Still Waiting!

In my last post, I told you that my fill was scheduled for the 23rd. Well, guess what--IT DIDN'T HAPPEN.

klsjhglshgl;shglksjdg;lksjdlgjslkdgj;lskjdg;lgaiopjl!!!!!

The surgeon had to review my records prior to making an appointment to decide if he'd see me or not. I faxed my records on December 29, and I know they received them because they called me about them. Well, I got a call on the 22nd (at 4 in the afternoon, mind you--what the crap can I do about it at 4 in the afternoon??!?) that they needed my records. Apparently the doctor lost them or something? I don't know. I was mad. I sent them around 5 (when I got the voicemail) and the morning, the poor receptionist chick said they'd received them, but I couldn't come to my appointment because THEY ALREADY GAVE IT AWAY. Ugh. I have yet another appointment scheduled for this week, but I'm soooo not excited about meeting this doctor. He just sounds like a turd.

I searched and searched, and actually found another group of lap-band surgeons that I somehow missed. I got a message from their office today saying they would see me, so now I'm waiting to find out just how much a fill there would cost me. When I was in Korea, I don't think I realized how difficult it would be to find a surgeon to take care of me after I came back, nor did I realize how expensive it would be (my insurance doesn't cover bariactrics). I think if I had I would have taken a different route.


I went to the gym at 6am on Saturday. I just happened to be awake and thought, "why not?". It felt good.

What a let-down...I need help and advice!

Remember the last time I posted, I was supposed to be getting my first post-pregnancy fill on January 26th? Well, the day before that appointment, the doctor's office called to reschedule. So February 7th was my new appointment.

Same thing happened; the day before, they called to reschedule. Now it was going to be February 14th. Well, wouldn't you know, THAT would be the one day I decide to oversleep and get to work an hour and a half late?? There was no way I'd be able to get all my work done in time to leave for the appointment, so I rescheduled that one. Now my appointment is the 23rd--let's hope this one actually sticks!

I hope I like this doctor, as he's the only one in Birmingham that's willing to do fills for people who had their surgeries elsewhere. I just need a fill, period.

Time for a little honesty now. I've gained about 20 pounds since I had Karinne. I'm so mad at myself for falling back into my old pre-band pattern of eating... I'm not at my pre-band weight yet, thank God, but I'm not far off. I barely fit into all the clothes that were fitting me quite nicely this time last year; isn't it sad that I was apparently skinnier when I was PREGNANT???? It's the belly--I wish I could cut it off. I know I need to exercise more and do about 984759 crunches every day. I have to find my motivation.

I want/need to get the new bandster mentality again. How do you motivate yourselves? I would love to hear some tips from all you old pros :)

Hopping back on the wagon!

YO!!!

So, I'm doing it--I'm back on the wagon (mostly), and feels great. I made an appointment with a lap-band doc to get my first fill in over a year! I see him on January 26th--I'm pretty nervous, actually. In Korea, it was $30 for a fill/unfill and they used the x-ray machine every time; here, it's going to cost $250 for my initial visit, and then $125 for fill/unfill after that. It was easy to go back and forth to tweak my fill level in Korea; now, I imagine I'll just try to "deal with it" if the level isn't quite right. I just have to be careful that I'm getting adequate calories so my milk supply doesn't drop.

I've gained about 20 pounds since Karinne was born--definitely not something I'm thrilled about. How is it possible that I've gained more weight NOT being pregnant AND nursing than I did the whole time I was pregnant?!?? Argh. This is why I have to get fill; I'm just not good at controlling how MUCH I eat.

I've also joined a gym. I went 5 days this week, so that's pretty good I think. On the weekends, I go when Karinne goes down for her first morning nap. During the week, I've been going after she goes to bed for the night (around 7pm). I work 6:30 to 4:30, so if I want to see my baby at all I have to go after she's asleep.

Hopefully I'll have some good news weight-wise to share next time I blog!

Hi, Hello, How Are You?

I hate that it's been so long since I posted. It's incredible how much time a little baby can consume; can you believe she's already 4 months old?!? Speaking of babies, on Sunday it will be exactly one year since I got my positive pregnancy test. What a crazy year!

This is going to be a bullet point post, because that just seems way easier.

• Since my last post, I returned to work. It's been an adjustment, but it's not that bad. At least it gets me out of the house everyday! The worst part is having to pump 3x while at work; as I said before, I just feel like a dairy cow! It also didn't help when people would tell me how gross or disgusting it was. I-G-N-O-R-A-N-T.
• I had to go to San Diego a few weeks ago for work, and Marc and Karinne went with me. We expected the worst, but she really wasn't that bad on the plane. She cried a little, maybe a total of 20 minutes--not bad for 6 hours of flying!
• We traveled to New Orleans for Thanksgiving (Marc's father's side of the family all live there). I think she was actually worse on that 5-hour car ride than on the plane. However, she was a doll when it was time to meet the 30+ family members.
• Our "good" car died last Saturday. We were driving and suddenly everything just stopped. It was insane. Turns out the engine broke. Luckily, we have a lifetime engine warranty so we're 98% percent sure it'll be taken care of; we're just waiting on the final word from the inspector. Unfortunately, we're only going to have 1 car for a while--just a minor inconvenience.
• I got a raise at work. It really came at such a perfect time; I was feeling really down about our money situation, especially with Christmas coming up and the car breaking down, and then I got the raise. However, I'm having a difficult time refraining from celebrating by spending lots of money.
• My one-year bandiversary came and went on October 30th. While I'm definitely not where I'd hoped to be by now as far as my weight is concerned, I'm still please with where I'm at. I mean, I had an entire pregnancy during that time! I'm still about 35-40 pounds (depending on the day/hour) down from my surgery date, so that's something to be proud of. I have to start exercising though--much easier said than done, right now anyway. I'd really like to be much closer to goal (if not already there) by the next time I get pregnant!

Pictures!

Daddy and baby, taking a break at the San Diego Zoo

Mommy and baby in front of the lions

Halloween

3 months!

mooooo.

mooooooo. moo. moomoomoo.

Yes, I'm mooing at myself because I feel like a freaking milk cow! I feel "udderly" (ha.ha.) ridiculous double-pumping while wearing the hands-free bra thingy, but it does allow me to easily update my blog. We went to the pediatrician for Karinne's one-month check last week and even the doctor called me a good milk cow (due to her good weight gain and I never had to supplement with formula).

Speaking of her one-month check, we officially have a thriving baby! As of last Wednesday, she was 9lbs 6oz (7lbs 10oz at previous appt) and she's grown almost an inch. She also got her second dose of the Hep B vaccine and a heel stick and she was NOT happy after that. I swear, she's got the most pitiful cry sometimes; I dread the day she has the mental capacity to use it to her advantage!

On a sad note, I go back to work on Thursday :( Just half days for 2 weeks so I'll be able to kind of ease back into things, but I'm definitely not looking forward to it. There were also some pretty big changes made while I was on leave that affected my department so I'm interested to see what's in store for me when I get back.

There are a couple of neighborhood cats that hang around our house sometimes (I think the people that lived here before us let them hang out in the crawlspace) and one of them is chasing a squirrel around the back porch now. I hope he doesn't kill it and leave it there. Right now Mr. Squirrel is under the grill licking up some strange substance and the cat is just sitting next to the grill, watching; I guess it's not exciting when the squirrel is just presented on a platter like that!

Here are some photos from Karinne's newborn photo session; she was really unhappy after we took off her clothes, so it was kind of a bust. 15/20 photos are just different angles and colors of one pose; I kind of wish the photographer would have let us see all the shots, and then let us choose the poses we wanted--I at least would've liked the option to reject them! I think it bothers me more that I didn't intend for all of the shots to be in those clothes--we just decided on a whim to get a few because she looked cute. Oh well. Maybe she'll be better for her 3-month photos in November :)

First of all, thank you for all your sweet comments :) I know I've been pretty lame, not commenting and all, but I promise I'm reading and hopefully one of these days I'll actually start leaving comments again! You see, most of the time when I'm on here I'm nursing and it's not easy to type while holding the baby. Right now I'm pumping with my handy-dandy hands-free pumping bra--I've never felt so much like a cow in my life! I'm just trying to get a nice little stash going not only for when I go back to work, but also for when I'm out and about and want to leave Karinne at home, or, you know, if we ever decide to have a date night.

Karinne had her one-month birthday on Saturday; oh how the time has flown. I also can't believe that I'll be back at work in less than 2 weeks. I'm going to just work half days for a week or two so I can kind of ease back into things. I actually get 8 weeks of leave since I had a c-section, but seeing how I'm not getting paid I decided to go back at 6 weeks for half days. I hope that this country has better maternity leave laws by the time Karinne starts having babies; and that's all I'm going to say about that.

This week we discovered that our baby looooves Pink Floyd. She was really really fussy one day so Marc turned on Pink Floyd because his dad told him that it always soothed him as a baby; it's kind of funny because whenever it stops or is quiet between tracks and she hasn't conked out, she starts crying--then when it comes back on, she's quiet again. It's amazing!

4 weeks? Really?

I can't believe my baby is already 4 weeks old! She's getting to be more alert every day and she's started making little cooing noises (yay for sounds besides crying, haha). Her nighttime sleeping isn't terrible, though the closer it gets to dawn, the shorter her sleeps are--for example, last night she slept from about 10-2:30, 3-5, 6-7:30. I guess it could be worse.

We're thinking about when to start putting her in her crib in her own room... I'm a little nervous, only because our room is downstairs and hers is upstairs and it just seems so.far.away. I think next week we'll start putting her up there for naps and then after a couple of days do the whole nighttime thing. Those of you with kids, when did you put them in their own room?

We've been trying to get out more and more with Karinne; she's been pretty good in restaurants, only once so far has Marc had to take a walk with her. We went to a park last week to enjoy the weather and listen to some live music. I'll leave you with pictures from that excursion:

Sloss Furnace and downtown Birmingham

tummy time!