6/16 - 6/23/2012

I think I am going to morph this into a daily update on the cute and not so cute things my kids do. The hubby and I have been talking about getting journals for them and jotting something down daily so we don't forget these days of their lives. Well, I'm going to start here and now:

Sam: Saturday: early this morning I was riding the indoor trainer while daddy was biking outside. You and Brett were with me in the basement. You were sprawled out in the rocking chair watching cartoons when you turned to me and said "Mommy, you are so cute!". Thanks baby girl! You are so beautiful! Sunday: nap time horror. We went to your room at 12:15. I left it at 1pm because you wouldn't stop playing and start sleeping. Daddy had to come in and get you to calm down and finally sleep. I think we need to wear you out more in the morning. Once this 1/2 IM training is done look out.....mornings aren't going to be spent watching cartoons!

Monday: We went for a walk after dinner and you picked up a big stick (probably 6 feet long) and raised it over your head and declared yourself strong! You woke up and yelled for daddy and I and when I came in your room you were sweating. I think your blanket is too heavy for summer. I went into Brett's room and pulled out a little blanket I used to have when I was little and brought it to you. I told you it used to be mine. You smiled and then said "now it is mine" and smiled again then gave me a kiss.

Tuesday: Tumbling class was tonight and you literally growled at the girl behind you who was waiting to do bear crawls on the bars when you were done. You also told her to leave you alone. I let you know that you weren't being nice and you growled at me as well. I pulled you aside and reminded you that you need to be nice but let me say, I don't think it sunk in.

Wednesday: after dinner you wanted to go for a walk so we walked down to the trail. On the way you said "mommy, that Mac n' cheese gave me lots of energy"!

Thursday: nothing too exciting today. We went to JJ then got your hair cut at the mall. They gave you your choice of suckers and not surprisingly you picked pink!

Friday: Papa and grandma arrived this evening for your birthday party tomorrow. When they pulled up you got all excited then went out to greet them with daddy. When you got out there you asked "where is the rest of the guys?".

Brett:
Saturday: you are going to be in to absolutely everything soon! I had to put your activity mat (which has tall sides) and a magazine rack in front of my bike to keep you from army crawling into my chain while I was biking. Well, that is going to be a short lived solution. You crawled over the wall this morning! Good job buddy! I'm going to need to get more resourceful!

Sunday: I held you while you napped for the first time in a long time. You were so cuddly! You helped daddy put Sam's Barbie Jeep together this afternoon and were the first one to test out the driver's seat! You looked like a natural, grabbing the steering wheel! You also face planted down the step from your room to the back door. We fed you 6oz of milk and put you to bed shortly after 9pm today. I want to get into the routine of putting you to bed instead of having you fall asleep on the couch then us waking you up to eat shortly before 10pm.

Monday: You woke up last night at 11:15 and didn't go back to sleep until 12:30am or so. At first it seemed like you just needed your paci but even with that in your mouth you cried a lot. I got up and gave you some ibuprofen thinking that maybe your teeth were hurting and then put you back in bed. That didn't do the trick either. After trying to soothe you back to sleep for a half hour we decided to let you cry it out a bit. 15 minutes of torture (to you and to daddy and I) I was back in your room. We went to the living room and rocked a bit. You let out a burp and then proceeded to wiggle around like you usually do when you are tired and need to sprawl out so you can sleep. I carried you back to your room and put you in the crib and you were out and slept until 6:15am. Hmmm, maybe the burp did it. I hope your belly didn't hurt for an hour before I figured out how to help you feel better! :-( Monday night you experienced your first real family meal. I gave you a few bites of Hamburger Helper Stroganaf. You seemed to like it. You also fell asleep around 8:30pm with daddy holding you which you haven't done for a while. Daddy enjoyed the cuddle time.

Tuesday: You had some cooked carrots and slivered pineapple at day care with your lunch and they said you loved it. You must have ate a bunch at daycare today though because you weren't very hungry for dinner.

Wednesday: I carried you in to day care without your car seat for the first time today and I enjoyed not lugging that seat with me immensely. I think we will switch out your seat in my ride soon. When I put you down in the middle of the four other girls that were already on the mat in your room they swarmed you and you army crawled away quickly. For the first time you fussed a bit when I left. Your knees are getting scuffed and bruised from all of the army crawling you are doing.

Thursday: Pretty low key for you tonight too. You hung out in your car seat at JJ and while Sammy was getting her hair cut.

Friday: You stayed awake until 9:30pm or so tonight which is about the longest I have seen you make it without a nap!

My life: Sunday: training for this 1/2 IM is getting old. Yesterday morning was spent doing a bike, run, swim (in that order) and this morning was supposed to be a 12 mile run. That didn't go so well. GI issues from the greasy pizza and beer Travis and I ate last night! I need to get more sleep. I have been relying on my naps with Sam on the weekend to keep me from dipping dangerously low in the sleep department. From my notes above you can see I didn't get that nap in yesterday and with Brett being awake for a little over an hour last night I think I'm walking a fine line here. Particularly with this training I've been doing.

Monday: 20.5 mile bike in 1:06 followed by a .5 mile run on the treadmill. It felt pretty good.

Tuesday: I slept decent again and did a 5.9 mile run in 58 minutes on the treadmill this afternoon. The run felt pretty good.

Wednesday: another decent night of sleep. The workout today was a big brick. Travis and I both took a half day off. We swam 2400 meters at the Y. Then we biked on the trail for 30.50 miles ( I have a nice red stripe on my back from a slight sunburn). Then we ran 3 miles. We were supposed to run 5 but it was 90+ degrees out with a constant 20+ mph wind and by three miles I was spent!

Thursday: was supposed to run 8.8 but only did 6. I'm tired and my heel throbbed while I was trying to sleep tonight. I really need at least one more long run, hopefully of 13.1 and one more long bike and long swim before Racine.

Friday: biked 51 on the indoor trainer.

Monday Mornings

I'm not a fan of Monday mornings. Too much stuff to do. Too early to get up. Packing bottles and food for daycare, lunch and snack for me, it all equals ick! I have a habit of forgetting things on Monday too. This morning I forgot part of my pump and had to run home to get it.

My legs are a bit sore this morning. My right heel is hurting a bit too much. I have a short bike on the calendar for today so that is good at least my feet get a rest. The bad thing is that I normally work until 4:00pm but I had a last minute meeting pop onto my calendar from 4-5pm. Who does that on A Monday?

Yesterday we hit a park after nap then got home and the neighbor girl was coming outside. Sam wanted to play but once they were together she wasn't interested. Sam just wanted daddy to push her in the swing. I don't think she grasps playing with other kids yet. She had multiple meltdowns when she was forced to share her swing.

Brett had a good day. He was his typically happy self. After dinner he was laying around on the floor and was cooing and talking like crazy. I should have taken a video.

Sam's wearing size 9 month pants!!!!

The pic above is from Easter morning.  We have started a tradition of orange cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Easter morning and although these were straight out of the refrigerated section courtesy of Pillsbury Sam still loved them and after our 9.5 mile runs so did Travis & I.

Sam peed her pants while we were at Pizza Ranch for lunch today.  Fun times.  I asked her if she had to go potty as we were going in and of course she said no.  Then about 10 minutes later she was kneeling beside me at the table and pee started running down her legs.  Lovely!  Better yet, we didn't have any replacement clothes for her so she squeezed into Brett's size 9 month brown pants.  Good thing she isn't too big.  They actually fit ok but they come down to just below her knees.  The kind of look like short tights.

Sam in Brett's size 9 month pants after peeing herself at lunch

Brett has moved up to stage 2 baby food - he generally starts the day with nursing, then around 9 am has 2T of oatmeal cereal with 1/2 of a stage 1 or 1/3 of a stage 2 fruit or a quarter of a mashed up banana and 5 oz of milk, then for lunch he's been eating close to a full 3.5 ounce container of veggies followed by approx 5 oz of milk, an afternoon snack of 5 oz of milk and then dinner of 3T cereal with fruit and approx 4 oz of milk then a before bed bottle of 5 - 6 oz of milk.  I should say, that is his schedule when at home.  At day care they seem to think he is starving all of the time and feed him 6-7 oz of milk in addition to food at 9, noon & 3pm.  I don't see how they get him to keep it all down, he is always spitting stuff back up for me if he eats that much.

Brett just hanging out outside

Training is going ok.  I still cannot believe we are signed up for an Olympic Tri on 5/20.  What crazy person talked us into that.  The distance isn't the issue, the water temp is going to be.  I'm not looking forward to 60 ish degree water and I'm sure I will hyperventilate and have a really hard time settling in.  Hopefully I calm myself down enough to finish the swim.  I'v thought about buying a full sleeve wetsuit to wear for the race and for the 1/2 Ironman in July but I really don't think I'm going to do another 1/2 and I don't plan on doing another in the freezing cold water.  That said, I am a bit of a wuss so we will see....

This week is a rest week.  We each ran 6 miles on the treadmill this morning.  Travis ran first and then I followed at around 7:30am.  I got some new shoes yesterday - Nike Zoom Vomero and tried them out.  After a mile I was begging for my Newtons.  I wish I didn't like my Newtons so much - they are too expensive.  I'm keeping track of the mileage I put on them so I can see if the cost is justified.

Here are my #s from last week:

S:

1900.00 M

45m

B:

61.41 Mi

3h 28m 39s

R:

21.80 Mi

3h 32m

Crunch

Today I left work for a lunch date with the hubby. I was excited. I never ever leave the building for lunch. I was headed to Old Chicago for some tasty pizza when I took my eyes off of the car in front of me for a second and then......crunch! The car in front of me came to an abrupt stop and when I looked back from my one second glance away I tried to stop but couldn't. Dang it anyway! Turned out the car in front of the girl I hit had to come to a sudden stop, the car in front of me was able to stop but I was not. My hood crinkled and the car I hit lost it's rear bumper. No one was hurt at all. I was going slow when I hit her. It didn't even really feel like I hit anything to be honest. I am sure there is thousands of dollars worth of damage though. Man, that $500 lunch wasn't worth it!

I got back to the office and my boss told me to leave early. I left at a little after 4 pm and came home to get in a little workout. 2 miles on the treadmill at a heart rate of approx 135. I'm trying out the Maffetone Method so my heart rate monitor and I are going to become close friends. After the run I lifted some weights. I need to stick with the regular strength training especially since I'm getting older.

We made some gnocchi (ick) and hung out with the kiddos. Tomorrow we will spend some time with my mom and sister and her family. It should be fun!

The pictures are just random sprinkled in to show what's going on with the little ones.  Sam made her first snowman and a snow cave with Daddy.  Brett is starting to reliably roll over and he is still the happiest little boy with the biggest smile ever!!!  We love you two!! XOXOXO!!!

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!