Little B is 2 months as of yesterday.  It is like I blinked and now he is 2 months old.  He is two weeks old and I only have one month left of maternity leave.  How is this possible?  Last week, I dragged my little sister, who was visiting, to my work for a visit with the baby.  It was nice to see my friends, but it really felt awful to be back there.  It was depressing to see everyone cooped up inside staring at computer screens while it was sunny and 75 outside.  Right now I am trying to come up with a way to change careers.  Either that or I need a get right quick scheme.  Any one have any ideas?

Seeing as I only get time to update every few weeks now, I will do the update in the bullet type format.  Little B is stirring in his swing so this may not get completed in one session!

Little B
He is growing like a weed.  At our appointment last week he weighed in at a whopping 12 lbs. 7 oz.  The reason he was at the doctor was because he has either acid reflux or some type of food sensitivity (such as MSPI).  His symptoms were spitting up large amounts after eating and then multiple times in between feedings, crying after eating, arching his back after eating, and straining to have a BM.  My poor little guy!  He is now on Zantac, twice a day (1.6 ml), plus I have eliminated many different categories of food from my diet, but I will talk about that later.  B is now smiling and laughing when you engage him in songs or baby talk.  He is generally a happy baby, except for when he eats.  He has his 2 month appointment this Friday and will get a plethora of shots.  I am nervous for this and plan on dragging my husband there if he can get out of work.  We are still attending music class and the breastfeeding support group each week.  We don't really have a daily routine right now other than B getting up around 7 AM and going to bed around 8 PM.  He usually gets a "bath" at 7 PM.  I put bath in quotes because it is him sitting in his tub with warm water.  We don't usually use soap unless he is really dirty.  He LOVES the bath.  He just hates getting out!

Baby Connect
I have to dedicate a bullet to this amazing iPhone/iPad app.  Basically it is a way to track your baby's feedings, diapers, sleep, bottles, pumping, medical info, milestones, events, etc.  My husband and I both have it since it syncs regularly.  He can see what I have been doing all day and when he takes care of the baby he can tell where I left off.  I always forget which side I last nursed on so with this app there is never a question.  It also helps when we go to the doctor so that I can give the pedi accurate info.  One of the coolest features are the charts and graphs.  You can see patterns of diaper changes and feeding.  I am an analyst and I am a geek so I freaking love this.  I wish I would have found it right wen B was born.  I have been using it for a month now and have already converted several people to it.  :)

Figure 8 Maternity
I wish I had found this before I had B.  This site has so many great nursing outfits and, what I was most interested in, shaping wear.  I have been super depressed about my stomach.  In 2 months with some PT, it still looks terrible.  I still look pregnant.  I started wearing a SPANX tank that I have and that helps a little.  I am still wearing the compression band most of the time.  I found a bunch of solutions on this Figure 8 Maternity site that I bought and will test out and report back.  I got the "MomBod Fitness Post-Natal FITsplint, and the Mother Tucker Compression Nursing Tank.  They have lots of great supplies for c-section mommies, too, which I also wish I would have know about 2 months ago.  Go take a look!

My New Diet
So I am still up between 8-10 lbs.  This is not why I am on yet another special diet.  I have been asked by the pedi to eliminate the following items: dairy, soy, & wheat.  Doesn't sound that bad when you list out 3 things, until you find out that everything has soy in it or see a basket of cheesy bread.  Ok so the carbs I can live without.  The diabetes helped me with that.  My diet is now limited to fruit, veggies, meats, and nuts.  Can you say "see ya 8-10 lbs"?  If it means that I will be able to continue breastfeeding my little chunker, than I am willing to make the sacrifice.  Maybe it will help me wedge myself into my bathing suit.

All in all things are going well for us.  Yesterday we had quite the scare which involved a walk with B and my dog, another attack dog, police & and ambulance.  I figure that since it has taken me 2 days to get this far that I should probably cut this short and write about that fine experience at a later time.

Hope all of my TTC, pregnant, and momma friends are doing well!  xoxo

I can't believe that I already had my 6 week OB appointment today.  B will be 7 weeks on Thursday!  Where has the time gone?

I was really nervous for my appointment this morning for a few reasons.  The first reason was because I had to go alone with B.  I have gone alone with him to appointments before, but never to the hospital and never for 4 1/2 hours.  I had to go early this morning to first get my 2 hour GTT and then for my OB appointment afterwards at 11:20 AM.  So yeah, I had to entertain B for several hours, in a hospital setting, by myself.

Turns out it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  I nursed him a total of 2 times and changed 3 diapers in the family restrooms.  Luckily everything in the hospital is wheelchair accessible!  I hate the nursing covers and would prefer to just "free-boob" it, but I am not sure how legal that is in my state (or anywhere for that matter).

The 2 hour GTT test wasn't as bad as the 3 hour, but the drink was by far worse.  It wasn't the orange flavored one, it was no flavor other than sugar water.  I choked it down and it threatened to come back up for several minutes.  Luckily I could drink water to take the sticky, sweet taste out of my mouth.  GROSS!

After chugging the gross drink, B and I did several laps around the hospital.  We walked past the fertility clinic.  I wanted to go in and thank my RE and their staff, but didn't think they would even remember me since it was September that I was there last.  I saw the doctor that delivered B and I also saw a few other doctors that I remembered walking the halls.  It was weird to be back there again for what will be the last time for quite a while (or until I try to get pregnant again or get pregnant again on my own).  The site of so many heartbreaks and bad memories, now has a bunch of great memories for me.  They helped me conceive and birth my son.  I am forever grateful.

After my last blood draw, I headed over for one last visit to MFM.  I am not sure what my BP was, but my weight is 133 (down from a high of 164 plus).  I still have 13 lbs to lose to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight, or 15 lbs to lose to get back to my goal weight.  I realize that this weight should not come off until I stop breastfeeding and I am ok with that.

I talked to my doctor one last time.  We discussed birth control, as he gave me the all-clear for sex (which I still have no interest in right now...sorry hubby!).  I am going to start the mini-pill on Sunday.  Not really excited about that, but I also do not want to get pregnant for at least a year and having something put into me like an IUD sounds completely unappealing.  We also discussed exercise and my diastasis recti.  I told him about the marathon and he told me that I can start running...slowly.  I am surely going to be at the pace of a turtle for some time.  As for the ab situation, he told me that he has never seen anyone have luck with physical therapy, but he agreed to write me a prescription if I agreed to call him and let him know if it worked or not.  He also told me that if I choose to have another baby and a c-section that he will stitch my abs back together as part of the surgery, if that was going to be my last child.  I love this man!!  He also checked my incision, which he said looked good and he gave me a pap smear which hurt like hell.  He told me to give them a call if I get pregnant and we'll do it all over again starting at 8 weeks.

I really felt like hugging him, but I thought that would be weird.  Seems like so long ago that I walked in there for the first time, crying and so scared.  He really always helped to calm me down.  He never tried to blow smoke and sugar coat anything, but he also didn't unnecessarily scare me either.  It is crazy that you spend so much time at their office when you are pregnant and then you just stop going.  It sounds weird to say that I will actually miss going for regular check-ups there.

When I handed the receptionist my paperwork and told her that I did not need to schedule a follow-up it felt like I was graduating.  I now have my healthy baby that I worked so hard for.  Quite a surreal feeling.  I did it.  I overcame whatever issue I had.  I fought and I won.

When I got home I already had an email from the nurse giving me the results of the 2 hour GTT.  I PASSED!  NO MORE DIABETES!!  My fasting was 87 and my 2 hour was 112.  I breathed a sigh of relief, but know that I will forever have changed my eating habits and will always be thinking about diabetes.  I know that I am at a higher risk now for type-2 diabetes, so I have even more incentive to stay healthy.

Today was a good day.  B has been doing better the past few days.  I have a more thorough update of him that I need to write, but I hear him stirring from his nap so I need to get back to mommy duty.  

For fun, here are some before and after shots of my mangled belly.  Something to work my ass off for.    I am jealous of my old body!  Enjoy!