Such the Proud Mama

Well, since I'm really rubbish ALREADY at keeping up with Jacob's baby book, I thought I could at least put some stuff on the blog so that someday I may be able to go back to this and tell Jake more about his milestones. :) So today, Jacob's 23 week birthday, was pretty big for him! Right before daddy came home from work, Jake successfully rolled from his back to his belly! Well, he's been doing that mostly for a while now, but he usually gets his arms stuck under him so he can't fully turn over. Today he rolled over and unstuck his arm, then did a push up. That was pretty darned cool.

Even cooler, at his bath time tonight, he actually showed physical signs of PLEASURE at being bathed! At first he would cry or yell when bathing, which turn to quiet unease, then quiet unsured-ness. But tonight it was actually smiling, gurgling, kicking pleasure! Hurray!

I wanted to put up a cuter picture, but the others require rotating the photo and I have NO idea how to do that on blogspot! I suppose I could get into iPhoto and rotate it first, but that would be too simple! :) Ok, hold on a second...

Right, here we go!

Much better! Dad's got his hand in a very fortuitous spot, but is actually just helping him from sliding down into the water. Those babies get slippery!

Bulkhead!

So, I've been struggling to get off that last half stone (7 pounds) of pregnancy weight. Add that to whatever crap I ate while I was home on vacation, and I've added probably a few more on as well. And once you fall off the healthy eating wagon, it can be very difficult to get back on!

Well, next month, I will be flying with Jacob BY MYSELF to New Orleans for a convention, followed by a trip to see my Kim in LA. That means I'll more than likely have to sit in the bulkhead aisle with Jacob to allow him to have a bassinet. Now, the bassinet is a GREAT idea, but I just find those bulkhead aisles to be SO uncomfortable, considering how wide my arse is now...especially since having a baby. I'm just not looking forward to this. The torture of these bulkhead aisles is horrible. Sure you get more legroom, but you get armrests that don't go up, and they're solid metal to accommodate your tray table, so my bum can't even slither it's way underneath.

Just the thought of my 8+ hour flight from Heathrow to Chicago in the bulkhead aisle is causing me to cringe. Which I've found to be a GREAT motivation to stay on that healthy eating bandwagon! For example, a couple days ago, I was doing our grocery shopping and I passed a basket selling Oreos for 1 euro a packet! Ohhh, boy was I tempted to purchase a pack and stuff them all into me with milk when I got home. Yum! But, I used my new motivational keyword, and thought to myself, 'bulkhead.' Just that one word is enough to trigger the uncomfortable memories and the motivation to just keep walking past those lovely evil temptations.

So far, my trigger word has helped me to lose 6 pounds, so I've got to say, there's something to this. Taping a picture of a hot woman in a bikini to my fridge? Nope. Been there, tried that. Going to the supermarket full? I'll still find something tempting to bring home. But saying 'bulkhead' while looking at those temptations? Boy does it work.

It's worked well enough that I've suggested to Rob that maybe he needs a trigger word? He's going to try 'tweed' as his tweed suits are getting too tight and he LOVES wearing them. We'll see how it works for him. I challenge all who are having a tough time losing those last few pounds (or anyone who is lacking motivation), to find a trigger word. For me, it's a word that conjures up such uncomfortable memories that I want to avoid a repeat of. 'Bulkhead' also reminds me of my new goal of fitting comfortably in the upcoming bulkhead next month.

I hope this technique works for others. I'm finding it brilliant! I hope you can all find your bulkhead!

Clarification

I think I freaked a lot of people out (well, 2 or 3), when I said my bra was discontinued. I didn't mean the whole line was gone, just the one that I love. My favorite bra looked like the one from the link below but without the wire.



Unfortunately, Lane Bryant's website isn't selling my favorite bra. It's well and truly gone. Boo.

RIP, Cacique Bras

I'm in mourning... over my bra. When I was home in August, I went to Lane Bryant, all very excited because I was going to replenish my ever-manky supply of cacique, non-wire soft bras. Well, turns out, they've discontinued the line! NOOOOOOOOO! What am I going to wear now?!? Honestly, I was almost in tears at the store. It took quite a large force of will to keep it together... I'll blame it on the baby hormones.

So what do I do now? I bought a wired bra, but I'll only where that when I HAVE to, and then a different non-wire. But it's just not MY BRA! I pray to God my 3 caciques last me out the rest of my nursing. Woe is me...

Battle of the Nursing Bras- Conclusion

I give up! I thought I would be spending some quality time getting to know and love my nursing bras through this process, but all I've discovered is that plus size nursing bras are NOT made for plus sized women! I bought the largest cup size Motherhood had, but in the long run, my boobs were just spilling out of them. That's not comfortable, and it's certainly not attractive. So I've spent the majority of my motherhood wearing my regular mega-bras and just whipping my breast out over the cup when Jake needed to eat. Not the most comfortable, but it's only for a minutes at a time, so I've learned to live with it.

I guess, then, my conclusion to this bra battle is that, for the super-plus sized nursing woman, the regular, every day bra is your best bet. If only I had a design degree and financial backing, I'd create a line of proper fitting nursing bra's!