Nationally, October is recognized as SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) Awareness Month. Awareness about SIDS and what can be done to help reduce the risks associated with SIDS have lead to a 50% decline in the incidences of SIDS in the past 20 years.  SIDS mostly affects babies from one month to one year of age and the cause of death is undetermined.  Research into the causes of SIDS continues and there have been some significant advancements in recent years to help move us closer to understanding why we continue to lose babies to SIDS.

Each year The Baby Sleep Site™, recognizes SIDS Awareness month and strives to help inform readers about how to reduce the risks associated with SIDS. It is important that not only parents now about how to help prevent SIDS, but also child care providers, grandparents, relatives, babysitters and health care providers.

Some of the recommendations for safe sleep practices from the American Academy of Pediatrics include:

• Place baby on her back to sleep for bedtime and naps. Because baby can roll onto her tummy from her side, placing baby to sleep on her side is not recommended.
• Don’t put baby to sleep with a blanket or over-bundle them in clothing to sleep.
• Avoid letting baby get too hot when sleeping. Baby could be too hot while sleeping if you notice that your baby is sweaty, flushed or has a heat rash.

You can read more here about the recommendations from AAP for safe sleep environments and tummy time:
American Academy of Pediatrics Parent’s Guide to Safe Sleep

Many parents use baby sleep bags or baby sleep sacks as an alternatively to blankets or other bedding in baby’s crib to avoid the possibility of blankets cover the face of a baby. New research suggests that the type of material the baby sleep bags is made from can also help protect baby from overheating and to help regulate body temperature. Specifically, merino wool has shown to be a better regulator of baby temperature than synthetic materials such as fleece.

The Baby Sleep Site™ has teamed up  Baby Sleep Bags and will be giving away one Merino Kids Baby Sleep Bag (retail value $119). Merino Kids Baby Sleep Bags come in two sizes, 0-2 years of age and 2-4 years of age and the winner of the giveaway can choose the appropriate size. You can read more here about the properties of the Merino Kids Baby Sleep Bags help regulate body temperature.

Additionally, The Baby Sleep Site™ will be donating $1 per entry to First Candle, a national nonprofit health organization to advance infant health and survival.

You can enter the giveaway (and help raise money for SIDS) just by leaving a comment over on Baby Sleep Site™.

Enter SIDS Awareness Giveaway here.

We would like to thank everyone who entered the giveaway and are thrilled to have so many new friends following us on Twitter and Facebook or who have signed up to receive updates from us as well as from our sponsors, The Baby Sleep Site^TM and Mabel’s Labels. Reading through the comments for the giveaway, there seem to be quite a few people who would love to put our photo tips to good use with the Canon Sure Shot Camera.

So, without further hesitation, we are pleased to announce the winners of the giveaway. All winners have been notified by email.

Grand Prize

Canon Sure Shot Digital Camera

Grab the perfect shots of baby and family with this high, quality compact digital camera. It has face detection technology and face detection self-timer for effortlessly capturing those candid shots. A print and share button make for easy and direct printing with a photo printer.

• 12.1 Megapixel- Allows you to take quality, high resolution photos of your baby and family that can be enlarged up to 13 x 19.
• 4x optical zoom and Optical Image Stabilizer- Advanced preset for automatically detecting photo conditions. Includes 18 shooting modes and 9 special scene modes.
• 2.5 – inch LCD screen- A high resolution screen for viewing shots easily with a crisp, clean pictures. Also has a night viewing mode for easy viewing in low light.

Winner: Kim K. who had multiple entries. Congratulations to Kim! We hope you have a great year full of wonderful photos.

But wait, there’s more!

Mabel’s Labels Camp/School Pack Gift Certificate

How many times have you sent your baby or child off to day care, school or camp and wished that you had an easy and simple way to label your baby’s bottle, sippy cup, diaper bag or even their shoes? Mabel’s Labels are the perfect solution. These colorful, bright and personalized labels make it a breeze to mark your child’s items in a way that much cuter and cleaner than just using a regular old sharpie.

The Camp/School Label pack comes with the following:

• 15 personalized super durable and waterproof labels- making them perfectly usable for toys, dishes, bottles and much more.

• 40 Iron-On tags or 50 Tag Mates- The Iron-On tags will adhere to almost any fabric and are designed to withstand washing, drying and wear and tear. The Tag Mate labels are a great alternative to iron-on labels. Also, designed to withstand washing, drying and wear and tear, these labels peel and stick to clothing care tags.

• 8 Shoe Labels- Extra tough and extra sticky labels that fit nicely on the insole of shoes, boots and skates. They will not rub off on socks when shoes get wet and are made to be kid durable!

• 2 Bag Tags- Sturdy metal tags that can be attached to diaper and school bags, luggage, backpacks and more!

Available in three different sets of coordinating colors!

Winner: Tammy, who left a comment.

Twilight Turtle

An adorable plush turtle that can turn any room or ceiling into a starry night. Lights up in three soothing colors and works as the perfect nightlight to help soothe and calm children and babies into a comforting sleep. Projects real star constellation so you can sit with your child and identify the different star patterns. Comes with Star Guide and 8 constellations. Auto shut-off after 45 minutes help save the batteries!

Winner: Amy who had multiple entries.

Babble Soft Subscriptions

Babble Soft applications not only help parents stay organized and on top of it all, but it makes a great gift for new parents or parents-to-be. Enter to win one of these subscriptions for yourself or as a gift to someone else. A Babble Soft subscription includes access to Baby Insights and Baby Say Cheese as well as access to our mobile web application on your internet-capable mobile phone.

One lucky winner 12 month subscription to Babble Soft. Three winners 3 month subscription to Babble Soft.

Winner of the 12 month subscription: Corrie who had multiple entries.

Winners of the three 3 month subscriptions: Nadia, Josie and Lisa- all of whom had multiple entries.

Pacifier Pod

This is just too cute to pass up. A JJ Cole Pacifier Pod helps keep baby’s pacifier in an easy to find, easy to carry place. A stylish little pod with an “attach anywhere” handle means you can keep it attached to your purse, belt, diaper bag, stroller or car seat. Keeps baby’s pacifier clean and sanitary. Comes in designer prints with coordinating trim and are machine washable and dishwasher safe. PVC and phthalate free for additional peace of mind.

Winner: Tree who had multiple entries.

Baby Sleep Consultations

After sleep coach and owner, Nicole Johnson, overcame her son’s sleeping issues in a way that complemented her own parenting style, and after such a happy success, she knew it was her mission to help other tired parents “find their child’s sleep.” Your baby’s sleep shouldn’t be stressful and The Baby Sleep Site^TM strives to provide a strong, non-judgmental, support network to help you and your family sleep better. The Baby Sleep Site^TM has helped countless families through free online articles, step-by-step e-Books, and private and personalized sleep consulting services.

Two (2) people will get TWO FREE e-mail baby sleep consultations to help with your sleep struggles. You’d be surprised how far you can get in just two e-mails! If you already have an account with The Baby Sleep Site^TM, your account will be credited.

Winners: Julie and Teresa who both left comments.

Please claim your prizes by Sunday, February 7th or we will choose new winners. Thank you and congratulations to the winners and many thanks to everyone who entered!

Hopefully 2010 has started out with a bang for all of you and that it continues to be a good year for all of us! We are looking forward to adding some new features to the Babble Soft applications and would love any suggestions or feedback you have to help us continue to improve our products. So… as way to celebrate this new year and new decade, we thought it would be a great idea to have a giveaway!

If you haven’t already tried our Baby Say Cheese online album, then we highly recommend you give it a whirl. One of the joys of parenthood is capturing the perfect shot of your baby as he or she grows and changes. Now with a digital camera, practically a staple for every new parent, the possibilities are endless when it comes to the number and types of pictures you can take of your baby.

We thought it would be helpful to provide you with a few tips for creating beautiful, keepsake photos of your baby.

• Get creative by using the zoom feature on your camera to capture up close some of baby’s distinct features. Create feature photos of baby’s feet while lying on the ground with the camera pointed at the bottom of his feet.

• Getting physically close to baby for photos or getting down on their level is also another way to find good angles for taking photos of baby.

• Another good photo idea is to create an entire series around baby’s “firsts.” Capture baby’s first moments with family, first bath, etc.

• Use the telephoto on your camera to try and get photos of baby when they are otherwise occupied and not quite as aware of your presence. This can result in some very natural looking photos.

• Use indirect lighting whenever possible instead of a flash to prevents baby from looking washed out and also to avoid temporarily blinding baby.

• Play with photo editing software to adjust lighting, play with colors or remove color all together for timeless looking black and white photos.  All in all, keep your camera close during those first few months and keep practicing.

And now with these tips in hand, it seemed only fitting then that our giveaway Grand Prize should be a Canon Sure Shot Digital Camera. Be sure to read to the end of the post for information on how to enter!

Grand Prize

Canon Sure Shot Digital Camera

Grab the perfect shots of baby and family with this high, quality compact digital camera. It has face detection technology and face detection self-timer for effortlessly capturing those candid shots. A print and share button make for easy and direct printing with a photo printer.

• 12.1 Megapixel- Allows you to take quality, high resolution photos of your baby and family that can be enlarged up to 13 x 19.
• 4x optical zoom and Optical Image Stabilizer- Advanced preset for automatically detecting photo conditions. Includes 18 shooting modes and 9 special scene modes.
• 2.5 – inch LCD screen- A high resolution screen for viewing shots easily with a crisp, clean pictures. Also has a night viewing mode for easy viewing in low light.

But wait, there’s more!

Mabel’s Labels Camp/School Pack Gift Certificate

How many times have you sent your baby or child off to day care, school or camp and wished that you had an easy and simple way to label your baby’s bottle, sippy cup, diaper bag or even their shoes? Mabel’s Labels are the perfect solution. These colorful, bright and personalized labels make it a breeze to mark your child’s items in a way that  much cuter and cleaner than just using a regular old sharpie.

The Camp/School Label pack comes with the following:

• 15 personalized super durable and waterproof labels- making them perfectly usable for toys, dishes, bottles and much more.

• 40 Iron-On tags or 50 Tag Mates- The Iron-On tags will adhere to almost any fabric and are designed to withstand washing, drying and wear and tear. The Tag Mate labels are a great alternative to iron-on labels. Also, designed to withstand washing, drying and wear and tear, these labels peel and stick to clothing care tags.

• 8 Shoe Labels- Extra tough and extra sticky labels that fit nicely on the insole of shoes, boots and skates. They will not rub off on socks when shoes get wet and are made to be kid durable!

• 2 Bag Tags- Sturdy metal tags that can be attached to diaper and school bags, luggage, backpacks and more!

Available in three different sets of coordinating colors!

Twilight Turtle

An adorable plush turtle that can turn any room or ceiling into a starry night. Lights up in three soothing colors and works as the perfect nightlight to help soothe and calm children and babies into a comforting sleep. Projects real star constellation so you can sit with your child and identify the different star patterns. Comes with Star Guide and 8 constellations. Auto shut-off after 45 minutes help save the batteries!

Babble Soft Subscriptions

Babble Soft applications not only help parents stay organized and on top of  it all, but it makes a great gift for new parents or parents-to-be. Enter to win one of these subscriptions for yourself or as a gift to someone else. A Babble Soft subscription includes access to Baby Insights and Baby Say Cheese as well as access to our mobile web application on your internet-capable mobile phone.

One lucky winner will win a 12 month subscription to Babble Soft. Three winners will be selected for a free 3 month subscription to Babble Soft.

Pacifier Pod

This is just too cute to pass up.  A JJ Cole Pacifier Pod helps keep baby’s pacifier in an easy to find, easy to carry place. A stylish little pod with an “attach anywhere” handle means you can keep it attached to your purse, belt, diaper bag, stroller or car seat.  Keeps baby’s pacifier clean and sanitary. Comes in designer prints with coordinating trim and are machine washable and dishwasher safe. PVC and phthalate  free for additional peace of mind.

Baby Sleep Consultations

After sleep coach and owner, Nicole Johnson, overcame her son’s sleeping issues in a way that complemented her own parenting style, and after such a happy success, she knew it was her mission to help other tired parents “find their child’s sleep.” Your baby’s sleep shouldn’t be stressful and The Baby Sleep Site^TM strives to provide a strong, non-judgmental, support network to help you and your family sleep better. The Baby Sleep Site^TM has helped countless families through free online articles, step-by-step e-Books, and private and personalized sleep consulting services.

Two (2) people will get TWO FREE e-mail sleep consultations to help with your sleep struggles. You’d be surprised how far you can get in just two e-mails! If you already have an account with the Baby Sleep Site^TM, your account will be credited.

Deadline to enter is January 31, 2010, 8:59 p.m. EDT.

Here is how you can enter:

1. Leave a comment. – 1 entry

2. Stumble this post. – 1 entry (Leave a comment that you stumbled)

3. Follow us or one of our sponsors on Twitter:  @babblesoft,  @mabelhood, @babysleepsite and leave a comment to let us know you’re following. (1 entry for each sponsor followed)

4. Tweet  or Re-Tweet about this giveaway. For example: Win a Canon Sure Shot Camera in the Babble Soft New Year’s Giveaway http://bit.ly/6jedsp (via @babblesoft). Be sure to include the link back to this post and our Twitter name (@babblesoft) so we can track your entry. Feel free to tweet about any of our prizes- including those from @babysleepsite and @mabelhood. (Can enter multiple times with multiple tweets.)

5. Become a fan of our Facebook page and a fan of the Facebook pages of one of our sponsors . Leave a comment to let us know you’ve become a fan (1 entry for each page you’ve fanned)

• Babble Soft on Facebook

• Mabel’s Labels on Facebook

• The Baby Sleep Site^TM on Facebook

6. Subscribe to the Babble Soft Blog, the Baby Sleep Site^TM Blog or Mabel’s Labels Blog (and leave a comment letting us know you’ve subscribed):

• Babble Soft Blog via RSS or via Email (1 entry)

• The Baby Sleep Site^TM Blog via RSS or via Email (1 entry)

• Mabel’s Label’s Blog via RSS (1 entry)

7. Subscribe to Babble Soft, Baby Sleep Site^TM or Mabel’s Labels Newsletters and leave a comment telling us which newsletters you’ve subscribed to.

• Babble Soft e-newsletter (upper right corner of this page). (1 entry)

• The Baby Sleep Site^TM Newsletter (1 entry)

• Mabel’s Labels Newsletter (1 entry)

8. Blog about this giveaway with a link back to this blog post. Leave a comment with a link to your blog post. (10 entries)

Good luck to everyone that enters and thanks for visiting the Babble Soft Blog!

by Nicole Johnson

Are you ready for Halloween? That’s one fun thing about October, but October is also an important month because it’s SIDS Awareness Month. In 2005, 2,230 babies died of SIDS and while it’s not preventable, there are things you can do as a new parent to reduce the risk. Here are some SIDS facts:

What is SIDS?

SIDS is the diagnosis given when an infant under one year of age dies suddenly and there is no other medical explanation for the death after a complete examination.

SIDS is most likely to occur in infants between one month and 12 months of age with the majority of deaths occurring between 2 and 4 months of age.  The risk of SIDS diminishes significantly after the first year.

How to Reduce the SIDS risk:

• Place babies on their backs to sleep. If baby falls asleep on his tummy, gently roll baby onto his back.

• Baby should sleep on a firm, flat mattress. Avoid using soft, fluffy or loose bedding that can increase suffocation risks. Consider using a sleeper or other sleep clothing as an alternative to blankets. (See the Merino Wool Baby Sleeping bag as part of our giveaway.)

• Keep baby’s room temperature warm but not too warm. Overheated
  babies are more likely to go into a deep sleep from which it may be hard to wake up.

• Babies with mothers who smoked during pregnancy are three times
  more likely to die from SIDS. Exposure to passive smoke around babies can double their risk of SIDS.

• Good prenatal care and breastfeeding can also help lower the risks of SIDS.

Please forward this valuable information to people you know to save lives!

Now for some Babble Soft news:

The Ultimate Guide to Baby’s First Year of Sleep
Win a $75 Target Gift Card, $50 Target Gift Card, 3-Month Subscription, and more!
Babble Soft Is Staying Home

The Ultimate Guide to Baby’s First Year of Sleep

We know that many of you find your way to Babble Soft because you are trying to help your baby get on a schedule and possibly sleep better, too. Using Baby Insights helps you do both and now we have more ways to help! Now when you purchase a subscription to Babble Soft, you not only receive a subscription to Baby Say Cheese, your very own online baby album, but you will also receive a free copy of the book The Ultimate Guide to Baby’s First Year of Sleep! Inside the book you will learn the primary ways to help your baby sleep through the night, how much sleep he really needs, how to help him nap better, tips for keeping up your tracking in Baby Insights, and more! The book also has sample schedules for each month of age to compare against what your baby is doing. To purchase a subscription, please go to the Purchase Page, now!

Win a $75 Target Gift Card, $50 Target Gift Card, 3-month subscription, and more!

In recognition of SIDS Awareness Month, Babble Soft is co-sponsoring a giveaway on the Pick Nick’s Brain website and providing 3-month subscriptions to three lucky winnsers! There are a variety of prizes available including a $75 Target Gift Card and $50 Target Gift Card. Who doesn’t need some money in time for the holidays? To enter the giveaway is very easy and takes just a few seconds of your time, so head over now by following this link: Enter Giveaway!

Babble Soft Is Staying Home

Awhile ago, we announced that Babble Soft was looking for a new home and for all intents and purposes, we’ve found one! But, it’s not too far from the current home, so you might say we’re staying home. I have decided to take on the operations at Babble Soft! Helping parents with their babies is near and dear to my heart and I have a lot of passion for it, so it made sense for me to take it over and run with it. Aruni has taken the company to an amazing place and she is an amazing woman, but with all the things on her plate right now, she needed to confidently let someone else see to the day-to-day details. Aruni is still part owner and Babble Soft will always be near and dear to her heart. I know that I wish her well in her next endeavors.

Have a great weekend!

We are sure you have been busy, lately, but take a minute to give yourself something special for Mother’s Day! We, here at Babble Soft, know how busy life can be as we have finished our iPhone and Blackberry versions of Baby Insights (in Beta now), spoke at SXSW Interactive, kept up our day jobs, and have continued to be moms and wives. But, we don’t let that stop us because we are committed to making parenting easier for the new age moms and dads!

To say thank you to all the other hard-working parents (is there another kind?), we are offering 15% off any Babble Soft subscription! Go to the Purchase Page and enter MOTHER#1 between now and May 10, 2009.

And, don’t miss your chance to win a FREE three-month subscription to Babble Soft, gift cards at Amazon, or FREE baby sleep consultations to help you with your sleep struggles! It takes 10 seconds, so enter now!.

Good luck and Happy Mother’s Day!!