I made it!

We're going!

So we are taking off tomorrow, April 18th. I have some packing to do and figure out what to pack for Brendan to have on the flight. It's gonna be very interesting.

I'll post here what happens on the US border and if I'm admitted in the country.

I guess it will be exhausting 24 hrs of our lives especially when Brendan wakes up every two or three hours at night for the last week.

We really hope that we'll have our first family vacation. I cannot wait to get to Florida!

Back to the Gym

As you can see by the title I'm back to the gym. Thanks to Chris, I have time to go to the gym twice a week. Of course, I can also go on Sat or Sun but I'm too lazy or tired to exercise on the weekend. Chris also works out twice a week. When he works out I walk Brendan and vice versa. So we're doing pretty well especially not having any helpers here.

So I started working out in February. First of all, I lost all the baby weight by Brendan's third week which was great. Now I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight.

I was a little worried and frustrated about my workouts as I didn't go for a whole year and forgot how to do certain exercises and didn't know what is right to do when you are still breastfeeding. The gym offers you a free introduction class by a trainer, so I got one. She was a nice lady who had a 3 year old son so she totally knew what I needed. The gym also offers personal trainings and, of course, it's extra payment. For the first time in my life I decided to give it a try and have a few personal trainings with that lady.

It was a very interesting experience. It wasn't totally bad but it wasn't great either. First of all, in the future I won't sign up for 5 classes as 2 or even 3 will be enough for me. I like to work out by myself listening to my podcasts and music.

The advantages of having a personal trainer is that s/he shows how to do exercises right and tells you what to do so that you don't have to think about it. The time goes fast and you cannot be lazy or skip some hard exercises. What I did not like about it was that she wasn't tough enough with me. Maybe she was right that I should start slowly but I thought that I could work out a little harder. Another thing I didn't like was that she showed me only two new exercises, everything else I did I've been doing for years and got bored with them. I just thought that I would learn something new that will make my workouts more interesting. Nope!

As I said I like to work out listening to a podcast or music which is not possible with a trainer and it's fine with me. But I don't like wasting time on just conversations especially when I have a 4 month old baby waiting for me at home. I'm fine with a few words here and there but I don't like talking about life standing next to machines.

When I met the lady she seemed relatively nice and with it but after a while I saw that it's hard for me to communicate with her. Her comments were weird, view on life was strange, almost no sense of humor. In short, not my type of person. She is still nice and she tries her best, it's just like I say one thing and she says something totally random or comes up with the weirdest conclusion.

During our last class I was doing stomach exercises and was doing pretty well when she said: Oh, Veronika, how are you going to work out by yourself? At first, I thought that she was asking something about my baby based on her pity tone e.g. How am I doing something..? I thought that it was weird as if she was almost pushing me into buying more personal classes so she would get more money. My response was "easily, as I've been doing it for five years”.

Also I did not like when she tried to teach me how to deal with my husband. For example, she asked if Brendan woke up at night and if my husband got up to help. I said that Brendan woke up to eat but my husband didn't as he couldn't help him as I was breastfeeding Brendan. Especially, when he eats and falls back asleep. Her response was “still, he should help”. WTF? I asked her how would he help if everything our son needs is breast milk and besides, my husband is the only person in our family who works and provides for us. I don't want him up at night as he has to go to work in the morning. Again, the stupid response-recommendation was “he must help”. Whatever! I just want to work out and go home to my loving husband and our son.

One time I told her that I live close and it takes me about 20 minutes to walk to the gym, and her comment was that it's not close. Well, I think that for such a huge city as Moscow it's F..ing close if you don't have to take a metro to get there, right? Then she asked me if Americans celebrate Women's Day, March 8^th. I said that they don't as it's a socialistic holiday and that they have Mother's Day instead. Again, the stupid comment was that my husband should get used to it. First of all, he is used to it without your stupid opinion as he has been living here for almost six years and second of all why do you care so much and if you don't why do I need your opinion on that?

Don't get me wrong, she seems like an OK lady and she doesn't mean anything bad, it's just she doesn't get that I don't care about her opinion on my family, my husband and my life in general. If I decide to hire a personal trainer again, I don't think that I will choose her again. I'll get one of the machos :)

Our Little Lazy Guy :)

So finally on March 28^th at 9 p.m. Brendan rolled over from his back on his stomach without our help! It was very exciting! We knew that he can do it as he was doing movements with his upper part of the body and his legs but never attempted to turn on his own until a few days ago. Good job, Brendan!

He is still a happy baby which makes us happy. He loves to laugh, especially when I play “Where is Brendan? Here he is!” game with him. He is just laughing out loud. It's hilarious to watch.

One of the latest problems is his eating. According to our pediatrician, he doesn't get enough food. The feeding became so frustrating as he eats for two minutes and then looks around for five and so on, but once I pump and give him a bottle he pounds it without any problem. I understand that it's easier to eat from a bottle but I don't want to give up breast feeding as it will be better and convenient for everyone to breastfeed him on our coming trip especially at airports and planes. I even bought a special cover which I started putting on to get him used to it. At first he tried to fight it and then he had fun hiding there and eventually concentrated on his eating. I'll keep trying. We also started giving him some formula to make sure he eats his 200 ml per feeding but he fights it too. Sometimes he eats it, sometimes he is not interested. Again, it frustrates me but at the same time maybe he is full and doesn't need more. Honestly, we don't believe everything our pediatrician says which means that we need a new one. This subject deserves its own post, so I won't even any more now.

One of the latest changes in his diet is that we started giving him porridge as his last meal before the night. I have to tell you that it's awesome! I mix it with breast milk, he eats 200 ml and it just knocks him out from 10 p.m. till 7 or 8 a.m. Pretty sweet! :)

Today we gave Brendan broccoli purree for lunch. At first he was surprised at an unknown taste and then started pounding it and ate about 180 ml. It was pretty cool.

Before we had a baby I was bored whenever people talked about their babies' porridges, feedings, pooping and other baby related subjects. But now my husband and I can talk about all of these without any problem and actually be excited about it. In a way it's really annoying but at the same time we try not to bring it up when we talk to other people.

Anyway, our lazy guy is definitely growing and learning to do new things. We remember him being just a few days old and not being able to move his head, and now he is very active and is aware of what is going on around him.