Happy Mother’s Day, y’all. I wanted to share this photo of my mama and me singing karaoke Radiohead Creep (see the monitor? awesome!) and remind you about our unusually high number of giveaways happening right now.

• New new mama? Win a breast pump from Philips AVENT.
• Got a bigger kid? Win a child size mattress from IntelliBED.
• Photo-taking mother? Win this amazing Canon DSLR camera and Epiphanie bag.
• Into tech gadgets? Win $100 gift card to Microsoft Stores.

Rules and restrictions vary… so read the rules and good luck!

Phew. You’re so effing special.

Giveaway Now Closed—
*Congrats to the winner: Julie S. (entry #13056)

Whitney and I teamed up with some of our favorite bloggers to offer you a totally high-end Canon T4i DSLR Camera 2 Lens Bundle and a funky cool Epiphanie camera bag to carry it around. We all chipped in to buy you a nice present to say Thanks and Happy Mother’s Day and Enjoy Spring and You’re Worth It!

This camera is so much nicer than anything I’ve had my hands on so let me list out the specs for you:

• Canon T4i DSLR Camera with 2 lenses: 18-55mm IS II Lens + 55-250mm IS II Lens
• New 3.0-inch Vari-angle Touch Screen Clear View LCD monitor II (approximately 1,040,000 dots)
• 8GB SDHC Card, Mini HDMI Cable, Hybrid CMOS Sensor, New Digic 5 Image Processor
• Ok, I’m in over my head; learn more about the camera
• the Charlotte camera bag in Metallic Chevron print designed for girls on the go with removable padded dividers to protect your lenses

Please wait patiently for the rafflecopter widget to load. There are dozens of ways to enter, choose your favorites.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Holy cow, right?!! It’s about a $1200 value!! Sponsored by the ladies of Boston Mamas, Eat Blog Run, Make and Takes, Mom Generations, No Biggie, Petit Elefant, Pinterest You Are Drunk, Rage Against the Minivan, Rookie Moms, The Happiest Home, This Week for Dinner, and Todays Mama.

This post and giveaway are sponsored by Philips AVENT. We put this new pump to the test with an experienced mom, my longtime friend, Crystal. Crys is an active pumper unlike me, a passive weaner. Giveaway below.

Some background. Before Baby No. 3 came into the world, I had spent 34 months of my life nursing. Two separate babies, mind you, but after nearly three years of latching, let downs and nipple cream, I felt like I knew what I was doing. After all, by the end of my second go-round, I could nurse my son hands-free in a Baby Bjorn while I made dinner. (I was very disappointed when my husband didn’t give me a standing ovation after finding me this way the first time.) So, after our third baby was born, I felt a bit smug in the hospital when the nurse came in to check on us and my little ladybug was already nursing like a pro. Look at me, I’m an experienced Mom! I know what I’m doing! I got this!

Ha.

Our story. We arrived home and my milk arrived, as did the accompanying engorgement. The changing state of my breasts confused my little one and she seemed to forget how to latch. As she struggled, my nipples took a beating. Feeding became so painful that I would wince and cry when it was time for the next feeding. I also felt confused – Could I have forgotten how to nurse? Why was this so difficult? To add to the experience, we (both myself and the baby) developed a raging case of thrush. There were clogged milk ducts, which then led to me waking in the middle of the night with a fever and violent shivering due to mastitis. I was a wreck.

Enter the pump. I hadn’t thought about pumping much in the months leading up to her birth. I figured that would be something I would deal with later down the road. But I was happy to have a breast pump on hand so I could give my raw nipples — and my defeated psyche — a break during those first early weeks. Near the end of my pregnancy, the Rookie Moms had asked me to try out a new breast pump, the Philips AVENT Double Electric Comfort Pump, so I broke it out in desperation near the end of week one. I loved nursing my two older sons and wanted the same experience with my daughter. As I sat, cracked and sore and whimpering, my husband figured out quite quickly how to assemble the new pump, then sterilized all the parts for me in a boiling pot of water before giving me the Cliffs notes version of how to use it.

The flanges, or pieces that fit around the breast, were outfitted with a flexible, rubbery cover called the “soft massage cushion” that actually did soften the experience of having my breasts sucked into a machine. I was able to use the pump successfully on extremely sore breasts so I was happy with the comfort level. When turning the pump on, it automatically starts off with a “gentle stimulation mode” that’s intended to get the milk flowing like babies do with their quick little sucks at the beginning of a nursing session. Then once the milk is flowing, there are three pump settings to choose from, which is helpful depending on the state of your nipples. I used the low to middle setting during those early tender days, but have moved onto the fastest setting with no discomfort. I do have to fit my breast into the pumping pieces an exact certain way for the pump to have the right sucking effect. But once I get it in there correctly, the pump is very efficient. Thankfully, we recovered from the mastitis, the thrush and the war wounds on my nipples. I was able to move on to using the pump for more regular, non-emergency sessions.

With my previous babies, I struggled to get even 2 ounces of milk out of a pumping session. But this time around, my husband plans to give our daughter a bottle once a day while I work. I will need to have much more of a milk stash to cover that daily feeding. Plus, with the two older kids needing to live their lives, I will want more flexibility to give her bottles of pumped milk.

But how to increase my stock? One morning while I was pumping, she started freaking out and was trying to eat my husband’s face while I expressed milk into the machine. I decided to see if pumping while feeding her would increase my output. I positioned the baby in the clutch or football hold on my left side and used the pump on my right side. I won’t lie. The first two times, it was very awkward and required my husband’s help to hold the baby in place. But by day three, we had it down solo. I am now getting 6-7 ounces per session, and this method saves precious nap time from being used up by pumping. I can’t attribute the increase in milk solely to the new pump because I never tried using my old pump in this manner, but I’ve been pleased overall with the Philips AVENT Comfort Pump’s efficiency and performance. I pump/nurse at the same time every morning and am feeling more relaxed to see my freezer filling up with milk.

The results. After a few weeks with the right nipple cream, a breast pump, and a corrected latch, we bounced back from our breastfeeding challenge. But of course, as is often the case with parenting, now that we have this nursing thing down, a new problem has cropped up: She’s refusing to take the bottles I’ve worked so hard to make for her. Sigh.

Win a pump of your own!

Please wait patiently for the rafflecopter widget to load and you can enter to win an Philips AVENT Double Electric Comfort Pump (retail value $275).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

+++
Disclosure: We are compensated ambassadors of Philips AVENT trying to get the word out about this new comfort breast pump. All opinions and experiences are our own, like that 7 ounces of milk in a single pumping session? That really happened!

[Photos from flickr Tiarescott

If all the top parenting experts were your best friends and available in that “call me anytime” way via skype, then your middle-of-the-night feedings might start to look a little bit like KidsintheHouse.com. Worried that you’re holding your baby too much? A top pediatrician will reassure you.

Have questions about if you’re producing enough breastmilk, the right age to potty train, or the secret to making mommy friends? You’ve come to the right place. Kids in the House has created a repository of 8,000 one-minute parenting videos about any topic you could want to know about from hundreds of real parents as well as the pros. Wow, right? And they’re just getting started. Videos are arranged by age of child and you can create your own playlist of favorites to watch now or save for later.

Three videos I liked for rookie moms (coincidentally by pretty blond women):

Bonding with other moms

Finding the right sleep training method for your family

First foods

Whitney and I were completely thrilled and honored to participate in this ambitious project in their Santa Monica studio. The team at Kids in the House prettied us up with makeup and false eyelashes before asking us questions about subjects we wanted to discuss like adjusting to motherhood, making dinner every freaking night, and easy outings with a baby in tow. And after that, we met our friend Asha for a huge lunch then rode a roller coaster before flying home. It was a ton of fun.

We are very pleased with how our own (twenty!) videos turned out and plan to share them over the next few months. In the meantime, I’d love to know your burning parenting questions and whether Kids in the House is a useful addition to your parenting toolkit.

+++

We received no compensation for our participation in this project. We did get to keep the snazzy new headshots on our site as well as the eyelashes (which fell off).

Whitney is reading a modern twist on a classic children’s story as part of a great big awesome nationwide event to raise awareness and BOOKS for kids who otherwise wouldn’t have them. Awesome, right? She tells me that since The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit was written in British English, she’ll be donning an accent for the event. (Updated note from Whitney: NO I WON’T!)

And it is a fun outing for you and your little one.

Let me back up a minute though, have you heard of Milk+Bookies? So cool. Their sweet program organizes events like this for big companies and small birthday parties to reach as many book-needing children as possible. In this case, they’ve teamed up with babyGap to donate a whole big heap of books as well as kick off a commemorative literary line of clothing. To celebrate, friendly bloggers will be reading The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit all around the country. Stop by and bring a book to donate if you live near one of the events.

If you’re in the Bay Area, come see Whitney on January 26 in Corte Madera. 29 other participating locations are listed on their site including two more in the Bay Area. I’m trying to track down specific locations and other blogger participants but I have only found a few: Mommy Niri and Christine Koh are reading in the Boston Area; Anna Sandler is reading in Paramus, NJ; Jessica McFadden is reading in the DC area.

If you tweet, you can find details via the hashtag #babyGapPeterRabbit.

My laundry room is sort of a mud room, which is a term I only recently learned from getting older and having friends with larger houses. The photo on the left is an example from my dear friend Martha Stewart, whose home to which I have been invited less than once.

A mud room is where you are supposed to come in and take off your shoes, but the location of mine, far from a door we actually use to enter the house, doesn’t work for that. However the floor usually has a light layer of mud on it, due to it’s backyard access, so let’s call it the mud(dy) room. And let’s not insert a picture of it in this post.

My washing machine and her twin sister Dryer live in this muddy room and so do a handful of laundry baskets, garden tools, cleaning supplies, stinky running shoes, beach chairs, and outdoor toys. As you can imagine, whenever Martha comes over, she simply cannot bear to look at this pile of nonsense. Or at anything else in the house.

When we were invited to participate in this super awesome giveaway which will allow you to enter to win a brand new washer/dryer set, I accepted the offer to receive my own set last month. Instead of being super gracious to Rachael, who arranged the delivery for me, the first thing I told her was that I was disappointed that my laundry room was still disgusting. I mistakenly believed adding a sparkling set of appliances would brighten up the room and place me right in the middle of a Pottery Barn catalog. What it did instead was highlight how dingy that room is.

So now I want to thank Rachael, because a) she’s awesome and my mess is not her fault, and b) my laundry room is extremely efficient these days.

The first reason it’s so efficient is because my husband stays on top of the laundry like nobody’s business; the second is due to the features of the Amana washer and dryer. When you start a load, it does what sounds like a super high-tech scan of the mass of dirty clothes you’ve thrown inside. It’s what’s called a “low-water wash system”, and it uses the minimum resources required to wash the clothes. Same goes for the dryer: magical sensors monitor temperature, automatically stopping the cycle when fabrics are dry, which means both less energy consumed and less shrinkage of clothes.

The contest is now over but HUGE thanks to the Whirlpool Corporation, specifically the Amana brand, and Today’s Mama for sponsoring this promotion and putting the giveaway together!)

This giveaway is administered by Today’s Mama, who will be selecting and notifying the winner as well as making sure the prize gets delivered.

I choose to believe that this year of ’13 will be super lucky, and I wish you the same. Because, people, I’m gonna be FORTY so it can’t not be awesome.

Inspired by my pal Sarah, I’m adding fortune cookies to my traditional New Year’s Eve to put everyone in the mood for an enlightened year. I will let my kids sample a few before bed — even in some chocolate fondue! — then try to make it to midnight munching on different futures and cryptic bits of wisdom.

I’ll be tweeting them at #newyearfortune unless I forget. Join me?

If you’re a parent of small people struggling to carve out some new traditions, we came up with some pretty durn good NYE ideas for kids from infant to teen over on Homemade Simple. Many of them stuff you already have in the house.

[Photo of me and my fortune parking space was taken by W. Moss; the picture of my cookies was taken by me]

Big thanks to Urban Sitter for their sponsorship this month. I’m writing this post so you know what they’re all about.

The other night, Heather and I joined some other bloggers for dinner in San Francisco. We were nine ladies, crammed around two bistro-style tables, ordering burgers and sweet potato fries. Everyone had young kids at home. We talked about technology, whether we love or hate shopping, and weaning. You know, girl stuff for grown ups.

I mentioned that we were working with Urban Sitter and all the moms gasped, “Cool! I love Urban Sitter!”

“My husband and I are going out tomorrow night, thanks to Urban Sitter!” said one software developer mom, who just moved to town.

I was kinda wowed by their enthusiasm. I guess it’s a match made in heaven– or in rookie mom-dom.

So now let me explain. And for those of you who live in locations that aren’t yet covered by Urban Sitter, I’m sorry.

What is Urban Sitter?
Unlike some of the other childcare services that exist today, UrbanSitter connects parents to sitters through people they know and trust.

Parents sign up for UrbanSitter using Facebook and can post jobs, search for sitters, or browse caregivers already known by friends or affiliations — like schools, sports teams and moms groups. Kinda like OpenTable for dinner reservations, parents can search for sitter availability by date and time, or plan a night around when a favorite sitter is available.

There are more than 150 active sitters near me in the system; Heather used it to find a reliable mother’s helper that assisted her family after the birth of their third child, including cooking, picking up groceries and watching the baby while Heather picked the older kids up from school. Now she is their favorite babysitter and Heather trusts her to put all three children to bed for the night.

UrbanSitter’s unique real time booking engine allows sitters to keep their availability calendars online, so parents can search and book jobs online by an exact date and time. Babysitting gigs (or interviews) can be booked in minutes — and following a job, parents can contribute written reviews, ratings and Facebook “Likes” to sitter profiles.

See how they’ve identified 7 sitters my friends know? When I click there, I see the sitters descriptions and a little picture of my friend that knows her.

And check this out: Convenient “pay by credit card” feature allows parents to skip the awkward fumbling for cash or mad dash to the ATM after a date night and simply pay their sitter with a credit card via the UrbanSitter website.

UrbanSitter was founded by four Bay Area parents who envisioned a better way to find and book babysitters. There is no cost to sign up.

Note: UrbanSitter is currently holding a sweepstakes. The winner will get a year of free babysitting. Trust us, you want this. (Click here for details.)

Back by popular demand, we present the best gifts that don’t need to be put away, stepped over, or shoved in a closet when company comes over.

We have 25 clutter-free ideas for every member of your family: babies, kids, other mamas, the men in your life, and grandparents!

Babies and toddlers

1. A series of classes. Find one you can take together such as Mommy and Me yoga, music, or swimming. More details about finding a a fun class with your baby.
2. The box your other toys came in. We’re serious. I will let Sawyer enjoy boxes of different sizes for a couple of days and then when it’s time to clean up, into the recycling they go. Big ones are vehicles; small ones are hats. Then he can focus on other new toys. [Related: toddler fun sitting in boxes]
3. Love. It doesn’t take up any space and it lasts forever.  But seriously, if you want something to show them in the heat of present unwrapping, make a video of yourself to keep on your phone playing peek-a-boo or singing a song with hand motions. Your toddler will love to watch it. And lick it.
4. A savings account. Put your kid’s name on some money. You don’t need to have a whole plan in place, but whatever you put away now will only start growing sooner.

Preschoolers and older kids

1. A major outing. Are you ready for Disneyland, Six Flags, or some other big adventure? Make a big deal out of putting it on the calendar.
2. Theater tickets: Seeing a play or a concert on a stage is so much fun. Consider a children’s theater group in your town or splurge on one of the branded live shows that tour all the big cities such as Sesame Street Live, Disney on Ice, or Yo Gabba Gabba Live. We just learned that Phineas and Ferb will be a live show in 2013.
3. Membership: Pick up an annual pass to a kid-friendly museum, indoor playspace, or the Zoo. Pro tip: Split it with a girlfriend.
4. Ride tickets for local destination. The carousel at the zoo, or train tickets. Put the purchased tickets (or fake homemade ones) together with a picture of the ride.

Your lady friends and sisters

1. Spa credit: A pedicure, massage, or scrub either booked or merely suggested with a nice printed paper tied in a bow.
2. Entertainment: Take her to a concert, a play, or just a movie. Tickets in an envelope are so exciting.
3. Workshop or class: Would she love to learn a new type of dance, wine-tasting, love-bombing, or cake-decorating skills? Heather would like a class from HackerMoms or Stitch Sewing Lab.
4. Chocolate: It’s not clutter if you eat it and throw away the wrapper.
5. Experience: Create personal and customized goals for a new year of stuff you want to do together (perfect for list-makers like us). Sporty girls can sign up for a winter run together.

If she’s also a mama

1. Babysitting swap or you host a playdate that she can leave, but you have to really do it so put it on the calendar on the spot.
2. Real food: Who wouldn’t be thrilled to receive a batch of soup, lasagna, or pumpkin bread? Package in a disposable container and the whole thing will soon disappear.
3. iTunes credit, you bring the dessert for Girls Night In to watch Downton Abbey.

Dads and men friends

1. A challenge. Whitney booked her husband for four personal training sessions for his birthday. Disclaimer: He had been talking about changing up his exercise habits. For the men in your life, look for a martial arts class, a rock climbing gym, or other physical activity he doesn’t normally do.
2. An escape. Lift tickets, a day-long mountain biking tour, or greens fees along with your blessing to enjoy the day. With or without you. (REI is a good place to look for extreme excursions.)
3. A Task Rabbit. Is there something around the house he’s wished would be magically changed? Can you outsource it? Whitney needed her kids’ bunk bed to be disassembled and removed from the house to make room for new beds. She knew her husband was dreading spending his day off on the chore, so she hired a Task Rabbit to take care of it. Their website has lists of tasks to inspire you.
4. Tickets for a sporting event. Hockey, basketball, local college soccer games, whatever makes him happy.

The grandparents

1. Walking tour: Whitney and her husband sent two sets of grandparents on an ethnic food tour of L.A. where they live. They loved it. Google “walking tour” and the city they live nearest. For Heather’s folks, wintery weather means this is a better birthday gift. No good snowy walking tours where they live? Read on.
2. Charitable donation in their name: If they have everything they need, pick a cause close to their hearts. We’ve donated to a Jazz Society for a Jazz-loving grandfather, and made Kiva loans on behalf of those who love to learn about cultures around the globe.
3. A class: For those with a lot of time on their hands, learning something new is a great source of entertainment. Think cooking, computer skills, yoga, or swing dancing.
4. A delicious meal: Pick the place they’ve always wanted to try but have been too practical to go on their own. Alternatively, restaurant.com offers discounts to many places and gift certificates (with a few funny exceptions and exclusions).
5. Tech support. Help Granny and Papa set their configurations for Skype or iChat; install their new Wii; or put books on their Kindle.

Before we get into the business of “Giving Tuesday” I have to share this photo my friend Deb sent out. If your holiday photo shoot isn’t going well, try this approach.

Next, our picks for #GivingTuesday, a movement that seeks to inspire giving rather than acquiring as we move into the shopping frenzy of December.

In this short video, our friend Isabel in New York explains how each of our small actions is needed to make a big difference.

Heather and I support these organizations and hope you’ll consider them if you choose to make a charitable donation today.

1- Cycle For Survival – Founded by a friend who worked tirelessly on creating this powerful charity before losing her own battle with cancer, Heather and I will ride stationary bikes during this nationwide bike-a-thon to raise money for rare cancers which don’t get enough funding for the research required to cure them. (Donate to our team!)

Want to be inspired? Read my post about founder Jen Goodman Linn >

2- Help A Mother Out – As a board member and advocate for HAMO, I love telling people about this organization because the mission is so incredibly simple: Get diapers to babies in need. Doesn’t every baby deserve a clean, dry tushy? Donate a small amount to buy diapers today >

3- No Kid Hungry – $1 can provide 10 breakfasts for school children which will help them get a healthy start to their day. Learn more >

4- Movember – From quarterback Aaron Rodgers to the actors on The Office to a team of our fave dad bloggers, men are asking to have their mustache growth sponsored to raise money for men’s cancers. I donated through my younger cousin who was sporting a mustache and sharing it on Facebook all month.

Since my parents and grandparents need nothing, my husband and I have often made donations in their names as gifts to them, focusing on causes that are meaningful to them: Jazz Societies, Food Banks, Arthritis Foundations, etc.

Will you be making a gift on #GivingTuesday?

Movember is a movement to raise money for cancer — specifically those that kick men where it really counts. Men begin growing their mustaches on November 1 and ask family, friends and strangers to donate to their fundraisers. It’s fun, it’s silly, and it works.

Our buddy Charlie, who has been rocking a ‘stache since the first of the month, reports that walking around the Zoo with his son gave him the sense of being in a special club as he and the other mustached dads silently eyed each other, knowing that they were bonded by facial hair and a special mission from the Internet. Last year, Charlie and team raised $35K for men’s cancers. At least, I think that’s what he told me, but I was sort of distracted by his mustache when he was talking.

How can ladies participate? Those who have been blessed with hairy upper lips can skip waxing of course and embrace their own mustaches for the month. But for those not bold enough to make that leap, or the fair-haired, here’s another way to play the game:

1. add a mustache to anything and everything around you.
2. take a picture of your mustached item.
3. upload your photo to instagram and/or twitter with the hashtag #mustachebombing
4. revel in its glory

Marie, mom of three, (above with her husband, legit mustache-wearer Jordan) from Make And Takes is the brains behind this effort, and she inspired us to post a couple of images ourselves.

P.S. As much as I’d like to pretend we are organized enough to keep up an Instagram account for “rookiemoms”, it’s not going to happen. We are “rookiewhitney” and “rookieheather” on Instagram if you’d like to follow.

I am the sleep czar in my house. I believe in bedtime routines, long and frequent naps on a schedule, and lots of sleep. My children can even recite Weissbluth’s “sleep rules” by heart. As we have had more children — and those children have gotten older — things have loosened up, but only a bit. Bedtime was at 6:30 for my son as an infant and is 7:30 now that he’s in elementary school.

This recent study shows that children who get more sleep function better. Duh.

But I take issue with this little quote:

“Going to bed one hour earlier, that’s not a lot to ask a family, can make a big difference in terms of a child’s daytime behavior,” says Dr. Meltzer.

Not a lot to ask a family. Huh? Really?

Let’s look at my kids’ evening routine:

• 5:30 Full-on sprint mode. I make dinner; the 5YO and 7YO watch something on PBS; baby hangs on me or them.
• 6:00 Dinner time. The kids and I are eating by the time my husband gets home at 6:22.
• 6:45 Our 1YO is melting down and we scurry him off to a 7:00 bedtime. Big kids hit the bath or their evening routine.
• 7:00 Baby is in bed. Begin reading to the bigs.
• 7:30 Big kids in bed. Sometimes smooth, sometimes not.

And they wake up at around 6:30am on school days. So, how could we possibly back that up by one full hour?

What’s it like in your house?