 size if you need to after the birth. Check labels for weight and height guidelines before you buy (average birth weight is 3.5kg). baby clothing tips

What to look for when Buying Baby Clothes:

• fastenings to enable you to remove and change a nappy without completely undressing baby
  
• snaps / press-studs are easy, safer and quicker than buttons
  
• no rough seams or uncomfortable material - natural, cotton, etc, is best
  
• machine washable
  
• check that buttons are sewn on well (baby could choke on little buttons)
  
• no loose threads that little fingers or toes could get caught in
  
• avoid ribbons and strings that babies can wrap around their necks
  

Hopefully this comprehensive guide to baby your babies first clothes has been helpful to you! Remember, don’t rush in a buy too many clothes before your baby is born, you can always buy more of the garments you need after the arrival of your newborn.

By Vicki Rossington
Source : http://www.articlesbase.com

First 9 Months Sleep Advice

The most dreadful thing about having a new baby is the lack of sleep resulting from the night feeds. But by six months most babies do not need a night time feed if they have fed well during the day and are not ill.

When your baby is a newborn, after spending 9 months in a nice snug place, sometimes the adjustment to the outside world can cause more night waking than just hunger. It is important to remember newborn babies cannot differentiate night or day, so it will take time for them to fall into a pattern. However, it is perfectly possible to have them sleeping through the night by six months.

Making sure your baby is ready to sleep is most important. With newborns, they will mostly drift off to sleep when they are ready but from around 3 months this can change and they may need you to notice the signs of tiredness and help them to settle.

Ready to Sleep Checklist

• Is your baby well fed, clean and dry?
• Is your baby not feeling well? It can either make babies sleep more or make them find it hard to sleep.
• Watch out for the cue? Some babies yawn, rub their eyes or pull their ears when they are tired, watch for signs.
• Is your baby too tired? If your baby is overtired, it is very hard for the baby to settle down due to too much stimulation and lack of sleep. A nice dim lighted room, soothing music and a massage can help your baby to drift off to sleep. Try to catch your baby before he/she becomes overtired will also help.

If your baby is most of these he or she will most likely be ready for a sleep.

• Try to balance the amount of nap time your baby takes during the day so that its easier for him/her to fall asleep at night. If your baby is waking up a lot at night and you do not think its due to hunger, he/she may be sleeping too much in the day or the last nap time is too close to the night sleeping time. Make necessary adjustment.
• Does your baby sleeping place help encourage a more settled sleep. Is the room warm but not too warm? Is the room very lighted? Is the room noisy?
• Help your baby differentiate day and night. When baby take naps in the day, it is not necessary to close all certain or off the sound of the tv. At night, have a bedtime routine, dim the room and keep sounding sound soft. This will help the baby understand the different between a nap and night time sleeping.
• Swaddling your baby or putting the baby in s baby sleeping bag sometimes help. The baby will feel more secure but not all babies like it. Some may refuse to be swaddled.
• Having a bedtime routine can help as well. Giving your baby a nice lukewarm bath, a baby massage with some oil followed by a breastfeed or a warm bottle of milk in a dim lit room, perhaps even with some low music playing will help your baby realize that its sleeping time now.
• Avoid rocking, petting or feeding the baby to sleep। Your baby can begin to rely on whichever as the only way he/she can settle to sleep, so whenever your baby wakes up, he/she would need you to provide whichever aid they are used to sleeping with। Place your baby in bed before they fall asleep and let them begins to learn how to settle off to sleep by themselves.

By Glynnis Yan

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com

How to Economize on Baby Clothes

The sheer excitement of having a baby

Prompts everyone to spend lavishly on baby clothes for the new arrival but the fun is short lived as even the costliest of clothes become small for the fast-growing baby in a few months’ time. The baby might have worn these expensive clothes only a few times before it outgrows them and then it’s time for shopping for baby clothes again. Most people cannot afford to spend repeatedly every few months for buying baby clothes. It’s important that you plan out this aspect of buying baby clothes so that you do not waste money and your baby gets the best of clothes. A few useful tips are given below:

Avoid Buying Tight-Fitting Clothes

Since you know that babies grow very fast, you should not buy perfect fitting baby clothes as these will become unsuitable for the baby in a very short time. The best thing to do is to buy larger sized baby clothes as you will be able to use them for a longer period of time.

Buy Easy To Wear Baby Clothes

You can make your life easier if you buy baby clothes that are easy to wear. You won’t have to struggle when you try to put the clothes on your baby and there will be less wear and tear also. Moreover, you should avoid shopping for baby clothes that are in several pieces and need to be buttoned from behind or pulled over the head. You should opt for baby clothes that are made in a single piece and are open from the front and have snap buttons or zippers. This will make life much easier for mothers who might just have recovered from pregnancy

complications.

Look Out For Clearance Racks And Genuine Sales

A great way of saving money when you are buying baby clothes is to look out for clearance racks where you can get some great deals with cheap maternity clothes. Sometimes, you can get a huge discount on the prices of baby clothes merely because of a very minor manufacturing problem that just doesn’t matter at all. Moreover, you should wait for the mega sales that are a regular feature at most stores and this is where you can pick up some fantastic deals.

Disposing Off Old Clothes For Cash

Sometimes it is possible to exchange the old clothes of your baby for cash but the amount of money that you will receive will be miniscule. However, something is always better than nothing.

Accepting Old Clothes from Others

There is no harm in accepting old clothes from friends and relatives. Mostly these clothes are in good shape, having been used very scarcely since the child might not have gotten the opportunity to wear them. There is no shame involved in accepting well-meant presents from others and you can save a lot of money in the bargain. As it is, even your baby might outgrow these clothes very soon.

There is no doubt that everyone wants that his/her baby to appear smart in the latest baby clothes and it is essential that you should also work towards that objective. However, it must be remembered that baby clothes need not be expensive in order to look smart and attractive. It’s the way you maintain your baby and her clothes that really matters.



By Glynnis Yan

Souurch : http://www.articlesbase.com