What Went On in April

Well, I started off the wonderful month of April super pregnant, super cranky and almost convinced I was never going to give birth.

I’m so happy I actually remembered to do a take two of the photo of me heavily pregnant with Roman, in the nursery. I remember how excited I was in that first photo, SO TERRIFIED of labor and giving birth, but desperate to meet the little one inside. In the newer photo, I have to say I was less terrified of birth – almost weirdly looking forward to it, but just as impatient to meet baby.

Easter came and went – Roman was doubly excited for the Easter Bunny’s visit and also his Grandma’s visit. 🙂

To kill time, I monkeyed around with my little monkey, took long family walks in Prospect Park, enjoyed some spring weather and wondered when this baby would arrive.

I was still cooking and even came up with a couple of recipes I could schedule to share with your guys while I was on maternity leave. In case you missed them, these are both easy and quick to prepare, as well as delicious: Mango Coconut Cod as well as Brown Beer Crockpot Beef Stew.

With my impending maternity leave, I featured my last Fit Mama Friday for a little while – the amazing Melissa Burton, RD from The Valentine RD. Check out her feature if you missed it, because she’s smart and funny and awesome. And while I was in super pregnant land, I took the time to do a second Fit Mama Friday fitness tips round-up post, in which I took a piece of advice from 45 of my featured fit mamas and dads to share with you in one place.

I also got in as many workouts as I could manage, with the 6 weeks of enforced ‘light’ activity postpartum on the horizon. Plus, I hoped it would bring on labor. Lots of yoga, swimming and gym workouts. That last photo, from 40 weeks and 3 days? I walked almost 9 miles during that day, went swimming and did yoga. My yoga teacher recommended moving and walking as the best way to get labor progressing. I woke up the next day feeling so awful, Fran worked from home so I could just sleep. The following evening, I went into labor.

And then?

Baby Tanner arrived.

Today the new little man in my life decided to make his appearance! Little Tanner Henry, born this afternoon. ❤️❤️ Everyone is doing well.

A photo posted by carlypizzani (@carlypizzani) on Apr 16, 2015 at 4:36pm PDT

And life changed.

For one thing, lunch has been this more than once:

Being a mama of two is a whole new adventure. But that’s for another post. 🙂

I will tell you, when you have your first baby, the gifts people bring you are clothes and blankets and stuffed animals, as well as practical baby things you never even knew existed. You know what people bring you as gifts when you have a second baby?

Food. And wine. And champagne. It’s glorious.

The wine left on our stoop was dropped off by some good friends of ours – by the time I saw a text from them that it was there, nearly an hour had gone by. I was as surprised as anyone that it was still there safe and sound.

While I’m not recovering as quickly as I did after having Roman, I did get out and about a few times in the last couple of weeks. The great thing about living in the city is that everything is close by, so while a trip to the playground, or the pediatrician, or out to lunch might take a little longer than usual, it’s doable.

I have some wonderful guest posts coming up for you while I’m taking a break for snuggling. Allie from Vita Train for Life shared this week about the craziest thing she decided to do when she was pregnant with her twins and keep an eye out for posts on yoga, running, moving to another country, self-healing and more!

Finally, I’ll leave you with a few of the posts you may have missed during April:

My husband Fran was told he needed to lose weight for his health, by his doctor. It’s always scary when a medical professional gets serious about you losing weight and to help himself take the first part of his weight loss challenge seriously, he wrote a weekly post on his quest to lose 10 pounds in 6 weeks. You can read all Fran’s weight loss posts here.

I shared some tips on When (and How) to Regress Your Workout. Taking a step back from your current routine is always better than suffering through a preventable injury.

Speaking of tips, I rounded up 45 pieces of advice for working out and making healthy choices from my amazing Fit Mamas and Dads from the Fit Mama Friday series: Fit Mama Friday – 45 Fitness Tips from Real Life Fit Moms (and Dads!)

With the warmer weather, it seemed like a good time to give you 10 Ways to Spring Clean Your Fitness Routine.

And a couple of running posts as well –  Running Tips: 8 Tips for Mastering the Long Run, as well as 15 Frequently Asked Questions: Running During Pregnancy.

---

What went on in April for you guys?

Who watched Boston? I was happily curled up on the couch with Tanner in my arms, glued to the coverage and sobbing at the emotional parts. (Okay, probably hormones).

Okay, one more photo of Baby Tanner for luck. 😉