Babywearing: Why I don't DO "FFO".

Twice this past week the debate about wearing your baby in a front or forward-facing-out (FFO) position has come up in two separate babywearing Facebook groups that I belong to. I have weighed in on both of these discussions and felt that since it was coming up so much within these groups, that I should share this information and my thoughts on the whole topic with everyone! In case you are wondering what FFO is or what it looks like. This is what I am talking about. A baby being worn on your front, facing out and often is a stretchy wrap carrier or some version of a Baby Bjorn type carrier.

I have several opinions on this matter and I want to start with just that. What I am about to post here is MY OPINION. It is based on my experience as a babywearer and babywearing educator. It is based on what I know and what I have been taught about basic newborn, infant and adult physiology and it is what I BELIEVE  are best practices when it comes to babywearing. Some will disagree with me and say that because there is no hard and fast peer-reviewed research and evidence stating one thing or another, that we can not say what are or are not best practices in this situation. To those people, I will respectfully agree to disagree and have to go with my gut on this one!

I do not believe that carrying or wearing your baby in a front/forward facing out (FFO) position is a babywearing best practice for the following reasons:

1. HIPS!

Ok, I may be a bit over sensitive about hips in general, given that I have had not one, not two, but three hips surgeries, but this is important! When babies are born their hips are not fully ossified and the outer edges of the hip sockets are made of soft cartilage, much like the cartilage of your ears. According the the International Hip Dysplasia Institute,

"If the hips are forced into a stretched-out position too early, the ball is at risk of permanently deforming the edges of the cup-shaped socket (hip dysplasia) or gradually slipping out of the socket altogether (hip dislocation). Hip dysplasia or dislocation in babies is not painful so this may go undetected until walking age and may also result in painful arthritis during adulthood."

Most forward facing carries and carriers do not support a baby hips and do indeed have them 'dangling' in a legs-stretched out position. And while this may not seem like a big deal for the 20-30 minutes one can actually withstand this carrying position before your back and shoulders give out (more on that later), doing this for extended periods of time and over time can potentially cause harm.

Now you are saying to yourself, but Natasha, Baby Bjorns have been around FOREVER, they can't be that bad for babies. And I will chalk this one up to one of those "when we know better, we do better" kind of situations.  And you are right, they may not be necessarily BAD for babies, but there are so many other carriers that are BETTER!

2. It's not always ALL about the baby.

At no other time in your life will your pelvic floor be as weak as it is than after you have a baby. And just like any other muscle group, it needs work to strengthen it again postpartum to avoid the nasty effects of a weakened pelvic floor, you know, like...incontinence or worse...prolapse!

When you are wearing a baby in a FFO position, the weight of the baby tends to pull away from your body. This make you want to adjust your posture and lean back a bit to compensate for this. What happens next is that this position automatically makes you tilt your pelvis in a way that exerts direct pressure onto your {already weakened} pelvic floor. Not only this,  but your now adjusted posture also puts a fair bit of pressure on your back, shoulders and hips and really, it is no wonder that you don't want to do this for very long!

Using a baby carrier or carrying your baby in a position that keeps them closer to you and in a tummy-to-tummy position (or on the hip or back in similar position) keeps your centre of gravity, well... in the centre and allows  you to have better posture and keep excess pressure off your pelvic floor.

3. We are two pieces of an amazing little puzzle.

Think about this for a minute. We are women. We have breasts and bellies and curves and somehow, no matter what shape or size we are, right down the centre of us is this spot that is the exact square footage needed to fit a baby. Their tiny heads rest on our breastbone and listen to our hearts beating. Their arms and legs curl up and they try to regain the flexed position of warmth and security that reminds them of being in the womb. When you pick up a baby, they automatically pull up their legs into a nice fetal tuck. They are naturally adapted to being carried and just like a squishy little puzzle piece, they are looking to be placed right onto their special spot on your body!

Placing a baby in a FFO position is like trying to put a piece of the puzzle together, but one of the pieces is backwards!

4. Sometimes it is all just TOO MUCH!

Think about walking through a busy mall.

People walking towards you and past you on all sides. Fountains and piped-in music and vendors and snippets of people's conversations all around. I don't know about you, but even for me a trip to the mall can be overwhelming. Now pretend  you are a tiny little baby in a FFO carrier trying to take all this in? It can be a lot for their little minds to process. I often see babies in FFO carriers exhibiting signs of stress and/or overstimulation. This can include balled fists, kicking legs or arms, lots of verbalization and straining to see/turn around to Mama or Daddy.

Babies need to feel secure and safe, especially in new or loud surroundings and often in a FFO position, they simply do not get that.

5. We don't want to lose them.

No, not the babies, the Mamas!

Most mainstream forward-facing carriers do not provide the wearer with proper support for their backs or shoulders. I see a lot of mamas wearing Baby Bjorns or Snuglis or even stretchy wraps with babies that are WAY too big for their carrier and every one of these mamas will tell me that their backs are killing them. I truly believe that these kinds of carriers and carries do more harm to babywearing as a whole than good. I have heard far too many times from mamas who feel that their 5 or 6 month old babies are "too big for babywearing" because they have used a carrier that causes them discomfort or they have not been educated about their options in the babywearing world.

This is a big part of why I am a babywearing advocate and educator. I feel very strongly that babywearing and all the incredible health and wellness benefits that go along with it need to be incorporated on a larger (public health?) scale into prenatal education. It is why I am so honoured to be part of great local prenatal programs like this one and beyond thrilled to see more and more soon-to-be-mamas attending workshops or requesting private consultations.

AND finally, if you look to nature and the way that all other primates carry their babies, you will never see an ape/orangutan/chimpanzee or any other monkey carrying their young in a FFO position!

Babies just FIT onto us tummy-to-tummy (or on our backs). It is why we are built the way we are and why they are born the way they are. Why fight nature?

Happy Babywearing Everyone!

Natasha~

We are home.

Two full weeks in and it is official.

We made cookies.

Click here for the awesome recipe we used and yes, I have Appletini colored countertops!

We organized the new Play Room!

STUVA system from IKEA.

We christened the new appliances! (Not like THAT! Minds out of the gutters Mamas!)

Little C has taken it upon himself to be my official laundry sorter. (I win!!) AND I may be slightly in love with both my new washer/dryer and also having my laundry room on the main floor!

We walk the dog HERE every day!

This is literally steps from our front door. Ravine living FTW!!

And we flipped the switch and had our first evening by the very modern fireplace.

THIS is our home!

Our beautiful, dream come true, Natural Urban Home!

Natasha~

Confessions of a lazy breastfeeder.

I have something to confess. I am a lazy, lazy breastfeeding mama.

Case in point. My three and a half-year old daughter still nurses at night.

Which means 2-3 times a night she gets out of her bed, walks to our room, crawls in to bed with me and nurses for anywhere from 1 minute to 30 minutes depending on how sleepy I am. And since I am usually quite sleepy, it's closer to the half hour mark than not.

I know she doesn't "need" to nurse at this time, I know I "should" have night-weaned her months/years ago, but I didn't.

Oh, I have tried, more than a few times, really I have, but two happy sleeping people always seemed to be more important to me than one crying and then fitfully sleeping baby and one miserable mama.

I am also quite the lazy breastfeeder in other ways. If Princess L gets hurt, either physically or emotionally, the quickest way to soothe her is with a quick pit-stop at the boob. If she is bored, she will come over, tell me I smell like "boobie-breasts" and ask if she can nurse. 95.7% of the time I will oblige her in her requests to nurse where and when ever she wants.

Now, given that my daughter is three years old and we do communicate quite well, we do have some breastfeeding rules. We don't nurse at my in-laws place anymore (out of respect for my MIL, who has never said anything directly to me, but I just know that she is not comfortable with us still nursing). I also often place a time limit on nursing, especially when it is one of those "I'm bored" moments. And L knows that I don't want everyone to SEE my boobs and will now cover them with her hand or my shirt if we are nursing out in public. You know, 'cause she is a considerate little nursling like that.

The past few months have been quite the upheaval for our family with selling our old house, packing, moving and then unpacking and settling into the new house. I am pretty sure that nursing has provided Princess L with A) some much-needed Mama time and B) a sense of normalcy amongst all the chaos. It has also given me a moment to stop during our busy days, look at my beautiful girl and really appreciate her and all her little quirks as I stroke her super soft hair and just breathe her in.

Last weekend I thought we were near the end of our breastfeeding relationship. And we still very much might be. In the past week she has stopped asking to nurse before bedtime. This was exactly the way weaning happened with Little C. Just before his third birthday, he stopped all nursing except his morning nurse and cuddle, and then the day after his birthday we were done. (He still comes in for his morning snuggle though and it is one of the best moments of my day!)

Weaning Little C just didn't seem as bittersweet. I was tandem nursing at that time and L was just over 14 months old, so my mama milk was still in high demand. This time around it is different...

When my girl finally stops nursing, so too will I. There are no more Natural Urban Babies coming into this house, my body will no longer nourish a child and my >5 years of breastfeeding will come to an end. That is a long freakin' time to be making milk for my babies and yes, I am damn proud of it. I feel that it is one of the major accomplishments in my life!

So you know what, I am going to continue to lazily nurse my child, still not bother with any kind of 'night-weaning' and let her have her 'booby-breasts' when and where ever she wants if that is what makes her happy.

Because it IS coming to an end...

And I am not very good at good-byes.

Not to the breast milk, nor to my beautiful breastfeeding boobs either!

{BIG Sigh....}

Natasha~

The case of the tiny little IUD vs The Stay at Home Feminist.

I have had more than a few 'foreign' materials in my body over the years. I have titanium hip joints and polyethylene and ceramic hip sockets.

I have had surgical steel rings pierced in my belly button and various parts of my ears.

And up until 6 weeks ago I had a tiny little T-shaped polyethylene and hormone-filled device in my uterus.

Yes, I am talking about the ever popular intrauterine device known as Mirena.

Three and a half years ago, after Princess L was born and we were pretty darn sure that we did not want anymore babies, this seemed like a really great birth control option. Easy office appointment to have it put in place, minimal side effects (more on this in a bit), safe to use while breastfeeding and no need to even THINK about having an oops baby for at least 5 years. What was not to like about it?

So in I went to get it inserted and off I went on my merry way, having glorious birth-controlled sex with my husband for the next three years without a care in the world. (Uhm, do not try to confirm this with him, his version MAY be a bit different than mine... 2 babies under 2 years old people!!)

I thought I had hit the jackpot of birth control. I really didn't feel like I had any major side effects from Mirena. And I stopped having a real menstrual cycle and period for the three years that I have had the Mirena in place.  I have not had to purchase more than a few boxes of panty liners to deal with dear old rarely visiting Aunt Flo and I told all my friends about Mirena and I have recommended it to lots of mamas.

I was the poster-mama for Mirena!

Or was I?

In the past three years, I have had two major bouts of depression. One I chalked up to postpartum depression (PPD) after Princess L  and one I felt was due to life just overwhelming me.

I have been so severely fatigued for the past two years that no amount of sleep could fix it and no reason identifiable on any blood work or medical test has been found that would explain it medically. This too I attributed primarily to having a newborn and a 22 month old, tandem nursing, and kids that needed a lot of night-time parenting. And later to me just doing too much and staying up way too late trying to get it all done.

I have had multiple episodes of such severe bloating and abdominal pain that I have had an ultrasound to rule out a ruptured ovarian cyst, a trip to the emergency department for a suspected appendicitis, and I have spent multiple nights doubled over and writhing in pain in bed with no relief from any and all forms of over-the-counter anti-gas medications.

I have lost whole handfuls of hair and have the perpetually clogged shower drain to prove it. I thought as first that this was the normal, post partum hair loss phenomenon, but it has continued for three years. I have to clean my hair brush at least twice a week and could have probably made a whole new head of hair with all that I have lost so far.

In the past 6 months I have had more migraines than I have had in my entire life. I never really understood when people would say, "I have a migraine, I have to go lay down" until now. I have had such bad headaches that I have had to turn off all the lights, close the blinds and just lay on the couch with my eyes closed while the kids watch a movie. The last few have been so bad that on those days, as soon as my husband would get home from work, I ended up crashing in my room for multiple hours, waking only to pee and drink water.

And while we are talking about my husband, remember a few lines ago when I said I was having wild birth-controlled sex? Well, we would have been had I had any kind of libido to speak of! I am serious, it slowly but surely disappeared on me completely this past year. Poor dude... and poor ME! Because I kind of like sex and all that goes with it!

And finally...

I have been working out with a personal trainer for the past year. I watch what I eat, I don't drink, I don't over-indulge in sweets or snacks, and I am relatively active given my limitations due to RA. And for the last year I have been trying to lose the same 15 pounds and the scale has not budged more than 3-5 pounds.

Why is all of this relevant you ask? And what does it have to do with Mirena?

Well, have a look at the list of COMMON side effects listed in the product prescribing information for Mirena.

*The HIGHLIGHTED ones are MY symptoms.*

What are the more common side effects of Mirena?

Possible common side effects of Mirena include:

Discomfort during placement. Pain, dizziness, bleeding or cramping may occur during placement. This is common. Let your healthcare provider know if the cramping is severe. If these symptoms do not stop 30 minutes after placement, Mirena may not have been placed correctly. Your healthcare provider will examine you to see if Mirena needs to be replaced or removed.

Expulsion. Mirena may come out by itself and no longer prevent pregnancy. Symptoms of partial or complete expulsion may include bleeding, pain and an increase in menstrual flow. If this occurs, Mirena may be replaced within 7 days of a menstrual period after pregnancy has been ruled out. If you notice Mirena has come out, use a back-up form of birth control like condoms and call your healthcare provider.

More than 10% of Mirena users may experience:

• Missed menstrual periods. About 2 out of 10 women stop having periods after 1 year of Mirena use. Your periods come back when Mirena is removed. If you do not have a period for 6 weeks during Mirena use, contact your healthcare provider to rule out pregnancy.
• Changes in bleeding. Your period may become irregular and you may have bleeding and spotting between menstrual periods, especially during the first 3 to 6 months. A few women have heavy bleeding during this time. After your body adjusts, periods usually get lighter and the number of bleeding days is likely to decrease, but may remain irregular. Or you may even find that your periods stop altogether—in which case, you should contact your healthcare provider to rule out pregnancy.Call your healthcare provider if the bleeding remains heavier than usual or if the bleeding becomes heavy after it has been light for a while.
• Pelvic and/or abdominal pain may occur. Talk to your healthcare provider if the pain is persistent.
• Cyst on the ovary. About 12 out of 100 women using Mirena develop a cyst on the ovary. These cysts usually disappear on their own in a month or two. However, cysts can cause pain and may sometimes require surgery.

Between 5% and 10% of Mirena users may experience:

• Headache/Migraine
• Acne
• Depressed mood
• Heavy or prolonged menstrual bleeding

Less than 5% of Mirena users may experience:

• Vaginal discharge
• Breast pain or tenderness
• Nausea
• Nervousness
• Inflammation of cervix, vulva or vagina
• Pelvic pain during your period
• Back pain
• Weight increase
• Decreased sex drive
• High blood pressure
• Pain during intercourse
• Anemia
• Unusual hair growth or loss
• Skin irritations (such as hives, rash, eczema or itching)
• Feeling bloated
• Swelling of hands and/or feet
• Expulsion

Every individual responds differently to medication, so talk to your healthcare provider about your individual risk factors and to see if Mirena is right for you.

And here is something else I did not know. The hormone used in Mirena is called Levonorgestrel and is often referred to as a 'progestin', which kind of sounds a lot like the naturally occurring  hormone progesterone right? WRONG. Levonorgestrel is a hormone disrupter and has the opposite effects as our own progesterone (which only makes sense really given that progesterone is often called the 'pregnancy hormone'). Levonorgestrel is also the active ingredient in the Norplant birth control implant (which is no longer available in North America) and also at higher doses is the drug that makes up the Plan B or 'morning-after' pill(s). Huh? The things they don't tell you at the doctor's office....

Here is how this all played out for me and how I figured out what {I believe} was going on in my own body.

About 4 months ago a friend of mine got her Mirena IUD inserted. And a couple of months after that she told me that she was not convinced about it and was having some issues. She was tired all the time, was bloated and had gained about 5 pounds on her VERY fit and tiny runner's body. It was around this time that I started to put two and two together and realized that all of the annoying and kind of non-specific symptoms I had been having for the past few years, might also be related to MY Mirena IUD. I started to do more research.

To be completely honest, I have wanted to have my IUD removed for about a year. I went to see my family doctor about it in 2011 and told her I just didn't want any more foreign substances in my body. At that time she convinced me to keep it in so that we did not have to worry about getting pregnant before SOMEONE had a chance to book his snippity-snip appointment (still not booked BTW)!

Six weeks ago I saw my doctor once again. We went over my list of concerns, what I had found out about the side effects of Mirena, and what I wanted to do about it. She insisted on ordering another laundry list of blood tests, which all came back completely and utterly normal, and a week later at another appointment I finally had the offending little piece of plastic removed from my body.

I have to say, I feel better without it. Whether this is a placebo effect or real relief from the side effects, I don't know for sure. I do know that there have been no more excruciating cramping and bloating, I haven't had a migraine in five weeks, and the 'I can't even keep my eyes open while driving' extreme fatigue is gone. Oh, and that little problem with my libido... that seems to be gone too, which is making someone else around here very happy!

This week for the first time in over four years, dear Aunt Flo came for a REAL visit. To honour this occasion, I took another step in the direction of living a more natural life and invested in my first ever Diva Cup.

So what is the moral of the story here?

Mirena may sound like the perfect birth control solution and for some women it may well be... BUT please be aware of ALL of the side effects, and what can happen to you while on this medication. Do some research, ask around, and make sure that this is the birth control method  that really is for you. There are whole blogs and websites dedicated to the stories and cases of women's lives with and then after Mirena and some of them are pretty scary. And while these may be some extreme cases, they made me pause and re-evaluate the role that Mirena has played in my life and convinced me to have it removed.

I really wish I had known more about this sooner and had stuck to my guns a year ago with my GP and had it taken out then.  But here I am now, I know better, and I now have one less foreign object and synthetic chemical substance in my body.

And that is a good thing.

Natasha~

Have you used Mirena? What has your experience been?

UPDATE: One year post Mirena. Here is my follow up post a year after I had the Mirena IUD removed.

too much

Remember that time when I wanted to be all smart and political and help inform my fellow mamas about the upcoming election? AND I was moving into the Natural Urban Home that very same weekend? Yeah...

I did that. And now I  have completely overextended myself.

This move has been tough. I have been physically and emotionally exhausted every day this week and there is still so much to do to get us completely settled in the house. AND there are still a fair amount of outstanding projects that need completing in and around the house that I have to either supervise or be on hand for as well this coming week.

So I must apologize to all of you for promising more than I can deliver right now. I just can't research and write the posts about the parties and their platforms. If we had another month and not just a week before the Alberta provincial election, it would be doable, but I just can't deliver the caliber of post and information that I would want to (and that you deserve) given the time frame and my state of physical and mental ability!

It is now 10:41 PM on a Friday night and all I want to do is crawl to my bedroom and into my bed and sleep away the pain in my back (a trip to the lovely Dr. Josline at Bearspaw Chiropractic tomorrow will help with that too) and the headache that has been harassing me all day.

On a happier note, my awesome dining room table (the Dakota from Crate and Barrel) arrived yesterday and it is PERFECT!

See...

My sincerest apologies everyone.

Goodnight,

Natasha~

Alberta votes. What are the issues that affect you and your family?

Last year during the Canadian federal election I really wanted to explore the different political parties and their platforms and find out where I stood, you know... politically speaking. This is often a tough thing to do during an election with 'propaganda' and agendas coming at you from all angles.

And then a Canadian blogger that I hold in very high regard did something wonderful. She took a good hard look at all the parties, read their platforms extensively and posted a synopsis of each on her blog. I can honestly say that I ended up making my decision based a lot on the information that Annie at Phd in Parenting posted on her site about the parties and their platforms as they related to families, parenting and women's issues.

And so, in an effort to suss out again where I stand at a provincial political  level, I am going to attempt to do something that is way out of my comfort zone, but that I think is vitally important right now. I am going to try to be 'Annie' for the 2012 Alberta Elections and for all of you!

As you know, on March 26th, the provincial election was called in Alberta and we are now less than three weeks away from the April 23rd Election Day.

If you have been keeping up with some of the election coverage then you will no doubt be aware that so far, this election campaign has been quite a contentious one.  And I don't know about you, but all of it is leaving me feeling confused, disillusioned and at this point rather indecisive.

For the next two weeks I am going to be scouring through the platforms of each political party (and probably dropping in to a few of my local campaign offices too) and like Annie did, I will be reporting here on the parenting and family related policies and promises that each of them are making.

So as you follow the #abvote Twitter stream or read and watch the news and try to decide which party to support, what questions do you have? What are the things that are most important for you and your family and what would you like to see me address in these posts?

Diving into the {political} deep end!

Natasha~

(photo credit: Elections Alberta)

48 hours

In less than 48 hours we will be moving into the Natural Urban Home. Yes, yes, I know, it's all I am talking about lately, but I am getting excited.

Kinda.

I am also THE BIGGEST ball of stress and anxiety, that it is not even funny!

Over the last few weeks I have managed to put myself into a full-fledged RA flare AND give myself what I think are the beginnings of a stomach ulcer. TUMS and my anti-inflammatory medications are my very good friends this week.

The last time we moved, Little C was 6 months old. He didn't care what was going on and was content to just be worn in a carrier while I packed up our little house. And it was June.

Today I woke up to this....

Mother Nature is playing a cruel, cruel, four days late, April Fool's  joke on me! I am not impressed lady!

And my poor children.

This time around, at 5 and 3.5 years old, they DO care about what is going on and are a lot more sensitive to the whole process. Now, this is not to say that they are not excited, they really are, but they are also feeling a fair amount of stress about the move too.

Our routines are all messed up. We haven't sat down at a table for dinner in over a week (it is covered in boxes and missing chairs). Naps have been very hit and miss. Three quarters of their toys and games have been packed up and well, Mama is a big stress ball!

And my kids are the sensitive kind. And also the vocal kind, especially about their feelings. (FYI- I am kind of proud of BOTH of these things!)

All of this makes for some very trying moments in our days as of late. Their needs are not getting met to the best of my ability because of all of the other tasks and to do lists and to be perfectly honest, the needs of the house(s) and this move.

I know it is a temporary situation, but it still doesn't make all those ugly guilty-mom feelings go away. And this is adding to my stress level too.

This morning started out rocky for all of us and not only because of the crappy drive in all that snow. We had to have a little three person huddle before we left the house to talk it all out and I explained to the kids how I am feeling right now and that I am nervous about moving and making sure we are all ready and packed and good to go.

My kids... They really are amazing little people. They both gave me huge "love" hugs (in our house these are the super-duper tight squeeze-y ones), told me it was all going to be OK and that they can't wait to be in the new house, gave me kisses and then we went on our way to playschool.

And then I went to my favourite cafe for a HUGE latte and some time to just be...

Ahhhhhh.....

48 hours people.

I just have to get through the next 48 hours and then it will all be OK...

Why is it that the unpacking is always so much better than the packing?

Deep breathes,

Natasha~

Breaking up is hard to do.

I think I am in denial. About moving that is.

We are two weeks away from our designated move-in date to the Natural Urban Home and I have packed a grand total of 16 boxes.

Every day I look around and I think to myself, "GET GOING WOMAN! What are you waiting for? All of this 'stuff' is not going to pack itself!" (No matter how much I wish and pray and dream for this to be true!)

As I peel back the layers of US from this house, I realize that I am having a hard time "breaking up" with our home.

This is the only real home that the four of us have known together and the one that has seen us grow together as a family.

This is the only home my children have experienced Christmas in. The house they took their first steps in and the one they first shared a room in. Every scratch in the hardwood in front of the built-in book-case is a reminder of hours and hours of baby and toddler play time on the floor.

This is the house that Natural Urban Dad and I built to heal us from our first home building experience and the results were so much more than we ever expected. A big part of that was our contractor, who thankfully is our current one as well, but living in this house has made us happy. Walking in the door every day to the warmth and coziness of our home, made us happy.

This is the home that welcomed massive playdates, family dinners (including the unforgettable Turkey Debacle of Christmas '07) and many nights of 'fire and wine' and me talking way too loud in the backyard. This is the home that had an open door policy for a certain little next door neighbour... and his daddy too (and this proximity will be missed by all of us)!

This was the home of the Natural Urban Mamas Store. The place where I met so many of my customers and clients and their beautiful little babies and taught a lot of mamas the art of babywearing. Where I stayed up late doing the books and often times even later searching for and finding all of the wonderful babywearing and natural parenting products for the store.

This is the home of milestone birthdays. My children's firsts and my fortieth.

A lot has happened in this house to shape me and my family... and so, I am procrastinating.

Next week we will start to slowly move our 'stuff' over to the Natural Urban Home. And I know it won't take long for this new house to become home for us. It too was built from love (and not just a little bit of personal blood, sweat and tears) and will open up a new chapter in the book of  Us. One that will be equally if not even more fantastic.

But for now... I am leaving the pictures up on the walls a little while longer, I am not really touching the kids rooms at all yet and I am savouring our last real week in our first family home.

Natasha~

P.S. And I really need to book a mover ASAP!! Any recommendations?