Well I think I am ready to share a little bit of what is going on behind the scenes here at Beyond The Baby.

Over the last 6 months I have been at a bit of a cross roads on the direction Beyond The Baby is taking. I love this site, however I wanted more from it but just could not put my finger on what that was. After many many talks with my people (husband, friends and my dog …. she is a great listener!) I decided what I wanted and have started putting it all into action.

While I can’t share a lot with you right now I will share a few details and will share more once it is all official.

Beyond The Baby is closing …. but not really. I am revamping everything and creating a whole new website that will complete all areas of your life, not just parenting. We are creating an entire lifestyle website, a one stop place for women to find information and support. The areas we will cover will be – Weddings, Family, Craft, Home, Health and Beauty, Cooking etc. It will be a huge site, one you could get lost in for days.

However it will be really user friendly and still have a wonderful community feel about it. Each section will be separate but still combined with the rest of the site.

We will still be doing the same things, however it will be across all areas of life, not just parenting. So this means Beyond The Baby will be no more but we are moving upwards and onwards!

It is going to be fabulous!

So now rather then needing 7 different sites you will only need one ….

The name of our site will be called Lovely Living – www.lovelyliving.com.au (coming soon).Lovely Living is going to be a fabulous site complete with a forum, facebook group and much much more! I am so excited about where it is all going

We expect to launch in 12 weeks ( I am hoping sooner, but I know how hard it is working with web design people! LOL) ! So stay tuned and we will keep you updated on everything that is happening!

Jen xx

With so many MCN’s (Modern Cloth Nappies) on the market we have decided to make it easier for you when selecting a brand (or many)! We have decided to do a big nappy review where we will review all the brands and give you honest and unbiased feedback.

Here’s How It Will Work

We are gathering up as many nappy brands as we can and we will independently test them against our criteria -

* Fit and comfort
* Wear, washability and durability
* Style and design
* Ease of use
* Absorption
* Slimness
* Value for money

Our tester is a toddler who will put each nappy to the test for 4 wears plus 2 night wears, a total of 6 wears for each nappy. We will also wash the nappy multiple times to see how it holds up!

All nappies are supplied to us by the companies and the review is completed for free so will be 100% honest and unbiased.

We will also create a printable guide for you to print out and keep!

We will not compare the nappies to each other, we will score the nappies on the criteria we have set out and will crown our overall favourite. We will also open voting for a member favourite!

Stay tuned for more info and the final list of brands in the next couple of weeks!

Jen xx

I haven’t announced this on the blog yet, however I am super excited to tell you all we are expecting baby number two! So far I am almost 13 weeks along.

I would love to share my pregnancy journey with you all and will be doing regular updates about my progress. As most of you know I had a medically required c-section with Cooper and this time I am going for a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean). I have found a fabulous OB who is very supportive of my choice and  I have been doing a lot of research, reading and watching many documentaries about VBAC and natural birth. I can’t wait to share it with you!

Along with all of the birth planning I will also be sharing my baby shopping with you! I have already been a little naughty and bought a few things!

How lovely is this nappy bag! I couldn’t resist!

Also I took advantage of the Babies Galore New Year sale and grabbed some bargains! I decided this time around I want to use a sling or baby carrier more in the very early days to help with bonding etc. So when I saw the organic Hug-A-Bub on sale for only $80 I had to get it! I have also bought a few PureBaby Organic Cotton outfits in neutral colours (whites and grays). But I am now waiting to find out what the sex of the baby is at our 18 week scan before we go overboard buying things!

I can’t wait to share this journey with you so stay tuned for many more pregnancy and baby posts!
Jen xx

We took a short break from Beyond The Baby over the Christmas and New Year period and are now getting back into the swing of things! I hope you all have a fabulous holiday season.

Ours was not so cheerful, we all ended up with a virus and I ended up in hospital on Christmas and Boxing day which wasn’t much fun but there is a positive and I will share that with you all soon!

Beyond The Baby will be doing some amazing things this year, we are really excited about the direction we are heading and we can’t wait to share it all with you over the coming weeks.

Our Facebook page has now reached over 2000 fans which is amazing! Thank you to everyone who has supported us and shared our page with your friends.

Super Organiser Mum is still blogging away! She has loads of fabulous organising tips, recipes and craft ideas! Also follow her Project Life journey!

We will be updating the blog a lot over the next few days with some exciting news and also a few personal posts!

Jen xx

I believe it is important to raise children with a healthy junk food free diet. We practice this in our own home and I think it’s important to encourage others to do the same.

At Beyond The Baby we have decided to make a commitment to you. We will never promote or advertise any ‘junk food’ company or product on our site. We will only display healthy recipes with minimal fat and sugar content and will will continue to provide you with education and a wonderful resource to help you make healthy choices for your family.

We will give you recipes you can make yourself with no preservatives, low sugar and fat. We will help you with ideas for healthy snacks, lunches and dinners.

Your childs eating habits in the first 5 years of life are the blueprint for the rest of their lives and we will help you build a solid healthy foundation for a wonderful happy life.

Jen and the team at Beyond The Baby

After a 2.5 week holiday I am finally back on board! We just spent a beautiful 2.5 weeks in the USA in both New York and San Francisco. We had a wonderful time, met some amazing people and visited some beautiful places.

My husband and I call New York our second home. We travel to New York once a year for the past 5 years and never get tired of it. Each time we go back it feels more and more like home. If it wasn’t so far away and we didn’t have Cooper we would move there in a heartbeat! We love walking the streets and know our way around really well so each time we visit we never have a hard adjustment time. Walk out of the hotel and hit the streets!

We spent a week in San Francisco meeting up with some friends. It’s such a lovely city. We spent 2 days at the amazing Yosemite National Park. It was so beautiful and we will definitely be back again!

So all the fun and holiday aside I have come back refreshed and really looking forward to the future on Beyond The Baby. I met some amazing people in New York who have given me so much inspiration to keep moving forward.

Stay tuned for some amazing things to come in the future!
Jen xx

Here is a sneak peak at some of our competitions this month!

A gift pack from www.cherubbaby.com.au worth over $180.

A gift pack from www.haggusandstookles.com.au worth over $40

We will also have regular Facebook giveaways over the month so make sure you keep an eye on our page! www.facebook.com/beyondthebaby

Don’t forget our forum competition ends at the end of this week! All you have to do is be a member of our forum and we will be selecting random regular posters who will win an Aromababy travel pack thanks to www.aromababy.com

We hope you love all the prizes we have lined up for you all and thank you to our wonderful sponsors!

Jen xx

Baby feeding is always a controversial topic – breast or bottle, when to start solids etc. We have decided to stop all of the silliness! We all know breast is best but we are realists and we understand breast is not always possible for a multitude of reasons. So we have put together some fabulous articles to help you in all areas of baby feeding, no matter what you choose!

We have kicked off our feeding month with some fabulous articles!

Frequently Asked Formula Feeding Questions -We have gathered the most popular questions about formula feeding and answered them for you!

Health and Nutrition While Breastfeeding – What should you eat and what should you stay away from during breastfeeding?

We will also have some awesome giveaways that will be announced over the month!  Including a breast pump package and other baby feeding supplies!

We hope you enjoy our baby feeding month and we would love your feedback! New articles will be up every 3 days so make sure you keep an eye out!
Jen xx

So much is happening here at Beyond The Baby I thought I better fill you all in!

As you already know we have launched our directory! We have some fabulous businesses already! So please check them out and if you have bought from them please review them! http://directory.beyondthebaby.com.au

Our forum has also re-launched last week! We have a fabulous new moderation team who are doing a wonderful job! The forum is buzzing with excitement, questions and loads of chit chat! All the girls are having a blast!

We have a competition on our forum right now! Thanks to www.aromababy.com we have 5 travel packs to giveaway! All you have to do is join our forum and post! We will select winners at random over the next 2 weeks! So happy posting! http://www.beyondthebaby.com.au/forum

I have decided to do a Vlog once a week starting on Friday. For those of you that don’t know a Vlog is a video blog. I will record a short video each week letting you know what’s happening around Beyond The Baby and any other news, tips or ideas I have to share with you. We will have our own Youtube channel so you can subscribe to us! So that is super exciting!

Next month is our baby feeding month! We have loads and loads of information for you including a few giveaways! We also have real Mum feeding stories to share with you! It’s going to be so much fun! We have put together guides to help you in all areas of baby feeding such as – Selecting the right breast pump, a guide to baby bottles, a guide to baby formula and so much more!! It is going to be a huge month and packed full of information!

We have announced that September’s feature theme will be about “The Birds and The Bees and How To Conceive!”. Everything you need to know about conception! How to calculate ovulation, all different fertility treatments, we will tell you all the tried and true conception information as well as old wives tales! We will try anything once wont we?

So the next month is going to be jam packed! I am also off on a holiday for 2 weeks so I am going to be kept very busy adjusting to a new time zone and keeping the site running!

Have a great week, see you Friday for our first Vlog!

Jen xx

We are really committed to providing unbiased unique information for all of our members. Next month is baby feeding month and we have been working hard to write new articles on all areas of baby feeding – breastfeeding, formula feeding and solids.

We believe everyone has a right to access information on all options and we are going to provide it! Every women has a right to choose how they feed their baby and while breast is best it is also not always possible.

When I had my son I wanted more than anything to breastfeed him for atleast 12 months. That was my plan anyway. My birth didn’t go to plan and by 6 weeks I was on medication for PND and insanely stressed. No matter how much I fed or pumped I just didn’t have enough milk. We were comp feeding from 4 weeks and finally at 14 weeks we were down to 1 breastfeed per day. My husband and I decided the stress of me trying to feed him was enough and we put him on formula for all feeds. Since then he has thrived, gained weight and grown to a beautiful 19 month old full of life energy.

When I was looking into formula feeding I found the lack of information disgusting. It was like formula was a dirty word and no matter how many questions I asked or what I searched no one would give a straight answer and just kept telling me to keep trying to breastfeed. From that day I knew I had to make Beyond The Baby and unbiased site for all mothers, no matter what their feeding choice.

I believe breastfeeding is the best start a mother can give her child, but I am also a realist and understand sometimes it is not possible. Women should not be judged.

So next month is Baby Feeding month! Everything you need to know about Baby Feeding!! I hope you enjoy the articles and information as well as reviews and hopefully a few giveaways!

Jen xx