Friday, April 27, 2012

Sisters and Babies and Cousins

While the husband's away (racing), the girls and boys will play. Baby Honter (as Ethan calls him) and I hosted Jenny and Megan and Ethan (2 yrs old) and Annie (1 1/2) this weekend. Or rather, they came to help us out! Our 3.5 days were filled with activities like running through the sprinkler,


drawing chalk murals on the driveway (those won't wash away for a long time), hiking in the desert, playing with the balls hijacked from the neighbor kids when they kicked them over the wall, and sledding sled-less on tummies down the dunes at White Sands.


Huntah Baby (as Annie calls him) wasn't able to fully participate, as his running legs are still in training, but I can tell he was entertained and possibly a little overwhelmed at all the action. He slept very soundly after they left. And he still is sleeping, at least during daylight hours.


I'm going to miss waking up to have at least one sister and at least one toddler downstairs eating breakfast and making me coffee, holding the sweet bundle while I shower more than once in a 24 hour period, and having company and lots of entertainment all day. It's pretty boring and quiet here now when the daddy is at work. We hope they come back really soon! And soon Hunter can come outside and play with Annie, like she kept asking. Sadly, we forgot to get a picture of all 6 of us!


We come bearing gifts... of crackers.

Peaceful sleep


Thursday, April 19, 2012

Weekend Plans

We have a big weekend planned here. My sisters are both coming in town tomorrow with their babies Ethan and Annie. Hunter is the newest member of the Under 3 Club, and this is their first meeting. We're very excited (but we sure will miss the older two cousins). Jeremy has big plans as well. He'll be seeing Damie in New Orleans for the 70.3. Funny he picks my all time least favorite half Ironman. I am certain he will do much better than I did down there, and hopefully have a better experience.

In other news:

-I have already blown a BOB stroller tire. We get a ridiculous amount of flat bike tires out here with all the thorns and whatnot. I still haven't patched it yet, but it'll make it 3-4 miles every time I pump it back up.

-My running frequency has slowed a little. Plus I think every time I run it's for a shorter distance. I must've overdone it when I started (because running 3 miles two days in a row is waaaaay too much), because I was really feeling it in my abs/incision area, and I was super tired afterward. But I got in about 25 miles of walking/running last week, and I've continued with 3-4 more every day since.

-I ran a whole 1.25 miles without pushing the stroller yesterday. It was awesomely slow. My Garmin says 9:38 pace. My last run the day before Hunter was born was 6 miles at about 9:30 pace. So I'm lighter and ran a quarter of the distance and I'm the same speed. Gotta remember that whole abdominal surgery thing, I guess.

-And yes, I'm using the Garmin for my walks. I have no way of knowing how far I go since I'm not a consistent 15:00 mile pacer yet. I need some kind of number to log these days.

-I'm hanging on to that extra 4ish pounds still. It's probably because I actually like eating now.

-I actually like eating! For most of my pregnancy I wondered if I'd ever be interested in food again, and it has happened! I'm especially enjoying Nutella.

-Our second anniversary was this week. Can't believe it's been 2 years! Can't believe I've had a baby for 5 weeks either. I have the sweetest little family :)

-In breastfeeding news: this stuff really squirts. Hunter likes to nurse a bit to get it going and then pull back and let it go. This means we're both usually doused in milk. I've been caught without a burp cloth way too many times and have even resorted to catching it in my hand. Not so effective.

-My poor sleep deprived brain has finally figured out that I only have one baby. The first few weeks I was so confused in the middle of the night, trying to figure out which baby had eaten most recently. It culminated the night Jeremy brought me Hunter and I asked, "where's the other baby?" I had warned him of my confusion before, and he just said, "there is no other baby," probably while planning to look up which anti-psychotics are ok while nursing.

It's a beautiful day, so we're off for a walk!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Mileage

Because I like numbers and keeping track of all my "training" (I have a year or so of the last 10 from which I am regrettably missing logs), I have been writing down my walking mileage from the past few weeks. In case I have another baby some day, I'd also like to look and see how slowly I started back, so I don't feel bad about it next time.

Hunter and I are getting some good mileage out of the BOB. Last week I got in just under 21 miles of walking plus two bike rides. I was a little surprised it was that high! In the mornings, he tends to sleep soundly as soon as his head hits the bumper pad. Lately in the evenings, it's quite a different story. He realizes what he's been missing on these walks and does everything possible to stay awake. And then he gets bored about .3 mi into it. This makes my walks speed up significantly, with a few puffing running steps added in these last few days. My heavy breathing seems to amuse him, because he calms down immediately, at least until I walk again. I also like to amuse neighbors by trying to discretely support what the bra does not.

This walking is serious business


Wanting to get more mileage out of my morning sleepy walks, I decided today to just go for it and run. Actually "run" may be too strong of a word, considering the blazing 11 min/mile pace (I had to walk over some bumpy spots to not jar the poor sleeping baby, and there was some elevation change...). But I covered 3 miles running with a mile walk cooldown. I feel so accomplished. I also learned that people other than my mailman have taken note of my running habits. I passed a neighbor who said, "You're back running already?" I wanted to tell her how far behind I am. But I actually was proud of myself for making it that far. Nothing split open or fell out, but I noticed how incredibly weak my abs are, even though they're starting to look almost like a normal person's.

Please Hunter, keep liking the stroller! You can keep me up hours at night if you let me run in the morning! It's a deal.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Bicycle!

For the first time in six months, I rode my bike outside. Twice! Given the opportunity to take an hour to do something with Jeremy, I chose a bike ride date. Now I know that those computrainer numbers weren't a lie. I'm very slow. I do realize that one benefit of a c-section is that riding a bike 3 weeks after birth wasn't painful to anything but those atrophied leg muscles.

Finally to the point of feeling that running will again happen one day, I'm optimistic about starting back as soon as I get a few new sports bras. Wow, I underestimated the importance of that equipment until I took 3 jogging steps on one of my walks. Walking has been great. The baby likes to sleep as soon as we bump out the front door threshold, and he has (knock on wood) rarely wakened before we come to a stop inside again. I'm slowly increasing my mileage just as I would do on any good training plan, but have only gotten up to about 3.5 miles total on any one day. And I often do two-a-days.

Bike rides plus sleeping baby walks! What success. Things seem to be evening out. After the delivery that I had hoped to avoid, I've found success in the small things, and one large thing: breastfeeding. Hunter knew exactly what to do right from the start, and has been a great eater so far. He looks different every day. Wrinkles are filling out (wish mine would), legs and cheeks are getting pudgy, and he's getting heavy! Fortunately I've gone a bit in the opposite direction, but I still have about 4 pounds over pre-pregnancy weight to go. I think it's all in the sports bra area though.

The hardest thing for me has been the sleep cycle that Hunter and I can't quite coordinate. I'm the person who can easily sleep 12 hours a night while training hard, and I even got 9-10 through pregnancy when I let myself wake up without an alarm. Now 2 hours at a time is a luxury. Jeremy has been really sweet to hold the baby a lot at night between feedings, since he sleeps so much better being held. I certainly can't sleep soundly when he makes his little noises and moves around. Since he's in the co-sleeper next to my bed, I hear every sigh. We have found the couch to be a nice spot to sleep, since I feel ok about letting him snuggle up right next to me there. 

We've had company the last 2+ weeks, with Jeremy's mom here first, and my mom until tomorrow. I thought up all my favorite meals for Mom to cook for us, but now I'm afraid Jeremy will have a taste for all this delicious food that I won't cook quite as well! We've also been out of the house a few times, with a trip to Lowe's to get good dirt (that we are lacking here in the desert) so Mom could plant the onions in the garden that I'd been planning on doing before the baby was born. Jeremy and Hunter and I also went to a dinner party last weekend where I had my first glass of wine! Hunter slept the whole time, right up until time to leave, when he wet himself and me. I need to start bringing lots of extra clothes wherever I go in case of wet, poop, or like yesterday as I was coming home from the hair salon, sudden milk leakage. I should be used to this; in the past I've been prepared for a spontaneous workout, having shoes, swimsuits, towels, etc. in the car always.

April is our second anniversary already! I've got a plan to go to brunch that weekend, all 3 of us, since I'm getting more antsy to get out of the house. Then I have a doctor's appointment in a couple weeks, and I'm planning on being cleared to run. :) Next on the agenda is a visit from my sisters and their little ones while Jeremy heads to New Orleans for a half Ironman. I'm really excited to see how he can do, since he just gets faster and faster all the time. Of course I'm a little nervous for him too, since I did NOLA 70.3 three years ago and had a disastrous race, but don't tell him that. :)

I'm so thankful to moms who have told me how much faster they were after having babies (even after c-sections, and even after months of bedrest!). I'm hoping my next blog is reporting how well my running is going!

This is obviously in the daytime. He's sleeping soundly.