We’re excited to be exhibiting at the Dallas/Fort Worth FREE BABY EXPO going on March 27 – 29 at the Fort Worth Convention Center. The Expo is combined with a medical conference for birthing professionals, which enables it to be offered free of charge to the public. We’re hoping to see lots of new moms and dads-to-be as well as scope out the latest and greatest products (besides ours!) for expecting parents. You can visit www.dfwbabyexpo.com to get all the details.
We’re also excited to announce our exclusive relationship with 76 Images Photography (www.76images.com) – this studio is owned by Nancy Thomas, who creates phenomenal maternity and baby pictures. Her work will be displayed in all the DFW Stork Vision centers. She is offering special pricing packages only for Stork Vision customers and when you see the quality of her photography, you will be amazed — she is truly talented! 76 Images Photography is located in Southlake Town Square.
Be sure to take advantage of our March special — $10 off a 2D Ultrasound package. And don’t forget to donate to Operation Special Delivery during March — show our troops your support by supporting their expecting wives and girlfriends through this wonderful program.
This is Valentine’s Day week — yes, some of us do manage to stretch it into a week! — and we think it’s a perfect time to give. This year, we’re not giving candy and flowers…we’ve teamed up with CAPPA (Child and Postpartum Professional Association) for Operation Special Delivery, which raises funds and awareness to ensure that expectant military mothers don’t have to give birth alone.
Operation Special Delivery provides labor doulas at no cost to pregnant military moms. What is a doula? A doula is a person who attends the birthing family before, during, and just after the birth of the baby. The certified doula is trained to deliver emotional support from home to hospital, ease the transition into the hospital environment, and be there through changing hospital shifts and alternating provider schedules. The doula serves as an advocate, labor coach, and information source to give the mother and her partner the added comfort of additional support throughout the entire labor. She may help you develop a birth plan, teach relaxation, visualization, and breathing skills useful for labor. Most importantly, the doula will provide comfort, support, and information about birth options.
You can make a tax-deductible donation to Operation Special Delivery via the website — www.operationspecialdelivery.com — or at any Stork Vision location. If you’re an expectant military mom and want more information, please visit the website to fill out an application form and get matched with a doula in your area.
Do something truly meaningful this year by giving a military family “a hand to hold until they all come home.”
Stork Vision was born in Texas — we’ve got four locations in the Metroplex and some great partners who we love to promote — like Lone Star Baby & Kids!
Lone Star Baby & Kids offers the widest selection of leading manufacturers of baby furniture, bunk beds, strollers, car seats and other baby gear all to help you welcome baby. They showcase more than 40 vignettes of custom-designed baby nurseries displaying manufacturers such as Munire, Creations, Romina, Ragazzi, Babys Dream and more. Their expert and knowledgeable sales associates are there to help you, to make the right decisions and answer your baby gear questions. Lone Star Baby has three Metroplex locations — in North Richland Hills, Frisco and Dallas. Go visit and tell them we sent you!
Attention DFW Moms-to-be: We are currently running a $99 Valentine’s Day 2D Ultrasound special in the Metroplex. Call our Keller, Frisco, Ft. Worth or Mansfield location (contact info is on our website — www.storkvision.com) and book your appointment today!
For Everyone: Our Valentine’s Special this month is $20 off your 4D Ultrasound Package. See pure love in motion!
Have problems getting pregnant? Here’s some interesting news from an article in U.S. News & World Report:
Chemicals known as perfluorinated chemicals, which are pervasive in food packaging, pesticides, clothing, upholstery, carpets and personal care products, may delay pregnancy, a new study suggests.
These chemicals are being phased out in the United States because of their toxic effects, and are expected to be completely gone by 2010. However, they remain in the environment and in the body for decades, and have been linked to developmental problems.
“These widespread chemicals apparently lower the fertility in couples trying to get pregnant,” said lead researcher Dr. Jorn Olsen, chairman of the Department of Epidemiology at UCLA’s School of Public Health.
Danish women in the study who had with high levels of perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) took longer to get pregnant, Olsen said.
“If this finding can be replicated, one would have to look for other chemicals to replace these,” he said.
The report is published in the Jan. 29 online edition of Human Reproduction. And it follows on the heels of a report linking another common plastic chemical, bisphenol A (BPA), to developmental problems in fetuses and infants.
Probably most of you have heard already about the woman — whose name has not been released — who gave birth this week to eight children — six boys, two girls.
And here’s the twist (if this story needed one more): they were only expecting seven!
Describing the new mother as “a very strong woman” (chuh!), one of the doctors noted that “it’s quite easy to miss a baby when you’re anticipating seven. Ultrasound doesn’t show you everything.”
Now we’re not saying that she might have seen all eight if she’d visited a Stork Vision…but our 4D live motion pictures are pretty amazing and this month you get double pictures and double CDs. So no matter how many you’re expecting, expect to be thrilled with a Stork Vision glimpse of your baby-to-be!
Good luck, strong women, wherever you are!
Babynames.com has released its list of top 10 baby names for 2008….drum roll please….:
Girls
1. Ava
2. Isabella
3. Madeline
4. Emma
5. Abigail
6. Olivia
7. Lily
8. Sophia
9. Chloe
10. Ella
Boys:
1. Aiden
2. Ethan
3. Noah
4. Kaden
5. Caleb
6. Braden
7. Jacob
8. Landon
9. Liam
10. Lucas
And to start your Monday off with a giggle, Cracked.com also compiled a list of the weirdest, most bizarre celebrity baby names:
1. Jermajesty (son of Jermaine Jackson)
2. Tu (son of Rob Morrow), Tu Morrow, get it?
3. Moxie Crimefighter (son of Penn Gillette)
4. Moon Unit (son of Frank Zappa)
5. Diva Thin Muffin (daughter of Frank Zappa)
6. Audio Science (daughter of Shannyn Sossamon)
7. Blue Angel (son of The Edge from U2)
8. Rocket (son of Robert Rodriguez)
9. Prince Michael II/Blanket (son of Michael Jackson)
10. Ocean (son of Forest Whitaker)
A baby by any name is a blessed event — come by a Stork Vision today and see what’s to come!
“Get Fit for Pregnancy” is the theme of the National Birth Defects Prevention Network’s Birth Defects Prevention Month, which is this month!
According to health officials, the United States has more than 60 million women of childbearing age, and approximately one in five is obese. Though many women may know that being overweight increases their chance for diabetes and other health conditions in themselves, they may not realize that being obese or even just overweight creates unnecessary risks to the baby’s health.
To ensure a fit and healthy pregnancy, health experts encourage women to develop good health habits early.
Good habits include regular physical activity, about 30 minutes a day, five days a week, or more. Healthy eating means having a balanced diet that is low in fats and includes at least five or more servings a day of fruits and vegetables. Getting to a healthier weight helps an expectant mother feel great, and making better food choices for herself will prepare her to make healthier choices for her family.
Good health habits for everyone also includes knowing your family history, keeping regular check-ups with a doctor and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. For every woman, from puberty to menopause, these habits should also include taking a multivitamin with 400 mcg of folic acid daily, starting before she gets pregnant, to improve the likelihood of delivering a healthy baby.
Here’s to your health and the health of your baby this month and every month to come!
We’ve all heard the term “pregnant with possibilities”…and that’s just how so many of us feel after watching all the inauguration ceremonies on Tuesday. No matter what your politics, you have to agree that America is once again pregnant with the possibilities of rebuilding at home and rebranding ourselves around the world. It’s all so exciting….just like carrying a new life.
We all want a healthy country and here at Stork Vision we want every new Mom-to-be to experience a healthy pregnancy. We know you don’t have time to read everything there is to read to keep up on pregnancy health issues, so we’d like to use this blog to help you maintain your health and that of your unborn baby during your pregnancy.
And since we’ve all undergone a dizzying transition this week, here’s our first entry on how to deal with dizziness during pregnancy, courtesy of today’s Washington Post:
(HealthDay News) — Many women feel dizzy during pregnancy, a condition caused by hormones that help increase blood flow to the baby, but may restrict blood flow to you.
The American Pregnancy Association offers these suggestions to help relieve dizziness during pregnancy:
Try not to stand up for long periods. When you do have to stand, move your feet frequently to help maintain your circulation.When you start to stand up, do so slowly.Keep a cool body temperature. Avoid very hot baths or showers.Don’t go too long without eating.Make sure clothing is loose and not so tight that it can reduce blood circulation.Ask your doctor about other factors that could cause dizziness. In some women, lying on their back may impede blood flow as the weight of the fetus presses on certain blood vessels.
Here at Stork Vision, we have a dizzying array of great products for Moms-to-be! Our special for the month of January is Double Prints, Double CDs so you can share your good news with family and friends. Come see us!
Filed under: Uncategorized — by storkvision @ 8:58 pm
Never has there been a more appropriate time to count our blessings — and babies are the best blessings of all!
Times are tough for lots of families this holiday season, but we hope you are managing to discover some holiday cheer among your family and friends. These are the most precious gifts…people who love us, to share both good times and bad. Life is so much better when it is shared and our wish for you this holiday season is that you create some good memories around the presence of your loved ones….not just presents.
However, if you are looking for unique gifts to share with an expectant mom, we have something very special this year – Teddy Bear Heart Beats, a stuffed teddy bear that has a recording device to play back the baby’s heartbeat. When Mom comes in for her sonogram, our sonographer can record the baby’s heartbeat –very soothing for babies once they are born. It’s a wonderful gift for moms and grandmothers-to-be — both as a keepsake and as a perfect cribmate for baby. You can find them in almost every Stork Vision store.
To help soothe jangled holiday nerves and stressed pocketbooks, we are also offering Double CDs and Double Prints for all our sonogram packages during December, so you can share with a loved one. You can print the coupon off our home page at www.storkvision.com.
We’re happy to welcome Dianne and Gordon Hanes to the Stork Vision family this month. They’ve just opened our first Louisiana store, in Shreveport. Both have backgrounds in behavioral science, so are acutely aware of the importance of early bonding in child development…they are so excited to be offering this new service to Shreveport and we know they’re going to be incredibly successful!
Happy holidays to all our Stork Vision family of customers and owners — we wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year filled with wonderful memories and many blessings!
Cheers,
Renee and Malissa
We have to agree with Stephen Colbert on this one….”the economy is like a roller coaster, except you vomit money”! We trying to do our bit by introducing our $99 Thursday Special coupon — it’s on the homepage of our website so check it out.
Wondering what products pass the test? Check out coolmompicks.com — a very cool website that reviews products and services for Moms and kiddos. It’s a lot of fun to read, and you also pick up some great ideas — with the holidays approaching, we all want to be sure that what we do spend our money on is good stuff!
We’re happy to report we opened a new location in Oklahoma City recently, and will be opening stores in Gaithersburg, MD on November 1 and Shreveport, LA on December 1.
More soon!
Cheers, Renee and Malissa
Filed under: Uncategorized — by storkvision @ 2:40 pm
It’s been almost two weeks since Hurricane Ike went through south Texas and rearranged just about every little bit of the Galveston coastal area. Our hearts ache for those pregnant Moms down there with no amenities to see them through – it’s bad enough to have to give up wine and our other guilty pleasures without having to endure pregnancy with no fresh water or air conditioning! Brutal!
We would like to reach out to anyone who was scheduled to get a sonogram in the Houston area and had to flee the storm instead. If you’re in the Dallas area, come on in to our Keller location and get 50% off our package prices – just our small way of trying to inject a little joy into a sad situation.
Two weeks ago we had a lady by the name of Kristin call to schedule an appointment for last Thursday to come in and experience our 4D ultrasound package. When Thursday (her appointment day) rolled around, we received a very concerned and apologetic call from Kristin asking if she could reschedule her appointment for another day. She went into depth about how she and her husband both work in the Dallas area and own a home here that they utilize during the work week. Normally at weeks’ end they return to their real home in the Houston area where they have family and friends. She needed to reschedule her 4D appointment with us so they could go back to Houston to secure their home and tie down their outside furniture, etc. Her hope was that they could quickly drive to Houston, take care of the house and jump back in the car to return to Dallas to ride out the storm.
We talked and even joked about how she was headed in the wrong direction since evacuees were already en route to Dallas. We wished her well and told her we looked forward to seeing her the following week. We wondered about her over the weekend as the news showed coverage of the devastated Galveston and blacked-out Houston areas. We finally spoke with her two days ago. It was great to know that she and her husband got back to Dallas safe and sound and brought family members with them. She said that while their Houston home wasn’t expected to have power for another 2 -3 weeks and there were trees down and limbs strewn across her yard, she felt very blessed that her house was all in one piece. As thankful as she was for that, she was also happy that — thanks to Ike and their work week Dallas home – her whole family could see their baby in 4D this week. A silver lining if we ever saw one….
In closing…everyone knows there’s nothing we Texas gals like better than shopping. Heck, we’re world renowned for it! And being pregnant just gives us an excuse to buy different stuff. We’ve collected some of our favorites for our store, and we just came across something that we HAVE to share because we love, love, love it! It’s a bottle cap necklace for Moms-to-be with “Boy” or “Girl” on one side and a cute saying on the other. So you can just wear this to let folks know what’s coming. And they’re only 10 bucks….makes you wish for twins!
We’d love to hear your comments about our blog here and also about what your other favorite pregnancy or Mom blogs are out there in cyberspace. Drop us a line anytime!
Cheers,
Renee & Malissa
