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I never understood the importance of kick counting until I was introduced to the kickTrak kick counter. Doing a little research I found that an estimate of 26,000 stillbirths occur every year in the US. That was very disheartening to read. However, decreased fetal movement is associated with stillbirth as well as preterm labor and undetected growth problems. If a mother-to-be is able to keep a tab on her baby’s movement patterns, she can alert her healthcare provider of potential problems if she notices any drastic changes. Dr. Diep Nguyen, OB/GYN and kick tracking advocate, is dedicated to drastically reducing the number of yearly stillbirths which is why she has created the kickTrak kick counter.

Starting at 24-28 weeks into pregnancy, the kickTrak kick counter enables moms-to-be to document her baby’s kicks, turns, twists, swishes, jabs and rolls in daily sessions by inputing each movement as she feels them. Each session records ten movements. After the tenth movement is recorded, the kickTrak kick counter plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Healthy babies generally move ten times in less than two hours, with most completing ten movements in less than 30 minutes. Should mom-to-be notice any significant changes in her baby’s movements, she can alert her healthcare provider. I think every mom-to-be should have her very own kickTrak to support the well being of her baby. The device is affordable and very simple to use. I was fortunate enough to have a very active baby, so I completed my kickTrak sessions with ease!

To learn more about stillbirth prevention, visit BabyKick Alliance founded by Dr. Nguyen as well!

Show mom your appreciation by sending her a You Deserve It parcel from Parcels With Love. The You Deserve It parcel is loaded with goodies mom would absolutely enjoy! These goodies include; a Beautiful Designer Tea/Coffee Mug, Pure Origin Gourmet Ground Coffee, Flora Tea Forte Infusers, Honey Teaspoon, Gourmet Lemon Tea Cookies, Lindt Chocolate Truffles, Delightful Shikai Hand and Body Lotion (Japanese Citrus), Fragrant Reed Diffuser, and a Notepad and pen!

To have your parcels delivered by Mother’s Day, order by May 2nd and use discount code mdb10 for 10% off your purchase! Be sure to browse around Parcels With Love as they offer a parcel for every occasion, always arranged with a touch of love!

Put on your birthday hats and start cutting the cake, because MommyDaddyBlog.com is officially 1 year old today! Yup, that’s right, exactly 1 year, 12 months, 52 weeks, 366 (leap year) days, 8,789 hours, 527,388 minutes, and 31,643,326 seconds ago, Mommy and I gave birth to MommyDaddyBlog.com!

*scratching record sound*

But wait, if MommyDaddyBlog.com is one year old, why is it that the archives only date back to December 2007, with the very first post dated December 19th 2007?

Well, that answer is very simple. You see, MommyDaddyBlog.com, the domain, not the blog, is one year old today. Confused? Well then take a seat junior, let me tell you a little story…

One day, a year ago to be exact, Mommy and I were sitting in our office having a conversation amongst each other. I can’t remember what the conversation was about, but somehow we got on the topic of having children. We came up with the idea of starting a blog when we got pregnant with our first child so that we could journal our adventure as first time parents, and both of us would author it together. The idea of her having a separate “mommy blog” and me having a separate “daddy blog” was nice and all, but we thought it would be even better if we shared our experiences together on one blog. Instantly after coming up with idea, Mommy said…

“…and we could call it, Mommy Daddy Blog!”

So simple, yet so perfect! A mommy. A daddy. A blog. Mommy Daddy Blog! Excited about the whole idea, we immediately checked to see if MommyDaddyBlog.com was taken already. It wasn’t, so we immediately registered the domain on the spot. We thought we were weird for registering a domain that we would continually have to pay for year after year when we didn’t even know when we were going to have our first child. We just thought that at least we’d have the domain secured for when we do. But little did we know, that just 3 and a half short months later, our very first child, our baby boy, our pride and joy, would be conceived. Talk about irony, huh?

(For those of you who haven’t been with us since the beginning, and are wondering about the time gap from August 2007, when Jayden was conceived, to December 2007, when this blog was created, read our conception story.)

So here we are today, fulfilling what we said we would do; running a blog chronicling our joys and happiness as first time parents. Mommy and I really enjoy sharing our experiences and adventures as new parents here on Mommy Daddy Blog, and we hope you all enjoy it just as much! We hope you’ll stick around for Mommy Daddy Blog’s official 1st birthday on December 19th 2008. Until then, we’d just like to wish MommyDaddyBlog.com, the domain, a Happy 1st Birthday!

Coincidentally, we were just tagged in the Name That Blog meme by JMom. Well, JMom, I hope this answers your question!

At around 4:13PM CST today, Mommy lost her mucous plug! (as if the title wasn’t a dead give away) It’s all getting started! Jayden’s almost here! Jayden’s almost here! Jayden’s almost here!

Now before anyone comes along to burst our excitement bubble, we know that this could mean nothing. It could be weeks before she goes into labor. But she could also go into labor as I’m writing this post. So we’re just on high alert right now as anything could happen!

And by the way, I had the graceful pleasure of having her run up to me, with tissue and mucous in hand, and shove it in my face to show me. I think I almost lost my lunch. So since it’s so gross looking, and coupling that with the fact that I just can’t write a post without including some sort of a visual aid, I’ve decided to include this picture to go along with the good news:

I received some Mother’s Day gift ideas from HP. With Mother’s Day being right around the corner, I thought I’d share!

HP Photosmart A826 Home Photo Center: One of the many responsibilities that fall on Mom is making sure that all of her family’s memories are captured and preserved year-round. This Mother’s Day, why not help her out by giving her the HP Photosmart A826 Home Photo Center. This break-through printer will create keepsakes on the spot with a huge 7.0-inch color touchscreen and 100-sheet internal paper tray that makes it easy to create personalized greeting cards and custom photos by the batch all without a PC (just insert your camera’s memory card). In addition to the added convenience of printing at home, you can add personalized text, frames and clipart to photos, album pages, and personalized greeting cards – even write and draw directly on photos using the included stylus. With more than 200 frames, clipart and graphics you can personalize your Mother’s Day memories and all the family’s treasured experiences right in the printer and print them out for everyone to enjoy all throughout the year.

HP Activity Center: Breakfast in bed for Mom usually consists of toast, juice and a flower in a vase but this year let the HP Activity Center help you put a new twists on this and other traditional Mother’s Day routines. This year, why not transform Mom’s bedroom into a French countryside suite with customizable menus, a decorative place mat, table cards, and more! It’s easy with the HP Activity Center’s free downloadable and printable templates. With easy to follow instructions you can beautify any ordinary juice glass with a personalized wrap or present the morning’s feast in style with a customized French country themed menu with your own items and descriptions.

With the HP Activity Center, you can make Mother’s Day truly special with 20 easy-to-make projects including themed photo cards, year-at-a-glace photo calendars, Mother’s Day photo frames and even beautiful paper flowers. With simple instructions on how to download and customize the templates as well as information on all the HP supplies you’ll need to create your project, the HP Activity Center offers free and creative gifts all with the click of a mouse.

Sterling Silver Jewelry: Put a smile on Mom’s face by combining two of her favorite things–family photos and jewelry! Snapfish offers customizable sterling silver jewelry which is perfect for making Mom feel appreciated on her special day. Snapfish users can easily and affordably turn family photos into wearable art by personalizing a sterling silver bracelet or necklace with photos that will warm her heart for less than $40 (a great project dad and child can do together). Additionally, the custom jewelry comes beautifully packaged in a presentation gift box.

Photo Books: What better way to make Mom feel special than to create a photo book full of favorite snapshots capturing your family’s memorable moments? Snapfish offers a full line of photo books in a range of sizes, covers and designs to celebrate Mom. Photo book prices range from $4.99 to $49.99. These professionally-bound books let you tell your stories by using your personal photos to illustrate all the special memories made with Mom. Snapfish’s latest additions to its line of photo books include Signature Photo Books – 12 x 12-inches starting at $49.99, and Storybooks with personalized dust jackets – 8 x 8-inches starting at $24.99.

For more information about other great HP products and supplies for this Mother’s Day, visit the HP Home & Home Office Store at www.hpshopping.com.