For many couples who need assistance conceiving, intrauterine insemination (IUI) is often one of the first steps. A much less invasive — and expensive — procedure than IVF, IUI is basically artificial insemination: Sperm is injected via a catheter directly into the uterus, reducing the distance it has to travel to the fallopian tubes and (hopefully!) increasing the likelihood that an egg will be fertilized. The problem though, is that IUI isn’t always successful, and that can be hard both financially and emotionally on those looking to become parents.
The good news? According to The Telegraph, researchers in the UK may have found a way to make IUI procedures just as successful as IVF, but without the higher price tag. And, as it turns out, they’ve also made it much more convenient — patients could theoretically get inseminated at home, at work, or even in the grocery store.
Yep, you read that right.
The product — called the “Evie” — is a discrete, one-time-use, slow-release pump, which releases sperm into the uterus over about a four-hour period, according to Epigee Women’s Health. And once it’s been put in place by a doctor, the patient is free to leave and go about her day, while Evie works its magic strapped to the inside of her thigh.
Women could conceive at their desks thanks to new fertility pump that 'might be as successful as IVF'https://t.co/hv40AXKD1z pic.twitter.com/TVVBZ5HXSc
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) November 1, 2016
The slow-release aspect of Evie is particularly what makes it so effective. By releasing sperm into the uterus slowly, Evie gives the sperm more time to reach the egg, increasing the likelihood that it’ll get fertilized by a strong sperm, while decreasing the likelihood that the egg will get bombarded by a rush of sperm and not get fertilized at all (a common problem with IUI). And unlike traditional IUI, where sperm is introduced into the uterus quickly, Evie is designed to more closely mimic natural conception, where the cervix releases sperm slowly over a period of time.
According to Reproductive Sciences, the company behind Evie, the product has shown pretty remarkable results in clinical trials, with up to a 30 percent success rate, and is, on average, about 2.5 times more effective than standard IUI procedures. Not everyone is a prime candidate, though: Evie is best suited for women under 35 years of age, and is considered a potential solution for couples with unexplained infertility, for cases where “male subfertility” is an issue, for women with grade 1-2 endometriosis, or for general donor insemination (as in the case of same-sex couples).
Although Evie isn’t yet available for clinical use, it definitely sounds promising, and could be a great option for anyone considering IUI who wants to increase their chances of it being successful. And while I can’t exactly say the idea of walking around with a catheter of sperm slowly being released into my uterus sounds particularly appealing, iI will say this: If it means getting pregnant without having to endure the difficulty of IVF, I think it’s pretty safe to assume that Evie will be a dream come true for many women longing to become mothers.
Every four years we get wrapped up in the madness that is the presidential election. It starts with the murmurings of who will run and once candidates have entered the race and chosen their platforms we are bombarded with nonstop coverage until after Election Day. This can be a very stressful time for many people and the root of these feelings can come from unanswered questions and a lack of research.
Voters tend to focus on knowing who they will vote for. Which is a great question to have the answer to. However, the heart of Democracy isn’t necessarily who you vote for, but the right to vote. The ability to vote comes with two responsibilities, being registered and knowing where your polling place is. If you are not registered to vote please click the link here to be redirected to www.usa.gov where you will be able to do so online. If you are already registered to vote, but need help finding your correct polling place in Pennsylvania, please click the link here to be redirected to Pennsylvania Voter Services website.
At __maternity Care Coalition, we tirelessly advocate for the people and communities we serve. We do everything we can throughout the year to work with policymakers on Local, State and Federal levels to ensure resources and programs are available to our clients. Election season is the time where Americans must do their part to help shape the leadership of our nation. While voting for the next President is one of the most important votes to cast, it’s also just as important to remember to cast your vote for officials at the State and Local levels who also shape policy that impacts lives on a daily basis.
There are many resources available to help voters get through election season. Below you will find a list of some of these resources.
Halloween is wonderful. It’s fun. It’s all about the kids (no it isn’t). We let them decide what they want to be, and then we don’t stress at all about how magnificent each costume is for our toddlers who would almost certainly prefer a store-bought piece of crap over the endless fittings and pins in the thigh that they’ve had to endure since the Fourth of July, all in the name of Pinterest exposure/exploitation.
But whatever.
We need to talk about the candy, y’all.
There’s too much of it. Gone are the days of the ’70s, you see. Gone are the days when kids like me came home from trick-or-treating with the bottom end of a pillowcase lined with full-sized Hershey bars and homemade popcorn balls that looked a lot like the gnarled elderly hand down the block that had dropped it in my pillowcase.
Everything is different now. There’s Halloween school parties. There’s local community Halloween parties. There’s Halloween parties to celebrate OTHER Halloween parties. There’s treat bags from the bus driver and the soccer coach. And God forbid you have a grandma who lives in another state. Fuhgeddaboudit. Those ladies send Halloween care packages that could sink a battleship. You open a cardboard box and out pours three tons of Dollar Store pumpkin confetti that you will never EVER vacuum up completely. And underneath all that: 250,000 pieces of candy corn and at least 1,000 tiny Snickers and Three Musketeers.
Halloween is now an 8 billion dollar business. I heard that on the radio the other day. EIGHT BILLION DOLLARS. And a lot of that money is going toward flooding your damn house with Sweet Tarts and Blow-Pops and you know it.
So what now?
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I let the kids attack their candy pile on Halloween night just like my mom let me do when I was their age. They plow through a bunch of crap and give themselves temporary diabetes for the night and it is what it is. They dream of flying snakes shooting out of their mouths, probably. They eat until they hallucinate. Fine. It’s part of the charm of the season.
But then, whereas I used to wake up on November 1st and walk downstairs to maybe a few Chunky Bars leftover from the haul that I obliterated at the kitchen table, nowadays everything is all wrong. I come downstairs the morning after Halloween, while my kids are still all wrapped up tight in their Starburst comas, and I can’t even believe my eyes.
They ate SO much candy last night. Yet, there’s still massive hoarder piles of it all over the place! Too much candy. It has to go. It HAS TO GO.
INTO THE TRASH.
NOW.
Why?
Three reasons.
First reason?
These are modern times. And modern __parents don’t hand their kids handfuls of tiny Twix bars to snack on anymore. Oh, some do, I suppose, but most of us don’t. So this nuclear-powered windfall of Child Crack needs to be gone before they start thinking it’s a part of their regular life. I keep a few extras for today and tomorrow. But the other 789 pounds of candy has to go.
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Next reason candy goes in the trash?
There are no charities or well-meaning organizations who want your truckload of Walmart lollipops and gummy ghosts. Why? Because people helping other people don’t give the ones they’re helping High Fructose Neon Blood Poison that makes them go insane and gain weight rapidly, that’s why. Trust me, I’ve checked. I had a period a few years ago when I felt guilty about just tossing candy in the wastebasket. But then I realized that there was nowhere else in the world that would take it. Which, when you think about it, totally justified my initial notion of binning most of the leftovers.
Which leads us to the last reason why I’m telling you that it is entirely socially acceptable to dump perfectly good candy down the proverbial drain, my parenting friend.
If you don’t, you’re gonna eat that sh*t.
You know you are. Because I know I am, too. And that’s no good. I will eat the bottom out of a big old salad bowl of Reese’s Cups and baby Kit-Kats like nobody’s business. I can’t help it. There it is. Sitting right over there in that big bowl. The kids’ Halloween candy. Enough to ruin my life. Enough to cancel out an entire year’s worth of reasonable exercise and improved diet in one 20-minute binge of total and complete reckless adult abandon.
I know this because it has happened to me.
Recently.
Last year, okay?! There are you happy now?
I said it.
I’m new to this self-control thing.
But I’m never going back to where I’ve been, to that … that DARKNESS that is a grown man in his 40s sitting on a scuzzy kitchen floor and tearing one wrapper after another off of 2,247 pieces of individually wrapped slivers/slices/and slabs of Human Pain and Regret just to shove them down my pie hole as if I was the last man on Earth seconds before the comet blew it all away.
To hell with that.
I was twitching for weeks. I gained 19 pounds in a half hour. I was a child again. It was wonderful.
Being a single parent isn’t easy, but Virginia dad-of-two Jason Garmon didn’t let that stop him from planning an over-the-top surprise for his daughter, Skylar, to show her just how special she is to him. After learning that Skylar would be going to a “daddy-daughter dance,” it occurred to Garmon that he owed his daughter more than just assuming he’d get the right to go with her, simply because he’s her dad.
So he set out to prove to Skylar just how much she means to him, and that he won’t ever take his role as her father for granted.
In his now-viral Facebook post — which was originally shared last year, but is making the Internet rounds once again — Garmon and his son Grayson can be seen leading a blindfolded Skylar to a special Pinterest-worthy, proposal-style outdoor setup he’d created to ask his daughter the dance in a special (and unforgettable) way. When Skylar’s blindfold is removed, she then sees her father standing there, flowers in hand, behind a hand-painted wooden sign that reads, “Will you go to the daddy-daughter dance with me?” In the final photo, an excited Skylar jumps into her dad’s arms for a big hug — and in the caption, Garmon wrote, “She said YES!”
If you’re wondering what inspired this dad to plan such a unique surprise for his daughter, Garmon explained in his post that it all came down to the realization that Skylar was “the most important female” in his life, and that she deserved the same kind of attention that he’d give to anyone he was dating.
He continued:
“You [should] ask out a lady like it’s the first time every time. Always keep her guessing, always try to win her. I don’t care if it’s your daughter, your girlfriend or your wife, the day you stop trying is the day you’ll lose her.”
The post, which has been shared over 500k times, has received a slew of comments from people gushing over Garmon’s love for his daughter, and praising him for the gentlemanly example they feel he is setting — particularly as Skylar gets older and starts dating herself.
One Facebook user wrote, “What a special moment for a special little girl. Treat her like a queen daddy and she will never settle for less,” while another shared, “[you’re] setting high standards for whoever she meets in life, and that is so wonderful [because] she deserves it.” Others noted that Garmon was also setting an example for his son, too, with one user writing, “this young man is getting a great example of how women should be treated and respected.”
There’s no doubt that the gesture was very sweet, and one that Skylar likely won’t ever forget. As many commenters pointed out, not all little girls have dads who are so involved in their everyday lives, and certainly there aren’t many dads out there who would even think about “proposing” to their little girls ahead of a daddy-daughter dance. What’s most important though, is that you can see how happy Garmon’s surprise made his daughter, and the way Skylar’s happiness is clearly a priority in his life.
At the same time, it’s hard not to wonder if perhaps it isn’t time that we looked at loving, dedicated fathers like Garmon as more than just blueprints for their daughters’ future romantic lives — because they are so much more than that. So often we talk about how “a little girl’s first love is her daddy,” or make jokes about how it’s cute and protective when dads try to intimidate their daughter’s romantic prospects, as though the main value a father has to a daughter is to set an extremely high bar when it comes to committed relationships. But even if this marriage proposal-esque surprise appears to be a lesson in chivalry and “treating a lady right,” it seems that the real value in it was that, as Garmon explained, it reminded him not to take his relationship with his daughter for granted.
No matter what Skylar does in life, she’ll ultimately be better off because someone she loved and trusted taught her that she deserves more than to be taken for granted. But that doesn’t just apply to the men she may or may not date when she’s a grown up — it’s a lesson she’ll carry with her and apply in all kinds of situations. And let’s not forget Garmon can teach this crucial lesson to his son, too. After all, his relationship with his son is just as valuable and worth preserving, and one that he is surely already teaching as he leads by example through the type of friend, son, and human he is every day. More than good manners, or paving the way for their future relationships, Garmon is teaching his kids how to have respect for others (and for themselves) by nurturing the relationships and people who are important in his life. And that might just be the most important thing all kids need to learn from their __parents — whether we do it with the help of a surprise proposal and a professional photographer, or just through the way we live our lives and treat each other.
“Mystery Dad Passes out Candy on Flight So His 3-Year-Old Can Trick-or-Treat on Halloween” originally appeared on ABC News and was reprinted with permission.
One dad wasn’t going to let a flight get in the way of bringing his daughter happiness on Halloween.
As the doting father boarded the flight, he passed out candy to his fellow passengers with a note asking them to help his daughter, who was dressed up as a donut, trick-or-treat aboard the plane.
“Happy Halloween!” the now viral note began. “My 3-year-old daughter, Molly, was bummed that she wouldn’t be able to go trick-or-treating this year due to this flight…so I decided to bring trick-or-treating to her. If you are willing, when my little donut comes down the aisle, please drop this in her basket. You’ll be making her Halloween! If you’re unwilling, no worries, just pass the treat back to me. Thanks so much!”
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Stephanie Kahan, one of the passengers on the San Francisco-bound flight from Boston, was happy to oblige. She tweeted two photos of the festive in-flight activity that went wildly viral with more than 30,000 retweets by the time the plane had landed.
“He was definitely a genuine guy, wasn’t doing it for the attention, just clearly loves his daughter and wanted her to be happy,” Kahan told ABC News of the mystery dad.
OMG, my heart is exploding right now. Dad of the year just passed out candy to everyone on the flight so his 3 year old could trick or treat pic.twitter.com/vfsAcYNrhr
— Stephanie Kahan (@stephaniekahan) November 1, 2016
“He was sitting behind me. When I noticed that my tweet had about 5,000 re-tweets I realized that this was something big,” she recalled. “I leaned back to let him know what I had done. Since I had taken a photo of his daughter I just wanted to be sure he didn’t want me to delete the tweet.”
The dad was fine with her sharing the photos but “he asked to remain anonymous and was just glad that his gesture made people happy,” said Kahan.
As for his kind Halloween gesture sweeping social media?
“He was in awe and thought it was really funny,” she said. “I told him he was a great dad and he seemed super humbled.”
Kahan also said little Molly was “super excited” about the special trick-or-treating experience and that “she’d been looking forward to it for a while.”
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Image Source: Koko’s Nest | The Posh Society | Freshly Picked
I don’t know if there’s anything cuter than baby moccasins. And the moccs at Freshly Picked are not only super cute, the high-quality leather lasts for years — even with little ones grown big enough to toddle all over the house.
Today, the brand announced the launch of Freshly Picked’s Marketplace, an online community featuring a collection of small businesses hand-picked and recommended by the founder and CO of Freshly Picked, Susan Petersen.
Petersen first tried her hand at sewing moccasins at her kitchen table, with her second child, Gus, as the official “mocc-tester.” Today, just seven years later, the company is internationally known and recommended as a place to find “must-have” products for new parents.
And now, Petersen wants to help out small baby product businesses that are starting out the same way she did.
“As new baby product innovators have emerged and try to gain exposure for their awesome products, I’ve thought, ‘I’ve been there before’,” said Petersen. “As I found myself wishing I had a megaphone to share each of their stories and products in a way that didn’t distract from our focus at Freshly Picked, my team and I came up with the idea for Marketplace.”
We love that Petersen wants to help small businesses just starting out by giving them a place to sell products under the already famous Freshly Picked name. Two moms (and HUGE fans of Freshly Picked moccs) love Petersen’s idea to give back, too.
“I met Susan when she was just starting Freshly Picked and she was always so supportive of other moms and what they were doing,” Lauren Jimeson tells Babble. “Despite the huge success of Freshly Picked, she still remains true to that. She believes that women should support one another, and I love that about her.”
Yes. We are all about women supporting women — and this Marketplace is perfect for that.
“I love the idea of a small business marketplace and how Susan is giving back to businesses that have started out much like hers,” Lauren Hartmann tells Babble. “I’ve loved following Susan and Freshly Picked’s journey to becoming the success that it is today. I was so excited watching her on Shark Tank — it felt like cheering on a good friend!”
So far there are six businesses featured in the Marketplace:
Koko’s Nest: sells contemporary knit baby blankets that have modern designs with heirloom quality.
The Posh Society: sells adorable leather baby bows in subdued pastel metallic designs.
Hazel Village: sells soft, plush woodland-themed stuffed animals — inspired by childhood stories like Brambley Hedge, Uncle Wiggly, and The Little House.
Bannor Toys: sells beautiful organic wooden toys, including ABC blocks, cars, and rattles.
RSVP: Four little letters that mean répondez s’il vous plaît, AKA: let me know if you’re coming to my thing. When we see RSVP on an invitation, we know that means get in touch with the hostess and let them know if we’re going to accept their invite. I mean … we all know that, right?
Sometimes I wonder.
As a “seasoned mom” and the organizer of too many parties to count, I know RSVP is out of fashion, although I don’t really get why that is. I try to stay on top of whose coming and who isn’t in the hopes that I have enough cupcakes and food. Inevitably, someone who hasn’t RSVP’d will show up. I’ve scrambled to throw together enough last-minute goodie bags with stuff I have on hand to know to plan for guests whose __parents suffer from the mysterious malady known as I-can’t-properly-use-modern-communication-itis.
Then there’s the other side of the coin — anxiously watching the minutes tick by before party time. That nagging voice inside my head that whispers, What if no one shows up?
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This has never happened to us. We’ve had low turnouts but never no turnout, yet every time we plan a party, I “what-if” this scenario to death. Would I be pissed because I shelled out time and money to plan fun, games, and massive sugar overload for a bunch of ungrateful no-shows? You bet, but the real thing I dread is one day consoling my crying child because no one came to his party.
When I read Kristen Layne’s account of her son Mahlon’s 9th birthday party, I felt like someone wearing steel-toe boots kicked me in the stomach. She was describing one of my worst parenting nightmares in vivid detail. Kristen is the blogger behind Life on Peanut Layne, mom of six, and contributor to the bestselling parenting humor anthologies I Just Want to Pee Alone and I Just Want to Be Alone. In her post titled “Parents Please Don’t Forget to RSVP,” she told the story of her sweet and gentle son who’d been looking forward to his first “real” birthday party for a year.
You see, this is Mahlon’s first year in public school. He’s been homeschooled and birthday celebrations had up until now been family-only. The admittedly un-Pinteresty Kristen helped her son plan a Diary of a Wimpy Kid-themed party, complete with custom invitations from Etsy, games, and all of the things that go along with a birthday party for a 9-year-old.
Image Source: Kristen Layne
Kristen wrote about how her son was up with the sun on party day hanging streamers, spiffing himself up, and posing for pictures of his party table that was set just so — and we instantly fell in love with him. There were pictures of a sweet-faced blonde boy visibly bursting with excitement because his friends were coming to his house. That’s a big deal when you’re 9.
Image Source: Kristen Layne
As I scrolled through pictures of balloons, streamers, and an untouched birthday cake, I started to cry. I’m no dummy and neither are you, and we all know where this is going.
Not one single guest showed up. Not. One. Single. Kid.
Image Source: Kristen Layne
Kristen and her family consoled Mahlon as best they could. They ate as much of the “enough pizza for a small army” as they could. They ate cake. They sang. They opened presents.
Image Source: Kristen Layne
They even organized an impromptu bowling trip. We see Mahlon posing with a bright orange bowling ball wearing a brave little smile and our heart breaks for him just a little more.
Image Source: Kristen Layne
“We showered him with love in a feeble attempt to salvage the disastrous day. We came home tired and exhausted. Once the kids were safely asleep, my husband and I fell apart. There’s only been a few times I’ve seen my tough manly husband tear up and last night was one of them.”
Image Source: Kristen Layne
Remarkably, Kristen and Mahlon weren’t bitter. Kristen gave the other __parents what I can only call a miraculous amount of grace, naming possible scenarios that would have prevented children from attending the party. At the start of the next school day, Mahlon’s main concern was making sure his friends got their treat bags.
“He’s a good kid and we definitely did something right with this one,” says Kristen who goes on to beg parents to take the time to RSVP to birthday parties. “This birthday will be forever etched in his memory bank as that one year when no one came to his party … it could have all been avoided by a simple RSVP.”
There’s a silver lining, though. Kristen’s post went viral and the Internet rallied. Mahlon received birthday cards from people around the world — strangers who read his story and were moved by it; strangers who shared stories of “this happened to me, too” that were incredibly validating to this sweet family.
And even cooler? Author Jeff Kinney who wrote the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series got wind of what happened and offered Mahlon a personal tour of his office and studio via Facetime. Kinney also sent an extra-special birthday gift, but if you want to know what it is, you’ll have to follow Life on Peanut Layne on Facebook because they’re keeping it under wraps right now because “it’s unbelievably awesome.”
Image Source: Kristen Layne
Mahlon’s 9th birthday will remain memorable for more than one reason, but silver lining or not, this didn’t have to happen.
“The response has been overwhelmingly positive,” Kristen Layne told Babble. “We’ve received a few gifts which we’ll probably allow Mahlon to donate to a children’s hospital or other charity when things settle down. Gifts are nice but the cards and birthday wishes mean just as much. Mahlon was most excited about having his friends over to our house, to play games with them and show them his room. It was never about the gifts.”
Image Source: Kristen Layne
The takeaway for parents is simple: freaking RSVP. Like many parents, I’ve accepted that RSVPs have gone by the wayside but I shouldn’t have to and neither should you. When your kid gets an invitation, take five minutes, read it, and determine whether your child will attend. Make a call. Text or email. Your phone is never far from your hand, I know it’s not. This isn’t hard but the ripple effects sure are. You don’t want this to be your kid. You don’t want this to be anyone’s kid. That party invitation you find in your kid’s backpack? There’s a kid behind that piece of paper and that kid has feelings.
If you want to take a minute and reach out to this family, you can do so via:
Kristen P. Layne PO BOX 8141 Bend, OR 97708
I have no doubts that a message of encouragement would mean the world. But I think your resolve to do your part to make sure this doesn’t happen to another child would mean more.
