This is a blog - about a blog!

The blog belongs to ivymama.  Ivymama wore the BabyPlus Prenatal Education system with both of her children, and, in her words, she would do it again - "in a heartbeat."

Her sons had "amazing - not great - amazing" sleep habits and were "incredibly unfussy."

Ivymama saw the tangible benefits of using this patented curriculum of mother's heartbeat sounds during the critical time of fetal development.  More and more parents are coming to realize that actions during the prenatal period will impact their baby for a lifetime. BabyPlus is excited to be the first and only to provide a curriculum for use during the stages of pregnancy. 

Click on the picture to read her blog.  An additional benefit is the opportunity to have a BabyPlus bib as a gift with purchase by using the special code in her blog.

How exciting to see more and more parents writing about the benefits of BabyPlus!

You can't turn on the television without hearing about the state of the economy in our country.  It can be quite scary when there are so many viewpoints and issues involved.  Everyone is trying to cut costs and save money and be as economical as they can.   Frivolous spending is definitely out!  Wise spending on a future investment is acceptable.

When you look at BabyPlus, if you start using it at 18 weeks, it is only about 50 cents each time you use a lesson.  It is such a small amount to invest in encouraging learning in your unborn baby.  Based on the mother's heartbeat, BabyPlus encourages discrimination between the similar yet distinct simple set of sounds.  This sets the foundation for learning after birth and for the rest of their lives.  Doing whatever you can during the important stages of fetal development is an investment that will last a lifetime.
 

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day.   It is a big day for the restaurant industry.  I should know because my husband has been in the business for almost 15 years!  He has always felt bad for not having that day or evening for us but I completely understand he needs to be there on such a busy day.  (Maybe I would feel different if he wasn't so sweet during the rest of the year.) 

I compare that to my grandparents who adored each other.  I remember visiting on their 50th wedding anniversary and it didn't seem like that big of deal to them.  My grandpa said that "Every day is our anniversary."  My grandma nodded in agreement then went to finish making dinner.  What a great lesson for all of us!

We shouldn't focus on just a select few days of the year to show others how special they are.  It doesn't have to be expensive or even material.  It could be just a kind word, a touch or a smile.  Small gestures can go a long way.

So, while I didn't blog on the benefits of prenatal curriculum or strengthening your baby's learning ability during fetal development, I think remembering to focus on our loved ones year round is worthy of writing about.
 

A recent European study has quickly sparked interest in the BabyPlus Prenatal Education System.  The study has received some very prominent press coverage, including the front page of the USA Today (January 30, 2009).

From ScienceDaily on January 27, 2009:  "Researchers at the Institute for Psychology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation of the University of Amsterdam demonstrated that two to three day old babies can detect the beat in music.....a large European study demonstrated that beat perception is either innate or learned in the womb, as the auditory system is at least partly functional as of approximately three months before birth." 

Click on this picture to read the entire article.

Source:  Universiteit van Amsterdam. "Newborn Infants Detect The Beat In Music." ScienceDaily 27 January 2009. 11 February 2009 <http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/01/090127083540.htm>.

Why am I blogging about this?  Simply this reason - we know!  First, over 30 years of research is behind the BabyPlus Prenatal Education System.  Beyond that, different groups of people have been using various types of fetal stimulation for hundreds of years.  Click to read the science behind the product.

 Ideally, you may begin using the system anytime between weeks 18 and 32 of pregnancy. Mothers who have started using the system as late as 34 weeks of pregnancy have reported many positive benefits. We are the only patented system of this kind on the market today.

Click on the "Buy Now" logo to go directly to our site to purchase this set of sounds based on the mother's heartbeat.

How exciting it was to find this on Pregnancy.com! 

Nutrition during pregnancy is so important and critical throughout fetal development.  I think most pregnant women understand healthy eating with fruits, vegetables and lean protein, but how many apples and chicken breasts can one person eat!  Also, you may find that certain foods you were able to eat before pregnancy don't appeal to you now or may disagree with your digestion.  In addition, there are many foods with nutritional value that you may not even be aware of.  Variety is important throughout pregnancy so that your healthy eating habits will continue long after your baby is born.  In turn, this will carry over good nutrition habits with your baby that he or she can take well into their lives. 

Sign up today for the webinar to listen to tips and information and to ask any questions you may have regarding the important issue of nutrition.  You can also register for notifications of future webinars.
 

Many years ago, pregnant women just did what was natural with little thought to nutrition or outside influences.  When prenatal vitamins were first suggested, I'm sure that women were thinking that it was a fad, a scam or something that really wouldn't make that much of a difference.  For instance, doctors didn't know about how folic acid impacted a developing baby.  Now we know how essential it is during pregnancy and what birth defects it can prevent.  However, I should point out that folic acid does not guarantee the prevention of birth defects but increases the odds they will prevented.

Today, taking a prenatal vitamin isn't given a second thought and is strongly encouraged for many reasons learned over the years.  Why wouldn't using a prenatal curriculum be the same?  We are learning more and more about the prenatal environment every day.

It is safe to assume that influencing a baby's cognitive development during fetal stages can be one such factor.  The realization that learning in the womb actually takes place and that learning begins before birth is giving way to prenatal education in mainstream ideas. 

The brain is a complex organ and scientists only know a fraction about it and its functions.  To push aside an idea is a little premature.  Using a prenatal curriculum during pregnancy has so many great benefits.  BabyPlus doesn't guarantee a genius baby, a perfect sleeper or a highly gifted child, but it does increase the odds of strengthening the cognitive blueprint. 
 

The weather in Indiana is going to be 65 degrees and rainy.  At least, that is the prediction.  How often does the predicted weather actually occur?  Well, in Indiana, I give them about an accuracy rate of 60%.....

My blog word for today is predict.  The dictionary definition is to declare or tell in advance.  During your pregnancy you can do many things to tell in advance how your baby will develop.  All research into the prenatal environment predicts that what you do during those prenatal months has a huge impact on the life of your child.

Your health-care provider will predict your approximate due date.  Your friends will predict the gender of your baby.  Your co-workers will predict that you will develop aversions to certain foods.  Your neighbor predicts that if you eat a certain brand of salsa you will deliver early.  As you already know, there is no shortage of predictions for both you and your developing baby.

Here at BabyPlus - we predict that using the BabyPlus Prenatal Education System during the critical time of fetal development will impact your baby's daily behaviors - from her ability to self-soothe to her ability to latch on easily while nursing.

We predict that she will be interactive and responsive and that she will be relaxed and alert at birth.

We predict that she will have a longer attention span, greater creativity, and greater Independence.

We predict that your child will reach her developmental milestones early and have improved school readiness.

Click on the BabyPlus logo below to learn all about what we KNOW about BabyPlus and your amazing developing baby!

We're already in the second month of 2009.  Wow!  Of course, February brings about thoughts of Valentine's Day, hearts, and love.  You know, the mushy stuff.  You think of ways to show your friends and family how much you love them and how important they are to you.  However, sometimes when you get so involved in caring for all those around you, you sometimes forget to take care of yourself.  I talk a lot about the importance of taking care of yourself so that you will have the energy to be able to care of your loved ones.  It's such an important idea!

However, there are times in your life when another person should be shown even more care and that's when you are pregnant.  You want to make sure that you eat correctly, avoid negative outside influences and anything else to give your baby the best possible start in life.  One way you can show your baby how much you care is to use a prenatal curriculum to strengthen learning during stages of fetal development.  By encouraging cognitive development before birth, your baby can later show how much he or she cares by exhibiting traits seen in most BabyPlus babies such as self soothing and nursing more readily.

If you think about it, BabyPlus is a way for you and your baby to show each other how much you care. 
 

100 Blogs!  I am stunned by that number!

I wrote my first blog almost exactly one year ago ("Purchasing the BabyPlus Prenatal Education System") and I have just topped 100 blogs written!  This makes me think - why do we blog?

Well, the first reason is to make sure the most -up-to-date information about prenatal learning, fetal development, learning in the womb, and our use of the mother's heartbeat sounds is readily available to anyone who uses a computer search engine to search about the ability for a baby to learn in the womb.

The second reason, and this is very important, is that we want to make sure the information people read online is valid.  We know there is a lot of information on the Internet, so making sure as much of it as possible is accurate is key for us.

A third reason is the chance to share some of the great stories we hear (11/26/08 - "A True Success Story", 10/14/08 - "Teachers Love BabyPlus",  01/15/2008 - "Another Great Story") almost daily from "our" happy and satisfied parents.  We love getting these emails and phone calls, and I love sharing them through my blog.

There are other reasons - but I will save those for blog # 200.

Click on the picture below to go immediately to the blogs on www.babyplus.com.

As we were winding up the day, a few of the employees here at BabyPlus Company were talking about BabyPlus and different stages we have gone through over the years.  The President of the company, Lisa Jarrett, brought up how someone had told her that the name "BabyPlus" said so much.  We all agreed. 

It is true.  The first part "Baby" is obvious.  It is used for your baby.  The second part "Plus" can be looked at different ways.  My favorite is the word "plus" implies added benefit.  What is more beneficial than using prenatal learning to help encourage your baby's learning blueprint in addition to all the good things you do during pregnancy? 

BabyPlus has such a positive overtone.  The early stages of fetal development are critically important.  BabyPlus is valuable during such time, and the added benefit to your baby will last years beyond.
 

I'm going to get a bit off topic of prenatal curriculum and fetal development but I feel that it's important not only to us as a nation but our unborn babies as well.  After all, it is the future that they will someday inherit.
 

Barack Obama is now officially President of the United States.  What a ride.  The months leading up to the party elections as well as the Presidential election itself were quite intense.  Many feelings were strong and emotions were heightened.  I saw a couple heated arguments about why people felt that their candidate was the best and why the other person's candidate was not.  My boys, who were 13 and 9 at the time, would come home with quotes from classmates about the election and the candidates.  Now, boys of that young age aren't totally unaware of the world around them but the Presidential Election probably isn't on the top of their list of things to pay attention to.  My theory is that kids were repeating a lot of what they would hear at home.  The day after the election, I told my boys that they would probably hear a lot of things at school about President Obama but the votes were in and the decision had been made.  Everyone may not agree on the winner but the point was to support and back the current leader. 

So while your candidate may or may not have won, we all have a common denominator-to better our country for the present as well as the future.  What we do today will impact what we pass on to our children as well as their children.  Wouldn't it be more productive to put aside differences and look at the big picture?  President Obama has a lot of pressure on him.  The whole world is going to be watching his every decision and every action.  Whether I voted for him or not, I do support him and pray he makes the best decisions for me, my children, my country, and my world. 

"Mocha Manual is a movement for black moms.  A powerful fusion of the woman you are and the mother you became.  A celebration of your unstoppableness, your resourcefulness, your view of the world, your love of community and everything in between.  Mocha Manual is...all you!"

I love this!  This is the very first thing you see when you visit www.moachmanual.com. This is a truly beautiful website.  Kimberly Seals-Allers is a writer - both journalism and freelance.  Her first book, The Mocha Manual to a Fabulous Pregnancy, is a "first-of-its kind guidebook for Black women."  Check out p.138-139 where she talks about her use of BabyPlus.  Clearly she educated herself on the use of the mother's heartbeat sounds during the stages of fetal development.  Plus, what new mom doesn't want a baby who is a self-soother AND a great sleeper? 

I love visiting her site to see the current news - plus all the available newsletters, articles, blogs, etc. etc. She even has a section called "just for Dads."  Check out her site by clicking on the picture...


Then, click on our logo to visit www.babyplus.com to learn even more about the prenatal opportunity Kimberly gave her baby.

The talk these days seems to be about wiring - in the brain.  I have even heard people say that the brain is our "hard-drive." 

We know the importance of taking care of ourselves during pregnancy - so the next natural step is to make sure we take care of our developing baby.  This is logical and right.

But, how do we make sure we are doing everything possible?  First and foremost, talk to your doctor or health care professional.  He or she will be able to recommend the best ways to take care of yourself and your developing fetus.  Get plenty of rest.  Eat well.  Follow the instructions given to you by your doctor or health-care professional.

Next, use the BabyPlus Prenatal Education System to enhance the fetal environment of your baby.  This prenatal learning opportunity is pretty amazing - and over 150,000+ babies all over the world have benefitted from this curriculum of a mother's heartbeat sounds.  In 16 simple yet varying lessons used through the stages of pregnancy, your baby will begin learning - in the womb!  This may seem small; yet the life-long impact is HUGE.

Visit our website by clicking on our logo to read more about why to use the BabyPlus during this critical time in the cognitive development of your baby.
 

Here we are finishing the first week of 2009.  It's already flying by!   

The school year is about halfway over.  I'll have to start thinking about summer break before I know it!  Then school will be back in session and the holidays will be here right after that.  I need to start making my Christmas list now!  But before I get too ahead of myself, I should probably focus on the here and now. 

I think a lot of us are having trouble focusing.  The holidays are over and we've settled into winter with mostly cold and cloudy days.  Spring is just around the corner and we anxiously await warmer weather and being able to get out and enjoy it.  I know I am having trouble.  Do I blog about prenatal education or curriculum?  Do I write about the fetal stages of development ?  Or do I share about my experiences in Customer Service?  I don't know.  I have come to call this "blog block" which I think is similar to writer's block. 

Maybe when the sun starts to shine again and the trees get a little green, the creative juices will start to flow again.  But for now, I must be patient and know that soon I will share the benefits of BabyPlus and using a prenatal curriculum to encourage learning in the womb.
 

Different Ideas for Different Times

Remember when the computer was new? or the Internet? or even an Ipod?  New ideas are a result of a technological society.  If you stop and think about it - I mean really give it your time - the idea of prenatal learning not only makes perfect sense, it is obvious!  Your baby  is developing every day, so each day of your pregnancy is vitally important to your child.  Just as you make a conscious choice to be healthier during your pregnancy, you can also make the conscious choice to give your baby the very best headstart available.

Research prenatal development, fetal development, infant development - any of those or a combination of other prenatal terms will yield thousands of articles.

Now - think about this - what did people think of the Internet at first?????  Or, what did people think of computers???? I know someone who didn't purchase a fax machine for her office because she thought the idea would not catch on!  Well, I am signing off - I think I am getting a text!

According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2009 is the year of the Ox!

What does this mean exactly?  Well, the ox (a cow or buffalo may be used) symbolizes prosperity through fortitude and hard work.  Those born under the influence of the Ox or Buffalo are fortunate to be stable and persevering.  The typical Ox is a tolerant person with strong character.

Even though we don't celebrate these types of holidays here in the United States, we know many of "our" parents do globally.  After all, the maternal heartbeat is the one universal language that all babies know and recognize.

The simple use of the mother's heartbeat sounds are the reason we are globally in demand. We are thrilled to be adding new retail partners all over the world!  If you are pregnant and will have your baby in 2009, using the BabyPlus during the critical periods in fetal development will benefit both you and your baby.  Results of a recent survey of BabyPlus parents showed that their babies were 96% alert at birth, 83% calm at birth, and 72% nursed at birth. And, not surprising to us, 97% of BabyPlus parents would recommend our prenatal curriculum to a friend.

So, wherever you are in the world, you can celebrate knowing you have given your baby the very best start to life - in 2009 or in any year!

Happy New Year!

Have you signed up for the free newsletter yet? 

Click on the link and submit your email, and we'll send you updates on upcoming webinars, special and discounts, and the latest news from The BabyPlus Company.  Also, send us a message on anything you want us to write about, such as the latest news in prenatal curriculum, information on fetal development, breastfeeding or whatever you want to hear about.

BabyPlus and Katie Holmes?

Well, in my opinion, yes, obviously!

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes seem to know quite a bit about children and education.  I am wondering, however, if they have ever heard of prenatal education.  One would tend to believe that with the many articles available about prenatal development, early cognitive development, critical periods in fetal development, and the benefits of learning in the womb using the patented heartbeat sounds of the BabyPlus Prenatal Education System, that they would be doing everything possible to impact the fetal environment as beneficially as possible.  After all, 97% of BabyPlus parents would recommend our system to a friend who is pregnant!

I bet Katie Holmes knows all of this, and is using BabyPlus!  (if she is pregnant......)

Click on the logo below to read more about BabyPlus!

It's funny how certain things slip into mainstream thinking.  I just wasn't so sure about the whole idea of texting when it started.   I always thought it was just easier to pick up the phone or email.  Then, a promotion with my cell phone lured me into the world of abbreviations and quick messaging.  Before long, I was using texting lingo like a pro even though my speed still needs work.  The simplified phrases broken down to basics sure makes texting and communicating much easier. 

Breaking down concepts to a simpler form can make things easier to understand or work with.  In fact, an application of simplification can even positively influence the cognitive development during the important stages of fetal development.  That is where BabyPlus comes in.  It is a simple set of sounds that encourages learning in the womb using repetition similar to a mother's heartbeat.  The idea of using a prenatal curriculum is slowly becoming more commonplace and may soon be as familiar as your BFF!  IDK, we'll see!  LOL

I previously wrote about BabyPlus' 2008 year in review.  Now, I want to share my own reflections even though 2008 seems to have flown by faster than I would have liked! 

I now have two "double digit" sons, as they like to say.  That hardly seems possible because I'm only 16 (in my head!)  When did all of that happen?  I must say that they are the light of my life and even though there are days I don't think I'll make it, they do make me smile and laugh! 

I have a wonderful high school sweetheart who every day lets me know that he thinks I'm wonderful and beautiful and is so thankful to have me.  Some days I question his sanity,  but I bite my tongue and know how blessed that he still feels that way after 21 years!

I learned a lot about myself this past year.  I learned a lot about my own limitations and my capabilities.  I was in a job situation that, even though wasn't a fit at the time, prepared me for where I am today.  I have learned that I am far more capable than I give myself credit and can do a lot more than I realize when I have a wonderful safety net around me.  I think in these ways I have grown more than I have in a long time and come farther than I have realized. 

Coming to BabyPlus has given me a confidence that had long been hidden.  As Christopher Robin tells Pooh Bear, "You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."  I think this definitely applies to me!  I am surrounded by a team of fantastic, fabulous, wonderful people who just support and nurture each other.  I couldn't have asked for a better place to be!

In addition, I learned so much that I never knew about.  I always knew that babies hear in the womb.  I experienced that myself.  What I didn't know is that by influencing a baby during the important stages of fetal development, you can encourage benefits that last a lifetime!  Who would have thought that something as simple as the mother's heartbeat can have such a lasting effect on a baby's blueprint and that words like prenatal curriculum would be in my everyday vocabulary.  I must say it makes perfect sense especially the more you research.  BabyPlus is such a perfect fit for me because I truly believe in learning in the womb! 

I'll stop my ramblings here.  It's been a long road to get here and I won't bore you with the details.  I do know that I am thankful for where I've ended up and look forward to 2009!