She's here!

Alexis Danielle was born on 1/27 and this is my first chance to sit down at the computer. Even after three babies, I still can't get enough of holding her and staring at her chubby little cheecks! I did it all with no pain killers...which I'll NEVER do again, even if I was going to have another baby! The hospital staff was awesome, and my nurse really helped me to focus on pushing to get Alexis out as quickly as possible, and did I ever want her out as quickly as possible! She was 9 pounds and 21-1/4 inches long. Of course, she had to be my biggest baby when I decided to go with no pain killers! Now the recovery starts. Oddly enough, my recovery this time is so much faster than with the other two. I wonder if it's function of the epidural, or me just getting good at birthing! Either way, I'll never know, since this is our last baby.

So Alexis is at the point now where she's giving us a solid 3 hours of sleep at a time, and is really starting to eat like a little horse! My older two children are still in awe of their little sister and are very cute chatting with her. Once they get over the flu, with all that comes with it, I'll have a couple of little helpers...I hope!

One week to go!

Well, I'm inside a week, and had some pretty serious contractions earlier in the week. I thought for sure we would have had her this week. I'm feeling as big as a house and about as mobile! I am kicking around the idea of going natural, without an epidural. I hate recovering from that hole in my back! Plus it makes it harder to get started with exercising. I welcome any thoughts from anyone! Right now, I just want to nap. It's a little difficult with two other children to care for, and I do get in an occasional nap when my husband is done working for the day. He pretty much takes over with the kids in the evenings, making dinner, baths, homework, reading to them & putting them to bed. As huge as I am, I would have a hard time doing it alone! I don't know how single moms do it!

My husband told me all about how great of a workout he just got from doing Team Beachbody's P90X. On the outside, I tell him how glad I am that it's him & not me. On the inside, I'd rather be exercising with him than carting around these extra fifty pounds! P90X is the fitness and nutrition program we were doing when I got pregnant. I fully plan on getting it going again in a couple of months. The workouts are really hard, but boy, do they work!

Right now, I just want the doctor to call back and say: "Mai, just go to the birthing center, we'll hit you up with some patossin and get that baby out of you!". Oh, that would be nice! OK, off to the sofa to put my cankles up!

Until next time,

Mai

So here I am, a little over two weeks from enduring my third and final birthing experience. I've gained close 50% of my body weight. Geez! I went from just over 105 pounds - at five feet tall - to 150! I still have anothercouple of pounds to go! The good thing here is my OB tells me my daughter is healthy. She may come out ready for high school, but she's healthy! When my son was born, I weighed 144, for my first daughter 146, so I know I have some serious work to do this spring!

I know there are a lot of other women out there in the same boat, so I've decided to create this blog to track my progress, share it with others, and help try to inspire each other to drop the weight and get healthy and fit again! My challenges will be larger this time, as I'll have 3 kids to take care of, while trying to get in my fitness and proper nutrition. I welcome you all to my blog and join me with your own journey back to fitness!

Mai