Stop Telling Me I Look Great.

My kiddos!

Since having had a baby 8 weeks ago, people constantly tell me how great I look.  I had one person tell me how I didn't even look like I had just had a baby.......while I was sitting down.......behind a table.

Thank you for the compliments, but they really don't have to happen.  It's REALLY okay.

I totally GET that it is common courtesy for a person to tell a once-pregnant lady how fabulous she looks after having a baby.  You're definitely supposed to do that.  Pregnant women feel everything BUT fabulous after carrying a child, so it's everybody's civil duty to make them feel pretty again.

I still have 11-13 pounds to go before I'm at my pre-baby weight, and then I'll have 6 more pounds after that to reach what I call my "race weight" again.  That's 17-19 pounds of "overweight" (for me) that I am right now.  ALMOST 20 POUNDS.  I did just had a baby, and I'm fully aware of what happens after a baby.  The majority of that extra weight is confined to my loose and untoned belly area, while the parts of me the are more considered to be just plain fatty (like my love handles and back squish) are probably more likely attributed to all of the junk food I craved and ate while pregnant.  (Tubs of cake icing?  I WOULD NEVER...........where's the spoon?)

My "race weight".

After I had Delano, I was back in my pre-baby jeans within no time.  A couple of weeks, max.  People told me I looked great, and I would smile and thank them because I DID feel like I looked pretty good after just having had a baby.  I was still heavier and lumpier than when I started, but I was in my old clothes, and that made me happy.  But this time around, I don't feel good about myself yet.  I was still wearing maternity pants up until a week ago.  I tried on every pair of jeans in my house - even my "fat jeans" - and not a single pair of them fit.  I was bummed that I needed to go buy bigger pants, but also bummed that I was still in maternity pants.  And I would probably still be wearing maternity pants had my mom not made me go shopping for new pants, since she knew I'd feel better being back in regular pants, even if they were a few sizes bigger.

Me and Delano when he was about 10 weeks old.

I don't need people to remind me that "it took 9 months to grow a baby.....", or that since it's my second baby and the kiddos are so close together in age that it takes longer to lose the flab.  I know all of this.  I knew it before I got pregnant with #2.  I was prepared to have to work at it a lot harder in order to work it off.  I was also prepared that it would take me a while to break up with my junk food cravings.  (We still see each other on the side here and there, and often have an occasional no inhibitions one-night stand.  It's just so hard to let go of something you love so much, even though you know how much of a bad influence it is.)

I appreciate the kindness of others.  I do.  And if you really think I look awesome, then thank you.  But I don't need compliments tossed at me just to be nice.  I'd much rather have an honest conversation:  "So how do you feel 8 weeks after having a baby?  Do your old clothes fit?  No?  Well that's okay, because you'll get there!  You've started running again, right?  Well that's what burned the weight off the first time you lost a lot of weight, so you've just gotta keep working on building up your mileage again.  BURN BABY, BURN.  Wanna do some P90X?  Yeah, me neither.  How's the junk food treating you?  Mmmmm, a chocolate molten cake sounds yum.  Wanna go get one?  I'll grab my keys.  You can eat a salad for dinner.  Or run it off tomorrow.  Or we can lay in the floor and do a few sit-ups after we get back home.  Three or four should do it."

I'll get to where I want to be eventually.  But for now.......

 P.S.  I sing that to Delano when we're pulling his pants on everyday.  It has come to be expected.  :)

Big Girl Panties

So Lucy has graduated into Big Girl Panties!

Though I don't actually own a single girly gDiaper.  Only primary colors!

Ok, so "big girl panties" is a stretch for most.  My daughter is definitely not potty trained.  I guess it all depends on your various definitions of "big girl panties".  For me, for my 7-week-old, that means that she has moved out of her newborn gDiapers and into the size small covers.  Which also means she has moved into cloth inserts.

Some people use full-on cloth diapers straight out of the gate.  Others use disposable diapers during the first couple of months and then transition into cloth diapers once their kid has put a little meat on their bones.  I did it halfway.  The newborn gDiapers are reusable cloth covers, but you use the gDiaper all-cotton disposable inserts with them (cloth inserts actually aren't recommended for the newborn size).  They worked great for when Delano was a newborn and worked 10x better with Lucy.  In 7 weeks she didn't have a SINGLE leak.  Not a one!  (I think we only had a couple of ,leaks with Delano.)  So they're pretty awesome, and therefore they might completely spoil you if you're lucky enough to experience the "no leak" factor with them.  At 7 weeks, Lucy has outgrown the newborn diaper covers and has moved up.  Which means experiencing leaks on a daily basis while I try to figure out the right diaper combo (and changing schedule) for her, which may be completely different from what it was with Delano.  In fact, I don't quite remember off the top of my head what it was like with Delano.  I think I may recall that I actually waited a few more weeks before using the small gDiapers (and used another diaper brand instead) because I couldn't seem to keep the leaks at bay, which meant he was still a little too small for them.

This is kind of what Lucy looks like in her Happy Heiny nighttime diaper right now (engulfed by diaper).  Though this baby's diaper (NOT a Happy Heiny.....maybe a Thirsties cover?) looks like it fits his/her leg holes (gussets) better.  So Lucy may wake up wet later.....

I'll have to look back through my old blog posts and see what Delano was "into" diaper-wise at this point in time, because I KNOW I wrote about it!!  In the meantime, Lucy and I will just keep experimenting with diapers until we get it right.  :)

Ok, so I just looked up my older blogs.  Here's where I talked about moving Delano from newborns to smalls.  At the time that I wrote the post, I was still trying to figure things out.  Delano was using the size small gDiapers (and had been since he was 5 1/2 weeks old), but there were leaks because his thighs were still real skinny.  In a later post, I went more in-depth about my cloth diaper stash and usage.  I was still using gDiapers (along with some other diaper types/brands) and I was still occasionally experiencing leaks.  But with cloth diapers, you just have to expect and be okay with leaks while you figure things out (or while your child grows through their own personal awkward stages).  Not like soak-your-shirt-and-change-your-clothes types of leaks, but mainly leaks on themselves.  And yes, your goal is to figure out what works and DOESN'T leak, but the leaks really aren't a big deal.  REALLY.  Lucas got pooped on once while out at a restaurant during Delano's early days.  Sounds like a big deal, but really not a big deal.  It happens.  The end.

I ALMOST bought a newborn ("up to 10 lbs") diaper cover this evening at a consignment sale, because it looked like it might fit my baby's thighs quite nicely (which is where 99% of leaks happen).  I talked myself out of it due to my already overflowing diaper stash.  But I may have really benefited from it.  I hate it when I do that.  Want something......then talk myself out of it.......and then wish I would have just gotten it.  MayI'll swing by there tomorrow and see if it's still there.  I dunno.  I just love a new diaper.  :)

This is the current new gDiaper design.  It's really hard for me not to order one for both Delano and Lucy!

This blog post has hit a stopping point.  I need to go to bed, as my youngest has been asleep for about an hour and 15 minutes now.  Which means she'll be up between 2:45 to 4:45 hours to eat again.  So I really should go to bed.

I normally would at LEAST end with a cute pic of my child (or children), but since my laptop crashed and I haven't uploaded any pics from my cell phone recently, I don't have any pics to share.  So I'll just leave you with a freeze frame of the video "if animals were fat".

If you haven't seen the video, Google it.

I'm Back!

I'm back!!  At least I hope so, anyway.  I'm back for the moment.

So where have I been the past month?  Well, my laptop started slowing down......and getting slower.....and slower......and slooooooooooower........until the point that it was pretty much impossible to use.  We tried everything to fix it with no luck.  So we had to basically strip it down to its core and start it over from scratch.  So now I have a working laptop again, even though it's missing pretty much everything (program-wise) that was on it.

It's been a crazy-busy few weeks.  Delano turned 18 months old yesterday, and Lucy turned 7 weeks old today.  I went to the foot doctor back in January and received a "prescription" for 6 weeks of physical therapy twice a week, along with an appointment to have some molded shoe inserts made.  I've also had doctor appointments for the kids and have an upcoming dentist appointment for myself.  I've also got two Hunter museum shifts this month - one this Saturday and another next Friday.  So I've kept a full calendar lately, and will keep a full calendar at least until March 19th, which is when my physical therapy ends and I have my follow-up foot doctor appointment. 

I've also been fully aware that I have a half marathon coming up in a little over 2 months, so I've been trying to keep up with my running schedule, which of course doesn't always pan out if the kids aren't both napping at the same time (or I need to use their naptime to do something else).  I'm up to 2.5 miles on the treadmill right now, so I figure that if I add a mile of distance a week (run 3 miles this week, 4 miles next week, and so on) then I'll be up to 11 miles the week before race week, which should be plenty of training to run 13.1 at the end of April.  I also need to start getting outside for my runs in the near future - I've just been waiting on the weather to warm up.

Of course I say that my calendar load should lighten after mid-March, but the reality is that I need to put more time into training for the half marathon.  And I'll also hopefully have some work projects tossed my way again soon, so I'll just be replacing being busy with physical therapy to being busy with running and work.  However, I'll be getting in shape and actually EARNING money instead of PAYING money!

Another upcoming event that has been on my brain (OF COURSE) has been the wedding!  I forget where I left off in my last blog post, but the beach package has been booked, the general beach location has been chosen, the photographer has been booked and the after-party location has been decided (which can't be reserved until the first of April).  I now need to shop for a dress for both me and Lucy, as well as figure out what the boys are going to wear.  Lucas's parents and I discussed wedding cakes this past weekend, and I decided that I would look into cupcake makers in the Destin area and see if that was something I wanted to go with.  It would be nice to have something for the occasion, but I also don't want anybody to invest money in cupcakes if nobody's going to eat them.  I've also been trying to decide if I want to carry flowers, or if I just want to carry Lucy and nix any extra flowers.  Maybe I'll carry Lucy and SHE can chew on carry some flowers.  That would be cute.

In something like this?  Just kidding.

Speaking of needing to shop and things being on the brain lately.....I finally gave in and bought new pants today, and I'm only a little happy about it.  I'm totally happy about my new workout pants.  They look and feel pretty fab.  I feel good in them.  And plus I found 2 of them on the clearance rack, which is always awesome, AND I got an extra 35% off of the clearance price.  Super score!  What I'm not excited about is the 2 pair of jeans I had to buy.  Granted, it's nice that they fit.  BUT the only reason they fit is because I had to buy bigger pants after having Baby #2.  It's been 7 weeks and I still don't even remotely fit into my pre-baby jeans.  I've been wearing maternity pants for the past 7 weeks, and it's been pretty depressing.  And even though I was really hoping to NOT have to buy new pants, it was time to move on from the maternity wear. 

This isn't me, but it could be.  It's pretty much exactly what my belly and sides look like right now.

So to sum it up, I've decided that I don't have enough time in the day or enough money in the bank account.

Or enough room in my pre-baby pants.