LOSE THE BABY BELLY

The day will come when you decide the time is right to get back into shape after the birth of your baby.  Be it three months, a year or two…for many of us the baby belly is what we want to shift.

1. Start Slow! You might be eager to get back into your pre-pregnancy skinny jeans, but be patient. It can take up to a year to lose the weight and tone the belly, which is completely normal and even preferable. The amount of time it takes to see results also depends on your pregnancy, whether or not you had a caesarean section and your own body. Be sure to get the green light from your doctor or health visitor to start working out again.

2. Eat Right! A healthy diet that includes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats and low-fat dairy will help you lose weight and give you enough energy to work out and keep up with your baby.   Casseroles, stir-frys and hearty soups are a great in the winter months to keep you energised and feeling full.

3. Breastfeed! Breastfeeding is a great way to tighten the belly because it causes the uterus to contract and quickly shrink back to its pre-baby size. Women who breastfeed lose weight faster than those who don’t— up to 300 calories a day. And if you breastfeed for more than six months, you can burn up to 400 calories a day.

4. Exercise! Fitting in 30 to 60 minutes of cardio most days is a great way to burn calories and lose belly fat, and it doesn’t have to involve making time to go to the gym. Put the baby in the pushchair and go for a walk to the park.  Get on the Wii fit or invest in a workout DVD – personally we love a bit of Davina McCall! 

Don’t expect miracle results overnight, celebrate all achievements (like getting through a particularly hard-section of a work-out) take it a week at a time and do what you can. 

Support the Breastfeeding Pledge

Okay, so it will come as no great shock to readers of our blog that we love breastfeeding here at Emma-Jane.  Whilst pootling about on the old interweb, we came across the breastfeeding pledge.  Based in America, it’s written by Earth Mama and like them we too believe breastfeeding a baby is a gift of a mother’s love. 

The goal of the Support with Integrity Pledge is to strengthen and to unite the efforts of breastfeeding supporters who focus on getting the baby fed, and not taking sides about how it’s done, or being right. Each of us has preferences when it comes to technique, method, schedule or position, but quite honestly - whatever works for you and your baby.

So now we ask you to sign the Support with Integrity the Breastfeeding Pledge.

Still in its infancy as we write our blog we hope that British mummies can get behind the pledge and sign their support too.

To be clear, this pledge isn’t about breastfeeding vs. formula feeding. It’s simply about uniting breastfeeding supporters who have a common goal: to help normalise breastfeeding, to help remove the barriers to breastfeeding, and to provide a peaceful village of supporters united in their desire to help women successfully breastfeed.

Christmas Mocktails

Christmas is a time for eating, drinking and being merry, and whilst most pregnant women enjoy the merriment of the season, you do have to watch what you eat and drink.  Out go too many glasses of fizz, the pate starter and most of the Christmas day cheese board, in comes the alcohol free drinks, the well-cooked end of the roast beef and a token piece of cheddar!

Don't worry though, gone are the days of standing around at a party with a boring glass of orange juice.  There are now loads of fantastic non alcoholic cocktails around.   Here are three we particularly like that don’t need lots of obscure ingredients:

Non alcoholic fizz

In equal measure:

·         Orange juice

·         Cranberry juice

·         Soda water

 Simply mix together

Nojito – all the taste of a Mojito but without the rum

·         1oz lime juice

·         4oz soda water or sprite

·         6 mint leaves

·         2 tsps of brown sugar

1.      Bruise a few mint leaves using a spoon so that their juice can get out

2.      Add the lime juice, brown sugar and mint leaves in a highball glass

3.      Fill the glass with ice and stir

4.      Top with soda

5.      Add a twig of mint for decoration

Gentle Sea Breeze

Equal measures of cranberry juice and pineapple juice, and simply mix together and add crushed ice.  Garnish with a few sprigs of mint.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from everyone at Emma-Jane.

Emma-Jane Scoops Second Industry Gold Award

We are delighted, double-gold award winners, having scooped Gold in this month’s Mother & Baby awards - just a month after Pregnancy and Birth magazine also awarded us the top spot.

Emma-Jane's Next Generation Nursing Bra is the best product for breastfeeding according to mums who awarded it gold in this year’s Mother & Baby magazine awards. The gongs are completely independently tested and rated by mums who provide feedback to decide which brand deserves gold, silver or bronze awards.

John White, our sales director, said: “We are utterly delighted to have taken the top spot in the breastfeeding category.  All of the feedback we’ve received from mums about our Next Generation nursing bras confirms they are exceptionally comfortable during both pregnancy and breastfeeding.  And in tough economic times, a bra that delivers great comfort along with good value is going to be a winner.”

The Next Generation seamfree bras deliver value in three ways: the low price; the fact that it can be used as a maternity and a nursing bra; and with the single cup size that fits from B to F as breasts change mums don’t need to spend a fortune on different size bras.

The Next Generation bras are available in a choice of white, black or skin colours and come in four sizes to fit sizes 32–38 B-F. Style 361 has a recommended retail price of just £10, while style 365 which offers removable foam pads for comfort with excellent fit retails at £16. Both styles are available from Emma-Jane retailers. Go to www.emma-jane.com for more details.

Tight-tastic Fun Blogger Giveaway.

We’re enjoying a relatively mild spell of weather for mid-November, but let’s be honest ladies – it’s hardly tropical – and certainly no weather for bare legs (the corned beef look doesn’t do anyone any favours). 

Don’t worry – we’re here to ensure you can take your summer maternity wardrobe right through autumn and winter with a range of fab maternity tights, designed to keep you supported, comfortable and warm!  They won’t break the bank, will update your look and means you don’t have to fork out lots of money on clothes that you’re only going to wear for a limited time.

Just for a bit of fun, we’d love to hear maternity clothing stories.  Favourites, big mistakes, clothing mishaps, anything you lived in, anything you couldn’t wait to see the back of, ceremonial throw-outs, keep-me’s, shopping trips, best buys, worst buys...whatever, we’d love to hear them all.

If you're a blogger, please write a blog post about maternity clothes or underwear  and send it to us by 30 November (send all entries to michelle@peekaboocoms.co.uk). We will host a blog carnival on this blog featuring all the posts. Whatever you like - as long as it is about maternity clothes.

And if you would like to run a fun competition on your blog to protect the nation from the sight of corned beef legs and need a prize or are pregnant yourself and would like a sample to review, we have a limited number of maternity tights we can give away as prizes. Please contact us on the email address given above to make arrangements.

Maternity Tights Perfect for Cold Weather

If you haven’t seen our funky maternity tights already – do go and check them out!

We’ve introduced a fashionable range of coloured and patterned maternity tights, designed to brighten up maternity wardrobes now the colder months are here.

The 60 Denier 558 range is made from supersoft microfibre and is available in black (goes with everything), purple (for the more funky among us), chocolate (the perfect autumn colour – looks great with tan boots), grey (for something a bit different without feeling like you’re too wacky) and mid-blue (bold and brave).

The 60 Denier 551 diamond patterned tights are black and look great teamed with this season’s block colours. 

Our designer Freda Scholey, said: “Our maternity tights are designed to grow with you throughout your pregnancy, offering comfort with expanding waistbands and shaped feet and gussets. So mums to be look smart and feel great. They’re also a great way to save money by taking summer maternity dresses through to autumn/winter whilst staying comfortable throughout your pregnancy.”

NEW WEBSITE GOES LIVE

We are officially delighted to launch our newly designed website - www.emma-jane.com. Our redesign aims to give our online presence a much younger, fresher and more contemporary feel – what do you think?

As many of you know (and for those that don’t), we provide simple, classic styles and practical solutions for pregnancy and motherhood and we wanted the website to reflect that offering.

It really serves two functions. Mums and mums-to-be can see the range more clearly and where to buy, while our retail outlets are able to access a secure part of the site and download videos, bra-fitting information and images of the collection.

The site upgrade supports our growing social media activity as frequent bloggers and regularly activity on Twitter and Facebook – we’d love for you to come and have a chat with us on either of these forums.

Earlier this year we celebrated 25 years of manufacturing maternity underwear, during which time the market landscape has changed significantly. The last decade has seen online consumer shopping grow exponentially!

Although how and where people buy their lingerie has changed we have kept our promise of comfort, support and affordability and ensure our award-winning collection is regularly wear-tested by mothers, so we can be sure we get it right time after time and continue to be a must-have of the mother-to-be’s wardrobe.