Happy 8 months Nico Pico!

I'm really looking forward to the day when we graduate from wearing the helmet but not because of the inconvenience of the helmet or Nicolas' discomfort but rather I keep forgetting what my baby looks like without his helmet. The changes we've seen with his growth can really only be appreciated when he's not wearing his helmet, and during that one hour a day, we are trying to rush to clean the helmet, bathe the little guy, keep him safe from banging his head on the floor, and most importantly, trying to cuddle with him and kiss his little head as much as possible. It's a little difficult to be really up close and affectionate with the little guy when you have a large piece of hard plastic hitting you every time he moves his head and body (which these days is every few seconds.)

So, when Nicolas turned 8 months old 2 days ago on the 22nd, I managed to capture some pictures of him without his helmet and I was taken aback at how much he looks like a mix between me, Roly, and my dad....a little something that has come to be known as...wait for it.....The Saenz curse. Check it out for yourselves. :)

Of course, I couldn't capture just a picture of Nicolas without my little attention hog wanting in on a piece of the photo-snapping action.

Here are some pictures showing how Nicolas' head is starting to improve. I'm really excited about it and I'm hopeful that with more time, we will improve even more.

Happy Thursday everyone! :)

Progress and more about the helmet

Well I didn't get to explain too much on my last post regarding the helmet, the plagiocephaly, and the amazing progress we've seen so far. Plagiocephaly is basically flattening of the head. It happens for many reasons, some of which are very scary (i.e. craniosynostosis) but fortunately for us, that wasn't the case. We saw a lot of improvement by repositioning him and keeping him off the back of his head but not enough (we were borderline) not to have a helmet recommended. Basically, we could have kept him out of a helmet, but he could have significant difficulties later with TMJ disorder and more asymmetry than is considered normal. The asymmetry can affect eye glass positioning and overall facial feature symmetry just to name a couple of things.

Before Nicolas was placed in the helmet, the orthotist took lots of baseline measurements, many of which really didn't mean a whole lot to me since I didn't understand what they meant. The number that is usually looked at is the cranial vault symmetry, which in Nicolas' case, wasn't really an issue. He was a 5 (which is usually the goal for kid's whose plagiocephaly is a lot worse.) We are currently at a 2 which is excellent. The biggest area of concern is the cephalic index. He started at a 98 and needs to be in the low 80s. He's currently at an 89. We will see the largest amount of change the quicker his head grows. At this point, we aren't expecting as much growth as quickly as were seeing it but we're hopeful to be in the low 80s soon. It could be anywhere from 4 to 8 more weeks but of course Nicolas' growth will be the ultimate determining factor and nobody can truly gauge how quickly that will happen.

In the meantime, he really is a trooper. He wears it 23 hours a day and gets an hour off for bathing and cleaning the helmet. It's pretty hilarious to see him without the helmet because he's become accustomed to banging his head without consequence so now we get lots of sad faces and whimpers when he bangs his head sans helmet. It was really stinky initially because he was sweating a lot. Now, we have little to no sweat so he's not so stinky any more. :)

We get lots of stares when we're out in public but fortunately for me, I'm a very confident person so I just smile. To those who keep staring rudely, my honest face usually gets the best of me and I've perfected the kiss-my-butt face. One of the veterans in the prosthetic support meeting told me that he sees a future in football for my little guy. :)

Moved

If you're wondering what the heck the title of my post means, today I was struck by something I encountered.  I was moved to share another one of the challenges we've been facing with our little man, Nicolas. Nicolas was diagnosed with deformational plagiocephaly at 4 months of age although I started to notice that something was not quite right at 2 months of age. He had limited range of motion of his head and preferred resting his head on one particular side. The neurosurgeon determined that it was caused by a restricted intrauterine environment, and we began treatment using a Hanger helmet on January 19th after careful thought and consideration and upon the neurosurgeon's recommendation.

I was moved to share our situation because we went in for one of our progress appointments today where they measure Nicolas' head to be sure we are seeing improvement (which we are, by the way at 4 weeks post.) When I walked into the waiting room, I stumbled upon a support meeting of older people who all had lost a limb and had been fitted by a Hanger prosthesis. Most of them were male and war veterans and every single one of them looked like they needed a hug. I know for a fact that my sweet smiling baby helped brighten up their day, even if just for that moment of his sweet little giggle in his Aggie-fied helmet. The purpose of the meeting was to help find volunteers to meet with other Hanger clients who had recently lost a limb and needed support from others who had undergone a similar situation. What touched me was when a gentlemen spoke up and honestly said, "look, I haven't even come to grips with this myself and I'm not sure I could be of any help, but I'll try to find it within myself to help, even if just to go and let a person know that I know what they're going through." He was one of two people that spoke and the other 4 just sat and had a look of hurt or pain that I couldn't quite grasp.

So, I sat and looked at my precious and healthy boy and decided that if there is at least one person out there who is going through the same thing we are, I want him/her to know that I know exactly what you're going through. What I can say is that there is no need to apologize for my baby being in a helmet. I continue to hear, "I'm sorry," but there's nothing to be sorry about. I'm not. We chose to put our baby in a helmet to fix something that is merely cosmetic in nature and which only requires a relatively short time (8 to 12 weeks) to modify.  He is otherwise healthy and beautiful, and I chose to rock out his helmet by making it look like a Texas A&M football helmet. I purchased the decals from Bling Your Band and I was most impressed that such a company exists to make a potentially dreary situation bright. I was really sad and emotional on the days leading up to him getting the helmet on, but the second I saw it on him, I knew we made the right choice and felt better knowing that we are doing everything to fix his flat. :)

So, here are some pictures of the helmet and my beautiful little man rocking the helmet. :)

Another post, so soon?!?! Why, yes. :)

I can't believe I'm actually posting again. I'm sure my readers haven't even visited recently so hopefully there will be more to read when you return. :)

Mommyhood continues to be wonderful. I think I've pretty much adjusted to having 2 children now (almost 8 months later) although I still find it challenging to take them both out to run errands that require a lot of time (grocery shopping or clothes shopping.) We wait for daddy to join us on those adventures or I go by myself in the evenings as a mental break from the chaos. I must say that the grocery store however is just as chaotic if not more than my house.

My weight loss plan is still going at full speed. So far, 12 lbs lost since Christmas and 7 lbs since starting weight watchers 4 weeks ago. The funniest thing I keep hearing from people is: "you don't need weight watchers" which to me implies that only overweight people "need" weight watchers. I used to believe that until I really didn't know where else to go to lose weight besides a nutritionist. The last thing I have time for is another appointment on a weekday. I was still 8-10 lbs over my "usual" weight, and I had been working my rear end off trying to exercise my way back to my old jeans when I just decided to try and give Weight Watchers a chance. I'm using their online only program which has been awesome and absolutely functional for my needs.  Losing the weight is a great feeling but, most importantly, the biggest thing I've gotten from this journey is my energy back, which is essential with a little madman like Alex (or as Dr. Karp calls him, my little "caveman.") :) I feel like my old self again which is a wonderful feeling.

What I've learned since starting Weight Watchers is that I knew absolutely nothing about eating to lose weight. I could go on for days on my biggest problems with my pre Weight Watchers diet versus the weight loss plan I'm on right now. Here is what I've learned so far:

1. A portion of protein is 3 oz (about the size of the palm of your hand). Eat only that much meat
2. Full fat dairy is the devil.
3. Eat as many fruits and veggies as you'd like (certain fruits/veggies are worse than others i.e. corn, peas are a bit higher than others so limit intake of those)
4. Mexican food is probably the healthiest option for dining out and I have found a way to make all of my favorite dishes into VERY healthy options with low point counts
5. Carbs are not the devil but to be eaten in moderation (portion control)
6. Sugar drinks, alcohol, and cheese are a horrible waste of points--you end up feeling hungry and bloated
7. 10 bean and cheese nachos are almost a day's full of points--STAY AWAY!
8. Eating out is almost always a guaranteed points nightmare but there is always one or two dishes at every restaurant or there are ways to modify your order to help make it healthier (i.e. ordering the bun at Whataburger without the oil and then only eating one half of a regular bun) and my favorite dining out establishment has become Luby's. :)

I'll start posting some recipes soon but I guarantee that you won't notice the difference from healthy vs unhealthy Mexican food eating. :)

Bad mommy, bad! :)

So I realized that it has been forever since I've blogged and my last posting happens to coincide with the death of our laptop. It's a lot harder to get to the desktop with both boys being so active. Life has been crazy (as I'm sure it has been for everybody.) It's amazing how busy we keep even when it seems that we don't have much planned. It's a full-time, under-appreciated, no time off kind of job raising these two boys, but I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Life has been awesome but certainly not without its challenges. One of those challenges has been a personal one and involves my post-pregnancy weight loss journey. While I nursed Nicolas, my metabolism got shot and instead of losing (as many nursing moms boast it does) I gained and/or stayed steady while watching what I ate.  I have heard from a few friends that the same happened for them. Definitely not a fun thing! I blogged about it several times but with Nicolas, I only gained 27 lbs, and I only recently started losing.

Here's how the numbers break down. I'm 5'5" so a normal BMI allows me to be anywhere from 120-150. Before having children, I held steady at 132 for the longest time and didn't stray very far from that number. In undergrad, I did a lot of heavy weight lifting and went up to 136 but that's as high as I had ever been. In high school, I'm not sure how much I weighed but that number was probably closer to 125 or so.

With my first pregnancy, I gained 33 lbs and lost all of it 6 weeks after giving birth. I had to workout to stay at 132 and eat decently but it wasn't hard at all. A short time before getting pregnant with Nicolas, I started gaining weight again (went up to 136) so a few minor changes in my diet (no more soda, no eating after 8pm) and I was down in the 128/130 range again in a few short weeks. That was awesome! After having Nicolas, the weight started coming off slowly at the 6 week mark but it crept right back on as my milk supply increased. At my highest, I was at 145 (still not considered overweight for my height) and felt HORRIBLE! I was tired all the time, cranky, sleepy, a mess! Mind you, I was working out 5 times a week (hard workouts.) I was also in a lot of pain from a messed up neck and lower back.

So, in December, I finally decided to go to a chiropractor and have my neck and back adjusted and that worked WONDERS! I wanted to be able to workout without the pain and that helped tremendously. YAYAYAY! :) If you have chronic pain and have never been, I highly recommend it. Especially, if you workout and feel that a little pain is okay...it's not okay. You shouldn't have bone pain (muscle soreness is totally different.) I cannot sing enough praises of chiropractors and their place in pain management.

I have a lot more to type but mommy duty calls. To end it though, I'm finally down to 133 and working on getting to 126. I'm wearing my pre-pregnancy pants again (size 6) and my energy levels are through the roof. I'll post soon and explain in more detail about my weight loss journey. :)