Into October with Family and Pumpkin Butter

We just had a great visit with my mom.  We've been spoiled this fall, with a fantastic visit with Dave's family.  We accomplished so many projects when they came, spent really fun times together watching favorite shows and doing some Winnipeg activities.  We had delicious meals, and lots of laughs while waiting for the baby.  We would not have made it through September without them!

Just after they left we all came down with pretty horrible colds.  Dave and I didn't know how we were going to make it through the nights with a newborn, let alone the next day.  Thankfully we healed, as we knew we would, but in the moment it's rotten to wait for the healing to begin.  Many people from church brought us homemade meals during this time which kept us going and coping!  We are thankful!

And than my mom arrived and cleaned my home top to bottom, caught us up on nutritious meals again, did every bit of laundry, held and rocked Annika every chance to she had.  She brought a nice replenishing zen feeling to our home with a hint of ginger as she constantly brewed rich chai tea to keep her energy up!  During my mom's visit we had phenomenal weather and were out and about in summer clothes most days.  I like having a baby in fall alot more than in bitterly cold January!

Through it all Corrina has been doing well as a sister.  She continues to love helping and holding Annika.  I'm not worried about Annika being dropped when in Corrina's arms, I'm more concerned about her being squished!   

All in all we are doing well.

And just for fun, here is an amazing recipe I found for Pumpkin Butter.

I've been using mine to make Pumpking Lattes, pancakes, and just mixed with our Homemade Granola (I'll post that recipe soon too)! 

Annika Meredith Grace

Yes, our newest little one has arrived.  Annika Meredith Grace was born September 15th at 12:39am.  She weighed about 8lbs4oz, and was 20 3/4 inches long. 

 Annika will make it into the Top Ten for most mauled child!

Her labor and birth went really well.  Lots of hard, intense work, but I was able to birth her naturally and we were blessed to avoid any special circumstances that might have changed that.  When we recalled that Corrina made her way into the world in 15 minutes, down the birth canal that is, we were flabbergasted that Annika was birth in about 5 minutes.  Not to be confused with the long labor!  In less time than her big sis, Annika took about 16 hours from start to finish.  Luckily for me only about 3-4 hours of that was active, hard labor.  A neat thing about Annika's birth is that she actually crowned in her bag of waters.  Once she crowned the doctor tore the membranes so Annika could breathe the air of her new world. 

I had awesome support from Dave and from our friend Gloria who is a trained Doula.  As well, another friend who is also a Doula passed along information and her experience with Hypno birthing.  Hypno birthing in essence is practicing meditation to achieve focus and relaxation during labour and birth.  The positive messages and soothing guided breathing and meditation made a complete difference in relaxation, and I think progression of labor too!  I actually put on my meditation throughout early labor and took naps!  Love it!  I highly recommend at least looking into Hypno birthing if you are hoping to have a manageable natural labor and birth. 

She is a darling!  We are quickly developing a great routine with lots of eating, playing and sleeping (thank you Baby Whisperer).  We are much better at giving Annika what she needs than we were with Corrina.  it's great to have a head start.


And Just for fun, a little Who's Who?

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