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Winner: Redbud Designs Blog Makeover

Congrats to Analee (comment #19). She is the winner of the Blog Design giveaway we hosted here on BBA from Redbud Designs. Analee said...

"I am posting for my amazing sister. She teaches at head start and has 1 year old twin boys! Her blog is in serious need of a makeover. She might actually blog more if it was cute.

I know Sharon through club, SiggieSisters, so I blogstalk. :)

I love Sharon's designs and think The Idea Farm would be great for my sister's blog!"

Thanks to Sharon of Redbud Designs for the giveaway!

BBA Headlines

:: Lawyer: Octuplets in Danger
Celebrity attorney Gloria Allred says Nadya Suleman's only cares about her eight babies when the cameras are rolling.

:: Safety first!
Baby-proofing suggestions for your home.

:: Is Mariah Carey expecting a Baby Girl?
According to the New York Daily News, Carey recently dropped $200,000 on baby furniture. The pricey pickups included a pink crib and highchair.

:: Best Gift for Newborn's Siblings?
One-on-one time with mom is what they may want most.

:: Toddlers Really Do Hear What We Say
Apparently they just pretend they don't and store away the information for later.

My Relish! Menu Planning Review

A few weeks ago we gave away a one year subscription to Relish!, the online menu planning website.

I was introduced to it by a friend who kept talking about these amazing meals she was cooking every night. She has used Relish! for a few months and loves the service for her family. She follows it faithfully and loves going to the grocery only once a week with her organized grocery list.

I, on the other hand, was not as succesful with my venture into menu planning with Relish! The concept is really good and it helped me to realize how important it is to meal plan, something that I've always wanted to do, but never got around to doing. The Relish! website is also very organized and actually encourages you to choose new recipes for your family which is great. I just think I need to stick with more recipes I know. I've realized that I'm not that adventurous when it comes to new recipes and foods and my husband isn't either. We won't even get started on our VERY picky three-year-old.

My first mistake was taking my three year old to the grocery with me for my first shopping trip. For the first trip, it took more thought than my usual grocery trip, because I was buying things I don't normally buy. Throwing an impatient three-year-old into the mix didn't help.

On the way home, I realized how great it was to know that I had all the ingredients I needed for five meals! Sometimes I come home from the grocery and still think, what did I buy that I can throw together for a meal? I LOVED having all the ingredients for the meals I selected, but I also wondered each day if that night's meal would be a success or a failure and we'd have to order pizza.

I am still considering using Relish! for a meal or two a week in conjunction with some of my other standard recipes. I hope to get better at meal planning. In the next few days, I'll be posting a meal planning spreadsheet here on BBA that I found recently while blog hopping.

I'd still suggest checking Relish! out for yourself, because I think it can be great for some families. Let us know if there are any menu planning methods or services that work for you.

Fertility Clinics Prove Recession-Proof For Egg Donors

An unlikely business appears to be thriving during this difficult economy. Fertility clinics across the country are experiencing a baby boom of sorts.

An increasing number of women are donating their eggs. Some do it to help families conceive a child, but the financial reward for selling their eggs is also appealing.

News 5 found ads on Craigslist.org placed by agencies and couples looking for what they consider to be a "good egg donor." The ads offer anywhere from $8,000 to $50,000 to women who are willing to donate their eggs.

Read more...

BBA Weekend Wrap

:: Using facebook as a parenting tool...
:: Octomom brings home two more babies...
:: Sex change woman pregnant with twins...
:: Helping pregnant women stay fit...
:: Bad economy has parents saying no a lot...
:: Financial planning for the single parent...
:: Picking the right summer camp for your child...
:: Good mothers lead by example...
:: Nine ways to outsmart sibling rivalry...
:: Parenting tips...
:: iPhone could soon help parents track kids' health...
:: Former 'Bachelor' Firestone, wife, welcome baby...
:: Parrot alerts owner to choking baby, gets reward...
:: Golfer Annika Sorenstam is pregnant...

Winner: iPhone App

Congrats to Kerri (comment #7) who said... "What a great idea. Hope I win;)" She is the winner of the iPhone App Giveaway for the Baby Activity Logger. We'll contact you to let you know how to redeem your prize.

Click here for our current giveaways.

Win a Blog Design from Redbud Designs! **GIVEAWAY CLOSED**

:: THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED. CLICK HERE TO SEE IF WE HAVE A NEW GIVEAWAY ON BBA.

Next up in our weekly Blog Designer Spotlight here on BBA is the talented Sharon Albright of Redbud Designs.


GIVEAWAY: Redbud Designs is giving away a SIMPLE BLOG DESIGN (custom header design and background) with an added signature to one lucky BBA reader!!!

How to enter:

1) Go to Redbud Designs and search through Sharon's creative designs for your favorite.

2) Earn one entry by leaving a comment on this post telling us your favorite design.

3) Earn one extra entry by becoming a BBA Follower in our left column and letting us know in a separate comment. If you are already a follower, you can still earn an extra entry by just letting us know in a separate comment.

4) Make sure we have your contact info (email or blog address) in your blogger profile or comment itself, so we can contact you if you win.

5) This giveaway ends: Wednesday, 3/25 at 7:00 PM ET. We'll select a random winner then post their name here on BBA and contact them after the contest ends. Good luck!

A sampling of Sharon's creative blog designs...

We asked Sharon to tell us about herself and her design background. Here's what she said...

I am a proud Texas girl, but now live in Nashville, Tennessee with my talented husband, Kevan, and our precious baby girl, Merit.

I was an elementary teacher for three years, but have always had an appreciation for design of all kinds. During my time at school, I was the go-to-girl for projects such as faculty shower invitations and classroom newsletter layouts, and changing the design of my classroom calendar was a highlight each month. :) During after-school hours, I began to enjoy digital scrapbooking and card-making. Being creative in such a way quickly became a passion of mine.

In the Spring of 2008, we welcomed baby Merit into our family. Kevan and I had always planned for me to stay at home when we started having babies, so even though it seemed financially impossible, we decided to try to make it work. To do what I could to help out, I decided in October to start my own little design business. It was something that made perfect sense...staying home with Merit AND being creative for a living. It has been an adventure, and I thank God everyday that I am able to live out two of my dreams at once. You can read more about our family on my personal blog, sharonthefun.blogspot.com.

Here's what Sharon told us about her design services...

I really enjoy blog design. I have packages that include headers only all the way to a full blog redesign. I tend to favor vintage designs, and if a client gives me free reign, a vintage-whimsical feel is most likely what I'm going to create. However, I can create any type of style that you can dream up! I will always do my very best to be sure that my client loves the final design and truly feels that it represents their unique character. I currently do full redesigns for Blogger, and offer header designs for Wordpress and Etsy shops.

Sharon designs more than blogs...

In addition to blog design, I offer services for printed products, such as invitations, announcements, business cards and brochures, logo design, and t-shirt design. Currently, I send my client a jpeg file, and they are able to print where and however they wish!

Winner: Sweet Cheeky Designs Blog Redesign

Congratulations to luckeelady (comment #66). I guess she really is a "lucky lady"! She is the winner of the Blog Redesign Giveaway from Sweet Cheeky Designs.

She said, "I like the Gift Closet... I love polka dots and it looks great."

Congrats luckeelady. We'll send you an email to let you know how to redeem your prize.

::Check out our current giveaway for a blog design from Redbud Designs.

Irish Baby Names

On this St. Patrick's Day, the staff at Parenting.com has compiled a list of its favorite Irish baby names. Bedelia, Fallon and Maeve are some of the girls' names. For boys, a few of the faves are Callum, Killian and Seamus.

Click here for the full list.

BBA Headlines

:: Girl Calls 911, Saves Brother's Life
A 9-year-old Fort Worth, Texas girl said she knew just what to do when her baby brother fell into the family's backyard pool.

:: Better Oversight of Baby Products Demanded
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand demanded that the Food and Drug Administration exercise greater oversight of baby care products in reaction to an advocacy group's report that said the products contain potentially harmful materials.

:: Tiniest Babies Carry Biggest Costs
Medical costs for healthy, full-term babies during their first year average $4,551, of which about $3,800 is covered by employer heath insurance. But for preterm babies, the cost is almost $50,000, with about $46,000 paid by employer insurance.

:: Patrick Wilson, Wife Expecting Second Baby
Wilson, 35, star of the hit Watchmen, and his wife, actress Dagmara Dominczyk, 32, are expecting a second child due this summer.

Baby-Proofing Octomom's New Home

Two of Nadia Suleman's octuplets haven't been cleared to go home yet. Suleman's new home must first be baby-proofed. Social workers say the gas company still must inspect the La Habra house. They also want carbon monoxide detectors installed before the first two octuplets are released. Suleman hired a baby-proofing service to handle some of the household issues.

BBA Headlines

:: Children's bath products tainted...
:: Woman charged $195K for someone else's baby...
:: Telling people you're pregnant...
:: Get healthy while pregnant...
:: What advice did you ignore as a new parent ?...
:: Report: Tom Cruise makes Katie diet before pregnancy...
:: Baby for Carson Daly, longtime girlfriend...
:: Ellen Degeneres, Portia DeRossi having a baby?...

The Case Against Breastfeeding

By Hanna Rosin
The Atlantic

One afternoon at the playground last summer, shortly after the birth of my third child, I made the mistake of idly musing about breast-feeding to a group of new mothers I’d just met. This time around, I said, I was considering cutting it off after a month or so. At this remark, the air of insta-friendship we had established cooled into an icy politeness, and the mothers shortly wandered away to chase little Emma or Liam onto the slide. Just to be perverse, over the next few weeks I tried this experiment again several more times. The reaction was always the same: circles were redrawn such that I ended up in the class of mom who, in a pinch, might feed her baby mashed-up Chicken McNuggets.

In my playground set, the urban moms in their tight jeans and oversize sunglasses size each other up using a whole range of signifiers: organic content of snacks, sleekness of stroller, ratio of tasteful wooden toys to plastic. But breast-feeding is the real ticket into the club. My mother friends love to exchange stories about subversive ways they used to sneak frozen breast milk through airline security (it’s now legal), or about the random brutes on the street who don’t approve of breast-feeding in public. When Angelina Jolie wanted to secure her status as America’s ur-mother, she posed on the cover of W magazine nursing one of her twins. Alt-rocker Pete Wentz recently admitted that he tasted his wife, Ashlee Simpson’s, breast milk (“soury” and “weird”), after bragging that they have a lot of sex — both of which must have seemed to him markers of a cool domestic existence.

Read more...

iPhone App Giveaway: Baby Activity Logger **GIVEAWAY CLOSED**

:: THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED. CLICK HERE TO SEE IF WE HAVE A NEW GIVEAWAY ON BBA.

The creator of Baby Activity Logger, a new iPhone application, contacted us to get the word out to the BBA Nation. It looks like a pretty useful app. In a nutshell, it allows parents to track the activities of their baby -- eating, peeing, pooping, burping, sleeping and spitting up.

It costs $2.99 in Apple's App Store, but one lucky BBA reader will get it for free.

Enter a name in the comments below and leave a blog link or e-mail address so we can contact the winner. This giveaway will end at 8 p.m. EST on Wednesday, March 18th.

BBA Weekend Wrap

:: Safe sleeping environments for baby...
:: Octomom mom says two babies home Monday...
:: Gets baby care gifts...
:: Date nights in three easy steps...
:: Parenting techniques to try on spouse...
:: My toddler is making me fat...
:: Twin boys for Charlie Sheen, wife Brooke...

Winner: Doodlebug Designs Blog Makeover

Congrats to Cathy Davis (comment # 6)!! She is the winner of our giveaway of Custom Blog Design from Doodlebug Designs. Don't forget, Doodlebug Designs is celebrating one year in business with an offer of $10 off each custom blog design. But hurry up. The discount ends tomorrow, March 15th.

Everyone else still has a chance to win a blog makeover here on BBA. Check out and enter this week's giveaway from Sweet Cheeky Designs.

BBA Headlines

:: Baby toys recalled because of choking hazard...
:: Cop pulls over, delivers own baby...
:: Anne Heche names baby boy Atlas...
:: Police: Woman has baby, steals purse...
:: 'Bones' star Boreanaz expecting second baby...
:: 'Iron Chef' Cat Cora, partner, both pregnant...
:: Gisele is ready to have Tom Brady's baby...

Win a Blog Redesign from Sweet Cheeky Designs! **GIVEAWAY CLOSED**

:: THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED. CLICK HERE TO SEE IF WE HAVE A NEW GIVEAWAY ON BBA.

We have featured some very creative designers in our weekly Blog Designer Spotlights here on BBA. Next up is Traci Rutledge of Sweet Cheeky Designs. She is very talented and creates beautiful blog designs. Traci is also celebrating her birthday this month, so Happy Birthday, Traci, from all of us at BBA!

GIVEAWAY: Sweet Cheeky Designs is giving away a BLOG REDESIGN to one lucky BBA reader!!! The redesign is for a 2 or 3 column blog with personalized header, custom signature, post break, custom side buttons and a matching blog button and nav bar, if needed. The 2-column designs start at $30 and the 3-column blog is $85. Each design comes with installation and maintenance too.

How to enter:

1) Go to Sweet Cheeky Designs or the Sweet Cheeky Design Portfolio and search through her creative designs for your favorite.

2) Earn one entry by leaving a comment on this post telling us your favorite design from Sweet Cheeky Designs.

3) Earn one extra entry by becoming a BBA Follower in our left column and letting us know in a separate comment. If you are already a follower, you can still earn an extra entry by just letting us know in a separate comment.

4) Make sure we have your contact info (email or blog address) in your blogger profile or comment itself, so we can contact you if you win.

5) This giveaway ends: Wednesday, 3/18 at 7:00 PM ET. We'll select a random winner then post their name here on BBA and contact them after the contest ends. Good luck!

Some of Traci's creative blog designs...

We asked Traci to tell us about herself and her design background. Here's what she said...

I am a former teacher and stay at home mother of two who finally found her dream job. While taking my son to special schools and therapy for autism, I learned web design by reading some books in my car waiting for him. Crazy, right? I started playing with the graphics by asking my friends to let me experiment on their blogs.

I started Sweet Cheeky Designs in August of 2008 and I have already been so blessed with customers who want a unique and creative blog redesign.

Since moving from Texas to Northwest Arkansas in the fall of 2008, both of my kids are in school full-time and I get to spend my day redesigning blogs and learning the website end of it all. I enjoy each new customer and will never make the same design twice. I want your blog to portray you and I will work until you love, love, love it!

Here's what Traci told us about her design services...

Sweet Cheeky Designs will help you achieve your dream blog. I currently only work with Blogger and can do anything from a redesign to any side items of your choice. Including personalized headers, custom signature and side buttons, to navigation bars on your website-blog.

Turn around time is usually less than a week. I will keep you updated on the process by giving you access to the testing site that I use. By working together, I guarantee that you will love, love, love your new blog!

Traci ended the interview by telling BBA...

I LOVE comments so stop by today to browse my website and learn about what I can do for you next!