Family Day, February 20th, is a such a welcome day off in the middle of the cold winter months for us in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta. This year, celebrating Family Day has even more meaning to my family as it’s the first one with Baby T! I’m taking the time this Family Day to reflect upon the past 5 months that he’s been here, and share a bit of our journey! If you’re a first-time mom, hopefully you’ll take away a few tips on delivery preparation from my story.

{Celebrating Family Day}

T was due mid-October 2016 and I had an extremely normal and easy pregnancy – not even one episode of morning sickness (sorry other mommas and soon-to-be mommas out there!). Most of the stories I’ve heard about first time pregnancies led me to believe that he would be arriving late.

Surprise Delivery and a Hug Plan

Imagine our surprise when he was born 5 weeks early! Luckily there were no complications and both T and I were healthy and well afterwards. The hospital where I gave birth thankfully promoted skin-to-skin contact with the baby during those first few moments and days after delivery. If you’re an expecting mom, I’d encourage you to create your very own Hug Plan to ensure that your baby receives that important skin-to-skin contact – even if your delivery doesn’t go as planned (and really, how many deliveries really do go as planned?). Developed by Huggies®, the Hug Plan is an extension to a Birth Plan and specifies your wishes about how you or your partner will hold the baby immediately after they’re born. By having this Hug Plan in place ahead of time you’ll be able to concentrate on the arrival of your little one knowing that no matter what, your baby receives his or her first hug as soon as possible!

The Importance of Skin-To-Skin

I’ve mentioned skin-to-skin or “kangaroo care” before. Some of the benefits of skin-to-skin care include:

• Stronger parent/baby attachment
• Less stress for both parent and baby
• Improved sleep
• Faster weight gain
• Easier time breastfeeding

To help moms understand and embrace the power of hugs, Huggies® developed the No Baby Unhugged initiative. And to ensure all babies get the hugs they need, even when moms can’t be there to give them, Huggies® is funding and facilitating hugging programs in Canadian hospitals.

Not that we needed an excuse to hug our babies, but there are so many amazing reasons to cuddle with a newborn! You can read more about the benefits here  The Power of Human Touch for Babies.

Nursery Preparation

Since he was born early, we unfortunately weren’t quite ready with our preparations for his arrival!  We had been (and still are!) in the middle of renovating our house and we figured by the time he arrived his room would be ready when he was. We were obviously wrong about that! I had planned to keep him in our room for the first few months anyway so that bought us some time.

Luckily, we had stocked up on Huggies® Little Snugglers Diapers and Natural Care® Baby Wipes to keep our T’s perfect skin clean and healthy! Based on my experience, stock your nursery with plenty of diapers, wipes, and balms! Many babies who are born full-term grow out of the newborn diapers within a few days. Since T was a preemie, the nurses at the hospital diapered T in Huggies® Preemie diapers – they were perfect for his delicate skin! Huggies® is actually a favorite among nurses so I was glad they diapered T in them while in the hospital.

Capturing Special Moments

Since everything happened very unexpectedly, we had some challenges to quickly resolve before T was actually born. For one, my husband was on the other side of the country on his last business trip before I was due (don’t worry, he made it back on time!). Also, I didn’t have my hospital bag packed and didn’t actually have it with me when I went to the hospital; the night I went in I was just getting checked as a precaution and fully expected to return home that night and to work the next day!

The hospital and nurses were wonderful at providing me with all the essentials I needed and they kept me comfortable. The most important item to me was having a phone charged up and ready to take photos. In fact, when my husband was on his way to the hospital, everything I had planned to take with me took a backseat to a phone charger! And thankfully it all worked out so that we were able to capture my first hug with our little guy. <3

Celebrating Family Day

Our journey to this point has been full of ups and downs. Adjusting to life with a baby after years of being just the two of us plus our cat, definitely took some time for us and we’re still learning every day. I’m so grateful about celebrating Family Day this year with baby T in our lives. Time is flying by so fast – I can’t believe that half a year has flown by already! I’m thankful we’ve been able to capture all the special little moments of his life.

To make this Family Day extra special, I worked with Huggies® to capture some beautiful family photos!  This intimate photo session with Stephanie Webster Photography  meant so to me. The days with T pass by so quickly and it’s so important to capture these special moments. I’m thankful we were able to take some amazing photos that we will be able to cherish forever!

We hope your Family Day is filled with hugs.

How will you and your family be celebrating family day this year?

This post was sponsored by Huggies® Brand Canada. As always, all reviews and opinions are my own.

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