Fall-ish

As I sit down to write this (very early on a Saturday morning) Jonah is squealing and bouncing in his jumperoo. That has been the best investment! At just a few weeks old Jonah LOVED to stand, so this allows him to stand all he wants, and I can get things done around the house without fear of a dog stepping on him or him falling out. Dustin got a great video of him in action. You just can't help but laugh while watching it.

It's definitely fall outside. I now have to bundle up the little guy to walk the dogs everyday, wondering what we'll do when it's well below freezing :-/ I love having my house all decorated with pumpkins and leaves. Note I did not say I enjoy the act of actually decorating it. I think I mostly like it because they match the color scheme of our living space... this is not the case when Christmas rolls around, but this year I'm really going to push past that. We haven't been home for Christmas since we moved to Minneapolis in 2009, so every year I typically just throw up a tree and a few lights and call it good- no sense decorating for no one to see. This year, however, we've decided to stay home for Christmas so we don't have to chose which parent to visit. With our moms in Maryland and Arizona and our dads on either side of Iowa it makes holiday travel a little tricky/impossible. Now whoever wants to spend the holiday with us is welcome to come to our home! Genius!

I (barely) survived my work trip to Chicago. I did have a great time mingling with the who's who of my company and enjoyed some alone time shopping and SLEEPING. I cried every time we FaceTimed and whenever I went to the bathroom to pump though. Thankfully I won't have to do that again for a few months.

The most depressing part of that trip was that I had to buy dress pants TWO sizes bigger :( I'm so ready to be back to my normal self. The more I read from other moms if you're not one of the lucky ones who loses the weight right away the time period of 3-6 months is something to look forward to. Supposedly this is when you get a big fat burn from breast feeding. Jonah is now four and a half months and I've been stuck at the same weight since my birthday in August with 13 pounds to lose.  I've also heard from several moms who didn't lose the last 5-15 lbs until they weaned. ~sigh~ The more I breastfeed Jonah the more addicted to it I become. It really does suck dragging my "mysterious black bag" everywhere I go, but having such a healthy little boy is all the encouragement I need, so I don't plan to wean any time soon. I count calories, but if I go too low my milk production plummets. I'm trying really REALLY hard to not let it get to me, but to say I wasn't nervous about being in social situations due to it would be a lie. I've learned the best thing to hear as a new mom is "you look great". Those three words can make my whole day. For some reason I've always been super insecure about my body/weight, so this is really messing with my psyche. Thankfully I have a beautiful baby who takes center stage ;)