It’s no secret that the Toronto BabyTime Show is one of my favourite parenting events to attend. I first attended in the Spring of 2010, when I was expecting Lilly and have headed back down (a 2 hour drive – totally worth it!) many times since.

This past fall, I took my family with me to the BabyTime Show for the first time. Lilly had a complete blast at all the fantastic interactive booths that vendors had set up. Unfortunately, with my hubby working next weekend, I will be leaving her at preschool. However, I will be heading down with my newborn son, Cole. I am very excited to be one of the many cute baby-wearing Mamas walking around the show floor

Lilly and Daddy having fun at Sony Canada booth at Fall 2013 BabyTime Show in Toronto.

Looking through the exhibitor list for the show, it is easy to see that you have the opportunity to connect with many major brands at this event. The BabyTime Show gives you a unique chance to really see, touch and try products for you and your family, as well as allow you to ask questions and get information directly from the brands.

One aspect of this experience that I love the most is finding great innovative products and meeting up and coming companies that you can support. In many cases, you can discover amazing and unique products that you would never find at a big box store, and they are created by fellow parents who saw a need and got creative. I truly love the chance to get to know and support these parenting entrepreneurs.

When I attended the show in the Fall, I was on the lookout for a few products specifically for pregnancy. Now that I am the proud owner of a shiny and adorable newborn, I am looking for some innovative baby gear and a few unique items that will be distinctly Cole’s, just as I did after Lilly was born. Many of the products I discovered for her are still ones I recommend to fellow new mamas now.

This gorgeous organic Sleep Bag from Wee Urban is one of the innovative must-haves I discovered at the Fall 2010 BabyTime Show, after Lilly was born.

At this year’s show, there are a few specific vendors and key new products that I have my eye on. Being a busy mom of two, I am looking for products that can make my life a little easier!

Bug In A Rug will be offering a very sweet Sleep Belt that is designed specifically for skin-to-skin support. My new little man definitely loves his time napping on Mama, so I love the idea of being able to hold him while still having my hands free.

Cub’s Quarters makes a very innovative product called QuickZip crib sheets. These sheets include a zipper base and top sheets that simply zip into place. While Cole is not yet sleeping in his crib, I can imagine how nice it would be to not have to lift a mattress to change sheets in the middle of the night…

Lil Bugs is a new company that has launched an adorable way to celebrate your baby’s first year. The offer monthly onsies that can be later stored into a keepsake box, complete with cards to capture all the milestones accomplished that month. This is one I am definitely excited to try out.

About the BabyTime Show

The 16th Annual Spring BabyTime Show – The Ultimate Event For Pregnancy, Birth, Baby and Toddler
Show, Learn and Have Fun all Within One Vibrant Place Celebrating Parenthood

• SHOP! TRY & BUY from over 250 Manufacturers, Retailers and Artisans.
• REGISTER for all your baby needs with Babies “R”Us.
• TALK TO THE EXPERTS behind your favourite brands and take advantage of great show specials.
• LEARN from Top Pregnancy and Parenting Experts. Click on the Speakers tab to read up on the experts.
• MEET AND GREET your favourite characters. This year, the show’s celebrity line up includes Dora, Wonder Pets, Guess with Jess, Olivia and Blue’s Clues.

Want to get in on the excitement and goodies for FREE? Enter to win 1 of 2 pairs of tickets I am giving away!

Increase your chances to WIN!
Head on over to visit Multi-testing Mommy and Little Miss Kate to enter to win Prize Packs and Tickets!

Disclosure: I am a media partner of the Toronto BabyTime Show and received tickets to attend the event. All opinions in this post & related marketing for the event are my own.

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Rocking both my babies.

Some Mama love from my kissy face little lady.

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Well I am 30 weeks pregnant and below is my 3rd proper belly photo.

Darn life and responsibility just gets in the way

30 Weeks Pregnant

Last night, the little monster decided that we should have a practice run for this whole labour business. I had braxton hicks on and off for a good few hours. It was a little scary, but I had Lilly to try to talk some sense into her little brother.

“Hello, brother. This is your sister. Be nice to our Mama!” which was followed with this sweet kiss to the belly. I adore the sibling belly love.

Baby belly kisses!

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Like how my 3 year old daughter clearly inherited my book worm gene. Awesome.

Or how I can’t take an “outfit of the day” shot without her wanting to show off her style as well.

And her style is adorable. I mean, seriously, how cute is this kid?!

And how I have insanely talented friends that can make something like THIS for their son’s birthday. She hand carved and painted those angry bird star wars figures from clay. Crazy & amazing!

How we are thankful for the incredible generosity of friends and family…our little man is more than set for clothes until he reaches a year old! We’re still going to be stocking up on other baby essentials…thank goodness for an upcoming huge sale at The Baby’s Room at Sears! *shameless plug ;)*

This is just the newborn-12 months clothes!

Lastly, I am very excited to formally announce his name. We’ve been talking to him and about him, using his name, in our home for over a month now. I can’t wait for everyone to meet our little man, Cole!

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Just as I did right before Lilly was born, I have placed everything we have for our new baby in the middle of the to-be nursery. There is a ridiculously satisfying feeling that come from sorting and organizing baby clothes and supplies. Kind of like a Christmas morning feeling just for pregnant women. After going through everything we had and have been given, I came to a very quick conclusion.

We really don’t need any more clothes! Thanks to the generosity of friends and family, we are more than set for the entire first year of this little man’s life.

This is just the newborn-12 months clothes!

Now, while we might be set for clothes, we definitely need to stock up on many of the other basics for a newborn baby. We have very little when it comes to wash cloths and receiving blankets. Most of them were pretty beat up by the end of the baby stage with Lilly. Many have since been donated to her baby dolls. We also realized that the few crib sheets and blankets we have left are 90% pink. While that’s really not a big deal, it would be nice to get a few that match our son’s nursery and are just his.

We also need to get a couple major pieces of furniture. I must have a glider, something I regrettably never had with my daughter’s nursery, and a change table. We didn’t keep Lilly’s, since it had taken quite a beating in our move last year.

Needless to say, we will be taking full advantage of the upcoming Baby Days!

What are Baby Days? An incredible sale from January 17-30 on nearly everything in The Baby’s Room at Sears. This includes 15% off nursery furniture, strollers, monitors and so much more. And while we don’t need any clothes, there will also be great deals on all the adorable clothing lines, including Caters. Check out all of the amazing deals for yourself!

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Never expected to have an MRI at 28 weeks pregnant.

Pregnancy and stroke.

Those are two words that I did not know could go together. And yet those are two words that I’ve heard a lot over the last few weeks.

I haven’t blogged about this pregnancy nearly as much as I wanted to. I have drafts sitting on here, nearly ready to go. I just have to find the time to finish them. This pregnancy has been much harder on me than Lily ever was. I guess that’s to be expected the second time around, as you don’t have nearly as much time. Everything feels a little more rushed, and a little more stressed.

For starters, I am already showing the symptoms of Cholestasis again with this pregnancy. Without getting into it, it is a liver condition I had with Lilly that caused us to be induced at 38 weeks. All in all it was fine. We had good notice and were prepared for it. However, it does mean that this little guy could be joining us in a mere 10 weeks.

Between home life, work, and school, I’m just starting to feel like I have nothing prepared. Like I’m running out of time.

However, as limited as my time feels right now, I wanted to make sure that I took some time to document what’s going on right now. I want to documented for my daughter, so she has this information for her future pregnancies. I also wanted to put it out here, because I know I have a lot of friends and family who are very supportive that read this blog. I know they will add me to prayer circles, keep me in their thoughts, and send me good jujus. All of which I would gladly take right now.

On December 11 I had the first episode. I’ve been doing some Christmas crafting with Lilly at the kitchen table, and when I stood up I knew immediately that something was wrong. The room was spinning, I had spots in front of my eyes and I told Adam that I thought I was going to pass out. He helped me to the couch so I could lay down. I told him he needed to turn off all of the lights because I just could not stand the sight of them. Right away I recognized the symptoms of what I was having as those of a migraine. I’m the only one in my immediate family that doesn’t get chronic migraines. But my mom did tell me that she didn’t start having migraines until she was pregnant with me. So maybe just my time is coming due.

I laid down on the couch for about 25 to 30 minutes and it was when I stood up that the scary part took over. I had lost feeling in my left arm. It hadn’t fallen asleep. It was just numb. Within five minutes it had climbed up and spread across the entire left side of my face. It literally felt as if I just left the dentist office with freezing in my mouth. It lasted about another 5 to 10 minutes before disappearing as quickly as it came on.

Being the Google happy mom that I am, I started digging. A few terms were coming back that could easily make sense, such as carpal tunnel or a pinched nerve from the little man inside of me. I saw my OB the next day and filled her in on what had happened. I told her the reading I had done, but she pointed out that carpal tunnel would really only be in the limps, not my face. The fact that it had impacted my face is what she found concerning. Then she said the word that started all of this; stroke. Apparently some women can carry such a high level of hormones in their blood when pregnant that it can cause migraines, blood clots and could lead to stroke. She put me on a daily low-dose of aspirin to help thin my blood and let me know I am to stay on it until a few weeks before labour. My blood needs time to thicken back up before labour to reduce the risk of hemorrhaging…another unpleasant word to hear.

Two days later I had a similar, but lesser episode, on the right side of my body. The room spun a little bit, I felt a little bit disoriented, and I lost feeling in my right arm. This episode was much shorter than the first one, which was a relief. This time I was alone with Lilly, which worried me even more, but it did pass quickly.

I started my aspirin right away and it seems to have helped. However, I have had two episodes since going on aspirin. While down in Toronto with my best friend, the room started spinning and I felt light headed. It passed quickly. Then last week I had a full blown migraine at the office. This time with the temple throbbing and all. The very presence of my laptop screen was painful. It lasted roughly 20 minutes.

Yesterday I had my latest check up with my OB. I filled her in on the two incidences I have had since going on the aspirin. She mentioned that she was going to put in a call with a local cardiologist specialist to get his opinion. 20 minutes after leaving my OB’s office, they called me to say I was to meet with the specialist today, first thing in the morning. In the words of the nurse, they want to make sure I’m not going to have a stroke on them in the next 2 and a half months…

So that brings us to the latest. I met with the cardiologist this morning and had a check up with him. We went over a lot with family history and what exactly I have been feeling, blow-by-blow, when the episodes come on. He mentioned their first suspect would be my blood pressure, but it is perfect. Next they would look at my blood work, which also came back fine. So now we are at the point of looking at other possible causes.

While he said this could easily just be all caused by migraines and nothing more, they want to look at all angles. I have an ECG on Monday and they were able to get me in today for an MRI. While the cardiologist assured me that both tests are safe during pregnancy, I have to admit, the MRI was incredibly emotional and stressful. They had me sign a consent form and warned me that the machine makes quite a lot of noise. Noise was an understatement. It was very loud and my poor little man spent the entire 30 minute procedure completely losing his mind in there. I laid still, taking deep breaths and trying to keep calm with tears streaming down my face. It doesn’t help that I am pregnant and therefore generally emotional all the time these days, but knowing my baby was stressed and there was nothing I could do for him was a very useless feeling.

So where am I through all of this? Basically, I am trying very hard not to freak out. I am working hard to remind myself that no real answers also means no real reason to overstress. The bottom line is this could be nothing. It could be something. We just simply don’t know yet.

Naturally I am feeling concerned. If this turns out to be something that has an increasing risk to me, are they going to want to take him out even earlier? Is he at risk through all of this? My episodes have come when I was walking, or when I was sitting doing nothing physical at all. Therefore I have nothing to pinpoint as a trigger. This freaks me out even more since it can come on at any time, with absolutely no warning.

I have just under 3 months to go and am really hoping for no further complications.

Ideally speaking, the phrase miracle of life will hold true throughout the rest of my pregnancy and both me and my little man will come out of it perfectly healthy. In the meantime, I’ll take all the good vibes you’ve got.

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Being pregnant with my second, I am now a pro at this pregnancy thing. So naturally, I had prenatal vitamins on the go when we started to try for baby #2.

Note – I have crazy brave friends who have 6 kids. I am no where near pro.

Are prenatal vitamins fun? Well no, not always. They can kind of resemble horse pills and can be a little tricky to get down when you are battling the early stages of pregnancy. With this pregnancy, I struggled far worse with morning sickness than I ever did with Lilly. The last thing I wanted to do was shove pills down my throat. However, I have still made sure to take my vitamins everyday. Why? Because it is what is best for me and my baby.

A bit about the benefits of Nestlé Materna

Whether a woman is planning to get pregnant soon, pregnant now or breastfeeding, Nestlé Materna prenatal / postnatal vitamins help nourish their body with folic acid to help prevent neural tube defects when taken daily prior to becoming pregnant and during early pregnancy. They also provide 22 other essential vitamins and minerals they and baby need through pregnancy and nursing.

Experts say that when starting your family planning, you should start taking prenatal vitamins right away. Ideally, you want to have them in your system 12 weeks prior to becoming pregnant. Learn more about why prenatal and postnatal vitamins are important for you and your baby.

Nestlé Materna Prize Pack Giveaway

To give expecting moms a head start, Nestlé has put together a prize pack themed as “pregnancy essentials”. It includes special treats to keep mom and baby healthy and happy at every stage. This gift basket is perfect to keep for yourself or would make a great gift for an expecting mom during the upcoming holiday season.

Pregnancy Essentials ($150 value)

• LeSport Sac Bag
• Bath & Body Works Super Rich Body Cream, Spa Size (Coconut & Shea Butter blend)
• Peppermint Tea
• Bath & Body Works Warm Vanilla Sugar Bubble Bath
• BellaBand
• Preggie Pop Drops, Sour Fruit Candy
• Two bottles of Nestle Materna

Enter the Giveaway!

Ideally speaking, I would be able to enter my own giveaway…the more I stare at that basket of pregnancy goodies, the more I want to get my hands on it! But I guess I will just leave for the rest of you to enter to win

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post for Nestlé Materna. I received special perks in exchange for sharing this information and running this giveaway. As always, the thoughts and opinions in this post are entirely my own.

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I’m sure she will love her little brother all the same once she lays her eyes on him!

Our gender reveal photo. Cutest little loafers ever!

Our baby boy’s first official photo :)

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Our baby boy’s first official photo :)

Last Wednesday, we had our full scan ultrasound. I had been counting down the days for this one, since we were hoping to find out the sex of the baby. Spoiler alert – It’s a boy!!!

My husband and I are both very excited. We’ll have the “millionaires family” as they call it.

Lilly, however, is a bit of a different story. Next to hearing the news, she was the best part of the ultrasound…

Technicial: “So, do we want to find out the sex?”

Me: “Yes, if we can!” (she had mentioned the baby was on it’s tummy. I didn’t know if that impacted what she could see.)

Technician: (moving the wand to a different part of my belly) “Alright, well there are two leg bones there….and what does that look like in between?”

Me: (giggling) “Well, that looks like a penis.”

Technician: “That’s what that looks like to me as well.”

Adam: “Yeah!”

Lilly: (Throwing her hands up in the air triumphantly) “Yeah, it’s a baby girl!”

The technician, Adam and I all burst out laughing. Bless her little three year old heart. We’ve definitely had enough chats in the house about body parts that she knows the difference, but apparently her hope for a sister out weighed her ability to make the connection.

Me: “No sweetie. That means it’s a boy.”

Lilly: (staring down the technician as if this is her fault) “Uhhh. I wanted a girl!”

Adam: “Well honey, we told you we don’t get to decide. I think you will like having a baby brother.”

Her only response to this was to cross her arms and crinkle her nose. Obviously Daddy was wrong with his assumption in that moment.

About an hour later, after our visit with our obstetrician, Lilly and I are getting into the car to head home. I thought I would see if she felt any different after hearing his heart beat again and getting to look at his first official photos.

Me: “Well Lil, you’ve had time to think about it. Are you excited to have a baby brother yet?”

Lilly: (doing her best toddler eye-roll and heavy sigh) “Yeah. I guess a little bit.”

Ideally speaking, she will learn to accept the idea of a baby brother…and won’t try to treat him like a little girl. However, MY little brother has some traumatizing memories of being decked out in dresses with bows in his hair, so maybe I shouldn’t hold out too much hope for that one…

The post Talking With My Toddler #22: It’s a Boy! appeared first on Ideally speaking....

Lilly: “The baby can hear me now?”

Me: “Yes, the baby is just starting to hear. So you can say hi, or sing a song. Maybe teach the baby some words.”

Lilly: “Teach her (she’s insistent on a girl…) what kinds of words, Mama?”

Me: “Anything you like sweetie.”

Lilly takes a moment to contemplate this information, then after looking like she has decided on her contribution to the baby’s vocabulary, leans in close to my belly…

Lilly: (in a slightly singing tone) “Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum.”

Me: “That’s the first word you want to teach to the baby?! (rolling my eyes) Lovely Lilly.”

She takes this older sibling duty thing very seriously. Obviously.

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