10 Things I've Learned from the Past Year

The past year has been so many things, including exhausting, joyful, hilarious, humbling, encouraging, and almost everything in between.  And we've survived it! 
One year ago we were bringing Wren and Judson home to begin our life as a family of five. 

 Over the course of the past year, I've learned a few things, about myself, about our family, about life in general, and about our faithful Heavenly Father.  Lest I forget them, here are a few of them (in no particular order):
1.  Our family and friends are amazing.  Even before the babies were born, so many members of our family and friends offered to help however they could.  In those first few days (when I was home with Caleb and Wren and Tony spent most of his time at the hospital with Judson), there were people at our house almost the entire time - watching Caleb, making sure I was ok, and helping with household chores.  I'll never forget how overwhelmed I felt just from having to pump breast milk for Judson.  There just seemed to be no place to do it with everything set up and ready to go.  So my sweet (and organized) dad (probably a little weirded out by just the mention of breast milk), set up a "pumping station" for me to use, complete with all the pump parts, bottles, and cleaning supplies.  Back in the Spring and again recently this fall when we needed to do a lot of yard work, Tony's parents came over and watched the kids all day while we were working outside.  Almost every weekend, my mom has come over to help however she could.  They all put up my Christmas tree for me.  Friends are still occasionally bringing us dinner.  These are just a few examples from the past year of the amazing things our family and friends have done for us.  We're so grateful for all of them.
2.  There is such a thing as love at first sight.  From the first time I laid eyes on Tony, I was certainly smitten with him, but it took a little getting to know him to know that I was in love with him.  Likewise with Caleb and Judson.  I knew that I would come to love them with all my heart (and I definitely did), but it took a little while of getting to know them for my love to grow to its fullest capacity.  Not so with this beautiful golden-haired baby girl...

From the first moment I saw her, I loved her with the fiercest love - with all my being and all my might.  I don't know why it was different.  Maybe it's just something about a bond between mothers and daughters.  Maybe it's just something about baby girls.  Or maybe it's just her. 

 3.  Speaking of matters of the heart...it's definitely true that your heart grows with each child you have.  Your capacity for love and joy, sadness and pain grows exponentially.  The interesting thing about it is that it not only grows in respect to your own children but it also grows for other people.  It seems that the more children I have, the more compassion I have for other people - for other mothers, fathers and children.  I've never felt the happiness and sorrows of other people more so than after having the babies.
4.  You can get more done in an hour and a half than you ever thought possible.  Back before I had any children, I used to think I was so busy.  Now I laugh at that thought.  Somehow I'm always able to manage to find extra time to squeeze just one more thing in (although I really think I am close to my capacity at this point!) or to just become more efficient.  You should see me the hour and a half before the babies wake up and the hour and a half after they go to bed.  I focus like a laser beam and cross things off my to-do list like it's going out of style...usually.  Sometimes I just need to do some yoga or read a book.  So I just add that to my to-do list, and I feel accomplished for the day (and relaxed).
5.  Hospitals are no fun.  We've spent more time in a hospital this year than I care for.  Don't get me wrong - the doctors, nurse and other staff were wonderful, but it was still a hospital.  If I never step foot in another hospital again, that would be ok with me.  Thankfully, our stays in the hospital were relatively short and far between compared to other families and not as long as we thought could be possible when we found out about Judson's heart problems.
6.  Children are resilient.  Would you believe this picture was taken less than 72 hours after Judson's open heart surgery?

 It's amazing to think of all his little body has gone through in his short life and to see how little he's been affected by it.  For the most part, he's doing what any one year old baby should be doing.  We give thanks and glory to God for his provision for our little baby boy.

 7.  There's nothing like the love between siblings.  The first day we brought Wren home, Caleb head-butted her.  That made me a little worried about what sort of relationship they would have.  Despite my concerns, they have in fact become the best of friends.  Caleb can make her laugh like no one else, and he's more gentle and kind to her than anyone.  And he loves to give her kisses.

 He's also become quite fond of Judson.  I have a feeling that those two are going to get into some trouble together when they get older...
For the first few months of their lives, the babies rarely even noticed that there was another baby around.  Not so any more.  They will steal toys from one another.  Or sometimes they play tug-of-war with the toys.  Here lately, one of them (usually Wren) will steal food from the other's tray.  They will even occasionally look one another in the eye and smile or laugh.  We don't know what they're smiling at, but I like to think they have their own secret language.  

8.  No matter how crazy things seem at first, they eventually become routine.  The first months of the babies' lives I desperately wanted some schedule or routine for our family so life wouldn't feel so crazy.  I would post page-long schedules on the refrigerator documenting what every person in our family would be doing at every moment of the day.  I wish I had pictures of them now so I could show you just how laughable they were.  Something (or usually someone) always messed them up.  Over time, however, life has a way of settling into its own routine...even if it's just routine craziness.
9.  Through the grace of God, I am capable of doing so much more than I ever even thought possible.  I think that there's something about giving birth or becoming a mom or becoming a mom to multiple children that makes you realize your full potential.  Or perhaps it reminds you of your shortcomings and makes you care less if you make a fool of yourself.  Who knows?  Either way, this past year, I've been more likely to step out of my comfort zone, to test my limits, and to go after my goals.  Maybe it's because now I have three little sets of eyes watching and learning from me.  I know that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and I want them to know and trust in that truth, too.
10.  He will sustain us.  If there's been one guiding principle over the past year, it has definitely been that God will sustain us.  Through the good and the bad times, he has provided for us.  He is, he has been, and he always will be faithful.  May we never forget that.

Me v. The Baby Weight - Part One

It's hard to believe, but my twins are almost a year old!  About this time last year, I was large...and I mean really large.  It was difficult for me to get out of bed, let alone go up the stairs.  I gained a total of 55 pounds over the course of my pregnancy.  My weight gain had been intentional because I knew that the more weight I could gain, especially early on in the pregnancy, the bigger and healthier my babies would be when they were born.  So I ate as much as I could, as often as I could, until my weight was teetering close to the 200 pound mark.  It was a hard job, but someone had to do it.  And it worked.  My pregnancy was perfect, and the babies were born at 38 weeks (considered full term for twins) and at healthy sizes for twins. 

These two were worth each and every last pound that I gained during pregnancy!

All along, as I would take another bite of ice cream, I kept telling myself that the end goal was worth all the extra eating and pounds.  (And it certainly was worth it...just look at those little sweethearts!)  I knew how to get the pounds off, after all.  I knew it would be hard work...and it has been.  In fact, it has been a bit harder than I expected it to be.  The bad news is that it has taken me longer than I hoped, but the good news is that it is steadily moving in the right direction.  Slow and steady wins the race, right?  After almost a year of perseverance, I am now almost back to my pre-pregnancy weight!

I know this is a difficult job for so many women, and I known it's not uncommon for many women to never get back anywhere close to their pre-pregnancy weight.  I don't want you to be one of those women.  I want you to be in the best shape of your life so that you can really and truly enjoy being a mommy to your little munchkin(s).  So I want to share with you what has helped me to keep dropping that baby weight.  Here are some of secrets!

My Numbers

It's about to get real.  I'm about to share with you (and the whole worldwide web) my weight, from before I was pregnant all the way through today.  While I don't generally announce to the world what I weigh, I think it's important for you to see exactly when the pounds started dropping and the rate at which they were dropping (many months, like molasses on a cold day in January).  But before I do that, I must remind you (and myself) that weight is not necessarily a number that should be focused on obsessively.  I usually weigh myself once a week or so, just to make sure nothing strange is going on.  I would much rather focus on inches, how clothes fit, muscle mass, strength, and stamina.  After all, weight is just a number on a scale.  It won't tell a person how many push ups you can do, how fast you can run a mile, how awesome your bow pose looks, how you make other people feel, what great hugs you give, or how much your babies love you.  These items are much more important indicators for how you're doing.  We are more than just a number.  But since there's no way to measure some of these things, we'll stick with weight for now. 

So here we go.  My weight was right at 137 pounds when I found out I was pregnant.  This was a little lower than normal.  140 pounds was probably my normal pre-pregnancy weight.  I started keeping a chart showing how much weight I had gained in order to meet my weight gain goals (that's the first time I had that type of goal!), and then after the babies were born, I kept the chart going to document my weight loss.  By 20 weeks pregnant, I was at 166 pounds (29 pounds gained).  By week 37, I was at 192.8 pounds (55.8 pounds gained).  I probably gained more weight than that, but the babies decided to make their appearance before I got around to weighing myself for week 38. 

The day after the babies were born, my weight was down to 176.4 (the babies account for over 12 pounds of that!).  One week later, I was down to 163.2 pounds.  This is where it got difficult.  My weight teetered right around 160 pounds for the next 15 weeks.  That's almost four months.  During this time, I was working out, nursing, and eating significantly less calories than I was before.  Despite all of that, my weight would not budge (or sometimes it went up a pound!).  I finally broke into the 150s at around 17 weeks postpartum.  Then I was in the 150s for the next five months.  It was difficult and sometimes disheartening, but at least it was gradually (very gradually) dropping.  Here we are at one year out, and the last time I checked my weight, it was at 145.2 pounds.  I have about five pounds to go.

Here's some of what I've learned from the past year.

1.  Keep Nursing.

Before the babies were born, a friend of mine (also pregnant) discussed how everyone talks about how nursing helps you to lose the baby weight, but, in her experience with her other two children, it is actually what slowed the weight loss down.  That made sense to me.  Your body may potentially need those fat stores for milk, so it wants to hold on to it.  This was also my personal experience.  All those months when the scale was immovable was when I was producing the most milk for my babies.  When the babies started eating solids (and therefore started drinking less milk), the weight started dropping at a faster pace.  With all that being said, I still think nursing ultimately helps you to meet your weight loss goals because it uses up your fat stores created during pregnancy, albeit at a slow pace.  It also increases your (and your baby's) immunity, which of course allows you to continue your exercise routine that will lead to weight loss. 

2.  Consistency is Key.

Repeat after me:  Slow and steady wins the race.  Through those four months where my weight hovered at 160 pounds without much budging, I still continued to exercise and eat well.  I did not let the seeming lack of progress be an excuse for giving up.  When my body was ready to start dropping pounds, I already had the routines in place that would allow it to happen in a healthy manner.  Exercise is not something that will transform your body overnight.  It takes time, and it takes effort.  You have to put in that time and effort one workout at a time, but it's the consistency of one workout after another that leads to success.  Don't give up if you don't immediately see results.  Keep striving for your goals, and you will eventually end up where you want to be if you stick to a consistent and healthy exercise and eating plan.

3.  Think Outside the Box.

It's already hard enough to find time to exercise without children.  Throw children into the mix, and it becomes near impossible sometimes.  If you don't have the option of going to a gym where they have childcare available, you can still exercise.  You just have to be a little more creative.  When I miss a workout, I love to use my babies as "weights."  And they love it too.  Hold your baby in front, squat down, and then as you come up raise the baby overhead.  Revel in your baby's joyful squeals.  Do you see what you just did?  That was a squat to an overhead press, which works your quads, hamstrings, glutes, core, shoulders, and triceps.  Do several of those in a row, and I'm sure you'll feel it just like you would if you were doing these at a gym.  Try laying on the ground, holding your baby directly overhead like an airplane (your arms are straight, wrists above shoulders).  Bend your elbows until they are at your sides.  Straighten the arms and press the baby back up.  Do you feel that in your triceps?  Now, carefully roll you and baby up into a sitting position.  Continue down and up, without using momentum.  And there's a roll up, which is great for strengthening the core.  My husband loves to put the babies into their carrier and use the carrier to do bicep curls and rows.  For any exercise, try using the baby instead of a weight (making sure of course that it is safe for baby).  You may be surprised at how much you feel the burn.  Workout - done.  Having fun with baby - done.

Stay tuned for the next two parts in this series where I'll share more of my tips for winning the battle against the baby weight!

Seek and Ye Shall Find

With Wren and Judson being so much more mobile these days, there's no telling what trouble they may find themselves in at any given moment.  We've done the standard "baby-proofing,"  but there's only so much you can plan for. It's not unusual to find them gnawing on some random item they've found in the floor (shoes, coasters, remotes...you name it).  Sometimes this is to our advantage.  For example, after dinner, we just set them in the floor, and off they go cleaning up the food that fell to the floor.  Who needs a vacuum cleaner?  (I'm kidding!...No, I'm not.  We're just killing two birds with one stone - entertaining/feeding the babies and cleaning the floor!  Germs are supposed to be good for their immune systems anyways, right?)  Other times, their propensity to put anything they find in their mouths poses a bit more of a hazard...
You may recall that we recently acquired a little ukulele for Caleb to play as his "guitar." 

He's had a great time with it so far, and so have Wren and Judson, for that matter.  Remarkably, it's remained in tact this entire time...well, almost...
Yesterday, Judson was playing with the guitar while Tony was in the room with him.  We're not really sure how this happened, but somehow, Judson managed to break one of the pegs off of the guitar.  Tony heard what sounded like small pieces of hardware hitting the floor, followed by Judson coughing.  As he came over to the scene of the crime, he sees the guitar in several pieces on the floor, and, guessing that some piece was more than likely in his mouth, he started whacking him on the back, a la the Heimlich Maneuver.  Juddy coughed up one screw and then returned to his normal self.  Relieved, Tony examined the guitar and its pieces more carefully, where he found that there was still one screw missing.  A careful examination of the floor in the living room (and Judson's mouth again) did not turn up the missing screw.  There was only one place that we could think it may have gone...down Judson's esophagus and into his belly.  After a panicked search of our baby books and the internet, we determined that there's not much we can do, and if there are no signs of any digestive problems, there was only one thing to do...wait for it to make its appearance on the other end.
So we were tasked with the unfortunate duty (pun intended) of searching all the dirty diapers until we found the offending screw.  Lucky us! 
About 30 hours (and more dirty diapers than I would like to remember) later, Tony changed the winning diaper and found the shiny metal object!
All's well that ends well.  Tony repaired the guitar (with a new screw), and it's back to playing beautiful music.  Judson was no worse for the wear, and, in case you were wondering, neither was the screw.

Shiny and new.

Milestones

 We've reached some serious milestones here at the Argo household lately.
Caleb is making his mama proud by eating an ice cream cone all by himself.

 We're still working on our proper technique.

 Judson is all about standing up these days.

 We call him our little wild man because he often falls over like this:

(I didn't mean to take a picture of him falling, but he just so happened to fall just as I was trying to capture a picture of him pulling the pan out of the cabinet.)  But the good news is that he usually gets back up and returns to whatever he was doing.  His perseverance is inspiring (and sometimes annoying).
 Mission accomplished!

 Next up:  surfing!  Or maybe just walking.  I am predicting that he will be walking before his first birthday (in just a few weeks!). 

Wren is standing up too, although not with the fervor that Judson has.  She's perfectly content to crawl around for now.
Wren's hair is getting long, and it hangs right in front of her eyes.  I try to pull it back with a hair tie or a bow, but that little girl can expertly pull those things out like it's nothing.  I guess the mother/daughter struggle over hair styling has begun.

One thing both babies love is their little red car.  We'll often find them both crammed inside it vying to be the "driver."

I guess they're used to being crammed together in tight spaces.

I don't want to hear them complaining about having to share a car when they turn 16!  They've done it before, and they will do it again!
Every day is full of excitement around here, waiting to see what new skill one of our children acquires!  Before too long, they will quite literally all be running circles around us (while probably eating ice cream cones)!  Heaven help us.

Four Minutes

Think you don't have time to exercise?  Do you have four minutes to spare?  That's all it takes to make fitness improvements using Tabata training!

What exactly is Tabata training?  It's where you do twenty seconds of very intense exercise followed by ten seconds of rest for a total of at least four minutes.  When I say "very intense,"  I mean very intense - as in, twenty seconds is about all you could do of that particular exercise at that intensity level.  You should need a break after twenty seconds.  After your ten second break [let's be honest - ten seconds isn't exactly a break, but it should feel good (albeit short) after your intense exercises], you repeat it all again seven more times (for a total of eight sets).

You can do the same exercise for each set.  For example, you could do jump squats for all eight sets.  Or you can mix it up, doing different exercises each set.  The key is that each set is as intense as you can make it for those twenty seconds.

When I do Tabata training, I like to mix up the exercises for some variety and to make sure that I can really give it my all each set.  Keep the exercises simple and effective.  Here's the group of exercises I did last week during a Tabata training session:

1.  Jump Squats

2.  Mountain Climbers

3.  Lunge Jumps

4.  Burpees

5.  Lateral Jumps

6.  Single Leg Burpees

7.  Single Leg Burpees (on the other leg)

8.  Plie Squat Jumps

If you only had an extra four minutes for exercise in a particular day, you could do this and be done. 

The reason Tabata training is so great is that you can accomplish in four minutes what it would have taken you to accomplish in 30 minutes of steady state cardio (like walking at a moderate pace).  You burn more calories during the workout and after the workout because of the after burn effect of this type of training.  Plus, because you are working at such a high intensity, you're increasing your fitness level - much more so than steady state cardio.  I also like how quickly it moves, making it less likely that you'll just quit because you get bored. 

If you had more time on your hands and were looking for a serious sweat session, here are some other options: 

1.  String two or three sets together (for a total workout of eight or twelve minutes).  If you're going for this long, I recommend varying the exercises, as 16-24 sets of anything is a bit much (and increases your chances of an overuse injury).  A note of caution here:  the longer your Tabata session goes, the more likely it is that you will not be working at the intensity level needed for it to actually be true Tabata training (because you may be too tired to really push your limits).  If your intensity level starts to drop, next time stick with a shorter session but maintain that high intensity throughout.  Twelve minutes in a row should be your max of this type of training.

2.  Work in Tabata training into your weight lifting session.  Last week, I had about 45 minutes to fit in weights and cardio.  So I warmed up on the elliptical for a few minutes, then I did three super sets of three weight lifting exercises.  After completing the three super sets, I did one round of the exercises listed above (for a total of four minutes).  Then I did all of that two more times (using different weight lifting exercises for each round).  By the end, I was tired and sweaty - the way you should be at the end of a workout! 

The next time you're short on time but need to fit in a workout, try one of these options.  The only rules:  warm up for a few minutes before starting, keep the intervals intense (remember, you should need that ten second break), and keep the exercises simple and effective (the more complicated, the less likely they will be intense enough). 

I promise, you'll never want to go back to long steady state cardio sessions again when you have this as an effective and efficient alternative!

Working from Home

Most weekday afternoons I either close the door to my home office or head into the office to work, and Tony is left with being the sole caregiver for our three munchkins, at least for the few hours after nap time.  When I'm working at home, I can often hear the craziness and shenanigans going on from my office.  (Sometimes I have to go hide in my closet to make a phone call to a client or colleague - Maybe I'm wrong, but I think they would not appreciate the moving rendition of the ABCs playing loudly in the background as we discuss important legal matters.)  Tony never loses his cool though.  He takes it all in stride and never once complains about his difficult job. 
One day last week, I had gone into the office for the afternoon.  I came home to an empty house.  Both vehicles were accounted for.  Where was my family?  This was the sight I was greeted with coming down the road to our house:

He was single-handedly pushing all three children (in two different strollers) through our very hilly neighborhood (without a shirt on, to my neighbors' delight, I'm sure).  He's amazing!
Sometimes when I'm working from home, a straggler will get lose and break into my office when he's preoccupied with one or two of the other children.  Usually it's Caleb.  He loves to sit in my lap while I type (do you have any idea how difficult it is to type a cogent motion for summary judgment while a three year old is sitting in your lap trying to type on his own?).  Sometimes he'll go into the other office chair and say he's "working."  Daddy is usually not far behind to hurry him back to whatever activity he was doing. 
The other day, I heard a series of thuds approaching my office door as though someone were crawling towards it.  I turned around to find this:

 "Excuse me, ma'am.  I've come to apply for the office assistant position."

"I heard the dress code was business casual, so I even wore a bow in my hair to dress my outfit up a little." 
After an afternoon of working, I'll usually find everyone in our playroom or gym in the basement.  My favorite is when I can hear the music from the training montage from Rocky IV blaring from the speakers in the basement. As I make my way down the stairs, I can hear Caleb yelling, "...Seven...Eight...Nine...TEN!"  As I turn the corner into the playroom, I see Judson vigorously jumping in his jumper and Wren doing sumo squat jumps in her jumper.  Then I come into the gym to see the reason for Caleb's yelling out numbers at the top of his lungs:  he's doing pull ups, assisted by Daddy, of course.  Then as the music reaches its climax, they drop from the pull up bars and securely position the big exercise ball against the cable machine and start punching it like a punching bag, ending with the knock out blow to win the match!  Then comes the victory lap with arms raised triumphantly overhead!  (OK, maybe I was the one doing the victory lap at this point - I'm a sucker for that Rocky music!)  One thing is for certain:  all of our kids are going to ace the Presidential Fitness test when they get to school if they're already working on their pull ups!
While I'm technically the one "working" during these afternoons, I'm pretty sure that Tony's doing all the hard work, but he does it with pizazz and without complaining.  And I couldn't ask for a better person to be taking care of our kids when I can't be there.  I hope they inherit his creativity, his ability to go with the flow...and his love for Rocky-style workouts. 

Watermelon Babies

What's the best way to cool off when it's the dog days of summer?

You could go on a walk when it's just about to start pouring rain.

Our intent wasn't to get soaked, but it sure did work to cool us off.  Wren, however, did not enjoy running downhill in a serious downpour. 
Perhaps something a little less wet and a little more sweet would work...
It's unanimous:  watermelon is the most delicious and cooling summertime treat...especially when it's fresh from Papaw's garden.  The babies had one bite, and they were hooked.

 I think they each had about four of these!  This was clearly the best thing to ever cross their lips.

 Their little bellies were so full I thought they would pop! 

And they were sticky from head to toe.  But their eager anticipation of the next juicy bite made the clean up completely worth it!