Baby Bedding

When choosing your baby’s bedding, as well as considering the color scheme, it’s important to ensure that your baby will be both safe and comfortable.  In turn, this helps you feel relaxed while he sleeps.

Fitted sheets are essential, especially if your baby is a wiggler. If you flat tuck sheets under a crib, they might become loose when your baby tosses and turns and he could become tangled in his bedding. You’ll need at least 3 sheets, one on the bed, one in the wash and one for emergencies

Baby sleeping bags are great for slightly older babies who might kick off their covers. Choose a quilted cotton bag that fastens easily at the shoulders. Buy one appropriate for your baby’s age and size with a weight that suits the room temperature. Bags may be rated for warmth like duvets.

Cotton sheets and blankets should be light and comfortable. Cotton is preferable as it “breathes” and can be washed easily. Duvets aren’t suitable for babies under one year since they are too heavy and pose a risk of suffocation. Instead, layer sheets and light blankets to keep him at the right temperature.

A baby monitor is an important piece of equipment. It is reassuring for you and you might find it easier to relax if you know that you will hear your baby. But don’t leap at every noise-babies often complain a bit before settling themselves back to sleep.

Getting organized!

*Keep spare bedding and bedclothes underneath or near the crib so that you can change wet sheets quickly at night and keep a laundry basket nearby.

*Buy a minimum of starter bedding for bassinets and smaller cribs since your baby will quickly grow into a full sized crib.

*Adjust your baby’s bedding according to the temperature of the room and remember it’s important that he doesn’t overheat. Add or remove sheets or lightweight blankets as required to keep your baby comfortable. Keep in mind a folded blanket counts as 2 layers!

In Praise of Grandparents

My grandmothers were the most important people in my early childhood life. During those critical early years it was my grandmothers who stepped in and filled my world with nurturing and adventure. One grandmother was nurturing and when she held me I knew I was safe, the other was such a free spirit, time with her was always a big adventure. It was from my grandmothers that I learned the most important things about myself; that I was loved and therefore lovable; that I was appreciated even though I had flaws; that I was special. When my mother’s patience for my childhood mischievousness wore thin, it was my grandmothers who tried to help me understand. They more than any other person taught me about unselfishness, about care giving and about forgiving.

In the years I was growing up extended family of three generations commonly lived quite closely together. My grandparents were my first and only babysitters and I always considered it a treat to be left with them. I remember my mother lightly reprimanding me about my not caring, when she came to fetch me home. Friends and colleagues of my generation have similar connections to their grandparents, who were strong presences in their lives both physical and psychosocial sense. Sadly, we may have been the last generation to have such close familial physical ties. Grandparents today are often more remote geographically and the physical distance can understandably play havoc with close emotional ties.

You don’t have to let this happen.  Even if the results are not quite the same as real-life cuddling there are ways of making long distance connections so that grandparents and grandchildren are not strangers. Today it easier than ever  to keep connected with the help of  many new technologies. All the different methods of video connecting via the internet, the telephone, photos and the old stand by letters and stories. With a little imagination and effort loving relations have found creative ways to transcend the miles that keep them physically apart.

Happy Baby

Making New Year’s resolutions always reminds me of Benjamin Franklin’s Thirteen Virtues.  My usual list is better expressed by his Virtues from 1726 (12 of his virtues are listed below):

To realize
The value of ten years:
Ask a newly
Divorced couple.

To realize
The value of four years:
Ask a graduate.

To realize
The value of one year:
Ask a student who
Has failed a final exam.

To realize
The value of nine months:
Ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn.

To realize
The value of one month:
Ask a mother
Who has given birth to
A premature baby.

To realize
The value of one week:
Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize
The value of one minute:
Ask a person
Who has missed the train, bus or plane.

To realize
The value of one second:
Ask a person
Who has survived an accident.

Time waits for no one.

Treasure every moment you have.

You will treasure it even more when
You can share it with someone special.

To realize the value of a friend or family member:

LOSE ONE.

The origin of this letter is unknown

Beach at Sunrise

New Year's Gift

We have put together a great gift package for the New Year’s baby at Forever Blankets and Bears.

Place your blanket order for all your January babies and enter the contest to win a personalized teddy bear with a welcome message, personalized bib, washcloth and a Burberry ribbon onesie. We have added a few soft cloths for wipes and a Dano ducky bath toy.  The ducky is great item as it is  a medical grade teether.  Lead,  BPA, PVC and Phthlate free, safe to give your little one when teething. It is dishwasher safe and the bottom opens for easy cleaning. (Made in the USA)

All baby blanket orders in January will receive a free Forever Blankets and Bears T-shirt to grow into.

Please visit our site and order soon as T-shirt quantities are limited.  http://www.foreverblanketsandbears.com/12-blankets.html

Forever Blankets and Bears T-shirt

personalized baby blanket

cotton flannel for boys baby blankets

We just made a couple of “uber” cute blankets for little boys with the great new fabric.

I especially like the design of this fabric but best part is the quality. This flannel is especially soft and thick which means it will last forever, launder beautifully and be a great snuggle blanket. This flannel fabric is able for girls also it just not online yet. Give us a call to request the pink version! 1-877-642-0446

personalized baby blanket

Our blankets have 2 sides; a patterned side and a solid side. The patterned side is 100% cotton flannel, which is a super soft high quality cotton. The solid side is made of soft minkee velour, which is 100% polyester. It almost feels like velvet. All our personalized baby blankets and quilts are handmade and our fabric is purchased from reputable North American suppliers only. In some cases, the colors of our products may vary slightly from those depicted on our web site, as a result of small differences in monitors and fabric dye lots We try our best to select thread colors that match the baby’s sex (if known) and the colors in the fabric selections. However, if you have a strong preference for a particular set of colors, please indicate this on your order. Please note: Baby Blankets are not to be used as children’s sleepwear.

personalized baby blanket

My friend Peter said he’d never seen anything like it.

He was witnessing another friend’s baby daughter as she toddled past a blanket. It wasn’t her blanket, it wasn’t even a familiar blanket, it was just an old scruffy blanket that had been pulled out for guests to sit on as they enjoyed the waning days of summer on the back lawn ….still, in went her thumb.

It became a bit of a game. Peter would turn the little one around and send her past the blanket again. In went the thumb, again and again.

Her own blankie, it turned out, had been left at home. But so powerful was the comfort that a blanket represented, it didn’t matter.  A blanket was all she needed.

Peanut’s Linus van Pelt gave us our first mass awareness of a security blanket – a tattered little blue blob that he carried through years of cartoon childhood.  It turns out something like 60 per cent of toddlers hang tight to old blankets or stuffed toys for the security they bring.

It’s easy to see why.

It’s a scary old world when you’re little. Everything and nearly every experience is new.  The world is full of strange people, big noises, crowded environments and unexplored places.  There are dogs that bark and balloons that pop, loud voices and rushing traffic. It’s enough to make us all need a soft place to land and for a toddler, other than mom’s lap, there’s nothing softer than your own blankie.

Not only is a security blanket soft and tender, it carries its own reminders of what’s safe. The smells of home and the smells of mommy’s laundry soap are part of the package of safety. When that safety is portable, just a thumb and sniff away, it can give a little one confidence in a scary world, help them to cope and begin to develop their independence.

The comfort and safety that a security blanket represents lingers long after childhood – and the blanket – has faded.

The new Dream-time Bears flannel is also available in Pink.  The pink colored fabric isn’t  on the website just yet but if you would like it, just let us know and we can make up a blanket for you. The Pink version goes well with both brown, both pink, yellow and the green . The Blue versions goes well with the cocoa and cappuccino  brown, blue, yellow and green velour.  I love this fabric as it is a very densely woven flannel with great body and weight.  It’s great for swaddling and cuddling!

cotton flannel for boys baby blankets

Be sure to check out our new additions @ http://www.foreverblanketsandbears.com/12-blankets.htm  and on Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/ForeverBlanketsandBears where we have a large gallery of cute baby photos and different blanket ideas.

The apron details:

12-oz, 100% cotton
Teflon® finish for added stain protection
Two waist-level patch pockets and one pen pocket
1″ wide neck and waist ties
Adjustable neck strap
22″W x 30″L

$5.00 of the proceeds of the sale of each apron will go to Breast Cancer Research. Thanks for supporting!