Tag Archives: Mom life

Post Baby Hair Loss

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I guess it’s a common thing for moms to lose some of their hair post baby. I’ve had friends have hair come out in massive chunks. I’m not sure what I’m doing differently but my hair hasn’t fallen out any more than it’s usual shedding. May hair actually looks better now than when I was pregnant. With my first baby I never had any hair loss problems either.

I continue to take my prenatal vitamins as well as my fish oil. Even though I’m not pregnant, the prenatal vitamins have that extra bit Camden and I need while I’m still nursing him. Outside of those two vitamins I workout, drink lots of fluids, and eat lots of protein. I know protein aids in the hair growth process so maybe that mixed with my continued consumption of iron, zinc, etc in my prenatal vitamin is what helped keep my hair strong and full.

If that’s not it, then I guess I have my luck to thank!

Judging a child by their size

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My mom told me a friend warned her that people assume more of big kids. What that means is, kids large for their age. I didn’t quite understand this at first because I’ve always been a smaller person. People only expected more of me because of my ability not my size.

My 2 year old is in the 98th percentile and has been since he was born. He stands as tall as some 4 year olds. More times than I care to count, I’ve had a mom say to me “he’s not talking in full sentences yet?” When I explain that he’s only 2 and has a handful of words, they get a shocked look on their face and say “oh I thought he was older than that.” I just sort of nod my head and smile.

I understand now what my moms friend meant. I try not to get frustrated with it or let it make me think my kid needs to be further ahead than he is. He’s only 2! And, every child is different. Ryder has always done things at his own pace but he’s always hit the milestones.

It’s hard ignoring people and their comments but when it comes to him I try really hard. Every kid is different. That’s what I keep telling myself 💙

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Judging weekends

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It was a long weekend judging High School cheer nationals. But I have no complaints. I enjoy doing it and I loved seeing the great teams that were there competing. 📖

Monday’s are hard after a weekend of judging. The food they serve us while judging isn’t my normal so my stomach gets all thrown off. Waking up Monday I always feel bloated, achy and slow. Sitting for 12+ hours a day judging definitely takes a toll on your body. We aren’t built to sit that long. The body needs to move and get blood flowing. I do my best to stand or move around for a minute between teams but sometimes it’s just not enough and I still end up sore and achy the next day. 😫

On Saturday I managed to add more pain to that already lingering soreness…… I was tired but knew I needed to stand to help with circulation. So during a break I stood up and just put one knee on a chair so I could sort of stand and lean. Well, I wasn’t paying attention to the type of chair. It was a folding chair. So when I put my knee on the chair and added some weight, the chair gave, seat flipped and I went down! My left leg went through the back side of the chair, front leg stayed at the front of chair and my upper body folded down the left side of the chair to the floor. I was literally laid out on the chair, dangling and stuck. I couldn’t do anything but just laugh at myself. Thankfully a few of the other judges helped me up before they started laughing. I have a lovely bruise on my left leg, and sore inner thigh and stomach from the impact. 😂🤦🏼‍♀️

It was a good weekend. I enjoy judging. It’s my way to have a hand still in the cheer world without being fully involved again. However, as much as I enjoy judging on the weekends, I’m happy to be home to my boys and back on a normal schedule. 🗓

Cardio vs Weights

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Pretty proud of the progress in these pics. The one on the left is from 2014. I did two hours of cardio a day (one in the gym and one walking the dog), little to no weights and was super restrictive with my diet. I weighed my food, counted calories and avoided oils, salts, sugar, etc.

The picture on the right is current. I do all weights, very little cardio (used as a cool down) and eat what I want (within reason.) Plus add in taking care of an infant and chasing around a toddler as my extra exercise. My diet consists of lots of protein, veggies, fruit, carbs, etc. I don’t avoid anything. I have something sweet maybe twice a week. I don’t drink sodas or juice like drinks, but honestly I’ve never been a fan of them so that makes it a bit easier.

My degree is in Sports Sciences. I took nutrition and biomechanics classes for years. I knew better than to do two hours of cardio and diet restrict. But I still did it. When I was in my 20’s I was impatient. I wanted quick results. Now at 34, I’ve learned when it comes to health and fitness you have to be patient. I’m finally taking my own advice. The advice I gave to people for years but ignored myself. Better late than never! Lol

Independence

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Did you know that as a child becomes more independent, sometimes a mother will non-consciously look for issues to feel more needed?

Mind you, this does not happen to every mother. But it is a very common thing to have happen. It’s understandable that it does. It’s human nature to like to feel needed and wanted. Especially when you’ve had someone like a child, who was so dependent on you for so long, go from heavy dependence to independence. I can understand how it’s a hard switch for the parent.

Sadly this is something that doesn’t just happen once. It’s something that happens often over a child’s life. A baby goes from needing to be carried everywhere, to learning to crawl and eventually walk. Toddlers move into a stage where they start to learn how to do things on their own, so they want to do EVERYTHING on their own. And this need for independence continues through the tween, teen and early adult years.

I can understand why being a mom is hard now. Going from being needed, to not being needed as much or at all is a hard transition. It definitely can take a toll on you emotionally! 🙁

Christmas with kids

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I thought Christmas was exciting as a child, but no one told me how much fun it is when you have a child. Seeing the excitement of the holidays on their face just melts your heart!

My oldest is obsessed with Christmas lights. He gets SO excited when he sees them. He loves to look out the window every night at the neighbors lights. You’d think they put up different lights each night by how excited he gets to see them each time. But no, it’s the same lights every night. It’s so cute!

He isn’t 100% sure about Santa but he knows he’s associated with Christmas and points to him anytime he sees something with Santa on it.

My kids are still young so they don’t exactly associate gifts with Christmas. Which is super humbling because here they are getting excited about the lights, decorations, etc, vs the size of the presents or how many there are. Everything with them is so innocent and sweet right now. It makes you just want to freeze time and stay here in this moment forever! ❤️

Toddler Struggles

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The start to yesterday’s temper tantrum was thanks to Ryders fingers……

His fingers couldn’t reach to the bottom of the raisin box to get the last few raisins to eat. This is where the tantrum began. It caused a full body drop to the floor, followed by rolling. It almost looked like he was practicing the “stop, drop and roll” we learned in elementary school for when we ever caught on fire. So naturally the visual and memory of that just made me laugh. Well, if you’ve ever laughed at a mad toddler, you know it’s a BAD idea. This made the tantrum even worse, and louder. He decided to throw the raisin box at me because I laughed at him. The box hit me causing the stuck raisins to break free and fly all over the floor. The dog came running into the kitchen because she thought something was wrong with him thanks to all the noise he was making. She saw all the raisins on the floor and began to eat them. So of course this caused the tantrum to continue further, because now his raisins are gone.

Mind you this went on for a good 10-15 minutes

Lesson learned for mom: put raisins in a bowl and never laugh at a mad toddler 🤦🏼‍♀️

Making time for the doctor

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Something I’m trying to get better about is doctors visits. Especially ones to my dermatologist. Last week I went to the dermatologist for my yearly skin check. She told me I had 3 spot on my body she was worried about. One was on my shoulder, one on my back and the other on my arm. They did a biopsy on all 3 and sent it off to the lab to check.

I’ll be honest, I had a tinge if fear in the back of my mind. I know I’ve done a number on my skin over the last few years. Especially in my teens and early twenties. I was an idiot back then about skin care. You couldn’t pay me to wear sun screen and I went to the tanning bed religiously. I was so stupid. 🤦🏼‍♀️ It wasn’t till I heard about a girl I went to college with getting skin cancer (she was in her 20’s) that I had a major reality check! If someone that young could get it, I obviously wasn’t in the clear! No joke, the day I heard about her, I went to the store and bought spf 50 and a face lotion that included spf for every day wear. I also stopped going to tanning beds. I switched over to self tanner and airbrush tans instead!

Last week when the doctor said she was worried about some spots, a little voice in my head said “you have no one to blame but yourself.” (Lol I’m pretty hard on myself) Worst case scenario ran through my head. What if I had skin cancer? Will it be curable? Is this how I go? What will happen to my family if I die? Will they be ok without me? Literally this all ran through my head in a matter of seconds. However, I made my attempt at pushing the thoughts out and just focusing on my kids in that moment. They’re always a happy thought for me. I didn’t want to let results of a test that I had no control over and knew nothing about yet consume me.

Luckily for me my biopsy results came back negative for skin cancer! THANK YOU JESUS! While I know the treatment of cancers have advanced, it’s still a scary thought. I do wish I’d been smarter about skin care when I was younger. However, what’s done is done. No take backs unfortunately. Lol So I’ll do the best I can now to prevent any further damage. I’m also attempting to instill positive habits in my kids regarding skin care. I don’t want them to ever have a scare like I did. I want them to be perfectly happy and healthy! 💙

Toddler Finds

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Last night while I was trying to rock the baby to sleep, my 2 year old walked in with a loaf of bread and handed it to me. You would have thought he had found buried treasure by the proud look on his face. I don’t know what he thought it was, but he sure thought it was something important that I needed that minute! 😂 I’ll never understand the toddler mind 🤦🏼‍♀️

What others see….

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A friend of mine posted a quote the other day that got me thinking……”Your body is a reflection of your lifestyle.” 🤔

If someone I didn’t know was asked what kind of lifestyle I had based off how I looked, what would they guess? Would they guess a tired mom of a 4 month old and 2 year old? Or would they guess a hard partier because I look so tired? Lol

I’m not much of a makeup wearer, unless I’m going to an event or dinner. I’ve always hated the feel of makeup on my face so I rarely wear it. Most days I wear just mascara and lip gloss or chapstick. I only wear mascara because I feel like it opens up my eyes a little and makes me look less tired. Otherwise I wouldn’t normally waste the time putting it on.

Clothing wise, I live in leggings. It’s the most comfortable attire when chasing around a 2 year old. I see these Instagram moms in skinny pants or beautiful flowy dresses hanging out with their kids and I think to myself…..nope. I can’t even wear jeans and be comfortable during the day. I do too much up and down movements, squatting, crawling on my hands and knees, etc. I’m constantly cleaning up or picking up something. Leggings are literally the only clothing item that allows me freedom to move and feel comfortable.

I hope to most I have a “mom look” and not too much of a lazy look going on. I guess I could try a little harder in the mornings to look nice, but does it really matter? Right now my kids don’t care if I dress up for them and they’re pretty much the only people that see me regularly during the day.

I am always curious what someone passing me thinks when they see me. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Maybe it’s best I don’t know….😂