Six weeks postpartum

This morning I had my six weeks postpartum check-up with my Ob/Gyn and I am "all clear" to resume my normal, every day life, including exercising. My tear has completely healed and my uterus has shrunk completely. 

Best news: I have lost 20lbs!

I only gained 7lbs while pregnant and am grateful that breast feeding, healthy eating, and my weekly walks have helped me lose the baby weight plus 13lbs more. I'm really dedicated to getting into better shape and honestly, I would like to lose 22lbs more. So, I have added a weight-loss ticker on my sidebar to help hold myself accountable and plan to weigh myself once a month and update you all here.

Most of the appointment was just discussing how I feel and to discuss birth control. And I feel wonderful physically, emotionally and mentally with no red flags for postpartum depression. I feel I am handling having a newborn, having two children, being a stay at home mom (going on six years), and preparing to send Emily off to Kindergarten well; it helps that Nolan has started sleeping 6+ hours in a single stretch at night, is an excellent breast-feeder, and rarely cries, and that David and even Emily is a huge help!

I am still taking my prenatal and DHA vitamins daily, drinking plenty of water and skim milk along with a little caffeine, eating 5-6 small meals a day that are pretty healthy and well-balanced (though I need more whole grains!), and trying to get outside every day even just to supervise Emily playing because I'm holding Nolan. I'm excited to start exercising and get back into the classes I loved at my health club (I just have to get Nolan to take a bottle first!) and I'm really looking forward to leaving home more often with both kiddies to do something fun! I'm pumping pretty regularly, around 8am, 11am, and 2pm, immediately after nursing Nolan and laying him down for a nap. I can get five to six ounces in just 5 minutes and have a stash large enough that it exceeded my freezer's capacity so, it's been moved to the deep freezer in the garage. Crazy how much milk I have and can pump so easily with Nolan.

I don't have and haven't had any pain in weeks and I'm happy to have my dry hair and skin back (both were too oily while pregnant). I feel great about my postpartum body though hope I can tone the squishy parts back to life and recently took the very last maternity garment off it's hanger and packed it away for a friend. Old Navy came to my rescue this last week with several very flattering, very light-weight shirts that aren't too fitted to help hide my squishy parts I mentioned earlier yet, they don't look like lounge wear.

I take David everywhere with me these days as leaving home with both kids is just too overwhelming for me still, especially because Nolan isn't on any sort of schedule and breast-feeding is still a lengthy process at this point. It's actually really nice to spend so much time as a family and I know David loves being such a help.

So, that's it for now!