Milk Donation

I've written here before about my breast milk supply issues and how inadequate it has made me feel to not be able to provide milk for my son. I've also worried about Hunter's overall health because breast milk is best for babies and we just couldn't make it work. I mentioned to a friend of mine that had I known more about breast milk exchanges and donations that I may have gone that route. I did know of the existence of exchanges but the idea of it seemed a little weird to me. Like how is the milk or donor screened? Is it costly? Those types of things.

Then the following day I was at my mommy and me class and this woman mentioned she had an abundance of frozen breast milk her son wouldn't eat. And she asked what she could do with it. I piped up that she could donate it to people like me that needed breast milk through donation centers or Le Leche League. And yesterday she came over to my house with a Target bag full of frozen breast milk for Hunter. It almost makes me want to cry it was such a wonderful gesture.

If you or anyone you know has a bunch of breast milk that has gone unused I would say I would love to have it. But the truth is there are mothers and babies that need it way more than Hunter and I do. Infants with failure to thrive, allergies and premies. If you or anyone you know want to look into donation of breast milk I have attached a few links below for donation research.

http://milkshare.birthingforlife.com/

http://milkinmamas.com/?gclid=CIWN9_q0o6UCFRBzgwod5kW1Iw

http://www.milkbanking.net/index.php

http://www.llli.org/NB/NBmilkdonation.html

xoxo,

Lauren

EC Training

We just started EC training a few days ago. For those of you that haven't heard of EC training, you are going to think this is crazy. EC training is Elimination Communication or infant potty training. Dude, I know. I thought the same thing. But hear me out.

There's a lot of fear and frustration that goes into potty training. Some kids are afraid or confused and that makes the parents frustrated. It makes sense that a baby should be familiarized with the potty and flushing at a very young age to make it a normal activity. Then it eliminates fear. And that's only one benefit.

You can imagine the other benefits. Fewer diaper changes means fewere diapers and money saved, less poop exposure :), and earlier and easier potty training. So what do I do?

I'm starting off slowly. Hunter goes on the potty after eating and sleeping. He stays on for a maximum of 5 minutes so as not to get bored or frustrated. I try to make it enjoyable by singing silly potty songs and he gets one special toilet toy to play with only on the potty. If he pees he gets congratulations with a "good pee pee" and then I follow up with the sign for urination. Hopefully he may eventually be able to tell me that he needs to use the toilet.

Also I'm hoping to learn his bathroom cues. I pretty much have the poop one down, but that only happens once, maybe twice a day. His pee one is a bit harder, but he seems to go right when he wakes up, so I just need to pay attention.

He's peed three times on the potty so far and it surprised the hell out of me. He enjoys being up there with me on the floor because we're at eye level. It's actually nice because it has afforded us some extra bonding time free of a lot of distractions. We'll see how it goes. If he starts getting annoyed or crying I will try again in a few months. I've heard good things about this method and because I have the time at home to do it, I figured I should give it a try.

My friend suggested getting a small potty so when Hunter walks he can use it himself and I think I may procure that item this weekend. I was just a bit ambivalent because cleaning out the poop seems icky to me. Funny because I deal with baby poop and dog poop on a daily basis. And I use cloth diapers so hopefully it won't be any worse than that.

I'll keep you updated.

xoxo,

Lauren

ATHLETE

The Post Where I Disclose My Weight

I was overweight when I got pregnant. In fact, I was OBESE. I had even dropped 8 pounds in the two months prior to conception, but it wasn't enough to lower me to the overweight bracket. I have to say that I was dealing with multiple scales at all the different doctor's offices, hospital and home (of course the most forgiving scale that weighed me a significant amount less) but I'm just going to use my OB's scale because it's probably closest to the awful truth and happens to weigh close to the same as our new scale.

According to that scale my pre-pregnancy weight was 211 pounds. Yowza!

I can't believe I'm putting that out there for everyone to see, but with the holidays just around the corner, I'm hoping this will keep me accountable.

I gained close to 40 pounds during my pregnancy, tipping the scale at 25o pounds the day before Hunter was born. Ugghhh. But I wasn't there for long. I don't recall what I was post delivery but I know I lost 23 pounds the first month and 4 more pounds by 8 weeks. That's when I could finally find time to exercise. They say you can resume exercise by 6 weeks, but I seriously don't know how anyone can do it that soon. Just exercising 3 days a week and juggling a 2 month old was exhausting. But I did it. And by 4 months postpartum I was back to 211.

It felt so good to be at my pre-pregnancy weight yet still pretty discouraging to think that I had close to 50 pounds left to lose to be at my ideal weight. I had been running a few days each week and decided to really step it up and start running more days and longer distances. I also joined Stroller Strides so that Hunter could be a little social while I exercised.

Now I am 6 months postpartum and weigh in at 188 pounds, a 62 pound weight loss. I am nearly half way to my goal with only 24 pounds left to lose. And no longer obese And more important than my weight is that I've developed a real LOVE for running. I have run 5 marathons in the past and a few other shorter races so it's pretty clear that running has always been a hobby of mine. The reason I ran before and had marathon goals is that it kept me exercising. Which is a wonderful reason in itself. But now I run because I love it. I love moving my body and pushing it to it's extreme and then going out the next day and realizing that I can push myself even further. And seeing what my body can do makes me want to take much better care of it.

I also have this dream of running the Boston Marathon and now there may actually be a chance in hell that I can qualify for it in 2012. When I started running again, or should I say jogging, 4 months ago I was jog/walking at a 15:30 minute/mile pace. Now I'm running a mile in under 9:30! I can run 3 miles under 30 minutes! At 188 pounds! Sorry, I had to brag for a minute because I never thought my body could run under a 12 minute mile. But, boy, can it! So maybe qualifying for Boston with an average 8:23 pace isn't too far off.

My goals, in the mean time, are first: to run a 10k this weekend in under 60 minutes, second: to finish the LA Marathon in under 4:20 (DUDE) and lastly to lose my remaining 25 extra pounds in the next 6 months. It's so funny that my weight is now the least important priority because I've always thought it defined me as a person. And it did, it defined me as OBESE. But now there's a new word that defines me: Athlete.

xoxo,

Lauren

You're Half Way Baby

Mr. Hunter you are 6 months old today! Half a year, old boy! I can't believe it. It seems like only yesterday that you were still in me.

(I had only known about you for about 4 weeks, you were the size of a kidney bean!)

(your dad and I hiking 4 days before you were born)

That was such a fun day. It was a beautiful Friday afternoon and your dad and I thought it might be the last time that just the two of us went hiking together so we went to one of our favorite spots just before sundown. Actually, we were hoping it would be the last time we would hike just the two of us because we were so excited to meet you and hike as a family! But I didn't really think I would get to meet you so soon, I wasn't feeling too much action and thought you might come a few days late.

Fast forward to Monday when I went in for a routine check up and Dr. K listened to your heart rate and looked at my fluid levels and thought maybe you should come out a little sooner than planned. I was scared to death, but super excited because I was finally going to get to see your face!

(that was my last meal and I could only eat a few bites because I was so excited)

Your dad, grandma and I camped out in that room for the next 30 hours playing 'Words With Friends' (it's like Scrabble and if you're anything like your dad and me you'll love it when you grow up) with Rachelle, eating Jolly Ranchers (you'll love those too) and watching Tremors (if you have any taste you will hate that movie but because you come from the Dietrich's and Hawkins' I have little hope you will miraculously have good taste.)

By 30 hours that room got pretty boring and you were ready to come out anyway. In fact, you were trying so hard to come out that my body tried to push you out but my pelvis would not accommodate your huge noggin. The doctor was making fun of it yesterday at your six month appointment because it's still quite large for your size (95th percentile head size when the rest of you is in the 50th or 75th percentile.) But Dr. K made the decision that it was time for you to be born, so...

(they took you right out of my tummy and you're sitting on it in this picture)

Remember how I told you that you were so ready to come out that my body tried to push you. Well, normally babies born by c-section aren't all squished up looking because they just come straight from the belly. Unfortunately, your lack of patience (you're definitely our child) and trying to come out too quick made you a little scrunched and gave you a ridiculous cone head for the first few days.

(You even had a little raspberry sized mark on your head for the first few months because you got so squished)

But even with that conical head you were still the coolest little human I'd ever seen. And when I finally got to hold you I never wanted to let you go.

And look at you now, you're growing so fast I forget sometimes how little you were. Everyday you amaze me. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me!

(No more cone head, just my perfect little man.)

xoxo,

Mama