Frog Child

I just love when they sleep like this! AJ has been pretty consistently nursing around 7:30/8pm for an hour or two and then falling asleep for "the night" until 2-3am. It'd be great if I actually went to sleep early enough to take advantage of this...I'm working on it. Regardless of what time he eats at night, he wakes up to eat around 2-3am until about 4/4:30, and then again around 6am. That part is a little rough so I need to go to sleep earlier...but it's hard!

6 wks & 10lbs!

Title self explanatory. The little dude is getting bigger each day! He probably shouldn't be shoved into newborn clothes anymore, but it's so hard to see each thing worn only 2-3 times! AJ is smiling occasionally when mommy talks to him (we think he likes the higher tones of my voice), and is starting to coo--it's adorable! He continues to be a very good baby, even giving mommy 4-5 hours of sleep a night. Nursing is going well, although he's definitely exhibiting signs of a growth spurt, meaning constant eating and fussiness, plus seeming insatiable. Hopefully we'll get through this quickly. :)

Baby Brother!

Andrew Jason Krochak ("aj") was born last Friday the 11th at 11:13am. I ended up going into labor wed night on my own and went to the hospital three times--wed night (tech tues am) from 2am-7am, then thurs from about 4pm-8pm, and then thurs night (technically fri am) around 1am because my water broke at home (!) -- 40 hours of labor overall. Ended up delivering via cesarean because I developed a 101.6 fever that wasn't decreasing much with tylonel and ice. It decreased, but they wanted to give me pitocin to speed up labor and after being in labor for almost two days already, I declined and elected to have another cesarean. 

Turns out that was a good choice - apparently I was incredibly dehydrated and they had a difficult me finding veins for an IV, both when I was admitted initially and when they were prepping me for the c-section (an hour each time to get it in--I was stuck over 40 times by more than 6 people!). Turned out that he fever was a uterine lining infection, and Saturday morning my blood pressure had fallen to 81/55, and fell more throughout the day to 70's/40's. They pumped me full of more than 3L of fluid and a ton of antibiotics, but it wasn't helping so I ended up being transferred to the ICU to be more closely monitored, have chest X-rays to be sure there was no fluid in my lungs, and potentially get an IV in my chest to monitor blood pressure and potentially give me a blood transfusion. I had to be separated from the baby and it was scary and emotionally challenging. Meanwhile, they decided to monitor HIM for rapid breathing since the infection could've transferred to him...not a good night. :-/ 

I was in the ICU for about 24 hours and received a lot more fluids and antibiotics, finally showed some improvement after that plus sleeping a few hours, and was transferred back to the mother & baby floor. Luckily, AJ latched and nursed right away (I was very nervous about that since they decided to give him formula)! 

I gained strength and felt much better after another two days in mother & baby recovery, and couldn't wait to get home. We were discharged Tuesday (I had an IV in administering fluids and antibiotics until literally minutes of my discharge!) and are settling in at home. I'm feeling a million times better, and think I'm recovering nicely! I can't believe how much fluid they pumped into me. Ironically, that was one of the main reasons I hadn't elected a planned cesarean and was going for a VBAC: I hated how I had been pumped full of drugs and fluids with my induction with Aubrey. I gained at least 10lbs while in the hospital, but have already lost 15lbs -- I am still super swollen, especially in my legs and ankles and feet -- but I hope it continues to get better so I can be more active ASAP. Right now, I'm trying hard to rest and recover so I don't get another infection in my incision because I'm doing too much, which happened with Aubrey. Needless to say, if we ever otp for a third child, it will be a planned cesarean!!

AJ is a sweetheart, and doing very well. Nursing is going great--he's been gaining weight, which makes this mommy happy. We could use a few more hours of sleep at night, but he sleeps in good chunks during the day so we are trying to nap when he does and hopefully that will flip soon to be longer chunks of sleep at night (rather than the cluster feeding he's currently favoring). Aubrey is being so gentle with him - she says he's so small, and very cute, and wants to look at him all the time. She was disappointed yesterday when he couldn't play with her, but she's doing great with him at home. We are all very excited to see what our future holds as a family of four. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

pregnancy with baby boy krochak

I have been slightly delinquent on my blog posts, and thought I should post a few thoughts on this pregnancy versus my last one since the baby could, in theory, arrive any day!

We found out we would be having another baby a couple days before Aubrey's 2nd birthday.  We were surprised, but excited!  I had a feeling it was a boy from that very first day, and if the ultrasounds we've had thus far are correct, then I was right! ;)  Prior to getting pregnant, I had been working out a lot and I was able to keep that up for the majority of my pregnancy, other than a 4-6 week period in November where I was too tired to wake up for a 6:30 workout, fell asleep around 8pm, and got a headache nearly every afternoon around 2 or 3pm.  Once that passed and I was about 11-12 weeks along, I felt much better, and was able to get back into my workouts - hooray!  

We found out we were having a boy when we were about 16 weeks along.  I SWEAR I felt the baby move around 11-12 weeks, but some things I read online said that's "impossible" - hmmmm, I still think I felt him moving around.  Once he was moving around a lot, let's say around 16-20 weeks, he did just that: he moved a LOT.  He has been way more active than Aubrey ever was.  His movements were also different, in that he would twist and turn and move from one side of my belly to the other (Aubrey had a lot more erratic kicks and punches).  As he got bigger, he definitely preferred the right side of my belly (from my perspective), and my belly would look lopsided with his body always on that side!  The baby would have super active periods every day, and would love in such large, sweeping motions that my belly would feel like it was pulling the rest of my body with it.  This is one strong, active baby!  I would sit in the office in meetings and have to gasp audibly because it was so surprising and forceful.  Jason, my family and I could also watch my stomach and see the baby moving back and forth, making my belly pulsate in a way - also something that didn't happen with my first pregnancy.  

Around 30-32 weeks, I started to notice a lot of pressure up high - the baby would push against me, in what seemed to be a position like him arching his back.  I thought he might be head-down, and his butt was constantly pushing against me right there, but I didn't want to get too hopeful since Aubrey had been head-down until I was 38 weeks along.  This time around, I've had LOTS of braxton-hicks contractions (especially during one of my two stomach flu episodes this pregnancy, back in March.  The first flu was a few days after Christmas, bleck.  Thank goodness there was no third trimester flu episode!), and a lot more belly activity in general.  I hear this is common in subsequent pregnancies so hopefully that fact, rather than this just being a crazy active baby, is why!

At 36 weeks, the doctor confirmed that baby is head down, which made me excited because my goal is to try for a VBAC delivery this time around.  I have been having some contractions and other early labor signs (which are only signs that labor is 1-4 weeks away so they don't really tell you much) so maybe this will be successful?  We'll see.  Either way, we're excited to meet our active baby boy and can't wait to see what he looks like, and what kind of a personality he will have!

baby boy krochak baby pool

Hi everyone!

We are expecting our little bundle of joy on 7/7/14.  I'm a little late in doing this, but I remembered I did it with Aubrey and it was fun so I thought we should do it this time around, too!  I decided to use BabyHunch.com to put together a Baby Pool where you can guess certain things such as Baby's Birthdate (date and time), Baby's Weight, etc.

If you'd like to play, simply click the link provided below to submit your hunches!

Once you visit the page, click 'Enter New Hunches' to submit your hunches...

          Click Here for Baby Boy Krochak Pool

http://www.babyhunch.com/poolpage.php?poolid=8afefe5cd32d26db6c47364c1d8ddb92

I will close the baby pool at the end of this week (or maybe the weekend, depending on whether many people get to it before the holiday), and the winner will get a prize!

All our love,
blaire & jason

pumpkin

2 weeks to go...baby boy krochak is the size of a pumpkin! almost there...

Compare & Contrast

35 weeks with Aubrey (L) and 36 weeks with baby boy krochak (R)

I had to write a post like this at some point to document for myself how far I have come in my own health and in being a positive role model for my kiddos (that is a huge motivator for me).  People who have known me for many years know that I struggle with my weight, and being healthy.  I have had times where I have been thin, times where I have been fat, times where I have been strong, times where I have been unhealthy, and everything in between.  Throughout high school and college there were a lot of adjustments that I needed to make when I had to navigate transitioning from a young girl to an adolescent girl, and then to a young woman, which included balancing being an athlete with properly fueling my body, and then no longer being a competitive athlete and failing to adjust my eating habits, as well as socializing and drinking and eating while I did so, and then working full time in jobs with long hours and not much time to prep food or get workouts in.  

By the time I graduated college, I had pretty much gotten the hang of these "adjustments," and took my health and fitness into my own hands (in other words, I realized that I couldn't blame anyone or anything other than myself if I wasn't happy with how I felt physically); however, there were constant hurdles and setbacks.  Cramming for grad school finals meant eating poorly balanced nutrition.  Socializing a LOT meant drinking a lot of alcohol and eating greasy bar foods.  I usually balanced these actions out reasonably well with working out, but if I didn't do enough of that, the weight would sneak on -- not to mention my skin wouldn't look great and I just wouldn't feel very energized.  Later, working long hours in a new job meant grabbing takeout a lot or skipping workouts and sacrificing sleep.  All of these things meant that although I kind of found my homeostasis for months at a time, I still allowed hurdles to come in and shake things up with respect to how I looked and felt.

The most recent hurdle to do this was being pregnant with Aubrey.  I had gained some "happy" weight by going out to eat a lot and such with jason, and was still working on getting that off when I got pregnant.  Lots of things I read indicated that I shouldn't start an intense workout routine if I didn't already have one.  In addition, I had really bad morning sickness and couldn't stomach anything but simple carbs and sugary items.  I was constantly tired and didn't feel well.  I didn't really workout, and I didn't prepare my own meals.  This wasn't a huge problem in the first trimester, but ultimately, I put on 55lbs during my pregnancy, was extremely uncomfortable in my own skin, and after I had Aubrey and realized how much work I had to do, was extremely disappointed in myself.

After my sister in law tagged this photo of me on Facebook, I knew I had to do something other than crying or being upset: I had to take action.  

I started working out with a personal trainer again in hopes that I would get back to feeling strong and energized.  This was a good start, but it wasn't a full health transformation, because I wanted so desperately for it to be a quick fix and was so focused on the numbers on the scale dropping immediately.  In the 7 months since I'd had Aubrey, I had lost about 20 or so pounds when I first went to the PT, and I think after a couple months of eating a relatively strict low calorie diet (when a social event didn't get in the way), I had lost only 9-10lbs.  This discouraged me, and I gained weight again as I felt like a failure or let busy times at work be excuses for why I couldn't work out or deserved to eat calorie-laden, low-nutrient meals.  Unfortunately, it was not the "fix" I had been hoping for.

By the time Aubrey was 1.5 years old, I realized that my weight was STILL yo-yo-ing, and I was not the happy person I had been.  I wanted to spend time with my family so I didn't make time to workout, and I bought lunch or coffee drinks and pastries for breakfast with coworkers who seemed to be able to do the same without affecting their physique.  We went skiing and I had to buy all new clothes so I could ski.  My quads BURNED after each run, and I had to take constant breaks.  The altitude made me huff and puff and I felt awful.  I wanted to change, but work got extremely busy and I used it as an excuse - again.  I got through that, but then wedding season came up, and when I saw photos from bridal showers, bachelorette parties, and the weddings themselves, I could barely recognize who was in those pictures -- and I no longer had "you just had a baby!" as an excuse. I remember seeing other pregnant women and friends who didn't seem to have the same issue with gaining so much weight or getting it off, and being jealous--yet still not looking within myself to DO something about it. Ultimately, I knew this was not "me" and I wanted to get back to feeling how I had felt in the years past: healthy, strong, fit, and in control.  

In July 2013, I tried an outdoor fitness bootcamp class called EmpowerFit in San Mateo, and it was just what I had been looking for!  Group classes for support, motivation, and accountability.  An awesome coach who made me feel strong and encouraged me for showing up (as well as gave me a hard time when I didn't), and the feeling that I could be healthy again if I just dedicated some time to it.  I really enjoyed the workouts, and found it easier and easier to get up early to attend them as my body and energy levels reacted so well to them.  My initial fitness tests were eye-opening, but they made it super sweet when I made progress in the next months.  The class ran a few online accountability challenges, and my natural competitive spirit plus the momentum I had going made these short 21 or 30 days healthy focuses really work for me.  The focus was on being active and eating WHOLE, CLEAN foods - we never counted calories, we just listened to our bodies and ate balanced meals more often.  Three months after starting bootcamp, I was down nearly 10lbs and had lost inches and gained muscle (not to mention my self-confidence back!).  I was less than 10lbs away from my "pre-pregnancy weight." 

Then I found out I was pregnant again.

I did not want to give up my beloved bootcamp classes, and I did not want to give up Shakeology (I had started drinking the healthy meal replacement shake daily in one of the challenges and loved how I felt).  I was happy to hear from my doctor that I didn't have to, and was especially motivated when my bootcamp (and beach body) coach told me about other women who had or were continuing to workout while pregnant.  There were a few days or weeks where I was just way too tired to get out of bed at 6am to workout in the cold or rain, but I didn't let that become a pattern, and would get to the next class I could as soon as I felt better.  I checked in via facebook and got SO MUCH support and encouragement from friends and family -- how could I not keep it up?!  

I was able to workout at bootcamp through my 33rd week of pregnancy, when my back and hip pain after class got to be too much.  I would have loved to keep going, but I had to listen to my body and take it a little easier.  Luckily, I've built up more muscle mass, healthy eating habits, and a love of working out so I've been able to keep these things going for the last few weeks even without bootcamp itself.  I'm in the homestretch of my pregnancy with four weeks left (depending on when the little guy decides to join us), and I have one more week at work.  I have a lot of things to do in preparation for our new addition, but I'm mostly excited about not having to sit in my car to commute or at my desk at work all day, and be able to workout daily, prepare and eat healthy meals, and focus on myself for a few weeks before it's back to baby mode.  

Since I was already in a state of reflection today, I perused the blog and was pretty proud to see the difference between photos of me pregnant with Aubrey and baby boy krochak.  Not only am I smaller overall (so far I have gained about 12.5lbs this pregnancy, and anticipate that my total weight gain will be 20lbs or less this time, which was the goal my doctor and I discussed), but also I am just HAPPIER.  I have thoroughly enjoyed being pregnant this time around.  My body seems able to handle it better, and mentally I feel so much stronger.  Seeing the comparison photos above cemented it in my own head, and I decided that this kind of a post would be perfect to pick the blogging momentum back up as a new little family member comes into our lives for us to teach about the world!  I plan to remain a fit, active mom and to teach and SHOW my kids healthy eating habits. :)