Mommy Forum Acronym Cheatsheet

The moment I found out I was pregnant I needed to learn as much as I could ASAP. What is going to happen to my body? What foods should I stay away from? Are these pains normal? 

So I jumped on Amazon and ordered a few books, downloaded a bunch of apps and joined a bunch of pregnancy forums. Talk about information overload. I immediately realized what I found to be most helpful was just talking to new moms or other pregnant women.

So I ended up spending most of my time on the forums reading what other people were going through or had already gone through. But during almost every post there was always something that stumped me – what the heck do all these letters mean? Everyone seemed to be using them like they were as common as LOL or WTF. I constantly found myself doing a google search to find out what these acronyms stood for or I breathed a sigh of relief when someone else before me asked exactly what I was thinking.

So here is a cheatsheet of some of the most common acronyms to help understand what everyone is talking about in those mommy forums.

AF – aunt flo (period)

BBT – basal body temperature

BFN – big fat negative

BFP – big fat positive (pregnancy test)

CIO – cry it out

CM – cervical mucus

CS – caesarean section

DD – dear daugher

DS – dear son

EBF – exclusively breastfeeding

EDD – estimated due date

FF – formula feeding

FTM – first time mom

LC – lactation consultant

LO – little one

MIL – mother-in-law

OP – original poster

OT – off topic

PP – post partum or previous poster

PPD – post partum depression

SAHM – stay at home mom

SIL – sister-in-law

SO – significant other

STM – second time mom

TTC – trying to conceive

VBAC – vaginal birth after caesarean

Oh La Lost In Paris

As Audrey Hepburn once said, Paris is always a good idea, especially when you grab a few girlfriends and spend a few days exploring the beautiful sights. As much as Paris is usually set as a backdrop for lovers in the movies (Before Sunset being one of my all-time favourite movies and of course who could forget Big going to rescue Carrie from the Russian), I can't imagine my hubby having a great time in Paris. He loves his sports and beer and I love him for that but I think he would get pretty bored wandering the cobblestone streets, strolling into adorable boutiques and spending hours gushing over the quintessential Parisian cafés.

I was lucky enough to spend 5 days in Paris a few years ago with my mom and my aunt, two of my favourite travel partners. This was pre-Mommy and pre-Wifey days and fairly early into my wino days. My mom had a conference in Paris so my aunt and I tagged along. It was one of the greatest trips of my life and gave me one of the greatest life lessons for travelling: get lost.

It's something we didn't intend on doing but rather found out by accident that this was a great way to see the city. As soon as we landed in Paris and got checked into our hotel we immediately hopped in a cab and went to the Eiffel Tower. We spent at least an hour walking around and taking pictures from all angles. It was around lunch time and we were hungry so we started walking trying to find somewhere to eat. We didn't want anything too touristy so we ventured down some side streets until we found a cute little restaurant that only had about 20 tables. I remember the meal wasn't that great (turns out I'm not a huge fan of French food) but I didn't care because we were in Paris. I would've eaten tv dinners all week if I had to, nothing was going to ruin the fact that I was in Paris.

When we left the restaurant we had no idea where we were so we just started walking and walking and walking. It allowed us to see so many great sights that we never would have seen had we stuck strictly to the guidebook and the main touristy areas. We loved venturing through the sleepy neighbourhoods that are typically only frequented by locals and it was much more enjoyable then fighting for sidewalk space with hordes of tourists.

So my biggest tip when visiting Paris is to start your day at one of the big touristy locations because it's important to see all of those but then just start walking and get yourself lost in the city.

Here are some suggestions on tourist locations to start at:

• The Eiffel Tower - An obvious choice.
• The Louvre - Check out the Mona Lisa and the other less popular yet extraordinary artwork.
• Sacré-Coeur Church - See gorgeous views of the city from here.
• Pere Lachaise Cemetery - Visit Jim Morrison's grave where people still leave letters, bottles of booze and other interesting items. Lots of other notable historic people are also buried here.
• Arc de Triomphe - A stunning, iconic landmark. 
• Notre Dame - The architecture is striking and the gargoyles are haunting.

Oh...and be sure to stop off at some cafés along the way for some coffee, espresso, wine and champagne! 

Homemade Mani

Ever since I stopped biting my nails about 5 years ago I've been OBSESSED with painting my nails. Just like my obsession with jeans I probably own at least 50 different shades of nail polish and just like my obsession with jeans I refuse to spend a lot of money on nail polish so I can justify my obsession. I very rarely spend more than $3 on nail polish and I very rarely go get a professional manicure because it's too hard to find the time and I actually find it rather therapeutic to sit and do my own nails, as amateur as they may turn out. 

So here is this week's homemade mani featuring:

• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 185 - Giant Peach 

• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 340 - Mint Sorbet 

• Spoiled S004 - Correction Tape

Time to lose the baby belly...

Since I had a c-section I was told not to do any physical activity for at least 6 weeks after the baby was born which I decided to extend by a few weeks. I would like to say it was because things were so hectic taking care of the baby but who am I kidding, she's been such a great baby and the delay in getting my butt in gear was nothing besides pure laziness.

Fortunately I have a trip to California coming up in August so that's been my motivation to try to lose some of this extra baby weight. Since I had gained around 40 pounds when I was pregnant, I was terrified to step on the scale to see how much work I had ahead of me to get down to my pre-baby weight. I was about 8 weeks postpartum when I finally got the courage to step on the scale and much to my delight I had actually lost more weight than I was expecting!

So then I thought - if I shed that much weight without even trying, imagine what I could do if I actually tried. I only have about 15 more pounds to go to get to my pre-baby weight so I've started walking 3-5km every day (sometimes even twice a day) and I've started eating better too. I've also found what is my new favourite workout out - the 30 Day Ab Challenge app.

I knew that walking wouldn't immediately help get rid of the baby pooch and I had done a few 30 day challenges before but I didn't know there was actually an app for them. I used to follow one that was printed out and for some reason it was just a pain to keep a piece of paper sitting around and I ended up throwing it out. But now that I've found this app I've done much better in keeping on top of this, especially since it sends you a friendly reminder if you've gone almost a whole day without doing it (which makes me feel SO guilty when I get that reminder so it definitely serves it's purpose).

Here was Day 1 - It was so easy, it left me wanting to do more!

Fast forward to Day 11 - this is what I have to look forward to tomorrow. The workouts are getting harder but it's such a great feeling to check off each one as I complete them and to see my overall progress (next photo).  

Oh...and I forgot to mention that every couple of days there is a Rest Day so while it is a 30 day challenge you even get a few days off during those 30 days.

Now that I'm getting back into working out, I'm excited to start doing the Popsugar Fitness workouts again. I absolutely love the 10 minute ones or any workouts that involve dancing. And I'm excited to see the new ones that they've added while I was on workout hiatus!

Beautiful Blooms

I love fresh flowers so when we moved into our house three years ago I immediately planted a peony bush and a hydrangea bush. I didn't really know what I was doing and, as with most things I do, I didn't bother to do research or follow any instructions. I just went ahead and planted them and hoped for the best. Fortunately they both lived and now three years later they are huge and produce the most beautiful blooms. The peony bush blooms for a very short period in the spring but I didn't even realize that I had bought the Endless Summer hydrangea so it blooms multiple times throughout the summer. Since I can't afford to go out and get fresh flowers every week (especially now that I'm on maternity leave), it's nice to be able to walk into my backyard and get some beautiful blooms for the house.

Struggling to keep your house clean?

When I came across this article last week it couldn't have come at a more perfect time. My daughter just turned 3 months and needless to say I've been slacking a bit in the cleaning department. So when I read this list I felt like it was written just for me and after following this for a few days I have to say it's been very easy to incorporate this into my daily routine.

http://www.cleanmama.net/2015/01/six-things-i-do-every-day-to-keep-the-house-clean.html

Oh So Obsessed

I just might be the happiest person in the world that flare jeans are considered "in" again, although I never considered them to be out. Some women are obsessed with shoes or purses but my fashion obsession lies strictly with jeans. I currently own around 50 pairs of jeans although 40 of them are packed away in a tote waiting for me to lose this baby weight before I can pull them out and put them back into my closet rotation. And since my weight seems to fluctuate around 15-20 pounds I have 3 different sizes of jeans so whenever I lose weight it's always fun to pull out my skinny jeans and strut around. 

The jeans above feature two of the three things that I absolutely love in jeans: flare and distress. The only way these jeans could be more perfect is if they had a really dark wash. And if they weren't almost $300 (Anthropologie). I rarely spend more than $30 on a pair of jeans which is how I justify my jean obsession, especially to my husband :)