Roller Coaster Life

Life is such a massive roller coaster. Lately there seems to be such an amazing amount of stressers going on. E is not gaining even close to enough weight and I am about to march into the clinic tomorrow and start negotiating to get her specialized care. She has put on all of 5 ounces in an entire month, won't eat baby food or rice cereal yet, and always has dark circles under her little eyes. What has me so upset is the obvious lack of alarms going off with my doctors here. When we had her weighed in not very long ago, they weighed her in at 10 lbs, 13 oz down from 11 lbs, 7 oz. only two weeks earlier. And you know what we got? "Give her rice cereal and baby food." Tah Dah. I honestly believe that when you have a 6 month old baby come into your office weighing massive ounces less than two weeks earlier, you should have them admitted and tests run. If not that much, at least put in the referral for a freaking specialist in pediatric GI. Something is wrong here and no one but me seems to be catching on to that here. Aside from getting her to a specialist, I am going to take the steps in getting her permanently moved to a civilian pediatrician. I need her seen by a doctor that deals solely with babies and children and can focus more closely on E. It is just such a frustration for me as her mother. All I want is for her to be healthy and well taken care of.
M's speech testing has rapped up and we received the results yesterday. She has a speech disability in her expressions. So, we will go in on Wednesday to sit down with the tester and she will walk through the results with us and explain what we need to do next to help M. I feel like I did the right thing taking her in for the testing even though no one told me to or said anything. I just noticed certain things about her communication and comprehension skills that seemed not at the same level as other children her age. Luckily, we found where the break down is and can start her on speech therapy and might even be able to get an IEP for her when she starts preschool. Just maybe we will be able to get her in with Head Start because of the results. If not, we will still be able to start nice and early with intervention and therapy.
G is talking finally! We have got her saying please, thank you, welcome, baby, dada, mama, bye bye, I love, and Mel for M. It is awesome because she waited about six months longer than Melody to start talking. Of course G was walking months before M had at her age, so I guess it all evens out. She is just such a joy and we just love them all so much. Even in my most miserable state, I can still see so much to be happy and grateful because of D and the girls.
Speaking of miserable state, I had myself a darn good meltdown. I think that life kind of builds up on me without my noticing and the next thing I know, I am a disaster. I started crying and I didn't know exactly why, but I couldn't make it stop either. Almost like I had to decompress. Oh well, that is life. Tomorrow is my third weigh-in since we started Weight Watchers and I am quite nervous. My mono has caught up with me big time and I took an entire week off of exercising to recover my energy stores. So, I know my results will be poopy compared to the first week when I was working out like a crazy person. On the other hand, D is rocking the weight loss. He was at 10 pounds lost after his last weigh in, so YAY! I can honestly say that I am not disappointed in myself compared to him, I am just excited for him.
All in all, things really are going well. I had my first Mary Kay party and did really well considering it was my very first time. The girls are wonderful and deeply loved and D and I are very happy. There are challenges lurking, but I know we can take them on no problem if our faith is plugged in. Until next time...

WOO HOO!

So, today was my weigh-in day for Weight Watchers. I was grumpy and thinking there was no way after everything I have tried that this would be THE ONE. But, I sucked up my impending doom and got out the scale that is in a very special hiding place that doesn't allow temptation. (Which is by-the-way hidden in the top of my closet.) Now, let me say, I have been swimming every fricken day for an hour at a time and all I had accomplished was a stupid 4 pounds in a long month. This had made me very leary of that evil and disappointing scale, but I was brave and got it out. Okay, drumroll please...... I lost 6 POUNDS since I started this last Wednesday. That is 6 pounds in 6 days just from changing my awful eating habits. I had no idea just how toxic my eating was until I stopped eating that way and started the Weight Watchers. I know that a pound a day is not typical weight loss, but I think it happened that way this last week because I started drinking tons of water so I stopped retaining fluids. I have been eating tons of fruits and vegetables too, which is quick and easy on the body to digest and burn. The only meat I have really eaten has been ground turkey and yummy shrimp. I just am loving finally having real results like I have been dying to enjoy since I started this whole weight loss challenge. I can eat anything I want, but it all counts for points depending on calories, fat grams, and dietary fiber grams and you are only allowed so many points in a day. So, I can throw away all my points on one meal of indulgence or I can eat smart and be full all day and still have points left over at the end. Even better, I am allowed so many indulgence points in a week so I can have a nice dinner out with D if I want and not have to feel guilty about it. Or we can go to the movies and have a soda or candy. I just love it. It is something that has actually worked for me and not left me desperate for my old faves. Even D has lost 7 pounds in the last six days. That is AMAZING!
On another happy note, I have been timing my 500 breaststroke since I started swimming a few weeks ago. Before I started, I asked D what the Navy requires to be passing for a 500 and he told me 12 minutes, 50 seconds. So I did my first 500 that day and came out at 12 minutes, 20 seconds. I was stoked! That was after 8 YEARS of no swimming and I was able to just do it that fast. So, I have been working on that often and a week later, I was able to do that 500 in 12 minutes flat. Again, I was stoked. Now today, at about three weeks from the first time I did it in 11 minutes, 45 seconds. That means I have shaved 35 seconds in the space of three weeks all by myself. That is huge for me to be able to show for my fitness level like that. How exciting! Well, I just wanted to document my progress and maybe send out hope to anyone else struggling like I did for so many years. I know I was pregnant almost all of it, but I am officially at my pre-pregnancy weight for my last two babies right now and it feels great! Now I am going to work to be in the 150's for the first time in almost four years! Only 3 pounds to go and I will be there! Wow. It just feels good to be here.