Health

Posted by Sunny Gault on November 4, 2011

Fat or Pregnant?

Well, the big day has finally arrived. No, it’s not “D” Day… it’s the first day of my second trimester. Which is simply amazing to me because it feels like just yesterday I was surprising my husband with a positive pregnancy test. It’s crazy how time flies when you’re already chasing after a little one.

In my opinion, there are pros and cons to the second trimester. Of course, the odds of miscarriage are now drastically reduced. Whew! This also typically begins the “honeymoon” phase of pregnancy. Your early pregnancy symptoms, like nausea, start to subside. Unfortunately, my body is a little tardy on this one. I still have to stuff my face every two hours to avoid seeing my lunch for a second time. Hubbys generally like this second phase of pregnancy as well. One word: Sex. Suddenly, pregnant women start to embrace their womanly figures and what better way to show it off then grabbing your partner for a little horizontal mambo? For me, pregnancy makes me horny in general. I could be five pounds heavier or fifty pounds heavier. My husband is a lucky guy. (more…)

Posted by Amanda McFadden on November 3, 2011

Hot Mom, Here I Come!

I want to be a hot mom.  I don’t mean skinny, let’s get that straight.  I don’t care about numbers on a scale.  I also don’t mean I want to look good for someone that has three kids.  I want to get rid of that “for someone that has three kids” qualifier.  I mean I want to be HOT.  I want to be sleek and strong and fast.  I want my husband’s jaw to drop when I get dolled up for a night out without the kids.  I want to be the kind of woman that other people look at and think, “Wow, she must work out.”  I don’t want to jiggle, I want to strut! I already know that my body is capable of amazing feats.  I have grown babies and birthed them all by myself.  So now, I want to be the best ME I can be.

Just to clarify, I am not completely shallow.  I also want to be able to keep up with my active boys, and set a great example for them, too. But most of all, I want to do this for me.

When Caleb was born, I set a goal to be a hot mom by the time I turned 30 (14 months after his birth).  I knew this was a big, lofty goal, especially because I hate exercise and love eating.  However, I figured I had plenty of time. Well, having three kids has been a little more hectic than I anticipated, and I didn’t really do much to meet that goal for the first nine months of his life. (more…)

Posted by Jeni Reynolds on September 20, 2011

The New (Pregnancy) Super Food

Do you remember the list of super foods that came out a few years ago?  Blueberries, spinach, almonds – just to name a few – that were praised by all as having the essential nutrients needed for a healthy diet.  Nutritionists raved about them and encouraged everyone to find ways to enjoy them every day!

Well, that fad simmered down, and currently if you try to find a list of super foods you’ll have a hard time getting doctors and nutritionists to agree on a complete list, leaving the battle to be called a super food to PR firms and manufacturers as they try to convince you that THEIR food will make you healthy, wealthy, and wise. (more…)

Posted by Jeni Reynolds on August 17, 2011

How Our Dog Is Training Us For Parenthood

There are some women born with the desire and heart to welcome motherhood with open arms.  Then there are other women, like me, who write letters to their “older-selves” while in college to remind their future-selves why they don’t want to have kids. My letter included a line about a hormonal baby-plague that would hit me in my thirties and encouraged me to be strong and stay on course.  The wisdom of a third year undergrad psychology student wasn’t lost on this old-timer and her efforts did delay my motherhood ambitions until the age of 34.  In the end, love, hormones or a change of heart made my husband and me expectant parents.  It was this lack-luster start to parenthood that will help explain why I’m pregnant for the first time to our second baby.

See, technically, our first baby is our three year old seven pound Yorkshire terrier, who we brought home and immediately started calling “baby-dog” as a fun way to remind family and friends to stop asking us when we plan to start our family.  We had started our family – the three amigos which ended with baby-dog. Flash-forward three years and several slices of humble pie later, our friends and family were correct – we were wrong – and our family is literally growing once again.  This time we’re planning on taking home a baby of the homosapien persuasion. (more…)

Posted by Paula Woodworth on July 18, 2011

My Mommy Body

I have a confession: I was a fat kid.  Nearly nine pounds at birth, baby three-chins, tall and “solid” all through school…I was neither an athlete nor a prom queen.  When I went to college, my “freshman fifteen” came fast and easy.  Try as I may, I could not shed the weight that had plagued me the first two decades of my life…until I moved across country and became a nanny.  Living with an ultra-thin foodaphobe gave me a jump start to eat healthier, exercise more, and shun the junk food.  In ten months, I shaved off roughly 40 pounds and was finally (mostly) comfortable in my skin.

I maintained my weight and healthy body-image over the next few years- through dating and marriage, my early-twenties were a time of confidence and security.  Shortly before becoming pregnant with my first child, I confessed to my mom that I was terrified of becoming pregnant for fear of becoming heavy again.  She assured me that I wouldn’t care so much once I had my children.  That the feeling of empowerment from nurturing life would drown any petty concerns over the size of my hips or the lack of muscle tone.

She was wrong…. (more…)

Posted by Zoe Quinton on July 16, 2011

Me, postpartum.

The other day a neighbor lent me her copy of Operating Instructions by Anne Lamott, a chronicle of her son’s first year. I devoured it in between feedings and sleepings, as it’s such a wry and totally accurate and honest account of what it’s like to be a new mom. (Although she was a single mom, with a very colicky baby, a combination which I would not wish on anybody.) One line in particular struck me, in which she talked about all her body has been through, and observed that “when all this is over, I’m going to throw my body a party,” or something to that effect.

PHOTO BY: Charlotte Astrid, Creative Commons

Lately I’ve been trying to see my body with that kind of forgiveness and appreciation. Most of the time I empathize more with the line where she compares her floppy belly to a small puppy that lies down beside her when she is lying on her side. (more…)

Posted by Zoe Quinton on June 18, 2011

Trust and New Parenthood

Since giving birth to my son two weeks ago, I have had much to think about regarding trust: how it works, whom we choose to trust, how we trust them, and when.

The nature of my trust in my husband, for example, has been taken to a whole new level. First I had to trust him during my labor and delivery, the most intimate and powerful experience you could possibly go through with another person. I had to trust him not to judge me, not to be afraid of my pain, to take care of me and my needs no matter how rudely I stated them. (Although I’m proud of the fact that I said “please” every time I asked for water, throughout my entire labor and delivery. Always courteous, that’s me.) The same went for my mom, who took care of me during those six hours like she has not done since I myself was a child and completely dependent on her for very different reasons. (more…)

Posted by Lyssa Hurst on March 29, 2011

Infertility: Over and Out

It took four years and thousands of dollars to have our second child… so you can understand why I literally burst out laughing when my midwife asked which birth control method my husband and I would be using.  She says the best cure for infertility is having a baby. I say the best birth control is having a 6 year old and a baby–who has the energy for sex??

Part of me would love to take my chances. What better news could a fertility-challenged woman get than to discover she’s pregnant again? My husband says, “win the lottery and we can have as many babies as you want.” I was lucky he agreed to try for another, he secretly always wanted to be an only child and was pretty content having an only child. Then there is the fact that I just turned 40. (more…)