Weekly Weigh In – Week 19

So I know it’s been a little while since I last updated on my weight but with Christmas and illness I kind of fell off the wagon resulting in a total gain of 7lb. This week however I well and truly got back on track!

• Starting weight: 14 st 6.5 lb
• End weight: 14 st 3 lb
• Week 19 loss: 3.5 lb
• Total loss to date: 12.5 lb
• Weight left to lose till target of 9 st 7lb: 4st 10 lb

This last week I have changed up my diet again. I have gone back to basics and am making sure that I way and measure everything. I am also increasing the amount of fruit and vegetables that I am eating, and using them to try and fill myself up rather than other higher calorie foods. I aim to lose the remaining 3.5lb of the 7lb that I gained over the next 2 weeks. In the slightly longer term I am hoping to have lost another stone (14lbs) by the time I return to work in 6 weeks time (taking me down to 13st 3lb or as near to that as I can). Time to get working!

8 months old!

My beautiful girl is 8 months old. She now weighs 16lb 10oz (between 50th and 25th centile), is still in size 3 nappies and mostly 3-6 month clothing, although we have had to pack away a few of the smaller sized bits and get out some 6-9 month clothes.

Over the past few weeks Izzy has had a verbal explosion. She frequently babbles ra-ra-ra and ba-ba-ba and on Christmas Day began saying Ma-ma (this is normally kept for when she is upset and is wailed at me, which really tugs at the heart strings!).

She still dislikes being on her tummy, but has begun launching herself forward from a sitting position to grab for toys or items that have taken get fancy. After reaching them she invariably flips straight back over on to her back. I know that big things are about to happen though as on the day Izzy turned 8 months she rolled back to front for the first time, and in the few days since has started pulling up and walking when you hold on to her hands!

This month has been one filled with illness, suffering with 2 colds and a nasty chest infection which required antibiotics to treat. Unfortunately this has meant that sleep and Izzy have not been the best of friends and Izzy has spent a lot of time in Mummy’s bed, something which really does need to be knocked on the head ASAP.

Izzy is still not a big eater. She will try most foods and rarely spits anything back our, however the quantity of food that she has is still very small. Breakfast is the hardest meal and often she will not have anything at all. Lunch is hit and miss, sometimes she will have some, other times nothing at all. Dinner is always her best meal. We try to do a mix of purées and finger foods and this seems to work pretty well. I am not really too concerned about her eating at the moment as she is still breastfeeding fairly often and will receive a lot of calories and nutrients from this, once she starts nursery (in 8 weeks, eeeek!) I am sure that we will see an improvement as she will hardly have any breastmilk at all.

It’s hard to believe that on 4 short months she will turn a whole year old, it seems like yesterday that she was a tiny helpless newborn…

Reflection on birth

I don’t think that I have posted this before, if I have I apologise, blame it on ‘baby brain’.

It’s been 8 months now and I am still really struggling with coming to terms with Izzy’s birth. Prior to getting pregnant I had always had this vision in my head of having as natural a birthing experience as possible. Minimal intervention, preferably in water. Through pregnancy I tried to be more realistic. I told myself that I would not have any expectations of birth and therefore I could not be disappointed by my experience. Of course though I thought this was how I was approaching things, I apparently didn’t.

Being induced for me was not a big deal. I was warned that induction fails in some cases but I think I was so focused on not being pregnant anymore (by this point I’d just had enough) that I did not really heed the warnings.

I have so many what ifs going through my head… What if I had chosen to have the elective Caesarian at 39 weeks as I was offered, would I be feeling the way I do? What if I had allowed nature to take its course – would I have gone into labour naturally? Would I have been induced at 40+12 weeks? Would induction have been successful at that point? Or would it still have failed? And then there is all the questions about labour itself. Would I have managed a minimal intervention labour? Would I have struggled to cope with the pain of labour? Would I have ended up with a Caesarian section anyway? Would I still feel this way if there was an actual medical need for the section e.g. placenta praevia?

And so on it goes… What if? Questions that I will never ever know the answer to. So what happens next time? There are 2 choices. I can opt to have an elective section at 39 weeks, or I can try and have a VBAC (Vaginal birth after Caesarian). The first option seems the most straightforward. At around 39 weeks pregnant on a pre-arranged date, I could go to the hospital and have my baby. If I have SPD again this means that I get to have my baby earlier than I might otherwise, which would mean less pain and discomfort. The next baby could be bigger than Izzy was (if I had gone 2 weeks over as it seems likely that I would have, then Izzy would have been over 10lbs), as second babies often are, in which case a Caesarian might be the better option. And given that I went overdue with Izzy, the likelihood is that I would go over again and induction is not commonly advised for VBAC patients, therefore again a Caesarian would probably be the end result. So even knowing all this, why am I still yearning to try for a VBAC next time?

I know that I am very lucky. That Izzy arrived with no complications, that I recovered easily and quickly from my Caesarian and that it really was the best option for me at the time, however I still feel cheated, like I have missed out on one of life’s truly powerful experiences and I just cannot seem to make my peace with that…

Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012!

Happy New Year!

2012… Wow, I cannot believe how fast the past year has gone.  2011 was probably the best year that I have ever had.  Of course the main highlight of the year was meeting my beautiful daughter.  She really is amazing.  I love her more than I could possibly have imagined and watching her grow and develop makes me so proud.

As well as having Izzy I have made a number of wonderful friends who have helped to make my life feel a lot more complete.  We are happy and healthy and I cant wait to see what the next year holds for us.

At the beginning of the year I made some resolutions (see post here), and I have been quite pleased with how I have got on:

To be a better housewife – I hate cooking and cleaning and all that stuff,  but I endeavour to try and improve my cooking and to stay on top of the cleaning  – Well I haven’t done at all badly with this.  We have cooked meals almost every night and the cooking is now split a lot more evenly between me and J, I do still need to eat a more varied healthy diet though and that will be one of my resolutions for 2012 (see below).  As for the cleaning, well I am pretty happy with how I have got on with this.  The house is pretty much always tidy and clean, although this is a lot easier to do now that I am home full-time.  In 2012 I need to maintain this whilst also working part-time which will be a lot trickier.  Izzy is starting nursery the week before I go back to work in order that she can get fully settled in, and I can start work without worrying about how she is getting on.  During that week I hope to do a deep clean of the house, to get it into really good shape so that it is easier to keep on top of things in the limited time that I will have after work.

To lose weight – I want to lose any weight that I have gained whilst I am pregnant, along with some of the extra weight which I was carrying pre-pregnancy - Another success!  I lost all my pregnancy weight, plus a further 8.5 lbs, taking me down to 195.5 lbs, my lightest weight in around 10 years.  Over the Christmas period I have put some weight back on but am determined to get back on track and this year I WILL get to goal.

To become more environmentally friendly – I plan to breastfeed, use cloth nappies, and I also need to recycle more - A partial success.  I am still breastfeeding and I use cloth nappies some of the time (usually when I am home all day) however I don’t recycle at all and this is another goal for 2012.

To blog more.  I have been doing pretty well with blogging weekly.  I want to try and keep this up.  I love looking back and seeing where I was a few months ago, and can’t wait till it becomes a year ago or even a few years ago… I  want to remember as much of my pregnancy and then Little Bean’s childhood as possible! - Well for the most part I have done this.  I blog at least every 2 weeks, sometimes more often and I am already enjoying looking back over my previous posts.  I hope to keep this up for the foreseeable future!

So what do I hope to achieve this year?

• Start recycling wherever possible
• Get to goal weight (140 lbs)
• Find a new job (hopefully as soon as possible after I return)
• Make Izzy a patchwork quilt
• To become more health conscious, to eat more healthily and to make sure that Izzy has a varied healthy diet

So thats it!  I think that is plenty to be going on with