Friday, March 11, 2011

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:

8 comments:

  1. Oh he is cute!!! I adore the little baby coos and smiles - your boy is loved and he knows it!

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  2. He is so adorable, what intense eyes? And a great smile...made me smile to watch him lol! Hope you get to continue that morning routine, thats a sweet set up and I know the exercise and grooming time (usually a very rare commodity with a newborn!)will make you feel better all-around!

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  3. What a charmer! That would definitely be difficult to leave every morning.

    Good for you for not hitting the panic button over the extra pounds and choosing to focus on the most important thing: the health of you and your baby. As long as you're eating (mostly) healthy foods and exercising regularly, you'll be fine.

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  4. I swear, if I ever look at a baby smiling and don't smile back my heart must have turned to stone. He is darling!!

    My guys didn't like me to eat garlic. Or pepper. Or anything with flavor, really. My second one decided that projectile vomiting was a good response when my diet displeased him.

    Good news is, it eased up a bunch once they were on solids around 6 months or so. Whew.

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  5. OMG, he´s beautiful!

    Congratulations. And these few pounds so early in are really nothing to worry about at all. That will be gone in no time. I think I had about 35 extra pounds after my pregnancies, but soon as I was excercising regulary again, they quickly went.

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  6. He is beautiful...that grin in the last picture? Adorable.

    I think it's amazing how you and your guy are tag teaming and getting things done. I'm glad you figured out the milk thing. My sister didn't put it together with my nephew for a few months (his symptoms were less severe at first). It was the projectile vomiting that I recall the most...I still keep babies a bit away from me just in case :)

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  7. You probably don't need this bit of info any more, but there is a great book called "Eat Well, Loose Weight While Breastfeeding."

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