Bah Hallo-humbug!

(in a really cute sweet way, my 2nd child came up to me and whispered, "Mom if you are going to have a high calorie day today, I'll save my Twix for you.")

Can I admit something to you? Not a fan of Halloween. Why? Sugar candy. Carving pumpkins (mess and more mess). Having to figure out costumes. I've been reading all my favorite blogs this past week and EVERYONE is so excited for Halloween and carving pumpkins and dressing up and I'm like, "am I the only one out there who wishes I could just pretend it didn't exist and make felt hair bows and satin flower hairclips all evening?" Wow - what a Hallo-Scrooge I am, but there you go, just keepin' it real.

Anyway, despite my true feelings, I'm big time sucking it up and all four kids have costumes secured, we're carving pumpkins this afternoon, I'm decorating the front door with them after pumpkins, the kids are playing Zombie Red Dead Redemption with their father right now, and I'm serving Zombie guts stew for dinner tonight (red bean chili).

Eating infant sleep humble pie

(not an actual picture of my child, but close)

Did you know I had a baby a few months ago? Of course you did if you are a regular reader of my blog. But just in case you are tuning in for the first time - yes, I had my fourth child five months ago. With every baby, I like to participate in a new baby trend and see how it goes.

• For my first, I used an exersaucer (yes, eleven years ago those were a brand new 'IT' thing)
• For my second, I used a Boppy (eight years ago, it was a new thing and I loved it. Great for nursing, sleep positioner, tummy time, etc)
• For my third, I bought a Bumbo (two years ago, and he hated it so I got rid of it tout suite - too bad I had to rebuy it for my fourth who loves the bumbo!)
• For my fourth, I tried a generic version of The Woombie and thus the reason for this post.

I first read about the woombie on my blog friend Bridget's blog. She was the first person to talk about it, so I was very intrigued. A few Google searches later and I thought, "hey I think I'm going to do this for the next baby."

So I purchased a very generic version of The Woombie called The Swaddle Pod (retailed for $10 on Amazon). I actually purchased three of them: one for me, one for each of my friends who were having babies at the same time. After one of my friends said that it didn't work for her baby, I asked if I could have hers, so I actually have two of them. One for wearing, one for the wash.

Anyway, we used the Swaddle pod from the moment Lane came home from the hospital. Wow!! and more wow!! That child slept. and slept. and slept. All I had to do was zip her up in that thing and wedge her head against something soft (like a bumper pad or blanket) and she was good to go. She slept for a solid 6 hours by 3 weeks old. She slept 8 hours straight by 6 weeks old. By 2 months, I could count on her to sleep 10-12 hours at night plus 3 - 2 hour naps a day. Oh yeah, I was cocky, I was stoked. I was an amazing baby sleep trainer. I tried not to gloat, but how could I not? I mean, my newborn was sleeping and I didn't even have to use the "Cry it Out" method. She didn't need a paci, she didn't need to be rocked or nursed to sleep - I just zipped her into the swaddle pod.

Okay - now I am paying for my last five months of sleep bliss. Two days ago, Lane decided to roll. And boy does she roll. Problem is - rolling is not compatible with the Swaddle pod because she doesn't have her arms free to hold herself up in case she rolls over. Without any warning or planning - we had to abandon our sleep crutch immediately.

And now, my friends, I am in the trenches with all of you while my baby learns how to sleep. We are learning ALL OVER AGAIN how to sleep for naps, how to sleep through the night, how to cry, how to use a paci to get to sleep - all of the above.

In the end, do I regret using the Swaddle pod in the beginning, knowing that I was really delaying the inevitable later? No, I do not regret it. With four children at home, two large dogs, a house to manage, baby weight to lose, and a husband who has to work long hours - I needed sleep ASAP in order to function. And I am totally and completely caught up on sleep right now so a few nights of sleep deprivation aren't going to do me much harm. I am confident that she will get over it (and reading my friend Kelly's post about sleep training helped fortify my resolve) and life will resume to normal.

But man oh man - to hear my sweet little girl scream herself to sleep is terrible! Don't let anyone fool you - you can't have your cake and eat it too. :) Cheers!!

Operation Lose Baby Weight Week 12!

Here I am - 3 months into the program and officially halfway there in terms of my goals. On average, I am halfway to all my goal measurements. I did a different post today about my weight loss, but I should return to my normal post regime next week. I caught a cold this weekend, so I'm not my normal self. I expect to be healthy by the end of the week and thus, return full force into routine!!

Date 10-25-10

Week 12 Check-In

Weight: didn’t take

Measurements:
Waist – START: 37”; TODAY: 32” LAST TIME: 34” Goal: 27”

Hips – START: 39”; TODAY: 38” LAST TIME: 38 ¾” Goal: 36”

Thighs- START: 22 ½”; TODAY: 21 ½” LAST TIME: 22” Goal: 20”

Chest – START: 39”; TODAY: 37” Goal: 36”



Key Highlights since taking one month break from journaling

• I took four straight days off cardio and training – when I returned to my program, I felt much stronger and was able to up my deadlifting weight to 155 (up 20lbs) and bench press 115 lb (up 30 lbs). The rest and recovery was very crucial for continued success.

• IMPORTANT NOTE: A few weeks ago, I was halfway into my program. I was officially out of my postpartum clothes and into my ‘fat’ clothes (size 8 pants and medium shirts). I took one week of easy exercising and adding several high calorie days into my week (average of 1800 cals/day). The reason why is because I wanted to let my body know it wasn’t starving and I wasn’t heading into famine so it didn’t need to plateau.

• RESULT OF HIGH CALORIE WEEK: because I didn’t go crazy and continued to eat clean but eat a little more, my body ended up losing more weight and continued loss of inches. My ankle injury has healed and when I went running last week, it didn’t hurt at all!!

The Last Fifteen POUNDS weight loss begins

• I’m losing my vanity weight. My body would be healthy at this weight and size and that is okay. But I want to be a smaller size. I know I’ve hit a healthy weight because my waist measurement is under 34” and I can run 4-5 miles without any injury or strain.

• I began food journaling again – back to 1400 cals/day. Back to intense weight lifting (Crossfit routines) and 45-50 min. cardio 5-6 days/week (goal: 4 to 5 hours of cardio/week)



How I feel about myself and my body this week
I have a cold, so that makes it tough to do any sort of heavy workouts, but I think I can fit in easy workouts until I regain my health. I am proud of my body for responding to all the training I put it through. I do feel a little bloated and puffy this week, but that is because of my monthly ‘visitor’ and I expect to return to normal soon.

Goals for Next Week

• Begin posting workouts again.
• Continue food journaling
• Chug chug chug the water

A reminder about my goals and the program I set for myself

MY PROGRAM

*Modified 8/16/2010*

• Exercise 5-6 days a week. Include cardio/weight and circuit training. Training must be at least 30 minutes. Running 30 minutes daily.

• Eat 1400-1500 calories a day. As a busy mom I can't keep track of everything that goes in my mouth i.e. through a food journal, so I'm going to break it down like this. Shannan's patented 3-2-1 eating program

• 3-400 calorie meals

• 2-100 calorie snacks

• OR 1- 200 calorie snack

• Have rest days to recover physically - at least one a week, if not two try to have only one cheat meal. Until I see good results, I can only afford one cheat a week.

• Have two cheat meals a week - this is recommended by Jillian Michaels - you can't have cheat DAYS, but two cheat meals makes you feel satisfied and helps you stay on your program.

• Get 7-8 hours of sleep at night - very crucial for weight loss. I wake up very early in the morning, so in order to get that sleep, I have to be in bed by 9pm every night (YIKES!)

MY GOAL

I’m 5’4” and I would like to be 125-130 lbs.

Lose 25-30 lbs

Lose 10 inches off waist - goal 27"

Lose 3 inches off hips - goal 35-36"

Lose 2 inches off thighs - goal 20"

Lose 3 inches off chest - goal 36"

All of these hopefully by my birthday - March 27, 2011 but for sure by Lane's first birthday

Putting Three Weeks Worth of Material into ONE post

One of the passing comments I hear often is, "I don't know how you do it with four kids".

Here's the truth - four kids is a lotta lot of work. Mental, physical, emotional WORK. It's day-in, day-out lots of work. And being the self-actuated being that I am (just kidding, what I'm trying to be), I have to give up certain little "unnessaries" so I can do my Number One Job well. So blogging about my life has fallen a little by the wayside. I'm still doing all the things I USED to post about: weight loss is going full speed, garden is still producing like crazy!, kids and their activities take up all my time, and oh yeah, spend time with hubs so he doesn't feel neglected. Wrap up my NEW AND EXCITING hobby of crafting little girl headbands and clips and well...you get the picture. FULL FULL BUSY LIFE.

Here are some highlights (denoted by *):

*Lane is growing like a Weed!

Lane had to start eating baby cereal. She was up to 5- 8oz. bottles of formula and still screaming for more food. She has the OPPOSITE problem of her more petite older brother - she wants to eat. So organic multi-grain cereal it is. (check out that baby belly - makes you just want to blow raspberries all over it)

 *12 month challenge: Non-toxic cleaning kit

(baking soda on the left, oxygen bleach cleaner on right, Fels Naptha bar in front)

I'm completed my 12 MONTHS challenge for September. I challenged myself to create a non-toxic cleaning kit. I'll write a post soon about the specifics I did and the resources I consulted, but for now I wanted to share that I DID begin to make differences in my toxic cleaning routine. Most important change - I'm using white distilled vinegar like crazy (small tip: use it instead of jet dry in your rinse cycle of dish washing - you'll be amazed!) I also did away with Spray N Wash and using Baking Soda as a laundry booster and powdered Oxygen bleach Cleaners and a Fels Naptha bar for stain remover.

* Made my own BABY LEGS (click on this title for a link to the tutorial)

I love Baby Legs for my girl. Problem is: I just don't think it is worth $10/pair. My solution? I found this tutorial which is so stinkin' easy that a super beginner sewer like me can actually make a pair of ruffle edged baby legs for Lane for $1/pair.

*Went to my local Pumpkin Patch for our pumpkins this year

 Our local pumpkin patch is our BACKYARD. How about that for saving gas/time/money?

 At our local pumpkin patch you may not get to go in a corn maze, but you do get to jump on the trampoline all you want.

 And you can put your baby in her Bumbo chair and let her stare at rocks and not worry for a second about her getting taken or lost or forgotten.

 Check out the brilliant blue Oregon sky at our pumpkin patch (two year old may have taken charge of the camera while I was harvesting pumpkins)

*Lane and Older Brothers Bonded

She adores them. If she is crying, I just put her next to them and she stops. She absolutely adores them.

*I lost Weight!!

this is the only picture I could find of myself in the recent past. I've lost another 10 pounds and another 5 inches all around and another pant size. I'm officially in my 'fat pants' which is just one size bigger than my normal size. My crossfit/running/calorie restriction is going well. Don't let me kid you, it's hard, but it's working. You can see my jawline now- no more puffy-face.

 *I'm canning everything under the sun (everything local we can pick)

 My family loves this Salsa Recipe. Luckily my garden (nine tomato plants, jalapeno plant, tomatillos, and sweet pepper plants) are producing the majority of the material to make this. I think I can about 2 quarts and 4 pints of this salsa every week.

*Still visiting U-Pick farms and loving our Oregon landscape.

I found a local orchard (unfortunately not organic, but very well kept) that charges $8 for a 5 gallon bucket. We usually pick about 2 buckets worth which amounts to about 40 pounds of apples. They have so many varieties of apples, I can't even list them. Once again, my family usually eats through this harvest in 2-3 weeks. I don't have a lot left over to can applesauce!

*My state of mind is really good right now

That's about it for now. Can you believe how full my life is?? Right now I'm listening to Darryl Worley's song "Awful Beautiful Life" and it perfectly describes how I feel about my life.

"I lay in bed at night and thought the day and how my life is like a roller coaster ride. The ups and downs and crazy turns along the way - it will throw you off if you don't hold on tight.

You can't really smile until you shed some tears.

I could die today and I might live a hundred years.

I love this crazy tragic

sometimes almost magic

awful beautiful life."

Combine that song with 10,000 Maniacs song "These are Days" and that is my state of mind right now. Crazy blessed right now.

I survived and catching up on an old favorite

Sunday morning here - I survived I Am Legend. Woo Hoo! No panic attack, fast forwarded through the most intense finale scene, and lived to tell the tale. I challenge all of you to try to tackle your fears (although I will tell you this: I didn't take the dogs outside in our dark backyard last night right before bed - I'm not stupid).

My older boys are in super restriction grounding right now which means no friends, no TV, no screens of any sort which means I'm also in the doghouse with them, guarding it. They LIED to me about something they did that they KNOW they shouldn't do, they covered their tracks for a week, and then I found out about it. Major major trouble.

This morning I'm catching up on mountains upon mountains upon mountains of laundry. Maybe I'll do a little sewing since it is raining cats and dogs. Catching up on a few week's worth of This American Life. The Crybabies episode from a week ago is absolutely brilliant. Go listen if you are so inclined. Peace out from the warden.

Today I am tackling my fear

"Oh you poor tired bored housewife", you may say to me because today I am tackling a fear that I've had for a few years.

Today I'm going to watch the movie I Am Legend.

Okay, okay, don't laugh. I'm serious. Don't LAUGH!!*

I don't like scary movies - even stupid scary movies. Even as an adult I have an overactive imagination and I can totally envision vampire zombies coming to my house at night and attacking me. The first time I watched this movie I seriously had a panic attack (this was before I was on anxiety medication) midway through the movie and couldn't finish it. I had nightmares for a week or two. Well now I'm stable on my meds, I'm doing great mentally so I'm going to tackle this fear of mine. I WANT to watch this movie to prove to myself that I can handle scary movies.

Don't laugh!!* This movie was scary to me (at least in my memory of the movie - mostly I can just remember the panic attack I had and I want to prove to myself that I won't have another panic attack).

This is personal therapy in its finest form!

*you can laugh - well, I would prefer a chuckle at my expense

Sad Saturday

Thanks to Oregon Cottage for getting me out of my blogging hiatus. It's like exercising or cleaning or whatever task you have to do - once you get out of the habit of doing it - it's really hard to get back into it! Anyway, Jami challenged all of us followers to share our sad projects or endeavors - things that just didnt' turn out the way they should.

Now, this isn't my fault so I can't lay claim to this sad incident - but it is sooo sad that I have to include it. This clematis vine is (actually, WAS) growing on the fence right outside our kitchen window. We planted it two years ago and it was growing like gangbusters. It was so nice to see green right outside our dining table instead of brown fence. And it would be covered in white flowers in the spring. Well a month ago, it literally turned brown and DIED right in front of our faces. I have no clue why. BUT IT IS SO SAD! (even more sad is that we haven't removed it yet - so this corpse of a plant hangs day in and day out on the fence until I get the strength to remove it)