Exercise

It's been 10+ months since I had Emilee.  I think it's time.

Just to give you some back story, I was once upon a time at my "ideal" weight when I graduated from high school. 

Freshman year at college -August 2002

May 2003

Then college happened.  Actually my freshman year of college, my weight didn't fluctuate that much.  I attribute most of the weight gain to stopping marching band, eating when I could and what I could afford, and not having time to work out, although I will admit that my roommates and I would try to go to the pool or exercise facility when we could and there was lots of walking all over campus.  By the time I graduated college, I weighed probably 40 pounds more than when I went.

Engagement Photos - Oct 2005

Then I started working full-time.  It didn't get better, I just kept eating the wrong foods and not having any time to work out.  I did play in a softball league and at one point, even had a gym membership, but it wasn't enough.  Before long, I'd gained another 40 pounds.  Before I knew it I was 80 pounds more than I really wanted to be.

Las Vegas - July 2007

Then we decided to get pregnant.  Looking back, I should have taken the time to lose weight first, but I didn't.  Luckily I was able to get pregnant (with some fertility help) in the summer of 2009.  I started taking Bradley classes for the birth and that's when I learned about the Dr. Brewer diet.  Basically, eating lots of protein and good grains, fruits, and veggies.  I started eating better because my baby depended on it.  I also tried to exercise (aka walk) when I could.  I gained about 25 pounds.  Noah was born and as he got bigger and started eating solid foods, we learned that we could eat better to be a good role model for him.  So slowly we started choosing healthier foods.  I ended up loosing the 25 pounds I gained during pregnant within a few months.

Around Summer of 2011 after I had stopped nursing, David and I decided to do something more drastic to help us be healthier.  We went on the South Beach diet.  We ate no carbs for about a week or so, lots of exercise and then when we brought back carbs, there was no white pasta, potatoes or bread.  Over the course of a few months of this, I had lost about 25 pounds!!! WOO HOO!!!

Isla Mujeres - June 2011

During this time, I also started trying to get pregnant with Emilee and towards the end of the summer, I was pregnant again.  At that point, I started the Dr. Brewer diet again and gained another 25 pounds (putting me back up at my weight before I got pregnant with Noah).  After she was born, my weight went back down 25 pounds to my Emilee pre-pregnant weight pretty quickly. 

Now today here I stand, 10 months later, at my Emilee pre-pregnancy weight.  Still about 60 pounds more than what I want, though.  We definitely eat better than we used to.  And naturally with 2 kids, we don't exercise in the "traditional" sense, but we are active because we have to be.

October 2012

I'm still nursing Emilee so I want to be careful about how many restrictions I put on my diet.  So I'm not going to worry about that as much right now, at least until I'm not nursing her as much (after she is a year old at least).  For now, I want to start exercising.  My first step was signing up for my first 5k.  I'm going to do the Color Run.  I chose that one because it sounds fun (getting splashed with crazy colors while you run sounds fun, right?) and because it's more a fun run, it's not timed, so I figured if I couldn't make it and had to walk, it wouldn't be that bad (aka no one would ridicule me).  The bad part - I'm having to train while it's both cold outside, not light very long and I'm working a ton of hours during busy season.  The race is April 27.

I'm writing this all here to hopefully hold me accountable.  So my plan is to follow one of the "couch to 5k" programs that are about 8 weeks long.  That means I have until the end of February to start training.  Until then, I'm just going to try and be as active as I can to get my body used to working out again.  And hey, if I lose a few pounds in the process, that's ok with me!!!

So my plan for now is to wake up at 5am 2-3 days a week and work out on the elliptical for 30 minutes.  I normally get up at 5, so I'm pushing my "get ready" time until 5:30am.  If we have a random warm day, I may walk outside or take the kids with me, but this will have to do for the next 3 weeks or so until I start my training program for the 5k.  Then I will have to figure out a new plan that involves outdoors unless it's raining or something.

 Ok - here I go!!!!!

New Doctor - Continued

We went back to the doctor for Emilee on January 23, 2013.  We saw the new doctor and our reason was to get her ears rechecked.  Since this was our first visit with this new doctor, I wanted to talk with her and get to know her and discuss her growth "problems" that the other doctor thought we had. 

When she first came in, she looked at her ears and said everything was cleared there.  I'm still not 100% sure she even had an ear infection to begin with, or maybe it wasn't that bad.  I don't know.

So then she brought up the growth issue before we did.  I guess the prior doctor noted it in the file.  She was weighed with her clothes on since it was just a sick visit and the doctor mentioned how she had increased in weight.  Well duh, she didn't have clothes on the last time.  So then that's when I showed her my charts from WHO (instead of CDC) and explained that based on those she only went from 28% to 25%. 

She agreed that the WHO charts are more accurate than the CDC and unfortunately their office only had the CDC charts.  But overall she said, she looked at her and mentioned how she doesn't look underweight whatsoever.  That's really what I wanted to hear.  Not how she stacked up on some chart.  How does she look?  And if you look at Emilee, she does not look underweight AT ALL!

We did discuss that I think she is getting between 15-18 oz of breastmilk a day and if that's enough.  She said it's on the low side, but that it also seems like she is getting enough other table foods to make off for the nutrients and calories she is lacking in breastmilk.  So that makes me happy!!!

Overall a good doctor's appointment and I can finally say I'm really happy with our kid's pediatrician (for now).

New look and new home

This blog will now be located at stlporterhouse.blogspot.com.  If you have a bookmark taking you to the old blogspot or to our domain name (stlporterhouse.net), then you need to change it to make sure you are coming to the right address.  I don't want to lose you!!!

In about a month, I am going to let my domain name expire.  I don't see the need or desire to keep it anymore.  

If you are reading my blog on a reader, then you should click and come check out the new page.  I did a little re-designing and while I didn't pay for anything and didn't even use anything beyond the basics already included in Blogger, I'm quite impressed with the final product.

I hope to have some more posts coming soon, so stay tuned!!!

P.S. She's sick in this picture, hard to tell, right?

Doctor Change

Wow, I'm terrible at keeping up with this blog.  Is it too late for New Year's resolutions?  I think mine will be to update this blog at least once a week.  I also want to re-vamp the look a little bit. 

I really want to post about this before I forget everything that happened.  Several months ago, we got sick of our pediatrician.  He was the same one we had had since Noah was a baby but lately, I've just grown tired of him coming in and leaving within minutes and we can barely get a word in and the nurses in the office hasn't been as nice lately.  Just generally, this doctor was a recommendation and while he wasn't terrible, I think we can find better.  So I went on a search.

A friend recommended another doctor so I called and she wasn't accepting new patients, but her partner in the practice was.  So I booked an interview and it went pretty good and decided he was by far the best out of all the doctors I interviewed and possibly a step up from what I had, so we made the switch.  The first well visit at 6 months went ok.  There was a sick visit in there with the nurse practioner which went great.  Then came her 9 month visit. 

First he told me that her weight % has gone from 28% at 6 months to 12% at 9 months and that's a cause for concern.  We talked about feedings and I told him that I nurse her 3-4 times a day and she gets 6 oz at daycare.  He said that didn't sound like enough and I should consider supplementing with formula.  Formula?!?!?!?! 

I think at this point, he could have said anything else and I probably wasn't listening or caring.  I was so ticked off that he mentioned formula.  First, what about the 100+ ounces I have frozen, why couldn't those be used?  Second, how about suggesting ways I can increase my supply?  It was clear from there where he stood on the issue or more importantly, he had no clue how I stood on the issue. 

In the end, she was diagnosed with an ear infection, probably from the virus she had a few days earlier.  He figured she probably lost a little bit of weight with that and said he would re-evaluate her weight at 12 months. 

After I left and was able to clear my head a bit, I started thinking of all kinds of things.  I wasn't even able to explain to him that regardless of whether he wants me to do formula, or rather use the breastmilk I already have saved it, she won't take it.  We have a hard time getting her to sit and nurse or take her sippy cups (yes, she takes sippy's now).  I couldn't imagine trying to get her to do more.  She loves her solid foods.  And we always give her her milk first, then solid foods, so it's not like she is filling up on the solid foods and not having enough room for milk.

So I got home and started putting her weight into some charts I have at home and it came up a little different.  That's when I realized that there are 2 growth charts out there.  One from CDC and the other from WHO (World Health Organization).  The CDC one is based on both formula and breastfed babies and the WHO one is based on only breastfed babies.  Basically what they realized is breastfed babies plateau off after about 6 months old.  They still gain weight just at a much slower pace than the first 6 months of life.  In 2010, the CDC endorsed the WHO chart basically saying it was more accurate. 

I didn't even think that this could be the issue since our original pediatrician always used the WHO charts and I made the poor assumption that this one did too.  So wrong.  So when I plugged her weight into the WHO charts, it said 25%, that's basically no change.  She is totally fine.  So that's when we made the decision that this doctor had to go.  But who else???

My friend who had recommended the other doctor in the practice reminded me that her doctor does use WHO charts and even though they are in the same practice, they are not the same.  So I had David call and come to find out, she was available if I just told them I was recommended from a current patient!!!  And regardless now that I'm a current patient, I can switch with no issues.  So we have yet to meet this doctor yet.  We have an appt next Wed to get Emilee's ears rechecked and plan to discuss other stuff with her, including her weight "problem".  I hope this is an awesome doctor and we can stay with her for many years to come.

I'll try and update more often, but for now, I must get back to working!!!

I am blessed with awesome kids!

Disclaimer:  I am not trying to say your kids are anything by posting this.  It is not a "my kid is awesome and yours are not" kind of post.  Please don't be offended.

With that being said, I want to say the reason for this post is sometimes I need to repeat this to myself, sometimes many times a day.  I want this post to look back on when I get to a really "tough" day.

Trust me when I say there are days when Noah simply will not listen to one thing I say and he is insistent on running around naked, peeing on everything in sight and screaming while Emilee screams and cries along in unison.  And of course, that's the day I need to get errands ran, chores done, and about a million other things to do.  I end the day thinking I have 2 demon children that I will never be able to control.  Either that or I feel like I've failed as a mom.

BUT, those days don't happen that often.  And there are so many good things that both my kids do, I just have to feel blessed by them.  Especially after what happened in Newtown, CT.

Let me start with Noah.  His potty training has come leaps and bounds from where we started.  He consistently tells us when he has to go pee and poop.  Last week I even caught him getting up from naptime, going pee, flushing, washing hands, etc all by himself.  When I asked what he was doing, he just said all nonchalantly "I had to go potty, mom".  Well, of course he did...LOL.  His language skills are amazing.  He will tell us whole stories of things that happened at daycare or at home, sometimes even something that happened months ago.  He is so smart.  He knows what makes things work and when he doesn't, he is insistent to know how they work.  He is very kind and helpful.  I don't know too many times he has asked to help, but if I ask for help, he's right there.  Whether it's making cookies, cleaning up the dishes, taking care of sister, doing laundry, etc.  Every morning at daycare, he insists on carrying the milk in for Emilee.  He is also very loving.  I can't tell you how many times he kisses his sister in 1 day.  He also always says I"m sorry or Bless You to other people, even those he doesn't know.  I'm amazed at his physical strength and courage.  This is one of the most amazing feats only because Noah is so small, but he has never let that hold him back.  This kid will climb and jump off just about anything.  I'm just in awe of how he'll jump right in with 5 or 6 year olds and the physical things they do.  He is also learning to ride a 2 wheel bike (balance bike) and he can almost do it without using his feet all the time.  He will definitely be ready for a regular pedal bike by next summer.  I know I'm not the only one that thinks these things either.  He is in the 3-4 year old class at school and has been since the beginning of the summer.  He fits right in there doing all the same developmental things as the rest of the kids.  One last thing to mention is his cleanliness.  Most kids his age eat a meal and it looks like half of it ended up on the floor, the other half on their clothes.  Not Noah.  He will eat and if anything drops on the table or clothes, he requests a napkin to clean himself RIGHT AWAY.  As of today, he eats on a regular plate with regular silverware and a regular cup.  By the way, I love that we can just leave the house with him, no preparing by bringing special food, diapers, special silverware, etc.  He's just like a mini-adult.

Now for Emilee.  She isn't quite as old as Noah so I don't feel like there's as much to brag about with her, but I feel confident in saying she will be right behind her brother.  At almost 9 months old, she is a pro at crawling and she is just about ready to start pulling herself all the way up.  But best about her is her temperament.  She is just so content to sit and watch everything that goes on around her.  When I put her down for naps or bedtime, most of the time I just lay her in her crib, wide awake.  She may toss and turn or crawl around for a bit, but then she'll fall asleep.  She loves her solid food, but definitely enjoys the more solid/whole foods vs purees.  We've been a lot more lax about the foods we've been giving to her especialy after I've read some articles about how waiting 4 days between foods and waiting to give certain foods until certain ages isn't necessarily right for most kids, in fact, doing just the opposite can help them like a wider variety of foods.  So just about anything we eat at dinner, she gets in small bites.  She is really started to like her toys and be able to push buttons and see the reaction now too.  She's definitely starting that "mental learning" phase and it seems like once that starts, it won't stop for a little while (since Noah is still in that phase).

Overall, I'm so happy and blessed with my 2 kids.  Some days are so overwhelming, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Sickness

Sickness took the Porter household last week.  It all started on Sunday.  Noah woke up several times in the night, coughing and saying he didn't feel good.  Then around 4am, he started throwing up.  On dad, to be specific.  He continued throwing up all day long and wasn't eating anything.  He couldn't even keep water down.  I went to the store and got some Pedialyte but of course, he refused to drink it.  At least he was drinking water pretty heavily. 

We had to email our Sunday School director and inform her that we wouldn't be teaching that morning.  Emilee seemed fine, but later she also developed some diarrehea.  Poor kids. 

At least Noah seemed to be making it to the potty and trash can most times. 

And then Monday he seemed better.  Started eating more and no vomiting.  So we thought "great, we could send them back to daycare on Tuesday".  Monday night, I started feeling quesy so I went to bed and an hour later, woke up vomiting.  I tried so hard to avoid it, but I guess I was destined to have it.  I threw up several times until my stomach was in so much pain.  I'm serious when I say the pain was worse than labor pains. 

I took some Tylenol and thankfully, I didn't throw it up and I finally fell asleep around 4 am.  I clearly was not going to work.  When the kids got up, Noah threw up again.  That meant he wasn't going to school.  So we decided David was going to take the day off to take care of me and Noah.  About an hour later, he threw up.

We ended up calling David's mom and my dad to come help since it's really hard to take care of 2 young ones when you yourself are sick.  David and I both had fevers (the kids just had elevated temps, never a fever).  The next day, Noah and David were fine to go back to normal activity.  I probably could have but I took advantage and took one more day, which was actually my first PTO day. 

I ended up going back to work Thursday and Friday and now I am fine.  Noah and Emilee both still have these chronic runny noses.  Not sure if that is related to whatever virus they had or just the weather???  Noah also complains about a tummy ache a couple times a day.  I'm convinced that he is just using that as an excuse for attention.

Hopefully we all stay healthy through the Holidays and then next year.  I have to work Mon, Wed, and Fri this week and then both David and I are off through the new year.  Next year, I will start working 5 days a week, although only 40 hours at first.  The plan going forward is to work full-time (either 40 or 55 hours in busy season) except for the summer (Memorial Day to Labor Day).  Then I'll work 3 days a week. 

Potty Training

I plan to write a general update post on both kids very soon, but I want to get this post out there now because it's the freshest in my mind to write about.

I want to explain exactly why we chose the method we did, how we made it work for us, and the progress Noah has made (or is still making).

It's hard to say when exactly we started potty training.  Around 18 months, we set out a potty upstairs.  Occasionally he would sit on it just for fun, but nothing ever happened.  Then around 2 years old, he started to learn the association between the potty and actually going pee-pee.  But by no means was he ready for potty training, or at least we thought.  He would ask to go when we were in restaurants and sometimes when we were getting ready for bed but otherwise, he was still wearing a diaper and not really telling us when he needed to go or when he'd just gone.  Looking back on it, we should have started potty training then, he was much more cooperative than he was even just a short 3 months later.

We were pretty insistent that we were not going to potty train Noah and then Emilee be born and all be lost.  So we waited.  We really thought he was ready (and honestly he probably was) a few weeks after Emilee was born so we took advantage of us both being home during the week.  Our method to start with was what others had told us to do: take him to the potty a bunch of times and rewards.  This failed miserably by the 2nd day.  It was a fight everytime to get him to go to the potty, sometimes he went and sometimes he didn't.  Could have cared less about a reward.  Plus it was more like we were training ourselves, not Noah.  To me, potty training or learning is about learning to recognize urges and when its time to go to the potty.  It was really hard on us especially with a newborn, so we quit and said we would just wait until he was ready, whenever that would be.

Jump forward a few month (I think this was around July 2012).  He was asking more and more to go potty even though I think it was still a novelty thing, but more important he would tell us when he had just pooped, so there was definitely more awareness going on.  I was becoming more convinced that he was ready and if we waited any longer (for what, I don't know), we would miss the window.  Little did I know, I think we'd already missed the window when we should have been doing this closer to when he was 2.  So I started doing research on what to do.  I wanted to be more prepared this time.

We chose the 3-day potty training method.  It was recommended by a friend.  I liked it because there was no taking him to the potty a bunch of times.  No fighting with him.  If he wet himself, he wet himself.  And it was all about actually teaching him to recognize when he needed to go and take care of business.  I'm not against other parents wanting to use the "time" method.  If that's what works for their kids, then great.  And i will admit there are still times when we encourage him to use it, like when we are headed out the door or I know there are no potties around.

Basically the method has you "throw" out his diapers in a big celebration on the beginning of the first day.  Then you just remind them to tell you when they need to go, not ask.  They will have lots of accidents.  But the key is catching them in the act and taking them to the potty to finish.  And then, lots of rewards and positive reinforcement.  You are supposed to do this for nap and nighttime as well, no diapers, pull-ups, etc.  Just underwear.  By the 3rd day, they are supposed to be able to then tell you when they need to go.  You are also supposed to spend all 3 days at home with them, giving them lots of attention.

We mostly did all of that.  All underwear, no pullups or diapers.  He had lots of accidents on Sat and Sun and we thought we were getting nowhere!!!!  I was so ready to pull the plug and quit again but I said I just didn't to wait out the 3rd day.  Day 3 was at daycare.  I know, he was supposed to be at home, but I couldn't take off work and it just couldn't work that way, so we took our chances.  Told the daycare what our plan was, left a bazillion pairs of backup clothes and walked out the door with our fingers crossed.  All day long I thought about him and envisioned all the laundry I would be doing that night and how I couldn't wait to just get him back in diapers the next day. 

I went in to go get him and the first thing I noticed was a paper in his mailbox that said "Congrats for using the potty!".  A little confused, maybe they give that to all the kids when they start trying.  Went in and talked to his teacher and was SHOCKED to find out he only had maybe 1 accident all day.  More surprising, he went most of the times they took potty breaks and he even asked to go a couple times.  I wish you had seen my face that moment.  Well of course I couldn't stop potty training now, not now that I'd seen some progress. 

A few weeks later, he was still doing OK.  I would not say potty trained in any manner since he was still having 1-2 accidents a day.  We did switch to pull-ups at nap and nighttime though.  He just wasn't waking up at all and I felt bad that he was sleeping in his pee all night long.  We took a vacation to Branson and I was so afraid of the massive amounts of dirty laundry we would create (especially considering he doesn't have enough clothes to go through 2-3 changes a day for a whole week without doing laundry).  Maybe it was the attention he got all week and just being in a new environment (David read or heard a theory that a vacation while potty training is very helpful because it "resets" their brain by being in a new environment with a new schedule), but it did REALLY well.  VERY few accidents, if any.  I even remember going to the Dixie Stampede and our seats were really far from the bathrooms and he was still asking and having no accidents.  Although I will say it was hilarious when David took him to the bathroom and brought him back out in no pants or underwear.  He didn't take the bag with him to change him and I'd assumed he must have had an accident.  When he finally got back with Noah clothed, it turns out the toilet overflowed and got all over his clothes.  Gross, but so funny!

Since then over the next 5 months or so, we've been making progress.  We had about a week or so of regression where he was peeing in his pants and did not care at all, but overall we've been moving forward in potty training.  Little did I think potty training was actually a year long process!!!!  I can tell you with almost 100% certainty that Noah's failures in potty training are related to the phase of life he's in, which is worthy of a blog post all on its own. 

I can tell you that this last week has been amazing.  He's been doing really well asking to go potty everytime, even when he has to poop.  He's been good at daycare, home, out, church or even when he's with someone else.  I hope and pray we've really turned a corner and are just about there.  He does still wear a pull-up at night.  We went through a month or two where he was getting up at night, I think to go potty but we never really tried to night train him yet.  The plan is to try again at the end of the year when we have some time off.  We have been working with him to potty train during naptime.  And for now, it's about 50% wet and 50% dry so we are still working with that.

If I had to do this over again, I would have started earlier, like when he was 2 instead of waiting for him to be in this "testing his limits" phase.  Sometimes he will literally rip his pants off and use his "hose" as a weapon to assert his independence by peeing all over everything.  Last night he even stood over his sister and pretended like he was going to pee on her.  He didn't but it's things like that that make me think if we had really fully trained him earlier, he wouldn't act like this, at least not with potty training.  I think one thing that has helped that is getting punished or time-outs for having accidents.  Not all accidents.  We are very careful to recognize true, honest accidents that he just needs love and reassurance and the accidents were he knew exactly what he was doing and he did it for attention. 

I think the best advice is to relax.  I'm a very clean and controlling mom (I know it), so it's hard to potty train since it seems like it's so out of my control.  But even when he was accidents (true accidents), you just clean it up and go, don't make a big deal out of it.

Ok, so that was a novel and you deserve a cookie if you made it to the end.  Any other tips you'd like to share with me would be great.  Like I've said before, I'm not an expert and always love advice!  I also pray and am convinced that Emilee will be worlds easier to potty train.  She hates wet diapers so convincing her to pee like a lady will be no problem at all.  Plus now I've been through one so I feel way more confident to do it again.