Shannon is getting excited as we are in the last month of pregnancy!! Dr. Kong with Orange County Women’s Medical Group gave us the “thumbs up” that all is going well. Doesn’t Shannon look incredible?! We sure think so!
Do Your Kids Know How to Swim?
Each year, too many children are victims of drowning. Do your kids know how to swim?
A good swimmer is one who can move through the water in an efficient and almost effortless manner. Does this describe your child?
We all make efforts in keeping our children and grandchildren safe, but there is no better solution than their having sufficient swimming skills. Look to your local YMCA or other type of school that can teach your children how to be safer in the water and learn proper swimming techniques. Classes are offered for children as young as 3 months!
A Mother Tells Her Daughter How She Came to Be
Hi Nancy,
Hope you and all the boys are well!! Today we were driving home in the car and we went through the story of you keeping her in your belly for me! She was quite excited and said she remembered the experience. I asked her how and she said she remembered tickling you when she was inside. We laughed and were so pleased she was excited about how she came to be.
I’m sooo in love with her. She is the best daughter, sister and friend! She is the most loved child in her class, not just by all her peers, but the mums too! I can’t tell you how many friends tell me she would be perfect for their sons! Well, all I have to say is ‘get in line’!! Anyway, thanks again for this great gift you have given us!
Much Love,
Gail x
Gorgeous Gals!
Jennifer pregnant with the baby girl she is carrying for her Couple was just radiant yesterday! Dr. May with OCWMG shared a story about one of his favorite trips to Paris, France and visiting the Eiffel Tower. Jennifer has never been to Paris, but I’m sure it is on her Must See list. I plan on going again. – Carol
10 Neat Facts About Pregnancy That You May Not Know
Your Uterus Expands Up To 500 Times Its Normal Size
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A woman’s body is an incredible thing. Did you know the uterus enlarges up to 500 times its normal size? It can go from a couple of ounces to 1-2 pounds in weight. Once you have delivered it gradually goes back to its original size and weight.
Your Heart Grows
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Yes it grows with love for your child, but did you know your heart organ actually enlarges while you are pregnant? It works harder and beats at a more rapid pace due to the increased volume of blood in your body. Your blood volume alone increases by 40-50%!
Joints Soften
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In order to prepare your body for birth, it produces a hormone called relaxin which softens your ligaments. This softening helps your baby pass through your pelvis during labor. Amazing, isn’t it?
Hair Feels Fuller
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People say that your hair gets thicker when you are pregnant. While that isn’t technically the truth, it is fuller and more abundant than usual. Higher levels of estrogen during your pregnancy prevents your hair from shedding at it’s normal rate. This results in fuller hair and the dreaded hair loss after pregnancy. You notice more hair falling out postpartum because so little was shed during pregnancy. No harm done ;).
Feet Can Grow One Full Size
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The relaxin hormone we were just talking about? They can also loosen the ligaments in your feet. That combined with your increased body weight adds to your foot’s width and length. Not to worry as your feet will go back to their normal size a couple of months after pregnancy. Says the woman who’s gone up a shoe size during all three of her pregnancies ;).
Your Sense Of Smell Gets Stronger
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My sense of smell was so sensitive during my pregnancies, my husband was convinced I had super powers. Although I wish I had such magic, my heightened sense of smell was due to the high levels of estrogen and human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG).
Tall Mamas More Likely To Conceive Twins
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According to a study put together in 2006 by Dr. Gary Steinman, an obstetrician at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, taller women are more likely to conceive twins.
Cravings Can Mean Something More
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Classic pregnancy combos like pickles with ice cream are an unknown phenomena. No one really knows why moms get these types of strange cravings. However, ice, dirt and salt cravings usually mean that your body is lacking in a certain nutrient. I had a crazy ice craving during my third pregnancy and it turns out I had low iron and had to up my levels.
Baby Gets Nutrients Before Mama
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During your pregnancy, the nutrients from the food you eat goes to your baby first before it passes over to you. Even if you skip a meal your body will take the nutrients from you to keep your baby healthy. This is just one of the reasons why it is so important to eat regularly and healthily!
Dad’s Pregnancy Symptoms
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Jokes have been made and the term ‘sympathy weight’ has been passed around, but did you know that some dads experience symptoms along with their wives? It’s called Couvade Syndrome and has been documented in dads around the world who experienced pregnancy symptoms from the end of the first trimester all the way to the end. Make sure you buy two tubs of ice cream during your next grocery run!
10 Best Foods for Pregnancy!
Eggs
“It’s amazing what you get in one egg, and for only about 90 calories,” says Elizabeth Ward, dietitian and author of Expect the Best, Your Guide to Healthy Eating Before, During, and After Pregnancy.
In addition to more than 12 vitamins and minerals, eggs contain lots of quality protein, which is essential for pregnancy. “Your baby’s cells are growing at an exponential rate, and every cell is made of protein,” Ward explains. “Plus, as a pregnant woman, you have your own protein needs.”
Eggs are also rich in choline, which promotes your baby’s overall growth and brain health, while helping prevent neural tube defects. Some even contain omega-3 fats, important for both brain and vision development. (Brands that have omega-3 fats will probably state so on the label.)
As for eggs’ bad rap for cholesterol? Not warranted, says Ward. It turns out that eating saturated fat does much more damage to your cholesterol level than eating the cholesterol naturally found in food. And while eggs are high in cholesterol, they’re also relatively low in saturated fat, with about one and a half grams per egg.
“Healthy women with normal blood cholesterol can consume one to two eggs a day as part of a balanced diet low in saturated fat,” Ward says.
Need more convincing? Eggs are cheap, easy, quick, and versatile. When you’re too exhausted to cook a full meal, a couple of hard boiled or scrambled eggs are just the ticket.
Salmon
Not only is salmon brimming with high-quality protein, says Ward, but it’s an exceptionally good source of omega-3 fats. And unlike swordfish, king mackerel, tilefish, and shark, salmon has low amounts of methylmercury, a compound that can be harmful to your baby’s developing nervous system.
Just remember that even for salmon and other low-mercury fish, such as canned light tuna and pollock, the FDA recommends eating no more than 12 ounces per week to avoid ingesting too much mercury.
Beans
Navy beans, lentils, black beans, pinto beans, chickpeas…..there are so many to choose from. “Beans contain the most fiber and protein of all the vegetables,” says Ward.
You already know protein is important during pregnancy, but you may not yet realize that fiber could become your new best friend during the nine-month wait. In pregnancy, the gastrointestinal tract slows down, putting you at risk for constipation and hemorrhoids. Fiber can help prevent and relieve these problems.
In addition, says Ward, food that contains fiber tends to be nutrient-rich. This is certainly true of beans, which are good sources of iron, folate, calcium, and zinc.
Sweet potatoes
Sweet potatoes get their orange color from carotenoids, plant pigments that are converted to vitamin A in our bodies, says Ward.
Although consuming too much “preformed” vitamin A (found in animal sources, such as liver, milk, and eggs) can be dangerous, carotenoids are a different story. They’re converted to vitamin A only as needed, so there’s no need to restrict your consumption of vitamin A-rich fruits and veggies.
Sweet potatoes are also a great source of vitamin C, folate, and fiber. And like beans, they’re inexpensive and versatile. “Cook extra and save them to slice up later as a snack,” Ward suggests.
Popcorn and other whole grains
Yes, you read that right. Popcorn is a whole grain. “People love it when I tell them that!” says Ward. Whole grains are important in pregnancy because they’re high in fiber and nutrients, including vitamin E, selenium, and phytonutrients – plant compounds that protect cells.
Don’t stop at popcorn though. There are lots of other whole grains out there, from oatmeal to whole grain bread to barley. Fluffy, nutty-tasting quinoa is one of Ward’s favorites. “Whole grain quinoa is easy to make and is very high in nutrients, particularly protein, making it a superfood in and of itself,” she says.
Walnuts
Don’t like fish or eggs, but still want to get those omega-3s which are so important for your baby’s brain growth? Try walnuts, suggests dietitian Kate Geagan, author of Go Green, Stay Lean. “Walnuts are one of the richest sources of plant-based omega-3s,” she says. “A handful of walnuts is a great choice for an on-the-run snack or an addition to a salad.”
Greek yogurt
Greek yogurt typically has twice the protein of regular yogurt, making it one of Geagan’s favorite pregnancy foods. And any kind of yogurt is a great source of calcium, which is vital in a pregnancy diet. If you don’t take in enough calcium, the limited amount you have will go to your baby, says Geagan, depleting the calcium in your bones and teeth.
“The goal during pregnancy is to make sure you provide everything your baby needs without sacrificing your own health and nutrition,” she explains. “Calcium will help keep your own bones intact while laying down a healthy skeleton for your baby.”
Dark green, leafy vegetables
Spinach, kale, Swiss chard, and other green leafy vegetables are loaded with vitamins and nutrients, including vitamins A, C, and K, as well as the all-important folate. They’ve also been found to promote eye health, Geagan says.
Lean meats
Meat is an excellent source of high-quality protein, says dietitian Karin Hosenfeld of North Dallas Nutrition. “Look for lean meats with the fat trimmed off,” she says. “When buying red meat in particular, look for cuts that are around 95 to 98 percent fat-free.” Beef and pork stand out among meats because in addition to protein, they contain choline, says Ward.
Don’t eat deli meats or hot dogs, though, unless they’re heating until steaming hot. There’s a small risk of passing on bacteria and parasites from the meat such as Listeria monocytogenes toxoplasma, or salmonella to your baby, says Mayo Clinic obstetrician Mary Marnach.
Colorful fruits and veggies
Eating a variety of green, red, orange, yellow, purple, and white fruits and vegetables will ensure that you and your baby get a variety of nutrients. “Each color group provides different vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants,” explains dietitian Jodi Greebel, owner of Citrition, a nutrition counseling service in New York.
Hosenfeld points out another advantage of eating across the fruit and veggie spectrum: “During the later stages of pregnancy, the baby is ‘tasting’ the foods you eat through the amniotic fluid,” she says. “So if you expose your baby to a variety of healthy fruits and vegetables in the womb, you’ll increase the chance that your baby will recognize and accept those flavors later on.”
Greatest Gift of All
We wanted to share this beautiful note from Randi’s IP:
“Thank you for the gift of life. Thank you for the tremendous joy our sweet baby girl has brought us. We prayed for an Angel and God gave us you. Thank you for being born. You have made our lives complete. You are extraordinary.”
Mother’s Day 2013
Mother’s Day 2013 will be a day that I will remember with fondness for the rest of my days. My daughter, Jenny, is celebrating her first Mother’s Day this year! As moms, we do our best to prepare our children to not just survive but to thrive in the world we live in today. Between seeing to their education, making sure they stay healthy and doing our best to making them happy too, you don’t realize that really what you are doing is setting an example for them. It occurred to me that I was not only preparing Jenny for her life, but for the lives she will be responsible for now and in the future. I am proud to be a Mom and now I am a proud Grandma. Thanks Jenny for bringing Genevieve into our lives. And may you enjoy motherhood as much as I do!
Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful women who have parented their own children and guided others who needed them. My deepest respect to all of the Surrogate Mothers who not only took on the responsibility of parenting, but decided to open their hearts to help Couples achieve their dream of parenthood. May God Bless You All!!
Carol
What is Your Favorite Mother’s Day Gift?
We asked our BFI staff to share their favorite Mother’s Day gifts. Here’s what they said!
Carol:
My favorite gifts were items the kids made when they were young. I remember Johnny making me a macaroni necklace with so many crazy colors but I wore it because it made him so proud. I had to stop wearing it as it was starting to fall apart, so I put it in a safe place. Jenny made a ceramic handprint that still sits on my dresser. Gosh, how time flies!
Breann:
I appreciate the thought behind every gift, of course, but I especially like to see how excited my kids get when they are watching me open the gifts painstakingly slow. And now that they are getting older, I have to say the gifts are quite remarkable….definitely things that I want. I would like to say that they are actually paying attention, but….LOL.
Tracy:
My idea of a wonderful Mother’s Day Gift is my kids doing something for me like cooking a meal or even cleaning the bathroom! I truly appreciate the effort.
Natalia:
Although I am not yet a mommy, I have a great mother whom I have showered with a special gift every year for as long as I can remember. I think one of the best presents I gave my mom was a picture frame that I decorated by hand with a picture of us two. I love giving gifts that can be treasured all year, not just for one specific holiday or event. It’s important to me that my mom know how wonderful she is, every day.
Randi:
Although cliche, I love the handmade gifts from my boys! The time has come this year that I will no longer receive the gifts they make in the classroom. So, I will save them and when they get older, I will bring them back out so they can see the cutesy things they did for me! So, now, I would have have to say that anything my boys pick out for me will mean the world to me and I know will melt my heart!
What is your favorite Mother’s Day gift? Share with us!
How to Tell Your Child Their Sibling is Coming… From Someone Else
One thing we can all agree on is that adults make most things more complicated than they need to be. If only we could maintain the easy acceptance our children have to situations. I asked two Couples how they explained their surrogacy arrangement to their children and here are their responses:
J&J already had a child, Tommy, but needed help having little Tommy’s sibling. In school, Tommy was learning how birds build nests for their eggs and their newborns so J&J saw this as an excellent opportunity to explain how Tommy’s brother would be arriving. They explained how mommy’s tummy was like a nest but it wasn’t warm enough to grow an egg so they needed the help of another mommy’s nest. And their special friend, Sarah, offered to share her nest and is keeping Tommy’s little brother safe and warm until it is time for him to be born.
Another Couple, A&D, decided that they would share their twins’ stories with them from birth. They created an album showcasing photos of when they first met their Surrogate Mother, Suzy, all the way to the day they came home from the hospital. Each night before bedtime, they took turns reading the album and they found that by the time their children began sitting in their lap and turning the pages themselves that the story became a natural event and one they came to enjoy sharing each night. Initially, they were concerned that their children would not react well to the news but saw that they actually felt the same way that their parents did….excited!! They say that the “practice” of telling the story almost nightly for nearly a year helped a lot.
Thanks for sharing J&J and A&D!!!!