2 Months

Here's our huge little Snugs. At 6 weeks she was approximately in the 75th percentile for both height and weight and is easily in 3 month clothes, especially pants. She is a very sweet and easy baby and I can't believe how lucky we are. Whenever she is faced with a situation she is not crazy about like being in the carseat in the stroller or car she squawks out a couple of protests and then promptly 'goes to sleep.' I put that last phrase in quotation marks because as soon as the car or stroller stops she yells out and/or wakes up if it's a permanent stop. I call it the fake sleep and yes, I'll take it. She has real sleeps throughout the day though it is getting harder to get her to take them so fortunately she likes contraptions such as the bouncy chair and swing. This love also allows me a lot more baby-free moments than I had with Nadia which enables me to, you know, take. care. of. Nadia. and get stuff done around the house, like shower. I guess you get what you need, even if you can't always figure out why you needed it.

Night sleeping is getting better - she sleeps 6-8 hours, feeds for 1/2 hour and then is back down for 2-3 hours, depending on what time Mooper bounds into our room. Yes, Snugs is still sleeping in our room, though fortunately since the end of the first month, not in our bed, but in her bassinet. As was the case with N, after a few necessary weeks of co-sleeping, finally neither she nor I was sleeping so it was clear it was time for her to have her own bed. I probably won't move her out of our room until she's 3 months old. For many reasons I see the first 3 months as the 4th trimester and am waiting until she's that old for a few things. Like going to the Y and leaving her with childwatch. I'm just weird like that.

After surviving the first few weeks I realized that that time with Nadia is a blur. There are many things I couldn't do and don't remember due to a combination of having a c-section and then being on percocet. Ah, the haze of druggy days! Anyway, I'm glad to have a clearer memory this time around of just how hard it is to take care of a newborn! It will definitely prevent me from doing it again. Snip snip J;)

In fitness news, I am running like a crazy person, trying to get to 1000 miles by the end of the year. I'm averaging 5 junky miles a day, most of which are with the double stroller, and my long run is up to 7 miles. As a result my legs are very stiff (goodbye pregnancy loosening hormones!) and I feel close to injury. Yeah, I'm stupid stubborn like that. Come January I plan to start running smarter and go back to the Y to do masochist, I mean, strength training classes. I try to do weights on my own but rarely have the time or energy to do what I need to keep my arms from looking like sausages. Seriously, my arms looked better 9 months pregnant than they do now. Or maybe they just seemed that way in proportion. I do know that my body likes to be doughy during lactation but I'm hoping that lots of work will lay the foundation for a toned body once I finish breastfeeding in, oh, say 10 months or so. I haven't lost any weight in the last month but have lost an inch in my hips. I'm hoping that I will start to lose those last pounds after 3 months pp; that's when it started last time. I'm telling you, there's something about 3 months. I've read a lot of theories indicating just that - like studies saying breastfeeding women lose more weight than non between 3 and 6 months postpartum.

The more I read the more it seems that a. no one really knows all I would like to know about pregnancy and breastfeeding and the effect they have on the body and b. everyone's body is different. I gained way less weight this time but am still fighting the same battle 2 months post-partum. The only advantage (besides being in better shape overall and being able to push out a posterior baby- another story for another time) is that I'm starting the countdown to skinny at 125 lbs instead of 130. (Well, and probably less inches to lose as well.) What is it about multiples of 5 that create weight plateaus? (In normal life it's often hard to break 120.) I started the pregnancy at 119 lbs but dropped to 117 during the second month so that's what I'm considering my goal. I was once 110 lbs back in 2004 (thank you boy-stress) but people were starting to worry about me. Said boy thought I was in the bathroom all the time throwing up, instead of due to a small bladder. Anyway, after boy was no longer in the picture I went up to 113-115 and would LOVE to get back there someday but would be very satisfied with 117 and fitting back into all of my pre-Snugs clothes. (I've gotten rid of a lot of pre-Nadia clothes because they were worn out- it was hard to find clothes I liked/that fit in Italy so I wore my Canadian clothes to their last shreds!)

Some women report that breastfeeding melts off the pounds immediately and others, often fit ladies, report it isn't until they stop that they can shed those last 5-10 lbs. I'm obviously in the latter category but despite knowing that I find it hard to trust. I'm just impatient that way.

So that's the skinny, or rather, fatty. (Me, that is. Snugs is very obviously festively plump!)