Why do people feel that others should have be financially responsible for their children? I am talking about the individuals who are without education, without employment, and have no plans on getting a job in the near future yet still manage to get themselves pregnant or impregnate someone.

They do this knowing that the state that they live in will assist them financially in raising their child. They do this knowing that welfare is their fall back. I am not talking about the mothers and fathers who go to work everyday and need that extra money from the state to care for their family. Everyone needs help and they deserve it the most. I am talking about the people who have made a conscious decision to get pregnant, as well as a decision that they are never going to work or make an effort to be financially stable. Yeah, those losers.

Why is it our responsibility to finance you and your children’s well being if you are making no plans to even attempt to better your lives?

I know what you are thinking. No one wants to be unemployed. No one purposely resists looking for a job, or finishing their education. Life is hard and they just deal with the cards they were dealt. I am here to tell you my friend that you are wrong. You are very wrong!

I have seen that extent of lackadaisical behavior with my own two eyes! It does exist! There certainly are people who have decided that their occupation in life is “slacker” and they refuse to get off their ass and try harder or even try at all. In which case, hey, if you want to be a loser then by all means go for it. You are a grown person who has the right to control the direction of their lives.

However, when you involve children and do not take the steps necessary in preventing bringing another life that you cannot care for or even worse you PURPOSELY get pregnant knowing that you have NOTHING to offer that child then that is selfish. It is selfish for you to assume that others want to take care of you and your children and selfish for you not to want to at least try to prepare yourself so that you can give your child a better life. That pisses me off.

There truly are people who…. To Read The Rest Go To YeahSheSaidIt

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5 Charities To Help A Girl Out In Today’s Economy

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We all know how much Jay has been talking about starting a family, but his hard-working wife Beyonce has been focusing on her career. Well it seems that’s all about to change. Apparently Bey is ready to settle down and start a family:

“She has everything in the world she has ever dreamed of — a great husband, tons of money and an amazing career — but the one thing she years for is a baby,” a friend tells In Touch.

Bey Bey and Illuminati Hov will celebrate two years of marriage this April, and according to inside sources, they’re looking to be knocked up in the next few months.

“She and Jay-Z are in a great place right now in their relationship, so they are taking very active measures to make it happen,” the friend adds.

Source

Take a look at Bey and Jay below:

Beyonce and Jay-Z

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Is Beyonce planning on having kids after tour?

Meet Beyonce’s baby brother

Beyonce Knowles isn’t ready to be a mom. Even though hubby Jay-Z said procreating is high on their agenda right now, Bey is putting the brakes on!

According to contactmusic.com, the singer was recently interviewed overseas and revealed she wants to have children – but not yet:

She said: “It’s not time for that yet. But definitely there will be a time. I want to be a great mother, the kind of mother that I have. I want the same bond that I had with my mom and that would be enough for me.

“The security and love I feel being in a relationship, a marriage, it’s absolutely incredible. Incredible.”

The 28-year-old singer said the time for parenthood would come but for now she was happy just being a couple.

We wonder if these two will ever be on the same page.

Click here for 9 reasons why Beyonce shouldn’t have kids!

Take a look Beyonce and Jay below:

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Beyonce stage dives in London

Seems like Jay-Z is ready to be a dad. According to the NY Daily News,  the “Empire State of Mind” rapper, spilled the beans when he let it slip to Gotham mag editor in chief Cristina Greeven Cuomo,  that procreating is high on the duo’s priority list right now.

That’s big news from hip hop’s sneakiest couple, who wed secretly on a Tribeca rooftop and rarely even wear their own wedding rings in public.

Beyonce who admitted on “The View” in April that while she was interested in motherhood, she was in no hurry to hit the birthing room after seeing the process up close when her sister Solange did it.

“I definitely want one, but I’m not ready for all of that,” she said then. “I don’t think a person should see that before her time. It was a little much. But I’m so in love with my nephew, and every time I see him I’m like, God, he’s just amazing.”

Being that both Beyonce and Jay-Z are on top of their game right now, it may be the perfect time to put their careers on hold and have a baby!

Bey thanks Jay for “putting a ring on it”

Take a look at the couple below:

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Beyonce gets sexy for European Music Awards

With her less famous sisters hogging the headlines lately, Kim K is trying to reclaim the spotlight. The reality star recently told Life & Style that she wants a baby before she hits 30 next October:

“I always had a vision I’d be married with one kid by the time I’m 30.” Not that Kim’s likely to be waiting for a ring much longer. After dating for more than two years, Kim and boyfriend Reggie Bush, split in July but are now back together and working on their issues. “Before, I was strictly all about my work,” Kim admits. “Now I make it a priority to go see him instead. It’s all about the commitment you choose to make.”
And with renewed faith in their relationship, Kim and Reggie are making moves toward their future. “Kim is selling her condo so she and Reggie can buy a home together in Los Angeles,” her friend says. And the prospect of having a big house has Kim thinking about how she and Reggie will fill it. “I want a lot of kids,” Kim tells Life & Style. “Maybe five or six. A mix of both boys and girls.”

Really Kim???

Is Kim K one of our 10 celebs hot enough to hate?

Take a look at our Kim and Reggie gallery:

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Spotted: Kim K & Reggie Bush

Mariah recently spoke to the media about what she went through growing up bi-racial:

“Growing up and being half-black, half-white, I felt weird; I didn’t look like anybody. My friends were all different from me,” Mariah told StyleList.com of her childhood insecurities. “No one knew how to fix my hair. My facial features stood out. And I know we [mixed people] all say that. But even though I’ve grown since, some of those things still remain with me.”

Listen to the singer discuss her marriage, Eminem and babies below:

The singer also told the NY Daily News about how she never thought she would live this long:

Honestly, I never thought I’d live this long. I always thought that I wouldn’t be here at this point. I was thinking, ‘Okay, I’ve got another year of my life left. This has got to be the end of it,’” she revealed. “Finally, he was like, “Stop talking like that.”

Mariah wants to be a mommy!

Meanwhile, Page Six sources spotted MiMi out this week looking tipsy and barely making it out of the restaurant. We’re not sure if it was the alcohol or the stilettos:

Mariah Carey did not need a nightcap the other night at One Little West 12th. According to a witness, Carey – whose album, “Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel,” is just out – showed up to the restaurant at “1:30 a.m. with her brother and a few bodyguards and was quite out of it. When she exited her black Maybach, she tripped twice and had to grab hold of one of her guards so she wouldn’t fall. She ordered a bottle of champagne but she could barely speak.” A source close to the singer tells Page Six, “She was probably wobbly because she was wearing 7-inch Louboutins. She had just completed 18 hours of press. That’s tough to do.”

Take a look at Mariah below:

Mariah performs on Oprah, brings Nick along

Start looking for that  baby shower gift for Mariah!!!

During a new interview with In Touch Weekly, the singer, along with her hubby Nick Cannon- Carey, opens up about her career, love life, and her desire to be a mommy.

When asked if they want kids, Mariah says they “definitely” want a family while Nick adds:

“Yes, of course. It’s at the forefront of our minds. We’re very close. But we want to enjoy our first year together. We didn’t have a stable environment. The first year we were in LA in a hotel and then we were like, “Let’s get a house.”

Though the couple can’t decide if they’re gonna raise the kids in New York or LA, but they do know they’d like two kids.

Mariah’s sexy photo shoot with Nick

Mariah adds:

“Of course, we’d be happy with one. I want to be able to manage the right amount of attention. We are so busy – if you have six kids running around, no one gets what they need. Kids need a lot of attention.”

And if Mariah gets too old to have kids of her own, adoption isn’t out of the question.

Says Nick, “It’s never out of the question. I was raised by my grandmother, who was also a foster mom, so I grew up around a lot of kids.”

But what about the extra weight gained during pregnancy? According to Mimi, she won’t mind it.

Adds the diva:

“I’d be fine with it. I’m not one of those people who is usually a size 2 to start with and gets scared they will end up a size 3.

We would love to see a little Mimi running around sometime next year.

Take a look at the couple:

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Mariah performs on Oprah, brings Nick along

According to Northwestern University’s NewsCenter:

Researchers from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine have discovered powerful relief in the form of diluted bleach baths. It’s a cheap, simple and safe treatment that drastically improves the rash as well as reduces flare-ups of eczema, which affects 17 percent of school-age children.

The study found giving pediatric patients with moderate or severe eczema (atopic dermatitis) diluted bleach baths decreased signs of infection and improved the severity and extent of the eczema on their bodies. That translates into less scratching, fewer infections and a higher quality of life for these children.

The typical treatment of oral and topical antibiotics increases the risk of bacterial resistance, something doctors try to avoid, especially in children. Bleach kills the bacteria but doesn’t have the same risk of creating bacterial resistance.

Patients on the bleach baths had a reduction in eczema severity that was five times greater than those treated with placebos over one to three months, said Amy S. Paller, M.D., the Walter J. Hamlin Professor and chair of dermatology, and professor of pediatrics, at the Feinberg School. Paller also is an attending physician at Children’s Memorial Hospital.

The study will be published in the journal Pediatrics April 27.

“We’ve long struggled with staphylococcal infections in patients with eczema,” Paller said. She noted more than two-thirds of eczema patients have evidence of staphylococcus on their skin, the bacteria that most commonly causes infection and worsens the eczema. “This study shows that simple household bleach, which we think decreases the staphylococcus on the skin, can help these children.”

In the study, Paller and researchers treated 31 pediatric patients (6 months to 17 years old) who had eczema and a bacterial staph infection for 14 days with oral antibiotics. Half of the patients received bleach in their bath water (half a cup per full standard tub), while the other half received a look-alike placebo. Patients were also instructed to put a topical antibiotic ointment or placebo control into their nose (where the staphylococcus can also grow) for five sequential days of each month. All were instructed to bathe in the bleach twice a week, and soak for five to 10 minutes for three months.

Paller said bathing in the diluted bleach bath water was surprisingly odor-free because of the small amount of bleach added. “In our clinics, no one had the just-out-of-the-swimming pool smell,” she said.

The research team saw such rapid improvement in the kids taking the real bleach baths that they terminated the study early because they wanted the children getting the placebo to get the same relief.

“The eczema kept getting better and better with the bleach baths and these baths prevented it from flaring again, which is an ongoing problem for these kids,” Paller said. “We presume the bleach has antibacterial properties and decreased the number of bacteria on the skin, which is one of the drivers of flares.”

Would you use a diluted bleach bath to relieve your child’s eczema? Do you think it’s safer than using topical creams that contain steroids? Let me know what you think.

Stop Sticking Your Kids In Front of the TV!

CHILD SAFETY: A Guide

Afraid of doing your Kegel exercises while pregnant because you think the baby will fall out or end up disabled or something? Well, stop worrying – nothing’ll happen, and your va-jay-jay muscles will stay strong! Besides being great for sex, they’ll also keep you from peeing yourself when you’re old. From Reuters:

Despite some concerns, the pelvic-muscle exercises many women do during pregnancy do not seem to raise the likelihood of complications during labor and delivery, a new study finds.

Prenatal exercises for the muscles of the pelvic floor, also known as Kegel exercises, have long been advocated for preventing incontinence during and after pregnancy.

However, some doctors have expressed concern that the muscle training may make the pelvic floor too strong and less elastic, making labor and delivery more difficult.

To look into this, Norwegian researchers surveyed nearly 19,000 women who gave birth between 2000 and 2005. The investigators report in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology that women who frequently performed Kegel exercises were no more likely to suffer tears during delivery, or to need an unplanned Cesarean section or instrument-assisted delivery.

It’s important for women to know that prenatal pelvic-floor exercises can lower the risk of urinary incontinence, lead researcher Dr. Kari Bo, of the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences in Oslo, told Reuters Health.

These latest findings, she said, should reassure them that the exercises also do nothing to interfere with childbirth.

So there you have it. Keep doing your coochie crunches, even when you’re pregnant. Your man and your old bladder will thank you!

How Afraid Are You of Saggy Boobs?

Having a Relationship Plan: Pregnancy

A picture of T-Pain‘s new son Kaydnz Kodah Najm has been released, and he’s adorable! So we just wanted to share it with you. We guess this is what T-Pain would look like without all the hair and the grill! Hah. The artist and his wife Amber also have two other kids, Lyriq and Musiq. Sensing a name trend here?

Things have changed just a little bit in the time since Justin’s trip. Back then we actually bought him his own ticket and sat him comfortably in his car seat during the flight. The budget didn’t allow for a separate seat for Brina this time around, so she is going to be snuggled up with mommy. While Justin’s was a post-9/11 flight wrought with all the drama that comes with it, the rules for flying with breast milk have been relaxed a bit [click here for info] . Basically, the a-holes are no longer making mothers taste their own milk to make sure it isn’t explosive.

As the Daddy who is staying home, my responsibilities are fairly light. I’m home with Sabrina today while Mel runs some last minute errands, and I will be driving them to the airport. After that, Justin and I will succumb to a Nintendo Wii-induced coma before I glue my eyes to the television for the NBA playoffs.

With the weather getting warmer, some of you may be taking your babies on their first flights soon, so I’ve provided some great web resources for you:

• FlyingWithKids.com offers tones of tips for keeping your kid happy during the flight and not going nuts.
• BabiesTravelLite.com will actually ship your formula, diapers and wipes to your destination so you don’t have to pack it.
• Looking for a family-friendly airline? Check this list from Cookie Magazine.

Safe travels!

Should you kiss your kids on the mouth?

Deep Cover: The breastfeeding debate

]]> http://hellobeautiful.com/245381/flying-with-babies/feed/ 7 Flying With Babies (thumbnail) ionejbarrow brina in bumbo http://hellobeautiful.com/206721/deep-cover-the-breastfeeding-debate/ http://hellobeautiful.com/206721/deep-cover-the-breastfeeding-debate/#comments Fri, 01 May 2009 18:36:31 +0000 Jerry L. Barrow, Senior Editor http://hellobeautiful.com/?p=206721 ]]> Leave it to Dave Chappelle to make breast milk funny. In one of his most hilarious sketches, a spoof of “Making The Band 2,” Chappelle imitates a hard-to-please Diddy sending the members of The Band to get breast milk from a Cambodian immigrant. “I only drink the finest of breast milks,” he declared. Upon their return from “milking a Cambodian” “Diddy” clinks together the empty bottles singing “breast miiilk, you made my daaaay,” a reference to Diddy’s reference of The Warriors movie in “Flavor In Your Year.”

Though “Chappelle’s Show” stopped taping years ago, that sketch lives on in my house. My son was breastfed and our daughter is being given breast milk as well. At the conclusion of many feedings, my wife will sing the breast milk song to celebrate another full belly.

Beyond the health benefits to a baby, breastfeeding has been a financial lifesaver to us. The Medela breast pump that we purchased six years ago for our son is still pushing along for our daughter, and with infant formula costing almost $20 a can (depending on the size), we are saving a considerable amount of money. CLICK HERE FOR A CHART.

The other benefit of pumping is that I actually get to help with the feedings. We keep several containers of milk in the fridge and have almost a gallon in the basement freezer for when my wife returns to work.

There has been some controversy about breastfeeding in public and from experience I don’t have a problem with it, as long as it’s discreet. We were recently at a neighborhood diner when Sabrina finished the bottle we brought with us and demanded more to eat. I don’t think any crying child should be left hungry, so my wife covered herself with a blanket and let the baby feed.

Some people go further to argue that women shouldn’t have to cover themselves during public breastfeeding, but I honestly feel more comfortable with a little discretion. Why? I’m not completely sure. However, I know that we had a long talk with our son explaining to him what breastfeeding was all about before his sister was born, but I can’t assume the other parents in the diner with their kids felt the same way or had that same discussion. Some families don’t breast feed at all, but now they have to explain to their kid why that lady whipped out her privates to feed a baby.

When we’re in public, we all make polite concessions – even if we’re within our legal rights. We don’t HAVE to cover our noses when we sneeze, but aren’t we all glad we do? Word to the Swine Flu.

How afraid are you of saggy boobs?

How far would you go to prevent saggy boobs? Interesting question, I know! Well, some mothers in the UK have decided to take cabergoline, a drug normally prescribed to HIV-positive patients to stop milk production, to avoid the effect that breastfeeding would have on their breasts. Moms are opting to take the meds for what is being described as “social reasons.” According to an article in the Daily Mail (a UK-based paper), an obstetrician in London who has prescribed cabergoline to patients who could not or did not want to breastfeed said, “For some women their breasts are an important part of their sexuality and they don’t want to use them to provide milk.”

Come again?

Rant initiating in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…

Okay moms, let’s be honest with ourselves: pregnancy alone changes your life in so many ways, and many of us look for ways to maintain our sexy throughout. We slab on the cocoa butter, even take a few yoga classes, and look for all the old wives’ tales on how to bounce back after delivery faster. I completely understand the desire to keep the “girls” in tip-top shape, but some things are made to stretch and expand during pregnancy – your breasts, your belly, and your (as Oprah would say) vajayjay. For the most part, everything snaps back to the way it used to be, save a few changes in the look or feel of things (for the good or bad). It also must be said that it has been a proven that breastfeeding does not cause saggy breasts; in fact, in a study by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, there was no difference in the degree of breast sagging between women who breast fed and those who didn’t. It is the actual weight gain/loss of each pregnancy that contributes to the change in firmness and breast shape. Either way, your breasts were made for milking. I’m sure your boo may have lead you to believe otherwise, but there is nothing more natural than the milk that you produce for your child. I’m not judging those that have opted not to breastfeed because of medical reasons, but speaking to those that choose not to for vanity purposes. The benefits of breastfeeding your child outweigh the cons. It has been proven that breast-fed infants have lower rates of ear infections, respiratory infections, allergies, and other medical problems. For moms, breastfeeding may help reduce the risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and postpartum depression. If that’s not incentive enough, breastfeeding also helps you burn calories while nurturing your child, which helps your body “bounce back” after delivery.
To read more on the benefits of breastfeeding, visit womenshealth.gov

And for tips on successful breastfeeding go to fda.gov.

Woman arrested for breastfeeding while driving

How far would you go for a child in need?

I was around Justin’s age the first time my dad took me to work. I remember getting up at some ungodly hour and it still being dark outside when we left. In 1980 we lived in the “unfair zone” of Cambria Heights, Queens, so the commute to midtown Manhattan took a good hour and a half to two hours, but my Dad didn’t so much as yawn the whole way.

After taking the bus to the subway, I just remember staring up at the huge buildings as we walked towards his job at Citibank’s corporate offices. I was like Arnold Jackson stepping out of that limo during the “Diff’rent Strokes” intro. But my Dad just strolled along like it was no big deal.

When we arrived at his job, everyone from the security guard to my Dad’s boss said “I’ve heard so much about you!” which made me wonder what exactly my father was saying about me all this time to all of these people. He was stoic, but couldn’t hide his pride as he said, “this is my son, Jerry.”

The rest of the morning was spent typing my name on anything I could think of and seeing it printed out on these yellow punch cards. When I wasn’t doing that, I was spinning on the chairs and drawing on the white and green paper with holes on the side.

Today the computer has been substantially upgraded, but kids in the office are still kids in the office. I’ve been bringing Justin to work pretty much since he was born and he always has a great time. We drive pretty much everywhere at home, so taking the LIRR and subway was always the adventure for him that it never is for me these days.

However, they weren’t staying the entire day with me we so that my wife could take them home. When Justin realized we were driving into the city, he couldn’t wait until we reached the Midtown Tunnel. I have no idea why it fascinates him so, but it’s his favorite part of the journey into Manhattan. “Look, Daddy, the light is coming up!” Then, when we reach the city, he points out anything that seems familiar, “That’s where we went to the circus!”

The only thing we agree on is our intolerance for traffic. I heard “Why aren’t we moving?” more than a few times heading crosstown.

After settling in at my desk, Justin sat down to click away on NickJr.com and I fed Sabrina. My coworkers marveled at how quiet she was and I had to agree that she was not just showing off – she really is this calm most of the time. After a good burp I took a walk with Sabrina so she could show off her perfectly coordinated purple outfit.

After eating a lunch I packed, Justin took the time to type me this note:

Before long, my wife buzzed to say she was on her way, so it was time to pack it up. I gave Sabrina the rest of her bottle and she promptly fell asleep. Justin wasn’t quite ready to leave, but the promise of seeing his cousins in Boston this weekend got him motivated.

I’m fortunate that my company is open to letting us bring our kids in on just about any day, but I encourage you all to take advantage of Take Your Child To Work Day whenever possible. Unless, of course, you work at Home Depot.

A new study shows that a woman’s risk of Lupus can be heightened by her consumption of the birth control pill, but there are some other factors you should look out for before you start freaking.

[From BlackDoctor.org]

A new study shows the increased risk of lupus could be found in birth control pills with higher doses.

“Women who take oral contraceptives have a 50% higher risk of having lupus than women who don’t take them,” says study researcher Samy Suissa, PhD, a professor of epidemiology at McGill University in Montreal.

But to put that in perspective, he says the overall risk is still small.

In the study, Suissa and colleagues also found the risk higher in women who take the higher dose pills – those with 50 micrograms of estrogen or more – and in women currently taking them who have just taken the pills for a few months.

The study is published in the April 15 issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism.

Previous studies focusing on a possible link between birth control pills and lupus have produced conflicting results, Suissa states.

His study evaluated more than 1.7 million women, ages 18 to 45, who were in the U.K. General Practice Research Database, which includes more than 6 million people.

The women had prescriptions for combined oral contraceptives, which contain both the hormones estrogen and progestin. The researchers followed the women for eight years, on average, and found that 786 women had gotten a first-time diagnosis of lupus.

Should women carry condoms?

In lupus, something goes awry with the immune system, and the body produces autoantibodies that attack and destroy healthy tissue, according to the Lupus Foundation of America. Patients have inflammation, pain and damage in various parts of the body.

Suissa’s team matched up each patient with lupus to 10 people from the study database who did not have lupus when the patient was diagnosed.

They found use of oral contraceptives was linked with an increased risk of getting the disease. “I think we have clear evidence that these pills, especially at higher doses, can increase the risk of lupus,” Suissa says.

But the contraceptive alone probably does not boost the risk, he says. “We think it probably interacts with some genetic predisposition.”

To read the rest of this article, click here.

I have been blessed with an easy-going kid… so far. Sabrina doesn’t make a fuss unless something is really wrong; she’s either hungry, needs changing, wants to sleep or has the illmatic gas bubble sitting in her little chest making things really uncomfortable. In the first 9 weeks of her life I’ve grown pretty adept at discerning what the problems are. The legs kicking means the diaper needs changing, the clicking mouth means she’s hungry, head rocking back and forth Stevie Wonder-style means she’s trying to sleep and needs some incentive, and the Hulkmania arm flex means she’s got gas.

Out of all of her maladies, gas is the hardest to deal with because the fix isn’t automatic. When she’s hungry, a bottle of milk gets her quiet instantly. A diaper change has brought out the most beautiful smiles from this little girl, and when she’s ready to sleep, it’s pretty much non-negotiable. However, the gas has taken a steady hand and a lot of patience. I used to place her over my shoulder with the cloth, old school style, but found that I got the best results sitting her upright with her chest in my right palm and patting her back with my left. On more than one occasion my wife has been in the living room feeding Sabrina and she’ll call me in to burp her. After two taps on the back, Sabrina is belching like Shrek after a plate of snail eyeballs and fungus fondue. I’ve gotten so good at burping her that my wife has dubbed me “The Burp Whisperer.”

You’re reading this and thinking, “What’s the big deal?” But spend some time with an infant with gas, and you’ll understand why. Better yet, drink some soda and instead of letting that first burp out, hold it. Feels uncomfortable as hell, right? Now imagine that you can’t get that burp out without some help, and you’re still thirsty/hungry to boot. That’s why burping is so important.

On another note, Sabrina has rejected her pacifier. While she may take it during some road trips to see my parents, she will not accept it as a substitute for food or in any attempt to quiet her down. For example, if she is hungry and I give her the pacifier to calm her down until the bottle warms, she spits it right out. In general, she refuses to be silenced. Or maybe she just wants a clear path for those burps.

Want to see Sabrina in action? Click here!

Having a newborn usually means long nights, short days, and the occasional… accident!

Are pacifiers for suckers?

Check out the first video edition of Fatherhood Fridays here!

As if our body image issues as teenagers and adults wasn’t enough already, someone decided that bald babies weren’t beautiful, and should have full heads of hair to be “cute.”

Which brings us to Baby Bangs, headbands with hair attached to make your child more… stylin’ and profilin’.

What the hell?

Of all the things I’d like to say about this, I believe I am, for the first time, rendered speechless. Since when did babies need a ton of hair? They’ll grow it later! Ugh.

Would you give your baby a wig or weave? Let us know!

And speaking of things that don’t work on kids, THIS is also a money waster!

And if you’re not trying to get pregnant at all, be extra careful when you do THIS!!!!!

Decades ago, thanks to lack of proper medical knowledge and health classes in school, people used to think that women couldn’t get pregnant unless they had an orgasm. But while this may sound a little far fetched, a new study shows that there actually is some truth to that statement – researchers have recently determined that the hotter the sex, the greater one’s chances at fertility are. Which is a good thing… if you’re trying to get pregnant.

[From Guardian]

Forget books, special diets and particular times of the month. Couples who want a baby should put their energy into having the wild, uninhibited sex of their early days together.

The better their quality of love-making, the greater their chances of conception, scientists say. What one fertility expert calls “gourmet sex” – where both partners take time to ensure the other has a satisfying experience – gives a couple the best chance of producing a baby.

“Couples who are trying to have a baby often mention that the sex becomes a bit of a chore, a bit mechanical and routine. That’s the wrong thing to be doing,” said Dr Allan Pacey, a senior lecturer in andrology at Sheffield University.

“The sex should be as wild and thrilling as it was when they first met, when they weren’t thinking about babies, to give them the maximum possible chance of having a baby,” added Pacey, secretary of the British Fertility Society.

Men usually produce about 250 million sperm during intercourse. But those who are fully stimulated because they are enjoying “gourmet sex” will ejaculate up to 50% more than that, according to research revealed in a Channel 4 documentary tomorrow. An extra five minutes of sexual activity before ejaculation can produce an extra 25 million sperm, said Pacey. That, plus the fact the extra sperm released are of a higher standard, means there is a greater chance of the sperm and egg fusing to create a new life.

“The better the sex, the better the chances of conception,” Dr Joanna Ellington, an American expert in reproductive physiology, says in the programme, The Great Sperm Race. “One of the things that men don’t realise is that the more excited they are, the further back in the testicle they are going to draw on reserves [of sperm]. So if you have what I call ‘gourmet sex’, where you really spend time and you make it fun for both partners, that is going to make the man more stimulated and he is going to ejaculate more and healthier sperm.”

The research tallies with previous studies showing men who have viewed pornography just before ejaculation also produce greater amounts of sperm.

To read the rest of this article, click here.

Need to get in the mood? Try eating these foods.

Why’s fertility so popular these days, anyway?

To binky, or not to binky?

I am not a pacifist. In today’s blog, I discuss the gift and the curse of the baby pacifier. Every parent knows that silence is golden, but at what price?

Watch the video below and tell me what you think of the addictive, yet useful, pacifier.

Missed Jerry’s first Fatherhood Friday video blog? Check it out here!

While Sabrina’s working her way through the pacifier, Justin’s riding bikes!

[From Daily Mail]

It’s called the sunshine vitamin and it seems it smiles on mothers giving birth in late summer and early autumn.

Babies born after their pregnant mothers have enjoyed a big dose of summer sun are taller and stronger-boned than those born in winter and spring, according to a major study.

Researchers reckon the reason is the boost some sunshine gives to levels of vitamin D, which works with calcium to build bones.

Late summer and early autumn babies also have wider, denser bones setting them up for a healthier adulthood.

The body makes most vitamin D from sunlight, rather than diet, but sun exposure is controversial
because it can trigger skin cancer.

However, the Children of the 90s project – an 18-year study from Bristol University – provides evidence that the sunshine vitamin is important for bone-building in youngsters even while in the womb.

Its researchers recommend that women pregnant in the summer get plenty of sun by walking around outside or even sunbathing.

Those expecting between November and May – when sunlight levels are low – should consider vitamin supplements.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

More and more bridal companies are making dresses specially for pregnant women. This might have a lot to do with the recent rise in shotgun weddings in the UK. Says Daily Mail,

Last year, an estimated 20,000 brides in Britain were pregnant on their wedding day, accounting for 10 per cent of all first-time brides under the age of 45.

And if soaring sales at maternity bridal boutiques are anything to go by, more pregnant women than ever are opting to wear a traditional white dress.

What’s this about? Is it a generational thing? Is it a regional thing? Or maybe society as a whole has just become more accepting of pregnant brides-to-be. Expectantbrides.com is even devoted to the pregnant bride.

What do you think?

If you’ve been following “Fatherhood Fridays” at all you know that the day is fast approaching where my wife and I will be welcoming our second child into the world. It has been a very long road and, as she told me this morning, “I’m done.” She’s tired. Tired of everyone asking when the baby is coming and tired – literally. And bored. She is a Sales Director and is used to moving and shaking, wheeling and dealing, and the last month at home getting kicked in the ribs from the inside has driven her crazy. The office finally cut off her Blackberry last week, and it’s as if they severed a limb. All I could do to console her was leave for work because my mere presence was a reminder of everything she can’t do for herself right now. But if I’m not there, she can’t do very much. Can you say “No-Win Situation,” boys and girls?

But to be honest I can’t say I’d be much better under the circumstances. I recently had all four of my wisdom teeth pulled and just recovering from that for a week took its toll on me. So it got me thinking on the train ride in: what if guys were the ones who got pregnant?
10) Forget a birth control pill. AXE would have a spray, a lip balm and patch for that situation and become the sole sponsor of the Winter X Games.

9) Maury Povich would be the top-rated show where every week the country would tune in to find out which of five women knocked HIM up. “Barbara, you are NOT the mother!”

8) Babys R Us would have an NFL section where you could dress up your newborn like a football. We’d terrorize the mothers tossing the kid back and forth during halftime with our boys. “Go long!”

7) Headlines like “LeBron James Out 3 to 4 Weeks For C-Section” would be more common than a torn ACL.

6) Ford F-150s would come with leather baby seats built in. Standard. Jeep actually makes a stroller but now they’d come with 22″ rims and Magna Flow exhaust pipes.

5) Paternity Wards (wow, doesn’t that sound crazy?) would have Xbox 360′s in every room

4) Diaper Genies would be fully automated and modified with those towel launchers they use at NBA games.

3) Nike’s Air Force One would come in a mule.

2) Instead of… other things… guys would stand around bragging about whose baby was bigger.

1) President Obama would be knocked up RIGHT NOW. You saw how Michelle looked at him during the Inauguration. Tell me I’m lying.

Ladies, I know you can add a hundred things to this list so, by all means, have at it in the comments section!

In an article entitled “Surrogates: Redefining Motherhood,” CBS explores the increasingly popular act of carrying someone else’s child to term for monetary gain. According to the article,

The miracle has a high price. The fee for the entire surrogacy process ranges from $80,000 to well over $100,000.

Of that, doctors get $9,000 to $15,000; agencies, $15,000 to $20,000; and the surrogates? First-timers get $18,000 to $25,000; experienced surrogates, up to $40,000.

With the unfortunate condition our economy’s in at the moment, would you consider carrying someone else’s child for the sake of your family’s income?

A woman gave birth Monday to eight babies, only the second time in history octuplets have survived more than a few hours. The unidentified lady gave birth to six boys and two girls weighing between 1 pound, 8 ounces and 3 pounds, 4 ounces.

Doctors at Kaiser Permanante Bellflower Medical Center told The Associated Press that the hospital had scheduled a Caesarean section for seven babies, but doctors were surprised by the eighth. Forty-six hospital staff and four delivery rooms were used for the births. The children were born nine weeks premature and two newborns were placed on ventilators and a third needs oxygen.

Hospital officials would not release any information about the mother, including her name, condition or whether she used fertility drugs. They did, however, say she planned to breast feed all of them.

The world’s first live octuplets were born in March 1967 in Mexico City, but all the babies died within 14 hours, according to Encyclopedia Britanica.

All we can say is Good Luck!!!!

BP Member 1-LL

1-LL says, “With the amount of trouble caused by OOW (out of wedlock) births and child support issues… why?”

In the news forum titled “Why Do Black Women Have Sex and Babies Outside A Loving Marriage?” The question is raised and the battle is waged. Add your opinion to the conversation here.

Picking the name for his sister to be was a bit more of a process, and still is. While we eventually settled on Sabrina for a first name, it wasn’t the 1,2,3 process of the first go around. Names like Britney were thrown around, but anything that reminded me of a pop star didn’t sit well. My wife suggested Sabrina and while it didn’t grab me at first, it rattled around in my head for a while until one day it just sounded right. So we chose that.  The middle name is a little trickier.

For those not familiar, for Catholics your middle name can double as your St. name if you don’t choose to have a separate Saint name. With boys it’s a little easier because many St. names are common names, period (Michael, James, Matthew.etc.) But with girls, the list seems to be a little limited. Elizabeth was tossed into the ring and got a positive response, but this wasn’t even the issue this time. My wife is named after her grandmother and wanted to do the same for our daughter’s middle name, naming her after her mother, Roselle. I didn’t object to this outright but it made me think about my own mother, Gemma. Why not honor her as well? Maybe it’s a matriarchal thing. It never occurred to me to name Justin after my dad, but her request gave me pause. We discussed it for a while and came up with a few permutations, one of them being Emma-Rose. Phonetically it sounded better than Rose-Gemma but I could tell that it wasn’t sitting well with my wife, since it was her idea to use her mother’s name for the middle name. I wasn’t trying to impose on her traditions; I just didn’t want to leave my mother out if it was possible.

This is further aggravated by the fact that we are certain this is our last child (another blog for another day), and there would be no other opportunities to pass on names. I countered by suggesting the names of two of our late aunts, Jacqueline and Agnes.  After thinking it over my wife felt that was something best left for their own children to do, our cousins. Ok, so it was becoming clear to me that this was not going to get resolved easily, but I was out of compromising suggestions.

A few weeks later my wife offered the compromise of Rose-Agnes, considering that our daughter is due to be born around the feast of St. Agnes (coincidentally, our mothers’ birthdays are both in late January as well). This seemed like the most reasonable compromise and I quite frankly didn’t want to debate it any more. It’s not a bad name and I felt like I was the one dragging the issue out. So I conceded. Of course, a few days later she muttered something about Elizabeth. Sigh.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see what she looks like.

How do you decide what to name your child? Tell us your naming stories.

The Dallas Cowboys had and will always have a special place in my heart. That said, I couldn’t help but smile when reading an article on Cowboy DeMarcus Ware, his wife Taniqua, and their 6-month old daughter Marley.

After practice on Saturday, August 23rd, Ware stormed off the field. He said he was tired of practicing and was ready to start the season. But, upon seeing his wife and daughter, who were waiting for him after practice, his demeanor changed entirely;

“You are so happy because you have a little bundle of joy in your life,” he said to the Dallas Morning News. “I even find myself going to Wal-Mart looking for little toys. When I’m going grocery shopping looking for food, I’m getting baby food instead of food for myself.”

Before Marley entered the Ware home, DeMarcus and Taniqua had suffered three miscarriages, convinced that having a child wasn’t part of their reality. But, when going to get his Corvette serviced at a Grapevine car dealership last January, DeMarcus met Grapevine dealer Justin Norwood.

While sitting in Norwood’s office, Ware noticed a photo of two kids. Norwood told Ware that those kids were his adopted children. At that, Ware began to share his personal struggles with starting a family. From there, Justin phoned his father Jim, a pastor at the Oakcrest Family Church in Kennedale, TX, about DeMarcus and Taniqua’s story. Jim happened to know of a woman who needed to find a home for her unborn baby. The woman who gave up her parental rights was due in February. The adoption process had been set into motion.

“Everything happened so fast. The timing of it all definitely shows she was meant to be ours,” Taniqua said.

Because they were not expecting the birth to happen as soon as it did, the Wares attended the Pro Bowl in Hawaii, followed by Cowboy Stephen Bowen’s wedding in New York. DeMarcus was in New York on February 29th when he was phoned about the baby’s birth, and he returned to Texas before the wedding:

“That just tells you how badly they wanted a baby, and how important it was to them,” Justin said.

The Wares missed the birth, but they met the mother, and named the daughter after DeMarcus’ favorite singer, Bob Marley.

Fatherhood is important to DeMarcus, who was raised in a single-parent household;

“I never had a father around, so now with Marley in our lives this has really taught me a lot of responsibility,” DeMarcus said. “It’s also taught me how important a child is and how much happiness a child can bring to a family.”

At this point in my life, I can only imagine how much strength is required to accept not being able to procreate. And acceptance is usually the first step of many. What next? Do you forget that you ever tried to start a family in the first place? Or, do you put pride aside and consider adopting a child that isn’t biologically your own, realizing that family transcends biological ties?

I am thrilled that the Wares have found happiness through choosing to do the latter, and, though I don’t think I need to say it, I am even more thrilled that it is football season.

In Beheira, a northern province on the Nile River delta, sons are preferred to daughters. So, it is no surprise that Ghazala Khamis, who is already the mother of three girls, opted for fertility drugs not due to infertility, but in an effort to produce a son. The result?

Septuplets (four boys and three girls, to be exact) and a blood transfusion post-caesarean for the mother.

Mission accomplished?

Sure. The Khamis family now has four sons, four times more than what they had originally hoped for.

But, here’s the catch: the Khamis family is now a party of 12, living on about 8 dollars a week. Yes, the health minister of Egypt has promised to give the babies free milk and diapers for two years, but unless all seven babies are adult-food-ready and toilet-trained by the age of two, there will be many more diapers and bottles to be bought. So, with the days of simply wanting a healthy baby evidently long gone, could “Operation Conceive-a-Son” have been achieved without serious health risks and threat of severe poverty to this family?

Perhaps, as after giving birth to her third girl, Ghazala Khamis would have been better off choosing one of the following options in response: relocate to a part of Egypt that does not necessarily discriminate against sex, or find a man stacked with “Y” chromosomes. I suppose doing the latter would be considered an upgrade in Egypt, no?

In all seriousness, I view the only sensible childbearing method to be the one that is not tampered with. Upon being asked how he planned to raise 10 kids in a financially unstable household, Khamis Khamis, father of the septuplets replied, “With the help of Allah, they will make it, but I think it will be difficult.”

At that, I rolled my eyes.

Why bring God, Allah, or any other higher power into an equation that you’ve already decided to solve on your own? If you choose to believe that God’s will be done, then is a reason why things happen the way they do. There was a reason why the Khamis’ had only been able to produce girls.

But, what exactly is that reason?

As humans, we are not always able to see the bigger picture, and honestly, I’m not sure that we are competent enough to handle such a privilege. At our best, we possess the maturity to not only put our trust in something bigger than ourselves, but furthermore, to take our hands off the steering wheel. Therein lies the beauty of living.