Back when I had Ben in 2008 I was given an aqua Bumbo floor seat as a baby shower gift; it was a requested gift as I was pretty sure I wanted one of the 'newly' standard baby paraphernalia that everyone new parent seems to have. It turned out that baby Ben did not love sitting in the Bumbo and would cry as his fat thighs pinched between the leg holders.
Then came Josie who actually enjoys sitting in it so we always have it out. She sits in it on the floor in it while I unload the groceries or while I'm cooking dinner. She will sit in it and snack on some blueberries or eat some avocado while I watch. It is getting way more use with baby #2 than it did back with #1.
Feeding baby Ben on the floor in his Bumbo
When I saw the alarming headlines that all Bumbos were being mass recalled I got an initial slight anxious feeling only because it was about a product I use daily with my baby. Of course, eventually the sensible part of my brain kicked in and went right to the WHY. Why was this product being recalled? It has been around since 2003 and is literally just a giant thing of molded plastic that you can use to sit your baby in on the floor. It didn't have snaps or need assembly or fold up. What could go wrong?
Oh, what could go wrong? Well, parents could not follow the manufacturers guidelines and babies could get hurt. I've seen my own babies bucking backwards trying to escape the seat before. No one has succeed but if they had they would have fallen backwards on to the floor if I hadn't of caught them mid act.
It seems that the parents with the injured babies admit to having their Bumbos up high on counter tops. In fact Bumbo has been recalled several times in the past for the same reason. This is how I envision the 2012 recall getting played out:
*Cute baby sits in colourful Bumbo on the counter or table top. He looks so cute! Hi baby!!
*Cute baby starts wiggling and bucks backward. Whoa! Babies are strong!
*All of a sudden the baby's body escapes from the hold of the plastic mold and is sent sailing backwards..but not the short distance to the floor...quite a far fall from counter top to floor.
*The parent feels terrible and the baby is injured. Obviously the parents blame the Bumbo company and themselves.
Make no mistake about it, injured babies make me very sad but silly recalls make me smirk. I won't be sending off for the safety straps or the new warning label. Instead I'll continue to use the Bumbo on the floor with me watching. Just like the good old days.
What do you think about the recall? Disagree with me or think it is sort of silly?
A few months back a colourful book arrived in our apartment mailbox as part of a blog tour with Tundra books. We love getting new books so it was fun to be able to check out an advance copy of Hey Canada! written by Vancouver's own Vivien Bowers and illustrated by Milan Pavlovic.
Within the pages of this book a fun journey is documented as a grandma takes her two grandchildren, cousins Alice and Cal, on a holiday around Canada. The book is narrated from the voice of 9 year old Alice and is jam packed with fun province related facts and eye catching colourful illustrations.
Along with Pavlovic's fun illustrations, there is a mix of photography that helps make this book enjoyable to read. I see this book being perfect for a family who is traveling any part of Canada and wants to encourage their children to learn more about each province. Instead of being overly heavy on history and dry facts, this book gives just enough educational details so that it is fun and easy to read with children. It is a great addition to our family library.
As we are almost approaching Canada's 145th birthday, I'd like to wish a Happy Canada Day to you!
Hey Canada! is available where books are sold
The other day I found out about.... a stroller that is also a bicycle. Well, actually it is called a Taga and the claim is that it is a, "child carrier bike and luxury baby stroller in one". I was quite intrigued when I heard about it and couldn't wait to see what they actually meant. In my mind I conjured up an idea of what the contraption would look like and it was pretty much the same thing that I saw. However, in my fabulous mind it was a little bit more sleek.
This new idea was created by Dutch designers over at Taga Bikes. When we were traveling in Holland I was equally impressed and amazed at the amount of parents bicycling with their children on board. Not just one baby on the mama's bicycle but two and we even saw three! Mama's in fancy skirts and high heels would hop on the bicycle and take the children to and from. It was just the way to get around and part of the normal culture. Which is why I can definitely see how this idea came about.
Now, are North America parents ready for a Taga Bike? Could you see yourself taking little Charlie or Anna around town in this? 
Don't forget to join the fun and enter this weeks giveaway for a Koo & Popper bunny. Comment on the post below to enter. Contest finishes on June 7th in the AM!
At 2 AM this morning I graciously greeted in daylight savings and watched the hospital wall clock glide to 3 AM. It was probably the most beautiful part of working the night shift! I slept for most of the day and then lounged around and played with my boy.
So far today I have had two surprises! The first being a very delicious smelling bottle of Philosophy raspberry bubble bath from Sephora picked up by my husband. I have plans to indulge in it tonight and have a bubble bath. 
The second surprise being the interesting program I watched World's Oldest Moms on CBC newsnetwork. It documented moms at 67 having babies and a 72 year old women whose biological clock went off a few decades too late. I plan to write more on this documentary later, did you happen to watch it?
On November 30, 2009 a sweet baby girl was born to new mama Kristine! A first time mum, Kristine had a long labor and went on to deliver a healthy baby girl named Cora. This is a moment she will never forget! Her and her husband took home their beautiful babe and enjoyed their little newborn. The following is an excerpt from Kristine's story:
"Cora died in my arms suddenly and unexpectedly while breastfeeding December 6. She was only five days old and was born November 30 just a few days before her December 4 due date. One moment I looked down and saw her peaceful face growing sleepy from breast milk. A matter of seconds later, and I looked down to a limp, pale baby, face covered in blood, with no movement. I screamed, jumped up and realized she wasn't breathing".
How does a healthy term baby go from being well one moment to unexpectedly dying in her mothers arms the next? What key assessments were missed that might have helped diagnose and detect that something was wrong with Cora?
What Kristine didn't know was that baby Cora had Congenital Heart Disease. For Cora this was a completely undiagnosed, undetected heart condition that could have been potentially prevented. No one knew that Cora had CHD and no one screened her during any of the newborn assessments. Cora looked perfectly well and there are no mandatory routine guidelines around assessments to rule out CHD.
Here is what Kristine has to say on CHD and Cora:
"Through Cora, I've learned more about congenital heart diseases or CHDs and focus on sharing her story to raise awareness of CHDs, which is the number one birth defect."
Her goal is to, "... work together to make sure all babies get screened, raise money for more research to save more little ones, and support the hundreds of thousands of children and adults living with CHD".
Some interesting facts about CHD:
*According to the Children's Heart Foundation nearly 1 in every 100 babies born is effected by CHD. Making it Amercia's #1 birth defect.
*Simple non invasive pulse oximetry may help to detect low oxygen levels indicating complications of CHD. There are some pediatricians who do pulse oximetry on all newborns in their office visits but this is the minority for now.
*1 in 3 children who die from a congenital birth defect have CHD.
The more awareness about CHD means that more babies will potentially be screened and ultimately diagnosed and treated for CHD. So, this post is in support of CHD week and of course in celebration of baby Cora. Now you know about both CHD and Cora! Go and check out what Kristine is doing to raise awareness over at her blog or follow her on twitter. She is a true mother!
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Last June I was on maternity leave and I was starting to feel like I needed a hobby. I had been on maternity leave for about 11 months and was tired of watching TV in my few moments of spare time. Instead I felt like I needed an outlet and something to spark my creativity and let my ideas and experiences flow freely and not become stagnant and forgettable.
The end result was this blog; Apartment Baby brought to you by Mama in the City! The experience has been wonderful and I have loved writing on various topics that I feel passionately about, as well as writing about my growing boy and our daily life.
Here are my top five personal picks from 2009:
1. Maui Magic : Our first Hawaiian vacation left us tanned and loving all things Maui. We were ready to go back the moment we left and hope to go back to island life again.
2. Lazy Saturdays Served Family Style, highlights the advantages of living in the city as a young family.
3. The Period of P.U.R.P.L.E Crying and how 'Wine Friday' came about, this is one of my top viewed posts as many tired parents google the term 'the period of P.U.R.P.L.E crying' and land on this particular post.
4. My photographer husband wrote the post 'How to bring your camera into the delivery room (and live to talk about it). This has been a popular posts on a photography forum and highlights some of my favourite labor and delivery photos from my birth.
5. There Goes The Foreskin got people talking about infant male circumcision. A topic I feel passionately against and apparently so do most of my readers.
Thank you sweet readers for taking the time to come and read my blog. Enjoy the fresh start to this new year!
Today was the day and I went out to buy my first post nursing bra since stopping breastfeeding about a month ago. I had been loving my Anita nursing bra and raved about it right here but that part of my life has cycled by and the boobs are now all mine again. I've been wearing around my old pre Ben bras and they were almost all collapsing.
I had heard many stories, from sisters and girlfriends, about the scary shrinkage that can occur when you stop nursing. Plus the droop and the sag and the overall number that pregnancy and breastfeeding does to your breasts. So far, a month post nursing, things are looking okay and actually not too scary. Sure they are not like the originals but fairly close! I was curious what kind of size changes would happen and so far nothing major.
Before Ben and pregnancy I measured in at a 34 D and as my pregnancy bloomed I was a 36 E . While I was nursing Ben for the last year I was at a 34 F in the Anita nursing bra. So, today I was curious what the bra specialist at Diane's Lingerie would have to say about things. Turns out that my post breastfeeding and post pregnancy boobs might look a bit different but I walked out wearing a brand new 34 D. Same size as before pregnancy.
So, now it is time to pack away all my larger pregnancy sized bras and my nursing bras and toss out the ill fitting ones that should not be worn. I bought 2 new ones today and I am really digging them so far. In all my talk about boobs and bras I would like to draw attention to the fact that October is breast cancer awareness month. The Canadian Cancer Society talks about it here. Some studies have reported that lactation can help prevent breast cancer too. This website has a good discussion on why this is.
I am sure we all know someone who has been effected by breast cancer. I first heard about breast cancer when I was a little girl and my parents friend was diagnosed in her late 30's. Right now my friend Lesleys mom is fighting inflammatory breast cancer. Do you know someone who has had breast cancer? Give them a shout out in the comment section.
My husband passed this news story on to me, maybe you have already read it? I am sure that, for the most part, people are horrified by this story. The basic run down is a mum and tot were shopping in a Walmart and the tot was crying. Sound familiar? No, I am not talking about you. So, it turns out the 2 year old girl's crying started to get to this man and he said some rude stuff that should have been filtered in his brain. "If you don't shut the baby up, I will shut her up for you." You might think this but you don't say it and you definitely don't act on it. Then he encountered the crying girl a second time and gave her 4-5 whacks on the face.
Go here to read the article but come back and tell me your opinion. Now, I obviously think this man was 100% out of line. First off it is not his child to discipline and second smacking a crying tot is so not the answer. I am also curious if people would be just as horrified if it was a parent who smacked their toddler for crying in a Walmart. What do you think?
I have been in that situation where your child is fussing up and being loud and you can feel the evil stares burning in your direction. For the record, it is mega stressful to be in that situation and most parents will try many things to stop their child from fussing and crying in public. I have even just left the place we were in because of this. I think that this man sounds like an angry person who was set off even further by the sounds of the "waa waa waa". I know that kids crying can make me feel annoyed but my reaction is to move on and maybe throw the parent a smile.
Now for something totally different. A little clip of my boy playing the recorder. I know, I know! He is not even 1 and he is playing musical instruments. Any related grandparent will find his talent awe inspiring and this is for them. All 3 of you!
