Me: Eat More, Melt Pounds?

The only time I felt like I was turning back to my old self after a pregnancy was about five months after Joel (my oldest) was born.  I walked a lot, enjoying the end of a Walla Walla summer and early fall.  Three months out of the pregnancy I would go running for about an hour once or twice a week.  There was this sense of refreshing as my sneakers hit the frosty grass of some of the athletic fields near our apartment.  I thought all I had to do was get back to running an everything would be fine.

By five months, I was back in most of my old clothing and feeling great until I found I was pregnant a month later!  Once again, I would be trying the same old workout routine to get my body back.  I had this baby in October, so venturing out of the house was much more challenging.  I never wanted to leave the house and when I did I could only walk outside for brief periods of time, since I was walking with two very bundled up babies.  I lost about ten pounds after baby number two and the scale stopped moving.  I made it two years, lots of running, and really trying to eat much healthier, but nothing seemed to work.  When I started to see the scale move again, I was pregnant with baby 3, and down it was not moving!

This was the best pregnancy for me so far.  I was already eating really healthy and I had finally found some prenatal workouts that I enjoyed.  When Dominic was born I fit into my jeans, post baby two jeans that is, a month out of this pregnancy.  I used a belly bandit and it really helped my back pain and confidence.  I thought I had figured it out.  If I thought of postpartum as a phase of regaining strength instead of jumping right back into my high school workout routines, then maybe I could have my body back again.  I was just starting to feel great when along came pregnancy number four.

So this time I was unhappy because I really still wished I had lost some weight before this baby.  I had gone from 103 lbs before Joel was born to 120 lbs as my starting weight for baby number four.  During this pregnancy I was super strict about my diet and tried to be a healthy as possible.  Struggles are still there like my love for chocolate, but I did not gain much weight and I thought I would have very little trouble working the pounds away.

Maybe my plans to finally look like me again would have happened if I did not get pregnant with baby number five.  Up until this point I was still in a healthy range for body weight and losing it was not a big of a deal as it is now.  I had baby five no problem and lost all but three pounds of my pregnancy weight in less than two months.  I did not really gain much weight either, about 12 pounds, I had plenty of extra weight on me and gave birth to my biggest baby. 

Unfortunately, after this baby my body did not want to keep that weight off.  I went from 127 pounds to 134 in the five months postpartum.  How did that happen?  I was very frustrated as one can imagine.  Plus most of my weight gain happened after I began to workout again.  My workout routine after two months of pregnancy were about 30-50 minutes..NOT easy workouts either.  I was doing Jillian Michaels "Banish Fat Boost Metabolism" and Crunch fitness "Fat Burning Pilates."  I would run about three miles when I could.  My daughter and I were working on "The New York City Ballet Workout" about once a week too.  There were other similar themed workouts too, but none of this seemed to help me.  I was GAINING weight.  I knew I could not really go on a diet, but I needed to figure out a change.

Then I discovered www.momsintofitness.com.  This Lindsey Brin website has made me retrace my steps to try and figure out what I am doing wrong.  I want to either maintain a weight or see a few pounds go away.  On this website there is an option for a free trial of her workouts, lasting a month and a weight loss calculator.  On top of this there is some really helpful hints to using her diet and workout routines while breastfeeding.  This is everything I have been longing to learn in one place!

So I took the leap a week and two days ago.  I did the first week of workouts, only three days (1.3,5).  Then in between I used Jillian's "Banish Fat Boost Metabolism" to get in some cardio (2, 4).  Then I went on one thirty minute walk (Day 3) and jogged for three miles (Day 7).  Day 6 was my day off, but I still went on a short walk (did not consider it a real workout though).  Then instead of going on a diet I read all the breastfeeding rules on Lindsey Brin's website and looked at her diet for ideas of what I could change. 

My conclusion was counter intuitive, maybe based on the amount of exercise I was doing, maybe I needed to sit down for a snack more.  Our family eats super healthy meals, and I always make my kids a snack.  When pregnant, I would snack with the kids, but I thought I could maybe get away with skipping a snack.  My skipping a snack turned into a handful of chocolate chips or a cookie I baked for the kids.  I did not focus on protein, which I have learned is even more important while breastfeeding than I realized.  Yes, eat healthy, but just like during pregnancy, every calorie counts and one needs to feel full because one ate good nutrients instead of fluff. 

Now I am eating three healthy balanced meals a day, plus adding a protein to my oatmeal breakfast and three protein focused snacks a day, one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one before going to bed.  After a week of making these minor changes I already feel a difference in my energy level and I have lost two pounds.  Ideally one should not lose more than 1 pound a week, so maybe I can even eat a little more. 

To stay on track of this I am keeping a diet journal.  All of last week I calculated my calories based on each whole food using this website :http://caloriecount.about.com/whole-foods-market-nutrition-m1579.  Also look on the back of packaged foods.  I never ate more than 2,000 calories a day without even trying and most of the time I found myself in the 1800 range.  Remember whole foods are not filled with extra hidden calories.  One can eat quite a lot of food.  Previous to this last week I was probably eating around 1500 to 1800 calories, not all of them good.  I am still having a treat here and there, but my main focus is healthy foods like fruits, veggies, yogurt, etc.  Now I am not tracking my weight so closely, but I am still writing things down, so I can look back to what I was eating and make changes if I need to.

Week Two is a bit more challenging.  The workouts are a bit longer and I can say yesterday's workout wiped me out.  I am looking forward to the rest of this month and will post an update when I am done.  

Parenting: Baby and on the Move

Have you ever watched how specific a baby's first moves are?  Every single one of my children have moved differently.  I had a first baby I never thought would crawl, surprising me at around ten months he had perfected his crawl privately.  My second child was completely different, fearless.  She was crawling around four and half months...I still have trouble believing it, but she was and is still just as energetic today.  My third child was not in a hurry to move and neither was my fourth.  They both crawled around eight months old.  Now my fifth child, she is the most creative of them all.  I thought we were good for some time since Bria does not like being on her tummy anymore.

Just because a baby does not want to work on tummy time does not mean we will have one of those peaceful babies like my first.  Just last week she scooted off our bed as an upside down inchworm.  Thankfully our bed is close to the ground.  Shortly after this, Bria  began exploring our living room the same way, the upside down inch worm crawl.  I cannot leave her on the floor for long or she will inch her way under a chair.  She has learned how to roll over from her tummy to explore her favorite way.  Her activity level is topping the charts in out house.  She is fearless much like the oldest girl.

So here I am with a very active five month old and four more kids, not to mention I just decided to undertake potty training my almost two year old girl.  Now I began potty training Dominic, my almost three year old, at around eighteen months old and I am just starting to see a little boy who just about never wets his pants.  We still use a diaper at night, partly because neither my husband nor I get up in time to get him to the potty when he first wakes up.

As one can imagine, days right now are hectic and complete chaos.  I am imagining trying to homeschool next year and I am not sure how it will happen.  All I know is that homeschooling has been an ideal for my husband and I and now that we are faced with another school aged child, we are realizing that we need to make a choice.  I love the little private school my son is in, but I also want to have a family that learns together and is close.  Plus, it would be nice to not feel stressed all week about getting a child to school on time when the rest of us do not need to go anywhere.

With kids moving and growing really fast, I keep thinking about how much I want to cherish this time.  The last week so far has been challenging, but I know that ten years does not seem that far away and before I know it my kids will not need me as much as I do them.  It is easy to feel entitled to a perfect organized world, but that will never be the case and I like it that way.  Yes, I want to be in control, and for the important things I am, but one can only control so much.  Babies will crawl their own way, kids will take years to potty train...in the end they have to make decisions too.  

Projects: Ruffle Cloth Diaper

Bria's Ruffle Plum Diaper

As I get to the end of my third attempt at making cloth diapers I find myself interested in going beyond the pattern and trying to figure out some fun new ways to personalize my diapers.  The other new experiment this time around involved turning my old prefold diapers into pretty all in one diapers.  These diapers require PUL fabric, an old prefold the right size for the diaper you want to make, and a nice piece of absorbent fabric for the inside the diapers.  I still use velcro for fastening the diapers, but one can get a snap press and place snaps instead of velco.  Also, pick some elastic, either FOE (fold over elastic) or 1/4 inch. 

The fabrics I used for the lining of the diapers were organic cotton sweatshirt fleece, quilting flannel (larger width of fabric for the yard I bought), and cotton velour.  I used a different online source for some of my fabric (www.fabric.com) and decided to try out Babyville Boutique from JoAnn Fabrics.  In the past I bought from www.kidsinthegarden.com and www.diapersewingsupplies.com.  So far the first two websites I used got the fabric to me faster than www.fabric.com, but other than that all of these websites have provided great choices and high quality materials.  The PUL from www.diapersewingsupplies.com seems to be slightly thicker and has proven to be durable so far.  Babyville Boutique has some super cute prints and I really could not resist making the diapers more baby girl themed this time.  We got pink flowers and cupcakes and just plain pink.  I am embracing the baby girl phase.  Plus size medium diapers will be used the longest, so who knows if they will make it past one baby.

Speaking of making the diapers last, six of my recycled fabric size small diapers are not going to last.  The rest are fine, but the problem with old tee shirts and baby receiving blankets in the fabric has already worn out a bit.  The velcro is fine, so I am going to reuse it and the the PUL still looks like new, so I might piece together what is left and make a changing mat or a small wet bag.  These things are still useful even if the diapers are not.  Out of the new fabrics I bought I really love the cotton velour.  I love the fact that this fabric does not hold mustard baby poop stains.  The down side to this fabric is that is really stretchy and harder to sew with the slippery PUL.  It is not a good choice for a first round of diapers.  It was similar to sewing hemp fleece.  The flannel is the easiest, but if one is looking for organic choices, the sweatshirt fleece is great.  The sweatshirt fleece is thicker than jersey knit and super soft against baby's skin.

For the inner layers of my diaper it was easy using a prefold.  Instead of cutting out layers of fabric, simply trim down the diaper to fit inside the AIO.  Then follow the rest of the pattern.  

I also wanted to try out the Babyville Boutique FOE (fold over elastic) so even though I did not know if I liked using it the first time I made diaper covers, it worked out well.  I had to figured out how to pull the elastic tight around the leg opening and the top and bottom, but once one has figured it out it does make a nice looking diaper or diaper cover.  I do no know if these would leak on an older baby.  They do not on my five month old, but the fit is not as close to the leg as I would like.  The best elastic situation is 1/4 inch elastic sewn inside the diaper and then top stitching around the outside of the diaper.  This method fits Charis, Bria, and Dominic perfectly (age almost 2, 5 months, and almost 3). 

At this point one might be wondering if making cloth diapers is really worth it.   I have made over fifty diapers in the last six months.  Even with the hours of sewing and the time it takes to figure out the best fit for one's baby, it is worth it.  Now that I have made diapers four different times I am hooked.  It is way too much fun.  I can customize everything about the diaper to get exactly what I want.  Most of the diapers on sale are either polyester or cost twenty dollars for natural fibers.  Since my kids seem to get rashes looking for cotton has been helpful.  Most cotton diapers on the market are fats or prefold.  Now I can have the fabrics I want and a more expensive type of diaper for way less money.  Maybe I will still want to make diapers long after I have babies using them.  One can spend very little money, but the cost can add up if one wants to use more expensive fabrics.  Print PUL tends to cost more and so does FOE.  I would say this costs a lot less than disposable diapers, and even less than buying one's own stash of diapers.  As far as time in concerned, now that I know what kind of diapers I want to make and how to make them, each diaper takes about thirty minutes or less.  Cloth diapering does take just a little bit more time than throwing away a disposable.  I do not love cleaning up poop from my diapers, but overall, it seems to work for me. (mother of 5 who is home most of the time)


* to add ruffles to a diaper just find a long extra piece of PUL and fold it into ruffles sewing in the middle of the strip of fabric, easy, but pretty.

Parenting: French Lessons

As a mother with a B.A. in French Literature, what kind of a mother would I be if I did not teach my kids some French?  When Joel was a baby I was really into French speaking mode.  I had barely graduated college and maybe even still had a few dreams in French.  Dreaming in French began when I spent a semester in Nantes, France (another home to me). 

My husband worked at night, so I was left putting my son to bed and trying to figure out ways to make it less tear filled for us both.  One of my favorite things was to read some excerpts of my French books to him.  Maybe he would not learn that way, but he would hear the sounds and I love the way French sounds.  I would keep up some of my skills.  

Once, my second child was born, my time was used differently.  Having two kids was a lot more work and bedtime routines were cut a bit shorter.  It has taken me until this year to make another push for my kids to learn some French. 

My husband and I bought "Muzzy,"  a program I remember some friends of mine as a child had used to teach themselves German before moving to Austria.  With the internet it was easy to track "Muzzy" down and buy it for our kids.  It is a really fun way to teach kids 2+ another language.  Even Charis age 1 1/2 is singing the vowels in French.  My 2 1/2 year old has picked up even more.  Ellie, my 5 year old is loving learning numbers and letters in another language, as she already picked up some Spanish from watching "Dora." 

Now during snack time my kids will ask me, "What does mal a la tete mean mommy?"  We work on learning the names of our food, clothing, and other things around the house.  I try and speak to them in only French for about twenty minutes after watching some "Muzzy" or reading some of the story. 

My hope for the future is to purchase some children's books in French so we can read classic stories and just have this great French story time in our home.  We could find useful vocabulary and just build on what we are already learning.  I am not so focused on pulling apart sentences and teaching grammar just yet, but with "Muzzy" we do have an interactive cd and they could begin to learn some grammar from that when they are a bit older.  Right now, Ellie and Joel are not quite ready to make the sentences work.  The concept is a bit too much. 

Using "Muzzy" was a great starting place for learning French.  It is beyond kid friendly and fun for us adults too.  On the same disks we have Spanish, Italian, German, British English, and American English.  I look forward to trying some other languages.  I liked starting with what I know so I could continue in conversation beyond the program.  My Spanish is halfway decent, so that might be our next adventure. 

Me: Back Together Again

After my second pregnancy I did not make any effort to lose the baby weight and I was not really that good about my diet during that pregnancy.  About six months after my little girl was born I decided to start running again, but there were no results.  I struggled a lot to gain strength again and just expected my body to bounce back like it did the first time.  After a year of no change in my appearance I started to get depressed.  Yes, I was still nursing, but how could running six miles multiple times a week not work? 

Then I read an article in "Fit Pregnancy" about not doing stomach crunches too soon after the birth.  Having been a cross country runner in high school I just kept my workout the same.  It was pretty easy to stretch, run, and do some push ups and crunches, but this was not getting my body back.  I started to think I would never wear anything that showed my legs again..no more skirts and definitely no shorts!  So I stopped stomach crunches and did some basic pilates floor exercises and cut the crunches.  I also was less hard on myself about running and went back to my other favorite workout, ballet.  I used my kitchen counter as a barre and this worked out great. 

When I found out I was pregnant with my third child I had finally started to get my body back.  I did not know how to keep in shape during pregnancy and walking everyday in the northwest only works if you love the rain and many grey days.  This is when I found a pregnancy pilates routine.  Not only did I feel fit, but I had more energy.

Why have I not learned my lesson?  I want to be in a hurry to lose the baby weight, but in the process I end up making myself gain weight.  In my struggle to pick really challenging workouts I think I burn too many calories and then eat more and gain weight instead of lose it.  I wish I really understood what was happening, but I do know that nursing requires some weight and then one must eat enough.  I have always been good and keeping a steady weight, so working on strength right now has helped me maintain my weight and then length my muscles.  I have cut back to walking or running about once a week and then I focus on pilates, yoga, and ballet type workouts three to five times a week. 

The results are slow.  Sometimes so slow that I get frustrated, but my baby is not even one yet.  It is not good to obsess about weight yet.  I have been able to flatten my stomach a little bit and when I run, I am starting to feel just as strong as I ever was. 

It is helpful to see Hollywood stars back on shows looking like real people.  They have not lost the weight in five seconds.  There needs to be a beauty in the nursing mother as well as the pregnant one.  I think culturally, pregnancy is praised, but once the baby is born one starts to feel the pressure the look fantastic.  What if looking fantastic meant there is beauty in the journey one's body has just been through.  Breastfeeding creates another special look.  There should be more clothing to flatter the postpartum body.  There should be more realistic publications showing the beauty of breastfeeding.