After gathering the Bedtime Believers for a series of meet-ups over the past few months, Johnson’s Baby celebrated the last event for Bedtime Discoveries last July 10, 2010 in AquaKnox Restaurant, Makati City. Hosted by Caren Bayhon-Yrastorza, the “Johnson’s baby Bedtime Believer Awards” celebrated the achievements of all Bedtime Believers in sharing the good news about the importance of baby sleep.

To celebrate the moms who are truly Bedtime Believers, Johnson’s Baby Group Manager Christine Balingit gave out awards to recognize their achievements. The True Bedtime Believer Award was given to Pehpot Pineda (http://pehpot.blogspot.com). The award was given to the Bedtime Believer who has shown great passion in sharing her baby bedtime discoveries through her weblog, and also garnering the most number of entries on her blog about the Baby Bedtime Discoveries events.

The Bedtime Believer – Science of Sleep Award was given to Ivy Rose Baldoza (http://mommycow.blogspot.com). This award was given to the Bedtime Believer who greatly has confidence in the wonders of science of baby sleep. Ivy crafted well-written blog entries about Science of Sleep and Baby Bedtime Routine which greatly informed her readers.

The last (though not the least) is the Bedtime Believer – Magic of You Award, for Joanna Paula Briones (http://happythoughtshappytot.com). This award was given to the Bedtime Believer who effectively applies the science of sleep to her baby, with a mix of her special touch. Paula shared through her blog that the Baby Bedtime Routine strengthened her relationship with her little one.

As additional enjoyment to the Bedtime Believers, gift certificates were raffled off through a game that required moms to share their experiences with their baby and their baby’s sleep routine/s. Mommies shared that they really create special sleep routines for their babies. May it be a sentimental song, a popular jingle, or even an unusual hard rock tune, these mommies will do whatever it takes to keep their babies getting their required amount of sleep for better growth. Everyone also came home with custom-made Bedtime Believer bags.

The Baby Bedtime Discoveries series has now come to a close, and we are truly grateful for the mommies who made everything a success. Because of all the efforts of our online Bedtime Believers, now more mothers know the importance of giving good baby sleep because of faster growth. We would like to extend a big hug and a lot of thanks to these Bedtime Believers: Tetcha Figuerres, Peachy Adarne, Mia Tabaniag, Joan Matuguinas, Me-Ann Ilustre, Ma. Lourdes Guerra, Mec Arevalo, Lourdes Labil, Esther Calatraba, Lorenzo Labil, Renee Saludares, Joel Saludares, Maris Basco, Salen Trillanes, Rowena Wendy Lei, Rochelle Confesor, Cookie Lugue, Janese Halabaso, Vance Madrid, Marilyn Borje, Dinia Yabis, Myra Songalia, Nora Aquino, Ivy Baldoza, Dante Ward, Leira Pagaspas, Erlyn Trinidad, Mary Jane Umali, Ruth Floresca, Stonibert Lim, Pehpot Pineda, Mei Velas-Suarin, Laya Florendo, Dannyfe Aquino, Josephine Bonsol, Annalyn Jusay, Sire Arevalo, and Marelle Arevalo.

This is merely the beginning of a lasting advocacy! Stay tuned as Johnson’s baby prepares more exciting activities for blogger moms. In the meantime, we encourage everyone to continue spreading the advocacy of good baby sleep. There are definitely more moms to share this with!

Visit www.babycenter.com.ph/bedtime to find out how you can be a Bedtime Believer and spread the good news on good baby sleep.

Hi, Nuffnangers!

Have you experienced hapontukin?  It’s a condition where you don’t have enough energy to last you through the day. Kaya you’re always antok sa hapon!

If you’re like most of us, you’ve had your hapontukin moments, yes?  Then tell us about it!  How do you cope when hapontukin sets in?   Show us!

There are 3 categories:

Most Creative Hapontukin Coping Technique
Funniest Hapontukin Blog Post
Best Hapontukin Blog Post

How to join:

1. Open to Nuffnangers.
2. Blog about your hapontukin moment/s.  Answer this question, “When hapontukin sets in, I . . .”
3. Be creative in showing how you cope with hapontukin!
4. Submit your contest entry URL, name, address, mobile number, and e-mail address to hapontukin@nuffnang.com.
5. The contest runs from June 21 to July 21, 2010.

How to win:

Quality of post – 40%
Creativity – 30%
Relevance to the theme – 30%

What to win:

Winners will be announced on Nuffnang’s blog.  Prizes will be claimed at the Nuffnang office.

Blog your way to these prizes!

Cheers!
The Nuffnang Team

About ENERVON

Enervon Multivitamins: More Energy, Mas Happy!

As one of the trusted and leading brands in the Philippines, Enervon Multivitamins has always provided adults and kids alike with essential vitamins they need to help maintain good health and energy. Known best for its tagline More Energy, Mas Happy – Enervon has always brought new, fun, and truly Pinoy executions and products that cater to consumers both young and old.

This 2010, Enervon for Adults has finally launched its fresh new packaging (formulation remains the same). This new pack embodies the fresh, happy and energetic character of the brand.

Enervon, with its special combination of vitamins called Steadi-Energy Complex helps provide consumers with lasting energy (tuluy-tuloy na energy) throughout the day. This steadi-energy is important most especially if there are so many things to do during the day, that you lose out on the other moments that can bring you more smiles at the end of the day – such as time for family and friends.

What bedtime activities do you engage in?  At the Johnson’s Baby Bedtime Discovery, Bedtime Activities:  Bedtime Stories for Your Baby and Baby Lullabies our mommies, dad, and nurse  shared very interesting and surprising stories!

Host Caren Bayhon-Yrastorza lulled her daughter to sleep with ‘Our Father’, Vienna Boys Choir version, and ‘Tulog na, Mahal Ko’ by Sugarfree.  Mommy Meng, you would have never guessed – ‘Nothing Else Matters’ by Metallica!  Nothing else matters for a mom than her children, for sure.  But a heavy metal song to send baby to dream land, that’s atypical.

Other mommies went the tested Johannes Brahm’s Lullabies route.  In further helping moms give their babies better sleep, Johnson’s baby created special lullaby songs as well in http://www.babycenter.com.ph/baby/sleep/lullaby/.

A lullaby – to LULL A BABY to sleep – may take other forms:  dripping faucet, running motor, even mommy’s footsteps!

Another favorite bedtime activity is story-telling.  This may be in prayer form, recapping the day (Ask, “What was your most favorite time of the day?”), and reading.  Mommy Joy gave this tip for an early reading start – cloth books.  The newborn can play with it, too.

Why engage in these activities?

Hearing songs -

• develops the right side of baby’s brain
• promotes music literacy
• develops spatial pattern recognition

Reading or hearing stories –

• helps build your baby’s vocabulary
• stimulates baby’s imagination
• improves language skills
• builds foundation for early literacy
• develops the child’s confidence as a learner

More important, it’s a great opportunity to cuddle and socialize, creating an emotional connection between you and your baby.

To our mommy bloggers and friends, thank you very much for continuing to be a Bedtime Believer!  There is one last activity left! We continue to invite everyone to come to our culminating activity, ‘Wrap Up!  Mommy Gets Good Sleep’.  All bloggers who are interested in giving babies good sleep are invited to come!

Does it take you forever to finish your bathroom business?  If you are like me, help is at hand.
Last May 28, 2010, at the quaint Glass Garden in Pasig, German multinational Boehringer Ingelheim, under the Dulcolax franchise, launched Dulcofiber, a fiber supplement meant to push out the bad from what you took in, and keep the good, for your body to absorb.

Dulcofiber is the only natural soluble fiber supplement in the market that contains Glucomannan.

Say what?  Glucomannan is a “smart fiber” that helps keep regularity while leaving behind the essential nutrients and minerals that the body needs to absorb.  Glucomannan also stimulates the growth of “good” bacteria in the intestines, thereby improving digestion.

Dulcolax brand manager Jo-Ann Ramos shared a smart tip:  “Work hard to earn your keep.  Be smart to look and feel your best:  Make a few smart choices like Dulcofiber.”

Ideal for health conscious individuals, Dulcofiber is the smart choice in maintaining the healthy disposition of one’s intestinal system.

At the launch, Chef Rob Pengson caught most women’s eyes and ears with his good looks and healthy, easy-to-prepare, no-cook meals.

There was also free massage from professional masseuses, which everyone wanted to get into.  Nutritionist Marie Lacerna, RND, gave personalized healthy diets.

We went home with a goody round carton of iPod, hand towel, thermos, and a box of Dulcofiber.

Look for Dulcofiber in health and drug stores last week of June.  In the meantime, know more about keeping your insides healthy at http://www.dulcofiber.com.ph.

Bid ‘forever in the bathroom’ goodbye.

Our mommies during the meet-up at Dulcinea, Eastwood City Walk

Do you know that infant massage, or Touch Therapy, helps strengthen your baby’s limbs and immune system, and facilitates faster growth and weight gain*?

More importantly, touch is the language of love. It is the most intimate and loving way to bond with your baby. Through massage, you help baby become affectionate, confident, and well-adjusted.

At the 3^rd Johnson’s Baby Bedtime Discovery mommy meet-up, thirteen mommies had a refresher course on five different massage techniques:

1)       Face Massage – Use upward and outward strokes on baby’s face

2)      Back Massage – Gently stroke the sides of baby’s spine with your thumbs

3)      Milking Technique for the Limbs – Gently pull baby’s limbs, mimicking milking a cow

4)      Stroke/Rolling Technique – Gently roll over your hands on baby’s body, as if kneading dough with a rolling pin

5)      Baby Reflexology – Like adult reflexology, parts of the hand corresponds to different parts of the body (i.e., palm ~ heart)

Joy Mendiola, mommy to a 7-year old twin and a 4-year old boy, shared how massage helped her twins grow taller.  She attributes this to her girl’s fondness for regular head massages.

The same goes for Mommy Cookie Lugue, whose second child likes being massaged on the head, to the point of having her hair pulled! Both babies and mommies enjoy this special time together.

Our mommies enjoyed swapping tips and meeting fellow bloggers in the intimate meet-up.  Boisterous laughter filled the room come meal time when they shared about mommy-child mishaps and adventures.

Watch out for these other Bedtime Discoveries (there are only two more left!):   Bedtime Stories and Baby Lullabies, and Wrap Up!  Mommy Gets Good Sleep. For all the mommy bloggers out there, we look forward to meeting you and sharing more Bedtime Discoveries with you!  For the upcoming meet-ups, we welcome new advocates to the cause of good baby sleep!

(You can also check out the four Bedtime Discoveries events:  2009 launch, 2010 launch, Good Sleep, and Sleep Environment. To learn more about touch therapy and how to give your baby better sleep, visit http://www.babycenter.com.ph/bedtime)

*Touch Research Institute, University of Miami School of Medicine, 2004

Dear Nuffnangers,

We will be carrying out migration to a better server.

Because of synchronization issues we will need to take down the existing servers temporarily.

We have scheduled a maintenance for Sunday, 11th July at 1am and the estimated downtime is 3 hours.

During this time, Nuffnang-related services will not be available and your ads may not show.

We apologize for this inconvenience.

Thank you.

Dear Nuffnangers,

We are bringing up additional hardware to spread the load among our servers.

Because of synchronization issues we will need to take down the existing servers temporarily.

We have scheduled a maintenance for Friday, 2nd July at 1am and the estimated downtime is 3 hours.

During this time, Nuffnang-related services will not be available and your ads may not show.

We apologize for this inconvenience.

Thank you.

Clockwise:  Mommy bloggers Girlie Villarica, Cookie Lugue, Chats Gray; Guest mommy Karen Dagdag; Mommy bloggers Pehpot Pineda, Caren Bayhon-Yrastorza (host, too!), and Jayme Gatbonton in a round table discussion about the ideal sleep environment for baby

Six mommies joined our 2^nd Baby Bedtime Discovery about creating a sleep environment for baby.   The meet-up last May 22, 2010 at Café Sweet Inspirations in Katipunan Avenue was again hosted by the engaging Ms. Caren Bayhon-Yrastorza, herself a blogger (‘The Eating Room’ and ‘Banig Republic’, both on WordPress).

From the launch, moms knew growth happens during sleep.  Last week, they learned what good sleep is. Now, they shared about the ideal sleep environment for baby (more from www.babycenter.com.ph):

When you start thinking about where your baby is going to sleep at night or decorating your child’s bedroom, you might find it useful to keep these safety tips in mind:

• All cribs should be deep enough to be safe for your baby, have bars that are less than 45-65 mm apart and not have any cut-outs or steps. If your crib is second-hand or borrowed, make sure crib bars are less than 45-65 mm apart (a can of Coke cannot fit between the slats) to prevent your baby’s head from slipping between the bars.

• If your crib is second-hand and painted, strip all paint and re-paint it with lead-free paint. If your child breathes lead dust or fumes or swallows anything with lead in it, he can get lead poisoning, which can cause learning disabilities and other neurological problems.

• Check the crib to be sure that the mattress fits snugly; there should be no corner-post extensions and no decorative cut outs in the headboard or foot board which could trap your baby’s limbs.

• Put your baby to sleep on his back to decrease the risk of
sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

• Don’t use a pillow in the crib. For safe sleeping, your baby needs a surface that is firm and flat.

• When you’re not in the room with your baby, keep the drop side of his crib up and locked.

• Position the crib away from windows, heaters, lamps, wall decorations, cords, and furniture which can be used to climb out of the crib.

• Avoid curtains and blinds with cords — dangling cords carry a risk of strangulation. If you already have them, make sure that you tie up dangling cords.

• Once your child can push up on his hands and knees, you’ll have to remove that adorable mobile and any toys that hang across the crib. When he can pull up, take out the bumper pads, too — they can be used as steps — and put the mattress in its lowest position so that he can’t climb out of the crib.

• When the crib mattress is at its lowest height and the top rail is below your child’s chest, it’s time to move him to a bed.

• Stay with your baby when he is on the changing table. You may choose to put your changing mat on the floor so that there is no danger of him falling.

• Keep toiletries such as baby lotion and wipes, out of your infant’s reach.

• Choose flame-retardant sleepwear and make sure pajama feet aren’t too long or socks too slippery if your baby is pulling up or starting to walk.

• Secure wardrobes and bookshelves to walls to prevent them from falling over on your child. For the same reason, always remember to close drawers.

For other general tips on how to keep your baby safe that apply to every room in your home, see making your home safe for your baby.

Watch out for these other Bedtime Discoveries:   Mommy & Me Sparty, Bedtime Stories and Baby Lullabies, and Wrap Up!  Mommy Gets Good Sleep. We look forward to meeting you and sharing more Bedtime Discoveries with you!
(You can also check out the three Bedtime Discoveries events here, here, and here.)

Last Saturday, May 15, 2010, at Café Via Mare, Power Plant Mall, Johnson’s Baby held the first in a series of Bedtime Discovery meet-ups.  In partnership with Nuffnang Philippines and local female bloggers, Johnson’s Baby Bedtime Discovery 1:  “What is Good Sleep?” was an engaging event that led moms to share their baby’s sleep experiences.

Taking off from the Johnson’s Baby Bedtime Discoveries: Baby Bedtime A to Zzzs, the moms knew growth happens during sleep; now, they learned what good sleep is.

The bloggers, and Ms. Majo Tomas (with mic in hand), Universal McCann’s AVP-Integration Director, during the lively discussion led by host, Caren Bayhon-Yrastorza (left, standing)

Ms. Caren Bayhon-Yrastorza animatedly shares her experiences

Ms. Caren Bayhon-Yrastroza, a mom and blogger, was the event’s bubbly host.  She engaged the bloggers and moms through the discussion, sharing her sleep experiences with her daughter.

The characteristics of good sleep (more from www.babycenter.com.ph):

“Like us adults, babies go through different phases of sleep. Even though many of us feel we “sleep like a log”, in actual fact we do not simply fall into a deep sleep all night and then wake in the morning. Instead, we “cycle” through different levels of sleep from drowsiness down through light sleep and dream sleep into deep sleep. Then we come back up again through dream sleep and light sleep to the surface before going down again. Dream sleep is also known as rapid eye movement, or REM, sleep. Both babies and adults move through this sleep cycle about five times a night.

These phases of sleep appear in babies even before they are born. Dream sleep appears at about 6 or 7 months gestation, and you can easily see the difference between dream sleep and non-dream sleep in your newborn. In dream sleep, you can see her eyes darting back and forth under her eyelids, the rest of her body is still except for occasional twitches, and her breathing is irregular.

In non-dream, or quiet, sleep your baby will breathe deeply and regularly, sometimes with a big sigh. She will lie very still, but may occasionally make little sucking movements with her mouth or “startle”. These sudden jerks of the whole body are known as hypnagogic startles and are perfectly normal. They happen in older children and adults, too, often when you are just dropping off to sleep. Although this quiet non-dream sleep is well formed in newborns, it occurs in short bursts rather than a continuous flow as in older children and adults. During the first month of life it will gradually become more continuous and the startles will disappear.

Moms sharing

Mommies Mellany Aguilar and Roanne Dionisio were invited by our bloggers.  Gauging from their animated conversations, they are happy with this discovery – a real respite from sleepless nights!

It was a vibrant event from Johnson’s Baby! Watch out for these other Bedtime Discoveries:   Nursery 101, Mommy & Me Sparty, Bedtime Stories and Baby Lullabies, and Wrap Up!  Mommy Gets Good Sllep. We look forward to meeting you and sharing more Bedtime Discoveries with you!
(You can also check out the two Bedtime Discoveries events here and here.)

Hi, Nuffnangers!

Get ready for the musical event of the year as McDonald’s joins in welcoming the limited Manila run of one of Broadway’s longest-running and most beloved musicals at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) opening on July 24.

Experience the magic and wonder of CATS as McDonald’s Delivery Service gives its customers the chance to win tickets everyday from May 15-June 7. This raffle promo is open to all Metro Manila customers who make a minimum order of P400.00 thru the McDelivery website, www.mcdelivery.com.ph . A receipt worth at least P400.00 qualifies the order, entitling the customer to one entry to the Daily Electronic Raffle Draw; there is no limit on the number of orders per day – the more qualified orders, the more chances of winning.

Two (2) Daily winners will receive either two (2) zone 3 tickets worth P3,500 each or two (2) zone 2 tickets worth P5,000 each. All qualified entries are also entitled to join the Weekly and Final Grand Draws. For the Weekly Grand Raffle, two (2) winners will receive two (2) Zone 1 tickets worth P7,000 each. For the Final Grand Draw, four (4) winners will also be drawn to win two (2) Zone 1 tickets. Winners are chosen electronically under the supervision of a DTI representative.

CATS, an Andrew Lloyd Webber masterpiece hailed by critics as among the most exhilarating and innovative musicals ever staged, features memorable music, electrifying choreography and fantastic set designs and costumes. CATS stars our very own Lea Salonga as Grizabella the Glamour Cat who is on a mission to be accepted by the “Jellicle Cats” and sings the haunting solo, “Memory”.  This multi-award winning musical has been on stage for nearly two decades and has been presented in 10 languages, performed in 300 cities in over 26 countries worldwide.

Order through McDelivery now and don’t miss out on this musical extravaganza!

Cheers!
The Nuffnang Team

For more information on promo mechanics, draw dates and how to claim your prizes, visit www.mcdelivery.com.ph/catspromo