Guest Post on Getting Back into Running

Do you read Erika's blog, Stethoscopes, Style, & Grace? Probably, but I'll just tell you about her anyway because she is one of my absolute favorites! (If you ever see me looking halfway put together, you can probably thank her. I mean, I didn't even know J. Crew Factory was a thing until Erika came into my life. Practically a crime.) Erika just graduated from med school and promptly gave birth naturally to the sweetest little baby boy. She is kind of a hero. You can be sure she handled her pregnancy with style and grace, and I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that there were stethoscopes involved as well. (Sorry, couldn't help myself. But seriously, check out her archives for some seriously stylish maternity fashion.) Anyway, I'm over on her blog talking about how running became so important to me in the early months in postpartum-land. 

Click it!

PS - LET'S GO USA!!!!!!!!!

Too Long; Didn't Read 7QT

In case you missed it, or I haven't mentioned it, here are some recent happenings:

1 - Baby Brez is 4 months old.

2 - We are stationed at Scott AFB and Will just promoted to Captain. He promoted automatically after 6 months because he's a JAG, so it's not really a big achievement, but I'm still one super proud Tiger Wife. 

3 - Little Will got to pin him on. Dexterity of a jellyfish and all.

4 - I helped, too, even though I was really tired.

5 - Will and I are training for the Air Force Marathon on September 20. Our long runs are up to 12 miles, we bought a treadmill, and she's a beaut'.

6 - I've been working from home for a couple of months writing appellate briefs.

Speaking of briefs . . . 

7 - Will and I recently celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary and our birthdays are coming up next month. I'll be 27 and he'll be 28. 

Ahhh. We're old!

Linking up with Jenna and Jen by way of Kathryn.

Anything new and fun going on with ya'llsies?

Just Keep It Movin'

Currently: Will is out of town for work and I'm eating all manner of weirdness out of the pantry to avoid going to the commissary. I've been eating a balanced diet of pancakes, pancakes, and pancakes. Oh, and kettle corn. Like a normal person. So that's if you were wondering what my fuel/nutrition situation looks like. 

Up on the agenda, a running update. Humbling when you choose to start sharing marathon training details on a public blog 2 months after pushing a baby out.

In any case . . . .

Not only did I fall off the wagon, but I fell off it hard . . . . The wagon was traveling uphill at approximately 47 mph and I tumbled down to the bottom of that hill . . . and then rolled into a swamp . . . and got eaten by gata!

Okay, so that's a little dramatic, but a work deadline + sleep regression = no motivation. The new work project perfectly coincided with the great sleep regression. Tack on some 90 degree weather and the question, "Shall I run today?" was always, "Assuredly, I shall not." Eeeeven with the treadmill, which I declared would remove all impediments and excuses to get out of running. So lame. I am the worst.

Anyway, we are back in action, cruising these mean streets of Scott Aero Fuerco Baso. Will is out of the infant seat! Mildly exciting little milestone.

^^^Yo. This is not the same picture. I stepped back, switched to normal camera mode on my iPhone, and the kid literally just did not move at all whatsoever. At all! I mean, what in the world is he staring at? I thought that was odd enough to document. 

So here I was cruising along for a while, even thinking maybe I would PR. I had a few really great runs in Maryland. Then the wheels fell off for a couple of weeks. I decided just to try and hit the long runs and literally anything I could muster during the week would have to do. 

This past Saturday was our 12 mile long run so we went off to run a couple laps on the Scott AFB trail. Will and I alternated pushing the stroller and little Will napped the whole time like a pro. It was a pretty hot and humid day, but we were keeping fueled and hydrated and we were going to make it, albeit slowly. HOWEVER (dun dun dunnnn), by mile 10, we could hear thunder from an approaching storm. It had cooled off considerably so neither of us really wanted to stop running, even though the cooler temps were probably coming from the mother of all thunderstorms heading toward us. But we were so close to the end! And we could finish strong in the cooler weather. 

At this point, we were right by the golf clubhouse, but two miles from our car, so we had to make a decision. Could we outrun the storm? I should have known better in the face of temperamental Midwest weather, but I decided I would push the stroller and Will would run ahead to go get the car. If the storm came, he would drive back to pick us up. 

Well, the storm rolled in a little quicker than anticipated. It got really cold, really fast, and Little Will was not wearing pants (duh), so he was being pelted with the cold rain. I ran as hard as I could, mama bear style, but I was 11 miles in and I knew the faster I ran, the more rain he was hit with. I was really fatigued (hello! hadn't been running consistently for two weeks), and he started making unhappy grunting noises. I stopped and leaned over the stroller, and toweled him off with a burp cloth.

Thankfully, and I kind of knew this would happen if I stopped because Air Force peeps are the best, a car pulled over to rescue us in our distress. I got Will out of the stroller and we sat in the stranger named Ken's car until Will pulled up. Which felt like FOREVER. Forever and a day, you guys. We had to keep the doors shut AND the windows up because it was raining so hard. I was stinky and literally fogging up the windows of the vehicle faster than the A/C could beat it back. I was one hot mess (LINKING UP YO!). It was embarrassing, but it happens, I guess. We live to blog the tale. 

This week has been a lot better. I had my best ever 5 miler with the stroller yesterday, and in the face of a pancake famine, I managed a nice little run today. (Finally made it to the commissary afterwards. Yes I started this post yesterday.) 

I've come to realize this is not the season of life to be pushing myself so hard, expecting pre-baby paces, and getting discouraged after a bad run. Which---have you noticed?---is why I'm not sharing my actual run times anymore. I've resolved myself to take it easy, run for fun, and juuuust keep it movin'.

Four Months

Weeee're baaaaack. 

Another month, another blog post filled with information you never knew you needed to know about our little William Hugh. 

I've found the past few weeks to be a little more challenging thanks to the learning curve associated with Will's recent boom in mental development and personality changes. It has not been without its struggles. But things are getting easier as I learn his new cues in order to better meet his needs.

4 month stats:

• 16 pounds - He's gained over 2 pounds a month since birth. I found out yesterday that at his 2 month checkup he was almost deemed overweight. Now he sits comfortably at 81st percentile for weight-for-recumbent-length. Still on the chunky side, of course, but thinning out. 
• 24 3/4 inches tall - Almost 5 inches taller than his birth height. His last growth spurt definitely went to height, rather than mass.
• 16 3/4 inches head circumference - His head has grown almost 6 inches since birth. This means two things: (a) God loves me (think of the childbirth consequences . . .), (b) his brain is getting huge to hold all that smartness. 

Sleep: 

Things got hairy for a while---I am talking almost two weeks of 4-5+ (who even knows) wakings per night and pre-6AM wake ups---but we are seeing improvement. Since he started rolling and raging, we stopped swaddling his arms. Then a few nights ago we weaned the pacifier and it has drastically improved his nighttime sleep. He was still up at 5AM today bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (Will and I were both like "NOOOOOOO"), but the past three nights have been back to his normal two feedings. He goes to bed at about 7:15pm and wakes at about 12 and 3:30 each night. 

Will is the best husbo. While he doesn't really handle any night wakings (we both wish he could make the milk come out the man boobies), he is the one who will get up early with little Will and let me sleep in. Every morning he gets Will out of his crib and brings him me to nurse. Then if I can coerce baby Will to snooze with me some more after eating I will always do so. On the weekends, it's father-son time while I sleep for 2-3 glorious hours in our bed by myself.

Naps stink again. We had a month's worth of awesome naps and he gave me 1.5 to 2 hour stretches twice a day at his best (like this day). Now I'm lucky if he goes an hour, although he's been out for an hour now and I would love it if he made a liar out of me today. (Update: he did not.)

Eating: 

We are down to 7 nursing sessions a day because I stopped cluster feeding. He still goes every 3 hours on average between feedings during the day. He is still the fastest eater known to man and would give Kobayashi a run for his money (except when he's in a growth spurt, he'll nurse a little longer and more frequently). He's pretty distracted when he nurses during the day, which I think is why he still takes 2 feedings a night. Whatevs. We have no plans to start solids anytime soon. 

Poop:

You knew I was going there. Good news: he doesn't poop in the middle of the night anymore! No nighttime diaper changes. It's da best. I think we are down to like 9 diaper changes a day because of it. He still poops nonstop all day and has a night here or there where he poops a lot, but his little pooper is maturing and it makes his mother SO PROUD.

Favorite activities include:

• tummy time,

• fist sucking,

• giggling,

• randomly freaking out,

• and then giggling again,

• deep contemplative thought,

"Boobies."

• Bumbo chillin, 

Also, drooling.

• BOB stroller rollin',

Ridin' dirty. {POOP JOKE. HAHA. GET IT?}

• hangin' with pops,

• and preparing to relentlessly cheer on USA in the World Cup by doing American things like looking badass in front of the American flag. 

And then of course we can't forget to document the curious case of the receding rattail.

We shall rue the day it disappears into oblivion forevermore.

And for a trip down memory lane:

3 Months

2 Months

1 Month

1 Day

Myths vs. Realities

There are so many myths/old wives' tales associated with pregnancy and parenting, I'm still wading through it all in this little adventure called parenthood. At least, I'm praying this novena that is, like, supposed to help you figure out your life and such. So anyway, things like "the two week wait" symptoms, Chinese gender prediction charts, and natural induction methods, I'm convinced are myths. Epidural ruining your chance of breastfeeding. Myth. Special baby detergent is a total scam, I say. 

The whole wonder weeks thing - jury's still out. Will seems to do things at his own pace in his own time, whether or not his little baby head is in the stormy lightning part of the charts or the happy sunshine area.

Marches to the beat of his own drum, this one.

I was hoping the old "four month sleep regression," or what I like to call "bay bay go cray cray" (I don't really call it that), was also a myth, but in my experience, the struggle is real. So so real. 

It's great because his super baby brain is developing and he's becoming so much more interactive, showing off his little personality. He finally FINALLY rolled over. And it's becoming less like clumsily toppling over and more like actually intending to roll. (It was a long awaited milestone because my niece and my cousin's baby of the same age are practically baby gymnasts. Rolling around like a couple of circus performers. Show offs.) He can use his hands to grab toys and tries to claw my nose off. He gets excited when he sees his dogs and giggles and is even chattier than usual. 

But with his newfound skill set comes with it a new 'tude:

Stink eye to the max.

Oh, did you not get me in my crib within a 5 second window? SNAP!

Oh, did I grab my own pacifier out of my mouth when I really wanted to remain sucking on it? SNAP!

Oh, you didn't just walk away from me when I was trying to have a goooogooogoogoogoo conversation with you? SNAPPITY SNAP SNAP!

I mean, he's still a happy baby most of the time, but he has this new ability that I like to call raging.  When he threw his first tantrum like a week and a half ago, it caught me totally by surprise. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? I thought. Clearly he was in agonizing pain. Was he teething? Was he sick? Was he choking on something? Something in his eye? I even had Will stop for baby Tylenol AND baby Advil on his way home from work. (Fans of modern medicine right here. You can take away one of my crunchy cards.) 

Nope, none of the above. Just needed a nap apparently. . . . 

Got this mom thang down, ya'll!

Onward. 

Part I is the rage. Part II is the inability to stay asleep. You see the vicious cycle. The professionals call this wakefulness. This mom calls it an excuse to ingest twice her usual amount of coffee and refuse all physical activity. (And speak in the third person, naturally.)

Will was sleeping really well for like a month and a half. He woke once or twice a night. Any time he woke more than that was a rare "bad night." Well, shoot. Ever since we got back from Maryland, he's waking every couple of hours like a newborn again. Homey. Don't. Play. That. And naps? Naps are like whenever he darn well pleases, take your Baby Whispering self and go run and whisper that.

I mean, I hope no one sees this as me complaining - just keeping it real and seeking humor in the every day toil - because let's be clear, becoming a mom is one of the best things to ever happen to me in my entire life. Forever worth the sleepless nights. And years from now I will apparently have perspective and grow used to it and get better at it, but hey, coming to terms with sleeping in one to two hour increments for the indefinite future is hard. Sanctifying. Death to self and all. 

I know that "in the blink of an eye"/"before I know it"/"next thing I know" Will will be sleeping through the night and I will be sentimental about our cuddle time in the middle of the night and how I used to wake up to wipe his butt and gosh, he just grew up too fast! Because momnesia is a reality. 

That I can't find the humor and joy and good in even the funkiest, frustrating sleep regression? Myth.