Holiday Fun

I hope everyone made it through the holiday season in good spirits.  It is hard to believe that 2013 is coming to a close.  We had a good Christmas with Isla.  I was definitely the most worn out and tired I have ever been which led to a little holiday stress, but I was able to share some good moments with Dave and my family.  (And a thank you to them for putting up with my tired self so often here lately.  I am not the most fun person when I am tired, but luckily everyone loves me for me).  Here are a few pictures from the holidays....  and next post will be on my plans for 2014.

 Isla meets her Great Aunt Alison for the first time.  

 Isla spend the holidays with both sets of grandparents just playing around.  She really does love them!  Isla wore her pink Saints onesie and cheered for the team with Mema while Dave and I went to the game.  It was the longest we have every been away from her  (7 hours) and we were dying to get back to her!

I went downtown to watch the Saints play with both breast pump and daiquiri in hand.  Lol!  You do what you have to do sometimes to make it all work.  ;)

 Another huge thanks to my friend Keith who always shares some Saints tickets with us every year.  I really, really look forward to our games together.  

 While in Nola I got to spend some time with my Wattie Ink teammate, Mary.  I love her.  Seriously a great girl.  

 Dave and I have a lot of kind thoughts and love for Steve Gleason, Saints player who is battling ALS. You should check him out- he is a true hero and inspiration.  This is a picture of us in front of his statue by the Dome.  We are praying for him.  

 I love my husband.  We share some really great times together.  On another note, we both looked at this picture and noticed that we are really getting older and it is starting to show.  :)

We are off to another playoff!  Who DAT!

Links of the Week

Okay, so I totally jinxed myself with the last post and had no sleep last night.  Strike that post...and reverse it.

Links of the week!  I just have a couple this time around.

• Definitely listen to this interview with Taylor Phinney.    I listen to a lot of competitor radio interviews, and this is hands down one of my my favorites!

• Every year Jen does a Pay It Forward contest where she offers to coach and aspiring athlete with a hardship for free.  Please check it out...apply or refer a friend!  

Check these out!

xo

Oh Sleep!

Well well well.  So this is what it is like to feel semi-rested.  Semi.... :)  I am actually getting 3-4 hours of sleep at a time now.  Not consistently, but it is coming along.  Maybe it will help my blogging.  :)

I tend to take pictures of Isla when she does sleep, because she is so dern cute!  Here she was playing with her cloth diapers and then just went off to dream land.  

Let me just preface this by saying that Isla has been a horrible sleeper from day 1.  From 20 minute cat naps at max, to just a few hours here and there at night, she is a 24 hour party animal who disregarded the saying "sleep like a baby."  I joke about it, but let me tell you the first 3 months were like a crazy nightmare in regards to lack of sleep.

Isla and I have been co-sleeping/sleep-sharing/night time parenting for the past 5.5 months.  Sometimes she slept in the co-sleeper next to our bed, but most of the time she ended up in the bed, snuggled up to me like a happy bug in a rug.  Say what you want about sleeping with your baby, but I am here to tell you it is awesome.  It is really one of the coolest feelings to have that baby right next to you, warm and protected.  It made breast feeding a lot easier.  Our family got a lot more sleep (relative to all of the other parents out there who had sleeping babies), and we were able to care for Isla easier during the night.  Plus, it is natural.  But you can read about that sort of parenting on your own.  Everyone has to find their own way.

Another napping picture...this is Isla taking a nap before "school."  It is so hard for me to wake her up sometimes because she is just so peaceful!

As Isla got older, her needs changed (as did mine because I was falling apart from no sleep).  She has always been a very, very light sleeper, but she started waking up many times a night again like she did as an infant.  As in every hour.  Waking.  Up.  And guess who else woke up?  Not Dave, because he went to the other room to get some real sleep.  Now she has never been an all night sleeper, but waking up every hour?  The all night nursing was leaving my drained.  I just couldn't stay open 24 hours anymore.  (and babies that feed from the breast eat differently than babies that take formula, so it is normal to nurse during the night.  Breast fed babies are not designed to sleep 12 hours without waking when they are so little).

Light sleeper + cold nights + teething + rolling everywhere and new skills = crazy

After the 3rd recent week of waking up 6-8 x a night and nursing Isla because she would not be comforted any other way, we tried the crib.  I started sleeping in the bed right next to the crib so I could be there to help her calm and transition to sleep.  So far so good.  We only had to nurse 2 x the past two nights and maybe 1 other reassurance snuggle, and that is huge progress for us.  So we are still close together at night, but not bed sharing, which has effectively let the employee at the all night diner (me) go on break some of the night.  :)

So....yippee to some more sleep around here!  It seems to be working out for us both, and that is what parenting is all about.

And, as I learn to be a better parent every day to Isla, I realize that time is moving way too fast.  She is just growing before my eyes.  The pictures below are of her first bath when we had her home and her last bath this week.  Is there anything better than a naked baby?  So sweet!

It will be interesting to see how my workouts change with a little more sleep in my pocket.  My next race is a trail half marathon in 2 weeks.  I have been working my tail off on the dreadmill treadmill, and I am excited to see how much easier this half marathon feels from the one I did at the 4 month mark in November.  2014 is just around the corner.  I am so excited-  it is going to be my year!  ;)

Friends, Weekends, Plans

I don't think Kari is going to come to again Memphis anytime soon.  Bobby's marathon was cancelled (which I am sure didn't feel great after months of training, airplane tickets, hotel rooms, car rentals, etc).  It was freezing the whole weekend, which made it tough to get outside and explore.  And to top it off, her flight home was cancelled after getting to the airport at dawn.   It seriously sucked for them.  I hope she is still my friend!

At LEAST she got to meet Isla.  Not all was a wash.  :)  And we did plan our race schedule for 2014, which includes maybe some AG Nationals action together.  We will redeem our bad weather meetings!

My little diggles is still waking up at LEAST 4 x a night minimum.  Usually more.  Exhausted?  Check.  I keep thinking we will turn a corner here.  6 months is just ahead.  That sounds like the magic month to me.  (I hope!!!!)

Getting my training done early in the morning is a little harder than I expected.  Either I didn't get any sleep, or Isla is awake and I can't figure out how to slip away.  It is such an extreme change from the "get it done/no excuses/scheduled life" I used to have. 

But I think despite all of the challenges, I am still making some progress.  The running times are slowly getting faster and the bike is feeling a little easier.   The one place where I am not seeing as many tangible results is the pool.  I am about as slow as when I first started swimming.   But, the reality is- 2 x a week is not going to cut it for me.  So, when Isla starts to sleep more, I plan to hit the pool hard!!!

Okay, time to get this little girl to bed.  She just pulled herself up to sit (first time to see that) and is eating the computer.  

xo

Some Combination!

It is time for my annual get-together with the non-blogging Kari.  It seems that we always plan a good combination of drinking, running, football, and weather.  Not always together or in that order. 

We started our annual meeting with a half marathon in 2011 - planned, mind you- and neither of us showed up in shape. 

 We spanked lions, drank too much, and cheered the Saints on to a win. 

Then I got preggo, and we drank nothing and sat in the freezing, cold, rain for a Steelers game the following year.  

This year it seems that neither of us will be in running shape, although we both swore we would sign up and do the St Jude Half Marathon together.  Funny how both of us "conveniently"  didn't get in.    Instead, we will have multiple drinks but no football.  And it will be freezing, cold rain and ice....again.  Yay to our annual party!

Building The Village

So many things have gone by the wayside since having Isla...yard work especially!  We used to have the best yard on the block.  No more!  Yesterday I told Isla she just had to help me do it. 

Not that we accomplished much, but we sure had fun trying! 

But guess who was out there this morning at 7am, in the rain, trying to rake all of the leaves from the yard before the freeze?  Crazy neighbor Damie.  My neighbor came out and asked me "What in the hell was I doing?"  I responded, "you know I have a baby and can't get this stuff done like a normal person!" 

I was thinking about the juggling act that I often have to do on an hour to hour basis to accomplish the minimum.  What really helps me is to keep a positive attitude and to surround myself with great support.  That has meant adding and reinforcing supporting people in my life.

It is true that it takes a village to raise a child.  Too bad we don't have that village mentality anymore in today's society.  Everyone is so busy, spread out, and independent!  I would have never known any different until I needed my village.  

An extension of our village has been daycare.  Isla has been going 2 x week now while I work, but we are upping it to 4 x week in January.  I tossed and turned with the decision at night to send her more frequently to daycare, but, if I am going to work, someone has to take care of Isla.  I felt better about my decision when I picked her up from daycare yesterday and she was all smiles.  I am so grateful her teachers are loving and positive.  Being a stay at home mom is one of the hardest jobs in the world that you can't comprehend till you do it, but it is so wonderful too.  I love spending time with my daughter.  My goal that I am determined to make happen is blending the stay-at-home mom with working mom so that I get to spend as much time as possible with my daughter while still working for my family. 

Another big acquisition to the village was a professional dog sitting service for when we go out of town. It is expensive.  When people say kids are expensive, it is not really what you buy or do for the kids.  It is the way you have to change your life that may involve some different expenses to keep things running.  But, when the dog sitters came over, they were so great that I knew it would alleviate a whole level of stress from us when we go out of town.  Now we have the freedom (at a cost) to take Isla places.  It helped that one of the girls was in the class below me in high school! 

And thank you to my friends this week for being another great part of our village.  I wanted to go to book club this week and see my friends, but Dave wasn't going to be home until 8:00pm.  So, I just took Isla to book club with me, and my friends were wonderfully receptive to having a new member. 

Isla was clearly thrilled with her new book club membership as well. 

So, we are continuing to build our little village here...ideas are appreciated.  And babysitter referrals are great too!!!!!