Our New Addition

Hubby and I welcomed a new addition to our family on Dec 30th 2012. Although she wasn't expected to make her appearance until early January, she was on her own schedule. My water broke at 7am, which was follwed by a phone call to our midwive. Having a foley with our son, I was a bit unfamiliar of the procedure when a labour starts naturally. We met up with our midwive at the office for an examination around 9:30am. Needless to say, the examination never took place. The contractions started hard and fast, some weren't even a minute apart. About 10am, after trying to get on the table to be checked a few times unsuccessfully, we decided that the contractions were coming too hard and too fast, and we needed to head out to the hospital. Driving faster than I would have liked, even though it was by my direction, we made it to the hospital with just enough time to spare. We got up to the room, in the bed, and about 35 minutes later, our little girl Lauren was born. She came so fast, our second midwife didn't make the birth. 4.5 hours from water breaking to birth isn't bad in my books! It was a new, exciting, and to some degree liberating experience to do it on my own; to have the support of my husband there, more involved then he was able to be the first time, and the direction and support of my midwife. It was just the three of us in the room, no distractions, orders, chaos and confusion, it was great. I was able to have her on my chest right away, hubby was able to cut the cord, I was able to see the placenta, and was shown everything I didn't see with our son. I've had this in my head, and although it may be jibberish at times, I felt the need to write it down for no one or someone to read :) Baby Lauren 8 lb 11 oz 21inches

The Art of Play!

I have been experiencing some anxiety over how to engage my 19 month old son with different sensory and play activities now that I am on maternity leave again.
After a visit with a friend of mine, we came up with this fantastic idea! J loves to paint, but with a home that has mostly carpet, I dont feel comfortable with him playing with paints. The solution: an empty bathtub, an egg carton filled with watered down paints, a paintbrush and a happy boy in his diaper!
The best part? Turn on the tap, wash it down and it turns right into bath time!! :)

This is a fantastic idea for those moms who aren't comfortable with paints out in the house but still want their children to experience the joys of stress free painting!