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!

The Complaints of a Chronic Pouty-Pants

It’s been a while since my last post.

If I have learned nothing else from this new lifestyle of mine, I have learned that there is very little time for “Me Time”. My husband usually manages to find his “Me Time” but what I get is usually about 30 minutes a day and is spent doing something productive, like washing bottles or packing bags for tomorrow or cleaning my house.

Did I mention that I went back to work last week?

Did I also mention that I have always been somewhat of a self-sacrificing person (a.k.a. Martyr to my sister) – it drives my husband and my sister CRAZY – I end up taking on more than I can handle because no one else wants to. Believe me when I say this is not one of my better traits. And becoming a mother has added a whole new dimension to my martyrdom. For example, this is how my “relaxing evenings” went last week…

5:05-5:10 pm – Pick up baby from day care
5:15-5:30 pm – Home. Put baby in swing and pump a bottle’s worth of milk for baby
5:30-6:00 pm – Fix and eat dinner
6:00-7:00 pm – Clean up dinner dishes, make 6 bottles to last the next 24 hours.
7:00-7:35 pm – Feed baby
7:35-7:40 pm – Change his diaper
7:40-8:05 pm – Entertain baby,
8:05-8:10 pm – Put him down for a nap,
8:15-9:00 pm – Pack my lunch, lay out clothes for both myself and the baby to wear tomorrow, load the dishwasher & run it, and pump another bottle of milk

After all that is done, I might have had about an hour to watch tv with my husband before I had to feed the baby again.

In the meantime, my husband’s evening went something like this…

5:00-5:35 pm – Drive home from work – face hectic traffic
5:35-6:00 pm – Take off clothes in middle of kitchen, dance suggestively around wife and hint at what you would like to have happen later in the evening, & eat dinner
6:00-9:00 pm – Play video games

On the upside, at least we have a pattern….

I should say that this routine is only one week old, and in my husband’s defense, he was sick last week and couldn’t help with the baby that much. And in my defense, I thrive on multitasking—I love it! It’s like the achievement of a lifetime to get as much done in the smallest amount of time possible.

Also in my husband’s defense, yesterday afternoon, he took the baby from me and sent me to the mall with my best friend for 2 whole hours!

All that to say, I am exhausted, have very little personal time, and am looking forward to my husband being healthy and able to help more.

BUT don’t think I am not enjoying my new life. My Little Man is the best reason ever for me to be this exhausted, and to be honest, I don’t miss my “Me Time” that much, considering I get to spend a lot of quality time with the little guy. He is 9 weeks old today, and over the last 5 weeks he has really started to come alive. For the sake of those who want to know and my own personal memory’s sake here is a timeline of his activities over the last several weeks.

4 weeks – Little Man started making eye contact, moving his head to follow things he had his little eyes on and grasping onto things. Sleeping in about 4 ½ hr stretches at night.

5 weeks – Baby smiles started showing up, although not in response to anything specific.

6 weeks – Little Man started cooing and smiling in response to us as well as in response to his favorite little toys. Slept his first 6 hour stretch.

7 weeks – The cooing turned into gurgles in response to us talking to him, he started moving his head from side to side to explore the world around him. Sleeping has been varied between 4 and 6 hours.

8 weeks – Smiling has turned into laughing – which sounds more like a high pitched squeal of delight than laughter, but it’s awesome. Techy is a pro at making the little guy smile and laugh, which obviously makes him the best dad in the world. The Little Guy has even more control of head movement, including holding it up for several moments at a time—we put him in a Bumbo chair this week, just so we could see if he would like it, and he successfully held his head up for about a minute. Little Man got his first round of shots this week and weathered them like a champ. Barely cried at all and was so well-behaved after they were over. He also got his first cold this week – either that or he is suffering side effects from the shots – whatever the case he has his first runny nose and cough.

Although I am looking forward to the next stage, I am trying to remind myself that as difficult as these days are, this is the only time that my baby boy will be this size and in this stage, and I need to enjoy every minute of it.