toy stuck to my butt and x-rated flowers

today Ivy and i went for our usual walk...

and little did I know I had one of her wee toys (a wrist rattle) stuck to my butt almost the entire time!

we saw these x-rated flowers on our walk. yikes!

multi-tasking mommy stylezzzz

i've taken multi-tasking to new heights...
i didn't mention that my last post was written while I was also pumping (as in pumping breast milk, not pumping iron), eating apple sauce and using my foot to rock Ivy in her vibrating rocking chair.

(by the way, if the mention of breast pumping gives you the willies (ie. makes you uncomfortable), you may want to consider not reading future posts. Because for at least 6-8 hours of my day I am a milk machine, I decided I had to "go there" with my posts)

As I write this I am wolfing down swiss chard-lentil-chickpea power stew that I made and froze in my last week of pregnancy, putting thank-you notes in envelopes and, of course, writing this blog.  Ivy is upstairs sleeping in this god-awful overload-of-cuteness swing that Joe and I bought last week for 200$ out of sleep-deprived induced desperation.

My amazing sister (in-law) Julie gave me this photo after Ivy was born.  This house is where my man Joe, Julie and their brother Dave grew up in east Toronto.  Their dad (who passed away a few years ago) wrote "it's a girl" on the outside of their house with thick tape after Julie was born.  Isn't that awesome?

This blog post is going to reflect my scattered brain right now... I'm trying to play catch up for the last month of not posting.

Here's Ivy and I the first time I carried her in this amazing ring-sling my sister-in-law gave us.  I've been making sure to leave the house at least once a day, most often I go to The Common, my local coffee shop. Yes, I am obsessed with their coffee.  We've been getting free copies of the Globe and Mail delivered daily to our house, so I've been in the routine of getting a coffee and sitting down to read the paper, with Ivy in the sling. which  feels like pure luxury. I never thought I would have relaxing moments like this with a newborn.   (Note my super-pale lips from my insane blood loss after Ivy's birth. I will tell you about that in a later post.)

Over the thanksgiving weekend Joe and I took Ivy on here first field trip to the High Park zoo.  As you can see from the photos below, she had a blast!

gotta run, the wee bebe is calling my name...

The bebe's name is Ivy and she's a month old...

hi!
It's been a month an two days since I've written a post.  So I was right, i was in labour when i wrote my last post!

Ivy was born at home, in our bedroom, at 6:49am on Sept. 17.

Here's Ivy just after she was born.  That's my hubby Joe and one of our awesome midwives, Angela, from Kensington Midwives.

Ivy's birth went very smoothly.  Of course, it was painful, but the guttural cavewoman sounds I learned in Sasha Padron's prenatal class that Joe and I attended, and of course, support from my man, got me through.  The experience is unexplainable... time is warped, the mind reframes the pain so that I never fully recalled how painful a previous contraction was while experiencing the next one.  Did that make sense?  I would say that a natural labour and birth is a truly psychedelic experience.  

This photo, taken probably less than a minute after she was born, is proof of how much my mind was truly blown!!!

I haven't decided if I should share a more detailed "birth story".  I'm still trying to figure out what kind of "mommy blog" this will be, how much of my new mommy life I will be revealing.... I've got some thinking to do.

I will share this... Ivy's first non-black tar poop!  

Here is a photo of Ivy now... what a babe!

I'm off to my first parent meetup group (The Mamas and Papas of Trinity-Bellwoods) at Trinity Bellwoods farmer's market.   I'm a bit nervous to dive into the world of the stroller gang, but my friend Amanda (who blogs for Diaper-eez) vouches that she's met some nice peeps at the group.

over and out....