Dear Time, could you please stop moving so fast?

Has it really been nearly a month since my last post?

Yes. We've been busy! Emma is really keeping me on my toes these days, so sad that the "baby" stage is fading away and she is quickly learning how to be a "toddler". Though for the record, she IS STILL MY BABY and technically still in infant stage (ahem, crazy lady at the mall). Yes, I had a run in with some crazy woman at the mall who called my baby girl a toddler, clearly she doesn't know how hard it is for a mother to accept that...or am I alone? (aka crazy)

My Weight loss, is slow. I cheat, more often than I should. I am not losing nor am I gaining, I'm ok with that. Well not really. My goal was 158 by Emma 1st Birthday, I'm at 166 and she's 10 months old. I'm in a size 10, same size I was when I gradauated high school, and got married. I'd like to be a size 8, though I have this mental block. I can't remember ever being smaller than a 10, and I guess that subconsciencly I don't think I can do better.

I will keep trying to get to my goal. I will keep chasing my monkey of a daughter around. And I will probably keep forgetting to update my blog on a regular basis.

Have a great weekend :)

have you seen a sweeter bottom?

or a sweeter face?

She is the light of my life, and a total Daddys girl. (not fair)

I love being at the gym, I feel better about myself just for going! We've been staying busy and active, and I feel so great about the life changes we are making...making a Christian/happy/healthy home for our daughter to grow up in. I've been cooking healthy meals for myself and my skinny A** husband :)

see....

I'm doing this!

stalled

My weight loss has stalled, and I haven't been to my last two meetings. I feel like a failure. I want to be motivated, but for whatever reason...I'M NOT. I need ideas, inspiration...how do I MAKE MYSELF do this? I'm going to a different meeting tomorrow morning, maybe some new faces will help. I've been cooking healthy, but somehow a lemon cake, chocolate chip cookies, and chips have found their way into my house...sneaky little demons. Please pray for me, as this is a real and very serious struggle for me. I long to live a healthy lifestyle and be around to spend lots of time with my daughter!

The W.O.W started tuesday, we had a "sub" because the usual trainer was on vacation...no big deal to me being that it was my first session doing women on weights. WELL, some people are not good with change...there was some drama between someone who has been taking this class for 6 months (BTW...this class is for beginners) and felt the trainer was not challenging her enough, because "I'm more advance than thoooose people" The 40y/o soccer mom comes to the Y looking for drama, and apparently (after speaking with the manager) does this often. How sad I am for her, she must be miserable. Other than that...what a great workout! I can barely walk up the steps to the house and it hurts to sit down to PEE! I'm stoked about being in the gym and so excited to see what changes I make after 6 weeks.

Emma is also into blogging, she wants to share with you that she is now 9 months old and standing from a crawling position by herself...she is quite the dare devil!

W.O.W,

I went to the Y (FINALLY) to sign up for personal training....and spend two hours splashing around with my daughter and hubby, soooo relaxing. They talked me OUT of the PT and into this program they call "Women on Weights", basically its personal training for a group of 6 women. You pay $140 for 6 weeks, 12 sessions. PT is $350 for 12 sessions. So I'll give it a try, I'm not good in groups and was looking for more one on one...but I'll do anything to save $! If it isn't what I'm looking for they will credit me for personal training...so I won't lose out either way.

I made two new WW recipes, both soups. The Summer Corn Potato Ham chowder....so good! Harry is begging me to make this again. And a double bath of minestrone, which I made some changes to, and froze half. It'll be nice on a busy night to know we have something healthy and homemade and quick :) I am going to a meeting tomorrow night, without baby. Keep your fingers cross that I'll have another loss!

I might just let my daughter watch too much TV, she's sitting next to me on the couch watching noggin and cracking up! You think she even understands anything? haha

Emmas new fascination is with the front door...she's a nosey somebody!

Friday is supposed to be my WI day, but for the second time in 11 weeks I missed it :( Emma was sick tues-thurs, it was a miserable 3 days of batteling a fever of 103.8 and being up all night just holding her and constantly making sure she was ok. Tylenol and Motrin were our bestfriends! Friday she went to the sitters for the day so I could take the Advanced Fetal Heart Monitoring class. This was a great refresher and learned some new things too. I do love to learn, and know that one day I'll get back to school...but my family is my focus for now.

I do feel like I've lost, but I'm hoping if I really kick butt with the cardio this week then I'll see at least a 3lb loss from 2 weeks. I still haven't signed up with a personal trainer, I did however sign us up for parent/child swim lessons! That's gotta count for some kind of workout...right?

We are going to the pool when Emma wakes and I've told my husband to MAKE SURE I sign up for personal training TODAY. I don't know what my fear about working out in front of people is all about, but I need to get over it.

I just love my cutie pie :)

weigh-in day

Friday is WI day! I put Emma down for her nap earlier than usual so that she'd be in a good mood for the WHOLE meeting. We usually don't get to stay but for 20 minutes or so because she gets bored fast. Well of course she decided to sleep 30 minutes longer than usual and we got there just as the leader was starting to speak. I am quiet during the meetings, maybe because the same people talk every week, and I'm not good at just chiming in. But I did make SURE to raise my hand at the end...had to get another 5lb star you know :) My goal next week is to speak to someone besides the sweet cute pregnant woman who checks me in lol

My weight today was: 168.8 lbs
A total loss of 15.4lbs!!!! not bad for 10 weeks, only 10.8 to go until I reach my first goal!

lets talk about food baby!

Dinner last night...a delicious 8 points! Grilled spicy shrimp, sweet potato fries, green beans and a salad with homemade italian dressing. Those sweet potato fries ROCK! Want the recipe?

2 large sweet taters

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp paprika

Slice potatoes like fries, combine oil and spices in bowl, then add taters to the mix and coat well!

line a cookie sheet with foil

BAKE AT 400 degrees for 30 minutes, turning every 10.

even Emma loves them

Emma stood by herself today for about 30 seconds! (then landed on her bottom, thankfully) Can someone please tell her to stop growing so fast? She doesn't even want me to hold her...just wants to crawl all over the place and tear the house apart :)

TOMORROW IS WEIGH IN DAY! So I've packed a healthy low-sodium dinner to take to work tonight...and I will have a loss, I can feel it.

Embarrassing

So today I realized I have been falling off of the Weight Watchers plan. I haven't been tracking/journaling daily. I will take a "bite" of something and not count the points, I haven't taken Emma on our morning walk in at least a week, weighing in but not staying for meetings, I have over eaten to the point I felt sick TWICE, and my self esteem took a nose dive. So I'm blogging today, and at least weekly, to hold me accountable. I had my first gain on the program last week, +0.8. So far on the program I have been doing really great and feeling so good, until the last week. I am trying to not let that bring me down! I started following other weight watchers blogs, using them for inspiration. And...I start with a personal trainer at the Y soon. Just have to get past my fear of doing group exersize!!

So the embarassing part of this post is telling you about my weight loss journey

...IN NUMBERS.

When I got pregnant I weighed 177lbs, was 207 when I delivered Emma. That's a normal weight gain for pregnancy, but being that I was already OVER WEIGHT...it didn't make it easy to come off. In February when Emma was 3 months old and I was still 195lbs, me and my husband (who was 210) decided to try the EAT TO LIVE diet. Basically we ate beans/veggies/fruit for 6 weeks. I lost 14lbs, bringing me down to 181. I gained a few, lost a few again in between march and may. In late may, I joined weight watchers at 184.2lbs. To date I have lost 14lbs and now weigh 170.2 and am half way to my goal weight of 158. I want to be at this first goal by baby girls 1st birthday! Even writing this I am getting excited, because talking about it motivates me.

Follow me on my journey...any tips/recipes/motivation you can offer are welcomed!

Christmas...195

now....170.2

in case you were wondering...my husband is now 168lbs and 6'2"

I hate men!

A baby dedication and bootcamp graduation

Last sunday (June 14, 2009) Harry and I stood in front of our church family and dedicated Emma to the Lord. We made a promise that we intend to keep. I know it's going to be a task, and I pray everday that we can teach her all we know, and encourage her to want to learn.
"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."

Proverbs - Chapter 22:6

Emma decided she would be funny and had the whole congregation laughing as she pulled off her shoes and ate her tights. The last picture there is her giving kisses to her cousin Dylan!

We had a busy week, we left wednesday for Georgia, my brother was graduation from OSUT. He is now a US Army Infantryman! It was SO HOT...I've never in my life experienced such heat...and of course everything was outside. It was nice to spend time with family after and for the rest of the weekend we relaxed. Of course my camera battery died and I forgot the backup...so I will have to post pictures from my parents camera later :) I did manage to capture my two favorite people on the drive down, the very long 10.5 hour drive that Emma did fabulous on!

A day in my life, in pictures

We started off my packing away all the 3-6 month clothes and putting out all 9-12 months!

Then after nap time, I set up her brand new "splash zone", and a nice big towel for us to play on. We were outside for 2 hours!
She was so into playing that she wouldn't look at me for 1 good picture. And I won mother of the year award when she fell face first into the 1 inch of water and took a deep breath in. I was proud for not over reacting, I just sat her up and gave her a kiss.

Daddy came home from work early, and we got to spend time together as a FAMILY! I love when we are all 3 together at home with nothing to do but snuggle.

After I fed Emma dinner, I had a MOMMYS NIGHT OUT with my friend Meganne. We went to dinner at chilis, which included margaritas and chocolate molten cake! YUM! We shopped around Landstown commons and ended the night drinking wine and having girl talk on my back porch....

SEE MEGANNE, MY BLOG ISN'T BORING!

I'd rather be a SAHM

My baby and husband are sleeping, the house is so quiet! It's nice to have peace, even if I know it won't last long. I am so over working so many hours and being away from my family, I'm not meant to be a working mother. My heart breaks when I'm away and I can't stop staring at the clock...counting the minutes until I see my beautiful girl. So I won't be doing this many hours next month, I'll be spending time at the pool and soaking up every bit of Emma being a baby, because it won't last long. The past two days at work we were "paper charting"! It was so crazy, the monitoring/charting system was being updated, so we had to use paper to trace FHR and cx...that's just crazy. Not to mention JCAHO was in house yesterday while that was going on, but they were almost done when I got there...WOO, barely made it! So far it's been a crazy hectic week and I'm so looking forward to being domestic tomorrow! and spending my day with this cute face...

seriously...who wouldn't rather stay home with a baby this cute?!?!

don't let yourself go

amazing. Always have respect for God, yourself, your marriage. Don't let temptation get a hold of you. Stay true to who you are.


On a different note, I am almost at the end of my third week of weight watchers. So far only 5.8lbs down from start weight. I am hoping to be down another 2lbs this week! It's been hard to make the right choices, because for so long I skipped breakfast and binge eat for lunch/dinner. I'm back to my prepregnancy weight, but I was in these habits long before dear sweet Emma came along!

I CAN DO THIS, I CAN DO THIS, I CAN DO THIS.

lazy blogger

It seems that I'm not very good at keeping up with the blogging world! Lots of things have been going on.

-Emma is sitting up on her own and rarely falls over :)

-I had my first ever visit to the ER and am still visiting a GI doc who can't seem to find the source of my abdominal pain

-I started weight watchers and tomorrow is the end of week two! (down 5lbs after week 1!)

-I started the 30 day shred...1/30 done HAHA

-working more since Harry isn't out of town...lots of healthy beautiful babies being delivered

-EMMA FINALLY CUT A TOOTH!

We enjoyed memorial day weekend, and I enjoyed working memorial day and getting holiday pay + shift diff! We took Emma to the beach, her first time...

She's getting such a personality, and is a total goofball! She is loud and laughs all day long. I see her getting voted class clown :) She is 6 months old, and I can't believe how fast time is going. Her latest stats are: 16lbs 13oz and 28 inches long. Off the charts for height and 70th percentile for weight...tall and skinny like her daddy! Hope to be better at the updates this week!

and it continues...

So what defines teething? It's been two weeks + since Emma started to chew and drool on everything! She is so agressive about getting something into her mouth and then she knaws on it like she is trying to tear through it. She has been fussy on and off, and I can tell she hurts. On top of that, she's been waking up twice during the night. She just isn't herself. We do have good moments through the day...which I'm very thankful for because if she was like that 100% of the time I might just go crazy! My husband thinks he feels a tooth coming in on the bottom, off to the left...which I thought the center two came first. I know every baby is different though and I'll be so happy when this stage is overrrrrr!!

We had a busy week and weekend! Thursday we went to nauticus and spent some time in downtown norfolk...

Friday Harry finally got home, and will be home for at least a month...probably longer! It's nice to have someone to cook for...not so nice to have an extra person to clean up after, but I'll take what I get =) We stayed busy this weekend, and I worked all day saturday which was nice, it was steady/busy but that's how I like it. Most of all we just spoiled our baby ROTTEN!

Now I'm off to start this "couch to 5k" program...time to say BYE BYE to the jiggly baby body

teething SUCKS

Today Emma woke up fussing! I usually just hear her playing in her crib and talking to herself lol Well she didn't STOP fussing! 80% of her awake time was fussy. Needless to say when she fell asleep tonight I thought I would cry from being so overwhelmed. Today is also Emmas 5 month birthday, life is going way too fast!

My family and I went to plaza azteca to celebrate my 23rd birthday! They make some killer margaritas, in case you were wondering =) My parents and sister got me a beautiful necklace with two pink pearls, a momma/baby necklace that I looooooveeee!

I would post a picture of the ridiculous amount of laundry sitting folded on our couch, but I'm too embarassed. Time to get on that!

getting lonely...

It's been three weeks since my husband has been in West VA! He did get to come home for Easter so I really can't complain toooooooooo much. But I'm so bored out of mine tonight, and it's not like the house couldn't use some cleaning, but I'm loathing in self pity. He's been working such long days that we really don't get to talk either, I could go on forever about how I miss him! I mean just look...we do make one heck of a cute family!

There's no way I could make it if I didn't have the best baby girl. She is such a happy baby and only fusses when she is tired/hungry. I've only heard her REALLY cry when she got her 2/4 month shots! (which was the most horrible experience of my life) She's been going to bed at 7:30pm since she was a month old and sleeps 10-12 hours. How did we get blessed with a sleeper?? I'll never know. Since her daddy has been gone though she will sometimes wake up at 3-4am, doesn't want to eat, just wants to cuddle and falls right back to sleep. I can't help but wonder if she's missing him as much as I am.

I haven't worked full-time since I had Emma, I took off 10 weeks and went back 3 evenings/week. I just recently dropped my status again to PRN...since Harry will be out of town for work. It's been such a treat to be with my angel! Somehow we haven't had to make any financial sacrifice...amazing. I pray that this will continue because I love being a mommy! Since my status change to PRN I do make more per hour, and I'm assuming less taxes are taken (if any) because I made as much working 5 days in the last pay period that I did working full-time. Uncle Sam will most likely not be giving us as much back next year =)

When I do go to work, we've been crazy busy! I love love love taking care of laboring women and being a part of the miracle of birth. It's such an amazing time for a family. The last vag delivery I did the couple was so sweet, and they loved each other so much. I really bonded with them and was glad I got to be there for the entire process start to finish. I'm looking forward to going to work monday (my 23rd birthday!) and tuesday, it'll be nice to get out of the house and domestic routine for a bit!