Weeks 22-24 Update

Oh boy, I’ve taken this from an every 2 week update to an every 3 week update.  (Nearly 4 if you consider that I’ll be 25 weeks along on Friday).  Things have been a bit busy, I’ve been a bit tired this go round–like all the time, and the Holidays are quickly approaching which means I’ve been having a party for 1 in front of my computer doing online shopping/wrapping/planning/cleaning in order to get all things Christmas done before next week so that I can actually…drumroll…enjoy Christmas.

The past 3 weeks have been a bit of blur, but my bump continues to grow.  I’ve only got a few pairs of non-maternity pants that fit anymore and I’ve been living in buttery soft leggings, tunic shirts, and sweats.  I’m sad that I didn’t get a picture the other day when Toddler J literally nesting dolled inside my tunic shirt and refused to get out, making me wonder if maybe they make those tunics a little too billowy if a small child can fit inside with the wearer.  I looked like Sally the Camel…with 3 humps.

Since I was delinquent in typing anything for Weeks 22 or 23, we’ll just flash forward to where things are at now.  Week 24.  Baby Dos is now the size of an ear of corn and is 1 1/3 pounds in weight.  This ear of corn has apparently, these past 2 days, decided to wedge its husk on top of my sciatic nerve on my left side, because I’ve been getting the beginnings of piriformis pain.  AKA BUTT PAIN.  Weirdly, it doesn’t hurt if I’m running but does hurt if I sit, squat down, walk, or stand.  Basically, live.

Hopefully the husk moves soon because I never had this last time and this is a bit early to start dealing with back pain.  Ain’t nobody got time for that.  Also another fun pregnancy fact is that my stomach region is now the size of a soccer ball.   GOAAALLL.

In other news, winter has finally arrived in these parts.  Earlier than I would like, by far, because my hatred for snow multiplies like the Grinch’s heart whenever I’m pregnant.

This kid, however, doesn’t hate snow and wishes he could live in an igloo in our back yard.

Until next time, belly out!

A Milestone!

A few days ago, we made it through out first year of being new parents.  Even though Baby J probably didn’t understand the importance of his first birthday, it meant a lot to both Hubs and I.  One year.  Time has flown.  One year ago, I was just learning what it means to have such a strong love for someone so tiny.  One year ago, I was learning what the phrase “you’ll never sleep again” meant.  One year ago, I was absolutely clueless as to how tough that first year of life can be.

But here we are, we made it.

I can’t wait to see what the next days, months, and years have in store for us!

June Recap

Ok, so maybe I haven’t been back to blogging on the regular.  Sue me, I’ve been busy.  Summertime is always crazy busy, a slight degree more than spring busy or fall busy.  We’ve been out of town so much that I have almost forgotten what my home feels like on a weekend.  I’ve also forgotten what a morning where you sleep past 6 am also feels like.  But who’s bitter about that?  Certainly not this Mom.  **tight lipped smile** **sarcasm**

I’ve still been running.  There’s still no structure to what I’ve been doing and I’ve certainly fallen off the wagon of keeping a log of miles.  Consider that New Year’s Resolution broken…amongst many other of my running resolutions.  The craziest thing is that…I’ve hardly raced all year.  It’s definitely been a different type of summer for me, as pre-baby Eli would be chomping at the bit to race every weekend.  Post-baby me is happy and content to do a hard track workout on the weekend and spend the rest of the time enjoying moments with my Hubby and James.

Speaking of Baby J, we’ve got ourselves a walker finally!  He’s grown by leaps and bounds over the past few months and when I look at him now, I don’t see that little baby anymore.  It makes me both sad and happy at the same time, which is sometimes a tough pill to swallow.  Probably because it’s like one of those giant horse pills.

We also just spent last week on a wonderful vacation with the In-Laws to Surfside Beach, SC.  We rarely treat ourselves (Treat Yo Self this family denieth itselfith), but vacationing yearly is the one thing we try to make possible.  Last year, that didn’t happen because someone probably would have tried to harpoon me on the beach mistaking me for a beached whale as my pregnancy waddle had grown something fierce.  Therefore, this year we were more than ready to get away to the Atlantic coast.

Little did we know that our first half of vacation would read like something straight out of Family Vacation.  We can just entitle those 4 days as “Family Vacation (from Hell)”.  In no particular order the following things occurred:4

1. Large amounts of rain decided to fall at home causing a Monsoon along the Lake Erie shore.  In Laws basement floods with sewer water.  Aka poop water.  Aka horrible.
2. Vixey (their pup) got bit when at the doggy day care requiring emergency surgery.  Pups in Paradise? I think not because #thatpupsinhell
3. My SI joint decided to rear its ugly head when I simply leaned forward to feed Baby J.  Back spasms delight.
4. Hubs slices his finger open on his razor decorating our bathroom with a red speckle paint and requiring stitches.  Secretly, I think he just wanted to be able to say “where are my rubbers at?” the rest of vacation.
5. A plastic pool chair broke as my MIL sat on it, causing her to fall and hit her head/ribs on the cement.  Another trip to Urgent Care later, we were Dr. Vandergriff’s best family of patients.

All in 4 days.  So June didn’t end on the best of notes.  But the good news is that the last few days of vacation (because they were in July and July is a nice, happy, quiet month) went swimmingly well.  Even if Hubs no longer did any swimming (where’s my rubbers at homie?!)  Vacation phone dump!

Can’t wait to see what July holds.  Maybe I’ll actually get a race in again.  Or maybe I’ll just savor these warm days with my happy family.

5 and 6 Month Update

Because I’m super behind, super busy, and super awesome, I never got around to posting Baby J’s 5 month update.  Or his 6 month update (I’m wonderful like that).  I decided to consolidate both month updates into one slightly abbreviated, cluster of a post.  Baby J is growing up so fast.  I know everyone in the history of the world always says this about babies, but I’m coming to that conclusion as well.  Little kiddo is getting into everything now.  And this procrastinator of a Mom has yet to child-proof things, which only helps work on my fitness as I chase around this movin baby yelling “NO!”.

At 5 months old, Baby J had a busy month.  For a baby that is.

• He celebrated both Christmas and New Year’s.  And had no clue what either was except it meant a later bedtime (which angered him) and lots of wrapping paper to eat.
• He began to eat baby foods.  His very first: bananas.  What did he think? A look of confusion
• Began doing the beginnings of an “inch worm”.  Aka lifting his baby booty all the way up in the air and falling over.
• Weighed 19 pounds and measured 27.3 inches (or as accurate as can be measured when your child is trying to suck on a sock). Wearing 9 month clothing.
• Was battling a variety of baby illnesses: the flu (yes, the type A sick flu), an ear infection, and an eye infection.  Making his parents quality of sleep drop to a big fat zero.

At 6 months old, things slowed down in the Mason household, but Baby J did not.  In fact, he decided to start being a mover and a groover.

• Began to sit unsupported
• Began to commando crawl
• Likes to suck on everything.  All things mentioned are things that have, indeed, been sucked on: A church pew, cords and wires to the stereo and computer (followed by a NO!), beer bottles, pop bottles, water bottles, pieces of mail, socks that are super smelly, shoelaces, belts, my knee, Mike’s shin.  The list goes on.
• Eating a variety of baby foods: bananas, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, apples, and oatmeal cereal.
• Weighs 20 pounds, 11 ounces and measures 28.25 inches.  Is now wearing 12 month clothing.
• Can now (I can happily report) sleep for stretches of 7-8 hours.  Wakes 1-2 times per night at max.  Much better than 4-5 times per night that was happening with the ear infection.

So really, a lot of change has happened in 2 months.  I can’t wait to see what this little guy does next month.  And I especially can’t wait for it to warm up so he and I can start our Glass City Marathon outdoors training with the jogging stroller.  Just need that 15 inches of snow sitting in our yard to melt!

Things I Can Relate To…

Starting next week, I will officially be kicking off my training plan for the Owens Corning Half Marathon.  It has been over 2 years since I’ve trained for a half, and I am excited and nervous at the same time.  I have been able to work up to running 6 miles as my long run, to develop the “base” necessary to start a 12 week training program.  Do I have a goal time yet?  I have ideas of what I would like to run, but it’s hard to set a goal when most of my running so far has been done on the treadmill.  And sadly, unless Glass City decides to move it’s course to running circles around my basement (probably won’t be happening), it’s hard to know if my treadmill running paces will translate appropriately to the outdoors world.  I think in the past 3 weeks, I have managed to run outside twice.  Yes, you read that correctly.  I’m a big baby.

I tend to use a mantra whenever I train, something that I like to repeat in my head whenever the going gets tough.  My mantra has always been “one mile at a time”, but for this training cycle I can now add another mantra “nothing can be harder than childbirth” 😉 I doubt I’ll be able to find a wristband that says that though.

In other life things, we’re staying busy.  Well, as busy as you can be when you’re holed up inside your home like hermits.

Baby J just turned 6 months old, which means I now have 6 months left to plan his first birthday.  And, knowing me, I will wait until the week before to actually plan it.  J’s still a handful, we never know if he’s going through a growth spurt, cutting teeth, still battling a cold, or just really wants to eat diapers and cell phones.  All I know is that we’re dealing with a lot of this.

Which has made for some pretty special, “let’s reserve this story for our future book about parenthood” or “let’s save this story for when we need to make sure J fully appreciates just how much we love him”.  When your kid’s hanging out in the trunk of the Rav4 in his diaper, with poop stained clothing and wipes everywhere, in 30 degree weather, it does leave you questioning your motives.

What races are you training for?  Do you have any crazy parenting stories that just make you shake your head? Am I the only one that hates winter?

It’s Been A While

So my last entry was nearly a month ago.  I will entirely blame that upon being a super busy Mommy lately.  Between work, the holidays, a non-sleeping baby, and sleep deprivation of 4 months finally sinking in, writing up my last race report or composing my 4 month update never happened.  Whoops!

Given I have approximately 10 minutes before I have to wake up and feed Baby J, this post will be short…sweet…and to a very brief point.  Not like underwear.

Baby J turned 4 months old as of Nov 21st!  Obviously he’s almost 5 months now, but better late than never right?  Little dude continues to amaze us in how he grown over the past month.  He loves to smile, gurgle his neverending salivary stream, roll all over the place, and jump for days (or until my arms feel like they’re burning with a gigantic blow torch).  That’s why the best gift Baby J could have gotten for an early Christmas gift (to save Mommy and Daddy from a rotator cuff tear) was a jumper.  Little guy jumps and jumps and jumps…usually until he passes out.  Totally cracks me up.

Not sure why this keeps rotating, but you get the idea. He’s a happy guy.

Also, because I’m cheap, I decided to stage our own version of a Christmas photo shoot to put on our yearly photo card.  These ones didn’t make the cut.  Probably because Mommy has too much fun using PicMonkey.

We also got to take Baby J to his very first Lights Before Christmas at the Toledo Zoo! It’s one of my favorite holiday events, and I’m hoping it becomes a tradition for us.  Even if our evening ended with a super tired, super cranky baby that had to be taken home early.  Womp womp.

Baby J was looking for money

As for things on the running front, I ran my yearly Turkey Trot.  I selected the Green Professionals Association Turkey Trot in Green,OH.  The weather was a bit less than ideal, as it snowed through the whole event, but the course never got slick.  Since the race was a while ago, my post-race excitement has died down and I don’t have much else to say besides I ran hard, ran a smart race, and was able to best my previous 5K  PR by a few seconds (21:20).  Not too bad given my lack of formal training recently.  Makes me look forward to what Spring racing will bring!

Race Recap: Rich Dalessandro Memorial Fall Turkey Trot 5K

Yes, the name may be a mouthful, but this race is definitely a Fall favorite of mine.  Plus, it goes to a great cause (which is one way I have become more selective and picky in the races I choose to support).  The proceeds of this race each year supports leukemia research and benefits area families battling leukemia.

There really is no better sights, sounds, and smells than running in the Fall.  AmIRight?!  I love a course that highlights the beautiful fall foliage and gives out cider and donuts afterwards.  Back on November 1, I headed down to Dalton, OH.  Nestled right on the outskirts of Amish Country, this tiny town provides a nice backdrop for a 5k.  In that, I mean it’s hilly as crap.

The course, while redesigned this year to allow for a more spacious space for registration, awards, food munching, still included its fair share of the original course.  Especially “The Hill”.  Or as I know it, the hill where Eli’s legs come to die.

The weather was a bit frigid and windy.  Something I am definitely not quite used to, but it’s just another sign that YES winter is coming and YES I’m going to complain.  But instead, I broke down and put on my running tights for the first time this fall and broke out the gloves.  The race started on the dot at 9:00 AM and we took off into a slight uphill.

I may have started myself too far back, as I found myself doing Ye Olde Bob n’ Weave and wasting far too much energy trying to get some space.  So, inevitably I clocked too fast of a first mile for my liking considering it included several hills.

Mile 1: 7:07

The second mile was entirely downhill.  Like seriously.  I have never experienced this, but now I know why people trash their quads during downhill half and full marathons.  I just put things on cruise control and ran super hard.  Obviously this is poor choice because what goes down down down, must come back up at some point in a race.

Mile 2: 6:37 (my fastest mile in a 5K since popping out a bub)

So yes, that 3rd mile kicked my behind.  Because it was uphill.  Into the wind.  And if this were a “I’m going to tell you kids how hard I had it” story, it would include: while running backwards, barefoot, over snow drifts, and with a Yeti chasing me.  But frankly, I have no excuses for why I slowed considerably.  I just did.  I was trying to hang on for dear life and hoping to come in at least close to my last 5K.  Which I achieved.

Final Finish: 22:35
3rd Overall

Told you I looked rough. I look like I’m about to run over that poor child.  I’m a great mother.

One of the fun things about this race is that they award “special awards” to the oldest and youngest finishers, fastest jogging stroller, largest team, and pregnant/up to 1 year post-partum runner.  So I got to double dip and Baby J (because let’s be honest he wins this award for putting me in that category) won his first race award 🙂

Receiving our fastest post-partum award. Baby J obviously hates paparazzi.

Receiving our super beautiful laser etched wood plaque for 3rd overall. Baby J is still too good for awards pictures.

3 Month Update

Obviously life has gotten a lot more busy, stressful, and challenging since I returned to work.  Time management skills are definitely being put to the test I am trying to balance work, family life, recreational activities (as much as I love it–yes, running is just for recreation), housework, and mental well being.  No one ever said taking on a new role in your life would be easy, but they did say it would be worth it.  This week, I have had a terrible time finding time to run.  As in, I did so awesome last week and then my super awesome self fell off the wagon (not really, but I can’t think of the last time I took 4 rest days in a row).

I’ve kind of come to the conclusion that training for a half is out for this Fall.  I’d rather take my sweet lazy time slowly ramping up my mileage and wind up running a healthy race in the Spring than push things too quickly and wind up on the sidelines battling injury again.

In all my busy hub bub chaos of a life, I totally forgot to post an update at 3 months.  You know, 9 days late is totally NBD.  It’s official, at 3 months old, babies really become fun–whodathunk?!  They start smiling, cooing, babbling, rolling, imitating, sucking anything that enters the arena that is their mouth (hands, toys, Mommy’s face, etc).  It’s really awesome to finally have something to hang your hat on for those few weeks that were purely terrible and filled with no sleep, constant colicky crying, and constant questioning of your parenting skills.

Baby J is such a chunk and we couldn’t love him more.  He is such a sweet boy that warms our hearts everyday.

While he still hasn’t hit the 100th percentile for his vitals, we are still holding out hope that he will become the largest baby in his age group.  Because why half ass anything when you can whole ass it? (Ron Swanson quote FTW).

Yes this post is short and brief.  But at least I finally got around to doing a life update.  You’re welcome.

One Month Update

Time is flying by and not flying by; if that makes any sense.  I feel like each day holds a new challenge in parenthood.  Yesterday, we dealt with a seriously unhappy boy.  Today, we got to experience what a sleepy baby is like.  Each day Mike and I are trying to navigate this whole parenthood thing with a smile on our face, even though there are so many challenging and trying moments.  Patience has never been my virtue, but I feel like James is helping me to become a better version of myself.  I am trying to become that nurturing, patient, loving, kind, role model and Mother to him.  It’s definitely hard to do, because there are days that I feel like I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing!  I guess that’s what that whole phrase of “fake it until you make it” means.  I use that mantra especially during the 1 hour colicky crying spells, when I attempt to position the babe in 1,000 different positions until I can find that 1 position that helps.  Thank goodness that colic resolves in a few months!

I can’t believe that I already have been off work for 6 weeks and only have 6 more weeks of maternity leave left.  Yikes!  I am definitely trying to savor these moments, even if trying, because they are fleeting.  This baby boy is growing so fast and in 6 weeks I will not get to spend everyday with him.  I am sad about this fact, that I will be returning to work, but a return to work will also help me get to put back on one of my many hats: physical therapist.  It’s definitely something I miss, my professional working life, but I am sure once I return to work I will be missing my baby’s cute face.  No one ever said parenting would be easy!

James, or Sweet Baby James as he’s often called, as I mentioned is growing like a weed.  He was 11 pounds, 6 ounces and 22.5 inches at his 1 month pediatrician appointment.  I like to call him my “milk monster”, “ginormous baby”, “little chunk”, and “monster baby”.  He is definitely going to be a big boy!

I am definitely feeling like I am nearly back to 100% in terms of how my body feels and functions.  I doubt I am back to my pre-pregnancy weight (I don’t like to acknowledge the scale) and my stomach still feels rather squishy (yuck).  My hair is enjoying falling out in chunks and decorating our carpets like I am shedding dog (one of the lovely things they don’t tell you about the post-partum period).  But I can definitely say I excited to get back to running in less than 2 weeks (not that I’m counting) and starting to hit up the weights and doing ab exercises again.  My squishy body needs it!

Some updated photos of SBJ at 1 month:

He may just be a little fussy sometimes, but we love him anyways!

Our little man!

He likes to rock the formal onesie

Baby Mason: The Birth Story

I really should have written another post prior to this.  Why is that?  Because simply put, I went over my due date.  Not just a little, but 9 days past due.  We eclipsed the 41 week mark, but I just didn’t have the heart to write another entry because frankly, I was frustrated and really wanting to meet our little one.  I was sick of being pregnant.  My stomach had run out of space, I was uncomfortable, and I was tired of people saying “You HAVEN’T had that baby yet?!”  I had tried everything, all the old wives tales.  My last run (of 2 miles), I completed at 40 weeks, 4 days pregnant!

Ready to pop at 41 weeks…no more room in the inn!

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to share the birth story, but so many family and friends have asked for details, I figured this would be the easiest way to do so.  I promise I’ll spare you any gross details that may make you want to not finish your dinner.

So since my body decided it didn’t want to go into labor for me.  It was recommended by my Dr that I set a date for induction in order to jump start things.  I was super nervous about this, because although I had heard both good and bad things about inductions, I generally knew meant a longer, more painful labor.  Not my ideal situation because I am the first to admit that I AM A GIANT WUSSY when it comes to pain.

My induction was set up for the morning of July 21.  We arrived at the hospital bright and early, at 5:45 AM, in order to finish signing registration forms and get taken up to Labor and Delivery.  They wasted no time putting me in a beautiful hospital gown, which when combined with the ultrasound unit to monitor the baby, made for quite the fashion statement.  Hotness always becometh me.  I was started on Cytotec, which is a pill used to basically prepare the body for labor and can cause contractions to begin.  It did.  Within about 45 minutes, I began to experience mild contractions.  They weren’t too bad, I was able to walk around the floor and take a ride on the birthing ball.  Hee Haw.  This went on for about 3.5 hours, my contractions were manageable and I had Mike track them since there’s ALWAYS an App for that.  I was experiencing contractions lasting 45-50 seconds every 1.5 minutes.

Around 10:30, my Dr came in and said since my contractions were occurring so often and strong, “there’s nothing left really to do besides break your water” because I had advanced to 3cm dilated and 80% effaced.  So that was done.  I was instructed I had to remain laying on my back for 15 minutes before I would be allowed to get up again to ride my horse ball.  That’s where the fun part ended and (pardon my French but) SHIT GOT REAL SON.  Within about a minute, I began to experience contractions every 30 seconds that lasted 30-40 seconds.  I couldn’t talk, open my eyes, or hardly breathe through them.  I writhed in pain and Mike tried everything to get me comfortable.  I dropped curse words unbeknownst to mankind, the whole “oh you can use mental imagery to work through them” was turned into stupid theory only.  I had been planning to wait as long as possible to get an epidural, but by the time 15 minutes was up I was begging for one.

The anesthesiologist came in super quick (thank GOODNESS) and I had to breathe my way through 3-4 really strong contractions and remain motionless while he inserted the epidural.  It was so hard to remain still, but the threat of “oh you know, you could get paralyzed” seemed to help.  Once I returned to my back, within about 10 minutes I began to experience significant relief.  To the point that I really only had good motor control of my left leg and both legs felt warm, numb, and happy.  The nurse checked me again and surprised said, “Oh wow, you are already 6 cm!”.  Mike decided to go run and get lunch and alert the Grandparents that they should begin leaving because Baby Mason was maybe coming way sooner than expected.  By the time Mike got back from eating a quick lunch in the cafeteria, I had progressed to 9.5 cm and was nearly ready to push.  My Dr. came back into the room, explained that pushing with a first timer can take up to 3 hours.  In my mind, I said “screw that, I am getting this baby out ASAP”.  And I did.  Within 40 minutes, out popped…

…a baby boy.

He was placed upon my chest immediately and words cannot describe the first time you see your child.  I was speechless and overwhelmed, already filled with love for someone so small who I felt I knew for so long.  Mike was allowed to cut the cord and no, he did not pass out for those taking bets! 🙂

Pardon my crazy hair, I just got done pushing out a baby, OK?!

We had about 90 minutes of skin to skin time before our parents came into the room.  My parents had arrived 10 minutes after he was born, Mike’s parents arrived shortly after.  Seeing the smiles on all their faces as they got to hold a grandchild warmed my heart so much.  It made absolutely every second of those horrendous (yes it was super short) 15 minutes worth it.

We have also had several other visitors, including Aunts and Uncles.  We are looking forward to additional visitors now that we’re home over the next few weeks as well!

So now we can officially say that we have a new member of our family, turning our 2 family unit into 3.

Name: James Andrew
Born on: 7/21/14 at 2:05 PM (7 hour induced labor)
Weighing: 8 pounds, 4 oz
Length: 21 inches
Favorite comment: How was he fitting in there?! (to which I say, I told you there was a decent sized baby in there!
Likes: Looking at Daddy, Cuddles, Sucking his thumb, Sitting in his bouncer, car rides, being bounced and rocked
Dislikes: Having diaper changed, anything cold, having sponge baths

 

This Belly is officially signing off on what was a rewarding, wonderful, and totally worth it pregnancy!

Now I only look like I’m 3 months pregnant instead of 9! 🙂