What do you think about baby umbilical cord-blood banking? I first heard of it when expecting my first child, in the early 90s. (I’d also heard that hospitals take the placenta and sell them and that they were used in things like shampoo and hand lotions, is this true?). Cryo-Cell is a company that distributes umbilical cord collection kits to expectant parents shortly before the birth of their baby. When the baby is born, a small collection of the cord blood is saved and stored at the Cryo-Cell facility for future use should it arise.

I have a somewhat personal experience with this. A close friend of mine had a baby who later developed bone cancer. The young child needed a bone marrow transplant, but no suitable donors could be found. So the couple had another baby, and this new baby’s bone marrow was a match. It was a very emotional time, though. I suppose that storing something like cord blood would have helped in this situation, because stem cells collected from cord blood has been shown to be useful in treating many diseases, including leukemia, anemia, lymphoma, diabetes, and cerebral palsy. It’s pretty amazing, actually. I also had another friend who, before major surgery, banked her own blood ahead of time. She was concerned about the safety of the public blood supply (this was during the mid-80s, during the threat of AIDS in the blood supply) and wanted to ensure that any transfusions would be of her own stored blood. I thought it was a smart thing to do.

There is a lot more information about this at the Cryo-Cell website; I found the information to be riveting and very comprehensive. They even offer gift certificates for the holidays! You can buy a collection kit and give it away as a holiday gift (or even a baby gift). (See Cryo-Cell’s current offers here). What do you think about something like that? Would you appreciate a gift certificate from a grandma for something like this?

Oh my goodness, this is SO adorable I just can’t stand it. Look at this.

Look at those little bitty feet!!! This is an example of photo birth announcements that you can get from Bugaboo Announcements. This is a mom-owned store, so gals, she deserves our support! Every card is specially designed to perfection, just like your little darling, and customized especially for you and your new baby, in various styles. Bugaboo Announcements promises unlimited changes at no charge until you are completely satisfied with the design.

The announcements are real eye-candy. You MUST go see them, they are so adorable. I know I have a few expectant moms reading my blog– support a co-mom and check out her site. She’s been featured on a few blogs, including 5 Minutes for Mom. And Bugaboo Announcements also handles custom invitations, holidays, and other announcement photo cards. The designs are stunning, this mom has a real gift and does beautiful work. Plus, she has a ladybug as part of her website design!!! You’ll just have to stop reading my gushing and go see for yourself!

This is just DESPICABLE. Dairy farmers in China have dumped toxic melamine into the milk to make the protein content appear higher. This is milk used for baby formula, for pete’s sake!

There was a HUGE hoo-hah over Chinese melamine dumped into pet food; has anyone heard about this poisoning of baby formula?

Thank God the United States forbids imported baby formula, but babies in China and New Zealand are not faring so well. Some have serious health problems now. Also, some of this formula may have made its way into the U.S. through ethnic grocery stores. This is deplorable.

If you have any baby formula, please check and make sure that it is not made in China. Come to think of it, let’s dump out EVERYTHING that’s made in China.

Is it just me, or there some kind of baby boom going on? I have been getting all sorts of cute birth announcements everywhere these days, lol! I was pondering today, as I was watching my kids play with other kids, that I had all my children while I was in my 20s. Holy cow, I’m glad I had them all wile I was young; I’m so pooped out now that I doubt I could have raised them after 35, lol.

Well, some of the absolutely cutest designs are from Doodle Bug Dezigns. I just LOVE that name, Doodle Bug! I love this card. Isn’t is adorable! (What is it with everyone naming their kid Zachary these days, any? But I digress).

I think the designs are some of the classiest I’ve seen. A mom must run the site, because it is set up very chic and the cards are simple but beautiful– very stylish. You’ll have to see for yourself. They have some lovely holiday photo cards there, too. I like custom card shops, because I hate that “cookie-cutter” kind of look. Plus, with new technology that enables us to have personally-tailored cards with our OWN adorable babies on them, why go back to the plain old cookie-cutter cards??