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Know the Facts of RSV #RSVAwareness

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I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting (#MC) for MedImmune. I received a promotional item as a thank you for participating.

With World Prematurity Day coming up on the 17th of November and winter right around the corner it’s time to talk about RSV and learn the facts, find out the risk RSV has on preemies, learn the symptoms and find out how you can protect your child from RSV.

First off, if you are not familiar with RSV, it is Respiratory Syncytial Virus, a common season virus that is contracted by nearly all children by the age of 2.  RSV causes typical mild to moderate cold-like symptoms in healthy, full-term babies.  Libby had it as a child and required breathing treatments for about a week and has been fine since.

When our little Ellie was born a month premature and labeled a preemie, in the middle of December, RSV came to mind because preterm infants are born with undeveloped lungs and immature immune systems that put them more at risk to contract RSV and require hospitalization.  

RSV infection is more likely to root in premature lungs where developing airways are are narrowed and very fragile and preterm babies also carry fewer virus-fighting antibodies.

Here’s what you need to know about RSV

Key RSV Facts:

  • RSV occurs in epidemics each year, typically from November through March, though it can vary by geography and year-to-year
  • RSV disease is the leading cause of hospitalization for babies during their first year of life in the United States, with approximately 125,000 hospitalizations and up to 400 infant deaths each year
  • RSV disease is responsible for one of every 13 pediatrician visits and one of every 38 trips to the ER in children under the age of five
  • Despite being so common, many parents aren’t aware of RSV; in fact, one-third of mothers have never heard of the virus

Learn the Symptoms of Severe RSV Disease:

Contact your child’s pediatrician immediately if your child exhibits one or more of the following:

  • Persistent coughing or wheezing
  • Bluish color around the mouth or fingernails
  • Rapid, difficult, or gasping breaths
  • Fever [especially if it is over 100.4°F (rectal) in infants under 3 months of age]

 How Can I Help Protect My Baby From RSV?

RSV is very contagious and can be spread easily through touching, sneezing and coughing. Additionally, the virus can live on the skin and surfaces for hours. There is no treatment for RSV disease once it’s contracted, so prevention is critical. To help minimize the spread of RSV disease, all parents should:

  • Wash their hands and ask others to do the same
  • Keep toys, clothes, blanket and sheets clean
  • Avoid crowds and other young children during RSV season
  • Never let anyone smoke around your baby
  • Steer clear of people who are sick or who have recently been sick

Since Ellie was a preemie and born in the middle of winter and just a week before Christmas, it was decided that Ellie would not be traveling and visiting our rather large family for the holidays and instead Alex and I would stay home and enjoy our time with her.

You can learn more about RSV from the infographic belowor visit the RSV Protection website.

[gview file=”http://themegalomaniacmommy.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/RSV-Infographic.pdf” height=”1500px” width=”640px”]

 

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Take five with online gaming

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*This is a guest post*

 

Gaming

 

Image by  Tom & Katrien

Whatever kind of daily routine you have, it’s always good to have different ways to take time out during the day. If you’re at home with the kids all day, this can be difficult to achieve, but having a few minutes to yourself doing something self-indulgent can be a real pick-me-up and allow you to carry on for the rest of the day being a great mom. If you don’t take a break now and then, the tendency is to become less patient with the kids as the day progresses.

Imagine how dull life used to be for moms of past generations. For a start, they didn’t have all the amazing gadgets we have that make household tasks so much easier, and they didn’t have the internet that they could get onto at any time of the day or night when they felt like finding something to entertain them.

Although if you have young kids at home, the times when you can sit undisturbed in front of the screen may be few and far between – when they’re napping or when bedtime has come, you don’t have to spend long online to get a little break now and then. Online gaming has revolutionised the way we can unwind without the need to leave home. Whatever kind of games you enjoy playing you can find them online. If you like to increase your word power, then start playing games like Scrabble or Word Feud. These require a bit of mental effort, but if you’re up to your eyes in dealing with toddlers all day, then this kind of diversion can be welcome. The great thing about games like Scrabble is that though the games can go on for weeks, you only ever need to spend five minutes at a time playing at it; when you’ve had your turn you can forget about the game until the opposing player has played their turn.

Then, of course, there are the casino games that you’ll find to play both in fun mode and for real money on a huge number of different sites. Click to play casino games here http://www.32red.com/ and you’ll find over 500 different games, including 300 different slots. Slots are a great choice when you just want to zone out and let the games wash over you. You don’t need to do anything apart from choose which game to play and how much to bet on each spin. Even when you’re playing in demo mode, you can still get a thrill if you land a winning combination of symbols!

If you’ve never played casino games, there’s no need to learn anything before you play. You can try out games using a no-deposit bonus on most sites – that’s where you sign up as a player but don’t put any of your own money down. A no-deposit bonus is a small amount of casino credit new players to a site can use in a limited time period, so that they can really get a feel of what the games are like before they decide to put their own money in.

Of course, there are plenty of other ways to take five during the day, but for easy entertainment and a bit of fun, online games are hard to beat.

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Holiday Cards from Minted

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*This post is made possible by Minted.  I received a promotional item in order to facilitate this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This post may contain affiliate links.*

As you have learned over the life of this blog, I love to send cards out to friends and family, especially cards that show off my adorable kids.  Minted recently launched their 2013 holiday card collection and they have some great designs to choose from.

I like to send out two cards each year (when time allows for it).  I send one card to our family and another to friends.  Since I like to send different messages to friends, I tend to go for a card that offers space for me to write a quick note, whereas cards that go to family are your standard holiday card with pictures of the kids.

I love the look of these folded holiday cards from Minted.

I love that each of these cards still gives me the chance to share pictures of the kids with our friends and I have plenty of room on the inside to pen a heartfelt message.

I’m also kind of swooning over these adorable holiday minibook cards.  

I love that these can be personalized, right down to the matching envelope and I can write little updates about the kids inside as well as news about our family.

Really, I am torn as to what to do..there are just so many options.

What do you think? Which card should I create to send to our friends that we don’t see or talk to all the time?

I need to make a decision quick because Minted is currently offering $25 OFF + Free Shipping on ALL holiday cards (USE CODE:  JOY25FS) through Monday, November 11th.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think I should do!

#cbias

Walmart Family Mobile Unlimited Plans Help You Save for the Holidays

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Last month, I picked up a Concord Smartphone from Walmart and signed up for service with Walmart Family Mobile powered by T-Mobile to test out their unlimited plans and see if their service would work for our family.  Since our current mobile bill is our biggest bill, next to the mortgage payment, we were motivated to try a new provider so we can cut our costs and start saving some money in addition to finding a plan that will give us the coverage we need for the traveling we do during the holiday season.

My initial investment in the Walmart Family Mobile service was $49.88 for the phone (thank you Walmart for the Rollback on phone prices) and $25 for the activation kit, $3.97 shipping, plus taxes for a grand total of $83.19.

What did that $83.19 get me?

My phone and my first 30 days of service on the Walmart Family Mobile plan.  

Little did I know that I was going to learn to love not just my service with this plan, but the savings too!

This is my bill that I received today when I logged into my online account management and information center.

Seriously, can you believe that??? $22.76!!

Talk about a cheap wireless plan!

The great thing is, our contract is coming up with our current mobile provider and we are seriously considering making the switch when that time comes!

I’m happy to make the move since I can get a sweet Samsung Galaxy S4 with this plan as well.

I am already imagining the holiday savings we could build from the monthly savings we would have once we switch plans, we could actually take a little family vacation too!

Walmart Family mobile definitely offers the lowest price rate plan out there, and I’ve done my homework and shopped around.

I love that the Walmart Family Mobile service is powered by T-Mobile because I am able to get reception in areas I cannot with my current provider.  Having coverage further North of Green Bay is a great thing with our family since we spend a lot of time up that way over the holidays visiting extended family.  It is great to know that we won’t be experiencing dropped calls, others will be able to text and call us and if there is an emergency, we will be able to make a phone call when we need too!

For now, we will definitely be continuing our service with Walmart Family Mobile using our Concord phone.  For the price of this plan, it is definitely worth the investment to keep the service so we have a phone that actually works when we are away from home over the holidays.

If we do make the switch to Walmart Family Mobile, the Concord phone would actually be a great gift to give our little Alexander.  Although he is only 5 (almost 6) I would love for him to have a phone in an emergency so he could call me if he needed too.  I love that smartphones are so smart that you can install apps and change settings to make them totally little kid friendly. Alexander is obsessed with calenders since he started school so I set up the calender on the Concord to display the days that are special to him.

 

He loves it when he sees the phone light up with a calender alert and he loves it even more when he sees his name on that alert!

If you have a teenager who doesn’t have a mobile phone yet and you’ve been thinking about getting them one, this is definitely the way to go.  No need to worry about them going over their minutes when gabbing with friends, using too many texts or surfing the net and eating up your all of your available data.  Give them a Concord Smartphone with Walmart Family Mobile for the holidays!  The great thing is, the price is so low that when they transition and take the service over, the bill is extremely affordable.

Remember, for lest than $40 a month, you can get UNLIMITED Talk, Text and Web with Walmart Family Mobile and I’m confident you will get the best wireless service that you can receive and NO CONTRACT!

Knowing that this service will save us at least $160 each month makes Walmart Family Mobile look even better everyday!

 

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