Monday

Big night out!

Last weekend was our first time to have a night to ourselves. The baby stayed at my parents' house all night and it was wonderful! We've gone out to dinner several times but this was the first time for him to stay somewhere else for the night. I think everyone involved enjoyed it. My dad already asked when they can keep him again!

We went to a concert (Old Crow Medicine Show), had dinner out and had a few adult beverages before coming home. Then we slept in (only a little) and I went to the farmers' market with my sister and a friend before picking the baby up at 11.

I'm signed up to do the color run in St. Louis in August, so I'm thinking that might be a good time for our next all-nighter.

Sunday

I see a light

A few weeks ago, I joined the online health information website my physicians offer. It lets me see all (most) of my health care in the last four years - depending on which MDs loaded it and are participating in the online program.

I thought it was interesting to see my weigh-ins throughout pregnancy. I always counted what my scale at home said because I wanted to be able to compare apples to apples after the baby was born. The online data said my last weight at the OB's office was 247. From one week after giving birth until I went back to work (three months) I hovered at 226. The last three weeks, I've stayed at 217, but losing .2 or .4 every week (on weight watchers still). So while I'm down 30 lbs from the highest point in my pregnancy, I still have a good 20 lbs to go just to be where I was pre-pregnancy. I'd really like to move past that number and be even more fit than I was a year ago.

The point of all this ramble is that I'm pretty sure my body doesn't have the "typical new mom" hormone set up. My body did produce some milk for my son, but even though we tried our hardest - and I truly believe that - it was not enough. It was ROUGH for the first few weeks and I visited/talked with a lactation specialist almost daily. Despite what we did, I only made enough milk to give him maybe three feedings a day - when he was eating probably 10x a day. Even when I started pumping at work I only had four ounces per pump session. By then he was eating six per feeding.

So combine the small amount of milk production with my inability to work out from my sciatic pain, I'm guessing that's why the weight did not just "fall off" like the books say it should while breastfeeding. I think my body didn't let go of a pound because I was so hungry while bfeeding that I ate more than I should have and couldn't really work out to make up for that.

I'm still not really working out like I need to, but I am walking almost every night and I often take the stairs at work. I finally feel like my body is returning to normal and that makes me happy because I know how to lose weight without all those hormones messing me up!

Monday

Adventures in baby food: carrots and peaches

A week or so ago, I bought a five-pound bag of carrots for maybe $3. Just boil and then puree those things and add a bit of formula (or B-milk if you are so lucky) and boom! Baby food that is made from real food with no additives, and, umm, way cheap. 

I went to a local orchard and got half a peck of white peaches. Give those things a spin and they are good to go in the freezer. 







I only put two peaches in there and that made 8 "cubes" of food - he is eating one cube per "meal" right now. We have been feeding him one cube plus a little rice cereal mixed together with a bit of formula. Then he's getting watermelon in a mesh holder for dessert. He is loving the watermelon.

Sunday

5 months

I cannot believe my son is already five months old. We celebrated fourth of July this week with a couple of pool parties, some BBQ and lots of naps.

We started feeding him carrots and peas two weeks ago and it's going really well. He loves carrots, but didn't hate peas. I think the peas have a different texture which threw him off for a bit, but he seemed to like the taste.

He's almost wearing 12-month clothes. Most of his six-month onesies are too short, and the nine-month sleepers are getting too small.

We finally transitioned from sink-baths to tub-baths. He seems to like it in the tub, but we have been keeping him up too late and he is too tired = crabby. When he's like that, laughing easily transitions to whimpering and then screaming bloody murder.

He wants to crawl and speak so badly, but has not mastered either one yet. He's working on them though, and I know it won't be long before he's all over the place and talking up a storm.