Monday, April 12, 2010

Fun Facts in the World of Mommyhood

1. Losing the baby weight is neither fast, nor easy.
People tell you this when you are pregnant, but when you are that miserable, you just don’t care. Exercise makes you even more miserable. (For the record, pregnancy=constant sweating, whether it’s over the bowl of a toilet or a result of the giant bowling ball you are carrying around in your stomach. Anything that creates extra sweating=even more misery and should be avoided at all costs.) That’s not to say don’t exercise. Believe me, I am poster child for consistent exercise while pregnant. I walked 2-3 miles a day 3 days a week until 2 weeks before I delivered, and my labor and delivery was minimal in comparison to several others’. But hard core exercise to keep off the baby weight is nearly impossible. I had wanted to run well into my pregnancy, but everytime I warmed up enough to break a sweat I would get sick.
All that being said, I gained somewhere around 50 lbs. with this kiddo. So much weight so little time. I lost about 10-15 lbs. of it after I had him and now I have about 35 lbs to lose. It’s depressing. I feel like I look better, but I haven’t lost any weight, so I guess my goal at this point is just to get healthy and not worry about weight.
Although…that scale is such an easy way to gauge one’s success.
I guess the tape measure is just as easy a way, but I don’t have one anymore. Oh well.

2. My legs are rebelling against me.
Last week I tried to start running again. I made the stupid assumption that it would be easy to get back into it. I mean, hello, I was running like crazy before I got pregnant. So the first day I ran a mile total. Meaning I ran the first ½ mile and the rest was intervals of running and walking. The next day I decided it would be a good idea to push myself to 2 miles. I made it ¾ miles without stopping and then intervals of walking/running for the remainder with a sprint to the finish (honestly, it was a lame attempt at a sprint, but whatev. I gave it all I had at that point). The next day I was sore and had shin splints. By the end of the week the shin splints were gone, only to be replaced with pain in my knees that is so ridiculous, I can barely bend them. My hopes of a May 5k are quickly disappearing with less and less time to train. Ugh! In the meantime, I am exercising in other ways – walking, cross-training, pilates, etc. Anything to get the heartrate up. I need a good bike to take the stress of my knees. Anyone know of anyone willing to donate a bike to a good cause?


3. Crying it out is not just for babies.
So Little Man is more than amazing. We are in the process of dropping his last feeding of the day, the 8:30-9 pm feeding, which means he is sleeping somewhere close to 11 hrs at night. He just started that this weekend. Today, the little guy is 15 weeks old and he has dropped 2 feedings in the last 4 weeks. The “dream feed” or 10:30 feeding was dropped somewhere around 11-12 weeks. (at the time he was cluster eating at 6:30, 8:30, and 10:30 in the evenings – when he dropped the dreamfeed, we moved the feedings to a looser schedule 6:30-7 and 9-9:30. Over the last few weeks, I have slowly been edging the last feeding back and watching him eat less and less at that feeding.) Finally, over the weekend, I moved the 6:30 feeding to 7 and let him go without that last bottle. He managed to make it to 6:30 am. This morning he made it to 6:45 which means we are edging ever closer to that 11 hr mark.
HOWEVER, that is not to say that all is well in the land of babies. For you see, I have failed as a mommy. HARD CORE FAILED. I committed the unpardonable mommyhood sin – I rocked my child. I enjoyed it. (Secretly, I still do.) But the more and more I think about it and the more and more I read, I have decided that I am doing my child a disservice by not letting him learn how to sleep on his own. It is one thing to look at it as a nuisance and not rock your child for that reason, (obviously not the case for me since I am one of those sicko’s who enjoys it) but I am robbing him of the opportunity to learn how to do it on his own.
In that light, how could I rob my child of his first opportunity to be independent? But oh is it difficult.
Saturday afternoon, after 2 easy morning naps taken while running errands in the car (my baby loves sleeping in the car) I put him down to cry it out in the pack n play. Only to have a 2 hour crying fit on my hands. To say that I was stressed is downplaying it.
Now, this isn’t the first time this happened. I tried this for weeks solid after Little Man was first born, but it never worked. He only cried harder and for hours at a time. Finally, I decided that I would wait to fight the battle until he was a little older. And here we are.
Yesterday was a bit better with only a 1 hr crying fit at 1 nap – all others and bedtime were only 20 minutes tops. Totally doable.


4. Techy’s birthday gift of the century.
This year for my birthday, Techy got me something that I could have never guessed, even if I had tried. He always comes up with something very unique for me. Not usually anything on my list, but always something I want/need. Techy bought me an iPad. To be honest, I feel completely unworthy. I mean, until last week, I didn’t even know what an iPad was. (I know, head in the sand, right?)
Fortunately, for me, I quickly got up to speed and am uber excited about it. It’s waiting for me, when I get home. Can’t wait to try it out. I promise to brag all about it over the next week or so. Be prepared to be completely jealous.


5. Disappearing act.
Last week, someone close to me disappeared for a couple days. Limited contact would be putting it mildly. When all was said and done and she had returned home, we learned that she had secretly been dating someone online and had gotten herself a passport and a plane ticket and flown to Nova Scotia to meet him. I know...NOVA SCOTIA? Pretty much our response, too. And no, I am not kidding. Turned out fine. At the time, it was a horrible nightmare that really could have played out into something really horrible.


Ok, so I think I have caught you up on everything since my last post. Don’t you feel better now? Like your life is complete? I know, I know. I have that affect on people. It’s a gift…really…a gift. You are lucky to know me.
Ciao!

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