The Great Outdoors

The other day Ryan and I put down a blanket and laid outside on the grass. Out backyard really is quite nice.....

My dream is to someday have a vegetable garden. It would be like having a year-round farmer's market in my backyard! For now, we have sage...

Mint

Rosemary

Oranges

Apples

And my personal favorite, "limons". I'm calling them limons because we're not quite sure if they are lemons or really big limes.

Anyone out there want to come over and plant me a vegetable garden? I'm thinking tomatoes, zucchini, squash, cucumber, green beans.....that's not too much to ask for, right?

Foodie Friday: False Advertising

When I reach for a snack, I want it to be a healthy one. If it's not a fruit or veggie, I'd prefer it to be a protein food, as opposed to a carbohydrate like chips or cookies. In an effort to eat more protein, I bought a jar of peanuts the other day, as shown below.

Based on the label, I assumed these peanuts had salt on them, but not much more. So I was surprised to see that this jar of peanuts contains 12 ingredients! (Peanuts, Sea Salt, Sugar, Cornstarch, Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), Gelatin, Torula Yeast, Corn Syrup, Paprika, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Spices, Natural Flavor.

This ingredient list is alarming, particularly the MSG! These peanuts taste good, but they taste like they obviously have more in them than just peanuts and salt. I think the lesson here is to always check the labels on the food you are buying. If you see something that has 15+ ingredients listed, it probably isn't a very healthy or "natural" food. Many packages will claim the food is all natural, lowfat, etc. But to really know you need to turn it around and educate yourself. Eating foods in their purest and rawest forms is almost always best for you.

Here is a recipe for a healthy protein and fiber-filled snack. And when you eat something like this, you know exactly what is in it!

Roasted Garbanzos

1) Rinse and drain 1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas)

2) In a bowl, mix together garbanzos, 1 tsp olive oil, and spices. I like to use garlic salt, chili powder, and oregano. But really, any spices would work here. You could even use cinnamon and nutmeg to make it a sweet snack!

3) Spread out on a baking sheet. Cook in a 375 degree oven for approximately 30-45 minutes.

4) Give the baking sheet a shake partway through to make sure the beans don't stick. I use a silpat so this doesn't happen. The garbanzos are done when they are crispy and no longer chewy.

Ryan: 3 Months

My sweet baby Ryan! You are 3 months old today. 3 months is supposedly the "magic" age when babies become less cranky and more happy. I can slowly see that happening with you, although you definitely still have your moments. But when you do smile, it warms my heart. You're just so cute!

This month you rolled over for the first time! You also discovered your feet just in the last week. You stare at them as if you aren't sure where they came from or what is causing them to move. You seem to have long legs and big feet, which makes me think you will be tall when you grow up.Another big first for you this month was sleeping through the night! You did it twice, and then unfortunately haven't done it since.

One thing we have noticed about you this month is your lack of middle ground when it comes to crying. You go from 0 to 60 in a matter of seconds, with absolutely no warning that you're about to start screaming!

(Who me?)

I am beginning to see in your pictures what you will look like as a little boy. And obviously you are going to be adorable! People still say you look more like your daddy, but I'm pretty sure you have my lips, and possibly my eyes.

I love you so so so much! I can't wait to see what the next 3 months will bring. Happy 3 months baby Ryan!

Weighty Wednesday: Sweet Success

I'm back on track this week! I lost 2 pounds.....must have been a result of the "No Dessert" rule this week. I did so well! OK, I did have one bite of ice cream one night, but that's all! I admit it was really hard, and I found myself craving something sweet most evenings. Luckily, Adam brought a ginormous watermelon home, so I munched on that instead of real dessert. In terms of exercise, I still have not located my ankle weights, so that was a fail. But I continued to walk almost every day. A few days I walked with my sister, which was really fun. She's in great shape, so it was a good motivator for me.


Stats and Goals for Week 8
Lbs Lost This Week: 2
Lbs Lost So Far: 16
Lbs Left to Lose: 14


Goals: I'm running out of ideas for goals. I think this week I will just focus on being healthy, and see if my instincts are enough for me to continue losing weight. I'm still going to walk every day and focus on eating healthy foods. We'll see what happens!

The Definition of Cute

Out and About

Adam has had the past couple days off from work, so we've been out and about with the baby. Today we ventured out to Ikea in hopes of finding an area rug, a baby dresser, and artwork for our bare walls. Unfortunately all we came home with were some candles and new drinking glasses. But it was fun taking Ryan out to different places. I'm nervous doing it on my own, especially when it involves leaving the area. What if I have to nurse him and I can't find a safe place to do it?

I also "wore" Ryan out in public for the first time today and it was fun! Much easier than putting him in his stroller. Looked kind of like this:
That's all I've got time to post. Must put away baby laundry!

They Grow Up So Fast

Guess what?? Ryan rolled over for the first time yesterday! I put him on his tummy on our bed and literally 2 seconds later he was on his back! I almost wasn't sure it even happened. I'm pretty sure it was just a happy accident, but still. My little boy is growing up so fast!

Need more proof? Ryan now fits in his 3 month outfits!

Did you notice his giant feet?

Foodie Friday: Taste Buds

If I had a food motto to describe my eating habits, it would probably be "Variety is the Spice of Life". Adam's would be something like "Look Before you Leap" (and even then, don't leap). He is very suspicious of trying new foods, while I love to cook with and sample new cuisines and ingredients.


For example, Adam's favorite type of meal would consist of plain chicken breast coated only with salt, pepper, and garlic. On the side he'd love white rice and steamed broccoli. Now there's absolutely nothing wrong with this meal. But I think this kind of classic American meal gets boring! I made chicken and rice this week......well, Coconut Curry Chicken and Vegetables over Lime-Cilantro Brown Rice, to be exact.


Adam's ideal drink after work is a Coke. Me? I made homemade Horchata this week using organic cinnamon sticks.


Our differing tastes make it difficult for me to cook for Adam. He has a long list of foods he will not eat: mushrooms (I don't blame him), anything creamy (ranch, sour cream, mayo...again, I don't blame him), all fruits except watermelon, cherries or grapes, anything that tastes "asian", anything with vinegar in it, pork, anything with lemon in it.....get the point?


What I'm wondering is how we develop our taste buds. Is it genetics? I kind of doubt this, since siblings within the same family can have vastly different tastes. Is it the foods we are raised on? This makes more sense to me. I think that if we are introduced to a variety of healthy foods from a young age, we will be more likely to eat those foods later in life.


The reason I have been thinking about this lately is because Ryan will be eating solid foods within a few months! I want to do everything possible to not only feed him nutritious foods, but to lay the groundwork for his adult life eating habits. So what foods should I begin with when introducing Ryan to solids? Should I attempt to make my own baby food? I'm really excited about this next phase of his babyhood. Thoughts? Advice?

Fenu-What?

Fenugreek. It's the herb I have been instructed to start taking in order to increase my milk supply. I have to take it 3 times daily, 3 pills at a time. Yep, you did the math right. That's 9 pills a day! Add to that another herb to prevent plugged milk ducts 3 times daily, my prenatal vitamin, my fish oil supplement, my calcium/magnesium supplement.......I am now taking approximately 1, 482 pills per day.

At my appointment with the lactation consultant today I nursed Ryan for 45 minutes and he got a total of 2 oz from me. That's just not enough for my growing boy! (Who is now exactly 11 lbs). So we're still supplementing with 1 oz of Nutramigen formula at each feeding, at least until I can get my supply up to where it should be.

Ryan now tries to "help" us by holding the bottle.

Oh, and I'm still pumping to also help stimulate the milk supply. Whew!

I'm worth it, right Mommy?

Weighty Wednesday: Stuck in Neutral

Not much progress this week....for the second week in a row I didn't lose any weight. I did try to eat more whole grains and I successfully increased my speed while taking my daily walk with Ryan. But since it was my birthday I think I indulged more than usual on desserts and other greasy/unhealthy foods. Time to step things up this week!

Stats and Goals for Week 7:
Lbs Lost this week: 0
Lbs Lost so far: 14
Lbs Left to Lose: 16

Food Goal: No desserts! This is a tough goal for me. But I've been eating too much sugar lately, so I'm cutting it out for the week. Wish me luck!
Fitness Goal: Daily walks at an increased speed while wearing my ankle weights. Now I just need to go find them......

Bedtime

Ryan fell asleep earlier than usual the other night. I typically feed him in bed somewhere around 9pm, and once he falls asleep, I place him in his bassinet, usually between 10pm and 11pm. On this particular night he fell asleep during his 7:30 feeding on the couch.

I carried him back to the bedroom and placed him up against my pregnancy boppy pillow. I wasn't being super careful or quiet, because I didn't care if he woke up. I knew he'd have to eat again before he slept for the night, so it wasn't a big deal if he didn't stay asleep.
Why is it that when I don't necessarily want him to sleep, he does? And when we're super quiet and careful not to wake him up, he wakes up? Silly babies, they're so unpredictable!

Pretty soon Riley decided to join Ryan.

He really does have 2 hind legs....he's just hiding one in this picture.

A Wonderful Weekend

I am winding down from an absolutely great weekend. It started Friday night with Thai takeout for my birthday. Saturday morning my friend Jesselle visited me and met Ryan for the first time. That afternoon Adam took me to Babies R Us for some much needed shopping. While we were there a pregnant woman was admiring Ryan. She said "Oh how precious, he's sleeping". I said "Yes it's a miracle". She replied "Oh yes, babies are a miracle". I said "Well, yes, but I meant it's a miracle that he's asleep". I think I scared her.

Saturday evening we went to our other friends' house for some fondue. (no cheese for me!) While there Ryan got passed around and loved on by all the women. Then something wonderful happened that night. I put a sleeping Ryan in his bassinet at about 11pm. And he slept. Until 7am! That's 8 hours!! I did wake up about 3 times throughout the night to peek at him and wonder why he was still asleep. I kept thinking he would wake up hungry, but he never did! When his eyes finally popped open Sunday morning, he turned to me and gave me a huge smile. Awww!

We had planned on going to church but Adam woke up with a migraine. After his headache wore off we visited with his mom for a while and then he took me somewhere special for my birthday. Whole Foods! Now I know grocery shopping might not sound fun to some people, but I love it. Especially when it's at the Whole Foods in Los Gatos. They have so many unique foods there, I wanted to buy the entire store! I managed to only spend about $80, and one of my purchases was a box of vegan donuts!

After Whole Foods we had a birthday dinner at my parents' house, where we ordered in food from BJ's. That night Ryan slept straight from 11pm until 4am, woke to eat, and then snoozed until 7am. Can you believe it?? A great way to end the weekend.

In regards to Ryan sleeping, the only explanation I can come up with is that he had a lot of stimulation this weekend, and maybe that tired him out so much that he was able to sleep longer. We went to many different places and lots of different people held him and talked to him. I guess we'll have to start taking Ryan out to parties every night before bed!

Happy Birthday

To Me! I am 28 years old today. So far I have changed a poopy diaper at 5:30am and another one at 7:00am. Lucky me!

So ever since Adam and I started dating in high school, he has brought me donuts on my birthday. I don't eat them any other time of the year....only on my birthday. This morning I got up after Adam had left for work and found flowers and a card on the counter. (And a zester which I've been wanting!) Inside the card one of the things Adam wrote was "enjoy your donuts". I got super excited, thinking he had found me some dairy free donuts somewhere! I searched the kitchen. No donuts.

Turns out Adam wrote that last night before he realized donuts are made with milk. But now I'm really craving them. Where can I find vegan donuts? Hmmmm

A Question for God

Dear God: You invented everything. So that includes breastfeeding. Why oh why didn't you make it easier for the mom? I always assumed that because it is the "natural" God-created way of feeding a baby that it should be a simple, straight-forward process. I would love to ask you about this someday in Heaven. Because it's hard!!

Since I saw a lactation consultant last week, I have started pumping after each feeding. Basically, my end goal is for Ryan to get enough to eat through breastfeeding. I really don't want to keep supplementing with formula. So pumping is a way of telling my body to produce more milk for my little guy. 10 minutes on each side after each feeding doesn't sound so bad, right?

Here's what Ryan's feedings look like now.

Feed Ryan for 15 minutes on left side.
Feed Ryan for 15 minutes on right side, while simultaneously pumping on left side for 10 minutes.
Give Ryan 1 oz bottle of formula with left hand while simultaneously pumping on right side for 10 minutes.

Mind you I'm feeding Ryan approximately every 2 hours, from start to start. The above process can take a good hour in total, which leaves me 1 hour in between feedings to wash the formula and breastpump bottles and parts before I have to do it all over again. Whew!

Oh and did I mention that I continue to have plugged milk ducts? It's quite painful and makes my entire body ache. Thank goodness for drugs.

Mommy's Arms

Ryan has had the opportunity to be held by many wonderful friends and family members. Unfortunately, he has started to favor me (as I'm sure is normal), to the point where he'll start to cry when I pass him off to someone else.

Weighty Wednesday: Power Grains

I did pretty well this week in terms of meeting my goals. 4 Fruits and Veggies every day but one, and lunges and squats every day but one. However, my weight stayed the same! I actually lost 1/2 a pound, but I'm only counting whole numbers. Blah


Stats and Goals for Week 6:

Lbs Lost this Week: 0
Lbs Lost So Far: 14
Lbs Left to Lose: 16



Food Goal: I was thinking about some sort of sugar/dessert restriction goal, but is that really a smart goal for my birthday week? I don't think so. Instead, my goal is to replace one carbohydrate each day with a whole grain. For example, tonight we are having chicken and rice. Adam loves white rice so I'll make that for him but I will have brown rice instead. Whole grains like brown rice, quinoa, and whole wheat pasta and bread have more fiber in them, and are therefore more filling than white starchy foods.
Fitness Goal: As I continue to take walks every day with Ryan, I'd like to increase my speed. No more lazy walking. This week my 30 minute daily walks will be power walks!

Ryan's Nursery

I wanted to wait until Ryan's nursery was totally finished to share the pics, but who really knows when that will be? It's kind of like waiting for the perfect occasion to wear your favorite shirt....that occasion might not ever come along, so you might as well wear the shirt every day! Or something like that.

Anyways, I present to you Ryan's Nursery! (so far)

It's a work in progress, but coming along nicely! We still need to find him a dresser and a few other things.

Honest

I have to be completely honest. Up until the last week or so, I was not enjoying motherhood. Being a mom is probably the most challenging, yet rewarding experience of my life. And I feel guilty for saying that I haven't enjoyed it. I expected to be like the moms I hear about that just adore having a baby. They are happy to sit and stare into their baby's eyes all day long. They say it is the best thing that ever happened to them. So when I didn't experience these warm fuzzy feelings, I felt like maybe something was wrong with me. Like maybe I wasn't cut out to be a great mom after all. How can so many women yearn for babies when all they do is cry? Am I missing something here?

The days are still very long and difficult. I find that as the day wears on, I feel more tired and drained. By evening I am just DONE. It is as if I have given everything that was in me and I have nothing more to give to Ryan. I sometimes wonder how I will get up in the morning and do it all over again, because I am just so incredibly fatigued. And then morning comes and my smiling baby boy is ready to spend another day with me, and I somehow find the energy to do it all over again.

So maybe I'm not the typical mom that loves having a baby. I do know that I love my son Ryan more than I imagined possible. As Ryan becomes more and more aware and responsive, it makes all the struggles a little bit easier. He is starting to interact more by smiling and reacting to my silly voices, and that puts a smile on my face.And each day gets just a little bit easier as the weeks go by. But these first few months were not what I was expecting. Nobody told me that I just might not enjoy it.

A Little Push

I've been trying to teach Ryan how to roll over.

Start on your tummy....

Move onto your side....(he doesn't like this position)
Roll onto your back!

And I only have to help him a little bit. You know, a little push onto his side. And another little push onto his back.

OK fine I basically do everything for him.

Mr. Peepy Pants

Guess who wet the bed last night for the first time? I'll give you a hint...it wasn't Adam!

Who me??

Eat, Sleep and Poop

That's all babies do, right? Ryan does his fair share of eating....approximately every 2 hours. But sleeping and pooping? Not so much.

Ryan barely naps during the day. The only way he will fall asleep is if he is in motion (the car or sometimes the stroller, or when mommy is holding him and walking). The minute the movement stops, so does sleepy time. My poor little guy is averaging 1-2 hours per day of sleeping, and probably a total of 5 or 6 at night. His Dr. said that he should be getting between 12 and 15 hours of sleep per day, so Ryan is definitely sleep deprived! I have tried getting him to fall asleep in my arms, and then gently put him down in his crib or bassinet. But he will always wake up within 5 minutes. I could do this all day long, but I'd never get anything done! I've tried letting him cry for a little bit, but all this does is make him angry. He gets even more worked up and then won't fall back asleep at all. How do you get your baby to fall asleep and stay asleep???

As for the pooping, well, Ryan hasn't been as "regular" lately. He used to go with every diaper change, but lately it's been more like once every 2-3 days. (I've heard this can happen when a baby is on formula, but Ryan is still mostly breastfed). We are still supplementing each feeding with 1 oz of formula in order to encourage faster weight gain. Unfortunately, his weight is still progressing at approximately 1/2 oz per day. I am taking him to see a lactation consultant tomorrow to hopefully get some answers. I want to make sure he's getting enough to eat, and that the slow weight gain isn't because I am unknowingly starving him. At his Dr. appt earlier this week he was 10 lbs, 10 oz, up from his birth weight of 8 lbs, 6 oz.

Weighty Wednesday: Exercise?

This week I managed to lose 2 more pounds. That means that I am now 10 lbs under my pre-pregnancy weight! I achieved my food goal of not eating after dinnertime. But I failed miserably at my fitness goal of doing a workout video. With Ryan not really napping these days (another blog post will come regarding sleep), it's pretty much impossible for me to do strenuous exercise. I mean, I can't exactly do jumping jacks and pushups with Ryan strapped to me in the Baby Bjorn.......

Stats and Goals for Week 5:
Lbs Lost this Week: 2
Lbs Lost So Far: 14
Lbs Left to Lose: 16

Food Goal: 4 servings of fruits and veggies per day. I've been lacking a little bit in this department, so I'm making it a goal again.
Fitness Goal: 25 squats and lunges (each side) per day. Something I can probably do while holding Ryan!

Lamby Reloaded

Daddy brought a present home for me tonight! It's like my lamby seat, only better. It's a lamby swing!

I think it's a keeper.