New Moms: Wash Your Hands and Do Not Touch Baby Signs Belong in your Hospital Bag!

Wash Your Hands Baby Car Seat Signs should be in your hospital bag! 

You know, I laugh when I hear people say that putting up a Wash Your Hands Sign is "silly" and that germs are "good" for newborn immune systems. I can assure you, whoever says these things never walked into a hospital nursery—at least, not in this day and age—or simply doesn't remember what they make you do the instant you get there, before having any contact with your own baby!

When my daughters were born, my husband and I would, of course, visit the nursery often. And the first thing they make you do is wash your hands — and I mean wash them, practically scraping the top layer of skin off under hot water, with sterilized soap, for a full 60 seconds (our hospital had a timer). And, may I add, my daughters were not premies, they were born healthy! Newborns and germs DON'T mix. They are very fragile, they can't regulate their body temperature well, and getting sick and/or a fever while so small is extremely serious! I am not saying this to merely sell you something — this is a fact!

The minute we left the hopital and went out in public (I had to buy a few things I hadn't anticipated on), people tried to touch! "How cute!!! How old is she?" They'd reach for her and they'd play 20 questions. The questions were fine; but the touching really bothered me, especially since I'm not the confrontational type.

I've seen some people attach hand sanitizer to car seats ... well, try to get away with only applying hand sanitizer in a hospital nursery ... they'll laugh you out of the room! The fact of the matter is, people should NOT be touching your baby! You don't know where their hands have been, and face it — you're not going to ask! YOU NEED A BABY SIGN! A car seat sign should be on your packing list for the hospital. You absolutely have to have it! Because people love newborns, they have the misconception that germs are "good" for your newborn or preemie (or maybe they just don't think about it), and they like to touch, often without even asking or before you can say no.

If you haven't had this problem, consider yourself blessed — and don't count on it never happening!

Here's a helpful hint: If you visit our website through WashYourHandsSigns.com, you can get a 5% bonus coupon for purchase of our Wash Your Hands signs! This coupon may be combined with most other discounts, so keep it handy and feel free to share!

Heart Warrior Signs for Babies with Congenital Heart Disease / Defects 

More Than I Can Bear - No Touch the Baby Newborn Car Seat Signs 

You can also purchase a matching Teddy Bear Do Not Touch the Baby Car Seat Sign and CHD Heart Warrior Wash Your Hands Signs on our website, DontTouchBaby.com.

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As a side note, you can now view our Daily Deal on our other websites: PremieSigns.com, CarSeatSigns.com, WashYourHandsSigns.com and coming soon on CHDSigns.com

The Invention of the Don't Touch the Baby Sign

As many of you know, my 2nd daughter was born in early 2011. It was such an exciting time in my life! I'd waited so long for a perfect little baby and there she was! So pretty and so cute, all I wanted to do was cuddle and play with her. Well, it turns out I wasn't alone.

I had to leave the house (for groceries, and not to mention my sanity) and when I did, baby obviously had to go. Before long, I realized I had an annoying little problem that just kept getting bigger as baby did: PEOPLE!

People with dirty hands!

People we did not know!

People who were visibly sick!!!

People wanting to touch my precious little baby! As a complete germaphobe, I was TERRIFIED! When a cashier at the supermarket came over to play with her during flu season - and tried to KISS HER HAND - it was the last straw! I now hated leaving the house with my baby. I did not want to risk getting her sick. I am a polite person, and I did not want to offend people by saying "Back off!" Which is what they deserved. I asked other moms how they told people to leave their babies alone, and it seemed my problem was very common and equally annoying to all. Their advice? A) be rude for my kid's sake, B) lie about food allergies or C) stay at home!

Well, that was a no-brainer! I chose: C) stay at home!

Just Kidding!

Early in 2012, I had another baby girl. Now I was going out with not one but TWO very cute, playful babies. As I suspected, the problem did not get better; it got worse. As politely as possible, I'd tell people not to touch due to food allergies. (Can you imagine if they had food allergies? Those poor kids with peanut allergies, you don't know who just had a peanut butter sandwich and is now touching your baby!) But it didn't work. Often I would be "too late" and they already touched my kid before I even opened my mouth. What to do!

Baby Car Seat Signs 

Well, I am an artist, after all. So I created a sign, had it professionally printed and assembled it to put near my baby. And what happened? NO ONE TOUCHED! AT ALL! I tested this sign out for an entire month! While people commented on how cute and clever it was, and even went out of their way to read it, NOT ONCE did someone attempt to touch my baby! And in case you're wondering, NO ONE that came across was offended by this sign! It turns out, people do have a sense of humor!

And that was it, problem solved! No worries about being rude and no worrying about dirty hands - I let the sign do all the work, and it was great to finally stop worrying about it!

From the first day I put my sign to use, people with babies and LOTS of pregnant ladies have asked where they can get one. Well now you can get one here! I seriously can not think of a single parent in the whole world this would not be useful for! This would make a great baby shower gift, too. Unless you are a complete hermit crab who never leaves home, you NEED this! Trust me, I know from experience!

About Do Not Touch the Baby Signs:

• Sign measures approximately 6.5" x 4.3"
• Sign is laminated, so it's durable and easy to clean.
• Comes with a FREE velcro strap for attaching to infant car seat carriers! Colors may vary, while supplies last!
• For maximum visibility, the Do Not Touch the Baby image is printed on both sides.
• Handmade in the USA.
• Please allow 2-3 business days for your sign to ship.
• Ships via 1st class mail. Allow up to 3 weeks for delivery.

Note: NOT A TOY, so don't allow your baby to play with the Do Not Touch the Baby sign. KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN.

So pick one up for your baby's car seat, stroller, and a few for your best friend's baby shower! You'll be glad you did, and you'll be sparing yourself - and them - a massive headache!

BUY ONLINE AT DontTouchBaby.com

Rockin' Memorial Art

This will be a very strange post, but I assure you it's art-related, so please bear with me. =)

I'm not sure if I mentioned it on my blog - I know I mentioned it in emails to some of my illustrator friends who were checking in on me - but as the only artist in the family, I was plagued with the task of designing my own brother's headstone. Our father had no idea what to put on it, and we wanted it to mean something, to have something special to remember Dave by. Not only did I have to come up with a design, but I had to do it in under 48 hours, because we'd put it off for months (too depressed to even discuss it - I guess it sort of finalizes things?). It was something we needed to get done. Stone needed ordering, and the granite company needed a plan.

The first day designing did not go so well. I wasted most of the first 24 hours crying about how unfair it was that I had to design my little brother's headstone. The best way to describe how I was feeling is to say I felt tortured. I hated every design I came up with. As an artist, I often times hate the art I create by the time the year is up, and I kept thinking people are going to look at this stone for the next hundred years!!!

Yes, I was throwing a huge fit, and I'm thankful to Joe for coping, telling me to take a break and start over later. On the second day, I really started thinking about what Dave would've wanted. For starters, his favorite picture - his "hero shot" as he called it:

Since this was his absolute favorite picture (taken a bit too late to be in his high school yearbook, unfortunately) it made the most sense to start with that.

Next I thought about his favorite place, the place he'd told me just last July he'd wanted to return to someday - Gates of the Arctic National Park in northern Alaska:

Dave was such a huge astronomy buff (wanted to work for NASA), so of course I had to add planets and stars to my list. And a compass rose, because after all, he did get that B.A. in Geography at the ripe old age of 19. I'd also decided the compass should point north from the grave, so if he's still around in spirit, he won't lose his way home.

So I made up a sketch and described what I was thinking the best I could - leaving the lettering & final details up to them - and to give credit where it's due, I sent it along to the kind folks at Stroudsburg Granite in NE Pennsylvania. And here's what they did:

We are all so happy with how it turned out! I can't believe the amount of detail they could get into stone! As an artist I am just marveled by how they can do this - I mean there is practically no difference between him in that photograph and him etched in stone! It has to be one of the best-designed and best-etched rocks in the cemetery, it literally "rocks"!

I would prefer, of course, to never have had the need to design it at all. This was absolutely the hardest design I ever had to work on. But I'm so proud of the result, I wouldn't have it any other way!