Some Blogger I Am!

My last entry was about three months ago. My darling son is growing so quickly! He's been keeping us on our toes. We just sent out an update with photos to folks. He turned three months old on September 26th. Wow. Time really does move at lightening speed when you watch a baby grow.

I'm really fortunate to have a lot of mom-friends. I remember Redhead Momma telling me that she wishes that she could just hold her kids as babies one more time. As I held him as a screaming infant, I remembered that and felt zen in the moment even as it was happening. I'm not trying to imply that he doesn't scream his little head off at times, but these are rare and are generally foreseeable. (OOPS! He hasn't eaten in 2.5 hours and he's been making loud sucking noises as he tried to eat his own fist.) We're all settling in to a nice family routine.

I know now that he will wake up at about 8:30am. He will then be awake for about 2 - 2.5 hours. Nap by 11am. Nap again at 2:00pm. Nap again at 4:00pm. Micro-nap at 6/6:30pm. Sleepy head yawns start at about 7:00 - 7:30pm, depending on the duration of the previously mentioned naps and the amount of activity he's seen that day. Asleep by 9:00pm. This is moving forward. When he was 3 weeks old, it was 9:30pm. Now it's more like 8:00pm. He wakes to eat every 2 - 3 hours, with the duration getting longer as he sleeps. Then, starting at 6:00am, the time between feedings quickens as his body prepares to wake. That's our day. Repeat for tomorrow.

Personally, I'm doing really well. I've lost 30 pounds of pregnancy weight. People feel free to ask me how much I gained with him. The [rude] question is nebulous. I was on a crazy diet prior to my wedding, AKA his conception. See prior posts to understand the severity of the restrictions. I'll summarize as: absolutely no sugar, or anything that turns into sugar in the body, such as starches, alcohol, fruit, etc. So, I'd lost between 20 - 25 pounds prior to my wedding. I then gained weight quickly when I was pregnant. I believe that this was more of my body equalizing back to my "normal" weight rather than the pregnancy weight kicking in. Regardless, if you put me on a scale on my wedding day and then measured me on the day I gave birth, there was about a 50 pound differential. So, I've lost 30 pounds of it. I was hopeful that it would keep dropping off as I continue to nurse him, but even nursing mothers need to exercise to get the weight off, or so it seems to me anyhow. Or maybe not? Maybe I'm just hoping to lost 10 more pounds the "easy" way.

I hope that the above paragraph doesn't lead you to believe that I am stagnant and reluctant to move my body. Actually, I've been doing an easy yoga routine in the mornings to wake my body up and get myself limber enough to start a "real" yoga practice again. I've also been walking a fair amount. We regularly walk in our neighborhood. Last week I walked about 2.5 miles just to pick up a ream of paper from the office supply store. I could have driven, but it was a great excuse to get out of the house and stretch my legs.

Baby loves our walks too. He's a tree hugger for sure. He cranes his neck to see the tops of the trees that we walk under. He hasn't yet noticed the geese, the squirrels, or the butterflies that I've tried to show him. He's not far from that, however. He's curious and observant. I'm sure we'll have made those introductions in the next two months.

I'm going to log off very soon as I've been working tirelessly (though I'm tired!) on tax preparation. As Redhead knows, I've had a lot to do in this regard. I'm happy to say that I am 3/4 of the way done. The last bit will be easy. I expect to be done by the end of this week. I can't believe that this project is almost off the list. It's been looming for what feels like an eternity. I think now's a good time to list some of the things that I'll do with the free mind-space that I will create when I can archive these records:

• Organize my filing cabinet (I know, sexy)
• Import photos into Aperture and begin working with them
• Project 1) Flower macros
• Project 2) Greece
• Project 3) Laos/Thailand
• Project 4) Japan
• Hang pictures around the house
• Start doing yoga several times a week (again)
• Start a scrapbook for baby (Thanks for the links RHM! They are awesome!)
• Cook!

I feel like I'll have more time, not just head-space. This is because in the effort to avoid doing what needed to be done (taxes) I would squander time doing pointless things like playing mah-johng or solitaire on my computer or phone. Now that I am working on the biggest of the TO DOs, I feel like I can tackle the rest of them almost without effort.

Thanks to RHM for inspiring me. I knew that this needed to be done, but as I read about your "home work" and your struggle to finally get to the end, I was inspired to find that day for myself as well...the day when you can go to bed and rest easy because you've done the biggest thing that has had your attention for months and is suddenly a non-issue.

Wish me luck. I'm hoping to finish by end-of-day Friday.

M