Mommy Brain…

I have long heard about “mommy brain.” I heard it was slightly better than “pregnancy brain,” but I would probably never go back to my former self. This morning, I had the prime mommy brain scenario.

I have received many compliments lately about my weight loss — many people thinking that I am back to my pre-pregnancy size. No, I inform them, I still have several pounds to go. People tell me I should just lie anyway. My boss even told me that he thought I lost a “tremendous” amount of weight and I would waste away. This goes to show you how big I got. My big problem is the “muffin top.” After a month break from pilates, I noticed the muffin top got worse. (Thank goodness the new session starts tomorrow!)

Although determined to fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes again soon, I only fit into one pair of my pre-pregnancy jeans and my maternity pants are too big now. I started to get pretty sick of wearing pants that I had to leave unbuttoned. My sister gave me a bunch of her “big” pants now that she’s lost a lot of weight, but she’s two inches shorter than me and the pants may pass as capris in the summer, so I can’t wear them now. So I bought a pair of pants this past weekend — to my dismay — two sizes bigger. But I told myself no one else was going to see the size.

When I came in this morning, my boss commented, “Oh, you got new pants.” I thought, wow, they must look good on me if my boss noticed!

I said, “Why, yes, I did!”

He replied, “Yeah, the sticker is still stuck on the back of your left leg.”

Oh. And my new size in bold, white numbers too. I ripped the sticker off and muttered, “I had to get new pants — I’m too fat for my old ones.”

Thankfully, I came straight to work today instead of stopping for coffee.

Living With Excess

My cardio kickboxing instructor has seen my various body stages: pre-pregnancy, pregnancy (and majorly swollen), and — now — postpartum.  She always asks how Peyton is doing and we commiserate over being moms. She has two little ones herself.

Yesterday, she told me that I was looking good and believes that my working out while pregnant helped. (I’m not so sure about that myself.) I told her I still had a ways to go. Then she said, “Oh, you’ll lose the weight! The excess skin though…”

I had noticed the excess skin and have been putting on loads of body butter to keep it firm, hoping it will go back. My sister has shown me hers after losing a lot of weight, but I assumed it’s because she has three kids and had c-sections.

“No,” my instructor said. “The excess skin never goes away even after losing weight no matter how you delivered.”

Sometimes when I’m down and out about my changed body, I tell Peyton it’s all his fault. Usually he just smiles at me.

New Religion

Whenever I go over to my in-laws, there are more photos of Peyton tacked up in different parts of the house. Now there are so many that they’re not even in frames or taped up. Just placed around in various places: above the fireplace, the side table, the fridge,  and the bookshelf — which I call “the shrine.”

Yes, my in-laws have a new religion and its god is Peyton.

Memories…

This past weekend, we walked by BoConcept, a store we would have visited pre-parenthood.

“That store is for people without kids,” the hub said.

“Yup, it certainly is,” I said.

How things have changed!

(Meanwhile, we’re thinking of getting leather sofas for the living room because our current ones are ridden with so many spit-up stains.)

First New Year

We returned from our holiday trip intact and fairly untraumatized. We gave the little tyke some Benadryl before leaving DC and he slept for about an hour. Then we fed him and played, and he was in a very good mood. Just as we were preparing going down into Dallas, he fussed a little and fell asleep. He did have a hard time the first night sleeping at my sister’s because I suspect he didn’t know where he was. But we didn’t hold him to sleep, so he did some crying, which worked out great because he can pretty much fall asleep now on his own when we put him down to sleep. (Well, until the NEXT cold/illness.) On the return flight, we Benadryled him up again and he slept for an hour — quite soundly. He was in a pretty good mood when he woke up, but as we started to descend, he started screaming because of the pressure in the ears. I could feel it myself. Thankfully, there were three other babies on board, so we weren’t the only ones. Peyton fell asleep close to landing. That’s the good thing about letting him cry it out — he gets really tired!

The thing that traumatized us the most during our trip was the incessant whining emitted by my nephews. Not just one — but three! Man, if it wasn’t one thing, it was something else and someone always cried/fought/questioned. I asked the hub to get a vasectomy as soon as we returned home. (People always ask why it took us so long to have kids… this is why.)

I’ve never really been one to be big on New Year. I’ve never had resolutions. To me, it’s just another day.

But 2009 brings many new things. New President! (Big YAY!) Baby’s first new year. (He was in bed by 6:30 PM.) This is also first new year that the hub and I didn’t stay up to kiss each other when the clock struck midnight.  The hub wanted to try, but I said, “Sleep is so precious now.” He couldn’t argue with that. (Both in bed by 10:30 PM — even that’s a little late for us!)

And this morning, it appears that Peyton is cutting his first teeth (bottom front). He’s really growing up! (And cranky!)

Happy new year!