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!

Whirlwind

Wow, so much has gone on in this past month! At the beginning of August, Jake was visited by two lovely ladies, Shelah and Heather. Shelah came for just a few days before heading off to visit some other friends in Europe. Heather came for just under 3 weeks the day after Shelah left! Needless to say, Jacob had a LOT of entertaining to do! Heather travelled with Jacob and me to Hamburg and Bad Oldesloe, Germany for our friend's wedding, where she ended up meeting Shelah (who is a mutual friend too) and hitting it off! Jacob got to go on his very first plane ride, where he was an ANGEL! The boy is a pro at flying already! He slept the entire way... good boy!

Germany was HOT and there was no AC in our hotel room... apparently they only need it for about a month every year so noone bothers to get it. Poor Jake was soaking the whole time. But he had a good time and was fawned over by everyone.

With Heather, Jake and I went quite a few places in Ireland, too... New Grange, Glendalough, Roscrea, to name a few. Upon Heather's departure, Rob, Jacob and I had to get ready for our trip to the states for Jake's baptism!

The flight from Dublin to JFK was easy peasy. Jake did great. Rob and I selected seats across the aisle from each other as we're both pretty wide people. This way we wouldn't squish anyone. But of course the flight attendants really wanted to be helpful and hounded us into using the bulkhead asile so we could use the bassinett.... which is a lovely thought if you're not pinching many inches. So we caved and ended up miserable squished next to each other for take off. BTW, the bulkhead armrests are NOT comfortable! After take off, I went and found myself another seat on an aisle close to the bulkhead. Rob stayed put to take advantage of the bassinett. Me, having still quite generous "birthing hips" needed a different seat.

Our flight out of JFK was another story. We ended up on the tarmac for a couple of hours... Jake was hungry and jetlagged so he screamed for a while and eventually fell asleep (5 mintues before we actually took off!).

The rest of the trip was fantastic. Jacob got to meet a ton of his great aunts and uncles, many second cousins, and finally got to meet Aunt Rebecca and cousins Ava and Joseph. He took a dip in the pond behind uncle Art's house and yelled for a while until he realized that it wasn't so bad, and joined us for a clambake on the beach!

Then on to Jacob's christening, which he was perfect for. No crying for MY son! He did give out a little bit when the water on his head started drying and cooling his head, but that was it. And Father Charlie did a brillant job on the christening, making it such a personal event. The christening was followed by a huge party where Jacob was given much "sugar" (as they say in Texas) and cuddles. He ended his vacation with a trip to Aunt Mary Beth and Uncle Gary's log cabin in the woods and a trip to the state fair!

So, needless to say, we're all a bit wrecked now. And while Rob and I are pretty much mostly over our jet lag, I can't say the same for the little guy who is currently passed out in his NEW BIG BOY CRIB. I suppose I should try to wake him soon.

Cutting That Cord

Ok, so today is a big day for me. Last night, as I was sitting at a cafe with a sleeping baby, and chatting to my husband on the phone discussing the night's dinner menu, I had the idea that maybe Jake could go with his daddy today to Derry to see his grandmother. I need to stay at home because, well, our 1 year anniversary is only 2 weeks away and I STILL have thank you notes to finish... which must be done before Heather gets here tomorrow or they just won't get done in time. Plus, the house is a bit of a mess (surprise!!) and I need to do laundry and get Heather's room ready (oh and much more, but we'll see how much actually gets done, I'm still a lazy bones!).

So, I pumped and pumped and got 2 1/2 feed out last night and this morning (only pumped twice so I'm chuffed, as I haven't pumped in a while). And while that won't last Jake an entire day, he can supplement with formula as needs be.

Now here I am in an empty apartment, not sure how I'm feeling. Ok, ok, I know it's good to let these kind of things happen, but I'm just not USED to have an ENTIRE day with no baby. I put a song on and then almost turned it down thinking it was too loud... then realized there was no sleeping baby in the house. Little things like that keep happening.

And of course I'm the biggest worrier out there. At the moment I'm all worried about the following:
1. Someone on the bus being sick and giving it to Jake
2. Someone in Derry or the bus passing swine flu on to Jake (I told Rob to be a jerk and insist that people wash their hands before the get to cuddle him, especially as some of those people might be health care workers who go from house to house)
3. Mary dropping the baby (I KNOW Rob will be right there watching, but I still worry)
4. Rob forgetting to put the brake on the stroller and Jake rolling down the big, long hills of Derry.

Well, those are the biggest ones. But I figure, if I worry about them, then they won't happen (here's hoping)! At least I have an understanding husband who lets me be a bit neurotic around him about my anxieties.

So there it is. Jake is off with Rob on the way to Derry and I've my day to myself. This is going to take some getting used to...