Lexi's 2 Months Old!

It's so hard to believe our little girl is already 2 months! The time went way too fast! She had her appointment today and everything looked good. She was 10lbs, 5oz and 22 inches long. She enjoyed Dr. Yeshlur and kept sticking her tongue out at him and smiling. She got a 3-way shot today along with an oral vaccine, then on Monday, I'll take her back in for (I believe) HepB and Pneumonia shots. We decided last night to split them up just to be on the safe side. I really wasn't concerned about doing all her shots at once, but a few friends have said they split them up and my mom said we always did better with them split too. Plus, they're starting to think getting all the doses at once can cause autism (one of my friends has a friend who's son became autistic overnight after his shots at 18 months old). She was such a little trooper and only screamed for about 10 seconds, then was all smiles again. Though, I think she's starting to not feel good now, every time she wakes up she cries and cries which is not like her at all.

She's been sleeping through the night for the past 12 nights now! And we're not just talking midnight to 5 or 6 am either. No, I'm talking 9-10:30 pm to 7-8:30 am!! This has been in her swing, but at least we're all sleeping right now. We did about a week of 'crib training' where I would put her to sleep and then lay her down until she woke up again. Some nights, she would fight sleep for 4 hours until she finally would fall asleep. She did sleep 5 hours in one stretch in her crib, but the normal was about 1. The last several nights, we've just put her in her swing. This week, we'll start adding the crib back in again. Our hope is that one night, she'll just sleep in there all through the night.

Today I took some fun pictures of her in one of the dresses her Great-Grandma Davis' sent as a welcome home gift. (Again, sorry they're all sideways. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to change it. And they aren't sideways on my computer either.) She enjoyed this photo shoot much better than the one last month. Then I put her in a little mini skirt and butterfly shirt for some more pictures. They don't match, but neither one came as an actual outfit, so decided I'd make one :)

Outfit from Wooden Soldier

Happy Smiles

With her bunny from Aunt Liz

She loves her hands

Cute little feet and shoes

Sitting on the glider

She's done with pictures now

Poochy Lip

The loss of a friend

It's so hard to believe Jackie Fritz is gone :( I've known her for 10 years now and she was the first person, other than Lisa, we talked to about getting into Aussies. Lisa and I used to joke and say that if she was a Warcraft character, she'd be a tauren, she was a rough lady. She'll be so greatly missed, but she is with her son, Tim, now. My thoughts and prayers go out to her family, especially Ray, LaRae, and Kendra and her three little kids.

I've taken the information and song below from a friend's facebook page.

October 17, 1954 - July 23, 2011
Jackie Johnson Fritz

When I get where I'm going
on the far side of the sky.
The first thing that I'm gonna do
Is spread my wings and fly.

Yeah when I get where I'm going,
there'll be only happy tears.
I will shed the sins and struggles,
I have carried all these years.


And I'll leave my heart wide open,
I will love and have no fear.
Yeah when I get where I'm going,
Don't cry for me down here.

Our heart goes out to the Fritz family on the loss of their daughter, wife, mother, and grandmother. She's with Timmy now... 

Biggest Loser Week 3

Today I weighed in at 142.0 pounds for a loss of 6 ounces this week and 1 pound 4 ounces total! Not great, but as Lacey and Shirley said, it's still a loss and not a gain! This week I started measuring out my portions (1 cup of cold cereal and 1 cup of mac and cheese does NOT look like enough food!) and did fairly well.  Except when Derek would be in charge of dinners...but he still had healthy stuff, it just wasn't portioned well. And his chili burgers are to die for so... I did occasionally eat more than one cookie, but since they were small, I figured 2 cookies wasn't horrible. And chocolate covered hazelnuts are going to be the death of me (Thanks a lot Diana!), but I've actually been good about only eating 2 or less of those a day too. And I was proud of myself and only had three 'bad' drinks this week: a cherry limeade (but only drank 1/3 of that) and two coffees from McDonalds (those are way too addicting).

I walked a total of 1.75 miles this week at just a normal walking speed. On Thursday and Friday I started back on the treadclimber and walked 15 minutes burning 93 calories on Thursday and 101 on Friday. I plan on doing that every day and gradually building up the time and speed (as Lexi's naps permit anyway).

I have 12 pounds, 12 ounces to my goal.

Biggest Loser Week 2

Today I weighed in at: 142.6 pounds, for a loss of 14 oz! Some of the others lost 5 pounds, so I need to step up my game! We also got a handout this morning with portion control information. It'll be a bit of a challenge, but going to work really hard at sticking to it. We're going to come up with a menu for the rest of the month so that it's easier to stick to good meals.

Biggest Loser Week 1 Update

Just a quick check-in for this week. I haven't started any exercise yet: I don't have Zumba DVDs quite yet, but hoping to have those by Monday and I've been too tired to go walking or when I do decide it's a good time to go, it rains. I have, however, been amazingly good with my eating and drinking habits. I only had about 1/4 cup of Pepsi yesterday and that's the only non-water drink I've had since Sunday. I've also been eating a lot less, but this hasn't been hard due to the fact that since I actually had Lexi, my appetite has been pretty low. I think it's considered normal now and it just seems really low because I ate all the time and was starving all the time when I was pregnant. So, that's the update.

The Biggest Loser Week 1

So, I have joined The Biggest Loser Challenge with a new friend and a bunch of other ladies from church. I'm really excited to do this for many reasons. 1) At least three of us just had babies all within the last 3 months, so we have company in losing the baby fat and weight. 2) I finally have something I'm interested in to get involved with the people from church (outside church) 3) I get to know these people better and make new friends and 4) This program focuses on helping you make better eating and exercise choices slowly and in a healthy, natural way without actual dieting. It focuses on portion control and drinking lots of fluids: Before I got pregnant, Derek and I were already on a portion controlled diet, and after the first two weeks, it was easy and during my pregnancy I actually was drinking the recommended 60+ ounces of water a day, this is HUGE for me as I HATE....H A T E!!! water lol! Okay, so I used to hate it, I'm not so bad with it now. It's more of a habit than anything now. So, I know I can do this since I already have proved that I can.

I'm also very excited about getting to know Lacey, the lady in charge, better. She has an adorable two year old and then her newest baby is exactly a week older than Lexi, so we've decided many play dates will be in the future for us.

I am going to post my progress on here. I know there are only like two people who read this regularly, but just writing it up on here and knowing people have the possibility of reading it will help me with this.

This program lasts 12 weeks (starting next week, so there will be 13 weeks posted). Many people who are participating in this one just got done with one a few weeks ago with amazing results. One lady lost 30 pounds in her last 12 week session!!

So, here are my ultimate goals over all:
I'd love to lose 20 pounds, however, since I'm built on the smaller side anyway, that's probably not a realistic goal right now, so my goal is to lose 14 pounds by October 1, which should be the last day of this challenge. I was going to put 10 because I think that will be so much easier to achieve, but then decided I really do want to lose 14 pounds by then, so I'll just work hard to get there. My other 'size' goal by the end of the 12 weeks is to be back down to a pant size of 7. My pre-pregnancy weight was 130 and my pant size was 7.

My other goals are to 1) start eating much healthier. This will include portion controlled meals, limited eating out, and decreasing my pop and sweets intake drastically. I was so good about cutting out caffeinated drinks and pop (I was drinking caffeine free Pepsi occasionally during my pregnancy) and then as soon as I was able to drink them again, I've really over done it. I don't want to completely cut these out though. I think that's a bad idea because then, it's all you can think about. So, I'll allow myself one dessert item a day, but even if it's just a small cookie, that's all I'll have. And I'll allow myself 3 'bad' drinks a week. If I crave Pepsi, carmel frappes or carmel mochas (my newest addiction), I will have chocolate milk instead as that's much healthier but will still satisfy me.

2) Start Zumba! I'm very excited about doing this. I'm looking at getting some DVDs to try at home when Lexi is napping, lucky for me, she's a GREAT napper! I'd like to do Zumba, or some form of exercise, 3x a week - Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I'd also like to try to add in a walk on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Walking, for me, is a stress relief, but it's also still a great form of exercise and I credit all the walking I did during my pregnancy to helping me have such an easy labor. Plus, the fresh air is good for Lexi and she loves our walks.

So those are my goals. I also think it's important that I actually share my weights and losses/gains. This way, I have to actually put a number down that I may not be proud of for you all to see and I think that will be a great motivator for me.

So, as of Saturday, July 9, 2011 I weighed in at 143.4 pounds (done on Lacey's scale which is +3.6 pounds higher than mine at home. This note is important for my information since I will weigh myself at home as well as at Lacey's house). My pant size is: 9.

Below is my 'before' picture. Thanks to Derek for giving me a little shopping trip for my birthday. First non-maternity clothes I'd purchased in a very long time. And I can't express my excitement for wearing BUTTONED pants and not ones held up with elastic! I plan, right now anyway, to wear these same clothes for each picture (if I remember) so it's easier to see the results.

What's Red and White and Cute all over?

A 4th of July baby of course!

Happy 4th of July!!