The Mom Crowd

The lovely Mommy Zabs over at Does Mommy Love It? nominated The Mom Crowd for Best Parenting site at Divine Caroline. You have to register to vote, but it should only take a minute. The rest of the site looks pretty cool and they are a lot of great nominees in the parenting category.  So go vote for all your favorites!

Hey everyone!  I wanted to remind you that our raffle for the Balsis Family adoption is ending soon, so hurry and buy your raffle tickets!  The Balsis family is IN RUSSIA right now, so we are postponing the deadline to purchase tickets.  The raffle will now close at midnight on Saturday, September 27th.  We will announce all of the lucky duck winners bright and early Monday morning.  All winners will be contacted by the email account linked to their Paypal account (or information sent in with their snail-mail payment).  Click anywhere in this post to be redirected to the raffle.  Good luck!! 

The baby, Graham, is getting closer to walking every week.  And now I am in the process of getting him some shoes so that when we go outside his little toes won’t get too cold.  I recently purchased some Robeez Tredz shoes which are absolutely adorable.  I liked the idea of the Tredz because we live in a cooler, rainy climate and thought that a more water resistant shoe that was still soft soled would be a good choice.  I used the Robeez soft soled shoes for both the older boys for the first 6 months to year after they started walking.  I had read about all the advantages of the soft soled shoes and knew that spending lots of time walking barefoot or close to it would help their feet develop properly. Plus, I love that they are easy to get on and don’t come off easily either.

Unfortunately I had to guess at his foot size and got the 12-16 month size.  Graham just turned 1 but I couldn’t get his squishy, fat feet in the shoes.  I tried jamming them in but it was no use–they weren’t going in. It looked like I was trying to wrestle an alligator as I tried getting his foot in that shoe.  So now I have to send them back to the online store and either get the larger size or try a different shoe.  My concern is that the larger 16-20 month size will still be too narrow. I had this same problem with my second child. He had fat feet and I had a terrible time finding shoes for him.  He wore Robeez for a long time because I couldn’t find shoes for him.

I know it is good for babies to walk barefoot as much as possible but we like to go outside a lot and the weather is already cooling off into the low 50s in the mornings. I don’t want his little toes to fall off from frostbite.  So what do I do?  I don’t want to go from store to store trying to find flexible shoes that fit his feet. And I don’t want to keep returning shoes that don’t fit either.  I am on the hunt for the perfect walking shoe for babies.  Can you help me?

Does anyone else have this problem?  What did you do?  What shoes have you found to work great for your beginning walkers?  Or your kids that have wide feet?

Our raffle is ending next Wednesday, September 24th at midnight.  We’ve added more prizes to our give-away stash, including 2 UPPAbaby G-Light strollers, a Mia Moda Cielo stroller, a Claire Bella Moses basket, and more!  Be sure to buy your raffle ticket for $5.00 to hopefully win one of these fabulous prizes, or buy more and increase your chances of winning!

The Balsis family received their travel date to meet their daughter.   They will be leaving for Russia on Monday to meet their daughter.  This will be the first of two trips and on the second trip, she will be coming home for good!  Please don’t miss this opportunity to help them bring their daughter home!

To buy your raffle ticket or to learn more about the raffle for the Balsis family, click here!

You know how they say that hindsight is 20/20? Sometimes I wish I had a chart on how many times I would have avoided something had I listened to my instinct that something wasn’t quite right.  I think that we were created with an ability to detect problems and sense things in our children so that we can protect them.  Haven’t you ever had your “mama bear” come out when your child needed you? Maybe another child was hitting your kid at the playground or another family member was taking a dig at your little one.  Aren’t we willing to go to great costs to protect our children? If you are a stay-at-home mom or a working mom, we have been given a gift to know when something is right with our kids–emotionally, physically, mentally.  I know there have been times when others have told me that everything was probably fine when it turns out that it wasn’t.  Sometimes others doubt our instinct.  Sure, we aren’t right 100% of the time–but I am a big believer in listening to your gut.

We took the baby to the ophthalmologist today because I finally listened to my instinct.  Several months ago I noticed that Graham’s right eye looked crossed when he would turn his head to look at something.  When I brought it up to the pediatrician he said he thought it was probably pseudostrabismus which is basically an illusion of the eyes crossing.  He told us to watch and see if the light reflection in the irises of the eyes was in the same place and that if it wasn’t it to set up an appointment for a pediactric ophthalmologist.  He felt pretty certain that it was pseudostrabismus since Graham’s eyes seemed normal otherwise and we couldn’t get him to do it in the office.  Trying to find the reflection of light in the eyes is very difficult to do in a baby because they don’t tend to stay in one place for long.  We started watching for the light reflection in his eyes and from what we could tell it seemed like pseudostrabismus.  But something in my gut was telling me to call the eye doctor. My husband and I kept paying attention and trying to get the baby to turn his head to make his eye cross.  I had a feeling I should call just to get a second opinion and then one day my husband noticed the light reflection wasn’t in the same place in his eyes.  So I set up the appointment.

It turns out that Graham has Duane Syndrome. It is not a serious condition–and the problem isn’t that his right eye crosses–it is that his left eye can’t move to the right or left very well. It can only look straight ahead so it looks like his other eye is crossing in.There is no treatment for it because the nerves that control the muscles were miswired while developing in the womb.  There is a possibility that surgery could be needed later if he has to keep his head turned in order to see straight.  While I was listening to the doctor tell me about the syndrome I was so thankful that I took him in.  I was glad I listened to my instinct to get it checked out.  Now I know what is wrong with his eyes and I know what problems to look out for.  And now I won’t worry that something really is wrong even though the pediatrician said it was probably fine.

I remember when I was pregnant with my first baby, Ewan, we had been going to an OB recommended to us by a friend.  As we went through our childbirth classes and I was learning about all the different options I had for labor and birth I started feeling like sticking with that OB would not have been a good choice.  I started feeling like I would have ended up with a general barking orders at me while he gave me an unwanted episiotomy.  So we switched to another OB and ended up having a great birth where I felt safe and in control.  Of course it is hard to say what would have happened exactly had we stayed with the other doctor but my instinct told me to switch and I am glad I did!  It started me on a journey to help women be empowered to birth their babies.

Instinct is a very powerful thing.  Especially when it comes to protecting our children or ensuring what is best for them.  So, if you have that nagging feeling in your gut about something, listen to it.  Get it checked out–even if others are telling you different. Maybe it will turn out to be nothing but you might be right and you’ll be glad you did.

What stories do you have where you listened to your gut and were glad you did?