Thursday, November 20, 2008

You Win Some, You Loose Some

Okay, well I posted earlier that I would explain how my health and Matty's eating habits are connected. So here it goes.



As the title says, you win some and you loose some. I seem to be loosing these days. And I mean that in many senses of the term. For those of you that know me, I have always struggled with my weight. I was bigger growing up and seemed to grow out before I would grow up. I took control of my weight a few years ago and have been able to maintain a healthy weight for some time now. Enter Matt. He's thriving. Doing really well. It seems however that I am having a hard time maintaining my weight while nursing him among other issues. With my recent weight loss, I find myself in a place I've neer been before...trying to GAIN weight. Go figure. When is that last time you've heard a woman say that, right?!?!? Well, back to the story. Matt's nursing has done more than damage the numbers on the scale. Back in September, I ran a 5k. No big deal. I mean, it's only 3 miles. The good news is that I beat my time from 2007. I was proud that I was able to bounce back to the asphault so shortly after having a baby. However some of my motavation for running fast was the fact that about a mile into the race, my bladder spasmed and I wet myself. And I'm not talking about a little leakage. I'm talking about fully empting my bladder. It was horrible. Embarrassing. My only saving grace was that it was a night race. Knowing that something was obviously wrong, I saught the help of my doctor and after some test were run, it was determined that my bladder had fallen. Did you know that 75% of women have some bladder damage post partum? I didn't know that either! And of the women who have issues, 75% of those have their symptoms get worse with age. 10% of women that need surgical repair have the proceedure done before the age of 80. So yeah, I was feeling kinda old after hearing that stat, but it was comforting to know that I'm not the only one who has these issues. On November 12th, I went infor surgery. It was to be a 30 minute out patient thing with little to no time int he hospital. I remember waking up and feeling positive. Kevin came in to check on me and that's when he broke the news to me. After 3 hours in the OR, my doctor was unable to fix me. If anything, there was more damage. It seems that breast feeding has somehow depleted my nutrience and in doing so, my body was unable to heal itself after Matthew's birth. In addition, I have been unable to keep weight on to help my body in the process. Now I start the long road to recovery. I am not going to rush Matt to stop nursing. That's not fair to him. And besides, a year or so of my time is nothing compared to a life time of health and other benefits that breast feeding provides. I plan on letting Matthew wean himself close at close to a year old. Unless his teething becomes an issue. In that case, I'm puttin my foot down! Then I can start taking extra vitamins and medications to help my body prepare for surgery again. At that point, I can get back to running. I can work on my dream of qualifing for Boston. All in time I guess. In the mean time, pass me an extra slice of pie...I've got some weight to put on.

Cereal: It's What's For Dinner!


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If ya'll can't tell, he LOVES food. He did extremely well with his rice cereal and though it hasn't prolonged his sleeping habits just yet, I can tell that a new, well rested, Matthew is just around the corner.

But We No Like Sanna Mommy!!!

Is the 11th of November too early for Hailey, Emma and Matthew to see Santa Clause? HECK NO! Actually, we would have had the kids see him the prior Saturday when we went for the For Worth Child Casting Call, but we didn't have our pretty red sweater dresses on. It's funny cause last year we tried to go the first week of November and they looked at us like we were crazy for thinking that Santa would possible be out that early, but sure enough this year he was. And for the record, in 2006, we saw him on 11/8 so HA! to you North East Mall. Anyways, the trip went as well as I expected it to go. The went up and shook Santa's hand and then latched on to my legs and wouldn't let go. there was NO sitting with Santa. No chance in you know where. Matt did just fine. He sat and giggled. No problems there. I got a decent one of him sitting alone with St. Nick, but adding the girls just wasn't happening. The sweet lady working there said that it tends to be like that till kids are about 3. So here's hoping that Matt stays calm and mellow like he's been and the girls come to realize that that scary man in the big red suit is their friend. We did manage to get a picture however. We just had to use some creativity. It's kinda like the Lebanik kids over threw the North Pole or something. Which honestly, I wouldn't put it past them. But yeah, the picture of the trio sitting in Santa's chair with Santa looking over the shoulder is classic. Hope you like it too. And in true Hailey and Emma fashion, before we left they did manage to ask for a cookie and toys for Christmas...even though there was no way she was sitting on his lap. Gotta love it when girls speak their minds.


Sorry about the quality, it's a picture of a picture. I did ask Santa for a scanner though for Christmas, so maybe we'll get lucky and I can post a truer picture. ;)

Matty Is 4 Months Old!

Well, now he's just as close to 5 months old, but give me a little slack, we've been busy these last couple weeks. So back on the 10th we went for Matt's 4 month well visit and everything went wonderfully. The girls behaved in the office, Matt didn't pee on the scale and Dr. Hopkins was super impressed with Matt's progress. So far, my little man is starting to sit unassisted, has rolled over a few times from belly to back and he talks as much as his sisters. Oh yeah...and he can bear weight down on his legs while just barely holding on to some one's hands. I'll tell ya, this kids wants to be off running with his sisters already. Either that or he wants to run of and hide from them. Hmmm...anything else? Oh yeah! We've been cleared for food! Woo hoo! I am determined to get this kid to sleep longer than 3 hours at night. I am really hoping that cereal will do the trick. The worst part of the day was having to get his shots. Poor little thing. He screamed so loud. He couldn't catch his breath he was so upset. But a little love from momma and he was no worse for wear. Now for the stats...



Our Matthew is 25.5" long(75%) with a head cir. of 16"(10-25%) and weighs 13 lbs. 10 oz(25%)!!! I am so proud of him for growing like a little weed. I have to admit, I'm also proud of myself for sticking with nursing as long as I have. I am trying desperately to continue, but my own health concerns may prohibit that. You'll see why in a different post. Anyways, here is a picture of my handsome little man.



Sunday, November 2, 2008

Once upon a time...

...there was a frog prince and two beautiful princesses that lived in a castle in a far off land. Who am I kidding? The story really goes like this:
Once upon a time there was a frog prince, two princesses, a sleep deprived queen, a achy king and a silly ol' Me-Maw that lived in a two story brick house in Texas. The princesses wanted to tour their kingdom for candy and the little frog prince wanted to tag along, but the Texas heat made that hard to accomplish. Despite the 85 degree heat on the last day of October, Hailey Emma and Matthew had a great Halloween. Earlier that morning, mom and I took the girls to Denton Pres. Hospital so the girls could try out their "trick or treat"ing skills on the staff there. Surprisingly, they had no issues going up to strangers if it meant they were going to get "candy snacks" in return. After dinner, I did the girls' hair and make up and off we went. Matt was once again showing off his sitting up skills and the girls were adorable as ever. Unfortunately, the heat made it hard for Matty to keep up so maybe 15 minutes into trick or treating, the fleece froggie was stripped off and little man was asleep on Me-Maw's arm. The girls however, racked up some great loot. I was actually impressed that there was as much quality candy as there was. I figured that with the economic downturn as of late, there would be much more generic stuff than we actually got. Just goes to show that when gas goes back down to $2.00 a gallon, the people spend money and give out the good stuff...like chocolate!