NEXT comes to Spain!

For those of you who miss shopping at NEXT, I have just come across www.nextdirectory.eu You can order all your childrens clothes, maternity wear and even buy something for the hubby if you like and they deliver to Spain for just 7.50 euros!! Hooray!
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Freecycle

The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,557 groups with 5,525,000 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them's good people). Membership is free. www.freecycle.org Lo and behold, we have a group in Fuengirola!!
Fab site, and the more members we have, the better it becomes!
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Great website for all things handmade

I came across this today and I am going to look at it a little closer. It is a community bringing together people who make things themselves to sell. Some lovely things on there. Maybe a Mum in Spain could use it to sell their own products.

www.etsy.com
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Baby Cheque of 2500 euros!

By the middle of April 2008 more than 10,000 families in the province of Malaga had obtained their 2,500 euros the government now gives out for every newborn baby or adoption. This amounts to some 25 million euros spent on the subsidy in this area, according to statistics provided by Socialist Member of Parliament Miguel Ángel Heredia. The benefit, which has become known as the “baby cheque”, came into force in July last year. The 2,500 euros increases to 3,500 in the case of families with three or more children and single-parent families.

You can view more information about the baby cheque and common questions on our discussion forum via these links:

http://mumsinspain.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=315
http://mumsinspain.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1887
http://mumsinspain.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1556&highlight=baby+check+cheque
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Bottled Water for Babies

It is pretty difficult to know what to do for the best for your little one sometimes - it seems to be a permanent pre occupation, especially when they are very little. You do need to be choosy when it comes to bottle water. The only bottled water that I have read is ok to give to a baby without boiling it is Evian. I actually used Lanjaron for Charlie and I boiled it. It states on the bottle it can be used for baby food. Another brand is Font Vella Junior.

Bottled water with a sodium level of less than 20mg is best to use for babies & children however, less than 10mg is preferable. Evian contains 5mg & Font Vela Junior 13mg. The mineral contents are printed on the labels of the bottles so do check them carefully. Current health advice is to boil all water for babies under 6 months so, if you intend to boil go for the lowest possible sodium content. Magnesium & Calcium levels should be higher than Sodium as these are minerals highly utilised by the body along with potassium & zinc.

Hope that made sense! If you are confused or perhaps on holiday and don't want to take any chances a couple of the supermarkets, Hipercor for sure, sell tetrapacks of baby water all ready to be used either for formula or to drink as it is. You will find it their baby aisle.

View our discussion on this subject:
http://mumsinspain.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1900
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Giving Birth in Spain

Well plenty of women have done and have lived to tell the tale, but for any new mum is can be a very anxious time! I had lived in Spain 9 years before I fell pregnant for Charlie so you would think I wouldn't be worried about giving birth in Spain, but despite speaking the language Spain still feels like a foreign country to me and I did know that giving birth was quite different than what you can watch 24 hours a day now if you want to on Discovery Home and Health!

It is this fear that got me thinking about setting up a community to help people feeling the same way and so http://www.mumsinspain.com/ was born. You can read about other mum's birth experiences on there if you follow either one these links. Like everywhere there are always horror stories, but they are in the minority. It certainly is different here in Spain, but different doesn't necessarily mean worse.

http://mumsinspain.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=2&sid=8b0c91c79e9a6a53586eb1249dbcba73

http://www.mumsinspain.com/index.php?mode=birth_stories_category

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Sorry for not being around

Having a little one can make you feel like you are missing a head sometimes, especially in this summer heat! I run www.mumsinspain.com so I have been adding all my news there, but I will make an effort to post on here too. Infact I am going to add some stuff today that I have already posted on my forum, hope you find some interesting bits of info.

Charlie will soon be 2 (in 2 months)! My little boy seems so grown up and has definitely matured. He is quite happy to play on his own now with his toys which is great for me as it means I can work from home more effectively, but also equally as nice to be able to watch him play like that....so cute! Kissing and talking to his toys! Car-mad Charlie is!

Claire & Charlie xx
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mumsinspain.com goes Live!

Finally the site for Mums in Spain is live! As well as the forum there are lots of new sections....articles and birth stories, mums in business and an A-Z Directory. There will be new additions on almost a daily basis so keep coming back..........www.mumsinspain.com
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