GOODBYE 2016, Greeting 2017!

The beginning of the year started out great with my little butterball being born. 

Then it got a little rocky but life marched on. Then the shit hit the fan with many family and friends and our road started developing pot holes. 

So far I have smacked some asphalt on the road to try and smooth it out. 

I hope that 2017 is smooth. 

My little pumpkin is 10 months old.  She is such a sweet and happy baby! We are very blessed with this perfect little girl. I am on the computer now but I plan to pop some pictures in here from the blogger app. My boys are 11 and 8. EKKKKK!  

I am back up as far as my weight goes. 

  Day 5  Here of back on track though. I am sticking with my low carb path. It is my preferred path and I KNOW that it works for me. I will still have complex carbs a la sweet potatoes or something but no sugar. 

I did enjoy blogging regularly. Then it got to be a chore. Now I just don't have the time. My posts were always awesome in my head but once I typed them out they just weren't all that.

If your starting your new way of life in 2017.



I have no idea what I weigh currently.

I *know* it is higher than my low after baby buuut the 16's still fit so YEAH!!!  I just picked up a bunch of new shirts at Target yesterday. I adore the ultimate tees collection they have and sometimes you can get them really cheap with sales and cartwheel.

No long post today. I just wanted to throw something up.

Oh and a nappy baby pictures because I can.

A case of the eats

Work is my personal hell.

Ok not really, but I have realized that I am way, way more likely to reach for crap than if I am at home. Even I bring in leftovers I find myself wanting something sweet afterwards. I don't normally do that at home.  I don't know if it stress, or trying to waste time to make my day go by a little quicker or what. I did have two days of meh but I have slammed those brakes on.

I am down over 40 lbs still and fitting into size 16 jeans. I want to continue the downward trend not watch it rise.

A certain visitor made it's appearance Wed. after a long vacation. I would like to blame the two days on that but they were Fri./Mon.  Well I *could* blame that but lets face it. I make my own choices, not my uterus. Hah!

I have had the last two days off with my little buggy.  I do have to work this weekend but it is Saturday only. I have been traveling and working other stores lately which is nice but sucks at the same time. 10 hour shifts AND 2 hour drives one way kinda suck. 14 hr days.  Meh!

Off to grab my chicken out of oven. Experiment of chicken marinaded in buttermilk.

Back to reality

Went back to work on Friday and felt so out of sorts. My job can be audited by the state to make sure that we are following the rules set by the state. Some of our locations were recently audited and while we are following the laws of course there are always small things they find. Therefore a few policies have been changed/tweaked and I have to get used to the new things. They are so simple like instead of initialing a receipt do a full signature. Paperwork is different now and part of my job is auditing the other branches paperwork. I have to get a new routine in place for myself when I check packets. Just a matter of adapting to the changes.

I had this weekend off and had a lot of things I kinda wanted to get done. Of course not many were done but at least it is a start. Some clutter piles were eliminated which is always a good thing.

I am happy to report that I am on top of things more when I would have slacked before.  The house is at a decent cleanliness level. The kitchen is at a good level as well. Before it would just get messy which made it overwhelming and a struggle to clean. Now I am trying to keep the mess levels at a min. so they never get overwhelming and it has helped my stress levels go down a tad. Super aggravating to come home to a mess when you have been at work for 10 hours and the boys are all on electronics ignoring things.

I wanted to hit the grocery store early after hubby got home from playing disc golf today.  Looks like I have to go late now which is annoying. His friends were supposed to get to town by noon but someone else tagged along and threw off the timeline. Therefore he didn't leave till 2 pm. At least it is 4:30pm now so it shouldn't be to much longer till he is home. I used this time to shop the flyers and make a grocery list so it worked out in the end I guess. Everything I am planning on buying requires minimal prep so that will help with some of the lost time.

I took a few selfies with C and I cannot believe how skinny my face looks in them. Just wow! Of course my hair looks like poop but eh what can you do. It isn't like I glamour shot-ted up just for this. Haha. It was spur of the moment. I really should set it as a phone background for when I am wanting something not good for me. To bad I have my cutie girl as my background already.

Little missy stole my double chin!

Little one is now 7 weeks old. A few pictures for you to share in her cuteness.

Snuggled up next to Mommy during her nap 

Muah muah muah!  You know you wanna kiss them cheekers

Closet clean out

Well I did it!

I tried on a few pairs of size 16 pants and they fit!

I have been wearing maternity pants still just because they were out in the open and clean. We are horrible about putting clothing away. The baskets of clean clothing may or may not sit out behind the couch till hubby puts them away. :)  It is one of the few things that he will do to help around the house while he is in nursing school. When he is taking a break from studying he watches netflix to decompress.

I pulled every pair of size 18 and 20 pants out of my closet. Yes, every single pair! I have them boxed up and ready to exit the building.  I now have 5 pairs of pants that for sure fit as I tried them on. There are another 5 or more pair in my closet that I have yet to try on. I have a stack of yoga pants to try on and sort as well but those are stretchy so even if they are bigger they are still functional. I need to organize my dresser so I can put that stack of yoga away.

I had my 6 week PP check up last week. I am officially cleared to go back to work. I thought I was going to start last week like I blogged about. Turns out I am not going back till this week. Possibly Thurs but for sure Fri.

Back to work

Whaaaaaaaaaa!

Back to work I go in just a day or so. I am waiting on my boss lady to tell me where she needs me to go. I wanted to stay out another week or two but too many fires that my boss needs help putting out.

 I am sad that I will be leaving my little gal but I have no choice. Them silly bills always want to be paid. I am still upset that I missed out on three weeks of leave with her being in NICU but what can you do. At least she finally came out and is a healthy little girl. For now when I am at work she will either be with Daddy or Mama (grandma) so at least that is a plus.

Of course I would feel better about it if my husband actually liked newborns. LOL  He will live with taking care of her but he gets really frustrated when she cries for "no reason". He doesn't understand it could be gas or just plain being overtired. I have a feeling it will be a lot of me walking in the door and him saying "your turn" and just plopping her in my arms. He took care of  B on weekends when I was at work as a newborn so I have faith in him. Then at about a yr he got laid off and became a SAHD. He will be happier once she can interact and tell him why she is upset. We got a while for that though.

Down 40 lbs

I am down 40-ish lbs from my pre-pregnancy weight. You would think I would be shouting this from the rooftops but I am not. I am afraid. Afraid that I will blink and that it will all be right back.

Why do I think this?

Because I have done nothing at all to lose this weight. Nothing, Nada, Zilch.
It is not from breastfeeding because yet again same issues I had with last two kiddos. I was able to pump minute amounts while she was in NICU though so she did get some good stuff in her system.

I am not a gainer while pregnant. I only gained 8 and 9 lbs with each boy. With her I ended up losing  10 from the Gestational Diabetes. Of course after the swelling hit from surgery you would have never known. My ankles and calves were scary. Add in all the foot flexing from driving and I feared my right foot would never recover. My skin would crack and my tendons were really tight even after the water finally left. It took a good 10 days for it to finally leave. Driving then sitting in NICU unable to elevate them like I would have done at home made it last longer.

I have noticed some differences in my body. My fat apron is smaller. My love handles are smaller. Oddly enough I also lost weight in my feet!? My feet and ankles are so skinny to now. Of course that could be because I still remember them huge. LOL

I have been weighing myself daily to make sure the weight is staying gone. So far so good. Although my scale battery died so I need to get on that asap. I also need to break out my smaller clothing AGAIN. I was down to like 2 pairs of jeans that fit before pregnancy since I was up to 252.2 I am currently still wearing maternity pants. Not because I need to but because I was given a ton of them and they are front and center in closet and I know they will fit.

Time to break out the real clothing since I will be back to work again soon. Not looking forward to that. 

Total NICU stay= 18 days

I am so happy to report that my little punkin head is OUT OF NICU JAIL!!!!!

She was sprung on March 14th which was actually her scheduled due date due to me needing a third cesarean. March 17th was her actual due date.  We were going to go with the 14th because 3 out of 4 of us have b-days on the 14th. Her birthday ended up being Feb 19th  :)


She is so beautiful and I still cannot believe that I have a daughter.  She is so very good.  We co-sleep (have with all kids) and she can go 5-6 hours at night already!!  Whoo hoo!  Makes those nights a bit easier with not having to do the constant up/down. Basically the NICU nurses got to deal with those. They were feeding her every 3-4 hours actually. She did a lot of sleeping there. I didn't mind because I figure that would be less traumatic on her than possibly upset and no one able to get to her, Granted this one did have volunteer cuddlers so babies that just wanted to be held could be,

I have lots and lots of pictures but I have to figure out the best way to get off my phone.  I had been using dropbox but it is full.  I guess I could just plug my phone into laptop and grab them that way.

She had her first ped appt on Wednesday.  Little gal has grown an inch and is up almost a pound. Last picture is of her sleeping wearing her first piece of jewelry. My mom got her a personalized name bracelet. It is adorable!  I put it on only for pictures and then took it off of course so no worries.

Nicu baby

I had a whole long post typed up but blogger on my cell ate it.

My Itty bitty girl was born at 36.1 weeks gestation. 7.3 lbs and 18.5 inches long. We went home for 5 days and then I took her to the ER for high bili levels and everything hit the fan.

We're on day 10 and she will be there at least another 7 days or more. :( She is stable and pretty much just under observation at this point. It was terrifying when it first happened. She was actually transported by helicopter to Shands.

Ready for a photo dump?

29 days or less

Title says it all.

5 wks or less remaining

Yeah no follow up to the GD post.  I have it and I am dealing with it best I can. My numbers are not where they want them to be and I am on a night time pill of Glyburide to help my fasting numbers in morning but it really isn't doing much. I am seeing a specialist of course and they are just wanting me to keep my numbers in the same ranges. As they said since I am so far along they don't want to do anything drastic and just keep me trucking along provided baby is well, and she is.

At my appt last Monday she was 5.5 lbs and has a full head of hair they say. They gave me some pictures but umm she looks kinda like slimer in them.

He name has been finalized. We are not sharing at this point though because we are going to hear a lot of crap I predict. It is not a common name by any means. Google says only 21 people in the US have this name. Hahah   If anything it will just be a birth certificate name and she will go by a short version of the name.

Off to work on more stuff.  My day off and I am doing things bit by bit while I can. My dad will be in town in a few days and I am mega uncomfortable at this point of pregnancy AND still working 40 hours.  Not cool but the bills still gotta get paid.

The dreaded GD diagnoses.

I fought and fought over taking the glucose tests that are required in pregnancy to check for Gestational Diabetes. I "forgot" to remind my midwife to give me the orders and one appointment and then at the next I got them but they sat in my car with 2 other orders. My son sat on a leftover container that was on the seat and got chinese juice all over all three.  I did dry them out and used the two but gosh darn the 3rd for the glucose test was just to far gone ya know?

When I had my first appt with the MFM to do the level 2 ultrasound I mentioned my reluctance as I have past my last two kids and resented having to take it a 3rd time when I knew I was fine. She mentioned an alternate test that was just taking blood.  SOLD! Asked my midwife at next appointment if I could do that one after I explained the chinese food soaked orders. She said sure and gave me the order for that. I went and took it after Christmas and I thought that would be that. This one measures the blood glucose average over a three month period.  I was sure I would be fine!  Of course AFTER I took the test I researched and found out it wasn't great for detecting GD and not recommended for use for that. Whoops!  The MFM and midwife were ok with it so I figured I was ok with it. Well at my last appt the midwife was making faces as soon as she saw me pursing her lips and what not. She told me she had my results from blood work. I thought she meant the standard blood work (one of the chinese soaked orders) as it wasn't ready last time I was there. She said "6.6" and I said "Oh, my iron is that low now?" (I KNOW I have low iron but she has never addressed it) She was like umm no you have diabetes.  :THUD:

(typing break as it is time to check my blood glucose- alarm just went off on my phone)

Going to publish this for now and maybe add to it or do a new post later.  I am not feeling like typing currently but I don't want the post to sit here unpublished forever and ever.