Getting in shape postpartum

So I know that I said I was satisfied with my postpartum body way back when, but I'm starting to feel differently about it ;) Maybe it has to do with summer, maybe it's just time for me to get up and move. Whatever it is, I have made a decision that I want to get in shape.

It's good to make fitness goals public for two main reasons.

* It keeps you accountable

* It inspires others 

So I guess that is what I have decided to do. Right now my fitness goal is to lose 10 pounds by the time Ruth is 40 weeks old. That means I have 9 weeks to do it. That is a lot of time if you decide to go hard with fitness, but I am not sure how much this new mama body can handle. From what I have seen other mommies doing, I think the answer is a lot, but I'm gonna start slow and that should be plenty of time to lose 10 lbs.

Before Ruth started teething I did a week of Sean T's 15 minute workout with Dr. Oz, I found it on youtube. It kicked my booty and I was so sore! It worked well because Ruth just watched me workout and then I sat her by the door of the bathroom while I showered off. By the way, I am giving you the play by play just in case there are any other moms looking for ideas out there. 

This all ended abruptly when she started teething and became a lot fussier. Everything seemed right with the world. I was eating and snacking healthier. I had my baby figured out. Until those mean little suckers started poking through. My world was turned upside down once again. 

7 Months Post Partum

So what's the plan now? My goal is to do Sean T's 15 minute workout 5 days a week again, since Ruthie has a little play station that usually keeps her pretty happy, I will put her in that while I work out and shower. The goal is 5 days a week, but it may turn into only 3 days a week. The next goal is to take a walk with her once a day, I would like it to be an hour long walk, but it may be shorter depending on what the day holds. She usually loves walking, so I am hoping to at least get this goal met even if Sean T doesn't happen ;)

Lastly, but usually the most difficult part for me, food! The dreaded calorie count! It has to happen! I have never lost weight any other way. It's a science and it always works. Myfitnesspal calorie counter and diet tracker makes it a lot easier these days! I should add that it gets tricky when you are breast feeding, so I am adding about 500 calories on top of what I would usually do to lose weight. I guess I can adjust that if it seems like it's not enough or if it seems like too much. More than losing weight I want to have a good milk supply, so if I feel that the amount of calories that I am challenging myself with seems too small for my breastfeeding body, I will most definitely eat more!

I'm happy to say that I already started today and things are off to a good start! Ruth loves sitting like a big girl in her stroller facing out and she falls asleep like a champ in it. When did she get so big?

Only you know what's best for your baby...

Today was just, crazy! I made an amazing discovery after a very frustrating, cross-cultural doctor visit. All I wanted her to do was check my baby's ears and she wouldn't because she didn't have a fever. I was pretty convinced that my little girl had an ear infection. Last night was better, but before that she was waking every hour four nights in a row! She had a runny nose but this didn't seem to be bothering her much when she slept. It was obvious that some sort of pain was waking her and she always wanted to go straight back to sleep. Rarely needing to be nursed back to sleep, just soothed and rocked a little.

Yesterday when she started pulling a bit at her ears I started to feel sure that it was an ear infection. We have an American pediatrician here, but she is in Europe right now so I needed to see a local doctor. I had no idea what an ordeal it would be. I thought since American doctors always check ears that they would too, but I guess you need to go to a specialist for that here and I wasn't allowed to because she didn't have a fever.

I was very upset. I felt stuck. I contacted my amazing lactation consultant/friend/confidant. I love her! I cannot tell you all enough how this woman has changed my life. She has helped to shape my views, but not in a demanding way, she is so gentle and peaceful and loving and supportive. I can't rave enough about her! She told me a simple way to tell if she might have an ear infection and a natural remedy.

When she woke up I was going to check until I noticed something in her mouth. I knew she had been getting her two bottom teeth and thought that if this all was still from teething it seemed crazy. UNTIL I noticed that her two top teeth were poking through!!! OH MY! I couldn't believe that my six month old had this many teeth already coming through! After checking her ears and realizing that there was no sign of infection according to what my LC told me. This really seemed to explain everything! My world seemed happy again! And all the sudden my baby did too! We did the happy dance to this song :)

General timeline of baby teeth eruption and falling out

I don't think she's completely in the clear, but I could tell from her general countenance that she was doing a whole lot better today. She may still be tired from waking up so much the past five nights. But she's been playing on her own practically all day! This hasn't happened since before all this extreme teething stuff.

I remember reading this blog entry from Sweet Madeleine about lies people will tell you about Infant Sleep. She's writing from her experience of breastfeeding her baby to sleep for the first year of life. I have always held onto one thing that she said in that article, she said that there is always, always a reason for babies waking in the night. I am beginning to notice this pattern with Ruth, when she has a bad night, there is ALWAYS a reason! 

Teething face

I do find myself thinking at times, maybe I am doing it all wrong, but don't we all mamas? These thoughts and feelings usually pass and I eventually figure out what was wrong with Ruth or she just naturally starts going back to sleeping good. She is not a perfect sleeper and I feel at peace with the fact that infants are erratic sleepers. A very interesting article in Psychology Today talks about this.

SO, once again, many people will tell you what to do Mama, and it won't always be what is right for your little one. The doctor I went to told me that I needed to start my baby on solids to help her immune system. Sometimes you need to just smile and nod even when you know better. To see what I'm talking about, read this article on introducing solids from Kelly Mom.

Everyone has ideas, some are good, some are bad. But what it really comes down to is you Mama! You know what is best for your little one and you need to decide on that confidently and stick to it. For now I have decided what is best for my little one, there are so many decisions that I will continue to need to make in raising her, but I am super satisfied with the decisions I have made so far with her as a baby which is why I am passionate about sharing the ideas behind many of them.

So do your research mamas and don't be satisfied till you find the way that is best for you and your little one!

Let's be real

Yeah. So I realized yesterday that writing about what is happening is really really good for me. It makes me feel alive. If I can get things out there and just be real it is like sunshine for my soul.

I absolutely love when people tell me that they can relate to what I am writing. My strongest hope for my writings is that they will reach people that need to hear what I'm writing. People that just want something that they can read and go "yeah, I've totally been there!" I hope that they can be something that excite people at times and stir them to action, but also that they can just be something that eases their mind and reminds them that someone else out there is going through the same thing. 

I want to be informative of course and teach people what I am learning, but I also want to be real and just share what I've been facing. To be honest, I've been really afraid of being real. I've been afraid that people would judge my style of parenting if I was real. That they would say, 'see, we told you that you needed to teach your baby to self soothe.' Or something along those terms.

But I'm tired of sitting back and being ashamed of the way that I parent my child. I absolutely love and adore her. I've done lots of research and feel confident in the decisions I have made. I can't be afraid to share the negative parts of being a mom just because people might tell me that I'm doing things wrong.

No matter what you do I can guarantee you that there will be people trying to tell you that you are doing things wrong. So if you are doing something, you have got to do it with confidence. Especially attachment parenting ;) I didn't want to label it, but there it is. I can't tell you how many people and sources will tell you the opposite of what I believe to be right for my sweet little family.

I will not tell you that this is the way to do it for your family. But I will tell you that I am happy and confident with the decision that I have made to do it with my family!

5 reasons why I still nurse my baby to sleep

Before I had my baby I thought I was going to be one of those moms that gets her baby on a perfect schedule and makes sure that she naps in her crib and does everything "right." I read some books that made me think that this was what I needed to do, that this was the only way that I would be a happy mom with a happy baby.

Here I am almost six months in and I don't really do anything that was written in those books and I think I have one of the happiest babies in the world! Now, maybe you are a mom and you do all the things written in those books and you feel like you have one of the happiest babies, and you probably do!

I just feel constantly bombarded with the mindset that it's wrong to nurse your baby to sleep. If I can help one new mom stop her negative thoughts about nursing her baby to sleep then this post has done what it was meant to do. I had way too many of those when I started out and I still have people telling me that I shouldn't do it, the difference now is that I have made a decision that I feel good about and I just disregard those comments.

My baby has always nursed to sleep with ease. There have been nights where she has gone to sleep sucking on her pacifier in my arms instead, but the vast majority of nights she nurses to sleep and I love it that way!

So I came up with a list of why I still breastfeed my baby to sleep. I am not coming against other methods, I just want to champion the moms who are breastfeeding their babies to sleep and feel like they need to stop. I really don't think there is a good reason to stop unless you are having real problems with sleep and even then I would question it because sometimes babies just have sleep issues despite what you do.

1. It's natural! From the beginning I kept thinking, "why would I ever want to stop doing this?" it feels so natural and so God given. There is literally a chemical in breastmilk that makes babies sleepy, how much more natural can it get than that! I read in "Psychology Today" that along with tryptophan (the sleep inducing hormone)"Nighttime breastmilk also has amino acids that promote serotonin synthesis. Serotonin makes the brain work better, keeps one in a good mood, and helps with sleep-wake cycles. So it may be especially important for children to have evening or night breastmilk because it has tryptophan in it, for reasons beyond getting them to sleep." 

2. She will still sleep in my arms. I have heard a lot of moms out there say that there baby no longer sleeps in their arms. I wonder how much of that is because we expect them to "grow up" too quickly? By this I mean that we are already so worried about sleep training etc. that sometimes maybe we don't even give them a chance to do things naturally? Please don't take this out of context, I know there are a lot of working moms out there and moms with multiple kids, as well as babies who just won't nurse to sleep. I get this, but I also feel like there were a lot of voices out there making me feel like I needed to sleep train my baby despite the fact that she nursed so well to sleep, but I decided not to and I am so happy I chose this for my family!

3. She eats more. This may not be true for every baby, but when my baby girl is not relaxed she rarely gets to the hind milk, she will eat for about five minutes and then she wants to play again. Eating when she is tired is the best thing for the active and distract able baby that she is. When she is sleepy she will eat for 15-20 minutes happily and she is so relaxed the whole time.

4. It's relaxing for me. Breastfeeding her and holding her while she sleeps is seriously so relaxing for me. It's often my down time during the day. When she's awake she likes to watch me do things around the house, so I can get things done during that time, while still having plenty of time to play and interact with her. When my baby is feeding and then sleeping I feel close to her while I relax. I usually use this time on my iPhone, there really are a lot of useful things you can do on your iPhone! I do realize that this approach is not for everyone, people with multiple children, for instance, probably do not have this luxury. To me it is a wonderful luxury and I've decided to embrace it fully while I still can. I most likely won't have the chance to soak up so much cuddle time with my other children. 

5. They're only little once. This is really what it all comes down to for me. I really cherish the times when I nurse my little girl to sleep and I know this time is going to go by so quickly! So why feel like I need to rush her into sleeping in the crib all the time if it's not an immediate need? (I should mention that she falls asleep really good and takes naps in her crib when she chooses not to nurse to sleep, I plan to write a post about how we do that) One more really great quote from the article in Psychology today: "Nursing and cuddling to sleep offers comfort for your child, a closeness that is associated with positive developmental outcomes. Children  will seek this closeness as a natural part of development. This is not a bad thing, it is simply offering your child the closeness that is a natural part of growth and parenting."

My main prerogative here is not to discourage moms who don't nurse their children to sleep or say that this is the only way to go. My main goal is to help moms who do nurse their children to sleep to embrace it and see the good in it. If there is no reason to stop doing, why sweat it? You're doing an amazing job mama! Keep up the great work!

One last note of reference. This article on Kellymom about breastfeeding to sleep really helped me to shift my mindset about it in the early days. I have found so many useful articles on Kellymom about breastfeeding.