Why I love Amazon

I love Amazon.com. Love love love it :)

Here's why
1) online shopping - need I say more?
2) no taxes
3) has like pretty much everything on the planet and then some
4) free shipping if you do a 30 day trial of amazon prime (which then you cancel promptly of course)
5) once you are done with the ever so fun experience of shopping and purchasing online you then wait a few days and you have presents at your door!

Love amazon

A Shadow of their Former Glory

The ta-ta's, the ladies, whatever you want to call them are in a sad state of affairs. I was one of those blessed women who during pregnancy experienced increased endowment in their bustline. By the time I was 6 or 7 weeks pregnant I had gone from a modest B to a full C cup. By the time I was at the end of my pregnancy I had hit D's... but pregnant boobs have nothing on nursing boobs. Wow... The ladies bumped it up to DD's during the first few months...

to be honest I was not entirely in love with being so large. I developed a new appreciation for naturally large chested women and the struggle with finding shirts that fit right and not showing too much cleavage, having to wear two sports bras when they worked out, etc. It was not fun...

I noticed in the mirror today that while the weight loss has been a fantastic thing, it sadly is coming off all the wrong places. Yes I am overjoyed that I only have to wear one sports bra and don't have to worry about them bouncing around ridiculously when I go for a run. But seriously - it looks like the last 10 lbs I've lost have all come from that area...

poor sad, deflated ta-ta's...

upsides: haven't returned to original size... yet... and they look ok when supported (w/o I see a scary preview of grandma saggy boobies)

Doctor's Approval

Since my heart/thyroid medical issue that popped up in my first trimester of pregnancy (which IMO has not really been much of an issue except for the fact that I donated a vial of blood and a $35 copay to the endocrinologist every 5 weeks during the entire pregnancy), I have had to continue to go to the endocrinologist. I get to go every six months... at first I thought it was just a few times after delivering and my thyroid hormone levels in my blood were all good so I thought no more visiting Dr. Panini (its really something much longer but it kind of sounds like panini). I was wrong... I guess they found some lumps on my thyroid so that is why I get to go back and have a five minute visit for the cost of a vial of blood and $35 copay every six months.

Anyways, so everything is good and fine. My thyroid levels are "perfect" to quote directly, and there are no changes on my scan... he mumbled something about location so he doesn't want to touch them, but they don't seem to be causing an issue either so no need to get drastic. He said he'll see me in six months but if I do become pregnant I need to call him right away as I will need to get back on a 5 week cycle again (joy). it was then my turn to mumble, well there's nothing being planned on that one so no worries... of course then I had to ask if our issues with getting pregnant in the first place may have been caused by my out of whack thyroid. He said most definitely could have been a factor. then he proceed that it is a perfect time to get pregnant. he was most emphatic that I should consider getting pregnant now. Like we went around and around in a circle of me saying - no this isn't the right time for me personally and i'm not ready, and him saying that this is the right time. The age between 30-34 is a good age and I can have two more kids by 34 and no worries. So after going round and round me saying not yet and him saying yes this is a good time, I gave up and nodded.

So I have the dr's approval if for some reason I decided to go adventuring down the reproducing path again. I would like to again, just not yet... I am enjoying having my body to myself - a case in point - two weeks ago I had a few beers while I was out and didn't have to worry about breastfeeding (did it for a year so have only been disconnected from the milk cow role for 3 months now so its still fresh in my mind and i appreciate the freedom); or over this past week i was super sick and I didn't have to limit myself to weak ass Tylenol remedies. I superdosed myself on all sorts of pregnancy/breastfeeding forbidden drugs like Nyquil, Dayquil, Zycam. It was wonderful great relief.

Bizarre conversation, but I can rest easy now I have his approval , lol

funny thing, parenthood/motherhood has done to me...

pre-Langdon (we'll call it PL): one of my favorite ways to spend a Saturday or Sunday (at least for the majority of the morning) was in bed with dh... maybe watch a little tv, sleep in till 10ish... and maybe just move to the couch for the rest of the day. The week was exhausting so the weekends were for recharging the batteries... the laundry could wait, the vaccumming could wait (or I had thought ahead and did it during the week, etc.

Post- Langdon (no acronym since I've already used PL): up and at em by 7am.. even if he's not awake yet, which is a total bonus if he's not because then I can get dressed and go to the bathroom without an audience! Even when he's not around and is say at the in-laws for an overnight stay the morning when he's not here feels rather wasted because there are so many things I could get done since he's not with us.

I started thinking about this the last two days as I've been sick at home since Thursday last week... yup sick for the last five days. Nothing sucks more than being sick when both parents are sick, the kid is healthy and happy and full of energy and you're the less sick parent of the two (that was me Thursday and part of Friday until we unloaded L to the in-laws). But the last two days for me - Sunday and Monday have been spent in bed the entire day and sleeping for most of it trying to get better. This afternoon I was starting to feel better and it was driving me insane thinking about all the laundry, vacuuming, and other projects (sewing stuff and hanging curtains) that I've been wanting to get done but haven't' yet cause I haven't had the time. Here I am - laying in bed... kid not around... all this time.. wasted because of this stupid sickness. Ugh!

I find it amusing to think of how much I've changed as a person in that regard since having Langdon in our lives. Now I still procrastinate about a lot of things, but I definitely don't procrastinate the way I used to. Langdon free time is a precious commodity that is not to be squandered on sitting on the couch watching TV (that's for after he goes to bed) or doing nothing. It is for getting the kitchen cleaned up, getting some reading done, or as long as dh is around, if its during naptime - running out to get some errands taken care. I'm starting to understand how these moms of two, three or more kids seem so organized and so together... they couldn't survive otherwise!

Post Baby Weight Loss

Ya, I know... I'm about 16 months post-baby, and its a little long to be still talking about baby weight. Read a book a few months ago that said that after a year any weight that you haven't lost wasn't due to pregnancy but was your weight to keep and fight with - I threw that book out. (actually read a book around 9 months post baby and it said any weight that you keep after six months is yours - I burned that one).

Anyways... I digress...

I'm happy to say that I'm give or take on a good or bad day roughly what I weighed when I got pregnant (even or +3lbs) - overall I say I've lost all the baby weight. As much as I would like to blame the jiggle thighs and the belly and the padding on the hips (roughly about 20lbs I'd like to drop) on the growth and nurturing of Langdon, I can't... its mostly a result of a comfortable four years of marriage, adjusting to working a full time job after college, and an addiction to anything sweet or sugary.

So waaay back prior to even being pregnant when we were just "trying" and not working with the fert doctors I had probably around 10-15 lbs I wanted to lose. I was kind of meh about it, and wasn't really working hard to do it, b/c lets be honest, it wasn't really bothering me and things were relatively tight, toned and in shape. Even after the extra 5-10lbs slid on before pregnancy I honestly thought - well after I get pregnant and I'm on the weight loss road, what's another 10-15 or 20lbs to drop off?? Right?? I even believed this, probably right up until about a month ago when I stalled out completely at my pre-baby weight.

Mother nature is cruel. I managed to lose 50 pounds... yup FIFTY - after having Langdon. Granted most of that was water weight, increased blood volume, a baby, etc... but after about three weeks of him being born I was carrying around 25 extra pounds. Those took some time to come off - didn't really get there until he was about a year and I stopped breastfeeding. Could they have come off sooner? Sure - but dieting and breastfeeding don't really go together (and if you have proof that can be done, please don't say anything b/c I quite enjoyed just enjoying my food) and between being hooked up to the milk machine, nursing, or just not sleeping all night I had zero desire to go to the gym. So it took about 5 months and I was back in my pre-preg pant size comfortably and another 6 months and those pants are looseish. So why wouldn't I assume that it would keep slowly but surely melt off?

Nope... Its stuck. Had one dip below the baseline and the scale must have realized what happened because the following week it rebounded right back to where it was. I even have trained and run a 5K in the last 6 weeks - did it go down at all? Nope. Sigh... I guess I might have to actually diet to lose this next 10-20 lbs. Boo!

Moral of this ridiculously long post about my weight (which I'm sure was not remotely interesting or funny to read): If you want to lose weight, lose it now and don't worry about "I don't want to go to all that work of losing the weight if I'm just going to pack it back on being pregnant" - cause your body knows... it'll go back to where you were before and hold steady like a stubborn mule. Oh and you really can't lose weight if you keep eating Jelly Belly jellybeans while you type on a computer :)

Definition of insanity: Keep doing the same thing over and over again, and expect different results!

Biggest Scam on the Planet

The price of diapers. Yea - I know - everybody already knows that this is the biggest ripoff. Basically equates to taping some dollars to your sweet dear child's butt and letting them poop and pee on them before you throw them out.

But its a necessity. However, there is a bigger scam out there folks. Its the actual pricing and packaging of these diapers. So when you have to buy, say newborn or size 1 diapers you get roughly 100 in a pack and the price works out to something like 22 cents/diapers. (i'm doing rough estimates so please don't check my numbers here) - and the pack costs about $22. Not too bad, I mean not going to cause me to be poop'd and pee'd out of my home due to cost. BUT here's where they getcha - for some reason diaper manufacturers think that as your child grows they use less diapers (generally true) but even though the size of the diapers increases only a little each time they put sometimes up to 15-20 less diapers in a pack... AND charge you the same price! Yup so I'm buying size 4 diapers now for that same $22 price but I'm getting only about 60 diapers. Ripoff you say? I completely agree! So not only does feeding my kid get more expensive as they get older it requires more dollar bills to tape to his butt to ensure my house stays clean.

I can see where the motivation to potty train relatively early comes from, especially if you have an above average sized child and you have been buying the "bigger" size 4, 5's and even 6's diapers for awhile....

Things that I wish somebody would have told me!

so last night as I was trying to fall asleep (and being very unsuccessful due to the cacaphony of snoring in the room - Great Dane, husband, and cat) I find that I can come up with really creative and what at the time sounds like really good blog posts. Of course... in the harsh realities of daylight I can't even remember them. But at the time it was awesome - was dancing around the topic of post-partum things people DON'T tell you about and how to deal with. Everything leading up to it yes, and all the baby gear, but not what YOU the mom need.

Ok... its coming back to me now...

1) I read the books I read the websites on what to pack for the hospital bag. NOWHERE did it say bring your boppy pillow with you if you plan to nurse. Nope. And did any of my nursing friends tell me this? Nope. So I struggled with sucky unsupportive unfirm hospital pillows while trying to hold my little bundle of joy to my boob (TMI i know) and really wishing I had two extra arms. Because guess what folks - putting baby face to boob doesn't = nursing. There's more maneuvering than I would have ever thought. Last night I had a desperate need to tell somebody who was expecting their first child to take their boppy pillow to the hospital. (BTW I confirmed this with a friend Saturday evening while out for drinks that this would have been advice sent from heaven as she struggled with sucky ass pillows too).

2) If you were, in my opinion, lucky enough like me to not have leaky boobs while pregnant (I've heard that its the case sometimes) then you don't really think about heavily investing in boob pads... until the deluge of milk comes in. Deluge. And it happens at the most inopportune time - like in the middle of the night when you have been home for a day or so and you're so grateful for getting a few minutes of sleep. Then you wake up in a cold puddle. I've made a resolution the next time we take a swing at this getting pregnant/having a baby thing - I will invest in at least 10 boxes of boobie pads. Yes at least 10 - I used those things like they were going out of style.
(BTW - breastmilk stains... so until the milk has made its surprise appearance and you've got the whole timing and nursing thing under control, I recommend wearing crappy shirts. But let's be honest here - when you are less than 3 weeks postpartum and sleeping less than 3 hours a night who has 1)nice clothes and 2)wants to wear them?)

3)Kind of along the same lines as #2, invest in pads. Yeah I know... way too much TMI - but again, these are things I wish people had told me. Buy them before baby is born too so you're not stuck having to go to the store less than 1 week postpartum b/c hubby has no idea what you need him to go purchse. Mostly because 1)these are women products and 2)he's been tranined on purchasing women products that are more for normal life, not something that can handle, ahem, the postpartum version of Aunt Flo.

4)How you will look and feel postpartum. You know that pregnancy glow that women have, WHILE they're pregnant. Yea that's gone now that the child has been born. The glow goes with the child. So while everybody is all oohing and aahing over the precious bundle of joy that you've brought into the world, generally you feel and probably look like you've gone through a meat grinder. Just trying to be honest here. My recommendation - when you're about 3 weeks post, and you've probably lost most of the water weight. Go buy some clothes that fit... nothing made me feel more worse by having to put on my maternity pants. Yea it was a little depressing buying pant sizes that were 2 sizes bigger than usual, and it was a lot of money to spend on a pair of jeans that I really only wore for about 6 weeks total, but I felt a little better when I was in them. There's nothing sexy about maternity pants, and they're even less sexy when you no longer have a bun in the oven to justify them. Shirts I let it go for a lot longer... mostly because they were a wonderful empire waist in most of them and that hide the jiggle much better than my usual fitted tee's.

5)Kind of jumping back to the hospital visit part - bring your own shampoo and conditioner... yea I know that sounds like a duh, but pregnancy brain can do funky things and well I'm just throwing out a reminder that no matter how nice your hospital looks and is - you're not going to a 4star resort and even IF they do provide shampoo, that's probably all you're going to get and its going to be something crappy that does awful things to your hair.

6)Treat baby books as a reference guide. They all contradict each other and no matter what you're doing something wrong according to some expert out there. Hardest thing to do for us control freaks out there - but just go with the flow. (I will admit, Langdon was a pretty easy baby to go with the flow with - but I really do think its trial and error). I spent a lot of time worrying about how much time L was spending napping in the swing and how he would never sleep in a crib for naps. sigh... shouldn't have worried - kid sleeps in his crib like a champ and has been for quite some time now.

Ok - I've said my bit. I'll have to remember to dust this "advice" off when we decided to jump back on the train again for another ride. Because decidedly I will probably forget all of this again :)