The road to a healthier me!

So if you have noticed some random pictures of me over the last few weeks posted by my friend Brook you will know I have stared a journey to a healthier me.  This all started last September, I had my yearly physical and my thyroid number was a 6, below 5 is good, 10 is bad so 6 was a slight concern but nothing too worrisome.  We set to have my numbers done again in March which we did and that time it was a 7.5 and all my other numbers were terrible too and our family dr who I adore said, "Olivia it is time to make DRASTIC changes."  Not something I ever had heard or ever wanted to hear again....so she sent me for a thyroid appointment with a new dr who also used that word drastic.  So I started processing and thinking and deciding what to do.  In the midst of all this processing I attended a menu planning night at a local nutrition club called Nourish.  I had a great time and Brook made samples of the smoothies they offer at their club.  I hate green smoothies, like seriously hate them.  One of the samples she made was their green smoothie, it was AMAZING.  It is made with spinach not kale which I think is why it is the winner.  I went home and did some research and decided to contact Brook for more information on the program they offer.

I love food.  As a lover of all food I was finding it very hard to limit portions and I frankly lacked the willpower or motivation to even care about moderation or any of that.  She sent me home with a 3 day trial of Herbalife on a Friday.  Well I didn't start it that day but I did start it the following Monday.  She weighed me on Monday morning and again on Thursday morning.  I lost 6 pounds in 3 days.  I was amazed and shocked and HOOKED!  I HAVE NEVER FELT BETTER IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!  I am doing a weight loss regime of 2 shakes a day, 2 protein snacks a day and a meal for dinner.  I am tracking calorie intake as well as walking and getting out and going with these two crazy babies.  

I have never dietied in my life because I never had a reason to.  My numbers were always in check and good except my weight but I didn't care as long as everything else rocked.  I started this journey at 235 pounds and I have a few different goals, my first is under 200 and I will allow myself to start trying for another baby, for those around me you know how motivating that is because I have got the baby fever!

I am looking forward to updating on my success as this moves forward.  If anyone wants any information on Herbalife let me know and I will get you connected!  

Appendix and Other Adventures

As everyone else is we are coming off another CRAZY Christmas season!  Between birthday's the first week and Christmas parties every weekend I just feel like the month of December lasts FOREVER!  We spent the first few days of the spousal units vacation traveling to Asheville, NC to have a little break just the four of us.  The boys LOVE the hotel rooms and did great overall with our first vacation as just us.  We went to the Grovepark Inn on Sunday night with some of my family to see the Gingerbread Houses.  I say Gingerbread Houses because that's what they are called but honestly I would say they are more Gingerbread Structures.  They were beautiful and awesome to see but out of the 41 we saw there weren't that many houses.  We did have a wonderful time and then had a great time at dinner together too because all 4 children were so well behaved.  Then on Monday we went to the Biltmore House and spent the day touring and exploring the grounds.  We wore the boys in our carriers since there are so many stairs and we knew strollers would be a pain which worked out great because Child Unit 1 slept on me for the first half of the house and Child Unit 2 slept on the Spousal Unit for the second half of the house!  We had lunch there and then ventured out to the Winery and village they have set up on some of the land.  Once we had done all there was to do Biltmore we then headed to our hotel for a rest before dinner with some of the Spousal Unit's family.  We had a blast despite the boys deciding they were not going to eat anything served.  So they loaded up on snacks that I had brought and that was fine.  

The next day we headed down the mountain to spend some family time with my family where we did all the Christmas festivities.  We woke up on Christmas morning and got back on the road to be able to do Christmas with the Spousal Unit's family.  We truly had a wonderful time but were very grateful to return home and have a week to ourselves at home.....or so we thought......

We got home on Thursday (Christmas) night and I spent all day on Friday unpacking, washing clothes and just getting us settled back into our normal.  Well we went to bed on Friday night and the Spousal Unit looked over at me and said, "I hope it's a good night."  I said, "For who, us or the boys?"  He replied with, "The Boys..."  This may have been where my body started to rear up.  At 3 AM Saturday morning I woke up because Child Unit #2 woke up crying, he fell back asleep before I could really register that anyone needed me.  I however was awake and in pain.  I tried everything I could think of to make it better and nothing worked.  I decided that by 8 I would drive myself to Urgent Care while Spousal Unit stayed with the boys.  By 7:45 that was a no go because I couldn't even put on my shoes without cringing so driving was not happening.  So he loaded up the boys and drove me to urgent care where I got out and went on in while he got the boys into the stroller.  Once I registered and noticed "Oh there are TONS of people in here with Flu like symptoms" I met him at the door and said, take them home and wait for your parents who were thankfully on their way to keep the boys.  By the time he got back I had seen the doctor who informed me that whatever was wrong I needed to be at the ER so off he took me to the hospital where I was immediately seen to determine my level of "emergency" they took blood and urine to go ahead and get worked up and then sent me to the waiting room where I spent about 2 hours in pain.  Once back the doctor got me started on a wonderful cocktail of medicine and a drink for my CT Scan.  The entire morning my speculation had been that it was my gallbladder causing all the pain but once the pain settled into one location it seemed it was my appendix.  The scan proved that low and behold the appendix was the culprit and I was put on prep for surgery.  It went well and I spent a night in the hospital before coming home on Sunday afternoon.  The spousal unit's mom stayed the majority of the last week helping out since I was down and not allowed to lift babies.   I seem to be to the point where I'm mostly back to normal and just keeping the lifting down to a very minimal.  

I hope 2015 is a year without abdominal surgery because with a C-Section last December and Appendix this one I AM DONE for now!

I wish everyone a Happy New Year!

What's Cooking?

I love to cook, always have and seeing as my dad is a chef and my mom is no stranger to the kitchen either I get it rather naturally.  I never really questioned if I would make the boys their baby food I just assumed that's what I would do.  Once I made the choice to stay home with them it became another thing I could do to help save us some money.  The first time I undertook making food for the boys I was 100% overwhelmed.  That night I chose to make sweet potatoes, pears, apples, butternut squash and something else I think that is skipping my mind.  It was WAY TO MUCH at once.  Now looking back on things and working through this after 6ish months I have come up with a system that worked great for me and I figured I would share in case anyone else could benefit.  Make one food at a time!  I did a food a day and that worked out great for me!

When we got married I was super excited for my crock pot, bread maker and immersion blender.  I know little things.  My hours when I worked allowed me to be able to get home at a decent hour to fully cook a meal every night so my crockpot was something I used rather rarely.  Now I use it at least once or twice a week and it's not for the family meals like I'm sure most people use theirs for I am using it to cook veggies and fruits for the boys.  I take the morning nap time after starting a load of laundry and prep whatever I'm cooking that day, today it was strawberries, pineapple, kiwi and spinach.  Toss it all into the crock pot, put the lid on and turn it on for a few hours.  When it was hard veggies like carrots, sweet potatoes or similar I would let it go closer to 5 or 6 but with fruits right around 2 works.  Then I scoop it out with a slotted spoon and then use the immersion blender and just puree the mess out of it.  Once pureed I just put it in my little freezer containers and go from there.  Now that they boys are doing more finger foods I cook it but skip the puree part for the vegetables.  The mixture today was pureed and then frozen to be used for yogurt and oatmeal mix ins.

When I was making things I didn't start doing mixes until maybe a month or so ago because I could just have a bag of carrot cubes and a bag of apple cubes then I would give each baby two cubes for their meal.  Now that they primarily feed themselves I am only using the frozen stuff for breakfast as oatmeal and a fruit mix and snack as yogurt and a fruit mix.  I've gotten kinda crazy with them all depending what I have currently in my freezer.  Some people think I'm crazy but the boys have had rhubarb already mixed with peaches and then again with blueberries and banana as well as with strawberries and bananas.  Why not expose them to things that I serve on a regular basis!

I just really want to express how happy I am that they have moved to feeding themselves more because it is SO much easier to put them in their highchairs and work on stuff in the kitchen with them while they are eating! 

Until next time!

I became a mother last night...

So I am sure some of you just read the title and thought Umm, Olivia you became a mother in April last year when you took that test to say you were pregnant or even in December when those two adorable boys were born.  And sure you are correct in the fact that yes technically that is when I became a mother however, this morning at 3 when I was awake rocking a baby that had been awake off and on since 11 because he is sick and so snotty he cant breath and wants his pacifier to sleep but can't breath if he has his pacifier.  He kept tossing and turning covering me in snot no matter how many times I used the Nose Frida to suck his nose dry I thought this is love, this is what being a mother is really about.  Loving your child so much that you just want them to feel better and not suffer is all you care about dispite that hands down this and last night are the worst two nights since bringing these boys home, even worse than the every three hour feeding nights by far.

Now I sit here sipping my second cup of coffee of the morning wishing that I had actually gotten a decent nights sleep but knowing that these babies are everything and hoping that tonight they sleep so I can sleep because mommy never goes off duty!  The bad thing is my throat is now scratchie and I have a runny nose.  Oh don't we love when they share!

Until next time when I am feeling better and have slept more!

My World is Being OVERTAKEN!

So I always thought that I would be one of those people who could/would keep all baby related items secluded to their room.  UMMMMM I currently have 1 room in my house that doesn't have something baby related in it and that's the dining room and high chairs do and can go in there when they are needed.

I kid you not, in our bedroom currently there is a pack n play set up, toys on my floor and one of the boys lovies just hanging out, in our bathroom we have baby wash, a tub faucet protector that looks like a duck and a walker.  Yesterday there was a Johnny Jump Up on the door there too.  I'm sure some people are thinking, "really a walker in the bathroom, seriously WTF?"  Well let me help you, if you have something you have to do that requires you to shower and you have two babies there isn't much option for a shower unless one or both is in the bathroom with you.  Mine cat nap and during those sweet glorious 30-45 minutes that they actually sleep at the same time I have dishes, laundry and other important household things that I have to do.  Which means playtime in mommy's bathroom while she showers and gets ready.  

Back to my issue at hand they are seriously taking over my world which I suppose I should just accept since they took over my body and mind a while ago.  Seriously, it's amazing that now if I have some "extra" money I would rather just spend it on them and not myself.....another lesson learned as a mother.

An update on the sleep training: naptimes are getting better.  They will now sleep in their own cribs at naptime without screaming as though they are being poked by thousands of nails!  WIN!  However, nights are still hard because let's be honest here, my sleep is the most important thing to me between the hours of 11 PM and 6 AM and if I can quiet the baby down by bringing him to bed with me rather than sit up with him screaming you can better believe what I'll be choosing!

Until Next Time...

What is my biggest surprise as a mom...

I have had so many people ask me what my biggest surprise of being a mom is, I honestly think the biggest one is how their cries pull at every raw nerve inside of me.  I have never been a fan of the Cry It Out method of sleep training with children under 2 because those children do not have the words to express what they need but understand that a modified version to work toward sleeping on their own and developing self soothing techniques is important.  It isn't something I ever see myself doing hardcore but we did start working on transitioning from me having to rock them to sleep EVERY NAP AND NIGHT to laying them down with music and awake to work it out themselves.  Naptime today just about killed me, Plain and Simple.  I laid them down each in their own beds, the same beds that they have slept in most nights since the night they came home from the hospital, you would think these beds transition into beds of nails during the day time based on how they react to being placed in them.  I turned on the music walked out and closed the door.  I had to start a load of diaper laundry so I figured this would be a good time.  I decided that I would let them cry until I got that all taken care of then go back in.  It took me 6 minutes, I went in expecting the crying to be coming from Child Unit 1 well I was wrong it was Child Unit 2 who was loosing his mind.  Only upon seeing me did Child Unit 1 start!  I did a switch between the two of patting backs/rubbing heads until they were both down, 10 minutes and 20 minutes.  They proceeded to sleep for 1.5 hours!  That's the longest morning nap they have taken in a LONG TIME!  Tonight was a bit better so we'll see how it goes!

 As a child care provider crying never really got under my skin because it is a part of every day existence.  These two babies cry and I do a combination of melting because I have to care for their every wish and need but it also pulls every nerve in my body to that space in your head you only really understand as a mother.  It makes me crazy to the fact that I will do whatever it takes to help my child!  So needless to say that in the 20 minutes this morning that my perfect angles were crying their little eyes out it broke my heart, but I sat there to let them know I am with them and I love them.  I pray it gets better or I will be one of those people who has their children sleeping with them as long as the children want and lets be honest, Child Unit 1 moves too much in his sleep for that to good for anyone!  

The love that I have for these boys greatly surpasses anything I could have ever imagined and the fact that it grows so much every day also surprises me as a mother just so that's out there!

         

Identical doesn't always mean the same...

So when we were told we were having identical twins I was beyond thrilled because I have always wanted twins.  I was shocked to say the least but very excited.  I was really freaked out as the months went on and I got more and more pregnant that I wouldn't be able to tell the boys apart.  Thankfully that hasn't been an issue for me.  Mainly because Child Unit 1 is 2.5 pounds heavier than Child Unit 2.  However, even if they were the same size there are significant personality differences, Child Unit 2 is Mr. Personality he will smile and flirt with any woman he sees most of the time and that includes if he is frustrated with me or stuck in his carseat.  I believe he thinks if he's cute enough someone will get him out of the seat.....  He's also the one that tends to be a little more high maintenance which is fine, at least they aren't both high maintenance!  With that all being said I guess when they were born I figured they would develop at about the same rate and all because they are identical.....you would think with my education and background I would have known better but still they are IDENTICAL!  Like smiling, Child Unit 1 did it first, well before his brother and the same goes for scooting, rolling and so on and so forth.  Now Child Unit 2 did have surgery and it took him a few weeks to regulate from that and I'm sure that had some to do with it.

I do however have to question Nature vs. Nurture when it comes to having identical babies that are so different because they are the same nature and I nurture them both the exact same way and yet they are so different in their manerisms and personalities.  I know that everyone is their own person, I just find it so interesting to see their little differences and I can't wait to keep observing them as they continue to grow.  Well they are up and at it from their nap!