Why I don’t fit in

Hey there,

Thank you to the readers, friends, blog supporters who want to continue to see me blog…err or just see pics of Bean.  Either way, all the comments did make me smile and the support is one of the reasons to continue blogging.

Mila had the idea of just blogging 1x per week on average.  I like that and may be something I’ll stick to.  My guess is, per month, there will be one random ‘here’s what I’ve been up to’ post, 1 post on Bean’s latest news, 1 post on shoes (since I’ve yet to show you about 3 or 4 new pairs I’ve bought), and 1 post may be on a new recipe I’ve tried.  How does that sound?

In the last post, I alluded to not fitting in the HLB community.  First let me say, I actually do believe myself to live healthfully: I sleep 8-9 hours a night, I work out regularly, I eat well, I indulge for special occasions (or for Tuesdays ), I try to take me time, I spend time with family and friends, I travel, I challenge my brain.  All of those things, to me, make up a healthy lifestyle.

And there a good number of other HLBers who also live and believe similarly (from what I can tell).

But that’s just it, it’s only from what I can tell.  What is portrayed, whether true or not, is not what I can relate to.   So as to not be cryptic, I’m going to list them, but please know that this is not a personal attack by any means.  It’s just me noting we may not subscribe to the same approach to healthy living.

Why I don’t fit in:

• I hate working out in the AM’s and would never (unless for some spectacular reason) sacrifice my sleep to go workout.  Instead I work out after work (late afternoons) when I can burn off energy.
• I think almond butter is not all its hyped up to be.  Give me PB.  In fact, place a container of JIF in front of me, and I’ll be pretty damn happy.
• I won’t preach about HFCS and then eat a massive amount of froyo topped with candy toppings that include HFCS. Instead, I’ll just do the latter…and enjoy it
• I won’t overlink to my old pages for hits.  For awhile I got way to caught up in the reader traffic.  What does it all mean?  Nada.  I don’t blog for my job so it’s not like I’m dependent on hits for money.
• I won’t overlink to products.  I will link to the few products that I truly love (e.g. Nugo before Nugos were popular) to give you easy access to the site or to a restaurant menu that I don’t want to recap.
• I will not market myself for tons of free stuff.  I admit, it’s awesome to be sent items to review especially when the retailer sought you out.  But whether direct or indirect, there is an amount of work that goes into getting that free stuff: links to their site, commenting on other people’s blogs about how much you love that product, soliciting them directly, tweeting them day in and day out, etc.  I could spend that time with my baby or doing extra work at my job, that pays me, and then just buy those things the companies are sending.  Right?
• I don’t subscribe to the crazy toppings trend.  That is, when I eat oatmeal, it’s just water, oats, and some cinn (maybe some stevia), but no muffin crumbles or granola or PB or AB.  Just oats.  Same for my toast — it’s just PB on it, not PB with nectarine slices and granola on top.  A few posts back I wrote about my sugar intake…well all those toppings are a sure fire way to have the sugar intake explode!
• I won’t ever post all my food.  I eat oatmeal every morning with brewed coffee.  I eat a relatively boring lunch and dinners aren’t that extravagant either.  If anything is worthy noting, sure I may mention it.  I assure you, my oats are not worth noting.
• I drink wine, usually a glass a night.  I am surprised by how many HLBers rarely if ever drink/have a glass of vino with dinner, etc.
• I’m not always happy.  I get down.  I get frustrated.  I get cranky.  You get the point.  I tell you that I’m in a funk and don’t or won’t put on a happy face.  I think readers are getting a skewed perception of what bloggers’ lives are like based on what they portray.  I’m glad others are happy, but I find it hard to believe that there is never a bad day worth a few sentences of ranting.
• I don’t run.  That’s a biggie.  Okay, it’s also somewhat of a lie.  I run to get in a workout now and then (maybe 2-3x per month tops).  And my run is maybe 3 miles.  And it’s at a 9 min pace.  And I feel like death afterwards.  And that’s a-ok by me.  I feel mighty left out at blog events that focus solely on running.
• I cannot devote even up to an hour of working out a day.  I have a job.  I have a baby.  And sadly I require at least 8 hours of sleep so using more than about 45 minutes of my day to workout is not really negotiable to me (minus my weekly Spin class or an occasional Bikram, etc).  Frankly, I like to get my workout done, then grab my glass of vino and watch bad reality tv.

Phew…okay that list got too long.

So the blogs I do relate too are the ones that share real aspects of their life, don’t call a 60min workout an easy day, generally have a job of some sort, are mommies (hey what can I say, I can relate), don’t use the same words as every other blogger, and aren’t caught up in all of the above.  Caveat: some bloggers I follow, and truly like, do some of the things above, but also have shared so much more that I can relate to.

So there it is.

See ya in a week or so maybe

Sawyer: 6 months

Somehow, it has been 6 months since I gave birth to my beautiful little boy. 

6 of the best months of my life (yes I say that despite all the horrible after-birth pain and emotional ups/downs).

Sawyer, or bean, or beeeeaaannnie as I tend to call him more often than not, is my angel on earth.  To say we have been blessed is an understatement.  Clearly I could gush on and on, so I’ll just give you the main points of where he’s at as of 6 months (1/2 year!):

• Weight: 18’4.5” – 63rd percentile
• Height: 27” – 69th percentile
• Head circumference: 17” – 70th percentile (<—big head = big brains? )

Eats:

• Formula fed (no more breastmilk)
• Solids introduced June 2^nd – foods so far: rice cereal, oatmeal with cinnamon, peas, carrots, summer squash, sweet potatoes, pears, bananas (all veggies/fruits are organic purees that I’ve purchased – hoping to make my own once we get in a good rhythm of eating)
• Likes: all veggies, but summer squash best.  Dislikes: rice cereal and oatmeal.  Loves: formula – he’s eating on average of 30-35 fl.oz. per day.  He still uses the low flow Medela bottles and is primarily drinking Similac and some Enfamil.
• We have not given him juice or water yet, but did purchase sippy cups (for water or *drastically* watered down fruit juice)

Teeth: None, though the lower ones are about to pop through any day

Sleep: 

• Goes down at about 7 or 730 after a jammie change and a bottle (Zach’s job)
• Wakes up anywhere between 430a and 730a for the first time.  If he wakes up before 7a, he takes a 4oz bottle and falls back asleep until 730 or 8a
• He falls asleep with his binky, but is fine if it happens to fall out
• Likes to have the muslin burp cloth on his face when he sleeps (or other lightweight blanket, like his lovey monkey blankie), which totally makes us uncomfortable!
• Naps for 1 hours in the AM and 2 hours in the early-mid PM.  Sleeps in crib for one of the naps and his car seat for the other

Activities/toys:

• Smiles and laughs all the time
• Loves Jacque the Peacock
• Enjoys putting the garanimal books in his mouth
• Jumps up and down in his jumparoo and can spin around in it
• Can roll (more adept at one side than the other) and go from back-to-tummy and tummy-to-back
• Loves playing with his feet.  Eating his feet is also quite fun.
• Loves petting/grabbing the animals fur
• Cracks up when chasing the dog (in our arms)
• Enjoys pulling on my face and hair
• Swimming – well okay he went in the pool once, but I think he liked it
• Sitting up with some assistance
• Laughing while daddy reads books
• Likes hearing the ABC song and Twinkle, Twinkle

Sounds:

• In the AM, he likes to make a “ttthhh” sound, which is weird since I thought you needed teeth to do that
• Blowing spit bubbles and making a raspberry sound with his lips
• “hehehehehe” usually when he’s laughing
• “Neeeee” when he’s about to fuss (sign of hunger)
• “ehhhh” when on belly – it’s a fine line between happy noises and about to fuss
• “ahhhh, gaahhh” is his babbling / talking sounds

Clothes:

• Cannot fit in his 3-6 month clothes, but can fit in some strictly 6 month items
• Mostly wears 6-12 month or 9 month clothes
• Wears a size 3 diapers (Pampers Swaddlers) and size 4 at night
• Prefers to be pantsless (don’t we all..ha!)

And just for fun, take a look at what Bean looked like around 6 weeks – my how he’s grown!

Have a safe and happy 4th my friends!

Pregnancy 1st Trimester: Good, Bad, and Ugly

Let me preface this by saying, being pregnant is the biggest blessing that I could ever have imagined to experience.  That being said, there are some things that I’ve encountered that are less than joyous.  So here’s to being honest about what the first trimester was like   [Some graphic TMI items below – you’ve now been warned!]

 

The Good

• We’re having a baby!  Nothing gets better than that!
• Seeing the heartbeat
• Hearing the heartbeat
• Seeing the little nugget wiggle and move on the ultrasounds
• Feeling closer than ever to my hubby
• I have a great excuse not to eat sushi and lunchmeat (because I’m not a fan of either)
• Motivation to eat ridiculous amounts of protein (70+ grams per day).  It’s super hard, but I like having to focus on this element of my diet that often gets overlooked.
• No morning sickness for this girl!
• Ridiculous amounts of sleep.  Sleep is my happy time so I’ll gladly take more.
• Sharing the news…especially sharing stories with pregnant friends!
• Fantasizing about the nursery

 

The Bad

• Spotting.  Talk about anxiety / fear / worry.  I happened to spot about a total of 10 times in my first trimester and while none of it was particularly heavy (or accompanied by cramps), it was scary thinking I was possibly miscarrying.
• Tender ta-ta’s.  Who knew that they’d hurt so bad?  Sheesh! 
• Being cold.  All.The.Time.  I run hot by nature, so being cold is foreign to me and I don’t like it.  It drops to low 60’s in the evening in NorCal and I’m about ready to bust out my snowsuit.
• No more Bikram.  It’s undecided if Bikram is good or bad for prego women, but my doctor recommended I not go.  Sigh.
• Knowing all the rules!  What can I eat? Can’t I eat?  What meds are okay / not okay?  Can I sit in a hot tub or not?  Yay or nay to massages?  So many rules!
• Feeling alone in this process.  All family members are thousands of miles away and I can’t help but wonder how this experience would be different (better) with them closer.
• Picking a name that isn’t already one of top ten most popular names (dangit, Twilight, I liked Isabella!)
• Severe cramps when working out sometimes: I went for  a run and stopped to take a breath and was doubled over in pain.  The cause?  My uterine ligaments stretching to accommodate my shifting uterus.  Awesome.

 

The Ugly

• Getting blood drawn.  This is worse than bad because I get the look of death when this happens.  I’ve been pricked 4 times in 8 weeks – that’s more than 10 years worth of blood draws for me!
• Acne.  Ugh.  My skin looks like a 14 year old.  Yick.  I can’t seem to stay ahead of the lovely friends that keep popping up on my face.
• Miscarriage statistics.  It’s scary to read that ~30% of women miscarry, and that number could be higher due to the number of unreported incidents of women who don’t know they are pregnant, but miscarry.
• The lack of vino makes the world an ugly, ugly place
• My super duper cranky pants that I wore 90% of the time over the last several weeks.  Dang hormones.
• Bloat…there is nothing sexy about bloating up.

And now I’m safely in the 2nd trimester – here’s a shot of me at 15 weeks (my face is getting fuller and confession: I am wearing my pants unbuttoned and keeping them up with a belt…here comes the bump!)

If you’re pregnant or have been pregnant, any “Good, Bad, Ugly” you want to share?