Wordless Wednesday: So much love in one photo :)

[Clockwise: Aunt Callie, Grandma Joy, Momma & Colin]

 
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Today I'm linking up with the Toddle Along Tuesday blog hop!



Your hosts for the hop are Mama G at Growing Up Geeky and Kristin at Our Growing Garden. Each week we'll have a featured blog, randomly selected from the previous week's links.

This week's featured blog is The Stauffer Shenanigans. Ashley has two beautiful daughters Brooklyn and Emily, and her blog is full of adorable pictures of them. Go say hello! :)

Sorry, no "real" post from me today - work has been busy and I've been spending some awesome quality time with my mom and sister while they're in town. Here's a cute picture of my little 6 month old baby man to tide you over until I can update again!

How long can I claim to be postpartum?

Other than awkward hospital pictures during labor,

this is the last photo taken of my pregnant belly.

I took this at work on a Thursday... Colin was born the next Monday. When I was big pregnant and waddling everywhere, I loved my body. Yep, it's true. I adored my belly and would constantly touch it. When I got home from work each night, I'd lay back and watch my baby boy kick and roll around in there. It was great.

And then, he was born, and suddenly I hated my body.

Without a baby in there, my belly became loose, saggy and awkward-looking. My stretch marks seemed to be even bigger and more purple. Oh, and my lovely c-section incision didn't help, either.

Now, here I am, nearly six months postpartum, and, well... I'm still not in love with my new shape.

During the 37 weeks I was pregnant, I gained about 23 pounds. Within the first 2 months after his birth, I lost all but 5 pounds of my baby weight. Since then, I've gained all that weight back, and maybe a couple pounds extra. This, I am not proud of. I'll be honest: it's hard to put good meals on the table when you work full time and have a little one at home, and have a marriage to maintain. The relationships in my life are so important to me that I'd rather throw something together in five minutes and have more time with my boys, than to spend forty-five minutes preparing a nice meal and another fifteen minutes cleaning the kitchen up afterwards. As a result of our recent lifestyle, both hubby and I have suffered in the weight department.

Okay, okay. I don't hate my body anymore. The first time I looked in a mirror after having Colin, I did. I'll fully admit it: I thought the big, ugly incision was horrid and my squishy belly looked appalling. I wondered how I managed never to think about that stuff until after he was born. How had no one prepared me for the way I might look and feel after the blessed moment of my child's birth? I figured that either: 1) I was the first person to ever look this bad postpartum, or 2) It was one of those things moms didn't usually talk about, because they didn't want to burst the bubbles of blissfully ignorant first time mommies-to-be. I think I'm going to go with option #2 on this one. It's one of those lovely things you get to find out for yourself once you have your first baby. I'm discovering that there are quite a few of these little bits of wisdom that tend to be kept "hush hush" around a pregnant woman. No one wants to talk about the fact that breastfeeding HURTS and can wreck your nipples, or the fact that labors can last a full day, or that Pitocin is the devil... or that postpartum bodies aren't so cute.

Sorry if I just scared any first time expectant mothers. Trust me, all the craziness is 100% worth it.

Anyway, long story short - hubby and I both decided it's time for a change. We both downloaded the "Lose it" app on our iPhones, and have started tracking our calories and working out regularly. He, at the gym with his brother, and I, on our stationery bike at home and with hand weights. I also get a constant "mommy work out" from carrying around my 20 pound little linebacker, too. Ha!

I'm not ready to share numbers as far as my weight goes, but let's just say I have over 40 pounds to lose before I get to my goal weight. Let's see how this goes!

Oh! On an unrelated note.. my mom and sister are coming to visit us this week, all the way from beautiful Michigan. I am beyond thrilled to see them! They'll be here tomorrow. So.. I'll post about Colin's 6 month stats and check-up, but don't expect to see too much of me this week. :)

A Day in the Life of Colin (& Mommy)

In case you've ever wondered what a typical day looks like for us, here you go!



As you can see, Colin has a pretty rough life.
Sometimes I wonder if he'd trade schedules with me.Ha!

I didn't include the hours between 11 pm and 6 am, because they're still pretty unpredictable in this house. Last night was a good night, though! Little stinker man only woke once, at 12:45, and went right back to sleep without eating - he just needed a little comfort. We were up bright and early - around 5 - but got some sweet snuggle time in before I had to get ready for work. Gosh, I miss him during the day.

Of course, our weekend schedule is much more fun.
It involves copious amounts of snuggling, playing and kisses. :)
Is it Friday yet?!

Wordless Wednesday: Happy Baby!

Avocado Baby Food Tutorial (with Pictures!)

Hooray, it's Toddle Along Tuesday! Your hosts for this baby blog hop are Mama G from Growing Up Geeky and Kristin from Our Growing Garden! Today's featured blog is... hey, it's me! Welcome, Toddlers, to my blog sweet blog. :)

For those of you who are unfamiliar with my blog, I am the proud mommy of an incredible almost-six month old boy named Colin. As a first time mom, I've been doing a lot of experimenting to find what works best for us as a family. One of my latest adventures has been in making homemade baby food. One of Colin's favorite foods so far (even though it can't touch his beloved pears and peaches) is avocado puree. I love that he loves it, too - it's so easy to make (no cooking required. Sold!) and it's so good for him. You can read about the benefits of avocado on this website. Here's how it's made!

First, get thee to the store and buy yourself an avocado.

Next, open that bad boy up. Ooh, pretty.

Remove the pit and the skin (it peels right off),

break it up into smaller pieces, and throw it in your blender

(or food processor, or whatever you have handy)

Add water as necessary. First, I added about 1/4 cup...

...but I didn't quite get the texture I wanted, so I added 1/4 cup more...

There we go, muuuch better. This is what we like to call a puree.

Pour your lovely green puree into an ice cube tray -

this decent sized avocado made 12 cubes -

and freeze. When frozen, just pop 'em out

and store them in a labeled baggie.

Easy peasy! A warning, though: If your blender is as loud as mine is, be sure to have your husband close by to entertain and distract your little one when it's time to make baby food. :)

Do you make your own baby food?

What are your baby's favorite foods?

Thanks for stopping by!

Please don't make me do that again

Since our sweet Colin boy hasn't been sleeping as well at night, we thought we might give the Ferber method a try, to see if he could put himself to sleep. The theory behind that thinking is that if your child can fall asleep on his own, when he wakes up at night he'll self-soothe and go right back to sleep.

Sometimes Colin falls asleep on his own anyway, so we thought he'd be ready.

First we followed through with the bedtime routine. Warm bath, lotion, jammies, story time, bottle. Laid him in his crib awake, turned on his white noise, said goodnight, left the room.

Commence screaming.

I don't even think I made it the full five minutes. I went in and offered a paci. He spit it out and continued to scream. We went through this ritual two or three times, his screaming gradually getting louder and louder, before I finally picked him up and snuggled him with tears in my own eyes.

He fell asleep on Daddy in the glider a few minutes later.

Yeah, we're not ready to sleep-train just yet.