The Ten Pound Twin

I thought when we had our first ultrasound back in early August ( or late July?) that we saw only one baby's heartbeat on the monitor. That baby has been born and is thriving but no one told me about his ten pound twin.

Ah yes, the evil twin that now resides on my midsection. I've been trying to get rid of this thing since March! It's made up of all those Carl's Jr. cheeseburgers, Chick-fil-A milkshakes, and ice-cold Cokes I was so fond of the last months of my pregnancy. In fact one of the first things I said to Erik after Locke was born was "I want a Coke." I gained a total of 40 pounds during my pregnancy and at 2 weeks postpartum I had lost 20-ish of it. Locke will be 12 weeks old on Thursday and in 10 weeks I only lost 10 more pounds and I'm at a plateau.

When you're breastfeeding dieting is pretty much a no-no. It messes up your milk supply and you shouldn't cut calories when you're using an extra 500 a day to feed your kid. So I've turned to exercise to help get this twin delivered and off my body. I bought Zumba for the Wii and I did it every day last week. I am so uncoordinated it's not even funny. Now I know why I've never been to a club-I can't dance! There's also a new group in Clarksville called Stroller Strides which is basically a work out group and you pay for the classes. I haven't joined yet but they have a sister club that doesn't require a membership fee and they go walking on the new greenway a couple of times a week with their kids in strollers. Locke and I are going tomorrow. It's during his first morning nap time, but he almost always falls asleep when I put him in the stroller so hopefully he'll be ok.

Also I'm on the stay-at-home-mom diet. It's not an actual diet but my new way of life. I can only eat what I've purchased at the grocery and brought home with the occasional take-out that Erik brings home for dinner. I lost 4 pounds the first week I went on this "diet." I'm not super comfortable taking Locke out to eat because it's hard to plan around his schedule so that he's a) not hungry and b) not tired and fussy. That leaves about an hour and 15 minute window every 3 hours. Plus I like to eat my meals without having to hold him too and that's best accomplished at home. Erik and I used to eat out at least 3-4 times a week before Locke was born and now it's more like 1-2. It's amazing how much cheaper it is to eat at home!

I'll try to keep the old blog updated on my weight loss progress. I've read that it can take 9 months to take off what it took 9 months to put on, but I hope that's not the case!

Not Just Waddling

I started having pain in my left hip almost 2 weeks ago that was just kind of annoying, not really that bad. It progressively got worse over the week to the point where walking, turning over in bed, and generally just bearing weight in my left leg was really painful and I started limping. I finally (at Erik's insistence) went to my doctor on Monday. I know that hip pain is not an OB problem but unfortunately when you're 9 months pregnant every doctor except your OB is scared of treating you, so that's who I went to. Since I work with my doctor we have good communication and I think he understood that I was really hurting, especially since I've had no problems at all so far. He sent me to the orthopedic doctor who saw me the same day and I was really impressed with this guy. He spent at least 20 minutes with me assessing my hip and range of motion with my left leg. I had an idea of what I thought I might have, but he blew me away with his diagnosis. I have Transient Osteoporosis of the Hip. Not at all what I was expecting, especially since I'd never heard of it before! http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00205 This website has some good info on it. Basically the bone density in my hip joint is severely decreased causing intense pain with weight bearing. It's uncommon and only occurs in pregnant women in their 3rd trimester and middle aged men. There's no definitive cause and the treatment is pain meds and trying to stay off the affected joint with crutches or a walker. The only positive thing about this is that it resolves within months after delivery and your bone density returns to normal.

So what does this mean for me? Well, because I work full time and I'm the only employed member of this family I have to keep working until my due date. I'm taking off for maternity leave starting on the 19th of March, which is not what I wanted to do. I wanted to work up until delivery just so I could save up my leave for when I actually have a baby at home. This shouldn't affect my delivery in any way. The ortho guy gave me crutches to use and I do use them at home but I'm too proud to use them outside my house. It's bad enough getting stared at everywhere I go because my stomach is huge, let alone being a huge preggo on crutches. I'm not going to lie, my hip hurts and walking is really painful. I can't do certain things like put my pants on standing up, pick up heavy stuff, or push a stretcher at work. The mornings are the worst and I want to cry when I wake up because I know how bad it's going to hurt to move around and get going. Once I'm going it's tolerable and when I'm sitting it doesn't hurt at all. I'm also really thankful that nothing is wrong with my baby and this doesn't affect him at all. I could have so many worse things wrong with me, I'm still a healthy pregnant person, and it will get better after I deliver. I also have the best coworkers ever who understand and help me out at work. Erik has been a huge help and picked up some of the slack at home with cleaning tasks that I just can't do. I'm trying to keep a positive attitude but sometimes it is overwhelming. I'm not used to having physical restrictions and it really makes you appreciate your health when you start having problems. It's possible that the pain might get worse before it gets better, but I'm a little over 3 weeks until my due date and I know I can keep on keeping on until then!

It's a Boy!

OK so it's been 3 weeks since we found out but I thought I'd go ahead and post this anyway. We can't wait to bring this little guy home!