Thankful

This year I am thankful for (in no particular order):

-My wonderful husband, who is a great father. Fredo, you make me laugh so hard every day and you are truly a wonderful partner.

-My beautiful daughter.

-Health, mine and my family's.

- My family, especially my mother who has been a tremendous help since Ava was born and is a terrific grandma.

-My friends, who I've probably seen more often since the baby was born than when I was pregnant. I could too easily spend most of my time in my house, especially since I'm not returning to work, but they have made sure to get me out, even once without Ava.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2 Months

Dear Ava,

Today you are 2 months old. You started smiling this month, which replaces stretching as your father's favorite thing that you do. You smile several times a day and every time it melts my heart. The other night you were not in the mood to go to sleep. I came in to get you for the third time or so and you gave me the biggest smile when you saw me. How could I be mad at that?

Speaking of sleeping, you had some of your longest stretches of sleep this past month and also some of your shortest since you were first born. One night you slept about 10 hours, from 8 pm to about 6 am. It was terrific! Since then, you pretty much will sleep about 7-8 hours at a time at night. You go to sleep between 7:30 and 8:30 pm and will usually sleep until 3 or 4 am. We'll nurse and then you go back down until 6 or 7 am, giving your parents a pretty decent nights sleep. Last week, however, you decided you didn't want to sleep...ever. Naps were non-existent and it took many tries to get you to sleep at night. One night, Daddy even let you sleep on his chest for a few hours, just so you (and Mommy) would get some sleep. All in all, we lucked out, kiddo. You are a terrific sleeper!

Naps, on the other hand, are still unpredictable. You seem to be getting on more of a schedule and will go down for naps pretty regularly, as long as you are swaddled, but it is anyone's guess how long you will sleep. Sometimes you will sleep for a half hour and sometimes you will sleep for 3 hours.

You got half of your 2 month shots this month and you were a trouper. I think I was more upset about the shots than you were. The doctor said you are doing great and were in the 50th percentile for both height and weight.

You're growing like crazy and getting sturdier. Your cheeks are much chubbier now as are your legs and I think you are just getting cuter everyday.

We can't wait to see what the next month will bring!

I love you Peanut.

Love,
Mommy

Weight a Minute...

I'm on a mission to start losing this baby weight. Ava is almost 2 months old so I figure it's time to begin to try.

I gained 50 (0k, closer to 60) lbs. while pregnant. I had always been thin, even skinny at times. I never weighed myself. I never had to worry about my weight or what I ate so I totally embraced the pregnant woman stereotype and indulged in nightly bowls (or cartons) of ice cream. Now I wish I gained a more manageable amount of weight.

I've already lost about half of the weight since giving birth and would like to lose the other 30 or so lbs. by the time Ava is 6 months old. I know it took me 9 months to gain the weight, I should allow myself 9 months to lose it, but honestly, I don't want to wait that long. I don't like what I see when I look in the mirror right now. I don't like the way I feel when I struggle to find clothes in my closet that fit and look halfway decent. I also can't replace all of the clothes in my closet with larger sizes. I have a pretty sizable wardrobe and the majority of it is too small right now. I need to fit into it again.

I realize I may never be a size 2 again and that the smallest jeans in my dresser may not fit. My body has changed. I have hips now that I didn't before. I just need to try to get back into some kind of shape. Actually, it would be nice to be in better shape than I was before I got pregnant. That might not be so hard as I was not in very good shape to begin with.

So last week I started eating better. I also started keeping a food journal. I figured that if I'm writing down everything I eat, I will be less likely to binge on junk food because I won't want to write down that I ate an entire bag of cookies in one sitting. I've been making an effort to cut out bread, except the occasional sandwich on whole wheat, and to eat more fruits and vegetables. I'm eating about 5 times a day since I am breastfeeding and need to keep my calorie intake up. I'm just trying to eat healthier.

I also want to make more of an effort to exercise. Since it's getting colder out, going for walks everyday just may not be possible. I got 2 exercising with baby DVDs last week and this morning I took advantage of one of the exercise videos that cable has on demand. I have a tendency to start exercising and then quit soon after. Maybe I should write down what I do for exercise too to keep myself from quitting.

I'm also setting goals for myself that I think I will post updates on periodically. My goals are:
1) Lose 10 lbs. by New Year's (15 would be even better but I'm trying to be realistic here).
2) Exercise at least 3 days a week.
3) Lose an additional 20 lbs. by March 26 (I've heard the last 10-15 lbs. are the hardest to lose so I will give myself some wiggle room on this one)
4) Wear a bikini next summer

I am not letting this "diet" effect my Thanksgiving though. I still plan on stuffing my face Thursday. I will just skip the apple pie for breakfast on Friday.

Hibernating

It's only supposed to be 32 degrees today in Chicagoland and it may snow. Looking out my living room window, it looks gray and cold outside.

I remember being at work on days like this, when the weather was not the best, wishing I was home under a blanket, wearing sweatpants, drinking a hot cup of tea or hot chocolate. I think that's one of the thing I like most about staying home with my daughter. I can do that today if I choose, as long as I do it during nap time. But first I need to do laundry, take a shower, give Ava some tummy time and it wouldn't hurt to swiffer.

Well, at least I don't need to go outside to do any of that.

7 weeks

I took Ava for her shots today. She got 2 and a vaccination she had to drink. My job was to hold her arms while the medical assistant shot her up.

Now I don't like shots. I don't really like needles, which is kind of funny considering I have had multiple things pierced over the years and have 3 tattoos, one of which took 2 or 3 hours during which the needle was more or less on my spine. I figured my 7 week old daughter would react similarly to how I would, you know, since she's a baby and all. Because she cries all of the time, one would think she would scream her little head off when a needle was inserted into her leg muscle. One would be wrong. She barely flinched. I was staring into her eyes, trying not to cry myself because I did not want to see the needle go into her leg and all she did was let out a 2 second cry after the second needle. She calmed right down afterward.

I guess she takes after her daddy on this one.

Yesterday

My solo trip to the mall went as well as could be expected. We left right after Ava's nap and post nap feeding. She slept in her car seat the whole way there and slept in her stroller most of the time. There was only one time when she got a little fussy but there were no ear splitting cries and once the stroller started moving again, she conked out again. I was able to browse pretty much uninterrupted. After a little while, I felt my luck was starting to run out and that I should head out. The trip back took awhile due to traffic but she was still quiet. All in all, it was a good afternoon and it was nice to do something different.

Field Trip

I'm feeling adventurous today (and maybe a little murderous too since the roof isn't finished yet and there is oh so much banging and yelling). I'm taking Ava to the mall... by myself. I've only ever gone out like this with Fredo so today will be interesting.

I feel like I need to get out of the house for a bit today and since it's Veteran's Day, there are sales to take advantage of. Why not start my Christmas shopping early for once?

Wish me luck!

Girls Night Out

I went out to dinner with my girls last night and had a great time. It was so nice to get out of the house for a few hours and to have a great meal and glass of wine.

We went to a restaurant in my neighborhood called Chalkboard. It's such a cute place with a really interesting menu. From what I understand, the menu changes often depending on what the chef wants to make and what's in season. There's a giant chalkboard on the wall detailing their many (delicious sounding) specials. We all had such a hard time deciding what to order. Interestingly enough, their specialty is fried chicken and mashed potatoes. One of my friends ordered it and it was delicious.

When we got to the restaurant, it was pretty empty, which worked out well since we had some catching up to do. As the it got later, the place got busier. A couple came in as we were eating and we had a great time listening to them. The woman seemed, um shall we say, hard to please. We overheard her complain about sitting next to the window since the restaurant is across the street from a diner that advertises "Waffle House Chicken". She even made her dining companion switch seats with her, although she was still next to the window so I don't know what good it did. We ended up tuning out her bitching.

After a delightful meal, we were gathering up our coats. I happened to look over at that couple and noticed the woman had ordered the fried chicken. I laughed all the way out of the restaurant. For someone so offended by the waffle house chicken across the street, it struck me as quite funny that she ended up ordering the fried chicken from Chalkboard. I hope she enjoyed it so the man she was with didn't have to listen to her.

Naps? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Naps

We are getting a new roof. It is very, very noisy. Consequently, nap time is suffering for Ava and for myself.

I'm going out to dinner tonight with my girlfriends which will require me to stay up until at least 9 pm. Of course today was my 6 week lady parts check up at 9 am so I was up at 6 to make sure I would be on time. I had planned on napping today while Ava took a nap but with all the noise, I just don't think that's going to happen. If she does fall asleep anytime soon, I don't think I'll be able to sleep.

I hope my friends don't mind when I yawn my way through dinner.

I really shouldn't complain since we are getting a new roof and maybe, just maybe, the ceiling will stop leaking when it rains, which it's supposed to do tonight. And then maybe snow tomorrow. Yeah, getting the roof replaced before the snow comes is probably a good idea.

History

Last night we made history as we elected our first African-American president.

I'm excited about what Barack Obama will do as president, for the future and for my daughter, who will never know a time where it was impossible to picture a black man being elected to lead this country.

Now, if only we can do the same thing for a woman (who's not a "maverick" from Alaska).

Election Day

I just got back from doing my civic duty...at a bar.

My polling place was the back of a bar called "Silvie's" or "Sylvie's", depending on which sign you choose to believe. This room is used for bands and DJs, so there weren't any taps or anything there but there was a stage, DJ booth, jukebox and something no polling place should be without, a disco ball.

In any event, it served its purpose and Fredo and I voted. Now to watch election speculation all day.

Blue Monday

Oh blog, how I've been neglecting you recently.

Things have been pretty slow here lately. I've been trying to get out of the house for walks here and there to take advantage of the insanely wonderful weather we've been having but it's sometimes hard to do between nursing, napping and changing my shirt because I've been spit up on for the eighth time today (seriously, it's 11:30 and I've been spit up on twice already).

I don't want to jinx it but Ava has been sleeping like a champ lately. Yesterday, I put her down at 8:30 pm (realizing at 7:45 that she has no idea we changed the clocks and that she was probably tired) and she slept until 5 am.

Since we had a good night's sleep Fredo decided to hit the gym bright and early this morning. He got up at 5, changed Ava, got himself ready, went out to the car and the car wouldn't start. Hopefully it's just the battery and it's not a bigger problem. We'll see tonight when my mom and her fiance come over to jump start our car.