Sugar Free?

So, about two weeks ago I decided that my life was not chaotic enough. It wasn't enough that I am currently without my own home, or raising two rambunctious boys, or waiting for my husband rejoin me in life (i.e.: finish soccer season which demands 90% of his time)....I decided it would be great to make myself somewhat miserable and give up sugar for 30 days. Why? Because my friend Missy did it awhile ago and blogged about it...and I thought...hmm...maybe I should do that. And then, well...then...my idol, The Pioneer Woman did it. Ok, deal sealed. I needed to try it. So, Monday, Sept. 26, was my first day being "sugar free". And I'm talking about actual sugar here...like, the white stuff. The stuff that I live for in my favorite drink...sweet tea. In theory, I understand that nearly all food is actually sugar. Bread? Sugar. Pasta? Sugar. Everything I enjoy? SUGAR! But, I doubt that I have it in me to give up all carbs for 30 days. So, I'm on day 15 of attempting to be sugar free. I haven't been perfect. In fact, I admit that I took a cheat day on Saturday. I hadn't planned on cheating, but I did...and its over, and I'm moving on :)

This is what I've learned. 1. I consume too much sugar. (earth shattering, right?) 2. I like sugar 3. Sugar makes things taste better 4. I can do this 5. I can return to minimum-moderate sugar consumption and live a happy life. 6. I wish I enjoyed water. I just don't. It doesn't taste good to me, but its what I've been living on.

I have been FIFTEEN days without a sweet tea. I can't believe that. I really, really can't. I live for sweet tea.

I've lost 3.5 lbs and if I hadn't been so blasted sick this last week (strep throat)...then I'm sure I would notice a difference in how I felt. I can at least say that I have a bit more energy.

All that being said, I have no desire to attempt to live my life completely without sugar...however, I do plan to be MUCH more moderate. Like having one cheat day a week. Or being bad would be considered something like having 2-3 sweet teas in a week. NOT, 2-3 sweet teas in a day! :)

That's all. Also, Josh and I are taking a small vacation next week to Maine. It is unlikely that I will see this through to 30 days because...lets be honest, I'm going to want some kind of dessert with my honey while I'm on vacation. That's ok. I've learned a lot through this. I can do better. I will do better. The end. :)

Wesley, you are ONE!

Well Child Check up- 10.12.11

Stats:

Weight- 20 lbs (ok, on the scale it said 19 lbs, 15 3/4 oz! We are calling this 20 lbs since you had socks and a diaper on! :)

Length- 39 inches (I'm rounding up!)

HC- 46 inches

Dr. Pedersen said you were doing wonderful. She gave me little to no grief about putting you on cows milk when I did (shew) and today we did the flu shot and chicken pox vaccine but we are holding off on MMR until 15 months. Maybe longer. I haven't completely decided yet.

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Sweet baby boy. How is it possible that a year has come and gone already?! I don't quite know how to wrap my mind about it.

I reflect on your first year and I think about some really cool things that God allowed me to experience through your birth and life so far.

First of all, God gave me the chance to really know what its like to experience childbirth. I'm one of the crazy people that wanted the full experience. With Wes, I got it :) I got to "go into labor" (instead of being induced) and even though I took a smidgen of nubain :) (narcotic) to help me through transition...I was able to deliver vaginally without an epidural. Again, something I really wanted and something that became somewhat important to me. This whole method of birthing babies became important to me because I'm really big on experience. I kind of get caught up in wanting to really know what things are like. I didn't like with Owen that I couldn't really tell anyone what a contraction felt like, or that I had no idea when I needed to push because the epidural totally took that away from me. I wanted to KNOW. And even now, even though I know how horrible the pain really is...(and it really is horrible! no getting around that!) I'm so glad that I did it. I'm so glad that I know and that I got to experience it in all of its glory. It wasn't about being a better mom than someone who did it differently than me. It was about me being able to really understand what childbirth was all about - minus drugs. And man. I got it. Jesus was really kind to me and let everything move quickly and fall into place. I won't recount the birth story because you can go read it here if you really want to Wes Birth Story, but it was a super cool/super crazy/super hard experience for me....one that I'm SUPER thankful that God allowed me to experience.

Secondly, breastfeeding. I had a terrible time nursing Owen. It just didn't work. I don't know why. I think some of it was inexperience/nerves/mental issues while now a large part of me just thinks that I kind of really had an unwilling baby. As someone who has really read up on the whole lactation process, I hesitate to state this...but nursing two babies now I kind of believe that its true. Owen was a bad/unwilling nurser; Wes was a great/willing nurser. I begged God to let me nurse my second baby. Again, it was something I really wanted. I decided that I would CHILL OUT and not get anxious about nursing a baby this time around and just "do it" :) Somehow that worked. A few other things that I think helped was "nursing early and often". I put Wes to the breast about 10 minutes after delivery and he nursed for about 30 minutes. In the hospital, I paid attention to every cue and whenever it seemed like he wanted to nurse, I put him to the breast. Something worked. Again, God was kind. AND, again...my baby was willing :) Makes a huge difference. I set out to do a year and Wes told me we were done just shy of 11 months. It was a nice ending to our nursing relationship- letting him tell me we were done was much easier than stopping it myself.

I could cry when I think how good God has been to me. Two things I really wanted: 1. To go through childbirth without an epidural and 2. To nurse my baby. He gave both of those things to me. I'm so grateful.

Wesley, you are like your big brother in many ways. A lot of your developmental milestones are similar. You got your two bottom teeth around the same time. You crawled around the same time. You "walked" around the same time (we're still working on this, but Wes tok a few steps on his own yesterday and Owen started taking steps on his own around 11 months). On the other hand, you are very different. Owen has always had a very laid back personality. YOU have fire and passion :) Owen loved everyone. YOU are a huge momma's boy. Owen was (is) a picky/small eater. YOU eat nearly everything and you eat a LOT! No worries about your weight over here!

I have yet to take you in for your 12 month check up (that happens on 10.12), so I don't know your current weight or length yet. I'll come back and add that later.

What I do know is that we love you. You fill our hearts. You make us busier and at times you have us shaking our heads at your "fury" and passion :) But we know that God gave you to us to make our family complete...and you do that in so many ways. We are so happy that God made it so that you and Owen would have each other. I'm so excited to watch you grow up together. I know you will fight and try to kill each other from time to time, but I have this dream...that maybe someday you'll be best friends. You can always be there for each other. You have this unique advantage (in this day and age) of having the same parents, living under the same roof (even if it is Grandma and Grandpa's right now!) and having lots and lots of love and support from so many different people who not only love you...but love Jesus.

I'm more than excited to see who you will become. We love you Wesley J. Happy Birthday big boy. You are ONE!

Here I go again...trying to change the picture and making it ginormous once again. So annoying. Blogger drives me crazy. It will probably be three weeks before Josh can walk me through shrinking the blasted thing. Sorry :)

P.S. Copyrights to the nice family picture go to Caleb and Heather Brown since we took this at their home....you know, being homeless and all :)

Wes 1st Birthday video

Wes's first birthday party

We had Wes's birthday party on Oct. 1. Josh will potentially be involved with Sectionals for soccer the actual weekend of Wes's birthday, so we celebrated a week earlier. It was a nice/cool/windy fall-ish kind of day...I wished it was a little warmer/less windy since we had the party at a park...but oy vey. It went fine. I don't think anyone caught pneumonia :) .It was a smallish gathering compared to the event we had for Owen, but eh...the second child always gets gipped, right? :) I don't think he'll care. He got a nice stash of presents...consumed a large amount of sugar (which may or may not have prompted the massive amounts of vomit that ensued later that night...the jury is still out on whether or not he is really sick)...and was loved on by dear friends and family. Here are some pictures. Enjoy!

We've moved

Here's the funny (read: stupid) thing. I named my blog by the name of the street we live on. Duh. Why would I do that?! Can I rename my blog?! I have no idea. Help anyone?

I think anyone who knows about our lives know that we are hanging out in Brownsburg (well, technically Pittsboro) with Josh's parents until we can find our next home! We are looking! There hasn't been much on the market that we are too excited about. We will consider south-ish Carmel (106th and below), Zionsville (as close to 65 as possible) and Brownsburg. I imagine Brownsburg will be the best compromise. (since Josh works south, but doesn't want to move south and Carmel and Zionsville tend to be on the high end of our price range) We'll see. I'd love to live right next to College Park. That's my # 1 preference!

Pray for us! Jeff and Anita have graciously made it "easy" to move our family of four in to their home. We are grateful. Short-term leases are hideously expensive and not something we wanted to do...but we also want to continue liking our inlaws/parents and having a friendship with them so mentally we are hoping to be out in 3-4 months tops. (Please Lord!) Actually, I've secretly asked God to give me a new house for my birthday. He has a couple of months to work on this. As long as Jeff and Anita will have us and let us look...we will do our best to make the living arrangements work :) Its a step and journey of faith for me for sure...but its a good way to grow myself and depend on the Lord!

Anyways, that's my short update. We have a P.O. Box in Brownsburg if anyone wants to send us mail :) here it is: P.O. Box 331 Brownsburg, IN 46112

11 months

Sheesh. 11 months. Its hard to believe. This has definitely been the fastest year of MY life.

Here's a brief recap:

Weight: 19 lbs

(I don't know length or head measurements because we haven't had a well child check up...I only know the weight because I took him in to have his ears checked :))

Sleep: all through the night-up around 7:30; morning nap from around 9:30-11:30; afternoon nap around 1:30-3:30 and bed between 8:30/9:00

Food: We quit nursing just shy of his 11 month birthday. (reference post below :)) This was completely baby led. At the advice of well seasoned breastfeeding mothers I tried to push through to see if this was a nursing strike or if he was really done. After two weeks of trying to push through, I decided we were really done. He eats table food wonderfully and drinks from a sippy (filled with cows milk or water) cup fantastically. He recently started exhibiting a displeasure for...wait for it....macaroni and cheese?!?!!! What!? Its true. He takes it out of his mouth and hands it back to me. OK. He loves meat. Loves it. Will gladly eat a hamburger, meatballs, steak(!)...yah. Eats veggies well. Loves green beans. Eats all fruit well. Prefers bananas.

Mobility: Crawls like a pro---and is a FAST ONE! Watch out! Pulls up to stand easily and now scoots around the couches and anything he can hang on to. Can actually stand unassisted, but prefers not to. Will walk around holding someones hands.

Personality: I've been saying for months how fiery and temperamental he is and I think this past month he has been a little bit more cool headed. He has been a bit more love-y and snuggly and a BIT less prone to bouts of screaming and baby temper tantrums :) They still exist, they are just a bit less frequent. He watches Owen every second he can. However, Owen has started to tell him no about things he doesn't want him into...which results in a desperate-mad scream and fist pounding. Wonderful :) He has successfully lasted in the nursery for the last 6 weeks and I feel that it is getting better....but he is still quite upset at drop off and I often find him being strolled around outside of the nursery when I pick him up. We will continue to press on in faith and confidence that he will enjoy "Sunday School" someday. :) On the flip side, I attend a bible study at church on Tuesday morning and he spends 2.5 hours in childcare during that time....and does exceptionally well. He will even nap! I don't quite understand the difference. Oy vey :)

I think thats about it! Next month I'll be doing a one year post! Agh. Can't believe it. I need more babies. Or maybe not. But, gah. Does it really need to go this fast!? Love my Wessie. So glad he is ours!