Listening to Others...and body update

Lincoln is going to be one month old on Monday. He is doing absolutely great. I could not have asked for a better baby! One of the major things I did while pregnant with Lincoln was pray my arse off.  I prayed for safe delivery and the ability to over come my feelings about my miscarriage. One thing that I prayed for, which might seem weird, was that Lincoln would be a content baby. I prayed that he would just be happy in his skin even at birth. I never, ever wanted him to have the same feelings of discontentment or just not being good enough that I had coming from a divorced home, so I prayed about it. Let me tell you, the lord answers prayers! If he is not hungry, tired, or needs a diaper change he can just sit and be happy. I have not found my self once feeling super frustrated or that I couldn't figure out what was making him cry. He will sit in my lap at night up against my arm and just hangout no matter what were doing. It makes me cry just thinking about how the lord really does listen when you believe. Now I'm sure he will have a meltdown at some point but its almost 4 weeks without one! FINGERS CROSSED!!

Evidence of the lord granting prayers!
He will seriously sit like that until he falls asleep.

The first lesson I have learned as a parent is not to take advice that has not been asked for from others.
Even more so from others who don't know you or your family at all!

Lincoln has been spending half of his nights in his bassinet and the other half in our arms in bed with us. He will not sleep without being in our arms when its late at night. Rather we get him to sleep pretty quickly and the second we put him down he flips a lid. Nate and I tried the whole forcing him to sleep not with us thing for one night and it was the dumbest thing we could of done. We both got zero sleep and were constantly fighting to get him in bassinet every hour on the hour that it just wasn't worth it! If I have to go back to fix it when he's older well then we will. For now though, I'm not going to lose sleep trying to force our little baby where he doesn't want to be. He still is able to sleep out of arms during the day when I have the time (and sleep) to rock him for about 45 minutes, but at 3am I want him fed, changed and right back to sleep...not fighting sleep until 5am. He will go right back to sleep after his 3am feeding which I have gotten down to a good 20-25 minutes, if I just bring him to bed. If I try to put him in his bassinet after that feeding its an all out cry fest with tears and all. Not a happy baby, momma or dadda so why do it?

Now, most people have made a huge deal about this when they ask where he sleeps. I say too bad, this works for Nate and I! We're going to keep doing it because for our family right now its what works! We're happy and not grumpy. We both get sleep every night between 4-6 hours and Nathan even gets 8 hours of full nights of sleep about 4 days a week! I have learned that if you listen to others unwanted advice and take it to heart you will go insane trying to live up to others expectations. Do what works for you and your family and screw them all. You don't need to justify it, just do it. If I had listened to others who know nothing about our family or circumstances I would be doing a lot of stuff that would make me go insane, with breastfeeding being one of them!

Now like I said in my previous blog entry, I have only 5 pounds to lose after having Lincoln. One thing I have realized is that I wore my clothes rather snugly before Lincoln....well all my jeans fit but I have a nice what one would call a muffin top in all my jeans, shorts and capris. My jeans fit fine and work, but with all of my tight tops that I own I'm not happy with it. I have been wearing jeans with more flowy tops but I only have a few of those, so these 5 pounds have got to go. I am not going to start working out though for another two weeks until I completely heal. Nate and I have been walking and that helps, but its not going to burn the calories I need to.

So here are my after pregnancy/before working out photos. I am wearing tight yoga pants and a tight t-shirt on purpose to show where it needs to go away. (Yes I find this very brave!)

That little pouch in the front was not there prior.

Little pouch and some back fat that needs to go!

Basically, the extra weight is all in my mid section! This is a new problem. I have never carried any extra weight there but hopefully in a few months I will have some new pictures. I have decided if I lose the weight and get my abs back, I will reward my self by re-piercing my belly button! It's not like the hole that is there will ever go away and honestly it got a bit stretched out during pregnancy, so why not put some nice jewelry back there! I have not had the piercing in since I was 19 and I got it done when I was 16 (Yes a tad early, I was a bit wild before Nate and I began seriously dating!), but I'm feeling adventurous and its either that or a tattoo. I'm going to stick with what I know for now. Maybe tattoo later...

One thing that I was not informed about was that during pregnancy is that your abdominal muscles can split! YIKES! Well I tested my self and I think I have a minor, baby, super tiny, separation like one finger-with big. Basically its not a good idea to do any full sit ups/crunches until the tear is repaired. Good thing I read up on it because I would of been going back to my ab attack workouts of doing planks, sit ups, triangle stands and ball exercises which you should avoid until the separation becomes healed. Here are some great sources on what you can do to fix this problem before you start seriously working out! Basically do a lot of pelvic tilts and you will be all good! If you don't fix this prior to seriously working out you can create a new bulge in your stomach and by the time you recognize it, it will be too late!

http://www.birth.com.au/Emotional-and-physical-recovery/Abdominal-separation

http://www.thepregnancycentre.com.au/post-pregnancy/exercise/postnatal-exercise-guidelines

http://www.pregnancy-info.net/separated_muscles.html

http://www.todaysparent.com/health/exercise/ab-rehab-post-baby-ab-exercises?page=0,2

http://clairemockridge.wordpress.com/2012/10/25/what-exercises-should-be-avoided-when-abdominal-separation-is-present/

http://www.thewomens.org.au/AbdominalmuscleseparationorDiastasis?printView=true

The first two links are my absolute favorite they have pictures and very informative. I will be doing these until 6 weeks postpartum and then I will start running again! YEAH! I can't wait to go for that first run!

Look forward to my favorite work out things and more new parent lessons!

~Julia