body politics: pregnancy weight gain and postpartum recovery

Hi friends,

Tomorrow Ivy will be 7 months old! Yeah Ivy!

Ivy modelling this psychedelic romper this morning

Ivy modelling this corduroy romper

It was a slow journey, but my body is starting to feel like it's back to normal...  I'm about the same weight, all my pre-pregnancy clothes fit and I no longer feel like my internal organs are floating randomly around in my torso. They are back to their original locations. 

However, I am surprised at how little I basked in the glory of being able to do up my jeans again after months of pure leggings wearing, at how quickly my internal dialogue reverted right back to my pre-pregnancy mindset of wanting to just lose 5 pounds.  Arghh!  I spent what felt like 5 minutes feeling relieved and excited that my body was returning to normal before I went right back to being dissatisfied. 

Despite gaining more than the recommended weight during my pregnancy, I was able to resist the pressure from others to obsess over my weight gain. I felt great and I loved my pregnant body. During my pregnancy and after Ivy was born I would look at photos of my pre-pregnancy self and curse myself for not appreciating my body. I swore to myself that I would not let my self-image get so distorted again. 

I thought maybe I had turned a corner in my life and was over the whole body hate thing. 

me at 35 weeks

38 weeks preggo

38 weeks preggo

And of course, I have no photos of myself. I have no time, or interest, in taking photos of myself when Ivy's around. 

bye for now...

Making plans to sell baby and kiddie vintage!

Hello again! 

It's been ages since I posted. I've been too busy hanging out with my favourite little lady (or too tired) to be surfing the interweb.  Ivy will be 6 months in a few days! It sounds cliche, but I can't believe how the time is flying. Just this past week she sat up for the first time and her first wee tooth is poking through. Go Ivy! 

*swoon*  I am so in love!!!!

THANK GOD, Ivy is an extremely easygoing and happy baby. She sleeps well and enjoys being out in the world. She's beginning to be able to play by herself (woohoo!), and I'm feeling like the baby-induced fog is lifting from my brain and space is opening up in there for non-baby-related items. I've mentioned several times (here, here and here) that I want to start selling baby and toddler vintage... well, I've decided to give it a go!

I will keep you updated on my progress. I've started to redesign this blog (did you notice the new banner and layout?) and start to focus it more on baby and toddler vintage. My goal this week is to experiment with some ideas of how to creatively photograph the clothing. Right now I'm envisioning hanging the clothing from big trees in the park and photographing them in the sunlight... which is impossible right now because the trees in Toronto aren't even budding yet.... 

I've built up a pretty solid curated selection of baby and toddler vintage since Ivy was born and I'm planning to add more pieces this spring. I'm not focusing on a specific decade or style, but I'm building a collection that is based on my own baby-style ideas, which have been influenced by my own personal style and from playing dress-up with my own wee babe, mixing and matching contemporary pieces, hand-me-downs and vintage.

vintage dress

my favourite quilted jacket

homemade hat knitted by Ivy's great-grandmother

80s corduroy overalls

My interweb hiatus is officially over. i WILL see you soon (virtually, that is).

Lazer

beautiful pastels + labour time?

I felt crampy all through the night last night.  Now it's 11am and I am still just bumming around my house, feeling tired. Maybe she's coming today!!!  But, as I think I mentioned in my last post, my midwife sister-in-law told me a few days ago that if you just think you might be in labour, you likely are not in labour.  

According to this website, this is what our baby will look like. I'm scared....

I found this through the blog Baby Space, an interior design blog devoted to spaces for kids, who found it on the blog Next Door to Magic, who found this image on ginette lapalme's Flickr stream.

Check out this L.A. house tour on Apartment Therapy. I'm drooling!

bye for now!

I'm not-so-dirty thirty

I'm still preggers!  

Our wee bebe is getting bigger and I'm getting crankier and way more absent minded and distractible. It's been cooler in Toronto for the past week or so, which has been heavenly for me.  

I'm just working on my labour playlist.  

I just added some Arthur Russell to the mix.  So far I've got some Joanna Newsom, Sea and Cake, Nick Drake, Will Olham/Bonnie Prince Billy, Wilco and a whole whack of Kraftwerk.  I have no idea why my mind is telling me to put Kraftwerk on there... I think it's the bebe's choice.  I think she'll hate sappy Wilco just like her daddy.  Oh yeah, and Brenda Ray is on my list.  So dreamy...

I've been cooking up a storm

and filling my freezer with meals.  I just made some curried Swiss chard, lentil and chick pea stew. I found the recipe here, on Epicurious. I love Epicurious for the recipe reviews, which I get modification tips from.

Last week I made a meaty bolognaise pasta sauce, my own improvised chili recipe that I've been working on for years, modified from my dad's recipe....

---and some badass banana bread from these bad boys.  I used this recipe from Epicurious.

Oh yeah---last Saturday I turned thirty.  

I met up with some of my peeps at my favourite brunch spot Aunties and Uncles.  They have incredible omelettes and amazing dilly potato salad that they service with a few black olives.  YUMMY!  Joe and I went to St. Lawrence market later in the afternoon to get some fresh peaches, then we walked around the CNE before going to a TFC game.  I had a fabulous alcohol-free birthday.