Sick kids and making changes.

This post was just going to be called "Making Changes". It was going to be my update about where I am with my non-resolutions and what all I am doing to try and accomplish those goals. But....

My kids have been sick. Isabel (as I already posted) has had ear infections and she is set up to get tubes put in on Feb 28th. I asked around. Should we stay local or should we go to ACH in Little Rock? Our Pediatrician referred us to a local doctor and I spoke to another friend whose baby had tubes put in by him. She had nothing but positive things to say about it. I spoke to another friend who took her kid to LR to have his tubes done--nothing but positive things to say about that as well. Really the only "bad" tube story that I have heard came from my husband who heard it from a guy at work and I don't know what doctor they used, but it was not ours and his story seemed a little far fetched. SO....today as I took Baby #2 to her appointment (more on that in a minute) I decided to ask our Pediatrician why he chose locally vs. LR. His answer: ACH is a "learning hospital", meaning that any sort of minor surgery (tubes, adenoids, tonsils, etc) is done by a resident while the attending observes. First thing that popped into my mind--Grey's Anatomy! The local doctor that he referred us to has literally done hundreds of tubes on babies and HE does them, not someone he is training. That was enough for me to be secure in my decision to stay local. But even beyond that, he said that the drive home from LR (3 hours) is rough on a baby who has just had the surgery AND if there were a complication down the road that we would be 3 hours away from the doctor who would need to fix it. Makes sense to me! I'm not in any way saying that ACH is the wrong decision, I just needed to feel good about the situation that we are in and there you have it. Now I'll just pray a lot. :)

Why was I at the doctor with Baby #2? Starting Tuesday night, Eva started coughing a little. It was sporadic and I didn't think a whole lot about it. Then Wed it picked up a little and I noticed her nose was a little runny. I called our Ped nurse and she said to give her a tiny little dose of Dimetapp every 6 hours and see what that did. It did nothing. So last night she coughed all night long. Sad, tiny little baby coughs. She didn't cry. She still slept through the night other than to cough and go back to sleep. This morning she would cough and then gasp for air and also she went from taking 4-5 ounces each bottle to taking 1-3 ounces. So, I polled facebook as any other good Mom would do, haha, and got 40 different answers (of course) so I just decided to take her in. Better safe than sorry! Turns out I'm not that paranoid and my kid is actually sick. RSV sick! Goodness. Her ear was on the verge of an infection as well, so we were given prescriptions for antibiotics and for albuterol to help her breathe. Sad deal.

February has not been kind to my babies.

In other news, and what I originally wanted to post about. Back in December I made a list of "things" that I wanted to accomplish in the new year. Not resolutions....I don't like resolutions. Sure, I think it's important to set goals for yourself and work to acheive them, but a resolution implies that they need to start Jan 1st and when I decide to start/stop something on Jan 1st, you better believe that I will have failed by Jan 2nd! So....some things I started working on in December. Some things I said I was going to start in December, I did not, but actually started in January. Some things I still need to start, lol. But ONE of those things, of course, was getting my body back in shape.

First, let me just say a few things about this. My body has been put through the ringer in the past 3 years. I started off  like a science experiment trying to get pregnant. Then, I did get pregnant and carried a baby full term, had a natural birth and by natural I mean the V word. And that baby was big. And then I lost the 35 lbs that I gained that pregnancy only to get pregnant again when Isabel was 10 months old. And only after once again being a science experiement. And then I carried THAT baby to full term and birthed her v...naturally and she was also pretty good sized. Nevertheless, I have quite a bit of work to do and I need to cut my poor body some slack--she's been good to me.

After Isabel was born, the pregnancy weight just fell off. I did nothing to help it along--it just went. I think I held on to the last 5 lbs for about 3 months before it came off, but I was literally in my pre-preg jeans when Iz was 3 weeks old. With Eva, nope. Nope, nope, nope. Probably because she is my second. And maybe also because I had her 1 week before Thanksgiving in which I ate a lot. And then came December and I had a birthday and I ate a lot. And then came Christmas and I ate a lot....notice a pattern? So my "goal" to lose all of the baby weight (37 lbs) by my 6 week checkup....well, that did not happen at all.

I've said all of this to say: I actually started dieting/exercising on January 8th and 1 month later (Feb 8th) I have lost 10 lbs. I'm nowhere near ready to post my actual weight but I will break it down like this: I checked into the hospital to have Eva with my extra 37 lbs. When I left the hospital I had lost 12 of it. (25 lbs left) After that, 10 more lbs came off within the next couple of weeks--you know, water weight and such. (15 lbs left) and then since 1/8/13 I have lost another 10 lbs, meaning that I still have 5 lbs of pregnancy weight to go. Eva will be 3 months old on Valentines Day, it would be nice to have it gone by then. And thennnnn......I have another 25 that I want to lose by Mother's Day. It will be tough, but I think that is a realistic goal.

This post is a novel. Soon, I will post about what I am doing to lose it. And also some other changes I am working on. And ideally I want to start posting on the 8th of every month to note my weight loss and keep me accountable by all of you thousands of viewers. :)
Not tonight though. I'm sleepy.