A poem for MamaBear?

I must confess to reading a bunch of hippy blogs about unmedicated childbirth. Most of the time, I find inspiring stories about how women worked through their birthing experience with grace (and often a hefty dose of HypnoBabies).

One of today's posts was just too granola for me. I know it's wrong to laugh at another's expense. I know I'm teaching my daughter all kinds of bad lessons here. But I just can't help it when I come across stuff like this:

Shaking your head you moaned down low
hips thrust out, knees all bent
Mama Bear's rockin', poundin'
Heavy and Full.

Swayin' your belly, you danced that baby down
A bear mama, fierce, and loud.

You BIRTHED that baby, mama bear.

If you are so inclined, you can read the full poem here. I can assure you that I won't be writing poetry once BabyBear hits the scene.

Angry belly

Either my low mid-section is developing an emerging grimace or I am getting stretch marks. It seems that each day brings a new red squiggle below my barely-there belly button. Conveniently, I can't confirm with the naked eye, because I can't see the underside of my belly. Perhaps the mirror is playing tricks on me.

On the counting my blessings side of the balance sheet, I am pleased by the state of my belly button. PapaBear refers to it as the "divet" and likes to create a hollow sound by tapping it lightly. Regardless of its musical capabilities, a divet is still an "innie", not an "outie". Fingers crossed that I can retain this inward focus for another few months.

Burn, belly, burn

It's been ages since I last blogged. No good excuses from me...just that February has been a really busy month and I'd rather sleep than blog when given the choice.

PapaBear and I have been on vacation all week. Not a vacation that involves going farther away than Kleinburg, but a vacay nonetheless.

Our fave activities to date have included:
- Spending a morning at the McMichael Collection (sitting on each and every gallery bench to stretch out my endurance)
- Recovering our living room ottoman with baby-friendly foam and new microfiber
- Installing BabyBear's car seats (incorrectly, as it turns out...we now have appointments at the spiffy car seat installation centre next week)

In recent weeks, I've also been in full blown nesting mode. Our basement freezer is now home to more than a dozen casseroles, many ladles of soup, and a bounty of baked goods. When BabyBear arrives, we will be well fed.

There is a downside to this culinary commitment. While taking a pan of scones from the oven last night, I managed to forget the immense size of my belly and pulled the pan too close. Where my t-shirt had ridden up (a permanent condition nowadays), I have a red slash stretching across my pasty white skin. Ouch.