The Journey of a Friendly Giant

It's almost 11pm and my baby and husband are fast asleep. My own eyelids are growing heavier with each passing moment. "I can't, I refuse to break a promise to myself ." I say to myself out loud (yes I talk to myself, deal with it). So I count myself down from 5-4-3-2... and then I unglue my half-melted butt from the couch and drag my heavy tired legs to the bathroom, where I splash my face with cold water. I'm locked in now, so I sneak downstairs and do a quick 24 minute home workout in my cold unfinished basement so I don't disturb the sleeping monarchy. Has my post-partum fitness journey been easy? Hell no. If it was easy the expression "mom-bod" would bring a different image to your mind. ... actually forget I 'said that' "Bad mama! I must remember that all bodies are beautiful.   It's tough to remember that sometimes, Facebook keeps showing old photos of me at the beach too!... so I meditate, and I ground myself and remember to...

If I were to write a book about motherhood it would be called "what day is it?" Or "Did I eat today?" Better yet "when was my last shower?" Motherhood had been equal parts blissful adventure and blind faith in myself. I have no idea what I'm doing but My baby is alive, happy and healthy so I must be doing something right. I haven't posted anything since my birth story which feels like last month but somehow it was 4 months ago! (WHAT?!) Babies are the physical becoming of time passing. 4 months used to come and go, now it grows before my eyes and becomes more aware, more vocal and man... these chubby cheeked smiles are just magical. Motherhood to me is the best decision I've ever made and I'm thankful everyday to be blessed enough to experience it. So much has changed, too much for one posting, But here's my attempt to share some of those changes. 1.My house is a mess most of the time, (yes, more than "normal" mess mom...) ...

When I told people that I was planning to have a home birth, I got a lot of bewildered and shocked reactions "What?! For your first child? No Drugs?!" followed by a very sarcastic sounding "Gooooood luck, you are BRAVE!". I wrote a lot about peoples reactions in my journal, but chose not to share it here because I hadn't given birth yet, and didn't want to jinx anything. Besides, for all I knew, all of my criticizers were right and I would demand drugs and be rushed to a hospital to give birth like the vast majority do. I started exploring giving birth naturally after my midwife recommended a book written by Ina May called Guide to Childbirth  - it brought so much encouragement and insight that I had never thought of. The book consisted of a series of positive birth stories from real women, which are rare to come by these days! If you base what you know about childbirth and labour from television, where people are paid a lot of money to enter...

This woman is 8 Months pregnant and lifting some pretty hefty weights above her head. Be honest, how do these images make you feel? The aforementioned woman’s name is   Leann Ellis , Fit Mom veteran, and she is pregnant with her third child in the photos. I have to admit that the first time I saw the photos a few years ago I was shocked, a tad disgusted, and kind of confused about her intentions. I instantly thought to myself what many of her criticizers are saying to her in the article “But what about the baby? How selfish can she be?” When I was 7, I remember meeting a 30 year old and thinking “Wow they are ANCIENT”. Now that I’m there, I realize I was wrong, and a bit silly to assume such things. Today, now that I’m well on my way to my 6 th month of pregnancy, I’m realizing that everything I thought I knew about pregnancy was inaccurate. I hate to point fingers, but it’s not only my fault. Twenty years ago, science had conducted very little research on the eff...

Throwback Thursday anyone? 2009 post I’m proud to say that I’m one of the happy ones. Maybe not all of the time nor at every moment of life; but in general, my mood is a light and pleasant one filled with absolute marvel for the world and the people that I’m blessed to be surrounded with. I admire a lot of people, and appreciate the small things in life; like long conversations that effortlessly ripple through a plethora of topics about absolutely everything and nothing. I appreciate the strangers that say hello with smiles on their faces when they walk down the street. I appreciate the way the sky looks most of the time, it’s breathtaking to me, and instead of looking down at my smartphone all of the time, when I'm outdoors, my head is usually looking up directly at the sky awaiting the next masterpiece. I know it sounds a bit ridiculous, and a lot of people think I’m faking the joy that I seem to exude, but I feel sorry for those people because they’re dead wrong. Alas...