Brother and Sister

Time for a little fun. When Ethan was first born, I thought they looked exactly the same. Everyone kept saying that he looked like 'such a boy', but I didn't see it. All I saw was an infant Maddy. Now that Ethan is getting bigger, I can definitely see the 'boy' in him. Just for fun we dressed Ethan up in an outfit that Maddy wore as well. Let's see if you can guess who is who. I'll post the answer in about a week.

Baby 'A'

Baby 'B'

12 Days In

His hair goes all spikey right after a bath

Has it already been 12 days? I initially planned to write a one week update, but that day came and went so I aimed for a 10 day update. I guessed I missed that one too. Oh well, if I don't do this 12 day update, who knows when I'll have time to write.

It has been a long 12 days, but I'd do it all over again for that wonderful, warm feeling you get from holding, snuggling and kissing a newborn. I didn't realize how much I've missed nursing until the very first time Ethan nursed right after the birth. He latched on like a champ and so far everything has been fantastic. I think a big part has to do with me knowing what it should feel like. In the early days with Maddy, I was so worried that the latch wasn't right (when really it was fine) that I got so stressed about it all. I think we're off to a good start and I'm sure other parents of newborns will agree that nothing beats the "drunk on milk" face.

The drunk on milk face

During the first couple of days Ethan definitely had his days and nights mixed up. He'd sleep through the day and be up at night. Luckily, I think he's got that sorted out and we are enjoying about a 3 hour stretch of sleep at night. For a couple of days we thought that he slept too much. We'd have to wake him to feed and even then it was hard to get him to spend a period of time awake. When he is awake, he totally surprises us with his strength. Sometimes when I hold him over my shoulder for a burp, he'll push with his arms and hold up his own head and neck. I don't know if that's normal, but it certainly wasn't something that Maddy ever did. He reminds me of E.T. when he does this and opens his eyes to look around the room at the same time.

Maddy has really taken well to her new brother. She loves to kiss him and takes good care of him. She's been really helpful around the house by bringing things for us. One time though, Josh asked her to take a diaper to the garbage (she loves to put thing in the garbage for us). She ran away saying "No dada, no it's dirty!" Then she came back a few minutes later and took it to the garbage. I guess she had to think about and pysch herself up for the task. For now she doesn't seem to be jealous but we'll see how things go when Josh goes back to work. One trick we've learned is to give her foods that take a LONG time to eat and let her take her time in the highchair.


I've learned from experience that this first month goes by very quickly and soon it'll be time for Josh to head back to work. I'm trying to hold onto to every minute the 4 of us have to bond as a family before Josh's parental leave is over. It's already slipping by too quickly for my liking. I know we have so many people to introduce to Ethan, but that will come in time. For now, I just love having him all to ourselves.

Welcome Ethan Lee Blommestein

After his first shampoo on day three

Boy does he have good timing! One day before I was supposed to go back to work, my water broke. It's no secret that in the last few weeks, I'd been feeling really tired and ready for baby to be born. Maddy was early and I had gotten it in my head that perhaps this baby would be too. Very dangerous to think like that, as it makes the last few weeks even harder! Lucky for me, Ethan had a different idea. Here is how everything progressed before he was born.

On Wednesday morning, we had an appointment with Janice, one of our midwives. She knew how I was feeling and offered to do a procedure called a 'stretch and sweep' (a natural way to try and induce labour). The thing is, the cervix is supposed to be low and Janice said that it was too high to reach. I was so sad knowing that perhaps an early labour was just a dream. We went home and my mom came to stay for the day and to help out with Maddy. Around 4:45pm, just as my mom was changing Maddy's diaper before getting ready to leave, my water broke! YIPEEEE!! I was so excited that at first I didn't want to believe it. Then it happened again and again and I knew for sure I didn't just pee my pants. :) That evening nothing happened and so we had dinner and tried to go to sleep early.

I didn't sleep at all and around 3:30am I was starting to feel mild contractions. I had a feeling things were getting started (Maddy's contractions started 12 hrs after my water breaking too) so I woke Josh and we walked around and around the living room. By 4:30am the harder contractions were here and we called the midwives and doula by about 5am. Celina, the midwife came over and things for me were still manageable but progressing. Then around 6am I could feel the contractions getting further apart. It's true how they say that a mother worrying about her other children can slow labour down. Maddy woke up at 6:30 but luckily, my sister Joanne was here and she took Maddy out for breakfast before taking her to daycare. It was almost as soon as Maddy was gone, that the labour picked up again. I'm told that things progressed from 4cm to 7cm in 45mins, but I totally don't remember it being that fast. At 9:37am Ethan was born! The timing and way the labour progress was almost identical to the way Maddy's progressed, though I think Ethan would have been faster if things hadn't slowed down when Maddy woke up.

A couple hours after he was born

We feel so lucky about the way everything turned out. All my worrying about timing, what to do with Maddy and going back to work turned out to be ok. We also feel so blessed to have the support team that we had for the birth, Celina, Roxanne (our doula) and Allison (the back up midwife for home births). It was a very nice way for Ethan to come into the world.

Celina checking his stats right after

Ethan, we love so much and we can hardly believe that you are here. We are so thankful that you chose us to be your family and we can't wait for the adventures that lay ahead of us all!

xoxo, Mom, Dad and Maddy

Belly Pics

This weekend I had this real feeling that Peanut would be coming soon. I feel like he's definitely dropped lower and I have been just exhausted lately. Knowing that Maddy came early has also made me think that perhaps Peanut will too. Josh and I have totally been procrastinating when it comes to taking some pregnancy shots. Not that we don't want to, but things are so much busier when you're pregnant with number two. On Saturday I woke up and realized that belly shots with the baby already out would be pointless and not to mention EXTREMELY unattractive! So Josh set up a little set in the living room and we took a few on our own. I'm a little sad that we waited even this long because since the baby has dropped, my belly looks a little "Jabba the Hut" like instead of cute round baby bump.

This one is a little fuzzy, but Maddy doesn't quite get the concept of holding a pose.