Spring Break

Keith is wrapping up tax (busy season) so it was just the girls and I for spring break. It is quite a challenge to keep two preschoolers busy for over ten days. By the time I finished dinner/bath/bedtime routines by myself, I felt like I had just run a marathon.

We stayed busy over the break with school Easter egg hunts, a play date with friends from our gymnastics class, a trip to the dentist (Olivia has her first cavity), multiple trips to the library for books/books on CD and an insect talk, and a few trips to the nursery to plant Spring annuals and attempt a vegetable garden

It was a great break and I enjoyed a break the daily carpool duties but by Monday morning, I was happy to be back into our school routine.

I also ran my first 5k in over a year. I love participating in Baton Rouge’s annual Fat Boy 5k. I finished in 20:30, just 8 seconds slower than my 5k last year. Despite being a little slower than last year, I felt so much stronger at the finish. I can tell the marathon training has helped tremendously with my endurance and ability to finish races strong. Summer goals include keeping up my weekly mileage and incorporating more strength/yoga/pilates into the mix. I am just hoping I can keep up some sort of fitness routine once the two little ones are out of school for the summer.

Has it really been a year?!?

I am obviously not good at keeping up with a blog since it has been over a year since my last post:( Eeek, it has been a great year but I really would like to get back into posting things regularly so I can remember the early years of our family and life as a young mother. It has already gone by so fast and I am holding back the tears after paying my registration fee for Olivia to start kindergarten. What happened to my baby? Motherhood is such a strange mix of emotions. At times, I am at my wits end lacking in patience with my children. But then they will do something so sweet and my heart just melts. I am so thankful for grace because I certainly have my faults in parenting but by the grace of God my children so wake up loving me every day. Despite my doubts that I have as a parent and mother, my daughter still thinks I am the “best mom ever!”

I won’t even attempt to recap my past year in one post so a few pics will have to suffice…

 

And yes, after an eight year hiatus from the marathon, I finally got my BQ..3:24 and some change:) So excited about Boston 2016.

New 10k Pr

I ran the Mardi Gras Mambo 10k last month and came out with a 10k pr.  Granted, I have only run a non-pregnant 10k once in the past 10+ years, I was happy to at least beat my time from 2011.

I had a very busy Friday (company in town for Valentine’s Day), kids who refused to rest/nap, and lots of chores to prep for visitors, so when I started off the race Saturday morning, I just felt tired. But, the weather was perfect (despite the hills on the course), and I just settled into a fast pace and tried to hold on for the race.

My splits were (6:51, 6:56, 6:53, 7:07, 7:04, 6:53, 1:52/6:42) for the last .28. I actually told myself to hold the pace back a little because after running the first three miles fast, I was scared of crashing and burning on the last mile. I was very tired in the last mile but I think with more training, I can hold onto the faster pace for the race. We’ll see:)

Total: 43:35/6.28 miles/6:58 pace and third female overall (all my fast friends ran the 15k).

I do think the longer runs and more rest now that Audrey consistently sleeps at night helps. I have a 5k and 10k scheduled in April so I’m hoping I can improve a bit on those times.

Now…if I can just survive the rest of busy season. Alright, off to finish coffee and fold some more laundry.

18 months and counting

A few weeks ago I celebrated my 34th birthday and registered my baby from preschool. Time is passing very quickly. So much that it has been since December since I’ve written anything. Once school started, life has been a flurry of trips to the grocery store, carpool lines, meal/snack prep, play dates, cleanup, laundry, and just adjusting to busy (tax) season now that Keith is working longer hours and Saturdays.

I can’t believe my baby is already 18 months. She is such a joy and a happy, easy baby. She has been prone to ear infections, something which never really plagued Olivia. So, I feel like I still rarely get into a good sleep cycle where so does not wake up during the night. Added on top of that a toddler who always has to wake up to be escorted to the potty and I still don’t feel like I am 100% back to normal and past the sleep deprived phase. But, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Now that she is 18 months, she is all over the place!! For some reason, she seems busier than Olivia. She has phases where she climbs on tables and is into everything. She loves to pull everything out of the drawers, hide keys, lose remotes, and throw items in the tub. So, I will often head back into my bathroom and find a stash of keys, towels, toothbrushes piled in the bathtub. She is such a ham but a happy baby. We are definitely going through a separation anxiety phase. She is not too happy when we leave her with a sitter and cries every time I leave her in the gym nursery at the Y. Part of me feels so guilty but she is quick to calm down and it is so nice just to be able to squeeze in a quick workout during the day instead of my early am runs.

Olivia is doing so well too. At 4+ years of age, she is a happy, spunky, creative little girl. She loves to pretend, play on the playground, visit her friends at school, and just generally loves life. She is my social butterfly and always loves to be out and about.

Grateful

I am sitting in my kitchen with my coffee. It is just after 7 am. I woke up early for a quick five mile treadmill run, hopped in the shower, dried my hair, and put on some comfy clothes and slippers. It is Christmas Eve and the house is quiet. I love these quiet mornings where I can sip my coffee and have some quiet time. I’m thankful that we don’t have to rush out the door this morning to head to carpool. I am thankful that I have the freedom and ability to enjoy Christmas with my family.

I did some baking earlier this week and I’ve noticed lately that I feel very grateful and content with my life.  I have spent years either wanting things I don’t have or stressing over small things that don’t really matter. As I was preparing a dish for our family dinner, I realized that  shifted my focus towards an attitude of gratefulness rather than looking at the things I don’t have.  And as expected, I actually actually feel more content and at peace with my life. I know this sounds so simple. But, when you are constantly bombarded with images on Facebook/Instagramof friends or family members who may have more, travel more, do more, etc., it is so easy to have an attitude of discontent where you feel like the grass is always greener on the other side.

A few things I am thankful for:

• Family – both my own family and extended family. I’m so thankful for my hardworking husband and two beautiful, healthy girls.

• Faith – I’m thankful for my church and for my bible study moms who have taught me so much and shared so much about their faith life.

• Financial Stability – we are able to live a comfortable life and my husband has a job where I am able to stay home and still provide for the needs of our family.

• Running – I’m so happy to have found an early morning run group. I love having time to meet friends for early morning group runs.

• Coffee, music, sunny skies, cool fall days, lsu football, our home, good food/wine, martinis….

I read that the season of Advent, much like lent is a time of quiet preparation for the arrival of Christ. Although we tend to focus on the joy and festivities, it is also a time of reflection. I suppose I don’t always take the time for this preparation, but I do think that  pausing to reflect on things we are grateful for is a good exercise. And of course, realizing that Advent is the time to reflect on one of our greatest gifts/blessings, the birth of a Savior.

 

Catching Up

Fall and winter have been a blur this year. It seems I have been so busy just trying to keep up with life, that I rarely take the time to sit down, write, and reflect on my days. Olivia is a flurry of activity and emotion. She is so full of energy and emotion. I am learning to balance her personality. The meltdowns aren’t as traumatic  and she is growing into a little girl. The preschool days will pass by so quickly, but I love this phase in her life. She still wants to spend time at home with mommy. She loves playing pretend, running outside, taking afternoon bike rides, and baking in the kitchen. I love her sweet ways.

Audrey has gone from a crawling baby to a busy toddler. She is full of life and is into everything. She loves hugs, her baby dolls, bath time with her sister, and snuggling at night before I put her to bed. Her laughter is so sweet.

I love this phase of parenthood. I am finally starting to feel like I have life a little under control. I know it will all change soon. But for now, I’m just enjoying the fact that my Christmas shopping is complete and hoping to take some time this week to enjoy Christmas with my family. Hopefully, I can stay focused on the true spirit of the season despite all the holiday frenzy and hustling. Busy (tax) season will ramp up again for my husband in January.   Now that I am finally past my lower leg/shin injury and have recovered from my wisdom teeth removal, I can take this time to finally start building my mileage base and work on some running and personal goals in 2014. It is going to be a wonderful Christmas and hopefully an even better New Year:)

I’m Out

After my workout in the dark last Thursday morning, I attempted an easy morning run with my running buddy, Katy. I always enjoy our easy morning runs and chats.

I have not run two consecutive days all summer because of my shins and I took the first step on the run and was once again in pain. It always hurts when I start and put pressure on it.

So, instead of attempting to let it heal by taking a day or two off and running when I only feel a little pain at the beginning of the run, I’m going to strengthen, ice, ibuprofen, and stretch until I am able to START a run without any pain.

Needless to say, I get stressed when I don’t run. I’ve eaten all the chocolate in my house. I think I naturally have a bit of an anxious, worrisome personality and running/exercise has always been my therapy of choice. My husband has been working all holiday weekend to get ready for his fall filing deadlines. My house is a wreck, the kids are a bit stir crazy. But it is so hot to be out in the heat of the day and after a few weeks scheduling fun activities/playdates/outings, I’m not in the mood to do any more planning.

Thankfully, school starts tomorrow and a new routine will begin. I don’t do well without structure so I’m excited about having a schedule and more to do’s. If I have too much free time, I tend to push everything off and plan on doing my chores another day.

Hopefully, by this time next week, I’ll be able to run again, school will be in full swing and all will be right in the world:)

Meanwhile, youngest is doing a great job of organizing my kitchen. She loves to take everything out of the cabinets, drawers, boxes and looks at me with her cute face, fully expecting me to clean it up for her so she can take everything out all over again:)

Track Workouts in the Dark?!?

I run early in the morning. I usually start before 6 am so I have enough time to shower and get somewhat dressed before the girls are up.

I’m terrible about committing to a training plan and I think the reason why I never seem to get terribly excited about a plan is because the idea of doing track workouts in the early morning (dark) does not sound fun at all to me. I don’t mind tempo runs/fartleks/or runs where you can judge your training by perceived effort and don’t have to focus on a time for a fixed interval. 5k pace for 400 meters, 1000s at 3000 meter pace.

This morning, I attempted to run the Varsity Sports workout. It was a warmup/cooldown and 12×200 meters moderately hard followed by a 200 meter recovery. I figured out how to set my Garmin for this and to also include warmup and cooldown in the run. I made it through the warmup and could not figure out how to start the interval portion of the run. So, I just guessed and had to keep turning the light on my watch so I could see when the interval was over.

I took a quick stop for water after the sixth interval and, halfway through my workout, my Garmin decided to start timing my intervals. Ahh, technical difficulties:)

But, I finished my workout.

5 miles at 7:48 pace. Not bad for watch/technical difficulties in the dark..

Keeping it all together

Ah, is it September yet? That is when Oldest starts preschool and my life will be restored to some sort of order. I was wondering why I have been feeling so tired lately on my runs. And then I realized that parenting two small children all day is tough for me. I know some moms cry when their kids start school but honestly, I am thankful for a break.

This has been an eventful week already and I am only halfway through the week. My car died over the weekend. So, I had to have it towed to the dealership to get a loaner since my husband was out of town and I needed a vehicle to transport the girls.

On Monday, I lost my cell phone. Tuesday, I had a meeting with our preschool teacher and she was a no-show. I think she got her days mixed up with her other required training. When my group texted about our 5:00 am scheduled 10 mile run, Wednesday morning, I just could not fathom another day of waking up at 4:00 am and then trying to take care of my kids all day until 7 pm or later when my husband gets home from work. My three year old stopped napping about a year ago, so we have a long day when she is up from 7ish am until 8:00 pm or later….

I set my alarm for 5 am this morning to do a shorter five my run but set it for the wrong day. With scattered toys everywhere, a house that needs to be cleaned out, sanitized, and loads of laundry to do, I think the universe was telling me to sleep in and perhaps attempt to catch up on things.

This was the week Varsity Sports begins their full/half marathon training for the Louisiana Marathon in January. As much as I want to run another full, I feel like if I am feeling this crazy with my life right now, perhaps attempting to train for a full marathon at this point may not be the best idea. On top of that, my shins still don’t seem 100% healed. So, I think I am going to stick to the half. I know come January when everyone is crossing the marathon finish line, I will have a twinge of regret. But, I know myself and I know my limits. So, I am just going to stick with what I can handle at this phase in my life and not compare my limits to others.

Hopefully, once September comes and we have more of a routine after a very relaxed summer I will be able to feel a little more organized and sane. Or, perhaps this is just the reality of life with small children at home.

The Unwired Mom

I love Sarah Mae.  I read about her after starting a bible study last fall. Next fall, we will be studying her book, Desperate also co-authored with another favorite blogger, Sally Clarkson.

This summer, she put out a great little eBook, The Unwired Mom. In this book. she challenges us to take some time away from online usage, social networking, etc. I love facebook, instagram, blog, etc. but too often I find myself spending way to much time on the internet/phone and not enough time focusing on my family/children. I have been meaning to set aside some time to try her challenge but have not made the effort to take her challenge. Well, she is hosting a challenge on her blog and I think this is the perfect opportunity for me to take some time away from the Internet/Social Media. The challenge starts tomorrow so I am posting this on my blog to hold myself accountable. Hopefully, I can write some and learn some things along the way.

You can read about the challenge http://sarahmae.com/2013/08/join-the-unwired-mom-challenge/.

I hope to learn a bit and break some bad habits that I have picked up with my computer usage/phone. I think children these days have  a hard enough time trying to focus/read/etc. with all the distractions of computers/tv, etc. so I hope to be a better example by limiting my usage too.

Summer Running

I was up again for the second time this week before 5 am to meet my group for our 5:30 morning run. We had 10X400 meter intervals with ~1 minute rest on the schedule along with an easy warmup and cooldown. I did not even time my quarters. At this point, I just focused on trying to pick up the pace for the quarter and jog the minute recovery.

For some reason this workout felt so hard.  Earlier this summer (Memorial Day weekend to be exact), we finished 20X400s with a minute recovery. Yet, for some reason this workout felt harder. Including my warmup/cooldown, I averaged around a 7:46 pace. 

On our cooldown and post-run coffee, we were all discussing how tired we have been feeling lately on our runs. My mileage is actually lower than it was a month or so ago (due to a nagging shin/Achilles injury) but I just feel more tired.  I got home and uploaded my run and checked the stats. The temps this morning were 74 degrees at 5:30 am and 94% humidity.

Summer heat in Louisiana is brutal. Battling the heat combined with humidity is not a fun combination. But, I am ever so grateful for this group of five amazing runners to keep me motivated to stay running through this brutal summer heat. I know I will be that much stronger in the fall, if I can survive summer running.

Plus, the post-run coffee and conversation is wonderful after months of solo training on my dreadmill.

 

Happy Birthday Audrey!

I cannot believe my baby girl is already one year old. The first year with my second child flew by and I feel like I just want to freeze time. I’m not ready for her to move out of the baby phase, but I know that this will all pass so quickly. I love her sweet sounds, smiles, and chubby baby arms, legs, and cheeks.

We celebrated her birthday with a small family party. I did not feel the need to throw an extravagant birthday party but wanted to have a small party at our home.

So, here is Miss Audrey’s one year stats:

Weight: 21 lbs, 5 oz

Height: 29 inches

Head Circumference 46.5 cm

So, she is in the 15% for height, and 50% for weight as has quite a large head (lots of brain mass!).

After her party, we all just crashed. After a busy summer of summer programs, vacation bible school, several family road trips, and full weekends all summer, we were just so happy to have a Sunday at home with no agenda.

June and July were a flurry of activity but August is always a slow month. Olivia won’t start preschool until after labor day and with the summer heat beating down on us, I’m going to do my best the girls entertained. At times, trying to find activities for a crawling toddler and very imaginative preschooler can be tough. But hopefully we can stay busy with some trips to the pool, museums, etc. I know before long, September will be here. Olivia will be in school every day now and Audrey and I will be busy at home with errands, bible study, music class, and baby playdates.

And of course, I’ll be hoping to continue to stay in shape with our 5:30 am running group. Every workout/run with these ladies is always tough and challenging. But, I love having runners who are faster than me to help me push my pace and challenge me to get out of my comfort zone with my running.

Where Has Summer Gone?

We are almost halfway through July and I am wondering where summer has gone? It has gone by so quickly! After our trip to Florida, we had a week at home and then packed our bags again to head on another 15+ hour road trip to meet our new niece in Chicago:) It was a two day trip to make it up there but the girls were great travelers. I was so impressed at how good they were in the car. Sure, we had to make lots of stops for lunch, gas, potty breaks, and diaper changes. But all in all, it was a wonderful experience to visit family. Plus, the cooler weather was a nice break from the heat in Louisiana. We love visiting them in their little suburb of Chicago and had fun walking downtown, playing at Centennial Beach, and enjoying Ribfest and other fourth of July festivities.

We are in town this week and heading back on the road Saturday for my nephew’s fifth birthday followed by Audrey’s first birthday weekend celebration on July 20th. I can’t believe my baby is already a year old. Last year at this time, I was on the couch, waiting for her arrival. Now, she is pulling up and crawling all over the place. Life has gotten quite busy with two very busy, active girls.

Needless to say, with all these summer travels, my summer training has slacked off a bit. But, I think this was a good thing to enjoy some time off for vacation and let my shins heal. I was able to meet up for our mid-week Wednesday morning group run ( a group of five great women runners who just rocked the Boston Marathon and Grandma’s Marathon a few weeks ago). I hope some solid training with these ladies for the rest of the summer will help me to continue to build a steady base for the fall. Plus, I finally got my damaged Garmin back so all is right in the world:)

11 Months AnD counting

So, youngest is 11 months and counting and I looked on my blog today and realized it has been since April since I posted anything. Yikes, I think I need to catch up. Here are some things going on around our house:

• Audrey is crawling and pulling up on everything! She is in the phase where she wants to move constantly leaving me very little time when she is up to get anything done:) She loves to drink from her sippy cup and hoping to transition to milk soon. Formula is so expensive.
• Olivia is a little fish. She took swim lessons earlier this summer and took a trip to the beach last week and she loves the water. Audrey does too:)
• Lots of trips and activities planned. Vacation Bible School, Beach trip to Florida, trip to Chicago to meet our new niece, family birthday parties, and a trip to meet our new nephew in August all planned for this summer. Life has been very busy, but I feel very happy to be making all these memories with my girls:)
• New car, my husband and I found a 2009 certified pre-owned Volkswagen Routan. I am now a mini-van mom. Kind of nerdy to drive a van but it so convenient for grocery trips, road trips, and outings with the girls that I can get over the nerdiness factor. Plus, I love my leather seats and satellite radio. We can rock out in our mini-van:)

Keith and I celebrated nine years of marriage yesterday. Nothing fancy, we just put the kids to bed and enjoyed a nice quiet meal with wine. We have a date night planned on Saturday and don’t feel the need to buy each other fancy gifts but just want a nice date and some adult time to visit.

I’m battling some shin pain lately but have lofty plans to attempt another marathon in January. I’ve been running with some great ladies during the week in the morning and I think having some ladies to train with has been wonderful. I was getting a little burnt out doing all my runs, solo on the treadmill.

I’ll close with some pictures….

 

Fat Boy 5k

A few months ago, I signed up for a local 5k race in Baton Rouge, the Fat Boy 5k. If you can’t tell by the name, this is a very casual, small race that my dad and I usually run together. Each year they limit to entries to 1,000 runners. So, I love the small, local nature of the course (and the donuts, chocolate milk, and sausage poboys at the finish line).

My dad forgot to sign up. So, I was running the race on my own. Since my husband has been working like a crazy man trying to finish up tax returns for Monday, April 15th, my parents agreed to let me stay with them so I could a) get some rest and b) have some help getting the kids off and ready so that they could watch me run the race.

So…my Saturday morning pre-race routine was a blur trying to feed babies, get toddlers dressed, kiss my toddler’s cut when she fell. You get the picture, parenting and getting two small children ready for any event is a challenge!

But we made it to the race on time…

Since my Garmin was dead and I had to reorder my lost charger, I had my old Timex watch and had no idea how to pace the 5k, post-baby. I ran the 5k in college and to this day, I still get nauseous at the start of the finish line and hearing the sound of the gun go off. I don’t do a lot of 5ks any more because they are fast and painful. I’m really starting to love the longer distances.

But, I figured, I’ll just run a comfortable pace. I passed the first mile around 6:42ish (?), give or take 5 seconds since I started a little towards the back. Mile 2 was around 13:35 (?). I was feeling good but a little tired as we went through the rolling hills on the second mile. I crossed the finish line in 21:03 (gun time) and felt good about running this time on a hilly course with virtually no speed work in years.

While I never want to try and relive my glory days of fast races and 5ks, it was fun to push the pace a bit and get in some speed on a race. I think with the heat of this summer, I’m going to build some mileage and perhaps do a few fun runs to throw some speed work into the mix before focusing on some longer races in the fall.

Overall, wonderful weather and race. But the best part of it all was running back through the finish line after the race was over with my three year old. She is so happy to “race” and run with mommy. I love seeing the joy in her face when we spend time together. And of course, she loved the donuts post-race!

Photo Courtesy of Fat Boy 5k

Road Tripping…

Last week, I piled my two young kids in the car with my mom for a 9+ hour trip to Nashville, TN to visit my sister’s family.

It was a long ride in the car with two young kids. But, thankfully, youngest is a great traveler. Unlike her sister, she did not scream in her car seat like oldest did when she was a baby on our first road trip to Nashville three years ago. Thankfully, Oldest is better in the car as she is happy to watch movies, play games, and listen to music in the car.

All in all, it was a nice weekend away from the routine at home. The cousins have a great time playing and me,  my mom, and sister enjoyed  spending some much needed time together.

I took a break from running last week and only ran a few miles but this was after a buildup week in mileage in which I was able to squeeze in 30 miles/week. This is the most I have run since I’ve had youngest and it feels nice to get the mileage back up again. I’m finally getting a full night’s rest and that helps so much with my energy/pace. Youngest wakes up in the middle of the night occasionally but she consistently sleeps until 6:30 or 7ish. This makes 5 am runs on the treadmill possible since I can count on getting a decent’ night’s rest if I am in bed by 9:30ish.

So, perhaps I can take the spring/summer to build some mileage. I received an e-mail from our local marathon director for 10% coupon off the race entry fee if you sign up early. So, I did something crazy.

I signed up for the full marathon in January ?! Eeek, I have no clue if I will actually be ready but I make take the summer/fall to build up and train for it. And it feels like too much with my young kids, I’ll just drop back to the full.

I have gone back and forth about signing up for the full. Not, that I am scared of the race or the training. But, I just want to be able to not be so busy/tired from training that my family suffers for it.

So…we’ll see. But for now, at least I have something to work towards.

 

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I really miss naptime

Shortly after Oldest turned two, she figured out how to get out of her crib. We made the transition to her toddler bed shortly after. Sleep has been a struggle with her ever since. Naps became difficult. Even though she was clearly tired, it took 1 to 1.5+ hours to get her to nap and then just as long to get her to sleep at night. She was going to sleep as late as 9:00 pm for bed because it took her so long to get to sleep for her naps. And she was waking up late in the morning for school because of her late bedtime.

When youngest was born, I did not have the time to fight her. So, I just dropped her nap.

I really miss nap time  We decided to implement “rest time” in which she could watch a movie in the afternoon. But, she is still a mess by 5:00 in the afternoon because she is so tired. Evenings are a struggle with two fussy kids. Since my husband is working long hours after their bedtime, I feel like a crazy single mama trying to manage dinner, bath time  and bedtime by myself

All I have to say is I really admire all single moms. I don’t know how you managed to keep it all together.

Since her bedtime is so early, she is up at 6ish am and is full speed ahead until 7 pm at night. I love my break time while she watches a show but I feel slightly guilty putting her in front of the tv. But, it is the only way I know to get a very tired child to sit still and rest.

If there are any mamas reading this blog who have any advice on how to handle this transition, I would love your input. I don’t so much mind not having the downtime of a nap during the day. But, the inevitable meltdown every afternoon/evening from her being so tired is really wearing my down. I have tried everything short of pinning her down in her bed to get her to rest. I’ll lay down next to her, get her a nice cup of milk, let her read her stories with her flashlight but nothing seems to work and since I can’t physically make her sleep, this transition has been tough on all of us.

I realize this is a small problem in the midst of the grand scheme of life. But, I just hate to see my little girl so miserable and tired because she refuses to calm down and rest. Yes, she is truly one of those strong willed children and she has difficult calming her self down. She is always a flurry of thoughts and creativity. I know someday she will do something wonderful with all this passion and energy but it is wearing this mama out!

Sitting Pretty

Youngest is finally getting the hang of sitting up independently. We took our weekly trip to the grocery store this week and she was able to sit up (with our grocery cart cover to keep all the awful store germs away) in the cart. This makes grocery shopping much easier as it does not require to lift that awfully heavy car seat into the grocery cart.

Youngest is a flurry of energy lately  She is pulling and grabbing at everything and is really working on scooting. I think she will be mobile before too long. Yikes, there go my days of being able to put her down and not worry about her scooting across the living room floor!

We are still battling the double ear infection with my youngest. I took her to the doctor last week to recheck her ears and they are still infected. Plus, my two day streak of a full night sleep ended last Wednesday as she is up again all night. I think in the short 7.5 months of her life, she has slept through the night a mere four times. I expected this for the first three, four, or even five months of her life. But now that she is getting older and starting solids, and after being up  every hour until about midnight last night, my husband and I decided to implement some serious sleep training.  I love my baby but feel that I no longer need to coddle and convince her back to sleep. She was up at midnight last night. We tried feeding her and she was not hungry. She was not in pain and only gets fussy when we leave the room. She just wanted to visit and play. Sorry, little miss, mama needs to play during the daylight hours. Not at 12 am!

She has been keeping me, my husband, and Oldest up with her crying so we moved her into the back room (with the video monitor on her so I can make sure she is safe), and we let her cry it out. Thankfully, I can’t hear her cry as I am tempted to rush in the middle of the night to feed her or comfort her. But, I know that we all need a full night’s rest and there is no reason for her to not be able to sleep all night. So, I hope this makes all of our lives a little more bearable and able to take on the day by starting out feeling well rested.

Somehow, despite a terrible week of sleep last night, I managed to get in a mere 22 miles/week last week. I’m so thankful for my treadmill as I can use my kids nap/rest time to squeeze in a few miles. I suppose I should be using this time to do something more productive like clean, organize my houses, but I just need this time for me to run and do something that makes me feel good and gives me the energy to take on two very active little girls.

Monday: 4 miles (8:11 pace)

Tuesday: 4 miles (8:04 pace)

Wednesday: 4 miles/hills (8:15 pace)

Friday: 6 miles (8:23 pace)

Sunday: 4 miles (7:54 pace)

Total: 22 miles

Yes, she is wearing a bike helmet. She puts it on to ride her bike and then does not want to take it back off! At least it keeps her head safe while climbing trees:)

Seven Months

Youngest turned seven months on Monday. Here are a few things she is doing at seven months:

• Rolling back and forth like a crazy person. She loves to roll all over her play mat and gets up on fours and wants to start scooting. I am really not ready for her to be mobile yet but I have a feeling she will be crawling by this Spring.
• Two front teeth. After months of drooling, she is finally getting her two bottom teeth.
• Oatmeal cereal twice/day. I tried rice cereal at six months and she would wake up with terrible gas/pain a few hours after feeding. So, I decided to hold off on solids until after she got over her ear infection/cold. She is doing much better with the oatmeal cereal and I hope to start adding veggies and fruits soon. I forget how messy it is feeding a baby. I think my laundry is going to double as it requires frequent outfit changes.

And…last night, she slept from 7:30ish to 6:00 am. She woke up briefly at 9:30 because she seemed to have a nightmare in her sleep but took two ounces and was back in bed. I’m not counting on her sleeping consistently through the night without some sleep training. But, I think my twice/night feedings might be over.

I love my sweet girls…

 

The Double…

With my oldest, I got into a nice rhythm where she would sleep until about 6:30 or 7:00 am.  I would be able to get up at 5ish am, after a full night’s rest, and fit in a quick morning run.

I survived training for a fall half marathon and completed the race just six months after having youngest. But after that, things just fell apart. I got sick, the baby got sick, I was up all hours of the night with the baby. I just felt TIRED and really unmotivated to get up and run.

Now that youngest is old enough to ride in the jogging stroller, I decided to break out my double BOB. I was lucky to find a used BOB on craigslist a few months ago. I thought, for the price, I could have a great double stroller to use for runs, trips to the zoo with the girls, etc.

I took my first run in it last week with the girls. Yikes, it was hard. Not, as tough as I expected but definitely not easy. I made it for an easy three miles before I decided to call it a day.

I really wanted to get up and run this morning but slept in once again (if you consider waking up at 6:30 sleeping in as that is the time I have to be up to get Oldest ready for preschool). So, after I dropped her off, I took youngest for a ride. My goal was four miles. I was dying as I pushed the stroller into the wind and I need to work on my upper body strength. But,  I’m grateful for the opportunity to have time to run. After taking some time enough to get over my cold and catch up on rest, I needed to get out, get some fresh air, get away from the treadmill and enjoy a run. Now that my husband is ramping up busy season and will be working weekends, I foresee lots of runs with the girls in the double BOB, followed by park playdates/picnics.

I may not be able to stick to my routine 5:30 am runs anymore, but I’ll take any miles or opportunity to run I can get. Plus, it doesn’t hurt for the baby to get in some extra rest after a fussy afternoon.

Lent and my Running Hiatus

I’ve lapsed a bit in my blogging. 2013 has been a busy year. I’ll attempt to catch up.

In true Stephanie fashion, I caught an awful cold just two days before my half-marathon in January. And of course, both girls ended up with nasty colds which left us all sick and tired. Nearly a month later, we are all still battling a cold. Mine developed into a nasty sinus infection (which I am currently taking my second antibiotic for). I took youngest to the doctor today and she was diagnosed today with a double ear infection. Oldest seems to have fared better but both nights she has asked to got to bed just after six. That NEVER happens as this is coming from the child who hates to sleep!

Yes, this has been a crazy month. Running has definitely taken a backseat to getting better and taking care of sick kiddos. Trying to recover as a stay at home mom  feels like some sort of cruel joke. The kids get sick, you get sick, you are up all night with the sick kids. You don’t get any rest making it impossible to get any better. My husband tries to help when he can on the weekend but this is an extremely busy time of year for him at work.  I would not be able to stay home without his employment. So, I do my best to let him rest at night. He helps out as much as he can on the weekends but starting this month, he will be working on Saturdays until April. The life of a CPA during tax season!

I went for my first run in over ten days this morning. Three easy miles on the treadmill. It felt great to burn off some stress. I took it easy as I am still not 100% but am so ready to get back into some normal sleep routine. Have I mentioned that youngest still does not sleep through the night? Yes, I’m kind of ready for a full night’s rest.

On to Lent…

I will try not to go on too much about my Catholic ways but tomorrow is Ash Wednesday which begins the season of Lent. Typically, we are asked to fast, give alms, and devote time to prayer.

So for lent, I’m giving up sweets and facebook. Sweets are my attempt to fast and show some sort of self-sacrifice food-wise. I can definitely show some restraint from sweets. And I want to give up facebook/social networking because I feel like I spend way too much time plugged in and am not in tune with my kids and/or not devoting quiet time in the evenings for reflection or prayer. As for the alms giving , perhaps I could save the money I spend on sweets and give more each week at the offering:)

I loved this description from http://charisministries.org/on finding time away from social media for quietness in search for some sort of inner peace. Lately,  at times, facebook leaves me feeling restless, jealous, or frustrated as I compare myself to others who may or may not have more than we do. I have everything in my capacity for peace and happiness, and I would like some time away from social media to be intentional about my time and to focus on my blessings.

Ash Wednesday: February 13 

Gospel – Matthew (6: 1-6, 16-18)

  By Sarah Corbin  

“But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to 

your Father in secret.  And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.”

Find the full Gospel reading here

We are ever becoming a society that watches each other’s every move. There is hardly a time when neighbors don’t know exactly where we are because of GPS enabled apps like squarespace.  So thinking about doing anything with my right hand that my left hand doesn’t know just about seems almost out of reach.

Through social media it’s really easy to share your own personal good works with thousands  of people by simply writing one sentence and hitting “send”.

We donate financially to friends’ charities because of Facebook posts. We re-post that we have made a donation on our own feeds to try and keep up the giving momentum.

We are encouraged daily to “pin” our good ideas and update our employment history to “link” with current and past colleagues.  We find a way to let folks know what we are up to frequently in 120 words or less.  We post our marriage proposals, graduation ceremonies and children’s births onto YouTube within hours of the occurrence.  We have the opportunity to socially connect, stand at a pulpit, and pray out loud at any moment during the day.

This week’s reading reminds us to take some internal time as well. There has to be a time when we close our door, turn off our electronic devices, and go to an inner room. It’s just as important for us to remember the soulful connection to giving as it is for us to socially connect through giving. And our sacrifices should be just that, self-sacrifices, not photo sharing opportunities.

Our time spent on self-reflection is vital to our spiritual health.  Making an effort to find silence, which is hard to come by, can renew us on our spiritual journey.

This Lent I’m making a commitment to take time to meditate, and step into that inner space.  My quiet times with my family, with God are important valuable moments that don’t need to be broadcast into the social sphere.  I know I need to work harder on connecting spiritually, in quiet moments, with myself and God.

To end on a happy note, we celebrated youngest’s baptism. Such a sweet, beautiful service for a wonderfully sweet baby girl!

A Day in the Life – Winter Edition

I started writing a day in the life posts when Oldest was younger. I realized I have not written once since Youngest was born, so I figured I need to catch up this year. I love looking back and seeing how things change as my kids grow.

So, here is my day last Wednesday:

5:00 am – wake up, baby is crying. My alarm was set for 5:20 am to meet my group run so I quickly get dressed for my run so I have time to feed the baby before I head out the door. Feed baby, grab my gear, and head out the door by 5:40 am.

6:00 am – meet my group for a quick three mile run. We are tapering as this is our last week of training for the Louisiana Half Marathon on Sunday. For the girls I am leading, this will be their first half marathon. I am excited to see them cross this finish line this weekend to accomplish their goal.

6:30 am – finish up run, stretch, and head home.

7:00 am – back home. Oldest is up but Youngest is sleeping. I hop in the shower for a quick rinse off. I was so cold from running. I don’t have time to wash/fix my hair so I throw on some comfy clothes and fix my hair in a ponytail. This is why I love having long hair because I don’t feel like I ever have time to fix it!

7:15 – coffee, get breakfast ready for oldest. I eat breakfast, get the girls dressed and fed. We are out the door by 8:30 am to bring Oldest to school.

8:45- 9:15 – carpool dropoff, head home. Normally, Oldest stays at school until 12:00 but she has her dance class/lunch bunch, so Wednesday is her long day. I have until 2:00 to pick her back up. I usually use this time to run errands, etc. but it is in the 30s and raining so I figure it is best to keep youngest safe, dry, and out of the cold, miserable rainy weather. It has been rainy for over a week and we are all tired of the rain here in South Louisiana. Thankfully, the forecast is cool and dry for race day on Sunday

9:15 – get home, fold clothes, put up laundry while youngest enjoys some tummy time. She is scooting and wanting to start crawling. I am really not ready for her to be mobile yet.

10:00 am – youngest gets fussy! She took about a five minute catnap on the way home but she needs a morning nap. So, I change her, feed her, and get ready to put her down for a nap. Just as she is getting close to falling asleep, she spits up all over me and her clothes. Change her again and get her ready for her nap.

10:30 – Youngest is still talking in her crib. She is fighting her nap and always resists when she gets a brief catnap. Decide to catch up on my blog and some e-mails while she talks in her crib. I love blogging from my new keyboard I got for my iPad. My laptop battery died so I always had to sit at our desk to blog but now I can relax on my couch and write.

10:35 – baby is asleep! I contemplate doing some things around the house but am going to take a nap myself. Youngest was up at 1:00 am and 5:00 am and Oldest was up from 1:00 until 2ish. She had to go the bathroom, was fussy, hungry, etc. So after being up for good at 5 am, I have to take advantage of a quiet house when I can.

11:00 – I rest for about fifteen minutes but can’t fall asleep! I have trouble resting in the mornings so decide to do some more laundry, tidy up around the house, read some blogs, order diapers online, and write thank you notes.

12:00 – I’m starving! Lunchtime:) Finish my lunch just before the baby is up from her nap. Spend a little playtime with youngest and decide it is time for another cup of coffee. Our coffeemaker broke and I don’t feel like forking over money to get a new one just yet so we started using our french press. Now that I’ve gotten used to making coffee with it, I prefer it over my automatic coffeemaker. Less bitter and much better flavor.

1:00 – Baby starts getting hungry. Feed her. Baby eats a bit, then poops. Time for a diaper change and to finish feeding. Baby eats some more then spits up all over me and her clothes. Time for change #4 of the day. No wonder I have so much laundry, lol:)

2:00 – After some playtime, feeding, head to pick up big sister from school.

2:30ish – make a quick trip to the store to pick up some grapes and cherries. I find myself bargaining with my three year old to get her to behave while we shop. I need supernanny to come help me with my disciplining.

3:15 – finally home. Oldest gets a snack and some quiet time to play her game and watch a show while I feed the baby and get her settled down for a short afternoon nap. I do some dinner prep.

4:45 – baby is up and I am starving so I decided to grab a quick bite just after 5ish. I have to eat while they are both calm and happy.

5:30 – both kids are tired and fussy! Lots of crying around the house. I really wish daddy was home at this point to help. Finally settle my toddler down enough to eat dinner.

5:50 – my husband is home. Love that he is home early today. This time of year he is usually not home until at least 6:30 or 7:00. My husband has his dinner and I start the bath for the girls at 6:00.
Bath time is always a struggle. Oldest never wants to get in the bath, and she never wants to get out of the bath either. She has become an expert at stalling. I think she knows bath time signals bedtime so she delays it as much as possible.

By 6:30ish we are bathed and teeth are brushed. The girls are ready for bed. Oldest plays a little while, we read a story, do our pre-bedtime rituals. Since we dropped her nap, Oldest is usually a mess by this time so we have her in bed for 7:00 pm so that she is not too tired for preschool the next day.

Now that Oldest is in bed, we spend some time with youngest. We hold her, watch tv, read, feed her and usually have her in bed between 8 and 9 pm. By the time youngest is in bed, I am pretty tired so I usually crash and burn by 9:30. I’m such a party animal. Training for a half marathon with a baby who is not sleeping all night and a preschooler who does not nap has been challenging as I am usually exhausted from being up so early in the morning. But, I am so thankful for the program because it has forced me to get back into running and make something I love a priority. Otherwise, it becomes all about the kids, house, errands. Plus, I know this is a short phase. I settle down, read get my running clothes ready for the next day, and set the alarm, and get so rest so that I am ready to start another day!

Some pictures from our day:

Louisiana Half Marathon

I did it! I finished the half marathon six months post-baby. My chip time was 1:43:38, not my fastest half by far but felt so grateful that I was able to complete this course, six months post-baby, all the while fighting a cold.

This year, I helped train a group of ten ladies, most of which were running their first half, for the Louisiana Half Marathon. It is such a wonderful feeling to help support other new runners reach their goals. I loved seeing everyone cross the finish line today. The are such an inspiration to me to simply put in the time and effort to meet their goals.

So…my splits were all over the place, but overall, it was a beautiful day for a run:

1 – 8:13
2 – 7:51
3 – 7:40
4 – 7:46
5 – 8:04
6 – 7:54
7 – 8:01
8 – 8:00
9 – 8:08
10 – 7:48
11 – 7:53
12 – 7:52
13 – 7:39
last .1 7:10 mile

Total: 1:43:38/7:54 pace

On the second and eleventh mile, we had to go over a huge hill. So, I felt great being able to pick it up on the finish and finish the last mile strong.

Here are some pre-race pics with our team, and of course, one with me and my dad who ran the half with us today.

Stealing Time

I’m stealing a precious few minutes today while my baby is napping and my toddler is still at school to blog.

Not much to report lately. My half marathon is next weekend and I have no real goals other than to FINISH with a smile and be grateful that at just over six months post-baby, I am able to train and complete a half marathon. I ran this race at 12 weeks pregnant but was in shape so I’m not even sure I will beat my pregnant time.

Louisiana Marathon

Youngest started rice cereal last night and she slept all night again! We were having a few nights where she was waking up twice a night for feedings. She was hungry so I know it was not a habit but mama really needs her rest. My alarm went off at 5:25 am and she was up just a little before six so I was able to squeeze in three miles before she woke up. Since I have a hard time fitting in time during the day to run (I’m worthless when it comes to running after lunch time, I just don’t have the energy!), I am going to have to get up early to finish my runs before her 6ish feeding. Which I don’t mind if I have a full night’s rest (seven consecutive hours of sleep is enough for me!).

So…just getting back into the routine again. Oldest started back at school yesterday and I am feeling so much more organized. It is amazing how having just 9 hours a week with just ONE child makes such a difference. I actually have time to get things done and hear myself think when youngest is napping. I’m not sure what I will do with myself once they are both is school full-time. Perhaps I will finally have time to clean out my closets and work on all those nagging projects that I never get around to doing.

Alright, here are the latest adventures in our house. Food for youngest. She loved it and ate two whole tablespoons on her first feeding!. Happy baby:)

Happy New Year

I’ve only been a parent for a few years, but since having kids, our New Year’s Eve plans are a lot more low-key.

Last night, we put the kids in bed at their usual bedtimes and watched our alma mater, Louisiana State University play a terrible game only to lose against the Clemson Tigers in the Chick-Fil-A bowl.

After five plus months of non-consecutive sleep combined with my half marathon training, I still never feel fully rested. So, like the grandma that I have become, I was asleep by 10:45 pm. The glamorous party life I lead.

We had a quiet New Year’s Day at home. It was a rainy day, so I made my first attempt at Hoppin’ John to ensure we had our black eyed peas for luck and some cornbread. I guess we won’t be seeing any wealth this year because I did not attempt cabbage. I don’t care for cabbage or collard greens, so I hated to waste money on making it.

My five month old is teething and my three year old was a little stir crazy from the rain so we had to get creative with arts and crafts and movie/rest time in her tent. While they rested, I hopped on the treadmill to start the year off with an easy five mile run.

It was a quiet start to 2013, but I’m enjoying my rest. I’m scheduled to meet my training group at 5:20 am in the morning, so I’m hoping this teething baby lets me get some rest tonight.

I read this bible verse today during my morning reflection (something I am hoping to take time to do this year), and I think it is a great mindset for me to start off 2013:

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:2 KJV)

Happy New Year! I’ll close with some pictures from a typical evening/day at our home.

The Long Run

My half marathon training plan called for an eleven mile long run this weekend. I went to bed Friday night determined to get up Saturday morning for my run. I tossed and turned all night, was feeling run down from the holidays, and just could not get myself up and out of the bed.

I felt grumpy and frustrated all day Saturday. So, I set my alarm for 5:20 on Sunday morning and was determined to complete my run.

The baby woke me up at 5 am Sunday morning ready for her feeding. I was tired but got her fed and back in bed. At this point, all I wanted to do was head back to my bed, snuggle under the covers, and go back to sleep.

I checked the temperature, it was 30 degrees.

Again, I thought about my warm bed.

Instead, I got dressed, had a quick breakfast, downed some water, and was out the door by 5:45 to start my run. The first mile felt great but by the second mile, my legs felt dead and I was just felt tired.

I told myself to run the first six miles (or until it was light out), and then I could stop for a quick water break, grab a few sports beans, and turn on my music.

Miles six through nine were a blur as I jammed to my tunes to help the miles pass by. By mile ten, I knew I was going to complete my run, despite my fatigue. This was my longest training run since I got pregnant last October, and it felt great to be back in the game.

Mile 1: 8:49
Mile 2: 8:44
Mile 3: 8:22
Mile 4: 8:23
Mile 5: 8:19
Mile 6: 8:26
Mile 7: 8:22
Mile 8: 8:16
Mile 9: 8:14
Mile 10: 8:12
Mile 11: 8:10

After I finished, I took a minute to cooldown, ready to start another day. I love the feeling of finishing a great run only to walk in and see my littles in their jammies enjoying breakfast and playing in the kitchen. It reminds me of all I have to be thankful for. Waking up at 5 am to run after long days at home with two small children is the toughest thing I have ever done. It make my college running days (where I had plenty of time to rest after runs), feel like a breeze. I’m not sure why I endure such training at this phase in my life, knowing I have very little rest or downtime in my life. But, I do, and I love every minute of it!

Family Frenzy

As much as I love the holidays, I’m always happy when they are over because I can return to my regular family/eating routines. I love spending time with family enjoying wonderful Southern food but after all those heavy meals and late night visits with family, I’m ready for some downtime and to get back into a routine. Yes, I’m an introvert and I need some quiet time in the evening after a long day to read and decompress.

I love a new year but January also brings the busiest time of the year for my husband. The dreaded busy/tax season in which I virtually become a single mom as my husband works long hours, six plus days a week.

I have really enjoyed my half marathon training, but I think for my sanity, I will take a break from training for longer races and aim for shorter, speedier runs. I just don’t have as much time to squeeze in long runs on the weekends, so I’ll aim for quality, speedy runs over quantity (long runs).

All the while, I hope I can keep my base up to train for some longer races next fall.

So, I’m not going to make any goals for 2013 but I do have some things I would like to work on:

1) Speed – pick up my pace and enjoy some 5k/10k races in the Spring so that I can have a great base for a fall half and possibly a full marathon by the end of the year

2) Start cross-training/core work at least once a week – I need to get back into Yoga!

3) Declutter my house – after Christmas, I realized that I need to organize/clean out more of our toys, closets, etc.

4) Work on my patience with my kids

5) Focus on cleaner eating

6) Attend my weekly bible study and take some time for a quick, daily devotional in the evenings

7) Spend less time on the internet/mindless web surfing at night

Lately though, with the business of my two small children, if I can have the house semi-organized, dinner, cooked, laundry done, and some time in the day for a run, I consider that a good day!

I’ll close with some pictures from the holidays….

And there goes the weekend..

I had such a nice weekend. My husband’s office party on Friday was a fun outing. We enjoyed a nice evening away, sans kiddos! On Saturday morning, Oldest and I took a trip downtown to pick up my packet for my 10k race on Sunday. We enjoyed walking around the square downtown, playing near the water fountains, and climbing up and down the steps at the Old Governor’s mansion.

My husband and I were feeling a little sluggish Saturday. Apparently, after months of not drinking ANY alcohol,  I felt pretty tired all day, despite having only two drinks over a few hours. I drank plenty of water Friday and Saturday, but any type of alcohol makes me feel tired and groggy. So, we took it easy on Saturday, had relaxed pizza dinner, put the kids to bed, and I was asleep very early for my 5 am race wake up call.

I expected at least one night feeding Saturday evening, but when I woke up Sunday morning to get dressed for the race, youngest was still sleeping. My husband texted me later and told me that she slept until 6:30! Sleeping from 9 pm to 6:30 is a huge milestone. I felt great for my race after getting a full night’s sleep.

I met some of the girls I am helping coach through Karna Fitness, Half Marathon training program. This was there first 10k so there were excited about the race. It was a woman’s only 10k race so there was lots of pink around the start of the race. Here is a pre-race picture:

We had a great run and it was so fun to help pace the girls for their first 10k! I loved just relaxing and enjoying the race and not feeling the pressure to run a certain time or pace. It was a really great race experience. I am looking forward to some faster runs in the Spring but I forget how much I just love the support and enthusiasm of the running community. I loved seeing all the  spectators, volunteers, and friends/families out there cheering for the runners. 

After the race, I headed back to check on the littles. Oldest and I played in the morning, I cooked some homemade chicken noodle soup, and we spent the afternoon making Christmas sugar cookies.

And of course, there is always lots of cuddling with youngest:

After all our baking and decorating, Oldest was worn out because she fell asleep watching her Christmas movie. Since she no longer naps, she has her afternoon rest/movie time. No matter how exhausted she is, my child has NEVER fallen asleep watching a movie. Well, all the baking must have worn her out because I went to check on her and she was sound asleep in the bed. Sweet girl:)

Overall, it was a great weekend. Now, off to rest and plan for another busy week.

The New Normal

I went to Oldest’s parent/teacher visitation at her preschool shortly after having youngest. I was talking to one of the mom’s who recently had her third child and described life with three kids as her new normal. You learn that life as you know it has changed dramatically after having kids. Life can be chaotic, dramatic, and filled with ups and downs. And of course, as a mom, you are always feel just a bit sleep deprived. But this your life and your new normal.

I know once I get used to one routine with my kids, something else will change (sleep schedules change, teething, toddler bed transition, etc.) but I think I am finally getting adjusted to the changes that goes along with having two kids.

When I first had youngest, I was overwhelmed by so many things. How am I going to get out the door with two kids and have them fed, dressed, and in the car for preschool? Normally getting up early and out the door is not hard for me but when you have a three year old that at times, refuses to get dressed in the morning and moves as slow as molasses, things can take longer than anticipated. Add a baby who requires feedings right around carpool time and things get hectic:)

Before youngest was born, Oldest would blissfully nap every day giving me some quiet time to catch up, read, rest. She has dropped her naps and there is not much down time during the day. Since youngest is still not sleeping through the night and mama is up early for her runs, I definitely was feeling the sleep deprivation.

But today, I realized that things are slowly coming together. Oldest was asleep by 7ish pm and youngest slept from 8ish to 6:30 am with only one feeding. This is a huge success after a few nights were she would wake up wanting to nurse for comfort or play. We are now in sleep training mode as she only needs one feeding between 8 pm and 6 am.

I woke up at 5:00 am this morning and felt great since I only had to be up once during the night. It was raining so we had to cancel our group run.   Since I was already up and the babies were sleeping, I decided to hit the treadmill for an easy tempo.

5 miles/39:27/7:53 average pace!

I started out with a 10 minute warm up , 20 minute tempo (in which I increased the pace to a 7:30 mile), and ended with a 10 minute cool down  Running at a faster pace is so tough for me early in the morning, but I knew I might not have time to fit in a run later.  So I just did the workout at 5:15 am. Ugh, it was tough but I felt great after.

This morning, I finally had one of those mornings where everything went smoothly. I got a run/shower before the kids were up and love getting to exercise before the start to a busy day. Oldest is in school today until 2:00 pm.  Since it is raining, I am taking some time today get some things done around the house, shop for presents online, and enjoy a quiet house while youngest naps in her bed.

Things are slowly coming together:) Of course, this could all change tomorrow  But, I’m slowly learning to embrace my new normal.

Happy Holidays

It is hard to believe the holidays are here! I’m taking time today to finally blog again because I know Christmas 2012 is going to be busy, but fun.

Lately, any attempts to get a photo with the girls looks something like the above picture. Youngest smiles but Oldest does her best to fight taking a decent picture. At least she is happy.

We survived our first family road trip to Texas for Thanksgiving  After a long stop to feed oldest, change diapers, feed baby, clean out the car, we finally made a four hour road trip in six hours. Oldest had a great visit with her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousin. We found out she will have a new baby girl cousin in April, so we are excited as our extended family continues to grow!

The girls did great on the trip but we decided to make the trip home Saturday night after the girls were asleep. We got in town before midnight and were asleep by 12:30. After a 2 am and 6 am wake-up call that night from the baby, we were tired on Sunday morning. Thankfully, we had Sunday to relax and get back into the routine before the start of the week. Here is a picture of the highlight of the trip for oldest, riding the train and seeing the Christmas lights downtown. She loves trains and anything to do with them. She has even been known to rearrange my chairs, furniture, stuffed animals, etc. to build an actual “train,” or Santa Sleigh. I think this child could be a future engineer. 

So, as of today, I am in Week Six of my half marathon training. I ran an easy eight last Saturday and felt good despite my legs feeling a little tired. After my run, I seriously questioned my ability to even consider training for a marathon with little kids in the house. I’m just not sure I have the energy for it to recover and get enough rest necessary to take care of my kids and my body, while marathon training. We’ll see how things go once I am able to start consistently sleeping through the night. I’m amazed at moms who can train for a marathon with new babies.

This holiday season though, I am grateful for the Karna Half Marathon training program I am coaching. Meeting and running with our small group motivates me to get up out of bed Monday and Wednesday morning to meet my group for runs, even if I have been up several times at night for the baby. Our half marathon is scheduled on January 20th. I am excited about the race and have no expectations other than to just run the race and enjoy building up my mileage over the holidays to that I have a solid base for training. I hope to step up my mileage and pace for some races in the Spring. Who knows, I might even get back into my skinny jeans:)

Look Who is Four Months!

I can’t believe my baby girl is already four months! I took her to the doctor today and here are her stats:

Weight: 13 lbs .35 ounces

Height: 23.5 inches

So, she is a little on the petite side but is the happiest, sweetest baby girl:) So thankful for my beautiful, healthy girls! As of four months, she is rolling over from tummy to back, cooing, smiling, and making all kinds of sounds, grasping her toys, and just loving life. I love my sweet baby girl.

Oldest is adjusting so well to being a big sister. She loves her baby sister and is so helpful around the house. Lately, she makes me smile with her sweet sayings.

“Mommy, I missed you SO much”

“You are the best mommy/daddy ever!”

She loves princesses, my little ponies, dress up, playing with her animals, painting, and long walk/runs outside in the afternoon. She is thankful for her elephants and giraffes:) She especially loves her school and play time with her friends. She had to get glasses for her vision so now she is now styling some cute red glasses.

And somehow, despite the busyness of our schedules, I have managed to complete three of my twelve week half marathon training plan. I am doing this while coaching for the Karna Fitness Half Marathon training program. I love my Monday and Wednesday morning group runs and getting outside of my neighborhood/treadmill for some early morning runs with a great group of ladies!

Alright, off to get some rest for another busy day with the girls and to get ready for our Thanksgiving visit with the in-laws. Hope everyone has a happy, safe, and blessed Thanksgiving.

friday ramblings…on motherhood and running

I have not sat down to blog in a while. I don’t have a preference for how many readers I have for this blog, so I don’t’ feel any pressure to write a certain number of posts a week/month. I started this as an outlet for me to record my days as a young mom. I love looking back at old posts and reading about my days when Oldest was just a baby. Now that I have two young children, I hope to be able to look back on this blog and remember the craziness of my young motherhood days!

So, back to the lack of blogging. Since I don’t have a lot of breaks during the day, by the time evening comes and the kids are in bed, I am either catching up on folding laundry, dishes, etc. or so tired that all I want to do is sit on the couch, drink a glass of wine, and watch episodes of Law & Order:SVU!! I don’t watch much television mostly because I feel like it is just a waste of time and I don’t really enjoy most of the shows on these days. But, I must admit, I love Law & Order SVU and am anxiously awaiting the return of Downtown Abby!!!

But today, the stars aligned and my oldest is napping AT THE SAME TIME as my youngest! So, not only was I able to get in a quick 20 minute powernap but I have time to sit down and blog too! I suppose I should be using this time to do something productive like cook, organize, or clean. But, I am not in a productive mode and want to just enjoy some quiet time to sit, drink my coffee, and write! Oh, and I apologize in advance for the grammatical errors that this post might contain, Like I said, I don’t have a lot of time to sit and edit on the computer, so sometimes I miss things! My history professors would probably berate me for my bad writing, but I’m not getting a grade on this so, I’m not to worried about it.

As I mentioned, life is busy! Youngest rolled over for the first time this week.  I was worried that it might take her longer because she does not get as much mat time as I would like. She is usually in the car with me in the morning running errands and bring oldest to school, in my arms, or safely in her swing where I know oldest can’t cause any harm. Yes, oldest is very sweet with her baby sister but is very hands on and wants to handle her the minute I take my eye off her.  Since she no longer naps, I have to keep an eye on her and the baby all the time.

Oldest is as busy as ever. At times, my patience with her fades as she is so busy and with the lack of naps, the afternoons are difficult as my patience runs out and she gets fussy and tired. One thing I do lack in at times is patience so I suppose God gave this child to me to teach me patience and to let go of my need to control/organize everything. Because nothing is every controlled or organized with a very busy, curious three year old.

On to running….I ran my first post-baby 5k last weekend, the Holidays Hustle. I really had no expectations for this race and figured I would use it is a fun, tempo run. My splits were:

• 7:09
• 7:21
• 7:25

I clocked the 5k (or 3.04 miles on my Garmin) at 22:13. I did stop my watch once to get some water mid-way through the race because I was dying of thirst! This is something that I have NEVER done during a 5k race but the race started at 9:30 and was very warm. Usually, fall weather arrives in late Baton Rouge by early October, but temperatures have been warm this month and the highs have been in the upper 80s! Added with the humidity we have here, it is still very warm out there when you run.  Plus, the added dehydration from nursing a baby and the lack of running in the heat over the summer (I run on the treadmill since it is so early and hate running in the dark), I was definitely not ready or used to the heat.

A cool front is supposed to come through this weekend, so I am praying for some cool weather as I start to increase my mileage for the winter. I have been running about 17-19 miles for the past few weeks so I hope to start building on this in preparation for a January half marathon. I am coaching a great group of girls, some of whom are training for their first half marathon. So, I am excited about helping them prepare and run this race.  I have my eyes on a marathon in 2013 so if I am going to buckle down and go for a Boston Qualifying time, I need to start building strength and mileage now.

alright, enough rambling for now. Off to enjoy the rest of my quiet time and get ready for some fun family activities this weekend!

Has it already been three months?

Youngest turns three months tomorrow and I am in awe that time has passed so quickly. The last month has been a blur of carpool drop-offs/pickups, chores, errands, feeding baby, changing baby, cleaning, cooking, and laundry. Life is busy.

And in the midst of all my to do’s, I just want to freeze time and hold my babies.  Time is passing by so quickly.  Before too long, my baby won’t want me to rock her to sleep, snuggle with her at night, or sing sweet songs and talk to her while I am changing her diaper.

With my oldest child, I struggled to do everything right. I was so worried about spoiling her too much or getting her on a good sleep/feeding schedule. But, babies really only need to be loved and cared for. With my youngest, I just want to enjoy this time as much as possible. I now realize how fast it goes by.

So for now, I just want time to read something inspiring every day, drink my coffee, go for an early morning run (even if it must be before 6 am!)  and just enjoy my time with my girls. There are so many things I can, should, or could do.  With the busyness of the upcoming holiday season, I want to learn to find joy and peace amongst the endless to dos. As Sally Clarkson explains it best on her blog, I Take Joy, it is only by taking time to enjoy some quiet and stillness, free from the interruptions and noise of the outside world, that we truly find time see our blessings and to listen to God’s calling for us as parents, mothers, siblings, and wives.

 

Two Months

Youngest was two months old on the 18th and Oldest celebrated her third birthday on the 15th.

Birthday Girl at her party

Proud Big Sister

My babies are growing up too fast! I took both the girls in for their checkups on Friday and that was a two hour ordeal. Both girls had to get shots which is always tough on momma. Youngest was good because she had no idea what was coming but oldest fought getting her flu shot.  She was already upset after seeing her sister get her shots.  When I told her we had to take youngest to the doctor she was very concerned that they were going to have to “cut her foot.” When youngest was a newborn, I had to take her in for several rounds of blood work to test for jaundice/bilirubin levels and they had to take blood from her foot/heel and this upset oldest to see her baby sister in pain.

After a slow summer, life seems to be moving so quickly. School, carpool, my mom’s group, doctor’s appointments for the girls, music class, and spending time with family and friends has kept us very busy.

I am finally starting to get into a routine with my running. Usually youngest is asleep by 8ish and we try for a final feeding at 10ish. She is usually up around 5ish in the morning so I feed her and then hop on my treadmill for my run. It is too dark outside to run so I’ll stick with the dreadmill for now. This week, I ran just over 10 miles, four days a week. My first double digit weekly mileage since my pregnancy. My pace is slow but I’m trying not to worry about that and focus on building mileage over time.

Monday: 2.5 miles

Wednesday: 2 miles

Friday: 4 miles

Sunday: 2 miles

Total: 10.5 miles

Tomorrow, I have my first race. Well, it is a race but I will be running it, NOT racing it. I’m in no shape to race but wanted to change up my routine and get inspired for some fall running. So, I forked over a pricey race entry fee but I think this will be a good race experience. A four mile trail run through an old sugarcane plantation with a yoga warm-up sounds like a perfect race to me.

Cane Field Classic

Making progress

Mileage from last week:

Tuesday: 2 miles (9:03 pace)

Wednesday: 2.5 miles (8:41 pace)

Saturday: 3.1 (miles 8:59 pace)

Total: 7.6 miles

Youngest is just over seven weeks and I am seeing progress on so many levels. I was able to run three times last week, for a total of over 7.5 miles! The first run was an early morning run after I fed her (5ish am!), the second was a tough late evening run after my husband came home from work (8 pm), and the third was a Saturday morning run outside before my family even woke up for the day. I ran Saturday and missed the cool front that came through South Louisiana on Sunday. My weekend run on Saturday was hot, humid, and painful but at least I got in some miles. My pace is slow, yet I feel like I can’t go one step faster. I know it will take time to get back to my pre-race shape so I am just going to work on building mileage and not get too caught up on my pace. Speed will come later.

Youngest continues to amaze me. She is such a sweet baby. On Friday night, she slept from 9pm to 6 am! I woke up thinking my husband gave her a bottle in the middle of the night, which he sometimes does to help me catch up on sleep on the weekend. But, she slept the whole night. I don’t count on this being a habit just yet but it was great to know she is making progress and sleeping so well. We took her to the doctor last week and at just under two months, she was 9 lbs 4 ounces. She is starting to smile and be awake during the time and it is so cute to watch her grow and change each day.

Oldest started school last week and loves it. This is great because when I enrolled her in the summer program, she cried every time I dropped her off:( With her in school, it was nice to have some time last week to run errands, get some things done around the house, go to my mom’s group, and spend some time with youngest. My toddler is not overly jealous, but I do find her demanding my attention more when I am trying to tend to youngest. She is so busy and I continue to be impressed with her imagination and creativity. She loves building forts and finding ways to imitate things she sees (cooking/making soup with her buckets, shovels and water, bathing her play ponies, making trains with her bikes/toys, playing house with her dolls/animals). She makes me laugh and smile every day.

The toughest adjustment to life with two is trying to get them both situated. I get one down for a nap and the other is fussy, hungry, needs a diaper change, help on the potty, etc. Or, I finally get youngest ready to put down for a nap in her room and oldest rushes in to tell me she has to go to the restroom and wakes up youngest! I can’t even imagine how chaotic life with 3+ kids would be. One day at a time.

I hope to keep up my running this week and at some point try to figure out how to add in some strength training. I found out I have a common condition called diastis recti in which your abs separate after pregnancy. You have to avoid certain abdominal exercises/yoga poses. Until this is corrected, I have to be careful about a workout routine I take on until I can get my abs back in shape/healed. But, I need to start some weights and strength work. I have neglected strength work too long and need to focus on this to improve my running and body shape. Strength add so much to your stamina in a race and I always find my upper body tires out towards the end of long runs and races.

Well, I just finished my early morning run, two miles before 6:15 am. Off to stretch, drink coffee, and get ready for the day. I’ll finish off with some pictures from last week.

Six Weeks and September

After spending a lot of time at home in August, I’m ready for fall and the routines that September will bring. The end of August brought us back-to-back visits with family and a hurricane that resulted in rain, wind, flooding, and widespread power outages to South Louisiana.

We packed up our bags last Tuesday to weather Hurricane Isaac at my parents. Since we don’t own a generator and were guaranteed to lose power, we spent two nights at my parents. After Hurricane Gustav wreaked havoc on Baton Rouge four years ago and resulted in over two weeks without electricity, my parents invested in a built in generator to power their home. I really did not want to risk losing power with a six week old baby so I was thankful we could stay with them and stay cool during the horribly hot, humid month of August.

Isaac was not as bad as expected but was extremely slow moving. It made landfall exactly seven years after Katrina devastated the gulf coast and rained in Baton Rouge for two days. While the levees in New Orleans held up, several of the outlying river parishes suffered from flooding. Thankfully, we were safe during the storm.

After Isaac cleared out, I was able to make it to my appointment for my six week checkup and was cleared for exercise. I was finally able to start running this week. I was exhausted after only running two miles, but I felt so thankful to move my legs and run that I did not care how painful and humid it was. The first one mile test run was tough as I was pretty tired from late night feedings and chasing after oldest all day. It seems she decided that after the birth of youngest that she no longer requires a nap which leaves me with very little downtime during the day to have some quiet time. This will make early morning runs tough as I am used to having some time in the afternoon to take a quick power nap. Another cup of coffee in the afternoon? Yes, please!

Now that I have made it through the first six weeks with a new baby, I am looking forward to more semblance of a routine for September. Oldest starts school on Tuesday and we will be able to get out of the house more with the baby now that she is a bit older. Youngest is doing so well. Except for the middle of the night feedings, she has been such an easy, happy baby. I’m still learning how to balance life with two but so far things are going well. She is alert more during the day and really has a great disposition. We are starting to see more smiles and cute facial expressions. Oldest loves to help out in any way possible and is always willing to tend to her sister. Last week she was dying to give her a bottle so while I fixed her lunch, she gave her a bottle.

September bring the promise of cooler weather, new adventures at school for oldest, fall running, and college football. Geaux Tigers!

around the house

In my effort so prevent exposing youngest to the germs of the public (at least until she is closer to six weeks), we have been spending a lot of time at home. Since oldest won’t start school until after labor day, we have been creative in our efforts to stay busy around the house. Usually, this involves finger-painting, building with her blocks, playing house, cooking in the kitchen, and outside play in the morning/afternoon when it is not too hot.

Today, I caught some pictures of oldest giving her sister a “bath.” She is such a little mama and loves to help with her baby sister. She is not always as gentle as I would like her to be so I have to keep a constant eye on her when she is around the baby, but I love the she wants to help with youngest. Let’s just hope she does not suffocate her trying to snuggle and hug on her!

I am so thankful for the help of parents, my husband, and family/friends who have been helping with oldest. They have been taking oldest for outings in the afternoon so that I can have some time to bond with the baby and get a few things done around the house since I don’t have a lot of spare time anymore. Usually, by the time I get youngest fed, relaxed, and asleep in her bassinet, oldest wakes up shortly after that. Parenting is definitely a 24/7 job. As difficult of a job it is to raise two young children, I’m just so grateful to have a supportive family and husband who works hard so that I can have this time with my girls at home.

Once we get oldest settled for bed, I usually sneak away for a late evening walk around the neighborhood while my husband bonds with youngest. It is always so great to get out for a walk and get some fresh air. I’ve also finally started some strength work (planks, push-ups, bicep curls, tricep dips, lunges, bridge pose). Yikes, my legs were so sore after lunges. But, it feels so great to actually move and get in some exercise after weeks of inactivity after hurting my back/SI joint. So ready for my six week checkup and some time to build up my fitness again in September.

Closing in on the first month

On Wednesday, oldest will be one month! My husband took the youngest to see a movie this afternoon, so I am taking some time this afternoon to catch up on a few things, including this blog. We’ve been a little busy adjusting to life as a family of four so I’ve lapsed on blogging.

Youngest has been such a good baby! We had her two week checkup last Friday and she weighed 6 lbs 5 ounces and was twenty inches long. She is growing and eating so well. We have been able to stop supplementing with formula so with the exception of one bottle in the evening, she has been doing great with the eating and nursing.

She is also such a great sleeper. I only have to feed her once between 10 and 6ish to 7 the next morning and I feel so much more rested with her than I did with my first who was up all hours of the night for feedings. I keep waiting for things to change (they always do) but for now I’m enjoying a baby who sleeps well at night. She only cries if she is hungry or needs a changing but grunts all the time.

Oldest will not start her preschool until after Labor Day and since I’m not ready to expose youngest to the germs out there, we have been staying home a lot. This has made keeping oldest occupied a challenge. I try and get her outside to play and get some exercise early in the mornings or late in the afternoons when it is not quite so hot but unless you are swimming or at the splash park, it is way too miserable in South Louisiana to be outside during this day. I’m so ready for fall!

We try to take lots of visits to the pool so oldest can burn off some energy. She finished swim lessons last week and is doing so well. She swam in 12 feet of water and loves to jump off the side and swim to you. This child has no fear. I’m a little nervous for her teenage years.

I’ve got a little over two weeks until my six week checkup and then I can’t wait to get out there and start running. I’m not quite feeling recovered enough to start running yet but I have been taking 20-30 minute walks a couple of times a week and have started doing daily planks and push-ups. We have been spending a lot of time at home lately and since I’m not able to do any strenuous exercise, I’m feeling a little stir crazy and so ready to start exercising again and getting back into shape. The Olympics are definitely inspiring me to get back into training mode.

What I wake up to in the morning! Bright eyed baby.

What our kitchen “play area” usually looks like after a morning with oldest

Lounging by the pool

Just an afternoon nap to catch up on some sleep

Week One

Well, it is hard to believe that just a week ago today we were in the doctor’s office for our sonogram awaiting her decision as to whether or not we would have a baby! A lot has changed in just one short week.

Since I publish this blog publicly and talk about parenthood and fitness/running, I have decided to refer to my girls as oldest and youngest as to protect their identity.

So far, youngest is doing really well! Of course, I remember the first two weeks being easy because the baby sleeps all the time. It was not until after my oldest woke up and starting getting fussy/reflux/colic that things got challenging!

We were able to take youngest off the bilibed on Sunday but we have had to go to the doctor every day to do blood work to check her jaundice levels. Although her jaundice is still considered only a moderate risk, her bilirubin has gone up so I have to continue to feed/supplement her with formulas as much as possible. This make nursing a newborn quite a challenge! Newborns are already so sleepy making it tough for them to wake up to feed but jaundice newborns are even more sleepy. Since she has already gotten a bottle at such a young age, there is less incentive for her to work to latch on to nurse. I am just hoping to get her past her jaundice so I can drop the bottles and formula and exclusively breastfeed but until the doctor gives me the go ahead, I will continue to feed her around the clock, every two to three hours.

With all the feedings, this does not leave much time to get other things done but I am thankful my oldest has school this morning so I can sneak in a blog post, some laundry, and some rest between feedings! I am trying to spend as much time during these two weeks to hold and love on my youngest but to also make sure to give oldest enough attention so she is not too resentful of the baby. So far, oldest just wants to take care of her and bring her toys, pacis, blankies. I think she is ready for her to be older so they can start having tea parties together.

Sleep wise she is doing great. My husband has been giving her a bottle after I have pumped in the late evening so I only have to wake up once between 10:00 pm  and 6 am for a feeding. This has been a huge helps. With my first, I liked to give her at least one bottle a day once she started nursing well so that I could have a break from all the feedings and to make sure if she ever had to, she would still take a bottle.

With all the feedings, doctor’s appointments, and concern over her jaundice, I am not even going to think about starting to do some postpartum exercises until next week or so but am feeling better and recovering well so I hope to join oldest and my husband on their evening walks. My oldest loves to go for a run at night and she will run anywhere from a quarter of a mile to a half mile in the evening. This wears her out and helps with the bedtime routine! I can’t wait to join her for a run!

Some pictures from her first week of life:

Our family of four

Now that I am home from the hospital and all the details are still fresh in my mind, I thought I would update my blog on our new one’s arrival.

On Wednesday morning, I went in for a sonogram at 8:45 and had a doctor’s appointment afterwards. I had a sonogram to check the size of the baby two weeks ago and she was on the smaller side. Based on the sonogram on Wednesday, the baby was not appearing to be growing and since I was already so far along in labor and effaced, my doctor decided to induce us Wednesday morning.

We were sent over to the hospital to be admitted that morning. The doctor broke my water at 12:00 and they started the Pitocin and epidural. Last time I waited until I was VERY far along to get my epidural but since my first labor progressed so quickly, I decided to go ahead and request it. By 3:00, I was 4-5 cm dilated. Around 3:30 I started feeling some intense pressure. The nurse checked me and I was 1o cm dilated. I was shocked how quickly I progressed. I labored for another 30 mins and by 4:00 or so, I started to push. I pushed a few times and she arrived just after 4:30.

I felt so blessed to have such a safe, speedy delivery and a healthy baby! Our second little miss is petite but perfect! Due to a family history of jaundice, we had to start her on the bilibed (phototherapy) to encourage the breakdown of bilirubin. My husband’s family has a history of jaundice and my oldest also had to do phototherapy. Since it is so important that she keeps her fluid levels up so that she can flush the bilirubin out of her body, I am having to supplement her feeding with formula. I protested this a lot with my first and although it did make it hard to make the transition to full breastfeeding, I was eventually able to get my first to nurse after a week of supplementing her with formula.

So, for now, she has to be on her bed 24/7 with the exception of times when I can change diaper and feed her:( I hate not being able to hold her as much as I want but cherish our nursing/feeding sessions where I can just hold and spend time with her. Hopefully, tomorrow (Sunday) will be her last day on the bed so we can love on her and spoil her with attention!

Heading Home!

Our little glowworm on her bilibed (photherapy)

She is here!

Our bundle of joy arrived Wednesday, July 18th at 4:39! At 5 lbs 11 oz and 19.25 inches she is petite but perfect! Mom and baby are doing well. Will post more of the fun detail soon but here is a picture.

The Waiting Game

Well, I am 38 weeks pregnant today and feeling so ready to have this baby. At my appointment last Thursday, the doctor was seeing some progress labor wise and I thought for sure that something would have happened last weekend. But, at 38 weeks today, I’m still waiting to meet our new daughter.

My doctor did say that if she seems more progress after my appointment/ultrasound this Wednesday, that we could be induced after the appointment. At first, I had mixed feelings about being induced. I loved leaving it up to chance and the exciting feeling when you are rushed off to the hospital to have the baby. But now that I have my two year old to think about, out of town-in-laws to plan for their arrival, and a back/SI joint pain that has been bothering me for over a month, I think I am ready to just have this baby if the doctor allows!

So, for now, we are just playing the waiting game. And after a month of not being able to walk/run, I am excited about losing some of the initial weight (and stress of my back) and meet our new daughter.

It is so exciting to think that in just a few days we will be a family of four. I am not sure what to expect with a second child but I have a feeling it will be a crazy, busy, and fun time for our family.

Full TERM!

As of yesterday, I am 37 weeks and full-term with my pregnancy.  I always love getting to this point in my pregnancy because I know that the baby is developed and would be fine if I went into labor early, but that I am also getting close to the arrival of our new daughter. Here is a belly picture I took last week.

I went to the doctor and physical therapist last week and things are going well. We had a sonogram to see the baby and she is active and kicking. She was moving and kicking in my belly. Her head is way down and she was doing her practice breathing. The doctor examined me and we are seeing some progress labor-wise so I predict that she will arrive within the next two weeks. I also saw the physical therapist.  My SI joint continues to bother me and it not likely to go away until after I have the baby but I am keeping up with my stability exercises. These will be great to do post baby to help regain my core strength and prevent future SI joint injuries. The exercises are simple and include some of the following:

• Bridge
• Super Man (Bird Dog)
• Hamstring Stretches
• Hip Abductors with a band

I am not able to continue my run/walks and as much as I have enjoyed my time to sleep in the mornings and relax, I do realize how much I love and appreciate my morning time to exercise. I love having this time for me to get in a good workout and start my day! I will be ready to get back out and into a routine post-baby (if the little one allows!). I have been spending my time and energy tackling all my last minute to-dos to get ready for her arrival. I have also had some time to do some summer reading! Here is a list of my summer reading so far:

The Dovekeepers – Alice Hoffman

A Land More Kind Than Home – Wiley Cash

Unbroken – Laura Hillenbrand

The Tea Rose – Jennifer Donnelly

I found A Land More Kind Than Home to be a little simplistic for me but I really enjoyed The Dovekeepers and Unbroken. The Tea Rose was also a light read with a good story. I started The Grapes of Wrath last night so looking forward to another good book. I am just enjoying my time to read before life gets busy with another little one to care for!

 

A New Opportunity

I am excited to announce that I will be working with Karna Fitness of Baton Rouge by assisting them with the fall half-marathon training program! I have always wanted to get involved in coaching as I love to help and motivate new runners achieve their personal fitness goals!

A little background about Karna Fitness:

“Karna means “core” in Swedish. Karna Fitness offer private and small group training for women at hundreds of locations nationwide.

Karna Fitness was developed in 2008 by Kristen Horler, founder of Baby Boot Camp. As a category creator and industry leader, Horler is a contributing writer and fitness expert to numerous national fitness magazines. She is a continuing education provider for the American Council on Exercisewith over 10 years of professional fitness experience. Prior to becoming a fitness professional, Horler earned a B.A. degree in Physical Anthropology from the University of California at Santa Barbara and an A.O.S. degree in Culinary Arts from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco.

Today, Horler makes her home in Sarasota, Florida, with her husband and two children where she continues to develop and refine the Karna Fitness and Baby Boot Camp programs. Horler’s first book, “Baby Boot Camp: The New Moms’ 9-minute Fitness Solution” (Sterling Publishing Inc.) was published in January 2010.”

Source: Karna Fitness

Karna Fitness programs are available nation-wide and include some of the following programs:

• Karna Camp – small group training
• Restore the Core – intensive mat based pilates
• Half Marathon training – 12 week training program

I will be working with our local branch to help with  training for the Louisiana Marathon which will be held in January 2013!

I ran the inaugural Louisiana Marathon last year (at 12 weeks pregnant) and it is a great race for our city so I am excited to work with Karna Fitness help new runners reach their goal of running this race all the while supporting the Louisiana Marathon.

If you are local to Baton Rouge and are interested in the Karna training program, you can read about the local Karna classes at the following link:

Karna Fitness Baton Rouge – July Newsletter

I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful 4th of July holiday! I’m looking forward to spending time with my family, grilling a healthy meal, and enjoying our time as a family of three.

Postpartum Fitness

Tomorrow, I begin my 37th week of pregnancy! I am in the final homestretch and am to the point of my pregnancy where I am excited to meet our new daughter but am also ready to have my body back!  Watching the Olympic track trials is really motivating me to want to get back into shape! I truly believe in taking your time to return to your pre-baby shape. There is no need to rush into things but being the organized person that I am, I like to have a plan to follow to help me get back on track. I found some great articles on-line about postpartum fitness and running.

In addition to starting off with cardio very slowly (e.g.,  taking 15 to 20 minute walks once you have recovered from the delivery and your body is up to doing some light cardio), there are also some great stability/core exercises that you can focus on post-baby to begin to rebuild your core strength. Since most women won’t have the time or energy to head to the gym or sign up for an exercise class until at least six weeks post-partum, here are some exercises I found that you can do at home until you are able to join a group class or begin a formal exercise program. Of course, please consult your doctor before you begin any exercise program.

You can refer to the articles below for descriptions but here are some great, simple exercises that I hope to build on to regain my core strength.

1. Kegal Exercises
2. Pelvic Tilts
3. Push-ups
4. Planks
5. Step-ups
6. Lunges
7. Hamstring curls
8. Balancing arm curls

Up and Running

Come Back Strong

And of course, always listen to your body and take the time to let yourself heal and recover post-baby! I know for me those first few weeks were bit of a blur, filled with utter exhaustion and joy!

And for all you #runnerds who are following the Olympic trials like me, I can’t wait for the beginning of the Olympics late July. I am so excited to watch all the talented distance runners compete in London.

Morgan Uceny and Jenny Simpson in the Women’s 1500 meter race
Source: http://www.flotrack.org

Blog Changes

I finally decided to update my blog address! Please update your browsers to the following new address:

http://running-on-faith.com 

Thanks and hope you all enjoy my blog!

Stephanie

Week 36 and the pain continues…

Well, week 36 has been quite uneventful. My husband spent his last week on his out of town work assignment. Since I was still suffering with terrible back pain, I decided to pack my bags and spend the week at my parents so that they could help me with my two year old. Small activities such as standing, walking, and lifting have been so painful.

After spending all week taking Tylenol (since you can’t have Ibuprofen or other helpful anti-inflammatories when pregnant), icing/heating, and trying to stay off my feet I was still in a lot of pain. By Thursday, after several calls to my doctor, I was still feeling bad so I made an appointment with a physical therapist to see if there was anything I could do to help recover from this pain/injury.

After an evaluation with the therapist, I learned that I have an injury to my Sacroiliac Joint or the joint that connects your sacrum to your Ilium (hip area). As we all know, everything starts loosening and widening in the hips as the body gets ready for childbirth so perhaps my joint got a little out of wack after decreased stability. This could have been caused by my running/walking. Guess I should have put on that maternity support belt:(

I felt relief knowing what was actually wrong (I thought it was a back strain, pinched nerve?) but unfortunately, at this late stage in my pregnancy, there is not much I can do other than perform some simple stability exercises (superman, bridge, etc.) and stretches and continue to ice my back and wear my maternity support belt to take pressure off my back/hips. I really should have kept up my yoga during my pregnancy because I do these poses all the time in yoga and you forget how important it is to have a strong core to prevent injury. My goal is to work on core post-baby!

Also, no more running until post-baby and this heals:(

I am glad it is nothing major but I hate not being able to feel good enough to do basic things around my house: pick up my two year old, clean, cook, take my long walks, or lift anything heavy. Anything other than sitting just feels painful and there is not much I can take to help with the pain.

So, I guess I will just have to spend these next two weeks healing, relaxing, and trying to keep my two year old entertained. I suppose the house cleaning and cooking can wait. I will have plenty of time for that in the future….

Summertime and Week 35

Ever since I quit my job at the end of May, I feel like I have been on permanent vacation. Little Miss has been going to a summer program on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings (I signed her up before I knew I would be quitting my job so I could have childcare at her preschool while I was working two days/week).  Since she has enjoyed her preschool so much, I figured it would not hurt to have some time in the mornings while she is in school to get ready for the second baby.

My husband has been working out of town during the week. So, I have not had to worry about cooking or grocery shopping. When he is home, I do TRY to cook 3-4 times/week. Some weeks are better than others and I’m lucky to have a husband who is very easygoing with food. If I’ve had a long day and no time to cook, we have cereal, peanut butter and jelly, etc. I’ve done some simple cooking for me and little miss but I love not having to worry about meals.

My sister has her summer off and is in town visiting for two weeks with her son and daughter. Last week, we all had a sleepover for a few days at my parents house. I feel like a kid again when I go back home and I love spending time with her family too. We took the kids out for breakfast one morning, had frozen yogurt in the evening and browsed the bookstore, did some shopping, and spent our evenings reading books, watching movies. In the mornings, we visit in our  pj’s, drink coffee, and let the babies play. I love having this time with my mom and sister.

So, workouts for week 35 were going okay until Thursday…

Monday: 3.75 miles Walked .25 miles to warm up, ran 2 miles, walked .25 miles, ran one mile, then walked .25 to cool down. First time I ran two consecutive miles in a while. Feeling more energetic today so decided to do some more running. #34 weeks!

Tuesday: Walked 2.5 miles

Thursday: 3.25 miles Walked .25 miles, ran 1 mile, walked .25 miles, ran 1 mile, walked .25 miles, ran .5 miles. Thankful for a cooler morning so I could workout!

Total: 9.5 miles

I was feeling great with my walk/runs! But on Thursday, my back started really bothering me. It has been hurting me since. It feels okay when I am sitting but hurts when I stand or walk. I have been trying to rest and stay off my feet but it still continues to hurt. Most likely, I think I strained it picking up my toddler or something heavy by not lifting properly.  I have not been able to walk or run since. My husband has been helping with my two year old, but it is really hard for me to rest all day when I want to get things done around the house or take my daily run/walks. With only a few weeks to go and the full heat of summer upon us, I’m just feeling heavy, hot, and lazy.

Meanwhile, I have been glued to the Olympic trials coverage! I loved watching the 10k race and seeing Hastings pull off a win. I can’t wait for the Olympics this summer. And I was so happy to see our hometown runner, Lolo Jones qualify for the Olympics in the hurdles.

Source

Source

All this competition is really motivating me to get back into running post-baby. My due date is officially at the end of July, but I think this baby will be here in 3-4 weeks. Just in time for fall and hopefully cooler temperatures! I’ll keep you posted.

Week 34

I can’t believe I have less than six weeks to go until this baby is here! Here are some baby bump pictures.

Here are my workouts for week 34:

Monday: 3.25 miles – Run/walk on the treadmill. Walked 5 minutes, ran ~ 7 minutes (to complete the mile) for 3 miles, then walked .25 miles to cooldown. Really tough getting out of bed this morning but told myself that I always feel better after a workout

Wednesday: 3.25 miles – Repeat of Mondays workout. Walk 5 mins, Run 7 minutes for 3.25 miles. Thankful I can run/walk on the treadmill to keep me out of this heat during my last few weeks of pregnancy.

Thursday: 3.5 mile walk around the lakes. Walked a little after 9 am and it was super hot!

Saturday: 3 mile walk with little Miss

Sunday: 2 mile walk. Walked/ran .5 mile with little Miss. We started this out as an afternoon walk but she wanted to run most of the time. After she burned off some energy, I walked a little more on my own.

Total: 15 miles

I wanted to do some more run/walking but woke up Friday morning with a terrible cold so I slept in on the weekend. By the time I was up my husband had work to do and it was too hot to run with the stroller outside, so I just got some nice walks in. It was around this stage in my pregnancy last time that I was put on bedrest and I had not done any running at all after my first trimester and hardly any walking (just yoga) so I’m grateful for any extra fitness I get in during these last few weeks.

I’ve done some reading on postpartum running but any thoughts on returning to running post-baby? For my first, I waited the full six weeks but if you have any experiences on how long you waited, please share! 

I was reading over some of my run entries from daily mile post-baby and it will be interesting to see how I can find time to run with two kids. I’m thankful to have a treadmill which I plan to use during nap-time but just hope to keep up this blog to stay motivated to run post-baby!