BackupMyMail is a new site that can backup your online email account. Right now, we’re giving away free 1GB backups for Gmail and Hotmail users. All you have to do is sign up and we’ll email you a link to your new backup. Your backup will be available for 7 days, and then we’ll delete it along with your personal info.

Since it’s a new product, we may run into a snag here or there, so please let me know how it’s working for you. You can email me at damon@momsquawk.com.

Thanks a ton! I’m sure that with your help we can build a much better product.

You can sign up here: http://backupmymail.com/trial_signup

Damon Cali
MomSquawk Admin

PS To be clear, BackupMyMail has absolutely nothing to do with MomSquawk. I’m the only common link.

I have found, however, that things do change significantly with three kids. Granted, my youngest isn’t old enough to fully participate in everything yet, but she definitely makes a difference! For example:

Baths with one child: Thorough cleaning, relaxing, playtime. Maybe you even bathe with your kiddo.
Baths with two kids: Every other night, splashfest, mop up the floor once they’re in bed.
Baths with three kids (older two together, baby alone): Eh, you don’t reek from where I’m standing. It can wait another night.

Mealtime with one child: Nutritionally perfect meals, little mouth and hands wiped after every few bites.
Mealtime with two kids: Take it or leave it. Runs for the camera instead of a napkin when spaghetti face happens.
Mealtime with three kids: If I start a food fight, maybe you can aim for each other’s mouths?

Storytime with one child: I would never dream of skipping a page of any of your favorite three books every night!
Storytime with two kids: Dr. Seuss gets creatively edited here and there; you pray the kids don’t pick up on it.
Storytime with three kids: You can recite One Fish, Two Fish in your sleep (and occasionally do). You sometimes dream of a place with lovely padded walls where not everything rhymes in singsong cadence.

And you know, I still wouldn’t trade it for the world. The world, a soundproof reading room, and a huge basket of chocolate little hands haven’t touched…now we’re talking.

Posted by Sunshine.

Now, Yale researchers may have discovered something about pre-e that could allow earlier detection and could possibly eventually lead to preventative measures before full-blown preeclampsia shows up.

In a study of 111 pregnant women, the researchers identified key abnormal proteins in the women’s urine weeks before they showed clinical signs of preeclampsia. The urine test designed by the researchers was based on a dye that sticks to misfolded, or incorrectly formed, proteins.

“These results support the hypothesis that preeclampsia is a pregnancy-specific protein misfolding disease,” Dr. Irina Buhimschi, an associate professor in the department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences and the study’s lead author, said in a Yale news release.

Maybe someday, maybe even within our lifetimes, we will start to gain the upper hand over preeclampsia and this terrifying condition will lose its status as one of the more common but serious pregnancy complications mothers face.

But did you know that peer support and counseling might even combat postpartum depression (PPD, also known as the “baby blues”)?

A new study (one of two PPD-related studies mentioned in the article) found that women at high risk for postpartum depression who received counseling by phone from other moms who had gone through PPD were less likely to develop PPD themselves. Wow!

In this case, 701 women who were at high risk of postpartum depression were randomly assigned to standard postnatal care or to standard care plus telephone support from women who had experienced postpartum depression themselves.

The researchers found that women who received peer support were 50 percent less likely to develop postpartum depression 12 weeks after giving birth than were women who didn’t get the support. In addition, more than 80 percent of the women who got telephone support said they would recommend this type of support to a friend.

The other study in the article also noted that women who received “talk therapy” or counseling after delivering, whether they were high risk for PPD or not, were 40% less likely to develop postpartum depression than women given only standard postnatal care.

New mothers, whether it’s their first baby or their fifth, need support. I don’t know a mom out there who wouldn’t wholeheartedly agree with that statement. It’s reassuring that the medical community seems to be more readily acknowledging that and going further to research the best ways of providing that much-needed help.

If counseling in some form — yes, even (especially?) by a fellow mom who has already battled PPD — were to become part of the standard procedure in postnatal care, I am certain that fewer women out there would struggle with postpartum depression in silence, alone.

Thousands of children are injured by toys every year, but with these tips from the Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital, our children are less likely to be among them:

* Never let your child play with a toy that is not safe or appropriate for his or her age. Before your child plays with a new toy, always read the label and safety instructions.
* Watch your child to make sure toys are used appropriately.
* Make sure your child uses toys in appropriate settings. For example, keep bikes and wheeled toys away from stairs.
* If you have an older child, keep those toys away from younger children.
* Inspect your child’s toys frequently for damage that may injure your child, and be aware of toy recalls.
* Check your young child’s toys with a “small parts tester,” which can evaluate possible choking hazards.

For more detailed suggestions and further reading, check out this article on toy safety for kids of all ages.

Are you on the fence about joining the next round of MSBL? Have you been looking for a reason to sway you one way or the other?

How about this? A new study found that when there’s a monetary reward involved, people actually do lose more weight than if they’re working toward some other, more long-term reward.

Researchers developed two different monetary reward systems, then assigned 57 obese but otherwise healthy people to one of these two groups or a control group, in which people were simply weighed at the end of each month. All were aiming to lose 16 pounds (7.26 kg) by the end of four months.

People in the incentive groups lost far more weight than those who got no pay for their efforts, with about half of the participants in each group meeting their weight loss goals.

The incentive groups lost averages of 13 and 14 pounds, while those in the control group lost an average of only four pounds in the same amount of time. Wow!

We’re human; we need motivation to achieve our goals. Not only does MSBL offer tangible rewards for weight loss, but you also have access to the most supportive group of women imaginable. I know that for the rounds I’ve participated in, I could always count on someone to help me get refocused after a bad week, or to cheer me on when I was doing well (and the thought of winning the weekly pot didn’t hurt a bit, either!).

I’m looking forward to joining the next round to have a reason to round out this pregnancy with healthy choices, and to start losing the baby weight. Save a slot for me, girls!

How does Santa do it? How does he fly around the world with reindeer and enough presents for every good boy and girl? How does he know who’s been naughty or nice?

Well, to hear one professor from North Carolina State University tell it, Santa is very tech-savvy.

“He exploits the space-time continuum,” says Larry Silverberg, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. […] “He understands that space stretches, he understands that you can stretch time, compress space and therefore he can, in a sense, actually have six Santa months to deliver the presents,” Silverberg told Reuters.

“In our reference frame it appears as though he does it in the wink of an eye and in fact there have been sightings of Santa, quick sightings, and that’s in our reference frame, but in Santa’s reference frame he really has six months”.

And that’s only the beginning. All of those presents? Don’t look to an impossibly overloaded sleigh as the answer; how about nanotechnology instead? Santa just takes raw materials and grows your gifts under the tree!

Satellite-type surveillance assists in his list-checking for naughty and nice children, and his reindeer are genetically bred to have the powers they do.

How’s that for an answer, little Johnny? Somehow I think “It’s magic” will have to do for my own kids when the time comes.

The good folks over there at Men’s Health were doing research for a sequel to Eat This, Not That! that focuses on kiddie foods, and their results were pretty startling. Would you willingly sit your child in front of a plate of 900+ calories worth of mini cheeseburgers? You would be doing that if you ordered that item at Ruby Tuesday. (To be perfectly fair, they also offer kiddie chicken with only 267 calories.)

Yes, it’s all about choices — but not all meals are created nutritionally equal across the restaurant board. Some highlights:

Cold Stone Creamery received a C. Thumbs down to 900-calorie shakes and crushed candy bar add-ons. Thumbs up to their smallest portion, which is satisfying and a fairly reasonable 300 calories. The real fruit available as an add-on is another feather in their cap. Not bad for an ice cream place!

KFC scored a B, believe it or not. Yes, they do fried chicken. But they also offer much healthier Snacker sandwiches and several vegetables (now, whether those veggies are drowned in butter and salt is another question altogether — but corn is better for little tummies than fries any day!).

On the Border barely squeaked by with a D-. Most kids’ meals have over 1,000 calories (and Mom and Dad? You’re not faring any better, for what it’s worth — not even close, since your meal is likely to fall in the 1,900-calorie range!). Yikes.

Big winners: Wendy’s, Subway, and Chik-fil-A (all in the A/A- range with several healthy options for kids of all ages). Several restaurants received automatic Fs for refusing to provide nutritional information (including my favorite, Olive Garden — although honestly, I probably don’t want to know!).

* Being around cigarette smoking.
* Having had ear infections before, frequent colds, or having a family history of ear infections.
* Going to a day-care center.
* Being born premature or at low birth weight.
* Going to bed with a bottle or using a pacifier.
* Being male.
* Having allergies that cause congestion.

I would never have thought that some of those factors would be on the list (like gender). The things you learn!

As if we didn’t have enough incentive already to get our kids away from the tv and running around outside, new studies reported during an American Heart Association (AHA) conference show that children who are obese may have arteries significantly “older” than they are.

About a third of American children are overweight and one-fifth are obese. Many parents think that “baby fat” will melt away as kids get older. But research increasingly shows that fat kids become fat adults, with higher risks for many health problems.

“Obesity is not benign in children and adolescents,” said Dr. Robert Eckel, a former heart association president and cardiologist at the University of Colorado-Denver. It is why the American Academy of Pediatrics recently recommended cholesterol-lowering drugs for some kids, he noted.

Researchers tested the thickness of certain arteries in the children’s necks (via ultrasound) and compared the data gathered to the average arterial thickness of 45-year-olds. The kids had similar results to these middle-aged adults!

A separate study tied childhood obesity to abnormal enlargement of the left atrium, one of the chambers of the heart. Enlargement is a known risk factor for heart disease, stroke and heart rhythm problems.

A third study by Dr. Walter Abhayaratna of Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, also used ultrasound tests and found impairment in the heart’s ability to relax between beats in children who were overweight or obese.

In other words, children can’t afford a “wait and see” parental attitude toward weight problems. Being proactive now could very well save their lives down the road.

In case you didn’t know, caffeine has been linked to an increased risk of miscarriage and to low birth weight in babies born at term. It also may reduce blood flow to the placenta, which can harm the baby. Since pregnant women metabolize things more slowly, caffeine stays in the body longer and is especially risky in large amounts.

Current advice is generally to limit caffeine to under two cups of a caffeinated beverage per day (that’s in the 200-300mg range). So I’m safe with drinking most of one can of soda or one cup of coffee every day, right?

Not necessarily, say British researchers, who unveiled the results of a new study in the online British Medical Journal.

Compared to women who consumed less than 100 mg/day of caffeine (equivalent of less than one cup of coffee), the risk of having a lower birth weight baby increased by 20 percent for women who had 100-199 mg/day, by 50 percent for those who consumed 200-299 mg/day, and by 40 percent for over 300 mg/day.

Caffeine consumption of more than 100 mg/day was associated with a fetal weight reduction of 34-59 grams in the first trimester, 24-74g in the second trimester, and 66-89g in the third trimester. The effect was significant and consistent across all trimesters with caffeine consumption of more than 200 mg/day.

Researchers advise pregnant women to reduce the amount of caffeine consumed as much as possible. Don’t forget, ladies, that it’s not just in your drinks like coffee and soda. Chocolate and things flavored with it also contain caffeine.

The March of Dimes has more information on caffeine during pregnancy (and currently recommends no more than 200mg/day), and this site lists the caffeine content of several beverages (12 ounces of Mountain Dew will give me a whopping 55mg! Coffee is worse, with a brewed cup ringing in at 80-135mg).

I don’t consider myself an alarmist, but my beloved fizzy green drink and I might be on hold until early February, when our newest bundle of joy arrives.

Looking for home decorating ideas? Try Your Neighbor’s Place.

You know that newborn heel prick test they do at the hospital? I always thought that just had to hurt, and had no idea that newborns’ ability to feel pain was ever in doubt. But check this out:

Shortly after birth, doctors sample infants’ blood via a “heel prick test” to check their blood sugar and to test for certain congenital problems. Since the recent recognition that newborns can feel pain — and in fact may even be more sensitive to pain than older children — several pain relief approaches have been investigated to help them cope with this and other painful procedures.

Giving babies sucrose can reduce pain somewhat, studies have shown, while breastfeeding also appears to have pain-relieving effects.

And in this study, researchers compared the relative effectiveness of breastfeeding during the procedure vs. giving the baby sugar water. The results were pretty impressive.

Newborns breastfed during the heel prick test had sharply lower scores on a standardized pain scale that uses facial expressions, behavior, heart rate and the amount of oxygen in a baby’s blood to give a pain score from 0 to 21. Most babies who breastfed scored a 3, compared to 8.5 for babies given sugar water.

Most breastfeeding babies cried for the first time during the procedure for 3 seconds, compared to 21 seconds for the sugar group. These infants also had less of a jump in heart rate, a smaller drop in oxygen saturation, and during the two minutes after the heel lance they cried for 8 percent of the time, compared to 56 percent for babies given sugar water.

Expectant mothers, keep this in mind if you opt to breastfeed. You can offer your new baby natural pain relief as you bond. How cool is that?

Well, it’s the end of round one, and I’ve lost 10 lbs in 12 weeks.

Not the worst thing in the world, but it doesn’t feel commensurate to my efforts.

This last week’s loss was unexpected. First, it seems to be that tricky time in my cycle. And more importantly second, I was reminded that my willpower exists at the grocery store, not after I’ve brought home a bunch of stuff I’m not supposed to eat. I think I’ve eaten a pound of cayenne flavored cashews in the last 2 days. (I wish I were kidding.)

I have a ton to update on (nutritionist second opinion, new nutrition plan, the saliva test, the frustrating visit with my internist, and the surprising visit with a psychiatrist — yes, as in a shrink with a prescription pad), but it’s all going to have to wait. Tomorrow morning I’m Vegas bound for MomSquawk Vegas 2008 — and I need to start packing!

Oh, one more thing… a special shout out to K, for your amazing transformation this round of MSBL. You look incredible!

As the mother to a three-year-old worrywart (she comes by it honestly, I have to admit), I’m no stranger to dealing with various worries. We’re in the middle of an in-town move, and as certain things disappear from the apartment (like her slide), she worries about what happens to them (are they lonely? do they miss her? will she ever see them again?).

A lot of her concerns seem like no big deal to me, but to her, it’s the end of the world until she gets some reassurance.

HealthDay offers these tips for dealing with children’s worries, big and small, courtesy of the Nemours Foundation:

* Take time to talk about what’s worrying your child.
* Listen carefully to what your child has to say, and explain that you understand and are concerned. Offer reassurance about what’s bothering your child, and offer comfort.
* Help your child figure out a solution to the problem, but don’t try to remedy the entire situation yourself.
* Help your child keep things in perspective, and explain that problems are often temporary.
* Show your child how to react to concerns by being a good role model.

It helps me a lot to keep it in perspective. My daughter doesn’t have the long view of life that I do; she doesn’t have my experiences to draw from. So a lot of the concerns that seem trivial or silly to me, are serious in her little world.

Bah. I’m sick, I had an unexpectedly fun-yet-fattening weekend with some Ike refugees, and my hormones are in full swing.

I’ll be back next week once I can bring myself to care again.

Hello MomSquawkers,

Now that MomSquawk has been busily plugging along, I’ve turned my attention to a new site called Your Neighbor’s Place.

Your Neighbor’s Place is a site where you can share and discuss pictures of your home. Need help decorating a room? Want to show off your new renovation? Can’t pick a paint color?

Post it on Your Neighbor’s Place!

For a great example, check out one user’s incredible nursery murals.

Your Neighbor’s Place is still very new and I need help from all the MomSquawkers out there to help me fill it up with great pictures of your homes. So get on over there, sign up, and show off your home! It’s easy, fun, and doesn’t cost a dime.

I look forward to seeing what all the domestic divas at MomSquawk have to show the world.

Regards,

Damon
MomSquawk Admin and creator of Your Neighbor’s Place.

So, here we go. Down 1.4 lbs from my lowest weight thus far… not a horrible thing.

I’ve made an interesting observation in that (TMI ahead) it appears that the first two weeks of my cycle (i.e., the time from when menstruation begins to when I ovulate), I lose weight… and the two weeks post-ovulation, I do not. Should this theory be true, this upcoming week I should have a very modest loss (as I should be ovulating mid-week next week), and then nothing to talk about for the next two. We’ll see. I might be blowing smoke out of my… (and that would be okay, if said smoke expulsion resulted in a weight loss.)

My lab tests are back. Of note… my TSH is 3.4, and my cholesterol is low (total is like 120-something, triglycerides are 75-ish). What does this mean? In my oh-so-educated opinion, it means I’m borderline hypothyroid (shocker), and I’ve proven my diet is healthy, because I don’t think you can have numbers like that eating at McDs every day — so hopefully my internist will take me seriously. I’m meeting with him tomorrow — the other notable finding was that my thyroid ultrasound was apparently abnormal enough to where he wants to see me to discuss the results.

I just want to be fixed. I’m not sure to what degree I care about the details of how exactly that happens.

Guess that’s it for now. I’m watching the Big Brother 10 POV competition on DVR, and I think it deserves my undivided attention.

PS to my friend A: congrats on losing almost 20 lbs… and good luck on that upcoming milestone. You’re my inspiration over here!

* Make sure each toy is sturdy, well-made, and appropriate for your child’s age.
* Don’t let your baby play with toys that have sharp edges or points, or small parts.
* Make sure parts fit securely and are not loose.
* Read labels to check for safety information. Look for toys that are non-toxic, washable and hygienic.
* Don’t let your baby play with any toys that are smaller than 1 3/4 inches in diameter or 2 inches long, as these may pose a choking hazard.

So I’m back down a little bit (there was a PMS blip, as it turns out), but not to where I was before — and certainly not to a place that feels appropriate given my level of exercise and adherence to my diet.

My trainer, nutrition coach and I are all in agreement that something is awry — the math simply isn’t working.

As I’d mentioned last week, my thyroid is suspect. I’m still waiting for the lab test results (like I said, sloooooooooow), but I’ve done a lot of reading in the interim. I am absolutely convinced that I have a slow thyroid (hypothyroidism) — and I’m suspecting it’s due to something called adrenal fatigue.

Now, I should mention that adrenal fatigue is an “alternative” diagnosis, and not an actual disease process recognized by the traditional medical establishment. However, I’ve been killing myself for the last 10 weeks following what I’m supposed to be doing to lose weight per the traditional medical establishment — and it ain’t workin’ as it should. So under the guidance of my chiropractor, we’re going to explore this route. I did a weird saliva test yesterday to track cortisone levels — I’ll probably have the results back in a week or so.

However, the test really isn’t that important, in that the “cure” for adrenal fatigue is simple: relaxation. (ha!) So for starters, I’m totally readjusting my schedule to maximize my sleeping hours… these 2-hour workout sessions have been happening from 6-8 am, so I think I’m going to start sleeping in a bit more. I’m also going to break them apart — cardio in the morning, resistance training (aka abuse from my trainer) in the afternoon.

More on this next week, I guess. This is all still fairly depressing… but it’s not as though it’s all been for nothing. We did remeasure my body fat, and depending on the measurements you use, it’s dropped somewhere between 4 - 6%, so that doesn’t suck. My strength has also improved tremendously, which is fun. But I really would like to start seeing some numbers move on the scale with a little more gusto. Hopefully next week!