J Strizzy

The Incredible Shrinking Woman? I'm Working On It

Some of my favorite bloggers have posted recently about successfully losing weight, and I think it's been the kick in the pants I've needed.

I gained 50 pounds during my pregnancy.  I lost the first 35 within a few weeks after the birth, since that was all baby (duh), placentas, amniotic fluid, and the approximately 327 million gallons of water I was retaining in the rest of my body.  Seriously, my legs and ankles and feet were so swollen for so long that I wore nothing but flip-flops for the final month, and had trouble walking down stairs because my ankles wouldn't bend properly.  I must have gotten used to it because I remember looking down at my ankles one morning a couple of weeks after I gave birth and thinking they looked too thin to hold up my body. 

Anyway, I haven't lost much more weight in the last couple of months.  There's still a small amount of fluid remaining in my hands (I can only tell because my rings still don't fit most of the time), but mostly it's just good old-fashioned fat that I will have to get rid of the old-fashioned way.  I've had trouble doing anything about it up to this point because (a) I didn't quite know how to go about eating to lose weight when I'm also nursing two babies and don't want to shortchange them, and (b) I have very little time to shop for and cook (or even eat) meals or to exercise.  Especially since I've now gone back to work.

So I've started making an effort; I realized that none of my work pants or skirts fit and so I had to go buy a few new ones in my current larger size just to have something to wear to the office.  Like Not Martha, I'm using the 30 Day Shred.  I've only done it a few times so far, so no significant results (yet!), but it's a good hard workout and I feel great afterward.  The workout is only 20 minutes, which sounds really short, but that's about all I can manage in between feedings or after work if I have to also fit in a shower after.  And I go for walks with the babies when I can -- last night it was raining and cold but I really wanted to get out of the house, so we went to the mall where I pushed the double stroller around for an hour at a good brisk pace.  

I'm keeping track of what I eat and trying to eat foods with more fiber and protein, and less sugar and other crap.  I'm trying to drink lots and lots of water, which is not only better for me than soda or whatever, but also good for milk production and the cold I'm trying to shake.  I'm trying to be mindful of what I'm eating, only eating things that I really enjoy and not stuff that just happens to be in the pantry or in the office.

And in the few weeks since I started all this, I've lost about 3 pounds, and some of the new pants I bought two weeks ago are already too big.  I'm on my way.

Believe It Or Not, I Knit Something

From the popular Saartje's Bootees pattern, in some leftover Koigu.

You don't want to know how many photos I took before I got one where both feet were still.

Remember That Time We Almost Went To Rhinebeck.?

Back in July, hugely pregnant and optimistic, I made a hotel reservation for Rhinebeck, just in case I felt up to traveling 6 hours and traipsing around the festival with two-and-a-half-month-old twins.  My mom said she'd go with me to help with the babies and get her first go at Rhinebeck.

Then at some point in the last couple of months, I got it in my head that Rhinebeck was the weekend of October 24.  Not October 17, its actual date.  Last Friday I mentioned to a friend that the babies and I and my mom were going to Rhinebeck "next weekend," and this friend gently let me know I'd gotten it wrong.  It wasn't until later that evening that it occurred to me that just maybe I'd made the hotel reservation for the correct weekend nonetheless - which of course I had, and my credit card had already been charged since mom and I had failed to show before the cancellation deadline. 

But it turned out to be a good thing I screwed up (the hotel charge notwithstanding).  For one, I keep reading about how cold it was, and I wouldn't have wanted the babies to be outside too much if it was that bad.  And for another, Saturday morning we learned of a death in the family; had we been at Rhinebeck we would have left immediately to drive home, and wouldn't have made it to the festival anyway.

So maybe we'll try again next year, and in the meantime we might drive out to the Shenandoah Fiber Festival this weekend - it's close enough to be a day trip, it'll be less crowded, and Sunday is supposed to be sunny and in the mid-60s.

Things I Have Learned In My First Month As A Mama

1. Babies' clothing sizes are meaningless, and no more consistent than those of women's clothing.  Newborn?  0-3 months?  Whatever.  Even the brands that give weight ranges for their sizes are useless.
2. The folds of an infant's neck can be deeper than the Mariana Trench and hide truly impressive amounts of dried milk.
3. That quiet contemplative pause during an otherwise vigorous nursing session?  Someone's pooping.
4. One can go from feeling like a wonderfully natural parent who can soothe their little one's woes just by holding them, to feeling like an incompetent doofus who can't for the life of them figure out what's causing that same little one such horrible distress (gas? hunger? uncomfortable carseat strap? unpleasant noise? Paula's not coming back to American Idol?  WHAT????), all in the space of ten minutes.
5. I really miss working.  I love that I can spend this time with the munchkins and I know that I'll miss them terribly when I go back to work, but I also miss my job.  I miss the people, the work, and the feeling of engaging in intellectual discussion on a regular basis.  Yesterday we started talking about something related to my job that was in the news, and I really liked using my brain that way again.  Ask me again in two months though, when I'm back at work...
6. It is totally possible to eat a bowl of pasta one-handed.  It is equally possible to sort through the mail one-handed, to read a book, operate a digital camera, or type a blog post.

In other news, the swelling in my hands is nearly gone, so I can knit again!  I'm plugging away at the baby blanket I started months ago, but just to celebrate I may try to whip out something fast like a pair of booties or something.

Strizzy: The Next Generation

The babies are here!  They were born a little over two weeks ago, and we're only just starting to catch our breath.  A boy and a girl, born a few weeks ahead of schedule and absolutely beautiful. 

Beautiful but rather small because they were early; our little girl came home with us when I left the hospital, but our even littler boy only came home from the NICU a few days ago.  In the interim we spent most of our time at the (internetless) hospital so we could be with him, feed him, watch him grow.  Now our family is all home together, and enjoying getting to know each other and catching up on sleep. 

And for those of you who might be wondering, my hands are still numb but they don't hurt anymore, so yes, I've been doing a little knitting here and there...

Counting Down

Eleven more days of work.

One car seat is already installed in my car and the other one will go in any day now.

The nursery is being painted this weekend, and the cribs are being delivered in the next week or two.

My parents will be in town in a week and a half.

I've made a list of what to pack for the hospital, though I haven't actually packed any of it yet. 

My doctor's appointments are now weekly. 

The babies are now more than five pounds each.

We're getting close...

I can't wait, and yet I'm terrified.

I Miss Knitting Too

I have a new pattern book I haven't been able to knit anything from (well, half-ownership -- Mom and I bought it to share), a couple of lace shawl kits, my not-even-a-quarter-finished baby blanket, a twist collective gift certificate to use, and a complete set of Violently Domestic sock patterns that I won in Claudia's MS Ride Prize Basket, all just sitting and waiting patiently for me (and that's just the recent stuff, not even considering all the stash).  I don't know what's come over me, but for some reason it's just hit me very hard in the past few days how much I miss knitting. 

It's especially frustrating because right now I have plenty of time and motivation to knit, whereas I know that for some indeterminate length of time after the babies are here I will have neither time nor energy to do so. 

I mean, yeah, I know I probably won't miss it then, what with getting to meet our little ones and learning to be a mama, and I am impatient as all hell for that.  But in the meantime, I really wish I could make the time pass more enjoyably and come out with something useful or at least pretty to boot.

I Miss My Ankles

These kids better be really cute.

Surreal, Bittersweet, Satisfying

Over the weekend I cleaned out a closet in what is going to be the babies' room.  Apparently when we moved in that's where I stashed all the stuff I wanted to hang onto but didn't ever really need to look at or use. 

I found high school yearbooks, my college diploma, photos from when I was a camp counselor, journals I kept sporadically during college and law school, holiday and birthday cards and thank-you notes received over the years, VHS tapes (not sure we even still have a VCR), an old day planner, and a crossword-a-day calendar from I think 2002.

Looking through my high school yearbooks in the process of preparing for our twins' arrival was a strange feeling.  Notes from people I don't remember, interspersed with inside jokes I don't get anymore, made me feel as if the person who owned that yearbook was someone else entirely.  One inscription brought me to tears, from a friend I was very close with in high school and then kept in touch with on and off until he passed away a couple of years ago.  But the stiff-sprayed bangs and pegged jeans in all the pictures brought a smile back to my face.

The college journals also made me sad, in a different way.  They also felt like they belonged to a different person, an unhappy and insecure person, who put up with lousy relationships far longer than she should have.  Apparently I only wrote in a journal when I was upset and depressed, so reading through them gave me a disturbing picture of myself as someone who was never happy.  And yet I know that's not accurate, so along with the old day-planner, the journals went in the trash.

The day-planner did have one useful item though.  I've long kept lists of books I've read and books I want to read, most recently on goodreads.com.  One of the books on my to-read list on goodreads is A Child's Book of True Crime, by Chloe Hooper.  According to the list of books I read in 2002 that was in the planner, I've already read it.  I guess my taste in books has stayed consistent, even if the book itself didn't make much of an impression.  And it does feel satisfying to check a book off the list...

Tell Me What To Read

Wow, it's been almost a month?  Well, damn.

I'm still here, still pregnant, still can't knit.  Which is going to make the 8-hour (each way) car trip we're embarking on this weekend rather boring and unproductive.  Not to mention the four days of our visit to my parents, that are expected to be almost entirely cold and rainy, and would therefore be prime knitting time.  Instead I'll only be able to watch my mom knit cute little baby stuff. 

I, on the other hand, am planning to spend a good deal of that time looking through the big plastic tubs full of children's books that my parents saved from when my siblings and I were little and which have been waiting patiently for new owners all these years.  We were all big readers and my mom used to be a children's librarian, so there is a pretty good collection. 

But my knowledge of children's books pretty much stops about 15 years ago, when I stopped babysitting and my youngest sibling outgrew picture books.  What are your favorites that we'll have to make sure to find for our kids?