Giveaway

For all you mommas out there or moms to be, this giveaway is for you!  Actually, it's really for anyone because as far as I'm concerned this would make a great gift for anyone expecting or planning to have kids in the near future.  The prize package is provided by BabyCenter through MyBlogSpark.  It is a fabulous prize pack including two new books from BabyCenter, a package of chlorine free diapers, a really cute bib, an exclusive code to try the all-new BabyCenter online class for free and a gift card from BabyCenter partner, Shutterfly!  (the gift card and code for the online class is not included in the picture below)

I'll be honest, I was asked back in October to do the giveaway and it has taken me this long to get it posted!  The reason for that is because I wanted to read through each of the books so I could give you all a beautiful description of them and my thoughts on each.  Unfortunately, reality hit that that really is not entirely possible in my life right now and I better get to crackin' on this giveaway before I reach the deadline and nobody wins due to my lack of...well, I don't know but lack of something.  Anyway, I did read through pretty much all of the pregnancy book which was much easier being as though I am actually in that part of life right now.  I thought it was filled with lots of wonderful information that is especially useful to first time expectant mothers.  Reading it as I am expecting my second is not quite the same as it would have been the first time around simply because I read SO much during my pregnancy with Jordan out of excitement that I really had read it all before.  But if I could have had my hands on this when I was pregnant with Jordan I would have been thrilled.  But I guess in saying that, if you are signed up for BabyCenters weekly emails that are filled with all sorts of fun information about your baby's development each week then this book is probably not necessary.  I felt as though I was reading some of the exact same information I was getting in my weekly emails.  I DO like reading out of a book better than I do off a computer screen but a quick weekly email doesn't take up a whole lot of time so my eyes can handle it.  There were two things that I read in the book that really caught my attention and quite honestly got me quite stirred up because its something I feel very strongly about.  But in the 'What's Safe to Eat' section it talked about why the things you eat may be bad for your baby which is where it talked about alcohol, caffeine, diet soda, artificial sweeteners, raw or undercooked meat, cheese and dairy products, fish, deli meats, shellfish, prepared salads, and herbal teas.  I think that part is great but the first thing that started getting me a little irritated was in the alcohol section where it mentioned that "Heavy drinking, particularly binge drinking (five or more units of alcohol at one time), during pregnancy can seriously affect your developing baby.  The risks of drinking much less, however, aren't clear cut.  Even so, all public health officials in the United States recommend that pregnant women, as well as women who are trying to conceive, play it safe by steering clear of alcohol entirely."  Now that got me upset because even though at the end the advise avoiding it altogether if someone who is that seriously interested in drinking that they are looking up this particular topic to see if they could have a drink here or there (as I did with coffee) they may get caught up on the details that as long as they are having less than five units of alcohol they should be fine because the book states that the affects of drinking less than that aren't clear cut.  I was almost able to let that go until I read just three sections later in the Artificial Sweeteners category that "Artificial sweeteners such as aspartame (NutraSweet) and sucralose (Splenda) are considered safe, you may want to avoid saccharin, which was linked to birth defects in rats when consumed in very high amounts."  It was at this point I nearly put the book down without plans to ever pick it up again and I was only 50 pages in out of 320 pages!  To some this may seem like something one should not get so worked up about but if only you REALLY knew anything about aspartame and artificial sweeteners I'm pretty sure it would get you worked up too!  And today is your lucky day because I am linking to a wonderful blog post that gives great information on the subject.  I beg you to take the time to read it.  I'm sure you'll be amazed and shocked by what you read.  Anyway, I DID continue reading the book and was happy with the rest of the information I read and am pleased to be able to do this giveaway.  I'm sorry I am not able to give more information about the baby's first year book but I simply have not read it.  It is set up in a format of 0-6 weeks, 6 weeks to 6 months, 6 months to one year, plus a special baby healthcare section for the entire year.

The giveaway will be open until Tuesday, December 21st at midnight MST, winner will be announced on Wednesday.  All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog including your email or a link to your blog so I have some way to contact you if you win.  Don't be afraid to enter even if you aren't currently pregnant or in this stage of your child's first year.  As mentioned above, I really think this would make a great gift for someone you know who is expecting or just had a baby.