snow day

After a mild weekend (temperature wise) we are back in the blasted cold of the Prairies. Ugh. It wouldn't be so bad if we hadn't been teased by the warmer weather but here we are, too cold to go outside with kids, especially my 2 month old. Which means my 2 and 4 year old aren't too happy with me and are causing havoc more so than usual because they can't expend their energy inside the house without causing me to go buggy as well. Did you follow that? Fritzing cold weather + 2 year old + 4 year old + 2 month old = a mom going insane fairly quickly.

What to do, what to do...

make a snow day! If we can't go outside to play, we can bring the outside inside.

Balled up pieces of paper quickly become snowballs:

Marshmallows can turn into snowmen:

And cotton balls, buttons and glue guarantee this mom won't be setting foot outside today:

Forget turning lemons into lemonade; we just figured out how to turn -30 degrees into fun! Yep, that was totally cheesy. But hey, I just survived a day stuck in the house with 3 kids and we're still all sane (relatively).

my daughter?

There's a blue-eyed, curly-haired, chubby-as-everything eight week old living in our house:

maia's birth

Maia was born at home. In my bed.

She was my shortest labour but the most intense.

Intrigued?

I found out I was pregnant just a few weeks after moving to Regina. Not knowing where to start looking for good prenatal care or for a good doctor who would deliver my baby, I made an appointment with a doctor near my house. It was not the greatest experience. A quick online search and I found that the health region employed three midwives. They agreed to take me on as a client and we soon found out that they were tasked with working to their fullest capacity - which meant home births were offered and encouraged, given the right circumstances.

I happened to be the "perfect" candidate for a home birth - my first two pregnancies and deliveries were normal and this pregnancy was also deemed low-risk. While liking the idea of delivering at home, in my own space, I had mixed feelings about it.

With the knowledge that a home birth would only happen if there were two midwives available, I mentally prepared to have my baby at the hospital, all the while collecting the necessary items for having a baby at home.

Three days after my due date, I had made it through a week of sporadic contractions and a weekend of my midwife not being on call. Which brought me to Monday, with my regular weekly visit to my midwife and the knowledge that if I went into labour, I could be having a baby at home. And that evening, enter labour I did, with an intensity I had never experienced before. My kids were in bed and my husband had gone back to work. It wasn't long before I was calling him home and it wasn't long after that that he was calling the midwife.

The midwives came to the house and stayed with me through the whole process. There was no constant checking to see how I was progressing; rather they checked the baby's heartbeat on a consistent basis to ensure the baby was still "happy". As long as I was dealing well with the contractions, they let my body set its own pace. If you've had a baby, you know how time can lose all meaning when you are in labour - I lost all track of time as I stood in my shower and my body worked to get ready for birthing a baby. When I felt the need to start pushing, I moved to my bed. There, with my permission, my midwife broke my water, the intensity of the contractions eased and I was able to relax between them. Less than an hour later, on my hands and knees, with a slow, sustained push, my baby emerged. Her head came out and before the rest of her body was out, she was squawking. A good start for a girl with two older brothers.

She was my smallest baby, had the most hair and was definitely the loudest. No meds, no IV, no tearing, no being rushed, no harsh lights, nothing unfamiliar. She and I hung out for a few minutes, her dad cut her cord, and then she got her chance to snuggle in and nurse.

All the while, her brothers slept.

And that's the story...or at least my version of the story. There are a bunch of numbers and times I could pass on but this birth never focused on them and so I don't feel the need to relate them. It was a good experience. Relaxed (as much as a birth can be) and low-key. And, to my pleasant surprise, all went much better than I had anticipated. The follow-up care was amazing as I had a midwife come to my house multiple days to check on us to make sure all was going well. A week later my 7 pound, 2 ounce baby was back up to her birth weight and we were settling in to the new normal.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, by the time the midwives left, you would never have guessed that a baby was born in my bed.

life right now

There have been lots of changes in this household over the last month, so I figured an update may be in order... 

• Our third child was born. 

• Nine days later we moved.  

• We celebrated Christmas in there someplace. It's a bit of a blur.

• Six days later my husband went back to school. Full time. With all the labs and academic fun that one can imagine. He was sort of excited to go back to school. As in he looked forward to seeing all the guys he hung out with last year. The homework, not so much. 

• We are now living in a 5-bedroom townhouse a 5-minute walk from school.  

• We are slowly settling into a routine. Fortunately Maia likes her swing and the boys like helping with their sister. Also fortunate is that we have lived in this city before so I could get the boys back into familiar activities quickly. Their favorite? Going to the fieldhouse once a week to run, kick soccer balls and generally burn energy. Might be one of my favorites too.

• Our daughter is chunking up nicely - she's got chubby cheeks and a double chin. One of these days the roads will be decent enough for me to make it to a midwife appointment in the city and then I can find out just how much the girl weighs.

• Having three kids is not for the faint-hearted. Everything is more difficult and the kids don't always understand that their needs can't be met right this minute. It's a learning experience for all of us.

• We are still unpacking. Hopefully after this weekend we'll be done and I can spend my little bit of free time doing other things. Like making more pumpkin bread that my family can't seem to get enough of.

So, all that to say that we are surviving. And still kicking. My kitchen remains a disaster and the toys are still strewn about the living room but we all have clean clothes to wear and have full bellies. Life isn't too bad.



she's here!

Maia Claire arrived this morning at 3am in her parents bed while her brothers slept blissfully unaware of the events unfolding around them. 7lbs, 2oz, dark hair and squawking, we now have a girl in our midst.

Happy, healthy and slightly sleep deprived, we are all doing well.

snow

We got snow the beginning of November. It is still here. My youngest didn't remember snow from last year as 1) there wasn't much and 2) he didn't experience it hands on because he was too little. So the first real snowfall was a bit of a shocker for him. To his credit though, he has gone from feeling like this about the snow:



Sort of having fun but not quite sure what to make of it all.



Liking the whole shovelling thing but not liking the mitt thing.

To feeling like this:



Loving every minute outside, eating snow and sliding down the hill on his belly, head first.

Which is a good thing. The snow will be here for another 4-ish months.

arts & crafts

My oldest must be growing up. Lately the resounding refrain is "Mom, can we do a craft?". I never thought I'd hear those words come out of his mouth...this is my boy that loves all things that go. Things that "do". The one that has the attention span of about 2 minutes for colouring and all things crafty.

Not anymore.

We played bingo at James' Christmas party (with a real bingo machine, cards & dabbers - it was actually kinda fun) and brought home some of the bingo dabbers for the boys to play with. I figured it would be another short-lived venture but to my surprise he quite enjoyed making pictures with the bingo dabbers. Unfortunately, they are somewhat limiting when it comes to creativity...or, looking at it another way, fortunately they hide my deficiencies when it comes to painting/drawing. Nevermind that we only have 3 colours to work with.

My creative attempts with bingo dabbers.

Lane's picture (L), my picture of grass, as requested by Lane (R)

But the now oft-repeated refrain has forced this mommy to dig into the archives and come up with crafts that we can do with supplies on hand in the theme demanded of the almost-4-year-old child.

Lane's butterfly and Christmas tree.

So when my child requested a butterfly craft, the first thing that I thought of was to make tissue paper "stained glass" creations. A bit of work for me but a lot of fun gluing tissue paper for my boy.

Avery & Mom's butterfly.

Lane's soccer ball.

And, as always, it is an adventure.