A Year in Pictures

1st year growth pictures are popular among moms these days.  Everyone loves to see the change in baby over the first year of life.  Here are some of easy and creative ways to capture it! 


Pick a Chair Any Chair! 
This is probably the easiest way to capture the first year. Put baby in the same chair, same time every month and see for yourself! This photographer used a pin to show each month, but you could just as easily hang a sign from the chair and it be just as cute. 

Making it Lovely

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Letters, letters everywhere! 

This Momma used felt letter to spell out how old baby was.  You could also use colored magnet letters too! 

famille summerbelle

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Oh, how the Laundry PILES up! 

This is a SUPER cute idea I saw on Pinterest.  Fill a laundry basket with some towels and sheets and lay baby in it every month.  So fun when baby's legs start hanging off the edges of the basket!   

Pintrest

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Pencil Me In! 

A graphic twist on the monthly photos! This Mom used a Stendig Calendar (the black and white is great), but i bet you could use any large desk calendar too!  

ohdeedoh

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I'm as BIG as a Bear! 

This mom used one of Baby's plush bears to show his growth.  It gives great perspective!   

scottnmary

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Stick em'! 

These fun stickers are a great way to identify each month.  Just put baby in a white onesie and stick on the sticker! Sticky Belies come in multiple designs for boys, girls and gender neutral.  They even make stickers for pregnant moms and toddlers! 

Sticky Bellies

A Movie Review

Last Wednesday I had a chance, to view 2 parts of the 4 part series, "More Business of Being Born", Executive Producer Ricki Lake's sequel to The Business of Being Born at the Alamo Drafthouse.  UrbanoBaby was so excited to be a donor for the event helping it become a free community screening!  Here's a pic of our ad on the big screen!

So glad San Antonio has organizations like San Antonio Natural Parenting and The San Antonio Birth Collective. Without them, this screening would not have been possible. Both are great resources for moms in SA!  
Ok, so every time my husband and I go to the movies we always rank the previews with a thumbs up or down.  It's almost as fun as watching the movie itself and I always find myself forgetting what movie we actually came to see.  So, that's how I'll be rating these films.  In parts, and with a thumbs up or down.



PART 1: "Down on the Farm"

image courtesy of BBOB blog post
"Down on the Farm" by Abby Epstein

"Down on the Farm" which, for the majority, was a sit down interview with, legendary midwife, Ina May Gaskin and some of the other midwives working at the Farm Midwifery Center in Tennessee.  At least for the first two films in the series, the action is at a snails pace.  Without seeing any actual births, it's not as "entertaining", for lack of a better word, as the BOBB, but it's not meant to be like the first film.  It's meant to be more of an "educational tool"; an expansion of sorts as described in the intro of each film.  Though not as chock full of facts, stats, funny movie clips and vintage birth clips like its predecessor, the first part of the series was nonetheless inspiring.  It was like the producers decided to just sit down and pick the brain of Gaskin; to try and get some answers and insights to the homebirth/midwifery model of care vs. hospital birth/OB model predicament.  Unfortunately, still a lot to be answered, but it was interesting to hear her take on birth and the business therein.

The Farm itself did seem like a fascinating idea really.  Think quintessential "Hippie" and you'd be right on the money.  Complete with bright VW buses, peace, love and a little cash, a group of "free-thinkers", as they call themselves on their site, set up a commune in the late sixties-early seventies.  To this day it is still a working community home to some 200 people, sans all the tie die... well maybe not! As the movie explains, Ina Ma is the wife of the leader of the group, Stephen Gaskin, and got her start when they set up the farm and the women started delivering each others' babies. 
She is now viewed by many as the midwife of all midwives; the

image courtesy of BBOB blog post
"Down on the Farm" by Abby Epstein

"guru", as Ricki describes, of midwifery care in the United States and leader of the midwives at The Farm Midwifery Center.  Abby Epstein, Director of the films, jokingly called the Farm a "Mecca" where Ricki would make her pilgrimage.  It was funny, but mostly a little awkward to watch Ricki throughout her convo with Ina May.  Most of the shots of Ricki were that of sheer joy and amazement as though she was looking at something Holy.  You know, that look of "I'm not worthy.  I'm not worthy!"  Needless to say she was "star-struck" by the one Ina May.  Though I thoroughly enjoyed the film, there was one part that was very curious... made me think it was some kind of inside joke? Not sure, maybe I was the only one out of the loop.  Ricki and Abby gave Ina May a gift.  I won't spoil it, but it was a very um... interesting gift to give someone, let alone on camera.  Let's just say it was the gift that keeps on giving if you know what I mean, and it came with a silver accessory!  It was a very short scene, but it left me thinking, "huh? Wait, what just happened?".  The only criticism would be that I would have loved to have seen Ina May in action.  To see a birth on The Farm would have been the proverbial cherry on top of the pregnant belly!  

RATING: All in all... THUMBS UP!

Welcome

We are LIVE!

After a lot of work, I have finally launched UrbanoBaby! It's been 5 months since I found my entrepreneurial spirit and have to say I like the fit. I never thought I'd be starting a business. It just wasn't in my plan. But to be completely honest, most events in my life haven't been in my plan. I embrace them nonetheless.


Now that I have pressed the invisible start button to launch, I think it important to share why and how UrbanoBaby came to be...

The Comfort of Confidence  
      

Three words. Urban. Allen. Wilks. My son's pregnancy and birth did more than grant my husband and I the amazing gift of his life.  It changed my views of what the experience means to a mother and a woman. Knowing and understanding my body and its purpose set me free of the things I thought a woman should do or think while pregnant. Now, don't get me wrong. I didn't get pregnant, wake up one day and say, "I feel like a woman. A REAL woman. This is how a real woman should feel!" On the contrary, I got pregnant, woke up and thought, "My life as a strong, independent woman is OVER!". At first, I had this feeling I would lose my chance at a career I had been planning for and a body I thought would be ruined. I even contemplated scheduling a c-section so as not to "destroy" my body.  My ideas about birth were very skewed.  I was scared; scared of what was happening to me and around me.   It's funny because I have always been pretty in tune with my body, but for the first time I fought that connection. I fought my natural urge to "feel"; thinking I would lose the things that made me, Me. Why? Why was I so afraid of pregnancy and birth?  The answer was simple... the unknown. My fear came only from what I didn't know or really what I thought I knew. I found that I needed to educate myself and tune back into what my body was trying to convince my brain to think. I finally let go, listened and my life forever changed.    

Once I realized I had more control than I thought, I was determined to engage fully in every part of the experience and do it as I knew my body could, even if I was destined to be wrong. Every parent should know their options and be able to make choices that are best for them. A woman's body knows how to be pregnant and give birth, but she does not always feel the confidence to realize it. Confidence comes from the "knowing". Simply put, on the whole, what we think we know about pregnancy and birth is far from what we could and should know.     


My desire to know and make sure others know too, compelled me to offer expectant parents with an avenue to make educated choices about options and resources available to them on all levels of maternity and baby care, prep and organization.  Thus, UrbanoBaby was born. My new bundle of joy! An informed pregnancy can change the outcome of a birth experience and ultimately the health of mom and baby. Education breeds confidence. In a world where pregnancy and birth are sometimes viewed as "scary" and "dangerous", confidence can be a soothing friend.


My goal... To be a gatekeeper of information for expectant parents, to open doors that parents otherwise wouldn't know existed and bring self-assurance to those who feel the pressure and stress of pregnancy, birth and beyond.