HoboBaby » Weight + fitness

Meh

JenniferW — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 02:15:00 +0000

I was cleaning up my labels when I almost burst out laughing looking at the category “weight + fitness”. I’ve been weighing my baby every month if that counts. The fitness, however, is still yet to be found. I’ll let you know when I track it down. Until then, tis the season…

I stink at titles so you’re not getting one today.

JenniferW — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:30:00 +0000

Avelyn’s getting hair! I don’t know if you can tell from the pictures but she’s got about 1/2 inch of soft blond fuzzy hair sprouting on top of her head. Before long she may look like she’s got an army crew cut but I’m so excited! She is looking oh so very cute these days.

Despite her cuteness we have had a pretty rough weekend. All day Friday and Saturday she just cried, screamed, ate and refused to eat. It was really weird. She didn’t have a temperature, she wasn’t grabbing ears, eyes or gums… wait a minute… ah, crap. As soon as I wrote that I realized she’s been a drooling machine the last few weeks. She has her hands or her pacifier in her mouth 24 hours a day. Her sleeping pattern has changed the last week or two and she’s waking more often to eat. She is also eating a lot less at each feeding but feeding more times each day. And Friday, Saturday and most of today she flip flopped between crying for a bottle and screaming bloody murder when we put the bottle in her mouth, like we had stabbed her eyes with needles. She will be four months old tomorrow. Could she be teething? I’ll ask the doctor at her four month checkup this week. I actually hope it is teething because at least I would know and be able to treat it as best I can. It is the saddest, most woeful, painful cry I’ve ever heard and I don’t want to hear her sound like that without being able to fix it. I mean look at this face, it should never be crying.

On Friday we endured the crying and spent the day at the Galleria buying clothes thanks to tax free weekend! I had to buy 6-9 and 6-12 month sizes! They were mostly pants, jeans and long sleeve shirts to get her through cold weather so they should fit perfectly for a while. I am in love with The Children’s Place and The Gap this fall. Gymboree has adorable things but I always wait for the sales rack so we’ll see what’s left in a few weeks. We also scored a few cute shirts dirt cheap at Old Navy today too. For all of you who care (my Mom), here are a few of the things we got her… except for that polo in the second batch. I went back to get it and they were out of her size at two places. Bummer. She would have rocked that polo.

I bought myself a jacket and 3 shirts and a pair of jeans. It was so weird wearing jeans without the elastic waist! I dearly loved my maternity jeans but being Avelyn will turn 4 months old on Monday, and I’m back to pre-pregnancy weight, the time had come to mourn their passing and carefully lay them to rest in the tub o’ maternity clothes until next time. Yes, yes, before you ask I am back to pre-preg weight and have been for a little while. Stress, nursing school, a baby and a little PPD will do that to you. Ha. Ha ha. Hee hee hee ha. Now if I can work off the soft flabby stretched out mass that is renting space on my abs I will feel FANtastic. I’m not holding my breath. Exercise = Sweat = Ewwwwwwwwwww

Kevin and I went out for our first post-baby date Saturday night and I FINALLY got to see The Dark Knight. Here is my review: IT. WAS. AWESOME. Everyone was right. It was amazing and everything I had looked forward to since Batman Begins. Also we saw it in Imax and it was really fun to see Chicago so huge. It was really cool watching and recognizing so many of the locations they shot at. You know when the 18 wheeler flips over in front of 29 S. LaSalle? Yeah, I had a class IN 29 S. LaSalle. Freaking AWEsome. I was watching and thinking “Okay, that 18 wheeler flipping over is way COOL and I wish I had been on that set… wait a minute, where do I know that building from… hey! I used that FedEx/Kinko’s that day to print my final! COOOOOOL!!” I know, I’m pretty lame. Having lived in a cool city is all I have. After the movie we went totally wild and crazy and went to Jamba Juice for a late night smoothie. Then we headed home at 11:00. PM. It was pretty sweet. Almost as sweet as my super duper baby. Almost.

SHE’s growing

JenniferW — Sat, 03 May 2008 22:11:00 +0000

My sweet baby Avelyn is growing every day! I can’t believe how fast each day goes by… I guess lack of sleep combined with the endless cycle of diaper/feeding/napping/holding takes up more time than you ever thought possible. On a side note, I’ve lost 20 pounds since baby day. Those last 10 stubborn pounds will probably be around a while since I have no intention of exercising for a long time to come. It was a good moment on the scale though so I thought I’d share.

Her head has worked itself very nicely from a slight cone dome shape to an adorable round baby head that now looks large enough (to me only, of course) that a part of me is a little thankful she came a bit early. She likes to sleep… a lot… and has become quite the eater. We’re still struggling with the whole “boob to babe” thing but I’ve made my peace with it and vow to shed no more tears… or at least fewer. I have utilized every resource available and you know what? I am not a terrible mother because breast feeding isn’t working out. Take that! We will keep trying but in the meantime I have accepted my fate of being hooked to the breast pump like a dairy cow night and day so she at least gets all the good stuff from me. I now have utmost respect and sympathy for the average dairy cow and henceforth vow not to waste my leftover cereal milk. Milk is like gold in this house. GOLD.

Enjoy our beautiful baby girl.

Sleepy daddy

Straight up gangsta rock

Two weeks old!

Weighing in

JenniferW — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 21:55:00 +0000

I’ve actually heard a few questions about the weight issue and where it comes from, where it goes. So I’m here for the record, to hopefully answer any questions. Except one – I’m not telling you how much I’ve gained or how much I weigh. Let’s just say I’m average but I’ve never seen a number so high in all my life. ;) Here is a weight gain estimate for the average woman. Keep in mind that an underweight woman should expect to gain a little bit more and an overweight woman to gain a little bit less. Again, these are general estimated guidelines they use in practice, not rocket science:

Maternal weight:                   Fetal weight:
Uterus – 2.39 lbs.                    Fetus – 7.5 lbs.
Breasts – 1.0 lbs.                     Placenta – 1.6 lbs.
Blood – 3.09 lbs.                      Amniotic Fluid – 1.97 lbs.
Water – 4.15 lbs.                     Subtotal = 11.07 lbs.
Fat – 8.27 lbs.
Subtotal = 18.89 lbs.              Total 29.96 lbs.

Yes, this means you will be hanging onto a lot of it even after the baby is born! You can generally assume the weight of the fetus, placenta and amniotic fluid will be lost at the birth. The other 20 some-odd pounds are lost as the blood volume returns to normal (it’s almost doubled during the last 9 months),the water weight is lost, and the uterus contracts (which takes a while, hence why a woman will continue to look pregnant for some time after she delivers. Keep this in mind and you won’t be that idiot that asks her when she’s due even though she’s pushing around a newborn infant). Unfortunatley this loss of weight does not happen overnight or over a few weeks (usually). It is more likely it will take months and those last 8-10 pounds of “fat” that you put on will take even longer because your body loves to love fat. So much so that it throws a fit and demands hard physical exertion to part with it. Dumb ole body, use your brain — oh wait, that’s the one body part that seems to have LOST weight with all the brain cells that have floated away over the last nine months. Figures.

Keep on keepin’ on

JenniferW — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 22:10:00 +0000

Well, this has been one long week. With the semester in full swing and 4 exams under my belt I started clinicals on Wednesday. Basically I take care of a patient from 0630-1430 and then meet up with the other students and the instructor for an hour afterwards to talk about what we did, etc. It’s a long time to be on your feet but I had a fantastic patient this week so it wasn’t really like working. I just gave her some meds and sat in her room to take her history and talk. She was an 84 y/o female admitted with a subdural hemorrage after falling in her kitchen and I have to say, I only hope I am as with it and funny as she is when I’m 84. Truly inspiring.

Thankfully the weather has turned really nice the last few days, getting into the 70′s and maybe even the 80′s today. It’s motivated me to start back up with an exercise routine and stick with it. I’ve been doing a prenatal yoga DVD a few mornings a week and this week I started walking again. I walked 1.6 miles one day and almost 4 miles the next and plan to go to the gym again in a few minutes. I think I’ll drive though so I won’t be getting near the 4-mile mark today. The best part of exercising while pregnant is that no one judges you for only walking at 2.8 mph. Also, just being out there doing something gives you major street cred with the lazy people driving by in their cars.

Baby Girl is finding it a tight fit in there these days as evidenced by her progressively painful methods of getting my attention. Sometimes my abdomen is moving in so many different directions all at the same time that I start to think I’m not carrying a baby at all, but in fact someone has secretly implanted a bag full of chickens and they’ve finally united together to peck their way out. I appreciate the movement and find it very reassuring but sometimes I just want to lean over my stomach and yell “Hey, Baby! You get to inflict serious physical trauma in 12 weeks so hold your horses!” But I don’t do this. Instead I behave in a very grown up mature fashion by poking her back when she pokes me. A little passive agressive I admit, but supposedly it’s good for her. It’s like a little game and helps to stimulate her senses and stretch her muscles. Secretly I know she’s probably not stretching anything but the finger and thinking “Geez lady, you’re rude.”