{h o t m a m a}

hot mama (n): a mother who exudes confidence, 
is full of energy, leads a healthy lifestyle 
and is beautiful inside and out.

   hello everyone! i hope i find you well this fine tuesday. today i'm going to talk a little bit about where i'm at mentally and physically. this past weekend we had the pleasure of going up to st. louis for graham's cousin's (hi corrie! hope you had fun in paris!) wedding and while there we got to do so many fun things. i'll post more about the trip specifically later, but i just wanted to share where i'm headed with some important things to me and am hoping for your encouragement and support. 

   
   you see...


 we did lots of active things this past weekend and i quickly began to realize how out of shape i am. and i'm not talking about had-a-baby-six-weeks-ago out of shape, but just weak. and i hate feeling like that. we went to this awesome museum on saturday and i kept finding myself out of breath, then we played at an aerial arts studio that graham's other cousin and his wife own and run (think cirque du soleil...ropes, fabrics, trapeze) on sunday and i could barely do any of the stuff i was doing, let alone had to sit out on a lot of the tumbling i wanted to do so badly.


  i found this so aggravating that my body is no longer capable of doing all these things that i really enjoy. on top of all that, when i went to my chemistry lab on monday morning one of my fellow classmates asked me when i was due. ugh. and she had just had a baby in january so she was not a young, ignorant student. she was a mom. 


   a new mom. sheesh, was i embarrassed.


 and for the cherry on top, i went to a dance class last night. super great teacher, amazing song and choreography and i just couldn't do it. i tried my best and never quit, but the fact of the matter is i'm weak. not just my belly where the baby was. but my ankles, arms, feet, hips, shoulders, back, everything. 

   any of you who know me well, know that i have been a dancer for many years. i love it. can't get enough of it. so you can imagine how disappointed i felt after leaving that class last night. but the good news is i also left with so much motivation. i'm sick of being unhealthy and out of shape. it's time to take back this body that God has given me and make it healthy once again. 

   you'll notice i have defined "hot mama" at the top of this post. that is exactly the type of hot mama i want to be!


  it's not just about losing pounds and looking good in skinny jeans (although that is important...) it's about feeling good, too. 

so...what am i going to do about it you ask? well i'm going to start with my slow carb diet again and be a lot more strict this time around, but also add in some exercise. in the same book i've mentioned before,  the four hour body by tim ferriss, he talks about different exercises you can do if you are small on time, but need big impact. that's what i'll be doing. but then the next big step is blogging about it. i find it much easier to come up with excuses to not exercise or eat right with no accountability, but if i know i am going to be "weighing in" for y'all on a weekly basis, that's a gamechanger right there folks. i hope that just by knowing that a few people read this, it will really help keep me committed to getting healthy this time around. and i know it's not just about doing it for other people...i think this time around i'm doing it mostly for myself. in the past i would want to look good for my friends or my husband or my family, but this time i can tell a difference. i want this for me.

i want to enjoy my dance classes more. 

i want to challenge myself to learning the trapeze.

i want to mentally be healthy and confident in myself. 

i want to be the mother that has enough energy 

to wrestle with her boys.

   as i walked through the grocery store yesterday shopping for healthy foods, not once did i find myself wishing i could buy some coke, or donuts, or chips. i was so turned off by all that junk. and i am so thankful that this time i'm in it for me. one hundred percent.

   so i'm starting this four week (at least, it may turn into eight weeks) journey with you guys. i'm going to be posting pictures and stats weekly and will be blogging about how i feel. 

  

 if anyone would like to do this with me you are more than welcome! 

i would love to have some company. ;-) 

   
  feel free to check out the four hour body and let me know if you're interested. we could swap stats and photos or even post them on the blog if you'd also like the accountability and commitment. 

  
 thanks for letting me share that and hope to see you on the other side of four weeks healthier and stronger!

   

s t a r t

weight: 161 lbs

measurements:   

right arm - 11.75"

left arm - 11.25"

right leg - 25"

left leg - 24.5"

chest - 36" (not too sure what'll happen here..cora fayne loves those muks!)

waist - 39"

hips - 42"


exercise: (this is here to help me track my progress, sounds kinda funny i'm sure!)
 flying dogs - 15 on each side, 30 total
 cat vomit - 6 sets at 10 seconds each
 butt ups - 20 total
 kettle bell swings - 17 swings at about 15 lbs
 - do these on monday, wednesday and friday

photos: (this is quite embarrassing, but i think it'll be worth it!)

busy, busy, busy

   Sorry I haven't posted in a week or so...we have been SUPER busy! Linc turned 3 this past Saturday and of course I forgot to take any pictures! (My brain sometimes...geeze) We also had a relaxing time at my parents lakehouse with my sister and her family. There's just something so peaceful about being out on a boat...ahhh...and again forgot to take pictures of that. oops.
   Unfortunately though we all got sick this Tuesday. We had a great Memorial Day at the pool with Graham's family and then bam! Sickness hit us late that night and hasn't quite left yet. Thankfully no one is still running to the bathroom, but we're all kind of weak and tired. Hopefully we can get some rest because we leave for St. Louis tomorrow. Yay! We're headed up for Graham's cousins wedding and we're super excited. To see everyone again will be so nice and this will be the first time all the second cousins get to meet....hopefully I remember to take pictures this time around!
   I've also just started summer classes at GPC (go jaguars!) and am pretty busy so far with school work. I'm going to do my best to find time to blog, but I'm not making any guarantees....they may be few and far between for the next few weeks...
   Anywho, I hope this update finds all of you well and having wonderful summers! Love to you all!

happy one month!

I can't believe that Cora is already one month old...it's crazy! I still feel like I had her just a few days ago!

Happy one month, baby girl. You fill my heart with joy. I love you forever.

growing so fast.

happy.


snuggly.


beautiful.


love you always, mommy.

tasty tuesday's: tasty observations

....I know this post is a day late, but I'm doing my best to get back on schedule. You'll have to be patient with me. :)
   So this isn't really so much a recipe as it is just an observation about cooking. Graham and I have been doing our Slow Carb Diet again from Tim Ferriss' book The Four Hour Body. Needless to say....we eat a LOT of chicken. And chicken breast can get a little bit tiring.
   However, chicken thighs never get tiring! Here's how it all happened. A few weeks ago we had dinner with all of Graham's family and we cooked out chicken. At the end of the night the womenfolk (my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and myself) came to the conclusion that the thighs tasted SO much better than the breasts. And noticed there were no thighs left over, but some chicken breasts....So when we started the Slow Carb I told Graham that we were going to try thighs instead of breasts and that made all the difference in the world for us!
    The meat is a little fattier, but on this diet that doesn't matter for us and it makes the meat a whole lot tastier! :) It's always moist and juicy and obviously tastes good with anything! (It is chicken after all...) So here's our favorite way to cook chicken thighs so far....Enjoy! :)

   Mrs. Dash Zesty Chicken
What you need:
    - 4 to 6 chicken thighs, skin on, bone in (or skinless if you'd like a less fattening meal, but you sure are     missing out on the delicious, crispy skin!)
    - Mrs. Dash's marinade (we used the Zesty Herb one...mmmm....)
    - grill spray

What you do:
    First, take the time to cut the meat away from the bone before you marinate and grill it. That way it grills much faster and it's much more enjoyable to eat when it hits the plate. Next, follow the instructions on the marinade bottle. I think this specific one says to just marinate the chicken ten minutes prior to cooking it. Then, spray the grill with the grill spray. The meat is going to be very moist and if one piece sticks to the grill the whole piece could fall apart into the grill! Tragic. Grill to perfection. And enjoy. You'll have a flavorful, juicy, delicious piece of chicken. And this is great for summertime because it's pretty healthy (gotta watch that figure...it is bathing suit season ;)  ) and using the grill in the summer is so fun! It really makes it feel like summertime.

    So I hope you all try this and can benefit from my tasty observation. Let me know what you think!

cora fayne's birth story...

...so I will do my best to not ramble on and make this too lengthy, but you know me and I'm not making any promises. ;)

   So at my 40 week check up, I looked healthy and the baby girl looked healthy, but there was just one major problem. My midwife had gotten my operative reports (the notes that the doctor writes up after doing a c-section) and was reading through them and noticed that my previous OB who did both my sections, wrote something pretty awful. After Quinn's birth she found it helpful to write, "This individual is not a candidate for VBAC." Now this didn't strike me as strange at all, knowing that that particular doctor isn't fond of homebirths, midwives and VBAC's (anything natural in general really...). But it kind of put my midwife on edge. She said she has done tons of VBAC's and read tons of OpReports and she had NEVER seen a doctor write something like that. To explain further, with Quinn's birth things got kind of tricky...he had the cord wrapped around his neck three times and was a BIG baby, so when they pulled him out of my abdomen the incision she had made actually tore more. It was about a centimeter off of the left side. Not terrible, but not ideal. Well, between the tear and the doctor's commentary this made my midwife a little nervous. So she wanted us to meet with the OB. (My practice is made up of three midwives who catch all the babies and an OB who only does emergency procedures)
   So we made an appointment and went and met with him at his office. He was WONDERFUL! I know it sounds crazy hearing me talk about an OB like this, but seriously...he was amazing. He wasn't nervous about it all. We did talk about how my risks would slightly go up rather than if I hadn't torn, but Graham and I knew that from the beginning. He also felt no need to do any ultrasounds or schedule any extra appointments. Seriously fantastic.
   So at my 41 week appointment I was checked, still 0 dilated and 0% effacement. No biggie though. I got to talk a long time with my midwife and really put her and myself at ease about how the actual birth was going to go. The OB was on board and that made her feel much better, as did I, but honestly I was getting impatient and I was starting to get afraid they wouldn't let me go past 42 weeks (I can only have the awesome birth if they let me get there, right?) so I scheduled an "induction" appointment at the acupuncturist.
   Saturday April 23, I go in for my "induction" by myself because Graham was studying for his finals and didn't quite know what to expect, but I was excited. I met with the acupuncturist for a long time just chatting, then he started with the needles. He placed them in all the trigger points for starting up labor and let me sit for a while....then it got....interesting. Next he came in with what they called the "ESTIM", which is short for Electrical Stimulator. He took 6 little cables (they looked like miniature jumper cables! ha!) and attached them to the needles sticking out of me. Then he bumped up the charge and we were ready to go. We did three rounds of upping the charge until my contractions got REALLY intense. I was having to concentrate and make sounds and breath deeply. I started to think to myself (excuse my french...), "Holy shit...how am I going to drive home?!" So I told the acupuncturist I needed to take a break and call my husband. It had been four hours since I got there, it was like time sped up or something, it was crazy. So I called Graham worried about driving home, but we decided it would be ok and I just would come home right then. So I paid the wonderful man and went on my way. I continued to have contractions all afternoon and into the evening, but was really unsure if this was actually it. Around about 11 they were pretty much gone, at least just sporadic, and we went to sleep deciding it wasn't it.
   At six on Easter morning I woke up to a pretty strong contraction and they kept coming for about every 20 minutes, I tried to just ignore them and figured they were probably still an aftershock of the ESTIM....we went on with our day and headed to my parents house for an egg hunt and lunch. Somewhere between 1 and 2 o'clock the contractions changed. I decided to still make our second trip of the day because I knew I would feel so bad if we went home thinking we were having a baby and it was a false alarm...so we headed to Graham's parents house for dinner and an egg hunt.
   Once there my mother-in-law and sister-in-law and I decided to go for a walk. Barefoot of course ;). We walked a mile and while I mostly tried to walk through the contractions, there were a few I had to stop and breathe through. Once back at the house I decided I really wanted to get into the hot tub. (don't worry we turned the heat down earlier in the day to 98 degrees...I wasn't going to boil my baby.) While in the hot tub I had a couple of really good contractions, and after that we decided to get out and head home. I had Graham come help me go to the bathroom and change out of my bathing suit and while we did that my contractions all of a sudden picked up and were coming pretty strong about every two minutes.
   When we got in the car to head home we decided to call the midwife. She said to not go home and just come straight to the hospital to get checked, so we swung by the apartment to get my stuff, just in case, and headed to the hospital. The car ride was hell on earth by the way.
   Once there my mother-in-law, who had followed us, helped me inside. I remember saying to her, "If this turns out to be nothing I'm going to be really pissed." She just laughed and said, "I definitely don't think it's nothing."
   At about 8:30pm, we got upstairs and into a triage room and waited for the midwife to come check me. When she got there I was a "stretchy" 4cm dilated and about 70% effaced...yup...this was definitely it! So we waited in the triage room for just a little bit until they moved us to a labor and delivery room.
    Once there, I just labored the best I could. The hospital didn't have any monitors that could get wet and being a VBAC I had to be under continuous monitoring so that meant no getting in the tub or shower. And whenever I tried to sit or lay down my contractions just seemed to get worse pain wise. So there I stood. Next to the bed. Just swaying and trying to relax. The problem is after standing for a while you get a little bit tired....I'm unsure of the time (I tried really hard not to look at the clock, it only made me frustrated), but I remember the midwife checking me and I was about 8cm, but unfortunately feeling the urge to push already. So the midwife told me to try and not push and just keep laboring. This is where it got really hard for me. Not just physically, but mentally. Since I was so tired, a lot of times during a strong contraction my knees would sort of give out...and every time my knees bent I could not stop myself from pushing. It was like a weird knee jerk reaction. No matter how hard I tried not to push, if my knees ever bent there was no stopping it. I was trying so hard to make my body do what my brain was telling it to do and my body just was not cooperating. I started to get discouraged. So after a little while of this type of laboring on one of my involuntary pushes my water broke. (Which my sister-in-law impressively dodged! She was standing only two feet in front of me holding my hands helping me labor when bam! Water hit the floor, but not her shoes...I was quite impressed.) So I labored more and my midwife checked me again and I was only almost 9 (if I remember correctly). This again, was discouraging to me. I started asking about other options. I was done. I was so worried that if I kept going at this rate I would have absolutely no energy to push this baby out. I was so decided in my mind, but thankfully I had a room full of people telling me, "NO! You CAN do this. Stop saying that, you will have the energy to do this." (All of you know who you are and I love you SO much for saying that to me. Just got tears in my eyes writing that.) So my midwife had me lie down and told me that my cervix was almost "in the way" of the baby. Like the lip of it was pushing around her head just enough that it was maybe what was keeping everything slow. So she told me with the next few contractions if I feel the urge to push just go with it. She was going to try and push the cervix back while I pushed down and hoped that would help it move out of the way. So we did that for several contractions, then she told me to just keep laboring and if I felt the urge to push it was ok, but don't overdo it. Still try to hold back somewhat. This made me feel better. At least the involuntary pushes were acceptable now.
   So there I stood. Standing. Swaying. Breathing. Involuntarily pushing. Trying not to scream too much. And more standing. Then the contractions got really intense. I started feeling it in my bottom and no longer in my abdomen. It was hard. I just kept getting worried about how much longer I had to go. I didn't think I could keep going much longer. I was just so tired. So everyone convinced me to try and lay down. I tried to protest saying that the contractions hurt worse when I was laying down, but they of course got me with logic. Even if they hurt worse while they were happening, it was worth it to get rest in between. So I got into the bed on my left side and labored for just a short time there. It was nice to get a rest in between the contractions and I tried to relax when I could. But them something changed. With one of the contractions I really felt like there was "something" (as I described it...ha!) was coming out. They all told me well that's what we're trying to accomplish so just keep going. With the next contraction I said with some urgency, "NO. Seriously something is coming out I feel like I need to reach back there and catch something." They all said no that's what we're here for! So my midwife told me to lift my right leg and the whole room at the same time went, "OH! There's a baby there!" Uhh...Go figure! ;)
   My midwife and everyone helped me sit up in the bed and get into a more comfortable position. It was finally time to push this baby out for real! I didn't really grasp what was going on at the time, but I was already feeling so happy about almost being done. The contractions separated themselves a little bit so I felt like I was getting a little more rest, but then I noticed all these people coming in the room and got nervous and I asked, "What's going on?" And I'll never forget what my sister-in-law said, "There coming in here because it's time to push this baby out. You're almost done. You did it." I was so happy. Normally, when swarms of people come in it's to take me to the operating room or take away my baby. Not so this time. This time was going to be the way it should be.
    So I started pushing for real. Pushing to push a baby out. No more little tiny involuntary pushes. I pushed for about 30 or 40 minutes (I think...not to sure on that) and voila! Her head was out! And it was HUGE! She stayed there for just a minute when the midwife really started tugging on her. She was quite big and very purple. I wasn't feeling the urge to push at that time, but my midwife looked at me with urgent eyes and said, "Heather, I really need you to push hard right now." So I pushed with all I had left and out she came!! And she was BIG! They put her on my chest and it was glorious. I was so excited. And speechless. And couldn't quite wrap my head around the fact that we had just done it.
   They took her away after only a minute or two because she "had a lot of mucous" and they wanted to get it out. Well...the stupid nurse put her on her back and was trying to suction it out. Now, if you ask me maybe try turning her over and patting her on the back? No? Ok, do it the stupid, hard way then. While they were suctioning her my midwife was swiftly working to get the placenta out. They worry about it with VBACs and she wanted to make sure it wasn't torn or anything. So I delivered the placenta, totally in tact and healthy/normal looking. (Sorry if that's TMI) Then Graham told the suctioning nurse that that was enough and she needed to be with her mother.
   So my sister-in-law picked her up and brought her to me. There we laid. Nursing and just being in awe of each other. I couldn't thank the people in the room enough. I wanted to say so much, but just felt so speechless. And tired. So we laid there for a while until we got moved up to a recovery room and I was just still so shocked as to what just happened.
   As I've told several people since having her, the icing on the cake for me was really how Cora responded to the whole thing. Not once did she get distressed. The monitor reflected that. And when my water broke, it was completely clear. No meconium. It really just reassured me that this was the way this birth was supposed to go. Nothing was forced or manipulated. She WANTED to come out that way. It wasn't just what I wanted. She wanted it too and we worked together to make it happen.
    So my beautiful baby girl was born on April 25 at 3:12am. 10lbs 7.5oz, drug free and happy. :)

I am so thankful to all of you who were praying for me and thinking of me. All your positive energy and thoughts and prayers were well received. I love you all and am so thankful to have all of you in my life.

She's here!

While most of you already know this, our daughter, Cora Fayne Lutz, decided to grace us with her presence on April 25 at 3:12 in the morning! She weighed in at 10lbs 7.5oz and was 20 3/4" long. As you can imagine I am quite busy at the moment with three barbarians to take care of, so unfortunately I will not be sharing the birth story YET, but she was a successful VBAC and it was an awesome journey to go through with her. I can't wait to share it and hope that these photos will tie you over until then. :) Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day and hopefully I will be back to more regular postings in the next few weeks. Love to you all!

Cora's first picture. Just minutes old and nursing like a champ!

She's been a great sleeper from day one. :)


Super happy to have my baby girl. She was happy, too!


Daddy and Cora hanging out.


This is what Graham and I like to call "muks drunk".
Try to tell me she doesn't look completely drunk on milk...you can't, I know.

   P.S. More pictures are definitely coming...and I'd just like to say I still can't get over the fact that I have THREE children...so crazy! 

I'm a believer!

So an incredible thing happened this week...but here's a little back story to bring you all up to speed...
   A little over two weeks ago at my 34 week check up, Cora, had flipped to be transverse. Now, for those of you who don't know, this is not exactly ideal. Pictured below is first how a baby should be positioned in your belly, and second is how a transverse baby is positioned.

                 

...So as you can see...this poses somewhat of an issue. It's hard to push a baby out, back first...sorry for the graphic mental image there...So of course one of my wonderful midwives suggested seeing a chiropractor and doing some different "exercises" to try and turn the baby and encourage her to go head down. Well, two weeks was going by fast and so far, there was still no change. Graham and I had heard of an acupuncturist in Buckhead that had really great success rates with flipping babies. And since we had some positional issues with Lincoln (you can reread the whole, long birth story here if you like!) we were starting to get a little nervous and feeling a little bit desperate. So this past Wednesday morning, at 36 weeks, we had an appointment and nervously but excitedly went to the acupuncturist.

   Now I don't know about you, but thinking about acupuncture kind of freaks me out. I mean sticking needles in yourself for no darn, real reason? Kinda weird, right? Yeah, that's what I thought, too. So like I said, I was excited, but also nervous.

   So we walk in for our appointment and the acupuncturist, Jenny, is there waiting for us. (No she doesn't have a long white beard and no she's not some old chinese man, she's a very pretty, normal American woman...surprising I know!) She's very nice and very personable right off the bat. I was feeling better already. So we go into one of the rooms, which is decorated more like a living room than a "doctor's" office and have a seat and just chat for a while. We chatted about my medical history, emotional history, what my past pregnancies and deliveries were like. And just did kind of a get to know you session. Which was super great and put me at ease. Then she explains that the process that they use to actually turn the baby is called moxabustion. And all it really is is burning herbal sticks near a trigger point at the tips of my pinky toes. Yup, you read that right. All we did was made my feet smell incense. Crazy stuff! She did do a few needles in a couple of different points just to calm me and relax me and help some of my ligaments become more flexible than tender. (A lot of times the ligaments in your pelvis will become sore when you are carrying a transverse baby, because they are being pulled on in the wrong direction.) So we burned the herbs (she took one toe while Graham took the other! :) Love that man...) and I had the needles in for about 20 minutes, then she gave us a few sticks to take home with us and told us to keep doing it for the next ten days, every day for twenty minutes. 

    Well, while we were sitting there letting my feet smell herbs....I asked her about how long it usually takes for babies to turn head down. She got a huge smile on her face and said, "Well, a lot of people will feel movement right away, but everyone's different. There's no guarantee and we'll just see what happens. Just relax."

    Let me tell you, I know why she got a huge smile....I had an appointment right after with my midwife and was feeling great, and noticed Cora moving, but not really any more than she had been. I was hopeful, but had no expectations at all... Well, by the time we got to my midwife, she was already turned HEAD DOWN! I couldn't believe it. It was amazing to say the least. At eight o'clock that morning she was totally sideways and felt like she was staying put...She hadn't moved in two weeks from any of the exercises I had done or from going to the chiropractor. But in a matter of two hours she had flipped....unbelievable! And not only that, but it's Saturday....and she hasn't moved back! 

   I can officially say that I am a believer in acupuncture! It totally works. It's not covered by most insurances, but I would say that any persistent or chronic issue you may have would probably be worth the money spent there. They address all sorts of issues separate from flipping babies and she said another one of their biggest success rates is with infertility. I had no idea! I never would have even thought to go to an acupuncturist for any type of pregnancy related issue, but I definitely do now. So if you are interested at all....here's the website where you can read more information, or if you have had any problems that just don't seem to go away, I would definitely do some research on it. Google "acupuncture and (insert problem here)". Seriously, it doesn't hurt and could make a huge difference in your life....it definitely did for me. I was so worried I was going to end up with another c-section due to some fluke. Not the case anymore! :) 

   I hope you enjoyed my wonderful news and maybe I'll convert some of you....I can feel it....you know you want to google it...go right ahead. I'm not stopping you....