Post Prego Aftermath

So the dust has settled and it has been 7 months since baby Ian made his arrival. Hard. To. Believe. So I'm now reflecting back on all that my body has been through in the past year. Anyway, I still can't complain about the actual birth... in fact I'd go so far as to say I'd do it again. (yep, this is why people have more than one child, they forget how horrible it is). However, I can't say pregnancy didn't take it's toll. One of the most notable things is my hair. Prior to pregnancy I was a typical greasy Italian; meaning I had to wash my hair EVERY day or you could literally do a slip and slide off of it. Whenever people would say "you know you're not supposed to wash your hair everyday" I couldn't even fathom it. Once I was pregnant I could go one, two, even three days without shampoo... it was ah-maze-ing. I was able to embrace this whole "don't wash daily" concept I had heard about. Then things got a little funky. The hair by my ears started getting wavy the further along my pregnancy progressed. It seriously had a mind of it's own. So I did what any girl would do and bought products to try to tame it. Honestly though nothing helped. Now that I'm a several months post delivery my hair is taking on a new life... it's Italian grease is slowly but surely coming back...shampooing is once again required much more frequently. I can go a day now, but 2 would be pushing it. The worst is that I am shedding like a St. Bernard on a summer day. It's out of control and frankly concerning that I might be legitimately balding. I've read that this is totally normal but I'm over it. The wad of hair I have to pull from the drain after showering is just absurd. Then, equally annoying the right side of my hair by my ears (where things got wavy during pregnancy) is frizzy and super dry. I can't even explain it, but my hair is not the same texture there. I have again purchased lots of pricey shampoos, deep conditioners, and products with little improvement. I'm crossing my fingers that it will continue to go back to normal. All I know is that my hair is not the same as it was 2 years ago.

The other big "well this sucks" happened after giving birth... Stretch marks. Frankly I thought I was in the clear when up until giving birth I didn't have any. Well instantly after giving birth when my stomach started to go back down stretch marks came out of no where. I guess from the "rapid" decrease?  Yeah, right. Or maybe the freaking DRY air here didn't help my cause. I don't know... all I know is that once I realized this was an issue I bought this mederma cream specifically for stretch marks and I have not been that impressed, or maybe I had too high of expectations (hello, if I buy an expensive cream I was expensive results). I've followed the directions to a T and I have seen very little fading. I am trying not to complain, because really what is a couple of stretch marks below my belly button? It isn't like I need that region to look pretty for a living or anything.  I'm fine with rocking a bathing suit that covers it (in fact I'd prefer to wear one of those dress things the Mormons wears). And if I had a c-section (which thankfully I didn't)...I'd have a scar there instead. So whatever, it is what it is. It's my marks from "war."

The other notable aftermath (no, I am not going to talk about my boobs this time, but that could be a post unto itself...they will never be the same and I'm convinced my nips will forever be sore, ah I digress...)  is the return of Aunt Flow. She goes away during pregnancy and supposedly while you're breast feeding. Lies, lies, lies. Obviously this is different for everyone, but I was shocked when she returned at 4 months postpartum.  I'm pretty sure I got the short straw on this (I'd like to think it's my dominate alpha female hormones just taking charge). I tell you this not to enter the world of TMI, but because it was something I was always curious about and I just want to give a head's up to my friends who haven't had kids yet but will someday. This is also why so many idiots out there get pregnant and say "but I was breastfeeding, so it shouldn't of happened." Yes. It. Can.

Long story short... I'm going bald, I have stretch marks, sore nips and a period. How hot am I? Don't answer that.This is what they call motherhood. Cheers.

6 month wrap up

Well , true to form I am a month behind. Ian is officially 7 months (booohooo! How is he getting so old?!)... 

So here's where little man was at 6 months:

Weight: 16 lbs 1oz -- 27th percentile

Height/Length: 27 3/4" -- 89th percentile

Head circumference:  17 1/4"  -- 60th percentile

He still remains by long and lean little man. This makes me a bit nervous for the upcoming cooler months because long pants are hard to come by. I'm thinking I'll have to buy them big and then "alter" them.  We shall see. 

Other notable things....

- He now gibber gabbers constantly

- He is rolling machine.  At night in his crib he will start at one side and before long I'll see on the video monitor that he is completely upside down and at the other end of the crib. What this means is that he cannot be left unattended on a bed/sofa/etc...and forget that whole "put baby on his back" thing because you can put him there but he won't stay for long. 

- He has a blankie and he is in love with it. I got a pack of them for a gift and have since bought more. When he sees the blankie it's thumb in mouth immediately. 

- Sucks his thumb... almost exclusively his left thumb.

- Still has that damn blocked tear duct. MAKES ME CRAZY. The doctor told me to just keep on waiting for him to out grow it, but ugh.  

- His eyes are STILL blue! And his hair is BLONDE. I swear he's our child.

- Has started eating some solid foods... his favorites are Mum Mums, and pieces of avocado or bananas.  He is not interested in "mush" or things requiring a spoon.

- Sleeps through the night about 50% of the time. 

My friend Bonnie happened to be in town  from DC right at Ian's 6 month mile marker. She is an architect by day and a photographer by night, and she offered to do some photos of little buddy while she was visiting. I was so excited to have her take his pictures, and clearly you can see she's amazing at it (she took the photo above). You can check out her blog and more of Ian's photo shoot here. And she uploaded the entire shoot here.  Thank you BonBon, you captured him perfectly! 

VAAAAY CAAYYY - Part 1

I can't complain that we don't go on a lot of trips and luckily for us we live in a vacation spot and within an hour or so a dozen of additional vacation destinations. However, it is a rarity that we take a whole week off. Typically, we are the "long weekend trippers" but this time we took a whole week off over the 4th of July holiday and vacationed in Cape Cod.  And boy was that wonderful.  Since returning to work in April I had been essentially saving every newly accrued PTO day for this trip (and I used them all but .08 hours... big spender). We are really lucky that John has family (Aunt Kathy, Uncle David, and Cousin Katie, her kiddos JD & Evangeline, and husband, Gary) who live at the Cape which is just perfect because we get to visit with family and enjoy such a wonderful place.

So here's our trip deets PART 1...  

July 3rd: 

Only downside, it takes a really long time to get from Denver to the Cape... especially if you don't fly direct, but Ian was a total trooper on the plane there we never had a moment of being "those people." Ian pretty much slept or just sat up and played with his toys the whole way.

Angel baby sleeping on the plane

After an entire day of traveling on July 3rd we finally made it to John's Aunt and Uncle's beautiful house at like 10pm. Travelling east is the pits because you lose so many hours, but the vacation was well worth the long trip.

July 4th: 

First things first, Ian met Evangeline (John's cousin Katie's baby girl who was born 2 months before Ian).  And I'm sorry but could they be any cuter playing with the toys?! 

Good morning to my new cousin! Ian also started sitting up on his own this trip!!
Still a little wobbly but cousin E showed him how it is done. 

Evangeline "Easy-E" is all smiles!

Happy 4th from Chatham

Little buddy played on the porch with toys and enjoyed himself a  happy 4th!

Ian discovered Mum Mum's!! When Katie was feeding Miss E,  Ian grabbed
one of the Mum Mum's out of her hand and the rest is history... he is a Mum Mum addict.
Major progress in the foodies world.

More playing after dinner

Ian hanging with "Gaga and Papa"

I don't think there is a more patriotic looking place to be on the 4th of July.  I mean seriously the town is covered american flags, stars and stripes, and red, white, and blue.  Such a great day! At the end of the night after getting the kids down we sat on the porch and watched the fire work shows up and down the ocean. We could even see shows across the water in Nantucket - picturesque! 

July 5th: 

BEACH DAY. 

This story was on the cover of the news paper while we were there... clearly we are hard core for braving it. We had to get Ian some beach time though...

Beach Babies... Ian's first dip in the ocean

Not Convinced.

REALLY  not convinced.

Dad taking little man on a beach stroll

Dinner for the little ones... Ian eating ANOTHER Mum Mum.

Starting to sample some of the "good stuff"!! YAY!

John maning the grill for dinner... Yes that is the ocean RIGHT there. Pretty amazing.

I had to document our dinner... because JOHN ATE FISH! Yum!

Yet another wonderful day at the Cape and equally important both my boys hit some milestones with their eating. Life. Is. Good.

July 6:

Today we did a stroll through down town, lunch at the Squire and Cape Cod Brewery Tour. Katie texted John a few weeks before we came to town to let him know that her and Gary had won a private tour at the Cape Cod Brewery and wanted to know if we'd be interested in doing that. Of course to John this was NOT a question, but wonderful news.

Ian hanging out at the Squire

Being a silly guy sticking out his tongue!

FISH AGAIN! Both John and I got the Cod... sure it's fried but hey, John ate it.

Shop in Chatham... questionable name.

Ahhh....dorable.

Amazing. And they are all over. 

Our personal tour... yes we bought our babies. Judge all you want, they enjoyed it.
A couple owns this brewery and  the wife is in the floral dress leading the tour. 

Great tour and the owner personally spent at least an hour and half with us.

Evangeline is very curious. 

Ian is starting to nod off with all this beer talk.
(Note: moments later he passed out in his car seat for the rest of the tour)

"A vacation in every pint" Cheers to that.

No blanket for Evangeline to crawl on? No worries, this box will do.

No caption needed :)

.... More to come.... Stay tuned...