Ever wonder???

Do you ever look at some of the headlines or hot topics in the news and wonder, "What in the world?" Some recent ones that have recently made Tim and I shake our heads in wonder include:

• Link found between autism and vinyl floors
• Terrorism now called "man-created disaster"
• Vegetarianism in teens likely to disguise serious eating disorders
• Triathletes twice as likely as marathon runners to suffer unexpected heart attack
• CT scan reveals hidden face under Nefertiti bust
• Madonna's adoption of two youngsters from Malawi draws paparazzi

Really - is this newsworthy news? And what about some of the correlations researchers find... and the implications they draw from them?

So - here's my non-newsworthy piece of trivial information for this week:

Sometime last week, Tim came home at lunch to find me catnapping on the bed while I was feeding Mary Michelle. He made some sort of teasing comment (I don't remember exactly what), to which I replied, "You know, taking care of this baby is exhausting work."

He laughed, looked at me laying there curled up around her on the bed, and replied, rather sarcastically, "I can see!"

So, out of curiosity, I decided to do a little bit of research via the World Wide Web. After looking at several pieces of information, I finally found a study that confirmed the recommendation that nursing mothers need to consume 500-1000 supplementary calories to successfully nurse their babies. According to the study, successful nursing mothers (4-38 weeks post partum) need an additional 690 calories each day.

Do you know how much exercise you have to do to burn that many calories? Riding a bike at racing speeds (16-19 miles in one hour) burns 708. Hard swimming for 60 minutes burns 454.

Somehow, I don't think these stats are going to convince Tim that THAT is why I'm so tired much of the time... but it never hurts to try, right?