Bad day and baby food

Do you ever just have one of those days? Today was mine. First of all – it's Monday…enough said. Then, I put on my pre-planned outfit fresh out of the clean laundry basket…and promptly got spit up aalllll down one leg. Then, I got to work and both of the people in our front office were out sick, so I had to go sit up there. I could go into detail, but let’s just say there was a series of frustrating events (mostly involving computer issues) that occurred one after the other for about two hours. Then I broke a nail…and I think I have hives… So rather than dwell on today, we are going to talk about this weekend.

I made baby food!!! It was super easy – I’m still not sure if S likes it or not. He is eager to open up for the spoon, but then he makes a funny face when he tastes it…so I’m not sure.

Here are the steps I went through:

Step 1: Peel sweet potato, cut into small chunks.

 

Step 2: Place in frying pan and put just enough water in to cover. 

Step 3: Cover, bring to boil, cook until tender.

Step 4: I let thing cool for a few minutes, then used a slotted spoon to scoop the sweet potato chunks into the blender. I added a couple of serving spoons full of the water used to cook the sweet potatoes, and pureed everything until it was about the same consistency as the rice cereal we’ve been using. 

Step 5: Spoon into ice cube trays and freeze. 

Of course, we can't forget steps 1.1, 2.1, 3.1, 4.1, and 5.1: receive constant basset hound assistance. Whenever I'm doing something in the kitchen, Lola has to come up behind me, or beside me and put her paws on my but or my hip to see if she can help with anything. I have no idea where she gets this. I never give her food when I'm cooking.

"Don't you have scraps I can get rid of for you?"

 

We had a lot of good quality family time this weekend. 

Little man started to get tired at my parents' house and my mom rocked him and sang to him. As soon as she would stop singing, he would fuss. I think she was pleased with her captive audience.

When he was no longer happy with that, he was content to snuggle his dad.


What did you do this weekend?

Unexpected Aspects of Parenthood

First of all, I will report that day three of PT exercises in the morning is going well. I did cut out my last 15 minute walk yesterday because my pelvis was hurting. It is so hard not to just muscle through and do it anyway because I want progress NOW. I hope I'm not overcompensating and taking it too easy. Patience is the order of the day. I just have to try what I'm doing now for a couple of weeks and then reevaluate.

By the way, I created a page for "Pregnancy" that has some notes about my pregnancy and the accompanying birth story - so check it out if you're so inclined.

As I was writing things out, it made me think about being a parent and how some things are different than I thought they'd be. Here are a few:

I'm someone's mother. Okay, obviously I knew this was going to happen. I had nine months to prepare for it right? I thought about having a baby and loving it and all of the warm fuzzy feelings you have when you're expecting your first child. But - dude, I'm someone's mother. I will say things to S like, "Are you smiling at Momma?" but when someone calls me a parent, it is a bit of a shock to the system.  
 I am far more emotional about other people's kids. The other day, in the grocery store, someone had a small child (around two-ish?) in the cart and he was crying and reaching for his mom while she was trying to pay. In the past, I might have been sympathetic, but a little annoyed  - I mean, the child was clearly not in any danger, he just wanted to be held. Now, I wanted to go over and scoop him up ( I wouldn't, of course - people get arrested for that). I felt like I wanted to cry and was very anxious to get home and snuggle my baby.



I'm ornerier (is that a word?). I asked my mom when she transitioned into feeling like a grown-up, and she said when she had kids. I totally get what she means. Apparently being responsible for keeping a tiny human alive has given me the gumption to not feel shy about speaking up for myself and my family. I suddenly don't feel shy about questioning my husband's new doctor when she hasn't reviewed his test results, and I would not hesitate to go mama bear on anyone that even looked at my baby cross-eyed.

I want to be home all the time. I used to think I could never be a stay a home mom because I'd go crazy. Now I know that's not the case. It is almost physically painful to leave him in the mornings and I want to be present for his every expression.

Babies are expensive. Yes, logically I know this. When we were planning to have a baby, I knew finances were a bit tight, but I assumed I would be able to breast feed and cut down on costs. Nope. S never took to nursing and my supply dwindled quickly. Holy crap, formula is expensive!   

Baby smiles fix everything. No matter how stressed out or irritated I am, one little gummy smile immediately makes my heart happy. One night, S was really fussy and I was trying to change his diaper (at 2 am) and he was fussing and flailing and I was trying to figure out the complex oragami of snaps on baby pajamas without turning on the light. I wanted to yell in frustration, but then S looked up at me and smiled, and just like that - everything was fine. I didn't care that I was exhausted, or that his chubby little baby legs kept flailing out of his footy pajamas. It was totally worth it. **I think this is some sort of evolutionary self-defense mechanism that babies have developed.

I love to watch other people with my baby. I thought I might feel possessive and not want other people to hold S, but it makes me so happy to see my family fall in love with him too. I love to hand him over to my sister or mom and see their faces light up. I love that he flaps his little arms when he sees someone familiar.

S with my dad aka "Nonny"

 I'm sure there are a million other things, but these are the ones that come to mind at the moment.

Parents - what are some things that surprised you about having kids?

Teething Keys and Calculating BMR

I mentioned in yesterdays post that I was "good sore." Oh my. Things tightened up at work and I had to really put some effort into not hobbling. After my last walking-break, I sat for a long stretch, and I think that's when things really got tight. But, I'm pretty sure being sore contributed to an amazing night's sleep. I kept dozing off on the couch, so Cody sent me to bed at 8:30 and I slept like a rock.

You know that feeling when you've been really "good" and you get on the scale feeling smug and expecting it to be down...but it goes up half a pound? Yup, that happened today. Logically, I know it's just fluid retention from being sore, but I did give the scale a dirty look.

Today, I'm going to take a break from Wishlist Wednesday except to report that I bought the Nuby Teething Keys. I snagged them at the store when I went to buy teething tablets. They are awesome! The other two teething toys we have are a little to big for S's mouth and he gets kind of frustrated with them. The keys are a great size and they stay cold for a long time after you take them out of the fridge. S really likes shaking them and chewing on all the different surfaces.

The other thing  thing I wanted to chat about today was the method I'm using to calculate my BMR and calorie deficits. **BMR for anyone that doesn't know is Base Metabolic Rate, the number of calories you need to survive without moving.

A lot of aps and websites for weight loss will automatically calculate your calorie needs for you - which is awesome. Sparkpeople was the first website I used to actually calculate calorie needs specific to me - whereas before, I used some one-size-fits-all calorie range.  This, in and of itself, was kind of a huge revelation, and was instrumental in my first 70 pound weight loss. Obviously I didn't keep the weight off, but that is a story for another post, and I feel this method is something that works well for me.

Because I like the feel of keeping track of things manually, I ordered this food journal that had a really great explanation of how to calculate the number yourself. As a numbers nerd, this is something that I really enjoy. For me, it makes things very straightforward and logical and takes out some of the emotion.

So - the basic formula is:

At my current weight, this works out to be:

BMR = 655 + (4.35 x 312lbs) + (4.7 x 70in.) - (4.7 x 31yrs)

BMR = 655 + 1357 + 329 - 146

BMR = 2195

Of course, this is the number of calories you burn if you don't move at all. So, you then take this number times a factor depending on how active you are throughout the day. I always default to sedentary because I like to consider any activity I get "extra" - like earning bonus points. The factor for a sedentary lifestyle is 1.2. So:

BMR x 1.2 = 2195 x 1.2 or 2634

This is the only time during weight loss that I'm happy to weigh more. Of course, for those of you that aren't quite so nerdy - using an ap or website does the exact same thing without the work will make mores sense. But for me - the act of calculating the number and then manually adding and subtracting calories every day really boils a complicated issue down to balancing a spreadsheet, or managing a budget.