Find out how Pampers puts the Sensitive in Swaddlers and WIN FREE DIAPERS

Pampers' l asked me if I'd mind taking a look at their new Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive diapers. Since Swaddlers only go up to size 2 (at which point P&G figures we've quit swaddling and our babies have started cruising (or moving, anyway), I passed along my free package to my friend and on-again, off-again, on-again co-worker Hayes, who is both a new mom and new-ish mommyblogger and asked her to put Baby Will to work.

Hayes writes:

"Let it be known that I love the regular Pampers Swaddlers. However, while the "sensitive" version is deemed to be even better than the regular, I honestly can't tell much of a difference.

What is definitely noticeable is the "wetness line" on the exterior of the diaper to cue moms that baby is wet. Now, being a mom and knowing my child's diaper routine backwards and forwards, this is not something I found very helpful for me. On the other hand, I'm sure my husband may find it incredibly useful."

Get your hands on a coupon for a free package of Pampers (any size). Just leave a comment before midnight on Wednesday, October 1 saying how many packages of newborn sized diapers you went through before your baby outgrew them.

Last chance to win!

Don't forget to enter to win a copy of the awesomely inspiring Rookie Moms Handbook! All it takes is a comment and your next baby shower gift is taken care of.

Book review and giveaway: The Rookie Mom's Handbook

Once upon a time, I was a rookie mom. Not one of the Rookie Moms, mind you, but a freshly c-sectioned woman with a squalling lump of baby to call my own. I filled those early winter days of maternity leave by breastfeeding to season after season of the Gilmore Girls and The O.C. on DVD, unaware of the other, more interesting, ways I could be spending time with a baby.

Not Heather Gibbs Flett and Whitney Moss. The two Berkeley friends were so committed to leaving the house every day that they started a spreadsheet tracking all the fun stuff they could do with their new babies. That spreadsheet turned into a blog, and that blog's just been expanded into a highly-giftable book, The Rookie Mom's Handbook: 250 Activities to do with (and without!) your baby.

The entries range from basic (#2 get to know your gear) to moderately ambitious (#60 design your own baby clothes), but my favorite suggestions include step-by-step instructions for basic functioning that seem incredibly obvious now but highly intimidating at the time. Stuff like how to take a hot shower when no one's there to hold your child. (Answer: Strap baby into a bouncy seat or shower at the gym while junior's in child care.)

My top five favorite activities from the book are...
#43 go on a little date with your mate while baby's small enough to nap in her car seat (seriously, I tell this to every new mom)
#114 use the Internet for errands (I don't even set foot in shoe stores anymore)
#148 meet friends for brunch at a restaurant (it really is the best meal to eat out with kids)
#165 make a cheap-o rattle (done it!)
#179 save old sunglasses and dead cell phones to distract baby from the real thing (I've even bought uncut keys from Ace Hardware and put them on a keychain)

Rookie Mom Whitney was kind enough to send me an extra copy of The Rookie Moms Handbook to give away. Want to win it? Leave a comment before May 6th. If you don't have a blog where I can find you, you might want to also send me an email with your contact information.

Diaper Bag Giveaway Winners!

Congratulations to Launa, Lisa, Andrea and Noreen. Your Lands' End Diaper Bag Totes will be in the mail as soon as I get your addresses.


And here, as promised, is a shot of Baby A in her free Lands' End Baby outfit. The dress, long-sleeve shirt with Peter Pan collar and ruffled bottom tights are Lands' End, and while they also send an adorable pair of suede Mary Janes, the shoes don't fit yet so she's wearing her Vincents.

Lands' End Diaper Bag Giveaway: The Last Day

Today's your last opportunity to enter for a chance to win one of four Lands' End Diaper Bag Totes. Send an email to almaklein (at) yahoo.com and let me know if you'd prefer a navy bag with green frogs or a pink floral bag. Because heaven knows your diaper bag needs to herald your child's gender! You'll get an extra entry for mentioning my giveaway on your blog or emailing your friends about it (just cc me so I know).

I will randomly select winners and announce them tomorrow. Good luck!

Lands' End Diaper Bag Giveaway!

Maybe Santa and the Hanukkah Fairy didn't come through for you, but Marketing Mommy will! Lands' End has generously provided me with four, count 'em four, diaper bags to give away to my readers.

My very first diaper bag was a wide-mouth workhorse from Lands' End, a bag that still travels back and forth to day care three times a week. It's too ugly for me to be caught dead carrying, but Lands' End has made some progress on that front. The bags I've got for giveaway are these Pattern Diaper Bag Totes, but instead of a nautical look, I've got two girly floral totes and two boyish navy bags with little green frogs on them. They're decidedly not hipster cool, but they won't get you laughed out of Mommy and Me class like a Winnie the Pooh or free formula bag. They're just classically square. The mock turtleneck of diaper bags.

They're modeled after Lands' End's popular tote bags, but they've been pimped out with countless pockets and a changing pad. And let me tell you something about the Lands' End changing pads. They're awesome. They're big and long and they have hidden waterproof zipper pockets where you can stash a couple of diapers and some wipes. Just this week I put a diaper and some wipes inside the changing pad and headed off to the airplane restroom without the bulk of our snack and toy-filled diaper bag. And unlike the flimsy pad inside my old Skip Hop diaper bag and the sweaty plastic pad that came with my Pottery Barn diaper bag, this changing pad folds up easily every time.

To enter to win a Lands' End Diaper Bag, send an email to almaklein@yahoo. com with your name and style preference and "Diaper Bag Giveaway" in the subject line.

Get an extra entry for mentioning the giveaway on your blog (include the link in your email) or emailing 5 friends about it (cc me). Contest ends Tuesday, January 8, after which I'll post the names of the winners as well as a photo of Baby A modeling her new Lands' End Baby outfit.

I'm a lucky, lucky girl

Until about a week ago, I could honestly tell you that I'm never won anything from a sweepstakes, contest or giveaway.

Oh my, how my luck has changed! I won this adorable ModMum sling from MomViews, a Diapees and Wipees Diaper Wallet from MumsTheWurd and this cool Blik wall decal set (my third!) from GoodyBlog.

So it's official. Mommyblogs are the place to be for free stuff. Get your hands on some goodies here:

Product review: Vincent Shoes

What, somebody besides Robeez makes baby shoes? Are they any good?

Thanks to the kind folks at Parent Bloggers Network, I got to find out for myself. I mean, for Baby A.

Now, let me preface this by saying that there really isn't any compelling reason to put shoes on a 3-month-old. She's not walking. She's not crawling. She's mostly wiggling on her back like an overturned stinkbug. But winter's a-coming and I'm all in favor of keeping her tiny socks on and her sweet tootsies warm with a pair of buttery soft leather slippers.

So I gave Vincent Shoes a try. A Swedish company, they've got a huge variety of Euro-stylish shoes for little ones--a lot more to choose from than Robeez, which are pretty standard pull-on kicks with themed decorations. I chose the formal black leather Mini Angela and the charming pink Mini Betty mary janes for my little girl. They recommend Prewalker Size 1 for two to five month olds and Prewalker Size 2 for four to eight month olds. Since Baby A's on the big side, I ordered the Angela in a 1 and the Betty in a 2. Turned out the 1 fit perfectly and the 2 is enormous. It fell right off.

Which is too bad, because I much prefer the soft, adorable Mini Betty to the too-fancy Mini Angela, which is too fussy and way too stiff for my taste. The patent leather trim interferes with the leather's softness and the shoe has a lot less give than the Mini Betty or the broken-in Robeez I'm using for comparison. Still, if I had an occasion appropriate for dressy baby shoes, I'd put her in them without hesitation.

I was a little disappointed to see that the shoes weren't actually made in Sweden. They're manufactured in China like everything else. But I feel like the quality is there. Vincent Shoes have the soft leather sole of a Robeez slipper, but unlike Robeez, they have a terry lining to help absorb moisture (baby feet seem to sweat a lot).

And since Vincent loves Mommybloggers and their readers, they're offering us an exclusive discount code and they're giving away two $50 gift certificates. First-time purchasers can enter code "OCT-20-OFF" for 20% anything in the shop through 11/11/07. To enter to win a $50 gift certificate, check out the Vincent Shoes website and leave a comment on the Vincent post at PBN with your favorite style and why (it does not need to be a prewalker).