Family sleeping is on a roll

The Humanity Family Sleeper by Humanity Organics is a great tool to have in your co-sleeping arsenal. Our daughter sleeps in her crib for most of the night, but inevitably moves into our bed in the early morning. Usually she's in between my husband and myself, but if one of us gets out of the bed, we put the sleeper roll down on that side of the bed to safeguard and allow the other one to continue sleeping without worrying about her rolling off. When my husband goes out of town I sleep with the roll on his side and sometimes I put her between the myself and the roll on my side.
It has a large pad for mama and baby to sleep and breastfeed. Soft organic cotton to absorb leaks so no sleeping on wet sheets. Easy to use. No belts, straps or buckles. Pad stays in place.
Bonus is that the body pillow is detachable in case you become a mom-to-be again. The pillow now has an all natural Kapok fill.
Can also be used in a toddler's bed to prevent them from rolling out. As I said before, now we're on a roll.
humanityorganics.com/

Too hot, too cold or just right

The Gro Egg Digital Room Thermometer by Keen is a nightlight/thermometer that my household couldn't be without. Since the air conditioning is so wonky in our house (hot in one room, cool in another) I rely on my egg in a strangely co-dependent way. My husband hates the egg because when he says that our daughter's room is cool enough, I have the courtroom-evidence-rebutle of "well, the egg says it's 74 degrees". If the room is too hot, the egg is red, too warm...orange, and just right...yellow...blue means too cold. Pretty complex for an egg.
Available on Amazon.

To teeth or not to teeth

My daughter is in what I call "Stage 2" teething. She went through an early stage of mouthing everything she came in contact with, but now at almost 11 months, she's looking for a very particular kind of thing to chew or suck on, and whatever that may be, I'd prefer for it to be free of PVC and phthalates. So whenever she reaches for a questionable toy to chew on, I try to slide one of these into her hand. I have the Haba Trix by the changing table, the Haba Salto tethered (see earlier post about Baby Buddy tethers) onto the stroller, the Green Sprouts Cornring tethered to the Ergo and I alternate between the Haba Kringelring and Green Sprouts Corn Keys tethered onto the high chair. The Haba teethers are all wood with lead-free water-based lacquerers and the Green Sprouts teethers are made from corn and are PVC, phthalate, BPA and nitrosamine free. Chew on that.

Surf's up, in a bowl

This is the Cali kids bowl by Simple Wave. It was inspired by the rolling waves of California, and allows your kids' food to stay inside the wave of their patent-pending bowl lip. It's perfect for new eaters and toddlers alike and has a suction cup that keeps it on the tray. They also make adult cali bowls for stubborn bowl-escapers like salsa and guacamole. They are made from BPA-free, medical-grade polypropylene, and they'll even give you a 20% discount on a new product if you send your old ones in for them to recycle. Kids' bowls available at Calibowl.com and Buy Buy Baby.

Sunscreens exposed

I felt that I had to share this Hall of Shame list of sunblocks from the Environmental Working Group, since so many of them are specifically marketed as baby and children sunblocks.
Please check out their listing of Top Sunblocks which I've blogged about in the past. Stay in the shade...

Get a crib-lift

I attend a weekly moms group for crawlers taught by an extremely seasoned lactation nurse, who has been telling all of us since the beginning to raise the heads of our babies' cribs with phonebooks. Apparently this can help with reflux when they're infants and teething when they're crawlers and who-knows-what down the road. Anyhow, I finally listened to her advice since our daughter was waking up several times in the night because of some nasty lateral incisors breaking through. I used some board books instead of phone books, which i end up stubbing my toe on pretty much every night. I'm considering buying some of these Baby Bed Blocks by Space Babies, but seeing that the shipping from Canada (carried by www.babyguru.ca) is more than the cost of the blocks, I may just accept the toe-stubbing as part of my nightly ritual and add it to the list of mommy-injuries I have suffered on account of my little teether.

Wave bye-bye to the waves

My husband and I both use these Pong radiation-reducing covers on our iPhones. Since as you can see in this Environmental Working Group review, the iphone 3G does not fare very well in the radiation department. The Pong cover draws the waves up and away from your head (where your brain lives). We both turn our phones on airport-mode when we're with our daughter, but if and when we do have to use it near her, it's nice to know that this deflects 60% of radiation away from you.

pongresearch.com

Buzz off, bugs

I've had several friends ask for advice on bug spray lately, and my answer is Buzz Away, which is sold on Amazon.com and at Whole Foods. It's an all natural product using only essential oils (no DEET...ick) but it works for up to 8 hours against mosquitos in a USDA test. Also protects against ticks for 2 hours. My husband, who's a mosquito magnet, doesn't get bitten in our jungly Coconut Grove backyard, so it really does work. It's also sold in towelettes and squeeze bottle.
More info at quantumhealth.com

Give me shelter

A few weeks ago, we tested out this 50 UPF Sun Smarties pop-up tent from One Step Ahead and it was great. There was plenty of room for my daughter and her mama and papa under there and it was fairly easy to get into the sand (4 small stakes that have their own little pocket on the tent). The zippers allow it to be more open-air or it can be closed up if it gets windy or cool (not likely in Miami). Enjoy the summer and the shade.

PVC and Phtalate-free pools

Instead of re-writing what's already been very well researched, I'm directing my readers to another great blog for great info on safe pools for the babes this summer. safemama.com

I just received my Sun Smarties pop-up pool by One Step Ahead. My daughter has big plans to test it out tomorrow.