Dealing With Post-Pregnancy

Many women are used to living in bodies that are outside the perceived “norm” (if we want to avoid even trying to define what the “norm” is anyway).  But there are times when our bodies seem to intersect.

For example, it’s generally assumed that all brides will try to lose weight.  It’s just the accepted norm, in my experience.  If I had a friend or coworker getting married, she was probably talking about her diet and the boot camp classes at her gym.  I didn’t do that, though.  Actually, I had to exchange my wedding dress for the next larger size a couple of months before the wedding because I had gained weight since buying it.  I didn’t try to gain weight, but I was stressed due to graduate school and I’m a stress eater.  But that’s a different discussion.

Weddings are one of those experiences where people sometimes have behavioral and physical expectations of others.  Another one of those experiences?  Pregnancy.

It seems fairly simple, right?  A woman gets pregnant, the baby grows, the woman gains weight, her shape changes, and so on.  We’re all roughly familiar with the expectations of the process.  If you read enough articles or blogs written by pregnant or formerly pregnant women, you also learn that people feel free to comment (often!) about the size of a pregnant woman’s belly.

Even that, in a way, is the norm.  But that wasn’t my experience and, even now as my son nears three months of age, I’m still trying to fully process my pregnancy experience.

I didn’t have the big belly.  I’ve been overweight or obese most of my life, yet during pregnancy, I didn’t gain much weight.  By the time I went in to give birth, I had gained 10 pounds.  My son weighed 8 pounds, so I was back at my pre-birth weight before I even came home from the hospital.  I was healthy throughout the pregnancy and my son is perfectly healthy, so it’s not that anything was wrong – but by the reactions of people throughout my pregnancy, you might think so.

Read the rest here...

Have you heard of FatBooth?

FatBooth is an iPhone/iTouch/iPad app that lets you take a picture of your face or someone else’s and make it fat.

Ohhh, hahahaha, oh boy!  How funny!  What a brilliant use of anyone’s free time!  Let me go run out and get an iPad right now so I can make people fat.

This app has been out for a month but I don’t have any of the above products so I was unaware of it until it was recently reported that Whitney Port (of The Hills and The City) posted a FatBooth photo of herself.

Ms. Port wrote on her website, “Seriously every time I look at this photo I giggle uncontrollably! [. . .]  What do you guys think of my extra chins?  Is it a good look for me?!”

Somehow I don’t think she’d be giggling uncontrollably if she woke up that size one day.  But if you do a quick Google search about the app, you’ll find a large number of reviews or informal postings talking about how funny this app is.  One blog post wrote, “Whether it’s your own picture, a friend’s, a family member or anyone it’s hilarious to see them obese.  Though I must add it’s much more humorous when the person is thin.”  This is then followed by a picture of a hamburger saying, “Yum Yummy.”

Oh, yes.  Boy am I laughing now.  Hilarious, indeed.

Continue reading here...

7 Quick Tuesday Takes - the last non-mom one?

1. Last night was my second (and last) chiropractic session before tomorrow's sonogram.  If The Force hasn't turned by tomorrow, my OB is scheduling the c-section for Monday.  So by this time next week, I could be a mom.  This has not sunk in.  The chiro session went better than Saturday's.  Overall I felt less pressure, fewer pops and cracks, and so on.  So now we'll see how the sonogram goes tomorrow night.

2. File under "of all the luck" - yesterday my husband went to borough hall to pay a parking ticket.  When he came out what was on his car but... another parking ticket!  The block we live on doesn't require the parking passes that much of the town does, which seems to be the culprit.  So today the hubby goes to get those AND to see if the ticket can be waived.  *fingers crossed*

Update (10am): The ticket is being waived.  Yay!

3. Things to complete this week include cleaning the bathroom, fixing the door on the nursery (loose hinge due to stripped screw holes), grocery shopping (I keep having trouble summoning the energy to actually go to the supermarket), finishing packing my hospital bag (probably a very good idea), finish my schoolwork for the semester (woefully and inexcusably behind at this point and feeling utterly wretched about it), tie up all loose ends at work, organize baby feeding supplies at home (where do I put all that stuff??).

You know, just a few little things to do.

4. Speaking of the to-do list, we are one major step closer to deciding on a name for The Force!  (Yes, we're possibly having a baby in six days and he doesn't have a name yet.)  We made our final lists (mine has 7 names on it, the hubby's has 11 - ha, 7-11).  Two of the names are the same, so quite probably we'll choose one of those, but I want to give all the other names full consideration, too, so I'm letting them all sink in and marinate in my brain a bit before I we truly decide that one of the two names we both listed will be the choice.

5. Tonight is possibly my last grad class for over a year, if I go ahead with my tentative plan to not take any classes in the fall or spring so I can spend more time with the baby and figure out exactly how my mommy schedule will work.  It feels odd, but I'm excited about this, which tells me it's the right decision for now.

6. My boss had me come to the main campus for a meeting yesterday - except, it wasn't a meeting.  It was a surprise baby shower!  I got a cute stuffed dog, a baby album, a bunch of feeding stuff, and a Toys R Us gift card.  My coworkers are so sweet.  (And there was cake, mmm.)

7. Yesterday I bought tickets for Roger Waters The Wall Live.  The show is in November, so we've got six months to line up a babysitter.  Concerts are one of those things that seem to fade from your 20s to your 30s; I miss seeing shows.  These days they're a luxury, both in time and money - but this one was a must for me.  Can't wait.

7 Quick Tuesday Takes - randomized for a change

These Tuesday posts have frequently taken on themes recently.  I'm happy to have one that isn't so narrowly focused for a change.

1. Check out my latest post, "Keeping It Real or Minding Our Business," about plastic surgery, Hollywood, and what exactly is our business or not over at WeAreTheRealDeal.  As I head closer to birthing The Force, I can't help but keep thinking about how my choice to have elective plastic surgery is now affecting the birth of my son.  (I didn't write about that aspect of it on WATRD, but I think I might write about it here.)

2.  After today, I only have one more "Time and Learning" class session and two more "Diversity" class sessions (the grad classes I'm taking this semester).  Depending on how I feel, I might not even go to that last Diversity class.  I'm really excited to think that I only have to deal with the guilt over how long Buster is home alone on Tuesday for just one more week.

3.  On Sunday, my sister, her husband, and their two kids came over with the crib that was TJ's (he's now in a toddler bed).  Before that, the crib was used by my cousins Max and Erik, so it's becoming this family heirloom type of thing - there are even plaques on it with Max, Erik, and TJ's names... and soon there'll be our son's (as-yet-undetermined) name on there, too.  I love it.  After I put the sheets on and set up the mobile, I sat down and just stared at it for a few minutes.  I really can't believe that in a few weeks (if all goes according to schedule), I'm going to have a little baby boy to put in there.  As real as it is, it's still so unreal.

4.  Murphy's Law: you decide to not use any hair products or make-up on Sunday since, well, it's Sunday.  It's a day of rest for your follicles and pores.  With a sweatshirt on to fight the slight chill outside (so, truly inhabiting slobdom), you proceed to your local Friday's for dinner, only to be greeted by one of your students, who works there as a host.  To boot, you never put on your wedding rings that day, but your husband put his ring on, so now it looks like you're out to dinner with someone else's husband.  Love it.

5. I got a new title at work effective yesterday.  Since I was hired, I've hated my title.  It was... "Assistant."  Ew, right?  I always thought it should be Coordinator or Supervisor since that more accurately described what I do (I supervise the tutoring center at a campus of a school that has several campuses; the tutors there report to me directly, so I really am a supervisor, and I also teach classes sometimes).  Well, as of yesterday I am now a "Learning Coordinator."  Much better.  Small things can make a difference.  (Although, no, no extra money is involved with the title upgrade.)

6.  I currently hate wearing socks and shoes because even the teeny bit my feet and ankles have swollen is noticeable and annoying.  Let's bring on maternity leave and flip-flops, please!

7.  The wonderful Lori at I Can Grow People has bestowed the Kreative Blogger Award upon me.

Ooooh, pretty

Here are the award rules:

1. Post the award on your blog.  (Done.)

2. Give a thank you shout out to the lovely person who bestowed the Major Award upon you.

Thanks again to Lori at I Can Grow People (and also at Wife.Mom.Artist.Geek!) for this spiffy award. :)

3. Pass the award on to seven people who you think deserve the title of Kreativ Blogger.

I've given out awards before and since I can't remember who I gave what to and I don't want to give too many awards to my same fave people over and over again, I'm just listing five folks here.  In no particular order, I happily pass this along to:

Operation Mommyhood

Blahggy

The Stylish Thirties

Delightfully Sweet

Say Something Stacey

4. Name seven things about yourself that others don’t know.

This is hard because I can never keep track of what I've mentioned and what I haven't, but here's a go at trying to find seven unknown things:

1. I remember the exact time and circumstance under which I received my first "F".  It was a fourth grade math test where I thought nine times seven (9x7) was 62 instead of 63.

2. I have terrible spatial intelligence. I can never look at something unassembled and have any accurate idea what it should look like assembled.  I don't even like cooking without a picture of what it should look like at the end.

3. I'm totally not into most of the music on my iPod right now and I don't know what to do about this.

4. I want to move.  I really really really want to move.  We seriously need more space.  I look at real estate rental listings every day and try to figure out how it is that people our age can afford to buy homes.

5. I get super nervous when the hubby jokes about how since I've only gained 6 lbs during this pregnancy, I'm going to lose 30 lbs like nothing after the baby is born. I fear losing nothing and being a total disappointment.

6. I can figure out a restaurant tip in two seconds but sometimes still need to count on my fingers for other things.

7. I played Frau Schmidt in our high school production of The Sound of Music (my faaaave musical ever).

5. Don’t forget to notify your seven bloggers about their award and post a link to their blog.

Toodle-oo 'til Wednesday!

7 Quick Tuesday Takes - pregnant man edition

By request of the hubby, who insisted when I got pregnant that pregnancy would "turn me into a man" (specifically him), here are seven ways in which he was right.

*Note: these items do not indicate any generalizations I have made about men.  These are the hubby's generalizations and he thinks that since he's a man, it's okay ... so that's that.  Just having a laugh poking some fun at gender stereotypes.

1. Farting - Let me just get this one over with.  Until I was pregnant, I almost never farted in front of my husband unless it was a total accident, completely taking me by surprise, or I was asleep.  Now?  Now I have no choice.  If I had to excuse myself to another room every time this would happen, I wouldn't ever see the hubby because I'd be in a separate room every hour.

For you Sex and the City fans, remember the episode where Miranda and Carrie are shoe shopping and Miranda's rings get stuck and she tries to pull them off, pulling her finger and then farting in the process?  Hilarious then.  Less so now.

2. Burping - Goes along with farting, right?  Same air, just the other direction.  I have never been able to burp on command, and still can't, but what I can do is just burp when I have to because it's impossible to keep them quiet sometimes now.

3. Sleeping - This weekend I slept until 10am both days, after getting up earlier to let the dogs out.  Normally, I'm up after I let the dogs out, even if it's 7:30am on a weekend.  I'll lay on the sofa and watch TV/snooze/be unproductive, but I'll never actually go back to sleep... in bed... for HOURS.  But now?  I sleep like a champ.  I think my body is going, "Oh god, oh no, it's going to be years before we'll get sleep like this again - stock up! Stock up!!!"

4. Tacos - I cannot get enough of Chipotle's soft tacos with steak.  Pre-pregnancy, I could take or leave Chipotle.  The hubby, however, practically lives there.  He doesn't even need to give his order when he goes; they see him and know what he wants.  During the 1st trimester, the smell of Chipotle totally made me nauseous and either he or I had to go into another room when he brought Chipotle home.  But now?  I'm eating it once or twice a week myself - and there probably isn't a day or two that goes by that I don't think about it.  Mmm... Chipotle steak tacos... mmm.

5. Forgetfulness - What was I going to say about this?  Oh yeah, I forget things now.  The hubby will say, "Can you take this to the other room?" And I'll get up and walk to the other room... without ever taking that thing with me, even though he just asked TWO SECONDS AGO.  It's incredibly frustrating.

6. Sweating - Since my weight loss (and even after the weight gain that followed), I have been the one in any given room who's cold.  Everyone else will be in a t-shirt, but I'll have on a sweater and a scarf and my fingernails will still be turning blue... except now, the tables have turned.  My classmates or coworkers will have on sweaters and I'll have a t-shirt and be complaining about how damned hot it is all the time.  Apparently your base body temperature can go up a full degree when you're pregnant.  Since mine was already low due to my hypothyroid, I'm going to guess I've gone up more than a degree due to the thyroid meds and the pregnancy.  I need to remember this when I get dressed for work in the morning because it's getting hard to concentrate when I'm hot all the time.

7. Sex Drive - This doesn't come as a surprise to anyone who's been pregnant or read about pregnancy, but crazy things happen to your sex drive, especially after the first trimester.  Seriously.  I don't think I quite want to go into this one fully right now, but let's just say I enjoy the hubby's company.  A lot.  Every day feels like how the first month of dating the hubby felt. I wish we had time to go away on a lengthy vacation so I could enjoy his company even more with no distractions or other obligations.

Someplace like this would be preferable:

This is where I wanted to go for our honeymoon had money been no object.
Alas, money was most certainly an object.
(Not that we didn't have a perfectly lovely and fun honeymoon anyway.)

But I still daydream about this outdoor shower.  One day... some day.

I really could write a lot more about #7, but I'll have to work up the nerve/decide if I really want to.

And, as an addendum since I'm actually not a man, but still a woman - here's a link to my latest post at WeAreTheRealDeal where I talk about Victoria's Secret and bra shopping.

Because what's more womanly than talking about breasts? Oh wait, men do that all the time, too.  Damn.