Glamma Momma Shirt Giveaway

This week's giveaway is sponsored by Erlaine, a fellow N@Wie who started the brand Glamma Momma.  Erlaine was inspired to create something that moms would want to wear to help them become proud of themselves.  Since she was a t-shirt gal, she thought about making statement shirts for moms!  Erlaine conceptualized each shirt and has them designed and printed by her brother in law.  New designs will be released from time to time.

of course, you know what my favorite design is!

Her Glamma Momma shirts are currently available in Spoiled! Store in Millenia Suites (Pasig) and in Tees Me (Pop Culture, Alabang Town Center).

Guest Post: Our Lady of La Leche Shows the Way

Last month was the Feast of Our Lady of La Leche.  One of the Batch 3 LATCH Peer Counselors, Bianca Gutierrez became involved with the movement just as she was undergoing her training.   Since then, she has been quite active in the movement and in fact has organized another activity - "The Mother's Way," A Pilgrimage by Mothers and Mothers-to-Be held last 10 December 2011.  Her story on how she became involved in the movement is inspiring and it also paved the way for her to decide to proceed with the LATCH training and become a full-fledged peer counselor.  Read on.

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Good afternoon brothers and sisters, and fellow mothers, believers of Our Lady of La Leche, Nuestra Senora de La Leche Y Buen Parto.

My name is Bianca Atienza-Gutierrez. I am a wife to my husband Aaron and a mom to my 15-month old son, Christopher. I am also managing a full-time career at a multinational corporation, in which I head the parenting club, a consultant for MAPECON pest control, and in training to become a certified lactation counsellor with LATCH. I am a working, breastfeeding mom.

Why am I speaking in front of you today? It is because Our Lady of La Leche asked me to tell you the story of how I met her.

DFABShop Ecobag Giveaway

Congratulations to Shirley Mae Tabora and Bing Lorenzo for winning the giveaway!

Please check your emails.

This week's giveaway is hosted by Dona Acero, a fellow member of N@W.   Dona used to be an IT System Engineer.  She is currently a stay-at home mom of a 6-year old daughter and a 2-year old son.  Dona breastfed both of her kids exclusively and decided to be a SAHM to focus on raising her kids.

She recently started a business DONA bags this year and also became a seller of Human Heart Nature products.  Dona is proud that all her bags are made in the Philippines.  Her idea to manufacture her own  bag line came from a fruitless search of a multi-purpose bag (diaper bag, ecobag) that was lightweight and functional.

Guest Post - Vegetable Wars: How to Get Your Kids to Eat Their Veggies!

Are you having trouble getting your kids to eat veggies? Then today's guest post written by Anne Mercado would be a perfect read!  Anne is a mom who is passionate about raising happy, healthy and smart children.  How? With a glass of information, a pitcher or two of love and patience, and of course, a bucket of humor.  She believes that though parenting is challenging, it doesn't have to be boring.  You can catch her at Green Eggs & Moms.

I was lucky that for N, eating vegetables was not an issue. We did make some effort and made her food quite presentable so she would be happy to eat the veggies.  We also involved her in the food preparation process which I think accounted for her hearty appetite.  If you do have a picky eater, read on and get some tips from Anne.  For further reading, you can also check out this book from Elizabeth Pantley - The No-Cry Picky Eater Solution.
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Vegetables are the enemy!!!

This is probably what you think your toddler or pre-schooler screams in her mind when you tell her to eat veggies. To be honest, I don't have the slightest idea on what goes on in her tiny little head. Although, I do know this: there are ways to getting kids to like veggies, and hopefully stuffing themselves silly with this nutritious food.

Get your battle gear ready because here are awesome ways to win the veggie war!

For the purpose of this post, the term enemy shall refer to kids. From personal experience, I know that veggies are friendly folk; kids on the other hand may not always be.

Woombie Philippines Giveaway

Our Winners are:

 RiCalyn Sicad for liking the blog's FB page.  She wins 1 Woombie Swaddler (newborn)

Ria Denamarca Laab for following the blog on networked blogs.  She wins 1 Woombie Sleeper.

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This week's giveaway is hosted by Val Choa of Quintbelles and Woombie Philippines.

I first met Val (who runs a cake business - Quintbelles - together with her sister) when I asked her to make N's 2nd birthday cake with the theme Strawberry Shortcake:

In the middle of this year, Val contacted me about a new business she started - distributing Woombies in the Philippines.   Val is not yet a mom but found the swaddlers so adorable and decided to bring them in.  She also did some research and confirmed that swaddling babies really help them to sleep better.  For those unfamiliar with it, the Woombie is a one-piece zippered peanut shaped swaddler that is soft and stretchy and creates a little happy womb-like space for sleeping babies.  The babies can still move and push their extremities out and work those muscles but the stretch of the fabric always brings them back in and cuddles them.  The Woombie also help babies sleep better, preventing startling issues, face scratching, overheating and allows parents to avoid the use of dangerous, loose blankets which may cover the baby's face.  The Woombie has been included by Glam-o-Mama Amanda Jacob in her Kiddo Picks.   

Woombies range from P1,200 - P1,500 depending on the style and can be purchased from Woombies Facebook or Multiply pages.  You can also take a chance to win one by joining the Woombie Philippines giveaway with 2 winners!  Prizes are 1 Original Woombie Swaddler (newborn size) and 1 Woombie Sleeper.  Join through Rafflecopter below.  Thank you Val for sponsoring the contest!

Gifts of Breastfeeding

"Welcome to the Milk Mama Diaries Carnival (December). For this month, we want to honor breastfeeding for having enriched our lives and blessed us, maybe even empowered us, in a way that only breastfeeding can. Please scroll down to the end of this post and check out the other carnival participants."

The holiday season is here and what better topic for the Milk Mama Diaries Carnival than the gifts that breastfeeding has brought to my family?  I won't be talking about the benefits of breastfeeding but rather about the new horizons that breastfeeding has opened up to me.

Bumblebear Shop Giveaway

Congratulations to Amee Go-Diu for winning the Bumblebear Shop giveaway!

This week's giveaway is sponsored by Sharlene Lao of the Bumblebear Shop.   Sharlene is a mom of 2 little girls who were the inspiration for her shop.  As a stay at home mom, she started Bumblebear because she wanted to earn extra money and at the same time be with her little girls.   Sharlene started her shop in the last quarter of 2010 and despite the challenges of breastfeeding (pumping while in bazaars - with one hand under the cover to pump and one hand to give out change to customers), she was able to successfully breastfeed her girls until they were 1 year old.

SM Malls Harass Breastfeeding Moms

Interrupting the scheduled posts on my blog to share these two very important posts from Eliza and Ambquezada, which were in contrast to my own experience with nursing in public

From Eliza:  The Right to Breastfeed: An Open Letter to the SM Supermalls Management
From Ambquezada: An Incident in SM Davao

It is quite ironic especially since several programs have been launched this year promoting that "Breastfeeding is Welcome" in public establishments.  Plus SM Mall of Asia even hosted a photo exhibit showing breastfeeding moms all over the mall!!

So this makes me wonder why the change in policy?  Just because the mall has a breastfeeding station does not mean that the mom can ONLY BREASTFEED IN THE BREASTFEEDING STATION!  And if you think that families with kids shouldn't be exposed to breastfeeding moms, READ THIS and learn why children SHOULD witness breastfeeeding in public.

Breastfeeding mothers have the right to feed their children whenever they get hungry!! Know about your rights as a breastfeeding mother in the Philippines and stand up for them!

Join the December Milk Mama Diaries Carnival

It's Carnival time again and since it is the holiday season, what better topic to have but "BREASTFEEDING GIFTS".  You can share about how breastfeeding has enriched your life, delighted you or maybe even changed you.  Talk about your most favorite gift, pair it with a popular Christmas song or carol (e.g Twelve Gifts of Breastfeeding) - be as creative as you can!  Feel free to make it as personal, introspective or grateful as you can.


If this is your first time to join a carnival, you can check out my previous carnival posts to have an idea how this blog carnival works.  To join, please fill up this FORM.   If you don't have a blog but would like to join, please email me or Mec so we can arrange to have you hosted as a guest blogger.

MomMe Planner Giveaway

Congratulations to the winner!! Gretchen Abasolo

MomMe Planner is offering all Chronicles of a Nursing Mom readers a consolation prize of 15% off SRP plus shipping for all orders made until the end of 2011!! Mention "NURSINGMOM" when you order. 

I am an OC Mom and if you read my guest post over at OCMominManila, you can see how planners play an important part in my oc-ness! ;)  And this is why I got pretty excited when Shirley sent me this new planner to review - MomMe Planner.

This project was started in 2009 by a group of 4 college friends - Cherry, Carissa, Mira and Shirley.  During one of their Sunday get-togethers, they realized that there were young adults planners, teen planners, travel planners, foodie planners, etc. but no planners out in the market that was specifically targeted for moms.  They realized that their schedules often got mixed up as the moms are typically busy and often lose time for themselves.