There have been lots of changes in the Weber household as of late. For one, Graham is definitely teething. He's drooling, chomping on everything he can get in his mouth, being more cranky than his normal laidback self, and not wanting to eat at times (especially at night). Plus I can see teeny tiny little white dots poking through his bottom front gums (yay! hope they come out soon!).
I think he's also going through a growth spurt, because he's been waking up earlier than normal hungry. I feed him and he goes back to sleep, so that's why I think it's a growth spurt. I'm sure it doesn't help that the teething makes him not want to eat sometimes.
Also, Graham has started rolling over... a lot. One day, I told Dustin I was a little worried because Graham hadn't been rolling from his back to his stomach much yet; the very next day, the madness began! He loves to roll all over the place. He especially likes rolling off his playmat to watch tv... we think it's because he knows we don't want him watching tv. : ) See what we have to look forward to?
He's eating all different kinds of solids. We've tried rice cereal, green beans, sweet peas, squash, and sweet potatoes. His favorite are the sweet peas and sweet potatoes. I guess he takes after his mom, liking anything with the word "sweet" in it.
We've also decided we need to make sleep changes. I've been hesitant to do that, since he's been sleeping so well! But we felt like we needed to move him from his bassinet up to his crib and start the unswaddling process. We decided to try unswaddling first; if he gets used to that now and sleeps well when not swaddled, maybe he'll keep sleeping well in his crib and I won't have many sleepless nights going up and down the stairs a ton. That's our thought process at least. : )
First, we tried swaddling with his arms out. This is something we need to do now especially since he's rolling over. It's a safety concern if he rolls over and doesn't have his arms out so he can push himself up and not be face-down in the mattress. I didn't know how Graham would do with that because he moves his arms and hands so much and loves grabbing onto EVERYTHING and playing with it, but it went surprisingly well. He's been sleeping about 8-8.5 hours like this so far!
We also tried swaddling loosely with a light, breathable blanket. That did not work so well (thought I'm not sure if it's also due to the teething/growth spurt). He woke up at 2:00 a.m. and was wide awake. Very odd for him.
Last night, we tried a sleep sack (no swaddle) and he slept great. So we're slowly making progress. We'll keep making baby steps and, probably within the next week, move him up to his crib. What a big boy I have!
A pic just for fun:
Graham's pediatrician said he's developmentally ready for solids at his most recent appointment. I thought about waiting until he was a little older, but he's so small (in the 3-5th percentile for his age... always has been!) that I thought this might help put a little weight on him and he might like it! We started him on rice cereal and have tried green beans as well. He hasn't seemed to like either much, but especially not green beans. He will just cry until I stop (not very long); it's not a pleasurable experience for either of us.
I'm considering putting off solids for a little longer; they aren't nutritionally necessary at this point. I might do that or I might continue to experiment with the baby food... change up the texture (add in some more water or breastmilk), try different veggies and see if he likes the others any more.
If any of you experienced moms have advice on this issue, it is very much welcome!
It's been 2 months since my original post about my weight loss goals for this year, so I wanted to post another update! If I'm being honest, I wasn't quite as strict this past month on the 3-5 workouts/week and only 1 cheat meal, so I've gotta get back on track this next month! However, I still made some progress. Since my last update, I've lost another 5.5 lbs. for a total of 14.5 lbs. since the beginning of the year.
I still have 8.5 lbs. to lose until I hit my pre-pregnancy weight and 15.5 lbs. until I hit my ultimate goal. I know the more I lose, the harder it will be to continue to lose at a fast rate, so I've got to step it up this month and cut out some of those sweets I've let creep back in my life (though I'll still keep my 1 cheat meal per week). Wish me luck; I need it!
It's been exactly 1 month since my post about my weight loss goals for this year, so I figured I'd update you all on my progress so far. I've been working out 3-5 times a week and, with the exception of 1 pretty awesome cheat meal a week, I've been sticking closely to the myfitnesspal.com diet requirements (basically portion control), and drinking lots of water, and I am happy to announce that I have lost 9 lbs. as of my first post; yay!
I broke down and bought non-maternity jeans that were a larger size than I hope to wear when I'm done with this process. My maternity jeans were just falling off of me and looking really baggy so I thought I would feel better about myself if I wore clothes that fit me a little better (even if they were a larger size), especially if I'm still seeing progress on the scale. I call them my "transition jeans."
I still have 13 lbs. until I am at my pre-pregnancy weight and 20 lbs. until I'm at my goal weight, but I am so happy that I'm finally seeing the numbers on the scale change. Plus, I just feel better overall now that I'm being more active and eating better. I know that the weight loss will most likely slow down, but my goal remains to lose 1 lb. a week. I'll try to keep updating you all once a month; wish me luck for this month!
I wonder why no one likes to call them resolutions when that's what they are. Maybe because we think that makes us less likely to be successful with them? I really think that's the main reason. Whether you call them goals, intentions, aspirations, or resolutions, they all mean the same thing. They mean you want to make some sort of change from how you were living in the previous year. Well, just like many of you, my friends, I have goals as well.
The main goal I'll be focusing on in this blog post is oh so stereotypical: weight loss/getting back in shape. Though it's somewhat embarrassing for me to have this problem (mainly because I'm not used to it), I'm going to be very honest in this post. I gained 36 lbs. during my pregnancy with Graham. The doctors recommend 25-35 lb. weight gain and my doctor told me I should gain on the higher side of that based on my pre-pregnancy weight, so not too shabby, huh? I certainly could've done worse.
However, my post-pregnancy weight loss has not been as expected. Many people told me (and I read on birth boards) that most of the weight would pretty much fall off, especially if I was breast feeding. Not so with me. I've lost only 14 of my 36 lbs. and Graham is over 2 months old! All the rest of this weight is clinging to me for dear life. Though I wasn't eating perfect and I couldn't work out for 6 weeks, I was eating less than when I was pregnant and breast feeding. I'm sure most new moms don't eat perfect and work out right away and the ones I know don't seem to be having this much of a struggle losing the weight!
I've been feeling pretty gross... I don't fit in any clothes. My pre-pregnancy clothes are still too small and my maternity clothes obviously fall off of me (or just look plain weird). I refuse to buy new clothes that are even fatter than my old "fat clothes."
So I knew I had to do something ... and what better time to start than the new year? I am on a mission to lose all my pregnancy weight by the time Graham is 9 months old. It took me 9 months to put it on (easily) and I hope to get it all off by 9 months (though I know it will be a lot harder).
What am I doing to achieve this goal? First, I know I need to make a diet change. The hardest thing for me to give up by far is sodas. I LOVE Coca-Cola and had been drinking far too much of it in the past 2 months, in addition to other high caloried drinks (such as Starbucks (*sigh* my precious...). I have no specific diet plan other than eat healthier and eat less. So far, so good. I'm eating more fruits and veggies and less of whatever the main dish is (and making healthier main dishes, at that). Also, though I'm not a breakfast person, I'm trying to make myself eat something at breakfast, in addition to lunch and snacks so I don't just pig out at dinner time.
I am using the E-Mealz website. I signed up for the Low-Fat Wal-Mart for 2 plan and it gives me a menu and shopping list every week for low-fat meals for 2 people.
I found and have started utilizing this awesome website called My Fitness Pal. On it, you can do many things. You enter your weight, your goal weight, how many times you want to exercise per week, and your goal date for the weight loss, along with other things, and the website gives you goals for the day in terms of eating (calories, fat, carbs). You track your food intake on the website (it has nutritional info for SO much food in it's database, so that's a lot more simple than you may think); you also track your exercise and how many calories that burns. If you enter your exercise, the website tells you how much more you can eat that day. I plan to exercise at least 3-4 times a week. You also track your water intake on the website; I'm working on drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day. By the way, that helps keep me from drinking those calorie drinks too.
Anyway, I started this on January 2 and will continue to keep you updated on my progress. Let's just hope the weight loss is somewhat faster than it has been so far! Any encouragement/well wishes are welcome!
