What to Expect When You’re Expecting is a thorough guide to pregnancy that has been tremendously popular for over twenty years–and this week their website, What to Expect, is sponsoring a giveaway! We’re throwing in a few copies of our book, The Eco-nomical Baby Guide, to sweeten the winnings for two lucky readers. There are multiple ways to enter so get in on the action!

Prize #1
What to Expect Before You’re Expecting (+ a copy of our book, The Eco-nomical Baby Guide: Down to Earth Ways for Parents to Save Money and the Planet)

For women who are planning conception and pregnancy, What to Expect Before You’re Expecting is a great resource. It provides tips on everything from nutrition to medical care for women (and men) in the months before you get pregnant. And it will help you make the good choices that will lead to a healthier newborn. For couples hoping to conceive quickly, Murkoff educates readers about how to pinpoint ovulation cycles to raise your odds of getting pregnant.

As for our book, The Eco-nomical Baby Guide, we’ve spoken to many women who received it late in their pregnancies only to wish that they would have read it months earlier. Why not learn about cloth diapers and used baby gear before you’re dealing with morning sickness and exhaustion? We hope that having the book far in advance will allow you to gather up the new and used green gear you need while saving thousands of dollars.

Prize #2
What to Expect When You’re Expecting(+ a copy of our book, The Eco-nomical Baby Guide: Down to Earth Ways for Parents to Save Money and the Planet)

What to Expect When You’re Expecting is read by over 90% of pregnant women who read pregnancy books and has been on the New York Times bestseller list for decades. So what can you expect from the book? The book is organized into monthly chapters which provide information about how you may feel, common questions, a week-by-week guide to baby’s fetal development, and information about what your midwife or doctor is likely to say during that phase of pregnancy. The book also addresses childbirth plus the emotional and physical issues that couples face in the postpartum period. The question and answer format helped me pick out sections that were relevant to my pregnancy. I was too overwhelmed and exhausted by growing a fetus to actually read any book cover to cover so I appreciated being able to easily reference what I was looking for.

We wish every newly pregnant woman could get a free copy of The Eco-nomical Baby Guide, just to have access to humble, humorous, hands-on advice for gearing up green on a budget. Since we can’t just stand on the corner and hand these out to pregnant passers-by, we’ve decided to send one to accompany What to Expect When You’re Expecting in this giveaway. We hope you can win!

Whether you’re lucky enough to win one of the prizes or not, you should know that What to Expect online now offers heaps of free information for expectant women and new parents. You can pick up a copy of many What to Expect books on Amazon for less than nine bucks and The Eco-nomical Baby Guide is currently on sale for less than eight dollars. (And it will save you much, much more than what you pay for it!)

Enter the What to Expect When You’re Expecting (and the Eco-nomical Baby Guide) Giveaway!

Each comment counts as an entry. You can enter up to four times. Here’s how:

1. Simply post a comment

2. Like the Green Baby Guide on Facebook (then tell us you did it in a separate comment)

3. Visit the What to Expect website and comment on what you learned.

4. Spread the news about the giveaway! Email someone, post it on Facebook, tweet it, blog it, or send someone a message about it via carrier pigeon. (And again, don’t forget to tell us all about it in the comments!)

This contest ends on Thursday, August 11th, and is only open to U.S. Residents.

Great luck!

Great luck!

Of the more than a thousand entries for FuzziBunz One Size Cloth Diapers, the FuzziBunz In and Out Mess Free Hanging Diaper Pail, and the Rockin’ Green Laundry Soap, we had to pick just two winners.  (Insert dramatic pause…..and possibly drumroll here….)

Amanda H. will get to choose whichever vivid colors she wants for her  three FuzziBunz One Size Cloth Diapers and Aleia is soon to be the lucky owner of a bag of Rockin’ Green Laundry Soap and the FuzziBunz No Mess Hanging Diaper Pail.

If for some reason I don’t hear back from either of them in the next few days, I may just pick another number so you may still have a very, very small chance of winning.

And check back next Wednesday for another great giveaway that I think you’ll enjoy!

(My apologies for my tardiness in reporting our winners but we just moved this weekend. I’m just feeling lucky to have the computer unpacked at this point!)

Our pantry purge has yielded some fantastic recipes, but this one is my absolute favorite.  My kids declared that these were the best popsicles they’ve ever eaten.  Little did they know there was a secret vegetable lurking within them! The pumpkin really brings out the peach flavor and augments the color beautifully.  Give this a try and your kids will never know!

• 2 Cups fresh or canned peaches
• 2 bananas (throw brown bananas in!  Overripe fruit will add the most sweetness)
• ½ C. apple juice concentrate
• ½ C. canned pumpkin
• 1 Cup ice
• 1 Cup water

Blend it up and add more fruit or juice until you like the taste and consistency.   Serve the first round as smoothies and pour the leftovers into popsicle molds for later.  It truly is delicious!

If you like this recipe, you might enjoy some of the others tucked between the covers of The Eco-nomical Baby Guide. Homemade teething cookies, pumpkin pancakes, or pear tofu pudding are just a few of the recipes for your young tot that we’ve enclosed in the book. (Of course it’s also packed with tips on buying new green gear, safe used gear, and every detail you can imagine about cloth diapering.) The book is still on sale for less than eight bucks on Amazon, which is a whopping 61% off. We’re not sure how long the crazy sale will last, but as eco-nomical souls ourselves, we hope that you get to take advantage of it!
 

Three cups of wheat germ have been sitting in my pantry for the last six months.  In my desperate efforts to clean out my cupboards before we move, I found a wheat germ cookie recipe and then tweaked it into utter deliciousness.

Now I shall make these on a regular basis and confidently stride past the granola bars in the grocery store.  These are far less expensive, more nutritious and utterly delicious.

• ½ Cup butter
• ½ Cup peanut butter
• 1/3 Cup cooking oil
• 1 Cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1.5 Cups rolled oats
• 1 Cup wheat germ
• ½ Cup wheat flour
• ½ Cup white flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 Cup coconut flakes
• 2 cups chopped nuts (I used almond flour from Trader Joe’s)
• ½ cup raisins or chocolate chips (or both!)

Cream the butters and sugars together.  Then add the eggs.  Then dump in the other ingredients and blend. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto a lightly greased cookie sheet.

Bake for about ten minutes at 350 degrees.  Let them solidify on the pan a bit before you move them to the cooling rack.  My kids ate the entire batch in less than two days without realizing they were healthy.  Victory!

Any woman who has been through labor knows that this is a weak comparison at best.  Childbirth is humbling, agonizing, magical and miraculous.  Moving is… just horrible.

Maybe.  But beyond the actual contractions and the loading of the moving trucks, both of these events are entries into huge life transitions.  In both cases, there is usually time to prepare for the event and life beyond it.

We wrote The Eco-nomical Baby Guide because our pregnancies were riddled with pressures to stock up on supplies that claimed to make parenthood easier.  We faced huge baby registries and “must have” lists and decided that we’d rather buy less and buy used in order to keep the planet and our pocketbooks in mind. Each of our families ended up saving about six thousand dollars in our tots’ first year alone by going secondhand, cloth diapering, and making homemade baby food. Far from being a hardship, we found budget-friendly, eco-friendly living to be a grand adventure and actually started this blog to share our successes (and frequent failures) on our green journey.

Now, as my family is on the brink of moving, it all feels so familiar.  It’s tempting to go out and buy new furnishings to fill the empty space, using money to make the shift easier.  Instead, we shall be living in our new house with lawn chairs and beanbags as furniture for awhile.  We’ll patiently hit garage sales and shop craigslist until we slowly stock our house with secondhand pieces we love.

Whether we’re preparing for baby or moving into a new home, making huge changes with an eco-friendly, budget-friendly mindset requires patience, a bit of self-control, and the humility to realize that we’re not defined by our stuff.  I hope that as we continue to face transition with our reduce, reuse, recycle mantra, our kids will learn those same skills for themselves. It’s a glorious way to live a rich life without consuming (or spending) nearly as much.

Green and Clean Mom Has a great post on How to Buy Organic Food Cheap. It’s great practical advice that you can put into action on your next trip to the grocery store.

Stop by later this week to check out our upcoming giveaway. It involves cloth diapers and some fabulous supplies so come back to get the details!

Two weeks ago I begged for your collective wisdom to help wean my two-year-old daughter. After implementing a few strategies from our readers, my daughter and I gently gave up nursing within just three days.

First I stopped the morning feedings, which did involve some screaming and sadness, but with a little distraction she quickly acclimated. The next day we nursed at nap again, but at bedtime we had a special discussion of how this would be her last time drinking my milk. We snuggled, talked and really enjoyed it. The next day, my husband put her down for nap and bedtime and she peacefully went to sleep. If I would have known it would be that easy, I might have started sooner!

For those of you still struggling with weaning, Kathleen Huggins’ book, Nursing Mother’s Guide to Weaning – Revised: How to Bring Breastfeeding to a Gentle Close, and How to Decide When the Time Is Right looks like an excellent choice. Does anyone else have a favorite resource to support weaning a toddler?

Happy Fourth of July! It’s a great day to reflect on what independence means to our family. Making choices to reduce, reuse and recycle may make us feel good, but there are heaps of other benefits to consider.

This thrifty, green lifestyle leads brings financial freedom as we save by buying less and purchasing secondhand items. That allows for economic offsetting, or the ability to splurge on the things that really matter to us. Maybe for your crowd it’s organic strawberries, an Ergo carrier, or a weekend camping trip, but making conscious choices about consumption opens up options. Buying less stuff also provides us the independence of extra space (with less to trip over!) as we tend to our babies.

My ultimate independence dream would be to live off the grid. Who knows? Maybe in a few decades (or less) it will be more possible than it seems right now. What are the aspects of green living that lead to independence in your household?

As of yesterday, all new and used drop-side crib sales in the United States are banned.  Crib manufacturers have already adapted, but what happens to every drop-side crib currently in use?  Are they all destined for disposal?

The government ban states that no crib manufactured before July 23, 2010 can be sold or even donated.  It extends to cribs sold at yard sales, resale shops, and on craigslist.

Honestly, it makes me feel ill.  I know that more than 30 babies died in the past dozen years from drop side cribs, and obviously better standards needed to be enforced.  Still, why can’t people use a crib immobilizer kit that will make any drop-side crib into a safe, stationary sleeping space for baby?   People can buy it for ten dollars and install it in under an hour.

My solid maple Child Craft crib, with plenty of life left in it, will have to be dismantled and recycled, even though there are several families and charities in desperate need of a sturdy crib.  The amount of waste that will be generated by this one act boggles my mind!  Does anyone else have ideas about what to do with their used drop-side crib?

Another product I’ve been reconsidering—alongside wipes warmers and diaper sprayers—are recycled paper towels. If you are a faithful reader of the Green Baby Guide, you know how my proudest claim to greenness is that I’ve never bought paper towels in my life. However . . . I’m beginning to make room for some changes.

Would recycled paper towels improve my life at all? Could they possibly be better than washable rags sometimes, especially if I promised to compost them?

In exactly four weeks, we shall be moving and do not want to lug along a dozen cans of black beans and pound of bulk cashews. So for upcoming summer dinners I shall plan meals creatively around the provisions we already have. At this point my ideas include peach and pumpkin veggie-fruity popsicles, white bean soup with summer greens, and nut flour pancakes.

Half eaten bananas, overripe fruit, and unfinished bowls of yogurt will make their way into smoothies, homemade popsicles, and baked goods. Dried beans, pasta, rice and canned tomatoes will contribute to soups and goulashes. When the shelves of my fridge and cupboards are clean and bare, it shall be time to shop again. Until then, we shall think outside the recipe box.

How do you prepare foods you forage from your own cupboards? Marmalade mustard chicken? Dried fig and cranberry biscuits? While not always delicious or even edible, the possibilities for creative cooking are endless!