Belly Itch Blog

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JJ Ghatt's Old Stuff

Here are the articles I've written in the past

Celebrity Update: Bellies and more Bellies

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paparrazi caught a very pregnant Ellen Pompeo and her husband Chris Ivery leaving their Hollywood Hills home the other day. I must say she is wearing pregnancy well…almost makes me less mad at the way she was offed from Grey’s Anatomy. Ha! Source

There’s a bunch of great pregnancy pics of Tracy Mourning, NBA Star Alonzo Mourning’s wife, over at BlackCelebKids.com
The rumor mill says singer/actress Christina Milian is preggers with her fiance, The Dream’s, baby. Congrats to her if its true. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but it would be great if they could tie the knot before baby arrives…if she is indeed Preggers that is


The cover of Us Weekly this week features Kendra,( former playboy bunny, Reality TV starlet*Girls Next Door*) and Khloe Kardashian (Reality TV Star *Keeping up with the Kardashians) and yay, they both want to breastfeed!

Also, defamed NFL NY Giants player Plaxico Burress, who recently got sentenced for shooting himself in the leg with an unregistered handgun confirmed to ESPN that his wife is expecting their second child. Oh boy! I think that sentence was unreasonable like he didn’t already learn his lesson by being shot! American justice boy.
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Book Review #5: On Becoming Toddler Wise

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Yes, it’s late, but here’s another review. I am cleaning my plate folks….
From the authors of the ULTRA best selling “On Becoming Baby Wise” book which espouses tricks on getting a calmer baby and one that goes to sleep on its own, comes its 2003 follow up for the next stage which I am batting with “Toddlerdome!” True to the formula from their first book, Drs. Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam take a frank, matter-of-fact, no-nonsense approach to explain in simple terms tips for dealing with various toddler issues. They tackle topics from the first steps to potty training.
This also is not a new book but it is a great resource that I have had to turn to and re-read for each child. They take you into the mind of a toddler and decodes what and how he/she thinks and responds to her/his parents. Various chapters discuss everything from getting your toddler to alter bad behavior to potty training. They don’t talk down to the reader but share examples that most parents with toddlers can relate to and I suppose if you are pregnant with a toddler you could use any bit of help you can get at this point, so do yourself a favor and check this book out at the library, get a used or discount copy from Amazon.com. I’m beginning to feel like somoene should pat me on the back for stimulating the economy this way; giving all these good “must get” reviews and all…in one day nonetheless! ha!
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Book Review #4: Deceptively Delicious

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This isn’t a new book, per se, as it was released 2 years ago, and followed with controversy because an appearance by the author, who also happens to be Jerry Seinfeld’s wife, on Oprah helped the book reach multimillion dollar sales while a similar book released earlier, The Sneaky Chef by Missy Chase Lapine sold modest copies. Cries of foul play ruled the publishing world.
Well, yeah yeah yeah, this book is new to me and I am yet to find a cheap copy of Missy’s book as I did Deceptively Delicious earlier in the year at one of those discount stores, like Ross or Marshalls. So here we are.
I am one of those people who make an attempt (though I fail 7 times out of 10) to avoid processed, pre-packaged and microwave foods. The struggle I have most is trying to get my children to eat vegetables. Thankfully, the baby, GG, is a great eater and will consume anything I put before her. My challenge is to not introduce her to too much junk food and sweets and ruin her hearty appetite.
Unfortunately, for my 4 and 7 year olds, its too late. They have a staple of basic, not so healthy foods: hot dogs, pizza, mac n cheese, grilled cheese sandwhiches. Note the absence of veggies in this list.
When each of them were babies, I made earnest attempts to make my own baby food and puree them. The sight of jarred foods made me sick because I could never be rest assured how long the food sat in those jars, if rust leaked in from the tops or if the foods were over processed.
This book is great for teaching you how to puree vegetables and sneak them in ordinary meals. Aha!! It starts with the basics of what to build in your pantry. I reckon, based on some other independent reviews I’ve seen from others that the food doesn’t always come out as tasty and the non-veggie containing originals, but I figure it’s still worth a try and perhaps a little extra pinch of salt, seasoning, sugar or other substitute won’t kill anyone. After all, what’s worth sneaking in veggies if they are turned off from the first bite.
I love it already and I haven’t even tried a recipe yet. It’s all about recipes, idea and the guidelines of building a kitchen of tools and ingredients to sneak into the foods kids love like macaronni and cheese, tacos, chicken nuggets, pizza, pancakes and brownies.
I’m excited about getting to dig into this one! I’ll report how it goes…

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Book Review #3: The Parent Child Book Club

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Next up: The Parent Child Book Club, which is not just for pregnant women and women with new first children, but really for those with older children, but I reviewed it on my other blog and promised to feature it here on Bellyitch too.

Fellow Georgetown Law Alum, Melissa Stoller has written a book with research librarian Marcy Winkler on connecting with your children though reading called “The Parent-Child Book”.
With the onset of summer and end of the school year, many parents like me are challenged to keep the kids busy and mentally stimulated.
My boy Cboy is great at math and other subjects, but is more challenged at reading comprehension and reading. Really, he’d rather watch TV or play video games. He is only just now getting into liking books for fun, thanks to a great first grade teacher who cherishes reading and did a phenomenal job at stressing the fund aspects to reading. It’s so important to me and Trinidaddy that the kids get into reading because we both enjoyed reading books for fun growing up. I was a spelling bee champ and lived in the library.
From cover to cover, “The Parent-Child Book Club” is a refreshing take on the challenge on getting kids into books and reading. It is unique in that it introduces the concept of a book club for kids run by their parents. How novel. I found the model, if effectively executed, could have a positive impact on getting a reluctant reader to embrace books.
The authors share that the concept behind a book club is to encourage communication with children. The model presented in the book is for children ages four to nine. By the end, through several rounds of book club sessions, children should learn to predict outcomes, contemplate character traits and motivations, think about plot and dialogue and focus on writing. Very impressive. I earnestly believe reading for fun and love like this is the building block and basis for all types of learning and for being a good student overall.
The book offers ground rules on the technicalities of the group: how many kids to include, where to meet, whether it should be coed or single sex. It follows with helpful suggestions on how to create questions and dialogue about each book. There is a very generous resource section with suggested titles and a little info about each title. Each chapter thereafter essentially shares various models using specific age-appropriate books as examples. I especially liked the ancillary projects: the trips, foods to make, and places to go that expands the experience of reading the book to real life.
Overall, its a great concept and great that the authors have put together a system that can be copied in various contexts for the early and middle years of a child’s education. Wonderful for supplementing their learning in school and it will be a great addition to our summer home school curriculum!

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Book Review #2: Smart Mama’s Green Guide

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Next up for Book Review Tuesday:

Smart Mama’s Green Guide.: Simple Steps to Reduce Your Child’s Toxic Chemical Exposure
Environmental engineer turned environmental lawyer Jennifer Taggart makes a hearty attempt to educate and assist Moms (and dads) with small children be Greener, be more aware of the environmental dangers in the typical household and live healthier and less toxic lives. She tackles all the usual suspects: Radon, Abestos, Mold, Lead, and the lesser known by products or derivative elements that make up some common toxins or contribute to toxic environments. For advice and tips for the PREGNANT mom, she goes beyond the typical mercury warnings and delves deeper into dangerous foods and household chemicals that could impact the mom or her unborn baby.
I must say while I pride myself on living a “Green” life, I shamedly admit that really amounts to using mesh grocery bags, recycling, using water delivery versus purchasing multiple bottles and purchasing organic when I can afford to…um yeah.
Imagine my surprise to go through Smart Mama’s GreenGuide and read about all the horrific toxins that pollute every bit of mine and my family’s existence. So the author started off a bit neurotic and compulsive about being toxic free. Being an environmental engineed didn’t help. I suppose her sensitiviy to toxins were also on account of the fact that she suffered early miscarriages and looking for sources was convinced that the environment must have been the cause. She had an uphill battle to learn all she could being that tragic momentous event happened in 2002. Fast forward to 2009, readers have the benefit of her research, background, education and resources in this book. The premise behind the book, especially for pregnant women, is that you are indeed what you eat and you can control what you are exposed to, once you are educated and become informed. Good try.
At times, the descriptions of the toxins and hazards caused my eyes to glaze over and I eventually skipped those sections where she tries to explain in a little too much detail about the hazard, its source, cause and potential side effects. Me=lazy reader. Also, to really live a Green life taking all the precautions outlined in this book one would need to have gotten at least a C in high school chemistry or have a small microbiology lab stashed in the den somewhere. Also, some of the stories between the covers of this book were horrifying. The worst is the case example of the woman whose breast milk became so toxic that it leaked a smelly and pungent discharge. Eeek! Smart Mama has tiny text blocks of “Scary Mama Facts” that I suppose are put there to alarm you into compliance, but in all honesty, the entire book got me cringing and ready to pack up my brood and head for a mud hut in Outer Mongolia where we can’t be impacted by all the Radiation and Poisons polluting life in America.
Most helpful were the tables and side bars which give you a cut and dry listing of the toxins, tips for reducing or eliminating exposure and her expert analysis of the real life practical effects of such exposure. I especially found helpful the “Smart Mama Tips” and wish there were more of them because they were simple, easy to follow advice that most could understand and follow. The latter chapters that dish out very real practical tips for being “Greener” are also very helpful especially Chapter 5-8. I know plenty of moms who are/were very neurotic about limiting their infant and children’s exposure to all things toxic and those last chapters provide a very helpful and thorough treatment to creating the perfect environment. *sigh* What a big undertaking and exhausting one, but I suppose our children are worth it. Until this book, I lived life under the “ignorance is bliss” category of apathy. Maybe I STILL am…Ha!
If anything, this book is a very good resource book that deserves at least a pass over and a space on your library shelf.

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Book Review #1: If your kid Eats this book, everything will still be okay

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This post starts a day of at least 7 book reviews I will post today. Yes, we are a day late for Reviews Monday, but whatever. First Up,
If ever there was a super humorous take on dealing with us sometimese frantic over sensitive parents, this is it! I read this book from cover to cover and was cracking up all the way through. It is choc full of helpful descriptions and lay person explanations of common ailments and how we should deal with them, in a manner that does NOT require a trip to the ER.
I do wish I had this book as a resource to read BEFORE I had my first child. I vividly recall a moment when we had just come home with our first kid and out of the blue, he started to cry uncontrollably, turning red. I hopped all over the place, yelling at the hubby to warm up the car, unwrapped my head scarf off my locks and was heading to the ER for sure. All the fuss and ruckus to get the kid help induced the baby to burp. *Belch* …And then he was fine again. Womp Womp Wooomp! It was only gas!
So what Dr. Zibners does in this book is break down the anatomy of the infant, toddler and child. She explains, yes “his little piggy” will disappear into rolls of fat. That is okay. And, before you come in for a diagnosis of a blue mark, try a washcloth and soap. Yup. Funny, but true. It is a great book for a first time mom, dad or grandparents.
Dr. Zibners even offers natural remedies for common ailments that wouldn’t require a medical prescription, for example, like for constipation, treat the child with the “P”s = peas, plums, prunes, peaches. Aaaah! Yes. Put the infant Pepto away,you say?
She goes down the list of common products a child can safely get away with eating and not croaking: a bit of lipstick. No problem. A scoopfull of Vaseline. It will pass (literally and figuratively)…and of course there are mentions of the ones that should be treated with emergency care.
This book is very fun and Dr. Zibners matter of fact writing style gives the reader comfort in knowing, “no, you’re not an idiot, just a hypersensitive and worrywart mom/dad”
The best part for me are the sidebars dispersed throughout the book called “911” and “Emergency” which details scenarios when you ARE to call for help or take your child in and I made it a point to read every one of those tabs.
All in all, you can’t go wrong in reading this book or giving it as a gift to the new grandparents, babysitter, new moms. It is a quick and easy read and worth being on every shelf!

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HAPPY BLOGVERSARY BELLYITCH!

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HAPPY 2ND ANNIVERSARY BELLYITCH!!
All this week: REVIEWS…ADVICE…AND MORE REVIEWS….
AND A COUPLE OF GIVEAWAYS TOO!
YAY!
Thanks to my readers and supporters! Will be back soon!

Pregnancy Blog Spotlight: Bellyitch 2 year Anniversary Flashback

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To commemorate the 2 year anniversary of Bellyich which is tomorrow, I figured I should spotlight the very first blog post for Sunday’s usual Pregnancy Blog Spotlight. After all, what has evolved into a tips, reviews, celebrity, baby and belly show off blog started as a pregnancy blog…
One of my good friends IRL from High School and College, just asked me on Twitter (Krsprof) how I came up with the idea for Bellyitch. Got me to thinking to ask you all to take a stroll back to memory lane with me and take a peek at my blog posts from mym last 4 months of the pregnancy journal leading up to the birth of my little GG: (Click on the month)
September Posts; October Posts; November Posts; and December Posts
I’ve had a good old laugh re-reading them and got all nostalgic and stuff. I can’t believe how funny a writer I am. I say that with all earnestness and modesty. Ha!
ENJOY…
FROM AUGUST 31, 2007
week 19, day 3: my belly itches!———————————————well i love this pregnancy…it’s been smooth sailing so far…

just a few minor glitches so far:1. i can’t control the gas…coming out different orifices of my body, i swear my nose farted the other day!

2. my belly just started to itch…well Good Lord, where is my 50 pound tub of cocoa butter?

3. lately, i’ve been popping tums and downing spoonfuls of mylanta as if i’m really munching on sushi and sippin’ on mai tais! damn damn! damn!

Well anyway, TODAY (um, well actually wednesday, but Blogger lost its mind today and i scrapped that earlier blog and started anew) i launch this blog is to commemorate the pregnancy leading to the birth of my first baby girl after two cute, but mischievous little boys…

like my mom-in-law says, Thank God for all the symptoms cause there are so many people who would love to be in your shoes and cannot…*one eyebrow raised*….i guess….week 19, day 4:
ew preggers perverts!

i can’t believe how many hits on google came up for “hot naked pregnant women” during my search for clip art for this blog headliner…ewwww…

uh oh!!

where did this extra roll in my neck come from?

FIRST, I am losing body parts…my ankles back in July…my collar bone two weeks ago….I know I will not be able to see my feet again in a month or two…

AND NOW I’M ADDING PASTRY PUFFS TO MY NECK???

*sigh*

in other news, I saw a woman who had two kids within a year (God Bless her Soul) and she was carrying around her two adorable lil girls and I immediately perked up and forgot about my soufle neck!

week 19, day 5:You’re pregnant? Really?I know that nekked , I’m a lil roly poly and preggers as ever, but apparently, I’m wearing my maternity wear too well cause of the 3 to 4 people I’ve seen and announced I was 5 months pregnant EACH AND EVERYONE OF THEM LOOKED AT ME IN BEWILDERMENT AND GENUINE SURPRISE.

well God Dangit, they prolly just think I’ve packed on a pound or 10 or 20!!!….*shriveled brow*

as a matter of fact, I have a doc appointment Tuesday and I swear my Goal is to not believe them if they dare tell me I’ve gained another 7 lbs…I will so switch to DENIAL mode it’s not funny!

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What’s GG Up to: GG, my swimmer/acrobat/daredevil

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While school shopping this weekend, I was happy to see early permeation of a future shopper.
Something girly in this tomboy’s future? Hmmm..

My daughter never ceases to amaze me with all her brave, injury-defying antics.

This week, while on vacation, I discovered that she knows how to swim. Yup. With no classes at all, she kicked her legs with great precision and coordination while I held her in the water. We dunked her head under and it didn’t phase her one bit!

Similarly, she also was a gymnast in a past life. While inside our condo, I spyed her on her head about to do a headstand and/or forward roll. Like she’s had NO GYMANSTICS CLASS and I wonder if she could have picked that up in class. Interesting…

I also discovered that at nearly 20 months she is more than ready to potty train. Case in point, at some point when she got the urge to #2, she emptied the spare wipes tub I usually fill with her hair accessories and barrettes onto the floor. She then took off her diaper squatted over it and proceeded to take a royal dump in the tub…um yeah…in the middle of the living room! Crazy girl. I heard the groaning in the other room and ran over to discover…ah! That’s my GG!

She knows new words: Geese, pool, bridge, bite, no, yes, give me, take this, take that, ice cream, goose, diaper, and more I cant think of…and she can read many more words from the Your baby can read DVDs.

…and I’m working on not calling her “the Destroyer”. It might stigmatize her when she learns what that word is…LOL!
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Bellyitch Bump Day: Pregnant in Asia

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From a Marie Claire.com story about pregnant women in India eager to be surrogate for American women…outsourcing going too far?
Natural
Sensual
photo source: Craig Mod, Japan 2005
Breathtaking!
The second image above is from an article that states:

Although (mostly) restricted to couples with proven fertility problems, there is a fear that upper-income women would choose to “rent a womb” out of convenience rather than necessity, just as they are choosing C-sections. Ultimately, Dr. John Lantos warns, “It raises the factor of baby farms in developing countries.”

Interesting commentary. Something to think about…

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