Adventures in our Funny Farm

Candied Cinnamon Vanilla Pecans

2012-01-08T18:52:00.002-05:00

Sweet, salty perfection.

Candied Cinnamon Vanilla Pecans

4 cups pecans

1 egg white

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp sea salt

3/4 cup granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 250 and line baking sheet with parchment.

In small bowl, mix sugar, salt and cinnamon.

In large bowl, mix egg white, vanilla and water. Whisk until frothy. Stir in pecans and mix well. Add sugar mixture and stir until coated.

Pour mixture onto baking sheet and spread evenly.

Bake about an hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Cool completely and break up clumps.

Cookies and Cream Cookies

2012-01-08T17:35:00.003-05:00

What better way to eat Oreos than crammed into another cookie! These turned out great.

Cookies and Cream Cookies from Sing For Your Supper

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup + 1 Tbs granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups flour
2 Tbs milk (I used almond)
1 1/2 cups Oreos, chopped.

Preheat oven to 350 and line 2 baking sheets with parchment. Beat together butter, sugars, salt, vanilla, soda and powder until well combined. Add egg, beating until smooth. Scrape sides of bowl and beat again until smooth. Add the flour, mixing in completely. Stir in milk and then the Oreos.

Drop cookies by rounded spoonful onto prepared baking sheets, spaced about 2 inches apart. Bake 11-15 minutes, until light golden brown and a bit darker around the edges. Remove from oven and cool.

No Hurry Vegetable Curry

2012-01-08T17:30:00.002-05:00

I don't know about no hurry, because it took forever to prep the veggies for this one. All in all it is pretty good. Not knock your socks off fantastic, but a perfectly fine veggie-ful dish. I served over rice.

Adapted from Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker, p. 124

No Hurry Vegetable Curry

1 Tbs. olive oil
2 large carrots, sliced on a diagonal
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbs curry powder
1 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and diced
8 oz green beans, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 can white beans or garbanzo beans
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
2 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup frozen green peas, thawed
1/2 cup canned coconut milk
salt to taste

1. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add the carrots and onion and saute until softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, curry powder and cayenne, stirring to coat.

2. Transfer the vegetable mixture to a 3.5-4 qt slow cooker (mine is a 6 and it worked fine). Add the potatoes, green beans, white beans, tomatoes and stock. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

3. Just prior to serving, stir in peas and coconut milk and season with salt.

Brown Sugar Brown Butter Cookies

2012-01-06T13:22:00.000-05:00

These cookies are beyond delicious, and would be even better with some heath bar or chocolate chips added. Lucy can tolerate low doses of dairy now, so I can cook with and eat it. After going over a year almost completely dairy-free, it's nice to have the freedom to not have to constantly watch every bite for hidden dairy. I still try to keep it to a minimum, but these cookies are worth the splurge.

Here's the recipe from The Novice Chef.

Brown Sugar Brown Butter Cookies

ingredients:

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter
1 cup unbleached flour, plus 2 tablespoons
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For rolling:
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

directions:

Heat butter in small saucepan, over medium heat, until melted. Continue cooking butter, whisking or swirling the pan as needed, until the melted butter takes on a light golden brown color. There will be small flakes of dark brown on the bottom of the saucepan. Remove butter from heat and transfer to a small bowl immediately. Let cool until the bottom of the bowl is no longer warm to the touch, about 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.

In a shallow bowl, combine the 2 tablespoons brown and granulated sugar. I used my fingers, but you could also use two forks. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Add 1 cup brown sugar to bowl with cooled, browned butter and mix until combined. Add egg and vanilla and mix until combined and there are no lumps. Add flour mixture and mix until just combined.

Roll about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough into a ball using your hands. Then toss the dough in the brown/granulated sugar mixture. Place on prepared baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between each cookie.

2011-09-16T11:50:00.001-04:00

Frosted Cake Batter Blondies

2011-09-09T07:11:00.000-04:00

I found this off Pinterest and just had to try it.

Frosted Cake Batter Blondies
-1 white or yellow cake mix, or funfetti mix
-1/4 cup vegetable oil
-1 egg
-1/2 cup milk (I used almond milk)
-1/2 cup white chocolate chips
-1/2 cup mini marshmallows (I omitted)
-1/4 cup sprinkles (unless you used a funfetti mix)

Preheat oven to 350. In large bowl, combine mix, oil, egg and milk. Stir in chips and marshmallows. Batter will be thick. Spread in prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes, until center is just set.

Frosting:
-1/2 cup butter, room temp (I used Earth Balance dairy and soy-free spread)
-2 cups powdered sugar
-1/2 cup marshmallow fluff
-1 Tbs milk
-sprinkles

Mix butter and marshmallow fluff until smooth. Slowly add powdered sugar, mixing slowly. Add milk and mix on medium until smooth. Frost cooled blondies. Top with sprinkles.

I got antsy and put the frosting on while the blondies were still warm, so they didn't firm up as well as they should. They're super rich and sweet, so a little bit will go a long way but they are oh so tasty!

Getting my You Know What Together

2011-09-08T14:49:00.000-04:00

Having a child, multiple animals, a husband, a home and a job mean that I don't have the time or energy to waste being disorganized and/or inefficient. My days off, once spent sleeping in, lounging on the couch or going to the beach, are now spent cooking, cleaning and running errands. Yay for being a grown-up!

Here's pretty much the bare minimum goals I need to meet:

-Keep Rich, Lucy and myself well-fed with a balanced, mostly nutritious diet (this includes meal-planning, couponing, grocery shopping and cooking)
-Keep pets fed, healthy and happy

-keep the house free of CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome)
-Keep myself sane and fit by making time for running

In Charleston, it was just me and Rich and we had a lady that cleaned the house every other week. All I really had to do was light cleaning during the week. I never cleaned the bathrooms, mopped, etc.

Fast forward to moving back to Arkansas, and we lived with my parents. They have someone that comes once a week to clean and mom cooked dinner every night. Yeah, we got really spoiled!

I knew the fly by the seat of my pants wasn't going to work once we got settled in our new place. I needed a plan. I needed to get organized. Since I'm the kind of person that likes to read 4 books and 18 blogs about something before I actually do said thing, I started reading. I came across Flylady and that's what I've been using. Basically, it works on the premise of not procrastinating, developing daily routines that keep things under control so you don't get overwhelmed and have to spend whole days cleaning. I printed out a schedule, added in tasks specific to our family (ie brushing the dogs), and got started. I tweaked it for a couple weeks and now I have a pretty good system down, with the bulk of my "chores" done on my days off, Monday and Wednesday and the weekend. Now the house stays mostly clean all the time, and CHAOS stays away :) For example, my morning routine involves wiping down the bathroom counter and sink everyday and a quick swish in the toilet with a brush. That way the bathroom never gets filthy. On workdays, I usually chop/prep the night before and put ingredients in the slowcooker before I leave for work. My nightly routine involves laying out clothes for the next day, packing the next day's lunches. It is a lot of work, but it's also nice to feel like things are under control. Gone are the days of waking up, wondering what to wear, what to eat and running around like a crazy half-dressed person in the morning trying to get ready.

Meal planning and the slowcooker are wonderful. I plan so that I can cook on my days off, and eat leftovers or slowcooker meals on my workdays. Rich picks Lucy up from daycare and gets home before I do so he can put simple things in the oven (like potatoes), then we can eat when I get home.

Running-this has been a tough one because my Wednesday runs have gotten longer and are now too long for me to comfortably push Lucy, plus she gets bored on anything more than about 4 miles. I feel guilty about it, but wind up taking her to daycare for halfdays on Wednesdays while I run and grocery shop.

Getting my $h^! together is definitely a process, and there are some mornings that the toilet doesn't get swished. But overall it's working and makes life so much easier. Anyone have any other tips to keeping a family and household running smoothly?

Best Veggie Burger ever...for real...

2011-08-31T17:33:00.003-04:00

Well let me preface this by saying it's also by far the spiciest veggie burger ever and next time I will make this way less spicy.

Here we go! It is from Appetite for Reduction, a low-fat vegan cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. My version wasn't exactly low fat because I basically fried the burgers in olive oil instead of sauteing in cooking spray, but I don't mind a little olive oil fat. And like I said, they are very very spicy. Next time I will make a couple chipotle-less burgers for Lucy, and reduce the chipotles to 1/8 of a cup for us. The flavor is wonderful, rich and hearty and smoky...but it will set your mouth on fire! These burgers just beg to be topped with cold crisp lettuce, tomato and onion and some cool creamy avocado. Yum! Oh, and she's super specific about using canned lentils but I couldn't find any. I cooked dried, and used 1 1/4 cup and it worked just fine.

Chipotle Lentil Burgers (also now deemed Hotter than Hades but Supremely Delicious Burgers)

(makes 6 burgers)

1 teaspoon olive oil
1 small red onion, cut into medium dice
1/2 pound zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced 1/2 inch thick
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup lightly packed fresh cilantro, chopped (stems and leaves)
1 (15 ounce) can cooked lentils, drained and rinsed (1 1/4 cups)
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup chipotles, seeds removed, with adobe sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons red vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons smoked paprika

First, we're going to saute some veggies. Preheat a large, heave-bottomed nonstick pan, preferably cast iron, over medium-hugh heat. Saute the onion for about 3 minutes. Add the zucchini, garlic, cilantro, and a pinch of salt, and saute for 7 to 10 minutes, until the zucchini is soft.

Transfer the zucchini mixture to a food processor. Add all the other ingredients except for 1/2 cup bread crumbs. Did you hear me? Reserve 1/2 cup of the bread crumbs! Pulse until mostly smooth, but there should still be a little texture. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.

Preheat the pan (the same one you already used to saute in is fine) over medium heat. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of bread crumbs to the burger mixture and use a fork to thoroughly combine.

Divide the burger mixture into six equal pieces. An easy way to do this is divide it in half, then divide each half into three basically equal portions. You can do that right in the mixing bowl if it's large enough.

Spray the pan with non stick cooking spray. Form the burger portions into patties and cook for about 12 minutes, flipping the burgers often, until they are nicely browned on both sides. Use cooking spray as necessary. Do three at a time for best results.

They taste great served immediately but they're also excellent at room temperature, so don't be afraid to stuff one into a sandwich and take it for lunch.

130 calories, 1.5 g fat, 23 g carbohydrates, 8 g protein, 7 g fiber, 510 mg sodium, 3 PointsPlus

Spicy Black Bean Chili in the slowcooker

2011-08-31T14:50:00.003-04:00

Spicy Black Bean Chili from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slowcooker

1 Tbs olive oil

1 large yellow onion, chopped

1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and chopped (I used green because that's what I had on hand)

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbs chili powder

One 28 oz can crushed tomatoes

3 cups slow-cooked or two 15.5 oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup water

one 4-oz can diced green chilies, drained

salt and pepper

1. heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, bell pepper and garlic. Cover and cook until just softened, about 5 minutes. Add chili powder and cook another 30 seconds

2. transfer it all to a 4-6 qt. slow cooker. Add tomatoes, beans, water and chilies. Season with salt and pepper, cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Rich said this was good, I haven't tried it yet.

Running Update and a Winning Recipe

2011-08-22T20:44:00.006-04:00

I haven't blogged about running in awhile (Jess @21days, is it awhile or a while? I can never remember that rule.), but I have actually been running consistently for a few months. A bit of background: I was planning to run the Little Rock Marathon as my first full last March, but slacked in training and downgraded to the half. I didn't train very well for that, but ran it and ended up with a lot of foot pain/possible stress fracture afterwards. I took a couple months off, realized that spring marathons are not for me and decided to shoot for a fall. I just registered for the Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa, OK in November. Rich and I also realized that it wasn't going to happen for both of us to train for a marathon together. He is going to do the half in Tulsa, so I can focus on training for the full. With Lucy, it just isn't feasible for us to both be running hours a week. After Route 66, we'll switch focus and he can train for a full if he wants to and I'll sacrifice running for baby-duty and stick to shorter runs.

I've been running 3-4 days a week, and hitting the long runs on Saturday. Last week was a 10 miler, and it went great. This is a step-down week so I only have 7 on the calendar for the weekend. The foot is feeling good, and I'm optimistic that my first full is really going to happen!!

Now for the recipe:

White Bean and Hominy Slow Cooker Chili- Rich voted this one a winner!

1 Tbs Olive Oil

1 small yellow onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbs chili powder

1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped (optional, I omitted)

1 14.5 oz can crushed tomatoes

2 15.5 oz cans white beans, drained and rinsed

1 16 oz can hominy, drained and rinsed

1 1/2 cups water

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

2 Tbs chopped fresh cilantro leaves

1. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in chili powder and cook about 30 seconds longer.

2. Transfer the mixture to a 4-6 qt slow cooker. Add jalapeno, tomatoes, beans, hominy, water, cumin, oregano, salt and pepper. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

3. Just before serving, stir in the cilantro

Recent Recipes: Cookies, cupcakes and more

2011-08-18T09:32:00.003-04:00

Chocolate Chip Cookies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.
These are fantastic! I didn't have tapioca flour, so I substituted cornstarch and it turned out fine. This makes 16 good sized cookies. They taste like typical chocolate chip cookies, a little crispy on the outside but chewy overall. Yum!

½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup white sugar
2/3 cup canola oil
¼ cup almond or nondairy milk (I used vanilla soy milk)
1 tablespoon tapioca flour
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup vegan chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven 350° F. Lightly grease two large cookie sheets.

2. Combine sugars, oil, nondairy milk, and tapioca flour in a mixing bowl. Use a strong fork and mix really well, about 2 minutes, until it looks like smooth caramel. There’s a chemical reaction when sugar and oil collides, so blend well. Mix in vanilla.

3. Add 1 cup flour, the baking soda, and the salt. Mix well. Mix in rest of flour. Fold in chocolate chips. The dough will be a little stiff.

4. For 3-inch cookies, roll dough into balls the size of ping pong balls. Flatten to about 2 ½ inches on a cookie sheet. They will spread a little when baked. Then bake for about 8 minutes—no more than 9—until a bit brown around the edges. Bake 8 cookies at a time. (Don’t double up the cookie sheets in the oven.) Let cool 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes
from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I used creamy instead of crunchy PB and didn't frost them. They were fantastic fresh, but got dry after the first day. So moral of the story: eat them all really fast...shouldn't be a problem because they're delicious. I can't find the link to the recipe online, and don't have the cookbook with me, but let me know if you want the recipe. I'll be happy to add it, but really you should just order this book. There are tons of great looking cupcake recipes!

Chickpea Fritters
These were a hit with everyone. Rich ate a few, Lucy had one and I liked them too. They need some sort of sauce for dipping, maybe an herb mayo or garlic aioli....or just plain ketchup. Whatever you like!

3 cups cooked chickpeas (two 15 oz. cans, drained and rinsed)
1/2 cup green onions, minced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 t. minced rosemary leaves
3/4 t. salt
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
oil for shallow frying
sea salt for finishing

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and buzz until you have a fairly uniform mixture, but before it is completely pureed. We want some texture left. You should be able to form it into a ball that holds its shape. It should be neither crumbly nor a batter. Add liquid or breadcrumbs as necessary to find the right moisture level. If you don't mind tasting raw egg, taste a bit and adjust the seasoning as needed.
Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a large skillet, preferably cast-iron, over a medium-high flame. Take a golf-ball sized piece of dough, press it in your hands into a flattened 3-inch patty and place in the skillet. Repeat with as many as will fit comfortably. Fry on one side until golden brown, about 3 minutes, then flip and brown the other side. Remove to paper towels and finish with a little bit of sea salt.

Vegan (and soy free) Macaroni and "Cheese"
Rich liked this. I was shocked and happy!! It doesn't exactly taste like cheese, but it is waaaaaay better for you and actually tastes good and is rich and creamy. It uses nutritional yeast, which not only tastes yummy but is also very rich in B vitamins.

1/2 cup flour
1 cup nutritional yeast
3/4-1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
2 1/2 cups non-dairy milk like almond, rice, hemp, coconut
3 Tablespoons vegan butter spread, such as Earth Balance (check to make sure it is the soy-free kind if you're dealing with a soy allergy)
12 oz. pasta of choice (we used bowties)

Directions:
Cook your pasta in salted water until it’s al dente, then drain. In your large pasta pot, whisk together all remaining ingredients. Turn the heat onto medium and whisk frequently to keep things smooth. When you have a thick sauce, toss the pasta back in, and use a large wooden spoon to fold it all together. When the pasta’s thoroughly coated and the sauce is the as thick as you like it, take the pot off the heat, and you’re done! Makes 4 to 6 servings. Easy Cheesy!

Leek and Bean Cassoulet with Biscuits
I loved this but Rich was not a fan at all. Apparently he doesn't like leeks and thinks he might like the dish if made without leeks, so I might try it again but leek-less. Don't let the name fool you, basically this is a veggie pot pie. I would double the biscuits next time. It is a thick and hearty stew that would be perfect on a cool night.

Stew:
2 yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch dice
3 cups vegetable broth
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 leeks, washed well and sliced thinly
1 small onion, cut into medium size dice
1 1/2 cup carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 heaping tablespoon chopped fresh thyme, plus extra for garnish
Several pinches of freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt (to taste)
3/4 cup frozen peas
1 (15 oz) can navy beans, drained and rinsed (about 1/2 can)

Biscuits:
3/4 cup plain soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup nonhydrogenated vegan shortening (I got this at Whole Foods)

PREHEAT THE oven to 425 degrees F.
Place the potatoes in a small pot and cover with water. Cover and bring to boil. Once boiling, let cook for about 10 minutes, until the potatoes are just tender enough to be pierced with a fork. Drain immediately so that they do not overcook. While they are boiling, you can prep the rest of the veggies and start preparing the biscuits -- the potatoes should definitely be done by the time you are.
Now prepare everything for the biscuits. You are not going to make them yet, but it's good to have everything ready when it comes time to top the stew. Add the vinegar to the soy milk in a measuring cup and set aside to curdle. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium size mixing bowl.

Now leave that alone and start the stew:
Mix the cornstarch into the vegetable stock until dissolved.
Preheat an oven-safe skillet (if you don't have that, just transfer contents to casserole dish), preferably cast iron, over medium heat. Saute in the oil the leeks, onions, and carrots until very soft and just beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Keep the heat moderate so they won't burn.
Add the garlic, thyme, freshly ground black pepper and salt, and cook for 1 more minute. Add the cooked potatoes and frozen peas, then pour in the vegetable stock mixture. Raise the heat just a bit; it will take a few minutes but the liquid will start simmering. Once it does, lower the heat again. Let it simmer for about 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, but no longer than that. If you need more time for the biscuits, then turn off the heat under the stew.

Back to the biscuits:
Add the shortening to the flour in small slivers and work it into the dough with a fork or with your fingers until large crumbs form. You don't want to cream it in; there should be clumps. Drizzle in the soy milk and mix with a fork until everything is moistened (some dry parts are okay).
Wash and dry your hands, then lightly flour them and get them dirty again. Gently knead the dough about ten times right in the bowl, just so that it is holding together and not very sticky. If it seems sticky, as in sticking to your fingers, then gently work in a little more flour. Set that aside and check on your stew.
The stew should be simmering and slightly thickened. Mix in the beans. Now, let's add the biscuits. Pull of chunks of dough that are about slightly larger than golf balls. Gently roll them into balls and flatten a bit; they do not have to be perfectly round. Add them to the top of the stew, placed an inch or so apart.
Transfer the whole megillah to the preheated oven. If you are worried about spillover, place on a rimmed baking sheet, but we've never had that problem. Bake for about 15 minutes. The biscuits should be just slightly browned and firm to the touch.
Remove from the oven and use a large serving spoon to place some of hte stew and a biscuit in each shallow, individual bowl. Sprinkle with a little chopped, fresh thyme.
Serve at last! Especially yummy when you break up your biscuit and mix it in a bit with your stew.

HAPPY COOKING!

Sweet Hugs

2011-08-16T09:30:00.003-04:00

All the back to school buzz this week has already gotten me thinking about the fact that before I know it, Lucy will be starting school. I know it's still 4 years away, but at the rate the past 15 months have gone it will be here in the blink of an eye.

I am so thankful to have 2 weekdays and all weekends off work to spend with her. Our Mondays and Wednesdays are pretty uneventful typically, but it is great to be able to be with her. We get up, run, eat breakfast, then I usually put her on my back while I try to get some cleaning or unpacking done. She gets in moods pretty often where she doesn't want on my back, but she doesn't want to play in the floor by herself either. I was standing at the sink Monday trying to do something and she's pulling on my shorts whining and crying. I knelt down, more frustrated than anything and wanting to yell "WHAT do you want????" but as soon as I got down on her level she reached her arms out and hugged me, snuggled in and tried to climb in my lap. All she wanted was a hug. She loves to be hugged and held (well, by her select chosen handful of people she deems worthy of holding her) A LOT, and it's not always convenient but in those moments I remind myself that soon it will feel like I woke up and overnight she's starting school and not there wanting hugs in the middle of a Monday. There's nothing I could be doing that is more important than holding her.

And on a funny note about her hugging. She's been hugging and loving on the dogs for months, and has just recently started giving me hugs and still really doesn't hug other people much. So basically she loves me, but not quite as much as she loves Fiona :)

Boobies, Milkies, Nursies: In Honor of World Breasfeeding Week

2011-08-11T09:36:00.012-04:00

Disclaimer: this post is all about boobs and breastfeeding, and there may even be pictures....if that bores or offends you, feel free to move on.

So I'm a week late, last week was World Breastfeeding Week but better late than never. Let me begin by saying that the pre-mommy me had very different views on breastfeeding. I saw it as strictly a nutrional thing, good to do for the first 6 months, maybe a year to give your baby the best start. However, you should try not to breastfeed in public, and if you absolutely must, PLEASE cover up. And if you're "baby" is older than a year then there's no reason you should ever nurse in public.

But now I'm....

Our breastfeeding journey is one of the most rewarding parts of motherhood for me. It was rocky at first, with the constant nursing (which is normal by the way) then the dairy/soy intolerances that took months of trial and error to figure out what I could and couldn't eat. Now it's much better and I've just adjusted to life with almost no dairy or soy products. It wasn't easy, but it is worth it for us. I was never very fond of nursing in public, but there were times it had to be done. When she was little, my boobs dwarfed her head so it was hard to be discrete, and nursing covers were way more trouble than they were worth. It was hot under there, you can't see to help the baby latch and I needed a hand to hold my boob and a hand to hold her head. It was an awkward mess and the covers got ditched very very early on. Then I mastered the nursing tank under a real shirt combo. The flaps on the tank open and you pull down the top of your regular shirt, so everything is covered. But again, you're messing with special shirts and bras and hooks and clasps and really it's a PITA. After a few months I was able to get comfortable just lifting my shirt and bra up from the bottom, once she was able to do the work and latch herself on. Then the only thing that showed was a little bit of tummy. Not ideal, but it works. Then...at about 9 months after finally figuring out the fine art of NIPing (nursing in public) Miss Lucy went and changed the game by getting easily distracted. This meant she would nurse a few seconds, pop off to look around, repeat. This made for very indiscrete and ineffective nursing, so that pretty much ended our NIP. Now that she's eating a lot of solids and drinking other things like water and almondmilk, we don't nurse nearly as often as we used to. Now on workdays it's basically in the morning, when I get home from work and at bedtime (and in the middle of the night if it's my night on monitor-duty). On my days off it's a different story and she might nurse several more times a day, even though most of those are quick "check-ins" to reconnect or settle down.

I've been asked how long I plan to breastfeed her, and people probably think I'm being evasive when I say I don't know, but I truly don't know. I won't ever force her to wean. I'll let her wean on her own terms, although after she turns two, I'm planning to switch from offering to a "don't offer, but don't refuse" method. Maybe she'll wean when I'm pregnant again and my milk supply decreases, but maybe she won't. I can't say the thought of nursing a toddler and a newborn makes me jump for joy but I'll certainly do it if that's where we are when the time comes.

For more info:

Kellymom.com is a great resource on all things breastfeeding.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations are for exclusive breastfeeding (meaning no other liquids or solid foods) for the first 6 months, and that breastfeeding should at least continue for a year and can continue for as long as is mutually desired by mother and child.

The World Health Organization agrees, but extends the recommended minimum to 2 years instead of one.

And here's the Surgeon General's recent Call to Action on Breastfeeding.

Ok, getting on the soap box a bit. My biggest hope is that if any of you have friends or family members who are breastfeeding, or extended breastfeeding past the first 6-12 months, that you'll be supportive and encouraging and proud of the job that mom is doing. Breastfeeding is not easy, it can be isolating and nervewracking but having a core support system is critical. Know that while breastfeeding, especially for longer than a few months isn't "the norm" it is not strange or weird. It is natural and loving, and is not selfish. Rather it is a selfless gift given to a child. If a newborn is nursing around the clock, don't suggest that he is starving and needs formula. Know that breastfeeding, while natural, is not necessarily easy and problem-free. That doesn't mean it isn't worth it. If mom is crying because she's tired and sore and wants to give in, encourage her that the first few weeks are the hardest but that she's doing a great job. Once she gets more comfortable taking the baby out in public, don't suggest that she feed her baby in a bathroom or use a cover. Don't suggest that she's selfish for being the only one able to feed the baby, don't say that she's spoiling the baby, or that it'll never wean, or ask questions like "When are you going to stop THAT?" or "You're STILL breastfeeding?" Know that nursing is more than nutrition, it's comfort and that comfort nursing is a huge part of the nursing relationship. It's like a nutritional hug :) It's ok to be uncomfortable with it. I certainly was. It's normal to be uncomfortable with things we don't understand or are unfamiliar with. But take the time, if you're so inclined, to educate yourself a bit and understand more about the benefits and specifics of breastfeeding. I have been very lucky to have supportive family and friends, but I know many others aren't that lucky.

If this is socially accepted:

Then there's no reason why this shouldn't be (except for the hideous naked bed..the sheet was in the wash ;))

Blueberry Barbecue Salmon, Crispy Asparagus Sticks and Peach Muffins

2011-08-04T11:18:00.007-04:00

I am breaking in the new kitchen! And speaking of breaking, Little Rock broke the record for the highest temperature ever recorded in the city at 114 yesterday. So what's a girl to do when it's 114 out? Fire up the oven and griddle. Obviously.

Grilled Blueberry Barbecue Salmon click for recipe and pics. The recipe calls for the salmon to be cooked on the grill, but we don't have a grill yet so I used my electric griddle.

We got it as a wedding gift or Christmas gift a few years ago, and Ifinally took it out of the box yesterday. It worked great, and hopefully we'll find many more uses for it. The only problem was the smell. Note: cook outside or next to a vent when cooking salmon. The sauce is sweet and tangy and delicious. I've added a little fish back into my diet, so this one is a keeper to add to the salmon-rotation.

Crispy Parmesan Asparagus Sticks. I had high hopes that these would convert Richard to the ranks of asparagus eaters, but no dice. Mom, Dad and I all really liked them though. I would add a bit more seasoning to the breadcrumbs, because the coating was a little bland. Great alternative to our standby of roasted asparagus. This would be a good way to introduce asparagus to kids as well, although Lucy was having none of it. So for now, I guess I'll continue cooking asparagus for myself and maybe one day they'll see the light of green deliciousness.

Peach Muffins from the trusty allrecipes.com. Yum! We had some fresh peaches and this recipe was calling my name. I used half whole wheat and half all purpose flour, and added an extra 1/2 cup milk (almond) per the allrecipes reviewers' suggestions. They turned out great.

Movin' on Up

2011-07-29T13:47:00.003-04:00

Here's our new house! Molly Maids is there right now getting it all nice and clean for us. Rich's parents are coming to town, my parents are helping, and we have several wonderful friends who have volunteered to help us out. Those are true friends that will help you move in July!

We are hoping to get everything in one big load in the morning. We have a big Uhaul truck, a covered trailer and about 4 pickup trucks plus my Xterra. It's gonna be chaos! I replaced my digital camera (dropped and broke the old one :() so I will document the process.
I've got a 7 miler planned for 6am, so tomorrow will be long, physically tiring day but it will be so worth it in the end to have it all in and done. Wish us luck!

Vegan Zucchini Muffins

2011-07-28T10:25:00.002-04:00

We had a few extra zucchini (s?) so I thought I'd make some muffins. Muffins and pancakes are quick and easy breakfasts and snacks to send with Lucy to daycare. I needed a dairy free recipe, and as usual, allrecipes had something to fit the bill.

Here's the recipe. I made a few modifications: 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 all purpose flour, decreased each sugar to 3/4 of a cup each, increased cinnamon by a tsp, used coconut oil instead of vegetable oil, and used cornstarch instead of arrowroot powder.

They turned out great. It made 12 muffins, and 24 mini-muffins.

Exciting news on the Farm

2011-07-19T09:51:00.006-04:00

Part 1: We are buying a new house, and close next Monday! We looked and looked in a couple different towns, and finally decided on Maumelle. That's where Lucy is already in daycare, the public schools are good, it's only about 15 minutes or less from most places in Little Rock. The house has 4 bedrooms, a nice big kitchen and a big fenced backyard. It is move-in ready, although I'm going to have to do something about all the neutral walls. I like color! We did the final walkthrough yesterday afternoon and everything looks good.

After being at Mom and Dad's for a year (a year tomorrow to be exact), we are definitely ready to have our own space. We have loved living with them though, and it's been amazing to have the help with Lucy. I know they'll miss having her there, and we'll miss seeing them everyday. I am really excited about getting into my own kitchen, and going furniture shopping. It has a den and a living room, so basically we need a second set of cozy living area furniture. I'm going to start scouring Craigslist and antique shops to see if I can find any good pieces.

Part 2: The Mt. Pleasant house has rented for another year. We weren't sure what we were going to do with it since the housing market has plummeted even more this past year. We debated on trying to sell for a big loss, but in the end decided to hang onto it for now.

Part 3: Saturday was our 6th wedding anniversary, and Sunday was Lucy's 14 month birthday. She went to Magnolia and stayed with Rich's mom and stepdad. I was nervous about how she would do at night since she's used to sleeping with us and nursing throughout the night, but she did great. She slept all night long in the crib. Go Lucy!

Here are a few pics from her first weekend with Cece and Poppa.

Summer update

2011-07-12T11:50:00.002-04:00

All is well in Morrisville. Lucy is walking all over the place, and cracks us up everyday with her silly antics. We are buying a new house and should be moving in the last week of August. Wahoo! I am hoping to run the Route 66 Marathon in November. Hmm...that's the high points for right now to ease myself back to blogging. I'm hoping to at least get a post up weekly. If I don't post in several weeks, I get overwhelmed with things I wanted to say but didn't and end up putting it off even longer!

One Year

2011-05-04T12:20:00.008-04:00

This is such a bittersweet post for me to write. One year ago today, my life changed forever. I became a mother. Rich and I took the giant leap as a family from couple to trio. I underwent the biggest physical accomplishment of my life, and was rewarded with a precious 7lb 1oz bundle of baby girl. Not a day has gone by since her birth that Lucy hasn't brought a smile to my face. This year has been a roller coaster of ups and downs from the insanely long labor to the colic, reflux and food sensitivities to the snuggles and giggles, and all those firsts. First bath, first smile, first food, first plane ride, first bruise, first laugh, first tooth, first crawl, first words.

My life is more different that I could have imagined. I didn't think I would still be breastfeeding at this point. I couldn't imagine my body being taken over by another creature for so long, but alas, here we are with no plans to stop. I didn't think I'd have a one year old in bed next to me every night, and wrapped onto my body for many hours a week. Now I couldn't imagine her being anywhere else. I didn't know the feeling of heart-stopping panic I would feel every time I check her breathing and it takes a second or two to feel her chest rise and fall. I didn't know how the smile of such a tiny being could make time stand still and my heart melt. I couldn't fathom that I would gladly forfeit sleep to hold my baby, that the middle of the night bonding, those tiny fingers curled around mine and she nursed back to sleep, would be some of my favorite moments. Yes, we all know that parents love their children, but that knowledge is nothing compared to actually feeling it for yourself.

Before I had her, I read a cliche that says "Having a child is like forever living with a piece of your heart outside your body." I've never read truer words. This year has gone by in the blink of an eye, although I can honestly say I've made a conscious effort to enjoy every single day of this journey. Some days are harder than others, and the joyful moment is a sense of relief at seeing her face peaceful in sleep at the end of the day while other days are full of laughter and play. Part of me would love to be able to rewind to this time last year and live this all over again, but I'm also looking forward to what the next year brings. I feel more secure in myself as a person and in myself as a mother with each passing day.

Happy First Birthday Lucy Susannah!

Then: about one hour old

And now: one year old:

Rain Rain Go Away

2011-05-02T10:10:00.007-04:00

Edited to add pics. Hope they work this time!

Geez, last week was tornados all across the state and this week there is serious flooding. Our main interstate is closed and underwater.

Here are a couple of pics from Vilonia, the our hardest hit town from last week's
deadly storms.

We drove through Vilonia on our way to Fayetteville this past weekend. We went up for the 10th annual crawfish boil that Rich's friends host. The first year they had the crawfish boil, I went with my college roommate and didn't even know Richard at the time. She was friends with some of his friends, but he and I never met. Small world! We left Lucy at home with my parents and had a great time eating spicy cajun food, sampling adult beverages and playing Baggo and horseshoes.

I can't believe it is May already. It is really bittersweet for me that my baby girl is going to turn one in two short weeks. I keep reminiscing about this time last year and reflecting on all the changes this year has brought us. It's been the best and most stressful time of my life.

Weekend Recap

2011-04-25T08:17:00.003-04:00

Going bullet style for this one

Saturday Day

Ran 3 miles with Rich and Lucy, felt great. No foot pain!
went to Little Rock to the Earth Day Festival.
saw baby goats, lambs, and some super cool looking chickens
felt very normal amongst those much hippier than myself :)
met some potential doulas when it comes time to think about baby #

Saturday Night

went to Loca Luna with some friends, drank lots of wine and laughed more than I have in a long time
Rich kept Lucy in the guest room and I got to sleep all night.
unfortunately my body doesn't know HOW to sleep all night so I still woke up every couple of hours

Sunday

put together Lucy's Easter basket, she loved the plastic eggs full of Puffs.
put her in a cute dress and took pics in the yard
went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant with some of our family.
totally non-traditional Easter, but it was a great day

In other Lucy news- she tried to say cat and Dickson. Cat is "kuh" and Dickson is something like "ick or ig." No sign of "mama" however.

She got bunny ears, 2 books, a Curious George DVD, puffs, some hairbows and 2 stuffed animals for Easter.

In her pretty dress from CeCe.

What do you mean I can't have a margarita?

4 generations: Lucy, my mom, my Granny, me

Weekend Recap

2011-04-18T08:15:00.005-04:00

We had a pretty low key weekend, which was nice. Saturday we went to the farmer's market and got fresh strawberries, kale and swiss chard. Then we went to Barnes and Noble and Target and to lunch at Casa Manana (who puts milk in their quacamole. Really? Is that necessary?). Then we took Lucy to the park to play, then to one of our friend's daughter's 2nd birthday party. Lucy had so much fun all day, and she was worn out by the time we got home. Sunday Rich golfed and Lucy and I just hung out around the house and did fun things like laundry.

I tried to fix the kale a couple different ways. I tried baking them to make Kale Chips, which I've read are wonderful. I must have cooked them too long or used too much heat, because they turned into a disintegrating burned mess. I like the idea of them though, so I'll try again next time. My 2nd kale fail was steamed kale using those steamer bags. Again, wound up with dried out greens. Finally, my 3rd attempt was a hit! I used a mixture of kale and swiss chard.

Bobby Flay's Sauteed Kale

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds young kale, stems and leaves coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
1/2 cup vegetable stock or water
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Directions

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook until soft, but not colored. Raise heat to high, add the stock and kale and toss to combine. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Remove cover and continue to cook, stirring until all the liquid has evaporated. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add vinegar.

I much prefer greens fixed this way instead of boiled and soggy. Plus, another great thing about sauteeing instead of boiling is that you don't lose those wonderful nutrients into the cooking water.

I also fixed Wild Rice and Broccoli as our main dish. It took about 15 minutes longer than the recipe stated to get the broccoli tender, but other than that this was an easy and good recipe.

Yesterday was Lucy's 11 month birthday. I say this every month, but I canNOT believe she's 11 months old. She's pulling up and cruising around getting into everything. She crawls with her right leg out sideways like a crab. Now when she holds onto our hands to walk, she can do it with only holding onto one hand instead of both. It's exciting, but I'm not ready for her to be a toddler. She still takes her naps wrapped on my back, and sleeps with us at night. Once we move into our own place (hopefully in the next couple of months!!!) we'll try to start getting her to sleep in her room at least some of the time. Her only "word" if you can call it that is Dada but I'm still not convinced she associates it with Rich. She also says "adah" all the time like she really is saying something important, but of course we have no clue what she's trying to tell us.

This is what she does when she doesn't want to go to bed, or is ready to get up in the mornings. She pulls up on the headboard and bangs on the wall.

Some of my favorite moments, her wrap-naps.

Dickson is the only dog that really seems to enjoy being around her at this point. He is also the most hyper and spastic one that licks her incessantly and knocks her over, but she doesn't seem to mind.

Thoughts on Dieting and the Diet Industry

2011-04-14T12:56:00.004-04:00

Sorry, I'm on a roll today. Here's some more deepish thoughts. This post is not a judgement on people who take diet pills or go on fad diets because I've been there. I have gone on fad diets, taken diet pills and gone through various stages of binge eating and being very restrictive. I can't understand now why I did it, but I know that it wasn't coming from a place of healthy self image or thinking. -Why can't people see that diets/diet pills/fat loss girdles/etc. don't work? If they worked there would be no diet industry because everyone would be thin. -Why do people ignore the facts that exercise and a healthy diet (quite different from "a diet") are the keys to being a healthy weight? -Why do people think it's ok to take stimulant diet pills that increase your blood pressure and heart attack risks in order to lose a few pounds that they'll probably keep off for a month or two. -Why are we so lazy as a society that we scoff when doctors or other healthcare providers (your friendly pharmacist :)) suggest healthy eating or exercise. -Why will people shell out big bucks for prescriptions for chronic diseases or books on the latest fad diet, but complain that fresh produce is too expensive? -Why do people use the argument that "everything causes cancer" as an excuse to not cut out ANY possible carcinogens. If we know lots of things cause cancer, why not eliminate the ones you have the power to? -Why do people smoke? Pretty much dumbest idea ever. I'm sure I'll think of more, but I'll save them for another day.

Weekend Recap

2011-04-12T13:33:00.004-04:00

We went to Fayetteville, home of the University of Arkansas, to watch the Arkansas vs. LSU baseball game series this past weekend. We had a great time! We got to visit with Rich's mom and stepdad, stepsister and stepnephew. Jackson is 6 months older than Lucy and it was fun to watch them together. She leaned over, grabbed his face and gave him a big kiss. I was a little concerned about how she would do since the game Saturday night was at 7:00pm and her bedtime is around 7:30 or 8:00. She had a great time watching people and being walked around (she holds your fingers and walks, her favorite pastime these days). About 8:00 I wrapped her up and she went to sleep. She even slept through the crowd cheering after a game-winning home run in the bottom of the 9th! She had her first baseball game, first hotel stay and first time in Oklahoma all that weekend because our hotel was right over the AR/OK line.

On the vegan front: I have been reading like crazy this past week trying to get as much comprehensive information on vegan/vegetarian diets, especially in infants and toddlers and lactating women....and lactating women who run :) Basically what I've learned is that Lucy and I need to take supplemental vitamin D, B12 and DHA. You can get away with only B12 if you're 100% certain your diet contains enough D and DHA but I'm going to supplement just to be on the safe side. We will be eating a ton of beans, coconut and almond milks, orange juice with added calcium and D, fortified cereals, walnuts, flax seeds, other nuts and nut butters, and of course fruits and veggies. I'm going to start making green smoothies for us. I'm hoping she continues to outgrow her soy intolerance so we can add in soy sources of protein like soymilk, soybeans, tofu, etc. With me breastfeeding and her being a baby, making sure our diet is balanced and supplying all that we need for growth and development is crucial. The book Becoming Vegan has been a great resource because it breaks down how you need to tweak things for various stages of life such as infants/toddlers/pregnancy/over or underweight/elderly. I also loved Disease-Proof Your Child: Feeding Kids Right. It addessed many health concerns of children, and of adults as a result of childhood dietary habits.

I'm making a trip to Whole Foods tomorrow and will hopefully make several things for us to have to eat this week. Some things I'm itching to try include: Fudgesicles (made with cashews, bananas and carob), Oat-Flax bars, Quinoa with peppers, Carrot Cream Soup, and a salad with Orange Cashew Dressing. I'll post pics, recipes and reviews of what I cook.

Vegetarian/Vegan

2011-04-06T10:32:00.002-04:00

This post is mainly just for me to jot down some thoughts I'm having. I've toyed with the idea of vegetarianism for years, and actually went meatless for about a 6 month period a couple of years ago. Of course we all know that I love animals so that was always a huge motivating factor for me, but not motivating enough to overcome the ease and convenience, and deliciousness, of meat eating. Not motivating enough to take huge leap outside the box and label myself "vegetarian" or "vegan." Here in the south you might as well grow a 2nd head. I didn't want to deal with explaining myself to people over and over, or to inconvenience others who might be cooking for me.

Well now that I'm a mom, my interests have changed. Now the health of me and my family trumps all of the above. I am very, very seriously considering making the switch to veganism. Here are the things I have recently read and/or seen that are the catalysts for this giant overhaul.

The China Study is fascinating and infuriating. It is very science-y, but I challenge you to read it. It is basically saying that animal consumption increases risks of most chronic diseases including diabetes, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimers just to name a few. It also explains in detail how these studies get covered up by the industries and government. I'm not one to jump on every conspiracy theory bandwagon that rolls by, but I'm a scientist by nature who needs explanations and this data is jaw dropping.

Whitewash- think cow's milk is good for you? Yeah, I did too. If you don't want to tackle The China Study yet, start with Whitewash. I have been dairy free since last summer and now I have no plans to go back to consuming cow's milk and I certainly won't be introducing any dairy to Lucy.

Earthlings and Food Inc both focus a lot on animals. Earthlings isn't just about food, but more about how we are all creatures of the Earth and on the exploitation of animals by humans. It is extremely graphic and hard to watch. But I forced myself because if I can eat it, then I should be able to watch it. Food Inc talks about animal issues some but it also exposes a lot of the government/lobbyist/industry issues of why our government issued food recommendations do not match up with what science says is healthy for us.

Ok, that's all pretty rambling but I needed to get it out of my head and into words a bit. I know this is very non-mainstream and that makes people defensive. For some reason, saying you are a vegetarian or vegan is threatening to a lot of people. I'm beyond the point in my life where I will make major decisions for myself and my family because they conform to societal norms. I'm hopping out of the mainstream because the mainstream is polluted, overweight and unhealthy.

Yesterday in Pics

2011-01-31T08:00:00.001-05:00

We went for a walk.

We vacuumed.

We cat-napped. (don't worry, I didn't leave her unsupervised with the cat)

Hot Damn I Ran Again!

2011-01-30T10:57:00.003-05:00

ONE WHOLE MILE, stop the presses!!!!

We had a gorgeous 75 degree day yesterday so we popped Lucy in the Bob and leashed up the dogs. My goal was just to run a mile and see how it felt, and it felt good overall. I get that histamine release when I haven't run in awhile, you know the red splotchy itchies? Anyone else get this? We refer to it as ILS, or Itchy Leg Syndrome although my torso is commonly affected as well. But other than huffing and puffing (thank you residual respiratory virus) and itching, it was a great mile. We walked another mile or two after that, just to enjoy being outside and moving. I have really enjoyed the 3 week exercise hiatus but I'm going to try to get back to some consistent running/strength training/yoga starting this week. I weigh less than I did when I got pregnant, but things are...um...less than firm.

In Lucy news, she now says "Dada" all the time. Changing her diaper=dada, feeding her=dada, nursing her=dada, you get the picture. She doesn't necessarily associate it with Richard, but she sure likes to say it. She also knows the sign for milk. Here it is, like milking a cow.

Whenever I hold her and make the sign she starts grunting and nosedives straight into my chest, so she definitely knows what it means. It's pretty cute:) She also has started yelling "Eh" really loudly and frequently. So Eh and Dada are her words of choice, with the occasional Baaaah thrown in.

Finally Well!

2011-01-27T11:20:00.004-05:00

The funky bug that Lucy so kindly shared with me hung onto me longer than it did her (thankfully). It took a full 2 weeks, and I still have some lingering cough and congestion, but I'm finally feeling almost back to normal. I haven't run in over 2 weeks though. Every time I would set foot outside the cold air would send me into coughing fits so I took that as a nice excuse for a long rest. I'm hoping I haven't lost too much fitness because our half is coming up in early March and I'd like to enjoy it and feel good during and after!

Lucy is getting SOOOOO close to crawling. She has perfected the roll over-push up and does it every time I'm trying to change her clothes or diaper. She sleeps in bed with me/us and naps in our bed as well, so I went yesterday and bought bedrails so she can't crawl or roll off. We don't even have a crib, and the plan (haha gotta love how plans go awry) was for her to sleep in her pack n play until she was big enough for a toddler bed. Well she was never a big pack n play fan, and since she still wakes up several times a night, it was much easier to just move her into bed with us. She's too busy to snuggle and cuddle during the day, but she spends her nights nestled right against me. That way she can nurse when she wakes up without either of us really having to get fully woken up. I've heard "oh, you've got to break her of that" and lots of variations on the theme of "you'll never get her out of your bed." Umm..I'm fairly certain that at some point she'll not sleep with us. Unless colleges open parent/child dorms, in which case we're set for life;) I like that precious time with her, especially on days that I work and don't see her much at all during the day. One thing I've learned so far since having her is just how darn fast it goes, so I will cherish every snuggle and night spent with this sweet girl at my side.

Ok, I need some motivating words to get back out there and run....let's hear it! I also want to start doing some yoga since my flexibility is nowhere near what it used to do. Do you know of any good websites that have a quick and fairly easy yoga routine?

Happy 8 Month Birthday Lucy Sue

2011-01-17T14:21:00.002-05:00

Glossing over the fact that I haven't posted since...gasp...October!!

My little lovebug is 8 months old today. How can this be?? We had a great first holiday season with her, and she is just such a joy to us. She is sweet and funny so full of life and love and it's impossible not to smile when she grins at you. I really can't believe that she can be this old already. Rich and I were talking about how we still feel like brand new parents with a brand new baby.

She had her first tooth pop in overnight. It's not all the way up yet, but it's poked through the gum. She and I have been sick for the past week. She has RSV, and is on an inhaler to help with her breathing. She's much better though, thankfully! I'm still under the weather but hopefully will start to feel better soon. It's hard to keep her entertained when I'm sick!

On other fronts in our lives:

Running- get's a huge thumbs down and frowny face. We started off marathon training doing really well, but the holidays and various illnesses and ailments have derailed us. We planned on doing the Little Rock marathon in March, but I think we're downgrading to just doing the half. I'm disappointed because I really wanted to the full, and made it as far as 16 miles on long runs but I just wasn't getting my weekly runs in. I was pushing hard to get the long ones in while skipping most of the shorter midweek runs, and I could tell in my body that it was not going well and I decided to stop running long to see if some aches and pains will improve. The weekend warrior route was not cutting it. I am looking forward to running the half, and to tackling some shorter races and bis/tris this summer.

Housing-still living here in Cabot with my parents, still have the house in Charleston with renters. We have started to look more seriously for a house here though, and once we talk to some lenders to see what we're working with we can hopefully move forward.

I leave you with some recent pics of the little one :)

Weekend Recap with Pics

2010-10-11T06:50:00.005-04:00

We had a whirlwind weekend to New Orleans, but it was a great time and I loved getting to visit with my high school girlfriends. We flew out of Little Rock Friday morning and got to NOLA around noon. We hit up the hotel bar, and I had a dirty martini and a cheese quesadilla. It was heavenly! It was strange to be able to eat and drink whatever I wanted for a couple days without worrying about Lucy getting an upset stomach. I had cheese, ice cream, crabcakes, bananas foster...all things I love but wouldn't have been able to eat if I were nursing her. The downside to not nursing for over 48 hours was that I was attached to this stupid thing every couple hours:

Friday night was the rehearsal dinner, and we went to bed really early afterwards since we hadn't gotten much sleep the night before and had to get up to run. Saturday morning we got up, had some coffee and headed out for our 8 miler. It was a great run and we loved running in a new city. There were lots of Ewwww moments though as we sidestepped to avoid things like vomit, condoms and broken beer bottles. New Orleans is such a beautiful city, but the 24/7 partying that goes on does take a toll on certain areas. It was so much fun to see the city on foot and I know I'll always remember that particular run whenever I think of NOLA. We got our 8 miles done, then hung out in the hotel lobby watching college football all afternoon.

The wedding itself was gorgeous and perfect. The bride was beautiful, the weather was just right, and everyone had a great time. Our shuttle back to the airport picked us up at 3:55 am Sunday morning so didn't end up going out after the wedding.

It was really nice to have some time away for Rich and I to hang out sans baby, but we were so happy to walk through the door and see her face. I was afraid she wouldn't want to nurse after having the bottle for a couple days since the milk flows easier from a bottle but she was just as happy to see me as I was to see her and she nursed great.

Here I am with my new dark hair!

Me and the hubby

Me, Kendra and Kelley (high school bffs)

Dancing the night away:)

Motherhood Monday-21 Weeks: Stranger Danger

2010-10-11T06:26:00.002-04:00

So as you all know, I'm not really back to work consistently yet. Last fall Rich, Dad and I toured several daycares and chose one that we liked. It's in Maumelle, which is about 40 minutes or so from Cabot where we are living now. We ultimately want to live in Maumelle, and it's not far from Little Rock where we'll be working. The bad thing about daycare (well one of many, but I'll save that for now) is that you have to pay for the entire week, whether you take your baby everyday or just one day. I'm only going to be working a couple days a week so we thought about trying to find someone who does in-home childcare so we would only have to pay for the days we use.

My Dad works in pubic housing, and has an office that's directly in front of a large group of senior apartments. He told me about this really nice woman named Marilyn, about 70 years old, who keeps her grandson some and has a daughter who is an RN at the VA hospital where Rich is working. She said she would keep Lucy for us, so I arranged a meeting at her apartment, bldg 15 apt 1. I arrive at said apartment right on time for our meeting. I knock on the door and this older woman opens the door and instantly reaches her arms out for Lucy. We go in and start chatting and she tells me that she just moved in 3 days ago. First red flag: if she just moved in, how does Dad think he knows her well enough to trust her with Lucy? I'm beginning to question his judgment on this one. The apartment wasn't dirty exactly, but it smelled musty and stale and just didn't look the least bit child or baby friendly. I told the lady not to feel obligated at all to keep her, and she looks at me a little funny and says ok. She doesn't ask me any questions about our schedule or needs as far as a sitter goes. She tells me about her siblings, her kids and then gets to talking about the Japanese and Hitler and Ronald Reagan. I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to history so I was doing a lot of smiling and nodding. I keep trying to steer the conversation back to Lucy, and am thinking that there's no way I'm leaving my baby with this woman. I asked her about her grandson that she supposedly babysits for, and she said "Oh yes, I used to keep him. Now I haven't seen him in 2 years, I think he's on the drugs again." I then ask her about her daughter, the RN at the VA. She says "Did I say she worked at the VA? She works at Walmart in the deli. My brother died at the VA though." Ok, finally I've had enough of this crazy lady. I said "Ma'am, what's your name?" "Shirley" she replied. Doh!!! Wrong lady!! I just spent 35 minutes in the wrong apartment. She probably that I was the looney one. I explained to her that I was looking for Marilyn, the lady who was going to be babysitting for us. She said she just thought maybe I was visiting all the new neighbors. She says she thinks Marilyn lives next door. I get next door and a lady yells out "Oh, there's that baby" and takes Lucy. I ask if she's Marilyn. Nope, she is Kathy.

Finally I figure out that there is more than one building 15 apt 1, find Marilyn, she is great and laughs at the story. So moral of the story is, a baby is extremely popular at senior living complexes! I couldn't believe I did that, and couldn't stop cracking up as I told my parents and Rich about it.

Now we still don't know if we're going to use Marilyn or daycare for various reasons, but at least I finally found her apartment.

3 Things Thursday

2010-10-07T11:31:00.002-04:00

1. Last weekend's long run was 6 miles and it went great! We ran on some trails along the river, some paved and some not. We took it nice and slow and the miles felt easy. Lucy was awake but she didn't fuss much at all, and Rich and I were able to enjoy the time together and chat. We have slacked this week though. We skipped a 3 miler and shortened another 3 miler to 2 miles. I got up ready to run this morning but then realized he had the stroller in the car with him at work today. Ugh! We agreed to run tonight and recommit to training and stop skipping runs!!

2. We leave early tomorrow morning to fly to New Orleans for the wedding of one of my best friends from high school. It will be our first weekend away from Lucy, and I'm really psyched to SLEEP....all....night!!! We will be doing our 8 miler around the city Saturday morning, which will keep me from imbibing in too much at the open bar tomorrow night.

3. I got my hair done Tuesday. It's now a dark reddish brown. Pics to come soon!

Motherhood Monday-20 Weeks

2010-10-04T10:33:00.003-04:00

Yesterday Rich watched Lucy and I got to spend some much needed "me" time hanging out with a bff. We went to see Case 39, very scary and good! Then went for martinis, double good! It felt great to get out of mommy mode for an afternoon and just be me for a bit. I knew that motherhood was going to be all consuming, and that's part of what is so wonderful about it, but it can definitely wear you down if you don't get any breaks. Literally 99% of my thoughts and decisions revolve around Lucy. Here's some examples
-The old me loved to wear fun earrings and necklaces, now I can't because she pulls on them.

-The old me loved to fix my hair, now I don't have time and she pulls on it so up it goes.

-The old me loved makeup, now I don't have time for much playing around with cosmetics and I don't want to rub makeup and lipstick all over her with all the kisses she gets.

-The old me loved cute clothes, now I just have to find things that work for nursing, style be damned.

-The old me loved to zone out on a run with my Ipod, now I have to push a jogging stroller and listen to her fuss if she doesn't want to be there.

-The old me loved to cook and try new recipes, now I just eat things that I know won't upset her stomach.

-The old me used to wear cute heels, now I don't because I worry about tripping while carrying her (because both the old and new me are very clumsy!)

-The old me used to love to sleep in, now I'm up several times a night and up early every morning.

-The old me loved purses, now I carry a huge diaper bag and breastpump bag with me instead.

None of these things are bad or problematic, just different. I don't want to seem as if I'm complaining, because I'm really not. It's just a huge adjustment to have to think so much about everything I do, wear, eat or drink and I wanted to share that a little bit. One day I'll be able to break free and go on a cute shirt wearing, milkshake drinking rampage and I'll miss these days, so I just remember that this is such a short time in my life and try to enjoy every single day. And honestly, one big smile makes all those superficial sacrifices seem like nothing. When she sees me and smiles so big her whole body lights up, nothing else in the world matters.

She rolled from her back to tummy then back over yesterday for the first time! I hope you all have a great Monday.

Running Update

2010-10-01T15:37:00.002-04:00

Bob kicks my a@@! Rich went back to work full time this week so the bambina and I have been doing our morning runs alone. Which means that I have no one to push Bob and I'm not brave enough to rig him up to a dog harness yet Snow Dog style so I have to push. I love the stroller. It's nice and fancy and has great shocks and rolls easily, etc. I hate pushing the darn thing. It's heavy, and Lucy is only 4 months old! There are a couple of small hills we run regularly and it takes all my effort to get us both up them. At least it should make for easier runs and races when I'm strollerless. It feels great to be back running regularly again, and to feel improvements in my endurance and strength as the days go by. The marathon is not until March but I have to keep reminding myself that these shorter midweek runs are building the fitness base that is essential to crossing that finish line.

We've got a 6 miler for this weekend which will be the longest I've run in over a year. My plan is to just take it slow and get the mileage in, even if that means walking some of it. Hopefully we'll leave Lucy with my mom or Rich will be the designated Bob pusher.

I am loving being back in the blog community and catching up with all of you. Here's to racing season!

Wordless-ish Wednesday

2010-09-30T10:46:00.002-04:00

So I got this post all ready to go then realized it is Thursday. Fail.

She was not psyched about wearing her sunglasses.

Babywearing saves my sanity. I can wear her and still get things done since she doesn't like being left alone for any length of time. This is called a Mei Tai and it can go on the front or back.

Here we are all wrapped up in a woven baby wrap. I can wrap her on my front, back or hip. She likes it because she can be up and see what's going on while still snuggling close.

I know, this headband is ridiculous but I couldn't resist!

The Diet and Breastfeeding.

2010-09-29T15:27:00.004-04:00

So I have been on a really restricted diet since June. We're breastfeeding and Lucy is sensitive to any dairy or soy in my diet. Now we're not just talking cheese or soy sauce here, we're talking whey protein added to cereal, soy lecithen added to candy....there is literally dairy and soy in just about everything! At about 3-4 weeks old she started having really gnarly green poops and was super fussy all the time. I did some research and thought it might be a cow's milk protein intolerance so I cut out all dairy. I cut out soy and it made a huge difference! The problem is finding things to eat. I've lost all but about 3 lbs of my pregnancy weight and I'm sure that I would be struggling with that a lot more if I didn't have to watch my diet so closely. I'm planning to breastfeed for at least a year, probably a good bit longer, so I'm hoping that she outgrows this in the next few months. It's amazing how a small amount of dairy or something can really hurt her and make her fussy for about 12 hours after I eat it. I try to not eat anything with dairy or soy but sometimes things slip by and I don't realize it until it's too late. She's worth it though for sure.

I wasn't sure how I would feel about breastfeeding but I love it. I love that it gives her the absolute best nutrition, that it saves us loads of money on the specialty formula we would have to have her on, that it decreases my chances of osteoporosis and certain cancers, that it decreases her chances of diabetes and other diseases later in life, that it gives her immunity while her immune system is still developing....I could go on and on! My initial plan was to breastfeed for 6 months, and if I made it to a year that would be bonus. Now I'm leaning towards breastfeeding her for at least 2 years since that's what is recommended by several medical associations. I just don't know anyone that has breastfed for longer thean a year and there is definitely a social stigma to extended breastfeeding. Although I've never been one to let what other's think stand in my way ;) Breastfeeding is not easy, at least at first it wasn't. I had mastitis, this crazy diet and playing around trying to figure out her food issues, it is time consuming because breastfed babies eat more often than formula babies in general, it's a pain to pump, but in the end I just decided that it was the best decision for us.

But I'm not gonna lie...I would kill for some:

or some:

We'll trial her on dairy or soy at 6 months to see how it goes. Most babies start outgrowing these intolerances (they're not actual allergies) at about 6 months.

Lucy Pics

2010-09-22T09:28:00.002-04:00

Oops, looks like my pics didn't work last night. Here are a few:)

In her Razorback dress and diaper before the Arkansas/Georgia game.

With Daddy.

She loves bathtime and the hairdryer (even though it doesn't really look like it in these pics).

Her first Razorback tailgate. It was so HOT but she did great.

She likes going runnng with the Bob.

I'm Back!!!

2010-09-21T21:36:00.003-04:00

Hey there everyone who might still ever check in at the Funny Farm. I took the summer off from blogging but now I'm back!! Here's a brief rundown of what we've been up to since Lucy was born on May 17. On July 20 we moved from SC back to Arkansas. We are currently living in Cabot, AR with my parents while we get settled with jobs and figure out what we want to do about buying or renting another house. We have renters in our SC house. So there are 4 adults, an infant and 5 big dogs in my parent's house...they are awesome for letting us live here! It's really nice to have the help with Lucy and hopefully they're enjoying the family time as well.

Right after we moved Rich got hired by the VA as a pharmacist in their outpatient pharmacy. But...they are suuuuper slow about getting things done so he still hasn't started yet!! He starts work Monday, after a 2 month (unplanned) paternity leave. I know he's antsy to get back to work, but has definitely enjoyed the time home with Lucy and me.

I don't have a job yet, but have worked a couple days at an independent pharmacy. I'm hoping to work about 20 hours a week and spend the rest of my time being Mama. I never dreamed I'd be "that girl" that wants to stay at home with a baby, but I totally am.

Running is going great so far. We're signed up for the Memphis half marathon in December and the Little Rock Marathon in March.

Here are a couple pic from this week. She is 4 months old:)

Help Me With My Get-In-Shape Plan

2010-06-23T20:40:00.002-04:00

I need some help figuring out the best way to lose some pounds and gain some fitness. I'm all cleared to start working out again, although I'll have to take it slow to start with. I'm going to be running 4 days a week, just some short distances for now and building back up to longer and harder runs. I've got the running plan down, but I don't know what I want to do about strength training and toning. So I'm enlisiting my wonderfully fit readers for advice. Here's what I'm working with:

We don't have a gym membership anymore, and I am not a fan of videos.
I have a yoga mat and 8lb hand weights as my only fitness equipment.
I need to work on the core, butt, thighs, arms..well pretty much total body toning.
It needs to be as efficient (aka short) as possible since I'll be cramming workouts in while Lucy is sleeping for now.

What say you??

Who's that dirty topless woman??

2010-06-18T08:20:00.002-04:00

and not the good kind of dirty and topless....
Oh wait, it's me!

Things "They" Don't Tell You About Having a Newborn (or that they tell you but you just can't appreciate until you live it)

A good day is one in which you shower and brush your teeth before 3pm
A great day is one in which you wash your hair and/or shave in said shower
Your favorite perfumes are replaced with Eau de Sour Milk
There's no point in wearing a shirt, much less a bra, since it has to come up or off what seems like every half hour.
Doggie daycare will save your sanity
You will barely resist the urge to hurl your constantly meowing cat out the window
There's nothing sexier than seeing the man you love holding your new baby
Too bad you can't do anything about it since he is in fact holding a baby and you smell like sour milk and haven't shaved in days
There's nothing glamourous about motherhood, at least so far (see above)
While you have grown this baby inside you, she is still a stranger that you have to get to know
Motherhood hones your songwriting ability. For example, here's our swaddling song:

"I'm cooking up a baby burrito

Wrap her up from head to toe

We cuddle and we snuggle 'cause we love her so

love our baby burrito"

And our gas-alleviating song for tummy massages:

(in a military march style)

"1, 2, 3, 4

Get that toot out my back door

Get that gas

Outta my ass

Outta my ass" (yeah, I know, it's awful, I'm sleep deprived.)

While it's great and all that breastfeeding burns so many calories, you'll be so hungry that you can easily eat enough to compensate for all those extra burned calories.
You will not hesitate to catch pee and spit up with your hand
You can't have too many burp cloths
A good night's sleep is anything over 2 consecutive hours
Gowns are much better than any kind of clothes you have to snap in the middle of the night
All the cliches are true: they grow so fast, you'll never know love like the love you feel for your child, you'll get no sleep, having a child is like having a piece of your heart existing outside your body

In all seriousness, being a mom is the greatest thing I've ever experienced and I am so in love with her. It's hard, all-consuming and exhausting, but of course that's to be expected. She was a month old yesterday, and while it feels like it has gone by so fast, it also feels like this little person has always been in my heart. It's something I've always known I wanted and to be able to have her and share that with Richars is such a blessing.

I go Monday for my 6 week check-up, although it'll only be 5 weeks. My doctor is going out of town so we bumped the appointment up. Hopefully I'll get the go ahead to start working out again! Rich has been going running and taking Lucy and I'm ready to get back out there with them.

Happy Friday!

Marathon Training Lasted 2 Whole Days...

2010-06-14T15:43:00.004-04:00

..before my body told me "Whoa, slow down sister. I just grew and pushed out a baby, give me a break." In other words, I had increased pain and bleeding so I had to put running on hold again. Here I am 4 weeks postpartum and totally thought I'd be out running daily again, but I'm trying to be smart and listen to my body. I have 2 weeks until my 6 week checkup, so I'm going to wait til then before trying again. I still have plenty of time to train but could really use the calorie burning and mind clearing benefits of some good runs right now. Until then I'll get my exercise by lifting the TV remote, hiking my shirt up repeatedly and walking up and down the stairs to change diapers:)

But she's so worth it!

Marathon Training Starts Today!!!

2010-06-06T10:21:00.004-04:00

Woohoo, I ran a mile. It was the first full one since my 32nd week, so almost 10 weeks ago. It was hot and slow but it felt great! We took Lucy in the Bob and she really seems to like it. I think she likes the motion and being outside. I'm planning for my first full marathon next spring, the Little Rock Marathon in March. That gives me 9 months so I can take it nice and slow at first. I'm hoping to get at least one, possibly two, half marathons in between now and then as well. I'm so excited to get back into running!

I ended up gaining somewhere between 40 and 43 pounds, and have lost about 20 of it so far. With the start of training, I'm trying to cut out most junk food...which unfortunately happens to be my favorite food group. I'm not going to be following any set diet plan, but just eliminating as much sugar and refined/processed carbs as possible, eating frequently and increasing the protein and veggie intake. I'm hopeful that the return to exercise combined with breastfeeding will get the remaining 20ish pounds off. My ultimate goal is to lose about 30 more total, to take me to 10 lbs less than I was when I got pregnant. I know it will not happen overnight but I'm ready to be a little happier with what I see in the mirror, plus it's a lot tougher to run with the extra weight. It's funny though, after going through that labor and delivery I have such pride in my body that the post-baby flab really doesn't bother me nearly as much as I expected it to.

Rich has been off this weekend, and it's been really nice to have a few days with just he, Lucy and I (off topic: was that grammatically correct? If anyone knows, please correct me if not because I always struggle with this particular grammar point and it bugs me to not know if it's right). He is a fantastic Daddy so far, changing diapers, giving bottles of pumped milk, rocking her when she cries and just doing all he can to help me out since she has to be attached to me so many hours of the day for nursing. I couldn't imagine going through this alone or with a less supportive and active partner. Lucy will be 3 weeks old tomorrow and it is flying by so fast. I'm trying to treasure every moment...including the middle of the night fussing, spit up on my clothes, poop in her hair and all the other wonderful moments that one day I know I'll wish I had to do over again.

Oh..and did I mention that I RAN A MILE TODAY??? Yeah, I'm a little excited about it.

Growth Spurts and I wanna run!!!

2010-06-02T13:09:00.004-04:00

Lucy has been a little fussier the past few days, and has been nursing as often as every hour to every hour and a half sometimes. So that means if she starts at noon, eats for half an hour, then she's ready to eat again 30-60 minutes later. I read that growth spurts are normal around 2 weeks and that is probably the cause of the super frequent eating and some of the extra fussing. We took her to the pediatrician for her 2 week weight check up today and found that she'd grown an inch and gained 12 oz in the last 9 days. At least I know she's getting enough to eat and that all the nursing is paying off. I ate broccoli soup for dinner last night and I think the broccoli may not have treated her very well because she cried, grunted and kicked for what seemed like hours last night.

Now she's sleeping sweetly in her wrap on my chest. This is my view of her right now:) I now I should follow everyone's advice and sleep when she sleeps but I'm having a really hard time napping during the day.

I am SOOOOOOO ready to get back to running. I cannot wait for that first really draining, stress-relieving, everything-feels-right run although I know that it'll be awhile before I get that one in. I'm going to try to make myself wait til my 6 week checkup before running, but depending on how I feel I may try some short jogging stretches incorporated into walks in the next couple weeks.

Postpartum Life

2010-06-01T17:13:00.002-04:00

Lucy was 2 weeks old yesterday, and as of tomorrow we will have been home with her for 2 weeks. I felt suprisingly pretty good the first several days, which turned out to be kind of bad because I think I overdid things. We had my mom and dad, and Rich's mom and stepdad here and we did a lot of packing for the move and got out of the house and went to dinner a couple times, to the beach for a walk, to the farmer's market and shopping in downtown Charleston. It was a lot of fun, and Lucy slept through it all, but after they all left (except my mom, she's still here) I got really really sore and tired. I think everything finally caught up with me, and I ended up spending most of last week on the couch. My dad drove a Uhaul load of things back to Arkansas with him when he left, and they got a lot of work done around the house which is a huge relief. We have it listed for rent now, and are hoping that Rich will find out something about a job sometime this week so we will know a more firm moving date. We are going to be moving in with my parents for a couple months while we figure out exactly where we're going to want to live, if we'll be buying or renting, etc. Yes, we're 30 and 32, married with a baby and moving in with my parents...don't be jealous!

I got a mild case of mastitis that started at the end of last week, but luckily I got started on antibiotics quickly and it's better now. Nursing is going well, but it is even more all-consuming than I expected. The vast majority of my day is spent nursing or thinking about how it's almost time to nurse again, and of course changing countless diapers a day. We're about 40:60 disposable:cloth diapers at this point. I'm really liking the cloth and will do a more thorough review of some diapers soon.

Emotionally it's been tougher than I anticipated as well. The emotional long labor and delivery, followed by the typical new parent sleep deprivation, packing up our house that we love and preparing to leave a city and friends that we love, trying to get motivated to job hunt when thinking about leaving this baby girl to go to work makes me instantly cry, hoping that Rich can find a job and that we can find renters for our house, feeling like I'm neglecting the dogs by not being able to walk them and give them as much attention as normal, feeling flabby and out of shape and not being able to work out, plus postpartum hormones all add up to a very emotional Mama. But...I just remind myself that this is temporary and in a few months hopefully we'll be a lot more settled.

Ok, she's fussing, gotta go feed her. Hope you all had a fabulous Tuesday!

Lucy's Birth Story: Part 4, the grand finale and lots of pics

2010-05-28T09:42:00.007-04:00

Warning: this post may be too graphic for some of you if you are squeamish. You've been warned.

So I finally feel the urge to push and am 9 1/2 cm dilated. I start pushing on my knees facing the back of the bed with my head and arms up over the back of the bed resting on pillows. I'm not sure why but I didn't stay in that position long, maybe because I was too weak to hold myself up in that way. I rolled over onto my back in the more traditional pushing position. The nursery nurse was there, my nurse was there, Mandy was there, and mom and Rich were there holding my legs as I pushed. My doctor popped in and out (every time she left I realized I still had a long ways to go or she wouldn't have left, that was discouraging). The first few pushes I was not pushing effectively because I was yelling, so after I settled down and got a feel for how to push it was much better. Suprisingly, this stage was much less painful than I expected. It was physically the most exhausting thing I've ever done, and by the end I was completely breathless and sweaty and had busted blood vessels in my eyes. My eyes were so blurry from straining so hard that I really couldn't see very well at all for a few hours.

I always thought that pushing only took like 20 minutes, but I wound up pushing for 2 hours and later learned that it is a fairly normal amount of time. Mandy brought out a dog tug-of-rope toy and every time I would have a contraction, mom and Rich would each grab a knee and a foot to hold my legs back, and Mandy and I would tug on the toy. It sounds crazy but that pulling motion really helped me to push harder. The funny thing is mom just thought she'd be in the waiting room, she didn't know she'd be such an active part of the labor team:) There was a point with the really strong pushes where it stopped being a conscious effort and my body would take over and push by itself. Sort of like if you try to make yourself throw up, then once you get that good gag reflex your body takes over and vomits by itself...gross I know, but that's the best way I can explain it. I was getting SO tired, but I knew there was no stopping or resting now.

Lucy's heart rate started dropping with the pushes and contractions so they put me on an oxygen mask and had me roll onto my left side to push. It was a more awkward pushing position but it helped her get more oxygen and her heart rate to recover. After a while her heart rate stopped recovering and was staying low and I was getting very anxious about it. I could hear her hearbeat on the monitor and would just try to will it to speed back up. It worked a few times, but then it stopped speeding back up. I pushed harder and harder and stopped resting between pushes, but she just wasn't coming out. I could actually feel the top of her head come out with a push, then slip back in as I stopped, over and over and over I felt like I was working so hard to push the same little bit of her head out again and again. Finally the doctor told me that we had to get her out now, and that she needed to cut an episiotomy. I had really hoped to avoid this, and she knew that, so I knew she wouldn't suggest it unless it really had to be done so I told her of course, do whatever you need to do. Mandy thankfully told Rich not to watch, but I could still hear it and it is an awful sound. She did give me a shot of local anesthetic before so it didn't hurt at all. One more push and her head was out. I sighed and relaxed then the doctor reminded me that I only had her head out, that we had to keep going. One more big push and her shoulders popped out and then I felt the single most incredible thing I've ever felt in my life...the slide and gush as her body slipped right out of me and into the world. That is a sensation I don't think I will ever forget. I have never been more relieved or more physically, mentally or emotionally fatigued.

I started saying "I want my baby, I want my baby" over and over. I wanted her on my chest immediately but her cord was short, so the had to go ahead and clamp it. Rich cut the cord, then they put her on my chest, in all her bloody, slimy gooey glory. I kissed her head and thought, Eww that's gross but I didn't care. She was pretty purple, I guess from the decreased blood and oxygen flow she had been getting. She let out some weak little cries, but the nurses were concerned because she wasn't crying loudly. They took her from me over to the warmer a few feet away and gave her some oxygen. Rich was able to be right there with her. Meanwhile, my doctor sewed me up and I remember saying "Ouch" and she said "Oh, well I thought I used enough lidocaine.. only a couple stitches left." Then we were waiting on my placenta to be delivered. After the baby comes out, the placenta will detach from the uterus and then comes out. But like everything else about the experience, this didn't happen as it should. She tugged the cord, I pushed but still no placenta. Apparently my uterus is just a really hospitable place. So she had to manually get it out. I couldn't see exactly what she did, but based on how it felt I think she reached her hands in there and scraped it all out. I yelled louder then that I did at any point during the labor or delivery. Holy sh!$ that hurt!!!!

Finally I was sewed up, cleaned up and empty of both baby and placenta. Lucy was cleaned up and breathing well. And then were were alone, well Mandy was still there. Mom left to go make phone calls and the doctors and nurses had all cleared out. Mandy tried to help us with breastfeeding but I think both Lucy and I were too exhausted then to give it our best effort. I was so weak that I honestly could not hold her up without propping her on a pillow. After an hour or so, Mandy left and Rich, Lucy and I were alone for the first time as our new family of three. Then Rich and Lucy went to the nursery for some of her follow-up exams and a bath. I ate lunch and took a shower.

We moved from the Labor and Delivery room to a postpartum room, Rich's mom and stepdad showed up a few hours later and my dad got here the next morning. It was wonderful having them all there and knowing how loved our little baby was already. We spent two nights in the hospital, and kept Lucy in the room with us the whole time. We came home last Wednesday the 19th.

Now she is 11 days old and all the family is gone except for my mom. She's staying another week or two to help with the baby/dogs/housework. Rich is back to work, and I'm just trying to get the hang of newborn care. We are really doing great, she sleeps pretty well, nurses well and we are completely smitten with her. She looks just like her Daddy, not a thing like me...after all that work she could at least look a little like me ;)

If anyone ever happens to read this who is looking for a doula in the Charleston, SC area, I cannot recommend Mandy enough. Her name is Mandy Reimer of Rite of Passage Doula and she is exceptional. I couldn't have achieved my goal of a natural birth without her support and knowledge. Or if you're just considering natural birth and/or a doula, DO IT. The feeling of accomplishment and pride in your body is similar to crossing the finish line of a race, only much much more powerful.

In hindsight, I think I instinctively knew before I ever even went into labor that she was positioned funny and that I was going to have a long, hard labor although I couldn't have imagined the reality of it. I know this is the longest birth story ever, but I wanted to be able to look back and have as much of it documented as I could remember. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. As they say, in the end it was all worth it and I would do it again in an second if that's what it took to get this baby in my arms.

This is when I initially started pushing in the backwards facing, over the bed position.

Catching my breath between contractions.

Pushing, I seriously thought my eyeballs were going to explode.

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There's my baby girl!!! The first time I laid eyes on her.

Getting checked out to makes sure she was breathing ok, notice she's a little purple and pale.

Now she's nice and pink. Holding Daddy's hand.

The proud papa.

This was my first good look at her after she was cleaned up a little and worked on by the nursery team.

She has really long toes and feet, like both Rich and I do.

Her great grandma got her this outfit to wear home from the hospital so we decked her out in it, bonnet, bloomers, frilly socks and all. :) The shoes she has on are some of my newborn shoes.

We're home!

THE END, and the beginning

Lucy's Birth Story: Part 3 (pics at the end)

2010-05-27T10:45:00.009-04:00

This part of the story starts with us arriving at the hospital at midnight Sunday night/Monday morning after laboring at home since Saturday night. They paired me up with a phenomenal nurse who likes working with natural childbirth mamas, and put me on the monitor to check my contractions and to make sure Lucy was doing ok. I thought I wouldn't like laboring in the hospital, but honestly it was nice because I liked knowing that every hour or so I would get monitored and get the reassurance that the baby was tolerating labor well. My nurse checked me and I was 5cm dilated, 90% effaced and baby was at a -1 station. Basically that means that I had made progress, but still had a ways to go. Typically the first 5cm takes the longest, then the 2nd 5cm goes pretty quickly so I wasn't discouraged about only being at 5cm. The thought of asking for an epidural flitted through my mind but never seriously, because I thought that I only had to get through a few more hours before the baby was born.

About 1:30am I got in the bathtub, and Rich sat in the bathroom with me and we played our running playlists on the Ipod. For some reason listening to Eminem sing Shake That was working for me at that point in labor. After the tub, I was back on the monitor again, then we walked lots of laps around the Labor & Delivery floor, did lunges in my room, and rocked on the birth ball until 5am when I was checked again. 7cm and 100% and still at a -1 station. I was a little discouraged to have only progressed 2cm in 5 hours but again I thought "Ok, only 3 to go, it surely can't take too long." Haha. By about 7:30, my contractions were getting longer and stronger and I was starting to get really tired, both physically and emotionally. Then Mandy started some acupressure and gave me some homeopathic herbs to help increase contractions.

At 8:30, 8 1/2 hours after arriving at the hospital, my doctor checked me again and I was at 8cm...so only 1 cm progress in 3 1/2 hours. The baby had moved down to 0 station, and she was able to feel her head and tell that she was not lined up properly. She was right occiput posterior, basically in there with her head at a diagonal like in this diagram. That malposition was the reason for my long, painful labor. My water hadn't broken, so we decided to have the doctor go ahead and break it in hopes of speeding things up. It was painless, just a pop and a gush. I said "Ewww" when I felt it. I was terrified of the post-water-breaking contractions, but also felt like it was the best decision. We immediately went out to the hall to walk some more, and the contractions were much stronger. By 9am I felt like I couldn't walk anymore so I moved to a side-lying position in the bed to try to use gravity to encourage her to rotate into the right head position. This was one of the most excruciating points, laying still in bed there's no way to move to cope with the ctx. I started to go into what I can really only describe as a trance or self-hypnosis of some sort. Rich said that the more painful the ctx, the quieter I became. I completely turned inward and he said I went for like an hour and a half without really opening my eyes or doing much more than moaning and breathing. At some point we moved from the bed back to the birthing ball. I don't remember anything specific about this time period. I know it was awful awful pain and I wanted to escape it but there was no way to do that. At 10:15 we moved to the shower, and as soon as I sat down on the bench in the shower I had a powerful contraction and an involuntary urge to push. They called for my nurse and moved me back to bed. She checked me and I was 9 1/2 cm dilated and they were going to let me start pushing.

38 hours down, 2 more to go!

Rich was an amazing support for me.

Zoning out on the birth ball...Rich getting his fuel in:)

I have no idea how I'm smiling here. This is at 8cm after having my water broken and having very strong contractions.

Laboring is HARD work!

My mom was there for support as well, for me and Rich!

This one was during the trance state, I don't remember this time at all. This was right before moving to the shower and feeling the need to push.

Lucy's Birth Story: Part 2

2010-05-25T13:06:00.004-04:00

We had a wonderful day on Saturday (May 15th). That weekend was the last weekend before my due date (May 31st) that Rich and I were both off work together, so we made plans for it to be our last fun couple day before baby. We got up and went to a spa for a couple's massage, which was fantastic. The massage table had a big hole for my belly to fit in. After the massage we went to the beach for a few hours and layed out, read, walked and just enjoyed some quiet time together. Then later that night we went out for a nice dinner in downtown Charleston, the first fancy dinner date we'd been on in months. I had scallops with lobster risotto and coconut cake, and Rich had a filet and a chocolate orange dreamcicle dessert. We also had some nice red wine, just a glass for me of course. I tried to put on heels to go out in, but my feet didn't fit into any of them so I wore rhinestone flip flops with my black dress:) I had a couple of contractions during dinner that were slightly more intense than the usual Braxton Hicks tightening, but didn't think too much about it. We got home and I began to have more and more, about every 15 minutes apart. I tried to go to bed around 9pm but the contractions kept waking me up, then I would just lay awake waiting on the next one. They were strong enough that I would have to focus on breathing to relax during them. After 3 hours, I got Rich up and we decided to go outside and walk. Walking helps to make the contractions more regular, and also just the movement is soothing and contractions (ctx from here on) are actually much more bearable when I was up and moving like that than laying in bed. After the walk, I got in the bathtub for an hour or so because the warm water is also very therapeutic and helps relieve the ctx pain. I was able to read between ctx in the tub, then just focus on deep relaxing breaths during them. Throughout the night they continued to get closer together, albeit slowly, and by morning they were about every 7-9 minutes apart and lasting between 30 seconds and about 2 minutes. I expected them to go away in the morning the way they had the night before and Wednesday before. They didn't go away, although they did space back out and almost disappear from about 5am-7am and we slept then. After I woke up with more ctx, we decided that maybe this was going to turn into something real so we called our doula, a wonderful woman named Mandy. My plan was to have a natural (unmedicated) labor and delivery..no induction, no pitocin, no epidural or IV meds.

Her website explains exactly what a doula is, but basically it is someonewho serves as a labor helper, coach and support person. It is not the same as a midwife in that a doula is not a medical professional and doesn't do things like deliver babies or perform monitoring or cervical checks. We had met with Mandy for a few prenatal visits and the plan was for her to come to our house and labor with us, help us decide when it was time to go the hospital, provide massage, acupressure and aromatherapy, and just in general to be there for Richard and I in whatever way we might need during labor.

Mandy suggested trying to take some benadryl and get some rest in case this was the beginning of real labor, and to keep laboring using walks, baths and breathing, and to call her back when contractions were about 5 minutes apart and we were ready for her to come over. I didn't want to be groggy so I only took half a benadryl, and it did nothing so I wound up taking the other half but it still didn't help me sleep at all. I was so excited, nervous and focused on relaxing thru ctx that I really wasn't able to sleep. We spent the day alternating between laying in bed, in the bathtub and shower, and walking the neighborhood. I think the neighbors thought I was going to squat on the streetcorner and deliver the baby right there...we got some funny looks since I was obviously in pain as we were walking. I don't think even at this point that I really believed I was in labor since the same thing had happened a few times before and ended up going away, although it had never lasted this long. We had called my mom that morning and she decided to go ahead and fly out, and if I had her then great and if not she would just be here with us until I did. I still really thought it would stop and I would be pregnant still today. By midafternoon I began to think maybe this was really happening as ctx got closer together and more powerful. About 5:30 or so we went for a walk and ctx got to less than 3 minutes apart and Rich got pretty freaked out and made us go straight back to the house. We called Mandy and said it was time and she said she'd be there in about 45 minutes. We spent the next 45 minutes walking around the downstairs of our house, more like shuffling actually, with Rich right behind me to hold onto me and rub my back whenever I would stop for a ctx. I was getting pretty scared about everything but when Mandy showed up with her bag of tricks, I was able to refocus and relax. I had read several books on natural birth, and I knew that I had to be prepared to relax and embrace pain when everything in my body would want to fight and run from it. I just kept reminding myself that this was pain with a purpose, not pain that was hurting me in any permanent way and that I had a set number of ctx that I would have to go through to get my baby and I could either dread and fear them or welcome and embrace them. I think I even chanted "welcome" during a lot of them, at least in my head, as a reminder that welcoming the pain and intensity of the ctx was necessary in order to get to the end result of that baby in my arms.

After Mandy arrived, we discussed the fact that baby Lucy was likely malpositioned (not in the desirable position of head down with her face towards my back) and that she was probably facing sunny-side up with her head towards my back which can cause longer, more painful labors that don't progress as quickly as expected. There are certain positions you can labor in to encourage babies to rotate into the better postion so we tried those, including laying on the ground on my elbows and knees with my booty in the air, climbing stairs two at a time, doing side lunges, and rocking on the birth ball (just a regular exercise ball). Let me tell ya, lunges and stairs are NOT what I felt like doing in that moment, but also if you want unmedicated childbirth you gotta do whatever you can to try to get labor progressing naturally to avoid having drugs to help you progress. Mandy would also massage my lower back during ctx which was very helpful by providing counter pressure to the internal back pain I was having.

This walk, bath, lunge, stairs, ball, rotation continued until midnight when my Mom arrived. We hadn't talked to her in hours so she had no idea that I was actually in active labor and she showed up ready to go to bed, but instead we said "thank goodness you're here, we're heading to the hospital." At this point ctx were consistently 5 minutes apart, about a minute long, and very painful in my back and lower abdomen. So at this point, it's midnight Sunday night and been about 28 hours since contractions had started and we hadn't really slept since Friday night.

Whew, ok that's enough for part 2!
Here's a pic of her about 3 days old.

Lucy's Birth Story: Part 1

2010-05-24T13:44:00.002-04:00

Monday May 10th I had my 37 week OB appointment and I was 1.5-2cm dilated and 50% effaced. My blood pressure had crept up a little bit, but not so much that I had to be on bedrest or that the doctor wanted to induce labor. They monitored me to make sure Lucy was doing ok, and I was having painless Braxton Hicks contractions every 5 minutes. That happened for a few hours then they died out. She had me come back Wednesday the 12th for a follow-up on my blood pressure and monitoring, and I wasn't contracting at all. However, later that night I started having "real" contractions that were painful and required focus and breathing to get through. They got as close as 3 minutes apart for almost 45 minutes, then spaced back out to 5, 10 and 15 minutes apart before finally going away after a few hours. I started losing my mucus plug Wednesday and continued to lose it over the next few days. Oh, and why must it be called a mucus plug? That term is so gross it makes me cringe...why not something like "cervical stopper" or "baby cork??" Thursday came and went with no major bouts of contractions so I thought Wednesday had been a fluke...but then the same thing happened Friday night only they were a little stronger and more painful, but still went away after a few hours and I was able to sleep well the rest that night. Little did I know that it would be my last night of sleep for a long, long time.

Baby Lucy is here!

2010-05-20T12:30:00.002-04:00

Lucy Susannah Morris, born Monday May 17, 2010 at 12:20pm.
7lbs 1oz 19 1/2 inches long, born at exactly 38 weeks after 2 false starts followed by 38 hours of labor and 2 hours of pushing. I made it without drugs, thought I was going to die, have broken blood vessels in my eyes from pushing but she is here and perfect! I'll post a long birth story later for anyone who wants all the gory details, and there are many. We are home and getting settled in and trying to figure out this parenting thing.

Maternity Pics

2010-04-26T11:29:00.006-04:00

This past Saturday we had our maternity pics taken. I am thrilled with how they turned out!

Update

2010-04-23T09:16:00.003-04:00

First, let me just say a big thanks to anyone (other than my family) who is still reading since I post nothing about running and am a completely unreciprocating commenter at this point. I thought about totally stopping the blog because I feel bad for not being able to read and comment on everyone else daily and give it 100%, but I miss posting. There is just too much going on in my life right now so keeping up with blogland has had to take a backseat unfortunately. But I will be back, once I have this baby, move and settle down a little bit! So read if you like, drop me if you like...but please come back when I become interesting and fun again:)

So, I'm now 34 1/2 weeks pregnant, still working full-time, had a small preterm labor scare last week (was dehydrated and having lots of contractions, but it's better now), packing up the house, starting to think about job hunting, dog training and socializing to address some issues before Lucy is born, weekly appointments of some sort such as chiro/ob/doula/birth classes, and just trying to get through every day with some sanity left. I feel pretty good, but have stopped running. I'm walking 2-4 miles everyday and doing some light upper body weights a few days a week. We are going to rent our house after we move, so the advertising for that will start mid-May with the plan for us to move mid-July.

This is definitely one of the best but most stressful years of my life!

32 weeks!

2010-04-06T19:39:00.002-04:00

I can't believe I'm putting a picture of myself in a bikini at 8 months pregnant on the internet, but here it is. I refuse to miss out on my last couple of months of beachgoing before we move, so I hit up Old Navy for a new swimsuit (I'm so not into the maternity tankinis I found at local maternity stores).

How far along: pic was taken at 31w 5d, today I'm 32w 1d

Total weight gain: 32lbs

Maternity clothes: I'm loving being able to wear skirts and comfy dresses and to not have to squeeze the belly into pants as often.

Stretch marks: My stomach is still stretch-mark free, but I'm afraid they're just around the corner...fingers crossed that doesn't turn out to be the case!

Sleep: I'm sleeping ok, basically it's go to sleep on one side, sleep an hour or two, get up to pee (which involves lots of groaning and sighing), lay back down and go to sleep on the other side, rinse and repeat.

Best moment this week: getting an ultrasound yesterday and seeing her sweet face

Movement: very strong! She makes me jump, and sometimes I'll have to push a body part back in a little if it's too uncomfortable, like if an elbow/knee/heel is poking me.

Food cravings: nothing specific, just carbs

Labor Signs: no labor signs, but the Braxton-Hicks contractions are more frequent now

Belly Button in or out: In but getting shallower

What I miss: being able to comfortably paint my nails, shave my legs, put on socks

What I am looking forward to: a girls weekend this Saturday night with my friend Erin, and other friend Leah who is due May 7th

Weekly Wisdom: Don't tell me that I'll be screaming for an epidural or that I'll quickly abandon cloth diapering or breastfeeding....maybe I will but I didn't ask for your opinion. And now I really want to punch you in the face. I have really had to fight some hormonal urges to tell people off...like the guy today at Petsmart. I was buying a pooper scooper, and this guy checking me out randomly says "If you don't like it, you can return it." I ask him is that before or after I use it. He says "preferably before...oh but I guess you wouldn't know if you liked it or not then." I said "yeah, that was my point." So really, he was being nice but it just irked me...ahhh, I'm a crazy person.

Milestones: based on her measurements yesterday she now weighs 4lbs 9oz and should weigh around 8 and a half pounds at 40 weeks.

Showers/Baby Stuff: tons o' pics

2010-03-23T10:31:00.006-04:00

Girls I graduated pharmacy school with. It was so good to see them all!

Cutest cake ever, and so tasty!

Mom, me, Aunt Beth, Granny at the shower

Trying to find a "skinny pose" before my Charleston shower (the heels lasted about an hour:))

Before a 2 mile jog at 30 weeks, taken yesterday morning.

Some of Lucy's cloth diapers. They've come a long way since I wore them as a baby. Under the diapers are some of her adorable burb cloths. Gotta love all this super cute stuff to pee, poop and puke on.

Her temporary room, although the Pack n' Play will be moved to our bedroom once she's born. I can't wait to use that Bob!

Her 4, yes 4, diaper bags. A razorback one, a Diaper Dude for Rich, and 2 cute girlie ones for me.

Her closet, crib bedding for once we move and buy a crib is on the top, along with blankets, bobby and bumbo. Sometimes I can't believe that words like binky, bumbo and boppy are part of my vocab now. Look at all those tiny little clothes!

Her shelves

One of many blankets, this one is so soft and the back side is pink with her initials. She also has homemade blankets made by both of her grea-grandmothers.

Razorback onesie and red tutu.

The pups lounging in the sunny spot.

For next Christmas, it's a quote from National Lampoon's Christmas vacation for those of you who may be wondering why in the world her onesie would say this.

Back view

Razorback jumper

Dad onesie, love this one! The multi-colored ruffled thing to the right in the background is a tiny little swimsuit.

30 Weeks!

2010-03-22T15:06:00.002-04:00

I feel like the time is just flying by. I just realized it's been like 2 weeks since I posted and it feels like just a couple days. The past 2 weeks have been really busy with traveling to Arkansas for a baby shower, working a lot of days straight, getting a cold/sinus infection, having another baby shower and shopping/organizing/putting baby things together. I know I still have 10 weeks to go, but couple that with the fact that we'll be moving in about 4 months and that adds up to A LOT of stuff to do! I have tons of pics from both showers so I'll post some of those later this week.

I hope ya'll are doing well. I'll be catching up on all your blogs later today but please forgive my lack of comments.

30 Week Update:

How far along? 30 Weeks today. She should now weigh about 3lbs or more and be about 17 inches long.

Total weight gain: 28 lbs. I was hoping to only gain this much the entire pregnancy, but that's not how things are going.

Maternity clothes? Oh yeah for sure, don't know what I'd do without them. I'm not buying any more though since I have lots and only 10 weeks to go

Sleep: I have trouble falling asleep at night because I'll start thinking about everything with the baby/house/move and just can't seem to turn my brain off. She tends to wake me up around 6 each morning kicking and moving.

Best moment this week: yesterday Rich and I spent a few hours in her temporary room putting together her playard (pack and play basically, just not Graco brand) and sorting through all her things. There is a lot of pink in that room, love it!

Movement: I can definitely tell when she's awake or sleeping. When she's awake she is moving constantly. Her little butt is now all the way up to my ribs.

Gender: since there is a zebra print burb cloth and red tutu in her room...let's hope she's a girl!

Labor Signs: nope

Belly Button in or out? Still in

What I miss: those runs that seem almost effortless. I ran 2 miles this morning and it felt like 20.

Weekly Wisdom: You need special diaper rash cream for cloth diapers that won't cause build-up and residue that could in turn cause your diapers to leak.

Lucy Pics at 28 Weeks

2010-03-10T08:08:00.002-05:00

We had an ultrasound and got some more pics of our baby girl yesterday. Her head is down, so that's a good thing. She still has room to roll from side to side but they don't think there's much chance she'll totally flip and become breach at this point.
She was sleeping and was all snuggled into the placenta so all the pics have that blurry fuzziness to them.

Sleeping

Yawning

It was really funny because some of the faces she made looked so irritated. Her brow would scrunch all up and she would frown like "Ya'll go away and quit poking me, I'm trying to sleep!"

This is of her legs and feet stretched out. Her feet are pressing up on my belly.

28 Week Pregnancy Update

2010-03-09T07:35:00.000-05:00

I can't imagine how huge I'm going to look and feel considering I have 12 more weeks to grow. The dog food is right through this door, that's why they're looking at me like this, they think it's breakfast time. I'm loving my new maternity clothes because they're super comfy.

How far along: 28 weeks and 1 day (yes, every day counts!)
Total weight gain: Ugh, up 26lbs this morning. How did I gain 3 lbs in the last week????
Maternity clothes: The pants I bought a couple months ago to last the rest of the pregnancy no longer fit. Well they fit, but they dig into my belly so uncomfortably that I can't stand to wear them anymore. Yesterday I hit up Motherhood Maternity for a few new pairs of pants, some tees and tanks, and a nice dress for my shower this weekend. Hopefully I'm done buying maternity clothes. I need to plan the next pregnancy for the same season due date so I can reuse all these clothes.
Stretch marks: They each found a friend, now there's 2 per boob...but the tummy is still stretch-mark free so far.
Sleep: I had a really rough couple nights with excruciating hip pain that felt like my hip socket was dislocated. Some extra stretching before bed and a new body pillow seem to have fixed it thankfully.
Best moment this week: When Rich puts his head on my belly to talk to her and she starts moving and kicking him.
Movement: gentle movements very frequently, though she's still not much of a hard kicker/puncher. I love feeling her and knowing she's doing well in there.
Food cravings: nothing really this week, let's hope it's cottage cheese and broccoli soon so I don't continue to gain 3lbs per week.
Labor Signs: nope
Belly Button in or out: In but getting shallower
What I miss: sleeping on my back
What I am looking forward to: the weekend!!
Weekly Wisdom: What Rich said to me the other night, guys...never say this to a pregnant woman:
Rich: Babe I can tell you're pregnant from the back now.
Me: dirty look, Ummm...
Rich: I just mean your pants are fitting tighter.
Me: dirtier look, So my ass is getting big?
Rich: That's not what I said.
Me: Well, that's what's in my pants that are getting tighter.
Rich: I mean, it's cute that you look pregnant.
Me: I'm getting some ice cream.
Milestones: She now weighs between 2-3 lbs and is about 15 inches long. 12 weeks to go!

Six Things Saturday

2010-03-06T09:05:00.002-05:00

1. Last Saturday Rich and I drove to Savannah for the Race For Preservation 10K/5K, we were signed up for the 5K. It was chilly, and none of my pants/tights/long sleeved tops fit very well so I had to wear Rich's big fleece over my gear to hide the fact that my tights kept rolling down and my top kept riding up. Not the most comfortable thing to run in, but it worked. It was very poorly marked and actually ended up being 3.5 miles for the 5K. The mile markers I saw were 1, 2, 2, 5, 6, then the finish line, wtf? Rich had the Garmin, and according to him it was a grand total of 3.5 miles, so yeah...confusing. But it was the longest/furthest I had run in a couple months and it felt like a great, albeit painful, accomplishment. Afterwards I wasn't feeling Lucy move much so I convinced myself that I had deprived her of oxygen and harmed her, my rational mind knew this wasn't how things worked but the bigger non-rational part freaked out a little. In actuality, the 45 minutes of jogging probably just lulled her to sleep since of course my body's priority is to make sure she is fully oxygenated and letting me have what's leftover. That didn't stop me from poking and jiggling my belly the whole 2 hour drive back to Charleston trying to get her moving though. All is well and she's moving up a storm every day.

2. I've been looking at some races for post-baby and I think the plan is to start training for the Little Rock Marathon in the fall (to run it March 2011) and to run the Memphis Marathon's half marathon next December as a training run. I'm really looking forward to getting back out for some long runs. I miss the anticipation, planning, actual running, and feeling of accomplishment afterward that you just can't get with walks/short jogs/gym workouts. Just cross your fingers for me that Lucy likes her jogging stroller and is content to ride while I run!

3. I'm at work right now, and am working 7 days straight from yesterday through next Thursday. So not psyched about that.

4. While I like purple, it's not necessarily my favorite color (that would probably be blue) but I just noticed that I have a purple phone, purple purse and purple umbrella all with me. I look like Barney, and I think it's time for a new purse. Although I'm holding off because the diaper bag I got is really cute and looks purse-like so I'm thinking it'll do double duty as Lucy's bag and my purse. Moms, do you carry a diaper bag and purse or just one bag?

5. Next Saturday I'll be in Arkansas for our baby shower and I'm so excited to see some friends and family that I haven't seen in a long time. I'm going to try to find a cute dress to wear since I'm not loving anything I have right now. I need something that maximizes the baby belly and minimizes the butt/hips/backfat/armfat...wish me luck.

Have a great weekend, and good luck to all you peeps racing this weekend...get some PRs!

Wordless Wednesday: 4 things that brightened my day today

2010-03-03T13:26:00.000-05:00

Today is a great day

2010-03-01T13:27:00.004-05:00

Why is (was, it's almost over now) a today a great day you ask??? Because

1. It's March 1 which means dreary, dreadful February is gone and spring is just around the corner. Thank goodness. I have so much respect for you folks who live in colder climates, I can't stand it.

2. Today starts the 3RD TRIMESTER, yay!!!! Or holy crap, we're having a baby in a couple months...maybe a little bit of both.

To celebrate, I'm going to try to do this little quiz each week, along with a belly pic. Although you don't get a belly pic this week because the one Rich took was from a funny angle that accentuated my under-the-sports-bra side fat roll so I deleted it. I'm holding on to the vanity as long as possible!

How far along: 27 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: up 23 lbs
Maternity clothes: I have 3 pairs of maternity work pants, and they're starting to get pretty snug around the belly area but hopefully it'll be warm enough to switch to dresses and skirts soon.
Stretch marks: one per boob, and they're on the bottom so you can't really see them so do I even have to count them?
Sleep: Eh, it's ok. I wake up to pee and turn over a lot. My lower back and hips get pretty sore at night, even with a pillow between my legs. Overall I'm still getting plenty of sleep though.
Best moment this week: running a 5K, ok jogging really really slowly a "5K" that turned out to be 3.5 miles. I'll post the race recap tomorrow.
Movement: I would have to say I get a lot more squirms and wiggles than actual punches or kicks. I love putting my hand on my belly and feeling little bumps and thumps.
Food cravings: Ham sandwiches lately
Gender: Girl!
Labor Signs: None thank goodness, just a few Braxton-Hicks contractions every few days.
Belly Button in or out: In. I've got a pretty good innie so I'm kind of doubting it'll pop out.
What I miss: margaritas, champagne, that's really all I can think of now. I've had sushi and deli meat and just about whatever else I've wanted to eat this past trimester.
What I am looking forward to: going to AR next weekend for a baby shower
Weekly Wisdom: Hmm, I got nothing
Milestones: 2/3 of the way there!

Human Pincushion

2010-02-25T12:52:00.003-05:00

or the latest person on Intervention...not sure which I resemble more after today. Here's 3 things Thursday.

1. I failed my one hour glucose tolerance test on Monday, so I had to do the 3 hour today to see whether or not I have gestational diabetes. For those of you who don't know, this involves a fasting blood draw, drinking a really syrupy sweet drink, then 3 more blood draws on the hour for 3 hours. My veins were not being cooperative so I have needle marks on several places on both arms. Ouch! The good news is that I passed this one!!! At least I'm fairly certain I did. I work at the hospital so I see my lab results before my doctor does, so after googling them I conclude that I passed..I'll let you know if the dr thinks otherwise. I celebrated with a cookie;)

2. Running-hurts. feels like a constant side stitch throughout my entire stomach. Ouch. Although some days it doesn't hurt much at all, so I just have to run when I can and walk the rest.

3. I am SO ready for warm weather. We had a tease last week with some 60 something degree days but now we're back down to lows in the 20s and 30s. Boo!!

6 1/2 Month Belly Pics and 5K

2010-02-20T12:55:00.003-05:00

2 of my very best friends came to visit this weekend, and we walked a 5K Saturday morning. Here I am at 26 weeks...and about to outgrow one of my maternity running shirts. I'm still LOVING the skirt!

It's impossible to take a picture without at least one dog in it.

Shelley, me, Darcy getting ready to leave for the race.

Over half of the 5K was actually on the beach along the water. Shelley is 9 weeks pregnant and wasn't feeling well, but she was a trooper and was able to finish the whole thing without puking on anyone!

5 Things Friday

2010-02-19T09:05:00.002-05:00

1. I had a bit of a scare yesterday because I wasn't feeling Lucy move much at all. The past couple weeks she's been really active and I could pretty much put my hand on a certain part of my belly and she would kick it. Yesterday she was really still and drinking sugary cold drinks, poking her, talking to her..nothing got a response. I went to the doctor after work to be monitored and she immediately kicked the monitor on my belly...of course! I was so glad she was fine, they said she must have just moved positions and now her kicks and wiggles are going towards my back so I'm not able to feel them nearly as much from the front. I think she got tired of me poking her and shining a flashlight on my belly to wake her up and make her move, so she is giving me the finger by rolling over and facing backwards. Hopefully she'll turn again soon, I miss being able to feel her all the time.

2. My friends Darcy and Shelley are flying in today to spend the weekend in Charleston. I haven't seen them in a few months and I'm so excited that they'll be here when I get off work this afternoon.

3. Molly, the World's Worst Cat, apparently has Irritable Bowel Disorder/Chronic Colitis and will require long term antibiotic therapy and expensive grain free canned cat food for life to try to prevent or minimize the episodes of vomiting and bloody diarrhea she's been experiencing daily. I can't trust Rich home alone with her, I'm afraid she'll "wander off" while I'm gone..just kidding..mostly.

4. My latest obsession is couponing and bargain shopping. It's amazing how many of the name-brand products we use all the time that we can now get for free or really really cheap just by being educated on when things are on sale, and using coupons then to really stack the savings. I'm working on a "Couponing is Sexy" post in my head to share with you guys a little of what I've learned the last month.

5. Last night we met with our doula, or birth assistant. I'm hoping for a natural, drug-free birth and she will be there with Rich and I throughout labor and delivery to help out with that. We're also signed up for Breastfeeding Class, Infant CPR Class, and Childbirth Class. I tried to sign up for Newborn Care Class but it was full until July...so anyone have any newborn care tips to share since we can't take the class?

Happy Friday!

Baby Girl Morris will be named...

2010-02-18T09:27:00.002-05:00

Lucy Susannah

Here's how it came to be: I had seen "Lucy" on several name sites and liked it, but really hadn't given it a second thought. Then one day my friend Darcy sent me a text message with some name suggestions, and Lucy was one of them. It then dawned on me that my mother-in-law's middle name is Lucille, so Lucy could be named after her. I wanted to incorporate my mom, Susan, in there too of course so that's where the Susannah came from. After I suggested it to Richard, he loved it, and it just felt right. I was like "Ah ha...Lucy, that's who is in my belly" like it had been her name all along and I just had to discover it, if that makes any sense.

Anyway, we told our families and then my mom told me that I actually have a great-aunt named Lucy (she goes by her middle name so I never knew it was her first name) and my Granny's grandmother was also Lucy, so there's lots of Lucy connections on both sides of our families.

So there you have it, Lucy Susannah Morris should be here in about 3 1/2 months!

I also wanted to say a big thank you for the warm welcome back to Bloggyville and for all the kind and encouraging words. Everything will work out fine, pregnancy hormones and all. Last night I had a meltdown and cried because I couldn't get our printer to print, and because I can't text as fast on my new Blackberry Curve 2 as I could on my old Blackberry Pearl..you know, really earth shattering catastrophes:)

The Baby Name

2010-02-17T12:18:00.003-05:00

We've had the name picked out for a couple months now, and I feel pretty confident that we're going to stick with it. I'll post it tomorrow, but today you get to see some of the names that didn't make the cut for one reason or another.

If you or someone you know/love/like/hate have any of these names, please do not be offended.

1. Audrey - I loved this one but I got some icky faces from friends about it, and one friend said that every Audrey she'd ever known had been really stuck up.

2. Isla - pronounced "Eye-luh" exactly why it ended up getting rejected, we didn't want to forever have to spell and/or tell people how to pronounce her name. I do truly think it's a beautiful name, and love the tropical, beachy vibe it has.

3. Emmeline - with Emmy as the nickname. I thought it was really cute, but truly I got the idea based on the boxer/pit bull foster dog we had named Emmy and I'm not sure I could live with naming our daughter after a dog. Plus, as much as I like the name Emma, it is insanely popular there right now so I was afraid it would blend in with all the Emmas too much.

3. Stella - this was actually our first choice and we almost stuck with it, but we found out some friends of ours were naming their baby girl, born a few months ago now, Stella. I still really like it, even with the associations of How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Stellllllllaaaaaaaa from A Streetcar Named Desire. I wanted Stella Caroline, as a tribute to our time in SC, but Rich loved Stella but not Caroline.

4. Mabel - yep we both liked old-ladyesque Mabel, but not quite enough to commit to it.

5. Clementine - I actually wanted Clementine as a middle name for Mabel, but when I suggested Mabel Clementine both Rich and one of my coworkers laughed and thought it was a joke.

I searched through so many websites and books looking for the right name, and while I liked a lot of them, none felt perfect...until The One. We wanted something that wasn't really popular (like anything on the Top 25 list for the year) but also something easy to spell and pronounce that wasn't extremely eccentric. So check back tomorrow to find out what Baby Girl Morris's name will be. Anyone have any guesses (and if you're on Facebook and have seen it, don't guess!). The initals for the first and middle name are:

L S

I'm Alive!

2010-02-16T18:07:00.002-05:00

Hi world, so sorry I've been MIA for the past month. Life got a little overwhelming there for a minute and I had to withdraw and focus inward on sorting some things out, and there just wasn't enough mental energy left for blogging. I think we have things figured out, or at least have a better handle on things, so I'm back. Basically it was just a lot of stress about trying to sell a house that we owe more on than we could sell it for right now in this economy... to move to a new state where we have to find a new place to live and jobs. Do we try to sell anyway and take a loss? rent? rent to own? Do I look for a job now? Wait til after the baby is born? Do we buy a new house? rent one? We both make good money, so can someone please tell me who gave the Spending Fairy access to my bank account because I'm pretty sure we should have more saved in there than we do. In hindsight, we would have realized that since the economy was turning crummy and we had a finite amount of time in this house, we needed to be a lot smarter about budgeting things and preparing for a cross-country move and new baby before said baby was wiggling around in my belly and said move was looming closer every day. Eh, whatcha gonna do? Hindsight's 20/20, wish in one hand and shi$ in the other and see which fills up first, that's life...lots of great cliches apply here. Anyway we're not going to be living in a cardboard box or soley off ramen noodles anytime soon (I however am existing on lots of salt and vinegar chips and oatmeal pies, but that's by choice), so don't worry...all is good, it's just an extremely stressful year for us. So that's where I've been...doing lots of thinking, planning, stressing, eating, some running, some walking, some elliptical, and lots of couponing..but I'll save that for another post. I've missed you all and will do my best to try to catch up on how ya'll have been the past month but if I've missed anything too major in any of your lives, please let me know in the comments so I'll be up to speed.

Maternity Running Clothes

2010-01-18T08:23:00.002-05:00

My shorts and pants are tight and riding down, my tops are riding up leaving the baby belly and love handles on display. Not what you want! I love running in skirts much more than in shorts so I had to have the Fit Momma skirt from runningskirts.com. It is cut much more generously than the regular running skirts in the same size. It has built in shorties, which was my only concern because those can ride up into a bunched, uncomfortable mess but these only budge slightly. I've worn it for a 3 miler and I only had to tug them back into place maybe once. It has a belly panel that can be worn up or folded down. It's still a little loose at the top so I wear it folded down under my belly. I highly recommend this skirt for anyone looking for maternity running gear. I just wish it came in more colors besides black!

My mother-in-law got me a gift certificate to fitmaternity.com for Christmas and I got my order in last week. The first thing I've tried is this cotton/bamboo blend tank from Ocean Lily. It's a pretty heavy duty fabric that is form fitting but stretchy. It is really long which is ideal for me but probably wouldn't work on ladies of below-average height. I've worn this running once and loved it. It stays in place, doesn't rub anywhere the wrong way and is comfy. I'm not sure how it'll do in the heat since it's black and pretty thick, but hopefully it will still be good. So far, two thumbs up!

On the pregnancy front, I'm 21 weeks today and the baby is developing taste buds this week. She is also now able to absorb small amounts of sugar and water from the amniotic fluid. According to the scale this morning, I didn't gain any weight last week which I find hard to believe. I'm still up 12 lbs but according to my baby books I should pack on some lbs in the next few weeks.

21 weeks pregnant wearing Ocean Lily scoop neck maternity tank from fitmaternity.com and the Fit Momma skirt from runningskirts.com. Yes, that's a Roomba vacuum on the floor, love it!

Showing the belly panel in the unfolded position, and the shorties under the skirt.

Belly panel folded down.

Hope ya'll had a wondeful weekend, happy Monday!

Randoms

2010-01-16T20:26:00.004-05:00

Thanks to all of you who commented on my last post. I had 17 comments, so I'll round up to $20 for the donation.

If you promise not to judge me for the liberal use of butter, sugar and cream then feel free to check out the other blog to see what I've been up to in the kitchen lately.

Hope you're all having a great weekend. I've been a little achy today so we're just taking it easy around the house.

Help for Haiti Read and Comment!!

2010-01-14T18:57:00.005-05:00

As I sit here in my comfortable home with food, water and a safe place to sleep I just think about all the people in Haiti who have none of those things right now. I know we can't do everything to help everyone everywhere all the time, but to the people who you are able to help you make all the difference in the world.

I'm going to make a donation tomorrow night, and borrowing from Marlene's previous Comments for Cans campaign I'm having a comment-a-thon here at the Funny Farm. I'll donate $1 for every comment on this post in the next 24 hours. I am planning on just donating directly to the Red Cross but if any of you guys know more about this than I do and know of a different place to donate, I'm open to suggestions. So comment away and spread the word.

Ready, set, bang (that's my starting gun)!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

2010-01-13T06:56:00.003-05:00

Here are some ultrasound pics from yesterday, at 20 weeks.

Here her mouth is open and she's drinking. They basically float around in amniotic fluid, drink it, pee it out and repeat...gross!

profile

Let's hope her nose isn't quite as big and smushed as it looks here.

She always has her arms up by her head, which I think is pretty typical for babies.

20 week ultrasound pics from yesterday

A look back 2006-2009

2010-01-12T18:37:00.002-05:00

I was getting a little behind and bored with these so I'm condensing the last 4 years into one bullet post.

2006:
-spent a month in Shiprock, NM on a reservation with Darcy doing our last pharmacy school rotation.
-graduated pharmacy school
-moved in with my parents for about 2 months
-moved to Charleston, this involved me, Rich, my brother Kirk, Dickson, Tanner and Molly and Shi%ty Kitty all spending the night in a Days Inn hotel room.
-met some great friends, but really missed others
-started my first real job

2007:
-bought a house
-started fostering with Blue Ridge Boxer Rescue and ended up adopting Fiona
-trained for and ran my first half marathon

2008:
-ran the half marathon at the Little Rock Marathon, Rich's first half.
-worked a lot, drank a lot of margaritas and wine, spent lots of days at the beach

2009
-ran half marathons at Myrtle Beach and Napa to Sonoma
-started training for my first full marathon
-tried to get pregnant, doc said cut back on running
-got pregnant, no more marathon this year but for a good cause
-met my goal of running 500 miles with a grand total of 523 for the year
-made the decision to run the full Little Rock Marathon spring 2011

Whew, so there you go. That concludes the wrap up of the last decade of my life. It was really fun to remember and it's nice to have it written down.

I just "won" my jogging stroller on Ebay

2010-01-11T20:28:00.003-05:00

I'm so freaking excited!! I had my heart set on the pink and brown Bob Revolution jogging stroller and been scoping out Craigslist and Ebay for a good deal. I found a brand new one on Ebay tonight and ended up getting it for $50 cheaper than it costs in stores, with free shipping. At first I felt like I should buy a gender neutral stroller for the next bebe but after seeing how fast these strollers sell online I realized I would probably have no problem selling it if I need to for the next one. Plus...I just really really wanted the pink and brown. I'm going to get the carseat adaptor so this will function as one of those car seat/carrier/stroller travel systems and will be our only stroller. 20 more weeks til there's a baby to put in it!

A look back...2005

2010-01-10T10:36:00.003-05:00

I apologize for the double posts today, but I really want to get this A look back series wrapped up since it's already almost the middle of January.
2005 started the 2nd semester of our 3rd year of pharmacy school, and Rich and I were newly engaged. The first half of the year was pretty consumed with school, work and wedding planning. I discovered that I really only cared about my dress, the flowers and the cake. Everything else I pretty much let my parents and our wedding planner choose, I just really didn't care.

2005 in pictures:

We got engaged:

I had a bachelorette party in New Orleans...yes they're twins

We got married:

We had a big party afterwards:

We went on an amazing honeymoon in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico:

We moved into a rental house in North Little Rock:

We started our started our final year of pharmacy school and decided to move to Charleston after graduation. I missed my roommates but living with Rich was great, and we all still hung out several times a week so I still had plenty of friend-time. Another great year!

Ocean Isle Bridge 5K Race Report

2010-01-09T13:26:00.002-05:00

Yay, another state crossed off the list. 4 down, 46 to go...sounds a little daunting but we'll get there eventually. Saturday morning we got up at 4am, got dressed, played with the rather confused dogs (why are we up at 4am on Saturday?Wait, you're leaving? Why are you leaving? When will you be back? Oh, I get a Kong, ok, see ya.) It was cold for us, about 25F at race time so we had to bundle up. This has definitely been the coldest weather that the SE has seen in years.

Here is a belly shot before we left. I'll be 20 weeks tomorrow. That's halfway!!!

I discovered that it's really comfy to run in recovery socks and capris. I prefer it to the long Adidas running pants i have because at this point they are really snug. My mother-in-law got me a gift card for some maternity running/workout clothes but I don't want to use it for pants since I rarely run in pants and won't need them for more than the next month at most until it is warmer. The Recovery Socks are warm and cozy and just feel great on my legs.

Here is Rich in the car getting ready. We parked, registered, then ran back to the car where it was warm. There was a 5K and a half marathon and it was so hard to resist signing up for the half at the last minute, but that would have been a really dumb idea...it did cross my mind though. Why go 3 miles when other people are going 13? Umm...maybe because you're 5 months pregnant and your last long run of 10 miles was in August. So 5K it was.

It was a really small race, probably only about 200 people showed up for the combined 5K/half marathon start. The first mile was up and over a bridge into the wind. My hands were painful and numb all at once. The course went over the bridge, turn around, back over the bridge, then the last mile was on flat roads. I ended up walking about a minute up the steepest part of the bridge each way but other than that I ran (albeit slooowly) the whole way. Rich finished up several minutes before me and was able to go get the camera and get a pic of me heading towards the finish area.

The race was really well organized and they had lots of water, coffee, bagels and bananas for us after the race. I wanted to stick around and cheer on the half finishers but we were hungry and cold so we headed back to Charleston shortly after we finished the race. Rich's time was 28:16 and mine was 37:30.

A look back...2004

2010-01-08T07:58:00.002-05:00

2004 was another great year. It saw the end of my 2nd year and beginning of my 3rd year of pharmacy school. I was still living in the same house downtown with Darcy, but Lynette moved out to get married and 2 more girls moved in. Rich and I were getting more serious and discussed getting married. This is the year that we got Shi^ty Kitty. For some reason I decided that no home was complete without 2 cats, so my roommates and several other girls from school and I all went to the pound one day after class. I wanted a young male cat to go with the female we already had. We picked one out, named him Ghetto because the pound was definitely in a bad part of town. A few days later I took him to the vet to be neutered and they called and told me that he was a she. So she was spayed and called Ghetto Kitty until one day when she pooped in Darcy's bed (in her defense, the door was closed so she had no way to get to her litter box) so Ghetto Kitty became Shi^ty Kitty. Although now we're going to have to figure out something else to call her since there will be a little one here soon that doesn't need to be calling the cat Shi^ty.

In November (or was it December?) of 2004 Rich and I got engaged. He spelled out "Will You Marry Me" in icing on sugar cookies, how could I say no to that!?! :) Then one of our friends ate the Y, so it just said Will You Marr Me. So 2004 ended on a wonderful note, a new shiny ring on my left hand and a wedding to plan.

2010 First Quarter Race Schedule

2010-01-06T22:00:00.000-05:00

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program "A look back" to bring you breaking news in the running department. Ok so maybe it's not really breaking news but we just created the plan so I guess technically it kinda is breaking news to us at least:)

I was getting so antsy reading all you bloggy buddies' race schedules that I decided to sit down with Rich and create my/our own. I know I won't be setting any PRs but I miss running races and having running goals, and he wants to get in a spring half marathon so here's what we're looking at so far. Oh, and also we have the ultimate goal of racing in every state, not a marathon but just any old race from a one miler on up so we took that into consideration as well.

January

1. 1/9: Ocean Isle Beach 5K in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina will cross NC off our list. There is also a half marathon but we will be sticking with the 5K this time. It's pretty short notice since it's this weekend, but we are both off work luckily. It's about a 2-3 hour one way drive so we'll have to get an early start Saturday morning. I'm excited to have a race this weekend! (even if I will likely be walking some of it)

2. 1/30 Charlie Post Classic 15K/5K on Sullivan's Island which is just about 10 minutes from our house. I ran the 15k as a training run for the Myrtle Beach half back in 2007, and at the time it was my longest run ever so I have some great memories associated with it. Rich ran it last year and got a PR but I had to work so I missed out. I'm not sure if I'll be able to handle 15k, even with lots and lots of walking, so I may just do the 5K...although I really really want to do the 15k. We'll see how the next few weeks go and I'll decide right before the race.

February

3. 2/20 8K for H2O on Folly Beach, one of our favorite beaches in Charleston. I don't think the race is actually on the beach, but that would be pretty sweet. Forget what I said about no PRs this year...I WILL PR if I complete this race because it'll be my first ever 8K. Woo!

4. 2/27 Race for Preservation 10K/5K in downtown Savannah will cross Georgia off the list. Savannah is a really pretty city and I'm looking forward to running through some of it's historic areas.

March

5. 3/17 Catch the Leprechaun 5K should be a fun one, with Irish music and a post race party. I love St. Patrick's Day because it means it's almost officially SPRING so I'm really looking forward to this one!

April

6. 4/10 Charlotte Racefest Half Marathon and 10K will be the focus of Rich's training over the next few months because he wants to race the half. I would love to do the half but will be well into my 3rd trimester by then so I think I'll be doing good to finish the 10K.

Well that wraps it up: 6 races over the next 4 months is our goal and hopefully we'll be able to participate in all of them. I got in a good 3 miler last night so I'm hopeful I'll be able to run the whole 5k Saturday and not have to take any walk breaks!

Happy Wednesday!!

A look back...2003

2010-01-06T07:37:00.003-05:00

In contrast to 2002, 2003 was pretty smooth sailing. It started with Rich and I getting more serious and dating exclusively. We finished up our first year of pharmacy school and when my apartment lease was up I moved into a really neat old house in downtown Little Rock with Darcy and Lynette, two girls I met in school that are still my BFFs today. It was such a fun time living with those girls and being with our group of school friends. There was a group of about 10 of us that sat together in class for 4-8 hours a day, then hung out or went out at least 4 nights a week...plus most of us lived with someone else or two or three from the group. So it was intense immersion therapy but somehow we managed to all grow closer instead of getting sick of one another. In fact, Lynette and I both ended up marrying boys from our group of friends. I really enjoyed the fact that Rich and I shared the same friends. We were always together, but very rarely one-on-one. We threw huge house parties at our house and I'm pretty sure I did a keg stand in the hallway once...maybe, I can't confirm for sure because I'd hate to tarnish my reputation:) I started working at Arkansas Childrens' Hospital as a pharmacy intern, where I worked 20 hours a week throughout pharmacy school. It was great because my shifts were 2:00-10:30pm but you could clock out at 10:23pm because of the clocking-out fairy and her grace period. Our house was just about 2 minutes from the hospital so I loved that on party nights I could clock out and be home by the time my shift technically ended. So on the social life front, I had an exciting new romantic relationship and tons of great new friends that occupied just about every waking second. School was going great as well and I really enjoyed most of my classes.

2003 is also the year that Rich and I got Tanner. We were walking in his neighborhood one day when we say this lady and her daughter out walking a 6 month old chocolate lab. We ooed and aahed over him and she asked us if we wanted him. He belonged to her neighbors, but they had moved to California and left him behind. How could we say no to that?? So that's how Tanner came to join the not-yet-Morris-family. His roommate wasn't a dog person so whenever the boys, Dickson and Tanner, were at his house they would have to stay outside. None of us liked that arrangement so it wasn't long before they were both at my house that I shared with Darcy and Lynette. I'll never forget the day we first brought Tanner in and Darcy looked at me and said "So like he is going to live here too now. We have 2 dogs now?" Darcy was not a big dog lover at the time, and was actually kind of scared of dogs but she was a trooper and let Tanner move in. These girls were really awesome to put up with me and my zoo!

I was still running, well more like jogging becuase I never ran a race and didn't care about time or distance, pretty regularly as well as working out at the gym. I turned 23 and started my second year of pharmacy school.

A look back....2002

2010-01-05T10:05:00.002-05:00

2002 was quite a roller coaster of a year. It started off with me deciding to go to pharmacy school and taking the admission exam. After striking med school and dental school off the list, I wasn't sure what in the world I wanted to do with the degree in microbiology I was about to get. One of my best friends in the world had started pharmacy school already, and she encouraged me to go that route. I had no other real ideas so pharmacy school it was. I was also studying to get a major in Spanish and began planning to travel to Spain to spend the summer after graduation finishing up my last couple of classes. I was still dating college boyfriend, although his post-graduation plans were to move to Florida for a job. We were going to try the long-distance thing while he was in Florida and I was in Arkansas for school.

In May of '02 I graduated with a double major in microbiology and Spanish, moved out of the Pi Phi house, left the town, friends and boyfriend that had made up my life for the past four years and moved 3 hours away to Little Rock where I would start school in the fall. A few weeks after graduation, the boyfriend came to stay with me for a week before I left for Spain. All was well and I can distinctly remember him and my parents taking me to the airport and waving at me as I went through security. I haven't seen him since.

Spain was fabulous! I stayed with a host-mom in Valencia, a gorgeous Mediterranean city. There was a big group of students from around the country in the program and we were all staying with various host families throughout the city. Our mornings were spent in class, then we would catch a bus to the beach where we would eat the yummy lunches our families packed for us and just enjoy being beach bums. Late in the afternoon we would catch the bus back to town, eat a late dinner with our families, then meet up to go to local bars and discos. The weekends were spent taking day or weekend trips to other cities, or just exploring Valencia further. There was a park about a block from where I was staying and I would go there several days a week to run. I never measured time or distance but I think I was probably running about 2-3 miles. It was the first time in my life I ever ran alone, and was when I discovered how cleansing and cathartic it could be to be outside in a beautiful place pounding the pavement. I think that's where I first began to enjoy running.

All this time I still had the boyfriend and had plans to fly from Spain to Florida to spend a week with him before school started. We had been emailing daily the whole summer, but one weekend the emails stopped. A big group of us from school had just walked to a restaurant for dinner one night when I stopped outside at a payphone (really the only option we had of making phone calls there) to call him and see what was up. I don't remember the entire conversation but the jist of it was him telling me "I just don't think this is going to work." So there I stand, having my heart broken via payphone on a quaint little side street in Europe. It would have made a great scene in a movie. I spent the next week in a fog, then flew to New York where my parents were on vacation to spend a week with them. Then about a week later I moved into my own apartment, got Dickson (the yellow lab), and started school. Let's just say I was slightly emotionally unstable at this point.

Thankfully I fell into a wonderful group of friends in school pretty quickly and we partied it up like college kids (remember, I never did this in college so my newly single self was ready to go out!) which helped keep my mind occupied and off the broken heart. I had vowed to myself that I wouldn't look at, talk to, or think about boys for at least 6 months. Rich and I were inseparable about 4 months later. He actually had just been through a pretty rough breakup too and was struggling with moving to a new city like me, obviously we were a match made in rebound heaven. I remember noticing him at our orientation and thinking he was cute. Then one day I struck up a conversation with him to which he was completely unresponsive...as in grunting one word answers and would barely look up at me. For some reason I decided that he was the one for me. In one of my bolder moments I called him, played the damsel in distress card and asked him for help in one of our classes...then tried to act like I actually needed it:) We flirted, studied together, and hung out with our large group of friends for the next couple of months and by Christmas break we were definitely a couple. A dramatic, rocky one that everyone thought was a terrible idea but a couple nonetheless. We fought a lot, had loads of trust and jealousy issues and at first glance didn't appear to have much in common. I honestly don't know why I decided to pursue him, and why he decided to date me, or why we stuck it out for the first unstable year but we did and our relationship grew from rocky to rock solid as we both moved on and grew up together. So....2002...you were a year to remember for sure. I am so thankful to have had that year, with its joys and tears, because it was one of the most pivotal years in my life, leading me to the life I have today so for that I wouldn't change a thing.

A look back...2001

2010-01-04T07:27:00.004-05:00

2001 was a really fun year. I was a junior in college at the Univ. of Arkansas, still studying hard but enjoying college life. This is the year that I turned 21 and I celebrated by going out to a local restaurant/bar with some friends. I was not a big drinker at all, so it didn't take many "Hey, let me buy you a birthday shot" before I was way past tipsy. At one point I remember laughing hysterically in the bathroom by myself, and when I came out they asked me what I was laughing at. My response was "The Me in the mirror is really funny." Add that up there with top life lessons and words of wisdom: sometimes you just have to laugh at the Me in the mirror.
I have no idea who this kid is but I thought it was an adorable pic:)

I had just about decided that I didn't want to go to med school, and was searching for what I wanted to be when I grew up. I loved the idea of being a doctor, but realistically didn't want to put in the amount of work and time that a career as a physician would entail. I grew up in a family where work was a means to an end; you worked to earn money so you could play. Careers were never the focus or most important thing in my parents' lives. I'm not sure it's necessarily the best way to look at things, but my view was and still is that I want to have a family, friends and a good home-life first, and work is just a necessary evil. Not the best attitude for a doctor in my opinion, so that was out. Sounds like the perfect attitude for a dentist though right? No fridays, no weekends, no holidays, no on-call, loads of dinero...sign me up! I visited a couple dental schools and took the admissions test and did very well. Then I signed on to work for/shadow a dentist the summer after my junior year of school. HATED IT! I'm not a work-with-my-hands type person, I'm not good at spacial visualization, and I hate the sounds of drills on teeth...what was I thinking?? I ended 2001 with no concrete idea of what I wanted to do with my life.

I was still running a couple miles here and there at the gym, lifting weights and doing the elliptical several days a week. I was in decent shape, but of course was never happy with my body. I thought I needed to lose weight and would alternate between being on extreme diets and pigging out all the time. Not exactly a recipe for health and fitness success. I was definitely still figuring out who I was and what my place in the world was in every area of my life, weight/body/exercise included.

A look back...2000

2010-01-01T08:48:00.004-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

First let me start by apologizing for being a lousy commenter this past week. I've been reading and catching up with you all but I haven't had a chance to comment much. My family has been in town so we've been busy playing tourist in Charleston:)

Now for the fun part, lucky you!!! I've decided to do a decade-in-review series for my next several posts to reexamine the last 10 years. I was going to just do it in one post but my outline was getting longer by the minute, so I'm going to take it year by year.

In the Year Two Thousand...(any Conan fans?)

In 2000 I was a 20 year old college sophomore attending the University of Arkansas and living in the Pi Beta Phi house on campus.

Here's where I lived and spent a lot of my time during the college years.

Here's what I drove, I loved this car back in the day. Now I'm totally not a sports car person but it fit me well in those days.

I was not much of a partier (partyer? party-er?) in college. In 2000 I was dating a guy that I was convinced I would marry and we pretty much spent most of our time together studying, hanging out and doing things like going camping on the weekends. I was in the sorority but it really wasn't my thing honestly. I wasn't all that into hanging out at fraternity houses and going to parties. At this point in my life I was not a runner, but this is the year that I ran my first mile. If you feel so inclined, you can read about it here. At the time I didn't realize what a milestone that would turn out to be. I had no desire to be a runner, or run races, or really do much more than jog a few laps around the track or minutes on the treadmill to stay slim. Career wise at this point I was pre-med and planning on becoming a physician. I studied a lot and was really pretty high strung and focused. It's amazing how free of real responsibilities I actually was then: I had scholarships for school, my parents helped out with everything else, I didn't have a job other than making good grades, and I had nobody to take care of other than myself. I can't imagine what life without bills, home maintenance, a job, and mouths to feed would be like now!

Winter Misery One Miler Virtual Race Report

2009-12-21T15:10:00.004-05:00

A big thanks to RunningLaur for hosting the Winter Misery One Miler virtual race today. If it were not for this race, I totally would have skipped out on any form of working out today. I ran 2 miles and did yoga yesterday so I was planning on skipping today but I figured "Hey, it's ONE mile, you can handle that." So I did, and I'm glad it's over but so glad I got out there and ran even for that short amount of time. I didn't even wear the Garmin but I'm guessing it was about an 11:30 mile. I just think virtual races are such a neat idea!

Three Things Thursday

2009-12-17T07:00:00.003-05:00

1. Tonight I'm going to my first prenatal yoga class and I am very excited!! I love yoga, but when I'm running a lot it always seems to get dropped so I'm really looking forward to going back. I think it will help to keep everything loose and stretched, plus provide some much needed relaxation time.

2. I had a great 2 mile run last night. It was dark and cold (in the upper 30s) and I did not want to go but I hadn't run in over a week and I'm scared if I skip too long, I'll never get back out there so I made myself go. I bundled up and took Fiona with me and we ran a one mile loop in our neighborhood twice. It turned out to be wonderful. It was quiet and peaceful, and I really enjoyed running by all the houses with Christmas lights. After those 2 miles, I took Tanner for almost a mile walk then I was pooped out and poor Dickson didn't get a walk so he'll be first in line today.

3. I bought the baby this:

It's a cloth diaper. Basically it has this pocket inside that you put a big cotton pad in. When it's dirty you wash the pad, and then after a couple of pad changes you wash the outer cover. We want to use cloth diapers becuase they are much better for the environment and much cheaper in the long run than disposables. We will use mostly cloth, but some disposables for daycare. There are literally endless possibilities of different styles and brands and fabrics. I researched for days and was still completely overwhelmed. I found a company that will let you try a wide variety of cloth diaper styles and brands for 2 weeks for $10, then after the trial period you ship back the ones you don't want to keep. I think we'll go that route so we can see what the differences are see what works best for us. I admit I'm skeptical about how well they are going to work and how easy they are going to be to wash and deal with, but I've read tons of reviews from parents who have used them and loved them so I'm going to give it a try. If it turns out cloth diapering isn't for us, then that's ok but at least we gave it a shot. It's still 5 months away from diaper-changing time but I figure it's never to early to start planning.

It's a GIRL!!!

2009-12-15T06:07:00.004-05:00

Here she is, Baby Girl Morris at 16 weeks. Isn't it just so amazing how much you can see? She actually looks much more like a baby now and less like an alien. I have felt like it was a girl since before I even got confirmation that I was pregnant. About a week before I found out, a ladybug landed on my shirt and at that moment I took it as a good luck charm and just knew that I was going to find out I was pregnant and that it was going to be a little girl. It could just all be coincidence but it makes a good story.

It makes it all SO much more real having a face and a name, yes, she has a name but I'll save that for another post:) Every few minutes I just keep thinking of new things I want to teach her and say to her. I'm thinking about starting a journal for her to document the rest of the pregnancy and to jot down all the things running through my mind that I want to tell her.

I haven't felt all that attached to the baby until now. I mean, I was excited to be pregnant and having a baby but it felt very surreal and almost like it was happening to someone else. Now it feels real, like she's a real person that I already love and want to protect and take care of, instead of just an abstract idea or a theoretical baby. It's a good feeling, and I can't wait to watch the changes in her over the next 5 months and then to meet her and get to see her little face in person next summer!

Look at that sweet face! She was moving all around, but so far I haven't been able to feel anything yet.

I'm pretty sure she's doing crunches in this one trying to work off the lasagne I had for dinner.

Just hanging out in there.

I'm So Excited, I'm so Excited, I'm so Excited

2009-12-14T09:38:00.003-05:00

Just channeling my inner Jessie Spano there for a minute. We have a gender-determination ultrasound this afternoon so hopefully by the end of the day we'll know whether we have a baby girl or a baby boy on the way. Send this little peanut some good vibes that it will cooperate and get in a position to give us some good pics so we can know for sure!!! My big scan at the doctor isn't til the end of January and I'm way too impatient to wait that long. This ultrasound place will take you for gender-determination scans starting at 16 weeks. Well guess who just happens to be 16 weeks today? I figure why wait, let's learn what this baby is so we can stop calling it "It" and start calling it by an actual name. Luckily they will bring you back for a second ultrasound if they aren't able to determine the gender at the appointment, but I've got my fingers crossed that it will be obvious today. Pink or blue, either will do just ready to know one way or the other!

Photo Friday

2009-12-11T08:27:00.002-05:00

To continue the pet-themed posts of this week:

Tanner was underfoot as I was putting powdered sugar on a pumpkin roll the other day and wound up with it all over his face.

3 Things Thursday

2009-12-10T10:21:00.002-05:00

1.I've been slacking on workouts this week and walking the dogs has just about been the extent of it.

2. I am so stinking glad that tomorrow is Friday and I don't work this weekend!

3. Several of my coworkers and I are going out to dinner tonight to celebrate those of us with Nov/Dec birthdays, so I should have some yummy Italian food for dinner.

Happy Thursday!

Couldn't resist sharing this pic with you guys

2009-12-09T16:48:00.003-05:00

This is Molly, she must have gotten into a scuffle and wound up with a pretty nasty abscess on her back leg. Poor girl, something must have bitten her when she was trying to run away. This cat is crazy, like really mentally unstable, and Rich hates her so I accused him of hiring some stray cats to come beat her up. She had to go to the vet today to get this cleaned and stitched up. She went nuts on them so they had to slip her some sedative and happy gas. Now she is walking around the house hissing at the air and every noise she hears. I told you she was nuts. But I'm glad she's fixed up and should be feeling better soon.

Wordless-ish Wednesday

2009-12-09T09:14:00.005-05:00

Click on the dog to go to The Animal Rescue Site, then click the big purple box that says "Click here to give, it's free" to help provide food for animals in shelters. The site gets paid by ads, so it costs you nothing but a couple seconds to click the mouse. Do it! Get obsessed and click all day if you want, you can click it as many times as you want.

Cookware

2009-12-07T11:05:00.003-05:00

I thought about posting this one over on the other blog, Adventures in our Kitchen, but I wanted more answers so I'm bringing it here to all of you. So here's some basic info on a few of the types of cookware I'm familiar with:

1. Enameled cast iron-these two pieces are by Le Creuset and I love them, especially the dutch oven. It is cast iron coated in a glass enamel so you don't have to deal with seasoning the cast iron or the few cooking restrictions of unenameled cast iron (can't cook acidic foods, can't store food in them, etc). They heat evenly, and you can store food in them after it's cooked. They can go from stove to oven to table. I use the dutch oven for roasts and soups mostly, and to be honest I don't really use the skillet all that often because it's heavy and I just don't think to reach for it.

2. Nonstick- this is Teflon coated nonstick by Pampered Chef that my mother-in-law gave us soon after we got married. While I absolutely love how fast it heats up, that it's a snap to clean, and really is completely nonstick even if you burn food in it, I do have some health concerns over the use of nonstick at high heat. It can cause the coating to break down and release harmful fumes, even though you can't smell them. Also you can't use metal instruments or diswash them, but that's no big deal because they wipe clean so easily you don't need the dishwasher. Unbeatable for cooking eggs because they stick in everything else I try to cook them. Not the best choice for slow-cooking or browning meat.

3. Stainless Steel- this is Calphalon stainless from a set I got at Bed Bath and Beyond shortly before I got the Pampered Chef nonstick. I struggled with it from the beginning. You can't use high heat on stainless or your food will stick and the pan will scorch, and it was hard for me to get used to keeping it at medium or lower on the stovetop. I had a hard time cleaning it. I could get the big stuff off but there always seems to be spots or residue in the bottom no matter how much I scrub. I recently learned a trick about using Barkeepers friend (a cleaner) and scrubbing with a ball of aluminum foil and that has worked wonderfully. Stainless is pretty versatile, do-anything cookwear that can go in the dishwasher. If you're willing to do your homework about the best way to use it and clean it, it's a great choice.

4. Cast Iron- this is a skillet given to me by my grandmother and there's no telling how old it is. Older than me for sure if I had to guess. Cast iron is iron that over time and use acquires it's shiny black color. It takes some work to initially season it and get it cleaned up if it's gunky or rusty from neglect, but once you get it in good shape it should last a lifetime if cared for properly. Cast iron is great for frying bacon, baking cornbread, and searing meat. It retains heat well and therefore isn't great for anything delicate that you might need to adjust the heat on. It can go on the grill, in the oven, on a campfire, or on the stove. I have not done much cooking with cast iron but just dug my 3 skillets out and am in the process of trying to get them sanded and seasoned. This one in the pic is in good shape and is ready to go without any prep work.

What do you guys use? A mix of several different kinds? Whatever is leftover from college? Is there any particular kind you love or hate or could you really care less? Do you have any certain pieces that you reach for over and over? Have you splurged on a nice set? Happy eating!

Rainy day run-walk

2009-12-05T17:27:00.002-05:00

Charleston has been pretty dreary this last week, almost makes me think I'm in the pacific northwest with the constant not-quite-rain dampness we've had going on. This week has been excellent in that I've worked out at least half an hour every day except Monday. After getting on the scale at the OB's office Monday and seeing that I'd gained 8lbs in the last month I had some serious motivation. Well, first off I truly didn't gain 8lbs in a month. I've gained about 7lbs in the last 3 months since getting pregnant based on my home scale which I use almost daily. The first weigh-in at the doctor was in gym shorts and flip flops, the 2nd was after a gluttonous Thanksgiving week and 18 straight hours in the car...can you say water retention?? Plus I had on jeans and size 11 Nikes which aren't exactly light as feathers. So even as she cautioned me "Well, we don't want to gain 8lbs every month" I just took it with a grain of salt knowing that it wasn't an accurate reflection of the weight I've actually gained. Especially as a few lbs came off over the next few days. I started this pregnancy at 160lbs, about 10 higher than my happy weight, and am now around 167...I'm cool with that.

This morning was our local Reindeer Run, and last year we ran it and had a blast. Rich and I were both off work, both got PRs, then fully enjoyed the free beer at the local brewery afterwards. Fastfoward to today....it's rainy, I have to work in the afternoon, I obviously can't make use of the free beer nor get a PR...so the Reindeer Run really didn't appeal to me, at least not enough to fork over the race fee. Instead we went for a 5 mile walk/jog over the Cooper River Bridge. It was pretty cold and windy on the bridge, but it was still a really enjoyable workout. I walked over half of it (the uphills) but still managed to feel like I was working hard by walking pretty fast. It was the longest distance I've covered in a few months, and I'm grateful to have some energy back to get some good workouts in.

3 Things Thursday

2009-12-03T15:53:00.002-05:00

So I love that Shannon and Brandi do a "Three Things Thursday" so I'm going to give it a shot myself.

1. Working out has been going great this week. Tuesday we ran 3 miles, Wednesday I went to the gym and did 30 min on the elliptical and 15 on the bike. Today I just walked the dogs 2 miles.

2. I'm now 14 and a half weeks pregnant! I still have a long way to go but it's going by quickly and I know the next 6 months will probably fly by.

3. I am way behind on Christmas shopping. I have some ideas of gifts but have not actually purchased but maybe one or two. Also, I'm going to be a scrooge and not decorate this year. I just can't stand the thought of unboxing all those decorations. Terrible I know, but I also know that after this little one is hear we will be in full-on holiday mode every Christmas from here til the end of time so I'm not going to feel bad about slacking on it this year.

Ahh, glorious vacation....how quickly you fly by

2009-11-30T15:23:00.002-05:00

We had a nice long (10 day) vacation for Thanksgiving. It's been an eventful past 2 weeks so I'll spare you wordy paragraphs and give you wordy bullets instead.

Thurs 11/19-after work we dropped Dickson and Tanner off at boarding, loaded the car with suitcases and Fiona, hit the road.
Fiona got to go because we only had room to take one dog and she's the easiest to travel with and the boys don't seem to mind boarding at all.
Trip took 15 hours, should have only been 13 but there was a detour due to rock slides in TN
Fri 11/20- went to my Memaw and Pop's for breakfast and ate loads of delish homemade biscuits and gravy
napped
had friends over to my parents house for dinner. My friend Shelley brought birthday cake!
Sat 11/21- MY 30th BIRTHDAY!!!!!
celebrated by tailgating and going to the Hogs game, which we won..woooo pig soooiee!
further celebrated by going to dinner and watching my friends drink margaritas
stayed at a friend's apartment while everyone went out on the town later that night. Pregnancy makes me boring.
Sun 11/22-had a very low key day relaxing at my parents house
Mon 11/23-visited some daycares to get an idea of where we might send Baby Morris (BM...does that make it a Little Sh^!?) one day
Tues 11/24-saw 3 movies, yes 3! New Moon-blah, boring. Precious-dark but good. The Blind Side-excellent. Also did some shopping in between movies 1 and 2.
Wed 11/25-helped Mom cook all day for Thanksgiving since they host at their house every year
Thurs 11/26-ate, ate, ate and then ate some more. I LOVE Thanksgiving food, and really enjoyed seeing everyone.
Rich and I drove 2 1/2 hours south to Magnolia, AR to see his family
Fri 11/27-spent relaxing and hanging out with Rich's fam
Sat 11/28-AR/LSU game. Rich's family lives in south AR almost on the Louisiana line so they have a big party every year with lots of fans from each team. It was a great party!
Unfortunately we lost in overtime :(
Sun 11/29-after a very long 18 hours on the road (traffic and the darn rock slide again) we finally made it back to Charleston
Mon 11/30-OB appointment that went well, my blood pressure was great and I got to hear the baby's heartbeat.
drank a decaf peppermint mocha and it was fabulous
am working but wishing it would slow down a little so I could dive into my google reader and see what you guys have all been up to lately

12 week baby pics

2009-11-18T08:24:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I had my first ultrasound as part of the National Institute of Health (NIH) Fetal Growth Study at 12w1d pregnant. It was SO neat! The little thing was in there just rolling from side to side and doing some Jazzercize moves but it's still too small for me to feel anything. I was really hoping we could find out the sex, but all they could tell us was that either it is a boy or a girl with the umbilical cord in the way making it look like a boy. So, we have to wait til the end of Dec or early Jan to find out.

They took some blood and asked lots of questions about my health, caffeine and alcohol intake and exercise/activity level. The study is just getting underway and will run for 2 years, then it should be the standard by which fetal growth in utero is measured. How cool is it that we get to be a part of that! The little one will get a onesie that says "I am the standard by which other babies are measured." I am excited to learn in a few years what they find out about exercise and nutrition and fetal development.

Enjoy the pics of my little scrawny, alien-looking offspring:

Profile pic

Totally looks like an alien, arms and legs crossed in front of body.

A little more stretched out. That huge head and big ears kinda freak me out a little.

Back view of the spine and hipbones. They are so bony at this point. Me? Not so bony and skinny!

500 Miles!

2009-11-11T10:05:00.002-05:00

I just ran a very rainy 500th mile around the neighborhood with Fiona. Ha, on an unrelated note: she just tooted loudly then reached her head around to sniff her butt and made a face like "Yuck!"

It feels good to accomplish that 2009 goal, and I'm looking foward to seeing what my yearly mileage will end up being by the end of next month.

Happy Wednesday!

10 and 11 Week Belly Pics

2009-11-10T14:01:00.003-05:00

Well I am definitely growing! Here are shots from last week at 1o weeks and from this morning at 11 weeks (and one day, but who's counting). The bottom one is zoomed in more, but you can still tell that the belly is bigger. Now the baby is only about the size of a large lime at this point but I guess as the uterus grows it pushes everything else up and out, hence the pooch.

I basically just look like I've been on a beer and pizza bender for the last several weeks but hopefully one day soon it will actually look like a baby belly and not like I'm just chunking up.
The food aversions seem to be improving. I actually ate both a salad and a chicken breast today for the first time in over 2 months. I'm still consuming mass quantities of candy, namely sour brite crawlers, but at least I got some veggies in today.

Now I'd like to direct your attention to the top right of the blog, where it says "2009 mileage." Yeah baby, 1 mile to go to reach my goal! I feel like 500 miles is not that huge of an accomplishment when I compare myself to many of you amazing runners who knock that out in 2 months, but I'm still proud of it. I'm looking forward to making my victory lap mile around the neighborhood tomorrow!

The Be Band and Maternity Clothes...and some working out

2009-11-09T14:46:00.004-05:00

This is the Be Band, the Target version of the popular Bella Band. Basically what this wondrous little piece of stretchy fabric does is allow you to go around with your pants unbuttoned. For the past few weeks, there has been no buttoning the pants so I just tie them closed with a ponytail holder then put the Band on over them to hold them up/smooth things out. It's a great way to postpone maternity clothes and get several more weeks or months out of your regular clothes.

Today is my first day in maternity pants and boy are they sexy. See for yourself...nothing says foxy like a big expanse of nude colored fabric stretched over your tummy.

They are still a little loose in the waist but you really can't tell they're maternity once you have your shirt covering that belly panel. I prefer pants without the panel but these were the only khaki pants I could find long enough to fit me so I didn't have much choice. It is really nice to not have to ponytail-holder my pants together today though, so I think I could get used to this maternity pant thing!

Update on November goals: I'm failing miserably at the run every day goal. I had been feeling great with no nausea for about a week or so, then I swear as soon as I commited that goal to the blog, I regressed and started feeling pukey again. So I took a few days off, but did still get in at least a couple miles of walking the dogs every day. I ran a quick mile yesterday, then went to Body Pump this morning. I found out that our local Yoga Studio won't let you go to prenatal yoga until your 2nd trimester so I have to wait 2 weeks before I can start taking classes there.

New long term goal: Half Ironman!!! The only tri I've done is one sprint back in the summer but I loved it. Go read Carolina John's report from his first half-iron and I promise you'll be inspired and want to do one too. It will be quite awhile before I can tackle this goal, but one day I will do it.

We had a busy weekend working around the house and in the yard, so now I'm off to catch up with all of your blogs and see what ya'll have been up to!

24 Hour Urine Collection

2009-11-03T11:09:00.002-05:00

For the last 24 hours I've been peeing in a jug like the big one on the left. Well actually, you pee into this plastic hat thing that fits into the toilet, then you dump it into the jug, then you refrigerate it. So you get to have a giant jug-o-pee in the fridge...nice. I had to turn it in this morning to the lab at the hospital where I work, so I had to carry a large bag that it would fit inside and hold it like a baby to keep it from jostling all around. I'm SO glad to have it turned in and not have to grab the jug every 15 minutes when I have to pee.

Why did I get to participate in such a fun urine-collecting day? Because my blood pressure is a little high, and I tend to freak out (internally, outside I look cool as a cucumber) at doctor's appointments so my BP is always really high there. For example, at home it normally runs between 120-130/80-90...not good but not terrible. If I'm running at least 25 miles a week, it drops lower than 120/80 which is awesome. At the doctor last week it was 160/90. I thought she was going to admit me right there! I had to explain my freakishness to her and promise to bring her a log of my home-monitored BPs. It's technical term is "white coat hypertension" although the nurse and I joked because she was wearing blue scrubs that I have "blue scrub hypertension." It is the strangest thing. I get really anxious and can feel it going up, but for no reason. I know that it doesn't hurt, I'm not scared about the exam/appointment....it's like my body gets this completely unreasonable physical reaction that I can't control. As soon as they check my BP, I can feel it go down because the anxiety is gone. Wierd!! So this 24 hour urine collection checks to make sure my kidneys are in good working order and that I don't have protein in my urine. Having some borderline hypertension to start with puts me at an increased risk of preeclampsia and complications later in pregnancy, so they are going to keep a close eye on me to make sure my BP stays under control. I have great doctor that I trust to take excellent care of me.
For now, I'm just happy to have a urine-free fridge again!

Pregnant Running and November Goals

2009-11-01T15:36:00.003-05:00

Pop Quiz:
Pregnant running is
a. hard
b. extra tiring
c. slow
d. rewarding
e. good for mom and baby
g. helpful for burning off Halloween candy
f. all of the above

And of course the answer is, f, all of the above. I am lucky to have a doctor who fully supports exercise in pregnancy and I've been given the go ahead to run, lift weights, bike, etc. Her only guidelines were to be smart about it and to listen to my body, which I can handle. Over the past 2 months I've kept running but it has been short and slow. Most runs are just 2 miles and I usually run them at about an 11:30-11:45 pace. It's like my body just won't move any faster. I've decided to start doing "long runs" on the weekend building up to 6 miles or so and hopefully continue that as far along in the pregnancy as I'm physically able. I may or may not be planning on diving headfirst into marathon training next summer once the little dude or dudette is here:)
My long run, don't laugh...it felt long to me, was 3.5 miles. Yeah, I know...lame, but it's the longest I've run since like early September. It felt great!!

November Goals:
1. Run every single day of the month-a minimum of half a mile. This is more of a mental exercise than anything, to conquer getting out there for even just a few minutes when I don't feel like.
2. Weight train 2 days a week
3. Yoga at least once a week

Happy November! (I turn 30 later this month!!)

Vita Coco coconut water review

2009-10-27T12:57:00.003-04:00

The lovely folks at Vita Coco did not kindly send me some of their coconut water to review, nope...I actually forked over some moolah at Whole Foods for some of this the other day. I had read a few reviews here and there and they were all favorable so I decided to give it a try. Being pregnant has really cut down on my choices of beverages since I'm not drinking much caffeine or artificial sweeteners and of course alcohol is out, so....what's a girl to drink?? I've been drinking water, some juice and the occasional gatorade or iced tea but I'm always open to new things.

How was the coconut water? Great, I really liked it. Don't confuse it with the thick and creamy coconut milk that goes in pina coladas, coconut water is clear and thin just like water with a mild coconut taste.

Nutrition info: 8.5 ounces for 45 calories and 11g sugar and no protein. It is a potassium powerhouse with 515mg (15% rda) per serving. I know some people are using this as hydration for runs, but for me I don't think it would provide enough electrolytes on a long, hot run since the sodium content is low at 30mg/serving.

I will definitely be buying this again, and trying out some other brands to see what my fav is.

Quick and Dirty Thusday

2009-10-22T10:25:00.002-04:00

Before I knew I was pregnant, I agreed to work back to back 16 hour shifts 2 days this week. What this means is that yesterday I worked from 7am-11pm, drove home, slept, got up at 5 and am back at work for another 7am-11pm today. Then I have to be back at 7am again tomorrow but thankfully get off at 3:30 tomorrow afternoon. Can you say tired and cranky?!?
I am planning on running another 5K Saturday morning but if I'm still wiped out from the workweek, I may sleep in.
I'm hopefully going to be enrolled in a fetal development study through the hospital where I work. This means I get 6 free ultrasounds throught my pregnancy. Insurance normally just covers 2, so that's 4 extra times I get to see my baby!
I'm now 8.5 weeks pregnant and still no puking, so I think I'm almost out of the woods and will NOT be one of those poor women who are super sick.
I'm ready for lunch...I'm thinking grilled cheese and soup.
Happy Thursday everyone!

Get ready...the blog is blowing up today!

2009-10-20T07:41:00.004-04:00

I'm 8weeks pregnant now and we had our first ultrasound and doctor's appointment yesterday. I mean, isn't that just the most adorable little gray blob you've ever seen?:) Yeah, it's totally a blob but in the actual ultrasound you could see the little heart beat flickering. It was so cool! The heartrate was 167bpm which my mom says is a girl so we'll see. I actually have a feeling like it's a girl, but I will be equally happy with either pink or blue. We were just so happy that it measured the right size and had a good strong heartbeat....and that there was only one.

So now I can actually get back to normal blogging and not lame-o blogging. It's no fun to blog when the thing you're most excited about, you can't talk about. So back in September I started composing posts and just saving them to publish later. Lucky ya'll...you get multiple posts from me today. Enjoy!

Adventures in our Funny Farm

Candied Cinnamon Vanilla Pecans

Cookies and Cream Cookies

No Hurry Vegetable Curry

Brown Sugar Brown Butter Cookies

ingredients:

directions:

Pinterest

Frosted Cake Batter Blondies

Getting my You Know What Together

Best Veggie Burger ever...for real...

Spicy Black Bean Chili in the slowcooker

Running Update and a Winning Recipe

Recent Recipes: Cookies, cupcakes and more

Sweet Hugs

Boobies, Milkies, Nursies: In Honor of World Breasfeeding Week

Blueberry Barbecue Salmon, Crispy Asparagus Sticks and Peach Muffins

Movin' on Up

Vegan Zucchini Muffins

Exciting news on the Farm

Summer update

One Year

Rain Rain Go Away

Weekend Recap

Weekend Recap

Ingredients

Directions

Thoughts on Dieting and the Diet Industry

Weekend Recap

Vegetarian/Vegan

Yesterday in Pics

Hot Damn I Ran Again!

Finally Well!

Happy 8 Month Birthday Lucy Sue

Weekend Recap with Pics

Motherhood Monday-21 Weeks: Stranger Danger

3 Things Thursday

Motherhood Monday-20 Weeks

Running Update

Wordless-ish Wednesday

The Diet and Breastfeeding.

Lucy Pics

I'm Back!!!

Help Me With My Get-In-Shape Plan

Who's that dirty topless woman??

Marathon Training Lasted 2 Whole Days...

Marathon Training Starts Today!!!

Growth Spurts and I wanna run!!!

Postpartum Life

Lucy's Birth Story: Part 4, the grand finale and lots of pics

Lucy's Birth Story: Part 3 (pics at the end)

Lucy's Birth Story: Part 2

Lucy's Birth Story: Part 1

Baby Lucy is here!

Maternity Pics

Update

32 weeks!

Showers/Baby Stuff: tons o' pics

30 Weeks!

Lucy Pics at 28 Weeks

28 Week Pregnancy Update

Six Things Saturday

Wordless Wednesday: 4 things that brightened my day today

Today is a great day

Human Pincushion

6 1/2 Month Belly Pics and 5K

5 Things Friday

Baby Girl Morris will be named...

The Baby Name

I'm Alive!

Maternity Running Clothes

Randoms

***Help for Haiti*** Read and Comment!!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

A look back 2006-2009

I just "won" my jogging stroller on Ebay

A look back...2005

Ocean Isle Bridge 5K Race Report

A look back...2004

2010 First Quarter Race Schedule

Help for Haiti Read and Comment!!