Intro... I first started blogging when my daughter had surgery to help with how I felt and here I am 10 months later and with the addition of some normalicy I have failed to update hers so I will link hers, called Amelyas Journey, to mine. Anyhow the point of this blog is to post new ideas, tips and tricks as a mother and a powerlifter, both of which I am a student and teacher. I will try to commit to once weekly. As a mother my life has only recently become settled with Amelyas last echo that showed no change (which means her gradiant is up but no worse.). We are also dealing with sleep apnea with her, which my bearded powerlifting husband has. I do also work 26 to 40 hours as a pediatric nurse for a wonderful family in their home. My best totals at 198 were 424 squat 182 bench 455 deadlift, all raw with knee wraps (strangulators). I lifted (pain in the ass being pregnant and in a commercial gym) out alot until about 7 months when just walking into the gym made me fatiqued and then basically became a crazy jealous bitch while my spouse prepped for a meet. It took me until Amelya was five months old to get back in regularly (and a 70# weight gain) and only because we dealt with two hospitalizations and moving twice. So... Forward now to a ten month old who provides gpp and sprint work as well as nap time and early morning wakings and here I am. If you have read thus far and I have not pissed you off in some strange way then I may actually pick up some regular blog readers... If not, well then I am no worse for the wear. My outspoken nature is what pisses people off, so let us start off the right way: by stating some opinions on a couple hot topics. Steroids? Love them. Done them. Clean now. Cloth diapers and coconut oil? Only way to diaper. Carb backloading? Undecided. Youtube knowledge dropping? Stupid. Gear? It has its place. Cosleeping? Only until a year old. Faking plate poundages and wearing gear to a raw meet? There is a special place in hell for you, and in time your 15 will be over. So this wraps up the first blog.... Onto the cold hard powerlifting mommy. ***The pics below represent ME. A mother with short nails and calluses (prevent infection and lifting scars) and Housework, cloth diapers and squatting gear... How many other mommies did this before and after kids???