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...

cat stevens + red raspberry leaf tea + danish wolf pillow

Hi friends!

No baby yet.  Last night I felt nauseated and just downright cranky. All through the night I was feeling really crampy, drifting in and out of sleep, wondering if I was having contractions.  I genuinely thought I would be in labour today, but no such luck.  I do, however, feel all weird and heavy, so maybe tonight will be the night.  After I finish this post I'm going to make sure everything is all set in our room for the home birth, and then make a batch of peach muffins, drink a ton of red raspberry-leaf tea and rock out to some Cat Stevens:

Oh yeah, and check out these awesome pillows by Danish design shop By Nord.

False labour + new stairs + bebe's room

Hi friends!

The cool, crisp weather yesterday in Toronto gave Labour Day that new start, back to school feel -- a perfect time to have our baby!

Joe and I had a few friends over in the afternoon and when they left our plan was to relax, make pizza for dinner and watch out favourite show, Coronation Street (now an hour on the CBC so we can catch up with Brits).  I tried to take a bit of a nap before dinner and started to feel crampy, so I laid in bed, looking out my bedroom window at the trees, trying to determine if my cramps were actual contractions. They seemed to come and go, but I didn't want to get too excited and try to time them.   I was uncomfortable, but I wouldn't call them painful.  I have felt this type of crampy-ness at night, but this time they felt different. 

I'll keep this short, because as the post title states, I didn't actually go into labour. But as the evening wore on, I grew increasingly uncomfortable, but we still didn't try to time my contractions.  I wasn't even sure they were contractions, but they were getting more uncomfortable and my belly had started tightening.  

I took a warm bath, with lot of bubbles and listened to Broadcast (I just learned that the singer, Trish Keenan, died of swine flu). Of course, my contractions eased up after the bath.  I was able to sleep wonderfully, but woke to a few contractions, but this morning, NADA!  

MY RAD DAD

As promised, here are the photos of the new staircase my dad designed and built for us.  The only thing missing is the wood cap that will sit on top of the handrail.

(The drywall surrounding the opening to the second floor still needs to be finished too)

Here are some photos of the bebe's room.

 (I am so sick of called her bebe. We've picked out a name we're 99% certain of but are waiting for the big reveal)

Again, another Fred/Dad creation: He built the crib and nappy change station, originally for my nephews, and now it's been handed to us. The design is the same as this Oeuf crib. 

 The embroidered piece on the wall was embroidered by my mom and the frame was made by my dad using old barn board. This piece hung in my room when I was a child.

Bye for now!   I'm going to go take a nap. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll go into labour tonight!  

Visual Treasurez from an Interweb Adventure

Hi!

I'm refreshed after an awesome sleep last night and I'm spending a lazy Saturday afternoon puttering around the house, taking it easy.  I've parked myself in front of a fan and have been having an adventure on the interweb.  Here are some visual treasurez I've come across this aft.

This kids room tour on Apartment Therapy's Oh Dee Doh.  I love the busy, bright colours and patterns against the white walls.  

ShapeMaker blocks from Best Made in NYC.

This Gold Dipped Amethyst Crystal Necklace No. 2  from Sparklefarm,

Available from Etsy.

These beautiful photos of prickly pears from Geninne's Art Blog.

A beautiful post about backyard camping on the blog Domestic Simplicity. Visit this blog for the photography alone.  Beautiful!  

Large-scale paint-by-numbers!  From the blog Poppy Talk. This post got me thinking about creating a paint-by-numbers mural in the bebe's room.  

Wow... i love the colours in these ones.... 

Ok, bye for now!

Lazer

Sexy red riding hood and her wolf - wearing a maternity bra

This won't be a long post today because I've got an insane headache. 

A friend recommended I visit a store called evymama to find some nursing bras. Check out this nursing bra and underwear set featured on their website... called--->

"HOTmilk Tamed By Her Sensuality nursing maternity bra"

What do you think?

renovation continues and she may be coming sooner than we thought

Hi friends,

I haven't written for a few days, but I'm back.  Last weekend and earlier this week I was feeling pretty rough (sore, swollen feet made if difficult to walk, SO tired, heart racing, difficulty sleeping), but I am bouncing back!  Could I be entering the nesting phase of late pregnancy?

My midwife ordered an ultrasound so that she could be positive that the baby's head was down.  By feeling my belly she was fairly positive she was down (and so was I), but she wanted to be sure.  I had an ultrasound done on Tuesday afternoon. Everything was perfect, however the baby's head is VERY far down and my cervix is on the short side.  The baby weighs about 5 1/2 pounds right now.  That said, my midwife is predicting that I'll have the baby closer to 37 weeks than 40 (usually anytime between 37-42 is healthy).

I'll be 36 weeks on Saturday! It's possible that I may go into labour in little over a week!

I've really got to get working on my labour artwork/focus object. I'm making a wolf-inspired collage/drawing to hang on the wall while I'm in labour to inspire me.

Joe and I dove into the huge pile of baby stuff in our living room to sort through everything and move some of it up to the baby's room.

Here's our very awesome stroller.

As for the renovations of the second floor of our house, they are moving right along.  Our hardwood was installed on Monday and it looks great.  We put in the bedroom doors Tuesday and the new bedroom windows will be put in on the weekend.


Oh yeah, and we bought a couch for our "den", the room at the back of our house behind the kitchen.  We haven't had one since we moved into this house more than a year ago. It's from West Elm.

The view through our kitchen to the "den".  Our house is long and skinny. We finished the kitchen back in December.  I'll be posting photos soon of the before and after of our first floor reno.  Our house was a chopped up, insane rooming house when we bought it.

Baby's room.  The window is being replaced this weekend with a casement window.  

The upstairs hallway.  The openings at the top of the walls are going to be fitted with transom windows so light can travel between the rooms.

We are no longer sleeping in our living room!  Joe and his brother moved our furniture upstairs this week, to our new and amazing light-filled bedroom.  I love it!  There is a huge tree right out the window.

Our bedroom sans trim, transom windows and new awning window.

Bye for now!
Lazer

Hand-knit baby clothes and home reno - fab garage sale finds and subfloor

Joe is upstairs putting down a subfloor so the hardwood can be installed on Monday.  I feel a touch guilty that I am not up there helping him.  After the plywood subfloor is down it has to be screwed in every 6 inches to prevent squeaks. We worked on this together screwing down the subfloor on our first floor it was grueling. The best I can do it bring him is a sandwich from the Brazilian bakery at Dundas and Sheridan and a beer! We're also off to my Uncle's wedding later this afternoon. I'll post a photo tomorrow of how insane I look wearing a dress and heels with my huge belly. 

This spring I went a little nut-so buying baby stuff at garage sales.  I found some fabulous vintage hand-knit baby outfits that I'm going to try to wash this weekend.  My mom also just found a beautiful hand-knit outfit that my nana made that I wore home from the hospital when I was born. Thank god that my mom is washing that because the knitting is very fine and it's absolutely beautiful.  

Most of these outfits were bought from one person at a garage sale thrown by my brother-in-law's friend Morgan.  I bought a handful of outfits and when her garage sale was done Morgan gave me all her vintage baby clothes she didn't sell!  

These booties were knit years ago by Joe's grandmother before she died. She knit every grandchild a pair for their future kids.

Bye for now!

Lazer