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You are here: Home / Archives for Dieting

Growth Spurts – How To Cope

July 14, 2014 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 2 Comments

We are just coming through the other side of a growth spurt. Chloe has also just cut another tooth. I’ve been feeling unwell all week and I think it’s pretty much entirely down to the fact that I’m tired and drained.

Growth spurts in the first year are typically supposed to occur:

Between 1-3wks
Between 6-8wks
At 3 months
At 6 months
At 9 months

But this is just a guide and each baby is different. Chloe has had all of hers around 4 weeks early and I do wonder if this is because she was overdue?

Most growth spurts last a few days but can be longer. Our last one was roughly 8 days and it was hard. Possibly the hardest one so far. Chloe fed like a newborn and I really struggled with it. Last night she slept for 6.5hrs straight through without a feed for the first time in ages. I feel like a new woman today..well almost.

Tips to get you through a growth spurt:

1. Drink plenty. If water bores you then get juice, flavoured waters, decaffeinated tea etc etc. You MUST increase your fluid intake or you will feel awful.

2. Eat plenty. Don’t diet through a growth spurt. I’ve tried and it’s not fun. You need extra calories if anything so eat healthy and generously sized meals with snacks in between and of course ..puddings or cake.

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3. Sleep whenever you can. Or rest. Your body is effectively running a marathon at this time and it needs to recuperate.

4. Have long, lazy baths. Have your partner bring the baby into you for a feed and take him/her away when finished. Relax. If your baby wants more milk then you feel you are producing a warm bath can stimulate milk production.

5. Sore nipples? Put some flannels in the fridge to cool and use them to soothe your nipples. Also Lansinoh is great.

6. Treat yourself. Buy yourself a good book to read during feeds or watch a rom com and eat something delicious.

7. If your baby is on solids get them lots of small, heathy snacks to chew on if you absolutely need to get something done but try not to avoids feeds as a growth spurt is baby’s way of increasing your milk supply to cope with their growing demands.

8. Don’t give up on your worst day. Wise advice from a good friend of mine. Last week saw me once again close to wanting to stop breastfeeding. I didn’t and I’m glad. We are 8 months in and I’m thrilled we have done so well.

9. Up all night feeding? Go on social media and chat to other mums who are going through the same thing. Search for breastfeeding hashtags, growth spurt or zombie mums. There is ALWAYS someone to talk to. I’m @writingforfun if you want to follow.

10. Remember it does end. It doesn’t feel like it but it does I promise.

Any other tips? Let me know and I will add them to the list.

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Filed Under: Breastfeeding, Parenting/baby · Tagged: 8 months, baby, breastfeeding, cake, Dieting, growth spurts, milk supply

Halfway Point Of The 30 Day Shred

May 2, 2012 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 9 Comments

Ok so before I got pregnant I was in decent enough shape although I had been a bit lazy with exercise for about a year before so I wasn’t anywhere near as fit as I should have been. Pregnancy came along and with that extreme morning sickness and insomnia which meant that I really didn’t feel up to exercise so although I didn’t put on more weight than your average pregnant woman I felt so unfit.

Since having Izzy I have wanted to lose the baby weight but when I dieted strictly I found I had little energy to look after my bundle of fun and I’d rather be healthy and happy. I struggled to find the time and motivation to start up an exercise routine but when my sister gave me a stepper and I found it exhausting after 5 minutes I realised it was time! A lovely lady I follow on twitter had been talking about The 30 Day Shred and how it was working for her so after a bit of google research I decided to buy it from iTunes. As I wasn’t sure if I would be able to handle it I only bought the first video which was a bargain at £3.99. The idea is you do level 1 until you are ready for level 2 then onto level 3 to finish.

This is how it works:

30ds is a combination of strength, cardio and abs. The whole workout from warm up to cool down lasts just 25 minutes and it is totally doable even if like me you are ridiculously unfit. The trainer is Jillian Anderson (biggest loser USA personal trainer) who I had not heard of before but now just the sound of her voice makes me feel sick. This is a good thing, you are not supposed to like her. There are two intensity levels you can choose for (most of) the different exercises and I started off ( very sensibly) with the easier option. I found the first session hard and almost quit after the first circuit but somehow I continued and felt tired but pretty pleased with myself afterwards. The next day I ached a LOT but I carried on and for the following 9 days I used level 1.

On day 10 I felt able to complete the higher intensity exercises of level 1 and wasn’t feeling too uncomfortable the following morning so I moved onto level 2 which was a shocker!! It was so much harder but I am now on day 16 and am so happy that I have pushed myself to get this far. I have skipped a few days as had a pretty nasty flu bug but it just means it will take me that little bit longer to complete the 30 days. So I now have 14 days left of the challenge and don’t quite feel ready to move onto level 3 in fact I am little scared at what it might entail but I am aiming to switch at day 20. Wish me luck.

The results so far:

I didn’t measure myself all over as most people do at the beginning of the shred which maybe I should have but I did weigh myself and so far I’ve lost 6&1/2 lbs which I have to attribute to this as although I have been cutting back for a while I’m not strictly dieting. I am also starting to feel more toned all over already, my arms, legs and bum feel so much better than before and my clothes fit better and the best part is that I’m only giving up 25 minutes of my day to do it. I mostly do the exercises whilst Izzy is napping but she will occasionally play next to me or try to get involved in her walker as I do them and she finds it pretty funny.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to get back into exercising, as although it’s difficult there are ways to modify the exercises if you can’t handle them and you see/feel results very quickly which is an excellent motivator.

New things that I hate: Jillian Anderson, planks, walking push ups, plank jacks, plank thrusts etc etc.

After the shred I may consider trying Insanity so if anyone has done that let me know how you got on.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized · Tagged: 30 day shred, baby weight, Dieting, exercise, insanity, weight loss

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