On cloth bums and sore boobs

On breast feeding:
I was always adamant about breastfeeding Ethan, and so far it has been going pretty good. He was a strong feeder from the start and whilst it has been exhausting at times, he is still feeding every 2 hours at night currently, I am glad to have persevered. 


We have had our issues, we are fighting a bout of oral thrush in him that has potentially passed to me and after some blocked milk ducts this week I am now on antibiotics to fight that little issue. It has made feeding a teeth gritting experience but hopefully should all clear up soon now I have the right meds for both of us. Only downside is my pumping and milk storage goals for returning to work are up in the air until I finish the course as I don't want to be storing antibiotic laced milk. We had gotten a pretty good start going too... 


I did read that one side affect of the thrush was 'excessive gassiness'. The only real issue he has had so far is the trapped wind and oh wow, he could fart for England. I have to say when he isn't looking to be in pain over it we are high fiveing the lad for some incredible toots. Not only does one have to wonder how such a tiny body holds so much wind but how such tiny butt cheeks can make so much noise. It has led to much amusement on our part. Thankfully they are not stinky otherwise we might not be laughing so hard. I am a big believer in gripe water at this point, not only does he actually get excited to see the dropper but it seems to work a treat and calms him down very quickly when he is squirming around. 


I have breastfed in public a few times now, thanks to my Step mum for her encouragement there back in the first few day's and feel pretty comfortable about it. So far not had any negative experiences either I am very glad to say. 


On cloth nappies:
I was also pretty adamant about giving cloth nappies a good try and whilst we got off to a rocky start on that one I think I have got it down now. There are so many advantages to cloth that I had to give it a go, from earlier potty training, better protection when learning to walk and the sub sequential falling down to added protection to their hips. Not to mention the financial savings, eco-friendliness and they just look so much comfier to wear. :) And dare I say cute?


I did try old fashioned terry cloths but disliked them pretty quickly, I am now building a pretty nice collection of terry and bamboo shaped nappies and they are honestly just as easy as the disposables. The washing is no big deal, I chuck the dirty's into a mesh bag in a bucket and then just throw the bag into the machine every other day. No more soaking and boiling like it was back in my Mum's day. 


Little lamb fluff on the left and with his frog and duck wrap on on the right. Awww.

Developmental news:
I weighed him yesterday and he has put 3lbs on since he was born. He'll be 8 weeks old on Monday. Go son :)

He's started giving us those wonderful big smiles that melt your heart and most recently has started cooing back to us.  Will upload some video of the latter that we caught last night once Koby transfers it off his phone. 


Here's a couple more for the insatiable amoung you. 

1 day old:

One of my favourite pics, 6 weeks old and playing bobblehead.

New Start, New life.

On May 31 2011 my life changed forever. That morning I weighed in at an all time low of 162.4lbs, that pretty much made my day.  I didn't realise that wouldn't be my only good news.


I went to my workout that evening and it was a complete bust. Generally when you don't feel like going to the gym but you go anyway you end up being really glad you did. Not that night, I squeaked out my squats and got halfway through my bench press before calling it done. I felt weak, dizzy and generally seriously out of sorts. You might not be blamed for thinking it was the RFL but I know how I react to that having done it quite a few times now.


I put a few things together and took a test, sure enough, I was 5.5 weeks pregnant. Pregnancy was full of great hopes and plans that didn't go at all the way I envisioned. Thanks to the way he was sitting I had some pretty severe ligament pain in my hips that pretty much put paid to any workouts happening. Along with the fact that we now had a severe deadline to move to the UK by. So my evenings and weekends were taken up with putting our house in order to sell, this involved painting the entire exterior , most of the interior and a whole lot of other work.


We did make it, we landed in the UK on Dec 2nd. On Jan 16th 2012 I gave birth to my son.


I had the most amazing birth experience I could ever have asked for. About 3am I woke up with cramps in my belly, since I had been suffering from some god awful sciatica at the time I chalked it up to just something else that was hurting. It didn't take long to realise however that this was more than just pregnancy twinges. By 7am I was getting regular contractions every 5-10 mins. I called the midwives around 10am and they told me to hang tight until either my waters broke or the contractions were to the point I couldn't talk through them.


It wasn't until around 4pm that I got the first serious teeth gritter. After that things get a little bit hazy, I called the midwives back and they said to stay home still, as a first time Mum it could be quite some time yet especially given I hadn't passed my cervical plug nor had my waters broken yet.


By 6pm I was at 3 mins apart, had lost my breakfast (I never did get as far as eating anything else during the day) and was generally in some serious back pain. Hubby called my Mum who came to get us and we arrived at the midwife led birthing unit at the hospital about 6.30pm. I met Charlotte, the wonderful midwife who was going to be helping me through the birth.


I remember lying on the bed through several contractions while Mum and Hubby rubbed my back and then finally one that just forced my entire body to push. That seemed to spark a flurry of activity and I remember Charlotte telling me not to push yet. I laughed so hard in my head, fighting that urge was like asking the sun not to rise. I managed to get through the next few and Charlotte examined me to find my waters bulging from my cervix. One more contraction and they burst, very odd sensation I have to say. They ran the bath as I was lucky enough to be able to use one of the birthing pools. I had up to this point not had any pain killers, while that was my original plan I must say I think in the end had she actually asked I probably would have said yes to the gas and air at that point.


However getting in to the bath was absolutely amazing, all the pain in my back went away and what followed  was, whilst painful, not excruciating. I entered the bath at 7pm, Ethan was born at 7.51pm.

He weighed 7lbs and 14oz, was two weeks early, and has completely stolen my heart. I should say our, my husband is pretty enamoured of him too and says we can keep him ;)

One proud Papa:

New Granny:

Ethan will be 8 weeks old on Monday, I've been given the all clear to start working out having suffered a 2nd degree tear and it is time to reclaim my body. I'll be retrieving my kettlebells from Dad's on Sunday and I have Lauren Brook's new book Kettlebells for Women to help me on that path. I am exclusively breastfeeding so there will be no crazy diets. Just healthy food and swinging some heavy metal. My scales are still packed up, whilst I know where the KB's are I'm not entirely sure on the scales so unless I find those on Sunday I'm going to be starting a bit in the dark. I do know I'm somewhere around the 200lb mark. Not impressed with that at all but it's just a starting point and I know exactly what to do. Consistency will be the key.

RFL Day 6

1) 176.2
2) 172.6
3) 168.8
4) 167.8
5) 166.2
6) 165.6

Saturday:
Cals Out: 1991
Cals In: 772
Deficit: 1219
Activity: 3-6 mets: 10 mins, 6+ mets: 0 mins
Steps: 2688
AM Weight: 165.6

B: Black coffee
1:30pm: 6.5oz chicken breast, 1 cup egg beaters, mushrooms, 1 kraft fat free single
8:30pm: 6oz ground turkey, 4oz snapper, mushroom, zucchini, asparagus, lemon/lime juice, sugar free jello

Cals: 772 P: 146.3 C: 18.7 F: 11.9

Ended up painting for about 6 hours. Got a good chunk completely finished with the top coat which makes me happy. Spending a whole weekend doing primer sucks knowing you have to come do it all over again. Hubby finished the outside today too. He's just got the shed left to do out there. Progress is being made.

I was frickin exhausted by the time I finished. Sad considering it's not exactly a tough workout although one has to imagine I got up and down from the floor several hundred times.

RFL Day 2

Code:

1) 176.2
2) 172.6

Tuesday:
Cals Out: 2021
Cals In: 791
Deficit: 1230
Activity: 3-6 mets: 25 mins, 6+ mets: 0 mins
Steps: 4323
AM Weight: 172.6

B: Black coffee
1:30pm/4pm: 13oz chicken breast, green beans
9pm 8oz Chicken, mushroom, asparagus, salsa, sugar free jello

Cals: 791 P: 146.3 C: 22.7 F: 10.4

Lunch is eaten through the afternoon, appetite is fairly non existent at the moment so I split it into 2 meals. Carbs are all from veggies. 

RFL Day 1

RFL Day 1

Monday:
Cals Out: 2184
Cals In: 888
Deficit: 1296
Activity: 3-6 mets: 53 mins, 6+ mets: 0 mins
Steps: 5232
AM Weight: 176.2

B: Black coffee
1:30pm: 8oz (cooked) Roast chicken breast, green beans
9:30pm 11oz (raw) Chicken, mushroom, zucchini, salsa, sugar free jello

Cals: 888 P: 150.7 C: 22.9 F: 17.4

Doing the full body workout in the RFL handbook.

Treadmill: 5 minute warmup.

Barbell Squat: 45x8, 65x8, 85x8, 85x8, 90x8
Barbell Deadlift: 135x8, 155x8, 155x8
Bench Press: 65x8, 65x8, 65x8
Assisted Chin-Up: -50(x6, x6, x6) 
Lateral Raise: 10x10, 10x6
Bench Dips: 2 sets of 10
Ab Crunch Machine: 50x8, 50x10
Hyperextension: 25 x 8, 25x8


Red text is a personal record (PR)


Thoughts:Squat: I definitely do better when there are people squatting next to me 
Deadlift: Going up 
Bench: still heavy
Chin-ups: yay 3 sets of 6, getting better. I like the pump, I went over to do my lat raises and I could actually see my biceps in the mirror without even having to flex 
Lat raise: Something wasn't happy. First set was fine. 2nd set something voiced loud complaint in my bicep area. 
Bench Dip: Nothing remarkable, I guess I should try some form of weighted ones.
Ab Crunch machine: Sucks, I'm going to use the bench next time and a dumbell.
Back Extensions: did em. 

Great day 1. Actually weighed in at 176.2 this am. By this evening I was down to 174 already. 

Fierce, Fit, Fearless

I have found a new friend to stalk. Jenn Diamond of Fitness Safari. She started a facebook group for ladies that follow Intermittent Fasting and it's been a wonderful source of motivation.

To whit we have started an 8 week Spring Challenge.

My goals for this challenge are:

1) Get into the 150's
2) Weight train 2x per week
3) Kill my sugar addiction.

My method of madness for this challenge is the Rapid Fat Loss plan by Lyle McDonald. Love his stuff. Historically I've had excellent success with this plan but I don't tend to come off it very well and typically dive into a carb coma for 3 weeks while negating all my efforts. Suffice to say that I have been having some personal revelations and I am determined to not let that happen this time.

It annoys the crap out of me that I will let what I want most, to be fit, to be over ruled in a moment by simple gluttony. It is unnecessary. We can still love and appreciate food without having to eat so much that we are stuffed beyond idiocy. I should be able to drink a glass of wine without finishing off 2/3rds of a bottle.

Just like smoking, it is an addiction that has to stop. I quit that because it was unhealthy, why can I not seem to apply the same thoughts to my eating habits? This time I will. I would so dearly love to pick up a cigarette again sometimes, when I smoked I rarely ate dessert, I switched smokes for a coffee and sugar addiction which are as unhealthy when you look at the side affects of obesity.

So I hereby lift my water bottle in a toast to the first 8 weeks of the rest of my life :)

Thanks Jenn :)

Thurs/Friday

Thursday:
Cals Out: 2366
Cals In: 1600 ish
Activity: 3-6 mets: 84 mins, 6+ mets: 9 mins
Steps: 8612
AM Weight: 164.4

45 min Beginner Fitness pole

B: Dan Active Immunity, Oatmeal 
L: O'Charleys: steamed broccoli, grilled roma tomato, and grilled chicken breast topped with bruschetta, balsamic glaze and mozzarella.
D: Top sirloin, mushrooms, zucchini, bell pepper. Fage greek yoghurt.

I started out today pretty stiff and sore but by the evening was feeling pretty good. I called it at one class though. That helped work everything out without over doing it.

Lunch was a sub 550 calorie meal they have put on the menu. Was very good and I have picked up ingredients to recreate myself. 

Friday:
Cals Out: 2064
Cals In: ? ish
Activity: 3-6 mets: 33 mins, 6+ mets: 0 mins
Steps: 4665
AM Weight: 165

Rest day.. Phew.. 

B: Dan Active Immunity, Oatmeal
L: Grilled Chicken wrap, mocha latte and a cranberry muffin (@ bakery)
D: Roast chicken, 1/2 Bell pepper, 2 slices prosciutto, guacamole. Greek yoghurt.

Grocery shopping day so no work outs. Lunch was a bit overkill (I blame hubby, he stood me up) so dinner was a light nibbly cold plate.

____
Awesome week so far, weight is messing around but judging by my dance improvements stuff is going on. Total of 7 classes attended and while my hands are feeling bruised and there were a few days of stiff/sore I feel great. 

Upper body strength is steadily improving, I can almost do a hanging pike (pole gripped in both hands, legs held out horizontal to floor), my legs are closer to 45 degrees than 90 but it's a start. And I actually managed to climb the pole on Thursday night! Both of these were impossible when I started. My spins are all improving and I think I am even finding some level of hand and foot co-ordination. 

Been weeding my flower beds this morning, spring is most definitely in the air here and the bloody weeds are showing back up. Good activity, but due to the way I was sitting I now I have one sun burnt arm and half my face. Ouch.