Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...

Today I had the daunting task of  trying (emphasis on "trying") to find myself a bathing suit. Never before has this been a daunting task, as pre-marriage/pre-pregnancy, my weight maxed out at all of 125 lbs. No, I've never been super model skinny, but I've also never been overweight - at all.

In fact, I can go as far as to say that I have never once felt insecure in my body... ever. Well, until now.

So, my shopping trip: I checked out Bikini Village (the name itself should have been my first clue!) with no luck. Sears had about 5 bathing suits, all aging me about 60 years. The Bay had none. Wal-Mart had ones that were made for a pre-pubescent 13 year old. Finally, exhausted, feeling very pale and very large, I asked for help.

After dragging myself (and Jon and Poppy - both wonderful shoppers, might I add) around town desperately trying to find a magical bathing suit that will make me look the way I used to (minus the stretch marks and extra pounds), I got a notification on my BlackBerry from Facebook that said:

"I've got to say that judging on recent appearances, you look better now than before you got pregnant!~ Embrace it - you are glowing and gorgeous, as only motherhood can make you!!"

You know what? She's right. I still feel like she's completely delusional because when I look in the mirror, a 'glowing and gorgeous' woman is most certainly not what I see. But, still, she's right.

(Don't get me wrong, by the way - I don't think I'm some hideous Frankenstein relative or something! My body is just a lot different than how it used to be!)

I've said before many times, "How can a woman feel fat after being pregnant?! You drop like 30 pounds in a couple of weeks!" But now I get it. I still feel like that 115 lb teeny bopper (as my Grandma would say!), but I don't have her body anymore!

I gave life to a beautiful little princess I love with all of my heart. And given the chance, including the stretch marks and extra pounds, I would, and hope to, do it over again in a heartbeat. Nothing, and I mean, nothing, compares to the love a mother has for her baby.

So moms, "Embrace it - you are glowing and gorgeous, as only motherhood could make you!"

Three cheers for baby induced stretch marks!!!

:)

Silly People...

A good friend and fellow mom and I went to the mall the other day. Neither of us needed anything, but both of us were eager to get out of the house, so we did about a million laps around the mall. Good times! Poppy slept a full 3 hours (while we walked), and Paige melted the hearts of every woman who walked by us. She is adorable.

Anyway, funny story.

As I walked up to the counter of Orange Julius to get myself a deeeeelicious smoothie, the man behind the counter smiled in a very friendly manner and welcomed me to O.J. After I ordered, and as he was making my smoothie, he tried to make small talk.

"So... is it a girl...?"

Now let me paint a picture for you of just how ridiculous this question is. For anyone who knows me,  you know that Poppy has a pink car seat. She also has a pink blanket, ALWAYS a pink outfit, a pink toque, and a pink soother. If I could possibly put any more pink on her, I would. Mostly to avoid awkward comments like these.

Actually, now that I've painted you a picture, now let me show you a picture.

She would have looked something like this. Except, instead of wearing white, she was wearing pink.

Now please, please, please, if you are one of these people who regularly defends people who ask these RIDICULOUS questions... please don't! Not this time. It was TOO obvious!!! Haha.

I smiled, and said: "Yep! She's a girl." as if I'd never heard a more reasonable question in my life.

Baby Drama

The last couple of weeks have been... interesting... to say the least. To futher elaborate: the last couple of weeks have been agonizing, amazing, funny, entertaining, heartwarming, beautiful, sleep deprived, heartbreaking, and full of memories.

Jon and I went to London a couple of weeks ago to visit Grandma! It was her first time meeting Poppy, and therefore we were all quite excited for the trip! Now, Poppy is used to our Culligan water for her bottles, and frankly, I didn't think there would be a problem if we used Grandma's water for a weekend. Well, Poppy was fine all weekend and had a wonderful time meeting her Grandma. However, as soon as we arrived home (or shortly there after) she started spitting up like crazy.

Poppy spits up sometimes... I think most babies do. But this was the exception to that rule. She wouldn't STOP spitting up. It was constant! She wore about 5 different outfits a day, *reminds me of me!* but not because she wanted to be stylish (though I'm certain she did!). It was because she drenched every outfit in formula. Yuck. Poor baby!

One night, as I got overly emotional to my mom (what else is new!?), she suggested we go get gripe water and soy formula. I was lactose intolerant as a baby, and since the spitting up didn't stop after a normal amount of time, we thought we'd try soy.

Long story short: Gripe water worked, soy was returned, gripe stopped working, I regretted my decision, bought different formula (not soy), spitting up got worse than ever, tried to return un-used formula, cried in Wal-Mart as they told me I couldn't, went back to old formula, spitting up lessened, Jon tried to return Wal-Mart formula (didn't cry!), didn't work, I gave up, formula is in my trunk. I tried.

That's just the formula aspect of these last weeks! Poppy got a cold... and 'an eye infection'. (Or so I thought!)

Have you ever heard a 5-7 week old baby sneeze and sniffle and cry and cough? It's awful. Probably especially when it's your baby, but it's horrible. I cried. She cried. We all cried.

Wow, I cry a lot apparently! Thank you, hormones.

Okay... I'm blabbing.

I'm going to put it this way. I'm thankful the sniffling has stopped, Poppy has started sleeping, I have started sleeping as a result, I have stopped crying, the spitting up is muuuuch less... and Jon is done classes today!

Wooooooooohoooooooo!!! :)