Back in the Saddle

This week, I returned to work from maternity leave. It was TUFF.

First of all, the Saturday before coming back, we found out that Pickle has a pretty severe milk protein allergy. I had reintroduced dairy into my diet, thinking that the Zantac was taking care of his reflux. That was a dumb mistake on my part. Now, for the next two weeks, he has to be on soy formula until the dairy clears my system and I can breastfeed him again. Soy formula is evil. It is mostly "corn syrup solids" and oil.

In the meantime, baby boy suffered from bad tummy distress. His normal newborn acne turned into angry red patches on his cheeks and neck. His poops...ick. Up through the night before returning for work, he was miserable. And so was I. I had a bad meltdown, worse than the normal hormonal baby blues, punishing myself for returning to work too early.

But we survived. I was a sad mess on Monday, calling home to Bobzilla every hour or so. He handled his new role as Stay at Home Dad ("SAHD") like a champ. The baby didn't break. And life went on.

There is one thing that hasn't been difficult: Working out.

Amazingly, Pickle has what closely resembles a feeding and sleeping schedule. He gets my ass out of bed by 5:00 or 6:00 a.m. He feeds and goes back down to sleep for another two hours. During the second morning snooze, I've been able to get my usual 60 minutes on the bike, walk the dog, feed the cats, take a shower, do my hair and makeup and pack things up for work. By the time he stirs from his sleep, I'm able and ready to focus on him until I leave and pass him off to Daddy. Hopefully, this will continue. I haven't been able to do my pre-pregnancy workout schedule of 90 minutes by including strength training. Still haven't touched the weights. Next week, I will try to fit the strength training in during the late afternoon/evening. I'm not going to kill myself, though. At least I'm getting some cardio in.

Since I've "sorta" returned to normal, I'll be posting and tracking my progress again.

My current weight is 157.4 pounds. I was 142 pounds pre-pregnancy, amounting to an approximate weight gain of 15 lbs.

I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to deal with my diet, if I make any changes at all. Breastfeeding has caused my appetite to go through the roof. I am ALWAYS hungry (and thirsty), and I eat obscene amounts of foods. About 80% of the food is healthy, thanks mostly to Bobzilla's homecooking. But I ain't gonna lie...I can tear a whole bag of tortilla chips up. And there were some milkshake and cheese binges that most likely triggered Pickle's bad dairy reaction last weekend. Since I need to be REALLY careful about making sure I'm eating enough to sustain breastfeeding, I'm not going to be too concerned about it for now and will just wing it until the scale sets off alarm bells.

There is no doubt that eating healthy pre- and post-pregnancy, and staying physically fit, has helped us create and grow a healthy, thriving spawn. Pickle started smiling and cooing at 4 weeks, which is considered an advanced development. 

Pickle is also holding up his head for long periods at a stretch, and is growing like a mo fo. He is alert and intensely observant during the day hours. This week, he's learned to play face games by copying faces we make at him.

He still hates baths, though. It's like a horror show when his toes even graze the bath water.

Still cannot believe we grew this thing: