Still here, but not

I'm still here. I'm still taking clients but I'm not blogging. I have found that things start to pile up in my life and I have to have a clear slate.

To be honest, I'm working on me this year! I need to heal up my arm before I can do anything and I need to focus on me getting healthy and being able to care for myself and eventually, you as a client.

This doesn't mean I won't take on clients but I'm not actively searching currently. If you are in need of a doula PLEASE let me know. I'll be glad to interview for you or pass you on to someone who can help you out.

Best of luck, love and happiness! I hope to be back soon.

Miranda

Hearts to Hands Doula Services

More Sunscreen Help

Sunscreen Do's and Don'ts

Check it out!

What does a "Mom" do?

I posted this on my personal blog today, and I wanted to share:

Today I had a client visit. I love client visits. The have to be one of my favourite things in the world. Seeing new parents so excited to meet their little ones and to be so happy that the time is coming closer and closer. It truly is a wonderful event for them in their lives.

Today I was telling my clients that they should call or text with any questions they have. The mom asked me if I did anything else that she might be bothering me from if she called or text-ed. My response - Nope! I'm just a mom!

Just a mom... wow... I got thinking, what is just a "mom" what does a mom do?

Well for me it includes anything from:

alarm clock
giving kisses
morning hugs
snuggles
breakfast maker (not normally in our house but sometimes!)
school prepper
homework helper
nose blower
toothbrush singer (seriously, I sing the ABC's every morning so they brush their teeth)
face checker
escort to school
encourager as he goes to school "have a great day hun, today will be better than yesterday"
planner
snack maker
wiping tears
giving hugs and snuggles and more kisses (BTW mom kisses don't wipe off... EVER!)
laundry
dishes
making the beds
cleaning the bathroom
walking to and from school to bring kids home
making lunch
driver to activities
briber (Q if you put your head under the water, you can have a treat!)
nap time enforcer
dinner maker
bath time prep-er
reader of bed time stories
more kisses, more hugs and more snuggles.

Those are my favourite moments.

Sometimes, as of late, a job as a "mom" includes more than this. Lately it has been more of a :
nurse,
cleaner,
temp checker,
timer for food (every hour you can have more to eat)
"sick pop" pour-er
snuggler
nose kisses to not get anyone sick
hand washer
vomit cleaner

As much as these jobs suck. There is no other job in the world I would want.

To summarize, just a "mom" is more than people think. It's a full time, underpaid job. BUT the rewards are over the moon. On my Facebook page I have this in my "about you" section:

I'm a Wife and Mother. These include such things as: sculpting and shaping the generation to come; primarily responsible for daily operations, including accounts payable, inventory, receiving, and personnel management. Activities include but are not limited to nurturing, lactating, cleaning, diaper changing, potty training, schedule coordinating, cooking and laundering. Other duties include general maintenance, procurement, waste management, resource allocation, food preparation & nutrition evaluation, and health & wellness screening. Continuing education required, vacations optional and unlikely. Skills gained in multi-tasking, working one handed, foreseeing meltdowns. Exceptional work in the areas of creating, birthing, and feeding a human. Future plans include teaching, guiding, loving. Rewards are phenomenal.

Reflections of Motherhood

I am sure many of us have wished we could go back and do something over, tell a 'younger' version of us something important or just give ourselves a bit more support. This video is great

Reflections of Motherhood - These moms were asked, if they could go back to right before they had their first child, what would they tell themselves?

Check it out:




What would you tell yourself? Or what advice would you pass on?

Video ~ Birth By The Numbers

WOW this video is great. It's long (20 minutes) but a wonderful DVD. It talks about everything and explains it all. If you have some time, and I hope you do, check it out.


Birth By The Numbers

I hope you all had a very Happy Holidays and a wonderful New year.

Bring on 2011!!

Keeping Healthy!

It's that time of year again. My family has been knocked down by some serious flu-like germs. It's horrible!

So to help you out a bit I wanted to refer you to a post I made a while ago about being Healthy.

Check it out: "Keeping Healthy"

I hope you all enjoy the random snow today!

I'm here I'm here!

I promise!

Things are crazy! And now school is being added into the mix. It's keeping me busy for sure.

Do you have kids in school? What's your favourite part of them going back to school? Your least favourite part?

Personally I love it when K goes to school. It's only my first year to have him 'returning' to school but it's such a buzz of excitement around our house. We are withing sights distance of the school so we watch all the changes happening. For example this week the lawns got mowed with the big tractor mowers, garbage picked up, sidewalks swept and a bit of the garden care was done. It's so exciting to see these changes happening and to watch how people react around here.

The kids in our neighbourhood slowly begin to spend less and less time there and the parents are encouraging the younger ones to try out the playgrounds and hopefully get to know some of their school mates.

We went back-to-school shopping with Nana a few weekends ago and got Kyler set for school. I don't think he needs anything else until Winter, and even then maybe some socks but not too much else.

My least favourite part has to be the changes in our lifestyle. We have been lazy, had a 'basic' day to day plan, the ability to run out and do anything. Now we are back on a schedual. Not that I don't like schedules but it's always one of those things that shows us the changes in the seasons. It also doesn't help that our neighbours are teachers so once they start leaving daily to go to school that means our summer is coming to a close.

We still have to find out when Kyler goes to school but we know it's mornings and are pretty sure it's Mr. Brown again. We will find out next week when the plan is for him to go to school.



I wanted to apologize for not being up-to-date like I have been before. Like I said things have been crazy but I'm back. I'll be on the ball I promise!!

For starters I have photos from the Tri! They are on my 'other' blog

here and please feel free to check them out. I'm not stellar looking but then again who is after doing a triathlon!

I'm back, and I'm tired!

I'm back and I'm tired. Really tired.

Yesterday I did my first GT (Give it a Tri). I LOVED it! It was so much fun and we had a blast and just wow....... I'll be back to posting this week as the time comes up. For now the boys and I are looking forward to our first ever time together for a full week. Generally we don't get time together (aka all day) because of my training but without training it's going to be just us!

I'll be back with some photos :)

Oh yeah... I did it in 1 hour, 10 minutes and 50 seconds! GO ME!

BTW next year will be faster!

Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day! I hope you have a wonderful fun day! Enjoy the sun/rain/whatever weather you have and most of all take it easy! Everyone should enjoy a birthday, even if it's not yours!

~ Miranda

Vacation!

Everyone needs a vacation right? Well It's kinda my turn! I'm at my parents house for the week. We always have a great time here, there's a pool, playground, and lots of people who like to spoil my kids!

This time around I hired my cousin to babysit the kids for me in the mornings. I'm working my way through all my old stuff in the basement to have a HUGE sale this weekend! I'm hoping it goes well. Our plan is to sell everything we can! I have buckets and buckets of kids clothes! I hope I can get rid of lots of them, toys and other things!

For that reason I'm not going to be able to update alot but I'm working on it! I've got some new book reviews coming up and some great information for you.

Also, something to think about. I'm giving away some 'discounted' births! I would like to do 2 more discounted births this year (ie before November since I stop taking births on for December). If you are interested please e'mail me and let me know!

A Snip-It into My Life

I know I have told you about myself and about why I am a Doula but I thought you might like to know a bit about my daily life. It's boring! Ha! No really. I am always doing something to keep me active.

Our Family's Typical Day looks like this:

6:20am I wake up. I'm out the door by 6:30am for a run. I'm currently training for a "Give-It-A-Tri" on the Toronto Islands in August. I'm very excited about it. This is the only time I seem to get to myself so I'm out the door as soon as I can.

7am I am home and the boys are starting to move. My husband is generally out of bed by now listening to the news on the radio and the boys are waking up.

We all have our breakfast and get packed up for the day. I know this step will be gone soon but we have been getting bags ready for Speech Therapy for Quinton and a school bag read for Kyler. Speech Therapy ended last week and school ends next Friday so we are almost out of this step!

7:30am until 8:15am is around the time Arnold leaves for work. My husband cycles to work and loves it! It's about 10kms I believe and it takes him around 45 minutes or so. On Wednesdays he takes my son to school and then goes home and leaves the "trail-a-bike" at home and then heads out to school.

8:30am we start our walk to school and wait until around 8:50am for Kyler to get inside with his teachers. Quinton and I head home and figure out what we are doing for the day. Sometimes we have ST other times we go grocery shopping, drop things of at clients homes or just hang at home.

11:05am is when Q and I head to school. We pick up Kyler and come home for lunch. The boys eat and watch their only movie of the day. Currently their new obsession is Magic School Bus. I remember it from when my brother was little but I love that my children are so interested!

1pm the boys go down for a nap. I know I am very blessed that both boys still nap but it's wonderful! I don't get much time alone but it's enough to get some things done around the house and work on some of my Doula work.

3pm until around 4pm would be around the times the boys wake up. Q is always first lately. I am hoping this summer with more time outdoors this will change and they will both sleep until 4pm.

The boys play together until Daddy gets home or supper time. Generally around 6pm or so.

After supper we go for our nightly walk (weather dependant) and then come home. The boys have bath day on Tuesday, Thursdays and Saturdays so if it's one of those days they get a bath. If not we are busy the other days a night so we just send them off to bed. They are in bed between 8pm and 9:30pm depending on the night.

Now that I have it written out so much can change a day. For example:

Monday nights we have our College and Career group over so no night walks (unless we get everyone to come) and bed time is around 8pm
Tuesdays I have swimming (for my training) and the boys nap time gets pushed until 3:30pm instead of 1pm
Wednesdays we have Kids Klub and youth group so at night we are at church.
Thursdays I have swimming and the boys have their lessons. We don't get home until close to 4:15 and then there is no nap or they sleep until about 1 hour before bed time and that doesn't work so well!
Friday is our 'down day' where we hang out and generally go to that schedual, unless we are going somewhere that weekend (camping, my parents house, ect) then our afternoon is a bit different.

There are so many things that can change our days!

But that is just a snip-it into my life! I hope you enjoyed it!

Book Review Time

It's almost book review time. I've got a book I want to review that's not part of my Doula training reading list. Hopefully I can get it done for you this weekend or next. It's busy at our house!

I'm Sick ~ Hints for a Healthy Pregnancy

I hate these feelings! I always hate being sick. I can attest that it is super hard to be a mom and sick. Not only is your body telling you something is wrong and it needs time to recover but you have to take care of your family, big or small.

I don't know why I never take my own advice but I'm working on it. I'm finally 'sleeping when the kids sleep' even though my kids are older. I've been trying to get over 10 hours of sleep a night and that seems to be helping my cold a bit.

For those of you who are pregnant right now I have some "Hints for a Healthy Pregnancy" This handout was something I found from a great Doula Tracy Hartley.

Hopefully something on here will help you during your pregnancy woes:


Morning Sickness (A favourable sign that the pregnancy will continue successfully)
 Drink plenty of fluids – preferably water or juice
 Eat small, frequent, non-greasy meals with little odor
 examples are – crackers – preferably whole grain for nutritional value
 fresh fruits, unsugared
 cold chicken
 a piece of (whole grain) toast before getting out of bed
 papaya enzyme tablets
 peppermint oil or peppermint tea
 chamomile tea
 liquid chlorophyll
 raw almonds
 parsley (tea or in salads)
 extra vitamin E
 extra rest
 reduce stress
 cut back on vigorous exercise
 Vitamin B6 (strengthens the immune system, aids nerve impulse transmission, assists with energy metabolism, and synthesizes red blood cells. A large banana provides almost an entire milligram of this B vitamin. Brown rice, lean meats, poultry, fish, avocados, liver, whole grains, corn, and nuts are also high in vitamin B6. So, provided you can tolerate them, you may want to add some of these foods to your diet along with the vitamins.)

Heartburn
 Redhots or fireballs (sounds crazy, but it works!)
 Eat slowly
 Eat several small meals
 Tums/Roliads

Constipation
 drink plenty of fluids – preferably water or juice
 use a footstool while sitting on the toilet
 eat fresh fruit and roughage
 moderate exercise – walking

Backaches
 rest
 massage
 hot or cold packs
 exercises to strengthen the abdominal muscles and to decrease the curve in the lower back



Headache
 warm, relaxing bath
 massage
 tension reducing exercises (such as should circling)
 relaxation routines
 hot packs or cold packs on the back of the neck or shoulders
 cold packs on the forehead

Cold, Hay Fever, Runny Nose, and Cough
 cool-mist vaporizer
 saline nose drops
 rest
 liquids
 honey and lemon

Sleeplessness (common in late pregnancy)
 take a brisk walk each day
 warm bath
 warm milk
 massage
 soothing music
 a dull book (if you find yourself awake in the middle of the night)

Things to Avoid During Pregnancy
 tetracycline (a commonly prescribed antibiotic, may retard bone growth and affect tooth development)
 Over-the-counter medications including:
 decongestants
 cough medicines
 sleep medications
 headache remedies
 aspirin
 paint fumes
 rug shampoos
 lawn chemicals
 cleaning solvents
 pesticides
 x-rays
 caffeine
 cat litter
 cigarette smoke (including second hand)


Hopefully I feel better by following some of these tips!

About Me

I figured if I was starting a blog about my company I should give you a little bit of background information on me. I found a questionnaire online and figured it might be useful on here:


About myself:

Basic Information:

*Name - Miranda

*Age - 27, I will be 28 in October of 2010

*Location - Scarborough/Toronto, Ontario, Canada

*Family - My husband is a Computer Programmer. My oldest son is 5 and he is in JK at school. My youngest son is 3 and loves Dragons.

Random questions:

*What is your favourite television show? - I love a lot of TV shows. Since we don't have cable I watch them online. It does limit them a bit but generally my favourites are, and in no order, any NCIS, any CSI, Bones, Accidentally on Purpose, Glee and Parenthood 2010.

*Which is your favorite genre of movies? - I like comedy and romance. Just about everything else creeps me out, just a bit!

*Which is your favorite time of the day? - I have started training for a Triathlon and so my least favourite time is the morning, but I get so much done then (my training, getting the family up, fed, dressed, off to school) so I would have to say the morning!

*What is your most favorite place in this earth? - Wherever my family is.

*Why did you become a Labour Doula? - This question requires more than just a few word answer, heck I wrote an essay on it a few days ago, but generally I would have to say I became a Labour Doula so I could assist clients in having the birth they strive for. So many people I have met (including myself) have had hard births and they weren't even close to what we thought they would be like. Thankfully Doulas around the world are helping their clients to have the birth of their choice. That's why I became a Labour Doula.


Hopefully now that you know a bit more about me, I can get to know a bit more about you!