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Jay Sean, the 1st solo artist of South Asian descent to top Billboards welcomes baby girl

Posted on January 12, 2014

Jay Sean, the first solo artist of South Asian origin to top the US Billboard 100, is a daddy! The British R&B singer and his Indo-Guyanese/Irish-African American wife Thara Natalie (nee Prashad) welcomed their first child, daughter Ayva Loveen Kaur Jhooti on December 13.

“Yuuuuup! I’m a daddy!!!!! Meet our lil baby girl, Ayva,” Jay Sean (birth name “She was born Kamaljit Singh Jhooti) wrote on his Instagram account). on the 13th December, weighing in at 6pounds 7ounces. It was the most incredible moment of my life seeing her enter this world.”

The couple married in 2009.

The doting dad described the birth:

Wifey @tharanatalie (who was unbelievably strong and composed thru it all btw- yogamommy!!) had a music playlist for her delivery – a mixture of diff artists and some of her fav songs – (including mine!) Would u believe of all the songs on the playlist she was born to daddy’s song!!?!!! She was born to ‘Luckiest Man.'”

Beautiful and Thara, who is a model and R&B singer signed to the same label as rapper Fabolous, made such a gorgeous pregnant woman!

The yoga-aficionado modeled for Expecting Models while expecting and practiced yoga to the end of her pregnancy.

Nice!


	“	Enjoying my time at home with this beautiful little angel. #Blessed” Thara recently wrote on her Instagram account.

photos: Instagram, Getty

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The Pregnant Ballerina welcomed daughter, Lumina Belle

Posted on January 11, 2014

The woman who helped train Natalie Portman for her role in The Black Swan got a special Christmas delivery and welcomed her first child, daughter Lumina Belle on 6am December 26, 2013.

Mary Helen Bowers and daughter Lumina Belle at 9 days old. She danced up until giving birth to her. – Instagram

Mary Helen Bowers caught many people’s attention with the beautiful photos of herself she shared on her Instagram account of her in graceful ballet poses while 9 months pregnant.

Bowers, who owns Ballet Beautiful ballet instructions company, got permission from her doctor to dance up until the week before she was scheduled to deliver.

“I just love knowing that when I’m dancing, the baby is dancing,” Bowers, 33, told TODAY Moms. “It’s just been awesome to know there’s this little life that’s sharing in everything you do every day.”

The Columbia University English literature grad danced for 10 years with the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center after getting a full scholarship at age 15 to study at the School of American Ballet in Manhattan. Bowers was invited to join New York City Ballet a year later at age 16.

“I feel like that’s really helped me with my balance and helped prevent back pain and a lot of other aches and pains that are really common with pregnancy,” she said of being able to dance all pregnancy long. “It’s a beautiful time. You feel connected to your body on a level like never before.”

Photos: Instagram.com/BalletBeautiful

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4 YouTube Maternity Fashion Videos to inspire your Style

Posted on January 11, 2014

Sydney – The Day Book Blog

Looking for some inspiration on how to dress your bump? YouTube offers wonderful short tutorials and fashion look book, styling tips and more. Here are four videos curated just for you to inspire you this Winter. Happy Styling !

First up, Keisha J from Glam Everything styled one cardigan four ways and shows you how to remix one piece for maximum usage

Cardigan Empire shows how to dress your bump without buying maternity clothes.

This Not Maternity, but the very fashionable The Chic Naturale has THE best video look books and tutorials and in this one, she showcases hot winter 2014 trends, some of which are accessories and can actually be worn by a pregnant woman.

Finally, Cardigan Empire shares some top maternity brands to explore:

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A Balanced Approach to Kids’ Screen Time: 4 Tips

Posted on January 10, 2014

Bellyitch Rewind

Screen time is a fact of life. Like the rest of their families, most babies, toddlers, and preschoolers in this country watch videos and play with computer games and apps—and they enjoy it. And many parents struggle with that fact. We agonize over the amount of screen time our kids get and fear its impact. We judge ourselves by the hours spent or unspent in front of the TV or computer, and we judge others.

Parents need breathers, and parents need showers and a video can grant you a little time—no one, we said, is going to die if you “plop the kid down” in front of a video or the television once in a while.

And how many times a day does the average parent hand over a cell phone to a child in a stroller, in line at the grocery store, at a restaurant, or in the car seat? It’s a research study waiting to happen.

There are mixed messages from psychologists, the American Academy of Pediatrics and others out there when it comes to screens and kids, here are four tips that encourage a balanced approach:

1. Use screens to enhance reading together, not to replace it. It’s obvious that a video doesn’t replace a bedtime book, but the app and ebook options are more tempting, and less clear. Reading together is sharing—but tapping the laundry basket icon to make a cat appear over and over again is more akin to singular play than reading books. If you’ve set out to read one on one with your child, then read.

2. Encourage sociability. No one would ever tell you to stop handing your child a board book in a restaurant—why are we suggesting that the Cat in the Hat app is any different? Consider this: anywhere your toddler expects to get that phone—whether it’s serving as book, video player, or game—your preschooler, and then your child, will expect to be engaged by a gadget. If there are people around, let’s talk.

3. Plan for a “Balanced Media Diet.” Too many apps and not enough books isn’t good for you, just like too many carbs and no protein isn’t healthy either. While books are great, kids also need to play with blocks and play dough and run around outside. Even Cookie Monster has declared that a cookie is a “sometime thing.” While Cookie Monster’s evolution may border on sacrilegious, screens, too, are “sometime things.”

4. Look for ways to make screens about reading. When the little screens are in their hands, or the big ones are calling for their attention, do look for ways to connect the world on-screen and the world of reading together. Favor ebooks over apps for reading together, and apps that develop literacy over those that don’t (more on that in the app section). Choose videos that spring from books over those that don’t.

Partially excerpted with permission from Susan Straub, KJ Dell’Antoniaand Rachel Payne‘s Reading with Babies, Toddlers and Twos: A Guide to Laughing, Learning and Growing Together Through Book.

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Grey’s Anatomy’s Jesse Williams and wife welcome daughter, Sadie

Posted on January 10, 2014

Congratulations to Grey’s Anatomy hunky actor Jesse Williams and his wife Aryn Drake Lee on the birth of their first child, a daughter they named Sadie, in early December, US Weekly confirmed.

Williams has played Dr. Jackson on the award-winning show for four years. He and Drake Lee married in September 2012 after dating for 5 years back when Williams was a high school teacher in New York before getting the Grey’s gig.

Gossip sites discovered last October that the couple were expecting.

Congrats! Great genes. We’re sure she’s a gorgeous baby!

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This ONE Feng Shui task will guarantee a calmer home with children

Posted on January 10, 2014

feng shui

noun /ˈfəNG ˈSHwē/ /-SHwā/

(in Chinese thought) A system of laws considered to govern spatial arrangement and orientation in relation to the flow of energy (qi), and whose favorable or unfavorable effects are taken into account when siting and designing buildings

I have noticed over the years that those families that allow their children’s toys to take over their home have the most stress in their lives, exhibit signs of anxiety, anxiousness, and frustration over the child rearing process. They appear frazzled and discombobulated. They have to deal with all of the challenges of raising their children and trying to maintain some semblance of sanity and calm. It can all be overwhelming at times. A chaotic home doesn’t help at all.

One sure fire trick to a having a less stressful life at home with the children is to adopt at least one aspect of one particular element of Feng Shui: decluttering.

To declutter your home life and be a little bit more organized and adjusted when planning outings, family meals and just trying to keep it together, limit the amount of toys that are laying about the home.

Some families live in homes that look like a toy store exploded in it. The parents allow their children to leave their toys anywhere and everywhere. But it doesn’t take much effort to simply designate ONE SECTION (maybe two) of the home for toys . Those areas should be the play room, the kids room or one area of the apartment that is quartered off and situated with a toy chest, storage bin or some place where you can quickly toss all the toys hanging out all over the house.

The tough part may be to stick to this one simple rule.

When the kids are not playing with a toy, there is really no need for it to be taking up space on the kitchen table or creating a tripping hazard for you or a guest. Either you, your partner or trained kids if they are old enough should make a concerted effort to gather all errant toys and keep them in the designated area.

It seems pretty intuitive, huh?

Over time, it will become a habit or second nature and you will find toys are not strewn about as much anymore. I do this with other areas of my home and life. All papers, books, newspapers, invoices, magazines are usually put away in our home office. All clothes go in a hamper, closet or bedroom. Dishes, cups and silverware discovered anywhere in the house are picked up and taken in the kitchen.

Think of this mantra: “There is a place for Everything and Everything in its place.”

Maybe it is a concept easy for Type A, first-born, Virgos like me to grasp, but following at least that that one simple rule is GUARANTEED to ease the mind, at least slightly, and help you breathe easier and be less stressed out when you are at home.

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Pregnant Actress Emily Blunt goes on a $35,000 baby shopping spree

Posted on January 10, 2014

Mom-to-be British actress Emily Blunt spent a cool $35,000 in one day’s shopping spree stacking up for items for her baby daughter’s arrival. TMZ reports`that over the weekend The Devil Wears Prada star purchased from luxury baby store Petit Tresor a crib, changing table and other furniture that come the Hollywood Regency Club Collection. Afterwards, Daily Mail states she headed over to the top spot for celebs in tinsel town, Bel Bambini. There she purchased a bunch of must-have necessities like nursing pillows, and more.

Wowza! If you got its, splurge on the best for your little princess.

Blunt, and her husband John Krasinski are expecting their first child together. They announced the news this past September.

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Viral Nation: 3 emotional Viral stories you should know

Posted on January 9, 2014

Each week, certain local stories and videos catch national attention and go viral. Here are three viral stories that caught our eye this week we wanted to share:

Daddy blogger at DaddyDoinWork.com, Doyin Richards, posted a blog post back in October that included a photo of him baby wearing his youngest daughter, born last July 13, while doing his 2 1/2 year old daughter’s hair. The post, “I Have a Dream: That People Will View a Picture Like This and Not Think It’s a Big Deal,” Richards wrote about being a doting dad and meeting the challenge to do something moms do all the time. He wanted people to see the photo and see it as norm. It got republished on The Good Men Project and eventually landed on the pages of Yahoo! Shine. Awesome!

In a matter of hours of the photo to the story being posted on The Good Men Project, the photo went viral, quickly amassing nearly 5,000 shares, 3,000 comments, and 190,000 likes.

Sadly, some of those commenting on the story had some not-so-nice things to say: “He probably rented those kids. They don’t even look like him,” and “I would bet anything that you’re a deadbeat.”

Richards, a college graduate, and totally present father was understanding of all the emotional reaction to the photo, telling Yahoo Shine:

“The media doesn’t portray fathers as caregivers,” she said. “We’re seen as bumbling fools trying to figure out parenthood, or macho men pushing their kids into the NFL. The other issue is that there’s a stereotype that black fathers are deadbeats.”

Sad and unfortunate. I have my own photo of my husband doing our daughter’s hair. It should be a movement that we all share that photo to combat the negative deadbeats out there.

But perhaps, it’s better to focus on the thousands more that left positive comments and not bring shine to the miserable negative few.

Shine on, papa!

This hilarious Old Spice commercial is very relatable for moms to boys like myself. I spotted it on a friend’s Facebook Wall and I’ve gone back to it again and again, cracking up each time. It was only uploaded on January 3 and has gotten over 3 million views already! Hilarious!

(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1”; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));

Post by Trent Shelton.

Finally, a mom shared a video of her daughter who suffers from Alopecia on the website of a motivational speaker Trent Shelton whose outreach video the little girl was watching when she learned a lesson about beauty. It got over 160,000 shares. It’s a tearjerker. Grab your tissues and watch it until the end.

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Celeb Moms Rock People’s Choice Awards Red Carpet (PHOTOS)

Posted on January 9, 2014

Last night, at the People’s Choice Awards held January 8, LIVE at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, Califrornia, many of our Bellyitch Bumpwatch moms of the past graced the red carpet looking amazing.

Here are those we spotted:

Jennifer Hudson stole the night with her moving speech accepting the Humanitarian award for a charity she founded after her mother, brother and nephew were gunned down in Chicago. Before that moment, she wowed in a white fitted Kaufmanfranco dress from the Spring 2014 line and some cute sandals with perfected understated matted lips. It matched well with her new pixie cut and bronzed eye shadow. Perfect!

Britney Spears was a big winner last night, walking away with a Favorite Female Performer, Favorite Pop Singer and Fan Music Favorite awards. She looked sizzling hot in a nude with black embroidered accent Mikael D dress from the designers’ Fall 2013 line

Malin Akerman was showing off the girls in a Cushnie Et Ochs Spring 2014 dress with an interesting window peephole front in the bodice. Not feeling it much. But the mary janes on her feet are rocking.

Heidi Klum did it again in another over-the-top look this time by Giorgio Armani from his Fall 2013 collection. She went with Christian Louboutin heels and Lorraine Schwartz jewels. No comment.

Anna Faris looked absolutely stunning in a fitted sheer nude floor-length Naeem Khan top and skirt set. She walked the carpet with hubby Chris Pratt.

Jessica Alba did Winter White as well in a fitted Jason Wu bandage dress with gold accents and white Casadei pumps with Jennifer Meyer jewels. She definitely was on the best dressed list this round.

Sarah Michelle Gellar donned a Sachin + Babi dress which looked elegant though looked a bit too matronly for the youngish actress. Similarly the Jimmy Choo heels were safe and a bit underwelming. She accented the black and white ensemble with Neil Lane jewels.

Sandra Bullock looked amazing in a Peter Pilotto Resort 2014 embroidered overlay dress. The parted hair was a winner and her neutral makeup flawless. Gawgeous, Sandy!

Emily Deschanel in a BCBGMAXAZRIA dress accented by Miss Delicious shoes, House of Lavande earrings, Swarovski ring and an Edie Parke clutch. Cute. Can we have the shoes?

Melissa Joan Hart’s hair, make up looked gorgeous. The Swarvoski earrings were on point, matched with an Oroton clutch. She’s catching flak today for her strapless asymmetrical El Lay dress which isn’t really bad at all. It’s colorful and stands out, works with her shape and has people talking. Last fall, she released a book “Melissa Explains it All” which detailed heavy drug use and random hook-ups with celeb co-stars. Oh my! These Disney stars boy!

Mom to be Drew Barrymore won a Spring 2014 Vionnet dress which lacked shape and had her lookgin boxy. Barrymore joked on stage, while giving out the award for Favorite Comedic movie, about Ellen DeGeneres calling her fat as a joke. Barrymore is expecting her second child with hubby Will Kopelman.

Check out the video of the moment below:

photos: Zimbio, Starcast, Getty

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Texas’ fetus protection law requires brain dead pregnant woman stay on life support

Posted on January 9, 2014

A brain-dead Texas pregnant woman will not be removed from life support against her family’s wishes because of a state law.

After suffering a pulmonary aneurysm last November that ultimately left her brain dead, Marlise Munoz would have been permitted to die naturally per her wishes in an advanced directive. Munoz was and her husband Erick is a paramedic and are therefore well informed about last wishes.

But the Texas Advance Directives Act states, “a person may not withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatment under this subchapter from a pregnant patient.”

Marlise was only 19 weeks pregnant at the time and if the arguments for keeping her alive for the delivery of her baby is a hard one considering that the baby would not have been viable at 19 weeks any way. Right to life proponents may want to keep her on life support until 24 weeks when the baby would potentially be more viable outside the womb.

But there is no guarantee. Over the past 30 years, there have been 19 cases of pregnant women kept alive for the sake of the babies they were carrying, but only 2 babies survived.

“It’s our decision that we didn’t want to live in that condition,” Erick Munoz told The Washington Post in a telephone interview from his wife’s hospital room.

He added that a doctor pronounced his wife brain-dead but administrators at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas replied that she has not been officially declared brain dead and remains hospitalized with a serious condition.

“We are following the law of the state of Texas,” hospital spokeswoman J.R. Labbe said. “This is not a difficult decision for us. We are following the law.”

This case hearkens to the 2005 Terri Schiavo case where her family didn’t want her ventilator removed but Schiavo’s husband did and the very recent Jahi McMath case of a brain dead teen whose parents don’t want removed from life support though her parents were permitted to leave the hospital recently.

It’s quite the moral and ethical conundrum.

What are your thoughts?

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