For Me For Life

Man, are my hormones out of whack or what.  We had a very full, very eventful weekend.  We took Abel up to the Dells for his first (and mine!) experience at a water park.  He was apprehensive at first (which was surprising because he LOVES baths), but after he was taken down a couple of slides and had some water dumped on him, he had a ball!  Sat. night we went to the Badger hockey game and it was super fun.  However, the eating included amusement park food (basically) and burgers before the game.  Are you kidding??? On Sun. morning I had to take off my rings my fingers were so swollen from all the fried food full of sodium.  By the time afternoon hit, I was in a pool of tears, exhausted, telling my hubby how unpretty I feel.  My ass and hips are getting positively HUGE not to mention my size J boobs and I’m just feeling enormous.  SO, yesterday I came up with a new plan.

 Inspired by calorie counting on The Biggest Loser, I’m starting to keep track of all my food and the calories I intake.  Because I shouldn’t be trying to lose weight, I figure if I stay right around or below 2000 calories a day, that’ll be good.  I’m also really pushing the fruits and veggies and just trying to concentrate on eating well.  Yesterday, Day 1, was ok.  I was getting really into it (I LOVE calorieking.com!) and then I decided to indulge in about 12 pieces of chocolate after lunch.  They were just the bites or Hersey kisses, but still.  I didn’t need it and wasn’t even craving.  I knew it was there, so I ate it.  We had a meeting after school with snacks.  I had some cheese and crackers, some grapes, and some trail mix.  I was full enough that I skipped dinner and just had a 100 cal. pudding before I took my multi-vitamin (if I take that on an empty stomach, it’s a disaster!) I felt ok when I woke up this morning and didn’t feel quite as huge.

Today is going well too.  I didn’t eat any chocolate and as of after lunch, I’ve consumed about 1200 calories.  Dinner is a planned stirfry with whole grain rice, broccoli, chicken, and red pepper.  So, I should be ok.  I swear, I have to stop gaining so much weight.  I was preeclamptic (I have no idea how to spell that) with my last pregnancy and I should really do everything I can to be as healthy as possible.  I’m an eater.  But there’s no reason to gain so much weight with my pregnancies! Plus, I was kicking butt with eating and weightloss prior to getting pregnant again!

I vowed to exercise but it’s just not happening yet.  It’s freezing outside and when I get home, I want to play with the kid and hubby…not put them on hold while I go down on the treadmill.  By the time I get Abel in bed, I want to go to bed, and usually do.  Excuses excuses, but really, there’s only so much I can do!  When it gets warmer, I vow to walk with the toddler (I guess that’s what he is now!) when I get home from work.  That’ll make a huge difference!

Anyway, that’s my scoop from here.  We are so busy, it’s ridiculous and time is absolutely flying by.  I’m excited to have the baby and move and get going with life, but man, there seems like there is so much to do (and there is!) But, I continue knowing that it will all work out and all is well!  Cheers everyone!

Ok, first for the ups.  After much deliberation, a making of several lists of pros and cons and the ultimate flipping of a coin, my hubby and I decided to find out the sex of the baby.  The big reasons were the following:

1) We are moving and in order to make our house look more appealing we have to put a bunch of stuff in storage.  So, we decided it would be really easy to pull out the clothes that would work from DS rather than keep them all wondering whether or not it was going to be a boy.  We didn’t find out if it was a boy or girl the first time, BUT, he came 3 1/2 weeks early and we had NO clothes!  So, everything is pretty much boyish. 

2) Secretly, way way deep down, I really want a girl.  I would love my child no matter what, but I am a girl and I would love to raise a girl (and hope I do it well!)  I wouldn’t want any post-partum issues to even remotely go back to thinking, “Well if it had been a girl, maybe I wouldn’t feel this way!” By finding out, I could prepare myself in advance!

3) We have so very much love for our DS.  He’s really the center of our lives now!  I sometimes really worry about what to do to make Baby Deux (that’s what we’ve been calling it) seem just as special, especially when there is so much going on in our lives right now.  We thought that maybe by finding out and doing it differently from Abel (DS) it would make this baby special in its own way.

4) Heads we find out, tails we don’t.  It was heads!

So we found out and it’s a girl!  Isn’t that exciting??? I’m very over emotional about it all…I’m over emotional about EVERYTHING, but yesterday was a very overwhelming day for me!  And who knows…they are very clear to say that they won’t guarantee anything, but there really weren’t any signs of boy parts!

Now for the downs….I gained another 8 pounds.  It’s killing me.  Just killing me. (I think my font just got bigger and I really don’t know why!)  I feel like I am making such better choices this pregnancy than last, but gaining just as much weight.  So, I’m planning on really really really watching what I eat, staying away from sweets as much as I can and starting up an excercise routine again.  I got up to 260 the past pregnancy and I was pre-ecclamptic (I have no idea how to spell that).  At the rate I’m going, I’ll get to 260 even if I don’t have issues like I had last time.  My pants are starting to get tight and my sides are bulging just as much as my belly.  It’s really bumming me out…more so today than others.  I know it shouldn’t matter.  I know it’s about the health of my baby…but at the same time, I want to feel happy and healthy and when I’m bulging, I just don’t!  SO, after we are out of town this weekend, I’m going to start posting on my exercise page again and hope that I can do something 3-4 times a week (if not more) to add in more movement….and HOPE that makes a difference!

Anyway, I’m feeling more up than down, but I’m really really really looking forward to not being pregnant and losing this weight and feeling good about my body again.  It’s not horrible…the happiness I feel I really think is outweighing (pardon the pun!) the irritation I feel about weight gain, but still, weight and my body have been on my mind since I was about 8.  Why would that suddenly change?

Anyway, cheers to you all!  Have a great weekend!

Thanks to Desertmama and Bonita for getting my butt in gear to post!  I’ve been meaning too, really I have, but I’m not going to lie when I tell you my life is complete chaos and I do everything I can to not go over the edge!

Our holiday was spent traveling all over the country.  It was an unbelieveable week.  Driving here, flying there, driving to another here….when we all got home all 3 of us had the stomach flu BAD.  I couldn’t believe it.  For the first time in my married life I really wanted my mom!  But, we all survived.  I ended missing my first day back to work and I’m still catching up on laundry, but we will survive!  Pretty much anyone who walks into our house ended up with our sickness.  Even two weeks later someone got it….I realize they could have gotten it from anywhere, but it’s quite ironic!

Baby and I are doing well.  I’m gaining weight quickly (again) even though I feel like I continue to make better choices this pregnancy than I did last.  I’ve kind of resolved myself to accepting my body is going to gain weight quite easily unless I A) exercise all the time…which I’m not doing, sorry, but I go to bed instead! and B) putting absolutely NO BAD FOOD in my mouth…and really, every once in awhile, I’m going to have a chip with my chili.  But in all seriousness, my eating has been MUCH better this time around and I”m really working hard at not stressing out too much about the gain.  I”m still keeping track on my weight progress page, so I can look back on it a year from now and realize how much I really kicked ass in losing it all!  Which, by the way, I’m really looking forward to!

We are still moving and I know it will be great.  We are starting a house hunt and really struggling with that.  Moving with kids and putting our personal wants aside is proving to be very hard for us.  But I  know we’ll find the right house that will hopefully make all of us happy.  We’ll put ours on the market at the end of Feb.  and in all reality, can’t buy until we sell anyway, so why stress?  However, looking at houses online has become my new hobby!

Our ultrasound is on Wednesday!  I’m really struggling with whether or not to find out the gender.  We didn’t with our 14 mo. old and it was so fun.  However, I’m trying to figure out what I can do to make this one equally special and thereby different from what we did before.  We also have to put a ton of stuff into storage (I swear, we have so much stuff it drives me nuts!) and if we know we are having a boy, I know what to keep.  On the other hand, he was born in Nov. and this one will be born in June, so other than those initial onesies, all the clothes will be different anyway!  So I don’t know.  I’d love to know what it is, but I sure did love the surprise, so it’ll probably be a last minute decision!

So that’s all from here.  I made Roni’s sauce tonight, but had to make some modifications because my store didn’t have turkey sausage.  I hope it turns out ok so we have good leftovers this week!

I’m still reading your blogs!  I thought about joining Swizzlepop’s exercise challenge, but I don’t want to disappoint myself…..because seriously, I go to bed ASAP every night!  I am SO TIRED this pregnancy!  And there is no way I”m going to get up early to work out! Anyway, keep up the great work.  I’ll check in Wed. after my ultrasound and let you know what we decided to do!

Cheers!