Sunday, May 8, 2011

Happy Mother's Day toooo me ;-)

So today was my first Mother's Day.   It was really kind of like any other day except we woke up in Tennessee (where my husband's mom lives) and made the treck back home and then had my sisters and mom over for pizza and spending time together.  Mostly today I just reflected a lot on how great it is to be a mother to my wonderful little girl and being married to her awesome Daddy!   As a Mom, you sacrifice a lot of time and energy just to try to make everything in your little one's life perfect and maybe just that much better than your own life.  Sometimes it can be difficult to manage your time and you can't do things as freely as you used to but it is worth every single sacrifice, every single one.  I couldn't imagine my life without my little girl and I just adore every inch of her.  When I go in her room and she is standing in her crib with that little grin on her face I just can't explain the feeling of happiness that I get when I see her. 

Before we all ate dinner we filled up the little baby plastic pool we have and put the girls in it.  The girls meaning Lexie (my 10 month old) and Kaylee (her 2 year old cousin).  That was the event of the evening really.  Just watching them sit in the pool and play with little toys and take them from each other lol.   Oh the little things now that entertain us, there is nothing better!

WEll, I could go on and on about how much I love my child and how great it is being a mom but I am sure all Moms out there know the feeling.  Happy Mother's Day to all mommies out there.  We do the best we can to make our little one's happy!  I am thankful to my Mom for putting up with me and my sisters as crazy as we were! haha

Night night.  Tomorrow I must work off these past 2 days of not eating so great! Whoopsies!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

I heart Survivor night.

So today was one of those days.... really really bad I was balling my eyes out days.  Sometimes I wonder if I am the only mom who gets this stressed out.  I just don't know what to do when I can't do A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G without my baby crying.  I think Lexie is getting another tooth because that is the only explaination for why she was constantly crying all day.  It really just breaks my heart.  I am holding her rubbing her head telling her everything is okay and Mommy is here and she is just balling like someone has hurt her.  Then at some point you know I just want to get dressed or maybe even just use the bathroom and she just screams when I put her down.  By the time I actually get all my articles of clothing on I am crying along with her.  Please Lexie tell mommy what you want pleeeease.  I take her and Kaymon doggie on a walk for 45 minutes about lunch time and for that 45 minutes I could breath and it was great.  Then about 15 or 20 minutes after I easily got her down for a nap which was actually a highlight.  I mean for both of her naps I was able to get her down without a fight now THAT almost made the day better.  When I type it out or try to explain to my husband why my day was so bad it never really seems or sounds as bad as I feel it was.  I can never quite explain it.  Don't get me wrong of course I love to comfort my child and hold her but there's always this point where I just want to make something to eat or you know like I said get dressed and those 5 minutes of screaming just makes me crazy.  Ok SO I just had to vent about my day because to me, it was real bad.  I mean by the end of the day I could just just killed over and went to sleep on demand I was so worn out.  So OKAY on to Survivor night. 

Every Wednesday night is "Survivor Night".  This is something I can thank my husband on.  So his family does this pool where you put in $15 per "Survivor person" you want to have.  Then you randomly draw a person from a hat and that is your person to go for during the season.  If your person wins, you get all the money... pretty sweet huh?  It also gives you a reason to watch Survivor because I can say I never watched it before. 

We always have our friends come over (Julie, Branden and little P-Man (3month old Parker) and Dan) and we all eat dinner before we watch the "big event" haha.  But you know what makes it really cool, is that fact that we have these big dinners and they are healthy.  The fun part is always coming up with something new.  This week was a Pizza Bar, last week was a burrito bar, the week before was umm Lasagna in a crock pot.  All of them ohhh soo good and all made healthy.  People just have this thing against eating healthy but not only can you eat healthy and it taste good, but you don't feel like crap afterwards.  We made our pizza crusts from these little wraps called flat outs and they are 90 calories and 2.5 grams of fat.  We had a whole slew of toppings, which we have tons of leftovers to keep using for the rest of the week.  I made a Hawaiin-ish pizza.  Ham, pineapple, tomato, and mushrooms.  It was sooo yummy! 

Our guy got voted out of the game tonight which stinks... but its okay because I had a good time being with our friends.  It made me forget all about the kind of day I had and I didn't feel guilty after eating such a good dinner. 

We will just have to see what we come up with for next week... after all it is the highlight of our week.  Does that make us dorks?  

Sunday, April 17, 2011

No, my child STILL does not "sleep through the night".

How many times have I been asked if my baby sleeps through the night? If I had a penny for every time it has been asked I would be rich!  Yesterday, while my husband and I were enjoying a nice breakfast out with our baby girl a man beside us asked "So have you lost a lot of sleep?" after several other questions and comments about how cute the little booger is. ;-) I just started laughing, like seriously? More than you will ever know buddy.  If anyone ever told me one of the hardest things about having a baby (for me at least) is the battle to go to sleep and how difficult it has been I would have never believed them. 

The first month of Lexie's life I thought hey this isn't hard this is a breeze! WELL, except for the difficulties of breastfeeding which is a whole other can of worms to open up.  When her 2nd and 3rd month hit, those were some of the most difficult times ever.  About the same time every night around 8pm Lexie would fight sleep like a champ to the point where she was screaming and crying for hours on end.  My husband and I would take turns trying to calm her and sooth her any way we could with no success.  When we finally would get her to sleep she slept pretty good for about 6 or 7 hours straight.  Now who's to say if we were doing something wrong with her sleep habits or if she had "colic" which is what we thought but either way I reeeealllly hope we don't have to go through it again with our next one.  But if we do, I will be more prepared.  We were totally against letting her cry to sleep, which to this day I don't do the whole cry for 2 hours because you are going to sleep whether you like it or not, I just don't have it in me.  Finally one friday when she was about 3 months old I said I can't do this anymore! I can't rock her to sleep for 45 minutes for her to only sleep for 30!  So I bit the bullet and laid her in her pack-n-play (no we had not transitioned to the crib yet) and let her cry.  I counted down each minute, and right at about 10 minutes it was quiet.  My eyes lit up and I was like OH EM GEE it worked!!!  In about a week's time I finally was able to get her to nap sufficiently and go to sleep at night and she moved right into her crib with pretty much no problem. 

Even after this, she still woke up every 3 or 4 hours to nurse.  I kept hoping for the day she would just start sleeping through the night.  At her 4 month check up the doctor said once she starts eating solids that she would.  So there was hope.  Andddddd nope, still didn't work.  At her 6 month check up, the doctor said well now that she is eating more solids she should start to.  So there was hope.  Andddd yet again, nope! right around this time, things got worse.  Her bedtime is usually between 7:30 and 8:30 and she started her nightly wake up at 11.  The 11 o clock doom tormented me every night.  I spent nights on her floor sleeping.  I spent nights laying outside her room praying she would go back to sleep if I let her cry a few minutes.  This went on for at least a month, and my days were filled with grumpiness and stress.  Finally I decided I was going to not go to her every time she woke up and hoped that she wouldn't go past my 15 minute limit of letting her cry.  Thankfully every time she woke up she would only cry for about 10 minutes and go back to sleep. WHEEW! After a few nights of this the 11 o clock doom was finally over. 

Now, to this day (she is almost 10 months old) there is usually a time in the middle of the night that she will wake up and if she just gets some milk she will go back to sleep fine.  For a while when I would get up in the middle of the night I would ask "WHY ME?" "Why can't my child sleep through the night?"  When I hear my friends or family talking about how their 2 or 3 month old is sleeping through the night it almost made me cringe.  Then I realized, if the only thing I have to worry about with my baby is that she still wakes up in the middle of the night then I have nothing to complain about! She is my special, fight till the end little girl and I love every little thing about her.  So, no my child still doesn't totally sleep through the night but that is okay because she is happy and healthy and that is all that matters. 

Friday, April 15, 2011

Where do I begin?

So I am starting this blog because I want to share my daily thoughts and experiences as I am still learning to be a Mommy, a Wife, and most recently a fitness coach. 

Every day is a struggle to catch up with the dishes and the laundry and keep my very curious 9 month (almost 10!) old entertained without going crazy.  What is also a top priority in my life is working out and being healthy.  Now many people think because I stay at home that my house should be spotless and I have endless amounts of time to get all of these things done.  So NOT TRUE! When my child is awake I spend most of my time playing with her or trying to keep her out of harm's way.  I spend one of her naps (preferably her morning one) to get my workout done and the other nap to get some housework done.  If I don't get my workout done I find myself to be lazier and maybe sit in front of the TV instead of being productive.  So to those who think you don't have time to work out, from the words of Chalene Johnson "You can't afford not to work out!".  I understand what it's like to not feel like it or think it's overrated, but it's what keeps you happy and positive and that is what my husband and little girl need most! Happy Mommy=Happy Family. 

I still get stressed sometimes, of course who wouldn't with a baby? At least, I hope I am not the only mom in the world who gets frustrated.  By the way my baby's name is Lexie and she is the greatest joy in my life along with my husband Eric. OH! And our pretty Weimereiner Kaymon...poor thing he is number 2 now since his little sister came along. 

This morning for example.  All I want to do is make myself some coffee, toast, and I didn't even need to make my eggs because my husband already did.  I put Lexie in her chair with some Cheerios and juice to hopefully distract her but noooo in the few minutes it takes to make toast with Peanut butter (one of my fav healthy breakfasts/snacks) Lexie likes to scream-MOMMY! PICK ME UP NOW! that's what I interpret anyways.  I'm just want to screamm ahhh just let me make my toast and I will be right there! But I just have to quickly throw it together, put on my happy face and talk to her while I eat quickly and share some of my food with her.  I usually know she is done eating once she starts dropping her food down to Kaymon doggy and giggling when he eats it. 

If anyone follows me on Facebook they know that I am always posting something about my Turbo Jam or Fire or whatever crazy workout it is I do.  Right now I am doing Turbo Fire mixed with the weight lifting workouts of Chalean Extreme.  Turbo Jam/Turbo Fire are the funnest workouts I have ever done.  Not only do they kick your butt but the music is so fun it PUMPS YOU UP.  When Lexie was about 2 months old I decided I wanted to become a beachbody coach and make money by doing what I love.  After 2 months of doing nothing with it, I quit.  I am not ashamed of this, it is what it is.  I did what everyone does and made the excuse that I simply don't have time.  Maybe it really just wasn't the right time..... at that point Lexie was a real struggle it was probably the hardest times with her nightly crying sessions for hours.  Today I am re-commiting and going to try again at this coaching thing.  I KNOW I can do this and I  WILL succeed.  Many people try to put negative thoughts in my head about things...."You will never lose all that weight", etc.  People... I gained 45 pounds during my pregnancy and so far I have lost 48.  Now tell me that ain't good!

What really keeps me going is the fact that I have a very supportive husband and he believes in me.  He believed in me the first time I signed up and "failed" and believe in me still. 

Well after it took 45 minutes to get Lexie down for her first nap so I could even write this blog she should be waking up soon and I must make a nutritional shake and eat it before she gets up and it's Lexie/Mommy time!