So, About Working Out...

I am totally not trying to make excuses. Things just happen.

I was doing so well for about 4 weeks with walking and doing P90X. Then my chronic back issue flared up. Without getting into too much detail about that, let's just say it put me out of "working out" commission and I haven't really gotten back into it. That was about two weeks ago. I am still having some back irritation so I am a little nervous to do any P90X. I have gone on a few walks here and there.

However, I am realizing that although there are the moms that get right out there the minute they walk out of their 6 week postpardum visit, there are way more that don't. There are way more that start working out when they feel right, or when they can get their workouts in and don't really fret about it.

I see so many moms, my real life friends and blog friends, that find themselves 6 or 8 months postpardum just starting to feel a little more normal. I also think that being a first time mom, my whole world has been turned upside down. Just finding time to grab something to eat is sometimes hard for me.

I also think that breastfeeding and working out is proving to be a little difficult. Breastfeeding is...time consuming. Yes, I knew that going in but the actual execution of it is a bit of a wake up call. So, after I have nursed my baby to sleep for a nap, it is hard to want to put her down and get up and at it. Also with breastfeeding comes the whole crazy, huge appetite issue. It's hard to find the perfect time to workout when, oh the baby is napping but I feel the need to stuff my face right now because I am feeding another human. 


Anyway.

As I said, I am not making excuses I am just realizing that it's hard. And I know the time will come when it's nicer weather and I can put E in the stroller and make her part of my workouts and yes, I am looking forward to that, however, I am not stressing about it.

Still Playing Milk Maid

I wanted to do a little update on my breastfeeding experience. I posted here about the early weeks and I will say it has gotten a million times better.

For some reason I was holding off on seeing a lactation consultant because I just kept thinking that it was going to get better as everyone kept telling me. Well, after many tears, many frustrations and being sick and tired of the pain, I "gave in" and decided it was time to see someone on E's 5 week birthday. I went to our local hospital and had an appointment with a really nice lady. She showed me how to get Eleanor into the football hold and of course, that day, Eleanor latched right on with no problem, there was no pain and she ate straight through and got 3 ounces. She did confirm that I had been dealing with a pretty severe nipple crack and assured me that these techniques should help. I was so happy, thought our problem was solved with this new position and a few tips she gave me and went home. At her next feeding I tried the same thing and could not get it right. I was frustrated again to say the least.

I tried the new position for a few days and could not seem to get it and was still having pain. After a few days of this, I decided this position was just not for me/us at this time and went back to the cross-cradle hold. With the tips the lactation consultant had given me, though, I was able to finally get her latched on properly and my crack began to heal.

Around week 6 I was able to get my baby latched out without pain, without dread and without frustration. I was so thankful.

Here we are at her 11 week birthday and nursing is going well.

We do have a new challenge though. I don't know if she gets distracted, has to go poo, or has some gas but she does really well for about the first 5 minutes of her feeding and then kind of comes off and on for the rest. She doesn't necessarily do this at every feeding but definitely at least once or twice throughout the day.

We are feeding about every 2-3 hours during the day and about every 3-4 hours at night.

I am obviously hoping she will be picking up some longer stretches at night here soon but for now, I am content knowing that she is seeming to get the correct nutrients as she always seems content after she eats whether it be by falling asleep or just coming off on her own.

I still stand by the fact that I love breastfeeding. I am so thankful that I get to be home with her and basically still feed on demand.

I haven't really done much "public" feeding, just mostly at other peoples' houses which I am always comfortable with since it is usually people I am very comfortable with. I don't know how I feel about all the controversy with women feeding in public with no cover. In Seattle I am pretty sure they passed a law that a women can feed in public but has to be covered. Maybe this has already been a law but there has been a lot of talk about it lately. I guess I kind of feel like if a woman is comfortable with feeding in public with no cover, is discreet and doesn't completely expose herself, then why not? It's not like people should be sitting around staring at her!

Another challenge we are having is getting her to always take a bottle of breast milk when we offer it. Like I said I am feeding her a lot of the time but it would be nice to know that she will take a bottle when we want her to. I don't know if we are just not offering it enough {most likely this is the case because I never offer her a bottle when I am home because it is just so much easier to just give her my breast rather than pumping and making a bottle} or if she truly has just built a very strong preference for me. Maybe once she gets a little older and we keep offering she will get better.

All in all, I think we have made some great strides in our breastfeeding adventure. My husband remained very encouraging during the touch parts and was always supportive whether I was crying or just needed a drink of water. {He's still really great about getting the water. Oh, and about tears if there ever are any!}

Relaxing, A Trip to Home Depot (Okay 3), and a Date

I haven't talked about a weekend in awhile and honestly that is kind of because we haven't really done much on the weekends around here. Ben has worked a lot of weekends and when he wasn't working we wanted to maximize his time with Baby E as much as possible. We have spent a lot of time at home.

Being at home is pretty much the norm for us but obviously since I am home all day everyday nowadays, it is nice to get out of the house here and there.

Saturday we got up leisurely, milled around the house a bit and then decided to make a trip to Home Depot for a couple things we needed. Well, one of the things wasn't right so Ben ran back. I waited at home anxiously because...

wait for it...

...we had decided that this was the day/evening for our first date away from the baby. Granted Ben had been away from the baby because he goes to work everyday. The only other time I had left her was for about 20 minutes when she was 6 or 7 weeks old to run to the grocery store. So this was kind of a big deal for me.

My parents arrived and I tried to just make the departure quick so I didn't freak out. I left a bottle of breastmilk  because I thought she would eat while we were gone.

We didn't go too far but had a nice time. We just went to a burger place, had dinner, a couple of beers and visited. I admitted to Ben halfway through the meal that I was feeling a little tipsy after my beer and a half. Embarrassing!

Anyway, I know if we are going to continue to thrive in our marriage, it is important to nurture our relationship as much as nurturing our child/ren. So, I was very happy that we broke the ice and went out. It is also so nice to have my parents so close to babysit. I don't think we would be so quick to head out if we had to have a stranger or something babysit!

So I survived being away the whole hour and a half and when we got home, my parents were very disappointed because she slept the whole time!

On Sunday we again had a leisurely morning and then I went to the grocery store and back to Home Depot to return something else.

When I got home, Ben worked for a little while, E napped, we went for a walk, watched 50/50, cooked dinner and started getting ready for bed. We hadn't changed our sleeping arrangements yet despite my lack of sleep however, for some reason this seemed like the night. I had been working on putting E in her crib or in the pack and play for naps so we figured she would be okay going down in her pack and play. We rocked her for a bit and she went down. She slept in her pack and play the whole night. It was a little strange but I will admit I got some better sleep. 

This weekend felt great because not only did we have some quality time together as a family and as a couple but we had a couple of monumental events happen. Well, monumental in our little world.

{my heart}

Next up: take more family pictures!

In the spirit of this day of love, go ahead and check out our love story.

Good Summer Eats

Sometimes I think I look at the season of summer like one big meal. There is an abundance of fresh produce that I can almost always count on being delicious. Our garden is growing out of control. That also is in part to the odd amount of rain we have had for this time of year. But, hey, the rain has helped so I'm not complaining for the veggies. Just my tan. Anyway. Thinking of summer as a meal, I love how our meals our so simple. So many different flavors can be grilled. Or tossed. Or sliced and drizzled. I also love the brightness of it all. The colors, smells and especially the flavors.

Seriously, nothing says summer to me like fresh strawberries. I'll take 'em in my salad, on my granola, on my waffle, or I'll just take 'em by the pound puh-lease!

What summer meal isn't complete without a green salad?! The first time I had ever made Hub a salad, quite awhile back, he looked at me like I was crazy. My mom always put everything in her green salads. Like, the usual, tomatoes and lettuce, but also, carrots, cucumbers, broccoli, green beans, mushrooms, celery, green onions, radishes--basically whatever veggie was in the fridge would end up in our salad. The other reason Hub looked at me funny is because everything was chopped up into smaller than bite sized pieces. I guess that  was another thing I learned from my mom. So quite a few years later, I have learned to leave the salad ingredients just a little chunkier for the Hub but I usually still love to get them all in there.

Last night for dinner, I had some pork that was cut off our ribs from the weekend out for dinner. I figured we could just grill it. I had a pepper and an onion in the fridge and a zucchini from the garden. I skewered the veggies and cooked some rice. When Hub got home we grilled the meat and veggies, sliced a tomato, added some Asian sauces and came up with a really good summer dinner.

A few more of the many reasons I love summer in addition to this post. I'm sure we will have a few more scrumptious grilled meals thanks to the weather kicking into summer high gear.

What are your favorite summer foods? Do you love to grill as much as we do? Have you ever grilled any fruit?