Feeling that baby fever again, Mama?  Maybe your little one has just grown out of that snuggly newborn phase and it’s giving you all the feels, or maybe you have a tot running around and you think it’s time for a sibling!  Either way, making the decision to make your little family a little bit bigger can be a big decision!

If you’re feeling the pregnancy itch, make sure you take a few things into account before you make the leap!  Check out our list below to help you decide if you’re ready for Baby #2!

When you’re pregnant, you’ll likely create your ideal birth plan — you’ll go into labor, head to the hospital or your midwife, push through some contractions, and voila!  You’ll be holding your sweet bundle in your arms some amount of time later. But sometimes, things outside of your control can cause things to deviate from your birth plan.

This can be that Baby comes early, arrives via C-section, or maybe isn’t coming at all!  Before you know it, words like “induction” start getting thrown around. Finding out you’ll be induced to start labor can be overwhelming and a little unnerving…but it doesn’t have to be!  It’s important for expecting mamas to know what being induced means, why it happens, and what they can expect when and if the time comes!

Every mama out there dreams of what their child will be like when they’re born — will they be sweet?  Will they sleep?  Some believe you can actually turn to their Zodiac sign to know what time of newborn you’ll have — if nothing else, it’s a fun way to wait for Baby!  We’ve got all the deets on what you can expect from your little one…based on their due date!

It’s delivery day!  Baby is arriving, your entire family is gathered to celebrate, but your little one comes out into the world looking a little…yellow.  So what gives?  The yellow tone that often occurs in newborns is caused from newborn jaundice — a condition that affects a great deal of babies born every day!

So what exactly is jaundice?  It’s a condition found when a surplus of the compound bilirubin is produced — bilirubin is a yellow compound that helps to clear waste.  It’s housed and handled in the liver, and can often cause complications in newborns! Being armed with knowledge around newborn jaundice can help you avoid panicking when and if the day arrives.

The day your little bundle arrives can be the happiest day of your life!  But sometimes, that day comes a little sooner than expected, and your little one arrives a little earlier than you originally planned.  When they arrive a day or two early, it can seem inconsequential, but when they arrive several weeks early, it can be a different story!

Congratulations, you’re pregnant!  The first few weeks of pregnancy can be exciting and absolutely exhilarating as you and your partner rejoice over the good news!  But they can also result in weeks of worry and anticipation waiting for the first trimester to end, along with the stage of highest risk.  But did you know you can start taking an active role in preventing unnecessary complications? It’s true, Mama!

From the day you get that exciting positive sign on a pregnancy test, you can start taking steps to create the healthiest environment for you and your growing baby — and we’ve got the scoop!  Read on for precautions you should absolutely be taking in your first trimester!

We all love clothes here at Bump Boxes, but it’s no shock to anyone that they can be expensive.  Putting together a carefully curated wardrobe can be a real investment…which makes it frustrating to have to buy all new clothing for pregnancy!  Many women try to last as long as possible before investing in maternity-wear, and even then, it can be hard to swallow the price for only 9 months!

Pregnancy comes with a great deal of known symptoms: morning sickness, fatigue, swollen feet, and heartburn.  But some of the lesser known symptoms are still just as prominent! For example, many pregnant women have never heard of melasma, or pregnancy mask, until it happens to them.  Melasma is the sporadic darkening of pigment on facial areas, creating a mask or dark patches.  While completely harmless, it can still be frustrating to deal with! Put down the huge tub of concealer, Mama, we’ve got the scoop!

Very few things are as exciting as hearing Baby’s first words!  Whether it’s “mama”, or “dada”, or even “NO!”, new parents love to hear those first words of communication.  And it can get addicting! You may find yourself wishing to her Bitsy’s chatter all day long — but many times, after the first word or two, it’s a while before you hear another.  So how can you encourage Bitsy to keep growing their language and speech skills?

“Up, Mommy, up!”  Do you seem to be hearing this more than normal?  Or even constantly?  When your toddler is acting like a Stage 5 Clinger, it can be hard to get anything done!  Especially when you also sort of love that they want you 24/7….but when you need some you-time, it can be frustrating.  So why do toddlers go through this phase?

Understanding why your Bitsy is acting this way is the first step to fixing the issue and finding a middle ground!  It can often begin around the age of two, and a lot of times boils down to the fact that walking is no longer new and exciting…and now they want to be babied again!  The constant battle between being held and being put down is often due to their own internal battle — the urge to be independent vs the urge to want to be attached to your hip.  Have patience, Mama, we’re here to help!

Ah, pregnancy symptoms.  Necessary (but totally worth it!) side effects of growing your brand new baby!  Before you even found yourself holding a positive pregnancy test, you have likely heard them all — morning sickness, fatigue, swollen feet, pure exhaustion.  You’ve heard all about them, and you’re ready to face them head on!

But what about the weird symptoms?  The ones no one talks about in public, and never wants to tell you about pregnancy!  While they may seem a little more taboo to discuss in public, they’re just as much a part of pregnancy, and you may experience none, some, or all of them.  We’re here to break down the super-weird, a little embarrassing, and totally normal pregnancy symptoms.

As parents, we always do our best to set good examples for our little ones — be polite, say please and thank you, cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough, don’t interrupt, and so on!  Parenting is a constant awareness of good vs bad habits, and how to teach the difference. But what happens when that role falls into someone else’s hands?

When your child heads off to daycare, you lose control over what they’re learning and being taught, and they can come home from daycare with some pretty bad habits.  Picking their nose, grabbing toys that aren’t theirs, lying, and even biting in some cases! So what can you do when your toddler has learned a bad habit from someone else?

Love languages: unless you’ve been living under a rock for quite some time, it’s likely you’ve heard of this way to connect with others!  While it’s almost always looked at as a way to build your relationship with your partner, did you know it can also help you bond with your child?  Understanding the love languages, which one your child prefers, and how to practice it at home are all great ways to build the relationships in your own family!

When facing the sudden or unexpected loss of a pregnancy and baby can send anyone into a tailspin.  You can be left wondering how it happened, what could have happened differently, and why it had to happen to you.  However, it’s important to remember that you’re not alone and the cause can’t always be determined and certainly isn’t always your fault, Mama.

The road to recovery after a miscarriage can be a long one, but it’s certainly not impossible — make sure to take care of yourself, listen to your body, and always be willing to ask for help when you need it.  If you’re going through a miscarriage, here’s a little information on what to expect, and more importantly, how to come back from it.

Everyone needs a lift sometimes, and that doesn’t exclude little ones!  With all the negativity in the world right now, it can be easy to forget to stay positive–this just makes teaching your children positivity even more important!  Despite being young, little ones can have bad days, too, and teaching them how to find solutions and see the positive will go along way in helping them handle bigger things later!

Did you know that using positive affirmations can have a huge impact on your child’s frame of mind?  Affirmations are, simply put, the practice of positive thinking and self -empowerment. And they’re a great way to remind little ones that they can do anything they put their minds too!  Adding affirmations to their daily routines and changing a few habits in your household can go a long way in helping little ones cope with the negativity around them!

There’s no way around it, moving is stressful!  Packing your entire life up into boxes and hauling it to a new home can be a daunting and exhausting task.  Now what if you’re pregnant on top of it?! Whether you have to move for a job, found out you were pregnant after the move was already planned, or just plain felt like doing it, sometimes making a move during pregnancy just happens!  We’ve got some tips and tricks on how to survive a move when you’re growing a tiny human!

It’s no secret, we live in a society completely dominated by technology!  It’s hard to find anyone not permanently attached to a phone or other device…ourselves included!  But when raising tiny humans, it can bring up concerns on how much screen time is, well, too much?  Whether your little one is still an infant, or is a very curious toddler, any time is a great time to start considering your personal boundaries for your family, and how to limit the excessive exposure!  This is a personal decision for you to make for your family, but we’ve got some tips on how to get started!

Research by the ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) has found that delayed clamping, or waiting to clamp the cord until 30-60 seconds after your little one has joined you earthside, has significant benefits as opposed to clamping it immediately!  The benefits vary depending on if your baby is preterm or has been carried full term, and the choice is entirely yours, but here’s why you should consider delayed clamping!

There is no easy way around it, miscarriages are hard.  The loss of a pregnancy can be absolutely devastating, and it can be a long, rough road recovering from it.  If you’re on the outside looking in, with a friend experiencing a miscarriage, you might be having a hard time figuring out how you can be there for her and support her.  You might feel unsure about what you can say without hurting her further, or what you can do without getting in her way as she’s healing. The absolute best thing you can do for a friend going through a miscarriage is try to figure out what she needs the most, whether it’s space, comfort, kind words, or a simple gift, and stick with that.  Here are a few ideas!

Goblins and ghouls and ghosts, oh my!  As Halloween nears, your Bitsy may be antsy with excitement, or even a little…apprehensive!  While Halloween is typically known as a holiday for little ones to play dress up and get candy,  it’s certainly been conjured into a little bit more as older Halloween fanatics get involved. So how do you decide what is appropriate for your Bitsy, or what is too scary?  How do you keep them from being terrified during all of the festivities?

Simply put, Mama, just know your Bitsy!  They’ll start to show you what’s too much for them, or what they don’t like, so listen to those cues and act accordingly.  There’s also a few tips and tricks you can learn to make Halloween a little more accessible for kids!