Newborns

Here at Red Stick Mom, we offer dozens of ideas from diverse perspectives in our mom hacks, tips and tricks category. From taking road trips from Baton Rouge to meatless meals to natural cold remedies, we’ve written about it. We are here to help everyone as we navigate through this wild ride through motherhood. When it come to battling the mommy wars. About a year ago, I woke up to a beautiful fall morning and toted my kids to our favorite Baton Rouge outdoor play area, Leeward Park.  While snuggling my then five-month-old Ben, another mommy of a young baby approached me.  We began with small talk, but eventually our conversation moved to our birth stories.  She told me with much enthusiasm...

I’m in baby jail- four years and counting. What is baby jail? It’s this precious, exhausting, all-consuming, finite period of time when it is all about the babies. It has to be: they need to be fed, rocked to sleep, be bathed, be changed, be entertained, be soothed, all while Frozen plays in the background. Baby jail is 24/7; a chore-intensive existence without breaks. In baby jail, going to work is a vacation. When I go to work as a CBT (Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy) counselor, I am busy breaking down clients’ issues into their thoughts, their feelings, and their behaviors to help improve their quality of life. At times, there are challenging sessions. However, while at work, I do not clean up...

A nursing cart was something I had never heard of 5.5 years ago when I had my first baby. But this time around, I discovered Karrie Locher and her infamous nursing cart and I knew I needed one, especially since I was going to be recovering from a c-section. This time around, I wanted to try and make as much of my life as easy as possible. What is a nursing cart? It’s essentially a one-stop organizational system for anything you need in arms reach throughout the day or night. I decided to designate our very well-loved IKEA cart as my nursing cart! I chose this cart because it was on wheels and it was so convenient to bring it from the...

I took a snapshot of my kids this morning. I intend to keep it close by, so it can serve as a benchmark. We have reached a turning point in our family. We have finally arrived at the point in life that most parents of small kids look to with anticipation for what feels like forever. Diapers have all been thrown away. Bottoms are being independently wiped. Mouths are being fed by utensils independently held the correct way (Well, mostly). As parents, we spend so many years training our children up to get to this point. Every time my kid runs her own bathwater, ties his own shoes, or fixes his own bowl of cereal, I almost want to run around the house with...

Disclosure :: This post is sponsored by Baton Rouge General.  Is it a Cold or RSV? For most healthy babies and young children, RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) is pretty much like a cold. But, because it may lead to bronchiolitis or pneumonia in those younger than one year old, some children get very sick with RSV. For parents, it’s common to mistake symptoms of RSV for symptoms of a cold, like coughing, sneezing and a fever. So how can you tell if those sniffles are something more than a cold? If your child has RSV, they may experience other symptoms too, including: Wheezing noise when they breathe Refusing to breastfeed or bottle-feed Unusually irritable Lethargic Trouble breathing or pauses in their breathing Signs...