Friday Flip Offs

First time participating in the Friday Flip-offs from Kludgy Mom. For those that really know me...joining this was a no-brainer:

I would like to formally flip off the following:

*The contractor (who shall remain nameless because I'm a lady) who promised us he would redo our closet months ago, took $200 dollars from us for "plans" and never called us back. We still have a crappy closet, but now instead we are going to redo our kitchen and bathroom - much bigger job - and you lost out on it.  You're a d-bag!

* The woman who grunted and groaned at our strollers, let the door slam in our face and told us we were selfish - as I said to her then - karma's a bitch!

* Stretch marks - really?!? I lost all my baby weight...I actually weigh less than before I was pregnant - but you damn things won't go away so no two-piece bathing suits for me...ever.again.

* Cobra why are you so f'ing expensive?!? I don't care what political side you're on, my health insurance while my hubby found a new job should not be the same as my mortgage payment!

God that felt good...join in on the fun here...

More Kids?!?!

I don't know what it is about Jenna turning one but all of a sudden we've started talking about the future of our family (meaning when should we start trying for baby #2).  Not only have hubby and I started talking about it - but people have started asking us.  This last part is kind of weird to me considering my brother and I are 5 years apart...but I guess nowadays people have kids closer together since women are starting their families a little later.  I dunno!

I'm also finding myself drawn to the little babies that are around. One of my good friends is going to have a baby this week and I honestly cannot wait to just cuddle with a teeny tiny newborn...I mean it'll be great to give the baby back to her parents, but still.  Everyone says it goes so fast and it really does. It makes my uterus twitch just thinking about it!
In all honesty, I kind of want to have kids close together just so that the whole infancy/diaper phase of MY life is over quicker.  I also am at the point where I finally have my body back but I know it's just on loan until I get pregnant again.  So let's just get the pregnancies done with so I can have my body back for good. The thing that scares me is that having kids that close in age means that life is complete chaos for a while (or forever)...but then again, isn't life pretty chaotic now anyway?!?!

Weight a Minute!

I feel like I can write about my baby weight now that it's all (finally!) off...J is almost 11 months old. Now let me go back to pre-pregnancy Melissa...I have never had a weight problem, always thought of myself as pretty active, liked going to the gym, and have never been on a diet. Then I got pregnant and several things happened that hindered my ability to stay in that "healthy" 25-20 pound weight gain range.

#1 - had spotting in my first trimester and my ob-gyn told me to lay off on the gym for a while. I understood that to mean, no exercising - the spotting really scared me and I didn't want to hurt my baby in any way. So I did some minimal walking, but that was about it

#2 - we were in the middle of some major changes in our life - we were selling our condo in Hoboken and in the process of buying our apartment in Queens - stressful to saythe least!

#3 - due to the timing of the buying/selling, we moved in with my parents for about 5 months of my pregnancy (my husband is a saint). Let me just say that my parents were amazing to us, we didn't have to pay for a thing, so we were really able to save and they fed us wonderfully! Which basically meant that we had bread, pasta, and all sorts of deliciousness every night for dinner...

16 weeks - already gained about 12 pounds!

All this added up to my 50 pound weight gain...now just to give you an idea - I am 5'2" and petite...My last weight check at the Dr. put me at a whopping 170!! I remember my husband saying something like "don't worry about your gain, you'll always weight less than me" (well I got within 5 pounds of him!) And it's funny because at the time - I thought I looked like a super-cute pregnant woman - all belly...well I only saw my belly...what I didn't see was my ass an thighs that got so big that I couldn't fit into my maternity pants anymore.

36 weeks - holy cow!

It's ok because I can laugh about it now...unfortunately for me, my genetics are not so wonderful in this area, so the weight did not just fall off of me, like some of my friends. The initial 30 pounds came off without much work within a few months, but the last 20 pounds have been work to take off. I was doing a good job of going to the gym, (they have a wonderful babysitting service) but lately it's been tough because of J's nap schedule. So I joined Weight Watchers the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I always said that I wanted to be back to my pre-pregnancy weight by J's first birthday. I realized that I needed to just watch what I was putting in my mouth and it's worked. I am now back to my original weight (just in time to talk about baby #2) and I feel great. I don't know that I'll ever wear a bikini again because I have some pretty bad stretch marks (thanks, Mom for those genes) - but I think of them as battle scars! I'm kind of proud of my body and what it went through - I brought a life into this world (be it a small one weighing in at 6lbs 6oz)!...and if I have some stretch marks because of it - then so be it!