Monthly Archives: December 2008

Daddy’s girls

I’ve always been a bit of a night owl, Anthony is too. Zale, on the other hand, sees the sun come up and it’s time to start the day. I also think he doesn’t require as much sleep as I do. The last couple of nights have been especially rough since I’m not nursing Reagan anymore. It’s takes more time and effort to get her to sleep and to stay asleep.

So this morning when Hannah and Reagan woke up at 7:33 ready to play, I was not as enthusatic about it. Here’s my conversation with Hannah about it.

Me:  “Good morning girls”

Hannah:  “Good morning, Mommy”

Me:  “Hannah, it’s still really early, don’t you want to sleep some more?”

Hannah:  “But Mommy, the sun it up, the dark is down, it’s time to get up!”

Me:  “groan….okay, but lets cuddle for a minute before we play.” (cuddle – code word for let’s snuggle so I don’t have to get up yet!)

Very Proud

I have to brag on Zale for a bit. He’s been doing Weight Watchers with me, and yes it’s a bit aggravating that he’s done better than me, but I’m glad for him.

For weeks he’s been in desperate need of new jeans. He’s even had to have his suit pants taken in. Yesterday we went shopping and he was able to get size 32 jeans. That’s down from 38s. Wow.

September 22, 2004 – December 27, 2008

Since September 22, 2004 I have either been pregnant or nursing. When you’re pregnant and/or nursing there are a few things you sacrifice for the welfare of your children. Giving up medicines, sometimes certain foods, and of course adult beverages. I’ve never really been a big drinker. I do enjoy an occasional Crown & Coke or strawberry Margarita or Smirnoff Ice every once in awhile. For me, knowing that I can’t drink makes me miss it just a little.

So tonight, after weaning Reagan and knowing that  I’m done nursing with no  plans to have more kids (and the girls are still at Mom’s), I’m enjoying an ice cold Smirnoff Ice Light. I don’t plan on going overboard, don’t plan on it interfering with my weight loss, but I have to say, it’s taste AWESOME!  Cheers!!

Bittersweet

I’ve been struggling with the decision of whether or not to wean Reagan from nursing. I love the bonding time with her, the calories it burns for me, and the health benefits for her. But she’s 16 months old and nursing isn’t so sweet when she tries to stand on her head and  unscrew my breast from my body so she can take it with her while she plays.

I thought she was going to do it herself since a couple of days last week she went over 12 hours without nursing. But then she would try to nurse all night to make up for it. So I decided it was time. To maybe make things easier on her and me too, my Mom and step father agreed to take both girls for a couple of days. One of my best friends told me that was how she weaned her daughter and that it worked great. When her little girl came home she didn’t even think about nursing again. I’m hoping to have that same success.

Of course my Mom and her husband are very brave to take this on. Not only was last night Reagan’s first night ever to be away from home, but it’s also the first 24 hours she’s ever gone without nursing. They say she’s doing great. Last night was a little rough, but that today she’s happy and smiling and playing. They’re keeping her full and distracted. I miss her and Hannah like crazy, but I hope this is easier than being around me and not being able to nurse.

I’m in quite a bit of discomfort as my body figures out it’s time to stop producing milk, but it will pass in a day or two. I’ll miss that precious time spent nursing Reagan, and the ability to quiet her cries in a second, but it’s time for both of us.

I missed the kids as soon as they left last night. I’m still a bit out of sorts and just don’t know what to do with myself. When I woke up this morning I remembered they were gone and realized that for the first time in a VERY long time I woke up because I was done sleeping, not because someone cried or woke me up because they were done sleeping and were ready to play!

It has been nice for Zale and I to have some alone time, but I almost miss the noise. I for sure miss their sweet faces and happy laughs. It will be nice to have them home in a day or two! Thanks to Mom and Andy for taking this on!

What a great Christmas!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was great. Everything happened for us on Christmas Eve. We started out picking Paige up and going to Zale’s Mom’s house that morning for brunch and to open presents. Paige was pretty surprised to see how many presents she got from my in laws. It was very sweet of them to do.

We had to have her home by 3 and then we were off to a 4:00 Christmas Eve service at church. The music was amazing, the lesson wonderful. Then we had “candle light” as we sang Silent Night. I put candle light in quotes because they passed out glow sticks instead of candles. Much safer and the kids love it! It’s actually pretty cool. After all that the youth made a presentation that made me cry. Tears were just streaming down my face.  It was an awesome experience.

Then my side of the famliy all met at our house for some Taco soup / Mexican chili and to open gifts again.  Every year I wonder if we’ve bought enough for everyone, and this year as I looked at our living room floor and realized that there was so much we couldn’t even see the carpet, I realized we have more than enough. Much more.

This was the first year Hannah showed real excitement about everything. She was more interested in what every one else was getting than in what she had. We had so much going on people were thinking they were done then finding more gifts under all the wrapping paper thrown all over the place. But it was a great time, we laughed together, shared stories,watched Leeanna and her friend from college play with Hannah & Reagan and their toys. I’m thinking it was the best time we’ve had yet.

It was a long and exhausting day, but a wonderful day.  Not because of all the gifts, but because of the friends and family and just how blessed we all are to have such wonderful people in our lives!

I didn’t meet my goal

As disappointing as it is, I didn’t meet my goal of losing 30 pounds by Christmas. Not because I didn’t try. It was actually the weirdest thing, I was about two pounds away from making it, I started getting more active again, was still staying within my daily points and I gained a couple of pounds. Go figure.

After realizing my goal wasn’t going to be met, I took a couple of days off from the diet to enjoy all the yummy Christmas food. I still havn’t gone crazy or eaten as much as I would have in years past. Tomorrow I’ll start with the points again and go from there. I still have my goal of hitting my comfortable weight by my birthday.

It’s happening already

short conversations with Hannah as we came home this afternoon.

Hannah – “I want to go to Arica’s house” (our next door neighbor)

Me – “Not today”

Hannah – “But I want to go today.”

Me – “You were just there yesterday, today you get to be with me”

Hannah – “But I’m tired of being with you, I want to be with Arica.”

I was hoping this wouldn’t happen until she was at least 10.  To top it all off she just came in the living room, sat on her chair and started praying about wanting to go to Arica’s house.

work out diary

I made it to racquetball this afternoon. I guess technically it was yesterday afternoon. It was a great workout, I endured for the full hour. :) My weight seems to have stalled, but I still have a week to lose 2.something pounds to make that Christmas goal.

Eating at Red Lobster for lunch tomorrow for my mother-in-law’s birthday is going to be a challenge. Hopefully I can stick with a salad, dressing on the side! :)

Thanks again Dad for another great lesson! I remembered to take Motrin when I got home this time! I want to be able to walk normally in the morning after that work out you gave me!

work out diary

When I woke up Sunday morning I was very sore. For a minute I couldn’t figure out why. Then it hit me, I played racquetball for the first time in over a month on Saturday. Duh! I was still somewhat sore yesterday and over did it on my points a bit  two days in a row  (Sunday was Zale’s birthday dinner at Carrabba’s, yesterday was Lifegroup, the kids brought pizza) so I figured I’d better get upstairs on the treadmill.

I walked two miles in about 35 minutes and burned over 300 calories. It’s been a long time since I’ve been on the treadmill too, so it was tough to stay on that long, but I’m glad I did. Today is racquetball again, hopefully I won’t be so sore this time! :)