Shannon Breuner Nelson shares…

“I have a beautiful daughter, an awesome husband, great friends and a wonderful family.  We are so lucky to all be healthy.  But as reflection tends to do, sometimes you look around and wonder what else should you be doing?”

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Jen Price shares…

The figurative definition of growing pains is the difficulties experienced during the growing stages of an enterprise.  And an enterprise is defined as a project or undertaking, typically one that is difficult or requires effort.  It’s safe to say that parenting fits right into the definition of an enterprise.

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By Amy Levin-Epstein, Babytalk

You hear it all the time: “As long as my baby’s healthy, I don’t care if it’s a boy or a girl.” But many moms do care. Take Stephanie Lewis, a mom of six from San Diego. After giving birth to a boy, she tried several noninvasive gender selection methods (a fancy way of saying that she tried to choose the sex of her baby). She ate a diet rich in calcium and tried ovulation timing and even a few unsuccessful bouts of “sperm spinning.” Eventually she became pregnant again — with twins! Lewis was thrilled when multiple sonograms predicted a girl-boy pair.

Fast-forward through boy-girl showers, nurseries and coordinating outfits, to the day of delivery. “After the doctor delivered baby number one [a boy], the room fell silent, and I saw my husband’s head bow down. Then a nurse said cheerfully, ‘And … it’s another boy!’”

Lewis laughs now, but she remembers feeling extreme confusion and disappointment at the time. “What happened to the baby girl who was so real in my head and heart?” she says. (These emotions inspired Lewis to write a novel about gender disappointment called Lullabies & Alibis.)

Women like Lewis need to know they’re not alone, says New Jersey-based therapist Joyce Venis, author of Postpartum Depression Demystified. “I’d say eight times out of 10, women who say, ‘As long as it’s healthy,’ are not happy about having that sex.” Accepting your emotions is the next step. “You’re allowed to have those feelings. It doesn”t mean you’re not going to love your child.” In fact, bottling up disappointment can lead to postpartum depression and even resentment toward your husband, warns Venis. Friends, online support groups, your doctor or even a therapist can be objective and point out the positives.

For Lewis, it was her husband who immediately offered solace. “He said, ‘If you still feel this strongly when the twins are 5 years old, I promise we’ll adopt a baby girl,’” says Lewis, whose maternal instincts eventually took over. “I started to breastfeed, cuddle and love, and [thus] I began to bond with my babies.”

A few years later, the family adopted a baby girl from Korea. It was a turning point for Lewis. “I love my eldest daughter more than I can express in words,” she says. Although her first marriage dissolved shortly thereafter, Lewis and her new husband welcomed a second baby girl and another boy into their family.

A blood test confirmed Lewis’ new point of view regarding gender selection. When she became pregnant with her fifth child, a daughter, “some blood work came back elevated, and Down syndrome was mentioned. I rushed for an amniocentesis. I cried when the results showed that everything was fine. For the first time, I understood the phrase, ‘It doesn’t matter what the baby is, as long as it’s healthy.’”

Here it is. The last day of our Summer Snaps series. What better way to usher out August than with sweet treat from Cheeky Kitchen. Hit the farm stand and pick up a bag of cherries and bake up one last summer treat.

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Editor’s Note: Every day during the month of August we featured a “Summer Snap” – a photograph that captures the essence and awesome of summertime. Why? Well, because we wanted to hold on to summer a bit longer before getting too caught up in back to school antics. Thank you to everyone that shared their photographs.

Summer is all about enriching family activities. Allison of Petit Elefant thought that her children would enjoy a trip to the J. Paul Getty Museum. Apparently, she was wrong.

I guess summer can’t be all popsicles and trips to the zoo.

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Editor’s Note: Every day during the month of August we’re featuring a “Summer Snap” – a photograph that captures the essence and awesome of summertime. Why? Well, because summer isn’t over yet and while we’re all for getting back to school and sharpening pencils, we want to savor the moment.

Hormones are responsible for much more than just acne in teenagers and mood swings in pregnant women. They are the messengers for much of your body’s functioning, including growth and development, immune response, regulation of metabolism, and reproduction among other things.

The body creates its own hormones to take care of these vital duties, but many synthetic chemicals also mimic hormones. Some are intentionally developed to do so, like birth control pills or recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) and others accidentally disrupt hormones, like bisphenol-A and phthalates.

And, whether natural or synthetic, hormones are powerful. It only takes a miniscule amount to cause big changes. That’s why understanding hormones is extremely important.

The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy released a Smart Guide covering the issue of hormones in the food system. And, there are a lot more than you were probably aware of, including:

- Hormone growth promoters given to food animals
- Hormone-active pesticides sprayed on food crops
- Hormone plastic additives in baby bottles, infant formula cans or other food packaging
- Hormone disruptors that build up in the food chain (like brominated flame retardants)

Plenty of uncertainties still remain about the impacts associated with these substances, but preliminary studies paint a disturbing picture.

According to the Guide:

“[E]ver-strengthening science links exposure to many individual hormone disruptors—pesticides, Teflon chemicals, plasticizers and food contaminants—with these common or rising chronic conditions, including:

Breast and prostate cancer
Thyroid disease
Obesity and diabetes
Endometriosis, uterine fibroids and infertility
Immune-related disease, such as asthma or allergies

Increasingly, exposure in the womb to these same chemicals is implicated in serious problems found in newborns such as birth defects and low birth weight, as well as reduced odds of having a boy child.  A recent study links a mother’s high beef consumption while pregnant (steroid growth promoter use is widespread in beef production) with lower sperm counts in her son.”

While waiting for conclusive research, IATP advises consumers to take precautions and reduce exposure by following these steps:

1. Eat low-fat meats and dairy products.
2. Eat “certified” organic when possible.
3. Avoid pesticide hormones. Peel your fruits and vegetables, especially if they have been waxed, or wash them with a vegetable wash or diluted vinegar to remove surface pesticide residues.
4. Use hormone-free cans and bottles.
5. Demand that your elected officials support stronger efforts to keep synthetic hormones out of our food supply.
6. Read the “Smart Plastics Guide,” the “Smart Guide on Sludge Use in Food Production,” and IATP’s other Smart Guides at healthobservatory.org.

Learn more about why these steps are important and exactly how to take them by reading the full Smart Guide to Hormones in the Food System.

The Downtown Farmer’s Market in Salt Lake City, Utah runs mid-June to mid-October and I miss it all winter and look forward to it all spring. Today’s summer snap is of my girl enjoying a stroller ride through the market along with a lemon scone. If you’re in Northern Utah, get to the market! It’s one of the most wonderful things our city has to offer.

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Editor’s Note: Every day during the month of August we’re featuring a “Summer Snap” – a photograph that captures the essence and awesome of summertime. Why? Well, because summer isn’t over yet and while we’re all for getting back to school and sharpening pencils, we want to savor the moment.

Summer 2010 for the TodaysMama staff will always = evo ’10.  Here’s my favorite photo from the Bush’s Beans Closing Party at Park City Mountain Resort.

P.S. Fake mustaches make everything more fun.

Me, Rachael, Erica & BreAnne, with Baby Emi in front.

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Editor’s Note: Every day during the month of August we’re featuring a “Summer Snap” – a photograph that captures the essence and awesome of summertime. Why? Well, because summer isn’t over yet and while we’re all for getting back to school and sharpening pencils, we want to savor the moment.

I think Kami of NoBiggie.net may win the merit badge for best summer vacation of 2010.  Her trip to Whitefish Lake sounds pretty marvelous. Doesn’t this summer snap make you want to spend this last August weekend in the water?

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Editor’s Note: Every day during the month of August we’re featuring a “Summer Snap” – a photograph that captures the essence and awesome of summertime. Why? Well, because summer isn’t over yet and while we’re all for getting back to school and sharpening pencils, we want to savor the moment.

Would you believe it? I’ve gone almost the whole summer without a shaved ice treat! Good thing Becky from The Crafting Chicks shared this summer snap, otherwise I might have left that one off my summer bucket list. Yum!

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Editor’s Note: Every day during the month of August we’re featuring a “Summer Snap” – a photograph that captures the essence and awesome of summertime. Why? Well, because summer isn’t over yet and while we’re all for getting back to school and sharpening pencils, we want to savor the moment.