For those of you that have been pregnant, you know how difficult it is to lose the baby weight afterward. Since Sam was born in May of last year, I had been losing weight steadily, less than a pound a week…until Thanksgiving dinner. Then came Christmas…and Christmas parties and family gatherings, all with lots of food. So, a couple of weeks later the weight began to come off again…

During my pregnancy, I gained 41 lbs., which I think was a little more than average. Now I’m only 5 lbs. away from my pre-pregnancy weight in August of 2006. I haven’t done any particular exercise to lose the weight. All I’ve done is go for walks with the baby. We didn’t do much over the summer, because Sam was so young, I was recovering from a c-section, and it was so hot outside. Then in the autumn, the temperature was cooler and I was out of the “new mom haze,” so I took for Sam for lots of walks in the stroller. Now that there’s snow on the ground, I carry her in a backpack carrier. It’s good exercise for me, especially now that I’m carrying her, and it gets us both out in the fresh air.

Lately I had been noticing that the jeans I bought in a bigger size after she was born were getting a little loose, and I’ve even had to tighten my belt by a notch. I bought them when I stopped wearing maternity pants, and all the elastic waist pants like sweatpants and my super comfy Life Is Good lounge pants.

So I was doing some organization in the basement a few days ago and spotted a box of pre-pregnancy clothes. I thought, why not, so I pulled out my favorite jeans and tried them on. To my surprise, they fit! Granted, they are a little snug, but they weren’t uncomfortable to wear. It’s been almost eight months since Samantha was born, and I can finally fit into my pre-pregnancy pants!

I don’t know how I compare with other new moms in terms of their post-pregnancy weight loss, but I’m definitely happy with how I’ve been doing!

I’ve been hearing about Facebook for a long time now. I pictured it as a website mostly for high school and college students to post all their photos of each other drinking and such things, which I was not really interested in being a part of. Recently, I was speaking to a friend on the phone who I haven’t seen for a while, and I asked him if he has any recent photos online. He said he had some on Facebook. So…I finally went and checked it out.

During the registration process, I wasn’t paying attention and accidentally sent a “Friend Request” to everyone in my e-mail address book using Facebook. It’s a pretty cool feature, but there are several people in my address book that I haven’t talked to in a while, and didn’t want the first contact to be an impersonal invite, but oh well. Turns out there are at least 30 people I know using Facebook and it has been a great opportunity to reconnect with people from college, former coworkers, and friends I’ve lost touch with.

I’m beginning to explore the features of Facebook, like photo ablums, quizzes, and friend’s profiles. So far I’m most impressed with the social networking, meaning pretty much everything is available for all to see. For instance, I listed “hiking” as one my pastimes. I can click on the word “hiking” and it will show me a list of everyone else who listed “hiking” as a pastime in my network (which is Concord, NH, because that was the closest option to Plymouth). If I choose, I can start a conversation with any of those people, add them to my friends list (with their approval), or “poke” them. Two of my favorite applications so far are the “Books” and “Cities I’ve Visited” applications. In the “Books” one, I can tell everyone what books I’ve read, plan to read, and are currently reading. This has caused me to realize just how many books I’ve read, which is more that I would have guessed! In the “Cities I’ve Visited” application, I can put a pin on a map of the world for every city or town I’ve visited. It’s neat to look at the map and see just how many places I’ve been!

Most likely I will not be participating in the silly things, like throwing snowballs, hugging, or super-poking, but it’s nice to know I can if the mood strikes me. Facebook seems like it’s going to be a good way to keep in touch with people, especially ones that I would not call or e-mail often. *poke*

Samantha turned six months old on November 28, 2007. Mid-morning I got the idea to take photos of her doing what she does on a typical day…eating, playing, etc. So here it is…a day in the life of a six-month-old: In pictures.

6:00am: Wake up, eat, then play with Mom in bed until it’s time to get up!

7:00am: Breakfast time with Dad. Mmm…rice cereal!

9:13am: Hanging out in the rocker while Mom takes a shower.

10:25am: Nap time!

12:30pm: Hanging out with Dad on his lunch break.

1:19pm: Play time on the floor!

1:30pm: Time for lunch!

1:47pm: Play time in the exersaucer!

2:15pm: Going to the store with Mom.

3:23pm: Hanging out with Mom!

3:45pm: More fun times in the exersaucer!

4:21pm: Practice sitting up.

5:30pm: Dinnertime! Rice cereal…and squash for the first time.

6:30pm: Getting ready for bed.

6:38pm: Story time with Mom!

7:05pm: Sleepy time!

I have been asking myself this question for over a year now. My husband, Matt, blogs regularly and so do a few of my friends. He told me I should blog my pregnancy when I became pregnant in August of last year. I said, “Sure, I guess…when I have time.” Did that happen? No. Then he said I should blog weekly after the baby was born in May, as kind of a running record of her life. Our friend, Sara, blogged her pregnancy and has done every week of her son’s life so far. I said, “Sure, I guess…when I have time.” Did that happen? No.

Our daughter, Samantha, will be six months old next week. It’s a great idea in theory, you just have to actually sit down and do it. I have done a handful of posts in the past; photos that I took last year and wrote a sentence or two about each one. I would have liked to continue doing that, but once winter comes it’s harder to find interesting things to photograph outside, then I was busy being pregnant and resting, then I was busy being a new mom. So here I am now…I suppose by writing this post today, the day after Thanksgiving, that it means I will magically become invested in it and write new posts regularly.

One reason for my readiness to blog now is money. Since we had Sam, I’m now a full-time mom, so I’m home a lot and we’re living on one paycheck. I’m not saying we’re hurting for cash by any means; we’re definitely doing all right. It would be nice to have extra spending money, though. I see the checks from ad companies that Matt gets, and I realize that if enough people read my blog and click on the ads, I can make money as well, with little time or effort. The other thing is that I spend a lot of time at home, and the majority of times I leave the house is to spend money. Shopping for groceries, baby items, and browsing at the mall with friends (browsing=spending money) is a good but expensive way to spend the day. So, please check back every week or so for new posts. I will most likely write about Sam when she does something amazing (which is all the time), or when I take a particularly cool photograph, or just when I have something to say.

I was on a walk with my camera one day and came across a whole group of turkeys.

Matt bought me a few sunflowers (my favorite flower) on the first day of my new job.

I stole a photo of this lily from my dad’s garden on July 29, 2006.

I took this at a birdbath in the Boston Public Gardens on July 8, 2006.

I took this photo on July 16 at Matt’s grandparents’ farm in Plymouth, NH.

I’m happy to announce that abbybatchelder.com is now powered by Wordpress! A few great things will come of this:

• My gallery will be managed by my flickr account
• Featured photos will be able to be posted periodically.
• Spam will be eliminated from the guestbook!
• Management of content will be simplified so it will be updated more often!