Wednesday's Workout #1

Walk the dog for 30mins on this blistering hot day:

10mins of attempting to skip:

10x Jacknifes:

10x SB Torso Twists (as you can see our cat, Raf joined me):

10x SB Pushups:

10x SB Hamstring Curls:

2x Pilates Thousands:

Thanks to my gorgeous DH for snapping these :)
Bub has been unwell the last 24hours, we are all extremely tired. He hasnt a fever though so I am hoping we can ride it out.
My articles are now up online

• http://thebirthingsite.com/feeding-baby/item/393-how-formula-affects-a-babys-gut.html
• http://thebirthingsite.com/prenatal-health/item/390-how-to-exercising-with-the-bump.html
• http://thebirthingsite.com/prenatal-health/item/391-how-to-exercising-with-the-bump-2-trimester.html
• http://thebirthingsite.com/prenatal-health/item/392-how-to-exercising-with-the-bump-3-trimester.html

I am really proud of all my hard work lately, it isnt easy going back to work, researching topics, wedding planning & looking after my family (especially at this time of year!). But my new baby, my Vaio laptop is making my life significantly easier. I will post a weekly workout, please enjoy :D

Cheers & Giggles
xx

Surviving Silly Season

Two days until Riv is 7months. He is commando crawling everywhere and up on his knees constantly, wot be surprising if he's actually crawling tomorrow!
I've been back at work for just over a week and it feels great, mostly because DH is home so Riv is in his capable hands...I'm sure it will be harder when he is back working in WA. The clients I have now are fantastic hard workers and I hope to build my business from here. Four of my articles will appear on The Birthing Site over the next few weeks which is great & as I mentioned I have been receiving great feedback for my blog. Further adding to my delight is the return of my best friend to Victoria, DS Godfather, thanks Santa!
With DS cluster feeding heaps each night I have been quite naughty with my diet and eating lots around 9pm. I am trying to choose fruit instead of chocolate but it's not always the desired option! I've been reading into the Paleo Diet as suggested by my sexy trainer Miss B, however as a vegetarian this doesn't sit well with my lifestyle and nutritional beliefs...an interesting blog was read: http://www.nomeatathlete.com/vegetarian-paleo-diet/ but I love my grains/legumes/veg mix and feel healthier for it.

Exercises of the week include Diaphragm breathing:

and a good old glute/hammy stretch:

As you can see I am carrying some Christmas Kilos which I would like Santa to take back to the North Pole although if I'm not careful that is all I'll be receiving!! Wedding is in T-minus two months and I'm yet to get my booty into a size 6...for those who dont know me, I am 5foot tall so this should actually be achievable.

I would love to see more comments & feedback.

Merry Christmas Everyone <3

Cheers & Giggles
xx

EC (whats with all the acronyms!)

I am SO proud of our boy! Every night for the past week he has sat on the potty before our shower, I have said "zing!" and he has peed :D he is SO clever!

When I was pregnant I read an article about a family that practised EC full time. So...no nappies at all.
I was intrigued and agreed with the main principles of Elimination Communication but was particularly disturbed by the image this writer left in my mind of pulling out a newspaper for her child to "eliminate" onto in a shopping centre carpark. Not for me, I thought.

We have always had nappy free time, right from the start, mostly to let the little boys' bits breathe, abit because we didnt always have enough cloth nappies, and also because his booty is so cute! So it made sense to look out for him to make some sort of signal that he was going to wee or poo (sorry for the TMI - look away if this disturbs you!). We couldn't really distinguish that he was making any signs so we just had a cue word "zing!" for every time he weed. As time went on he would go quiet and be still just before doing a wee so that we could occasionally predict this elimination and pop him on the potty. There have been plenty of misses!!! But its relaxed in our house, there's no pressure...and hey if I need to clean more towels well I am happy to do so! I've been noticing now that he often wees roughly 10mins after every feed and so when we get time we pop him on the potty and he does a wee! This is part-time EC at its finest. It fits in with what we were already doing and causes no inconvenience and hey if our darling is "toilet trained" early it is a bonus! Haha I will not go into stories of what happens during nappy free time when you dont pay attention, and believe me this can take ONE second :p

So that is our Ec story for now.

I also wanted to touch base on something that I have been thinking about alot lately...the competitiveness of motherhood. My next blog will delve in a little more but what got me thinking is an article I wrote this week about formula use and it's affect of the gut. Before I go on I want to say that yes I am pro-breastfeeding and I dont hold back on my feelings about this but I can also undertand why and have dear friends who formula feed. People have no idea how hard breastfeeding can be, how little support there can be, how emotional IT IS. The next blog will cover more...but I'm not going to lie, it was HARD to write about this. Because the very last thing I want to do is make anyone feel crap about their feeding choices, and yet the risks need to become common knowledge. In writing this article sensitively (as I hope I have) it got me thinking about WHY a mother would feel like crap about any of the choices she makes raising her children.
The amount of pressure on us to be perfect from not gaining too much weight in our pregnancy, to whether we stay at home or work, from what constitutes a natural birth to our choices about discipline. Every mother makes choices that suit her and her child at the time and rather than tear each other down, we should support one another.
I have mother's group tomorrow and I love our group. We all do things a little differently, but we all listen to each other without judgement. This is how it should be but often not how it is.

Finally, I have been getting alot of great feedback and so I just wanted to say thankyou. I am loving this, the journey and reaching out, the response and the joy of writing. So please, follow the blog, tell your friends & keep the warm, fuzzies coming.

Cheers & Giggles
xx

BLW

Baby led weaning/baby led solids

We were interested in this way of introducing foods as it promotes breastfeeding as the main source of nutrition for the first year. Which, it should be. I have lost count of how many times people have asked me "how long do you have to breastfeed him for?" and it is mostly curiosity from friends who haven't seen littlies raised, I am always confident in my response. The WHO recommends breastfeeding for at LEAST two years and the benefits of extended breastfeeding are becoming common knowledge.
So, the other thing that drew me towards providing finger foods was that it allows the infant to learn hunger and satiety cues. I have struggled with eating issues in my life and the very last thing I want to do is to lead my children down the same path. DS eats what he wants to and he LOVES quinoa, tofu, green veg and berries. In the morning I give him fingers of quinoa flakes with stewed fruit (baked in the oven so he can hold on and gnaw on them), for lunch we usually have cucumber, carrot, mushroom and tomato, though tahini paste/hommus on rice crackers is becoming a hit. Dinner is vegies sometimes mashed, rolled in polenta and baked, sometimes pasta sauce, often tofu or lentils included.
Other benefits of BLW have been the rapid development of his motor skills; fine and gross. He can sit unassisted for short bouts of time, can pick up a pea between his finger and thumb, and has great hand/eye co-ord which he did NOT get from me :)
To answer some other questions I am always asked; yes DS is vegetarian until he decides otherwise, he wont have wheat until 8-9months of age, he wont have dairy until after 12months, and I will not provide any artificial colours, preservatives etc to him where I can avoid it. When DS goes to school, he will be exposed to all kinds of food and I do not believe in denying him anything, just teaching moderation. Until then I would like to keep his innocent system "crap free".
I have heard that there is a fantastic cookbook I would love to get my mits on, but for the moment he just has what I have, minus wheat, dairy and whole nuts. We dont eat much processed food at home which is good for everyone because lord knows I have developed a sweet tooth since late in my pregnancy!
Conceiving a child and breastfeeding have definitely made me consider what I put into my body. Starting him on solids has been a great process and because I control what goes in front of him, he hasn't been exposed to artificial/processed crap. We are both healthier for this.
If there is anything you would like to know, feel free to ask.

Cheers & Giggles
xx

PS things HAVE improved since my last post. DH got home yesterday, I am not the only one finding that my 6.5mo is a testy pain in the butt (thanks mum's group), and I know it will eventually pass :)

The ugly...

Ok, one of the main things that I want to portray is that life is NOT a fairytale all of the time, that how we deal with situations that arise is what matters. Today I am not proud of my mothering...to be frank I was so angry at my child for being unsettled and unpleasant, so angry at myself for being a sleep deprived angry boots, SO frustrated that it is MY body that nourishes my child, MY attention that needs to be focused on him, MY stress level that affects him, MY body & mind that cook for him, clean for him, soothe him, and ME that shapes his world pretty much 24/7...I had had enough! Thankfully my sister soothed him to sleep after I had tried feeding & rocking him to no avail, although this in itself brought on tears " you fail as a peaceful mother" " you can't even soothe your own child" " now your sister thinks you are a bitch" and such thoughts raced through my mind. I am thankful that there have only been a handful of times when I have just been so fed up with being DS everything that I've needed reinforcements! It shames me that I am not always the loving, calm mother I aspire to be. So I ate a bunch of junk food, watched some Greys anatomy, and switched off for a few hours.
At home I trained two of my gorgeous clients before a late nap, a walk, a shop, scrumptious dinner, and bedtime routine. Asleep at last I began this blog only to be awoken less than an hour after bed...so rocking him didn't work so I screamed at my fiancé on the phone instead of repeatedly bashing my head into the wall...which I actually have done in the roughest stage of my parenting journey. Where is the humour in this? Where is the joy? What the Frick makes it all worth it? (Now that I've possibly scarred him for life by feeling so vile)...the smiles and the sounds of a contented babe, I guess. And well isn't Breastfeeding just a blessing and a curse?! When the milk starts flowing I'm far less likely to throw myself out the window...

Big wheels keep on turning...

In reference to my brain.

It wont stop.
Just finished my drapht of prenatal ex. guide and only yesterday completed the dancing year!
No, I did not look as amazing as I had planned, I've lost 31cms since July (4months) but not a single inch from my thunder thighs. As dance has finished my new program will incorporate bikram yoga, surfing and some more cardio. Starting back at work will surely inspire me too...?!
I want to look insane for my wedding, not good, but SPECTACULAR! I've just under three months to drop a pant size, can I do it?!!!
Thats my fitness goal, what is yours?

Cheers & giggles
xx

I dont know how she does it...

Ok yesterday I read THE most frustrating book ever written. Yes, I read it in a day I am a speed reader and I still managed to have a fantastic yoga session with my beautiful trainer Amy, a clearing session, a birthday lunch for DH bff, and a spray tan. Hmmmm my major problem with the book?

It was incredibly frustrating to watch this woman blatantly choose her work over her family. FULL STOP. No working mother I know is in the slightest bit like this woman. I fully relate to the hustle and bustle of her life, the judgement left-right-centre, the patriotic society within which we live etc ect etc but the way this woman describes her children and spending time with them is just not acceptable. The conclusion I drew from the book was that there can be NO balance between work and motherhood...and I just do not believe that. It particularly pained me how quickly she weaned them from the breast, the constant reference to bottle use and her manipulative nanny.
Rant almost complete...I am going back to work in a week(ish) I thought reading this book might give me insight into how I can create a balance...it failed.


So.  I am extremely lucky that I can work my hours around a feeding & sleeping baby, that I can leave him with family or have him at my workplace, that I can be there for his firsts. My life is always busy but my number one priority is my son.
This morning we indulged in a bowl of fruit salad thanks to DH, and DS is just starting to use a spoon for himself. He adores berries! We love BLW. Will blog about that after my article is on its way to The Birthing Site :)

Ahhhhh the unannounced arrival of my nanna...

Cheers & Giggles
xx



PS if anyone would like to comment on any of my blogs this far please please do :)