Thursday, July 29, 2010

Brooklyn is 2 months old

It's unreal that Brooklyn has been part of our family for 2 months now, and yet it also feels like she's always been here. I think the more kids you have, the easier it is to adjust to another baby, so you don't notice the change as much. That doesn't mean we don't love her a ton, and love having her as part of our family though. She is a really great baby. She sleeps well at night, and usually eats around midnight, and then sleeps until anywhere between 5 and 7, just depending on the day. She sleeps with us though, so when she does wake up, I just start feeding her in bed, and we both falls back asleep pretty quickly. Gotta love that part of co-sleeping. :) She is also a very smiley and chatty baby, which shouldn't surprise me with as much as everyone else in the family talks. She loves to be snuggled, which is great since everyone loves a snuggly baby.
We are already trying to get Brooklyn used to how much we travel. We have taken two trips to Cloud 9 since she arrived, and she did ok on them. She cried a lot on the way home on our most recent trip, but once we reached a stopping point, we discovered she had a majorly poopy diaper, so I think that was the cause of her distress. Once she was changed and fed, she went back to sleep for the rest of the trip. Still to come this year will be at least one more trip to Cloud 9, a trip to Ohio, a trip to Chicago, and I'm sure we'll end up with at least one more road trip to somewhere, so hopefully she'll continue to travel well.
Brooklyn has her two month check-up tomorrow, so I'll update with her weight after that. I'm sure she's doing just fine though. Also coming up this weekend is Brooklyn's christening, which I'm really excited about. I must go for now and work on cleaning house for our guests following the Christening. I'm still not caught up, and fear I never will be.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Big Fatty fattness

That's how I feel right now. I want to punch every first time mom who popped out a baby and a week later slipped their pre-pregnancy pants on effortlessly. I will be honest and admit that I have never been able to fit back into my pre-Emma clothes. NOPE, not EVER! After having Emma I lost all but about 10 pounds right away, and that's where my body stayed until I got pregnant with Nathan. With Nathan I gained a lot more weight, so I had more to lose, and of course, never got off my lazy butt to lose all of it. After Megan I got back to my pre-pregnancy weight quickly, but I still had a lot more to lose. I did great losing the weight, but even getting the numbers on the scale back to where they were before I got pregnant with Emma, I was unable to wear the same size. Seriously, when I got pregnant with Emma I wore a size 5 or 7 depending on the clothes. After Megan and I lost all the weight, the best I could do in pants was a 10. I was super stoked when for Laura's wedding I got to order a size 8 dress, and it fit perfectly, but seriously a size 8 in pants just wasn't happening.
After all that I got pregnant with Jackson and I gained a lot that pregnancy (something about those boys I guess), and after having him I lost a lot easily, but then stalled with a decent amount left to lose, and I never made myself do the work to lose it all. When he was 9 months old I got pregnant again and swore I was not going to gain a ton of weight. My body doesn't like to listen though, and I still gained about 35 pounds, even though I should only have gained 15 since I was overweight to begin with. (Weird note here that I really did gain about 35 with all three girls, and about 50 with both boys. I find it odd that happened and wonder if I'm the only one like that)
Anyway, now that Brooklyn is 7 weeks old, and I am still hovering around that initial 20 pound loss that I achieved after about 2 weeks, I'm disgusted at myself. I hate how I look in clothes, and in swimwear, and especially in my birthday suit. I am still wearing maternity pants and shorts because not even my "fat" clothes fit me right now.
The image in my head of how I should look, definitely does not match how I really look. I feel bad for my husband that this is definitely not the person he met, fell in love with, and married. I cannot believe that I graduated high school wearing a size 1 jeans (admittedly that was too skinny though and I looked sick), and here I am almost 10 years later and I am this huge person now.
So, a change is coming. It will not happen overnight, or all at once, and I will not be the perfect picture of health and fitness, but I will be better.
Stay tuned for more of my journey. :)

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Worst Blogger Ever

If there were an award for this, I think I might win. Granted I have some good excuses; 5 kids, a new baby, and being out of town, but still, this is ridiculous!
Here's a quick rundown on recent events (I promise my blog will not turn into one post a month of a bulleted catch up entry, lol!)

-June 12th, Brooklyn had her two week checkup, at which point she was 9 pounds 1 ounce
-That same day, we went to my cousin's wedding. She was a beautiful bride, and despite the rain, it was a fantastic day.
-At Brooklyn's one month checkup she was 10 pounds 7.5 ounces. What a chunker!
-Nathan had his 6 year checkup, and he's doing great. Still on the smaller end for kids his age, but still just fine.
-Jackson had his 18 month checkup, and he is finally back on the growth chart. First percentile for weight and Second for height, but at least he's on the chart now. lol!
-We went to Cloud 9 for the first time this year. Sean's dad, brother and his family, and sister all came as well, so it was fun to have them all together. We intended to stay 12 days, but cut it a few days short. The heat was a lot for the two little ones, which led to me spending lots of time just sitting around with them in the camper, and I was going crazy.
-Once home Sean took the three oldest bowling one day, we went to the zoo and out for ice cream the next, and then swimming at my mom's the next day.
- The older three stayed at my mom's for two nights, and came home exhausted. They love being over there, but they refuse to let themselves slow down at all, so they are always wiped out when they come back home.
-Brooklyn is doing really well. She sleeps at night, and is even going for stretches longer than 3 hours at night, which is awesome. During the day she doesn't like to nap anywhere but in my arms, which means our house is being severely neglected.
But as the last few lines of a great poem go:
"The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep."