7 Signs of Mommy Aging

Since I got pregnant I’ve noticed that my body had changed quite a bit. Last week while I was watching T.V at my moms house, I noticed this one commercial played continuously about anti ageing creams and started wondering if it would fix all my mommy aging. By mommy aging I mean all the stuff I have really noticed that have changed since getting pregnant and having a baby. Now I am by no means considered `old`, only being 24, however some days I feel like I am falling apart at the seams. These are some of the signs of mommy aging:

1. My brain has left the building, I really wish it would come back! It is really needed. Simple tasks now elude me at the worst of times. I am really embarrassed to admit but more than once I have left the house with my clothing on inside out or completely backwards or inside out and backwards.
2. My bladder is faulty. Laughing, coughing, sneezing, cold weather, running water, even thinking about one of these has me running to the washroom. For the first time in my life when I go somewhere one of the first things I scope out is the bathroom, cause I sure don’t want to be caught in public doing a frantic pee dance looking for the washroom. So many times I have pulled up to my place, ran around the truck grabbed the baby and his seat and ran full tilt.
3. My tear ducts are leaky. I am sure there is a constant leak somewhere in there. There is no way a person should tear up as much as I do. I never know what is going to set me off. It is quite irritating, someone is telling me a funny joke and I start crying. Haha I swear what you are saying is funny even though my mascara is running down my face, tears of joy, tears of joy. There are many things that are a no go in my thinking process, baby, happy baby, sad baby, something sad, something happy, something hilarious (because then I will also have to find a bathroom), pretty much anything that causes me emotion.
4. My breasts hang low(er). My breasts came in quite fast when I was younger so they have never really been overly perky and now they definitely wont ever be perky again. This past week my much younger sister pointed this out to me in front of everyone including her much younger boyfriend. This didn’t embarrass me so much as remind me that I cannot leave my room with out a bra on. Every time she pointed this fact out to me I felt like belting out Do your boobs hang low do they wobble to and fro....
5. I snap, crackle and pop. In fact I snap, crackle and pop in places that I didn’t know made those types of noises. In public I am scared to move when it is quiet, you can hear me from a mile away. Hide and seek is definitely out of the question, the person who is `it` will know exactly what direction I am going.
6. My hair as seen better days. This is more me not putting any effort into my hair, but it counts right? Most days I can not even get a brush all the way through with out my little man going into hysterics. I have started relying heavily on pony tails and headbands. Which only makes me look younger than I am. Right now you are thinking how is that bad. It`s bad when I am asked where my parents are when I try to get a sample at the supermarket.
7. The worst of it all for me, major stretch marks. I am not talking about the those who only get a few, I am talking about my whole stomach looking like a saggy spiderweb. That last month of my pregnancy when the doctor said “wow, you have a lot of extra fluid” still rings in my head when I look at myself in the mirror. I will now never be able to wear a bikini. Not that I have ever worn a bikini, but now I don’t have that option available to me, it makes the potentially skinny me sad. Oh well I will just have to wear a normal one piece... what am I complaining about I am one of those people who put a shirt over my bathing suit.
   
   The list can go on and on, but I wouldn’t change anything. I love my little man and all the laughter he brings to my life!
   
   
   

Our trip on the Bus

While planning a trip to my moms in another city, my list of things to bring was quite extensive. I pretty much had to bring everything for my son because she hasn't had a baby around the house for 15 years. It was a lot to bring but I have a truck so I never really thought twice about it. That is until we started having troubles with the truck and it wasn't safe to go such a long distance by myself and the baby.So I started looking into alternatives to get to Calgary. My moms couldn't come get me, and flying is quite expensive. So the bus it was.

I was secretly dreading going on the bus. With the amount of stuff I had to bring and the 4 hour trip. I cringed every time I thought about it. I even considered not going...After purchasing my ticket online I felt a bit better. They now have it that if you purchase a ticket in advance it is quite cheap! It works out to almost half off. It only cost 30 dollars to go to Calgary.

Now to cram everything into two bags. Everyone is allowed one checked bag and a carry on. Everything after that is 10 dollars a bag. Hmmm... I have a playpen, booster seat , car seat, and all his other essentials. I figured it was a good thing that I got a good price on my ticket because I was about to have to pay for all this extra luggage. I have to tell you that I was pretty darn proud of myself when I got all our stuff into two bags and two carry ons (not stuffed to the brim I might add!) plus the playpen on the side and car seat. I am proud of myself because I am a terrible packer. I bring everything because I 'might need it' even though I haven't worn it in months.

When we get to the bus depot at 7 in the morning, all I keep doing is yawning. I go to get bag tags and I find out that all baby stuff is free, I don't have to pay extra baggage for it. All I can think is I could have brought more! Now I am even happier that I took the bus.

Now just the ride to get through. We haven't even gotten on the bus yet and he is crying and getting angry. I am getting impatient, I just want to get going, but they now do bag checks before you are allowed on the bus. I had all our stuff at the front so we could get on first and get settled before everyone got on. However once they did the bag check everyone rushed to the table and we were now last. Arg, to early in the morning for this! Luckily when you take a babe on the bus you get first class treatment! They still let me go on first and they took all my bags to the bus for me.

Logan ended up getting his own seat because the bus wasn't that full so early in the morning. So the drive ended up being a breeze. The lady behind us played peek-a-boo with him thought the whole trip. Logan was beyond excited to have his own seat. As we were pulling out of the depot he was bouncing in his seat laughing. I was also excited to find out that they now have plugins at every seat and free Wifi. I was so glad I decided to take the bus. It was a great price and the ride went more smoothly than I originally in visioned it going. I will definitely consider taking the bus again, although I do miss my truck.


Your momstown mama Kandice- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Why not to plan so hard for Christmas!

This is the first Christmas I have had off in the last 4 years, mainly because I am on Maternity leave. This is also the first Christmas with the first great-grand baby on my fathers side, so my little man was going to be the center of attention. The weeks leading up to Christmas we forwent visiting with friends that we knew were sick just because we wanted to limit my son from getting sick over the holidays. About a week and a half before Christmas he got sick, but was over it before the holidays even started. Breathing a sigh of relief that, hey at least he got it out of his system before the holidays. I should have known that all the work I put into him not getting sick, that the inevitable was coming.

Sure enough the morning of the 23^rd started the projectile vomiting. Thinking that he just started his medication again that it hadn't kicked in yet that is all it was. Boy was I wrong! This was the start of almost a week long virus that is super contagious.

On the 24^th, he was still vomiting and was starting to refuse to eat. The little that he did would just come right back up. Tradition, on Christmas Eve on my fathers side is we all go to my grandparents and snack on meats and cheese from the Italian supermarket, until midnight when everyone gets to open gifts, then off to bed and we get Santas gifts in the morning. Now that my uncle has three young kids and I now have Logan we opened gifts much earlier so we didn't have screaming children underfoot. Not knowing what Logan had yet we went over, warning everyone that he had been sick all day so not to hang around him so they didn't catch it. Once everyone was ready to and all packing up, my uncles smallest girl kissed Logan goodbye. Of course we all thought it was so cute so we got her to do it again so we could all take pictures. Oops, big mistake!

Next day still vomiting and now the lovely watery diarrhea. Starting to get a little worried because I am now having to force liquids on my son just so he doesn't get dehydrated, I call the Health Link. I explain what has been going on and what should/ shouldn't I be doing. I was then informed that he has Norwalk virus and it is super contagious, and there is nothing to do for him other than make sure he keeps hydrated, and oh ya STAY home and start cleaning everything with bleach. As the words stay home are ringing in my head all I can think of is that cute little kiss goodbye. As soon as I got off the phone I had to call everyone that was at my grandparents last night and warn them!

The 26^th, this is when the whole family was supposed to get together for the family supper. My father and I usually cook all the family supper get togethers, and that was the plan for this day. Now my dad has caught this virus and my uncles little girl and it was passed to my uncles, wife's mother. Our Supper of 13 is now 6(more family members couldn't make it because of being sick). I went over just to help cook and once we were done I came right back home.

The endless watery diapers and following Logan around cleaning up vomit has now gone till the 28^th. He was still getting sick on the 29^th but is now starting to eat again. However I now have it. Christmas did not go as planned this year. Hopefully next year we will get it right.

The positive side to all of this is all the cuddling time I got out of it!

Making a SMART New Year's Resolution

             It's 2 days until New Year's Eve, and the dreaded task of coming up with a New Year's Resolution has overcome me. Most people never achieve their New Year's Resolutions, mostly because they're such cliche things as "lose weight", "quit smoking", or I've even heard "win the lottery". I feel the need to make one, even if I don't achieve it, because it means I haven't given up on bettering myself...I make goals all year too, but the ringing in of a new year seems as good a time as any for a new start.

          So this year, I decided to come  up with a goal that I will actually achieve. As some of you know, I'm finishing a degree, and this past semester I took an Education course that taught us how to make goals that were SMART-that we could achieve. So I'm going to make a New Year's Resolution using this process. I encourage anyone else who is setting a goal this New Year to use this too :).

Basically, a good goal is:

Specific - Generally if you make a goal that is broad, doesn't actually specify what exactly it is that you're going to do or how you're going to get there, it is not measurable. See below.

Measurable - You must be able to measure whether you actually achieve this goal or not. This rules out "lose weight" or "get in shape"...How much weight? Per month? Per week? Define "in shape".

Attainable - don't make a goal so out there that it's highly unlikely you'll be able/have the motivation to follow through on.

Realistic - this is solely based on you. What is realistic for YOU based on time constraints, money, kids keeping you running, etc.

Timely - Make it something you can actually achieve in a reasonable amount of time. This will keep you motivated to follow through. If you think about it, how many of us will really follow through on a goal that we don't succeed or fail at for an entire year? You forget, get busy, a lot changes in a year.

                 My goal, considering my destination wedding is coming up,  has to do with looking great. But I wanted something better than "look wonderful in my wedding dress". I've also always wanted to be a disciplined enough person to run, but that always fails. Discipline is my arch enemy.

                 I think I've decided on my goal to run the "Spring Thaw" 10K Run on April 29th, and then proceed to run "Melissa's Road Race" , the half marathon, on September 22nd. Hmmm...let's see how this holds up.

Specific - that's pretty specific, two specific dates by which I have to be able to run 10 and 22 kilometres.

Measurable - I guess when April 29th and September 22nd come, I'll be able to measure whether I hit my goal based on whether I can breathe halfway through these runs ;).

Attainable - hmmm....well my plan is to do (and actually complete) the Couch 2 5K, a plan that gets you from the couch to running 5 kilometres in 12 weeks, so if I accomplish that these goals are both doable.

Realistic.....yes.

Timely.....With two separate timelines, I think I have this covered.

               Two things missing with my elaborate plan? A running buddy/person I'd be standing up if I don't get out of bed, and a gym membership. On the hunt!

What are YOUR New Year's Resolutions? Or do you make them at all?

The "F" Word

As mothers I think we all feel guilty about things ... most of the time for no reason.  We all work so hard, putting everyone ahead of ourselves and never thinking twice about it.  It's just what we do as mothers.  I don't think I'm alone -- sometimes when I do something for myself I feel so guilty, even when it’s well deserved.  From spending money on myself to time away without the kids, there’s always a little feeling of guilt and that I should be spending the money on my family instead or should be there to tuck my babies in at night.  But those are things I know I need to do for myself once in a while. THIS TIME however, it’s a BIG feeling of guilt that I have, more than ever before.  I feel like the worst mom today. 


Yesterday I made the decision to stop breastfeeding and to give my son formula. 


I've been struggling since day one with breast feeding.  Not physically though.  Supply, latch, feedings in general ... it was working out great -- for Xavier.  But for me? Not so well.  To be honest, I despised the time I had to feed him. I would put it off as long as humanly possible before breast feeding him.  I don't know what it was, but I almost resented him. Am I nothing but a milk factory?  I never felt the "bond" that mothers talk about.  I never got the "warm fuzzies" when breast feeding him. It made me feel depressed and I just plain dreaded having to breast feed him.  Sometimes I’d cry while feeding him because I wanted so bad to enjoy the time with him like all the books said I was supposed to.  Those books painted this picture that there was no greater joy than to breast feed your child.  Why didn’t I feel this way? As the days went on I was getting more and more sad, upset -- angry even. 


But how can a mother make a decision like this based only on her?  It was only not working for ME.  HE was perfectly content with it all.  I debated with myself daily for the last few weeks.  Is it right for me to stop only because I want to? In my 2 years of motherhood with my first child I never made a decision based on my own needs.  Everything was for her and our family. 


He's now one month old and I just couldn't do it anymore.  There I stood with my son in my arms.  He was crying from hunger.  I knew it was time to feed him.  So purely for my own sanity I decided enough was enough.  I fed him a bottle of formula.    


I love him more than anything and was breast feeding him because I knew it is what's best for him.  But in this situation I guess I just needed to be selfish for once.  I really couldn't continue with the breast feeding.  The last few feedings now, with a bottle, I was able to look down at him and smile.  I could look into his eyes and feel happy to be holding him.  The late night and early morning feedings weren’t that bad.  I didn’t feel so tired and was almost excited to be able to pick him up and feed him.  Before, I would drag myself out of bed dreading the inevitable breast feeding session. It was an instant emotional shift though from the first bottle I gave him. Now I feel so much better already.  

I learned a little lesson from all this and the support I’ve received from friends.  I think as mothers we owe it to our children to make sure we’re happy as well.  They’re very fine tuned little beings and for their own happiness, they need their mommy’s to be happy also. 

Alicia
Mother to Avaya (2yrs old) and Xavier (4 wks old)

Call Me Crazy..

So Friday night I went out for dessert with an old friend that I haven't seen in a while, and we got to talking. This friend doesn't have any children yet, but of course she asked how Gabrielle was. I found myself spending an inordinate amount of time talking about how hard being a mom is. Funny, because I love being a mom. There's nothing I love more than my  job as a mom. But I think sometimes it's nice to just ....well, if we're calling it what it is...whine.
     
              I whined. Yep. I told her how I hadn't slept in 3 days, how I expected for some strange reason that once babies slept a reasonable amount of time that meant that they'd CONTINUE to sleep that long. HA. HA. HA. I laughed (and whined) about how my lovely child was about to get teeth, and I'm hearing one horror story after the next about babies biting their mothers until they bleed. And I told her how Gabrielle just discovered that if she stops eating and squeezes my boob, milk shoots everywhere. Okay, that one's funny. I then proceeded to whine about how hubby just told me me my boobs are just "food objects" so it's not weird that they're everywhere all the time. LOL. Oh man. The life of a mom. And then we talked about television and kids, and I whined about how I wished I had cable so that just once in a while, I could plop my baby in front of the T.V. to give myself 20 minutes to breathe. And I went on about poop, and diapers, and on. And on. And on. At some point, she told me I was scaring her, and laughed. We continued talking about other things not baby related, and I thought nothing of it.
           
                   As I was walking to my car, I thought about how my stories probably sounded very scary to someone who doesn't have kids....to us mamas all of that is just another day, something we'll laugh off in a few days after we complain and have a giggle to each other about it. But then I thought, "Wow, I kind of scared ME." Lol. Wow, what a thought. Why on earth would I want more children if being a mom is this crazy? Really, I probably made it sound exhausting. Well, I thought, I didn't lie then. Okay, so I was crazy to have children. That's what came of that conversation.

              And then I got into my car. And the first thing I thought? I miss my baby. I want to wake her up when I get home, get a hug, and a kiss, and a snuggle. And then I want to see her big gummy smile and big blue eyes looking at me like I'm the most loved person in the whole world, and then my night will be complete. Then when I wake up in the morning, I get to play and cuddle and LOVE all day.  Everything about being a mom is funny, and scary, and overwhelming and.... amazing. And worth every second. That little girl is the greatest, most interesting, humbling, amazing, best thing that has ever happened to me.   Wow, do I ever love my little girl. And I want a whole bunch more just like her....call me crazy ;).


Your momstown Edmonton North mama,

Amanda

It's Here....momstown Edmonton-North is open!

I am a mother of two extremely energetic children who constantly keep me running! One boy Emmett, who is nearing his 4th birthday and a girl, Ivy, who will be 1 in November. I love motherhood and all the ups and downs it brings. My children have taught me so much patience and have shown me that sometimes the simplest things in life are the most beautiful. They are also the reason for my interest in bringing momstown to Edmonton North. After meeting so many great moms after both the birth of my son and my daughter, I realized the importance of maintaining relationships in our fast paced “go-go-go” world. A place to be able to meet face to face and online and share in all the ups and downs motherhood offers anytime,day and night.... momstown is where it’s at!
Thus, it is with great enthusiasm that I open momstown Edmonton North in 2010. I am so eager for momstown to get rolling and most excited to get events together and get out and meet more moms in my neighbourhood. Alberta is a province that has undergone huge population changes in the past five years and there are so many moms that do not have the support of their immediate family and friends around them. momstown Edmonton North will be the avenue to connect them!
I can’t wait to meet you all and share in some lasting memories at all the momstown outings and playdates to come!
Laura Boeyenga, your Edmonton North mama