Oh hai.

Yeah, I should've updated this long ago. Like maybe after my baby was born...not when she's six months old. You know how it is. Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans, as the great John Lennon once said.

I don't know if anybody would even be reading this anymore, but for what it's worth, here's an update.

My daughter was born on March 5, induced a few days prior to her due date because after a healthy pregnancy, I developed high blood pressure in the last few weeks of it. Given that pre-eclampsia is a scary thing, induction was the way to go. So I didn't get the birth I wanted -- I had planned for a natural birth -- but the outcome was that we were both healthy. Ultimately that's the most important thing.

Then...I couldn't breastfeed. It's a long sad tale but essentially I did everything I could to make it work and still couldn't supply enough milk for my baby to gain weight. Heartbreaking to me, but I've moved on (for the most part, I'm still jealous of nursing mothers).

The real focus of this blog is the band, eating, exercise, etc., so to that. Well, I lost all of my "baby weight", about 25 pounds, within six weeks of having my daughter. Plus an extra five pounds for good measure, probably because I was a nervous wreck. Over the past five months I've gained back about 7 of those. I can easily attribute this to two things: bad eating habits and lack of exercise.

Eating when you want and what you want is tough with a baby. But that's just an excuse, I've been eating slider foods, drinking with meals, all those no nos. It's just so easy to get back into that. Exercising is also really challenging. I am still working part-time so finding the time is tough. We have an exercise class together but that's about it for exercise these days.

I don't really like the direction I'm headed in. I'm not sure if I need a fill or what. I haven't had one since...November 2008. I haven't even seen or spoken to my fill doc since I got that unfill in March 2009 due to reflux. I spoke to him then about getting pregnant and that was it.

What I really need to do is try the five day pouch test and see how that goes. One issue is that money is very tight and I have to pay for my fills, so coming up with the cash to do that would be a challenge. I am still eating small amounts, just not of the right things, so maybe if I do the pouch test and get back to eating like a bandster I'll be OK. At least most of the pouch test recipes are things I can make ahead, so I should do that this weekend and try to get back on track.

Eating better is easy compared to fitting in exercise, but I need to find a way. I know it'll help with my energy level. Given that my baby is learning to crawl, I need all the energy I can get!