Playing catchup

I feel like it’s been forever since I last posted. I have been super busy the last couple weeks, not quite sure with what – the life of a SAHM is always busy. Lots of housework to stay on top of, my “get healthy” challenge, and visits with friends and family.

To update you on our “get healthy” challenge: Michelle has 1 point up on me. We were tied AGAIN this week, and now we have one week left to see who will be the winner! I’ve been working so hard to eat healthy and to exercise every day…. and it’s been paying off! Today’s weigh-in marked my 10-pound milestone! After having Liam I had a few months with bad eating and no exercise, telling myself I was justified because I’d “just” had a baby. Well, it’s been almost 5 months and I’m less than my pre-pregnancy weight. Yippee! 5 more pounds and I’ll be pre-pre-pregnancy weight (what I was BEFORE I got pregnant with Kenzie, and the smallest I’ve ever been). Something to work towards!

On the nursing front, I’ve just about had it. I had a blocked milk duct last week and worked very hard to empty it so that I wouldn’t get mastitis…. I could feel it coming on – that particular night I got the sweaty chills and felt achy all over. Luckily I woke up with only a bit of pain on that one side and by the end of the day it was gone! Phew. Even though I’m on Domperidone, I know that my milk supply is not sufficient for Liam. I just can’t get him full enough. He nurses at least every 3 hours during the day, sometimes sooner (so averaging 7-8 times), and he is up every 3-4 hours at night now. I’m a zombie during the nights – and he’s not nursing for a quick 5 minutes either, it’s usually 15-20 minutes! Arg. I’m still determined to make it to 6 months, but I’m counting the days. I can’t do the zombie parent anymore, even with eating healthy and exercising, I need to start getting more than 3 hours of consecutive sleep. I feel good about quitting at 6 months, so that’s what I’ll do. I have an appointment with my dr. next week for another weight check, and unless he’s had a huge weight gain, I’m going to stick to my plan.

And who knows? Maybe we’ll get to 6 months and I’ll just keep going! Maybe I’ll find a way to make it work with supplementing and breastfeeding…. but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Happy love day

Happy Valentine’s day, everyone!

We have had a great 2-day celebration, despite the fact that we are husband- and daddy-less this year. Greg is away in Palm Springs, and has been since early Saturday morning. Yesterday we were at Kendra’s with the whole gang. The kids had a little too much fun getting high on all sorts of sugary sweets, and we moms had a sort of crazy time trying to get in a conversation here and there. Isn’t that how it goes with kids?!

Kenzie gave out her Valentines day goodies….

And my hubby surprised me with flowers from the far off land of Palm Springs:

  

And my kiddos were happy just to be loved:

 

It’s been a little hard with Greg gone…. the days are fine, as we’re used to him being gone, but the early evenings from 5-7 are a little difficult. I’m outnumbered! Bedtime has been a little crazy, but we’ve finally gotten a rhythm going. Greg is back around dinner time on Thursday, so we’re counting down the hours!

An update on Liam: we had his 4 month shots last week, and the little (and I do mean LITTLE) gaffer weighed in at 12 lbs. 8 oz. I find this hilarious, as L’s little buddy Foster, born Dec. 29th (3 months YOUNGER than Liam) is approx. 14 lbs. Too funny. Anyways, back to Liam….. he gained under half a pound from January’s check up to February’s check up. There is still no cause for too much concern, yet, as he has met all the normal 4 month milestones (grabbing toys, turning his head to follow movement and sound, rolling over both ways, etc), but we have to go back again in 2 weeks for another check up. Dr. MacIntosh even saw him at this last appointment, and was not overly concerned, but agreed that it best if we came back in a few weeks to continue monitering his weight gain. In height he is following his growth curve on the 75th percentile! That’s encouraging. He still does not nurse very well. 5 minutes max, no matter how hard I encourage/prod/force (haha, just kidding!) and I’ve tried topping up with formula, but he isn’t interested. Sigh. Thanks for all your encouraging words, everyone…. we’re being optimistic and waiting it out.

And one last thing… tomorrow is Weigh In #2! I’m feeling fiercely optimistic about my weight loss this week…… Stay tuned!

Febru-scary

So this month is going to be a bit of a crazy month. A couple weeks ago a friend of mine (who shall remain nameless) approached me about a ‘Get Healthy’ challenge that she wanted me to participate in with her. The competition would take place for 4 weeks in February, and the point system is quite simple. It is as follows:

1/2-hour workout: 1 point
Food tracked for the day: 1 point
8 glasses of water drank for the day: 1 point
Each pound loss: 1 point

This week was a little crazy for me. As the water-drinking and food-tracking is not that difficult, I decided that the working out and pound-losing is where Michelle and I will be fighting it out. Oops, I said her name. As if any of you couldn’t guess! If you know Michelle at all, you’ll know that she is a workout/fitness fiend. Over the last year she has worked her TAIL off to get healthy and fit, and it’s paid off for her. I believe she’s lost 25 pounds?! (Correct me if I’m wrong, Michelle!) This girl means business. She runs half-marathons, she works out at the gym frequently doing all sorts of spin classes and hardcore workouts, and she is training for a sprint triathlon this spring. What did I get myself INTO?!

Today marked a week since we began, and it was time to weigh in and give a summary of our week. As it turns out, we TIED! We had the same number of points from doing the same things! And neither of us lost a single pound. How disheartening. We concluded that our bodies are transforming fat into muscle, and we all know that “muscle weighs more than fat”! (I’ll keep telling myself that, ha ha).

So hopefully this next week goes better! I’m a little scared, as Michelle definitely has more endurance and stamina under her belt than I do, but I’ll see if I can keep up, wink wink.

In kiddo news, Liam received his 4-month immunizations yesterday. He was also weighed, and just like in previous appointments, he dropped off his curve…. again. He is now down to the 3rd percentile, and gained just 0.5 lb in a month. He has had a nasty cold for the last 3 weeks, making it difficult for him to nurse, so I’m not surprised at all to find out that he hasn’t gained adequate weight…. again. We talked, and the RN at my dr. office decided that because he is meeting all the normal milestones that a 4-month old should be reaching, and because his is staying on his growth curve for height (75th percentile!), that we will come back (again) in another month to check him out.

4 months old

“Baby” Liam is 4 months old today!

We so love our happy, little guy, and look forward to the next few months of development!

On the up and up

The kiddies are starting to feel better, which mean’s I’M starting to feel better! Liam has resorted waking up every 3-4 hours at night, which is taking some getting used to. He tries to nurse, but is too stuffed up/congested to do so. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, our Vicks Vaporizer decided to kick it…. thankfully my wonderful friend Michelle lent me hers. It seemed to help L sleep – he’s taken some very long naps and has gone longer at night since she gave it to us.

In the weight department, I’m trying to lose while Liam is trying to gain! I’ve been throwing in the odd formula bottle every once in a while to see if that will help, and to see if it will help him go a little longer at night. It’s been working a little bit, and it’s also nice for him to be able to take a formula bottle if I need to go out. My milk supply is totally ample and I’ve dropped the domperidone for now. 2 more months to go……..

And one of my new year’s resolution has been successful since the start of January! I’ve lost a few inches, mainly off my waist and legs, and I’ve lost….. 8 POUNDS! It’s been 3 weeks now and the scale better not be lying! I’ve been counting calories (don’t worry, I’m accounting for BF’ing!) and working out almost every day. I’ve been taking Sundays off, it’s a day of rest, after all! And February is showing lots of promise to be just as rewarding – I have committed to a fitness challenge, competing against my good friend and accountability partner, M, to see who can attain the most points. The rewards are based on logging your food intake the day, drinking 8 cups of water, 1/2 hour workouts, and pounds lost. At the end of each week we’re going to check in with each other to see who has accumulated the most points. At the end of the month, the loser is going to treat the winner to something that we haven’t decided on yet. I can’t wait! I’m a competitive person at heart, and I think this competition is just what I need to keep my regime going. Game on, M!

Back to Liam for a minute, how can I completely fail to mention that my little almost-4-month-old (tomorrow) rolled over last week?! I put him on his tummy for some tummy time and came back into the room to find him on his back, flailing about. The next day I put him on his back, left the room for a minute and came back to find him on his tummy! We have a 2-way roller, folks!

The bumbo also presents another station for L to chill in… he doesn’t love it yet, but we’ll get there. We also hauled the trusty jumperoo out of storage and have already put a few miles of usage on that thing. Whoever invented it is a sheer genius!

We’ve been hit!

We’ve been hit……

By a nasty cold virus.

I’ve got two congested, stuffed-up, sniffling, wheezing, coughing, sneezing little kiddos on my hands and I’m not very thrilled about it.

I have remained untouched, thankfully, so I’m able to take care of the little ones without much complaint. Liam is still fairly happy, despite his ailments, but he is having a lot of trouble breathing while sleeping and nursing. I’ve been pumping and giving him bottles when he’s too stuffed up to nurse, and thankfully he is taking them no problem. He’s staying fairly hydrated, and still has wet diapers so I’m not concerned – yet.

Kenzie is just being miserable, though. She’s got quite the cough, and it saddens me to here her hacking away in her crib at night. She’s been sleeping SO much better lately, I just hope it lasts even with this nasty cold. A report on post-soother trauma; she’s forgotten all about it! Score. It was a long week and for a while there we thought we were going to buckle under the pressure, but we stuck with it and she’s finally sleeping through the night again without waking up. Naptimes are still all over the place, and she’s been waking up at the 1-hour mark… sometimes crying and going back to sleep, other times refusing to quit until I take her out. Oh well…. you win some……

That’s been life around here. We’re loving our days at home and our routine. I am working out hard with JM and her crew, and have lost some inches in the last couple weeks! 5 lbs. and I’m officially almost back to me pre-pre-preganancy weight (before I got pregnant with Kenzie!)

But I’m off…. Greg’s dad is staying here tonight and I don’t even have a bed made up yet. EEP!

Boxed in

Another Pinterest project completed!

My hydrangea trough-thingy is done, and I’m LOVING the way it spruces up our mantel, especially now that our eyesore of a TV is mounted above it. PS – anyone else hate how having your TV on your wall allows EVERYONE driving by to see if and what you are watching?! I would now love to have faux wood blinds in our big living room window for that reason alone. Not that I am watching TV all day or watching anything questionable (ok, ok, my guilty daytime TV pleasure is Dr. Phil…. shhhhh!), but I just like to have my privacy! I ALWAYS look at what other people are watching on TV when I’m driving, so why wouldn’t people be peeping into my window?!

OK enough of that… on to my project of late!

First step was to pick up 2 pieces of untreated cedar 1×4 from Home Depot. I gave Greg my measurements, and he chopped up the pieces for me.

   

Next step was staining. I used some stain that we already owned (walnut color) and put 2 thin coats on the wood pieces.

 

Cedar soaks up stain pretty good, so I would definitely recommend the two coats for that rich color.

Next Greg used some small decorative nails and put the box together, voila:

 

And lastly, I added in my fake hydrangeas that I got at Michael’s last 50% off sale (all florals were half off, score!) and there you have it…. my mantle all spruced up!

I quite like it….

Have you completed any Pinterest “pins” lately? I challenge you that for every 10 things you pin, you actually DO one of them! It’s quite a rewarding experience, although your husband may disagree if you solicit his help, like I did.