helmets and shots, shots and helmets.

Happy baby

Tonight, on The Current Lifestyle:



Helmet or not to helmet..... that's the question
and
Shots....... yes please!


Helmet or not to helmet..... that's the question
Friday I took the chunk-o-lot to her 6 month check up at the pediatricians office. I usually like going because I get to find out how much she weighs, which in all honesty is ridiculous since we have a scale at home. LAZY!!! Anyway, that's really the only reason. I dislike toting around my now 15 pounds of love, not to mention the car seat carrier, to the doctors office, only to have them ask me to strip my child of all clothes. Don't they know I fight with her to wear just a onesie every single morning? Haven't they read my past blogs; that she pretty much pees and poo's on me with clothes, why would I chance it without?!?! Well, we are there, I undress her, they measure and weigh her. She's now a whopping 15 pounds and 26 inches long. The doctor then comes into the room and meets us for the first time. (our previous doctor left to have her 3rd child.) She's a nice young gal and asks how my lovely little talker is eating. I tell her our feeding schedule and she seems satisfied. The doctor was also impressed that our little has slept in her crib since 6 weeks old and has slept through the night since she was 4-1\2 months old. (Stop sending me hate thoughts! It is possible even without CIO) :-) She then performs a physical check of our little chunk talker. The doctor seems very satisfied with her assessment then turns to me and asks how much tummy time we do. I tell her probably not as much as we should. I explain that she's either in a carrier on me, in a jumping contraption, sitting up or on her back. I don't believe she's on her back too much. I put her down to sleep on her back, but when I check on her, she's either rolled all the way over to her tummy or on her side. I have seen her roll from tummy to back and back to tummy. I have also seen her push up, so I know she's capable. The doctor then told me that our chunk has a flat spot on the lower right side of her head. She said that it won't effect her developmentally, but it is cosmetic. She said we need more tummy time and when we come back at her 9 month check up if I wanted she could send me to someone would pretty much put her in a helmet. She then said, its just cosmetic  though, and her hair will hide it too. So I asked her, does it bother you? She replied, its flat. I went home that day wondering if I was being a good parent in telling myself, I see it, but it doesn't really bother me. I told my husband later that night what the doctor said, and he agreed with me. Yes, its a little flat, but not really noticeable. Is your head really supposed to be perfectly round in the first place? I think since we here in the states have so many babies born via C-section, (thus no squeezed oblong head shape from the vaginal canal,) we've forgotten what vaginal birth babies heads look like. My husband and I have decided, yes, we will give her more tummy time, it can't hurt, but we are going to pass on the helmet. Judge what you will, but you really can't tell.

see my round head

Shots.... yes please

That leaves us with the last topic tonight, which no does not include tequila. Last but not least the doctor ordered chunks 6 month vaccines. (if you're a non-vaccer, then please don't leave a rude comment if you continue reading.) Poor kid was so happy until this point. As I can imagine, it hurts. I look at it as, my love for you sometimes hurts and I'm saving your life from all of these diseases and germs. She first received an oral vaccine which she swallows, then followed by that were 3 injections to her chubby legs. I distracted her as best I could, but crying will and did happen. If I did anything right, I had a bottle ready and waiting for her when she was all finished. The bottle settled her down and seemed to forget almost instantly what had just occurred. She was all smiles as we walked out the door. For the rest of the day, like her 2 month and 4 month shots, she slept. Pattern tells me and I've now had it happen three times. That after every vaccination she receives, she sleeps the rest of the day and the following day her schedule is slightly off. Two days later, she bounces right back to normal. I just wish there wasn't so many vaccines if I had a complaint. Every 2 months from the day new babies enter the world, they're poked until after their first birthday. (With month 8 and 10 being the exception.)

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vaccine schedule

"I'll stand barefooted in my own front yard with a baby on my hip 'cause I'm a redneck woman"

Mommy put a flower in my hair

Good evening everyone. This week has been rather busy, exciting and successful. It seems everyday we have something planed. Tonight's topics include: the very first mommy and me meet up group and strolling the hood like a redneck.

Mommy and Me meet up
Today, my chunky goodness and I went to our very first mommy and me outing. I honestly have been very hesitant with going to a meeting, for reasons I won't bore you with, but then I thought what the hell, one outing at a park shouldn't hurt. At 10:30am I packed up the chunk-o-potamus and we went to a local park in our area which had been designated the meet up spot by the host mommy of the group. We had fun and met three mommies. Two of which had more than one child. All of them were extremely friendly and introduced themselves to Caroline and myself. Today's meet up was like a teachers dream because it was a baby and mommy read a book at the park meet up. We brought a couple of books and shared the books when we were finished reading to our children. It was cute. I find it hilarious that my chunk wunk loves "This Little Piggy". The book, that we were aloud to read  from another mommy, had a finger puppet of a piggy that followed the entire story line and she was so focused on it. The meet up was fun and it was nice to finally get out with chunk and socialize with other mommies. By the way, if you're looking for meet up groups in your area, (it doesn't have to be a mommy and me) check out the free app called: Meetup. Browse topics that interest you such as; arts and crafts, sports, reading clubs, politics, etc. The app will show you all of the groups in your area meeting to either do or discuss those topics.


Strolling the hood like a red neck

Showing off my Palm Breeze disguised as a Due South brew.

After a wonderful afternoon at the park today, chunk and I ran some errands, took naps, cleaned the bathrooms and watched Doc. McStuffins and Sesame Street. We felt that the perfect end to our glorious day would be to walk around our neighborhood. Since it was "5 O'Clock somewhere," (Literally it was) mommy decided to grab a Palm Breeze. What could make mommy look more red neck than that? Oh, add her wardrobe. I was still in my cleaning clothes of a faded black spaghetti strapped tank which is so old it shows the tops of my bra, (not just the straps.) Pair that with the shortest shorts I own that ride up the crotch when I walk and are at the same time, to big for me in the waist. My stripped underwear could be seen if my tank rode up my back. Top it off with broken flip flops and I had just won America's Next Top Red Neck!  The best part? I could care less. I walked our circle like I owned it. I owned all 0.7miles of it. (All the way around, the damn circle is short 3 tenths of a mile. Kills me every time I run it.) I just wanted some sunshine before the day was done. Was it a beautiful sight for our neighbors? I guess it depends on who you ask. The only thing that could make it more beautiful would be if I was blasting "I'm a red neck woman" by: Gretchen Wilson

Chunk in her stroller

Be Bold and be daring my friends. You only get this one beautiful life.

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Where did my superpower go?

Tonight's luxurious topic will be on postpartum depression and socializing after baby. It's luxurious damn it because I said so.

How I once viewed my days. 

I didn't want to write this. This topic was something I had only read about and it happened to other mothers, not me. I'm perfect! I don't get sad, angry, lonely, or feel like I want to leave the perfect life that I had worked so hard to achieve.



But I DID...


Flash back a month ago, that is when my husband started to notice changes. Changes such as: the way I spoke to him, the constant obsession and over-protectiveness with our daughter, my incredibly short temper and outrageous busts of anger, always complaining of being tired, how every morning before he left for work, I looked as if the world was ending and when he came back home, I had on the exact same clothes (PJ's) and probably didn't shower that day. Something had happened.Something had changed. He tried with all of his strength to talk to me and help lift me back up to the person I once was, but it wasn't helping. Stress levels would build when guests would visit and as soon as they left, I was obsessed about cleaning. It got so bad, that he was worried about going into work everyday and wondering what was happening at home. Would I hurt our baby? Would I hurt myself? These questions raced through my hard working husbands mind all day.

The face of depression isn't always someone crying with their head in their hands. 

I tried talking to him when I could. However, I was confused and felt guilty for feeling the way I did and it usually ended in an argument. I didn't understand how I'd become this way. I once was a happy, easy going person. I was motivated and ready to learn and explore the day. I had a beautiful family and was proud of it. Damn it, I was the Queen of the Current household and there was nothing you could do about it. I jammed out to Katy Perry, Dark Horse. Why? Because I played with magic and I worked it! Boom! (Look up the lyrics for further understanding) I honestly had no idea what the problem was, and that, was the biggest problem. I knew I needed to take my husbands advice and seek out help when I didn't want to call my two closest friends and talk with them about it. I felt lonely, yet I never called to talk to anyone. I had every excuse from, he/she works and I don't, to he/she lives too far away, to I don't want to put my problems onto others. I finally told a friend about my struggle. I won't lie, I felt horrible talking about it. I didn't want to burden her with my problems. She sat quietly and listened, and I thank her for that.

Two days later, my husband, our little chunk o poo, and I went to the therapist appointment I had finally been able to set. Believe me when I say my motivation was gone, it was. I couldn't even perform the simple task of looking up therapists covered by our insurance company. After two prior failed attempts, I called my OBGYN for a list of names they could recommend. Walking into the office was intimidating. I once had the pleasure in nursing school of doing rounds in a psych ward and I felt as if I was going back, only this time, I was committing myself for treatment. Before I was seen, the doctor asked me to fill out the most uplifting paperwork of my life. In all honesty its a check list of anything bad that you do or feel. Sad to say, that lovely little stack of questions took me 20 minutes to complete. Afterwards, I was directed to the doctors office. It was, you guessed it, the standard couch and desk room scene complete with a book shelf and indoor plants. The doctor then directed my husband and our now screaming for food child into a kid friendly room for him to feed and play with. I stayed in that room for an hour. We chatted over my responses to the answered questions and she also assured me that what I was feeling and doing, was completely normal for a new mom. I couldn't believe it, she said, I was normal.  I wanted so badly to scream down the hall at my husband, "She said, I'm normal!" However, I knew that would probably not be a normal thing to do. Then she asked me what I found to be the greatest question I had ever been asked by a doctor. She asked, what I wanted to gain from her working with me? It was simple, I wanted to go back to that happy person I once was without medication. I wanted to hold conversations with people and not react negatively or angry towards others. I wanted my energy back, and to be able to let some things go.    "Let it go, Let it go!"

So, those my fabulous friends are what I'm currently working on. I was given a homework assignment to figure out what calms me down. Sadly, it's guitar playing or Taekwondo. I'll have to find other things, because both of those don't really work out in an argument. Well, Taekwondo could, however, that throws me back to square one if I'm now going to start assaulting people. She also suggested finding some mommy and me classes or groups. She said that should help get me holding conversations with other moms and cure some feelings of loneliness. I've researched a few with my husband and I have decided to give some classes a whirl. I'm excited to say that I'm looking forward to our next meeting on Tuesday. I'm also looking forward to a couple of planned outings with our chunk snuggle muffin.

I guess what this post is really about is to let you know and me, you're not alone out there suffering. You also don't deserve to suffer. Find someone to talk to. Life doesn't have to be so hard. Have to be, are the key words. Somewhere deep inside you is some part of you screaming to fix whatever problem(s) there may be, so find that will power no matter how small it is and help yourself. You deserve a life of happiness and love. Hell, I'm here to listen, just leave a comment. I'm no trained professional, and shouldn't be handing out emotional advice, but I can lend an ear and share experiences.

Here are some helpful links:

1) http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/postpartum-depression/basics/definition/con-20029130 What postpartum depression (PPD) is

2) http://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/depression/postpartum.aspx Statistics of PPD

3) http://www.buzzfeed.com/laurasilver/this-is-what-depression-really-looks-like?bffb&utm_term=4ldqpgp#.klMGMDr6Ve an article I found interesting

and just in case,
4) http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/  For when you have a serious emergency



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Getting back the pre-mommy body

March 16, 2015

 Until you've experienced the miracle of carrying a child, you can not fathom how difficult it is to motivate yourself to get back to the person you once were. (Physically speaking) Before I became pregnant with our daughter, I was skinny fat. That's skinny, with no real definition or toning of the muscles.

Skinny fat

Doctors always said I was healthy but I knew I could be better. I never had those 6 pack abs or those really beautiful biceps that Jillian Micheals or Jackie Warner have thought I've always wanted them.
Flash forward, I'm 8 months pregnant, and weighing in almost 30 pounds more than my pre-pregnancy weight and I'm bawling. My husband walks into the room and can't possibly understand why I'm so upset. Didn't I know that pregnant women were supposed to gain weight? Didn't I know that my clothes would have to change and I would lose sight of my feet and my southern lady parts? What happened to my V-Jay??? While I understood and knew these things would happen, nothing prepares you for that day when you look at yourself in the mirror naked with a bulging belly and swollen breasts and you think oh my god!
Then came the guilt. Oh how I knew there were so many women who couldn't have babies and would probably tell me how much they would give anything to be able to carry a child. It's the miracle of life I should be enjoying every single moment of my growing body. I, however, wasn't. I also discovered that I wasn't the only one. I held discussions with other mothers who couldn't stand the sight or look of their growing bodies. We felt the same. I also realized, that it was okay to feel that way. It didn't make me a horrible person or mother.

9 Months pregnant

After I gave birth to our daughter, I knew that two things had to happen before I could get back to the person I once was. I had to heal for at least 6 weeks, and be given the all clear by my doctor to exercise after having been in labor. So, during those 6 weeks, I rested, enjoyed the new life I had been given and read up on fitness and nutrition. I used our daughter as my motivational drive. When I told people that I was going to start working out, they laughed. (I had to unexpectedly wait until January due to surgery to start my new journey. That was 3 months after I had given birth.) The reason for laughter, everyone starts a new fitness journey in January. It should be dubbed fitness month. Anyway, I took pictures of myself on January 4th, weighed in and set a small goal of getting back to my pre-pregnancy weight. At first it was hard. I remember not being able to walk correctly the next day because I pushed myself so hard. I learned after a week of jogging everyday and working out everyday that I was doing too much and I needed to scale down my plan and rest. So I took out a calendar and on it wrote what I would focus on on each day. I even wrote in my rest days. I posted it on a cork board which has now become my goal board that I look at everyday, several times a day. It's located in the hallway from our garage to our kitchen. We enter and leave from that hallway multiple times a day so you can't miss it. I started changing the way I ate. I tossed the junk food out, I only purchased food from the store that had very little to no processed junk and sugar intake per serving less than 5 g. If it had more, forget it. I looked up new recipes and tried things like beet hummus. I guess you could say I became obsessed. I put down soda cold turkey and haven't touched it since watching a you tube video of a Russian, boiling off the water in the bottle and showing all of the nasty corn syrupy tar that we ingest. Believe me, it's disgusting. I also started following other baby mommas on Facebook who refused to give into society's acceptance of the post baby body.

I guess the reason for this post is to show you that it is possible to look even better than you did before you conceived your new chuck of love. I still have areas I'm working on and I've never felt better physically or sexier in my life. I'm now 3 months into my workout and nutrition routine and I've lost all of my pregnancy weight and inches in my waist, hips and thighs. I'm proud of where I am and I know I can be better.

Post workout shake

Building my abs after baby

Here are my 6 ways of getting the post baby body I want:

1) Create a motivational board and look at it everyday. Keeping track of where you are and where you want to be.

My motivational board

2) Set realistic and measurable goals. (I changed mine from a set number on the scale to body measurements. When you build muscle, you gain weight. Measurements like hips and thighs help motivate you to target those areas and it's easy to measure and see the results.)
3) Slowly change your diet. Don't cut every junk food out cold turkey. Still to this day, I have items in the house I eat and shouldn't, however, I also don't feel guilty about it. Slow and steady helped me transition better to healthier foods. Doing too much at once with a new exercise plan and nutrition plan can cause you to slip backwards.
4) Try new recipes. I found this fun.

Body measurements taken monthly, with photos and weight

5) Reward your hard work with something other than food. I use new equipment or clothes as my reward.

My goals and rewards

6) Workout with your child or children. My chunk gets strapped into the jogging stroller every other day, and then when I've completed my jog, she gets strapped into her Jolly Jumper and I tell her we are exercising together. She jumps to my workout tunes and I workout right beside her. After 20-30 minutes, we're both done.

Here is a top 10 list of items I use from equipment to websites:

1) free weights and dumb bells 8 lbs to 25 lbs....check Craig's list.
2) Exercise ball...the only equipment I purchased new.
3) Jogging stroller.....purchased on Criag's list and got a steal of a deal on a Jeep Jogger used only twice.
4) Yoga mat
5) My martial arts training once a week
6) a yoga dvd (the only one I own is P90X)
7) Running shoes
8) Jackie Warner's Book, This is Why You're Fat. (Amazing tips, workout circuits and recipes.)
9) Subscription to Strong magazine
10) This is a wonderful blog written by Sia Cooper.  fitmommydiaries.blogspot.com/ 





I can do it, you can do it, we ALL can do it!

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When you just have to give up.......

I'm a fighter! No seriously, I'm a second degree black belt and an Aries. Fighting is in my blood. I will fight to the death of any argument or in martial arts, a sparring match.

However, what happened to me Wednesday, I decided, I couldn't fight any more and I did give up.

 

 

 

Flash back to a beautiful south Florida morning. Sunshine, warm weather, happy baby. Yep things were going smooth. After I woke my chunky P up from her morning nap, we took a jog around the block. Afterwards, I fed her a bottle and enjoyed my protein shake. (We had previously been giving her prunes and a bottle at night because she has been constipated. We also halted the banana cereal.) well my friends, prunes are indeed the miracle workers of the digestive tract.

I decided after her bottle that I would go up stairs and take a shower. When I do this, I place her in her walker in the bathroom so that I can keep and eye on her except, we never even made it to the stairs before the storm started. First, it was a beautiful array of milky white spit up. It looked so pretty mixed on her onesie and the smell mixed perfectly with my sweaty running clothes. All streaming down my legs and the tile floor in the kitchen and the first two steps to our stairs. Chunk looked like she felt better. So we proceeded up the stairs, without clean up, (I'll get to it later.) where I decided we'd both take a bath. I placed her down on the floor, stripped her clothes, mine as well, filled her bath tub and we both got into the shower. (her tub sits on my shower stall floor.) Things are going great. I'm now clean, she's almost clean, happy splashing about, when I spy with my little eye something float by in the tub water. 😣

Yep, little bits of baby poo are sailing by like boats in her tub. I sigh, take her out, dump the tub, spray it out and refill with fresh water. Finally, after we are both clean we step out of the shower stall. I placed her on my bath mat, get dressed, and then dress her with the clean clothes I had already in the bathroom."I won! hahaha!"  I thought. Then I picked her up and she spits up all down mine and her shirt. That my friends was when I gave up. We wore her gifts of bodily fluids with pride the rest of the day. I embraced that spit up perfume like it was my life jacket and I had been thrown over board to the sea.


So I guess the lesson today my friends is to laugh at what you can and enjoy the smelly things in life. For if we didn't have bad smells, we'd never fully appreciate the good ones. Stop and smell the roses and the garbage too!



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Namaste my friends......and I'm not talking about Yoga

March 2, 2015


Lets start off with a Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss! Don't worry my friends if you had no clue. I only know this because of teaching. Also, you would have thought that I would have read my chunk of love some major Seuss title's today huh...but nope not this mamma. This mama had some major life events to accomplish, so lets get to it.

On tonight's episode: 

1) Car washing....bet I do it better than you do.
2) Serious constipation.....and you thought you had a clog
3) Namaste...and I'm not talking yoga


1) Car washing....bet I do it better than you do. Yeah so, my car has been on my list of "things I get to do" for almost a month. I kept putting it off not because I'm lazy, but because my car sits under an Oak tree in our drive way. Every Spring, it sheds this nasty, sticky when wet pollen stuff along with an endless supply of leaves. I wanted to wait to wash my car until it had shed 98% of its old growth. You might be asking why I wash my car better than you then. Well, I'll tell you that it has nothing to do with the soap, brush, or water. I would love to say it's my enormous boobs, but that would be a lie and any wet T-shirt contest would prove that too. I wash my car better, because I put my kid in her pack N play outside and top it with a fitted sheet to keep the bugs and leaves out. SIMPLE...check it out. She passed out under the shade of the second Oak tree and loves being outdoors.

Snoozing under the tree

Top with a fitted sheet

 2) Serious Constipation....and you thought you had a clog

Lets get real. I had absolutely no idea it could look and possibly feel as painful as I witnessed it today. My poor chunk has started solids. She loves rice cereal, carrots and sweet potatoes. Since she had finished the rice cereal box, I purchased the oatmeal cereal with bananas, thinking she'd like that too. Well, I was wrong. She loves it. She loves it so much she screams if you don't stick the spoon in her mouth fast enough. Well, I didn't realize that we had pretty much stuffed our chunk with intestinal clogging foods. Today, after napping, napping and napping, she woke up in a horrible mood and refused to sit. I'm talking stiff legs locked at the knees. When I went to take her diaper off this afternoon, I could hardly stand to watch as she pretty much grabbed her little ankles, turned red in the face and strained to poo. I felt so bad. INSERT GRAPHIC DETAILS.......I could see it, but nothing was fitting through that little opening. I felt helpless. I called the pediatricians office where I was told I could do a number of things. a) I could feed her prunes. b) I could give her water and corn syrup in a bottle c) I could insert a rectal thermometer and move it just in a little circular motion to help things pass. Well, since I don't have prunes or corn syrup in the house, rectal thermometer was the winner. Believe it or not, circular rectal thermometer motions work, out popped some mini human poo and she was no longer in pain or cranky. It was like I had given her new life. She bounced back into a happy baby so quick. I however needed something with alcohol.

 That brings us to our last but not least,

3) Namaste and I'm not talking yoga.

I finished tonight's dinner with a fabulous beer from Dogfish Head called Namaste. If you are a beer connoisseur, then try Namaste. It's a white beer brewed with orange peels, lemon grass, coriander and other spices. 

Thank you Dogfish Head, that was just what I needed after all of the events today. 

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