The Weekly Newsletter for Heart of Houston Birth and Wellness Families
Hey girls, hey!
Happy Monday readers! We made it out of the coldest week in 2022 and our hearts grew by two! February blew in on Tuesday, the stars aligned just so. Before we knew it, we had two babies at the same time at the birth center. A first for us! It was AWESOME! Both girls are the third child and the first girl for each family. It was also great to have Rachel, our new staff nurse and birth assistant, on hand to help out. It was a team effort, and everyone did a great job. Go team!
While we thoroughly enjoyed having both families here at once we are really looking forward to better acoustics in our new space. We happen to visit the space last week and they were installing insulation to the walls of the birthing suites. We are meeting with the contractors tomorrow so we will keep you posted on all the exciting developments.
Bring on the books!
I have really enjoyed all the great book recommendations! This list comes from on of our OG HOH mamas, Magdalen and her son Max. Thanks, friends!
Happiness With Aristotle – a fun read with a good message of finding happiness, and GREAT representative imagery! Includes children of all ethnicities and abilities. A wonderful starting point for having conversations with your babies and kids about diversity.
Monster ABC – although babies aren't going to memorize their ABCs anytime soon, they do love turning pages! This ABC book is both a fun read for parents and has plenty of pages for babies to practice their page-flipping.
Goodnight Goon – I'm sick of reading Goodnight Moon, and this one is way more fun!
Moo, Baa, La La La – Full of animal sounds that will make your sweet baby giggle! We love cow sounds in this house.
Bored babies?
When my 6 year old was little and we lived in Med Center, we spent most of our days outside of the house. We would visit the Tot Spot at the children's museum or we'd hang out at the zoo, followed by a train ride around Hermann park. We had regular coffee dates and support group meet ups. As she grew it was splash pads, library story times and puddle stomping at the Arboretum. Sigh, those were the days. Then COVID happened. My 3 year old had a much different experiance. Her infancy and toddler stages were spent in a third floor condo during a global lockdown and family isolations. The upside to that was that we were forced to slow down and learn to just be still. Well, not really still but definitely not as on the move as we once were. There were days when I swore Anais was so bored she would just stare at me with eyes that said, "This is it? This is all there is to do? Where do I file a complaint?" Luckily for her we had a three year old that was more than willing to entertain the lot of us and by default, our unfortunate downstairs neighbors. Many of our new parents are still avoiding indoors or crowded spaces to minimize the risk of exposure for themselves and their babies. Many of these folks have also mentioned that they feel like their babies are getting bored with the same activites day in and day out. Do babies really get bored? I actually don't know, but just in case they do I've invited Hanna Durning, a pediatric occupational therapist back to Heart of Houston for a couple of workshops to give us ideas on how to make the most of our alone time with baby.
Meeting Milestones through Play will be Tuesday the 15th at 10am, Hanna will teach us how to use play to facilitate all the skills it takes to reach the major milestones. The following Tuesday, the 22nd, Hanna will cover Solid Foods as Exploration to Build Oral Motor Skills. We hope you'll join us for one or both of these workshops! Each workshop is $15 for members and $20 for non members. Payment can be made day of via venmo but please RSVP on each event page.
Upcoming Events
Postpartum Support Group: On Zoom 2/9/22 10am Dietician Lucia Harmeling joins second hour of group to answer questions about nutrition and lactation, as well as postpartum nutrition.
Take a Walk PP Support Group : 2/10 10am let's meet at the Arboretum for a short stroll.
Dance and Stretch: Saturday 2/12 10:30am-12pm Join Joanna Zepeda for an hour and half of grounding, breathwork, stretching and dancing to prepare you for your big day.
Little Love Bug Workshop: 2/12 1pm A workshop focused on play and learning with your little Love Bug! $15 for HOH clients and WHC members, $20 for everyone else
Queer Parent Circle: Sunday 2/13 3:30-5pm LGBTQIA, GNC,NB parents welcome to join in community. Lap babies welcome. Masks required.
Latch Clinic: Now on Zoom Wednesday 2/16 10am, Leah Jolly IBCLC will join our weekly postpartum support group to answer your feeding questions. We have breakout rooms now so you can spend a few min in private with Leah if necessary.
Pregnancy Circle: Sunday 2/27 2-4pm HOH Zoom room Core Class the First 48 hours with your new baby! Leah Jolly guest.
Ongoing Events
Postpartum Support Group: Every Wednesday from 10-12ish and Thursday 9:30-11:30. Zoom link has been sent to all HOH clients and Whole Heart Collective members. Email Jessica if you need more information.
Queer Parent Circle: Second Sunday of every month 3:30-5pm Open to the public!
Birthworkers Circle: Second Sunday of every month starting Jan 2022 time 11am-1:30pm
Various Childbirth Education Curriculums starting soon: Rebel Birth weekly series or weekend intensive,and Bradley Method with Anne Zwicky. Birthing from within.
That's all for now! Have a great week everyone.
