Why the Last of the Baby Weight is So Hard to Lose

I have a membership at the local YMCA. I had to put it on hold while expecting little R., however, for my sciatic nerve hurt so badly I wasn't able to use the treadmill. Sorry if that's TMI. Anyway, now that Boo is 8 months old, I finally had the hold released. Problem is, the child care is only open from 8am-12pm, then opens again at 4pm. If I don't get to the Y by 8:45 at the latest, there is no more room for infants, and I don't get to exercise. Keep in mind that the boys have to be at school at about 8:10 (they are late after 8:30, but teachers want them there early to do their morning work, and I aim to please), and it takes about 20 minutes to get to the Y from there. Also, most mornings I like to walk the boys into school rather than dropping them off at carline, so I try to leave the house by 8:50 am. Try to, anyway. The boys do not have the same sense of urgency as I most mornings, to say the least. When they move too much like pond water on my gym days, they do get dropped off at carline so I can join the Amazing Race to get to the child care door at the Y before the other supermoms who do not have older kids to deal with (most of whom are also pencil thin, go figure). I am not trying to be pencil thin, just healthier, by the way.

So. I made it to the Y twice last week. Yes, twice. Here's how this week has gone: Monday morning I opened the formula can to make Boo's first bottle and realized we were precariously low on that necessary commodity. Meaning, I'd be going to the grocery store after visiting the school rather than the Y that morning. I got the turtles boys to school that morning, went back home to finish baby's breakfast which she hadn't eaten well beforehand and noticed my answering machine light was blinking. The message was from my weeping oldest child asking if I remembered that the awards assembly was that morning, was I coming? Bummer. No, I hadn't remembered. For the record, communication (or lack thereof) is a constant headache with the school, and I'd never gotten notice about what time this assembly was supposed to be, and most parents don't come anyway since it's during the school day. But it is extremely important to this child that his mom be one of the three that do show up, and I desperately want his memories of his childhood to be that we were there for him. As I finished listening to the weepy message, the phone rang again, and caller ID showed the school number. Great, I hope no one is sick. It was J.'s teacher apologizing profusely, but J. is very upset, and the assembly is in the cafeteria in 10 minutes, would I talk to him? So, I did, and I told him I'd bring R.'s breakfast and be there as soon as I could. And I was. Then I hung around 20 minutes after his assembly so I could be there for my 5-year-old's assembly as well. The look on both their faces made it all worth it. And at 10am I managed to drag baby to the grocery and get back home without any meltdowns on her part. So, no exercise on Monday.

Tuesday: Well, you can read some of that in my goofy poem. Better to laugh than cry, I always say. After driving back home for lunch box, then back home again for a jacket and carrying it into the school, in a fit of optimism I drove to the Y. The other contestants in the Amazing Child Care Room Race must have been a little slow that day, for R. got the last baby slot at 9am. I was so tired from all the running around I really didn't feel like doing much, but I managed 30 minutes on the treadmill and the leg torture devices weight machines. R. was just beginning to scream when I arrived, so, all in all, not a bad trip to the Y.

Today: Baby wakes up with nasty, nasty snotty nose. After three, yes count 'em, three trips to the Y since reinstating my membership, she caught a cold. Not surprising, I suppose. Then oldest son woke up saying, "My stomach hurts. It really hurts." No temperature, no vomiting (thankfully!), but I let him stay home. This is the most honest kid I've ever known, and he absolutely hates missing school (he's weird like me), so if he says he feels too bad to go, I tend to believe him. But there's also no TV or computer games. This is NOT a fun day for him, and he just finished the mountain of homework his teacher sent home for him to do today when I stopped in after walking younger son to class. So, I'm home today. No Y. And it's ok. It's not like I really wanted to go today anyway.....But just in case anyone wanted to know why it's taking me so long to lose the 20 pounds I said way back a long time ago that I wanted to lose, that's a big reason right there.