Daily Owen: 10.31.2012

Happy halloween from my two monkey boys!

In honor of that spooky holiday...

I bought a bag of fake spiders to put in a care package to Oliver for his birthday. I thought it was kind of cute/cool but Justin immediately said Oliver would hate them (whoops). So we ended up with a bunch of fake spiders on hand. Justin and I have been playing games with them for the past month- hiding them in obscure places and trying to scare each other with them (yeah, we need to get out more). While I was cleaning for my brother's and his girlfriend's arrival, I decided to have some fun with them and put one of the spiders in the shower. I had THOUGHT my brother would be the first to shower (you know, shorter "get ready" time), but his girlfriend was the first to shower. She said it startled her, especially since she didn't have her glasses on to really know if it was real or not. Haha. Happy Halloween!

Daily Owen: 10.30.2012

Last night Owen was hanging with uncle Jon and was fascinated with the fan... I mean, who wouldn't be? Fans are neat!

Daily Owen: 10.29.2012

No, he did not eat soap. His newest tricks: drool and drool bubbles.

Daily Owen: 10.28.2012

I have a problem. I am a baby shoe addict. The above is the first of three pairs of shoes I've recently bought Owen and really? Baby shoes? How much sense does buying baby shoes make? Answer: absolutely none (which my dear husband tells me every 2.5 seconds... I KNOW, I can't help it...they are so damn cute). We had to try these on right away, even with the halloween onsie and regardless of the nonsensical nature of the purchase, I LOVE THEM.

Daily Owen: 10.27.2012

Uncle Jon is in town! (and the boys are hanging watching football).

Truly a mom.

Welp, I am a true mom. I have finally admitted it. Owen had to have his first shot the other day. The shot was a "thing" in the first place meaning I struggled with what I really wanted to do for vaccinations. It's a touchy subject for a lot of people and I don't really want to get into it here but I will say that we decided to vaccinate Owen but on an extended plan. Meaning, one shot at a time over MONTHS, not five shots all at once. I think that there is some merit to vaccines, especially vaccines for diseases that he may be exposed to that would be very harmful to him (and why NOT protect him if we have that option) but I think that doctors tend to over vaccinate infants in their first months of life and that we can string out the vaccines to make it easier on their little immune systems. That being said, we only got the dtap vaccine at his 8 week well check visit, which is the combination of tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (whooping cough). As everyone seems to know, whooping cough is the big deal right now so at the recommendation of our naturopath, this was the shot to get right away.

 BUT.

Going back to why I'm a true mom: it KILLED ME. We put Owen on my boob to nurse and she injected him and the poor little guy just SCREAMED. Granted it was only 5 seconds and then he just went back to a bit of whimpering and sucking and then 5 minutes later he was fine but OH MY GOSH. My heart totally broke. So, yeah, I'm a mom. I don't want my kid to hurt and just wish I could protect him from pain forever.

A picture of the little guy before the shot (in related news he now weighs 12.9 pounds and is 24.5 inches long- 75th percentile for each).

And after shot... he took a STELLAR nap. Like 3 hours. Awesome.

Daily Owen: 10.26.2012

After being cooped up in the house all day yesterday, we got out and about today. We met a friend for coffee in Bellevue then went to Poppy's work where we had an "Owen break" complete with diaper changing (above) and feeding. Then while Owen observed, Justin and I got a good workout in. Owen LOVES the gym... he is totally fascinated the whole time, looking around and just in awe. (Then eventually he passes out).

Cilantro veggie burgers with pumpkin seeds

Without getting on a total sidebar, as my time to post is fairly limited these days, Justin and I have reverted back to our vegetarian/mostly vegan diet. Well, Justin has. I'm still eating fish while I'm breast feeding as it seems to be the one source of protein that doesn't royally tick off Owen's stomach (thank GOD the protein of choice is not something like pig. Barf).  

For people that haven't been reading this blog for years, I was vegetarian/vegan for YEARS. I started eating meat about a year ago as a naturopath that I was seeing to help me regulate my cycles (and get me to actually have a period) recommended that my body type really needed animal protein. You can see all of that post here. Turns out the "period" that followed was implantation bleeding and that animal protein actually helped us to create a baby and QUICKLY. The goal of seeing the naturopath to regulate my cycles was so that we could have a baby SOMEDAY... it just happened about 4000000 times faster than anticipated. I believe that I was deficient as a result of all of the running I was doing which was coupled by not eating the right amounts of protein. That being said, after a year of eating meat (or rather struggling in my attempts to eat meat) like I haven't eaten meat in, oh, 15 years, I have researched the hell out of vegetarian diets and I truly believe I can get the right amount of protein from a plant based diet. I can't say that I will NEVER eat meat again or that there might come a day where I need to eat meat again, but Justin and I both agree that we feel better eating plant based diets so that is what we plan to do the majority of the time. We also hope to raise Owen in a similar manner. 

So. (that was way more long-winded than I anticipated it being)....Going back to these roots of mine, I've gotten creative in the kitchen. I spent years perfecting ways to cook vegetarian meals and I relish in it...so much so that when I was told to eat meat last fall, I was at a serious loss in the kitchen. I had no idea how to cook anything anymore so it all fell on Justin. You'd think that cooking tofu could just translate to chicken but I just couldn't get it to work. There were nights of pinterest, recipes, raw meat sitting on my counter staring at me because I had no clue what the hell to do with it. And it sounded REVOLTING to me (I seriously do not like the taste of meat), so it usually ended in tears and Justin taking over and making something that actually turned out to be edible for me. Needless to say, I'm glad I'm not trying to force down beef anymore (the naturopath actually said last year that liver would be awesome for me... again, HURL).

One of my favorite things to make are veggie burgers because they are SO easy and so delicious. They are also very filling and so good for you... plus, the recipe can change every time you make them! Sadly, I can't eat these right now as the little guy is not tolerating beans either, but I have made these a couple of times for Justin and they were a big hit.

(excuse the crappy iphone photo...hey, I tried).

Cilantro Veggie Burgers with pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup gluten free oats

1/8 cup pumpkin seeds

1 can beans (you can use any kind- garbanzo, black, kidney, etc)

2 tbsp tahini

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp hemp oil (if you don't have this, just use olive oil)

handful of cilantro

1-2 carrots shredded

1/4 cup spinach

1 tbsp garlic (approximately- to your taste)

1 tsp sea salt

Water

I usually modify the above recipe some but the above is my basic guideline (it's all approximate as I usually just throw these together). I usually have fun with the spices... add in some red peppers to make more spicy, throw in some hot sauce, put in some black pepper. And I usually throw in different types of veggies- celery, onion, etc...whatever I have on hand or that sounds good at the time, but the above was what I did the other night.  

To make: put the oats and pumpkin seeds in a food processor and process until a fine consistency. Add in the remainder of the ingredients (except water) and pulse (don't make too mushy). I often just stir here as I like them more chunky. Add in water to get to the right consistency to hold the burgers together. To heat, you can either throw them on the stove in some olive oil or bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 350 or even put them on the grill. Mmmm, enjoy! 

Daily Owen: 10.25.2012

Owen is all crashed out on me after a LONG night of sleep. He hit a new record- 6 hours from 9am-3am and then from 4:30am-7am. I AM A BIG FAN. We then spent the morning with his new nanny while I was there as a type of "nanny training." He has a bit of separation anxiety but I think he will do fine when I'm not there.

Daily Owen: 10.24.2012

Someone is getting into the halloween spirit!

Daily Owen: 10.23.2012

I can't get this to flip (stupid iphone picture) but it was too cute not to use for the daily photo, weird angle and all. This is how we (well, I) get ready in the morning. Owen sits and watches in his little nap nanny thing on the floor and often smiles at his crazy mom.

Daily Owen: 10.22.2012

Owen is currently in the middle of three things (multi-talented!): 1) Laughing at his poppy who was behind me making faces at him 2) Pooping and 3) waving his arms all over. The look on his faces seems to be sheer concentration and amusement by everything he has going on.

Week and weekend in review.

Going back to a week ago, Justin and I had decided to go out to breakfast on Sunday morning because Owen had not slept AT ALL (well, he slept in intervals of about 2.5 hours which meant we slept in intervals of about 45 minutes). Then he decided to wake up at 6am and not go back to sleep. Literally was WIDE awake from 6am-11am. At that point, we threw in the towel on getting anymore sleep and decided to just go to breakfast.

Justin at breakfast...notice the coffee.

And me, with a (FINALLY) sleeping baby. We went to portage bay cafe in South Lake Union which I am now addicted to as a result of some vegan butternut squash pancakes that I had a week or so ago when I met a friend there for brunch. SO amazing.  

Later in the week I met some girlfriends for coffee. These girls also have new babes of their own and it's been so fun to get together throughout our pregnancies and now with infants to talk, vent, and laugh about all of our trials and tribulations. Above is a picture of Owen and Charles (who was born in May).

A picture of Owen and Olivia (she is almost exactly 2 weeks older than Owen).  

And all three! One more will be joining them hopefully soon (COME ON Monster!!) And yes, my kid sleeps DURING the day. Wrong time, kiddo, wrong time...

After we met the girls for coffee we picked up Justin and headed to downtown Seattle to meet another new buddy, Carter, who had just been born the day before. He was a whopping 10.8 pounds, which is only a pound less than Owen at 8 weeks (his mama is seriously my idol as she did not have a c-section!) We spent a bit of time with them before heading home for dinner. Nothing really else notable this week other than attempting to get sleep... sleep, play, eat, poop, sort of what we're doing around here these days (with a couple of workouts and friend visits squeezed in). This past weekend, we went to breakfast again on Saturday and spent the day in Seattle. Sunday yielded a morning where poppy took care of Owen and I got to sleep. It was AMAZING. We then ventured out for a few errands before coming home to watch football and cuddle for the night. Perfect!

Daily Owen: 10.21.2012

Owen has discovered how to get his hands to his mouth enough so that now he's about 80% successful when he tries to stick a finger in his mouth (VASTLY improved over the last several weeks). He still isn't really sure what to DO with the hand once he finds one finger so generally this is how he looks with fingers splayed across his face.

B.A.B. (Body After Baby) Month 2

It's been another month somehow. I really don't know how... It's so weird. Some days seem to go on FOREVER but for the most part I'm sitting here baffled that we've lived through another month. I had no idea what my body was going to do this month and quite honestly, I didn't care. My main goal was survival. The baby has had green poops since, well, he started pooping (minus the first sticky meconium poops). Green poops mean that there is an imbalance in the foremilk/hindmilk of breast milk or that he is reacting to something in my diet that he is not tolerating. We ruled out the foremilk/hindmilk imbalance and determined that it was more than likely a food intolerance so I have spent the better part of this month on a severe elimination diet. It's been interesting.

Some weeks I ate nothing but buckets of rice, turkey and sweet potatoes. When that didn't work, I cut out rice and ate buckets of quinoa instead with turkey and sweet potatoes. When that didn't work, I said "to hell with it" and ate whatever I wanted (just an apple, almonds, spinach and maybe a protein shake, PLEASE), only to find that something in the whtaever I wanted category REALLY pissed Owen's tummy off (think pesto green poops with spots of blood). So here we sit today, still on a bit of elimination diet with some good Owen poops, some not so great. We think that my gut got pretty destroyed as a result of all of the antibiotics I took for my breast infection. As such, my body is not tolerating and digesting food as well as it should which translates into what Owen's gut is doing. So, we journey on... I'm eating hemp oil basically by the jar as it is one of my only sources of fat (combined with avocados, the other sole source of fat) so I'm trying to cram as much in as possible to keep my calories up. Other than that, there are about 7 other foods that we THINK are ok so we're experimenting to see what's going to work. I've pulled about everything else- most fruit, most vegetables, all supplements (except digestive enzymes), most proteins, most grains, all dairy, all soy, all gluten. So, yeah, when you boil it down there's really not a whole lot of options out there. BUT, we are trying.

Needless to say, I've been doing everything I can with my diet to a) keep breastfeeding which means keeping my supply up by eating enough calories, fat and protein and b) eating a diet that agrees with Owen's stomach to try to figure out his green poops. I'm not super worried about his green poops as he seems to be growing and thriving and generally a happy baby. It doesn't seem to bother him at all but it would be nice to see a more "normal" color as the green does indicate that he is not digesting something well.

In addition to all of this madness which pretty much ruled our world all month, Owen went through a MAJOR growth spurt this month (or possibly multiple growth spurts), so I spent the better part of the month as a zombie. People say that you are tired once you have a baby but I did not quite realize what kind of tired they were referring to. This is a tired unlike any tired I have ever known. Cliche, maybe, but oh so very true.

All of this basically means that I did not eat what I wanted to AT ALL (I have never eaten so many carbs in my life) and I did not exercise like I would have liked to...SO, I had no idea how my body was going to respond to this diet and lack of exercise and how that would translate to what the numbers were going to look like this month. They were basically going to reflect just my body's natural transition back to normal as I wasn't doing much to help facilitate it.

Here are the pictures:

Month 2

Month 1

Month 2

Month 1

Month 2

Month 1

Measurements:

Month 1 post partum

Belly- 32 inches (-9.5 lost from week 38 of pregnancy)
Waist- 34.75 inches (-5.25 lost from week 38 of pregnancy)

Hips- 37.75 inches (-2.25 lost from week 38 of pregnancy)
Thigh- 19 inches (-2.00 lost from week 38 of pregnancy)
Boob - 36.5 inches (.5 gain from week 38 of pregnancy)

Bicep- 10 inches (0 change from week 38 of pregnancy)

Month 2 post partum

Belly- 31 inches (-1)

Waist- 33.5 (-1.25)

Hips- 37 (-.75)

Thigh- 18.25 (-.75)

Boob- 35 (-1.5)

Bicep- 10 (0 change)

Weight, month 1 post baby- 129.4 (-22.10 pounds lost from week 38 of pregnancy)

Weight, month 2 post partum- 126.4 (-3.00)

I was surprisingly pleased with my measurements in month 2. I did not anticipate much change but am glad to see that my body is still changing and slowly getting back to its normal (and thank the good lord that my boobs are starting to be less ginormous... I have decided that I do not like big boobies. Part of that is how difficult it is to run with them bouncing all around...different post entirely). I am about 10 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight but I don't expect to get back there until probably 6 months post partum. I think I really need to keep 8-10 pounds excess on while I am breast feeding to maintain my supply and to have enough fat to support both Owen and myself. Overall, we're getting there! Hopefully next month will yield a return to a more normal diet (fingers crossed) and maybe, just maybe, sleep which will equate to more consistent workouts (a mom can dream, right?)

Family resemblances.

From the day Owen was born, I thought that he was a dead ringer for his dad. Clearly, there were things about me that he had but for the most part, I thought he was a little Justin clone. That was until my mom brought out some baby pictures of me as a 2 week old tyke:

Jenn and...

Owen.

Nice little frumpy faced Jenn...

...and a similar look on Owen.

The scared look on me...

and Owen (couldn't find a picture of the scared look but we have seen that one a gazillion times on him).

And one more of me...

Compared to Owen.

Pretty funny, actually. As someone who is adopted and who has never really looked like anyone, it really is a strange feeling to have someone look like me. I still think he looks a lot like Justin, too, but isn't that kind of the point- to look like each of us?

Daily Owen: 10.20.2012

Owen has been sleeping better lately (relative to the past two weeks anyway), I think because we are through a major growth spurt. However, after a 5 hour block of sleep, he decided he was WIRED. He played and kicked and cooed and smiled for 1.5 hours....from 3am-4:30am. Surprisingly, I just hung out and played with him as I was not tired at all. I have a feeling I'm going to look back on these memories and smile (despite the lack of sleep).

Daily Owen: 10.19.2012

GUESS WHO'S TWO MONTHS TODAY!? (Where does the time go?!)

Daily Owen: 10.18.2012

Little dapper dude getting ready to go out with the ladies for wine night while the boys have their brown liquor night. He isn't quite ready for the craziness that the boys have, especially since last night was scotch night, so he was trapped with the ladies. I think he was trying to charm all the girls as he was the most well behaved and happy than I have EVER in his entire 8 weeks seen him from the hours of 7-10pm. Not one tear or freakout. It was incredible. (perhaps that means I should go out with the girls every night?!)

Daily Owen: 10.17.2012

Owen is currently fascinated by lights...here he is being mesmerized. He's also in his PJ's that almost don't fit anymore as he's gotten too long but we squeezed them on for one last time. Back when he was first born we put these on him and he swam in them. Little guy is growing up. Sniff.

Political musings

I was feeling the other day that my blog has become overrun with all things baby. I started to think about it and since my blog is a reflection of my life, this makes perfect sense as my life is dominated by all things baby and it will be, if not forever, at least pretty much exclusively for the next month since I'm home with the little guy and he is in a lot of respects still a newborn.


What does this have to do with politics?

Last night in the midst of trying to calm said screaming baby, we were watching the presidential debates.I guess I'm one of those weird people that genuinely wants what is best for this country and does not vote strictly based on party line. As such, I'm even more weird perhaps that I'm undecided in this election. I just don't know. Politics in the United States seem so corrupt...I think BOTH candidates have their good qualities (and policies) but they also have given good reason to have people extremely dislike them. Hell, I dislike both of them for some reasons (and similarily I like each of them for other reasons).

As I was sitting there watching the debate, I found myself becoming increasingly annoyed. I felt like it wasn't really a DEBATE but more of a "I'll show you up" type of conversation. I honestly felt like I was watching two high school girls fight over some guy, only in this case the guy is our COUNTRY so perhaps the candidates could have acted a little less catty for something that so many people care so much about. I truly believe that many things in this country need attention, that many things have gone wrong that need to be fixed somehow. Now, who can do that? I don't know. Granted, a debate is not going to sway my decision one way or another and I will do my due diligence in reading and studying each of these guys to decide my vote, but it's sad when at some point I feel like I'm voting based on the lesser of two evils.

At the end of the day, I decided that I think I'm going to keep my blog more "baby" oriented. It's safe, happy, and truthfully, after the current debates and all the ridiculous politics ads, I'm depressed by the state of politics in our country.

Daily Owen: 10.16.2012

The classic pouty face that we see all. of. the. time. Justin says he inherits it from me. Who knows.

Regardless, he is saying here, NOT IN THE MOOD FOR PICTURES, MOM. (followed by a scream).

Daily Owen: 10.15.2012

I've decided that I am going to try to post a daily picture of Owen up on the blog. I seem to have enough time in my day for that when I can't make an "official" more meaty blog post.

Here's Owen today, lookin dapper and like a stud in his big boy clothes. It's completely hard to believe how much he's grown over the past month.

The streak has ended.

After 82 days of complete sunny weather with really no rain, as of today, we are back to Seattle weather. Rain, cold and no end in sight for either. True fall in the pacific northwest has truly begun and you know what? After all of the sun we've had, this year I'm kind of welcoming the change.

Sunny Seattle Fall.

This has got to be the best summer and fall I have ever experienced in my 5 years I've lived in Seattle. Technically I guess this is my sixth summer and fall since I moved here in June 2007. I have never seen anything like it and it was so unfortunate that I was grossly pregnant for the best part of it wherein which I actually said I wanted the rain back. THE HORROR. Whoever said that pregnancy does not make you crazy LIED. The fact that I actually WANTED cold and rain proves that fact. Luckily, Seattle continued to have unbelievably uncharacteristic non-rainy weather after our little guy so born so as soon as I was up and able, we began to take full advantage of it.

A few of our outings, below:

We've hiked around St Edward state park at Bastyr a few times with the babe, who sleeps right through it. This is an easy, close hike that we love and in our sleep deprived states, it's doable.

We also played tennis and introduced Owen to this sport we love. Clearly he looks thrilled.

The big boys played too!

Last weekend on our way to pick up Oliver, we took Owen for his first real hike in the cascades. Again, it was a fairly simple hike, a little over 4 miles round trip but it was about all we could handle as we are still under the control of Sire Owen in if we really get sleep or not.

At this point, Owen was not too thrilled at his stylin hiking outfit.

I carried him the whole hike and the little guy slept the WHOLE way. We made it up in 50 minutes and down in 45 or so. Not too bad for having not really hiked in MONTHS and carrying an 11 pound kiddo.

One more of me and the little guy.

And a shot of our little family minus the big boys in the mountains. (Seriously cannot get over this weather in OCTOBER).