I said DOCTOR!

Title meant to be sung to the tune of "Put the Lime in the Coconut" Ainsley's new favorite song (thanks Pops!).

Both Ainsley and I had successful doctors appointments today. She grew a whole inch coming in at a whopping 30.5 inches jumping her from the 30% to the 70%! Her weight still hangs on in the 16% at 20lbs. 9oz. I wonder whose genes she has? Hmmmm. No really, I'm happy that there's a good possibility she'll be one of those 5'9" 125 lb. beauties who stuff their faces with burgers and fries. I just hope she doesn't mind a short chubby mom in comparison!

Baby Vaagenes v. 2.0 is growing right on track. Strong heartbeat. I gained back the weight I'd lost at my second appointment and then some bringing the grand total of weight gain to 3 lbs. This sounds like nothing but considering I weighed 5 lbs more than I wanted to at the start I'm not quite jumping for joy.

Perhaps there are those women out there who just melt away the baby weight like they say. For me about 25 lbs came off no problem and the last 10 just hung on there. I eventually went down 5 but without time, or energy to devote to any kind of regular workout regimine it felt impossible to lose the weight short of starving myself.

I'm trying to get past this mid pregnancy wall of feeling huge and dreading getting huge-r but it's tough. And I have to say the most obnoxious response to my fears is "it's all for the baby." I beg to differ. Yes the baby weighs something as does all the extra blood and enlarged organs and other "stuff" but the fat is all mine. There's nothing like giving birth to a beautiful healthy baby only to waddle out of the hospital still looking 6-7 months pregnant.

Somehow I thought the second time around I would relish in the flub and just enjoy having the pressure taken off me to get my body back. I think it may be worse this time around because, again, I know what's coming. Whats more I will soon have 2 babies to take care of meaning even less time to try and get back in shape.

I woke up this morning feeling a bit down about the whole situation and decided to try and do something about it. Once Ian left for work and I changed a disgusting diaper (thank you Ainsley) I popped in my favorite pregnancy workout tape (courtesy of Acacia and Erin O'Brian) and worked away. Ainsley actually did really well. She stayed in the general vicinity of the makeshift play mat I set up for her, "reading" her books and working on her stacking cubes and blocks. About 20 minutes in she got antsy and started mimicking the moves with me. If I wasn't so focused, and sweaty, I would have stopped to take a video. It was pretty darn cute.

(quick aside: speaking of being cute last night when Ian asked Ainsley to say goodnight to me she leaned down right by my face and gave me a voluntary kiss. My heart melted a little bit)

The main issue with this "early" morning workout regime is the exhaustion later on. Uber productive and active mornings tend to equal lazy restless afternoons for me in my current state. This is so hard to deal with especially since I have a to do list a mile long and what feels like mere weeks to get it done in. I've been trying to let myself have some free time and not feel guilty for it (when Ainsley is napping of course) but it's easier said than done.

I've also entered the eat-everything-that's-not-nailed-down phase of pregnancy. I wake up starving in the middle of the night and about 2 hours after eating I need something NOW or I think I might die. It's hard to constantly make good snack choices when one side of me is saying "you're pregnant let it slide" and the other says "think how fat your butt is going to look in a swimsuit this summer". Oh the joys of a huge appetite.

While it may sound like life revolves around my growing body, I mean belly, it really doesn't. I am relishing in the spring weather, yes even in the April showers. Ainsley gets cuter and more animated every day. She said "hat" for the first time the other day which caught me off guard as she wasn't wearing a hat but her blanky that I put on her head. Life gets increasingly easier as we've found a rhythm to our days. I am looking forward to a playdate tomorrow afternoon with good friends and a full weekend of activities. Keeping busy does definitely help me stay positive and productive, if only it weren't so exhausting!