Baby's First Birthday

Baby Forum Abbreviations

rebecca — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 13:00:12 +0000

If you like to read baby forum threads, but aren’t a regular poster, then some of the abbreviations you come across can be a bit baffling! What is BD? Who are people referring to when they say DH?

We’ve put together a list of popular baby forum abbreviations here for you:

Abbreviations beginning with A

AF = Aunt Flo (period)

Abbreviations beginning with B

BD = Baby Dancing (having sex/trying for a baby)
BF = Breast Feeding
BFN = Big Fat Negative (pregnancy test)
BFP = Big Fat Postive (pregnancy test)
BOB = Baby on Board

Abbreviations beginning with C

CD = Cycle Day
CM = Cervical Mucus
CP = Cervical Position

Abbreviations beginning with D

DBF = Darling Boyfriend
DGF = Darling Girlfriend
DD = Darling Daughter
DH = Darling Husband
DPO = Days Past Ovulation
DP = Darling Partner
DS = Darling Son
DW = Darling Wife

Abbreviations beginning with E

EWCM = Egg White Cervical Mucus

Abbreviations beginning with F

FIL = Father in Law
FYI – For Your Information

Abbreviations beginning with G

We don’t have any baby forum abbreviations beginning with G. If you have any you want us to include, then drop us a line.

Abbreviations beginning with H

HPT = Home Pregnancy Test

Abbreviations beginning with I

IMO = In My Opinion
IMHO – In My Humble Opinion
IFKWIM = If You Know What I Mean

Abbreviations beginning with J

JK = Just Kidding

Abbreviations beginning with L

LOL = Laugh Out Loud

Abbreviations beginning with M

MIL = Mother In Law

Abbreviations beginning with N

NP No Problem

Abbreviations beginning with O

OH = Other Half
OP = Opening Post (used when referring back to how a longwinded conversation has started)
OPK = Ovulation Prediction Kit
OV = Ovulation

Abbreviations beginning with P

PG = Pregnant

Abbreviations beginning with Q

We don’t have any baby forum abbreviations beginning with Q – if you have any that you’d like us to include, then please drop us a line.

Abbreviations beginning with R

ROFL = Rolling on floor laughing

Abbreviations beginning with S

SAH = Stay At Home
SI = Sarcasm Intended
SIL = Sister In Law
STD = Sexually Transmitted Diseases
STU = Same To You
SQL = Squeals with laughter
SYS = See you soon

Abbreviations beginning with T

TTC = Trying to conceive
TOC = Thinking of conceiving

Abbreviations beginning with U or V

We don’t have any baby forum abbreviations beginning with U or V , if you have any that you’d like us to include, then please let us know.

Abbreviations beginning with W

WAH = Work at Home

Abbreviations beginning with X, Y or Z

We don’t have any baby forum abbreviations beginning with X, Y or Z, if you have any that you’d like us to include, then please let us know.

Avent Steamer Blender Review

rebecca — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:53:19 +0000

If you’re considering weaning your baby onto solid food before they reach their first birthday, current guidelines recommend that you wait until your child is at least 6 months old, although some people start weaning from as early as 4 months. It is advised NOT to wean your child before 17 weeks as your baby’s digestive system, in particular the kidneys is not mature enough to process solid until this stage. Always check with your health visitor before deciding to wean your baby early. He/She will be able to help you recognise the signs of whether or not your baby is ready to be introduced to some types of solid.

There are some good commercial brands out there, such as Ella’s Kitchen, who make fantastic, natural and organic baby foods. But if you would like to make your own food, then you might want to consider buying a steamer/blender such as the fantastic one listed above by Philips Avent.

In a nutshell, you chop up small pieces of fruit, vegetables, fish or meat, add water, steam it, then turn it upside down so that the blade section becomes active and blitz it into as smooth a paste as you like. It’s easy to use and very easy to clean as it doesn’t involve a lot of different parts. The combined steamer/blender comes with a handy weaning guide for baby’s first tastes.

We’d definitely recommend buying this to make your home cooking for baby an easy and stress-free experience. You might be interested in buying it in conjunction with some food cube trays such as those from Annabel Karmel – they allow you to batch steam and blend various different meals for your baby and then you can freeze them in the perfect sized cube trays until needed. Time is of the essence when you’re a new mum after all.

How to stop rocking your baby to sleep

rebecca — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:28:41 +0000

In the early days of parenthood, you’ll try anything to get your baby to go to sleep and many of us discover that walking around rocking our babies works wonders. The only problem with this miracle sleeping method is that your baby won’t always be 8 pounds, pretty soon they’ll be a stone and then before you know it, you’ll have reached your baby’s first birthday party and still be rocking a 22 pound child to sleep. Obviously this poses potential problems for your back and is certainly something you’ll want to avoid if you fall pregnant again, as lifting and pregnancy do not go well together.
So what to do?
Well, you could try following a self-soothing method such as the Ferber method (known as ferberizing), but if you consider this method to be a little harsh (we’re not judging though), then you might prefer to try this gradual reducing method. It’s worth bearing in mind that every baby is different, so some of your babies might take to this really easily whilst others will let you know that they’re not happy with this new method. The key is perseverance.

1. At first, pick up your baby and start to rock him or her to sleep as you usually would. But as your baby is starting to look drowsy (heavy eyes, a couple of yawns or stares) then place him or her in the cot and pull up a chair next to it. The chances are that your baby will not be particularly pleased by this change in routine. Your babies will wonder why they’re not being allowed to go to sleep like they normally do.
2. Next in your chair, develop a new bedtime routine to replace the previous rocking method. Make sure you do the same thing every time so baby knows that it’s time for nap. We suggest you sing a lullaby, or if you don’t have a very pleasant voice, then you could put on the same lullaby from a CD such as Baby Mozart’s lullabies. The Winnie the Pooh lightshow is also a popular choice as it has a night-time sleep setting which babies loves to stare at.
3. If your baby is still complaining, then hold their hand or place your hand lightly on their chest. This gives them the reassurance that you’re still there with them as they’re drifting off. It’s easier than you think to extract your hand once baby is fully on the way to La-la-land.
4. Finally if your baby is really noisy, then try a medium-loud sssshushing sound over the top of their cries, which often helps make the baby drift off. As their cries reduce, reduce the volume of sssshushing until you have completely stopped.
5. Once your baby is asleep, quietly leave the room.
6. As the days go by, repeat this method in the exact same way everytime, but gradually reduce the amount of rocking you need to do before you get to the cot stage. Once you’re taking your baby straight to the cot, work on reducing the amount of time it takes before you leave the room. If your baby is not actually crying and is simply grumbling, try testing out leaving the room a little earlier and letting your baby soothe himself to sleep.

Of course there will be times when the method doesn’t work, for instance if your baby hasn’t had enough food to eat and is crying to let you know that she will not be going to sleep until she is fully satisfied.
The key to this method is to keep it as similar as possible for each sleep time and just to keep persisting. Even small improvements will work towards stopping the rocking completely.

Too Much Too Soon? Early Learning and the Erosion of Childhood

rebecca — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:03:16 +0000

Too Much Too Soon? Early Learning and the Early Erosion of Childhood

In our recent article, Baby Classes and Groups, we talked about signing your baby up to music or sensory classes, or even attending a mother and baby yoga or pilates class.

But having read the recent discussions about new book Too Much Too Soon? Early Learning and the Erosion of Childhood, by Richard House, we’ve now heard the argument against going to baby classes, or at least going to too many of them.

It seems that babies are now deemed ‘mini adults’ by the authors of this book, who find the busy schedules of yoga, singing, signing, swimming and even salsa to be damaging to the development of a child, which is quite the opposite to the intentions of the well-meaning parent.

The authors of the book, who include infant massage instructor Sylvie Hetu, say ‘Babies now have ‘schedules’ that are as important as those of adults. It is quite common that babies have a class every day’. She goes on to argue that this overstimulation is not at all what babies need and they’re missing out on quality time spent at home with the ‘calm presence of their parents’ and ‘day-to-day house sounds’.

She finds it a real shame that we are reportedly the first generation of parents who do not routinely sing to our babies, either because we’ve been told that we don’t have a good voice, or because it’s just not something we do. Lullabies are popular in every culture in the world and yet babies today are missing out on this crucial parent-child bonding and the influence of song on their development because their parents are too busy trekking around from one class to the next.

Having read what she has to say, we can certainly see her point, but it’s so difficult as a parent to know which ‘experts’ to believe when there are so many touting wildly different opinions. We suppose the phrase ‘everything in moderation’ can be used here. It surely can’t be damaging to take your baby along to the odd class or two a week, so long as you don’t overdo it and so long as you are genuinely doing it for the right reasons (i.e for your child) and not because you’re trying to cram in as many social activites as possible before you have to go back to work, if that’s what you’re planning to do. When you are at home, remember to treat your mum and baby time (or dad and baby, for any fathers that are reading) as quality time with plenty of song-singing, book reading and gentle play.

For those of you who are interested in reading the full book – check out ‘Too Much Too Soon? Early Learning and the Erosion of Childhood’.

New Year’s Resolutions for Mums in 2012

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:29:21 +0000

Happy New Year from Baby’s First Birthday.

We’ve decided to compile a list of New Year’s Resolutions that some of you mums might be interested in adding to your own list.

1. Lose weight and get fit – pretty obvious after all that Christmassing, it’s amazing how those yule logs and glasses of wine pile on the pounds. But in all seriousness if you try and get in shape, you’ll find that you have more energy for dealing with those sleepless nights and teething issues. It’s also pretty important to get fit if you’re thinking about trying for another baby this year. Of course it’s not always easy to find the time to get in shape when you’re caring for a baby or toddler, so our favourite ways to trim down are a) count the calories, b) sign up for Weightwatchers online and c) do workout dvds in your living room.

2. Get out more. Ignore the bad weather. It’s been a pretty mild winter so far, but if it does become Arctic, then try not to let it stop you from getting out and about. You can go a bit stir crazy if you’re stuck at home all day caring for a baby who can’t yet chat to you. So wrap up warm (very important to wrap your baby up obviously) and still try and make it out to your mum’s clubs and activities.

3. Limit the amount of TV watching you do. It can be tempting to have the TV on in the background all day, but if you start to notice your baby staring intently at the TV with you, then it might be a good idea to turn it off and play with your baby. Sing songs, play with his or her toys and even try out a little baby massage. Of course we don’t believe that all TV is bad. You might want to consider popping on an educational and stimulating DVD such as Baby Mozart from the Baby Einstein range.

4. Save money. It can be tough living on a reduced salary whilst you’re on maternity leave or if you’ve given up work completely. But there are ways to save or even make money if you try hard enough. Consider if there’s any sort of freelance work that you could carry out over the Internet whilst your baby is napping. Even starting a blog can help you if you keep it regularly updated and add some basic Google ads to it. If you really knuckle down and get organised, you might be surprised that you have more time to do this than you think you do. In terms of saving money, babies are pricey little things, but check out Nearly New sales and always look for discount codes and offers when shopping online. Every little helps.

5. Start planning your baby’s first birthday party. If your little one is turning 1 this year, then it’s never too early to start thinking about a first birthday party. Think about how big you’d like it to be, who you’d like to invite and what kind of theme your baby might like. You can also figure out things like what food you’d like to serve and where you might like to host it. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with not wanting to throw a first birthday. You could save money and have a really special time just by keeping it simple and just have a really nice family day out.

Our favourite baby clips

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:48:51 +0000

As it’s the New Year and we’ve been watching a lot of ‘Best of’ clips over the holidays, we thought we’d share our favourite 5 baby clips with you from Youtube.

First up is Baby Emerson who is scared of his mum blowing her nose.

Secondly, we have the toddler who just loves dancing to Florence and the Machine

The breakdancing baby….

The baby who loves Beyonce…

And finally, we have the baby who finds ripping paper to be an absolute blast.

If you have any more suggestions of hilarious baby clips, then please feel free to add a comment to the bottom of this post and we’ll add it to our list. Happy New Year everyone !!!

Best Children’s Birthday Gift Sites

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:43:52 +0000

Baby’s First Birthday showcases the best gifts for a baby’s first birthday. We promote many different types of presents, such as personalised, silver gifts, nursery accessories, clothing, toys, party essentials and themed ranges.

Here are a selection of our top 5 favourite websites from which to purchase presents for a 1st birthday. Feel free to browse them, then comment at the bottom of this post.

Not On The High Street -this site sells beautifully designed goods from 1800 different designers. You can find really unique and top quality gift ideas on this site. One of our current favourites is the Pint and Half Pint parent and child clothing gift set.

My First Years – this relatively new site (born January 2010) perfectly bridges the gap between cheap low quality and wallet-busting designer gear, by offering affordable and well-made personalised baby gifts for girls and boys. Choose from baby clothes, baby blankets, teddy bears and christening gifts.

1st For Toys is a fantastic online toy and gift shop selling all the classic toys from Noddy and the Clangers to Fireman Sam and Peppa Pig. The colourful site is easy to navigate and allows you to search for toys based on age, price ranges and even by character. It’s perfect for the buyer who is a bit confused by kids and their latest crazes.

Born Gifted – sell a strong range of both traditional and unusual gifts for babies. What makes them a great site for us to promote, is that they have an entire section for First Birthday Gifts, which include all sorts of toys, keepsakes, photo albums and baby clothes. They also sell gifts for a second birthday for those of you who are also looking for presents for an older brother or sister.

Getting Personal – one of our favourite sites for baby gifts, this well known website offers all sorts of personalised gifts which are perfect for a baby’s first birthday. Choose from personalised baby clothes, cute hooded towels, personalised nursery hangings and accessories and even keepsake boxes. This site is easy to get around, you can search by recipient – For Babies, Baby Boys or Baby Girls, and they also have a budget filter allowing you to set a price limit if you’re just looking for something small or a stocking filler.

Pint and Half Pint Parent and Baby Sets

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:40:37 +0000

These parent and baby ‘Pint’ and ‘Half Pint’ clothing gift sets are absolutely perfect for any of the following occasions: Baby’s First Christmas, Baby’s 1st Birthday, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Mum’s Birthday or Dad’s Birthday.

As you can see from the photos above, the idea is that the parent wears the ‘Pint’ t-shirt, whilst the baby wears the gorgeous ‘half-pint’ t-shirt or babygrow. The sets are available in a variety of different colours, such as army green and toffee, pebble and purple, mint choc chip, grey and navy, citrus and grey.

The ‘half pint’ sizes go up to age 8, whilst adults have the usual selection of Small to Extra Large in both Mum and Dad sizes.

If you happen to have 2 half pints in your life, then never fear, as there is a trio set just for you.

These unique novelty gift clothing ideas come priced from £15 for a ‘half pint’ by itself, or up to £42 for the Pint and 2 half pints set.

For more information, please visit Not on the High Street Pint and Half Pint sets

Baby Classes and Groups

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:00:11 +0000

After giving birth, most mothers are completely exhausted and can barely manage to find time to grab a shower, let alone get out and socialise with other mothers and babies. But as the first few weeks subside, most women find that they not only have time, but they also have a need to see other people who are going through the same joyous and sleepless experience as themselves.

Have a look around your local area and see what mother and baby groups take place each week. You might find ‘one o’clock clubs’ or church groups in your area. If you took antenatal or NCT classes, then you might have already met a bunch of new mums in the area that you can arrange to meet on a weekly basis and compare notes with. You might decide to meet in neutral territory such as a local coffee shop, restaurant or even a family-friendly pub. Alternatively you might prefer to visit each others houses on a rotation basis.

Some of you might be interested in attending mother and baby classes with your little one.
For those of you interested in getting back into shape, then postnatal yoga and pilates are a fantastic idea. Some classes allow you to bring your baby along and you can attend to your baby mid-class as you need to. Other classes will actually have you holding baby as part of various stretching positions so that he or she can be very much part of the experience.

If you’re looking for a more baby-centric class, then there will usually be plenty of options available in your area. Popular classes that take place in locations all over the country include Monkey Music and Baby Sensory.
Monkey Music starts from 3 months to 12 months with a class called ‘Rock n Roll’. Your baby will then graduate to the ‘Heigh Ho’ class once he/she reaches their first birthday. At this stage your child will be up on it’s feet, responding to the music and enjoying colourful props to play with.
Baby Sensory allows babies to use and develop all the senses in their classes. Rhymes and music are played for auditory development. Massage, cuddling, rocking help to enhance the feelings of touch and the foundations of speech are built with sign language, song, puppets and music.

Swimming lessons may be an activity that you’d like to begin with your baby too. It’s usually a good idea to wait until at least 6 weeks after your babies birth before you start though. You’ll need special swimming nappies, a hooded baby towel and a warm bottle (if bottle-feeding) for immediately after the swimming as babies tend to get hungry after swimming. Ensure that the water temperature is no less than 32C. Enquire at your local swimming pool as to whether they have any mum and baby classes. Or you could try the following organisations who have classes up and down the country – Little Dippers, Swimbabes, Water Babies and Star Fish Swimming.

Now that you have an idea of activities that may take place in your area, don’t delay. Many classes offer a free/reduced rate trial, so check out a few with your baby. They’re a great opportunity for learning how to socialise with other babies and adults.

If you have an idea for a mother and baby activity, then please feel free to add it to our Comments section.

Fathers in Maternity Wards

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:31:33 +0000

In the news at the moment is the discussion on fathers rights during post-maternity care. Research has been conducted by the Royal College of Midwives and the Department of Health and has found that fathers can feel pushed out and isolated after their partner has given birth. Specifically the idea has been raised that fathers should be allowed to stay the night in hospital with their partner and newborn, rather than being turfed out when visiting hours come to an end.

90% of fathers choose to be present during the birth of their child, but many would like to stay with their newest addition for more than just a few hours (depending on the time of birth) before going home to a potentially empty house, wondering how their partner and baby are getting on without them.

Here we discuss the pros and cons of fathers being allowed to stay on maternity wards during the night:

Pros:

Fathers can feel ‘part’ of the newborn experience – it’s a lot easier to bond with the new baby you’ve been excited about seeing, when you’re in the same building as him or her.
Fathers can help mum out. Mums have just been through the most physically demanding job of their lives, they might well have been in labour for over a day and not been able to sleep for a couple of nights. To then expect these poor ladies to stay up all night changing nappies and rocking their baby back to sleep can seem like madness to some. If dads are there too, then at least Mum can have a rest
Fathers can help midwives out too. Rather than a mum pressing the call button because she’s dropped a muslin cloth on the floor and her stitches hurt too much to pick it up, she can just simply ask her partner to pick it up for her. Having dads on the ward, would really relieve the strain for simple jobs that midwives are involved in.
Spacewise, there is already usually a chair next to each bed. If there’s space for a chair, then there’s space to swap this for a reclining chair, or to put down a camp style bed on the floor.

Cons:

Labour is tiring for dads too. Ok, most women might feel quite violent at this admission, but honestly the chances are that the men have also been awake for 30-40 hours non-stop and also need a rest. It may seem unfair, but if one of you goes home and has a good night’s sleep away from a ward full of screaming babies, then he’ll be of much more use to the whole family tomorrow when he’s rested.
Other ladies on the ward may feel quite uncomfortable at having extra males present on the ward during the night. With only drawn curtains for privacy and all conversations being quite audible, it may be an unpleasant idea that several men can hear discussions with midwives about breast-feeding, stitches and the like.

In general though, we believe that it’s high time that fathers are given the opportunity to stay the night in hospital with mothers and their newborns if they wish to. After all, they’ve waited 9 months to get their hands on the little one, so don’t deny them the right to spend time with their new son or daughter. It makes no sense at all to split a family up on it’s first night together.

Please feel free to comment below if you have any opinions or experiences that you wish to share.