Learning from Newborns

My nephew Ian was born this morning. He's a doll. It's only been 9.5 months, but I'd already forgotten just what it was like to hold a newborn. *love*

His mom is doing great, exhausted of course. They seem to be doing well with breastfeeding so far, which makes me happy. It makes me reflect on how hard it seemed for me to start breastfeeding in the beginning, and I realized that the difference between myself and my friend is that she was remarkably calm. I was not. For some reason, I felt this crazy pressure to breastfeed right from the beginning, compounded by the lactation ladies being bewildered by the difficulties I was having, and the delivery room nurse giving me a nipple shield right off the bat because "my nipples were too flat." On top of my usual need to be perfect and thus be really hard on myself, the nurses didn't really set me up for success.

And tonight, going into the recovery room and holding that little boy, swaying with him and patting his back and soothing him when he started to cry, I realized how much I've grown since that first day. I have confidence now. I may not always know what I'm doing when it comes to getting her to sleep through the night or eat green vegetables, but being back with a newborn again reminded me just how much more I do know now, and it gave me hope. If I can just maintain that confidence, and steal some of my friend's calm, there's not much I won't be able to do.

Snot Rocket Weekend

Mr. Shawn is away this weekend at NAMM, so little Miss Violet and I have had 3 solid days of quality mommy-baby time. It's been fun. We've been all over the place. Friday I took the day off work because she was sick, and Shawn had already left. On a whim, we drove out to San Francisco to check out a potential wedding venue (I think it's the one!). Then stopped over at Grandpa's house to roll around on the floor there (her) and enjoy some homemade beef stew (me). 

Yesterday, Saturday, we helped Shawn's parents move into their new condo, and got to see lots of cousins and aunties and uncles who were there helping as well. It was pretty funny to see all the big ol' man-cousins playing with the baby and being silly. I like to think she earned her keep that way, even if she couldn't lift any boxes. 

So far today, we slept in, then tidied up the house a bit, and now she's napping and I'm watching some football and hoping to write a bit before my writers' meeting in an hour or two. 

Through all of this, Violet has been working on Tooth #5, (bottom left) which no doubt has something to do with the massive faucet of snot that she's been running all weekend. It's actually pretty comical to see her sneeze out these giant rockets, but then she wipes it all over her face before I can swoop in with a tissue. Gross. Someone's getting a bath tonight. I've also been running the shower and the humidifier a lot, to help clear her up while she sleeps, poor thing. She sounds like an asthmatic old man. Poor baby.

Hope everyone's enjoying the rainy weather. Go Niners!

New Year, New Hot

Ah, weekends.

I spent this morning having coffee with a dear friend whom I haven't seen in a while, she's been busy planning her wedding (ee!), and so time has gotten away from us. It was nice to sit outside Starbucks, enjoy a coffee and the sunshine and just chat. Plus she got to have some quality face time with baby, who is, I must say, comedy gold at this age (9 months). I've missed having girl time, with mommy friends or otherwise, and even something as simple as walking to the local Starbucks felt glamorous on a Saturday morning. Since baby and I had been up since 7am, I had time to shower, put on something casual and easy but cute, and put on some easy make-up that made me feel super hot without being over done.

My current trick for doing quick makeup and looking put together without dousing my face in product, is to use foundation as a concealer only. I use Nuetrogena Clean Make-up, and dab a bit of it under my eyes, on any little blemishes that might have shown up, and usually a bit above the bridge of my nose between my eyebrows, where my skin tends to get a little red. Then I put on a cream blush, circled a bit on the apples of my cheeks and blend up to my temples. I lined my bottom lids with a thin line of black, and put on black mascara, and finished off with some clear lip gloss -- not too shiney or gooey -- and that was it. I felt fabulous, understated, totally put together and hot and it took me about 5 minutes while Violet was playing with measuring cups at my feet. The only annoying part was that, since I had slept in my contacts (shameshame) I had to wear my frames instead, so I couldn't top my look with my giant sunglasses. Bummer.

Violet and I walked to the coffee shop since it's only a block or two from the house. Gal pal and wedding-planning bestie L was already there. We sat out in the sun, since for some glorious reason it's still amazing outside in January. 

One of our favorite topics is getting in shape for our weddings (hers is in June, mine is in December). She's already lost a bunch of weight, (she did that HGC diet? I don't know about all that. I've had enough of pregnancy hormones, thanks) and is now looking to tone up, mostly from doing P90X. 

My weight loss efforts last year were a bit disappointing, I just couldn't seem to get the motivation up to get started and really keep on with anything, and I ended up feeling defeated. About a week ago, however, Shawn mentioned that, for New Years, we should go "total health nut." After defining with him that he meant things like no soda and junk food and working out, rather than like, meatless and wheat grass, I was all about it. He's always been better at eating healthy, and doing it together, a lifestyle as a couple, was a really exciting thought for me. 

So, come January 1, we stopped drinking soda, buying candy and junk food, and I've been working out every day. I've brought a gym bag to work, and go running on my lunch breaks, or walking on days that are for strength training. I've gone back to using MyFitnessPal, a super website for tracking food and exercise, and the support there is awesome. 

My goal is to reach 145lbs by this summer. I have smaller goals as well:

175lbs by April 2, the baby's first birthday

165lbs by May 2

155lbs by June 2

145lbs by July 7

The idea is to be back down to my fighting weight by this summer, so I can rock my bikini and try on wedding dresses, and also have enough of a buffer between Ultimate Goal Weight and Wedding that I have room for any slips that might crop up, etc. 

I'm very excited for this. Doing it as a couple makes it fun, and I've missed running. My first mini goal is to break the 180's by the end of January, and leave the 190's behind for good. 

Stay tuned...