Meet Our New Plant Enthusiast in the Making

Hi plant lovers; Baby Zane (meaning God’s gracious gift) is finally here!! Things didn’t quite go as expected but D and I just went with the flow. My pregnancy was riddled with nausea from week 5 until baby was born. My last visit to my OB at week 39 showed Zane to be a little underweight (as a result of poor intake due to nausea) and there was also the question of compromised blood flow through the umbilical cord. We decided then that Zane would be better out than in my womb at this point. So an induction was scheduled for that day. I won’t bore you all with the details, but in the end, I had a C-section after 18 hours of labour, as Zane was not tolerating the induction process very well. He was born February 7th at 1330 and weighed 6.3 lbs. I can’t explain how in that moment I felt when I saw him. Tears welled in my eyes as I lay on the operating table, longing to hold him in my arms. He was beautiful.We were home 2 days later. Things have been hectic for this new family of 3 and we have been grateful for all the support from family and friends.

A few of you asked if baby was here yet and so I thought I’d share a few pics of him. He is 9 days old as of today. Since this is a blog about plants (not parenthood), I thought I could make this post a bit ‘planty’ by including a plant in a shot :).  And look Zane was even dressed for the occasion with a plant-themed onesie!

PS: I kept this sweetheart Hoya to see if it would grow any new leaves. If you remember I featured this plant with Oscar the monkey in a blog post last year and it still hasn’t changed an inch. One reader commented that hers grew new leaves on a vine after about a year of having it. However, another reader clarified that “Sometimes these single leaf cuttings do grow a stem – but that happens only if you got some meristem tissue in there by accident (if a tiny bit of stem broke off with your lucky leaf). The chances of that happening are pretty low, and even when it does happen, it takes many months to see a growing stem tip poking out”. Hmmm. I guess we will just have to wait and see. [And yes, it is safe for kids :)]