I missed a picture and I actually have a lot to say but not the time just quite yet. So I will leave you wish a picture of week 33 in Guatemala. 

Last week was full, this week was f-a-s-t. When I first was settling into being a stay at home mom there were many mornings when a tiny part of me would be filled with a certain terror as my husband readied himself for work. “How on Earth will we survive until dinner time?!?” It took a long time for the last remnants of that terror to fade. We have a great groove now. There’s less terror and never it seems enough time. Yesterday the kids were side by side lost in their own play. I stood out of view from the kitchen in awe of the peace and the quiet (especially since the drive home from school was less than quiet or peaceful. I think the yelling and tears were from being overheated and Ian joined in sympathy I can’t even remember).

  
I got my official mom hair cut this week. Maybe I shouldn’t say mom but birthday haircut. Ian has been pulling my hair and it was time for a change. My hair was similar when Lia was this age too. I think this concludes the “make-over.”

  
My husband and I were having a fitbit challenge this week. I thought I was pretty active running after the kiddos, turns out I’m not. It takes quite a bit of effort to get to 10k steps but once I started paying attention it wasn’t that hard to do and its made me more active than I ever would be without it. Plus, I won the challenge. Boo-yah. haha. It has actually been alot of fun. We race each other around the house and Lia cheers us on and switches teams to her fancy. Movement that is fun is always way easier to commit to. The scale hasn’t changed any but I feel like my composition is. The best bonus is I feel more energized.

I participated in a really cool project about Joyful Birth this week too. I can’t wait to see the finished work. It felt like sharing Ian’s birth story in this way was the final piece of healing I needed. I will share more about that as it unfolds. It was such an honor to be a part of it.

Its my birthday weekend. Looking forward to celebrating another trip around the sun.

Its been another interesting week. My body is morphing almost drastically, like it does at about this time in pregnancy just the other way around. (thank God) I think its been a combination of a cleaner diet, more yoga and time. I think all of these things needed to be in alignment for the scale to shift. I’ve been thinking alot about (sorry tmi) how many digestive issues I had while pregnant and lots of constipation almost like my intestines where in the way. Upping the fiber content to my diet with all the veggies and fruits has helped significantly to cleaning things out. It makes me wonder if why I held on to so much extra weight for so much longer the second time around is because it was all stuck in my colon. My chronic stomach aches that started after Lia was born are basicallly non-existant. Rehabbing my core made a huge difference in that.

I’ve also been thinking about how much clearer my mind feels and how eating foods that are green and alive give an overall better quality of energy. No jitters or crashing like with lattes. I actually had a latte yesterday and I didn’t even like how it tasted. (I can’t say the same thing for the cinnamon roll though and I don’t feel a bit bad about eating that ;))

Upping the yoga in my life has also made me feel more that a person and not “just” a mom. Its really important to my mental health to have that time as a person without attending to anyone else’s needs and it absolutely makes me a better mom.

Ian has morphed into a velcro baby almost over night. He’s completely fine playing or with someone else until he sees me and then it’s game over. Its almost comedic. He’s just about 7 months old and thinks he can walk. He’s close to crawling and probably would be already if he didn’t spend all of his time trying to stand. And this little meatloaf of mine finally rolled over today. He’s already got 3 razor sharp teeth too. Its flying by so unbelievably fast.

Week 30

This has been a super fascinating week in regards to finding the middle path. I mentioned the movie Fat, Sick and nearly Dead last week. We watched part 2 this week also and when we were on vacation we came across Michael Pollen’s In Defense of food on pbs. It’s generated interesting conversations in our house. The gist is simple: eat food, not too much, mostly plants. I really enjoyed the section on the morality of foods, you know good foods and bad foods, the “I really shouldn’t eat this even though I am.” If you eat mostly real live food you can eat whatever you want and it really shouldn’t matter and nothing has to be “bad.”

So this week I focused on adding to my diet and not at all about giving up. I incorporated either a spinach, berry, water smoothie or beet, apple, lime, cucumber water smoothie or both every day using my ninja blender. I also added greens to my morning eggs a few times and more veggies to our meals and less meat. 

Here’s what happened:

I had way more energy. If I started feeling tired in the start of the week I would make an afternoon green smoothie. I went to the bathroom way more. The scale dipped all the way down to 162. I didn’t crave sugar like I normally do. I forgot about my morning tea more than once and when I did have it, it didn’t give me the same satisfaction. This I found super interesting. I had the desire to move my body more. I did 4 yoga classes this week. I generally feel more happy and have more patience. My pants are getting loose. The leftover cinnamon roll coffee cake from Christmas that is in the freezer has no power over me at all whereas typically it would be gone by now. All of this was pretty immediate too.

I’d like to think the pregnancy weight after Lia just came off but the truth is I was working out with a personal trainer and also always worried about my milk supply. I’m focusing on doing things that make me feel good and it seems the excess is rolling off which is great and feels effortless and sustainable. It’s interesting to me that around this point of my pregnancy I started to get serious about being present for my baby and the birth. It feels like the same energy as I find my new normal. 

I’m late to write because Christmas and being sick and then road tripping to the smokeys without internet. So here is some reflections from the last two weeks.

Week 27

This week kicked my ace and was also a good reminder in consistency. I got the dreaded never ending cough we’ve been fighting off all fall. I was coughing so much it made it impossible to do my core rehab exercises. It always amazes me how hard you can work your body and how quickly it all falls apart when you stop. All my post partum issues came back like nothing ever happened, even the stuff I forgot about because it had been so long since I thought about or had to deal with it. So it was a good reminder that these tiny, short and sweet exercises are game changers, life changers and they are working. Also, I’m 6 months post partum and my body is still healing. The good news is muscle memory and my body sighed in relief and said yes engage that core and lift everything back up!

  
Week 28

Facebook reminded me on New Year’s Eve that 5 years ago I was childless and going through a major career shift. I had absolutely no idea just how much my life was about to change. I started a business on my own, I got engaged, pregnant and married, moved my business, had 3 more pregnancies, closed my office, and so much more. These past 5 years I’ve learned quite a bit and been stretched in ways I never thought I would be. It makes me excited to think of what the next 5 years might bring. 

  
Now that we’ve found a rhythm to life with 2 kids I’m looking forward to getting on my yoga mat on a much more regular basis and I’m looking forward to how much better I will feel because of that. I watched fat, sick and nearly dead last night and it was so inspiring. I was toying with the idea of juicing for Lia since she’s gotten so into juice and isn’t drinking enough water but this is bringing a whole new level of inspiration. I’m curious how that will all go and if you have a juicer you love and is easy to clean let me know about it! 

This week we went for our yearly wellness screening for our insurance. My weight was exactly the same a year ago at roughly 16 weeks pregnant. For some reason this felt really cool. I reached the goal I had in my head first for thanksgiving and then for Christmas. I haven’t changed anything really but I’m trusting my body is ready to let it go. It feels fantastic. My numbers were good last year but they were even better this year. Maybe this whole motherhood thing is good for me after all. Jk

I walked into Maurice’s, which I’ve never been to before and they dressed me up which I desperately needed and ended up with a Christmas outfit I would have never in a million years pulled off the rack let alone tried on. 

My little meatloaf is already 6months old 20 pounds and 27 inches. Now that he’s mastered sitting all he wants to do is stand and he can’t be bothered to roll over. It’s hard to believe this time last year we didn’t know him and now can’t imagine life without him.

  
My wish is if you are reading this you are finding some light (and magic!) in this darkest time of year. 

I know what professional burn out looks like for me and what to do to alleviate it and even prevent it. Its been much murkier as a full time parent. Should there even be such a term might have been a question I would have asked myself. I mean I love my kids and basically with a little cleaning and cooking mixed in I get to do fun things all day.

I recently went to an acupuncture conference of sorts and at the keynote speech everyone stood up and said who they were and what clinic they worked at. I was at a loss for words when it was my turn as I stood up nursing my 3 month old at the time and simply said, “I’m Sarah and I’m a mom.” I almost felt embarrassed and have had a slight identity crisis ever since. While I still treat people on a regular basis I do it to fit the needs of my family first and don’t really consider it “work.” Acupuncture and/or healing work is something that I need to do, like breathing, if I don’t my hands start to burn, literally burn. I always have needles with me because there is suffering every where and that is the beauty and simplicity of this medicine and why its still relevant. But do I consider it my job? No. I suppose its never been my job per say because I always loved working. The same could be true of motherhood. Both things are just parts of me but they aren’t the whole me.

This past week has been perhaps the most challenging weeks of my adult life. I won’t go into all the sordid details but in the end I’m thankful for it. I learned a lesson I’ve needed to embrace for quite some time now: you can do everything right and yet not prevent everything bad from happening, sometimes it just does. So if you are like me and have been walking around thinking you actually have that much power to prevent every hurt and inconvenience etc etc especially for your children take a deep breath with me right now, pat yourself on the back for loving so hard and remember that you can do everything right and stuff can still go awry and that’s ok, its not anyone’s fault. I also learned that I need to be taking way better care of myself so I can be the person that I am and want to be. That’s completely on me, its not on my husband or my kids or any other excuse I might have for why I haven’t been taking care of myself. It is essential. I’ve had this idea in my head that maybe I wasn’t even all the way conscious of that because I wasn’t waking up every morning going to a j.o.b. that what I do for our family doesn’t matter or is somehow less. But its not. It’s just not. This work is so important for so many reasons. And I saw through all these lessons this week and remembered that I didn’t give anything up to be home with my kids. It was a decision I labored over for months, if not years with my husband. This is what I wanted for my kids, for my family. This is what I want. No one is forcing me to be here, there is no need to be a martyr. Is it hard sometimes? Is it monotonous? Of course! Isn’t anything? When I look at my husband longingly as he gets dressed for work and walks out the door its not as exciting as it seems its just a different kind of hard. My husband is so awesome, he is so patient, and kind and forgiving. He has always been the first one to tell me I could do whatever it was that I wanted to do no matter how crazy the idea has been and especially when I didn’t think I could. I don’t think I tell him enough how glad I am that I know him and get to share this life with him and watch these kids grow together. He’s been the scapegoat to my unhappiness recently and that is all on me. I see it now, I haven’t been seeing anything lately but I do now.

And… after weeks of gaining and losing the same few pounds this week the scale went down to 168. Oh happy dance of joy.

Take care of yourself today, this week, always. Don’t wait until you melt down or get sick. Do something that makes you happy, that makes you feel like you, you’re worth it and your whole world will be better because you did.

We’ve reached the stage of milky smiles. Do you know the one when your nursling looks up at you and smiles the playful smile of love and gratitude and milk dribbles out the sides of his mouth before he latches back on back to business and I think to myself I don’t want this to ever end, this little creature so happy and safe in my arms. There were also moments of children whining in stereo not even in harmony and I think when will this end so I guess there is balance. 😉

I took a beautiful yoga class this morning. Usually I leave my mat feeling so in love with my body except lately it just makes me aware of how much my body is not what I want it to be. Today in downward facing dog I looked down and was slightly horrified at the goo of belly I saw. I internally cringed and then I had this thought, of course it’s goo. It’s a hollow goo cave where a whole person grew out of stardust and hope and it’s still goo because organs still need some space to find their way back to where they normally hang out. Did you know that process takes 18 months? And that relaxin stays in your joints for 6 months after the last time you nurse? So I spent the rest of class loving on my goo. Just as my body knew how to grow this person and birth him I will keep trusting that I will return to normal too even if it’s not on my time schedule. 

I have to first say what a joy and relief it was this week to be with my husband and kids for a whole week with no agenda. (And to sleep!) It was like a vacation just being able to co parent together and laugh, we laughed so much. I even went to a yoga class all on my own with one of my favorite teachers, it was such a treat.

It seems I sway bi polarly in intense extremes between loving my body and being so frustrated at not being at a different point along this journey physically. The scale just won’t dip past 170 despite my avoidance of the lattes. Then I look a little deeper and it’s never really about that. 

Lia has been asking tough questions lately about death and what happens. Those big questions that no one has answers for. My little turkey boy would have been one around this time. It’s an ache buried and embedded in so much joy. I looked at my son on thanksgiving and squeezed him tight. I feel so lucky to know my children and yet I think of my son that I knew if only briefly. How do you get over the pain of knowing someone only from the inside, knowing but never meeting? I think of those long heavy steps we took from the ER doors to our car and the hollow empty feeling that came with it. I was a mother again but didn’t know where my child was. I wonder would it have been better to see him? To take him with us? I know we did what in the moment felt best, and right. It was all so surreal. I wonder is he with my dad? Is my dad still old and overweight, is my child still a baby on that other side? Are they children together playing and laughing? Grief comes at such odd times. I know there is nothing I could have done and yet I feel responsible. So the work this week has been sitting with all that and mostly not so gracefully. And then tonight I taught a very serendipitous yoga class and for the first time in a long time felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be and it made my bruised heart smile.