Camping

This last weekend our family took a little adventure and decided to go camping.

Yes, you heard me right. We decided to take three children under the age of five into the wilderness. And yes, I agree with you, we are a little bit crazy. But S and I both grew up camping and it's something that is important to us to introduce our boys to. Some of my best memories growing up are of spending days up at Antelope Lake, swimming and boating and roasting marshmallows and riding our bikes down to the little general store at the entrance to the campground for mid day ice creams. I remember wandering in the woods, making up stories and adventure and just getting lost in nature.  I want my boys to have those same kind of memories, and that means letting my fears and worries take a back seat.

(Seriously though, how can a mama not be a little worried? A huge body of water, steep hills, rocks and cacti, fire......) 

But everyone survived and I think our boys are well on their ways to being little outdoors men!

We recently acquired a pretty cool pop up camper from my in-laws, which made camping with kids, especially a baby, a whole lot easier. We all got to sleep inside, the big boys and S in one bed and R and me in the other. Much better than a tent, considering R is still waking up a few times a night to nurse. It was nice to have a place to change clothes and diapers, and even just get out of the sun and sit for a few members. It was definitely a far cry from our college camping days, where we slept in the back of cars and the only supplies we brought was beer!

 (nursing in the great outdoors!)

We're lucky to have Lake Pleasant less than an hour from our house. It's easy to get to, close to home in case of an emergency, and warm enough to camp at even in March. I admit, I would prefer to have pine trees as opposed to cactus, and I would love to take the kids and S some of the place I used to go as a kid, but it still a nice little lake and a way to get out of town. We went up on Saturday afternoon and spent the afternoon fishing and playing in the water (way to cold for me to swim, but both of the boys went in no problem!) and then lit a fire and did hot dogs and smores for dinner. The boys were in heaven, eating food that they never get and staying up way past their bed times!

 It was fun. It was dirty and there were some tears and I may have lost a few years of my life when L2 stumbled at the waters edge and almost plunged headfirst into the lake.... but overall, it was great. I know it will get easier as the kids get older and we are able to let them off their leash a little, but for now I"m enjoying showing them the ropes!

I was really surprise that both of them went in the water. It was pretty cold, and L2 wasn't a huge fan at first, but they both spent quite a long time splashing around. L spent almost an hour "fetching" sticks that we would throw out to him..... it was pretty cute!

So, overall, camping was a success. It as also a good test run for our big camping trip in April when my family is here. (Yeah, you think we're crazy going with three kids? On that trip we will have six kids!!!)  I think we got most of the kinks worked out of the camper, and mostly I feel a lot more confident about how the boys, and baby R, will handle it.  So, I'll leave you with some more picture of our adventure!!!

My fitness journey

So, here's the thing:

Loosing weight is hard.

Loosing baby weight is really hard.

Loosing baby weight after your third baby and after your poor body has basically been stretched and ballooned and expanded out of an sort of normalcy..... well that sometimes feels impossible.

I'm not going to lie, one of the hardest things about pregnancy for me is letting go of control of my body. I've always been an athlete, I've always been relatively thin, and I've always struggled with self-esteem issues when it comes to body image and weight. Thankfully over the years I feel like I've gotten a handle on my self-esteem issues. I know that strong is beautiful, and healthy is beautiful and bringing three beautiful babies into this world is the most beautiful thing of all.

But that doesn't mean I don't struggle when I feel like I don't recognize the body I see in the mirror. (Stretch marks? Really? I feel like that's a mean joke the universe plays on women. As is stretched skin and wide hips  and deflated boobs aren't enough) After I had L the weight came of relatively easily and my body bounced back, despite a 50 lb weight gain. With L2 I gained 50 lb again, and that time the weight did not come of nearly as easily and I never felt like I fully bounced back. I made it a point to be healthy and mindful of my weight gain with R, and managed to only put on 17 lbs. As of now, my weight is back to my pre-pregnancy, a few pounds under actually, but I need to work on toning and tightening. I was able to get back to the gym at 2 weeks post partum and at 8 weeks I started the Insanity program. I did insanity after L2 was born and was impressed with how strong it made me, so I was ready to challenge myself again.

If you've ever done insanity, or any of the Shaun T fitness programs, you know they are pretty fricking hard. Especially when you are chasing three times little ones around. And breastfeeding. And changing diapers. Truthfully, by the time I got to week 6 and the "max" portion, I wanted to quite so bad. But I didn't I stuck it out, and I'm pretty happy with the results. I still feel like I have aways to go, and I want to continue getting stronger and tightening everything up, but I"m feeling good and motivated after finishing this program and I'm ready to dive back into yoga and running and weights. I'm even signed up for the Lozilu mud run in April!

OK, I"m going to share my "before" and "after" pictures. This is hard for me to do. I hate how I look in the 8 week picture. I know I was pretty newly post partum, but it's still hard for me to look at. I feel better about the 16 week picture, I think I have slimmed down and am looking more toned. It definitely motivates me to keep going! Oh, and the bottom picture is a pair of my pre-pregnancy jeans from before L.  I love these jeans, but they are tiny with no stretch and I never got back into them after L2. I pulled them out and tried them on the other day and was thrilled when they fit!!!

four months

My little bubs is fourth months old, as of yesterday.

Four months. I know I seem astounded each time I do a monthly update, by the truth is, I am.  I can't believe this tiny, helpless baby that I gave birth to just a few months ago is suddenly a smiling, rolling, charismatic little baby.

So, what is R doing at 4 months? Well, he's trying to crawl, if you can believe it. This is even earlier than L started trying to crawl, and he was pretty early. I guess he does have two big brothers running circles around him and he's trying to catch up. He's rolling all over the place, but when he gets on his tummy he starts grasping whatever he can with his hands and pulling his knees up under him. He's managed to scoot a little bit,  but he gets so frustrated when he can't get as far as he wants to.

He's full of smiles and giggles, and he's happiest when he's being hold. If he has to be set down he likes when L or L2 get down with him and keep him company. He's sleeping "OK". I think he's probably the "worst" sleeper of all the boys.... although I don't think he's bad by any means. He is very spoiled with our co-sleeping. He starts the night in his bassinet after his 9:30 feeding but around 12-1 every night he comes into bed with me and he stays there all night. He wakes usually one or two other times throughout the night, but we just side nurse and fall back asleep. I know I should probably nip the co sleeping in the bud at some point.... but the truth is I love it. And it makes my life easier to just be able to roll over and nurse him while he's sleeping right next to me. And I love it. I love having him next to me and I know all to well that he's growing up fast and it won't last forever, so I"m going to enjoy it while I can.

We're still exclusively breast feeding, and I' still making a ridiculous amount of milk. Seriously, I only pump twice a day (once after his morning feed because I"m still usually really full and once at the 9:30 feeding because S usually gives him a bottle of pumped milk at that one) and we have a freezer full of milk. For every one bottle we give R I think I freeze 5 bags of milk. I know I probably won't need it, but it makes me feel secure to know that if anything happens we have a freezer full of BM ready for him.

R is a very easy going baby. I guess he has to be, since he is the third baby. He really only fusses when he is tired or hungry, and sometimes when he is feeling ignored. When he does fuss he is easy to calm down. He  doesn't mind the car seat or going in the car and he goes everywhere with me and is never a problem.

I'd have to say the only problem we are having with R right now is he is growing to darn fast!!!!