Weigh-in #10

Wow! 10 Weigh-ins. 10 Weeks.

That should get my butt into gear right? Seeing that big number?
Hoping to get this whole ordeal over and done with!?

I'm just gonna come out and say it...
guys, I'm lacking motivation.

I'm still overall behaving myself.
But I don't feel like it matters.

And now that I'm getting close to the end, I'm feeling even less pressure to press on.

So for most of the week, the scale has been telling me I have 3 lbs left to lose. (Awesome!)
But of course, the morning I need to do my public weigh in, I have 4 lbs left.

The reoccurring phenomena is not nonsensical.
It's due to the fact that I totally slack off on the weekends.
Which, to be fair is good for my sanity. But does indeed suck for the Monday Morning Weigh-in.

The flux usually corrects itself fairly quickly as I get back into the weekday grind.

BUT
I'm just gonna tell you ahead of time...
this week...
this week I have plans to EAT!

My mom is coming to visit.
And one of the many perks of having her around, is that she will watch the girls so Blake and I can go out and have a real date night (as opposed to our take-out and Netflix date night, we usually partake in since we have two little ones about.)
Ames, does not have a lot of food to offer, when you are used to Chicagoland food, or Champaign/Urbana food. (Oh man, can I list off restaurants I miss!) So its not like I have ultra huge plans to awesome places. (I am thinking ahead to February and my birthday, and possibly heading towards the awesome food of my motherland, and eating at every restaurant there until I can't move. lol.) But this week, well, I am just looking forward to getting out, and while I am out, I am eating.

The first thing on my list is COLD STONE CREAMERY!
Why?
Because that was on my "as soon as I'm not pregnant anymore" list. And you know what!? I haven't had it yet! Almost four months later! It's high time! AND we have coupons! NICE!

With that in mind....
Anyone have any thoughts on this predicament of my mind:
I am so so so excited to eat Cold Stone Ice Cream. I am so so so excited to go out on a date.
BUT...
I'm not so so so excited to eat inside Cold Stone.
And it's cold outside now, so we can't take it to a park.
Is there someplace else we could take it?
I'm not able to think of anything, but would love a suggestion if you have one!

Anyway,
enough about all the ways I'm going to totally blow it this week.
ha!
(I am so excited.)

I will keep forging on (after having an indulgent date night!) and hopefully stay on track enough to make my goal of Baby Weight gone by Thanksgiving.

P.S. Someone yell at me -- I haven't been to the gym at all this week! Zero times!
Yell at me!

Easy "Cheese" - Streamlining the Food Part of Mommyhood

I've mentioned that J (my two year old) has a dairy allergy.

And thats' really what inspired this post...

but even if you don't have dairy allergies,

or care about cheese-less mac and cheese,

you might get a little inspired to streamline some of your kitchen routine 

when you see my fun idea of the day.

She's been pretty easy and basic in terms of what she wants to eat so far.

So I've only just started needing to get creative to make up for the limitations of not getting to have anything that ever came from cow-milk.

So when it came time for me to get the ball rolling in the new foods department, 

naturally the first replacement food I went after was:

Mac and Cheese!

I used this recipe from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen.

I was really (Really! REALLY!)

excited the first day I made it for her.

It felt really monumental -- mac and cheese!! Its a kid staple!

It of course has no cheese.

But it looks like cheese.

And while it doesn't really taste like cheese,

it does taste good,

and she doesn't know what cheese is...

so

she loves it.

(I think it kind of tastes like the scalloped potatoes you get from a box. 

So it does kind of taste like cheese.)

And its surprisingly easy to make, despite the fact that its not from a box.

The part that took me the longest 

was getting out all the right seasonings and measuring those out.

So today,

(I'm so proud of myself!)

I made a big batch of the all those seasonings

 so next time I need to whip of the dish, it will be no problem!

I'll just scoop of couple scoops of one thing, instead of seven!

(For those that are wondering: 

I just put the actual spices in the batch, not the cornstarch or nutritional yeast.)

Transformations

On a day

 where the still 

and morning gray

 stay unnaturally past their early-hour curfew.

 I sit

with my first born baby.

And watch a movie with her.

Watch it with her. 

Not just stay near her.

While my husband and baby sleep in.

And I soak.

Soak in the mommyhood.

Soak in the calm.

Soak in the gorgeous lines of my daughter's face.

And I let her eye lashes dazzle me.

While

my eye lashes gather up

memories of her first day being seen.

Her eyes meet mine,

and I smile away tears.

Because they are happy tears 

anyway.

Weigh-in #9

I'm just gonna be honest.

This week is the biggest fluctuating week of all time.

Normally I stay right with a two pound range every week, and realistically, usually just slowly changing the decimal point of one pound.

Not this week!

This week I've ranged from a low point of only having three pounds left to lose, to a high point of having seven pounds left to lose.

Crazy!

Sadly the 7 pounds left to lose day was this morning! 

The day I need to check in with you!

Grr.

But I'm not going to get upset.

I think the number is artificially high,

TMI maybe, but I woke up full, full, full of milk this morning.

I just have days like that on occasion when nursing.

 I can't figure out what makes my body do that randomly.

So weighing myself, while nursing isn't always very consistent.

For the most part of this week,

I was seeing that I had four pounds left to lose.

So,

I think I'm at least at 5, but more likely 4,

this week, 

despite the strange weigh-in this morning.

That being said,

I was lazy over the weekend and didn't really count points.

So, that was my own fault.

I was just feel in some burn out and needed a mini break.

I also didn't make it to the pool this week.

I have such a hard time wanting to go at night.

I'm already spent by then,

and I have all these projects I want to get done while the girls are asleep.

Its hard to give that time up!

So there's my honesty.

I'll do better today!

Postpartum Belly Binding

I was really curious about Postpartum Binding this time.

I don't really know why I was so curious... I was way less concerned about postpartum appearances this time.  I think it was just because I was really curious about all things pregnancy.

"Make it Work"

I'm having a bit of an identity crisis lately. Well crisis sounds harsher than what I feel. But that's just the word for it...

{Pause.}

Ok, I just looked it up, and the definition is actually much more interesting than I thought.
 (I have an overly enthusiastic response to definitions of words. I feel like it enriches my life to know exactly what I'm saying.)
The bits that stand out to me:
"the turning point for better or worse... the decisive moment... an emotionally significant event or radical change of status in a person's life... a crucial time in which a decisive change is impending."

That sounds like what it is!
That's where I'm at.

I'm having some new mommy (again) bewilderment.
I think I'm just trying to process what this time of life is. And how to be in it.
Like, "How does Lydia be a mommy?"

Some of the feelings (that can sometimes sweep me off my feet), I'm sure are still happening because I had been so intently focused on pregnancy and birth, for so long that now that I've actually had #2 and everything went so well... I have a bit of the wind missing from of my sails with it all said and done.

Its time to redirect the the sails, to catch the new breezes.
But I don't feel like I even really know where this breezes are, or where they go.

There are basically two reasons for that right now.

Weigh-In #8

This week was confusing.

Its started with me immediately losing another pound.

Which of course gets me excited thinking, "Ooo, I bet I can lose two again this week!"

So I wait all week, eating well and slightly getting to the gym (once. Which is my going rate post Baby #2), being really good -- and then...

The pound comes back!

Hmm.

But right now, I'm hovering just on the edge of saying I lost that pound (again).

But I'm not sure I should claim it yet.

So I guess I have almost only 5 lbs left, but technically really 6 lbs left, to lose right now.

Its kinda annoying.

But I guess its still a step in the right direction, even if its a step forward-backward-forward.

In the same vein of weight-loss, is health and...
Ok, need to talk something out:

Baby Baths

There are bunches of ways to give a baby a bath.

My mom washed me in the kitchen sink.

(If you know me, my kitchen sink is empty for about 5 mins a day. 

So I've never used this method of baby bath time. But it sounds convenient, if you can keep a clean sink.)

I've done sponge baths on a towel.

And we have a really nice baby bath tub that my friend gave me.

It has a really cozy fabric hammock attachment for newborns.

And in the tub itself, you can set baby on one side and it has a sloped back.

And when baby gets bigger, they can sit on the other side and hold their self up.

Its a great baby tool.

(And actually, its a good toddler toy for J at the moment. 

She calls it her "seat" and drags it around the house! lol.)

But far and away my favorite way to bathe a baby 

is like this:

Getting in the bathtub together.

"Like" me on Facebook

I decided to make a Facebook page for my blog!

Now you can keep up with my blog updates and interact with me via Facebook!

So if you (or someone you know) want to hear about my blog in your Facebook newsfeed, "like" my blog's page and you'll stay in the loop! :) 

I'd be really excited if you did!

(It doesn't get me anything special, other than give me a better connection with you.)

And if you want to like it, but you still don't really want to hear about my posts all the time, you can always hide it from your news feed! The possibilities are endless! :) 


Check out my new Facebook page here!
You need to click the above link to find the "like" button that will connect you to the page. 
(The like button on this post, won't do it. Sorry, rather confusing!)

Weigh-In #7

Woohoo 

a

TWO POUND WEEK!

I wasn't expecting two pounds this week,

but the second one was a particularly satisfying one

because it puts me in the 

(And here is where I don't know how to word myself right)

the tens spot

of my pre-pregnant weight.

(I've been calling it a decade, which my mathy-husband told me, is technically correct -- just rather confusing sounding. Good job me for getting a mathy thought right! )

So the second number of my weight, is now a happy number.

And I'm starting to feel physically like "myself" lately.

Its nice.

Oh and my pants are feeling better too.

Six pounds left to lose.

Speaking of pounds...

We took Baby A to the doctor for 3 months today

And she now weighs 13 lbs 14oz

She has the cutest leg rolls!

I have chubby little babies.

LOVE IT!

Fall

You can't tell in this photo, that I took with "Photo Booth" on my laptop

  (being too lazy to get out a real camera and upload anything)

but the tree in our front yard is changing colors. 

(You can see in this photo, that our curtains fell down off of our front window --- It was a toddler hiding in the sheers plus baby and mommy nursing incident....to be fixed in the near future.)

{More} Business of Being Born

I am on a viewing high.

Just finished watching "More Business of Being Born" (Yay Netflix for picking it up so fast!!)

And wow.

I feel like my heart is opened up fresh.

I tend to do a lot of back tracking and egg shell walking when talking birth, my births, because it's so delicate. Its such a big deal. It's so controversial. It can be everything. And I hate to think of adding into anyone's hard time, if they had a hard time. Because I know I had a hard time hearing any birth stories after my first experience. And both my giving-birth experiences are so different that they each can alienate different people. So its hard to share anything at all sometimes.

But today I give myself permission to just share my thoughts from these movies.
I would like to start by saying, I love you. And my heart is to never hurt you.
If you are nervous this post could hurt your feelings, read it only when, or if, you're ready. And please know that I would never ever tell you that you were wrong in the way you gave birth. Anyone who've ever given birth, in any way, (natural, medicated, cesarean, adoption, fostering) has my utmost respect.

Weigh-in #6

Well, I thought for sure this was going to be a 2 lb week.
I mean, one pound feel off just as the week started, surely I could get another to come off too!
But no.
Just a one pound week.

And actually, Saturday morning, the scale told me that pound came back, and I was mad! Like quit this madness, and go buy one of those awesome $12 huge frosting-covered cookie at the grocery store, kinda mad. (And after I finish that, go eat some cake and bread and pancakes. Kinda mad.) Because who really cares...I can button some pants, I'm fine. Give me cookies!
But the rational part of my brain (so weird that you can have such separate things happening at the same time inside yourself) told me that "You know you aren't supposed to weight yourself every day for this very reason, AND you know that while breastfeeding, the scale can totally say different things depending on how recently you nursed."

So despite my desire to throw a pity party sugar festival, I continued on my quest and stuck to my points on Saturday and Sunday.
So that pound was just a flux and I'm now left with 8 lbs to lose.
So thats good. (Despite what my emotions said.)

I need to be better at working out,
I only swam once this week.
And I haven't done my 15 min Ab rehab workout like at all for a long time. I had intended to, so I really should!
Its hard to be motivated to use my free time for workouts. But its good for me (brain included) so I should just do it.