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My Take on the New Year

Wow, after a two-week hiatus from Little Sproutings, it’s time to start up again.

The holiday flew by and it feels like it was over before it even began! We had a really nice time in Charleston, SC celebrating Jia’s First Christmas at my parents’ house, along with Jeff’s parents. We spent 8 days eating good food and dodging lots of rain storms, but it didn’t feel nearly long enough. It was actually our first Christmas with both sides of our families together, which made it even more special. Even though it is always nice to go down South to be with my parents, I was really glad to be back in the comforts of our home with Jia back in her big crib and us back in our routine.

I’m not one for New Year’s resolutions, mainly because I don’t ever make good on them. But, for this year I wanted to make goals for self-improvement.

I think that this year is more important than other years prior because I’m a mom. I’ll eventually be a role model for Jia, though she is already building her perception of the world and interpersonal interactions from what she sees at home with Jeff and me. So, it will become more and more important to self-reflect and make myself a better version of what and who I am. These characteristics, values, and behaviors are what Jia will use to model her own behaviors as she grows up.

This week’s post isn’t so much a topic-specific health post, but more of a spiritual, reflective, and introspective therapeutic one. Continue reading “My Take on the New Year” »

Happy Holidays from Little Sproutings!

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Little Sproutings is taking the week off to soak in Baby Jia’s 1st Christmas!

To all of you new mommies and daddies celebrating your baby’s first Christmas (or any other holiday), we hope that you have a fantastic extra special holiday season and get lots of snuggles and cuddles!

(and how cool does the falling snow look with this picture?? If you don’t see it yet, give the snow on this page a chance to fall…)

And for any of you who were wondering, things baby should NOT consume*:

egg nog
chips and salsa
cheesecake
sweet tea
pumpkin/apple pie or any other pie (or pie filling)
oreos or any other cookies
bourbon or caramel sauce
whipped cream
flourless chocolate cake
ice cream
wine (or champagne)

*There are MANY other off-limit foods, but these alone are based on ridiculously true stories/Facebook newsfeeds

{Tiny Giveaway Winner}

Congratulations to Megan Williams for winning our Tiny Giveaway! Just goes to show what entering twice can really do for you! You will be contacted shortly by The Tiny Collection about the specifics. I’m so excited for you and beautiful little Jane Rose!

Thank you to all who entered our first giveaway and thank you for spreading the word about Little Sproutings on Facebook and Instagram! I have loved all of your Sproutings Suggestions and will work hard to do some good researching into those topics. A special thanks goes out to Lindsey at The Tiny Collection for making this giveaway happen!

Keep posted for a Springtime Giveaway with The Tiny Collection’s new set of adorable designs and keep reading Little Sproutings!

The Gift of Milk Giving

Fa La La La La!! ‘Tis the season for giving, so I thought, hey this would be an appropriate topic to cover!

I very recently ran into a new mom (Hi, Christa!) at Buy Buy Baby who isn’t able to feed her newborn breastmilk due to a protein intolerance. She expressed her disappointment that her frozen milk is going unused. So, I suggested milk banking. After voicing her interest in the topic, I mentioned Little Sproutings (of course) and the post I’d written earlier that mentioned milk banking (“Boobienomics: Nature’s Supply & Demand). One of my loyal Sprout readers also suggested the topic, so how could I not dedicate a post to something I feel so proud to have been a part of?

A quick bit about my experience: I donated almost 600 ounces of milk to The King’s Daughters Milk Bank, in Norfolk VA after we realized we couldn’t feed any of my pumped milk to Jia. If you recall, we went through a process of eliminating dairy and soy from my diet (see: My Little Soy-Free Dairy-Free Sprout) so the milk I’d pumped couldn’t be given to her. I had a freezer almost entirely filled with frozen bags of milk (and no room left for food)! The milk bank I contacted made the process quick and painless!

So for those of you who have been lucky to have a supply like I was/am, your little one is past the point of breastfeeding and you’ve got a stash, or if your baby isn’t able to drink the milk you have saved up, here’s some info about a wonderful thing you can do with your liquid gold! Continue reading “The Gift of Milk Giving” »

{giveAWAY!} A Tiny Collection for your Tiny Sprout

I am so excited about Little Sproutings’ VERY FIRST GIVEAWAY, just in time for the HOLIDAYS!

The Tiny Collection is a great baby clothes company based out of Richmond, Virginia. Lindsey Frank, owner of The Tiny Collection and brilliant artist and interior designer, was constantly disappointed by the lack of variety while shopping for products for her son. She created The Tiny Collection to take the designing and production into her own hands to offer unique, beautiful, comfortable, and high-quality baby clothing.

Jia in the Lucky Horseshoe Onesie

All of Lindsey’s designs are lovingly designed by hand and are printed with baby-friendly water-based inks (even the metallics!). From a sweet Galileo quote, a dreamy night’s Pleiades constellation, to a whimsical Ship & Anchor design, all Tiny Tees and Onesies are made and printed in the USA.

Each Tiny Package is artistically wrapped and packaged, most complete with a Tiny Tag filled with a matching Tiny Tattoo (pictured above). Lindsey’s attention to detail does not go unnoticed and the special touches don’t skip a beat.

I LOVE The Tiny Collection! Seriously, The Collection’s tees and onesies (both the organic and non-organic) are incredibly soft and the designs are so beautifully illustrated and printed! The metallic ink is so eye-catching, and well, every girl’s gotta have her shimmer!! Continue reading “{*giveAWAY!*} A Tiny Collection for your Tiny Sprout” »

~{GIVEAWAY COMING!}~

We are teaming up with The Tiny Collection for a great giveaway, just in time for the holidays! Don’t miss out on this opportunity to win adorable Tiny Freebies for your Tiny Tot! Open to US Residents only.

Follow Little Sproutings on Facebook.com/littlesproutings and both of us on Instagram (@littlesproutings & @the_tinycollection) for additional entries!

Details coming soon this Saturday’s Sproutings post!

The Skinny on Postpartum Belly Binding

So, remember when I wrote my first post “Why Little Sproutings was Planted,” and I mentioned that I wanted to bring to light things that I wish I’d known sooner, products I wish I’d had from the get-go, or things I did wrong from the start? Well here’s one of them…

I recall watching an interview of Jessica Alba on a late night show, probably something like Jay Leno. She’d mentioned that she wore two corsets postpartum to get back her pre-pregnancy body, that it’s not for the faint of heart, and that it was sweaty but worth it. I think I thought to myself, “geez, well that’s why it sucks to be in Hollywood…” (couldn’t find the video, here’s a published interview where she mentions it at the end)

I shrugged off this business of postpartum corset-wearing like I cleaned off another heaping plate of pad thai and went about my happy and pregnant day. I mean, I didn’t want to have the pressure to drop the weight super fast. I’m a real person and it’s not my job to look good, haha.

Jump ahead 9-12 months later, and I am (still) tipping the scales 10 pounds off from my pre-pregnancy weight. Truth be told, I lost the first 30 pounds of pregnancy weight in the first 2 weeks. I thought “Wow, breastfeeding seriously is the best and easiest diet EVER!” No, I didn’t think this rate of weight loss would continue, but I at least thought I would be achieving pre-pregnancy weight by the end of Jia’s second (third? fourth?) month birthday.

Boy, do I regret not looking into this earlier. Like almost a year earlier.

(Yes, I still believe breastfeeding is the fantastic, and I attribute most of my initial weight loss to hormones – oxytocin – released by BFing causing the pooch to go back into place)

Continue reading “The Skinny on Postpartum Belly Binding” »