The Shopping Mama

Simple Advice for Starting Solids {Q&A with Liza Huber of Sage Spoonfuls}

by Kate on August 27th, 2012 | 5 Comments | In the Kitchen, Life

Have I mentioned lately that having a baby can be overwhelming? Because it can. Even for those of us, like me, on round 3 of baby-raising. Every baby is different, recommendations are always being updated, and babies cause memory loss (right?) so even baby number 3 can feel like a whole new world. My latest challenge is feeding Max solid foods. Once we decided to take the plunge and start solids I knew I wanted to make my own baby food again as I had with my first two kids and that’s where my knowledge stopped. I swear, I forgot EVERYTHING about feeding solids and admit the process has felt a little overwhelming.

Thankfully, the very sweet and busy mompreneur Liza Huber is here to offer some guidance (and reassurance) to me and the rest of us feeding a baby solids. Liza is the mom behind Sage Spoonfuls, a great line of products for making, storing and bringing baby food on the go. She has three children (Royce 5, Brendan 3, and Hayden 10 months) and is pregnant with number 4!

The Shopping Mama: What motivated you to start making your child’s food, and then to create the Sage Spoonfuls system?

Liza Huber: My mom made all of our baby food when we were babies and I knew it was something I wanted to do for my own children. I started making homemade baby food after my first child, Royce, was born and I couldn’t find products on the market that made it easy. I had to completely improvise and just pieced a system together. I knew there had to be a better way. Providing your baby with homemade baby food is such a basic neccessity that I wanted to find a way to make it an easy task. That was when the light bulb went off in my head and the idea for Sage Spoonfuls was born.

The decision to pursue developing my idea for Sage Spoonfuls came after my second child, Brendan, was born 2 months premature and spent 6 weeks in the NICU. It was a rough road and I knew that he was going to need a very special level of care. Needless to say, I wanted to be the one taking care of him. It was at that moment, I knew I would not go back to work in the traditional sense for at least 2 years and I decided to begin developing my idea for Sage Spoonfuls, because I could work from home.  When I became pregnant with our third baby, our daughter Hayden, I went on bed rest at 23 weeks. That was when I finished my book and pulled everything together in preparation for the big launch.   Royce was the initial inspiration for Sage Spoonfuls, Brendan was the decision to pursue it and Hayden was the catalyst to get it all pulled together.

TSM: Your experience feeding was, like many of us, different with each child. How did you decide when to start solids? Do you have any advice for moms trying to determine if their child is ready for food?

Liza: My feeding experience was different with each child even though I introduced each of them to solids at the same age, 5 months. Royce took over a week to get used to the idea of swallowing food from a spoon. In fact I took 2 days off in between before giving it another go. Brendan, my preemie, suprised me by eating an entire mashed banana mixed with breast milk as his first meal. I thought I would have the hardest time with him, but he took to swallowing food on the first bite and never looked back. Hayden took about 5 days to master the art of swallowing food. It was very cute, she looked at me and I could see the lightbulb go off in her head as if to say, “I got it Mom! I know what I’m supposed to do!”

As far as when to start your baby on solids, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends beginning between 4-6 months. In addition to the advice of your pediatrician, signs to look for indicating your baby might be ready for solids include:

She can sit up with support
He can hold his head up and has control of his neck
She shows interest in and possibly reaches for the food you are eating
He has doubled his birth weight
She is still hungry after a bottle feed

TSM: Do you have a favorite “first food” for babies? Any position on the whole veggie vs fruit as first food debate?

Liza: The best first foods for your baby are either single grain baby cereals like baby brown rice or easy to digest, non-allergenic fruits and vegetables like banana, peas, apple, zucchini, pears, butternut squash, avocado, carrot and sweet potato. Royce’s first food was pureed carrots, Brendan’s was a mashed banana and Hayden’s was applesauce.

I feel the belief that “feeding your baby fruits first will make her not like vegetables” pertains more to store bought baby food, because commercially prepared baby food veggies are rarely as enticing as the real thing. Homemade baby food is far more appealing in taste, color, texture and aroma, than store bought. When you feed your baby homemade baby food, it has been my experience that it really doesn’t matter if you introduce a fruit first or a vegetable first. Babies will eat what tastes good to them. Royce had carrots first and Brendan had a banana first. They both like fruits and vegetables equally. I recommend alternating between fruits and vegetables. For example, if you gave your baby peas as his first food, try apples next. Or if his first taste was banana, try offering zucchini next.

TSM: When you start solids, how often do you recommend feeding baby? For example, Max has been having solids for a couple of weeks but I still only offer solids once a day.

Liza: At the beginning stage, there is no need to worry about how much solid food your baby is eating. Right now, the idea is to get him used to swallowing food from a spoon and excited about mealtime by feeding him a variety of yummy purees.

Offer a solid meal once a day for about 2-4 weeks, then, if your baby is ready, you can bump it to 2 solid meals per day. The rest of your baby’s feedings will remain the same, either breast milk or formula. The size of the solid meal will depend on your baby. He may only take a few bites or he may devour the whole thing and want more.

TSM: What role should grains like baby oatmeal or cereal play in baby’s diet? Are those important to include and how do you recommend adding them to the diet?

Liza: Whole grain baby cereals like baby brown rice and baby oatmeal are packed with nutrients as well as complex carbohydrates for energy. They don’t need to be included in every meal, but are nice to incorporate into your baby’s overall diet. Baby cereals are a great way to thicken a puree. They also lend a nice flavor and texture variation when mixed with other foods.

TSM: And for the age old question, do you have any healthy eating tips for toddlers or favorite finger foods?

Liza: One of my favorite benefits of feeding your baby homemade baby food, is that it really helps prevent your child from growing into a picky eater as a toddler. My 2 favorite healthy eating tips for toddlers are:

1. Get them involved in the food preperation process. Whether it’s taking them to the grocery strore and having them help you pick out fresh produce or having them toss chopped veggies into a salad once you’re home, allowing your child to be invloved in the process will make them feel much more invested and interested in the meal.

2. I also like to tell my kids how what they’re eating affects their bodies, like “Did you guys know that carrots are great for your eyesight and will help devleop your night vision like Superman?” It works for unhealthy foods as well. If they keep begging for something I know is a really bad choice, I tell them why I don’t want to give it to them, “That food is not only made from poor quality ingredients, but it’s highly processed and full of sugar. It will take away your energy and make your body feel bad.”

As for favorite finger foods, I absolutely love giving my kids bite sized pieces of roasted veggies like butternut squash, parsnip, cauliflower and sweet potato. They love it too!

***

Thanks to Liza for taking the time to answer our questions. Stay tuned for more information about Sage Spoonfuls, including a chance to win your own Sage Spoonfuls On The Go Package.

How To Fit Pumping into Breastfeeding

by Kate on April 16th, 2012 | 5 Comments | Life

My little man is now over 6 weeks old and growing like a weed. Luckily he took to breastfeeding pretty easily – you can actually read about the first time I nursed Max on Bravado Designs’ Breastfeeding Diaries. I definitely “nurse on demand” and will continue to do so until he’s older and we establish a sleep and wake routine. For now (and the foreseeable future), when he expresses a need or desire to eat, he eats.

So far, so good.

Now that we’ve created a good bond breastfeeding and my supply has evened out a little bit, I really want to take advantage of the awesome breast pump we have to build up a supply of stored breast milk. I’d love for my husband to be able to feed him a bottle every once in a while. Heck, I’d simply love to be able to run to the store and leave my baby home for an hour without worrying he’ll wake up starving and screaming mad.

So, my question is how do you fit pumping into your feed on demand routine (or lack thereof)? Should I pump every morning? Every evening? Randomly when baby is napping? Help me out, mamas!

***

P.S. In case you’re interested, the pump I’m using, the Simplisse Double Electric Breast Pump, is on sale at our affiliate Amazon for about $180. (It’s regularly $250!)

Choose the Right Seat! New Campaign for Car Seat Safety

by Kate on April 13th, 2012 | 5 Comments | Shopping

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has launched a new website and PSA campaign to educate parents about the importance of car seat safety. One key message of the campaign: many children aren’t in the right car seat.

According to the NHTSA, “motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for children 1 through 12 years old. Based on NHTSA crash data in 2010, on average, almost 2 children (age 12 and younger in a passenger vehicle) were killed and 325 children were injured each day. This fatality rate could be reduced by half if the correct child safety seats were always used.”

Choose the Right Seat

(Click image to see full size)

There are three important steps to make sure you have your chid in the safest seat possible.

The Right Seat: fit your child correctly
The Right Fit: fit your car for safe use
Secure Your Child: for optimum protection

We know car seat shopping, fitting and securing can be extremely overwhelming. Luckily, there are local resources all over the country to help you out. Many baby stores will let you try to install a sample car seat in your car before purchasing. For help with installation and fit, find a local CPST to help install or check your installation. There’s an easy Car Seat Inspection Station Locator on the NHTSA website.

For more information on child passenger safety visit facebook.com/childpassengersafety and follow the campaign on Twitter @childseatsafety.

Partum Me?! GO THE #$%& TO SLEEP… please?

by Laura on February 22nd, 2012 | 5 Comments | Life, Parenting, Partum Me

Charlie – good at eating, bad at sleeping (for us, at least)

A few people have asked me offline to give an update about how the grain-free thing is going. I’m down 12 lbs so I’d say it’s going okay! There have been challenges – like the one I talk about here – but overall, I feel like my blood sugars must be more stabilized by eliminating grains because my energy is more consistent throughout the day. Also, I no longer find myself feeling absolutely famished in the middle of the afternoon. One cup of coffee now does the trick, while I was needing a venti black eye in the am and an afternoon cup to get through the day before. Some lingering digestive issues are completely gone, too. I will keep posting here when it’s relevant to Partum Me, but you can also get more of a blow by blow on my personal blog.

Eating for Charlie is also going quite well, as you can see above. What’s not going well these days? Sleeping. Here’s the situation: Charlie started off in a co-sleeper (an Arm’s Reach that was not attached to our bed but sits right next to it). He slept quite well in there by himself in the early months, even when we were getting up in the night to nurse. When he got too big for the co-sleeper but was still nursing, we switched him to a pack n play in our room. That was all working out quite well until he got sick a few weeks ago. He was in horrible pain with ear infections and coughs, so we let him sleep with us. And before anyone shakes their finger at us, I should say that a) I fully support responsible bed sharing if it’s done safely and b) I am of the belief that co-sleeping and bed sharing do not create “bad habits.” There are many, many ways to get a child the sleep he/she needs – no judging, here!

Anyway, we’ve been wanting to transition Charlie to his crib in his room for a while now because, before he got sick, he was quietly sleeping through the night. We figured he was ready. But ever since we transitioned him back to the pack-n-play in our room after he got better, he has woken up every night between 2 and 3 pm and cried…a lot. At first we worried that letting him feed himself dinner was causing him to wake up hungry, so we beefed up his dinner meal and bottle routine. Nope, not the problem. We started bringing a bottle to bed with us to feed him when he woke up. He loved it, but still cried when he was done. We snuggled him until he fell back to sleep, but he was up like a periscope the second we put him back down. And yes, we let him cry it out but man, that kid can really wail. For looooooong periods of time! The only thing that stopped the crying was bringing him into bed with us, the antithesis of what we want out of this situation.

We own a few books on the subject, namely Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child or whatever it’s called. I plan to read the relevant chapters over the next few days. (Who has time to actually read an ENTIRE book at once these days?!?!) But I’d love to hear some practical, real advice from parents who have had a similar situation to ours. What did you do? How did you do it? And how long did it take before a) you and your partner got your bed back and b) your little one was getting the good sleep that he/she so desperately needs at this stage of life?

Happy, Peaceful and Positive Mama in 2012 {Guest Post}

by Kate on January 19th, 2012 | 5 Comments | New Year New Mama

We are excited to share this guest post from Erin Cox as part of our New Year, New Mama series. Erin’s mission is to bring more joy to the world, improve marriages, and raise happier and healthier children by inspiring and motivating MOMS to take care of themselves first and lead their best lives. We love her advice to help make us all more happy, peaceful and positive mamas.

***

Does anyone ever set a goal to simply be happier? This may seem like a modest goal, but achieving it can be difficult when you are constantly busy and have small children consuming your life. But…2012 can be different. This year is brimming with energy and excitement, and I have a feeling it’s going to be a breakthrough year! Setting goals and realizing success are two keys to feeling happy, and there are a few other practices that the happiest people do regularly that we can all incorporate to bring more joy to our daily lives. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking:

Set Goals and Move Towards Your Dream Life

When is the last time you sat down and visualized your absolute dream life situation? Are you living it now? If not, what would you need to do to get there? I encourage you to get clear on what you want in your life now, in the next year, and in the next five years. Maybe you are home with a baby now, but you envision yourself as a business owner, teacher, or blogger. Set small goals that help you lean toward your bigger goals and dreams. If you aren’t clear about what you really want out of life, how can you ever achieve it? When setting goals, make sure they are realistic and have a time frame. Then, hold yourself accountable. So, you want to start a blog? Then do some research on blog platforms and determine what you want to write or photo-document. Only you can bring your gifts, thoughts, and ideas to the world in your fabulous, unique way!

Take More Time For Yourself

Do you crave more time to exercise, read, sleep, or simply relax and catch your breath? There are more opportunities to take time for yourself than it might seem. During your kid’s naps, do you clean and accomplish task after task? Maybe a day or two each week, instead of cleaning and working you should just indulge in a guilty pleasure (think yummy lunch and catching up on recorded Bachelor), or get your kids involved in a little project while you curl up with a cup of tea and enjoy a fabulous book. In the evening, put your kids to bed early and take a bath while sipping on a glass of wine! Happy moms are those who take really good care of themselves so they have the energy to love and care for their families!

Be Completely Present with your Children

Focus on the task at hand while working, but when you are with your kids, try to give them your focused attention. We obviously can’t do this all day long, but how often do you sit down with your kids and revel in the moment with them, giving them your full attentiveness? It’s another way of fully living and experiencing your wonderful life. You are blessed to be a mother!

Find the Right Work/Life Balance

I’ve worked outside the home full-time, part-time, and not at all, and it took doing all of them to determine the work/life balance that suited me best. Do you feel at peace with the way you are living your life? Do you suffer from guilt while at work, or discontent and boredom while at home? There are so many solutions and alternatives that can allow you the time you crave with your family while also using your creative gifts and intellect. The same goes for balancing constant work and cleaning with downtime and enjoying the fruits of your labor. Make sure you are balancing your time in a way that honors your priorities in life!

Do Something Every Day That Brings You Joy or Makes You Laugh

Life should be fun to be lived to the fullest! And really, raising kids can offer you many opportunities to laugh every day. I remember one day when my oldest daughter was a few months old, and had a serious diarrhea blowout all over her adorable outfit, her blankets, and the car seat. What a mess! There was poop everywhere and I just wanted to cry. As I was trying to wash off my screaming baby in the tub while surrounded by poopy, smelly clothes everywhere, my husband walked in from work and said with a smile, “shitty day, huh?” and I just burst out laughing. It was just what I needed, and made light of what really was a humorous situation. Imagining what I looked like was definitely funny. I even had poop on my cheek. As mothers, we will experience many difficult and sometimes super-gross situations with babies… all you can do is laugh. If your kids don’t offer you enough humor, then be sure to find other things that make you smile. Call that funny friend or watch an episode of Modern Family. People who laugh easily are more fun to be around and enjoy the health benefits that laughter brings, such as: improved immune function due to boosted levels of infection-fighting antibodies, better digestion, and enhanced sleep!

In closing, I wish each of you a more joyful, fun, and serene 2012! If you’d like more inspiration every day, check my website Her Inspired Life and sign up for a free seven-day Inspired Life Kick-Start Plan! Also, my new book, One Hot Mama: The Guide to Getting Your Mind and Body Back After Baby, will be published by Hay House in the fall of this year.

A Great Read: Good-bye Dr. Spock by Anna Quindlen

by Kate on January 9th, 2012 | 5 Comments | New Year New Mama

I’ve been a fan of author Anna Quindlen for years (and years). My admiration was confirmed in May of 1999 when she spoke at my college graduation. It was an amazing speech: inspiring, timely and perfectly suited for me and the other women graduating and entering the working world. Her speech was so great, in fact, that it was later expanded into a best-selling book called Being Perfect. I saw her speak again last spring about her latest novel, the powerful Every Last One, and she is just as eloquent, intelligent and fabulous when chatting “off the cuff” as she is in her writings.

I’m sharing this essay called Good-bye Dr. Spock, which is included in the collection of essays called Loud and Clear, now because it’s a great reminder in the new year to appreciate our children even when they’re taxing, tiring and troubling. It’s long but you won’t regret taking a couple minutes to read the entire thing.

Read, remember and pass it on.

***

Good-bye Dr. Spock

All my babies are gone now. I say this not in sorrow, but in disbelief.

I take great satisfaction in what I have today: three almost-adults, two taller than I am, one closing in fast. Three people who read the same books I do and have learned not to be afraid of disagreeing with me in their opinion of them, who sometimes tell vulgar jokes that make me laugh until I choke and cry, who need razor blades and shower gel and privacy, who want to keep their doors closed more than I like.

Who, miraculously, go to the bathroom, zip up their jackets and move food from plate to mouth all by themselves.

Like the trick soap I bought for the bathroom with a rubber ducky at its center, the baby is buried deep within each, barely discernible except through the unreliable haze of the past.

Everything in all the b ooks I once poured over is finished for me now. Penelope Leach, T. Berry Brazelton, Dr. Spock. The ones on sibling rivalry and sleeping through the night and early-childhood education – all grown obsolete. Along with Goodnight Moon and Where the Wild Things Are, they are battered, spotted, well used. But I suspect that if you flipped the pages dust would rise like memories. What those books taught me, finally, and what the women on the playground taught me, and the well-meaning relations – what they taught me, was that they couldn’t really teach me very much at all.

Raising children is presented at first as a true-false test, then becomes multiple choice, until finally, far along, you realize that it is an endless essay.

No one knows anything. One child responds well to positive reinforcement, another can be managed only with a stern voice and a timeout. One child is toilet trained at 3, his sibling at 2.

When my first child was born, parents were told to put baby to bed on his belly so that he would not choke on his own spit-up. By the time my last arrived, babies were put down on their backs because of research on sudden infant death syndrome. To a new parent, this ever-shifting certainty is terrifying, and then soothing.

Eventually you must learn to trust yourself. Eventually the research will follow. I remember 15 years ago poring over one of Dr. Brazelton’s wonderful books on child development, in which he describes three different sorts of infants: average, quiet, and active. I was looking for a sub-quiet codicil for an 18-month old who did not walk. Was there something wrong with his fat little legs? Was there something wrong with his tiny little mind? Was he developmentally delayed, physically challenged? Was I insane? Last year he went to China. Next year he goes to college. He can talk just fine. He can walk, too.

Every part of raising children is humbling. Believe me, mistakes were made. They have all been enshrined in the ‘Remember-When-Mom-Did’ Hall of Fame. The outbursts, the temper tantrums, the bad language – mine, not theirs. The times the baby fell off the bed. The times I arrived late for preschool pickup. The nightmare sleepover. The horrible summer camp. The day when the youngest came barreling out of the classroom with a 98 on her geography test, and I responded, ‘What did you get wrong?’ (She insisted I include that here.) The time I ordered food at the McDonald’s drive-through speaker and then drove away without picking it up from the window. (They all insisted I include that.) I did not allow them to watch the Simpsons for the first two seasons. What was I thinking?

But the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three of them, sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4 and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.

Even today I’m not sure what worked and what didn’t, what was me and what was simply life. When they were very small, I suppose I thought someday they would become who they were because of what I’d done. Now I suspect they simply grew into their true selves because they demanded in a thousand ways that I back off and let them be. The books said to be relaxed and I was often tense, matter-of-fact and I was sometimes over t he top. And look how it all turned out. I wound up with the three people I like best in the world, who have done more than anyone to excavate my essential humanity. That’s what the books never told me. I was bound and determined to learn from the experts.

It just took me a while to figure out who the experts were.

***

Anna Quindlen is the author of five previous bestselling novels (Rise and Shine, Blessings, Object Lessons, One True Thing, Black and Blue), and seven nonfiction books (A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Good Dog. Stay., Being Perfect, Loud & Clear, Living Out Loud, Thinking Out Loud, and How Reading Changed My Life). Her New York Times column “Public and Private” won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. From 2000-2009, She wrote the “Last Word” column for Newsweek.Check out Anna Quindlen’s collection of short stories, novels and essays at our affiliate Amazon.com.

Partum Me?! Erasing Mommy Guilt

by Laura on October 25th, 2011 | 5 Comments | Life, Partum Me

Thanks to everyone who commented here, on Facebook, and in person about last week’s letter to Charlie. I think I might write one every six months and print it out, so that he has a collection of them when he’s older. Lately, I’ve just found myself thinking how honored I am to be Charlie’s mom. I’m sure all of you parents out there can understand that feeling, even when your kid has just thrown himself on the floor in a fit of rage in aisle #2 in Target. In “real life,” I can be a pretty loud, outspoken, controlling person. But Charlie humbles me, forces me to stop and just listen, to see all the little things every day that are so awesome. I’m still going to be my sarcastic self, but my son injects a very necessary dose of laughter and purity into my daily routine. Now if he’d just stop growing so darn fast, everything would be perfect!

I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to write about this week before I saw this blog post over on BabyCenter. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the new mother who wrote the entry. It seemed as if she was beating her self up over some pretty small “mistakes.” Calling them “stupid things parents do” made me wince. We all do things that might not fall precisely within the parameters of the recommendations given to us by experts, but to call our actions stupid or even to imply that we as parents are stupid seems a little more masochistic than I’d prefer to be. One commenter to the blog post said she used to put her toddlers in high chairs and then put them on top of the table to keep them away from their siblings. Okay, that one might be over the edge of what’s rational, but taking the insert out of a car seat is not. And I can’t count how many times a very little Charlie took a long nap in a sitting position or on my chest. At the time, I knew those things weren’t “recommended,” but I also knew that my son was sleeping peacefully and that I was getting some much needed time to re-charge, too. There’s nothing stupid about that.

There are tons of things we’ve done with Charlie that probably aren’t kosher with the experts, but they’ve worked for him. Food other than formula and breastmilk isn’t supposed to be introduced until six months of age, but Charlie started right at five months because he was fascinated with all things food-related. He now eats homemade purees of apples, pears, sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, peas, and avocado like a champ. No mistake, there. Our guy has become a rolling maniac, but I still lay him down on our platform bed with a few toys while I get ready in the morning. Could he roll off? Maybe. We will probably need to adjust this routine in the coming weeks as I can tell that some sort of pre-cursor to crawling is about to happen. But I won’t beat myself up about what we’ve done so far. Charlie naps in his co-sleeper, pack’n'play, car seat, stroller, swing, Ergo, and sometimes right next to me on our couch. Basically everywhere but his crib. He has also started sleeping on his stomach since gaining the ability to roll over on his own. Here’s the thing, though – he SLEEPS. Two naps a day and 10 hours at night. I’m not about to mess with that! I completely support breastfeeding as long as possible but we have started the weaning process with Charlie because of my work schedule and production issues. It hasn’t phased Charlie at all. Okay maybe I harbor a little guilt with this one, but Charlie is happy and healthy which is what matters most to me.

I’m sure there are many other things I could list that might be on the don’t list for parents, but I can’t remember them all because I don’t spend too much time beating myself up about those decisions. When I was pregnant, the best piece of advice I got – from quite a few of my friends who are moms – was “make the decisions that are right for you and your baby and NEVER feel guilty about them.” I’ve tried to put that advice into practice with Charlie, although I admit that sometimes it’s hard when so many factors in our society are designed to make mothers feel guilty about everything. My wish for the mother who wrote the Baby Center blog and for every mother out there is that we can all find confidence in our parenting. It’s not just about making ourselves feel better; it’s also about setting an example for our children! I want Charlie to know his mommy stands behind her decisions and feels good about herself because those are qualities that I want Charlie to have in his own life, too.

Have you felt mom guilt? When? Why? What did you do to get past it?

Partum Me?! Setting the Healthy Example

by Laura on September 20th, 2011 | 5 Comments | Partum Me

Before I start this week’s post, I would like to say, “Happy Anniversary” to my amazing husband. Three years ago today, on a beautiful sunny fall day, we got married. I can still recall every detail of that day, but what I remember most was the overwhelming happiness that came from being surrounded (literally, our guests sat in a semi circle around us) by the people that we absolutely love most in this world while we promised to stand by each other forever. I got a pretty good deal, too. I still look at him and wonder how I got so lucky. Happy Anniversary, Honey!

I’ve written here before about wanting to get into shape post-pregnancy, but the situation has become much more dire. My husband and I have never been skinny people, but we’ve certainly been in much better shape than we are today. We’ve both struggled with weight all of our lives, but have found success when we followed structured plans, paid attention to every single thing we ate, and exercised moderately but regularly. I have the added complication of having PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) which comes with an awesome catch-22 – the syndrome makes losing weight very difficult but the best treatment for the syndrome is weight loss. I have never had long-term success in maintaining a weight loss, nor have I ever been able to lose weight simply by cutting calories and ignoring the exercise component. The cards are stacked against us, but this time we have an important motivator: Charlie.

Breastfeeding has not been the great weight loss secret for me that it often is for other people. In fact, after an initial post-partum weight loss, I have been steadily gaining weight since Charlie was a few weeks old. And my poor husband has done the same. He got a tongue lashing from his doctor last week about getting into better shape , so we finally sat down to discuss how we could schedule things so that both of us could get to the gym. (He will be going in the early AM while I feed Charlie and get him ready for the day, and I will be going after Charlie is down for the night.) We’re still in talks about how to change our eating habits. We’re good about eating our veggies, especially since most of them come to us through our CSA share, but we eat out way more than we should and we’ve been pretty sedentary since Charlie came into our lives. Joining Weight Watchers is still on the table, even though my non-conformist mindset is struggling with the idea that it might be the only way this will work for us. Part of me wants to drink the WW kool-aid and make miracles happen, but another part of me wants to fight the power.

The bottom line with all of our talks, though, is that making some healthy changes will improve our life as a family. Of course we need to do this for ourselves as much as we need to do it for Charlie, but I will admit that my biggest motivator right now is the hope that Charlie will never have to remember me as an overweight mom. We will find so many other fun ways to embarrass him as a child, but having big parents will hopefully be something he won’t have to face.

So tonight I will head to the gym for the first time since the beginning of my second trimester of pregnancy. It is significant that today is also our third wedding anniversary. After all, we pledged to stick by each other, in sickness and in health, three years ago today. I’m just determined to make sure we have more healthy days than sick ones. Plus, I have a lot of pre-pregnancy dresses that are hanging in my closet and calling my name!

Did you struggle with weight loss before or after pregnancy? What did you do? How have you maintained your weight loss?