Thursday, August 24, 2017

weekend update

We were supposed to see Doug's sister-in-law and kids last weekend, which I was really looking forward to August meeting his cousins, but they cancelled on us unfortunately. So that was a bummer but we ended up having a pretty impromptu fun day.
First we randomly decided to go to the airshow in the morning.
This is as close as I hope August ever gets to being in a tank.
We got to see the planes from WWI and WWII and then we had to leave. We'd double-booked our day and had made plans the day before to meet with some other friends at Greenfield Village.
Here is August and I in front of the Martha and Mary chapel. So my dad actually built the pipe organ there, and I'm pretty sure I even helped work on it with him as a child, and these 2 old lady guards wouldn't let me in to see it. They even quizzed me on the name and city of the builder and they were like 'oh yeah that's right', but they wouldn't let me go look at it. Like there's some top secret plan to break into a teeny church at the village. I was annoyed. I feel like asking my dad to take me next time he goes to tune the organ there and then pushing past those ladies 'member me?!?' as I start playing the organ. Haha. Anyway, Greenfield Village was cooler than I remember from my grade school field trips.
So my day had actually been triple booked because I had planned the week before to go to a 'sexy dance class' with a friend, and then we delayed it a week because she said the song for the week we had chosen was "too raunchy". So I appreciated that. We ended up learning a dance to the opening of Chris Brown's Freak at Night. I would've thought with my aerobics history I could've remembered more, it was hard to remember the order and it was just 30 seconds of a routine!! Anyway, it was fun. I was the only white girl which was definitely a blast from the past feeling, and felt like 'white girl can't dance' ;) but it was actually really fun and nice to see that friend and spend time with her.
The other big thing this weekend was August started crawling!
Heeey, hoooo!
He's been wobbling on hands and knees for awhile, but I turned on the cat's favorite toy and that was the big motivation for August's first crawl! He crawled right over to it and tried to put it in his mouth. So now begins a new adventure of turned over trashcans, hands in the cat water dish, computer laptop wires being pulled, the possibilities are endless. Poor little guy is also getting the entire top row of his teeth so he's been a sad little guy lately, and back to waking up 6-10x per night, so we've all been a little sad lately. Hope that stops soon!

Monday, August 14, 2017

life lately

Doug and I had a busy weekend around the house. He'd been laying new linoleum in the laundry room, I just got done vacuuming and baby was napping so I finished reading this book my mom loaned me and I read it pretty much all evening yesterday and finished it this morning.
It was really good, and I'd been in want of a good book for a long time now.
However, it was a book with 2 women experiencing loss, and that is hard to read. I was sobbing several times through this book. One of the two storylines is about 9/11. That event never fails to bring tears to my eyes. I have cried through so many stories, documentaries, etc on that day. It's just so sad. I can't imagine the horror of being trapped in a burning building, or contemplating jumping to my death, or being on the ground looking up and feeling helpless, or running for your life as the building collapsed. So horrible.
I feel like the book did a good job of touching in on this woman's life, and it was a story of love and hope overall.
Much more mundane things have been going around in our neck of life.
This is about all I'm going to get from my garden. I have sadly faced up to the fact that I am a gardening failure.
How do some people end up giving away bushels of zucchini when my 3 plants in the top corner just shriveled and died? And I know it looks dry, but I did water them!
August has been introduced to eating veggies since he turned about 8.5 months. Here he is enjoying some spinach and peas. We went out for Mediterranean lunch yesterday after church and also gave him a bit of hummus and both black and green olives. I think it's good for him to get a variety of flavors. Just because mama doesn't like olives doesn't mean he won't, in fact he seems to like everything he tries.
Our neighbors had us over for a BBQ
August had a few days of horrible sleeping. Seriously he woke anywhere from 15-20x the one night, I lost track. In the morning Doug had left for the couch and went to tell me he was leaving and I had to get up with August who was awake. I literally kicked my legs under the covers having a tantrum, and instead just brought August in to bed. I am not a co-sleeping fan, and had even just read another story of a little 8 week old wiggling down to the mother's knees and smothering under a blanket. I had my hand on August's belly, no blankets on him, and he fell right to sleep. Here was us after we woke up 2 more hours later. Doug was really mad at me though. I seriously felt like I was in some sleep deprivation study though, it is so obvious how people make bad decisions when they are tired. I felt like it wasn't really a big deal, but on the other hand, is a little more sleep really worth the risk, even if small? The next night he woke up less, maybe 10 times, then the next night 5, and then the last 2 nights back to twice. I can see he's getting a couple more teeth, and I think he was having some constipation issues. Which is odd, he still is mainly on breastmilk, takes a probiotic, and the food he is eating is all vegetables. He had a huge poop and hopefully that's behind us. Owie, poor guy.
He's such a sweetie.

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

9 month postpartum body

I meant to post this at like 3 months, and never got around to it.
Pregnancy takes your body on quite the journey. I feel so blessed I was able to conceive and carry my baby to term when so many women have difficulties. The way God made the woman's body to grow another body is so amazing!
A trip down memory lane, from 8 weeks pregnant
to 42 weeks pregnant on my induction day, 23 pounds later.
This is about 2 weeks after birth, I'd probably had lost about 20 lbs already.
Right at the 2 week mark I was finally healed up down there enough to be able to sit and move a little bit more without being near tears, so I think I started taking very short walks around the neighborhood with him on my chest around then, I can't remember, maybe that was at 3 or 4 weeks, but it did take about 2 full weeks to be able to not wince and/or cry from the birth tears. Ow! After birth I noticed some stretch marks under my belly button, and I thought, "no fair for them to come after delivery!" but maybe actually they were there before and I couldn't see them? Who knows.
That's at about 3 months after. And down another 5lbs. Pretty much stabilized. And been that way pretty much every since. Here's 9 months after
So I am lighter, I don't think my stomach is all the way down, altho it was never perfectly flat anyway. And the skin is looser, and belly button bigger (!!), but all in all I'm feeling pretty good and most times feel strong enough hefting this little guy all around. Othertimes I feel like an old lady after I pick him up, 'oh my back!'. They say breast feeding burns 500 calories a day and women often gain when they stop it, that will probably be me because I don't feel I'm really eating a whole lot extra. Oh well, we'll see.
I'm thankful I was able to have this little guy. I think it helped me stay strong and fit that I exercised my whole pregnancy. I'm sure I'll be busier the next time around, whenever that will be, with having less time now with August, but I will try!