Spring 2014 Day in the Life

I decided to do another quarterly "Day in the Life" post hosted by Navigating the Mothership.  She just had her third (!) adorable baby and is a bit busy these days adjusting to life with three kids so Adventures in Tullyland is hosting this edition.  

This is a day in the life of me and Izzy at almost five months old (CP is in Thailand). If you want to see the Winter Day in the Life- go here. Boy has life changed since that post when Izzy was only 8 weeks old!


5:15am- Alarm goes off.  I quickly turn it off as to not wake up Izzy.  I finally make myself get out of bed 7 minutes later.  I head downstairs with Buster, pee, throw on a jacket to take him out and then feed him. I head back upstairs where I check the monitor to make sure Izzy is still sleeping.

I quickly take a shower while I marvel at the amount of hair that is falling out of my head these days.

6am- I head into Izzy's room to wake her up.  She has moved in her crib since 8pm last night.

Poor little lady is still sick so I de-snot her and change her diaper. 

She then nurses for only 7 minutes on one side before getting the hiccups.  I hold her upright for a few minutes before putting her in her vibrating chair to play while I pump.

I also read a book from her library, Little Owl's Night to her while I am pumping.  It was an Easter gift from my parents.  :-)

Ugh.  I shake my head at how little I pumped.  Stupid menthol in Halls lowers my supply so I only pump 100ml.

While I get dressed, I make funny faces and noises at Izzy to get her to smile.  I send this picture to CP.

We head downstairs and Izzy gets put in her car seat while I pack up her breastmilk bottles, wet bag, cloth diapers, and her daily sheet for daycare.  We leave the house at 7am.

While I am getting everyone in the car, I see that the hyacinths are starting to bloom.  They smell amazing!

Buster gets dropped off at doggie daycare first.

Then I give Izzy lots of kisses and tell her to have a good day at daycare.  I arrive at the train station at 7:23. While on the train I try to fall asleep, but instead end up having a coughing fit with watery eyes.  I eat more Halls in hopes that they will help.

During my half a mile walk into the office, I stop in at Dunkin Donuts for a hot chocolate and and egg and cheese sandwich.  

8:30am- More than THREE HOURS after getting up for the day, I am finally in the office.  I try not to think about what I am really eating.

I turn on my computer and smile once I see the screen.  :-)

I quickly eat breakfast, say hi to coworkers and check any emails that came in after I left yesterday. At 9am I head downstairs for my first pumping session.

Come on lefty you need to do better than this.

Pumping makes me hungry and thirsty so I chug some water while eating a banana and a yogurt.  I have eaten a yogurt every day since Izzy was born to keep the thrush away.

Staff meeting from 10:30-11:45.  Another pumping session at 12pm.  I do my best to resist falling asleep in the chair while pumping.  My coworker and I head to lunch together where I get chicken stir fry. Yum.

Back to the office for more work and by 2:30, I need some caffeine.  Starbucks Refresher it is.

3pm- last pumping session of the day.  

5pm- I leave work and walk half a mile to the train.  While on the train I write a blog post.

Pick up Buster and Izzy and we are home by 6:15.  Unpack the car, put pumped milk in the fridge, and feed Buster.  Izzy gets a diaper change and a nursing session.

CP calls via FaceTime and he makes funny faces and noises to try to get Izzy to smile once she is done nursing.  After the call I play with Izzy for a few minutes before realizing that it is already 7:15 and bath night. Upstairs for bath fun with lots of kicking in the water and smiling. After the bath I put on a disposable diaper, put lotion on her arms and legs, and then dress Izzy in what she will wear tomorrow at daycare.  

Izzy then gets her vitamin and another nursing session.  Inbetween sides she sits upright and I read Jamberry and Dogs to her.  After the second boob I hold her upright while rocking and singing "You are my Sunshine" and 5 verses of "Itsy Bitsy Spider."

Her sleep sack is in the wash so I swaddle her with her arms out.

I lay her down in her crib and leave the room while she is still awake. I grab the monitor and hear 20 seconds of crying as I head downstairs (which is 20 second more than normal). The crying stops and she is passed out at 8:10pm.

Time to make myself dinner!  I found a link to one-pot meals on Buzzfeed and decide to make the Thai pasta dish.  Buster gets a few healthy treats.

I finally sit down at 9:20 to eat.  Thank goodness I made a bunch for leftovers tomorrow.

 

Buster is so tired from doggie daycare that he is passed out most of the night.

After dinner I make up the bottles for daycare for tomorrow.

I treat myself to some thin mint ice cream and watch Inside Amy Shumer and the Daily Show.  

  I take out Buster one last time before bed and realize that it is almost 11pm.  WTF am I still doing up?  Sigh.  Tomorrow is going to suck. I really need to get more sleep.

How am I doing?

Next week it will be 5 months since I gave birth to the most awesome daughter on the planet.  Okay, I *might* be a bit biased. :-) How am I doing?

*Right now I am down 40 lbs from my highest pregnancy weight. That means I weigh about 15-20 lbs less than when I got pregnant!!  I certainly could have been in better shape/weight when I got pregnant, but I was not exercising, eating my unhappiness, and having lots of "fun" with Lupron so it's not too surprising that I weigh less now. I didn't use pregnancy as an excuse to eat all of the things so the 20 pounds that I gained during pregnancy came off quickly.  Currently I am stuck at a weight that is higher than I am happy with, but I'm not eating as healthy as I could be so I can't expect to lose weight unless I eat a bit healthier.

*Unfortunately, Biff and Harry the hemorrhoids are still hanging around. They don't cause any problems and are certainly a lot smaller, but still there. I'm hoping they decide to go away at some point....

*As I mentioned here, I do have some uterine soreness after running. I ended up emailing my doctor to ask if that was normal and she wants me to go in for an appointment.  Ruh roh.  Maybe I shouldn't have said anything?  

*I had hoped that I wouldn't be one of those people who had bigger feet after pregnancy, but it looks like I am one of the unlucky ones.  About half of my shoes still fit....the other half don't.  Thankfully I don't own 10 million pairs of shoes, but it is still annoying. Time to purge the closet and give away things that no longer fit!

*I pulled out a plastic bin of warm weather clothes last week and it was like I went shopping!  I was too pregnant to wear any of the clothes last year so I had forgotten that I even had most of these items.  The good news is even with the pouch I still have over my incision scar (and the chorus of friends telling me that it won't go away any time soon), most of the clothes fit (I think because everything but the pouch is a bit smaller than before).

*The good news about my weight being lower than when I started the pregnancy and that fitting clothes is that I am not feeling too down about my body. Sometimes I get down, but then try to tell myself that it has only been X amount of time since giving birth.  I do wish that I didn't have the stomach pouch and I do wish that my stretch marks on my stomach would start to fade to white, but neither of those things are happening, so I might as well just suck it up.

*Right around Izzy's four month birthday I started losing tons of hair.  I swear I could save all of it up and make a coat out of it after only a month!  I was sort of hoping this postpartum symptom wouldn't hit me because instead of having luxurious hair like you are supposed to during pregnancy, I had dry hair that felt like straw.  But sure enough, I am losing hair and have already been warned that when it does grow back I will have a ton of wispy hairs in the front.  Awesome.

*I'm pretty tired these days.  Izzy is sleeping through the night and is awesome, but there are just not enough hours in the day to get everything done!  I suppose my exhaustion could be a lot of things- breastfeeding/pumping burns calories so my body has to be working a bit harder every day, the lack of a husband the past two weeks because of his work travel, not getting a ton of down time, etc.

*Sex hurts.  Despite having a c-section.  Yes this sucks.

*Despite feeling tired, I'm also feeling pretty lucky.  I'm still amazed by the miracle of science that not only got me pregnant in a lab, but with my body for sustaining a healthy pregnancy the first time around.  My c-section was textbook with no complications. Despite our initial issues with breastfeeding, it is now going well. I also have been lucky enough to be able to run (forget about the uterine soreness).  So far, no postpartum depression. Yep, I'm pretty lucky.

*I was a little worried about what my bra size would be after pregnancy because the two bras that I bought after my rib cage started to really hurt during pregnancy were size 42H!  My largest band size when I was at my heaviest weight was 38 so I was worried that I would always be in the 40s post-pregnancy.  During my maternity leave I only wore soft nursing bras for fear of clogged ducts and other problems, but once I started work I started to wear my underwire pregnancy bras again because they at least fit my cup size (unfortunately they are not nursing bras though so sort of annoying to deal with when nursing/pumping). I finally took a few minutes last week to get sized again and to buy an underwire nursing bra and my current size is 36GG.  So still ridonkulously huge (cup-size wise), but at least my band size is back to normal. 

*It's funny.  I was thinking the other day about how, even over a year after finding out that I was pregnant, I still check the toilet paper in the bathroom.  During pregnancy it was to make sure that I wasn't bleeding.  Then for the past five months it has been to check if I was getting my period back.  This week, after a year and two months since my last period, I don't have to check anymore.  Boooooo.  I was hoping not to get it at all while I was breastfeeding, but I guess almost 5 months is pretty good.

CP work travel

CP left Monday of last week for a work trip to Thailand.  He was scheduled to be away for two weeks, but most likely three because the project hasn't been going well. Solo parenting while he has been abroad hasn't been super difficult, but I do have to wake up even earlier because I'm doing everything in the morning, including dropping off Izzy and Buster at their respective daycares, instead of him.

Before he left he voiced concern that she wouldn't remember him by the time that he came back.  When he dropped her off at daycare before heading to the airport he said that he almost started crying.  :-( We haven't been able to FaceTime every night which probably doesn't help.  With a 12 hour difference, CP calls when he wakes up in the morning and tries to reach us in the short time we are home from work/daycare, but before I start to put Izzy down for the night.  He isn't in the most urban setting so his phone and/or internet connection can be spotty.  At almost 5 months old Izzy is at the age where she sort of pays attention to the iPad screen and CP can make her smile by making funny faces and/or noises at her, but she also gets distracted by things such as Buster moving around. The good news is that she definitely recognizes his voice.  A couple of times she has been nursing and when he starts to talk, she pulls off, looks around and smiles.

This past weekend I took Izzy up to MI so that I could get some help from my parents. She slept in a Pack 'n Play in the same room as me and although I was coughing most of Saturday night and I woke up all of the adults in the house with my hacking, she ended up sleeping 11 hours that night!!  She is also sick and has been for literally a month and a half (basically since she started daycare).  Poor girl. The doctor called her a "happy wheezer" and I'm hoping with the warmer weather she finally kicks this stupid illness.

Enjoying the sunshine and flowers in MI

My little Easter bunny

Last night I got good news from CP- barring a major disaster, he will be flying home this weekend! I definitely miss him, but his help with Izzy and his cooking are missed as well. However, he will be back in Thailand again next month.  His round trip ticket costs $10,000 so it looks like all of his trips will be two weeks or longer this year.  Boooooo.

Arbor Day 10k

This past weekend I took a leap of faith and ran a 10k. After finishing the Shamrock shuffle 8k two weeks ago, my friend suggested that I do the Arbor Day 10k with her. At first I was skeptical. I did better than expected with the 8k but I really needed to build my base instead of pushing to run longer distances. On a whim I said "f**k it" and signed up anyway. I could push myself to run 6.2 miles...and if I had to walk a bit I had to walk a bit. Plus, the course was rolling hills (something I somewhat enjoyed back in CT) and through an Arboretum, which should make for pretty scenery.

After signing up I proceeded to get a nasty cold from Izzy which required lots of Halls or else I went into massive coughing fits. I'm pretty sure I made them a new food group for an entire week. I was able to fit a 2 mile run in two weeks ago (before we left for New Hampshire), but nothing on the weekend because we were visiting with family. Last Wednesday I still felt awful so Buster got a walk, but I didn't end up running.  Thankfully on Friday I felt good enough to run 3 miles with Buster which meant there was no backing out of Sunday's race.

I got up bright and early Sunday morning to pump and then pick up my friend on the way to the race. The forecast called for rain, but we ended up having 55 degree sunny weather, although it was pretty humid.  I lined up around the 11 minute mile runners, but figured I would probably be closer to the 12 minute mile runners because of the longer distance and the hills which I am completely unaccustomed to running. When the course organizers said that there were rolling hills they were not kidding!  We barely had run for two minutes before we faced our first hill and sure enough it was rolling hills the rest of the course.  I walked a few of the hills (or at least parts of them) and walked through the water stations. I did my best to look up and around at the scenery- which was nice with trees and fields surrounding the paved road- but I wish that at least something was flowering when I ran by.

Around mile 4 I started to get tired.  My mind was wandering and my music wasn't helping.  For some reason, I started to think about my track days and the day that I qualified for Division 1 Nationals in the weight throw. I thought about how the weight felt coming off my hands and how as soon as I heard how far I had thrown, I ran over to my head coach and my throws coach and gave them the two biggest hugs imaginable because I was so excited (they were psyched for me as well).  Remembering that moment somehow gave me a burst of energy and a complete high.  I'll have to put that in my back pocket for when I struggling in future races.  :-)  Thankfully it was around this time that we started to go downhill more than uphill so that definitely helped as well!

Despite the fact that my Nike+ sensor told me that I was finished with the 10K before I hit the finish line (grumble, grumble), I was able to finished with a nice sprint.

Official time: 1 hour, 11 minutes and 52 seconds.

Average pace: 11:34/mile

I was almost 40 seconds slower per mile than for the Shamrock Shuffle, but that's to be expected with the hills.  

Not sure what my next race will be....I'm sort of tempted to try to train for the Soldier Field 10 miler because what's 3.8 more miles? However, it's going to be super hard to train correctly for that with CP traveling for work when I would need to do my long runs on the weekend. I'll need to think about it....

Izzy's first flight

This past weekend Izzy went on her first plane trip out to New Hampshire. No longer could CP and I throw stuff in a bag 30 minutes before leaving for the airport.  No, we made a list a few nights before we left to make sure that we didn't forget anything.

Izzy was quite the trooper. I was worried that her month-long cold would result in a painful flight for her and her ears, but it went better than I expected. I was also ready to nurse on the plane (with a nursing cover of course), but CP thought that it would be easier to just bring bottles.  We gave Izzy a bottle as we left the gate and she chugged away without a peep as the plane took off.  After a 10 minute nap, she was up and awake for the entire two hour flight.  No crying, but smiling and happy to play with us the entire time.  The only hiccup on the flight was the blowout that happened mid-flight with a disposable diaper.* We had to wait until the beverage cart finished service and then I headed back with Izzy and the diaper bag, not quite sure where exactly I was going to change her in the tiny airplane bathroom.  Turns out (at least in this particular plane), there is a changing table the folds out above the toilet.  As I'm changing her we (of course) hit turbulence and I not only have to change her diaper, but also her outfit.  Fun times, but it all worked out. The descent went fine as well- we gave her a bottle with about 5 minutes left to land and had no problem.

Izzy ready for her first flight

The rest of Friday and Saturday we hung out with CP's mom, her husband, and grandmother.  Izzy has only one great grandparent left and we were determined to have them meet as soon as possible.  She is a little fragile these days after breaking her neck a few years ago, but she got a lot of time holding Izzy (while sitting in a chair because she has balance issues).  We also got a lot of pictures- including a picture of the 4 generations together.  Saturday night we went out to dinner and I totally overate, but the steamers were seriously delicious and how could I pass up lobster while on the East Coast?  Yum.

Sunday we hung out with CP's dad and wife before getting on our return flight.  Izzy hadn't napped well earlier in the day so we were worried about her crankiness.  Sure enough, she was cranky when we got on the plane and we had to give her a bottle before we even took off from the gate!  Thank goodness we had milk for three bottles as she finished a bottle and a half when we left NH, passed out the entire flight, and then took the next bottle and a half before we touched down in Chicago.  The flight home was miserable for us- about 90 degrees in the cabin and even hotter for CP because he held Izzy in his arms. Overall, she cried a total of maybe 4 minutes through the flight and we got compliments on her from people on both flights (go Izzy!).

So what did we learn from traveling this weekend with a 4 month old?

*Take the car seat and stroller through the airport.  The stroller is handy for storing coats, bags, etc.

*Make sure to bring 3 bottles for each flight (we brought a combination of milk pumped the day before and frozen bags to use on Sunday's flight).

*Keep the diaper bag handy in case of blowouts- and make sure to pack an extra change of clothes!

We have another flight coming up next month for a family reunion in NJ so hopefully not much changes with Izzy's travel temperament!

*We decided not to bring the cloth diapers for the weekend.

Shuffle results

On Sunday I ran the Shamrock Shuffle 8K, aka the largest 8K race in the country (over 30,000 runners).  The day before the race I was still trying to figure out the logistics of getting to the race.  I didn't want to drive downtown, I had to meet up with my friend, and let's not forget that I had to either nurse or pump at some point before the race so as to not anger the boobs.  There was a lot of back and forth because CP didn't want to wake up early (I didn't either), but in order to accomplish all of the goals, we woke up at 5:20am even though my race wave started at 9:15am (UGH).*

I nursed and then pumped both boobs before heading to our friend's house 35 minutes away. Once we arrived, I nursed the right boob (aka the milk powerhouse), ate a bagel and then we were off to take the train into the city.  I like to arrive at any race with plenty of time so that I'm not rushing around needing to use the bathroom when there are long lines.  Thankfully neither of us needed to check any gear so that saved us time and amazingly, there were no lines for the bathroom!

My friend signed up to run 9 minute miles which I clearly wasn't going to do so she dropped back a few waves to run with me.  I guessed that I would be running 12 minute miles and had a goal of finishing the 5 miles in 60 minutes.

I had headphones in for a background beat, but my friend and I chatted throughout most of the race.  There were a few downhills that I tried to use to my advantage and I powered through the two relatively small hills as well (although the one around 4.5 miles was just mean).  Before the race I kept telling my friend to not run with me because I am super slow and totally not in shape for the race, but she said that she wasn't doing it for the time and wanted to do it with me.  In the end, I'm glad that I ran it with her.  Our conversation totally distracted me throughout the race and knowing that she was faster made me push to keep running.  I did walk three times- at two water stops and then once right after the 4 mile sign- but each time it wasn't for very long).  I was heartened by the fact that I passed people throughout the race and when we hit the 4 mile mark I checked how long we had been running and it had only been 42 minutes!  From there I knew that I was going to meet my goal of 60 minutes because I was definitely not going to run a 16 minute final mile!

After our last turn, I could see the finish line about .3 miles ahead of me and I did my best to race into the finish.

Official time: 53:10 (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Average pace: 10:53

Ummmm whoa.  I totally underestimated myself!!  My 5k time was 32:53 and I can't tell you the last time I ran a 5k that fast (it has also been a few years since I have run a 5K race). I'm still not fast by any means, but I am technically obese according to my BMI (30.1) and I will still use the "I just had a kid" card....so yeah, I'm pretty happy with that time.

Afterwards we drank our free Michelob Ultra before meeting our husbands and kids in Chinatown for dim sum.  It tasted delicious, but I'm not sure that I would eat dim sum again after a race because I was a little bloated Sunday night from the salt!

So yay! Maybe I need to run a little faster on training runs? My friend is doing a 10K in two weeks and wants me to join her...although I know that I could do it I'm not sure if I want to.  It's not like it's that much further but I won't be able to do a long run this weekend because we will be with family in NH.  That same weekend I could do a 5K that runs through the Wrigley Field concourse or I could do a 5K for the "Be the Match" (Bone marrow donation) foundation.  Decisions, decisions.

The only thing that worries me is after a run- whether it is 2 miles or 5 miles, my uterus gets sore.  Is that normal?  Or am I pushing it too much?

*Don't feel too bad for CP.  He took a nap on the couch when we got home while I walked Buster and cleaned the house.  I was so tired that I was in bed by 9pm that night!!

4 months old!

Height: 25"

Weight: 14 lbs, 12 oz

Nicknames: Pumpkin, Izzylicious, Kiddo, Izzykins

Milestones this month: Rolled from her back to her front (only once so far though)- luckily CP and I were there to see it!  She also rolled from her front to her back a few days later (CP caught it on video because I was in DC at the time)- but hasn't done it again yet! She is constantly bringing burp clothes, her hands, our hands, toys, etc to her mouth with lots of drooling but no sign of teeth. She is quite the chatty cathy this month as well- for a few days it was almost a whisper sort of sound but now it's closer to a shriek.  She is very excited to hear her voice- and often.  We are thinking that she is going to take after her aunts (ha ha).  She is very good about sitting in our laps now and eating dinner is much easier these days now that she is amusing herself with her hands or a toy (i.e. one of us doesn't have to hold her).  Izzy is now a rockstar at tummy time and loves looking at herself in the mirror.  She also loves getting a bath- her favorite is kicking her feet to splash the water all around (she surprisingly doesn't mind getting water in her face/eyes).

(She tried to eat the bunny right after I took this picture)

Favorite toy: She still loves the mobile but thinks that this elephant is pretty amazing as well.

Sleeping habits: After Izzy rolled over, we stopped swaddling her and used a sleep sack (what she naps in at daycare).  The next two nights were rough as she got up every three hours to nurse.  Then we had about a week of her going to sleep around 9pm and waking up at 3 or 4am.  The past two nights she has slept 10 hours (8pm-6am) and I'm hoping that this is her new normal. No schedule yet for naps but lately she has been taking a long (2-3 hour!) nap sometime during the day.

Eating: She continues to eat around 120ml (4oz) four times a day when she is in daycare. Otherwise I nurse her.  Sometimes over the weekend she gets a few bottles if we are out and about.  CP had no problems feeding her bottles while I was in DC and I carried back a bunch of bags of milk to make up for the frozen milk she ate while I was gone.

Diapers: Still in the cloth diapers, size 2.  This month we decided to use disposable diapers when we put her down for the night.  Otherwise half the time she was waking up with a wet back because she had peed so much throughout the night.  I bought 365 (Whole Foods) size 2 disposables, not knowing what brand to use, and they work out just fine.  I figure one disposable out of 8 or so diapers a day isn't too bad.

Clothes: Izzy moved into 6 month clothing.  I need it to get warmer out because a lot of the clothes have short sleeves and as of right now we don't have a jacket for her.

Illness: This was a month of sickness for Izzy.  Poor girl.  She caught my cold at the beginning of the month.  At some point it turned into bronchiolitis.  Then she got a mild case of Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease.  Now she just has green snot coming out of her nose, but the rattling in her chest seems to be better.  

Other highlights:  Not so much a highlight...Izzy sadly has a rat tail.  CP is pretty proud of it, I would like to cut her hair a little bit...