I am a Chameleon

I’ve been wanting to write a post about how my lifestyle has changed for awhile now. And, Boy, has it changed. I used to be the girl who would sit for hours watching back-to-back episodes of Greys Anatomy or Sex and the City. Now, I’m the mum who can never sit for hours on end.

I’ve grown from the sloth who couldn’t quite manage to get out of her university years. And at 29, I can safely say time has picked up its pace. It’s not just the fast pace of life, which has changed, it is my whole outlook on life which has changed too.

I’m no longer the pizza munching popcorn chomping girl. I am the woman who cooks homemade food and eats fresh fruits and vegetables on an hourly basis. I love finding new recipes, mostly vegan, due to allergies. My kitchen has become a science lab of new potions and concoctions. With a spoon, I will follow around the members of this household and very nicely force feed them my new super food.

I am the mum who enjoys spending hours on end strolling through the aisles of the supermarket looking for the dairy-free and bio food to shove down my 1 year olds throat. I enjoy the moment of choosing what we eat and finding new produce. Some days this is the only adult interaction I get, so I take my sweet time.

I am the wife who gets upset when her husband leaves his socks on the floor. I have stock piles of laundry to do and washing up to finish. I make sure everyone is clean and tidy and ready on time and of course pay all the bills on time.

On top of all these new changes, which have happened over the last year, I have added one more thing to my list of names. I’ve become a triathlete, yes, you heard me, I’m calling myself a triathlete. Nothing professional but as it becomes more and more a part of my life I have come to the conclusion that I am officially a triathlete. Just because, becoming a grown-up, Mother and wife were not enough for me.

 

This hasn’t been easy and started off as a bit of a joke thinking that I would train for one race, dust my hands and say “Ok,  I did that”. However, as the months passed on I became more dedicated and saw so many more positive changes in myself and with my body. I have found true friends  and like minded people. I have seen my marriage and my relationship with my daughter blossom with all the support we all give each other through this sport. I will save all those wonderful details for another post or 2.

And, with all these new labels I can call myself (I’m seriously a multitasking chameleon)
I have become a stronger and more independent woman. I have gone through so many changes, physical and mental, and have evolved into a person whom I love and respect and didn’t appreciate enough until now. I’m still the little blonde girl, loving makeup and doing my hair and having strong opinions, I’m just a much better version of myself with even more to give this world and more importantly to give my family.

 

The Nurse Said What?

Yesterday, (as in over a week ago,takes a long time to write a post these days) Zoe had her 1 month check up. I was excited to go and tell the nurse and the doctor about all of her developments. Of course, there were a few issues that had to be checked and we have been given special creams and lotions, as well as specialist doctor appointments. But, for me, I was excited to show and tell all of her milestones, which comes with a sigh of relief when your a new mother and you want your baby to be on track.

One of my biggest worries, as a first time mum, was tackling the whole breastfeeding drama. I would say th

at Zoe and I haven’t had much trouble in this department. I read book after book, article after article and watched hundreds of videos before she was born. I was determined that we were going to start off strong and that I was ready for all the bumps in the road. And it worked.

Zoe, just like any baby, knows exactly when she needs to eat. I will say that day feeds are completely different from night-time feeds. I have no idea why this is, the books don’t seem to have much information on the vast contrast between these two times of day. During the day, Zoe is a lot more calm and tends to just cry a little to let me know she is hungry. The evening is a totally different story.

From around 9pm, she becomes very aggressive and very loud when she knows its time for her to eat. Her cries ring out through my ears, her tongue shakes in her mouth, her hands clench into tight fists and her body trembles. I grab her and tuck her under my arm. In my effort to open my shirt, which clearly is not quick enough for her, she starts to kick, punch and scratch me. I have to admit that it really hurts, A LOT. There comes a moment when she senses that the food is “ready” and she starts sniffing like a little bunny, just an aggressive one. I hear this sniff-sniff, her lips open, getting ready for the kill, she clamps down hard and starts suckling. Every time she does this she is stopped in her tracks and she starts spluttering all over me. In her eagerness to get her food she sucks too hard, causing gallons and gallons of milk to come squirting out, like a raging water slide. And again, she starts crying from shock and she starts hitting and kicking again. After a few seconds she grabs on one more time and she is happy, at least on the most part. There have been a few times when she stops in the middle, cries a little and then continues.

There is very little explanation for this. One theory is that milk supply, in the evening, is more fatty and contains more calories and is therefore a little different. But I don’t know if this has much effect on flow or on taste, and in my opinion it does not. So, despite this major activity session, feeding has been pretty good for us. She does seem to eat a lot and for the last couple of weeks I have been feeding her for 30 mins about every 2-3 hours. I was under the impression that this was OK.  But I was told otherwise yesterday.

When Zoe was born she weighed 2.98kg/ 6.5lb and yesterday she weighed 4.21kg/9.3lb. I do realise that is quite a big leap in 4 and a half weeks. However, I didn’t think that it would be a problem that my baby grew a lot. The nurse thinks otherwise and has advised me to cut back on feeding time and how often. WHAT????????? Do I really put my baby on a diet already?

I was more than shocked to hear this, I don’t know why, but I thought we would have been given high praise for achieving such great progress. Because believe me, it is not easy getting the hang of this whole breastfeeding stuff, waking several times in the middle of the night, having a baby literally hang off my body 24/7. I feel like a cow processing  milk for the 5,000. I also thought that it is not a good idea to give a baby a schedule before 2 or 3 months. And believe me this baby has no schedule with feeding, or anything else, there is no such thing with a newborn. But now, I have to feed Zoe every 4 hours for 15-20 minutes. If you saw my little baby she isn’t even fat, she hasn’t got any of those little baby rolls, her belly is not swollen, she just has the chunkiest cheeks you have ever seen.

Well, the last 24 hours (and over the last week or so) have been a little difficult, to say the least. The screams have been gut wrenching, and trying to keep a newborn baby occupied in between feeds is not an easy task. We have started at 2.5 hours and going to 3 and so and on and so forth. I refuse to just let my baby cry and of course when she cries hysterically I feed her. But it is a hard decision to make to know when she is hungry or crying just because.

There is of course the little matter of colic. I have come to realise that this could have made an appearance on our little girl. The crying comes in constant waves at the moment. Come food or not whenever she is awake she seems to cry. Nothing seems to calm her and we have tried a lot of remedies to try and soothe and comfort her. Could it be trouble tummy or just because, we don’t really know. I am on a dairy free, caffeine free, tomato free diet, which seems to have helped her tummy to some level but not fully. I feel it is a bit of waiting game at the moment and hopefully something that will pass over time, sooner rather than later. I don’t know how many more midnight walks and drives we can take. But we are determined to win this battle.

2 Dresses, 2 Tops, 1 Belt but No Salami.

Today I woke up and thought, “Mmm, I will cook today”. Not an unusual thought for a pregnant woman who needs to feed herself and her family. But a thought process, which started 2 days ago when my kitchen was taken over by a tiramisu concoction, not made by me.

The scene: Apa comes home from work, the day after my big Tesco shop, with bags full of food. I fight the urge to ask where on earth he stored all this food on his scooter as I can see we are no mood for sarcasm or jokes. Before I say a word, there is a mutter about how I forgot about him in yesterdays shop and I only thought about myself and bought 2 dresses. My response to that was not so smart, “It was 2 dresses, 2 tops and a belt”. The look of fire came my way but no words spoken. I smile my sweetest smile and come and look at the contents of his shopping. Cold meats, lactose free milk and all the ingredients for a tiramisu. A ha, I see where this is going. He is feeling sad because I forgot some things so is trying to guilt trip me into making a beautiful dessert for two. Little does he know his plan won’t work because tiramisu and I are not the biggest of fans. I might be pregnant, but that does not mean I will eat everything under the sun. So the afternoon was spent making this gigantic tiramisu, made to feed the 5000, and the look of triumph on his face was priceless. Come the evening, I knew what I had to do, taste. In fact, it was pretty good, but I knew I was not going to eat much more than a few bites. The next two days was quite entertaining to watch as this man gobbled up every single bite of this Italian coffee flavoured dessert, and felt not guilt until after he realised he tackled it alone. What followed was the all too familiar, “We need to eat more healthy now” phrase, not said by me.

So after browsing through some recipes I came across Italian stuffed aubergines, (I am sticking to the Italian theme) I checked the ingredients and it was super easy. (Link below). First response from this athlete, “where’s the meat?”, followed by “oh, you can make this every week”. Score, pregnant woman 1 – Apa 0

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1262642/italianstyle-stuffed-aubergines

The Dreaded Number

The number on the scales has gone up at a steady pace for the past few months. It has become part of my morning routine; pee, weigh-in, tea and cereal. And each morning I am shocked to see the numbers have increased. Yes, I know this is part of pregnancy, but it has surprised me at the rate in which the baby, and I, are growing.

I suppose, on one level it has been gradual, rather than a sudden explosion and quite frankly I don’t know what I expected. But, it still shakes me every morning. So, why do I do it?

Perhaps one reason is control, which is ironic because I don’t have any control over it. I feel the control comes from the routine of checking and if I feel the number has gone up too steap I can control myself through out the day. For example, I won’t eat two breakfasts, yes this happens on a regular basis. Like with many things in pregnancy, there are so many things that a woman cannot control and this can be quite hard to accept.

Another reason is for tracking, which again goes back to the control. I want to record how much weight I have gained so I know I am on the right path for a healthy pregnancy and hopefully a healthy baby. I don’t want the numbers to go up too quickly or for the opposite to happen. It’s also a good idea to know how much I have put on so when the time comes, and it will, for me to get back into shape, I will know what the goal is.

As I have researched, there is not set goal or right amount of weight to be gained, just like everything in pregnacy, every woman is different. And this is the key, every woman is different, be it through their pregnancy or women who are not pregnant. Our bodies respond differently to everything and pregnancy is definitely one of those things you cannot predict to how your body will cope and change.

What we know to be true is that exercise is key to a healthy steady weight increase, or at least in my head and from what I have been told. I have tried to stay very active and keep up my fitness routine as much as possible, even if I have had to adapt a few things. Eating healthy food and a variety of healthy food is another key factor and if you can follow this there is no need to feel guilty and who said that a few treats along the way are going to do any harm?

With this said I won’t stop my routine of weight checks. This won’t change for a long time because I am so looking forward to seeing those numbers dwindle down to my pre pregnancy weight.