Life A.D.–4 months

Posted in Body A.D., Cora by teamtradermom

Let’s start out with something guaranteed to make you smile.

THIS happens very regularly in our house these days and I LOVE it!

That laugh just cracks me up.

Cora has always been a very happy baby. She smiles easily and is just plain old content with her life, which makes me happy too.

There’s nothing better than coming home to her big gummy grin after a long day at work!

Developmentally she is on schedule with most everything. She blows bubbles, “talks”, grabs at things, follows objects with her eyes, sits pretty well when supported and pushes the bottle away when done eating.

What she doesn’t do yet is hold her head steady, rollover or sit on her own. These are things that occur in babies anywhere between 4- 6 months so I’m not worried about it. It’s partly our fault, to be honest. We haven’t been super diligent with tummy time. I just forget to do it! Consequently Cora is not a big fan and when we do put her on her stomach, she tolerates it for only a few minutes and then starts screaming. She’ll get there though.

She loves to play with her feet!

With rolling over, she’s trying to kick from back to front. She will get about 3/4 of the way there, get stuck and then flop back. It’s kind of funny to watch. One of these days she’s just going to flip on over and surprise us all!

Cora had her 4 month well check appointment yesterday and did very well! Poor thing had to get 4 immunizations (one orally and 3 shots). Fortunately she was hungry so she sucked the oral one right down. She cried while the nurse was giving her the 3 shots but stopped almost as soon as I picked her up and gave her a bottle. Mental note: bring her slightly hungry from now on!

She clocked in at 12 pounds, 6.5 ounces and 25.5″ long. which means she’s grown almost 2 lbs. and 2″ in 2 months. She’s long and skinny.

Here she is on that same mat, just 1 week old.

I’d say she’s grown a little bit!

By comparison, Isabella was 14 lbs 5 ounces and 26” tall at 4 months. So Bella was a bit chunkier.

Cora’s skin issues continue. We’ve been noticing a lot of redness and scaling in the areas where her skin rubs against itself (inside of the elbows, back of the knees, and ankles) and have tried everything to help it. Nothing really seems to work. The pediatrician said it’s eczema and recommended we take her to a dermatologist. She actually said it’s one of the worst cases of eczema she’s seen in a baby in a years.

Poor Punk!

I made an appointment and we’ll be taking her to the dermatologist next week. The cradle cap persists as well, which the doctor thinks is related to the eczema so hopefully the dermatologist can help us there too.

Another personality trait that we’ve noticed lately is that Cora knows us (CJ, Isabella and me) very well and wants nothing to do with anyone else at first . Stranger Danger! As soon as she realizes someone else is holding her, she freaks out. She does this even with her grandparents or people we see a lot. She will calm down after a while but man, those first few minutes are crazy!

Isabella is doing great and loves to make her sister smile. She plays with her and gives her hugs and kisses. We still don’t let her hold the baby that much because Munchkin can still be rough sometimes. I can see now why younger siblings are often sturdier/tougher than the older ones!

As for me, my weight loss progress continues along. I’ve lost a total of 9 pounds in 8 weeks.

It’s slow but steady progress. I am really liking the Weight Watchers plan and the meetings. Both help me stay accountable and give me tools for success.

I’ve also changed up my workouts and began training with a friend again. We worked out together last year until I found out I was pregnant and then we put it on hold. Well we’ve picked up again. It’s only been a week so far but I think it’s just what I need to shake up my routine. Though I was working out every day before, I was getting kind of complacent and not pushing myself as hard as I could be. The change must be working because I lost 3 lbs. just this week!

Time is flying by way too fast. Isabella starts pre-school next month, then she’ll be 4 and next thing you know, Cora will be 1 year! Yikes! I’m tryimg to hold on to every moment while I can and not take anything for granted!

5Aug2013

Fat Talk

Posted in Health and Weightloss by teamtradermom

When I got married, I wore a size 6. I was 5’7″ and 125 pounds.

I thought I was fat.

Well, ok, maybe not truly “fat” but I certainly wasn’t happy with my body.

I look back at old pictures of myself and shake my head.

What would young Sarah have thought of me today, wearing a size 12-14 (depending on the item), a size Large and weighing in at 154 pounds?

I throw all these numbers out there to show that as women we are almost never happy with our appearance. I admit that I am not thrilled with how I look today. I would like to shed about 14 lbs. to get back to the 140 that I was pre-Cora. If I could shed even more, that would be a bonus. I recognize that I will never be a size 6 and 125 lbs. again. After having 2 babies my body just can’t bounce back to that.

And it’s ok.

Society wants us to think that we have to be a certain size/shape to be pretty. Admittedly I have bought in to that over the years, thinking I was not worthy because I had a muffin top or extra junk in the trunk. I have looked at myself in the mirror and been disgusted with what I saw, thinking horrible things about myself.

That kind of negative self-talk has got to stop.

Would I say those things to a friend? Absolutely not. I look around at the women in my life and think of those who strike me as beautiful. They are not all a size 2 with 6 pack abs and perfectly defined arms and legs. They are beautiful because of who they are on the inside – their personalities. That in turn makes their outsides beautiful too.

Why don’t I look at myself the same way?

I have always been careful about what I say in front of Isabella. I make a point to not only complement her looks but also her intelligence, sense of humor and loving heart. In front of her I have never used the word “fat” to describe myself or anyone else, nor have I berated how I look. Believe me, that is hard on some days, especially right after Cora was born and I was a bit down with how I was looking and feeling. I know she will reach a point in her life where she starts to put herself down, or heaven forbid someone else does it, but I don’t want to be an influencer of that.

In that vein, I think it’s high time that women everywhere stop putting ourselves down and instead embrace who we are and how we look. No more fat talk!

Let me begin…

I love my eyes.

One thing that people always notice about my girls is that they have big beautiful blue eyes.

They get the rich color from their dad but the shape from me. I hadn’t realized that until someone pointed it out to me recently. My eyes are beautiful too!

I have always had nice legs. I remember as a kid that my dad would complement my mom’s legs a lot, saying how shapely they were. That led me to pay attention to my own gams and have been confident in showing them off. They are long, lean and strong, which I love.

Brunettes are where it’s at! They say blondes have more fun but I love being a natural brunette. I have never wanted to be anything else. Sure I’ve played with highlights over the years but have always kept a dark rich base. I think it’s exotic and lovely.

My sense of humor. I love to make people laugh. I like to think I’m fairly witty about it too.

My ability to accept all people. I avoid talking religion and politics on this blog, or in general conversation, because as we all know, they are touchy subjects. But I will say this: one of my main problems with certain religions and political parties is when they don’t accept anyone and everyone as being equal. I have always been inclusive of everyone (from the grade school playground to buying black Cabbage Patch dolls to go along with my other white dolls). To this day I have friends who are gay/straight/African American/Caucasian/Asian/Muslim/religious/atheist/etc. I love all kinds of people and am proud of my ability to do that.

My pledge is to stop saying bad things about how I look and stop comparing myself to others. I am a work in progress and I will love where I am and how I look at any given moment. I encourage every woman out there to do the same. We are all beautiful, inside and out! Let’s proclaim it to the world!

29Jul2013

Little Things

Posted in Family by teamtradermom

For the most part, being a mother of two beautiful little girls is wonderful and rewarding.

But then there are the other times.

Like when they are both crying at the same time and it becomes a game as to who can scream the loudest.

Or when you’re out and about and remember that you need to “run in quick” to the store for milk. When you travel with children, nothing is quick.

There are the times when you look around the house and see nothing but a sea of toys and bibs and clothes and forgotten drinks and piles of dishes and wonder if your house will ever be uncluttered again.

It’s at precisely those moments that it’s important to stop and remember the good stuff. The things that make you smile. Here are some of those special “little things” from this week.

Walking out of the room, after tucking Isabella in to bed, and hearing her sweet little voice say, “I love you Mommy.”

Having a .6 lb weight loss on the scale after a week of not being sick and unable to workout. And then having a 1.6 lb. loss the next week even though I ate out almost every day!

Dark chocolate and almonds

Crossing an item off my to-do list that has been on it for almost a year.

Getting my Inbox at work cleaned out and down to only 18 emails!

An afternoon baseball game.

Wearing shorts to work.

Evenings out chatting with the neighbors while all the kids play together.

Coming home from a long day at work to be greeted by a wagging tail and cold wet Labrador nose.

Saying “hello” to Cora and having her instantly recognize me and break out in to a big gummy grin!

Playing sand volleyball on a beautiful summer evening.

The baby nuzzling in to my neck.

You know, once I started building this list, the thoughts just kept coming. I could go on and on. That tells me something. It tells me that there are way more good times than bad and life really is pretty darn great!

19Jul2013

Munch and Punk

Posted in Cora, Isabella/Munchkin by teamtradermom

Almost from the day Isabella was born I’ve been calling her Munchkin. I have no idea where it came from. I just said it one day and it stuck.

We used to laugh about her cry face because it would get all scrunched up and red when she was upset. So I jokingly changed “Munchkin” to “Scrunchkin” and that stuck too.

In fact, I called her Munchkin (or Munch) so much that we worried she would think that were her real name! Then we started to wonder if she would get a complex thinking I was making fun of her size.

(Oh the silly little things we worry about as first time parents…)

Well here we are almost 4 years later and she has no confusions about her name.

And I still call her Munch/Scrunch all the time.

When I was pregnant with Cora, Isabella asked me if I was going to call the new baby Munchkin too. I assured her that no, Cora would get her own nickname. I had no idea what it would be but I was adamant it would be unique and different. Munchkin is Isabella’s and with all the changes that were going to soon rock her world, I wanted to make sure she didn’t feel like she was losing her special name.

But I didn’t want to overthink it either and force a name that didn’t fit. So I kept the thought in my subconscious knowing that a name would come out on it’s own.

Then the big day arrived and the first time I was alone with our brand new baby girl, I instinctively started to say “Munchkin”.

We didn’t have a name yet (took us almost 10 hours to come up with one) so I didn’t have anything else to go with. But not wanting to use THAT name, I quickly changed it to Pumpkin. It was close and sorta rhymed. It just come out! Later I switched and started saying Punkin.

Can you see where this is going?

Because I’m lazy and feel that it takes too much effort to say Punkin, I shortened it to Punk.

And it stuck.

Cora = Punk and I call her that more than her real name. Because, you know, it takes less energy to say a one syllable word than a 2 syllable one….

For some reason I felt silly about calling my sweet precious baby girl “Punk” but yet I couldn’t think of anything else and it was already cemented in my mind. So I would say it quietly, afraid that others would overhear and think I was strange. But after a while I got over that and just said it. Isabella asked me what it meant and now she says it sometimes too (although at first she thought I was saying “Pumk”).

I’m sure there will come a day when both girls will ask me to stop calling them those names, because it’s like so uncool. But I will always think of them as my Munch and Punk (which sounds like a good name for a children’s book or TV show. Don’t you dare steal it…copyright TTM, all rights reserved!).

Check out these similar posts!

Life A.D. – 3 Months | The Escape Artist | Time Flies…

10Jul2013

Life A.D.–3 months

Posted in Cora by teamtradermom

Can you believe this little peanut is already 3 months old?

For some reason, 3 months feels like a big milestone to me. Maybe it’s because baby clothes are split out in 3 month increments (0-3, 3 mos., 6 mos., 9 mos., 12 mos., etc), so it means she’s reached the next level. Whatever the reason, my little girl is certainly growing!

She is a very happy and laid back baby. She smiles and talks all the time and it just makes me all happy and gooey inside!

Here are some of the changes we’ve seen since last month:

Grasping – she has a really strong grip and is grabbing more and more things lately. She almost always grabs ahold of one or 2 of our fingers during feeding. She particularly likes the thumbs.

She also grabs at toys during mat time. In the beginning it was accidental – as if her hand was getting “caught” on the toy. Now it’s a little more purposeful. She’s not totally in control of her movements yet but getting closer everyday.

Head Control – while not able to fully support her head just yet, her neck is getting stronger all the time. She used to flop over immediately upon sitting her up. Now she can balance pretty good!

Tummy time is key for building up that strength but she hates it so we don’t do it as often as we probably should. We didn’t with Isabella either though and she turned out just fine. No head flopping issues there!

Hearing and eyesight – both of these are really good. She focuses on objects and can follow them all around. She hears noises and will look in the direction of them too. She’s not super sensitive to loud noises though. The fireworks over the 4th of July didn’t bother her, which I was grateful for.

Eating and sleeping – we’re making slow and steady progress on this front. She has finally started stretching out her nightly feedings from every 2 hours to every 3 or 4. We’re still not getting a full night’s sleep but it’s better. During the day she still wants to nosh every 2, which is fine. The more she eats during the day, the less she’ll need at night.

Cradle Cap – both of our kids had bad cradle cap. Isabella’s lasted for over a year until we finally talked to a hair stylist that told us baby shampoo was probably the culprit. Who woulda thunk it!? We were buying shampoo specifically made to be gentle on baby’s skin and it was causing her dandruff! So we switched to using good old Head and Shoulders, after doing an olive oil treatment and voila, it went away in a few weeks.

So with Cora, we started off right away with the treatments and dandruff shampoo and it’s gotten much better in the last month or so.

Here’s a pic of how she looked when it was at its worst –

See all that scaly stuff at the top of her forehead? Yeah. It was that way all over. Looks gross but isn’t harmful at all.

It’s still there but is gradually getting better. Admittedly, I’m not as good about doing the treatments as regularly as I should be. Who knew that treating and bathing 2 kids could be so hard? Heck, if I wasn’t going to work every day, I’m not sure I’d be getting a daily shower!

Baby acne and skin conditions – Cora was born with baby acne, as you can see here, as she’s giving us the stink eye.

It’s the little white dots all over her face.

But it’s now totally gone. The only skin issues are the cradle cap and just plain dry skin. Not sure why her skin is so dry given that we fully bathe her only about once a week (in the meantime we do little sponge baths on areas where spit up gathers, like the folds of her neck and face) and I put lotion on her everyday. The pediatrician suggested putting a layer of Hydrocortisone cream and then lotion on top of that. That didn’t seem to make much of a difference. The only thing I can think of is that the lotion we’re using, Aveeno for Babies, isn’t strong enough and we need something more petroleum based, like Aquafor.

As for me, I feel fully back to normal on all fronts. No more soreness or pain – thank God!

I’ve finally started to see some progress in the weight loss department too.

I’ve been on Weight Watchers for a month now and have lost almost 5 lbs. Doesn’t seem like a lot but I can tell a difference in my clothes. I traded in my maternity jeans for regular ones, in a size bigger than I used to wear, and bought some new shirts so that I could wear cute fashionable clothes that actually fit. Amazing what that can do for one’s spirits!

Don’t let this picture fool you – it looks like I have a flat tummy but I don’t. It’s the magic of wearing clothes in the right size…that are dark!

Here’s the side view:

I’ve definitely made progress from where I was here.

I’m feeling much better about things than I was 4 weeks ago, that’s for sure. Still have 15 or so pounds to lose to get back in my pre-preggo clothes. I’ll get there eventually. I am really liking Weight Watchers so far. The plan makes a lot of sense to me and has been easy to follow. The meetings have been great too. Hearing other people’s trials and tips is beneficial. I actually look forward to them each week!

My return to work has gone very smoothly. Getting back in to the swing of things for me really wasn’t that hard. It helps that I had a week to work from home. It was also HUGE having CJ home and not having to leave the girls, and Cora in particular, with a daycare. I think that’s the hardest thing for most moms – putting your little tiny baby in to the hands of someone else.

CJ probably had the hardest adjustment. Having 2 at home is no picnic. I saw that during that time that I was still off work. He handles it like a champ though and does an amazing job with them. No the dishes aren’t always done when I get home and I don’t usually walk in to find dinner on the table, but I don’t expect that either. The important thing is for the girls to be happy, healthy, safe, and incredibly loved. There is no one that could do a better job of that for them than their dad.

Isabella, well she’s doing better with Cora every day. I think this quote from her pretty much sums it up. I asked her how she felt about the baby at first and she said, “I was kind of happy but the rest of me was mad.” I inquired as to why she was mad and she replied, “I didn’t want to be the invisible girl.”

How does she feel about her now? “I’m a little more happy and less mad.”