A little piece of heaven

Most of my updates are about the kids…this one is going to be about me and something I’m proud of.

While I was pregnant with Gryffin I decided to take better care of myself. I started eating differently and exercising. I know this will sound weird but I ended the pregnancy with Gryffin at the same exact weight that I started. The doctor wasn’t worried because the baby was growing very nicely.

As of today, I have lost 20 lbs from the point of where I started, and ended, the pregnancy. I am so proud of this accomplishment.

It hasn’t been too hard to shed the pounds. I cut out all unhealthy carbs – I only eat carbs in the forms of vegetables and natural foods. So my diet consists of proteins (beef, chicken, fish, turkey, ham), cheese, nuts, and loads of vegetables. And I mean TONS of vegetables.

Just as important has been exercising. I started swimming and doing yoga during the pregnancy. I invented a 30 min yoga routine out of poses that I have learned, and do it at home when I have a pocket of time. About 3-4 times / week I go swimming to the city pool and do 10 min’s of freestyle, 20 min’s of a water polo workout consisting of tons of treading.

Changing my diet and exercising has caused so many positive changes in my life. I feel better, I am sleeping better, my mind is more settled, I am more patient, I am generally happier.

The only problem – I now need a whole new wardrobe. It’s the best kind of problem to have 🙂 As I haven’t been good about taking care of myself in the past, it’s a major achievement for me to take care of myself while having 3 children who have such intense needs. So I am proud. Thanks for reading while I toot my own horn 🙂

It seems like just yesterday that I was in the hospital about to give birth to Gryffin. Now he is 2 months old, about 12 pounds, triple chinned, chunky and cute as can be.

In the last week or two he has fully woken up to the world. He is playing in his toy gym, batting at objects, kicking and moving around.

He is making sounds, AGU being his favorite, but he experiments with lots of other noises. He likes hearing his own voice.

Already he’s been in the pool. The video and pictures below were captured during his very first few minutes in the pool, in his whole life:

His favorite thing to do is take a bath. He pushes on his feet to stand up, splashes, likes to float, loves feeling the water all over him.

He is already a smiley boy. He smiles a lot – at me when I baby talk to him, when I tickle him, when he sees his sister, when he’s in the swing. He is the biggest, cutest smile.

He is definitely a water boy. Really enjoys taking baths and getting in the pool. You can see it took him a minute to understand what was happening. His expression that first time was so serious. But by the second time he was all smiles.

Exhausted after swimming, and taking a nap in the hammock after his workout.

I had everything ready – the hospital bag was packed, charger and cell phone in the car, both boys ready, blog updated with prayer request, my mom had taken Isabelle to her house…all that was left was to put the boys in the car and drive to the hospital.

Something told me to wait 10 minutes. I gave him a few sips of juice, and he didn’t vomit. A few minute before I’d gotten a text message from my Reiki master, whom I’d asked to do a distance healing session on Nathan. Let me clarify – until now, I wasn’t a big believer in distance healing. I’ve heard people claim it works, but it just seems a bit farfetched. But desperate times call for desperate measures, so I asked Jeff (reiki master) for help, and just as I was leaving for the hospital, he started a healing session on Nathan. So I waited 10 minutes..and another 10…another sip of juice…and another 10. An hour and a half passed and Nathan hadn’t thrown up the juice…he woke up from the lethargic, distant fog and started moving around a little. His color changed. 2 hours later I thanked my lucky stars, prayer warriors, and reiki master and prepared to settle in for a long night.

It was a scary moment. Nathan was laying on the couch watching TV when, without rhyme or reason, he started throwing up. He was badly positioned so he could’ve aspirated and choked on the vomit. My brother in law’s wife died this way, by vomiting while having a seizure, so you can imagine my panic. He kept on throwing up for a while, and looked like he was struggling to breathe. I gave him a bath and tried giving him water, juice and pedialyte, all of which he threw up. Which is when the tough decisions come in – go to the hospital? Keep him at home? I called his doctor – no answer. His homeopath – no answer. Finally my reiki master responded, and saved the day.

Friday night he didn’t sleep a wink, he was still very dehydrated and uncomfortable. But by Saturday afternoon he was feeling better and was able to eat a piece of toast with nutella and drank lots of juice. Today most of the symptoms were gone and he drank 4 juice pouches, and ate a pancake for breakfast, In-N-out burger and fries for lunch, cookie for snack, and mac-n-cheese for dinner. Thank you God.

All is well in Nathan-land again.