ANOTHER win and a new project...

Brandy: I just got an email that I won another giveaway from Minnesota Mama's Must Haves! That is the 4th one this week! We won the Baby Signs: Complete Starter Kit! How exciting!

We have a new project starting next weekend. We are getting the rest of the interior of our house painted. It will be 3 rooms, 2 bathrooms and the hallway. This will finally be all of the painting (inside and out) in the entire house. We are using a Zero VOC/low odor paint. It is the same stuff we used in the nursery (Harmony from Sherwin Williams), and it worked out great. I just want to get this done ASAP so that we don't have any more projects lingering after the baby arrives! Wish us luck!

2 More Wins - That's 3 this week!

Brandy: I was super happy when I checked my email this morning because I had notice that I had won two giveaways! The funny thing is that this is the 3rd win this week and they are all from Minnesota Mama's Must Haves! http://www.minnesotamamasmusthaves.com/
The first win today was a pair of Stay with me Socks. They have a special Velcro feature which helps keep them on baby's feet, and it keeps the pair together in the wash. http://www.minnesotamamasmusthaves.com/2009/10/baby-shower-bash-giveaway-25-stay-with.html
The second win was a big one! I won a $50 gift certificate for anything that I want from the Sprout Baby website! http://store.sproutbaby.com/category_s/2.htm
I think I mentioned in my post on Monday that I had a bit of a dry spell with wins. I am happy to say that the dry spell is over!

Car Seat Inspection and Safety Recommendations

Brandy: I went this morning to the police station on Hall Street to get my car seat inspected. Brian could not make this appointment, so he is going separately... hopefully in the next week. The ladies that did the inspection were very nice, Luckily, our Honda has center LATCH which made me very happy. We had the car seat base installed in the center LATCH position. I knew before I went that it was too loose, but I did not know how to make it tighter. It was as easy as pulling on a strap. She put her weight on the base, and pulled the strap so that it was in there nice and tight. It is not supposed to move more than an inch from side to side (up and down movement is okay). Then comes the discussion we had about "after market accessories". The bottom line is read your car seat manual to see if there are any of these accessories that were safety tested with the car seat. If not, don't use them. We had purchased extra squishy body/head support padding to replace the pads that came in the car seat. We were told these put too much space between the baby and the seat and could lead to serious injury. I am going to put the original pads back in and use the other support pads in the stroller or something. The officers told me that the only thing I could do to help support babies head in a safe manner was to roll up a receiving blanket and place one on each side of babies head. This can help a newborn head from flopping around. We also had car seat strap covers that we had added on because they were softer than the ones that came on the car seat. We were advised that these are okay later (when baby gets bigger), but they prevent the center clasp from going in the center of the baby's chest when they are itty bitty. Once they do not get in the way anymore, then we can use them. We also had one of those mirrors so you can see the baby from the front seat. We were told to take it down because if it came loose during an accident it could injure the baby. Since we have an SUV, we were also advised to get a cargo net to place over any objects in the very rear of the vehicle. These can become projectiles during an accident. The officers said they have seen babies injured or killed due to flying objects in the vehicle. So, I am taking everything they advised to heart. I just wish that I had known about this information PRIOR to getting a bunch of accessories that could kill my child. Why do they even sell these things if they can hurt my baby? And why are they brands called Safety 1st? This is just a tad bit misleading! Can you sense the sarcasm in my words? And why do stories (like Babies R Us) have these things on their "checklist" of things to register for? Oh wait, money! Forget about the safety of children when money is involved! There is nothing like suckering a first time parent into buying things that can injure or kill their baby!

Appointment Update and Giveaway Win

Brandy: Friday we had a prenatal appointment with Dinah. I was 33 1/2 weeks, and my fundal height was 33 cm. Baby's heartbeat was good. My blood pressure was a tiny bit high so I had to go pee on a stick to make sure I did not have any protein in my urine. I didn't, so all was well!

I had a bit of a dry spell, but I finally won a giveaway! I won 3 CD's from Minnesota Mama's Must Haves. They are from the My Baby Loves series... I won Madonna, Michael Jackson and the 80's. They take popular songs and turn them into lullabies! I can't wait to hear what they sound like!

I have maternity pictures coming up this month. I am using a local photographic artist and she does some amazing work. Check out http://www.sharonneelbagley.com/ I don't want to give anything away, but I am pretty sure you haven't seen any maternity photos like the ones we are planning! I can't wait to see how they turn out!