Happy Day After Thanksgiving

Again, it has been a while since I posted here. Sam is sitting in my lap eating/sleeping so I finally have some time to post a few thoughts.

First thought, I am so thankful for my hubby and beautiful baby girl. Just over a year ago we found out we were pregnant with Sam. In a million years, we never would have guessed that would happen. She is amazing and perfect in every way - even when she is crying hysterically! She will be 5 months old tomorrow.

She had her four month appointment last Friday. I know, it was a little late but her doctor was on vacation for almost a month. She weighed in at 12lbs 12oz (12th percentile), 25 inches - but I measured her at home the same day and she is more like 25.5 inches (50 to 75th percentile depending on which measurement you go with) and her noggin was 16 inches - if I remember right (20th percenticle). They gave her 4 more vacinations (3 shots & one oral). She ran a bit of a fever over the next 2 days. The doctor said she was looking good and that we could try giving her cereal any time we wanted too. I've read a lot about starting solids and we were going to try to wait until 6 months but she seems hungry and ready to give it a try. Travis put together her high chair (it looks great) and our video camera arrived today so I went out and bought some rice cereal fortified with DHA. We may give it a try tomorrow. If so, look for some video to be posted! I told Travis it makes me kind of sad though because moving on to solids just means she is growing up and it seems so very fast. Oh and the doctor talked me into getting the H1N1 and seasonal flu shot so my arms were hurting by Friday afternoon.

On the training side of things I was feeling pretty good and less run down until today. I think I need to try and sneak a few extra hours of sleep tonight or tomorrow. Last Saturday we ran the Living History Farms cross country run with Tracy (my brother-in-law). 7 miles cross country with 5+ creek crossings. The water was cold, the race was crowed and the last mile was total crap but other than that we had a good time. I did steer clear of the beef stew being served after the race though. I had my annual doughnut instead. This is the only time I actually eat an entire doughnut and it wasn't very good - kind of dry. I also made it to the pool a few weeks ago. I swam about 800 meters and my arms were dead. I've got to get back to swimming at least once or twice a week soon!

I think that is about it. I need to find a pumpkin cookie recipe and go get some eggs. We are taking Sam to the babysitter tomorrow night so we can go see The Blind Side and I need some treats for our sitter. I'm headed to blog land trying to find a good recipe. Wish me luck!

It's been a while

It's been a while since I posted last. I really hope I get time to do this more. Work has been crazy busy. For three weeks solid I have been working from 7am - 5 or 6pm and then ususally an hour or two at home. I'm getting 100+ emails a day. What in the world am I supposed to do with 100+ emails! I seriously hate email and I seriously hate meetings. The whole time I am in a meeting I'm thinking about how I'm going to respond to the 15-20 emails I received while I was away from my desk. I need to do a little Bad Boys "woo-saaaa, woo-saaa" - there now I feel better!

Sam update - she is 4 months old and she is so much fun. She is smiling back at us and developing more of a personality every day. She rolled over stomach to back for the first time on the day she turned 4 months old. She did it 3 times that day but we haven't seen her do it again since. The past week or so she has been a bit on the grumpy side. I'm not convinced she is totally over the ear infection she came down with a few weeks ago. For some reason she has decided she doesn't need to nap during the day. Seriously, she has been taking 3-4 fifteen minute naps a day over the past week. They have even mentioned she has been a little grumpy at day care. I'll see how she does tomorrow and if little miss grumpy pants doesn't change her tune I'll try to get her in to have her ears checked out again.

Training update - I had a pretty good cold for a week solid so I took it pretty easy last week and the end of the week prior to that. We signed up for our weekend before Thanksgiving cross country run. 7 miles through the woods and creeks in the freezing cold - doesn't that sound like fun! I also need to get my hind end to the pool sometime in the not too distant future. I haven't swam since our last tri at the end of August! Here are my weekly stats for the past couple of weeks:

10/11 to 10/17

Bike Distance: 12.62 Mi
Bike Time: 45m
Run Distance: 18.82 Mi
Run Time: 3h 13m 34s

10/18 to 10/24

Bike Distance: 12.04 Mi
Bike Time: 45m
Run Distance: 4.95 Mi
Run Time: 52m 05s
Strenght Time: 12m

10/25 to 10/31

Bike Distance: 20.09 Mi
Bike Time: 1h 12m
Run Distance: 18.20 Mi
Run Time: 3h 13m 43s

Brrr - and it is not even the middle of October

Ok, so why do I choose to live in the midwest again?????

It is cold. Heck, it even snowed on Saturday morning. I'm not looking forward to another six months of this.

Sam Update: Growing like a weed as usual. She started taking her pacifier out of her mouth & then trying to put it back in this week. She got it a couple of times. I also think she's going to be a blanky baby. She likes holding on to her burp rag. I've tried to replace the rag with an actual blanket but right now she prefers the dirty and stinky rag!

Right now I am nursing her while typing one handed. She like to grab my shirt while she is eating and tug on it. I love it.

Training update: I did my long run of 8 miles on Saturday all on the treadmill thanks to the rotten weather. I like running on the treadmill but 8 miles is too much. I was counting down the 110ths by the timt I got 1/2 way through. I did get in what was probably my final bike ride outside for the year.

My goal to do pilates 2x a week hasn't been working out so well. Maybe I need to change the goal to once. There just isn't enough time. I don't skip my cardio but pilates & weight training are the 1st to go when I am time crunched.

Here are my stats for the week:
Bike Distance: 23.69 Mi
Bike Time: 1h 27m 31s
Run Distance: 26.39 Mi
Run Time: 4h 35m 48s

Where does the day go!!!

Sam Update: She is the coolest thing ever! Last night she giggled for real for the first time. It was this high pitched squeal of delight and we were gaga over it. Yes, this little girl has her mommy & daddy thoroughly wrapped around her little finger! She has also started really examining her hands. It is pretty cool, she brings them together & stares at them while moving them around.

The picture below is of Sam at Krissy's house this weekend. She couldn't go into the hospital with us to see baby Abe and that made her sad

Misc Stuff:

Wow, there aren't enough hours in the day. I've been running full speed ahead since Sam arrived! Being back at work is good but things are crazy busy there & it is wearing me out a bit.

We do have some exciting news though...Travis' sister had a baby boy Saturday. We went to the hospital to see him and he seemed sooooooo tiny. He was 6lbs. 8oz which is bigger than Sam was but it doesn't seem like she was ever that small. Here is a pic of baby Abe.

Training: I was sick on Thursday evening and still wasn't feeling too hot on Friday so I laid off training altogether on those two days. Here is a summary of my week:

Bike Distance: 12.50 Mi
Bike Time: 45m
Run Distance: 12.10 Mi
Run Time: 2h 01m

I'm hoping for a better week this week.

It's official - having a baby changes you!

So I've been noticing how our life has changed since Sam entered the world........summarized into a few words I can say that things don't matter at all anymore. Spending time as a family is what it is all about. I can only hope she will continue to feel that way as she grows. Heck we even leave Nebraska football games at halftime so we can get back to her! The best part of my day is when Travis, Sam & I are just hanging out in the living room. I better stop or I'll start getting tears in my eyes.

Exercise: On to what happened this last week training wise. I finished week #2 of the 12K training plan. I'm still loving running 4 times a week. It allows my body to recover and I'm actually enjoying my runs. Today was another 7 mile long run and it was, dare I say, enjoyable. Here is a summary of my week.

Bike Distance: 19.59 Mi
Bike Time: 1h 10m
Run Distance: 17.61 Mi
Run Time: 2h 56m 52s

Pilates: 10 minutes

Sam Update: She is still dealing with a bit of a cold. The day care ladies say she will probably deal with a snotty nose on and off for the next several months. Other than that she is doing great. We weighed her this morning at Krissy's and she was tipping the scales at 11 1/4 lbs with her diaper on. I don't think the scale is 100% accurate but it gives us an idea of where she is at. She continues to develop a personality and interacts with us more every day. She is so smiley in the morning and has started really cooing and it seems like she is starting to giggle a bit. She still hates tummy time but she did hold her head up really well while on her belly yesterday. We also moved up to the next bigger nipple size this week. It was taking her forever to eat a bottle at day care and she was always falling asleep several times before finishing. So far so good.

Week one of 12K training

Exercise: So week #1 of my training program for the 7 mile cross country run we will be doing in November went ok. I find that only running 4 times a week is good for me. My legs recover and I am able to get much more out of my workouts. I think I'll stick to this schedule. I also squeezed in 2 pilate sessions. My core isn't anywhere near where it was prior to Sam being born. I have to work on that. My goal is 2 sessions per week. Right now I'm doing the beginner mat workout.

I did a 7 mile run on Sunday and after the first 4 miles I felt great. With Sam around we have had to make some minor adjustments to how we do a long run (if you call 7 miles long). It seems like she is content with a half hour to an hour in the BOB right now so I ran 4 miles on the treadmill then headed out with the entire family for the remaining 3. I then came back to the house with Sam & Travis continued on with Dakota for another 4. It worked out well. I could have ran farther but figured this is a big enough jump in my weekly mileage so I better keep it under control.

Here is my training week:

Total time: 5:31:57

Bike time: 0:50:00

Bike distance: 13.50 mi

Run time 2:52:55

Run distance: 17.81 mi

Pilates time: 0:22:00

Elliptical: 0:42:00

Walk time: 0:45:02

Walk distnace: 2.4 mi

Diet: I have a new goal and that is to eat less processed food and a little less sugar. I'm not intending to keep track of all the things I eat just to update on a weekly basis how I did. I really do have a good diet in general but I do fall of the wagon with sweets at least twice a week I would like to cut that back a bit. Don't get me wrong, I'm not striving for perfection here & food from Old Chicago and Jimmy John's will still find its way to my belly often!

Anyway, I'll give my first update next week.

Sam Update: Sam is 12 weeks old as of today. I can't believe it! She is growing up so fast already! Nothing monumental happened this week. She is still doing good with day care and has slept from 10pm - 5:30am or so the past 3 nights in a row. She is still getting more interactive every day. I love her happy moments which are getting much more frequent. Today we went to Bass Pro and she had fun looking at all of the animals and such.

My 7 mile trail race training plan from Runner's World. I start tomorrow!

9/14 to 9/20
Rest/ XT
Easy RunDist: 2 mi@10:42
Rest/ XT
Tempo RunDist: 5 mi, inc Warm; 3 mi @ 9:07; Cool
Easy RunDist: 2 mi@10:42
Rest/ XT
Long RunDist: 7 mi@10:42
16 miles

9/21 to 9/27
Rest/ XT
Easy RunDist: 3 mi@10:42
Rest/ XT
SpeedworkDist: 5 mi, incWarm; 3x800 in 4:05w/400 jogs; Cool
Easy RunDist: 2 mi@10:42
Rest/ XT
Long RunDist: 7 mi@10:42
17 miles

9/28 to 10/4
Rest/ XT
Easy RunDist: 3 mi@10:42
Rest/ XT
Tempo RunDist: 5 mi, incWarm; 3 mi @ 9:07; Cool
Easy RunDist: 2 mi@10:42
Rest/ XT
Long RunDist: 8 mi@10:42
18 miles

10/5 to 10/11
Rest/ XT
Easy RunDist: 3 mi@10:42
Rest/ XT
Tempo RunDist: 6 mi, incWarm; 4 mi @ 9:12; Cool
Easy RunDist: 2 mi@10:42
Rest/ XT
Long RunDist: 8 mi@10:42
19 miles

10/12 to 10/18
Rest/ XT
Easy RunDist: 5 mi@10:36
Rest/ XT
Easy RunDist: 5 mi@10:36
Rest/ XT
Rest/ XT
Easy RunDist: 5 mi@10:36
15 miles

10/19 to 10/25
Rest/ XT
Easy RunDist: 3 mi@10:36
Rest/ XT
SpeedworkDist: 5 mi, incWarm; 4x800 in 4:03w/400 jogs; Cool
Easy RunDist: 3 mi@10:36
Rest/ XT
Long RunDist: 9 mi@10:36
20 miles

10/26 to 11/1
Rest/ XT
Easy RunDist: 3 mi@10:36
Rest/ XT
Tempo RunDist: 6 mi, incWarm; 4 mi @ 9:06; Cool
Easy RunDist: 3 mi@10:36
Rest/ XT
Long RunDist: 9 mi@10:36
21 miles

11/2 to 11/8
Rest/ XT
Easy RunDist: 3 mi@10:36
Rest/ XT
Tempo RunDist: 7 mi, incWarm; 5 mi @ 9:11; Cool
Easy RunDist: 2 mi@10:36
Rest/ XT
Long RunDist: 10 mi@10:36
22 miles

11/9 to 11/15
Rest/ XT
Easy RunDist: 4 mi@10:30
Rest/ XT
SpeedworkDist: 6 mi, incWarm; 5x800 in 4:00w/400 jogs; Cool
Easy RunDist: 3 mi@10:30
Rest/ XT
Long RunDist: 10 mi@10:30
23 miles

11/16 to 11/22
Rest/ XT
Easy RunDist: 3 mi@10:42
Easy RunDist: 3 mi@10:42
Tempo RunDist: 5 mi, incWarm; 3 mi @ 9:07; Cool
Rest/ XT
Rest/ XT
Race DayDist: 12 K@8:45Time: 1:05:22
19 miles

Last Week's Workouts & Sam's First Cold

Here is the workout load for last week. I took it pretty easy. Running has felt really hard. I will be starting a 10K training plan for a cross country run we do every year the Saturday before Thanksgiving though. Hopefully the motivation of training for an event will kick me in the butt a bit. I also want to make a serious effort to do pilates 2 days a week.

Total workout time: 5:35:21
Bike(Time)1:45:00
Bike(Distance)29.51 mi
Run(Time)1:47:32
Run(Distance)10.10 mi
Hiking (Time)2:02:50
Hiking (Distance)4.50 mi

Sam update: She has her first cold. It was pretty bad Friday night. She sounded really stuffy but didn't have a fever. We were at Travis' sister's and almost nixed going to the Nebraska game on Saturday to come home and take her to the doctor. She did better the second half of the night sleeping and seemed pretty good on Saturday morning though. We went to the game, but left at halftime. She did good all day and only minorly congested. She woke up at 2:30am both nights wanting a little snack (sucked for 5 minutes only) and I figured the fluid was good for her so I didn't give her time to try and fall back to sleep before going to her. She is doing good today.


Here is beautiful Husker Family picture - thanks for taking this mom it looks great!
And some hiking pictures from this week:
I love this picture:

Last Day of Maternity Leave

Today is my last day of maternity leave. I have mixed feelings right now. On one hand I am ready to go back to work and start having something to focus on and get myself out of constant snacking mode. I missed eating cookie dough so much during my pregnancy that I think I have eaten a tub of it a week for the past nine weeks! It will be interesting to see if I lose any more weight after I am back at work.

On the other hand, I'm not excited to have Sam in day care. Don't get me wrong, I know they will take good care of her but it won't be the same as if me or her daddy were providing the care. I'm also a little worried about her getting sick. I'm not consumed by the the fear of H1N1 but it is concerning. I still don't know if Travis and I should get the vaccine when it is available in October. I'm almost more concerned with the fact that it is being fast tracked than I am about the possiblity of us getting the actual flu. I need to talk to our pediatrician and my doctor to see what they think.

I think tonight will be a longer run (gotta work off that cookie dough I ate a few minutes ago) tonight. I'll post on that later. I'm upset because I was keeping track of my workouts on trainingpeaks.com but for some reason when my old laptop crashed I lost all of my workouts as well. Strange, I thought the benefit of an online record system was just that it is online. Oh well. Just got done with 4.55 miles. It was hard. I think I'm feeling the effects of hard tri training & a little lack of sleep. That and I haven't been eating very well the last couple of weeks. I also haven't been drinking enough water. Time to get that all back on track.

I am thinking I need a half marathon to train for over the late fall and winter. Maybe the Rock 'n Roll 1/2 in Phoenix in mid January. The only thing is that training for a race in the winter in the upper midwest is tough!

Tomorrow is the first Husker game of the season. We are going to Travis' sister & brother-in-law's house tomorrow and they will watch Sam while we go to the game. She is having a baby boy in October (their first) so this will give her some practice. If you are reading this, thanks Kris, you are awesome - and you don't need any practice!

Sam slept through the night!!!

10:30pm-5:30am with just a little bit of wimpering at 3:30am. How awesome is this!

And since this blog is supposed to be about working out it is time I got back to documenting my efforts there.

Tonight my mom watched Sam and Travis & I went for a 22 mile bike ride. My back got a bit sore as I am not used to sitting on a bike for that long. The ride was fun though. We stay on paved bike trails and are fortunate to have miles and miles of them right outside our front door. A biker was killed on Sunday riding down the highway to the trail we rode on tonight. The person who hit him didn't stop. Come on, if you hit someone with your car you have to stop! It's not like you are going to get away with it so you might as well own up to it and see if you can save their life. I wouldn't think they were drunk as it occured during the day but I guess you never can tell. It's just sad.

Baptism, etc.

So we had Samantha's baptism yesterday. Things went decently but not nearly as smoothly as we would have expected. The hubby and I have to accept the fact that we need to plan on things taking twice as long as we would expect and that they are twice the pain in the butt!

We had family in town beginning on Friday night. That evening we did a little grilling at our house and had a low key night.

Saturday morning we headed downtown to the Farmer's Market then we ate lunch at Hessen Haus (a German resturant/bar). They have a specialty called Das Boot (if you have seen the movie Beer Fest you know what I am talking about) and the family was ready to take the plunge. Here is a link to the rules: http://www.hessenhaus.com/haus_rules/haus_rules.php

Saturday night we went to a baseball game. It was a bit chilly but still a good time. I drank my first full beer since having Sam.

Sunday was baptism. Church was at 11am & it lasted until 12:30! Baptism was after the church service. There were 3 other children baptised at that time as well. Sam wore the gown that River wore and she looked adorable. She also did really good throughout the whole day. I fed her in the mother's room at 10:50am and she lasted until we got home at around 3:30 or so. She slept for most of the church service and baptism. After blessing her with water they annointed her with oil. While pastor was talking the oil started running down towards her right eye. Thank goodness it ran slowly enough that we didn't have to wipe it off while we were standing up in front of everyone.

Sam's sponsers were Uncle Tracy & Aunt Kristen as well as Uncle Marty & Aunt Julee. Here are some pics from baptism.

Sam Update: She has done really good sleeping for the past several days. Her routine right now is to eat at 9:45-10pm. She is usually put into her crib at 10:30 or so still awake but she falls asleep right away. Generally she sleeps until around 3-4am then eats for 20-25 minutes. After that she will sleep again until around 6:30-7am.

Today was entertaining. She was up at 6:45am and had a bottle. She was sitting on my lap while I ate some oatmeal and she pooped a few times. I didn't think much of it but when I got up to put my bowl in the dish washer and to then go change her I realized we had a big mess. Poop everywhere! It was bath time. I got her all cleaned up with wipes and went to grab the bath tub. She proceeded to then pee all over the changing pad. Pee up her backside and into her hair! She just looked at me and grinned. Sometimes I think she soils herself just so she can take a bath. She loves bath time. Then this afternoon she projectile spit up all over herself and I mean all over herself. Her pants were soaked, her onesie was soaked, her Bumbo seat was soiled. All in all, it was a great day.

On another Sam note she is starting to smile and coo more. I love the morning time right after she eats. She is in her best mood of the day and will lay on her back flailing her arms and legs cooing and smiling up a storm. The other thing she does that is way cute is sometimes when she is sleeping she will make a loud noise (kind of like the beginning part of a laugh) and then smile. I'm not sure what babies dream about but I want those dreams!

Grumpy Sam

So Sam got her first round of shots yesterday & did really well. I cried. She slept all day yesterday. Today went pretty well until about an hour ago. WOW - grumpy pants! I hope she sleeps!

Sam before the shots having a good time!

She loved the paper on the table at the doctor's office. She wiggled around happily on it and was having a great time until the shots. She weighed in at 9lbs 6oz and 22 3/4 inches long.

Sam after her shots - sad baby girl :(

Pregnancy & Post Delivery Excercise

Ok, I have received a few questions about how/when I started back on the training path after having Samantha. Let me give you the brief blow by blow:

I was very active throughout my entire pregnancy with the 100% blessing of my doctor and all of those in his group. He said to continue doing what I was doing but not to push it. Now was not the time to try to improve performance. Listen to your body he siad. If it says "go run" then go run. If it says "do nothing" then listen to it do not ignore it. I did a pretty good job following that advice. Here is the low down per trimester:

First Trimester:

I gave up biking outside immediately. I'm horribly clumsy and crashing my bike terrified me so I took that risk off the table. At 5 weeks I gave up biking for several months. I woke up one morning during the 5th week and had pretty substaintal bleeding. Bright red blood. I thought this pregnancy was all over. I cried. We went to the doctor and had an ultrasound and saw a heartbeat. We were so relieved. That night I racked my brain to see what could have caused the bleeding. The doctor said it just happens sometimes. I remembered that the previous evening I had ridden my bike on the indoor trainer for 45 minutes. Needless to say, I quit biking for

months. I have an elliptical machine so I started spending more time on it. I was scared at that point and would do 10 minutes ont he ellpitical then a 1/2 mile on the treadmill. This continued with no ill effects and eventually I built up to where I was running 3 miles straight. I continued to run and felt great. No high intensity stuff though. I also continued to swim but only about once or twice a month.

Weight gain was approximately 2 lbs.

Second Trimester:

I "ran" the Disney World 1/2 Marathon. I had never done a 1/2 Marathon before and didn't intend to run the whole thing until we were 3 miles into the race. I can't explain how good I felt that day. It was amazing. We jogged really slowly and walked a few times but we finished and I never felt out of breath or fatigued. It is an awesome race!

The elliptical machine continued to be my best friend. I continued to do workouts where I was on the elliptical then the treadmill, then the elliptical, treadmill, etc. etc. I still stayed off of the bike.

Weight gain was approximately 8lbs for a total of 10

Third Trimester:

I continued the elliptical/treadmill workouts but towards the middle of the third trimester I decided to give the bike a try again. I started really slowly with a 20 minute ride and things went great. My running distance gradually decreased the 2nd half of this trimester. At about 36 weeks I started experiencing significant swelling in my ankles and legs. It gradually got worse. I went to the doctor every week so they could monitor me but I never developed pre eclampsia. I wore compression socks for the last half of the 36th week up until delivery at 38 weeks.

Weight gain: just shy of 15 lbs. 12 of them added during the last 2 weeks mostly due to all of the water retention. Total weight gain, just shy of 25 lbs.

Post Delivery:

While still in the hospital Travis & I started walking. We walked around the floor with Sam in the morning, around noon and again at night. It felt wierd at first - my belly was all jiggly and felt oddly like it wasn't really attached to me. Oh and I got winded fast and I'm not sure why.

On the morning we were discharged I talked to my doctor about exercising. He knows my workout habits because we discussed them at every single visit throughout my pregnancy. He gave me the same guidelines as he gave me during pregnancy. I can do whatever I want as long as I listen to my body. That meant starting out walking and making sure everything went ok there. I could jog/run whenever I felt comfortable. No swimming duing the bleeding period.

I took it easy. We walked a ton the first week. I started jogging 1 week after delivery and gradually worked up from there. I think it helps that I train in 3 different areas (swim, bike run). If I had been trying to run 30+ miles per week one week after having Sam I think I would have been in trouble. Here is a pic of my first post delivery jog:

I felt good so I jumped into the middle of a 12 week sprint tri training plan. It was hard but I kept my effort level within reason. The most difficult thing was finding the time to workout for an extended period of time. I wasn't able to do any long brick workouts and I paid for that on race day. I had no idea how much effort to put in on each leg. As she has gotten older it has gotten easier. She now takes decent naps. Prior to 7 weeks she would nap for a half hour or 45 minutes then be crying. That got a lot better over the last week or so. I imagine that training is going to be difficult until she is bigger but I will work it in. Travis & I want to do a 70.3 next fall so we will have to find the time to train. I wouldn't trade the hassle it for anything in the world! She is so amazing!

First Post Baby Tri!!!!

Today Travis & I competed in the Hickory Grove Sprint Triathlon. It was a 500 meter swim, 15.5 mile bike and a 5K run. This was my first tri post baby Samantha. It went pretty good. I wanted to be faster than last year and got really close (within 30 seconds). I guess, that isn't too bad for 6 weeks of training (Sam is 8 weeks old today). Why do we get greedy as athletes.....I should be happy I finished but I'm sure I'm preaching to the chior if there are any other triathletes reading this.

We started off the morning at 4:30am. We thought we would be out the door by 5am. This is another thing we are learning as parents. We don't set the schedule, Sam does. She woke up right when we did and of course she was hungry. She had eaten at 1:30am so we were expecting her to make it until 5:30am but as I said, we don't rule the roost here anymore. Needless to say we were out the door by 5:15am. Still pretty respectable but it didn't allow us time to pick up muffins and cinnamon rolls for the babysitter and her family. I'm taking her out to dinner Tuesday night and I should buy a gift card for them.

We made it to the race for packet pickup in good time regardless of our somewhat late start. It was chilly (50 degrees). Travis started at 8:04am and I had to hang out until 8:48am. I thought it would be good to get in the water so at about 8:30 I wandered in. BRRRRR! Water temp was 71 degrees and it took my breath away - I've only done two open water swims and both were in water that was 80 degrees. I'm used to the balmy 85 degrees of the pool. I'm really glad I got in. Most of the other women were in as well.

As for the rest of the race the only things eventful that happened were that I had a couple of people try to swim over me. I've been fortunate not to have this happen to me before and I didn't like it. Thank goodness for wetsuits. I will state again that I am never, NEVER, NEVER doing a race where wetsuits aren't legal. I guess the pro circut is out for me (as if that was ever going to happen). Then at the beginning of the bike I first couldn't get my shoe in. Then I got that all figured out but my stupid speedometer wasn't working. Then I did something stupid. I tried to push the sensor closer to the wheel while I was on the bike. You can probably guess what happened. I'm an idot - but someone was looking out for me and I just skinned my ring finger. I could have lost a digit! It hurt pretty bad and was bleeding decently but I continued on. The ride was hard. I haven't ridden all out effort wise for about a year. Time to pay my dues. I did go back and forth with another girl in my age group which was pretty fun. Toward the end of the bike she came up beside me and said "Please tell me you are a slow runner". I told her not to worry because I am slower than snot off of the bike. I then passed her again about a half mile from the end of the bike.

The run was hard as it always is. About half a mile in I decided to ditch the maximum effort as my heart rate was going pretty high. I also stopped looking at my watch. I still finished with a middle of the pack run time.

Overall, I finished 6th out of 43 in my age group and 44th of 171 women overall. Here are my times:

SWIM (500 meters): 10:47.9

BIKE (15.5 miles): 48:05.01

RUN (5K): 28:00.5

Total: 1:29:42.7

Now I have to decide if this is my one and only race this year. There is another one in our area in a few weeks. We'll have to decide.

As for Sam, she did really well at Rhonda's. She slept most of the morning - had a bottle at 9am and another around 12:30pm. She was a happy camper when we picked her up.

Sam's First Hiking Experience

We took Sam hiking today at The Ledges State Park. She did awesome. Daddy carried her in the Baby Bjorn and she slept pretty much the whole time.

We hiked for a little over an hour on the easy trails and then had a picnic lunch. It started raining about 5 mintues after we sat down to eat though and we had to finish lunch in the pickup!

4 Consecutive Hours of Sleep

I'm so excited...Sam slept from 10:45 pm to 3 am. That is 4 hours of consecutive sleep for me! I haven't slept for 4 hours at one time since June 26th. I'm so excited I probably won't be able to get back to sleep!

It's Hot Out & Sam's Bumbo Seat

Went for 4.5 miles this morning with Sam and was sweating bullets by the end of it. I finished the run by doing some pretty good hills in our neighboorhood. I was supposed to run strides but I think the hills were a good substitute.

Yesterday we went to the pool and I made it approximately 900 meters without stopping. Hopefully, I am ready for the 23rd.

Sam Update: She hates, hates, hates, hates tummy time. I was on baby center today and there was a post about the Bumbo seat. Several people have said they used the seat (with very close parental supervision) to help build neck control because their babies will not do tummy time. I then had to find us a Bumbo. We went to Kmart - no Bumbo. We went to Walmart - only in pink. We went to Babies R Us - only in pink and blue. We went to Target and bought a green one. I sat Sam in it right after she ate and she appears to like it. I was holding my hands around her head the whole time. She has decent neck control but I wouldn't walk away from her in the seat at this point in time. Here is a picture of her in her new favorite chair.

Madone 5.5

I'm so excited!!!! I got a new bike yesterday. It is a Madone 5.5 and it is awesome. I bought it at Bike Country. It was a demo bike and I got a really good deal on it. I feel bad about spending the money but yee haw!!! Went for a ride last night and wow it is fast. I can't wait to race on it! Here is a picture of a similar bike I found on the internet.

Getting Adjusted

Sam the Husker fan (she doesn't have a choice)

Ok long time no post.

I really want to get better at this.

I thought about updating with everything that I have been doing over the past few weeks but I think I'll just summarize by saying I have managed to continue my tri training. I am following the Triathlete Magazine Essential Week-By-Week Training Guide. I'm in week 11 for a sprint at Level 4. I jumped into this on week 8 after having Sam.

The program has been pretty tough. Today was a tempo run with 18 minutes at the fastest pace I could maintain for 20 minutes. This ended up being between 9 and 8:30 pace. These tempo runs almost kill me. I don't think I'm going to have a good run at Hickory Grove. We'll see. Tonight I really need to hit the pool and try to swim at least 400m non stop. We did an open water swim on Sunday morning after church and it went pretty well.

On to Sam, she is doing good. Yesterday at the breastfeeding class we go to she weighed in at 8lbs 8oz and she ate 3.5 oz in 30 mintues. I wish she would get faster (the lady I was sitting next to said her 7 week old daughter eats 4oz in 10 minutes) but it is her schedule not mine. I'm getting much better at accepting that. She is starting to smile and coo a bit. It is amazing how much time I spend trying to get her to do either one. Most of the time she just sits there looking at me like I am a crazy person - which I probably am.

Sleeping: Last night Sam ate at 9:45pm and slept from 10:30-1:45. I put her back down at 2:30 and she slept until around 6. This is pretty good but I can't wait until she sleeps 5+ hours straight.

Naps: I'm trying to make sure she doesn't sleep for longer than 3 hours during the day. So far so good although we came close. She slept from about 10:00 to 1pm. I started trying to wake her at 12:30 with no luck. At 1pm I decided to put her in her crib and go take a nap myself and like magic she started crying about 1 minute after I put her in the crib.

Weight: At my weekly weigh-in this morning I was at 124. I think I am back to normal here but I do have a little belly fat to lose yet and I anticipate I will lose a bit more after I am done with breastfeeding.

I plan on doing a weekly training wrap up on Sunday nights going forward. We'll see how that goes.

Samantha's Birth Announcement

This fabulous announcement was created by Travis' sister Kristen. She is so talented!

First Swim in Months

Yesterday was my first swim in a long time. Travis, Sam & I headed to the pool for lap swim at noon. Our plan was for us to alternate swimming and the non swimming person would sit with Sam. I jumped in first. I was tired by the time I completed 50 meters. Breathing was the biggest issue. This should come back shortly though. I did a couple of really slow 100 meter repeats then some 50 meter repeats.

I need to concentrate on keeping my elbow high during the pull. I worked on this for at least 1/2 of the time I was in the water and I think I could tell that I was more efficient and pulling more water.

Yesterday was also Sam's 1 month birthday! My how the time flies. Tomorrow I am going to a breastfeeding class. We'll see how much weight she has gained in the past two weeks and how much she is eating at a normal feeding.

Travis starts his new job today so Sam & I are on our own. Exciting Stuff!

Not doing a very good job of posting

Ok, so I need to get better at updating my blog. This is on my to do list for the next 6 weeks while I am still at home with Sam.

This morning we ran our first 5K as a family. It was a part of our church's summer festival. We were the first stroller to cross the finish line. 1st place for my little cutie! We came in around 27:20 which is slow but not too bad because we are not fast by any stretch of the imagination. We hung out and watched the kid's fun run afterwards...some of those little ones run faster than I do!

The rest of my training has been going pretty well. I jumped into a 12 week sprint training plan with the goal of completing my first tri of the season on 8/23. The workouts are pretty intense.

I am also itching to get back into the pool. I've searched high and low to see how quickly you can return to swimming after having a baby. Finally, I decided to just call the Dr. and ask. The nurse said she had never been asked that question before. Wow - I can't believe that. Anyway, she said as long as I feel like I am healed up (particualrly from the tearing & stitches) it would be fine for me to head back to the pool at 4 weeks. That equals this coming Sunday....as in tomorrow!!!! I'm headed to the pool. We'll see how bad my swimming fitness is.

Here is my training this past week:
7/19 - Day off!
7/20 - Run - Time: 50:30, Distance: 5.21 miles
7/21 - Bike (Threshold) Time: 1 hour, Distance 15.92 miles, Pace: 15.9 mph
10 min warm up 22 min
7/22 - Run (Tempo) Time 32:16, Distance 3.58, Speed: 6.6 mph 12 minutes of tempo & 32
minutes total
7/23 - Bike (Taco Ride http://tacoride.com/) Time: 1:30, Distance 20 miles,
7/24 - Run (Foundation Run with Strides) Time: 40:30, Distance: 4.48 miles, Speed 6.7mph
5 min warm up then 25 min foundation run. Finished with 6x20 sec strides. Cool down
for 6 minutes
7/25 - Run (church 5K) Time: 27:20, Distance: 3.13 miles, Pace: 8.48

Thursday night we went to Kris & Tracy's. Kris watched Sam while Travis & I rode the taco ride with Tracy. We had a really good time. You bike for 10 miles & then eat tacos and have a beer or margarita at the turn around point then ride back to the start in the dark. We have to do this again. I have a link to the ride above in my weekly training details so check it out.

Yesterday I biked outside with Travis for the first time in 9 months! It felt so good to be out and about on the bike. We rode about 13 miles averaging 15.3mph while my mom watched Sam. It felt great! I can't wait until we have Sam on the bottle so we can find a sitter and do it again.

Today Travis did his second tri of the season. He did great - sat a PR for the course by almost 10 minutes. He rocked the bike course! Sam, my mom & Krissy all went along to cheer him on.

On the baby front, we can't figure out why she is so gassy. Supposedly breast fed babies are supposed to have less gas! After almost every feeding she is fussy and curling herself into a big ball. I've read a bunch of stuff, evidentally I need to burp her way more often while feeding and I possibly need to back off the minimal caffiene and dairy products I am consuming. Hopefully tonight goes better than last night. 4 hours of sleep isn't going to cut it. Travis just went to Babies R Us and picked up some Mylicon drops. We are trying them at bedtime.

Labor & Delivery Here We Come

So this morning Travis went for a run with Dakota & I hit the bike trainer & elliptical - alternating 10 min each at a time. After I was done I stretched out with Travis & then hit the showers at about 10:30am. Shortly after getting out of the shower I noticed I was bleeding. It was pretty red blood (that sounds wierd I know). I yelled out the door & said "I think we are going to labor & delivery." He came in and took a look and then we started grabbing our stuff.

We got to the hospital at around noon & they hooked me up to the monitors (baby heart rate & contraction). The nurse checked and said I was dialated at 2-3 & was contracting approx every 2 minutes. She checked to see if my water had broken and it didn't appear like it had. The dr. came in and said the same. They wanted me to walk around for about 45 min. & then they would check me again.

We did laps - the distance is probaby only a couple hundred yards and we did lap after lap after lap. When the nurse checked me again it was 1:45pm and she did another check for amniotic fluid. She said I may have dialated another 1/2 cm or so. At around 2:45 she came back and said that our decision to wait it out here or to go home had been made for us. It appears that I have a slow leak.

She said she was going to call our dr's office and let them know. I asked if I could have a snack. I had not eaten since 7:30am. She said she would ask him. Travis & I then went and did more laps. So much for going to watch the pros and the Hy-Vee Triathlon this afternoon. Anyway, the dr. wouldn't let me have any real food so right now I'm eating cherry jello (it's not too bad). I am hooked up to an IV. It is 4:45pm. Travis just went and grabbed some McDonald's burgers & fries. Once he is done we'll hit the halls again. My contractions appear to be coming less frequently and if they continue to do that I'll have to have some Pitocin. I'd prefer doing laps.

The rest of this blog was completed 1 week & 2 days after baby girl Hinrichs made her entry into this big world.

At shortly after 5pm the dr. decided Pitocin was on tap. They hooked me up to the IV and almost instantaneously the contractions started becoming more painful. I got a birthing ball and tried to distract myself from the pain by bouncing around on it and eating a popcicle. I started having some serious back pain. Travis tried massaging it out but nothing was working. I've never been in as much pain before. The contactions were about one to two minutes apart and every one was excruciating. At approximately 8pm I said to Travis "I need something now". He went and got the nurse. She came in and checked me and said I was probably at about a 3. She contacted the anestesiologist but said he wa busy with an emergency so it may take him a while. Thank goodness that translated to about 20 minutes. He showed up and by 8:30pm the epidural was in and I was beginning to feel it's effects. Getting the epidural really wasn't painful. I don't do very well with medication and the initial effects of the medicine made me nervous. I started shaking pretty badly (which I understand is normal) and Travis had to calm me down.

By 10pm, I was beginning to totally lose feeling in my right leg but no one was concerned. I was able to relax a bit and catch a few ZZZZZ's while watching part of the Bear Grylls marathon. Travis headed to the not so comfy pull out couch and tried to sleep a bit as well.

At about 1:30am the nurse came in and checked me. By then I was dialated to 9cm. I guess the epidural helped relax me enough to let the Pitocin work. I was excited but instantly nervous and started shaking badly again. Travis once again had to calm me down and he did an excellent job.

At 2am the nurse called the dr. and he was just getting ready to start a c-section so they asked me to just hang out a bit. I didn't have a problem with that. The nurse came back in at 2:40am and decided it was time to start pushing with my contractions. I'm talking serious pushing.....deep breath......push with all of your might until you have to take another breath.....quick breath.....push again with all your might....quick breath....you get the jest of this. Needless to say after each one my heart rate was through the roof and I felt like I was going to pass out. At about 2:50am the doctor came in and was all business. He told me to push and then stop, push and then stop (evidentally he was trying to keep me from tearing) and at 2:57am Samantha Mae was taking her first breath in our big world and screaming!

They handed her to me and Travis and I just stared at her. She was (and still is) beautiful. I thought I would cry but didn't. We were so happy she was here. After a few minutes they took her to the warming table in the room and checked her out and cleaned her up more.

She weighed in at 6lbs. 6oz. and was 20.5 inches long (that expains all of those swift kicks to the ribs I'd been getting). Her initial APGAR was an 8 and the subsequent one was a 9.

After they had her cleaned up and checked over they brought her back and it was time to take our first stab at breastfeeding. It went pretty well. Hopefully that will continue.

Approximately 2 hours after birth it was time to leave the birthing room and head to the room we would be in for the rest of our stay. We dropped Sam off at the nursery where the pediatrician would give her a thorough check up. They would then bring her in to us when they were done.

The rest of the hospital stay went well. All of the nurses were awesome. We were able to utilize the nursery to get some rest as well. On Tuesday, June 30th we ate lunch and then headed home.

As far as excercise goes from birth day until now I've done a lot of walking. Travis and I started cruising around the floor with Sam the day after she was born. We continued this a couple of times a day until we went home. On Tuesday night we hit the trails for about a mile walk. It was our first adventure in the BOB Revolution. We love that stroller! Wednesday morning was a 2 mile walk, Thursday morning was a 2.25 mile walk, Friday morning was a 2.5 mile walk. On Saturday we took it easy - Papa and Grandma were in town and it was rainy all day. I managed to work out a bit on the elliptical for about 25 minutes. Sunday I did the elliptical again for 25 minutes then jogged (very slowly) on the treadmill for a 1/2 mile. I had been kind of scared to start but it wasn't too bad. Monday (7/6) was a run walk with Travis. We did .25 walk, .25 jog for a total of 3 miles. Monday night we walked to McDonald's to get an ice cream cone. When we got there (a mile away) they had no power so we got no ice cream - how sad.

Weight wise I am baffeled. During the last month of my pregnancy I gained 13 - 14 lbs. I was retaining a bunch of fluid in my legs and really hadn't been eating much. When I got home from the hospital I weighed in at 136. Yesterday morning it was at 129 and this morning it was 124. Back to my prepregnancy weight in slightly over one week. As if all of this wasn't wierd enough, right now I actually like my legs. I can see muscle definition there for the first time ever and I'm enjoying wearing shorts. I'm sure this won't last but right now I'm loving it.

Here are some more pictures of Sam.

38 Weeks!

As of tomorrow we are officially 38 weeks pregnant! I've been trying to maintain my running and biking throughout and have done pretty good so far but lately running has gotten really uncomfortable. I've had pretty substantial lower body swelling over the past two weeks and am getting really anxious for her to make her arrival.

This morning I was up early and decided to do a quick circut of weights (10 min total). I also did two 12 minute walks today at work. As far as my planned cardio for today, I made it a grand total of .25 miles a 5.4 mph before I had to ditch it and walk. Too much pressure in the pelvic region - OUCH! I managed to eek out an additional .75 miles walking and 20 minutes on the elliptical. The elliptical was so much more comfortable.

We'll see what tomorrow brings!

1st Post

This blog is being created to document our lives as beginner triathletes after the birth of our first child. Baby girl Hinrichs is due on 7/9/2009.