Beyonce Gives Birth to Baby, Blue Ivy Carter
It’s one of the most awaited celebrity births of the past year, if not decade: Beyonce Knowles delivered her and Jay-Z’s baby, Blue Ivy Carter, on Saturday. Yet, by Monday, reports of their seemingly extravagant demands surfaced in gossip rags. But, how much accuracy can you trust to an anonymous source in Us Weekly?
Us, like other magazines of its sort, described the extreme security around Beyonce’s birth at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. One witness, again anonymous, called their approach “insane,” but can you blame the couple and their families? Considering the cost of celebrity photos, the paparazzi would have been swarming the hospital if some security measures hadn’t been put into place. Supposedly, Jay-Z paid $1.3 million to reserve a full floor of the building, but a hospital spokesperson stated that such reports are exaggerated; rather, they only had reserved a sixth floor suite.
Nevertheless, one parent sharing the space said about the security: “They just used the hospital like it was their own and nobody else mattered. […] They locked us into the NICU and would say, ‘You can’t come out to the hallway for the next 20 minutes.’ When I finally was able to go back out, I went to the waiting room and they’d ushered my family downstairs!”
Most babies get birth announcements, sent out to friends and family. Blue Ivy, on the other hand, gets a statement from Beyonce and Jay-Z’s publicist and a song. Called “Glory,” the track is already released and features samples of the baby’s first cries. The couple’s publicist also put out the following statement:
Hello Hello Baby Blue!
We are happy to announce the arrival of our beautiful daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, born on Saturday, January 7, 2012. Her birth was emotional and extremely peaceful, we are in heaven. She was delivered naturally at a healthy 7 lbs and it was the best experience of both of our lives. We are thankful to everyone for all your prayers, well wishes, love and support. Beyoncé & JAY Z
100 Most Popular Baby Names of 2011
Thousands, if not millions, of baby names are out there for parents, but which ones are picked more often than others? BabyCenter.com released their list of the 100 most popular baby names of 2011. Not much has changed for preferences over the past few years, as you might notice. Parents expecting boys often reach for the –aiden variations, while baby girl names more often sound like places (Brooklyn, Madison). If you haven’t had a chance to see the list yet, here are the 10 most popular names for boys and girls. For purposes of the poll, spelling variations were not differentiated; for instance, “Sophia” and “Sofia” are counted as one name. Read the full list on BabyCenter.com.
Girls’ Names
Sophia
Emma
Isabella
Olivia
Ava
Lily
Chloe
Madison
Emily
Abigail
Boys’ Names
Aiden
Jackson
Mason
Liam
Jacob
Jayden
Ethan
Noah
Lucas
Logan
Out of all these names, a few stand out. BabyCenter.com, in its poll, pointed out that “Mason” moved up a few places. For those that follow reality television, one of the Kardashian sisters named her baby “Mason Dash” over the past year; considering the socialite/reality television family’s influence, “Mason” likely increased in placement as a result. However, with no celebrity association, “Liam” moved up a few places, as well.
Aside from these changes pointed out by BabyCenter.com, -aiden names like Aiden, Jayden, Cayden, and Braydon hold strong.
For girls, “Sophia” may be the most popular name, but a few from the top 100 sound more unisex – or more like locations than names given to a daughter: Addison, Madison (Wisconsin?), Brooklyn (Bridge? Heights?), and Peyton were all in the top 30.
While these top 10 names are the most popular, parents should consider their child first before trends. Name trends come and go, but the name given to your baby lasts their entire lifetime, unless he or she decides to change it decades down the line.
Could Early Gender Detection Result in More Sex-Selective Abortions?
Two items regarding a baby’s sex hit the news over the past few weeks: Tests that determine a fetus’ sex at seven weeks, and preference by adult males in the United States for boy babies over girls. These coinciding news stories bring up one issue: Could sex-selective abortions become just as common in the United States as they are in India and China?
According to a recent Gallup poll, young American men between the ages of 18 and 29 prefer to have a boy baby over a girl by a 40- to 28-percent margin. At the same time, however, asking males exclusively about the sex of a future child is only one part of an argument for potential growing sex-selective abortions in the United States. Women’s perspectives need to be taken into account and will likely end up with different figures for the preference of a baby’s sex.
At the same time, such tests came to national attention recently. While only available through private companies in the United States at the moment, such tests can determine a fetus’ gender at seven weeks and are 95-percent accurate. Unlike standard home pregnancy tests, however, those for determining a baby’s gender use blood and are sent to a lab for testing.
But, why is finding out a child’s sex so early important? While some parents and potential parents clearly have preferences, these tests are ultimately helpful in determining the possibility of a child carrying sex-linked genetic diseases, such as hemophilia.
Such tests are available over the counter in some countries, with the exception of India and China. Additionally, these tests accurately reveal a child’s sex several weeks before an ultrasound or amniocentesis is performed.
Do you think that such tests for determining the gender of a child at seven weeks will result in a growing number of sex-selective abortions in the United States?
Strollers and Stroller Exercise Programs to Shed Pregnancy Pounds
It seems as soon as you’ve had a baby, everyone wonders when you’ll lose the baby weight. Seeing tabloids depicting celebrities that, within months of giving birth, have their old size-zero bodies back doesn’t help, either. If you are a mother who wants to start losing some of the baby weight reasonably and on your own time, you don’t need to hire a sitter. Instead, using a jogging stroller or joining a stroller exercise program allows you to bring your child along.
WDBJ.com reports on Stroller Strides, a stroller exercise program for mothers that meets at the Valley View Mall in Roanoke. Around for the past decade, Stroller Strides seems like an ordinary exercise class, but the mothers use their strollers for a 50 to 60-minute workout involving cardio and strength and core training. Stretching and ab exercises, without the stroller, close the class. Unlike an ordinary aerobics and cardio class, however, Stroller Strides uses exercises that specifically target muscles new mothers want to strengthen.
If you do not have time to join such a class in your area (or if one is not available), consider doing exercise on your own with a jogging stroller. Designed with a streamlined, three-wheel design, jogging strollers are built to handle uneven terrain, such as bike paths, trails, and running tracks, and allow new parents to bring their child along for a few hours of exercise. Because of the design of the stroller, the child will not be bounced around or be uncomfortable inside.
Other strollers, such as standard models and umbrella models and travel systems, are not built to handle running or varied surfaces. A four-wheel stroller, for example, may be too cumbersome for a parent to push and run with at the same time. An umbrella stroller, however, does not provide the child with enough support. A jogging stroller, on the other hand, is easy to maneuver on all types of surfaces and provides enough support and comfort for a child six months or older.