The Keen Grobag Egg

One of the things I think I'm most afraid of in these first few months I'm going to have an infant at home, is SIDS. And while I know this is just the first of many MANY worries I'm going to have over the next 18+ years with this kid, SIDS is the immediate worry - the worry I won't let CONSUME me, but the worry that is definitely THERE, in the back of my mind, creeping in every so often.

And so looking into things I can do that will give me some peace of mind without going over the top in paranoia, I found the Keen Distribution Grobag Egg - a cool-looking light-up thermometer that tells you if the room your baby is in is too warm (one of the risks for SIDS).

The egg itself is super easy to use in that you just take it out of the box, plug it in, and watch it light up and find the room temperature. It's also made even EASIER to use in that it glows yellow if the room is in the safe/recommended range, blue if it's too cold, orange if it's too warm, and red if it's REALLY too warm.

The problem however is no matter what you do with the egg - or at least no matter what *I* did with MY egg - the temperature reading was three to four degrees [celcius] off the ACTUAL temperature of the room. In Tiny B's room, the egg indicated it was 20 degrees while my thermometer said it was 17. In our bedroom (which we keep really cold, and was another reason we thought this egg might help, so we'd know to warm it up for the first few months while he was in our room) the egg indicated it was 19 degrees while my thermometer said it was 15.5. And in our living room, the egg rang in at 21 degrees while my thermometer read 17.

And what really REALLY sucks, is that I should have read more online reviews before buying the Grobag Egg, because while it gets a lot of good reviews from happy customers, I now can see that that those PARTICULAR customers weren't measuring its accuracy - they were measuring how cute it is, how easy it is to use, how the glow is like a nightlight. Because when you dig further into all the unhappy reviews, almost EVERY SINGLE ONE of them says the same thing I found - that it's off. Consistently off by 3-4.5 degrees.

And maybe if the egg was $20, I'd think, "meh, I'll keep it anyway" because it IS cute and the nightlight aspect IS helpful, and if I know it's 3-4 degrees off I can always just do QUICK MATH when I see it to know if we're in the safe range or not. But the egg WASN'T $20 - it was $50, and for a product that claims it's ALL ABOUT creating a "safe sleeping environment for your baby", it damn well BETTER be accurate. Particularly for $50.

So in my attempt at buying a little peace of mind - at buying what I thought was a little added safety - what I found was a real disappointment. So much so that I returned it. Two big thumbs down.

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Tums Are My Best Friend

I, chicklet, am 36 weeks pregnant. And I, chicklet, have been suffering from ENDLESS heartburn for the last two months. While I've had a SUPER easy pregnancy overall - with heartburn as my biggest complaint, so yes, I know, "woe is me" - the thing that's been driving me out of my MIND lately, has been the heartburn.

I get it from eating, from NOT eating, from drinking, from NOT drinking, from exercising, or from doing the complete opposite - laying on my side but apparently laying too "level" or flat. And while it started off pretty intermittently, and was just some simple heartburn, it progressed into FULL BLOWN acid reflux, with the charming side effect of waking up in the night to having thrown up in my mouth... good times...

And while I'm very aware there's all SORTS of home remedies out there, I can honestly say I'VE TRIED THEM ALL, and for me, NONE OF THEM WORK. And yes, while there are drug options, I don't really know why, but I've been really hesitant to go that route unless I really REALLY can't take it anymore. So while it drives me CRAZY, I CAN take it, so no drugs for me just yet.

What HAS worked though, has been Tums. Tums, Tums, and MORE Tums. I had some stashed in my desk, I have another container in my purse, and I leave a couple on my night-table for those good times in the middle of the night. I LIVE and BREATHE for my Tums.

The best thing about Tums is that they work within MINUTES. The other bonuses? Well, they've got a TON of calcium in them (which is never a bad thing for a woman, let alone a pregnant woman, to have), they're CHEWABLE so you never need water to wash them down, and if you buy the fruit-flavored ones, they're even kinda "candy-esque" so can feel like a little TREAT in some ways.

And while the container says not to take more than 5 in a day if you're pregnant, my OB was fine with me taking more if I needed. His preference was like mine - to avoid the drugs if I could. So if that meant more Tums, he was A-OK with that.

So at roughly $8-10 a pack (for 160), or at $18.70 for Amazon's double-pack, they're worth EVERY PENNY if you're suffering from heartburn. Two BIG thumbs up from me.

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