Friday Follow and Summer Shape up Check in..

So it's Friday - wow this week went fast!  It was my first week back to work and I'm starting to get into the swing of things.  However, my anxiety is growing as I have just one more week with my little Noah home with me:(  I'm scrambling to figure out a way to keep him here - there are lots of college students that would love to Nanny I'm sure, now I just need to find them!  I'm actually surprised at how well I can work even with him here (of course, as long as someone is watching him).  I even moved my office out of the loft and into the guest room so that I can close the door and have some quiet as he's playing downstairs.

Anyways, two topics at hand today.  Time for an accountability check with the Summer Shape Up and then a quick hello to all my new friends from the Friday Follow!  So...summer shape up first...

I've fallen off the wagon already:)  Doing the 30 day shred here at home with Noah was just too hard.  By the time I got him off to a nap, I found 10,000 other things I needed to do so the best I could muster on semi regular basis was some sit ups and maybe a walk.  Nothing hardly enough to start shedding the weight.  Since hubs is home for two weeks I thought I'd try a different work out - something my girlfriend told me she does and loves - Boxing!!:)  There is an LA Boxing gym just down the road and it happens to be the gym my friend goes to so I begged her to take me along one day.  HOLY COW! I love it!  Beating the crap out of a punching bag is a fantastic way to spend a workout!  You get your cardio and your strength all in one with the added bonus of some much needed stress relief!

So, my goal is to go to a class three days a week.  They say you can burn up to 1000 calories in an hour (of course, that's only if you last the entire hour going balls to the walls crazy...) but even burning 400 or 800 is a great start!

Stats for this week:
Day 1 - 142lbs
Day 8 - 138lbs - woohoo!
Day 24 - 140lbs - ouch...no excuses, I have a new workout regime and a new resolve for eating healthy...we should start seeing that number drop.

My ideal weight - the weight I'm shooting for - my lowest post college, non-starved-like-I-was-in-highschool weight  - is 120lbs.  I'd settle for 125lbs if it meant that I was more muscle than pudge and that the baby belly remnants were gone.

Okay, I'm accounted for now!:)  On to Friday Follow!!



Hello to all you new folks! I hope you find something here that you'll want to come back over and over again for! This blog was started to keep the fam up to date on my first pregnancy and has continued after my little Noah was born. Topics range from smitten momma ramblings to hard hitting pieces about 529 plans and the like (haha...hard hitting..maybe not but it's fun to dream that I could actually write something that could be considered hard hitting) and has a smattering of photography (of my little man of course) thrown in for fun.

Me?  I'm an almost 30 something working mamma who would love to ditch her mortgage in order to stay home with little man but sadly bought when the housing market was at its peak and probably couldn't even break even in the sale.  Some day I dream of leaving the corporate world to do something more creative - like photography or crocheting!:)  But for now amuse myself with hobby photography and blogging.

Anywho...glad to e-meet you and I hope you leave a comment to let me know you stopped by!

My new reality,,,,

My beautiful boy....

Noah was just chillin in his crib being adorable - gramma will appreciate it:)

Back to work...

So Monday was my first day back to work.  I would say that I'm super sad and missing Noah but I can't  - YET.  See, hubsy is home now for two weeks with little man and since I work from home I can just walk downstairs and get my Noah fix any time I want.  I'm hoping this two week pd will allow me to ease into not seeing him 24 hours a day.  As much as I thought I would need a break from him after 9 straight weeks of Noah 24/7, I'm physically anxious when he's not here where I can see him anytime I please.

Case in point: Hubs took him to the store the other day and while I know he's perfectly safe with him and nothing is going to happen I was sooo anxious. Like hole in the pit of my stomach - couldn't concentrate - want to get in the car and drive to wherever they are to see him anxious.  And when he was back all I wanted to do was sit and stare at his beautiful little cheeks!  I just feel like I'm going to miss something while he's at daycare and that he'll become attached to our daycare provider instead of me.  I know these are totally irrational thoughts but that doesn't stop me from having them.

I keep running thru our budget and trying to arrange it so that I can just quit my job and stay with him for the next 9 - 12 months but no matter how I slice it it won't work.  We can either keep the house and eat or keep the house and have heat and electricity.  We can't have the house, eat and pay utilities off of one salary:(   And selling the house in this market is not a wise decision for us so...we're stuck.  Little man goes to daycare in just over a week and i'm a wreck about it.

Anyone know of any college kids in NoVa that want to nanny for cheap??:) 

My kids...

I always say that Macie is my first child - the 4 legged furry one with a significant speech impediment. She's been so amazing with Noah and the new living arrangement (not being the center of attention).  I couldn't have asked for a better dog!  The picture below took the coaxing on a carrot can do but it worked, she sat still enough to get a picture of my "kids":)

2 months old...Middle of the way Joe

I'm sure I'll say this every month but holy cow, I have a 2 month old!!  Some things about Noah now that he's 2 months old:

-  we're done with boobies...he's an all formula fed baby now
-  that said, we're on our second type of formula to see if it helps with the gas
-  he's taking anywhere from 2 - 5 oz a feeding depending on how long it's been since his last meal.  Generally he's eating every 3 - 4 hours now.  Now that we're all formula I can tell he's taking between 24 and 30 oz a day.
-  just last night he went for 5 hours between feedings!
-  he's starting to put weight on his legs if you hold him up and his head control is fantastic! Such a strong little boy.
- he's going to have daddy's super long eye lashes I can just tell.  Plus he's sprouting eyebrows!

Today was our 2 month appt and shots...he did okay - 2 min of wailing and then he was out like a light for the next hour (now he's up and screaming:) )

He's our middle of the way Joe - 50% for everything.  He's now 11lb 12 oz and 24 inches long  (as opposed to 6lb 12oz and 21 inches at birth).  He's growing sooo fast!!!

And to sate the grammas - pictures:)  His two month shot and one telling us how much he liked his shots this morning!!

Friday Follow...

I've seen a number of folks doing this and it looks like fun so I figured why not try!




Click on the image to participate yourself!

Dare I say it...

We had an almost 5 hour stretch of sleep last night!  We put Noah down at 9:00pm and he woke at 1am for a bottle then not again until 6am!  Now he's back down (it's 6:30am)!

Not going to jinx myself by saying those words (acronyms are okay though - STTN) but we may be on to something here!

 ETA:  nope...total fluke!  he was back to his old self last night!

I have a question....

teacher...teacher....I have a question....

Feedback time...

It's funny the things you think about at 5am when you should be sleeping or feeding a baby and are doing neither because by some stroke of luck your little one is actually sleeping longer than 2 hours at a stretch but unfortunately your internal clock missed the memo.

I was trying to think of topics for this blog that would interest people and make them want to come back again and again to read.  I know my life is oh so exciting and all but I think we need more substance around here...so...loyal readers (all 11 of you) the big question is:

"What makes you want to read a blog?"

What topics etc do you like to read about that I can potentially cover? 

Perhaps a rhetorical question....

What is it about being a new parent that renders you completely unable to hold a conversation where no less than 80% of it revolves around your child?  It's like someone flipped a switch the day he was born and you lost all ability to hold a adult conversation with nary the mention of  pee, poop, and how darn cute he is when he grunts.  You can't help it.  You try for an adult convo without the mention of the little one but somehow, somewhere he slips in. And like a crack in a dam, all it takes is one little mention to open the flood gates and take over the conversation.

Your poor non-child-rearing friends totally think you've lost your marbles (which you very well may have).  You watch as they slowly back out of the room at the first mention of grunting and as they run for the hills at the mention of poop.

Same goes for pregnancy - I think we all realize that non pregnant folks (aside from those that are looking to be pregnant soon) really don't care about your aches, pains, odd bodily functions, and what not.  However, that doesn't stop us from being unable to get thru one conversation without one mention of  the pregnancy.

So, non affected folks - cut us a break. There's something biological that forces us to say these things.  Haha

Disclaimer:  This blog is brought to you by 5AM insomnia when Noah is sleeping by I'm not (written out on a sheet of paper in the dark because I kept thinking I could fool my brain into going back to sleep if I kept the lights off...it worked - right about the time the sun was coming up).  It's not coming from any specific experience or situation but rather a realization I've come to over the last few weeks and is a recognition of my insanity:)

G-diapers attempt #2 - maybe success...

So, now that Noah is a bit bigger (i'm betting he's pushing 12 lbs - we'll find out on Friday) I decided to try the g-diapers again.  I have to say they weren't a total fail this time around.  We did have a leak by the leg so I had to wash the outer cover but it didn't leak to his clothes and I think the leak was because I didn't insure the plastic inner liner was firmly embedded in the crease of his legs.

We have our third attempt on now so I'll let you know how it goes.  From what I can tell it's common to have to replace the plastic inner liner (or at least rinse it off ).  It's also helpful that he's firmly in size 1 diapers and a bit bigger.  If I had it to do over again I'd try the tiny g pants first (designed for newborns) and then move to the regular g pant when he was bigger.  The tiny-g is basically the liner with a soft cotton outer shell and fastening tabs.

 I'm still not brave enough to do these overnight but if we can do them during the day and a disposable over night then we're at least cutting down on our waste by a good chunk.

Stay tuned...

Achooooo....

Saving for college...

Yup...Noah's not even 2 months old and we're already stressing about sending him to college in 18 odd years.  According to savingforcollege.com it will cost us upwards in  $300,000 to send Noah to private out of state college.  Make that an in-state public institution and we're only dropping just over $200,000 - ONLY $200k!  And that's assuming that he only goes for 4 years! Kids these days are taking 5 sometimes 6 years to complete school.  Ack!

DH and I would like to be in the position to pay for our child's education and know that we would like to have two kids so doing the math we're looking at a cool half million dollars (almost) to have saved up by the time they reach 18!  Um yea....anyone know how to grow a money tree? because I'm goign to need to grow a whole forest to afford that!

Enter the 529 plan.  Now, I'm still learning but here's what I've found out so far:

1.  There are two types of 529's - savings plans and prepaid. Prepaids sound like an interesting option because they essentially allow you to lock in a price today and continue to pay towards that.  However,  I'm noticing that not all prepaids allow you to pay for room and board with the funds.  They simply cover tuition.  This makes sense since you're essentially signing a contract to pay a certain amt for tuition and it's left to the institution to honor that price when the time comes.  They risk a chance that tuition will have increased more than they'd anticipated and will have to take a loss when your child starts school.  They can make that up with room and board to a large extent.

The savings plans are basically like your 401k plan. There's a risk that the market won't do well and the value of your savings fund will decrease or at least not maintain.  If tuition is inflating at 6% a year, you need to make sure you have a savings fun that makes at least that if not more otherwise you'll essentially be losing money.   The plus to a savings plan is that they funds can be used for tuition, room and board for an approved institution.

2.  Every state has at least one 529 plan but participation in a specific states plan does not mean you have to pick a school in that state.  So you can live in NC, purchase a VA savings plan and go to school in PA. 

3.  There are tax benefits to a 529 plan for most plans.  The earnings grow tax-deferred and distributions are tax-free when used for qualified post-secondary education costs. 

4.  You can enroll directly or go thru a broker.  The plans differ depending on how you enroll.  There are benefits to a broker because they can guide you thru the process and often times have plans available that don't exist to the general public.

Again, there's so much to learn about it so I'm going to dive back in and see what I can figure out.  There's a savings plan out of Nevada that looks great.  It's connected to Upromise and has options to grandparents or others to make gift deposits into the account.  

Once we select one, I'll do a follow up post to review the process and how easy/hard it was to establish the account.

Enjoying a spring day...

No words needed....:)

Summer Shape-up Check In

Okay....so we're on Day 8 of the summer shape up.  I'll admit I've not been very good at keeping up with the 30 day shred. I have however spent at least 30 min each day getting my pulse pumping. I invested in 3lb weights to use (instead of the 5lb weights) in hopes that I wont cheat as much during the workout (5lbs is just too heavy to start out with).  I also invested in a few new workout clothes that fit better than my old ones (and ones that I hope i get to say are too big some time soon!).  And for all that work...I've lost a few lbs:)

Day 1 - 142lbs
Day 8 - 138lbs - woohoo!

It may have been a fluke - we'll see if I can keep this up.  I was very good about watching what I eat but have fallen a bit of the wagon the last few days - sweets are just too tempting.  I need to just throw out what we have here so I'm not tempted to eat it.  I've tried it in moderation but I have little self control when it comes to chocolate so I need to find lower fat/calorie ways to imbibe.  Thoughts? Any treats that you've found satisfy your sweet tooth but are not super high in calories and/or fat.

A self portrait....

Little Bits...

The misadventure of a new mom..

Hubs keeps telling me that my mommy instincts have really kicked in and that I'm a natural with Noah...well, today I felt like anything but!  Mom's plan, they're prepared, they anticipate....I did none of that and that made for quite the adventure on our walk this AM. Now, I'm not going to take all the blame - hubs had a hand in this too...

It all started with hubs urging me to go for a walk and live it up these last few days on my maternity leave.  I mentioned to him that it was due to rain and while I'm perfectly okay walking in the rain, we had a baby to think about now when we go out.  He still pushed noting that we have umbrellas and rain coats that would keep things dry...so I gave in - a quick check of the weather and making note of where the rain was I figured we had a few hours to get out and back - plenty of time to get up to Starbucks and back before it started raining.  I did pack an umbrella, rain coat and our diaper bag (which was the extent of my planning).


The walk started out easy enough - it took me two tries to find the right path that would take us up the road without actually having to walk on the road (we're lucky to have a network of paths that traverse the flood basins which allow us to walk place to place with minimal time on actual roads).  Noah was awake but quiet.  A quick look at my watch I realized that he'd be wanting to eat in about an hour - mistake #1.  I should have waited to go until I can feed him to have the max amt of time possible out without having to take a break for food.  In my haste to try to beat the rain however, I overlooked this point which will come back to bite me later.

About 3/4 of the way up to Starbucks he started to fuss and I knew it was hunger setting in.  I checked the diaper bag only to find that I'd given my emergency water for making a bottle to hubs during church at Easter (Mistake #2 - didn't check the diaper bag for all the necessities).  I'd need to stop at the grocery store to get some bottled water to make a bottle. However, I was still 10 min out from the store.  So I started to high tail it as fast as possible replacing his binky every 100 feet because in his anger he kept spitting it out.  By the time I hit the grocery store Noah had hit code red and was wailing at the top of his lungs.  I pulled him out of his stroller and tried like heck to comfort him while I ran down the end caps at the store looking for the little fridge that had just plain water (they had everything else but..).  Last end cap had it and I made a bee line for check out.  I checked out, wailing baby in tow (and gathering sympathetic looks along the way), and walk as quickly as I can to Starbucks where they have chairs outside so I can get things situated.

It takes me hours longer than normal to assemble the bottle (at least that's what it felt like) but I finally had it all together.  A sympathetic Quiznos owner, thinking we were cold, offered to let Noah cry it out in his store:)  Having fed Noah, I popped into Starbucks for my Chai.  Noah was still cranky so I had to carry him - which meant abandoning the jogger outside.  A very nice gentleman offered to carry my drink since my arms were full (funny how a baby brings out kindness in just about everyone).  After all of this we were on our way only to have Noah freak out before I even got out of the plaza.

I couldn't think of what else to do so I picked him up and zipped him up in my coat so I could carry him easier.  This is how we started our way home.  That's also the same time the rain started.  It just started sprinkling but I knew it would pick up in no time so, with Noah nestled in my coat, I walked as quickly as I could (pushing an empty stroller) trying to make it back to the path and the cover of trees.  At that point Noah was asleep so I put him back in the stroller and covered it with my rain coat.

As the rain started to come down harder I pulled out the umbrella I'd packed and opened it up.  It took me about 10 min to figure out that it would actually be easier for me to wear the coat and to use the umbrella to cover Noah in the stroller - we must have looked like quite the sight!

Anywho...long story short (okay, long story longer) we made it home.  Noah was bone dry and warm while I was a bit soggy and starting to chill.  I learned a bunch of lessons on this walk:

1.  Always try to start out with a full belly
2.  Premake the bottle before you head out if you can
3.  Check the diaper bag to make sure you have all the essentials
4.  Don't assume anything will go as planned with an infant!


Bonus - I got to try out the music speakers on our jogging stroller!  While it doesn't make up for not having a BoB stroller, it certainly makes using that jogger much more fun and walks more pleasurable with a few tunes! 

Boobies = FAIL

I've always known that I wanted to breastfeed my children.  The benefits are just too great to ignore and if you can do it, why not?  So, as soon as he was born I asked the nurse to help us get latched and what not.  Noah was a natural!  He latched easily and seemed to get the hang of it pretty quickly - I was so happy!  This was going to be easy!  Then jaundice set in and we needed to supplement with formula to help him clear out the billirubin (in addition to the photo therapy lights).  I wasn't too happy with adding formula at first but you gotta do what you gotta do and it was what Noah needed to get better.  Turns out that he's as laid back and flexible as his mom! He moved from bottle to breast and back with no problems what so ever.

We were sent home and that's when the panic set in! My milk had not yet come in and he was still as yellow as a banana.  I didn't want the jaundice to return so we continued to supplement for the next few weeks until it just became habit.  It was easy.  I was comforted by being able to see the volume in the bottles disappear into his tummy and was reassured he was getting enough to eat. Thus begins our transition to exclusive pumping and bottle feeding.

In my early weeks as a new mom anything that I could do to regain some control over my life I was all for so, pumping it was.  I'd still nurse him at night but my day times were filled with a meeting with my pump every 2 hours yielding 4oz at best each session.  As he grew that simply was not enough to keep up with him.  I tried everything - fenugreek/milk thistle, gallons of water a day, nursing then pumping (holy time consuming), hot compresses, etc.  You name it, I likely tried it but in the end I was simply not able to keep up with my growing boy:(

So, ultimately I made it 7.5 weeks.  That's 7.5 weeks of my milk and antibodies that he may have not had otherwise.  It may not be 6 months or a year but it's something and I have to be happy with that.  In the end I really had a hard time giving up that last night time session but when I had to feed him and then finish with a bottle, the hour or more it took to get thru that process left little time for sleep before we had to do it all over again and with going back to work looming, I needed to find a night time pattern that worked for everyone.  And for us, that now means formula around the clock.


I'm still sad I couldn't go longer but I have to get over it and recognize that getting Noah what he needs to grow is more important.

Just for Gramma!

Noah's falling into a pattern of sorts now and we've found that he's happiest in the early morning.  At that time you can leave him in his bouncer and he'll just amuse himself smiling at the animals hanging over him.  This AM was especially fun because I got him to smile at me finally!!  These are for gramma who said she needs a Noah fix:)

This one is just him bouncing around and having fun....



This one is more bouncing...he's really trying hard to hit the critters hanging over him...


And finally.....he smiles...you have to wait for it and he makes me work for it for sure but it's there!:)

Happy Easter - a weekend late!

So, things with a newborn always take longer right??:)  Easter pictures are no exception...we took them on Easter but it's taken me a week to finally get them off loaded and processed:)

Here is a sampling from the weekend.  It was a whirlwind weekend!  Went to see the great grandparents on Friday, the cousins and aunts and uncles came down on Saturday, and the church met him on Sunday. 

One big happy family:)

Happy Gramma and Grandpa!

Uncle J and Noah spend some good quality time together...

Great Grandpa Don gets Noah to relax...

Great Gramma Mac and Great Grandpa Don make silly faces

Great Gramma Mac says hello!

Grandpa enjoys the nice weather while feeding little man

Great Gramma Peg meets Noah for the first time (we don't have a pic of Great Grandpa Don2 - doh..)

Operation Summer Shape Up

I've always been a pretty fit person.  DH and I spent most of our free time while we were in California out hiking and/or biking.  Even here in Va we managed to get out and do some biking or hiking on a regular basis.  I loved it - feeling fit and trim.  Then pregnancy hit.  I vowed to continue to exercise in moderation and try to keep the weight monster at bay however between stresses at work, morning/all day sickness, ice storms making walking dangerous and the general aches and pains of pregnancy, I fell of that wagon pretty quickly.

I went from walking the dog twice a day to only managing the stairs on most days.  My weight ballooned to a number I've never seen before and hope never to see again.  Now, at least half that weight was necessary for the pregnancy, the other half - well, let's just say I had a raging Panera Broccoli and Cheese soup habit.  The final total on my pregnancy weigh gain was 42 lbs - the morning I was induced I weighed in at a cool 162lbs at the dr's office.  Oh how I hated that scale!

After Noah arrived I quickly dropped 20 odd lbs in the first three weeks.  However, now things have plateaued and I've been stuck at 142lbs for the last 3 weeks.  Now, 10lb of that is probably the extra heft of my milk laden boobies (okay, maybe 5lbs...anyways, I digress) but that still leave at least 10 more that have settled on my belly, arms, thighs, and butt (OMG - i tried on a number of my pre-pregnancy work out shorts and none of them would fit around my arse - I didn't think it expanded that much! I had to buy a new work out wardrobe!). 

Cue Jillian Michales!  I've heard great things about her 30 day shred and since it was on sale on Amazon ($8 anyone??!) I decided to give it a try - today is day 1 and I almost died!!  I knew I was outta shape but oh wow - she's a hard arse and I'm all squishy marshmallow! 

So, I'll try to keep up a weekly check in on here to keep me accountable.  DH has lots of plans this summer for beach volleyball tournaments which means bathing suits and I don't want to have to buy a new suit - I LOVE the ones I have now.   I'm not brave enough to post before and after pics here - sorry.  Maybe if the results are spectacular then I'll post a beach shot later this summer (haha..yea, right!).  I end to fall off the wagon pretty quickly so I'll need all the help I can get to stay on track with this.

My motivation - Jenny McCarthy!  If she can look that amazing after a baby - then I certainly can (even if I dont have a personal trainer, chef, and nanny to watch the baby so I can work out 10 hours a day:) ).

Day 1 - 142lbs

Flashlight?

Today was my 6 week check up with the OB.  Everything's fine and dandy and I've been cleared for all activity - whoohoo....however, that's not what I wanted to post about.  While sitting waiting for the doc (and listening to all the office ladies oogle over Noah) I noticed that there was a flashlight on the counter top.  Now, lights are necessary in their line of work however, I expected something more high tech.  The flashlight was the type that you buy at the hardware store and keep in your kitchen drawer for when a storm knocks the lights out.  I really wonder when they choose to use that over the high powered gooseneck one next to the bed....hmph..