Baby Update

Hi all!

Sorry to start posting about having a baby then leave you hanging. I did deliver a beautiful baby girl on June 11 th.  She weighed 5lbs3oz. She did have some breathing issues and a few other standard preemie problems and spent 2 weeks in the NICU and a week in a step down nursery just learning to eat and improve breathing.
I'm happy to say she came home yesterday. She is on a very small amount of oxygen,  but should be off fairly soon.

She is our little fighter and I will post some pictures soon. Thanks to all for your support and comments.

I do have to now get my weight under control before it gets out of hand. I'm happy to say that while Ella grew during our extended hospital stay, I lost a little.
As of this morning I weigh 204 pounds.  I'm not excited about it,  but it's really just 25 pounds to my comfortable weight in the 170's. I'm hoping by the fall I'll be close. I'm going to try to post along the way.

9 More Days

Hi all,

I haven't been super great at updating the blog with baby news, but really only because it's been no news is good news here. I'm 9 days out from hitting 34 weeks and a scheduled induction. Scary, but it's also nice to have an end in sight.

I had an ultrasound this week (I hadn't had one in a month). It went very well - her growth was right on for her age. She's measuring a little over 4 pounds, I'm hoping she packs on a little more over the next week so she's solidly over 4 when she's born. Good things we saw on the ultrasound were; she still has fluid in there and was drinking, the tech saw her doing some practice "breathing" which is a good sign. The only negative thing we saw was that she's gone from head down to breech, but we still have some time, so she may move again.

Thanks again for all the well wishes and prayers - we need them all.

20 days left...

It was wonderful to read the comments from so many people I haven't heard from in awhile.  Thanks so much!
I don't have too much to post other than I'm still hanging in there on hospital bed rest and if all continues to go well I have 20 more days until we reach our goal of 34 weeks and delivery.
It's a tough month to be in the hospital because my daughter had lots of end of year school stuff/activities that I'm going to miss. :( I'm going to miss her school band concert,  dance recital and 5k for Girls 0n the Run. Rick is doing his best to keep me involved and she is being a sweetheart about it all,  but it's still hard for me. 
I'll keep everyone updated as I progress (or don't progress). Thanks!

What's been up with me? A lot...

So I'm not sure who's around to read this, but I suddenly have A LOT of free time on my hands so I thought I'd update my blog.

The last time I posted was last October. I think I was complaining about some weight gain and how to deal with it. Typical. The next month we found out I was pregnant (so you can see my concern about weight kind of slid away). We were very excited - we always wanted another child and while we're older than we were with Cate we felt prepared.

The first few months were OK, tests came back good and I got through the first trimester with few problems. The second trimester was a nightmare. At 17 weeks pregnant I went in for a fairly routine ultrasound and we discovered that the baby suddenly had no amniotic fluid. There were tons of reasons it could happen, but no good outcomes were given to us. We highly advised to terminate the pregnancy. It was a tough decision, we wrestled with so many things and started looking at second opinions.

We stared working with J0hns H0pkins and slowly ruled out issues that we knew weren't the cause. We finally pinpointed the problem (which I won't go into b/c of time). While serious, it wasn't the worse case scenario and they agreed to let us in an experimental program to hopefully give the baby enough fluid to develop her lungs (yes, it's a girl) which is the biggest issue in these cases. A baby can live OK in your womb with no fluid, but once it's born it won't be able to breathe because it's lungs never developed.

Starting at 22 weeks pregnant I went to the hospital every week to get an amnio-infusion (they injected saline into my amniotic sac). The hope was the fluid, even if it just lasted a few days each week, would help develop her lungs.

Things had been going well until last week when my water broke on Tuesday night. This was a risk of the procedures that we were aware of, but we had gotten to 28 weeks, which while not perfect, was pretty good. Luckily, I did not immediately go into labor, so I've been put on hospital bed rest until I do or until I reach 34 weeks (which is as far as they will let me go).

So now I'm in the hospital - it's the best place for me and baby, but I desperately miss my daughter and husband at home.

I really need to stay positive to help reach our goal of 34 weeks. Of course, it's not  really within my control, but the Dr.'s do stress that keeping busy and not getting down is important (hence the blogging). As a family it's hard to envision another month with me in here, so we try to think of it as days. As of today we have 30 days left - totally doable. I'd like to do a post everyday to help me countdown (fill some of my time).

If you made it through this - thank you. All good thoughts and prayers are welcome. 

Ugh, I'm fat and addicted to sugar...

The post few weeks are when I really noticed my weight gain. I've been avoiding the scale,  but I can't avoid the pants that don't button and the huge muffin tops I have when they do. I'm disappointed in myself but I can't dwell on it. It doesn't help.
This week was ok. I struggled, but did focus on the rules more which was my goal. What I'm really struggling with is my sugar lust. As some of you may remember I never completely took sweets off the table when I was in my big losing phase, but I only ate really good sweets. A piece of dark chocolate,  a homemade cupcake,  dessert out to dinner. Lately, I'll eat anything that says chocolate- not good. I've decided to get a little weight loss pop and get some sugar out of my system, this week I'm going to have an Atkins shake for breakfast and lunch plus a protein snack and just regular dinner. Hopefully this will help get some of my sugar lust under control. I'll keep you all posted.

The Rules

Wow, it's been a while and my absence does not mean all is well (does it ever? ).  I have gained way too much weight to even pretend to be comfortable anymore or mental fob it off as 10 pounds or so. 
For awhile I felt overwhelmed by it,  I think I've wrapped my head around it and I'm going to slowly lose it like I did before.
My first goal is 13 pounds-odd number, I know, but it gets me to a number I like ( for awhile).
My goal this week is to just revisit some rules I've been ignoring. The first is limit my meal to a cup or so. The second is no drinking until 30 minutes after a meal.
Wish me luck!

How it's Going

I just realized sitting here reading some other blogs that tomorrow is my bandiversary!!! 4 years with my band. It took me about 1 year and an half to lose just over 100 pounds and reach my comfort zone of the 170's. I'm proud to say I maintained it pretty well until just this year. I'm proud of what I accomplished with the band and I realize that 4 years out it's only natural to have fallen back into some bad habits, but I'm working to change them.

Getting the weight back off is going slowly, but I finally feel like I'm in a groove again. I'm really trying to wait until I'm hungry to eat and sometimes ride out hunger if needed. I'm really hoping to stay on track and be back in the 180's by next week.

Hope everyone is doing well. It's great to see some old friends coming back to blogging too.