Day Five

Three kids in 4 years really does a number on your body. Especially when you have pregnancies like I did. I would say Ava's was the worst. I was hooked up to IV fluids for almost 20 hours a day and the medication did little to help with the nausea. Even with all that I was so dehydrated that my veins kept blowing out so I had to eventually have a PICC line put in. Which was a line that went in at the elbow of my left arm, followed up my arm and into my my heart. At the end of each pregnancy with the girls I craved food so much because honestly when I was at my worst, I could not stand the sight of even water. So I would tell myself, "you just went through 9 months of hell, go ahead, have another piece of cake." That added with the fact that my body was very weak from lack of movement left me feeling horrible about my body. After the pregnancies with the girls I actually gained back all of the weight that I had lost being so sick and added some more. Parker's pregnancy was by far the easiest so with his I did all the things that women do in normal pregnancies, including eating for two... The day I delivered Parker I was the heaviest I have ever been and ever hope I will be.

Now that we know we're done having kids and I will not be ruining my body anymore I have such motivation to get back in shape. We got a gym membership and most days I pack up the kids and we all head out to the gym. Some days it's a real struggle to find the energy and make the time to get to the gym but I am so glad that I have because today I weighed myself and I've lost 15 pounds since January 1, 2010. I am so jazzed about that. Or if you look at it another way, I've lost 35 pounds from the weight I was the night that I went into labor with Parker. 35 pounds! Of course almost 7 of that was baby but still...35 extra pounds I was carrying around every day. No wonder I was so tired. At almost 4 years old Brooke weighs 36 pounds. That is like carrying her around on my back all day long. I am still a long way from where I want to be but it feels good to see that progress has been made. In fact by the time Parker turned 6 months I had lost all of the weight I had gained during my pregnancy with him! Now it's time to work off those other to pregnancies...