Angelica's First Halloween!

As you can see here, Angelica enjoys Halloween today much more than she enjoyed the pumpkin patch yesterday. Look at this little smiling cutie! She's even been so kind today to take a nap long enough for me to practice some of my new photoshop skills.

Yes, that's right. We are going on hour 3 of her nap now. The sleep schedule keeps going back and forth, and I don't get it! For three nights in a row, she slept like a charm. Then last night she got up twice again. Now she's in the middle of a 3 hour nap? Makes no sense! But I am glad she's sleeping. Maybe she's going through a growth spurt.

Anyway...speaking of Halloween, it's our biggest Trick or Treating yet! We've had four...yes, FOUR Trick-or-Treaters today...a princess, a bumblebee, a pumpkin, and some teenager on a bike just cruising around asking for candy. (He was kinda stinky and didn't even have a candy bag with him.) These are our first trick or treaters since 2004, and that year we only got one. I'm glad I picked up a small bag of candy at Target today!

Happy Halloween everyone! Hopefully my little punkin' will wake up soon!

Angelica goes to the pumpkin patch

Cute, right? I would have loved to get more good photos of her with the pumpkins, because I was so looking forward to it...but she wasn't having it. She was in just about the worst mood I've ever seen her in.





But at least I got a couple of cute photos...including some of me and her. Like this one!





And then there is the most ironic photo ever...notice the "Happy Harvest" sign and the very notably unhappy baby. Oh well. It's still cute, and gives me something to show her friends when she's 16.

Angelica is 5 months old!

In the tradition of the monthly pictures, I tried to sit her on the sofa next to learning puppy, but she had other ideas. She kept rolling over, flipping herself onto her tummy, or just squirming until she was laying flat. So, this was the best one of the bunch. I still think it's adorable!

Seems like being 4 months old worked well for her. She learned to sit (though she still falls over sometimes), get up on all fours and rock, she learned to blow raspberries, touch her head, eat her feet, and move herself across the floor.

Today she also held herself up on the edge of the coffee table. I held her up next to it and she grabbed on. I loosened my grip and she stayed until her hands slipped (but my hands were right there to catch her). Wow!

Very nervous and excited to see what the next month will bring! I feel like she just turned 4 months and now she's 5 months. November 29 will mean she's a half year old. Wow again!

It's also getting cold out, which means Angelica's getting to wear her cute winter clothes! Check out this cute photo of her in her kitty corduroy overalls from yesterday. She also left the house wearing a hat, and just looked absolutely adorable. She's hanging out in her crib in this photo, but I also thought the one below was adorable too (despite the poor lighting...it's late when we get home and the lighting in my apartment after dark leaves a lot to be desired.)

And that's all for now! She's finally off to bed which means I can relax and eat dinner...I love my evenings with my girl but I'm starving by this time of night!

I cheated

I looked at the scale today. I broke my one weigh-in a week rule and got on the scale this morning.

I was down another 1.5 pounds, though! I'm not counting that as official, though...official weigh in is next Monday!

It felt good to know that I was doing well so far this week though. I've almost met my goal of 30 minutes of exercise/day. Yesterday and Monday I went for walks with Angelica. She hated it both times. Maybe we'll see if she enjoys taking a walk today.

Speaking of Angelica, today is her five month birthday! Hurray for her!

Doing semi-ok this week working toward my three goals of the week:
1. Journaling - I've journaled everything except dinner so far this week. For some reason, I'm finding it hard to track dinner.
2. Not drinking calories - I slipped twice here - had one glass of coke earlier this week, and a hot cocoa yesterday because it was freezing in my office. Other than that though, I've done great (and actually have been drinking more water than normal).
3. Exercise I already covered above...2/3 days down, 1 day to go!

274 (-3)

Three cheers for three pounds!

I kind of felt like I lost some weight this week. I'm really happy to see the numbers going down!

Now it's time to review my goals for this week:

- Don't drink your calories! (One glass of orange juice, and one cup of coffee with splenda and creamer excepted) - managed this so far today, drinking some water right now as we speak!
- Start food journal - fill it out at LEAST three days. - Filled out for breakfast and first snack today!
- Start exercise - work out at LEAST three days for 30 minutes/day. Hopefully will do this tonight!

Angelica Rocks!

As promised, here's the video of our little Angelica almost crawling! She's been doing this for probably about a week now (so starting at 4 1/2 months). She gets up on all fours and rocks and then throws herself forward, like you see at the very end of the video. Also, at the end, I promise she doesn't fall off the bed. She still had about a foot to go, she was just too close for my comfort!

Isn't this just crazy? The pediatrician, the ladies at her daycare, other moms, all tell me that this is way ahead of what she is supposed to be doing, and I am just in awe of her!

The solid food eating is going well too. I haven't mentioned much about it lately, but she hasn't found much of anything she won't eat. She's had rice cereal, applesauce, bananas, sweet potatoes and carrots so far, and scarfed them down like nobody's business. She also likes to "feed herself", which consists of me putting food on the spoon, then handing it to her and she shoves it in her mouth.

Solids = big mess though. This morning she got a rice cereal/banana mixture followed by a bath...she was a MESS. So was I. So was the floor. So was her bumbo seat. I think it may be time to get a high chair :)

Progress

I think this week has been a moderate success. There have been a few meals here and there where I made poor choices, but I think overall, I've done well. We'll find out what the scale says on Monday!

I think I may also start going to back to the gym this weekend. I've considered canceling my membership, but I think it's important that I go on weekends, and just do what little exercise I can squeeze into my budget on weekdays. I think that, and the food diary, will be my tasks for next week.

Speaking of "tasks", I'm going to start assigning weekly goals for myself, three a week. Just small tasks that will eventually build to big change,.

Next week's goals:
- Don't drink your calories! (One glass of orange juice, and one cup of coffee with splenda and creamer excepted)
- Start food journal - fill it out at LEAST three days.
- Start exercise - work out at LEAST three days for 30 minutes/day.

Mommy Moment #2

In my more naive days, though I knew financially it wouldn't be possible, I always saw myself staying at home with my kids. Fast forward to almost five months postpartum (can you believe it?) and I'm a full-time work outside the home mom.

I never even thought about how hard it was going to be...emotions aside (yes, I still cry some days when I drop the little one off at daycare, even though she loves it there), the actual physical necessity to BE at work is difficult. And yet we muddle through. (The emotional aspect is very difficult thing for me. I'm very emotional, especially when it comes to relationships, so being away from her is a very sad thing for me.)

Take today for example...last night was my night to get up with the baby, who has decided that sleep is for wussies and now wakes up almost every night. Here's how the night went:

10:30 p.m. - Feel a migraine coming on. Go to sleep.
2:30 a.m. - Baby wakes up. Feed, rock, cuddle baby. Still have migraine.
3:15 a.m. - Put baby in crib
3:16 a.m. - Baby starts screaming again
3:17 a.m. - Take baby out to lay on sofa...attempt to lay down with her. No such luck. Screaming intensifies.
3:25 a.m. - Walking the floor with screaming baby. Every time my butt hits a flat surface, she screams again. Walking is the only thing that helps.
3:35 a.m. - Baby is asleep. Put in crib, grab baby monitor, head for bed...second hand hits bedroom doorknob, baby starts crying. Go pick baby up.
3:45 a.m. - Baby is finally asleep again. Sit down in rocking chair to make sure she is really asleep.
3:55 a.m. - Baby is really asleep. Look over my left shoulder. See roach crawling up wall. (Anyone who knows me knows that roaches=panic attacks.) I start panicking.
4 a.m. - Put baby in crib, run for shoe and bug spray. Kill roach.
4:05 a.m. - Panic over bug spray fumes in baby's room. Fan the door while fending off four curious cats who want to get in the room (and crib, and closet, and baby's hamper).
4:15 a.m. - Finally satisfied that bug spray smell is gone. Notice baby is still sleeping but sounds congested. Fill up humidifier, add camphor, turn on, head for bed.
5 a.m. - In bed, still awake, worried about more roaches in baby's room? Will the humidifier drag them out? Will one of them end up in the crib? Decide I'm too tired to panic anymore. Fall asleep.
5:30 a.m. - Baby wakes up again. Are you kidding me? Hubby gets up this time (what a sweetheart). Baby falls back asleep before he gets to her room. (Lucky).
6:00 a.m. - Baby wakes up for good. Hubby gets up again (what a saint).
7 a.m. - Alarm goes off for work. Still have migraine, but no point in staying home to "rest it out".
9 (ish) - Arrive at work.

So now I operate on a combination of brute force and caffeine. It's hard to be "here" and really "be here" when there is so much on your mind and you're so sleep deprived, but you I do it out of necessity (and the fact that I do enjoy my job).

(For anyone who is wondering WHY my almost 5 month old is still waking up at night...I think it's teething, though I've been saying that since she was 2 1/2 months. But she was fiercely chewing on her hands, her toys, etc and drooling like mad.)

But it's all worth it. My daughter will learn from me that she can balance work and family and be successful at both. Maybe one day she'll see me become self-employed (which I have dreamed of doing for awhile now). And what makes it even more worth it is to come home and see the huge grin she gives me, and to watch her hitting those milestones way ahead of the mark (she's on the verge of crawling...and if you don't believe me, I will post a video of it as soon as I can)!

I miss her (even right now) but we live for the nights and weekends.

Angelica roots for the Rays!

As if there were any doubt which team Angelica wanted to win the world series (given who her father is and all), this footie sleeper she wore to bed tonight should be a dead giveaway! The game was on a little bit later than she's allowed to stay up, but she still showed some Rays solidarity by wearing this sleeper to bed tonight. Isn't she cute? (Forgive the off color and lighting - the picture was kind of impromptu, taken in her bedroom between fussies...she was tired!)

So much craziness is going on with her these days, in the way of growth and development. I picked her up from daycare today, and she was in the jumperoo, just jumping and jumping away. That's a new one. She used to just sit there and kind of dangle. She's also ::thisclose:: to crawling now! She gets up on all fours and rocks and rocks, and sometimes she'll just rear back and fling herself forward, and land on her face a few inches in front of where she started. She also rolls around and pushes herself like an inchworm to get where she's going. Silly girl, I love it!

Sitting is also coming along very nicely. She's almost sitting unassisted. I'm thinking it'll just be another week or so and she'll just be sitting up on her own.

They grow too quickly, but I'm still so proud!

277

Above is my current weight. I think at every weigh-in, that's how I'll start my posts.

So I started this blog, and then life got pretty busy. So I'm picking myself up by my bootstraps now and saying - NO, this is too important. It's time to focus on getting healthy.

Long story short: When I was pregnant, I had high blood pressure. This escalated into pregnancy complications, partial bed rest, and induction, and subsequent c-section. All of this is no doubt tied to my weight.

Today, at my follow-up appointment, the high blood pressure was back (143/88), causing my OBGyn to change my BCP prescription to something less likely to cause a stroke.

Couldn't believe it. I'm 28 and need to worry about having a stroke? That's what killed my grandfather, but he was in his 70s.

So I've been doing some health evaluation...researching ways to adjust my diet...and got a great, eye opening evaluation of my weight from the CVS website:

• Your BMI is 44.7
• Your ideal weight is between 114.6 and 154.9 pounds.

According to your BMI, you are extremely obese.

What this means for your health

The news isn't good: Unless you're a bodybuilder with lots of heavy muscle, or you're over 65, being in this weight range is probably a significant threat to your health. Compared with people who are considered normal weight, obese people are three times as likely to develop insulin resistance and diabetes, twice as likely to have high blood pressure (a risk factor for stroke), and far more likely to have heart disease as well.

There's also mounting evidence that if your BMI is greater than 30, your odds of developing certain cancers -- including colon, pancreatic, and kidney cancers -- increase to various degrees. Among obese postmenopausal women, the risk of breast and endometrial cancers doubles as well.

Being significantly overweight also puts you at higher risk for sleep apnea, arthritis, and gallbladder disease. In general, the risk of health complications goes up as your BMI increases. If you're a woman, you may have a higher risk of many pregnancy complications including infertility, late pregnancy loss, and cesarean delivery.

If you have an apple-shaped body (fat tends to collect around your waist and abdomen) you have a higher risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease than someone who's pear-shaped (fat tends to stick to your hips and thighs) even if your BMI is the same. It's common for women to gain weight around the waist at menopause, which is when their risk of heart disease goes up as well.

What you can do

It's never too late to lose some weight and get into better shape. Unless your doctor advises otherwise, try to lose some weight over the next year or so. It may sound hard, but even losing as little as 10 to 15 percent of your body weight can lower your blood glucose, cholesterol, and blood pressure.

Even if you have a long way to go before you reach your ideal weight, taking a slow and steady approach is the safest and most reliable way to get -- and keep -- the pounds off. Studies show that weight cycling (gaining and losing weight) may actually be more harmful than staying at a high but stable weight. Check out our Weight Control Center for ways to get started. Even people who've been overweight since childhood can lose weight successfully if they follow a few key rules.

If your weight is posing an immediate risk to your health, your doctor may suggest more aggressive ways to lose weight. You may need to consider restrictive diets or weight-loss medications, but please try these only under the guidance of a trusted health-care professional. Even over-the-counter supplements for weight loss (sold in drugstores or by mail order) often have ingredients that aren't safe.

If you've gained weight suddenly (and, if you're a woman, you're not pregnant), you might want to check with your doctor. Certain health conditions and medications can make you gain weight suddenly, often through water retention.

Sometimes being overweight can signal an eating disorder, especially if you have trouble saying "no" to food, or if you eat when you are stressed, upset, or lonely. For more information and resources, try our eating disorders topic page.

Yikes.

So, starting right now, in this moment, we're moving forward and watching the scale move downward.

I have to do it...for her:

Angelica needs votes!

Vote for my photo!vote

The prizes include one of two DSLR cameras, a point-and-shoot camera, and a camera bag.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Angelica's trip to the park...plus new tricks!

Two great things to report from this weekend!

First and foremost...this is adorable and kills me every time she does it...Angelica makes raspberries now! This started a few days ago, but now she is full-on, sticking her tongue WAY out and making raspberries at us. I'm guessing she does this because I used to do it to her all the time to get her to smile. She must think it's some form of primitive communication. It is HILARIOUS though, especially since she is so blatant and deliberate when she does it.

Also, this weekend she discovered that she has hair! She is fascinated by this discovery. Whenever she's reclined and getting a bottle, she always has one hand on the bottle and the other on the top of her head, just playing with her hair. It's super cute!

So, those are her two new milestones. She's also doing incredibly well with the solids. She even grabs the spoon away from me and puts it in her own mouth. I guess I don't do it right. :)

Here are some pictures to enjoy from this weekend. We took a trip this afternoon to Lake Eola park with my sister, brother in law, and their kids. Here are a few shots to enjoy of Miss Angelica taking in an afternoon at the park!

Mommy Moment #1

Mommy moments are a new segment I'll be writing periodically. A "mommy moment" is a moment where something happens that truly makes me feel like someone's mommy.

Today, as I was driving my daughter to daycare before heading to work, we listneed listening to her favorite nursery rhymes on my iPod...I recently downloaded the Baby Genius nursery rhymes album from iTunes, and hadn't really given it much thought in my usual morning fog. (Angelica's going through a phase where she's starting to wake up once a night again...both mommy and daddy are exhausted as a result!)

But this morning, I had gotten a little more sleep than usual and as we were driving into daycare, I realized not only was I listening to nursery rhymes...on my iPod...nursery rhymes which I had purchased, on purpose, from iTunes...I was singing along without even thinking about it...and not just singing, but truly enjoying it!

This coming from a girl who five years ago had a motto about music...something about the louder and edgier it was, the better...I was a true punk rocker "back in the day" and though I'm a few years removed from that now, this driving along, singing along to nursery rhymes definitely hit me as a "mommy moment".

Because, really, unless you're under the age of seven, or a mom, who else would find listening to nursery rhymes in the car fun?

Angelica eats solids!

I can't believe I forgot to mention this yet!

These pictures are from this past Saturday...we had tried rice cereal a few days before this and she hated it, so we tried bananas instead...

Before Bananas:



After Bananas:


So, she kept that bite in her mouth and swallowed. And that was about it.

Fast forward to today...I sent her to school with a mixture of the rice cereal and bananas, and lo and behold, she ate every bite! Wow! So when I got home, I tried it again because I had to see it for myself, and sure enough, she scarfed it down! She got incredibly sticky and messy in the process, and I wish I had pictures of it but I don't, because after she got covered in sticky bananacerealness, it was time for a bath.

But...yay for my little girl and her munchie munchie of the cerealbananas!

Angelica's neurologist appointment recap, plus, she's sitting assisted!

Lots of good stuff all around today! Most importantly, the appointment with the neurologist went very well. The cyst is benign and doesn't even require surgery. The doctor said it will likely go away on its own within the next six months. We'll have a follow-up appointment in April to just make sure it's gone away. That's really exciting news, and such a relief!

In other good news, our little girl is making more progress in the mobility department. If you look to the right here, you'll notice she's sitting up! She can sit up for pretty much an indefinite period of time now as long as she has the Boppy pillow around her. It's so exciting, I'm so proud of my little lady!

That was today's good news. The rest of the day I spent with my very fussy baby girl. She did cheer up toward the end of the day though and we had a good time playing and singing songs. I miss days like these, which we had all the time when I was on leave. My daughter is truly a wonderful little girl and I'm still amazed at how much I love her.

An aside from my normal routine...

I'm going to break from my normal posting routine to pay tribute to a mommyblogger on my blogroll whose story has inspired and moved me, and who is going through just about the worst time that a mother could ever go through...

This mother, Stacy (http://sgirl79.blogspot.com/), delivered her son Isaac this morning - he had a condition that was incompatible with life. She and her husband were able to spend 16 wonderful minutes with Isaac before he passed on. Her story, her strength in her faith and courage is genuinely moving. I can honestly say that I don't think I could have been half as brave as she was had I been in her shoes, and I really admire her for giving all that she could to her son.

So, if you have a moment today, if you could, send them some prayers or wishes for strength to get through this difficult time.

Angelica's neuro appointment is scheduled

What an eventful day in the world of Angelica...

I mentioned in the previous blog that it was difficult to get her appointment with the pediatric neurosurgeon. They wouldn't even talk to me without her records being faxed over.

All total, it took SEVEN phone calls and three voicemails to get it accomplished. Why on earth it should ever take seven phone calls, two voicemails, and over 24 hours to simply schedule an appointment is beyond me (and believe me if the lady who finally called back hadn't been so nice, I'd have had words for her...I was seeing red at that point. What if it was urgent??)

Anyway, she's scheduled for October 14th at 11 am. So that's when we'll get to have her cyst looked at and diagnosed. Scary.

She didn't do so well with the shots this time around, either. Yesterday was a complete wash...I was trying to work from home but eventually gave up until she went to bed for the evening, and then spent all night getting caught up. Poor thing was just so fussy and refused to let me put her down...she only napped for an hour. I even tried putting her in her bouncy seat right next to me so she could see me, but it wasn't good enough.

We did have a good hour somewhere in the late afternoon where she was just full of giggles. It started with me poking her nose, and she just burst out laughing. After that stopped being funny, we played peek-a-boo, then that got old...then I tried making her toys disappear (holding it up to her then hiding it behind my back)...she found that hilarious...then when that got old, I took to doing what my nephew used to love...scaring the beejezus out of her by yelling "boo"...she'd startle and squeal and then start laughing like crazy. It was the most I've ever heard her laugh, and it was great.

Once that got old, it was back to crying her little heart out.

Today it was just full-on fuss from morning to night. She woke up angry, then got dropped off at daycare, and the moment I sat her down she started not just crying, but screaming until she choked and had big, huge, fat tears just streaming down her face (also something new). Donna from daycare called later on to tell me she was running a fever...poor thing. She took a long nap and the fever was gone by the time I picked her up, but she was still unhappy tonight.

I did actually get her to smile for a bit, and put her favorite toy in her hands (a Baby Einstein caterpillar rattle). She was thrilled with that for about five minutes, until she got overexcited and hit herself in the head with it really hard. Then the screaming started again...big fat tears and all.


(Angelica and the rattle, before she hit herself on the head with it.)

She's doing the sweetest thing the past few days though...when she gets upset she'll look at me and reach for me. The first time she did it, I thought it was a coincidence, but she does it all the time now.

On that note, I've had a headache pretty much all day (thanks to playing phone tag with doctors and having a sick, cranky child) so I'm going to go to bed now. (This also explains why this post is somewhat inarticulate and rambly...to tired/sore to think.)