OT: It's a Quirks Marketing Warehouse Sale!

Perfect way to start your Christmas Shopping!!

Save the date and stock up!  It will be on November 12, 2011 at Atlanta Centre, Annapolis St., Greenhills, San Juan.

Sunshine Babies Boutique Giveaway

We have a winner!!

Please check your inbox!  Thanks for joining!

My blog sponsor, Sunshine Babies is hosting a giveaway!  The store owner, Em, recently got accredited as a LATCH peer counselor and to celebrate, she is giving away a Nursing Mom gift set which includes 1 BabyBond and 1 MilkBand to 1 lucky mom!

Join the November Milk Mama Diaries Carnival

Ok, so I have been remiss in my duties! This blog carnival was supposed to be in October but with baby on the way, things got crazy and with Mec's permission, I'm moving the carnival to November! :D

So our topic for this month would be extended breastfeeding. Participants are asked to share their experiences with breastfeeding their toddlers (past 12 months old) as well as their tips to moms with young babies. Participants can also talk about barriers to extended breastfeeding which includes myths or comments they received from people around them.

Mothering Earthlings Feature

I'd like to welcome my newest blog sponsor, Mothering Earthlings.

This online store is run by one of the quirkiest blogger around - Rone Guerrero who maintains a really fun blog and tweets as Earthlings Mama.  The blog chronicles the crazy antics of her 2 earthlings and how she manages to cope with them.

N had this onesie!

She also maintains the online store Mothering Earthlings with a counterpart international store focused on bringing together various unique Filipino brands and making it easy for moms to shop for their own earthlings. The store also carries well-loved mommy brands such as Next9, Nursingmom, Indigo Baby and Mommy Matters.
But what makes this store stand-out would be their line of Earthling Gear! Currently, Mothering Earthlings is the sole retailer of my favorite baby clothing brand - Agoo Baby - alternative and edgy apparel for newborns and infants.  Aside from that, the store also has one-of-a-kind baby clothing from Azatri,  googoo&gaga and Planet Baby.
Still pregnant? Don't forget to sign up for the store's baby registry and you definitely won't be disappointed with the gifts you'll be getting for your baby.
Rone plans to bring more interesting Filipino brands to her store.  So don't forget to like Mothering Earthlings on Facebook and keep updated with the newest brand!

Naming Spider

Sometime during my 24th week, we finally got confirmation that our Flower was really a Spider!  We hadn't really started looking for a name but with the gender now confirmed, it was time to start shopping.  My first-born's name actually came from America's Next Top Model - Cycle 2.  Stan was watching re-runs during my entire pregnancy and we had been choosing names from various contestants across cycles.  I think our choice of "Naima" was quite fortuitous, with me ending up authoring this blog (if you read my header, you'll know why!)!  "Naima" is actually an Arabian/African name which means tranquil, graceful, to be contented. We paired it with a mainstream name chosen by my sister - which meant clear, bright, famous.

Guest Post: Nurturing Future Breastfeeding Advocates

*This is a guest post written by one of the LATCH co-founders, Corinne Medrana.  She wrote this post for a  the talk she gave during the SM Baby Company Event, entitled Nourish with Love. Breastfeeding. last 27 August 2011.  Since writing this post, Cor found that she is pregnant with her 5th child!  Congratulations Cor on your dragon baby ;)

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Good afternoon, my name is Corinne Medrana and as co-founder of LATCH I’ve been invited to share my reasons for choosing to make a difference in my children’s lives by deciding to breastfeed. To be honest, it was not a difficult decision for me to make because I’m fortunate enough to be among the moms for whom breastfeeding is easy, it came naturally to me and my firstborn, Enzo who is now 10 ½ years old. I don’t remember struggling with teaching him to latch correctly and I didn’t have insecurities about the quantity of my breastmilk because my milk production came in quite quickly. I do recall though that I so looked forward to every moment I could be with him knowing that it was from me and me alone that he could get his nourishment. He had to remain in the nursery for a few days even after I was discharged because he was under observation for an infection he had due to a very long labor, and as a result I had to pump and store my milk for the week that he was left in the hospital. I would go back and forth from home to the hospital every 3 hours during the day to nurse directly and leave my stored milk for the night. I recall knowing that he was hungry because even in the car on the way to the hospital I would feel my breasts filling up in anticipation of the baby I would be nursing in a few minutes. It amazed me to experience this kind of connection with him even if we were physically apart. The bond we shared was so strong and immediate and the brief time apart was compensated for because of the closeness brought by my breastfeeding Enzo.

In the midst of LATCH Training

We are currently in the midst of the LATCH Training for Batch 3 peer counselors who have completed 3 session days. There will be 1 more session in October plus a graduation and mixer for the 3 different batches. It was my first time to meet all of the participants 2 Mondays ago - although I know some of them and some are readers of this blog. I was quite excited that LATCH was finally able to set, schedule and execute a training session for 2011. There is really a dearth of peer counselors and as volunteer peer counselor moms, our "warm line" Jen has had to deal with several days of silence whenever she refers inquiries and requests for counseling. Plus, there have been several organizations, groups and events that have been tapping LATCH to conduct talks, activities and seminars on breastfeeding.

check out the messages

breastfeeding advocacy cupcakes

Dwell Studio Stamp Set

In late August, N got an unexpected gift of a Dwell Studio Zoo Animals stamp set.  It came in a pine box with 2 ink pads, several pencils plus about 6 stamps.  My crafty little girl loves it and has been using it to make greeting cards for relatives, friends and classmates!

Calling for Formula and Breastmilk Donations during Emergencies

Yesterday, I was offline most of the day because I attended a Breastfeeding Congress in Tagaytay.  Apparently, Twitter got busy with tweets from various individuals calling for formula milk donations (yikes!) and breastmilk donations.