Time just keeps on moving

Camila is 10 months old! Where has the time gone?! We have already started referring to her as a toddler instead of a baby, because thats how she acts! She's got these little opinions and thoughts on things, and you can tell when she has a specific idea or thought in her mind, because if we don't help her follow through with that exact thought, she throws her head back, spreads her fingers, raises her little eyebrows, bares her teeth and goes, "EEEEEHHHHH". She's also allll over the place, chewing wires and sticking her fingers into sockets and climbing up on furniture and us and walls.



She's also just so AWARE of things and concepts. For example, we were out to lunch at Panera with our family friend Chat (who many of you know :)  ) and I brought along some broccoli for her, knowing that it would be hard to find a veggie at Panera. Anyway, she was happily eating her broccoli, kicking her little legs back and forth under her, stuffing more than she could chew in her mouth as per usual, until my plate of food came. I gave her one bite of mac and cheese and she was DONE with the broccoli. Even once the mac and cheese was gone and I told her and showed her so, she was content just sitting quietly but would NOT eat another bite of broccoli. Usually she will ALWAYS eat fruit, but she was even being touchy on the fruit I had ordered her. A few bites in the mouth, a handful on the ground. Even though our plates were empty she just sat there quietly staring at them. I figured she was full. Finally Chat got up to clear the plates and what does Camila do? Look at me, look at Chat, look around a few times at the empty table, and reaches for her container of broccoli and fruit and eats the entire thing.

It was one of those moments where you are just like, wow. She's no longer thinking simply, like "Oh this is my food. I see it. I eat it." She understands that there's OTHER OPTIONS and if she plays her cards right she might be able to pick and choose what to fill up on. Sneaky sneaky little one. Mama is on to you.

Another super awesome development that we started noticing at 9 months is her understanding of language. Donovan speaks to her in Spanish only, and I speak a mixture - If I know it in Spanish, I say it in Spanish. If I don't, I say it in English. Therefor, a lot of the simple things we say often throughout the day are all said in Spanish all of the time. Words and phrases such as "All done", "Do you want more?", "Its time to eat", "Its time for a nap", "Come here", "Do you want to nurse?", dance, bounce, yes, no, hi, bye, yada yada. You can tell she understands exactly what we are saying buy her actions and the look in her eyes when you speak to her, and she's even started nodding yes in response. Its amazing! She waves hi and bye, not just on command but when she sees people for the first time or watches them leave. She also blows kisses on command - it really just looks like she's slapping herself on the mouth but freaking adorable.

And honestly, we are obsessed. Especially me. We watch her every move, every facial expression, laugh at her every conversation-like grunt and squeal. Even once she's in bed we sit with the monitor and smile over her many sleeping positions or fret about if she's warm/cool/hydrated enough. She's the best thing that's ever, ever happened to us and time is flying WAY too fast.

I love love love this picture of Camila and her papi

And of course, "best thing that ever happened to us" part II is on his way!
This pregnancy is almost exactly the same as with Camila - I craved clementines like WOAH in the first trimester. This was before I knew I was pregnant so I didn't think much of it, but looking back, its like woah! So THAT'S why I was eating a box a day (slight exaggeration). Its also pretty easy - that craving has been one of my only symptoms. No sickness, tiredness or hormone-raged tears. (I know, I'm damn lucky.)

Its a bit different though because HOLY COW am I big. Not really that big in reality, but in comparison its a little odd. Im already doing the pregnancy-squat. You know the one, where if you need to bend down to get something you kinda have to spread your legs wide and point your toes outward. Its really sexy. I also can't fit into ANY of my old clothes. The tshirts and tanks all hang over my belly with little flaps and if I raise my arms a little the belly-bottom pops out. When I do high-knees jogs in place I have to cradle my belly in my hands. Squats have already become sumo-squats and belly-sleeping is becoming difficult. Thighs are starting to chafe under dresses (again, definitely sexy) and my food-shelf is returning. This is all normal obviously, but last time none of this happened to me until 6/7 months, and I'm only 4.5! Yet somehow Ive gained almost the same amount of weight. This is going to be a loooong 5 months…

Pregnancy round 2!

Nothing like a second pregnancy to get one blogging again huh? Hopefully I can keep up this time. Not that 2 babies is a lot of work or anything. Shouldn't be a problem.

Speaking of two babies, thats exactly what we will have- TWO BABIES. Camila will barely be acquiring her land-legs when this little dude comes along. Oh, that also - LITTLE DUDE! One of each! I won't lie, I would have loved to have another little girl. I saw two similarly-aged little sisters playing at the playground the other week and it melted my heart. I also already know how to DO girls. You know, up through age 10 months. It just felt like a little girl would have slipped in nice and smooth to our little-girl life. Which is why we were STOKED when the sonogram-ist (probably not a word, but we will go with it) said its a BOY! I think both of us were pulling for a boy deep down. Donovan yelled so loud that the other baby I care for 3 days a week, who joins us for all kinds of fun outings like doctors appointments and gender reveals, immediately started crying in fear.

I was really excited for all 3 of us, but especially Donovan. Most people in his life, myself included, were sure he was destined to be the father of only girls. This is probably due to his protective and strong nature, along with the knowledge that he is a complete emotional softy - just seemed fitting that he would spend his life fretting about and spoiling his many girls.

So moving on to pregnancy itself - many were surprised at how quickly we decided to jump right in to round 2. I will use the word "decided" loosely because while we had hoped to have them close together, I was and still am nursing my daughter and (apologies for the TMI) never got my period back, which led me to believe that it wasn't in the cards for us to get pregnant while still nursing Camila. Therefor, this pregnancy was a total surprise for us also! There were a few teeny tiny signs that I should maybe buy a pregnancy test (an intense craving for clementines, nipple soreness - again with the TMI, I know), but the kicker was when my husband ever so lovingly told me that I LOOKED pregnant. Well at that point I figured it better be true, otherwise he was dead. Half joking - I brought up my belly pooch first and he hesitantly agreed. It wouldn't have been a deal at all, but him and I were smack-dap in the middle of the newest Insanity program, Max 30, and after 30 days of ass-kicking workouts and VERY MINIMAL mac and cheese (I swear it), I had GAINED an inch around my waist, as well as 7 pounds! It just didn't make any sense! 3 positive and 1 faulty pregnancy tests later, we figured I had to be 3-4 months along if Im ALREADY showing right?! Holy cow!

This is 9 or 10 weeks along

However our first sonogram indicated I was only 9 weeks. So not only do yes, you show much earlier the second time around, I am now 100% convinced that the body, more specifically MY body, simply holds on to body fat when pregnant. I mean 9 weeks along and 7 pounds?! The baby was the size of a GRAPE at that point - hardly 7 pounds worth. And those smart-ass doctors will claim that you should gain MAYBE a pound in your first trimester but nothing more. Well I didn't even KNOW I was pregnant, was working my ASS off to get in better shape, and STILL gained 7 pounds. And this was after plummeting to below pre-pregnancy weight a few months postpartum. Also, as hard as I worked to maintain my fitness level last pregnancy, that last month of swollen ankles and the 6 weeks of doing nothing because my body just performed the most amazing feat, turned my body into mush. I maintained a base layer of muscle which I DO credit to my continued heavy lifting, but despite how hard I worked, I didn't maintain very much at all.


So needless to say, I am heading into this pregnancy with a much more relaxed approach to diet and fitness than before. This means weekly mac and cheese when I grocery shop at Wegmans (have you tried theirs at the hot food bar?! YUM), 3-5 days of working out a week including weight lifting, Shaun T workouts, jogging outdoors, basically anything I FEEL like that day, veggies at every meal, whole grains, lean proteins and lots of fruit, and ice cream and burgers whenever the hell I feel like it. Ive learned from experience that I will bounce back quickly, and dammit Im going to enjoy it.

Sleep Regression - IT'S REAL.

Baby is born. Baby comes home. Time pretty much stops existing while baby figures out the difference between night and day. Parents don't care because they are in complete awe of their precious bundle of joy. Baby finally gets it. Nights become time to sleep and days become time for play. Baby wakes up 3 times a night to nurse, but goes right back to sleep. Normal. Months pass - baby sleeps through the night! And not just through the night, 9-10 hours straight!! Parents praise themselves. It must be some awesome parenting they did. They high-five each other.

Then, something happens. Baby starts waking up 2 times a night to nurse again. Ok…not a huge deal.

Then, something more happens. Baby is waking EVERY 2 HOURS. She's restless. She's fidgety. She's hungry. She's not hungry. She wants to be on her stomach. No, she wants to be on her back. She wants to bounce. She wants to sleep in your bed.

Sleep regression. When this happened to us, I immediately googled "4 months old not sleeping?" and "4 months old waking up a lot" and "4 months old IM EXHAUSTED" and every other phrase you can think of. Every. Single. One. gave me the result "4 Month Sleep Regression".

Turns out that, due to a huge developmental leap, it is very typical at this age for babies to just flip their sleeping routine on its head. They "regress" to sleeping like newborns, because their brain can no longer just check out like it used to. Ive read it described like this: Imagine going to bed the night before a big meeting or big event. You are tossing and turning and checking the clock every hour it seems. You can't stop going over scenarios in your head. Thats what it is like for weeks for babies that go through sleep regression. Usually, they are working on mastering a skill at this time, like rolling over or sitting up.

Ive READ that often times, once this skill is mastered, the regression stops. Meh, not so sure I buy that one. She's sitting up unsupported now, rolled over once (yes, once) and the "regression" has only gotten worse. Its now moved to naps also.

On the flip side of this, Camila is all of a sudden a REAL LITTLE HUMAN! She is the coolest little person ever! It seems like she went from being a little blob of poopie, sour milky mess to a thinking, feeling, giggly, bubbly, adorable HUMAN. She is so much fun and so amazing. She learns something new every day, she has "conversations" with us, she yells when she's bored and likes to read books and loves the swing at the park and grabs our faces and belly laughs. She giggles when I dance like an idiot and squeals when talking to her papi. She sings herself to sleep and responds to her name and pays attention when skyping with her family and is discovering her hands and toes.

Quite simply: SHE ROCKS. This is equally the hardest and most joyful stage thus far.

I don't know when this sleep regression will end (i hope its soon) but advice I often get from other parents is "this too shall pass." Enjoy the many stages they go through, because it will go by fast. So for now, we have decided to assist her however we can through this bump in the road. She will eventually work through it, and no, we won't create any bad habits by helping her sleep in any way we can - even if it means sleeping in our bed. We will continue our bedtime routine of bath and a book, and continue to put her to bed in her crib. Once she's through this stage, our goal is sleep training, which will be a whole new adventure!

Can anyone relate?! I would love to hear if theres anyone else that went through this sleeping hump!

Hiatus!!!

Oy time flies!!!! I got myself in a rut with this blog, because its original purpose was to document keeping fit during pregnancy, and getting body back after baby. However I started  to feel like people enjoyed reading the baby parts and not so much the keeping fit parts so I kind of drifted off. And now I find myself wishing I had been doing more CAMILA updates on here, because time flies SO FAST and I am already forgetting how it felt during certain stages!

 3 months old

I also realized that this would be a good avenue to discuss different parenting adventures (sleep regressions, diapering, feeding solids), not only so I can document these times for myself and my family, but to hopefully help others!!! I am one of those people that is constantly googling everything, from "ok to deadlift 30 weeks pregnant?" to "4 months old nap schedules". Whenever I come across another young mom documenting her experiences, I am hooked. I always end up wishing there were more people out there who did so, and so in reality thats kind of why I started this blog (I wanted to help and connect with other fit moms).

We reppin' Gold's!

SO LONG STORY SHORT, this blog will now be WHATEVER I FEEL LIKE WRITING ABOUT!!! Fitness, monthly Camila updates, adventures in the different stages in infancy, blah blah blah. I hope along the way I can help other new parents, but if not, at least I'll have documented life at this sweet, sweet stage, because my gosh, it'll be over before we know it.

8 weeks postpartum!

So I was photo bombed by David Hasselhoff.

Seriously though -  Who hasselhoffed me?! I went to upload photos to this blog, and it gave me the option to upload from my phone. I thought to myself, "How does this thing know my phone? Lets see what pops up." And THIS was the picture - the only picture- that showed up. Um, what? 

Ok! Let's move on from the creepy Hasselhoff photo bombing. 

Its been 8 weeks since I gave birth to my beautiful Camilita. It has been the most awesome, exhilarating, emotional and amazing 8 weeks of our lives! 

At 6 weeks postpartum we started working out again, and even though I was active my entire pregnancy, 6 weeks of doing NOTHING really takes its toll! For two weeks now we have been doing Insanity, which was harder to do than the first time we did it! Its hard to have worked so hard on your strength and fitness level only to have it virtually deteriorate. Below are reverse before and after pictures, haha. On the left is my before, my goal essentially (and then some), on the right is where I am now. 

While I was very active and ate healthy during my entire pregnancy, my diet was definitely not as clean as normal. While my planned meals were on point, I pretty much allowed myself to eat what I wanted almost whenever I wanted (and so did my husband!). This led me to gain a considerable about of body fat, which my body was already trying to do (pregnancy hormones - your body holds on to fat even more to prepare for breastfeeding). 

BUT…its all ok because its a learning process, and this process gave us the most beautiful and special gift anyone could ask for.  :)

SO, my goal right now is to lose the body fat I've gained, while also gaining a muscle base (usually these two do not go hand in hand - however I am relying on "newbie gains" - the ability to gain a bit of muscle while also losing fat when you are new to lifting. While I am not new to lifting, I might as well be at this point. Ha.) However, I have heard lately that those last 5-15 lbs are often hard to lose for breastfeeding moms because your body wants to hold on to fat. This is because your body obviously needs energy to produce milk, and in case of an emergency where you aren't eating and drinking enough, your body has fat stores to make milk. So I need to eat enough calories to support my milk production (otherwise my body will continue to hold on to fat instead of let it go) as well as enough to gain some muscle - again, something that is difficult for the postpartum body to do! So this will be a bit of an experiment.

These past 2 weeks we have been doing Insanity, but now that I'm feeling better I am ready to incorporate lifting back in. We have equipment in our basement for this, as our gym's child care won't take Camila until she is 3 months old. Our routine is Insanity 3 days a week, and a full body lifting routine 3 days a week. 

I'll post later this week about exactly what we do, and HOW we do it with an 8 week old.  :)

39 weeks, Camila's birth story and 1.5 weeks postpartum!

39 weeks

Donovan and I had just spent the weekend really focusing on each other - we went for a long hike, didn't turn the TV on all day, talked a ton and just got in a very serene we-are-ready-for-this mindset. I had been having a lot of mixed emotions leading up to that weekend - fear, excitement, worry, you name it. The emotions were building, building…so this weekend was exactly what I needed. Wouldn't you know it, that night my water broke!

Camila's Birth Story

Camila was born at 6:29 pm, with the sun streaming in the window and Bob Marley's "Stir it Up" playing. True story. But let me back up!

Sunday at midnight my water broke. I wasn't 100% sure that it had happened - for a good 20 minutes I battled with the idea that maybe I had just lost all control of my bladder in this last week of pregnancy, how embarrassing! Once I realized that yes, this was indeed my water, I woke up Donovan, we grabbed any last minute things we needed, and headed to the hospital. I wasn't feeling any pain or discomfort, so I was in denial the entire time, until we got there and they confirmed that labor had begun and we wouldn't be going home without a baby in our arms. So exciting!

The nurses hooked me up and started me on pitocin to get my contractions starting. Once your water breaks your baby is prone to infection and other things on the 'outside', so they want active labor to begin quickly. At first, the contractions felt like bad period cramps. I could handle it. Uncomfortable yea, but I was alright. Give it ten minutes…HOLY HELL. Yea, full blown contractions are no joke. In the middle of tear-enducing agony (only about 30 minutes in to the contractions) the nurse informs me that I can receive the epidural any time I want. Really?! Because I watch 16 and Pregnant and they're always sitting there for hours before someone offers them the epidural! Anywho, epidural = magic. I couldn't even feel my legs, let alone contractions. And so began a long day of waiting…

I was technically in labor for about 18 hours, give or take. However I couldn't feel anything, so it was just the 3 of us (my mom had arrived around 7am) in a room waiting…and sitting…and pretending we were trying to sleep but really being too excited to ACTUALLY sleep. Finally, around noon, the nurse said I was almost fully dilated and would start pushing in an hour. GREAT! Time to call my dad and get the rest of the crew on down! 1:00 came and went…so did 2:00, and 3:00…they informed me that even though I was fully dilated, they wanted her to "labor down", or descend into the birth canal more on her own, before I began pushing. They told me that the further she came down on her own, the less pushing I would have to do. Ok, ok, I guess a little more waiting won't kill us…

4:00…5:00…ok seriously?! I can literally FEEL this baby pushing down in places I won't mention, and I am ready to PUSH…turns out my doctor was called into a C-Section that ended up having some complications, so we would have to continue waiting. Those cruel (slash incredibly sweet, but cruel in this moment) nurses even pulled over a mirror and had me do one big push so I could see Camila's little head. It was so exciting I was ready to keep pushing, but then she's like "Ok now we will just wait for the doctor!" Noooooooooo!

FINALLY at 6:00ish the doctor called down and instructed the nurses to get me started pushing. I glanced at the clock before my first big push - 6:15. Ok, here we go! Donovan got Bob Marley kickin on his phone (trying to spread some positive vibes) and I went to work. And I mean went to WORK. I had the mirror there, enabling me to see the progress Camila made with every push, which motivated me to keep going. When they told me to rest, I pushed. The doctor barely had to touch me because 15 minutes later, out popped our beautiful, sticky, smelly, in-mid-poop baby girl. Words can't express how it felt to finally see her as they laid her on my chest. We were both in awe at what we had created. 

The next couple of days were spent staring at and admiring our new addition, visiting with awesome friends and family, and Skyping with those that couldn't be there in person. Camila had a mild case of jaundice, which required an extra night and day in the hospital as well as her being strapped to a weird UV light contraption. It was an emotional time for lil' ole hormonal me, but we survived and finally came home on Thursday. We were greeted by flowers and edible arrangements from family as well as delicious homemade Indian food from Arushi and her mom - just what we needed after days of hospital food!

I will wrap up by saying that nothing can prepare you for how you will feel when your new baby is born. I was starting to panic in the last weeks of pregnancy - worrying about being a good mom, about losing my independence, about how my and Donovan's relationship would change, missing out on beach trips, wondering if we'd make it to the pool this summer…you name it, it scared me. But now that she's here…NOTHING matters because she is the single coolest, greatest, most awesome thing in the world. We are so madly in love with this little chick and with each other, and nothing beats that. Yes, things are different, but in the best possible way. Our hearts and our home feel so much richer with her presence. My friend Tali told me, "You will be so obsessed with this little being." She had it right, we are obsessed!

1 1/2 weeks postpartum 

So since the purpose of this blog is staying fit, "pregnancy and beyond", its only fitting that I include my postpartum progress. 

Below is 7, 8, 9 and 10 days postpartum - you can see how the swelling goes down a little each day. I have also been using a postpartum girdle, which I definitely recommend. I don't know if its really whats causing me to shrink so quickly, but it definitely holds everything in and feels comfortable. Everything is verrrry soft for a while so the girdle makes me feel like its tightening everything up a bit. 

I obviously can't work out for 6 weeks, so until then it will be clean eating and light walking. Ill tell you though, something I didn't expect: recovery is harder than both pregnancy AND labor and delivery (in my opinion). Looking back, my pregnancy was easy, and I stayed active the entire time. Labor and delivery weren't bad at all once I had that epidural (how people do it naturally I do not know). But the next day, I felt like I'd been run over by a horse. A horse who got joy out of kicking me in the crotch multiple times, and a swift kick to the gut. And my whole body was more swollen than it was during pregnancy! Seriously, my toes looked like tater tots. My shoes completely stopped fitting. Not fun. Im now almost 2 weeks postpartum and just starting to feel slightly normal again. I've been pretty much couch ridden. My amazing and wonderful husband has been doing all of the cleaning, cooking and diaper changing. He told me, "Your only job is to eat, drink, and focus on Cami." Don't know what I would do without him! Anywho, walking has become almost enjoyable again, I can see my ankle bones and can cross my legs, and all of my cute summer dresses fit perfectly - even over bigger boobs, nursing bras and a girdle. Woohoo!  :)

How far along? 38 weeks!

Total Weight Gain: Clocking in right around 40 lbs total- what I expected.  :)

Stretch Marks: None - so thankful!

Belly button: Stretched to the max. Ha.

Movement: Ive had an elbow (we THINK its an elbow) sticking out and poking me right to the left of my belly button! Its so odd looking (and feeling)!

Feeling: Pretty good lately, still energetic though I have those 2-3 days a week where I just feel blech!

Cravings: Popsicles still, but also ice and frozen peas and corn! The frozen veggies thing isn't as odd as it sounds - I have been known to eat those as a snack on any random day, since I was a kid. But its been every night lately!

Symptoms: The back pain has actually kind of gone away (unless I do the dishes) which is interesting. Swelling has picked up due to the humid weather. I also feel a tremendous about of pelvic pressure often, which definitely slows me down! Sometimes its not an issue but when it is, getting up, changing positions, or moving at all is laborsome…SITTING is even uncomfortable!

Missing: My old clothes! And my old body! Oy!

Looking Forward to: Meeting her! We are at the any-day-now timeframe.

Sleep: Rolling over in bed requires me to be fully awake, haha. And I switch sides often in the night! So aside form these very-often night wakings (including using the bathroom), Im sleeping well! 

Exercise:  Still lots of cardio and walking. I am slowing down in the cardio arena though…not feeling as agile. I am REALLY looking forward to getting back into a solid routine, which I won't be able to do until 6 weeks AFTER delivery. That actually is lowering my motivation too. Whenever I feel even a little bit tired I think to myself, "Whats the point anyway? She will be here any day now and when that happens I won't be able to do ANYthing for 6 weeks." Meh whatever.  :)

Eating: Clean and healthy with lots of liberations!!! Same as usual. Im going to have to kick this popsicle habit once this little chick is here. With no exercise for 6 weeks, my diet will have to be spot-on.  :)

Thoughts this week: I am equal parts THRILLED and TERRIFIED for her arrival. I can't wait to just love her and hold her and care for her, but at the same time the reality of having this little person to care for always is scaring me. Im scared in selfish ways - our life will be changed based on the responsibility we have towards her. We won't be able to do whatever we want, when we want. It won't just be US anymore, and that scares the crap out of me! But many kind people have assured me that yes, that happens, but the love we will feel for this little being will surpass all of that. I totally believe that, but I know that until she's here I will probably continue to have lots of mixed, hormone-induced emotions!