It Works!

I tried the "It Works! Ultimate Body Wrap" for the first time tonight. I lost 1 inch in 45 minutes. Can you see the difference? I know it's not a lot but, shoot, there's a difference!

My Journey!

So, I have this crazy goal to lose a bunch of weight. I actually have been on this journey for years LOL but this time, it's for real! And I'm almost half way there in 3 months! I have given myself mini goals, but the ultimate goal is 100 lbs by the end of this year. I hope I can do it.

How am I doing this, you ask?

1) Breastfeeding.

2) Eating what I want most of the time, and then eating healthy some of the time. ;) 

3) Working out an hour a day 5-6 days a week. I was actually doing really good with this for about a month, then the schedule kept getting screwed up so I couldn't make it to most of the classes, BUT, I am getting back into it...Tomorrow (only because my boobies hurt from being engorged last night and today) so, tomorrow it is. Woohoo!

I met one of my bigger goals today. I wanted to lose ALL my baby weight. I started out overweight to begin with but I felt like this was a reasonable goal. As of today, I am 1lb less than I was at my first doctors appointment with my first pregnancy. By the time I got pregnant with Braxton, I was up 10 lbs from that. And then continued to gain a total of 36 lbs throughout that pregnacy.

Here are some pictures to prove that I'm doing something right...

39 weeks, Peak of my pregnancy weight...

 The day before I had Braxon, I was already down 2 lbs from my peak. The day I had him I weighed myself that night, before I left the birth center, I lost 11 more lbs.

4 days after having Braxton 1/22/12, down 19 lbs from peak prego weight...

2 Weeks after delivery, I was down 28 lbs from my peak.

3 months later 4/24/12, down 47 lbs from my peak weight...

I love seeing the difference, it gives me motivation.

53 lbs to go people

Braxton's Birth Story

I started having contractions on Jan 7^th, They weren’t very strong, but were getting consistent, they were about 6-7 minutes apart and then stopped after I had timed them for an hour, the next day at church I was having contractions again and this time they were getting stronger so I started timing them again. This time they were about 5 minutes apart. I was sitting in relief society and was getting really uncomfortable, I thought I was going to get lucky and have him a week early. But no, as soon as we got home, they stopped. At my appointment Tuesday I was dilated to a 3 and about 50% effaced. I had contractions throughout the next week, but nothing ever came of them. I was getting really discouraged. My next appointment was on the 17^th, which apparently was my due date (I thought it was the 16^th since that’s what my doctor in AZ had given for the due date…) Anyway, I was dilated to a 4 and a little more effaced. At first the midwife offered to strip my membranes, but couldn't because I had tested positive for group B strep. I was having contractions all day long and the mid wife seemed to think I would be having him pretty soon, like possibly that day. So Bernie and I went to lunch and started timing contractions again. They were about 2-3 min apart, but not real painful, just made me sweat a little and a little bit of cramping. I ended up going home to do some laundry and last minute cleaning, just in case. Nothing really happened I just kept having contractions but they wouldn’t get stronger. I was going CRAZY! About 3 am I woke up, I was still having contractions randomly but they were getting a bit stronger. I was kind of in and out of sleep but at 3:55 I woke up to a really strong contraction, and woke Bernie up with my “in pain noise” and we started timing the contractions at about 4:30 and they were about 2 minutes apart, we decided to shower and throw in one more load to wash everything could be clean just in case… Turns out, I was in full blown labor. I called the midwife at 5:30 and told her what was going on, after talking to her she decided to have me come in. I ate a piece of toast, and grabbed our stuff and left. We got to the birthing center around 6:30 am. The 20 minute drive there was excruciating! I had so much pressure down there; I thought I was going to die. While the midwife was getting the tub and everything else ready I just stood around and had contractions, I used Bernie to lean on a lot. Mid wife checked me and I was dilated to a 7 ½ ish. I tested positive for Group B strep so I had to have an IV of antibiotic 4 hours before baby came so at 7am I was finally able to get in the tub and she put the IV in after the medicine was in she left the IV in my hand but unhooked it. I labored in the tub the entire time; it was really good for pain management. At about 8:30 my contractions were getting really intense and the midwife checked me again, I was about an 8 ½ and she was going to break my water but she looked at the time and realized we had to go another 2 ½ hours to go for the medicine to go through for the GBS so she offered a narcotic through the IV. I thought about it long enough to go through one more contraction and decided to get it. I was so tired. The narcotic was just enough to make me relax in between contractions. I was basically asleep until I’d have another one. I’m not sure how long this lasted but it was less than an hour. She checked me again probably around 9:45 and I was dilated to a 9, I was ready to push but she told me I wasn’t. It was really hard not to though. About 10:30 or a little before she checked me for the last time and I was at a 10 and ready to push, and the baby had moved down. My midwife called her birth assistant, she was about 5 min away. It felt like forever for her to come. I was trying to relax so that I didn’t tear (I was terrified of that.) I pushed for I think 18 minutes… and he was out at 10:48 am on January 18th, 2012. My water never broke, my baby was “born in the caul” and is supposed to be a lucky thing.  “To be born in the caul (or en caul) means a baby was born with an intact amniotic sac (bag of waters) or with some of the amnion (membrane) covering the baby’s head. These babies are often called caulbearers. They are a rare bunch – about one in every 1000 births. However, some suggest that it may be more common, especially in births without medical intervention. Being born en caul is often referred to as having a veil at birth. Some believe that it is a sign of good luck or a good omen. This was probably because in pre-antibiotic days, an intact bag of water helped to prevent infection (it still does). Some legends believe that caulbearers cannot drown.” –Info I found on the Internet…
Anyway, they were going to send us home about 3pm but since Braxton was born 12 minutes too soon for the medicine to go for a full 4 hours, the midwife called their medical director to see what to do since at a hospital they would keep a super close eye on the baby for 48 hours after birth… the medical director suggested that I stay at the birth center til 8pm that night so they could keep a little bit longer watch on him, but the chances of that passing was basically the lowest risk since he was born in the caul and It was ALMOST 4 hours. Turns out, baby was just fine. We got home about 9pm that night and my mom and dad drove from AZ so my mom could help me with the baby for a while.
My birth experience was everything I wanted. I wasn’t 100% against pain killers throughout childbirth, but I REALLY didn’t want an epidural, I wanted as natural as possible. I plan on doing a water birth with all my babies. The midwife was still able to take my blood pressure, and the baby's heartrate every 15 min, and check me all while I was in the water.