Don’t forget to enter our HUGE giveaway of eco-friendly baby gear!

A lot can change in two years. That’s how long it’s been since we last blogged about our favorite green parenting blogs. (Here’s part one and part two—both from the dark ages of 2008.) Since then, some of our favorites have dropped off the edge of the blogosphere, and a few new faces have arrived on the scene. Here’s what’s happening right here, right now!

• Baby Cheapskate: Saving Big Bucks on Baby Stuff. This site alerts you to deals, sales, and special coupons for diapers, car seats, toys—anything you might need for a baby.
• The Clementine NW blog is based in Portland, Oregon. Their store sells adorable clothes, slings, and more.
• The Cloth Diaper Blog boasts a wealth of information on cloth diapering.
• Crunchy Chicken is “putting the mental in environmentalism.” One of the funniest, most popular green bloggers out there!
• Crunchy Domestic Goddess blogs about hot topics in the green world, from birthing with Kourtney Kardashian to composting with worms.
• Eco Child’s Play talks about hot topics in green parenting—like what happens to your breasts once you stop nursing.
• Enviromom is written by two Portland moms. Check them out for discussions on sustainable energy, ideas for reducing household waste, and eco-friendly crafts.
• Frugal Babe lives “a rich life without a lot of money.” She and her husband paid down $33,000 in debt in just two years!
• Gray Matters is a stay-at-home mom who cares about the environment. She has a slew of interesting crafts, menu plans, and thoughts on motherhood.
• Great Green Baby showcases the latest and greatest green baby products on the market.
• Green and Clean Mom is one of our old favorites! She has made blogging and selling Shaklee products her mission in order to make the world a greener and cleaner place for her children.
• Green Mom Review offers quick reviews of a variety of eco-friendly products.
• Green Style Mom muses about her life with her husband, kids, cats, and dog.
• Haute Nature features “ecologically based creative ideas, art & green products for your children, home and lifestyle.”
• Little Green Blog shows how a family goes green on the other side of the pond.
• Mindful Momma blogs about finding “the balance between living green and going broke.”
• Natural Papa gives us a glimpse into a dad’s take on natural parenting.
• Nature Moms has gained a following for her informative posts about healthful foods, natural home remedies, and safer products for the whole family.
• Not the Jet Set tells “one family’s story” of “money, stewardship, and frugal living.”
• Organic Baby Resource Blog has the “long-term health of our children” in mind as it shares “the wisdom gained from personal experiences, medical experts and organic industry veterans.”
• Outdoor Baby offers tips for enjoying outdoor activities with babies and kids in tow.
• The Pregnancy and Baby Blog is your go-to spot for news on fertility, pregnancy, and early babyhood.
• Recycle Your Day “is a website founded on the ideas of creating a simple and  ‘green’ lifestyle while incorporating natural and healthy living tips.”
• Retro Housewife Goes Green is on a journey to become “a little greener every day.”
• So Much Shouting, So Much Laughter is written by “a lover of quirkiness, justice, grace,
  community, honest dialogue, natural living, good food, good books, bad tv, music, the underdog, and the earth”
• The Clothesline always impresses us with posts on how to recycle almost anything.
• The Simple Life is written by a crafty, creative mother of three.
• The Soft Landing reviews baby products, looking out for alternatives to unsafe plastics.
• Treehugging Family is another one of our old favorites, discussing eco-news and products for the whole family.
• Walking Upside Down blogs about motherhood, writing, and the environment in New Zealand.
• Zoë B Organic Weekly finds the latest eco-friendly goods for babies, moms, and kids.

We love everyone on our list, and we hope we haven’t forgotten anyone! Who are your favorite eco-bloggers?

A green stroller?  Does such a product really exist?  There are certainly strollers that are eco-friendlier than others, but it’s pretty tricky to find a bamboo buggy for your new baby.  From our collective experience, the best way to go green is to select a multifunctional stroller that you’ll love through your years of talking your children for walks.

Regretfully I have to confess that we fell into the trap of having too many strollers.  Our tiny garage is loaded up with four separate contraptions for wheeling our babe along the sidewalk. We will try to save you from the same fate!

If you want one for an infant:

What should you do with a newborn?  Honestly, newborns tuck into a sling or an Ergo carrier so nicely that we almost never used our strollers.  If you do want one, however, you might want to look into an infant car seat carrier. Simply snap your car seat into the frame and you’ll essentially have a travel system without all the chunky plastic.  You can choose from Kolcraft, Maclaren, Graco and many others.

If you want an extremely compact stroller:

We love Maclaren strollers for their design, function, and lack of plastic.  Some of their larger strollers (such as the Maclaren Quest) work from birth onward, but the Maclaren Triumph works after ten weeks and the Volo works for children older than six months. The whole line of strollers are light and collapse compactly for bus travel or to throw into the trunk of your car.  If you’re looking for a less expensive option, check out Chiccos strollers or Kolcraft strollers.

If you’re a runner:

While they are a bit big, Bob strollers are wonderful for running with baby.  They adapt to fit infant car seats and also come in double strollers.  They have ample storage and a nice cover to protect baby from the sun.

If you want to bike with baby:

One of our favorite multifunctional choices is the Burley Bike Trailer.  While somewhat clunky, it works as a bike trailer, a running stroller, and a double stroller.  Baby won’t be able to ride in it until she’s a year old, but it can be used for years on family bike commutes.  If the price seems a little steep, you could opt for the similar In-Step bike stroller for much less.

You’ll find even more detail about eco-friendly, budget-friendly baby-toting devices in our new book, The Eco-nomical Baby Guide: Down-to-Earth Ways for Parents to Save Money and the Planet.  You’ll also get options for making your own sling and tips on saving money by purchasing a gently used stroller.

What is your favorite baby-toting device?  It may not even be a stroller! Do you own a stroller that you wish you had never purchased?

We’re celebrating the arrival of our brand new baby, The Eco-nomical Baby Guide, by showering one lucky winner with ALL of the gifts listed below!

• A copy of our book! Of course, we think the best prize is The Eco-nomical Baby Guide: Down to Earth Ways for Parents to Save Money and the Planet. It’s packed with hundreds of ways to save money while going green with baby.
  
• A HappyBaby gift pack, including organic baby food samples, an Eric Carle growth chart from YoBaby, an Infant & Toddler Nutrition guide co-authored by Dr. Sears, and a set of HappyFamily recipes. HappyBaby is the company behind this fabulous organic baby guide, and their organic foods are available in supermarkets everywhere.
  
• 1 organic chili pepper onesie and hat set ($46) from Baby Bunz & Co. Baby Bunz & Co. have been selling cloth diapers and other eco-friendly baby products since the 1980s!
  
• A Diaperaps sample pack, including a cover, liner, and an infant size hemp/organic cotton fitted diaper. Diaperaps are adorable, waterproof, Velcro closing diaper covers that can be used with cotton prefolds.  They’re easy to use and very affordable.
  
• One pair of baby girl shoes from Pedoodles, in the style and size of your choice. You’ll love the style and durability of Pedoodles shoes!  Made from recycled leather, they are eco-friendly and adorable.
  
• 1 twin pack of thinkbaby 9oz PES bottles($16.99) ThinkBaby makes “safer products for healthier babies.” These bottles are BPA-free–of course!
  
• One adorable teething toy from Speesees, a company specializing in eco-friendly, kid-friendly clothes, bedding, and more.
  
• One container of Green Dragon Pest Solutions, an eco-friendly product that will hurt household bugs such as roaches and silverflies without harming baby.

Eight Ways to Enter the Giveaway

How do you enter?  Guess what?  You can enter more than once! Each way listed below gets you one entry.  All comments have to be posted BEFORE Sunday the 7^th of March to win. (And if you don’t win, don’t worry–we’re giving away gift baskets ALL MONTH LONG!)

Remember, LEAVE A SEPARATE COMMENT ON THIS POST FOR EVERY EACH ENTRY.  If applicable, please leave the link to your Facebook/Twitter/Blog in the comment you leave here.

1. Email a friend about our book, our blog, or this month’s giveaways. (And then don’t forget to comment about it below!)

2. Subscribe to our blog (look right under the search bar)

3. Join our Facebook fan club

4. Link to us on Facebook, Twitter, or another social networking site.

5. Link to this post on your blog!

6. Add The Eco-nomical Baby Guide to your “to read” shelf on Goodreads

7. Add our blog to your blogroll

8. Go read our post on Five Ways to Score a Free Copy of  The Eco-nomical Baby Guide and leave a comment there if you’re willing to review our book on your blog.  (Make sure to read the post for more details.) Leave a comment here as well to make sure we can keep track of your entries.

***The contest ends on Saturday, March 6, 2010***

Winner will be randomly selected.

We will notify the winner via email and will get you in touch with these companies who will ship your products directly to you. Please Note: This contest is open only to U.S. readers.

Have fun everyone!

Eco-friendly baby gear works for us! This post is a part of Works for Me Wednesday, hosted by Rocks in My Dryer!

Today is the day. For three years, hundreds of days and thousands of hours, Rebecca and I have written, rewritten, and polished our manuscript for The Eco-nomical Baby Guide: Down to Earth for Parents to Save Money and the Planet. Today is its official birthday because it is now on bookstore shelves!

We packed our book full of earth-friendly, budget-friendly tips learned from our time in the trenches as new moms. It’s the perfect stand-alone guide to cloth diapering, buying green for baby, and enjoying baby’s arrival without extra economic stress.

In honor of its birth, we’re going to be giving away HUNDREDS of dollars of green baby gear in our weekly gift baskets this month. Please email friends and family, post on your Facebook page, and inform fellow bloggers that your readers won’t want to miss this month’s giveaway extravaganza.

What could you win?

How about. . .
Adorable eco-friendly baby shoes
Some top quality cloth diapers and accessories
A working cardboard cradle for baby
Organic baby food
Sweet little organic baby garments
A COPY OF OUR BOOK!

There’s much, much more in our baskets so stop by each week to see what you could win.

Also, we’re hosting two upcoming book signings. On Saturday, March 6th from noon to two, we’ll be at Mother Nature’s in Portland, Oregon, at 2627 Southeast Clinton Street. If you miss that one, come see us on Sunday, March 21st from ten to noon when we’ll be at Bambini in Eugene, Oregon, at 205 West 5th Street. If you know someone who may be interested in our book, feel free to email them about the events. Thank you for spreading the word about our giveaways and our new book!