What’s better than a discounted 18 month membership at Happy Bambino? How about a combined 18 month membership to Happy Bambino and the Madison Children’s Museum!

We have partnered with the MCM (because we just love them) to offer you a special promotion.  Purchase a joint membership for Happy Bambino and Madison Children’s Museum for just $170.  You’ll receive an extra 5 months of membership and save 10 percent!

Happy Bambino members receive free admittance to all Happy Bambino Groups ($5 value EACH time!), free check out privileges from our Lending Library, and a free eco-chic reusable Happy Bambino tote bag.

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is at it again (media hog)! For those that haven’t heard of BPA (every time you turn around)…Bisphenol-A is an industrial chemical used in baby bottles, sippy cups, and many other products. It leaches from these products and may harm children’s development; studies link it to cancer, diabetes, early onset puberty, obesity, and hyperactivity.  Despite the toxic development health threats posed to children, many baby bottles and sippy cups on the market are made with bisphenol A. The only appropriate response to evidence that a known toxic chemical leaches from baby products is to phase it out and replace it with safer products.

The Good News: A hearing to ban BPA in baby bottles & sippy cups in Wisconsin. On Tuesday, November 10 at 11am a state senate committee will hold a public hearing on a bill to ban BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups. If you’re able – please show up to show support for the ban (State Senate Hearing – State Capitol, 201 Southeast).  The hearing on Tuesday will be a critical first step in reducing exposure to BPA in baby products in Wisconsin.  (BTW, Happy Bambino has never knowingly carried products containing BPA (or PVC which contains BPA).

The Bad News: New information coming out indicates that BPA is found in nearly all cash register receipts – WHAT?! Seriously.  It has to do with the thermal or pressure process for printing receipts: manufacturers coat a powdery layer of BPA onto one side of a piece of paper together with an invisible ink – then when the receipt printer applies heat or pressure the ink shows up. One environmental scientist predicts that BPA in cash register receipts creates the “biggest exposure” to BPA in the urban environment – WAY more exposure than baby bottles, etc.  More bad news: Apparently BPA-contaminated or BPA-free receipts all look the same. Crap-a-doodle-doo.

Happy Bambino’s response:  well since we just became aware of this, our first step will be to determine whether our receipt tape contains BPA.  If it does, we will find an alternative. In the meanwhile, experts advise pregnant women (and we say all people) to wash their hands after handling receipts, and keep them away from kids.  Read more…

We fell in love with Tea clothing a few years ago, but the pricetag was just too high for our market.  And then they came out with Daily Tea – a bit more affordable and oh so beautiful!  Lovely colors and beautiful fabrics.

Tea offers baby, toddler, and child clothing that combines global aesthetics with a respect for modern design. They incorporate cultural designs into modern, universal styles in a very approachable, subtle, and fun way. Not only do we adore every item that comes out of their design room aesthetically speaking- we can’t keep our hands off of them. Tea clothing is touchably soft- just the kind of fabric you want up against your kiddo’s skin. 

Since we love Daily Tea, and we love you, we’re going to cut you a deal. Buy any 3 tops or dresses + 2 pants all for $79 (that’s a 30% savings… or more!) This deal is in store only, so come visit us! You’re sure to be just as charmed by this line of clothing as we are.

We’ve got so many hats it would make your head spin- from monkey hats to vegetable hats, Mom-made to machine-made.. hats with flaps, hats with strings, hats with ears, hats with pom poms, hats that tie, hats with bears… we’ve even got a cupcake hat.

Not letting winter get the better of us, we figured we’d better stock up on our warm, snuggly supplies. We have winter hats, gloves, booties,  moccasins, leg warmers, and even the apparatus’s to keep them on!

Come on by the store and check out our collection- we promise you won’t be disappointed.

Sometimes it’s hard to believe it’s been five years… But the reality is that my baby Liam is a big boy now – with two younger siblings.  Here he is with Ma’iingan before we opened.

in the classroom before it was even finished (and way before it was green)

Oh man, they were so cute and so little, and they’re so BIG now.

I posted some pictures of our first day (our Grand Opening)  to our Facebook page .  You’ll probably recognize some familiar (younger looking) faces, and maybe you’ll even find yourself if you were there!

One of the things I noticed from that day was how different the store looked then – everything so new – way back before all the memories we’ve made since – all the friendships…all the little people.  The business has undergone lots of physical transformations – like us and all of our customers.  At this huge milestone (the business is Kindgergarten-age now) – we have outgrown our little space at Kennedy Place.

We’re moving after the holidays!  We’ll be expanding to almost 3 times the size we are now – doubling our retail space, adding a second classroom, and leaving plenty of room for storage.  (If you’ve peeked into our current office/storerooms lately, you know we need it!)  We’re very excited about this move.  We’ll be within a mile or so of our current location, a bit easier to find (we hope), and next to some of our favorite local businesses: Bongo Video, Crema Cafe and Monona Bootery.

To take our We’re-Moving! Survey, click here…

Baby’s 1st Halloween Bash was a blast!  Last year we had so many people show up for Halloween that this year we teamed up with the Madison Children’s Museum to do a combined party in their larger space.  Next year we’ll do the same – & the Children’s Museum will have moved to their new building (still up by the Capitol). 

Below are the finalists and the winners from the costume contest.  The rest of the costume contest pictures are posted to our Facebook fan page.   And on Thursday, we’ll have the candid shots posted.  (Would have ‘em posted sooner, but Lea is at a birth and couldn’t get them uploaded yet).  Be sure to check Facebook again on Thursday because there were some fantastic costumes and super cuties…!

 1st Place!  Abe Lincoln: wins a membership to Happy Bambino & MCM

2nd Place! Jazzercize Girl (or maybe Flashdance?): wins a MCM Dual Membership & $50 HB Gift Card

 3rd Place! Day-old Burrito (so clever – note the tinfoil wrapping!): wins a Lea Wolf Photo – Photography Package

 And the other finalists:

Chicken!

Star Wars’ Princess Leia

And another Princess Leia!

I’m sitting here tonight, laptop juggling with a sick sleeping kid’s limbs for space on my lap, an inbox full of deadlines competing with the feverish mumblings of a kiddo who just wants her mama’s arms around her.

And I come across this poem when rummaging through the deep archives of my email box – something I had set aside six months ago to read “when I have more time”.

And here it is tonight.  Just when I need it.

Newborn Night

I rock while you suck,
your mouth bound to my breast
like some unbreakable seal.
My lids graze my eyes.
The clock ticks dumbly on.
Already beyond 2 a.m.,
and the whole world sleeps
without us. But then,
we drifted from them
long ago, dipping
and swelling in this sea of
exhaustion and need, and I
with no more memory of land
than you.

-Andrea Potos

I look down at my ruddy cheeked big girl, who is almost eight now, and full of new skills (she wrote a note to the Great Pumpkin herself this weekend that included parentheses), with a body that shows more signs of pending puberty than of baby, and I remember.  I remember quiet breathing moments breastfeeding her, night sounds surrounding us.

And though we weaned years ago, here we are again, in that same place.

I’m caring for a sick kid tonight – one who needs me once again as much as she did when she was still dependent on me for every drop of food.  I am “nursing” my sick kid tonight.

The deadlines can wait, and the inbox can wait.  We’re drifting, she and I.  Even now, my big girl and I, we’re drifting.

~Lea

(Thanks to the Madison homebirthers group for this beautiful poem – Andrea Potos is a local Madison poet.  This one gripped my heart.)

Welcome to October’s Carnival of Breastfeeding – “What I wish I’d known….”  Please be sure to read the other carnival writers listed at the end of this post (they will be added throughout the next 24 hours).

I remember when it hit me. I was sitting on the floor changing my newborn son’s diaper and I saw that his toenails needed cutting. I was overwhelmed with a sense of personal responsibility for this tiny human being. Not only did I feed him and carry him around and take him to the doctor and dress him and help him sleep but I even had to clip his toenails! Of all those things the responsibility for feeding my baby felt particularly huge. As a breastfeeding mother I was making the milk he drank, trying to get him in just the right position for eating, making sure that his latch was correct, and worrying about whether he was getting enough to eat. Overwhelming responsibility is an understatement — I didn’t know how I was ever going to succeed.

What I wish I had known then was that I was wrong. Breastfeeding wasn’t something that was up to me alone. I had help and a partner that cared as much as I did (or maybe more!): my baby. Over the years since my son’s birth I’ve learned amazing things about the active role that newborn babies play in breastfeeding.

Babies are born wanting to go to the breast. A dramatic video illustrating this was produced in India as a way to promote successful breastfeeding initiation. In it the mother has been asked not to help the baby so we can see how competent babies can be right from the beginning.

Babies are born with the ability to latch well at the breast. Mothers don’t need to force their babies’ mouths into correct latch. When I first encountered this idea in Dr. Christina Smillie’s video, “Baby-Led Breastfeeding… The Mother-Baby Dance”, I almost couldn’t believe it. It shows baby after baby, even babies that have been primarily bottle fed or are having latching problems, going to the breast on their own and getting a comfortable, effective latch. But in my work as a lactation consultant I see babies do this all the time. It’s not a special skill unique to some babies. It’s something that all healthy, hungry babies do. Babies like to have a good latch. They are comfortable and can drink milk more effectively. Babies will often try to come off and fix a poor latch themselves.

Babies don’t need mothers to do the work of breastfeeding. Babies just need mothers to create the environment where they can use their inborn skills. On Suzanne Colson’s biological nurturing website and in Christina Smillie’s video they talk about the simple elements that make up this environment. Mothers  need to hold their babies so the babies feel secure but are still free to move their own heads, mouths, and hands — usually this means that mother reclines so that baby can be on her chest. Babies need access to mothers’ skin and breasts — they need to be able to touch and taste their mothers. Then mothers just need to watch what their babies are trying to do and facilitate it by helping them stay calm and get where they’re trying to go.

I wish I had known that I was not alone feeding my baby. I wish I had known then that he was born with the drive and the skills to eat and grow. I needed to know that I could trust him to work with me.

Note: As a lactation consultant I do see babies that struggle with feeding skills. Just like any other part of life sometimes things don’t all work without a hitch. When babies are born early or have a difficult birth or lose a lot of weight or have health problems then they can need help establishing breastfeeding skills. But mothers still don’t have to do it by themselves! That is what supportive fathers, friends, grandmothers, sisters, doctors, nurses, and lactation consultants are for. And that’s one other thing I wish I’d known: that it’s good to reach out for help when things aren’t going well.

Other Carnival of Breastfeeding posts (they will continue to be added all day Monday 10.26)….

“What I wish I’d known then about breastfeeding” -Christina at Massachusetts Friends of Midwives

What I wish I’d have known then -Whozat at Lucy & Ethel Have a Baby

I wish I would have known -Maria at The Starr Family

What I wish I’d known then – My list for next time -Rebekah at Momma’s Angel

You don’t have to grin and bear it -Melodie at Breastfeeding Mom Unite

What I wish I’d known -Robin at Birth Activist

4 things I wish I’d known -Barbara at Three Girl Pile-up

AP Principle #2: What I wish I’d known when I started breastfeeding- Lauren at Hobo Mama

When breastfeeding begins badly,  and what I should have done about it- Christina at The Milk Mama

Wish I’d Heard More Good Things!- at Fancy Pancakes

15 Breastfeeding Facts I Wish I’d Known as a First Time Breastfeeding Mum- at Breastfeeding Mums

When Breastfeeding Feels Wrong- Rita at Fighting off Frumpy

Nursing Wisdom- Sarah at Cave Mother

Trust Yourself And Your Body- at BlissTree

Breastfeeding is Life Changing- Elita at Blacktating

What I wish I’d Known Then- Claire at Mum Unplugged

Congrats to Amber ($100 gift cert), Kathlyn ($75), Amy HB ($50), Anna ($25), and Sarah P. ($10)!

I’m emailing ya’all your gc codes.  Thanks everyone for commenting – so many of them made me feel fuzzy and happy inside and at the end of a long week, it was so lovely to back through and read them.  

XOXOXO
~Lea 

Breastpumps.  So many folks seem to have an old one lying around, because frankly, what do you do you do with your old pump when it’s all done?  Well – we are proud to announce that we are a part of a pilot program Medela is doing – a Pump Exchange Program!

Bring in your old electric Medela Pump In Style and we’ll get it boxed up and shipped back to Medela.  And what’s in it for you?  A $30 rebate on a new Pump in Style Advanced or a $40 rebate on a Freestyle Pump.  Sweet set-up, eh?  Your old pump doesn’t even need to be working!

For more information – you can check out the FAQs on the exchange program.