Today is the day that all the regular gym goers groan as the crowd of good intentions enters for the first time since the end of January 2016 when they gave up on their resolutions, am I right? But in all seriousness, I feel motivated and rejuvenated in January to get my life back on track after Christmas. Don’t you?
Of course I have plans to finally clean out our spare room and turn it in to my office and purge my closet again and what not. But my main focus right now? Getting my body back! I spend last year as a pregnant vessel to grow a healthy baby and I was totally fine with that. But now that she is here, I want my body back! And if I am being honest, I had several pounds to lose before I got pregnant! I am not putting pressure on myself with numbers or a time frame for my ultimate goal weight…but I would like to finish shedding the extra pounds to at least get back down to my pre-pregnancy weight in the next few months.
My goal for January is to join the thousands across the country for another round of Whole 30. I completed my first round last year and it worked really well for me. I lost weight, I felt great and I got my eating back under control. You can read some of my posts on it here and here. And if you want to see some of the recipes that I enjoyed last time and plan to use this time as well, you can see those here.
My six week postpartum appointment isn’t until the middle of January. As you all know, I had a c section so I am still recovering. I wont be adding workouts in until I am cleared.
Whether you are getting back on track with your health and fitness, or getting your life back in order…Link up with Amy and I today and every Tuesday for the month of January and get Back on Track!!!
This week totally got away from me! I meant to post about Christmas, 2016 things and a few other things but none of that happened. What did happen? My mom and I took Zoe out for her first girl’s day shopping with us. We went to Nordstrom Rack, Homegoods, a local boutique and out to lunch at Purple Onion. We had such a good time and Zoe was amazing. She didn’t fuss or cry at all and she was awake pretty much the entire two hours we were at Nordstrom Rack. She just took in the scenery. My sister asked us to go to Target and out to lunch with her Wednesday. Again, Zoe does outings like a real trouper and was amazing once again. It is really nice being off and getting to spend all the time with Zoe, and getting to spend extra time with my sister and nephews. I am actually watching my nephews today so my sister can work.
Anyways, the first order of business is to talk about the link up!!! Since I was pregnant for most of 2016, my clean eating and strict work out regiment went out the window at times. Ok, towards the end most of the time!!! I want to get back on track and back to basics, as most people tend to do in January anyways….so Amy and I thought that we would host a Back on Track link up to hold ourselves accountable! For us, this means doing another round of Whole 30. The link up isn’t just for Whole 30, it is for getting back on track in any aspect of your life. Whether you want to start eating clean, working out, getting your house back in order after the holiday chaos…you chose what you want to work on and link up with us for some accountability!
If your decide that you do want to do Whole 30, Amy wrote a great post about how to be successful. So many people have made comments to me last year about how they always wanted to try it but don’t think they can. I am here to tell you, I completed a successful no cheat Whole 30 January of 2016 and if I can do it, anyone can do it!!! It is all about willpower and some prep work to keep yourself on track and be successful. ” alt=”” />
I will be back on January 2 with my specific goals and plan during Back on Track, and we hope that you link up with us and tell us what you plan to work on. If you need a cheerleader or someone to vent to during the month, I am here for you! I am all about encouragement and if I need to email you, text you, stalk your instagram to see that you follow through…I can do that for you! We will be hosting a link up every Tuesday in the month of January for a check in, after the initial link up on Monday, January 2.
Now, on to a few other fun things!
Favorite Mail: Andrea is so sweet and sent us a special package with a few goodies for me and the most adorable outfit for Zoe!
Favorite Christmas Surprise: We were getting ready to leave to go shopping a few days before Christmas and Chris looked at me while I was putting Zoe into her car seat and said are you fully dressed and ready to go? I was all “Ummmm do I not look fully dressed??” And Chris said, “You are missing this!” I looked up and he was holding out a ring box with this gorgeous ring in it!!! It is Zoe’s birthstone and he chose one with three stones to represent the three of us. Is he the sweetest or what?!?!
Favorite Haul: My mom spoiled me with gifts from Sephora this year for Christmas. Look at all this new makeup I get to play with!!! This Estee Edit liner is literally the best and easiest to apply liner I have ever used. Ever. Loving the colors in the new UD palette!!! I need some suggestions on your favorite lip stuff for healing super chapped lips. Mine have been peeling ever since they got super chapped during labor and I cant seem to get them back to normal.
Favorite Funnies:
Linking up with Amanda. I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!
My goal was to read 50 books in 2016 and I actually read 65. Yay!!! And that was 65 books from January to November, because I literally read nothing in December. Oops. One of my favorite book days of the year is seeing what everyone’s favorite reads were over the entire year!!! These are the books you knowyou want to have added to your TBR! Now, these books weren’t necessarily ones that came out this year but rather ones that I read this year. They are listed in no particular order.
I cant believe Christmas is this weekend, what?!?!?! I am hosting Christmas with my sister and dad for the first time this year. It is easier to just have people come to our house this year with baby. The rest of the weekend will be spent with Chris’s family and my mom. I wrapped most of the presents today, got all of our cards out yesterday…and yet it still doesn’t quite feel like Christmas to me. So weird.
I have a few random things on my mind today. Influenster sent me some L’OREAL Ever Pure Volume shampoo and conditioner. I have actually tried another line by Ever Pure before and liked it, and I really enjoyed this volume line too. What I really appreciate is that they are sulfate free and safe for my color treated hair. I have to say after a few uses, this shampoo really does add some volume to my lifeless hair! It smells of salon quality too, which is nice. I would recommend this if you are looking for an affordable hair care line!
I have a link up announcement coming at you for January, so stay tuned for that next week to get all the details. I am super excited about it!!!
I haven’t read a single book this month. (Other than a little of What to Expect The First Years) Can you believe it?! It has been nice taking a little break, but I hope to get back my reading grove because I miss it!
I am sure blog land will be a little sparse next week as everyone enjoys the holidays. I will be checking in here and there and plan to get back on track for January. The month to get shit done, am I right?? I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!!
We left off part one with the amnionfusion to take some pressure off the umbilical cord. Spoiler alert – it didn’t work.
They had to keep quitting the pitocin because her heart rate kept dropping. Every time they turned the pitocin off, my progress would start going backwards and the contractions would spread back out and I never dilated past 5cm.
The doctor finally came in and started talking other options. He said that if Zoe’s heart rate continued to drop during my contractions, he wanted to go ahead and get her. No reason to stress baby out anymore than needed. I told him that my birth plan was only to get the baby out safely, and if he felt a c section was the best option…then I was fine with it. He told me he really appreciated that attitude because it made it easier on him. and to hang tight for another 30 minutes to an hour to see how things would go.
I noticed that the nurse was going ahead and getting things prepped anyways, “just in case.” She looked at the contractions and heart rate again a few minutes later and immediately called the doctor back. I could tell by how fast she picked up her pace around the room that he was coming back to tell me a c section was happening sooner than later.
Sure enough, the moment he came in and looked at the printouts he said, “Ok, I don’t want to stress this baby girl out anymore. Let’s go in and get her!” Immediately the room filled with lots of people buzzing around, they were shoving scrubs at Chris and his mom was helping him get in to them. this became an emergency situation fast! I started to cry. I don’t know why? Maybe because I didn’t think it was going to happen like this. I mean, it is major surgery and I was certainly scared about that aspect but now I was worried about the baby too and I remember looking around the room and catching eye contact with Chris, my mom, my sister, my dad….and the tears just flowed and flowed. The last thing I remember happening before they all left the room was my dad coming up to my bed and kissing me on the forehead and telling me it was going to be ok.
It turns out, the reason her heart rate kept dropping during contractions was that the umbilical cord had gotten pushed down under her head and so every time I contracted, her head would go down on the umbilical cord and cut her off.
Next thing I know, I am being wheeled down to the operating room. It was so bright and so cold in there!!! I was shaking from the epidural and being scared. They had to hold my body down to start hooking me up to stuff in there because of how bad I was shaking. I remember one of the doctors in there telling me it was ok and that Chris was going to be coming in shortly and standing next to me. Then I started to feel really out of it. I remember having the hardest time keeping my eyes opened but I could hear everyone in the room running around, ripping things opened, shouting back and forth at each other, and then next thing I know….the doctor is telling Chris to stand behind my left shoulder.
I remember hearing Chris’s voice next to me saying “Is she ok?!?!” And I felt his hand on my shoulder. I remember hearing the doctor telling him that I was a little out of it but that I could hear everything that was going on.
It seemed like a second later they were telling me that Zoe was here. I remember them telling Chris “come on over here with us daddy!” and I could hear Zoe crying. I heard them calling her birth at 10:20am.
Then what seemed like one more second later, Chris was back behind me and he placed Zoe on my chest on her side and was holding her up on me with one hand and someone saying “Open your eyes Nadine, your daughter wants to meet you!” It took all my concentration to open my eyes but when I did, Zoe was staring right at me. I remember saying “Hi Zoe” and her and I just looked at each other for a few minutes and I remember feeling instantly so full of love and joy for this little girl staring at me. And even though I was completely out of it, I focused on just keeping eye contact with her and not wanting to look away for even half a second. What seemed like maybe a few minutes (???) went by and then they told me that Chris was going to go with Zoe and the nurses and they were going to finish up with my surgery so that I could go have skin to skin back in the recovery room.
I remember the two doctors/nurses standing up near my head telling me what was going on, and that they were going to turn me to one side and it was going to feel like I was going to fall off the table but not to worry because they had me…and then they were going to flip me on my other side. Then I remember them telling me that they were going to shoot something into my back and it was going to feel like cold water. I remember them picking me up off the operating table and putting me back in the bed and wheeling me back to my room.
When they opened the door to the room, I remember seeing Chris sitting in a chair holding Zoe. The site immediately made me wake up and be more aware of what was going on.
The nurse got Zoe and brought her over to me and asked me if I was ready to start her first feeding. And just like that, I was holding little Zoe Jane and nursing her for the first time. She latched instantly and I remember listening to her little noises and knowing that everyone was right about what they say about having a child. That you never knew you could feel so much love for someone so tiny that you just met, but it was instant. And strong. And fierce.
Chris went out to the waiting room to let everyone know that Zoe was here, that she was 7 lbs 20 inches and that we were doing good and he would come back for them soon. He showed them a picture of her on his phone and that is when his dad captured everyone getting to see her for the first time. This picture is everything to me!!!
I think we were back in the room with her alone doing skin to skin for about an hour and then I told Chris that I was ready for our family to come back. I felt bad they had all stayed over night and hadn’t been able to see us and I knew that they were dying to meet Zoe. The nurse told me that they could come back for a few minutes to see her, and then they were going to move me to our suite and that our family could go wait on the 6th floor in the waiting room until we were settled in our room up there.
I remembered the smile on each of their faces as they entered the room and looked right at Zoe laying in my arms. My mom was the first person to hold her from me and then Chris’s mom. Each of them took their turn and got pictures with her before we moved to our suite.
And just like that, this tiny little girl came in to the world and stole all of our hearts. All 7 pounds 20 inches of pure sweetness! Her apgar score was an 8 or 9, and I remember feeling so proud of her passing her first test with flying colors 🙂
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