First of all - hugs to all who shared your heart and souls here. My heart hurts just reading your words. My first pregnancy was a miscarriage, and every pregnancy after that was touch and go. All 3 of my children are miracles - blessings that only God could give!
For the weight loss idea - I am
so in! I have got 12 pounds to lose to get back to prepregnancy weight, and I sure would love lose another 10-15 pounds on top of that! Just as important to me though is being toned. After my last c-section, my tummy needs an overhaul! I actually bought 2 new exercise videos I loved for the 5 times I did them - one is a toning one from the "Dummies" series, and one is a Taebo one, which I love (collage video has TONS of exercise videos you can watch clips of on the Internet - very helpful). I was off to a decent start with these until my thyroid malfunctioned. I got the go ahead to start exercising again though - so now I'm just procrastinating!
I need accountability too. I love snacking! Also, I love cooking and baking, which gets me into trouble! I also was raised to be a "clean-plater", a finisher of food not a food waster. Anybody else out there like that? Here's a confession, I feel the need to eat the uneaten cheerios off my baby's high chair tray (not the half-eaten ones - hey, I am a bit selective)! I also feel the need to finish the leftovers in the fridge. With portion sizes like they are these days at restaurants etc., being a clean plater isn't such a good trait to have!
So, when is weigh in? Maybe we could have an exercise "weigh-in" too? Come on gals, we need to get healthy here!!! And how could we best go about this? Here's my best tricks to losing weight... drink 2 glasses of COLD water 5 minutes before each meal, and don't eat after 7 PM. I don't do these things now, but they have always worked the best for me in the past. O.k. - time to go to bed. Sorry this got long - I was just so dreaming about a support system for this seemingly impossible mountain of losing weight...

Thanks for this awesome idea!
Julie