This'll have to be pretty quick, as I got to work almost half an hour later than usual today, and I have the Monday morning meeting to go to in about half an hour.

Why did I get to work so late, you might wonder?

Well, it goes like this:

Penny is teething, and Matt has a cold.

Penny woke up at 12:30. Matt got her back to sleep, but she started making restless noises around 1:15 and was fully awake by 1:30. We gave her a dose of Tylenol, hoping that if it dulled the teething pain enough, she might stay asleep. Then Matt's cold started bothering him so that he tossed and turned until after 2. I don't think I got back to sleep until almost 2:30. Penny woke up again a little after 4, and took some time to go back to sleep. (Thank all the gods she didn't decide to wake up at 5:15 again.)

So when the alarms started going off at 6 this morning, neither Matt nor I were much inclined to pay them any attention. And when Penny started calling for Matt and he got up and took her downstairs, I had no trouble at all going back to sleep for another fifteen minutes. And the shower was nice and warm and I might've zoned out once or twice for a minute or so...

So yeah, I didn't get to work until nearly 8. Which is hardly a tragedy, as I have very little on my schedule for this week anyway. It just means I have to give this morning's entry short shrift so I'm not late to the Monday meeting.

Not that I'm really coherent enough (on not so much a solid 5 1/2 hours of sleep, but a series of naps that add up to 5 1/2 hours) to say much worth reading.

Nights like that go in the "Con" column when I'm considering giving Penny a sibling.

I did want to do this brag, though:

Last year on February 1, I started the Atkins diet. After six weeks, I switched to the South Beach diet, which made for slower weight loss, but a more palatable long-term solution. Over the course of the last year, I lost just over 40 pounds. Which averages to somewhat less than a pound a week - except that I was sort of "off the wagon" for most of November and December, so it's closer to a full pound a week, and then two months of more or less staying in one spot.

That's the year's chart from my spreadsheet. The dark blue dots are each day's actual measurement; the pink dots (which blend into a curvy line) represent the mathematically smoothed results. (The smoothing is useful because it eliminates single-day blips up or down and lets me see an overall trend. I don't panic if my weight is suddenly up one day as long as the smoothing still shows I'm going downward.)

Just as a note, by the way - the top of that curve, where I started, was a good 25 pounds below the heaviest I've ever been, which was just before Penny was conceived. I lost 15 pounds while I was pregnant (and then gained 10 back, but then most of that 10 disappeared all at once when Penny was born) and the other 10 pounds came off with five months or so of the "Eating Whatever I Want And Breastfeeding" plan.

So that's something like 65 or 70 pounds that I've lost over the last two and a half years.

Tomorrow will begin the second year of this diet. If this year is anywhere near as good, then by this time next year, I'll be closing in on my ultimate goal.

Wish me luck.

--Liz