I'm a full-time mummy

Although I am not pregnant and already given birth to Alyson 4 months ago, it is still interesting to read a book which comes packed with advices and tips from lots and lots of doctors who are also mothers! So here goes my review for the "The MD Guide to Pregnancy and Birth" book:

Title: The Mommy MD Guide to Pregnancy and Birth
Authors: Rallie McAllister MD MPH & Jennifer Bright Reich
Publisher: Momosa Publishing LLC; Original edition (June 12, 2010)
ISBN-13/-10:  978-0984480401 / 0984480404
Paperback:  512 pages
Dimension:  8.9 x 6 x 1.1 inches

Description from the product page:
"Dr. Spock is dead. Familiar pregnancy books are outdated. Neither of them speak to the mom who needs advice when her child cries in the night. To whom do women turn for the latest information and advice about conception, pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood? The Mommy MD Guides

The first book in our Mommy MD Guides book series, The Mommy MD Guide to Pregnancy and Birth, is filled with tips that doctors who are also mothers use for their own families during their own pregnancies and births. To create it, we spoke with 60 doctors who are also mothers; we call them Mommy MD Guides. We spoke with many Mommy MD Guides who are still in the trenches with their babies. Some of them were even pregnant when we talked. We also spoke with Mommy MD Guides whose babies are grown up with babies of their own. They are Grammy MD Guides!

Combined, these physicians have centuries of experience as doctors, and among them they have 146 children. The 900+ reassuring, trusted, and often even humorous tips in this book are presented in the Mommy MD Guides own words, and each tip is clearly attributed to the doctor who lived it. Because doctors so often see the things that can go wrong, they try to do everything as right as they can for their own health and for that of their families. Physicians are a healthier group than the whole. Even though women physicians sometimes will just suffer with things that take time and that affect them alone, pregnancy is different. Most doctors go the extra mile to take care of their own bodies while they are carrying their babies.

The Mommy MD Guide to Pregnancy and Birth offers tips on both the challenges and also the celebrations of pregnancy. You will discover how Mommy MD Guides made it through pesky pregnancy challenges such as morning sickness, back pain, and heartburn, and you will also learn how they enjoyed wonderful celebrations of pregnancy such as telling their partners the good news, baby showers, and meeting their babies for the first time. This book is a reassuring look at pregnancy that is filled with practical, actionable tips that work. After all, if a physician juggling a busy practice and a hectic home or a resident working 110 hours a week used a tip, no doubt it worked. And if it worked for her, it will likely work for you too.

The book is divided into 43 chapters, one for each week of pregnancy plus chapters about the birth. Each chapter opens with a Your Baby This Week section and is filled with tips about the topics particular to that week. In addition to more than 900 tips in the book, it features the following three types of sidebars. When to Call Your Doctor or Midwife sidebars offer critical information of when to seek medical help. Mommy MD Guide Recommended Product sidebars feature products that Mommy MD Guides found invaluable during their pregnancies, including cost and availability information. MomMy Time sidebars suggest ways for moms-to-be to relax, de-stress, and enjoy this amazing, wonderful time in their lives. Welcome to the Mommy MD Guides!"

My feedback:

• On page 7 under the topic of "Taking Prenatal Vitamin", I think there should be a mention on the over-the-counter multivitamins. I am lucky to know about this through my 1st gynae when we mentioned about me still taking my normal multivitamins. From our 1st gynae, we found out about this and realised for example, certain over-the-counter multivitamins contain higher dosage of vitamin A which could cause blindness in the foetus.
  
• On page 16, I learned something new, which is about taking green teas and herbal teas during pregnancy. I didn't know about green tea which should be avoided.
  
• On page 140, I also reviewed the Bella Band as well during my 2nd pregnancy and am happy to read about this product being mentioned in the book as well.
  
• On page 451 under the topic of "Inducing Labor", it will be good to mention that inducing will also caused unnecessary stress for the baby.

Room for Improvement?

• As a mother who breastfeeds her child throughout her pregnancy, I would prefer if the authors write about this topic as well. It is not easy to find resources and information about breastfeeding during pregnancy so I think this would be a plus point to include this information in the future.

In summary, this is a very good book to have, whether for yourself or as a gift to someone who is expecting a child as the information and tips provided are different from other books of this genre! I mean, to read a book packed with tips from other mummy doctors? Why not?

You can get this book from Amazon and Mommy MD Marketplace.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a PDF copy of the book by the author in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"

Talk about the weirdest luck I have! I was just browsing the Internet one fine day and I happened to stumble into this website and saw these cute little cutters and realised they are sandwich cutters! How totally cool and cute is that?! Anyway long story short, I was given this wonderful opportunity to review the latest sandwich cutter, the SWEET ™ set!

The Lunch Punch® is a food cutter specifically designed to capture the most amount of bread when it cuts the crust off your sandwich.  A fun lunch with minimum waste. The Lunch Punch® is taller than cookie cutters, making it easy to cut through two pieces of bread and spread while still keeping sandwiches light and fluffy.  (Tip: soft, fresh bread works best!)  

The Lunch Punch® was invented by a mother of 3 young children to make lunch more fun for everyone. As every parent knows, it’s a daily challenge to make a healthy and appealing lunch that kids will eat.  Sandwiches are a mainstay in children’s diets, but they’re so boring and kids don’t like the crust.  

The Lunch Punch® is dishwasher safe, BPA FREE, Phthalate FREE PVC FREE and Lead FREE. It is made from FDA certified food-grade plastic and both The Lunch Punch® and its packaging are 100% recyclable. The Lunch Punch® is intended for use by adults but can be used by children over 3 with adult supervision. 

About the SWEET ™ set:

The SWEET™ set set comes with 4 sweet sandwich cutter shapes: Cupcake, Birthday Cake, Gumball Machine & Ice Cream Cones. The SWEET ™ set will work with any size bread but it is especially great for regular or large bread.

I was so looking forward to getting the sandwich cutter that I think my neck has grown a few milimetres longer craning over the window everytime I hear the postman's motorcycle sound. And when it finally arrived almost 2 months after I requested for the review opportunity, I just couldn't wait to try it out!

Now my boy is not really a bread fan, in fact the only way so far I can get him to eat the whole slice is by tearing small pieces of the bread and rolling it into small balls. Maybe he thinks it's cute... or he sympathised with his mummy's ermm.. creativity?

I tried 2 of the 4 cutters (cake and ice cream cos my boy loves these 2!) using our Massimo wheat germ bread. I only used a slice of bread for each cutter and then I slapped on some banana and chocolate spread on the cut out bread slice.

Anyway, enough talking, just look at the pictures below:

It's so cute!!!!!

Getting ready to use it!!

I love this cake cutter set!

Ben enjoying his ice cream bread!

Verdict: It'so easy to use and put a new twist and cute look to preparing my boy's food!

Love it!!!!!

You can get more info on where to buy it at http://www.thelunchpunch.com/lp/index.php/where-to-buy/.

Yes, yes, we are all waiting for this glorious moment!

Now, the generous Ms. Kiersten, the owner of Lunch Punch has also sent another set of the SWEET set for me and I decided to give it away to one of my lucky blog follower / visitor! Yeap, if you are the winner, you get to win this same set I reviewed!

And if you're thinking what do I gain from this, well, absolutely nothing!! Like I said, I could actually keep the 2nd set or give it to a family member or friend! Since the 2nd set is with me, I am actually forking out my own money to ship it to the winner. So I am not gaining anything from you guys!

OK then, just read below for the giveaway terms and entry form, OK?

To enter the giveaway, kindly read and follow the instructions as stated in the Rafflecopter form below.

• You can enter either via login through your Facebook account OR just key in your name and your valid email address. 
• Please also leave your valid email address in the post comment so that I can contact you if you win this giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So what are you waiting for?!! Hurry up! You have 1 month time from now to join in the fun and try your luck!

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the SWEET ™ set by Lunch Punch in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

I received an email from Michelle (the author of this book) asking whether I was interested in reviewing her book. As a parent, I want to learn as much as I possibly can on ways to help my child to read. Here goes my review for "What Children Need to Learn to READ " book:

Title:   What Children Need to Learn to READ
Author: Michelle Vallene
Publisher: LearnersLane; 1st edition (January 4, 2010)
ISBN-13/-10:  978-0982285602 / 0982285604
Paperback:  213 pages
Dimension:  9 x 7 x 0.6 inches

Description from the product page:
"Your Child's First Reading Teacher Is ... YOU! "What Children Need to Learn to READ" is the ultimate resource for parents and other adults who want to encourage literacy in young children. Packed with age-appropriate tips, techniques, fun activities, checklists, and common-sense suggestions, this one-of-a-kind book will answer your questions, boost your confidence, and prepare you for one of the most rewarding things you'll ever do!! You'll learn: What works best for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, and early elementary school students. How to make reading a FUN and familiar part of everyday life. Where to find the best children's books, magazines, games, websites, and more. "

* I like the tips given in chapter 1 on how to read to your child everyday where the author breaks it down by age group: Babies, Toddlers and Preschooler or early elementary school child. Under the "Toddler" section, I realised I do practise the tips given such as discussing what we see and do when we are out and about. I always ask Ben what the object/building/colors etc. I also explain to him how they are similar to what we see at our home (whether in books, iPad app, movies)

* I like the Children Language Accomplishments Checklist on chapter 2 which I can refer back in order to see whether Ben is at par according to the age group.

* I love the activities listed in this book and how the author separates them into different chapters on their own: games, rhymes, music and songs, letters and sounds, sight words and so on.

In summary, it is a very resourceful book that shows you many ways that you can help to get your child interested in reading and expose them to literacy from a young age.

Highly recommended, do get a copy of this book for yourself too!!

You can get this book from Amazon.

And yay!!! I am so happy to hear Michelle has generously offered to sponsor 1 copy of her book SIGNED by herself  and an accompanying music CD with all the songs and nursery rhymes from the book to 1 lucky follower / visitor on my blog! Yep, if you are the winner, you get to own a signed copy of her book and her music CD and she will mail it to you anywhere you are!

OK then, just read below for the giveaway terms and entry form, OK?

To enter the giveaway, kindly read and follow the instructions as stated in the Rafflecopter form below.

• You can enter either via login through your Facebook account or just key in your name and your valid email address.
• Please also leave your valid email address in the post comment so that I can contact you if you win this giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So what are you waiting for?!! Hurry up! You have 1 month time from now to join in the fun and try your luck!

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a copy of the book by the author in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"