Baby Weight

I figured I'd do this in a separate post so I could easily reference it in the future. I wanted to post about my weight. With Eli I gained about 50lbs, Noelle 40lbs, and Taylor about 50lbs. A month after he was born I had already lost 30lbs putting me at 155. With Noelle I had lost all the baby "weight" by 2 months out, though I didn't get back to my normal size until several weeks after. This go around I am off to a very slow start despite really focusing on my diet and going on 45min walks regularly since week 2. At one month I weighed in at 162, pretty much the heaviest I've ever been not pregnant. It's hard to not be down about this especially since I've put in the extra effort. I haven't hit the 6 week mark yet so I haven't really upped my workout game yet and I'm really looking forward to that. I'm so ready to get back in the gym! It's also difficult to cut as many calories as I might want right now too since I have to eat enough to keep my milk production up. I'm trying to accept that even though the weight isn't just falling off like times before that it will come off over time if I make it. It's hard to be patient though and my wardrobe is so limited. I'm still mostly wearing maternity clothes though some of those are starting to fit weird and look like maternity clothes...if that makes sense. I have about 3 tops from my normal attire that fit and everything else is just sitting there waiting for me to drop some LBs. I really don't want to wear leggings all winter again so the goal would be to fit into my regular jeans by jeans weather which, thankfully around here isn't until about late December. I do have a family wedding Oct so to not look like a whale for that would be great too. I refuse to buy new clothes yet but if things don't start changing soon, I might have to get something just to get me through. I've got about one more week left before I can get back into the gym so I'll be sure to post how that changes things. Fingers crossed!!!

And Now We're 5!

Just over 5 weeks ago our little family became slightly bigger! We are now a family of 5! Taylor Elaine Motley joined us on June 3rd at 7:38pm weighing 7lbs 14oz and 21.5 inches long. Our smallest little one yet. Labor and delivery went pretty smoothly. We had a stubborn nurse who was ready to get off duty and at the end we got a little nervous we'd be delivering little Taylor on our own. That part was slightly worrisome but when the new nurse finally did check me out it was go time and Taylor was born quickly and easily. In fact my easiest....least damaging delivery yet! My recovery was also super smooth. Just 3 days out I felt like I hadn't even had a baby. Nursing started off a little rough, as usual. I guess I am just a wimp. It's so painful at first! We did pumped bottles pretty early to help get throug the first few rough weeks. By week 3 that was going better and by week 4 we were tracking her across the country to Indiana for our WBU annual meeting.  So how's the adjustment going??? I've been wondering how it would go since the moment we considered a 3rd child. Noelle & Eli have done AMAZING with her. We thought Noelle would be very jealous but so far she's still getting plenty of attention and all she wants to do is help her little sissy with everything. Eli adores her and I think he's trying to form Team Taylor just to upset Noelle but Noelle is too young to care. He gives Taylor kisses all the time and says how cute she is. (The cutest...cuter than Pell of course) He also says he only wants to play with Taylor and not Noelle....so there's that. Poor buddy has it coming in a year or so though when the two girls can work together!  Mark and I are adjusting well but it's not easy. As of now Taylor is a very fussy baby. She want's to be help constantly but doesn't like the carrier. She doesn't sleep well at night and she can cry for hours sometimes with nothing we do helping. There's little time when she is awake and content. I feel like when she finally adjusts to life we will be doing great though. I don't feel like adding a 3rd child has been the biggest challenge and now I'm even starting to think that having the "two under two" isn't so bad either. I really think it's just that Taylor is difficult right now so as soon as we get pass this stage I think we'll be doing much better!  Taylor is very adorable though. She has beautiful dark hair, that I am sure will turn blonde, and it has a little "pouf" in the front giving  some volume to her little wisps. She never really got baby acne so that was kind of nice. She is starting to fill in her clothes and I'm suprised we made it 5 weeks with a little one still in newborn clothes. She seems SO tiny compared to Eli and Noelle. Soon, any day now, we should get our first little smile from her and I remember from Eli (which she seems to have a very similar temperament as so far) that things slowly got better after that point. She has very big eyes and I think her smile will be adorable, I can't wait to see it! I feel guilty wishing this phase would hurry along. I feel like with Noelle I savoured every moment and knowing that Taylor will be our last you would think I'd never want it to end but she's just having a harder time adjusting to the world and I'm looking forward to the days when Noelle and Eli can interact and play with her more. I can't wait to see them trying to make her laugh and stuff. We have so many wonderful times ahead and I know they will get here faster than I can imagine!