Word on the Street with Stephanie

It has been over two months of tests, uncertainty and passive aggressive "suggestions" but we finally have concrete answers. After more ultrasounds than I can count, it has been determined that our baby has Interrupted Aortic Arch and everything else is fine. There was some concern about part of her skull but that has since been resolved. I am now seeing an OB team at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto and while it is a long way to go for regular check-ups, I know that my baby and I are in great hands. They will continue to do ultrasounds to ensure her left ventricle is growing (even though it is smaller than the right side) and as my pregnancy progresses we will meet the neonatal team who will provide round-the-clock care to our sweet girl until she is transferred to Sick Kids. This is the easy part. The hard part will be after she is born. I have already been told that I will only have time for a couple minutes of skin-to-skin contact with my daughter before she is taken for t...

It took me some time to work up the courage to write this post. Did I really want people knowing all of the struggles we have gone through to date? When I was able to answer yes to that question, I decided to go ahead and write. I find writing cathartic. It is my outlet and allows me to express the feelings I have been too afraid to say out loud. It took us over a year to get pregnant with our second child...14 months to be exact. I was one cycle away from beginning a fertility medication when I realized my period was late and that beautiful double line appeared on the test. I cannot even describe the joy I felt as the tears flowed down my cheeks and I planned how I would tell my husband. It turns out I was much too excited to do anything creative and I ended up blurting it out while we were driving to a family dinner. I did everything I was supposed to do. I continued taking my prenatal vitamins, tried my best to eat a balanced diet (even through the all day sickness) and just genera...

"Just relax" "Have fun" "Don't think about it and it will happen". These are all things I heard while on the journey to conceiving our second child. But as the months passed and we still weren't pregnant, those 'helpful' tips became more frustrating and harder to hear. I was constantly calculating how old our daughter would be by the time she had a sibling if we got pregnant this month, or next month or the month after that. And I felt this sense of failure as a woman, a wife and a mother that I was unable to give my husband another child, or my daughter a sibling. As a species, woman are incredibly hard on themselves and I was no different. In hindsight, I'm aware that being in that state mentally did not help me in the slightest but I simply could not help it. Around 6 months into trying, I spoke to my family doctor who told me to wait a few more months and then he would send a referreal to a specialist. A few months later I found my...

I had taken some time off from blogging in order to get settled into my parents' home (where we will be living until we find our next home). Moving was exhausting physically, mentally and emotionally. My husband had the great idea to move on our own without the help of a moving company. At first I was happy he wanted to save money but as we got closer to our moving date, panic began to set in and we both realized it wasn't a good idea. The one positive is that we did not have time to be sad about leaving our first home. We were way too busy to think about it. We did it all with my Mazda 3 and his Ford pick-up truck. Let me just say that neither of those vehicles has the capacity to move an entire house without a substantial number of trips to and from our storage facility. Although it didn't seem like we had much, we were so wrong! Throw in a one-year-old and we had total chaos on moving weekend. Thankfully, we learned our lesson and when it comes time to move again, we w...

On Saturday, October 25, 2014 I had the honour and privilege of watching my younger sister get married. Following in the footsteps of both of her big sisters, she had been dating her boyfriend/fiance/husband for 10 years before they decided to make it official. The day was everything a wedding should be. It was a beautiful day, the bride and groom were surrounded by family and friends, there was plenty of food, speeches were heartfelt and emotional and the guests danced the night away. I am so happy that my sister has found her true love and that they are beginning their lives together. I am excited for her to experience the joys of marriage and am confident that they both have the tools to work through the tough parts. I am also excited at the idea of having more nephews/nieces to love and cannot wait until they start a family. Weddings have a way of bringing out my sappy, nostalgic side and I am sitting here writing this post with a cheesy smile on my face and tears in my eyes. I...

It seems like the moment I got pregnant is when the opinions came flying at me from friends, family and even complete strangers. Breast versus bottle feeding, attachment parenting versus CIO, what to do when your child has a tantrum, what to feed your child and whether or not to vaccinate. My daughter is almost 16 months and for her entire life I have been nodding politely while I listen to everyone tell me what they did or what they think I should do when what I really want to do is say, "mind your own business! My husband and I will raise our daughter OUR way!".  I avoid confrontation at all costs but as time goes on, I find that I am a little braver everyday. Take today, for example. After our doctor's appointment, I decided to go to the drugstore quickly because it was right beside the doctor's office. I knew that my daughter was tired and wanted to nap but I really needed a couple of things and the thought of getting settled at home and then dragging her out of ...

When you talk about listing your home everyone who has been through it proceeds to tell you how difficult it is. I acknowledged the comments and murmured my agreement but holy crap I had no idea how stressful it can be, especially with a baby. We put all of the baby`s toys in the basement, I was vacuuming daily, cleaning the bathrooms just about every time they were used and had to clear off all counters. Every time my phone rang with someone wanting to see the house, I had to scramble to erase all evidence that three people and one dog lived there. Thankfully, our home sold relatively quickly (it really is a great house) and now I have the next month to pack up, organize storage, cancel our utilities and everything else that needs to be done before a move. Did I mention that my sister is getting married in 3 weeks ? Wish me luck!