for those parents out there that think that they just are not cutting it some days….

here is a great post at “Syma Says”

The Voices in my Head

“Natural birth may build bond between mother, baby”

“Brain scans on 12 new mothers found that natural childbirth may strengthen the bond between mother and child.

Scientists at Yale University think the contractions during natural childbirth trigger the release of oxytocin, known as the cuddling hormone, in the mother and form a closer attachment between mothers and their babies.

Caesarean sections may not have the same effect, and could be linked to postpartum depression, scientists believe.”

read more here…

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and the Journal abstract

A range of early circumstances surrounding the birth of a child affects peripartum hormones, parental behavior and infant wellbeing. One of these factors, which may lead to postpartum depression, is the mode of delivery: vaginal delivery (VD) or cesarean section delivery (CSD). To test the hypothesis that CSD mothers would be less responsive to own baby-cry stimuli than VD mothers in the immediate postpartum period, we conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging, 2–4 weeks after delivery, of the brains of six mothers who delivered vaginally and six who had an elective CSD. VD mothers’ brains were significantly more responsive than CSD mothers’ brains to their own baby-cry in the superior and middle temporal gyri, superior frontal gyrus, medial fusiform gyrus, superior parietal lobe, as well as regions of the caudate, thalamus, hypothalamus, amygdala and pons. Also, within preferentially active regions of VD brains, there were correlations across all 12 mothers with out-of-magnet variables. These include correlations between own baby-cry responses in the left and right lenticular nuclei and parental preoccupations (r = .64, p < .05 and .67, p < .05 respectively), as well as in the superior frontal cortex and Beck depression inventory (r = .78, p < .01). First this suggests that VD mothers are more sensitive to own baby-cry than CSD mothers in the early postpartum in sensory processing, empathy, arousal, motivation, reward and habit-regulation circuits. Second, independent of mode of delivery, parental worries and mood are related to specific brain activations in response to own baby-cry.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121395695/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

Before I left for BC I thought that it would be the last time I swam in our pool for the year… the last years the month of August gets cool and rainy and we don’t use the pool at all for almost the whole month… and then when we get a bit of warm weather the water is too cold…

Well… we got back on Monday to a humid 30 degrees (86F) which feels like 35 because of the humidity… (95F) and not only is the weather outside warm enough… hot enough… unconfortable enough to swim… the pool itself is 25 degrees (76F) so we have been swimming yesterday and today… and the invite that Simon sent out for Colin’s birthday with a BBQ next to the pool will be very possible if the rain stays away that day….

What weird weather…

I was quite enjoying the cool weather that was taking over the BC air…

The flight home on Monday was umm…. interesting….

For about half of the flight Khéna screamed… and cried and just wanted to get out of my arms…

and then finally the they told the guy next to us that there was a seat at the front of the plane and that he could move there so that we would have more space… at least he did not seem phased about Khéna at all…

So then I was able to put Khéna in Colin’s seat and Colin went to the next seat and Khéna fell asleep a few minutes later and woke when we were landing…

Gen was waiting at the airport with my car and once I got all the carseats in and the kids and bags in we dropped Gen off and headed home… It was really weird being back home… everything familiar but a bit forgotten…

Simon had decorated a bit for Colin’s birthday which was nice and then with the time change in effect I had a bit of trouble falling asleep and then we got up quite late the next day also… and of course because it was the first day back I needed to get some shopping done and needed to go to the bank… so I was out a lot of the day… I am so glad that Simon stayed home from work so that I was able to get some things done..

And last night we had Taco’s according to the birthday boy’s wishes… and then ice cream for dessert with the promise of chocolate cake for his birthday party on Sunday…

Anyway… Simon is at work today and our routine is going back to normal again…

In a few short days the boys and I will be heading home…

It has been a bit rough at times being alone with all three but the roughtest times seemed to be when we ere with Annie… The kids seem to love being with each other at times but then something would happen and they would just turn on eachother….

Being with Annie was great though… she is such an inspiration and she is such an amazing mom…

Here in Vancouver it is raining today and my mom went to work and I got the kids ready to go walk down to the skytrain to go somewhere… anywhere… and then realized that the stroller is in my mom’s car…. so then I thought about just putting Khéna on my back…. but then remembered that the wrap is in the stroller… so we are stuck here until my mom comes back…

It feels weird to be heading home… I felt that I left home back in Nelson so going back to Sorel-Tracy is a bit depressing for me… a house that we settled for because of price… a home that doesn’t feel like a home….

Of course I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed… and most importanly being with Simon again… and we will be waking up the next morning to Colin’s 4th birthday which is also pretty cool…

I think that this trip really made up my mind that we need to leave though…

We need to live in a place that is more family friendly… that is has a better quality of life and friendlier people…

a bittersweet return…