The good news is I still write a Sunday column “Hart to Heart” for the Savannah Morning News Accent section.

The bad news is they are cutting my column back from once a week to every other week. Very depressing and confidence-shattering. But that’s the state of print journalism today - budget cuts and lay offs.

I will continue to use this Web site to promote my columns when they run on the first and third Sunday of each month. Feel free to share story ideas and comments on what you’d like my column to focus on in the future. I get mixed messages on whether readers want more personal stories or more issue-oriented stories. My last two columns have offered a little of each.

Last week, I shared the humorous birth story of our precious new daughter, Francie, who arrived as an early Christmas gift for our family and a 40th birthday gift for me. You can read the column here. (The photo posted above is of Francie looking a little perplexed by her big brother as he tries to explain fingers and hands to her.)

This Sunday’s topic is a bit more controversial: breast feeding in public. I, personally, am often too shy to breast feed in public,  but support mothers who do 100 percent. You can read the column here. It’s about a breast feeding feud prompted by Facebook banning some breast-feeding photos on the basis of being obscene. Do you think breast-feeding photos are obscene? Please share your opinion in the comment section below.

Having trouble breastfeeding?
Find out more about breastfeeding by attending a meeting of La Leche League of Savannah on the first Tuesday of every month at 6:30 pm. The next meeting is Jan. 6.
Meetings are now being held @ The Family Health and Birth Center, 1692 Chatham Parkway, Savannah.
La Leche League of Savannah is a breastfeeding support group for new and expectant mothers. La Leche League Leaders of Savannah are also available by phone or email for anyone who needs more information.
Call 912.897.9261 or click here

You’ve taken all the baby-prep classes offered at your local hospital. You’ve read every baby book.

But you still worry you’re going to make the same sleeping/feeding mistakes as you did with your other babies or that you’re simply not prepared to enjoy the first months of your baby’s life without feeling tired and overwhelmed.

The same Atlanta pediatric nurses behind MomsOnCall.com and the online toddler seminar we promoted a few months ago are now offering an online infant-care training class that covers topics like:

• Getting your baby to sleep ALL NIGHT
• The real story on feeding your baby
• Establishing a schedule that fits your family
• Specific soothing techniques that work immediately
• Practical advice from moms who have been there

The online class is designed to help with specifics on how to care for a 0-3 month old baby and address the immediate concerns of getting on a great schedule, soothing a fussy baby and getting baby to sleep.

Click here for info.

Baby weight.

How do you lose it? Why is there so much of it? And why do other moms seem to banish their baby bellies immediately after giving birth?

Maybe their secret is Belly Bandits, an abdominal compression binder to help flatten the belly and redefine the waistline post-baby. The wrap also helps decrease bloating caused by water retention, give support to legs and back, improve posture and reduce back and shoulder pain associated with breastfeeding. Check out the wraps here.

Belly Bandit is giving away a $50 Belly Bandit Couture to a lucky SouthernMamas subscriber. See the giveaway wrap here. Even if you aren’t pregnant or a recent new mom, these tummy wraps make fun shower and baby gifts.

To be eligible to win, email us your name and your secret to losing baby weight (or your gameplan on how you will lose it.) Deadline is 9 pm Thurs. Sept. 18. Send email to anne@southernmamas.com. We’ll pick a name at random and announce the winner here Friday. The winner can select her size of Belly Bandit.

You have to be a SouthernMamas subscriber to participate. Subscribing is free. Click here to do so.

Love & Blessings.com knows gift baskets.

Theirs are beautiful, artfully-packaged treasures full of products from companies committed to quality organic ingredients, hip style and making it easier on mothers overall.

Love & Blessings.com has created a $70 mama/baby bathtime bonding basket just for a lucky SouthernMama. Whether you just gave birth, are expecting or desire a unique and special gift for someone who is.

All the goodies are delightfully wrapped in a natural willow baby bassinette basket that the new mom can use later to hold diapers or other baby essentials. The giveaway basket includes:

Little Twig’s Body Milk: Unscented - all-over moisturizer especially formulated for little ones with extra sensitive skin. Certified organic.

Bumble Bee Bath Mitt: Makes bathtime sudsy fun. In terrycloth from Little Twig.

Little Twig’s Baby Wash: Unscented - extra mild, organic botanical formula makes for purely clean skin and soft hair. Contains Aloe Vera, Vitamin E and jojoba. Certified organic.

Earth Mama Angel Baby Postpartum Recovery tea: astringent herbs help tone the uterus while other herbs nourish, calm and balance brand new moms. 100 percent organic herbs rich in iron, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus. $100 percent organic.

The Baby Bonding Audiobook on CD: 50 Ways to Connect with Your Infant by Victoria Loveland-Coen: Opens the heart
and sets an atmosphere conducive to bonding by providing simple, fun and intimate activities to do with your baby. These are the very same activities child development experts agree help create strong infant attachment.

Here’s how to win this fantastic giveaway.

Love & Blessings was born out of a desire to share with other new moms what its founder, Victoria Loveland-Coen, came to understand shortly after giving birth. What did she have? A boy? Girl? Quadruplets?

To find the answer, visit loveandblessings.com and hit the “about” section. Email us your name and the correct answer by 11 pm Thurs. Email it to anne@southernmamas.com. We’ll pick a name at random and announce it Friday on www.southernmamas.com.

Remember you have to be a SouthernMamas subscriber to participate. It’s free to subscribe. Click here to do so.

Looking for perfect Mother’s Day gifts? Check out our newest sponsor, Love & Blessings.com.

The online boutique has unique gifts for mama and baby. SouthernMamas readers receive five percent off all products! Just enter the code SOMAMA at the checkout and the five percent will automatically apply.

The folks @ Love & Blessings.com are pros at putting special gift baskets together, for moms, new moms, expectant moms. You can create your own gift basket or select one that Love & Blessings already has set up and filled with all their goodies.

Love & Blessings is also the site to hit when looking for fun gifts for new moms. Think Bebe Au Lait nursing covers (pictured here) to make breastfeeding a little less eye-catching; organic cotton baby clothes; organic baby lotions and body washes; books and CDs.

Enjoy and don’t forget to plug in that discount code.

You believe in gentle discipline, not spanking.

You believe in co-sleeping or sleeping near your baby, not letting babies “cry it out.”

And you definitely prefer “wearing your baby,” not going the stroller route.

If that describes you and you’re looking for new friends with similar parenting styles to yours, then check out a local attachment parenting group. It’s open to all like-minded parents including pregnant, new birth or adoptive, says member and Southern Mamas fan Laura Langlois Zurro. Click here for more info.

For other social moms groups in our area, click here.

Looking for a helpful gift for a new parent?

Check out the Itzbeen Baby Care Timer, which helps parents know how long it’s been since the last nursing, diaper change or naptime.
The Itzbeen was invented by a new mom and dad who found themselves sleep-deprived and in need of help to remember EVERYTHING, including when their baby last ate.

The Itzbeen has four timers that help you clock the time since the last feeding, medication time etc. It also has a nightlight to help mom find her way around the nursery at night without waking baby. There’s even a nursing reminder switch to remember from which side the baby fed.

It’s enough to make you wonder how those of us without such a gotta-have gadget ever managed.

Itzbeen is available for $24.99 in our Southern Mamas Picks boutique, powered by Amazon. Click here. Browse our other recommendations for books for children and parents, toys and baby gear. You’re still shopping through Amazon and you’ll see the same functionality, such as your Amazon wishlist, if you already are an Amazon shopper.

Here’s a reason to avoid liquid infant formula packaged in cans and opt instead for powdered formula, liquid formula not packaged in cans, or exclusive breastfeeding:
The Environmental Working Group, an advocacy and research organization, says in a new report that liquid formula from the nation’s top baby formula makers is sold in cans lined with bisphenol-A, or BPA. BPA is a hormone-mimicking chemical that has been found to cause hyperactivity, sexual development abnormalities and pediatric brain cancer in laboratory animals.

According to media reports, formula makers acknowledge the presence of BPA, but say it is not harmful. The Food and Drug Administration agrees.

Concerns were raised earlier this year about BPA in plastic, shatterproof baby bottles and sippy cups. For suggestions on safer bottles and cups, click here.

“Eight steps to increase fertility” (MSNBC)

“Teens take bullying to the Internet, study finds” (Reuters)

“Safe toy shopping tips” (San Francisco Chronicle)

“YouTube bans breastfeeding video” (Seattle Post Intelligencer)

“Autistic children have more gray matter in brains” (U.S. News & World Report)

“Clinton unveils autism plan” (Associated Press)