PSA: Eco Art & Music Fest Fundraiser

My close encounter with a turtle happened when we were at our honeymoon.  Since we were going to visit the South portion of the Great Barrier Reef, Stan and I could not NOT grab the opportunity to dive.  We visited the Great Barrier Reef from Lady Elliot Island and Lady Musgrave Island.  The ocean  live was amazing.  It was actually like Anilao but on a much much MUCH bigger scale.  Coral reefs as far as your eyes can see.  Stan and I were lucky to be in close contact with sea creatures including these pawikans.  I've never seen one when I was diving in Anilao.
So when Wendi emailed me and asked me to share this Art and Music Fest, I immediately agreed because I definitely want to see pawikans the next time I dive in Anilao!

Eco Art & Music Fest Fundraiser Opens January 19 at Conspiracy Garden Café

Manila (December, 2012) – An art exhibit and music fest fundraiser for Save Philippine Seas’
Pawikan Watchers program opens on January 19, 2013 at the Conspiracy Garden Café, Quezon
City.

EndDanger, which features mixed media artworks from the group Artists for Nature and
performances from Flying Ipis, Extrapolation, and Peso Movement, calls attention to the
growing problem of animal endangerment in the Philippines and encourages the community to
get involved in conservation and protection efforts.

Although gifted with a rich and biologically diverse ecosystem, from lush forests to a vibrant
marine life, our country’s natural resources have significantly dwindled over time. Animal
species, in particular, are under increasing threat from habitat destruction, pollution and
commercial exploitation. Many are now in the verge of extinction.

The artists and organizers behind EndDanger seek to raise funds for the monitoring of one of
the Philippines’ most threatened species, the pawikan. All proceeds from the event’s ticket
sales will go to the Pawikan Watchers training program, which Save Philippine Seas (SPS)—
an independent movement that fights abuse of our aquatic resources through legal discourse and
social media—launched in cooperation with Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB).

Pawikan Watchers aims to educate volunteers from different parts of the Philippines on the
ecology and biology of, and PAWB-approved guidelines for, handling sea turtles. Apart from
raising funds, Artists for Nature sees the exhibit as an opportunity to broaden public awareness
of the urgent need to preserve our wildlife.

EndDanger is sponsored by Numa the Organic & Eco Baby Store, Ministry of Mushrooms,
and Holy Carabao Holistic Farms, and is in partnership with WhenInManila.com, Clean
Up Philippines, Eco-Sys Foundation, Green Fins, Society for Sustainable Tourism and
Development, Inc., Sea News Network, Butanding Network, UP Green League and Earth UST.

The art exhibit runs up to February 8, 2013. Conspiracy Garden Café is located at 59 Visayas
Avenue, Project 6, Quezon City.

For opening night tickets or more information, please contact Wendi Garcia at +639162742859
or artistsfornature@gmail.com. Like them on Facebook www.facebook.com/artistsfornature and
follow them on Twitter www.twitter.com/artists4nature for updates.

Start your own support group: Mommy Meet-up in Cebu

Among my advocacies is to encourage moms to empower themselves and act on their ideas, plans and goals instead of waiting for others to do things for them.  Thus, whenever I do talks about breastfeeding and working, I always tell moms to take the first step, talk to their HR department and ask about lactation rooms or policies.

In the same vein, I am happy to hear about moms starting their own support groups, like Mommy Bright Side in Cagayan de Oro City.  The group was recently formed and already organized a breastmilk drive to support calls for breastmilk donations for the Pablo victims.

REPOST: Rights of a Breastfeeding and Working Mother

This post originally appeared in the Mommy Journey as part of a series on natural parenting that I did.  I also wrote about babywearing and cloth diapering.  So head on to The Mommy Journey to read the rest of the natural parenting series of posts.

One of the things that I am most proud and happy to have achieved is the establishment of lactation rooms in my work place.  I've written a series on how we were able to do about it and you can start with the first post.   Since it consists of about 5-6 posts, I decided to write a short version to help working moms set-up their own lactation room or policy in their office.

Happy 1st Birthday to My Prince!

As this post goes live, we will be en route to our Christmas break in Visayas and Mindanao.  Plus today, my little prince E, turns 1 year old!!

Both my kids are December babies and with E's birthday so close to Christmas, last year's celebration was quite fantastic!  For this year, it will be a triple celebration for E! It is his first time in Cebu so he will meeting his relatives and godparents there at his birthday dinner tonight.  My mom has this belief that you MUST celebrate the 1st birthday of your child on the date itself.  So tonight's celebration will be a small dinner just so we can celebrate E's first birthday.

giveaways for E's Cebu and Davao celebration!

for the adults!

Then off to Davao we go to spend New Year's in my hometown and I'm excited to host a small party for my barkada and their kids!  Arts and crafts? Gingerbread house party? Hmm.. still to be decided.

It has been an exciting first year for E. More than the parties, I am excited for us to spend a lot of quality time as a family, relaxing and enjoying each other without the pressures of work, school, etc. etc.

Guest Post: Switching to Cloth Feminine Pads

This is a guest post from my work colleague, Margaux Ortiz.  Margaux used to write for the Philippine Daily Inquirer.  She was covering the environment beat when she wrote the story mentioned in the post below.  She occasionally continues to write feature articles and her work has been published in Working Mom, Celebrity Living and the Metro section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.  You can read more of her work at Here Lives a Bookworm.
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Some years ago, I had the chance to interview environmentalist couple Joey and Annette Papa of Bangon Kalikasan Movement for a landfill story. It had been seven years since a 50-foot “monster” mound of garbage collapsed in the Payatas landfill in Quezon City, killing a thousand people in the process. I think I was doing a follow-up story on the tragedy then, as one of the questions I posed to Annette was the actual composition of the killer garbage mound. I was surprised when she answered “diapers and sanitary napkins.” Who would have thought that something as “natural” as baby poo or a monthly period could cause something so horrifying?

Visting Fabella Hospital and KMC

Last month, I was privileged to visit to Fabella Maternity Hospital and to the very popular human milk bank.   OCMominManila Kris invited me together with some of the SoMoms to experience the Touch Therapy advocacy of Johnson's Baby at Fabella Hospital.

Johnsons' Baby sponsored the construction of two Touch Therapy centers where moms and their babies can stay for infant massage.  While the hospital is not airconditioned, the 2 centers are, allowing moms some relief from the heat while they are massaging their babies.

The touch therapy center, Dr. Santiago talks about the touch therapy center,
Dr. Pinky Imperial talking about KMC, the daily birth census at the hospital,
breastmilk collected from new moms and the facade of the human milk bank

Join us for a Mommy Meet-Up in Cebu!

For the holidays, I will be spending it out of Metro Manila and going to Cebu (Stan's hometown) and Davao (my hometown).  We had a successful meet-up in Davao City during the summer with Next9 and Mamaway.  Because there had been some moms who were asking to meet-up in Cebu, I contacted Shirly of Baobao Babies when I finalized my plans for the holidays.  Since I won't be having a yaya during this trip, I asked Shirly to limit the participants to a manageable number.  

The Davao event was focused on babywearing.  This Cebu mommy meet-up will be informal.  It won't be a talk, but more of a discussion, particularly on the topics I discuss or write about in this blog like breastfeeding, babywearing, baby led feeding, natural birthing, etc. etc.  I will also be bringing several of my carriers for moms to try out.  

Interested? See the details in the poster below and contact Shirly for details.  

Meanwhile, stay tuned for another meet-up in Davao!

Feed your Child Right

One of the things I am grateful to N@W for is that it has become a forum for me to meet friends and experts from different fields.  One of them is my breast-friend, Velvet Escario-Roxas who is an active breastfeeding advocate and well-versed in infant and young child feeding and nutrition.  Since a popular question at the forum is what to feed children and encourage them to eat healthy foods, Velvet decided to hold a seminar to share her knowledge and expertise on healthy eating.

Several N@wies banded together to organize the event.  We had sign-up sheets, name tags, etc.

Happy 5th Birthday to Fab Naima!

Did you know that this blog's original name was "FABNAIMA".  My Multiply store is stilll fabnaima even though my store name is Mama.Baby.Love.  I named the blog and store after my daughter Naima who turned 5 years old last week.

Like me, my daughter is a planner.  As early as her 4th birthday, she already had her theme planned for her 5th birthday.  We had the chance to go to Party City and after seeing aisle and aisle of different themes, she decided on Tinkerbell.  I purchased the cups, dishes, balloons and napkins.  Meanwhile, my aunt gave N a whole set of Tinkerbell dolls.  All these Tinkerbell themed items, we stored for 1 year while N excitedly waited for her 5th birthday.

Unang Yakap's Breastmilk Collection and Storage Guidelines for Donor Moms

Whether we express milk for donation or for immediate consumption, we should always keep in mind the guidelines on collection and storage.  Dr. Lei Camiling-Alfonso shares some information on collection and storage of breastmilk by donor moms.  These guidelines have been reviewed by Dr. Francesca Tatad-To (who we sorely miss at LATCH) and was written for the Unang Yakap campaign.  Team Unang Yakap allowed me to reprint these guidelines for easy access to potential donor moms.

A Call for Breastmilk Donations for Victims of Pablo

STOP! Are you going to donate milk? Read THIS first.  Please donate frozen and not thawed milk.  Thank you!

We are mobilizing again and calling for breastmilk donations to share to the victims of Pablo in Compostela Valely, Mindanao. Here is the call from Dr. Mianne Silvestre:

I just received an SMS from Dr Paul Zambrano of UNICEF who is at an emergency meeting in Davao with Sec Dinky Soliman of DSWD. Sec Dinky is appealing for donations of human milk. 

Let's do this, friends! Let's stand by the principles of Infant Feeding in Emergencies IFE and show how Breastfeeding Missions should be done. 

Team Unang Yakap - EINC will be networking with contacts in Davao while I am committing the UP-PGH Lactation Unit and Milk Bank to help with the pasteurization of donor milk. Calling on the other Milk Banks - Fabella and PCMC and if already set up the Zamboanga City Medical Center to help out. Let's give responsibly. Let's save lives. Let's give hope.

Love Sees Beyond Differences: An Advocacy Campaign on Adoption

Sometime in September, I had the chance to visit Grace to be Born in Pasig City with the other breastfeeding moms in my work place.   Grace to be Born is halfway house where pregnant moms who are referred by Light of Jesus, DSWD and other NGOs stay.  These moms are usually women in crisis and the center helps care for them and their unborn babies by providing shelter and food.  By taking care of these women, the center hopes to promote its pro-life advocacy and fight abortion.

Road Testing the Swing Maxi and Thoughts on Medela's Non-repair Policy

In early December, Mamaway Philippines invited me to share my experiences as a working and breastfeeding mom in their crash course for moms - "What to Expect at the Hospital and Beyond" which Mamaway co-organized with Medela Moms.  E was sick so I had to leave him home while I attended the event.

Since I wasn't going to bring E, I decided to take this opportunity to road test the new Swing Maxi.  Medela Moms were also collecting milk for UP-PGH's Foster Milk Program.  Note that the pump horns at Medela House are cleaned but not sterilized.  However, the milk is going to be pasterized at the UP-PGH Milk Bank so no issue with storing the milk.

Sick Baby and a Baby Comfy Nose giveaway

Being comforted by Bitbit the Rabbit

E has been sick often these past month.  I brought him to his homeopathic pediatrician who is also into anthroposophic medicine. She shared that the energy of a person is low close to his/her birthday.  No wonder.  This time, E has upper respiratory infection and because he can't cough out his phlegm, he has been feverish.  He also alternates between having a stuffed and runny nose.  To alleviate his discomfort, I use Baby ComfyNose - a nasal aspirator which you operate by sucking one end of the tube.  Sounds icky but it works!  I purchased this product online some months ago but since E generally has excellent health, I was only able to use it recently.

For Stylish Naima: Pois, Belly and Kids

With a photographer for a husband, the upcoming holidays are a perfect excuse for more family pictorials!  Since we do "themed" pictorials for the kids' monthly shoots, I am looking for a more "classic" look for the holiday family shoots.

Shopping Report: Mommy Mundo Bazaar

Finally done with the only bazaar that Mama.Baby.Love is joining for the Christmas season.  I try to limit the bazaar activities I join because E's yaya is my tindera.  So when we join bazaars, it really gets hectic at home since we have to do double duty.  

Mama.Baby.Love booth

E with Ninang Jonie in front of her booth

Thanks to babywearing, I was able to keep E quiet and secure while I checked out the shopping finds at the bazaar.  Guilty me was not able to give E a lot of solid feedings on Saturday.  When dinner came, he wolfed down rice and chicken like a big boy! I made up for it on Sunday and fed him a heavy breakfast - egg omelette.  For lunch, he had fish and potatoes at Kulinarya. Plus fish fillet as snack at the N@W's Christmas party and chicken and rice for dinner!

E tanks up at lunch. 

What I like about Mommy Mundo bazaars is that it offers not just targeted shopping opportunities but also the chance for me to catch up with my fellow mompreneur friends.  Because I've been joining Mommy Mundo since 2009, I've actually become good friends with several "regulars" like my neighbor - Nursingmom, Celestina & Co, Mommy Treats, The Eco Baby Boutique, Hatch and Latch, Chubby Cheeks Baby, Wonderworld Toys, Mommy Matters, Medela Moms, Googoo&Gaga, Manila Baby Shop and Babymama.

I'm seeing double! Audrey of Googoo & Gaga at her booth
and chatting with Tricia of Dizzy Dress

 I was able to meet Tricia of Dizzy Dress.  N has a Josephine Baker dress in large and she loves twirling about in it!  Still saving up for a 2nd Dizzy Dress.  I also tried the Next9 x Googoo&Gaga collab sling in Rising Sun.

Meanwhile here are some of my finds from the Mommy Mundo Bazaar:

Plush & Play toys from GK, yummy chocolate chip cookies from
Mama L'Oca and the Mustela line of products (we love the Stelatopia line)

 This booth was near the SoMoms booth so I kept going back to check out the products.  This started as a thesis project of some Ateneo students and eventually expanded to a "real biz".  What is unique about Amaize Clothing is that it is made of corn silk!  The owner shared that she uses their long sleeved tees for running and they give a dri-fit feeling.  They are currently focused on children's clothes because the corn fabric is hypoallergenic and is best for kids.  I purchased a ruched tee for N which came with pink pearls.

Amaize children's clothing from corn silk

 I also purchased a Gangnam shirt for N from Bug & Kelly.  Both my N and E are fans of Gangnam. N will be wearing the shirt tomorrow with Jen's K.

Gangnam shirt

 Meanwhile, I chatted up with Pink Lemon's Beth LimChu.  Beth owns a textile store and blogs as Divisoria Mama.  She is my to-go person whenever I have questions about where to find xxx in Divi.  Beth revived her clothing biz and now does children's line under Pink Lemon.  She can also customize children's clothes - perfect for the holidays!

Pink Lemon clothes for the holidays!

 Also found my yayas' uniforms which I bought from Snuza's Sheryl.  Also purchased this set of decorated wooden clips from Sitting Pretty. I enjoy looking at pretty things and I was influenced by Celestina's Ethel to buy!  Ethel purchased a magnetic board to hold her children's artwork.

Snuza, Fiddletops, Sitting Pretty and R. Trevi's booths

Claimed my Mom 24/7 planner - ready for 2013!

I was also intrigued by the MEG teddybear cellphone from R. Trevi.  It allows you to program 3 numbers and can be converted into a baby monitor! Costs P3,200 and I am thinking of purchasing it but worried about exposing N to too much cellphone radiation since it will be with her everyday.

Since there was a SoMoms booth, I also had fun chatting with my fellow SoMoms who shared the same time slot with me - Jen, Neva, Elai, Kris, Tin and Fleur   We were even graced by the presence of honorary SoMom - Oli!

2-day Bazaar was tiring but fun!  Looking forward to the next one in May 2013!