Is Everyone a Swimmer??

We are at the beginning part of our Ironman 70.3 training and I am slowly warming up to swimming again. I loathe swimming but it isn't the actual swimming part that I hate so much. It is the prep (get the suit on, throw some clothes over top, get the car warmed up, drive to the gym, go get a locker and get dressed down to the suit then walk out to the pool only to find out I have to circle swim) that irritates the heck out of me! Are you kidding me! I'm not good enough to circle swim! Why are there so many freakin' people swimming? It's a pain in the arse and if i didn't have to do it to prevent myself from drowning in a race I would only done a suit at a beach or while on vacation. Seriously, people don't swim 36 laps for fun do they?

Other than the swimming, training has been going ok. Running was seeming hard and so I backed off a little in intensity and now I feel slow but I'm not hitting the wall during every run. Biking is all indoors at this time of the year. We usually hit a spin class once a week to try and spice it up a bit.

I also started lifting weights after 2 of my easy lunch runs during the week. It has been going well but man do I feel like a weakling. We are thinking about running a half marathon in April.

Work has been crazy busy and life is flying by. Sam is 2 1/2 and continues to amaze us every day. She graduated to big girl panties a few weeks ago and has been doing amazing. We have still been putting her in a diaper at night but tonight she really protested. I told her we would try no diaper at night this weekend. She started tumbling classes at a gymnastics and dance studio in town and she loves it! They do all sorts of fun stuff: forward rolls, balance beams, rings, parallel bars, uneven bars and more. She's a pretty strong little stinker too!

Brett is 5 months old and is such a happy guy. He is starting to really grasp things and of course once he gets them in his hands they find their way to his mouth. He's been fighting repeat ear infections and some bronchialitis and we had to give him a round of steroids, antibiotics and we are now the proud owners of a nebulizer. He is also starting to roll over on purpose.

Other than that, not much is new. We need to spend some more time with family. We haven't been over to visit my sister since Brett was born. We need to change that soon. Life is so busy and we need to carve out some time with the important people in our lives. We need a non prompted priority shift. Maybe this weekend or next?

Daddy's driving is scary!!!!!

Going back to work soon

So my little man is now 11 weeks old.  Wow, does time fly.  He is getting so big and we are enjoying him so much.  I will be sad to not spend every moment of my day with him but I am a little excited to return to work too.  I'm getting a little bored at home.  Oh, who am I kidding I'm not bored but I do need to stop eating all of the M&M's we have which are supposed to be reserved for rewarding Sam for going potty! 

My mom was here all of last week and I enjoyed spending time with her and being able to hand Brett over to her for a little while so I could get some things done.  He clearly enjoys spending time with her and she has an ability to put him to sleep that I lack!  If I'm holding him I better be feeding him or chances are pretty good that he is going to be screaming at me!

Wish me luck on the 28th. I hope I won't be in tears after dropping the kiddos off together at day care for the first time.  Oh and writing that big weekly check!  :-(

Sam Update:  She is so stinking cute and so smart!  I'm sure all parents say that about their kids but she just continues to amaze us every day.  She is getting too tall for her 2T pants and we are working on potty training.  She had been doing great until about a month ago and then she decided to go on a potty chair strike.  We have managed to make it interesting for her again by telling her she can wear a dress and her princess shoes after she gets home from day care every day if she uses the potty.  We've been doing that for about a week now and it seems to be helping.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed! 

Other than that the only thing monumental is that she has been waking up at night this week.  I think I brought this on myself though.  I used to put her in her bed while she was still awake.  Our routine was this:  read 3 stories, say our prayers, listen to one song and then go to bed.  It morphed into this over the past few weeks (probably since we brought Brett home from the hospital and I felt like I needed to comfort her more): read 3-4 stories, say our prayers, listen to as many songs as it takes for her to fall asleep or seem like she is very close to falling asleep.  I was enjoying the cuddle time but I think that is making her reliant on me to fall asleep.  Monday night she got up crying at 9:45pm and we put her back in bed.  I think she got up again at 10:00pm and then Travis decided to lay on her floor until she fell asleep.  She then woke up again around 2am and Travis put her back in bed.  Then she was up for the day at 5:30am or so.  The next night I put her in bed awake and she must have stayed there about a minute before she opened up her door crying.  I put her back in bed and told her I loved her but it was time to sleep.  She came out of her room crying at least 4 more times in the next ten minutes.  I repeated the steps of putting her back to bed, giving her a kiss, saying I love you and it is time for sleep.  She made it until about 4am and woke up again and left her room.  We put her back in bed.  She woke up again at 5:30am and we put her back in bed.  She was up for the day at 5:45am.  Tonight has gone a little better so far (I hope I'm not jinxing myself).  We got her a new night light (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0036Z3DDC/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details) which she seems to like.  She is sleeping with it in her bed right now.  I told her that she needed to stay in her bed and sleep until it is light outside or until mommy or daddy come to get her.  I told her we love her very much and that she is safe and that Jesus will keep her safe through the night.  I reminded her that she is not alone.  We are in the other room and we will be there all night and we will take care of her.  She said ok several times.  I gave her a kiss and put her in bed.  I'm crossing my fingers.....

Brett Update:  He is growing like a weed.  At his two month appointment he was 11 lbs 6 oz and 23 inches long.  He handled his vaccinations pretty well.  He was really fussy last week and I was convinced he had an ear infection.  I took him to the doctor and he said his ears look perfect but that he could have reflux.  He prescribed Zantac and asked me to lay off of the dairy.  It appears to be working.  It could have just been that he was constipated too.  I was working on preparing him for daycare and I pumped a few times to give him bottles.  I mixed a few of them with some Similac Sensitve formula and I think it may have plugged him up.  He usually poops 4+ times a day and for two days he only pooped once and it was tiny.  A day after going back to nursing and no formula he pooped the biggest poop I have ever seen for a baby.  It look like someone had dumped an entire large bottle of mustard in his diaper!  Sorry for that visual!

Training:  We have signed up for the Ironman 70.3 Racine which is on 7/15 next year.  I know we can do it.  I'm nervous about the swim.  It is going to be long and worse than that it is going to be in Lake Michigan so it is going to be cold.  Cold water makes me hyperventilate.  I need to work on that.  I have a sleeveless wetsuit and I'm thinking I might need to buy one with full sleves. 

We have a cross country run on Saturday which we are doing with my sister and brother in law.  It should be fun!

I also bought inserts for my shoes.  I think I have plantar fascitis and I hope this works.  Sometimes my heel even hurts when I am sleeping.

Well that is about it.  I have to run.....gotta pump and feed my little man and then hit the sack!

The picture above is Sam & Brett with their cousins on Travis' side of the family.

I'm Having a Baby Today!

It all started at about 1am. I rolled over in bed (no small feat at 9 months pregnant) and felt a little leakage. The question was....is it just me peeing myself for the 3,000th time since becoming pregnant or was it my water breaking. Then around 3 am I got up to pee and noticed pinkish colored fluid coming out of me. I also noticed my normal Braxton Hicks contractions were morphing into something much more uncomfortable. I went back to the bedroom and asked Travis if he was ready for his middle of the night labor journey to start. Shortly after we were both up and getting ready to head to L&D. I called my sister and she said she was on her way.

About 40 minutes later we were on our way out the door. When we were taken to a room they hooked me up to the contraction and baby heart rate monitor. My contractions were about 5 minutes apart. The nurse also checked dilation (I was at 3cm and approx 80% effaced). She also grabbed some fluid to do a check for amniotic fluid. That test came back negative but she really thought I had a leak so she had me lay on my side for approx 10 minutes. Then she came back in and used the speculum to check for pooling fluid. She found some and it tested positive. Since we weren't sure exactly when I had sprung a leak they wanted to start me on pitocin. I also needed antibiotics because my GBS test was positive.

They started the pitocin at a 1 at around 6 am. She just bumped it up to a 2 at 6:55am.

The rest of this post was finished on 9/2/2011

They broke my water around 7am.  There was meconium in it.  So of course I got a little nervous.  The doctor tried to reassure me.  This happens regularly.  Don't worry about it.  They will take care of him if needed.  There will be a NICU nurse in the room just in case.  I got an epidural at around 8am.  By this point I was at 6 cm.  I actually rolled around the idea of not getting one for a while.  The contractions I had been experiencing to that point, while certainly painful, were not even close to as bad as the ones I had with Sam.  I made my decision based on the fact that they were certain to only get worse and I know that sometimes pain is necessary and sometimes it's not.  This wasn't one of those times.  The epidural worked wonderfully with the exception of the fact that I totally lost control of my left leg again.  I could wiggle my toes and lift my right leg but my left was worthless.  I really hate that feeling.

2 hours later I started to feel some pressure.  I thought I just needed to up the epidural dosage so I told our awesome nurse my thoughts.  She agreed initially and gave me the little dose trigger so I could control my dosage (within their already preset parameters).  She also said she was going to check me really quick.  Then she said, "well we could increase your dosage or we could just have a baby.  What do you want to do?".  Uhhh, no brainer here....let's have this baby.  She started having me do some controlled pushing to get the baby in place.  I got a little nervous because I was watching the baby's heart rate and seeing the decelerations that corresponded with my contractions.  I started to worry about a possible c-section.  She assured me everything was going just fine.  The baby's head was being squished when I contracted but that he was not in any danger.  A few minutes later she called the troops in.  I probably ended up pushing about 10 times and then there he was.  At first he was a little blue and not crying so I started to get nervous again.  They grabbed the little suction ball and suctioned some stuff out and a few moments later he was screaming.  Is there anything better than a newborn screaming his/her arrival into this great big world?

They didn't have to take him to the nursery or to NICU for any special attention.  They will watch him closely for GBS.  He is doing great.  He is breastfeeding like a champ.  He just got back from being circumcised.  He weighed in at 7 lbs 5 oz and is 21 inches long!  We named him Brett Ryan - there is no rhyme or reason to the name.  We just like it.  Big sister came to visit last night and she seems to like him.  We should be headed home by noon tomorrow!

Ironman 70.3 Wisconsin Next Summer am I CRAZY?

So watching tris has been fun this summer but it has left me with a serious desire to race. Now I've got a wild hair up my butt to bust out my first 1/2 Ironman next summer. Am I nuts? Sam will be 3 and baby #2 will be under 1. Is it even possible? Part of me says heck yeah. I trained for the Goofy Challenge last winter...how much worse is training for a 70.3?

Moving on, yesterday was my birthday. I celebrated by taking the day off and spending most of it by myself. I did grocery and baby shopping. Then made some chocolate chunk frosted brownies. Last night Travis and I did a bit more baby shopping then went to Buffalo Wild Wings. I had some naked tenders and we shared some fries and fried dill pickle chips. I haven't had fried food in an eternity and those pickle chips were amazing!

My birthday presents were awesome too! Travis spoiled me with some new carbon aero bars and some Newton Gravity running shoes! I can't wait to use them!

Today has been busy. We went to spin class and I did some light weight lifting before class. I swear I got the stink eye stare from an older lady. Some people have such a huge problem with seeing pregnant people work out that it is ridiculous! Yesterday I took the dog for a jog and I about made a guy have a wreck when he saw me....33 weeks pregnant and running my dog in the pouring rain! I just chuckled to myself!

After spin we went and bought a new rug for the dining room and another for Sam's room. Then we had some lunch. Right now I'm trying to get a tired 2 year old to take a nap. I've been trying for 45 minutes so far with no luck!

Travis is going to Babies R Us to pick up our new crib & dresser. Then we are going to move Sam's stuff to her new room and get the nursery ready for #2. Oh, and I'm doing a bunch of laundry too!

Week 33 Has Arrived!!!

So I have finally arrived at week 33 of pregnancy #2. On the one hand it is amazing how fast the time has gone but when I think about the fact that I still have 7 weeks left it seems like an eternity until it will be done. As I type this he is kicking around like crazy! My belly looks like some sort of a contortionist is stuck in there desperately trying to get out. This is one amazingly active little one. I've been feeling pretty good and I've been as active as ever. Today I did a 3.2 mile jog over lunch (1 mile jog, .1 mile walk repeated 3 times then .2 jog to finish it off). Tonight I went to spin class with the hubby. 58 minutes and 22 miles......those spin bikes are hard for me to figure out. It will say I burned diddly squat as far as calories goes but it says I rode 22 miles? Something is seriously wrong with that....it does not compute!

In other news, Travis went to his parents this weekend to help out on the far and my mom came over and stayed with Sam and I. We spent a lot of time with my sister and her girls and mom is still here. She is headed home tomorrow. I am so glad she came over and Sam loves her sooooo much!

Sam update: she turned two! I can't believe it! She was so cute! I made her a Cat in the Hat cake which turned out pretty good. She also came down with her first post tubes ear infection and I think this one has bothered her more than the ones she used to get when she was smaller. She was rubbing it and her head. I had to call the pediatrician and get a prescription on Sunday. Why do kids always get sick on the weekend? She seems like she is feeling better now.

I also have been fighting a sinus issue for several weeks. Ive never been more stuffed up in my life and the one thing my doctor told me to take....Tylenol sinus....isn't being made currently. What is up with Tylenol these days? I finally got a prescription for a zpac last week and I feel a lot better but today is the last day of pills and I don't feel 100% yet. I think the zpac continues to work for days after the last dose.....I hope so!

I also watched The Ironman World Championship feature that was on NBC on Sunday and I've started yearning for my first race post baby. I need to look for a run I can do yet this fall but I'm triathlon dreaming for 2012 right now. I'm trying to talk my sister-in-law and hubby into a 1/2 Ironman next fall. Am I crazy? Is this doable with a baby and a two year old and a full time job?

Anyway, I better sign off. Night-night!

3 Hour Glucose Test....it's GO time and I hope I kick your butt!!

I'm at the doctors office right now doing the three hour glucose test. So far so good. My fasting blood sugar was 67 and they want it to be below 95. I then downed 100 g of glucose and now I sit and wait. Blood draw #2 is in 31 minutes!

Side note, I've eaten asparagus three times this week and I'm loving it but I swear I'm giving off an asparagus odor right now. I've heard that it makes your pee smell funny and it has done that too but should you be able to smell it coming out my pores? Odd!

Blood draw #2 was a success as well. 146 and they want it to be below 180.

Blood draw #3 was a success also.  113 and they want it to be below 155.  I'm outta here an hour early!  No finger pricking for me!

Now I know I am going to eat way too much sugar today though!

Irritating!

I had my 24 week doctor appointment on Wednesday and it included the standard gestational diabetes screening test. Well, I failed! For those not familiar with the test they have you drink a high glucose drink and then check your blood sugar an hour later. They want you blood sugar reading to be less than 140 at that time. Mine was 162! This is so irritating to me! I exercise and eat healthy 90% of the time and I fail. What gives! I failed the one hour test when I was pregnant with Sam and passed the three hour. I'm doing the three hour next Tuesday morning. Hopefully I pass his time too.

Exercising is still going pretty well. I've started retaining a little fluid in my legs though. I ordered some Zoot compression socks and some CWX compression tights and so far they have been amazing! I really have noticed less swelling and my legs feel more fresh when I run. I've actually bumped my running mileage and backed off the biking because running has felt so good. I hope this continues!

We are also working on summer vacation plans. Travis signed up for a sprint tri in Boulder, CO at the end of June. That should be fun. Hopefully the car ride out there will be tolerable for me and hopefully I will be able to hike at 7 months pregnant. We shall see!

Tomorrow my mom, little sister and I are going to see Pirates. My mom loves Johnny Depp. I'm excited to see it too! This is the first movie I've been excited to go see in a long time. I hope it doesn't disappoint!