I’ve decided to stop dying my hair.

My reasons are mostly practical. I’m tired of the hassle and expense. My hair grows quickly, so after a professional dye job, I get about two good weeks, then I spend the next four weeks obsessing about my roots. My husband nixed home hair coloring because every blessed time I try it I get dye on the walls. And besides, home hair color tends to fade really quickly on me. So unless I want to start coloring it with a Sharpie, it’s going to be gray.

Reservations? Sure. I’m a little worried about looking older (though to be honest, I don’t think my faux red-brown hair was making me look 21). I’m concerned about the ugliness of the growing out period; since I don’t want to chop all my hair off and grow from scratch, I’ll have a skunk-like hair color pattern for, oh, about a year. My husband has been supportive, but I do fear he’ll freak out a little when he sees just how gray my hair really is.

But mostly I’m worried about being mistaken for my boys’ grandmother. And as they are two and three, it’s no stretch – if I had started having kids at 20 and my children followed suit, I would be proud grandma right about now. So if anyone makes that error, it’s only natural…like my emerging hair color…which I’m currently covering up with a pretty bandanna.

Some friends I’ve confided in called me brave. Honestly? I have my hair salon on speed dial, just in case.

Posted by MommaSteph.

(Yes, I hear you laughing.)

A new study found that moms who regularly slept for five hours or less when their babies were six months old were much more likely to still be packing the baby pounds when the babies turned a year old. Three times more likely, in fact.

“We’ve known for some time that sleep deprivation is associated with weight gain and obesity in the general population, but this study shows that getting enough sleep — even just two hours more — may be as important as a healthy diet and exercise for new mothers to return to their pre-pregnancy weight,” said Erica Gunderson of Kaiser Permanente, which runs hospitals and clinics in California.

Wouldn’t we all sleep more (and better) if we had the opportunity to do so? With a new baby, that’s just not always possible - particularly if there are other children in the household.

At least they thought of that:

“With the results of this study, new mothers must be wondering, ‘How can I get more sleep for both me and my baby?’ Our team is working on new studies to answer this important question,” said Dr. Matthew Gillman of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.

I’m not going to hold my breath on that one, gentlemen.

Posted by Sunshine.

If your girls are looking a little sad, don’t blame breastfeeding. A new study indicates that nursing is not the culprit for less than perky breasts:

Researchers at a University of Kentucky plastic surgery clinic examined 93 patients who had experienced at least one pregnancy and had an average age of 39.

Fifty-four women had breastfed at least one child, for an average of nine months. There was no significant difference in breast sagging between these women and the 39 moms who did not breastfeed.

But other factors did increase the likelihood of sagging. They include age, obesity, more pregnancies, larger pre-pregnancy cup size and smoking. Dr. Brian Rinker and colleagues reported the study at a meeting last week of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

“These findings support the assertion of pediatricians and lactation specialists that breastfeeding does not adversely affect breast shape,” researchers wrote.

Why would pregnancy be a culprit? Pregnancy causes the breasts to become bigger, and post-partum, breasts don’t tend to return to their original shapes.

One possible weakness of the study is it might not represent a good cross-section of the post-partum population, as the women involved were all seeking breast implants, lifts, or both.

If you’re interested, here’s how the experts rate breast sagginess:

Breast sagging (technically called ptosis) was measured on a 0-to-3 scale, with 0 representing no sagging (nipple is higher than the skin fold beneath the breast) and 3 representing extreme sagging (nipple points straight down).

I’d quibble with how they determine “no sagging”. I’m definitely still above the skin fold, but not nearly as spry as I once was. I think they need a bigger scale.

Posted by MommaSteph.

Lipstick and Lead? The FDA has agreed to investigate claims made by the group Campaign for Safe Cosmetics than many commercially available lipsticks contain high levels of lead. Previous analyses, the FDA notes, have not supported similar claims. Campaign for Safe Cosmetics reported that 1/3 of the lipsticks it tested had lead levels higher than that allowed by the FDA for candy, and that three L’Oreal lipsticks, two Cover Girls, and one from Dior had the highest levels. The cosmetic companies all told ABC News that they stand by the safety of their products. An industry trade group weighed in: “The average amount of lead a woman would be exposed to when using cosmetics is 1,000 times less than the amount she would get from eating, breathing, and drinking water that meets Environmental Protection Agency drinking water standards.”  Stay tuned…

Thyroid and Pregnancy: The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is not recommending routine thyroid screening for pregnant women, as has been suggested by some researchers who have noted an association between preterm birth and impaired brain development in babies whose mothers had sub-clinical hypothyroidism. The ACOG finds that routine screening does not appear to improve outcomes for mothers and babies.

Asthma and Cleaners? The current issues of the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine reports an association between occasional use of spray cleaners and the development of asthma in adults. Air fresheners, furniture cleaners and glass-cleaners appear to have a particularly strong impact on the development of adult asthma. “The relative risk rates of developing adult asthma in relation to exposure to cleaning products could account for as much as 15 percent, or one in seven of adult asthma cases,” wrote Dr. [San-Paul] Zock.

Before I had kids, I had a decent figure - not model-esque by any stretch of the imagination, but I looked OK. Now the mirror tells more of a comedy/horror story than a romantic tale, and I’ll admit that I’ve toyed with the notion of plastic surgery (after we win the lottery) to get my old body back.

I know I’m not alone, because there’s a plastic surgery package (typically called the “mommy makeover”) just for women like me.

Aimed at mothers, it usually involves a trifecta: a breast lift with or without breast implants, a tummy tuck and some liposuction. The procedures are intended to hoist slackened skin as well as reduce stretch marks and pregnancy fat.

You mean my boobs will go back to where they should be and gain perkiness, my tummy sag will tighten, and this spare tire will shrink? Sounds like a deal! Last year, over 325,000 of these surgeries were performed on mothers across the nation - and not just on mothers of young children. Empty nesters are reclaiming their pre-pregnancy bodies, too.

Critics of the triple procedure point fingers at the cosmetic surgery industry as trying to ostracize the mother’s figure.

Many women struggle with the impact of aging and pregnancy on their bodies. But the marketing of the “mommy makeover” seeks to pathologize the postpartum body, characterizing pregnancy and childbirth as maladies with disfiguring aftereffects that can be repaired with the help of scalpels and cannulae.

“The message is that, after having children, women’s bodies change for the worse,” said Diana Zuckerman, the president of the National Research Center for Women and Families, a nonprofit group in Washington. If marketing could turn the postpregnancy body “into a socially unacceptable thing, think of how big your audience would be and how many surgeries you could sell them,” she said.

So…is the post-partum body something to be “fixed,” or should mothers be offended by the notion that they might consider changing their figures in order to feel more beautiful?

I say that if you are satisfied with your body, more power to you. If not, and you have the wherewithal to change that, go for it. Me, I’m going to wear my stretch marks with pride…and buy a lottery ticket now and then.

Posted by Sunshine.

Some of the images are disturbing, which is the point, of course.

What’s your take on Dove’s “Real Beauty” and “Self-Esteem” campaigns? Sincere? Clever marketing by Unilever? Both?

Posted by MommaSteph.

When my mother was pregnant with me, pregnancy was not a publicly celebrated thing. I’m sure people looked kindly at her, but she wouldn’t have dreamed of wearing anything that would accentuate her belly. In fact, most maternity clothes were all about hiding it (tents for sale - Aisle 7!). Most women would have probably been mortified to see likenesses of their pregnant stomachs on display in their homes or even in a photo album.

These times, they are a-changin’.

Shannon Iverson has photographed children and babies for years. Two weeks ago she began photographing a new market segment — bare bellies of moms-to-be.

“Maternity photography has taken off ridiculously,” the Edmond, Okla.-based photographer said. “One of my friends who is a photographer in Arkansas started doing maternity shoots and her business doubled, so that’s why I started.”

In addition to photographs of their baby bumps, expectant mothers are indulging in plaster cast belly molds, special spa treatments, even prenatal yoga courses. Many mothers also pay upwards of $175 for 3-D ultrasounds of their babies. Not a bad haul for 30 minutes’ worth of work on the “tech’s” part!

Maternity wear is no longer the frumpy cover-it-up style of yesterday. Hip styles are altered and even created just for the pregnant woman’s figure. Bellies are bared even in the eighth month and onward, and I saw several pregnant women in maternity bikinis at the pool this past summer.

Businesses are raking it in, and mothers have new ways of making this ultimate journey memorable - and of taking it in style. More power to ‘em, I say.

Posted by Sunshining.

A while back I blogged about melasma, or a type of hyperpigmentation caused by pregnancy hormones (or those in birth control pills) that can leave a woman with darkened patches of skin on her face. Often the discoloration is in the “Lone Ranger mask” area, and so the condition is commonly referred to as the “mask of pregnancy”. (The hormones can also result in the “linea negra”, or temporary dark line that runs from the navel to the pubic area.)

You may also recall that I mentioned that the darkened skin patches should clear up some time after you give birth, but that you will need to be vigilant about using sunscreen or they could easily return.

Well, learn from me - it really is true. Some time last spring, it seemed like my own personal mask, which turned up in my “moustache” area, of all places, had cleared up. I was so pleased. And stupid. I was only a casual sunscreen wearer during the first half of the summer, and what do you know? The old chocolate milk mark is back. So here I am, two years postpartum, and still carrying around this odd pregnancy complication.

I’ve now got religion when it comes to sunscreen on my face. I’ve made a new commitment to put it on every day - even when it’s overcast.

As it happens, when I noticed the return of my old nemesis, I had just begun to use an anti-wrinkle serum that contains retinoids (in addition to the above indignity, motherhood seems to be accelerating my path toward becoming a shrunken apple head), and I read in Prevention magazine that this sort of product can also be effective at lessening skin discoloration. Apparently, retinoids speed up cell regeneration to the point where the “discoloration system” can’t keep up. Sigh. I can only hope.

Don’t be like me! Protect your skin from the get-go and save the mask for Halloween.

Posted by MommaSteph.

When I was pregnant with my son, my toddler loved to lift my shirt, poke my distended belly button, and yell, “Belly belly belly!” - even in public. I found myself hastily covering up again, and then I’d feel dumb for being embarrassed.

After all, big bellies are “in” these days!

Today, the baby belly is celebrated, exalted, shown off, and in the case of celebrity bellies, stalked. And these bellies are everywhere: They’re popping out of tight-fitting maternity fashions. They’re glistening in semi-nude family photographs that can be taken at the corner mall. They’re on display in homes, maybe even in a neighbor’s, in the form of plaster belly-casts, three-dimensional mementos of a biological process now considered less Discovery Channel and more prime-time viewing.

Ever since Demi Moore glamorized her pregnant belly, appearing nude and heavily pregnant on the cover of Vanity Fair way back in the early ’90s, pregnant fashion has been changing to reflect a profound change in society’s attitude toward pregnancy. Pregnant women are now widely seen as beautiful, even sensual. Women flaunt their baby bellies in public, wearing bikinis and–

Wait, did I just say that?? Yep…heavily pregnant women are often seen on beaches in swimwear that accentuates, rather than hides, their extra curvy fronts. I have never been comfortable in a bikini, much less during my stint as a rare zebra whale (I was - and am - that striped, from my belly and chest all the way down to and including my thighs)! I’m quite sure the world at large appreciated my modesty, since I never had one of those adorable, tanned, mark-free bellies with either pregnancy. I don’t regret my stripes - they are tangible reminders of just how blessed I am - but I would never show them off, either.

But you know what? To those moms who feel comfortable baring their pregnant bellies, YGGs - that takes a confidence I wish I possessed. The pregnant belly is worth celebrating, and more power to anyone who does that.

Posted by Sunshine.

Odd birds: A new study published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology finds that while the male penduline tit is looking for a SAHM to mind the brood while he goes philandering, it doesn’t always work out that way: “What is unusual about the penduline tit breeding system is that in one in three cases both males and females are willing to abandon the nest [to seek out new sexual partners], even though the clutch will perish as a result.” Dr. Székely added that the system “could be said to be reminiscent of Hollywood life-styles with plenty of mating opportunities that may lead to neglect for the family at home.”

Obesity out of control? Out of the UK, a report was leaked that found that the government’s pledge to stop the soaring rate of childhood obesity within three years is not achievable, and that childhood obesity rates will continue to rise for the next few decades, with trends indicating that half of all boys and one in five girls in the UK will be dangerously overweight by 2050. National Obesity Forum spokesman warned, ‘Unless we take proper steps now to tackle it, we are facing disaster in the near future, with today’s generation of children dying younger than their parents.’

Story Time: Actress Jenna Elfman (Dharma and Greg) and her husband welcomed a baby boy, whom they named Story Elias. Reportedly, little Story is a fan of “classical music, a clean diaper, mom’s boobs and long naps.”