I'm Back!!!

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

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??

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

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...

..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!!!

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!!!

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

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!