Top 10 Nutrition Tips for Kate...well, really all new moms

Are you excited about the Royal Baby? Well, I am!  I've been a fan of William and Kate from the get-go, and I'm happy to see them blessed with a new little son.

Kate's not the only new mom in my circle of acquaintances, so I was interested when I came across these tips from  Dr. Stan Cohen, one of the top experts in the fields of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition in the country and founder of the Children's Digestive Research Fund (disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, and you should take Dr. Cohen's advice only at your own discretion.)

TOP TEN NUTRITION TIPS FOR KATE, KIM, AND ALL NEW MOTHERS IN THE FIRST THREE MONTHS AFTER BIRTH

1) Breastfeed if you can. Breast milk has wonderful immune factors to lessen infections and doctors visits. Breast milk even helps to lessen asthma, diabetes, obesity, reflux and a host of other conditions. You'll also lose your baby weight faster, by the way (and you will decrease your own risk for breast, ovarian and uterine cancers).

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2) In those first days after birth, put the baby to the breast often to help your milk come in. The baby isn't going to take much at a time (his stomach is only the size of a small marble). Let the skin-to-skin contact help stimulate your flow and let all that bonding nurture both you and the baby.

3) Don't give up easily or assume breastfeeding is totally natural. I actually almost did this as a brand new mom.  Thanks to a supportive husband, I stuck with it, nursed all my children, and I'm so glad I did.  It may not be easy right away, but beleive me, if you persevere, you'll be so glad you did.

4) Breastfeed as long as you want to, though Dr. Cohen recommends at least 6 months if possible. The longer you continue, the more you may help to diminish any tendency to allergies and increase the baby's intellectual and social development.

5) This was a new one to me, but Dr. Cohen says to Make sure you eat fish 2-3 times a week* to increase your supply of DHA that will cross to the baby. DHA is one of the factors that optimizes the baby's brain and visual development, beginning in the last trimester of pregnancy through the second year of life. *These should be fish that do not contain high levels of mercury (swordfish, tilefish, king mackerel, shark). If you are allergic to fish, you can take DHA supplements or get it from other DHA-enriched sources (eggs, for example).

Go here for a yummy-looking recipe for grilled snapper

6) Continue your prenatal vitamins --and Dr. Cohen suggests that you consider taking extra vitamin D, some of which will get to your baby.  He also recommends giving the baby vitamin D drops as well. 

7) Don't let all of the emphasis on breastfeeding cause any guilt if you are unable to breastfeed or choose not to.   I agree with this one.  I've seen new moms agonize when breastfeeding didn't work out...or feel guilty for choosing not to do so for various reasons . Dr. Cohen says that formulas are quite healthful. They were developed to match breast milk and the outcomes of feeding breast milk as much as possible.

8) Watch for early hunger cues, especially when your baby is smacking his or her lips or seems to be sucking or rooting for your breast. It's much easier to initiate a feeding than when the baby is already shrieking with a hunger cry.

9) Neither breast nor bottle fed babies need to have a rigid feeding schedule. Nor do they need to finish a bottle just because you prepared it. Overfeeding can result in an uncomfortable baby or one who brings back the excess. My addition to this thought? As a new mom, you'll feel your way with this.  Do what feels right for you and your baby.

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10) Ask for help if you need it--from your husband, your baby's doctor or others. Dr. Cohen says not all babies are professional feeders, and they may have problems that others can assist you with, even if it's just to watch the baby so you can refresh and pamper yourself for a few hours. I totally agree with this! Just an hour or two away from the baby...for a hair appointment, a pedicure or coffee with a friend...can go a long way to making you feel "normal" again.

Note: Dr. Stan Cohen is the author of What to Feed Your Baby: Cost-Conscious Nutrition for Your Infant

Any other suggestions? Feel free to put them in my comments section!

If you love all things Scottish...

The original cast of "Monarch of the Glen"

Anyone who knows me knows that I've always (and by always I mean since I was a very little girl) wanted to go to Scotland.  And Ireland. And England.

Lately I get my vicarious UK thrills from watching BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) shows on Netflix.  My latest addiction?

A show called "Monarch of the Glen."

The show actually hasn't aired since 2005, but I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

The premise (from Wikipedia):

While trying to carve a living out of the London restaurant he runs with his girlfriend Justine, Archie MacDonald is called back to his Highland home, to the bed of his dying father, Hector. When he arrives, however, he finds that the news of his dying father was just a ploy by his dotty mother, Molly, to get him to Scotland and tell him face-to-face that he has inherited his father's large estate and castle, Glenbogle. Archie faces a tough decision: whether to help the debt-ridden Glenbogle, or to return to Justine in London.... To please all, Archie faces the challenge to save Glenbogle.

Right now I'm at the beginning of Series 4 (the BBC calls them "series" instead of "seasons.")

Things I love about this show:

--The scenery

Monarch of the Glen was filmed on location in the Scottish Highlands, and often just the backdrop when two characters are talking is breathtaking.

The show was filmed in and around Ardverikie House.  If you're a Downton Abbey fan, as I am, you'll love this house as much as you love Downton.

I mean, just look:

And look:

--Archie

Alastair Mackenzie is just adorable as Archie, who is desperately trying to keep Glenbogle alive despite everything going against him.

Alastair Mackenzie

Sadly, Mackenzie didn't stay with the show for its entire duration...but I'm enjoying him while he's still around.

Other things?

The gentle wit of the show...the Scottish accents (although Archie himself doesn't have one)...the laidback pace of life in the Highlands.

I just feel like I'm taking a little visit to Scotland every time I watch it.

Oh, and as for its connection to Downtown Abbey?  Well, Julian Fellowes, the creator of DA, is also involved with "Monarch of the Glen" and is actually a recurring character, the humorous Kilwillie.

Someday, I hope I really will make it to Scotland.  Until then, there's always pleasures like "Monarch of the Glen."

10 Old-Fashioned Baby Names that are Back in Style

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"These classic names went out of fashion, but now they're back as parents go vintage" --(from Parenting.com):

1) Clara

2) Eli

3) Naomi

4)  Charlie

5)  Alice

6) Henry

7)  Olive

8) Leo

9)  Lillian

10)  Jasper

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Rounding out the top 20 are Amelia, Everett, Nora, Silas, Adeline, Max, Hazel, Owen, Stella, and Oliver.

Go here for a lot more info about the names, their meanings, their re-emergence in popularity, famous people who have them, etc.

And if that's not enough, this site  lists "10 vintage baby names we want to see in 2013, including Ada, Cora, Florence, Josie, Murray and Graham.

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How about you? Have you named your baby a "vintage" name...or do you plan to? What's the reaction been from family and friends? Inquiring minds want to know!

Some beautiful ways to say "Happy Independence Day!"

For your enjoyment, some examples of pretty 4th of July typography and art.  Happy 4th, everyone!

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What Celtic Woman and Charlie Daniels have in common

Mairead Nesbitt of Celtic Woman

It was while sitting in a country music show in Branson, Missouri in 1997 that something dawned on me:

I love fiddle-playing.

Especially when it's imbued with a healthy dose of Celtic flavor...which country fiddling is, very often.

This is National Old Time Fiddler's Week, when some of the nation's top fiddlers meet up in Weiser, Idaho for competition.

When I ran across this fact, it made me think about how much I love the sound of a well-played, Celtic-tinged fiddle.

Pictured at right is Mairead Nesbitt of Celtic Woman, who makes an art form out of fiddle-playing.  She definitely throws herself into it completely.  Check out this video of Mairead performing "Granuaile's Dance."

American fiddle

It makes sense that country fiddling often has that Celtic flavor.  This from Wikipedia:

Early influences were Irish fiddle styles as well as Scottish and the more refined traditions of classical violin playing. Popular tunes included Soldier's Joy, for which Robert Burns had written lyrics, and other such tunes as Flowers of Edinburgh and Tamlin which were claimed by both Scottish and Irish lineages. Soon these tunes were Americanized and local variations developed in Northern and Southern colonies...

One of my favorite examples of country fiddling is Charlie Daniels' "The Devil Went Down to Georgia."  While the tale of Satan and a young man having a fiddling competition over the young man's soul is far from theologically correct :), you have to love when "Johnny's" fiddle solo definitely trounces the devil's.

Now that's some good fiddle-playing.

I'm participating today in the Thursday Blog Hop, hosted by Katherine's Corner--join the fun by clicking on the button!

How I Got Ripped Off When it Comes to My Fingernails (Literally!)

A cautionary tale about fake fingernails

About a year ago, I made the decision to stop picking the nail polish off my fingernails.  I held to that decision for several months, and I loved the results.  My fingernails became strong, and with fairly regular professional manicures and polish changes, the looked pretty good.

I blogged about it in this post, Winning the Battle with My Weak Nails.

Here they are at the height of their healthiness:

As happens with many addictions, I fell off the wagon and my nails became weak again.  I managed to keep them from total collapse, but...

A couple of months ago I was invited to help em-cee a bridal fashion show.  Included would be borrowing a dress from David's Bridal and getting my hair styled for free.

I wanted my nails to look great.  So I decided to take the plunge into gel nails.

Or should I say, I THOUGHT they were gel nails.

I went to the nail place I had been frequenting, even though I found their work less than excellent and their attitudes bordering on unfriendly.

I asked for gel nails.

This is the result:

Looks great, right? And I was very pleased.

But appearances can be deceiving.  Turns out, these weren't gel nails at all, even though I specifically asked for gel nails.  I found out later that if a nail tech uses a mix of powder and liquid on your nails, they are acrylic, NOT gel.  If they're putting gel nails on you, they will actually be using GEL.

How can they get by with such deception?  You got me.  But I talked to one reputable nail tech who said before her nail tech days, she spent a year getting what she thought were gel nails, but were NOT...and it pretty much destroyed her nails.

Getting rid of them...

As you'll know if you're a veteran of nail stuff, growing out these nails isn't pretty.  You have to come back on a regular basis and get them re-done, or they grow out looking odd...with a noticeable hump where your real nails end and the fake ones begin.

I didn't want to go back to the same place to pay to have them removed. But I wanted them OFF.

 My own hairstylist, who also does nails, tried to get them off for me...but the usual process wasn't very successful.  They were not going away without a fight.  She managed to take a layer or two off.

I finally ended up popping them off, but along with the fake nails came my real ones.  What was left was a ridged, scarred (from having them sanded down by a machine), ugly mess.

Feast your eyes on what my nails look like now:

Yeah. NOT pretty.

I'm trying to pamper them to get them to grow back into a somewhat healthy state.

If you are a nail-knowledgeable person and have any advice, please share!

Also if you have any nail horror stories of your own, please share!

I'll keep you posted on the ongoing saga of my fingernails.

What were your favorite childhood books?

The Favourite Book. Honor C. Appleton (1879 – 1951, English)

This is Children's Book Week, so I'm bringing back a post from the archives about my favorite childhood books.  What were yours? Let me know in my comments section!

I've been a voracious reader since I was able to string words together. Interestingly, I don't have much of a memory of the books that were read to me before I could read myself, but I vividly remember the books I loved as a child.

Here is a nod to some of them.

Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott, is the first full-length book I remember reading. I was eight years old.

This is a picture of the actual version I read. It was an abridged version, but I loved the illustrations. In my mind, that is still what Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy look like.

My Aunt Jean (sadly no longer with us) had recommended it to me, saying "You'll cry your eyes out and back in again!"

This was just before my family went to Beirut, Lebanon as missionaries. We were in New York City for several days before our ship sailed, and my parents bought me beautiful hardbound copies of "Little Men" and "Jo's Boys." I was in heaven.

This book laid the foundation for my lifelong love of The Chronicles of Narnia. I saw British friends reading it at Manor House School in Beirut, and that sparked my interest.

Even as a child, I was able to see the spiritual parallels. Years later, I made sure my own children read them.


I received this book as a Christmas gift when I was a little girl, and it was a treasure trove for me! I also loved Blyton's "Mallory Towers" series.

This was the first Noel Streatfield book I read, but I think I probably ended up reading all of them. They were all about children who were very talented, either as skaters, dancers or actors. I enjoyed them immensely.

I was delighted when the books were actually mentioned in the movie, "You've Got Mail."

Those are just a few. You can read here about my other favorites, Auntie Robbo and Red Knights from Hy Brasil...and here about what my love of a childhood book has to do with a murder in an English village!

Reading enriched my childhood and continues to do so today!

What were YOUR favorite books as a child?

My life lately on Instagram...

Lots going on lately! Most recently, my two sons and the youngest of my two grandsons came up for my daughter's graduation last Friday night from Illinois State University.

Here are some moments captured on Instagram:

No visit from my kids is complete without an outing to Giuseppi's Pizza

I like having my sons around for morning coffee...scruff and all :) This is my firstborn, Jonathan

JD LOVED the Discovery Center...he had so much fun!

With the graduate, my daughter Elizabeth

JD waiting patiently for the graduation to begin...he was SO good!

My husband Doug and son Justin

My kids had to leave this morning for Texas, but I feel I got to celebrate Mother's Day with them  

Hubby and me after church

Visible Monday: A Fun Bridal Expo

What is more fun, more girly, more appealing to our romantic natures than a bridal fair?

You know, having a job in radio really does include some fun perks sometimes.  I was asked to help m-c the fashion show at Rockford's Own Bridal Expo yesterday...what a blast!

First of all, I got to pick out a dress to borrow from David's Bridal for the occasion.  This is what I chose:

By the way, if any of  you ladies are going to be mothers of the bride any time in the near future, I can definitely tell you that David's has a nice assortment of styles, shapes and colors for that important day.

Then, on the day of the event, I got my hair done by  the wonderful Gail from Fuzion Salon and Spa.  Here's what the back of it looked like:

I actually did my own make-up, but did sport some MAJOR false eyelashes with the help of Fuzion's makeup artist, Kayla.

My jewelry was provided by a wonderful company called Your Jewelry Dreams.  Here's a close-up of the stunning necklace (before I put my dress on)...

Unfortunately I couldn't take pictures during the actual fashion show.  The dresses and the models were stunning.  Here's a couple of girls I managed to photograph before the show...

Olivia

Molly

Relaxing after a fun show!

Thanks so much, Mickey Rosenow and everyone connected with Rockford's Own Bridal Expo for allowing me to be a part of this wonderful event!

I'm linking today with Visible Monday, hosted by Not Dead Yet Style!

'Tis "Talk Like Shakespeare" Day--Didst Thou Know?

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Today is Talk Like Shakespeare Day. William Shakespeare, "The Bard of Avon," was born on April 23, 1564, and coincidentally he died on the same date in 1616.

 As someone who was raised on the King James Bible, I have little difficulty "talking like Shakespeare"..even without the instructions of rappers The Q Brothers:



(If you don't want to subject yourself to that little ditty, it's OK...I'll give you the tips right here, courtesy of TalkLikeShakespeare.org:)

How to Talk Like Shakespeare

Instead of you, say thou or thee (and instead of y’all, say ye).

Rhymed couplets are all the rage.

Men are Sirrah, ladies are Mistress, and your friends are all called Cousin.

Instead of cursing, try calling your tormenters jackanapes or canker-blossoms or poisonous bunch-back’d toads.

Don’t waste time saying "it," just use the letter "t" (’tis, t’will, I’ll do’t).

Verse for lovers, prose for ruffians, songs for clowns.

When in doubt, add the letters "eth" to the end of verbs (he runneth, he trippeth, he falleth).

To add weight to your opinions, try starting them with methinks, mayhaps, in sooth or wherefore.

When wooing ladies: try comparing her to a summer’s day. If that fails, say "Get thee to a nunnery!"

When wooing lads: try dressing up like a man. If that fails, throw him in the Tower, banish his friends and claim the throne.

Mel Gibson contemplating a skull in the movie version of Hamlet

Seriously, that Will Shakespeare...

Could he write, or what?

When I was a little girl and my family spent some time in New York City waiting for a longshoreman's strike to end so we could sail to Lebanon, we spent some time in bookstores.  Among the books my parents bought was a handsome volume of the complete works of William Shakespeare.

I confess that I didn't read them at the time (I had just been introduced to Louisa May Alcott), but I spent a of time in that book...scanning the pages and looking at all the pretty names. (I was fascinated with names even then.)

Knowing that William Shakespeare was a great writer is a given...even knowing that we owe a lot of sayings to him.  But you never really realize it until you actually read or see one of his plays.  I remember how that fact really hit me when I watched "Hamlet," with Mel Gibson.

Elizabeth Taylor in "The Taming of the Shrew"

Instead of just talking like Shakespeare, why not try reading one of his plays or watching one of the many movie versions?

Here's a list of the best Shakespeare-to-Screen adaptations.

A beloved Christian writer finally gets her due

On my now "paused" book blog, Cindy's Book Club, I posted about a book I loved when I was in high school: Not My Will, by Francena H. Arnold.

I included "Not My Will" is a list of 15 Books That Will Always Stick With Me.

Here's a description of the book from the Moody Publishers website:

Eleanor's secret love for Chad could mean losing her inheritance and giving up a life long dream. Will she follow her own will, or make the hard choice to submit her life to Christ's leadership? Now available with a contemporary new look, Not My Will is a classic story of love, loss, and surrender, with more than 500,000 copies sold.

Interestingly, I just got this comment on my original post:

I am Steve Buttry, Francena Arnold’s grandson, and wanted to thank you for including "Not My Will" in this post. I cited it in Grandma’s Wikipedia entry as an example of the enduring impact of the author's work, four decades after her death. I also told more about Grandma in a longer version that I used on my own blog. 

She was a remarkable woman and an outstanding writer. I'm pleased that you have honored her by inclusion on this list.

Steve's blog post is particularly interesting, as it recounts how he and his family decided their grandmother really should have her own Wikipedia page...and everything he had to go through to make that page a reality.

Francena Arnold as a young bride, with her husband Frank in their wedding photo

An Enduring Tale

A few years ago, I re-read "Not My Will."  Yes, it was originally written in 1946, so you can't read it expecting it to feel or sound like a current novel.  But I  found it just as engrossing and inspiring as when I originally read it as a teen.

I also enjoyed the sequel, "Light in My Window," and a few other of Arnold's books, including "Then Am I Strong."

Another blogger, Jendi, wrote this in 2010:

I got to thinking while searching for information about Francena Arnold. She does not have a website, and only an empty Facebook fan page. There is not a lot of personal information about her, but her first book [Not My Will] which was originally written only for family is all over the web and the world. Her encouraging and thought provoking stories have endured the test of time.

I couldn't agree more.

At least she does have a Wikipedia page, thanks to her persistent grandson. And if you really would like to know more about this remarkable writer, I suggest you read Steve Buttry's original draft for the Wikipedia page.  It's rich with detail, insight and even writing tips from Francena Arnold.