·:[ The Healthy Mom ]:·
• • • • •

This morning I had my weekly entrainment with Dr. Audrey. I found her when looking for a chiropractor to help with Zevan’s reflux when he was just a few weeks old. I liked her approach and began to see her myself, even though she was out of network.

I sincerely believe that through working with her, I have been able to deal with my day to day stress more efficiently and, in turn, have become a better mother and overall person.

That is a very lofty thing to say about any kind of treatment, but I really feel that it has changed my life. Not drastically or immediately. It has taken months to get where I am now.

During my entrainment this morning, I was finding it hard to concentrate on the treatment itself. I thought I was having trouble focusing because Zander and I had quite an episode when I took him to preschool today. It was really bothering me that he was so upset. Things had been going pretty well for some weeks, and then just the last 2-3 times, he has been really upset when I had to go. It’s been frustrating and disheartening for me. I have been continually second-guessing my reasons for taking him. And feeling frustrated and trapped and wondering if I was being selfish or heartless. The guilt of seeing him so upset has been really getting to me. But he was always fine and happy when I picked him up. In fact, according to his teachers, he was usually fine within 20 minutes of my leaving. But the crying and “I don’t want to go to school” and “stay with me mom” and “don’t go somewhere mom” and “I need you mom” as I’m walking out the door has been just wearing on me mentally. I really felt like my only option was to take him out of preschool again.

Anyway, during the entrainment, I suddenly got this feeling that there are other options. That I can do this. That he can like school and I can feel good about bringing him there. I just needed to think about how to make it a better experience for both of us. It’s weird to say, but I was feeling empowered. I didn’t know then what we could do, but I felt like I would be able to come up with something.

After my session, since I was her only patient at that time, we talked about how far I had come since I first started coming to her. I definitely know there has been progress overall. I really feel like I am able to deal with things better overall, and this mental strength has really helped me feel like I can deal with any physical symptoms.

I don’t know if I am able to convey this in words. I just feel better overall. When I talked with her, I just felt more myself and more able. I got overwhelmed with emotion and it just felt good.

So…I tried my first idea when I picked Zander up today. Normally, as soon as he sees me, he starts gathering his things (jacket, blanket, backpack) and we head right now. Today I brought Zevan with me and asked Zander to tell Zevan about his classroom. We stayed while he had snack with his classmates. He showed me the books they read today and some of the toys he played with.

I chatted with his teacher a little bit. She said that she thinks he is ready for big-boy underwear!

So tomorrow morning, we are going to go to school with him a little earlier than usual and Zevan and I will hang out for 10-20 minutes while he gets settled in. Maybe if we do this for a couple of weeks, this will make him feel better about school. He will be moving to the next class when he turns 2 1/2 next month. That might be the thing that really helps. Miss Mary is the teacher there and Zander really favors her.

I’ll keep you posted…

Well, it’s been 11 days since my last post. Time just flies, whether you are having fun or not :|

Just life I guess.

PAMPERED CHEF
I closed a Pampered Chef show and it delivered in a week! I am planning to do a Pampered Chef fundraiser show for Zander’s school in June.

MAIDANET
Also, I have been getting a lot of little website jobs lately. I know I said no more new clients, but these are small websites, and from referrals. Doug is actually going to do one site for me, since the client requested something like the Strange Loop site he created in Flash.

Current clients are contacting me for work, too - a big library project for True Believers, a big redesign for Legend Antiques and some small changes for RisenFaith online bookstore.

LIFE AT HOME
I hope I don’t jinx myself by writing this down, but things have been going good at home.

Zander went to school the last three times without crying! He complains at home the whole morning about not wanting to go, but when he gets there, he just gets into whatever activity they are doing (play-doh, water play, etc) and I am able to go without a big scene. That’s a relief.

He is just amazing. His speech is unbelievable. I wouldn’t know any better except that everyone tells us so. His sentences are so sophisticated. And he can just be so sweet! Especially if he’s just been ornery and needs to get out of being in trouble.

Zevan and I are making improvements in his sleeping at night. He is not nursing between 10 PM and 4 AM. He does still wake up at midnight (takes 5 minutes or less to get him back to sleep) and then at 2 AM (can take 5-15 minutes to get him back to sleep), but he doesn’t nurse until his 4 AM wake up. Hopefully, once we establish this pattern, he will not even wake up the times he doesn’t nurse.

He really isn’t a baby anymore. He is not quite walking yet, but he can. He can take steps, stop, and take more steps. He just finds crawling and cruising much more efficient for getting around. And he is saying words now…mama, dada, dog, ball, ba-ba (Zander’s word for blankie), nana (for banana). He eats EVERYTHING and is getting so self-sufficient.

Doug is going to go part time at work. We’ve been talking about it for a while, and I think it’s a great idea. He had some cold feet today about it, so we talked about it, and we figured that we could at least try it for 3 months, and if we go broke, then he could ask to go back to full time. He is checking to make sure that is a possibility before committing to it. I think we can make a lot of changes to make the financial sacrifice manageable.

HEALTH AND FITNESS
What else? I did make it to my goal weight of 125 last Friday. This morning, I weighed in at 125.4. A gain of nearly half a pound, but I blame it on the weather. I didn’t get my daily walk/run in yesterday because of the rain/fog. And I totally felt like a slug because of it. I need to do my measurements, but I am feeling pretty good because I put my skinny pants on today and they fit!

I found a double jogging stroller for $55…a strap is broken and I called BabyTrend and they will replace the whole seat fabric for just $30. Also, Tiffany and I will start climbing together on Friday mornings starting next week. I’m excited about it. I hope that she likes enough to do it for a while. I could really use the extra climbing day per week.

Another nice day. We are going to the zoo today. Zander’s favorite place and a good place for mom to get exercise (those hills!).

I only recently felt comfortable going there with them by myself. It’s manageable on a good day, slightly annoying on a not-so-good day and good for one muted, in-your-face growled “you better settle down or we are going home RIGHT NOW” on a bad day.

I sent an email out to the West Side Moms group to see if anyone wanted to tag along. No bites - either due to money concerns or schedule conflicts or just no reply at all. With 56 registered online members, I had hoped that at least one mom would be able to join me. I know it takes time to establish a group like this. I am hoping that during the summer, it will really start to flow and build a community.

I miss Caitlin and her boys. I just got their “We’ve Moved” card yesterday with their new home address. I also miss Rose Ena and her family. And I still miss Nick and Jen. I wish we could be together for her pregnancy, too.

I’m excited for Candy’s new journey into motherhood. And very happy for my renewed and deeper friendship with May. And hopeful for my new friendship with Johanna and her boys.

I had an interesting visitor yesterday…JW Martin from the National Write Your Congressman organization. I think this is something that I could be a part of. It doesn’t take a lot of time or money, just a small effort to be heard by the US government. I have been feeling lately that I need to do SOMETHING.

More soon…

Like many moms, one of my many goals in life is to get rid of the baby fat from my pregnancies. Now that my youngest Zevan is nearly a year, it’s about time I do something about it.

Since Jan 2, I have been tracking my food and exercise with a program called BalanceLog by HealtheTech. It’s not the greatest, but it has kept me accountable. I am doing this with my friend May. We post weekly reports so that we can hold each other accountable. We have had our ups and downs, but overall, making progress.

I’m 5′2.5″ and started at 135 in January. I’m down to 127.5, which is really good for me. I can’t remember the last time I was under 130. My original goal is 125. Just 2.5 lbs to go!

My “dream weight” is 120. :lol: I haven’t weighed that since 1996, but hey, it’s worth a try, right? Other women my height weigh closer to 110, but I am smart enough to know that’s not healthy for me. According to my wrist measurement, I have a large frame.

It’s not just a numbers goal - my main focus to tone my upper arms and lose this pooch around my waist. My arms are shaping up pretty good, at least on top. That lower arm flab is hard to get rid of. Not as hard as getting rid of the belly, though!

I actually went for a run today after breakfast at Grandma & Grandpa’s (Doug’s parents) house. It felt really good. The weather was perfect. Not too sunny, just warm enough. I have got to step it up if I am going to lose those last 7.5 lbs.

I was doing really good with eating today, too. After lunch I was at 718 calories. Then I blew it with a caramel sundae from Dairy Queen. Well, most of one. Luckily, the boys ate some of it, too. When the weather is nice, ice cream is definitely my downfall.

On the parenting side, Zevan and I had a bad no-sleep night last night. He woke up at 2:00 AM to nurse, and then kept waking up every 45 minutes to an hour until 6 AM. He refused to be calmed, and wouldn’t open his eyes. He cried some, but mostly, he was just loudly complaining. You know, not actually crying, more like protesting. He wasn’t hungry or wet. It was so frustrating. I really hate those kinds of nights. He was squirming and flailing around the bed. UGH. Not sure if it was teething or gas or what. I really, really hate those kinds of nights.

At one point he was crying/complaining loudly enough that it was waking Zander up. Dad came and got Zander so at least Zander could get some sleep. After I nursed him again at 6 AM, we both slept until 8:45 AM, which is late for us. My whole day felt thrown off. But I did get caught up by lunch time.

Well, that’s all I’ve got time for today…

No self-respecting webmistress would create a blog on any server but her own. Enter WordPress. Very simple installation - once I remembered my MySQL password. Or rather looked at another php file that opened the database to see what it was. ops:

I just set up this same blog application on one of my client’s websites, www.strangersinparadise.com, and I like the look and ease of it, so here it is on one of my sites.

Today is Easter…Happy Easter! My day started with an early morning wake up call by Zevan, around 5:30 AM. At which time I thought, “I must get up! I have to get the Easter baskets ready and hide the eggs before Zander wakes up!”

Which I did. With Zevan’s help. I filled 2 plastic eggs for Zevan with apple cinnamon Cheerios, and the rest for Doug and Zander with m&ms and jellybeans.

I was rewarded for my early efforts around 7:45 AM when Zander got up. We all went downstairs and Zander found the basket that the Easter Bunny left him. He was so distracted by the basket, we had a hard time cajoling him into looking for the eggs. Which he did -with much direction and heavy hinting. He promptly opened each one as he found it. Which was fine for the big eggs with the small toy animals in it - not so fine for the ones with candy inside.

Note to self: next year, just put a few pieces of candy in each egg instead of filling it up…

We had a nice lunch downtown at Old Chicago’s with the boys. Both were well-behaved AND ate well. There is a first time for everything.

Tonight is dinner at the Jackson’s - provided by our friends at Boston Market We have started watching Battlestar Galactica with them, and will be joining them weekly for viewing.

As I type, Zevan is asleep on my left arm and Zander is running around with his new baby tiger cub toy, chatting to himself and roaring.

This is my life