Mich's adventures

Party Foul

2010-01-31T14:55:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon I got a bit of a laugh when I spotted my neighbor's SUV trunk. Like us, they had a Graco infant stroller frame folded up in the truck. Difference was the objects on top of the stroller frame. They had a case of shiner and a case of paper towels on top of theirs. Ours had a bag of swim equipment and seat cover towels on top. The difference between the two cars does a pretty good job explaining why I feel a bit different from a lot of the other mothers out there.

A minute later the neighbor and their 3 yr old were out to say hello. As the neighbor walked over, the toddler hopped into the trunk, he needed to get his towels out. "Careful" his dad said as we all spotted the accident waiting to happen.

Sure enough, almost in slow motion, we saw the case of beer tumble out of the trunk onto the driveway. Within seconds foam was oozing from the box. It was quite comical.

We opened the box to check the damage:

There were few survivors.

"That's messy," replied the toddler. He did not seem to care at all about these useless beer bottles. They were merely in the way of his paper towels.

Our other neighbor came over and joked, "That case of paper towels is now worth $30 instead of $10."

Of course, the true value of something is what it means to the person who has it. To a little kid the fun factor is the most important thing to consider. That's pretty cool.

... and a picture of Leah looking at her orange flower:

10 Happy Things

2010-01-27T14:03:00.000-08:00

Clea tagged me in her blog note about 10 things that make her happy. I had a disturbing revelation when I read this; I've been so worn out lately I haven't given much thought to things making me happy. Therefore, I had no choice. I sat myself down and wrote down the first 10 things that popped into my head.

MICHAEL - I met Michael in the fall of '96 as a result of buggy (see a few posts ago). There is some debate about what our actual first date was. That does not matter much, we have been practically inseparable for the past thirteen years. It would take pages to write all the things about Michael that make me happy so I'll just keep it simple, I love Michael.

LEAH - The product of happiness is more happiness. Leah has not been with us too long yet but she easily made her way to the top of the happiness list. I think it has something to do with the unconditional love which you don't truly understand until you're a parent. Of course, I'm sure I'll learn a lot more about it in years to come.

PHOTOGRAPHS / PICTURES - That old phrase, "A picture is worth a thousand words" is true. I like to see what people manage to catch on film. I like to look at old pictures that bring back good memories. I also enjoy to seeing the world through another person's eyes and learning about that person from their viewpoint. I really enjoy looking at the work of all my talented friends, I have a lot of them.

DARK CHOCOLATE - What can I say, it's true. It's so true that we actually made a party around the idea of eating a sheet of dark chocolate bark.

CLOUDS - They have made me happy my entire life. One of the most enjoyable, relaxing, activities is looking into the sky and finding cloud shapes. I enjoy finding cloud shapes so much I've even found animal shapes among the clouds we painted on Leah's wall. I also like clouds because they protect my fair skin from the sun a bit. Clouds on race day make me happy.

GOING OUTSIDE - I have always enjoyed being outside. I try to do something outside every day. I was that kid who tried to convince the teacher we should have class outside every time it was nice. Lucky for them, we grew up in Rochester NY and the weather is not always nice there.

WINNING - This might not be the most humble one on the list but it's true. I like to win, I don't like to loose. I like to win so much I make up stupid competitions just for the opportunity to win. I need to make up stupid events because I'm not as smart or athletic as many of my friends. I'll never win a spelling bee and I certainly won't ever win an Ironman.

FRIEND ENCOUNTERS - It makes me happy when I unexpectedly run into a friend. It always feels good when this happens because you have a chance to catch up with someone. Random encounters are almost always enjoyable. There's something special about realizing you can still run into a friend in such a big world. The stranger the place, the happier it is. It's great to run into someone when you're on a trip outside the country or on a bad day when you need a friendly face to make you smile.

SMILES - Those things are contagious. How could you not feel happiness when someone smiles. A friend smiling at you during a 6 am workout, A random cashier at Whole Foods wishing you a good day, or your baby who does not in realize what a smile is - they are all good!

LAUGHING - Even better than smiles is the ability to make someone laugh. There was a guy who worked at the Squirrel Hill Giant Eagle that used to tell jokes to all the customers. One day we were behind an old lady who told him, "You are so humorous." To this day, the scratchy old voice and the cashier still make us laugh, no matter what type of day we're having.

So there it is... my list of 10 happy things. Apparently I'm supposed to tag 10 people to write their own list. I'm not convinced there are actually 10 people who read this blog, at least not 10 people who are willing to admit they read this blog.

I have set the goal of getting 10 people to write back a comment about something that makes them happy. If that happens, I win, and therefore I would be happy :)

Peak Physical Shape

2010-01-26T17:45:00.000-08:00

While I was pregnant I heard some nasty rumor about achieving peak physical shape 4-6 months after giving birth.

Seriously?... Who are these women that showed such remarkable physiological results? Were they human? Are we sure they were raising the children they gave birth too?

If the conclusions were actually valid I'm pretty sure the experimental protocol has more holes than my overused trainer tire. I just can't believe these conclusions could be valid.

After four months of sleep deprivation I doubt there are many people who would preform well in a physical test. Factor in the nursing (complete drain of your system every few hours) and you'll start to wonder how any new mom would contemplate any type of physical test. If you think about it longer, the bone and ligament movement will make you wonder how anyone could even hypothesize physiological benefits at this point.

What good does higher blood volume give you when you can barely find the energy to swing your legs out of bed in the morning?

But... I still believed this rumor when I heard it. I had it stuck in my head that I'd be back in full force by now. I actually assumed I'd be trying to hit a PR at 3M this past Sunday. Don't waste your time looking for results, I didn't even attempt to run it this year.

Even after all the logic I still have some dilution of getting myself into good shape in the next two months. My last race of 2009 was at Galveston, when I was 15 weeks pregnant. I reluctantly decided to do the quarter and the sprint instead of the half Ironman. This year I want to do the 70.3. I'm fully expecting this peak physical strength to get me to the finish line faster than when I raced there a couple of years ago. I have no clue how I'll pull it off but I'm ignorant enough to believe it could happen. After all, I keep hearing parenting gets easier after 4 months. ;)

BTW, If I do pull off some super performance at Galveston I'll be sure to share my postpartum training routine with everyone. Who knows... maybe this sleep deprivation really does benefit triathlon training. Doubt it!

What is a BUGGY?

2010-01-22T09:49:00.000-08:00

I feel the need to clear something up for everyone...

This is not a buggy:

This is a buggy (Haraka):

For those of you who are asking, "What in the world is that?" I will explain...

Sweepstakes (a.k.a. Buggy racing) is a Spring Carnival tradition at Carnegie Mellon. Every year, short girls are shoved into these carbon fiber, torpedo shaped, buggies to practice for the races in April. On the weekends we wake up at 4 am to be ready for free roll practice the minute the sun comes up. During spring semester we head out to the hills at 2 am to practice pushing, in sub-freezing temperatures.

It sounds pretty crazy, which it is, but that is only the beginning of the insanity of it.

Seriously, I am inside of this:

The race starts from a dead stop at the bottom of Hill 1. The first pusher gets the buggy going and pushes off to the Hill 2 pusher. Hill 2 is short and quick. The Hill 2 pusher uses a load of fast twitch muscle fibers to shove the buggy off for the free roll.

(I'm inside the green buggy in the second picture of this group)

At this point the driver (that's me) is racing down the road, past Phipps Conservatory, barreling towards the chute, mere inches off the ground.

The rush you feel while driving a buggy is a bit hard to explain. You fly down the road at 30 mph, on your belly, at eye level with the squirrels. Yes, I actually hit one once. It is better to hit the squirrel and turn to avoid it, that might kill the driver.

I'm only half joking when I write that. Buggy is not quite the safest thing. Drivers are required to wear a safety harness, a bike helmet, safety goggles, and gloves while they drive. The only day you drive against people is race day, it's too dangerous to do so all the time.

After passing Phipps Conservatory, a flagger from the driver's organization signals her to turn into the chute. At the fastest part of the course, a sharp right turn is made to flick you into the chute, past the tunnel of hay bale lined sidewalk, past the Mech-E building, past the fire hydrant plug, up to Hill 3.

The hay bales (see left side of picture above) are there to protect drivers who loose control in the chute. They are necessary! I was hit by another buggy my junior year and flew into the hay bales sideways. During my last race senior year, a few spokes broke in my rear wheel and I fish-tailed into the hay bales head first. I'm pretty sure the outcome would have been bleak had it not been for all the protection.

As the buggy slows the race is completed with pushers for Hill 3, Hill 4 and Hill 5. At this point the driver just needs to keep the buggy straight (with the sun rising in her face) and avoid the pot holes that riddle the back side of the course.

Ten years after graduating, I can still visualize the entire buggy course in my head. I know where the paint stripes begin and end, the slant of the road, and the location of the potholes. I know the angle I had to turn my steering system to make it through the chute. I can recognize the smell of the grease we used and remember how to make my buggy pass a drop test when it's breaks were acting up.

For that reason, I can not call a baby stroller a buggy. They are not the same. Almost all babies in developed nations will ride in a stroller, there are very few of us who have ever raced a buggy.

Thankfully, Leah and her stroller do not weigh nearly as much as I did in a buggy. If that were the case it would be nearly impossible to run 5 miles with her. I guess I should remind myself of this every time I am frustrated about my aching hamstrings.

Go Big Blue

2010-01-20T17:21:00.000-08:00

Today, one of the Farmers at the market commented, "Wow, she has such beautiful blue eyes. I bet her dad is going to be on the lookout."

"Her dad has already told her she can't date until she's 30."

The farmer started to laugh, as if to say, 'Yeah right. Good luck.'

As you can see, her dad is already on the lookout. This picture was taken when we were meeting some friends for breakfast, in Miami. Michael was quite careful to keep Leah away from the 2 year old boy.

Two years older than her is no good. One year older earns opportunity to give her a kiss without any backlash from dad.

I haven't told him Jack gives her a kiss every time he sees her, I think 30 years older might be a huge problem.

I read something about these steel blue eyes she has. Apparently they may change on us up to 3 years of age. They may turn light blue, green, or light brown (poop color). We're hoping for less poop, more water.

Apparently she's going through the stage of keeping a watchful eye on mom. Or maybe she just thinks I'm much better looking than dad:

----

We decided it was time to start running with Baby G. We'd heard a lot of mixed comments about this. Some people start running the baby jogger a couple weeks after birth and others wait long past 6 months.

Our decision was based on our ignorant analysis of Leah's head stability and overall strength. When her head stopped moving from bumps at a walking speed we decided we could go faster.

"I have the Baby Jogger keys... Now why can't I make this thing turn on and go fast?!"

The other day I told my mom we'd started to run with her and she told me what she'd done when I was a child:

"I used to ride my bike with you on my back and Colin in the basket. Funny what you do when you're young."

I didn't even ask, I suspect there were no helmets involved in these adventures. Seems like I turned out okay so riding a bicycle with a kid on your back might be safe. I'd question the basket, that might explain a few things. ;)

---

Overheard conversations of the Garel household:

As Leah is crying Michael asks, "Is she H-U-N-G-R-Y?"

"I don't think she understands that yet," I reply.

[some time later] Michael comes into the room, "Seems like she's eating a lot. She must have been hungry."

Leah gives me a strange look as I reply, "I don't know. My internal flow monitor is broken."

---

A couple other videos from earlier this week:

4 months

2010-01-18T08:50:00.000-08:00

"It gets easier after the first 4 months " seems to be one of the most common bits of unsolicited advice I've heard since Leah was born.

Yesterday was 4 months, this morning we went to the pediatrician for some more growth charting and another set of shots.

Leah now weighs 13 lb 10 oz. She's gained almost 7 lbs since she was born.

Here's Leah's shock when she finds out how much weight she's gained in the past few months and hears she's about to get some shots:

She did pretty well with the shots. There were four of them. The look on her face when the first one hits is priceless. Her eyes bug out for a second and then she starts crying so hard that her tongue vibrates in her moth like crazy.

Thankfully it's only a minute of pain before the shots are completed and she's back in my arms. Once that happens she calms down quickly and within 15 min she was asleep, probably hoping the pain would be gone when she woke up again.

-----

The big question of the next few months will be when to start feeding her solid food. Leah's doing fine either way so our pediatrician said we can start her with some solids whenever we decide it's time. He recommends starting some time within the next couple of months because it takes a while to get used to it.

The positive aspect of starting the solid food is the decrease in amount of times I'll need to feed her. For someone who's not big on the idea of feeding in public (or can't seem to muster up the courage to do it ever) the idea of feeding food mid day sounds pretty appealing.

There are drawbacks though; smelly poop, messy poop, messy food all over, food preparation time, flying food, etc.

But I'm sure the blog posts will become much more interesting when we have all those new, fun, things to tackle.

Tinker Rylee

2010-01-16T18:52:00.000-08:00

My brother and I have had a chance to hang out a bit before UT classes start up again. It's a little weird to think we were driving around in his minivan with our two little girls, in Austin TX. It's freakishly weird to think some of the people we saw thought we were the parents of the two girls. At a couple points I wanted to blurt out, "He's my brother!" but realized it was completely irrelevant what other people thought.

We took the girls over to the Austin Children's Museum and got some good shots of Rylee making Colin proud. She may leave the house with a pink bow in her hair but she seems to have some tom-boy hidden within.

Dad explaining proper operation:

Rylee learns quickly:

Playing with trucks:

Building structures:
I learned many things about Tinker Bell that I did not know. Had no idea she was any different than the other fictional princesses and fairies. Wow, was I wrong. Tinker Bell is an engineer and happens to be one of the best ones. She also happens to be Rylee's idol at this point.

I believe Rylee is trying to bring a present home for her mom. Bright orange is Marissa's favorite color and I think Rylee was convinced she was strong enough to break this off the wall so she can make her mom proud too.

What's Inside

2010-01-16T08:51:00.000-08:00

My phone has come back to life so I'll be able to tell me stories from the week. It might take a few posts...

Leah and I made a trip to HEB for a food selection lesson.

As always, we visited the produce section first to check out all the wonderful colors and load the cart with some necessities.

Next on the agenda: A lesson about Peanut Butter

Per current recommendations, Leah probably won't taste her first peanut butter until she's about two years old. That does not mean she should be ignorant to this magical food.

A few years ago, a friend of ours got frustrated when I told her I didn't like her Jiff Peanut Butter because it does not taste like Peanuts to me. She was completely shocked when I insisted her Peanut Butter had sugar listed as it's 2nd ingredient. She grew almost offended when I implied my Laura Scudders Peanut Butter was better and has no sugar.

My accusations seemed so unrealistic that someone else made a bet with her on the topic. Upon reading the labels the accusations were confirmed; Sugar is the second ingredient listed on the Jiff jar and my PB only has Peanuts and Salt. My newly educated friend was sentenced to eating one jar of my peanut butter before buying another one of her own brand. Rumor is, she hasn't bought another jar of Jiff since.

As we walk over the Peanut Butter isle I am shocked by what I see before me. "Oh no, the Jiff marketing team has come up with a way to target the unknowing people of the world. They now have Natural Jiff."

We flipped the jar around to see what it said. No surprise here; sugar is the 2nd ingredient (my apologies for the blurry picture). In essence, this natural Jiff is merely a more expensive version of the sugar filled stuff down the isle.

Leah was not amused. She felt the need to spread her lesson to the small mass of blog readers...

She would like to advice you all to pay attention to what you're eating.

If you choose to fill yourself with junk be well informed. [note: the conversation on high fructose corn syrup is too long for this post]

For example: if you're going to eat a blooming onion at Outback (Michael, she's calling you out) be sure to inform everyone at the table that it's one of the 10 unhealthiest things you can order at a US restaurant.

Yes, that really did happen. There were 8 of us (+ Leah) at Outback last night. When someone ordered a couple blooming onions Michael began to tell everyone how unhealthy they are. He even went so far as to pull up the information on his iPhone. At this point the waitress seemed a bit surprised and the guy ordering them asked if that meant Michael won't eat it.

"No, I'll eat it, but she won't!" he stated while pointing to me.

That was the first time I'd ever seen / smelled one of the glorified blooming onions. I did not see it after we left dinner but I could certainly smell it oozing from Michael's skin this morning. I think that might be why Leah was screaming hysterically when Michael went to check on her at 1am.

A few pictures of Leah and I before the blooming onion incident.

Time for a playgroup?

2010-01-15T06:56:00.000-08:00

Funny comment of the week:

Upon plotting Leah's current length on a growth chart Michael comments, "I think Leah might get tall."

I give him a strange look as he explains himself, "By tall I mean 5'4" or 5'6"."

Apparently, if you're not petite then you are tall ;)

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This week Leah and I have enjoyed some fun adventures and have taken some pictures to tell everyone what we've learned. Unfortunately, my iPhone is feeling a bit under the weather after a run-in with Michael. He tried to update the software. My phone appears to have some human tendencies, it's scared of changes. Therefore, it has shut itself down temporarily and Michael needs to revive it back to life. Let's all cross our fingers for the MG iPhone.

We're closing in on 4 months since Leah was born (Sunday for those of you tracking it). Thus far most of our socializing has been introducing Leah to people. In a couple of months she'll begin to crawl and she'll begin to thrive on playmates her own age.

This is where my fears begin. Although I know a good number of people who have babies close to Leah's age, I'm starting to wonder if it's time to look into a playgroup...

When we were in Miami a friend of ours compared this search to a sorority rush. What could this baby rush involve?!

Are there weeks of parties where babies are encouraged to drink milk until they pass out?

Is there popular mom group for all the beautiful super moms? If you and your child are not socially excepted will you get stuck in that other mommy group that nobody wants to be part of?

Are there hazing rituals that involve strange activities with soiled diapers?

Is there special baby babble or matching outfits to indicate your inclusion in the baby sorority?

Curried Lentils

2010-01-10T19:48:00.000-08:00

Last week we watched The Girl Next Door. Earlier this week we watched The Hangover. On Friday morning Michael made a flight to Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show. For any guys out there planning a trip to Vegas without your wife, I'd recommend different movies leading up to your trip.

Before leaving, Michael asked me if I was going to send him pictures of Leah while he was gone. Like any good mom with an iPhone, I took a bunch of pictures to document the weekend.

So here's a quick commentary of our adventures while dad was away. For the sake of the readers I will drastically paraphrase the weekend by removing all descriptions of pooping, sleeping, and eating.

FRIDAY -

Mom returns home from the pool, to find Leah asleep in her spot:

Off to Performance Wellness where we had our science lesson of the day:

Stop by Jack and Adams to visit some friends and get out a good cry:

Leah's response when I told her dad was not coming home tonight because he was at a nerd convention:

SATURDAY -

Early morning play time before taking a nap (aka mom gets to ride the trainer):

Trip to Whole Foods to scarf down an Acai bowl:

Only took Trish and I about 15 min to devour these things. Things in pictures are larger than they appear.

Over to Book People to get some colorful books and back home for more play time:

SUNDAY -

This isn't a lollipop?
I like my chair:

Just kidding, I hate my chair:

Mmmm.... a banana:

This isn't a real banana?

What's this toy?
Look, my doll has striped pants, just like me!

In the ladybug dress for Stephanie's baby shower:

Back home... Yippee, dad is back from Vegas :)

We gave Leah a bath tonight. Or, maybe I should say we gave her three baths tonight. Just after putting Leah into the water for her bath she decided to poop. The icky mess that contaminated the water looked quite a bit like the curried lentils I'd had for dinner. I'm pretty sure it takes more than 20 min of processing to get through me and through Leah but the color and texture were remarkably similar.

[oops, I guess I should revise my early statement about not mentioning poop]

Time to start over. Remove Leah, get another bath ready, put her back in. This time we made it through about half the bath before she decided to give us another gift. To add to the humor of it, we recently broke the nub on that bath tub and we're currently using vice grips to turn on and off the water. Each time we emptied Leah's little tub, we had to pull out the tools to get the next bath ready. Thankfully, we made it through the third try without any presents.

Hunting for Colors

2010-01-07T07:06:00.001-08:00

We've noticed Lil' G has quite an interest for colors and patterns. Our first clue was her curiosity for her flowered burp cloth. I'll probably write a future post on her various burp clothes, they're a little different from what most people use.

While we were in Miami, we thought it might be good to introduce Leah to some more colors. For example, Miami is green, Austin is burnt orange.

On Monday we had a family adventure to visit Fairchild Botanical Gardens.

Since I was there last (for a friend's wedding 8 yrs ago) they've added a lot of great sculptures to the grounds. The colors were vibrant and Leah really seemed to enjoy all the wonderful things to look at.

Gnarly:
Gnarly sneeze

Don't drink the water, I think there's something weird in there

"Mom, I see some red things with white poka-dots in the water. They're interesting!"

What are those?

We're pretty sure the flowers by Yayoi Kusama were her favorite. They are the newest pieces added to Fairchild and when we first spotted them we were quite excited, knowing Leah would love them.

Here's my favorite depiction of her curiosity:

A couple more fun ones at the dancing flowers...

While Leah was hunting for color I was reaching for something else:

mmm... chocolate

For the benefit of Chuck I let LG watch a few minutes of the Redskin's game. I don't think she understands the rules yet but she does seem to know she's watching bright colors on a magical screen.

A few more glamor shots with dad and great-grandma Janette

That's all for now, hopefully you enjoyed the colors as much as Leah did

Judgment

2010-01-06T13:09:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon we returned home from our adventure to Miami. It was LG's first time on an airplane. She did pretty well, maybe even a bit better than we thought she could do. There were a few rough times during the rapid altitude changes but she did okay and I had the opportunity to teach her a basic science lesson or two.

Traveling with an infant is quite different than traveling alone. There is a lot more to carry and it takes a lot more time to get ready. Our entire day yesterday was spent getting LG ready to travel, traveling with LG, and getting her to unwind after the travel.

As we were boarding the flight from DFW to AUS yesterday afternoon I heard a snide remark from someone waiting to get into line, "I guess they're letting everyone on." At that point the first class cabin had been told they could board and in usual fashion a mass of people were hovering within feet of the ticket counter, crowding the entrance, waiting for the first second they could jump onto the plane. Apparently these two young parents, dressed in race shirts and sneakers, did not look like they should be getting on the airplane yet. Maybe the guy thought we were trying to push our way on since we had an infant. He probably didn't realize the guy with the infant was using upgrades he'd managed to save up after 20+ overseas trips over the past decade.

I thought to myself, I would have expected that type of comment on the flight out of Miami but not the one into Austin.

I then realized something else; I had just stereotyped the people from Miami while criticizing someone for making a judgment about others. Point is, we are all gutty of passing judgement on others and could probably all benefit from paying a little more attention too it.

--------------

On the way over to Miami LG's luggage was lost. It was a little frustrating that she'd lost her bag on her first flight but I don't think she noticed. I suspect this was probably the best time in her life to have misplaced luggage. I can't imagine trying to console a two-year old if the airline lost the bag with their favorite blanket it it. (Note: I just returned home from a trip to Target to purchase a backup airplane blanket - it has airplanes on it, not for the airplane).

Michael's description of the bag, "Teel duffel bag with "MICH" monogrammed on it."

As if that wouldn't make it stand out like a sore thumb they asked him to list five things in the bag. Apparently "Baby Clothes" was enough to distinguish the bag from all the black luggage with adult clothes.

Since we'd flown to Miami on New Year's Eve the airlines were probably a bit understaffed in their luggage retrieval department. Although the bag had been located at 9 am the next morning, it never went out for delivery. We did get it back the next night when Michael drove back to the airport to find it. This morning he got an automated call from the airlines to update him on the status of his lost luggage.

As a side note, those upgrades we used to get ourselves to first class also meant we had bright orange "Priority" tags on all of our bags. Wonder if that helped them find the bag the next morning.

------

Nap time is probably about done so that's all for now. We have lots of pictures from the trip and I promise to write another post and add pictures very soon. Stay tuned.

Baby 101

2009-12-30T13:29:00.000-08:00

It's been 100 days since we left the hospital with Leah. That corresponds to roughly:

200 loads of laundry (and our highest water consumption ever)
400 mood swings (those are mine)
600 feedings (I'm a cow)
800 diaper changes (more than half with poop)
1000 bouts of crying (which Michael thinks are cute)

Yes, things have changed but we knew that would happen. For years people have told us life changes more than you believe.

But... what are those things they don't tell you?

My vote: lack of warning about the true pain of the [insert pause for added dramatic effect]... THE CLUSTER FEED.

I first heard about this mysterious thing a few weeks before Leah was born. I was informed that at some point during the first week the baby would have a growth spurt. This growth spurt coincides with cluster feeding, an increased rate of feedings resulting from increased hunger.

I suppose this happened when I was in the hospital but everything is a bit of a blur the first week. The baby seems to be doing nothing more than eating, pooping, sleeping, and crying. Therefore, a slight increase in the frequency of feeding did not seem alarming.

Trouble is, I was not really warned about the future cluster feeds. Had I been thinking logically, instead of thinking like a sleep deprived new mom, I may have realized this would happen. After all, I knew there would be future growth spurts.

Here's a short recap of the last 24 hrs:

Tuesday morning is Baby Day at the Alamo Draft House theater. I burst out in laughter when I saw the warning signs posted on the doors.

I fed Leah before we left and brought a bottle, assuming she would not want it until the end of the movie. Shortly after the movie began, the crying began. Warning sign #1: an off schedule feeding. We fed Leah, changed a diaper, and walked around the back of the theater with her for another hour. Apparently she was in no mood to sit still (I still have no clue where that trait comes from).

When we returned home we fed Leah again, changed her, and put her down for a nap. She slept for 1.5 hrs and managed to soak through her diaper so extensively that three large spots soaked her bed when she woke up. I'm pretty sure this is the first time she's managed to leak through all three diaper holes. Warning sign #2: massive amount of pee in a short period of time

Since yesterday afternoon Leah has followed a stringent pattern of eating every 2.5 hours (it's normally every 4 during the day and 8 at night), sleeping a bit, and waking up for more.

I'm sure you can guess how our night went! Not much sleep and a lot of frustration that I have to squeeze even more liquid life out in a short period of time. These type of nights make a mom want to rip out her hair. I thought twice about this as I remembered my hair is already falling out at a rapid rate due to nursing.

We responded to this eating frenzy with logic. In a classic example of an over controlled process we pulled about 3 feedings worth of milk out of the freezer. Of course, once she starts eating more my body will also respond with an increase in the cow factor. It's impressive how quickly the body can respond to an increased demand but it's not much fun when the discomfort level rises.

Biggest concern now is our flight tomorrow. It was already going to be a logistical challenge for us but the eating frenzy adds some increased fun factors. We'll see how it goes. For now, I'll just have to repack all of Leah's clothes. She's been wearing 0-3m stuff but after this last cluster feed I think we'll be exclusively in 3-6m before the weekend.

Maybe Leah felt the need to grow enough to fit into the snow suit before it warms up in Austin:

Another picture, Leah with her favorite nerd toy:

Busy Gear Garels

2009-12-27T19:11:00.000-08:00

I just returned from a quick trip to Target to buy some red-topped bins for baby clothes (and pass along to the next J&A baby girl). While I was there I made a necessary trip over to the toy section.

I continue to wonder what I will do when Leah gets older and insists on buying every toy she's interested in. How can I possibly say no when I can't resist the urge myself?! Tonight I just had to get this:
Seriously, the Playschool Busy Gears was a need! My curious engineer in training likes colors and moving objects. How could I pass up such a perfect toy, especially once I noticed it was on sale.

I was reassured when I was in the checkout line. There were two young girls (and their mother) ahead of me in line who thought I'd picked some cool toys. They also had an eye for my blueberries so they must be smart girls.

---

We decided it was time to take a family adventure. For me, it felt like the past few months have involved a lot of "your turn to watch her" instead of doing things all together. That was our goal this weekend, to work on doing things together as a family. We had a great weekend together, I'm happy that we've been able to start introducing Leah to being a Garel.

After living in Austin for a decade it was about time to make a trip to Enchanted Rock. I can't believe we waited so long to head out there, it was well worth it.

As usual, Leah was the smarter one with logistics. Michael read mention of the parking lot filling up during peak season but we assumed this weekend would not be that popular. Leah knew better, she woke up at 3:30 and 7:30 to eat (1 hr earlier than usual). We arrived at the park at 10:30, too no line. We walked to the top of the summit and noticed a string of people heading up on our way down. Then we made another hike through the park. When we left at 2:15 there was a huge back-up of cars, waiting to get into the park. Almost seems Leah knew it was smarter to get out of the house and arrive early ;)

---

Lesson of the weekend: Bench press is not a necessary exercise while nursing. I went to the gym yesterday for the second time since having Leah. I decided it might be time to test out my arms a bit since I was no longer concerned about the risk of dropping the bar on my belly. Let's just say the added soreness is not good when you already have tugging in that area.

MG_morph

2009-12-26T19:28:00.000-08:00

Things happen a little differently on days with both parents at home. There's more time to get chores done around the house but some things in life don't change too much after kids. Instead of settling down to a productive day of finishing the fence project or purging out things we don't need we decided to introduce Leah to the Garel lifestyle.

Here's a list of today's activities
- Feed Leah
- Change Leah
- Mom is "that person" waiting for the gym to open at 8am
- Dad runs at Town Lake
- Feed Leah
- Change Leah
- Farmer's Market trip
- Austin Children's Museum visit
- Feed Leah
- Change Leah
- Take care of brother's cat
- Mom runs at Town Lake while Dad & Leah play at Jack & Adams
- Feed Parents
- Feed Leah
- Change Leah
- Read story
- House chores and web surfing

The parents out there may notice something was missing from this list... there was no mention of a nap. I suspect this type of weekend oversight may become a serious issue in the future. Or... Leah will quickly realize her parents are crazy and will begin to sleep through all the activities we drag her out too.

When I returned back from my outing at Town Lake I asked Michael what they had done while I was gone. Michael happily showed me a phone full of pictures of Leah testing out a tri-bike.

As I carried a bucket of laundry upstairs I asked Michael what he was doing. "I'm morphing pictures of us to find out what Leah should look like." Apparently there's a website that allows you to morph pictures to determine what your baby would look like. This would probably be a great application for those who do not have a baby sleeping in the next room. With his lack of sleep Michael forgot that he already knows what our morphed baby looks like.

But... this was fun and took less than 9 months of waiting before we got to see it.

Thankfully, I think Leah lucked out and looks cuter than the morph prediction.

Aside from morph_baby there's also a morph_old feature. I have to be honest, this one freaked me out a bit. I'm hoping this strange shadow looking morph is not the way Leah will look in 30 yrs.

Neighborhood Watch

2009-12-25T07:47:00.000-08:00

Our neighborhood has a yahoo news group which seems to be used primary to make complaints (regarding neighbors with tall grass) and report on the wrongdoings of teenagers in the area.

Lately, the neighborhood safety and break-ins have been a hot topic. Although it's a serious issue there is a bit of humor when I read all the reports of "suspicious vehicles" in the area. My favorite is when (1) neighbor A reports a suspicious vehicle in front of someones house and says they are about to call the police and (2) neighbor B writes back not to call the police because that car belongs to their visitor.

There are signs posted for the neighborhood watch program and the local police are often called into the area when a problem comes up. As I was crossing the street at the beginning of my walk on Friday a Policeman called over from his car, "Excuse me, do you happen to recognize this dog?" As he said this he held a brown chihuahua out the window.

"Of course, wasn't he in the Taco Bell commercials in the 90's?!"

No, I didn't really say that. Instead I answered with a less sarcastic remark, "No, Don't know the dog. Are you really sitting here to see if someone knows the dog?"

"Yes."

Good to know the police are monitoring the important things, I thought they were just out to give people speeding tickets. Note, I saw four people pulled over on my drive home from the pool.

Later on in our walk, Leah and I came across a suspicious vehicle. I was tempted to report it to the neighborhood news group but I wasn't sure if they'd see my humor. Maybe they would have been more understanding if I also reported on the suspicious men hopping out of the vehicle in camo clothing. Obviously, they were trying to sneak around the neighborhood unnoticed!

Good thing the keen eyes of the 3 month old spotted them.

Understanding

2009-12-24T20:43:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I wonder how much Leah understands. I'm sure every parent would love to think they are raising a little genius, a future Olympic medalist, or just a great person in general.

Some parents seemed to be convinced they have a rock star at a young age and try to tell everyone about it. It's funny what things can lead parents to believe their child is exceptional. Last week some people showed my brother how well their 3 month old could stand... they were holding onto the kid at the time. There's always the parents who brags about the size of their kid: my kid is in the 100 th percentile for head size or my kid has an abnormally large femur (some of you may know who that kid is but I'll keep him anonymous until he gets chicked by Leah in a few years).

What makes me think Leah is so special? I think it's this remarkable ability to understand what I'm saying to her. Or... just my impression that she understands me and seems to listen to my requests.

Here's how my day went today:

Michael joined a friend to run at City Park and I slept in, a long time, due too a few months of cumulative sleep deprivation. I woke up at 9:30 and thought it would be real nice if Leah would stay asleep long enough for me to eat some breakfast. I checked on her and asked her to wait a few more minutes to wake up. Somehow she managed to wake up just after I finished the dishes.

I fed her and played with her a bit. At that point I wanted her to take a nap for a while so I could hop on the trainer and get in a good ride. I was hoping for 2:45 ride which seemed a bit unreasonable since she would probably want to eat in 2 hrs. But why not try, "Hey Leah, can you take a long nap so I can get in a 2:45 trainer ride?" Almost like clockwork, she woke up minutes before my ride was ending and Michael held her while I took a quick shower.

I fed Leah and got ready to burp her, "Okay Leah, mom just took a shower so let's try not to spit milk all over her."

At this point Leah gave me a smile as she was laying on a pillow in my lap. She opened her mouth and spit out a huge stream of milk. I burst into laughter, "No problem mom, I didn't get it on you."

We then laid on the floor to play a bit. When Michael came over I told him to take a picture of us, "Wave to the camera Leah" (see picture above).

I know it's quite impossible that she could actually have the cognitive ability to understand me but she just keeps making me wonder. Maybe I do have a genius. Or maybe I'm still sleep deprived and have dilutions of a genius.

Mine

2009-12-22T19:09:00.000-08:00

Leah has seen her cousin a couple of times in the past few days. Rylee is turning two next month and is therefore quite a bit more interesting than full grown adults. Leah has been very curious about Rylee and seems to be quite content watching the little giant at play.

Rylee's favorite words of the week appear to be "No" and "Mine." She's getting herself in good position for the terrible two's.

We've decided to disperse the negative characteristics of that year over a larger time frame. Therefore, we will be teaching Leah about the concept of possession (mine) at a young age. To help in our plans, Leah has been sent more personalized items.

Hopefully the new towels will allow us to fully explain the concept of mine, yours, and ours.

Only trouble is... how to we teach her about sharing? Do we get her a library card so she can learn about sharing books with other kids? This could be dangerous if she takes after me. When I was younger I defaced the library copy of Harold And The Purple Crayon by drawing all over it with my own purple crayon. You may wonder how I recall this... my mother made me go apologize to all the librarians for what I'd done. It was probably a good call on her part because it ended my graffiti career at a young age.

Here's a picture of me sharing Leah's skoot with her. You may notice a couple of things about the bike: (1) there are no pedals - this allows us to teach Leah balance (2) there are disk wheels - this implies Leah is stronger than her mother since D.W. let her have disk wheels and told me I was too small

A picture of Leah asleep in my arms at the Austin Children's Museam. After about an hour of watching shadows, lights, and the other kids she was passed out. I'm sure it had nothing to do with my attempt to get her on the bike that counted pedal strokes

Lastly, another picture in a Hungry Catipillar outfit. I think these are guite fitting for our good eater

Yawning is Contagious

2009-12-21T18:37:00.000-08:00

I've heard many times that yawning is contagious. I've seen the effects before yet I just can't seem to make Leah yawn when I do. She has the power to make me yawn. She's so good at it that I even began to yawn when I looked at this picture again.

It's pretty interesting to observe Leah's personality evolve. I've begun to call her "Curious Leah." It might not be the most catchy nickname but it's a lot better than some of the other ones her father has tried; Porker, Bugger, Goober, etc.

Here's a few pictures for those of you watching Leah grow from your computer...

Curious Leah watching her airplane mobile:

Leah comparing herself to the measurement worm:

Blowing spit bubbles:

Getting ready for a birthday party:

A few people have asked me how the workouts are going lately...

Last week went pretty well. There were some solid arm workouts with dumbbells (a.k.a. rattles) and we managed 3 sets of 10 baby crunches. Leah is learning her multiplication tables as well as developing her core.

Accomplishments

2009-12-11T06:57:00.001-08:00

Tuesday was our first 'bring your daughter to work day.' Michael watched Leah while I was at my eye appointment.

He's been trying to teach her to shake her rattle for a while. Grasping it and shaking it was a difficult task. As he was driving along her heard the rattle shake, she'd accomplished her goal.

This morning Whitney attached the pulley system for us to try swimming against resistance for part of practice. The first time I tried this, about 1 month ago, I made it about half way. After that practice I promised myself I'd get to the other side at my next attempt. A few weeks later I swam to the other end with a 8 lb weight attached to the pulley.

Today, I had a new challenge: 10 lb. It might not sound like much but getting myself across that pool took a lot of energy. I managed to scrape my finger tips at the other wall 4 x this morning. I was toast for the rest of practice but I'd made progress.

I should probably thank Leah for this. I suspect my arms are getting stronger as I continue to pick up my good eater.

Keep working at those seemingly impossible tasks, every little accomplishment is a sweet reward for the effort put in.

A good quote from Vince Lombardi for all those football fans out there (although I doubt any of them have ever read this blog) :

"The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall."

Everybody Poops

2009-12-07T17:50:00.001-08:00

The last time we went to the pediatrician's office he told us, "Don't be surprised if she only poops every couple of days."

"What? Did you say every couple of days or every couple of diapers?"

Apparently some babies go as long as a week without pooping. I want to find out what those moms are eating (or not eating) to cause this. We were excited when she was no longer pooping every couple of hours. It's pretty exciting when you get one of those surprise poop-free diapers; less cleanup is always good.

Which brings us to the topic of the day, diapers.

As some might know, we use a combination of cloth and landfill diapers. The landfill at night is a compromise to make things a bit easier for my wonderful husband, who is nice enough to change most of those diapers.

Why did I want to use cloth?

My initial reasoning was to reduce my carbon footprint a bit. Although I must admit, my brother and one of my old co-workers seemed to think I would give in after about of week of using them. Proving them wrong was enough incentive to use the cloth ones.

Some people use cloth for the money savings. I haven't had the time to do a full cost / carbon footprint analysis on the topic. If so I'd have to consider the processing of the landfill diapers and their waste versus the processing of the cloth and the increased water consumption for all the laundry we now do. There are many other things to consider, but I've let my six sigma certification run out so I'm not going to bother with that. For now, I'll just share some observations...

There are many types of cloth diapers and a lot of jargon to confuse the novice parent. The best thing I did was talk to people who use the cloth diapers and try to absorb some of their knowledge. Biggest thing I learned, every kid is a bit different and those varied body shapes seem to have an effect on what diapers you will prefer.

The cheapest way to cloth diaper is to use prefolds and covers. Although pictures of Leah are appreciated she prefers not to be seen in only her diapers.

(Leah's reaction to the idea of pictures in her diaper)

Therefore, Mr Blue Hippo has volunteered for the job of showing you some of the different ways to fold your prefolds.

The prefolds are what most people think of when they talk about cloth diapers. Thing is, people have been inventing a lot over the past 50 years. Not only do we have phones that take pictures, we have cloth diapers that go on just as easily as the trash diapers (easier if you ask me). My current personal favorite are the BumGenius one size and BumGenius 3.0 all-in-one diapers.

As I said earlier, there's more laundry to be done with these diapers and a baby. For decades my laundry has consisted of a load of lights, followed by a load of darks, and maybe a load of towels or sheets. Sometimes we managed to create a non-dryer load during peak ironman training. Now we have something new: a load of diapers followed by a load of pinks. You don't even realize pink has it's own load until you have a baby girl.

(the load of pink and white clothes)

Snowing in Austin

2009-12-04T11:39:00.000-08:00

For those of you living in Austin I'm sure you've heard about the potential snow all week. From the way people have been talking you'd think we were going to get some huge storm that would shut down the city for weeks.

But all those people buying up the bananas and water were correct, it has been snowing in Austin today.

Look at the neighborhood kids who got sent home early from school...

No, of course that's not Austin in 2009! Don't the moon boots give it away? That's western New York in December of 1984. Yes, the dorky one with the big glasses is me.

Here's what it was like in Austin (complete with some commentary from Leah)

If you watch again you might actually see the snow flakes. Seriously, they are there. We were lucky enough to have 3 min of snow while Michael was home for lunch. We almost missed it because it took almost that long to get Leah bundled up enough to venture out into the frigid weather.

Being in the right place

2009-12-03T17:12:00.000-08:00

While we were flying the other day Michael and I were having a conversation about relativity. It was a very interesting discussion about the velocity and acceleration of airplanes and bugs within the airplane. Lucky for you, that is not what this blog post is about.

Instead, a brief recap of my lucky coincidence today...

Text message from RY: " [my license plate ID] I think I'm parked next to you"

We were both running some errands mid day and some how ended up parked next to each other on the almost_roof level of a parking garage.

It sounds like a funny coincidence but I have somehow run into Rich in many random places; the airport, Barton Springs, races, etc. The first encounter (while he was a tour guide at Carnegie Mellon) has been a huge factor in shaping the past 15 yrs of my life. Had he split the tour group differently I might not have gone to CMU, might not have met Michael, and probably would not be living in Austin right now. Thank you Rich for inadvertently shaping my future.

We, on the other hand, deliberately shaped his future by introducing him to Kelly.

Back to the story... We both got done at the same time and decided it would be fun to head to lunch. RY had never been to EZ's so we made the short walk over there and enjoyed a good chat. Mid way through our meal the kids at the next table decided it would be fun to dump their glasses of water and ice. Crash, a huge spill all over and a water fall pouring off the table.

"That's what you have to look forward too," Rich said with a laugh.

I quickly reached over to cover Leah's eyes, "You don't see anything."

When we were growing up my brother spilled his drink about 9 of 10 meals. I honestly think it became a game of 'try to wreck Michelle's dinner' instead of a mere accident. My brother seemed to love spilling milk and OJ onto my food too see how much liquid was required to keep me from clearing my plate.

It should be fun to see what sorts of messes Leah gets into as she grows. I suspect there will be many of them. I also suspect a certain person (who will remain nameless) will burst out into laughter and therefore encourage this type of behavior.

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A few more Leah pictures

Wishing a happy B-day all the cool people born at this time of year:Encouraging mom riding the trainer, after a stellar 20 min nap:

For those of you wondering about the picture at the top of this post, that was my failed attempt to take a self portrait with my iPhone. It didn't quite work as planned.

Leah is much better at taking self portraits with the phone:

Television

2009-11-30T14:01:00.000-08:00

Whenever family comes to visit it seems there is an inevitable conversation regarding our television and / or lack of television watching. Let's just say I don't know which remote control turns on the television and have no clue what numbers to punch in to bring up the stations we get.

"Have you seen the preview for X?"
"Did you watch Y?"
"Are you going to watch Z game?"

Simply put, "No, I have no clue what that is and most likely won't be blasting out of our 10 yr old television."

Maybe it's a case of not knowing what I'm missing but that does not bother me much. Besides, how in the world would I find time to watch television? It's not like I'm going to skip my workouts to watch The Biggest Looser... I think that would be oddly hypocritical although I'm not sure since I've never actually seen the show.

Funny thing... my mother told me the other day about reports of children getting injured from flat screen televisions. Apparently there's been a high rate of the top heavy screens toppling over onto kids. Next time I field a question about our old television I'll just say it's for Leah's safety.

I'm actually wondering what the conversations might be when she returns home from a friends house in a few years...

"Mom, they had this thing called a television and they had all this strange food."

Correction: it won't be a friends house, that will be the conversation when she returns home from visiting my brother ;)

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A couple weeks ago we stopped off at Einsteins for breakfast. I overheard a comment from someone near by, saying some people are too focused on their kids. I'm not sure if that was directed towards us or if it was merely a coincidence. Either way, I think I've become one of those people who focuses on their kid.

Could be worse, I saw a lady walking at Town Lake, with her dog in a front carrier on her chest. I might offend someone by saying this but I think that was a bit odd. Is the dog stroller not strange enough?

For the Leah fans out there, we've got a few videos from the past couple of weeks to share

Yogi Leah turns into a WWF ref once she gets tired:

Leah's first time on her Dad's shoulders, including some great commentary about the experience:

Leah's reaction to every race we've gone to watch:

(Apparently our hobbies are boring to her, can't wait for the teenage years)

Recharge

2009-11-28T08:11:00.001-08:00

It's been a while since a post, needed some time to recharge the batteries

Leah is good at recharging, sometimes better than we are! She's a bit smarter about it, when she's tired she sleeps. Her parents are slow learners, when they're tired they ignore it. When she sleeps they start running around.

Last weekend we did the Dirty Du as a relay. Leah slept the entire morning, she didn't seem to interested in the useless play of the adults. But the second we packed everything back into the truck she started to fuss. Apparently the sleeping that morning spurred a two month growth spurt. The next few days were filled with A LOT of eating.

Good news, apparently turkey makes babies tired too. Leah has been slept 8 hrs straight for the past couple of nights. After a few months of getting less sleep, 8 hrs seems like a dream.

---

Here's a picture I sent to Michael last Friday at 5pm:

"Dad, look how cute I am. Come home and play."

It makes a huge difference when the smiling begins.

And of course, a Thanksgiving day picture:

Leah is thankful for her airplane mobile, clothes, milk, people to hold her, Pandora (on the iphone), and her pacifier. She is not thankful for baths, diaper changes, or bright lights.

Memorable commentary of the weekend:

"Leah looks so much like Michelle," says Michael's mom.

"Yeah, for a while I thought she had my legs but they've gotten chubby," replies Michael.

Thanks Michael, I appreciate the reminder that I have quadzilla legs ;)

... more pictures and some better posts to follow

Altruism

2009-11-16T20:48:00.001-08:00

I once read a commentary on altruistic acts. It stating they are almost non-existent because people feel a sense of pride or joy when doing a good deed for someone else. In that case, your reward is feeling good about yourself. Therefore something can not be defined as truly altruistic unless you are unaware that you have done it.

Today I dropped off my first donation to the milk bank, about 170 oz of liquid gold. It took a little over a month to collect this stash of the liquid gold and it would take a premature baby less than half that time to drink it all.

Yes, I feel good that I was able to donate the milk. Our mother's did not have the opportunity to do this, they didn't have all the fancy pumps we have today. I consider myself lucky to have the extra milk to share and I'm happy that it will go to someone who needs it.

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A couple of pics of Leah dancing on Sat morning when I told her we were about to visit the farmer's market...

The Secret Weapon

2009-11-15T18:39:00.000-08:00

Here's Leah on 11/15. If you look closely you'll notice she is happily sleeping atop her airplane blanket. She's already trying to impress her daddy.

Leah getting ready to follow the Austin folks racing IM FL.

I know this one is a bit lame but it's much more creative than the baby holding a remote and a beer version.

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After swimming on Friday one of the girls asked me how my stomach was so small after having a baby. If I'd been a bit more awake on Friday morning I may have realized how to answer this question.

Pilot research (n=1) has shown minimal pregnancy weight gain in women who consume Ghirardelli brownies at least once per week.

Some of you might be fooled into thinking brownies are a bad thing. Most of them probably are but the Ghirardelli ones are free from the evil ingredient; high fructose corn syrup.

Tomorrow I will be drafting a letter to the Ghirardelli chocolate company to ask them if they would be interested in funding my research study. Of course, I'll probably need a larger sample size so feel free too consume large amounts of brownies and report back with your results.

Junk Mileage

2009-11-14T20:13:00.000-08:00

Quote of the day, "Maybe you should have been doing more yoga." (commentary on Leah's need for constant motion)

Apparently it's not uncommon for a small child to prefer constant motion. I might have influenced this characteristic by moving too much while Leah was in the womb but I'll never know that for sure. For now, I just know she hates to sit still.

Question:

The weather in Austin has been mainly sunny and 70's for the past 2 weeks, what have Michelle and Leah been doing in their spare time?

A) surfing the web and writing blog entries
B) catching up on some television watching
C) shopping
D) walking over 1 hour per day
E) cleaning the house

Answer: D - if you didn't know the answer you probably stumbled upon this blog in a random search.

Given the choice to catch up on much needed sleep or tire myself out with more activity, I pick the later almost all the time. I'm hoping all this walking (i.e. junk mileage) will transform into increased run fitness. After all the time off my body has not been setting any records in my workouts.

This is not the case with some of my friends, they have been setting records and accomplishing a lot over the past few weeks. There was an age group course record at IM FL, some other great race performances in FL, an engagement, and a doctoral candidacy to name a few. I am quite impressed with all of my friends, they are some amazing people.

----

Today I had an experience I was wondering about, someone in utter shock when they spotted me with a baby. As I was walking around the farmer's market I saw a girl who I hadn't seen this summer.

She looked at us with a mixture of disbelief and confusion, "You have a baby? Is that yours? I didn't know you were pregnant. Did you ever look pregnant?" --> Priceless

Growing

2009-11-04T19:37:00.000-08:00

When's the last time you've ever outgrown your clothes? Unless you've been pregnant recently it's probably been a while since that's happened. I think I stopped growing in about 5th grade. I'm not joking about that either, until recently I still had some t-shirts from 5th grade that I fit into.

Tonight Michael was telling his mom about the traumatic event of the week, "We had to retire some of our favorite outfits. She's already outgrown all of her newborn clothes."

Leah is now 7 weeks old, I'm glad she's grown enough to be wearing the 0-3 month clothes, especially considering the amount she eats.

For all of Leah's fans we've got a few more pictures (and some bonus commentary)...

Me and Great-grandma Jeanette:

I've got mommy and daddy wrapped around my fingers. There's no way they'll put me in my crib when I look these peaceful in their bed:

Look, I'm sitting up, No hands! How many babies can do that at 6 weeks?

Dad, hold still. I want to see if it'll hurt when I hit you with my 'nerd toy':

Happy Halloween. When do we get to go get the dark chocolate?

Starting from scratch-ish

2009-10-30T17:44:00.000-07:00

It's now been six weeks since Leah was born. I was explicitly told (multiple times) not to workout for six weeks.

So... I waited until today to run. I'm not counting the 1000m test jog last Friday morning because that was not a run.

I managed a 5K run this morning. Although it was not speedy I can honestly say it could have been worse, I haven't run in over 3 months. Yes, I am glad I waited to run. I've heard many stories about the altercations from running quickly after giving birth so I was pretty set on waiting for that. I think the waiting made it a lot more enjoyable to struggle through the short run today.

Here I am post run, thrilled that I did not stop to walk and did not feel the need to use the bathroom mid-run:

Hopefully this trend will continue.

I will admit I have ridden my bike a few times already but today was the first time I hopped on this week. Which means today was the first time I used my new DA 7900 (thank you Felt Bicycles!).

Lucky for me, Michael stayed home today and it was perfect weather outside. Otherwise, this is the set-up I use to ride my bike during Leah's nap time:

I've also gone to the pool a couple of times but I mostly just fight with the water so we won't call that swimming. I have not yet done any weights, abs, or yoga. The doctor was also real forceful in her rules about not using the abs which they sliced last month.

A year ago I was down in PCB getting ready for IM FL. That was quite possibly the best shape I've ever been in. As I was running and riding today I realized something, I am not in the worst shape of my adult life. The day I gave birth to Leah I weighed less than I did at the end of my freshman year of college. Six weeks later, after a c-section and the needed recovery, I am exhausted but I still managed to run and ride today. Plus, I've got a happy and healthy little girl at home. Overall, I'd say Life is Good :)

CSP

2009-10-28T10:57:00.000-07:00

Is there an acronym for Cumulative Sleep Deprivation (CSP)? If not, I think there should be because I'm pretty sure it's common for all new parents.

Over the past few weeks Michael and I have been told we look pretty good, just a little tired and not completely exhausted. If this is what it feels like to be a little tired I am really hopeful we don't experience utter exhaustion!

There have been times in my life when I've been tired but nothing really compares to how I feel after 6 weeks without a night of uninterrupted sleep. College and Ironman training have nothing on this. Somehow this week I have managed to loose the keyring with my house key, almost lost my phone, and just called to cancel my credit card. I have no idea how this has happened, I somehow lost my credit card while returning it to my pocket at the grocery store.

-----

After months of emailing WTC, I finally got the rest of my refund for IM AZ.

Michael and I were joking about how the race would go if I were actually going to attempt it...

Q: why were Michelle's transitions so long?
A: she had to feed Leah

The following would be the race plan for a mother of an 8 week old.

Pre-race: wake up, eat breakfast, feed baby right before heading over to get body marking. Apply body glide in usual locations and some new locations.
Swim: try not to drown. Ignore how tight the wetsuit is.
T1: get baby from husband, feed her in transition tent
Bike: must finish eat loop in 3 hrs, feed baby at special needs. Ignore the saddle sores.
T2: feed baby again, don't forget to put on 2nd sports bra for support
Run: meet dad at mile 20 for feeding unless it's a really good day and you can make it to the finish before baby needs to eat again. Ignore the hip pain.
Finish: collapse at the line and do 10 push-ups. Later tell people you were trying to make P.T. proud instead of admitting utter exhaustion.
Post race: get massage, put on dry clothes, tell dad to give her a bottle instead b/c you're toasted.

Of course, I'm sure it would be a piece of cake for any mother who is using formula instead (that's a joke! it's still a crazy idea).

----
Note: As I edited the above post I realized my blunder of the hour... typed CSP instead of CSD as my acronym. Confirmed, I am tired.

Go Daddy

2009-10-26T08:23:00.000-07:00

1 am race morning, as we are sitting up with Leah:

Michael, "At least it's the sleep two nights before the race that matters."

Michelle replies with a laugh, "You didn't sleep last night either."

...

3 pm race afternoon:

Michael comments on his race, "You know you are tired when you don't even realize you put on shorts with a hole in them."

Michelle asks, "When did you realize you had a hole in your shorts?"

Michael, "About mile 70 of the bike."

Michelle, "Michael, this was only a half. The bike was 56 miles."

...

Most of us who race have had those days when we toe the start line with a little fitness than we'd hoped for. Sometimes there's an injury or a bit less training in preparation and we wish it had gone a little differently beforehand. But, when you make the decision to start you have to put the past aside and just go do the best you can for that day. You do what you can with the cards you are dealt.

There were some impressive race performances out there yesterday but there were two that Leah is most proud of; her dad and her friend Beaux. Neither one had optimal training this year but they both gutted it out yesterday and crossed the finish line. As you can see from the picture above, Leah had fun watching them.

Some of you may wonder why Michael would sign up to do a half Ironman a month after his daughter is born. Haven't you ever done something that sounded like a good idea at the time? In the grand scheme of things our stupid ideas are probably a lot less detrimental than some other options for stupid ideas.

Monogram

2009-10-22T12:46:00.000-07:00

We've had a few people joke that we might spoil Leah.

Personally, I don't know if it's all about Leah. I am convinced that Michael wants all those toys to play with himself and needs an excuse to have them.

But... I can't help but wonder when your child is considered spoiled.

Maybe it happens when she begins to get personalized monogrammed onsies for one day of her life...

The Halloween one is not so strange since most kids have a costume they only wear for one day.

The Thanksgiving one is a little humorous but not to much of a stretch. After all, I've seen Thanksgiving bibs. If they make Hallmark cards for a particular day I'm assuming there are plenty of onsies on the market for said holiday.

The one that might seem a little over the edge is this one:

What... you mean to tell me everyone doesn't have an outfit solely designed for their first plane flight? How else is she going to look cute enough to get a peek at the cockpit of the 777?

Personally, I don't think it's considered spoiled until you have 12 matching bags with your initials embroidered on them. Yes, I do know a couple of people who have a few of those ;)

Too bad I don't get a t-shirt for all my firsts. If so today I'd be wearing, "Michelle's first text." Yes, I finally broke down and decided to send a text message. It was pretty lame, I sent Michael a message that read, "is this a text" His reply, "Yeah" Apparently he was a bit confused when he received it.

BTW, if anyone is interested, my mother monogrammed the onsies and made the dozen bags that have "MG" monogrammed on them. Let me know if you ever need something to spoil someone else.

Good thing we did not name our girl Laverne, that might have lead to a lot of monogrammed shirts.

Of course, this is all good. I've read in a few books that you can not spoil your child in the first 6 months. This comment is usually in reference to picking them up the instant they begin to cry or allowing them to stay in your bed but I'm going to assume it applies to everything.

Look You're a Cow

2009-10-20T13:32:00.000-07:00

Someone once told me his memory was like a colander and mine is like a metal box. Of course, if he happens to read this I'm sure he wouldn't remember that he said that.

Michael (not the one who made the comparison) also seems to get a little frustrated by my memory. Back in the winter of 1996 he was joking around with my fleece glove on my belly and said, "Look you're a cow." I have no clue how many times I have reminded him of that, "At least I didn't call you a cow."

Now I actually do feel like a cow. If the regular nursing isn't enough to make someone feel that way, utilization of the pump(s) is. Yes, that's plural... to maximize pumping efficiency some of the pumps have a dual capacity. You simply pull from both sides at the same time. Kudos to all those women who have twins. Triplets just sounds insane!

Good news is, the milk seems to be working out well for Leah's growth. We had another pediatrician appointment this morning. Leah weighed in at 8 lb 11 oz.

Here's a quick size reference using the highly calibrated hippo mat comparison...

Leah at 1/2 week:

Leah at 4 1/2 weeks:
As we note from the pictures above, Leah is now almost an entire hippo mouth in size.

This puts her in the 40 th percentile for weight. This entire growth percentile humors me, after all some babies are born larger than Leah is now. I've heard there is comparison (competition/bragging) for these size percentiles throughout childhood. Personally I think it would be more interesting to plot percentage of growth over time instead of an absolute size scale. How is the daughter of a 5" girl ever going to be in the upper end of the growth chart, and who cares if she is?!

Of course, I do have a copy of the growth chart and Leah's measurements will be plotted on there. We need to be tracking progress in true enginerd style to set a good example for her.

Hold Me!

2009-10-19T15:47:00.000-07:00

Apparently there's an iPhone application to translate baby cries. We deemed it "not worth it," when we saw it's $30. It claims it can distinguish between I'm hungry / My diaper is full / I want attention / I've had too much stimulation / I want a pacifier.

The other day I was reading a book that said by 1 month you might be able to distinguish your baby's cries. Personally I find this hard to believe. I've been listening to Leah and the only way I seem to know what the cry means is by knowing when she be hungry or need a diaper change. Thing is, she's got my metabolism so if I guess one of those choices I'm rarely wrong.

After feeding and changing her it's a little more difficult to tell what she wants but this motion seems to be pretty obvious:

"I'm so cute! ...

Hold me (not the camera)...

or I'll start to cry (faster than you can take another picture)!!"

Believe it or not, she does cry. Luckily we have found a you tube video which she loves to listen too. Sometimes she even cries when being held. At that point we begin to sing:

We have deemed the iPhone application overpriced. How are we supposed to know if she's in the mood to listen to Red Hot Chili Peppers or The Sound of Music?

Austin Tea Party

2009-10-18T09:47:00.001-07:00

Today marks an important day for Leah, she spectated her first running race this morning, IBM 10K. I think she was scoping out the competition. There were a couple of baby joggers moving at a good pace so we might have some work to do before her first race.

After the race we joined Clea & Stephanie for breakfast. They are both pregnant, expecting a boy and girl respectively. In the middle of breakfast Clea told me to look over at the table nearby, "Is that going to be you two in a few years?"

When we got up from the table I realized why it was so funny. Half the wall of tables had been pushed together for the huge gathering sitting near us. It was about 8 pairs of mothers and daughters, all dressed up, having tea and scones. We'll have to see what happens in the next few years... will Stephanie and I have tom-boy daughters who play with Leggos and run around outside? Or will we have two little princesses who play with barbies and enjoy shopping for outfits to wear at the next Austin tea party?

It's 34 days until IMAZ '09. My name still appears on the start list but I won't be toeing the start line next month. Although I have heard of people finishing marathons or Ironman two months after giving birth, I honestly don't know if I'd be able to finish and if I did I'm sure it would be a brutal recovery!

But... I am contemplating signing up for one next year. After all, we have this cute onsie for a 12 month old that Leah will need to wear some time next fall:

Where the Wild Veggies Are

2009-10-15T11:25:00.001-07:00

The night Leah wore her produce outfit and screamed at bed time her mother called her "Wild Veggie" and sent her to bed without an extra feeding.

That very night in Leah's room, a garden grew and grew... until the ceiling hung with fruit trees and the walls became the world around it. And a sprinkler system river flowed by with a private float plane for Leah and she flew off through night and day until she came to where the wild veggies are.

And when she came to the place where the wild veggies are they spit their edible seeds and flapped their edible leaves and shook their edible roots and gleamed their edible skin til Leah said "BE STILL!" and tamed them with her magic trick of staring at their tasty skin without biting once and they were all frightened and called her the most wild veggie of all and made her the queen of the wild veggies.

"And now," screamed Leah, "let the wild rumpus start!"

"Now stop!" Leah said and sent the veggies off to bed without any water. And Leah the queen of all the wild veggies was lonely and wanted to be where she was loved best. So she flew back through a day and into the night of her own room where her bottle of milk was waiting for her.

-------------

Yesterday I picked up our veggie box from the CSA. We've had a lot of eggplant this summer but I'm pretty sure this is the most we've received at one time. I like eggplant and apparently Leah does too.

We are now on the hunt for some creative eggplant recipes since we've been pretty boring the past few months. Does anyone have something good to share?

Or, I could make them into eggplant-o-lanterns:

------------

This morning we made our trip down to Town Lake too meet friends for our run & walk at 5:45. Somehow our daughter seemed to think this was a good idea too. Although she's been feeding at 6am most mornings, she woke up at 4:10 (before the alarm) today, and was ready to go in time for our scheduled departure.

I hadn't actually given myself enough preparation time this morning. If it hadn't been for Leah waking up 3o min early, we wouldn't have made it in time. I'm starting to think my daughter is already more intelligent than I am. Or maybe she learned some valuable time management skills while in the womb. Either way, I'm convinced she's a genius and will be bored with us by age 3.

While we were walking Trish and I were discussing the new Where the Wild Things Are movie. Hence the story above, a spoof just seemed like so much fun.

Eight

2009-10-14T07:05:00.001-07:00

Today is our 8 year wedding anniversary. Guess that means we've officially made it past the 7 year itch. Wonder if it counts as the anti - 7 yr itch if you get pregnant during that time.

The other night we were at Walgreen's picking out a birthday card for Michael's mom. The one we got made me laugh so hard my incision hurt. So now we are ranking humor on the incision pain scale.

Neither or us had got an anniversary card for the other so I said we should look through the cards together and save money, "This is the one I'd get you, it made my incision hurt."

Neither of us had bought the other a card or a gift.

Yesterday I went to run some errands. I decided it was time to get some new bed sheets. I joked to Michael that I got him sheets as his anniversary gift. I just did a google search and found the modern 8 yr gifts listed as Linen or Lace. Wow, I'm even smarter than I realized.

First Holloween

2009-10-13T16:16:00.000-07:00

As Michael's daughter, Leah will probably consider Halloween to be one of the greatest days of the year. After all you get to go Gareling** for the entire night without anyone questioning you.

Michael has been known to go out on Halloween with children who are obviously too young to consume the abundance of candy they collect. This year tops that, not only can Leah not eat it all, she can't eat any of it.

I made a quick stop into Old Navy before my visit to Whole Foods this afternoon. Unfortunately there was nothing in the 0-3 month size.

But... I did get a kick out of this one:

Looks like someone at Old Navy forgot to do the math when they decided to print this on the 18-24 month onsie.

**the frequent tendency to search around and eat sugar products

Hospital Pictures

2009-10-12T19:44:00.001-07:00

Do these babies look alike? Maybe they're related...

If you look at these pictures you might not realize they were taking 32 years apart. The plastic container holding the baby is the same, the frame for the baby holder looks about the same, and I bet the swaddle blankets are made of the same material.

The baby up top is about a half pound smaller than the one below.

Can you guess who they are?

....

Nap time...

I think Michael forgot to bring is sleeping mat.

Compost Vs. Baby

2009-10-12T12:14:00.000-07:00

Last winter I set out to do two things for the first time: get pregnant and make compost.

I'd ignorantly assumed the compost pile would be much easier to deal with. Michael bought a tumbler at the Natural Gardener and we had plenty of food scraps to add in with the leaves from the trees.

To my surprise, the compost did not form as quickly as the box advertised. I thought the 'compost in as little as four weeks' was a bit optimistic but I assumed I'd have some in a few months. This was not the case. I've been adding trimmings all year, trying to even out the abundance of brown matter I dumped in there last winter.

I keep wondering when there will be a knock at my door, "Hello Michelle, we hear you can't make compost. I'm sorry, we're going to have to take away your chemical engineer degree, you've become an embarrassment to us all."

This weekend I had a bit of excitement, it looks and smells like it might finally be turning to that nasty brown mush I've been waiting for.

My other source of brown mush seemed much easier to make. I've decided it's much easier to make a baby than a compost pile, or it was for me. Taking care of her is an entirely different story.

Unlike the compost pile, Leah needs a lot of attention and we can't just ignore her to see if she does what she's supposed to on her own. Feeding a baby is much more exhausting than feeding a compost pile. The compost pile does not root for food and there is no such thing as cluster feeding the pile. Of course, the pile is also growing and getting heavier but I don't think it's any match for the good eater.

Leah has another pediatrician appointment at the end of the week. I'm wondering how much she's going to have gained. We're awaiting the day when new born clothes don't fit anymore.

My First visit to the shop - Leah's tale

2009-10-08T18:17:00.001-07:00

Today mom and I drove down to the shop for my first visit. On the way down she assured me I'd meet a lot of new friends and would see some cool things. I was a little skeptical at first, thinking this was a devious way of convincing me to go on her adventures with her.

As we walked in the door we were welcomed by a friendly staff who all seemed excited to see me. Not only was the staff friendly, the customers were running over to say hello also. I felt like a rock star.

I was happy to see the bike shop has more bikes than our dining room. I'd been getting a little worried about my parent's bike collection. I assume there will come a day when they leave me behind to hop on one of those two wheeled contraptions.

Since I don't like being left behind I asked Thomas to measure me for one of the bikes. Unfortunately, my diaper makes it impossible to get an accurate stand over height measurement. I'll have to wait until I'm potty trained for a correct measurement, I've put that on my to-do list for my second birthday.

I told Drew I like the new shop jersey and asked when we'd be getting one in my size. Apparently there is no such thing as an infant tri-top. I'm working on my get-rich-quick plan to design one. With all the new babies at the shop I'm sure they'd be a hot item.

The mechanics were very nice although none of them wanted to hold me. Mom said that was okay since they all had dirty hands from working so hard on all the bikes. Thankfully the other members of the staff were nice enough to give me some attention.

I liked the shop a lot, I think I'll go back. I hear the Jack guy is really nice too. I'm looking forward to meeting him very soon.

- Leah Garel

Trip to the shop - Mich's tale

2009-10-08T17:11:00.000-07:00

Today was a big day, we had our first mommy and me adventure. I took Leah down to the bike shop for a visit. I think this was more beneficial to me than for Leah but I'm sure she had fun too.

Although Leah is pretty well behaved, especially when others are around, it's still tough to get out. There are a lot of logistics for making a trip out with a newborn and it's a bit strange to adjust to it. Everyone tells you that, it's true... you just don't know what it's like until it actually happens to you.

We got to see a lot of familiar faces and some new ones too. By coincidence Paula brought Catherine into the shop so we had our first play date.

A 3 wk old and an 8 wk old are pretty darn rambunctious when they get together:

Peri, Suzanne, James, Amy, & Rich also happened to stop into the shop while we were there. We got some fun photo ops and a couple of videos to commemorate the momentous trip.

Rich just returned from his honeymoon, following his wedding on Sept 26th.

Yes, we have made our way out into the world but I'm thinking it'll take a while before I'm ready to be bold enough to feed her in public. For now I'll just pump some extra milk and bring a bottle along just in case she has a need to feed.

Practicing early

2009-10-07T21:05:00.000-07:00

Leah is up against some tough competition in her future. Our friends over at Jack and Adams seem to be producing babies at a rapid rate. 2020 might be a competitive year for youth triathlons in Austin.

It's never too early to get started training. After all, if you're not out there your competition probably is. Leah logged about 500 hrs while in the womb and unlike her mother she is not taking six weeks off.

Leah wakes up from a nap...

First a bit of stretching:

Time to get starting with her daily calisthenics:

A bit of arms, a bit of legs, and she's already for a day of baby life.

....

Although Leah is pretty happy most of the day, she does not like taking her clothes off. As her parents we are not upset by this. Actually, this characteristic lightens our concerns for the future even though it does make things difficult when changing diapers and giving her a bath.

Here's a little video from her first complete bath. We had to wait until earlier this week, after her umbilical cord stump finally fell off.

2 week checkups

2009-10-05T09:57:00.000-07:00

Leah's was on Friday but mine wasn't until today, due to some scheduling conflicts.

It seems the 2 week checkups are a way to comfort the mom and give new parents a chance to practice their new scheduling needs. After our struggles to leave the hospital we overestimated the time needed. We were an hour early to the pediatrician appointment but only 15 min early to my OB appointment. After rushing to get there in time to wait (mostly due to being too early) I was a bit thrown when both doctors seemed rather nonchalant, "Doing well, any questions?"

"Uh... yes, I have many questions. Most of them are stupid but I've been told there are no stupid questions so I'm going to pull out my list and ask you all of them. I need to make this appointment feel worthwhile. Since this will be my only adult human contact for the day I am going to take advantage of it."

There was a bit of debate about the color of Leah's poop. Michael (the color blind guy) thinks it was green. Personally, I think it was a more light brown and my mother said it looked like mashed up carrots.

Good news, any color is just fine. Even a dark brown would be okay if she was getting a lot of iron. I'm thinking of sneaking some new foods into my diet to assess the effects. I'd been avoiding beats for a bit to be sure she was not passing anything red. I'm tempted to go eat a few to see what happens. I vetoed Jack's idea of eating loads of black licorice while pregnant (he said she'd come out with black spots) but somehow my own experiments seem okay.

At my appointment we found out my recovery symptoms are quite normal post c-section. Apparently it's not uncommon to wake up sweating in the middle of the night. Due to the sudden decrease in estrogen levels hot flashes are quite common. Joy, I get to go through menopause now and in 20 years. Hormones are just so much fun, if we didn't have them we would miss out on the experience of crying for no reason.

As for my poop, the color of it isn't important, I'm more concerned about the frequency or should I say lack of frequency. Again... normal. Just in case you were wondering, removing your intestines, washing them, and placing them back inside you does not make them happy and more functional. Personally, I am wondering how this will effect my runs. For years I had to consider bathroom stops for evening runs. Maybe that will be less of an issue now. Wow, there could be another positive side effect to the invasive surgery.

I was cleared to drive again but reminded that I can not swim or exercise until I am cleared at my 6 week check-up.

"You need an appointment in 4 weeks. I've got 8:15 on Nov 2nd," says the receptionist.

I quickly try to fix this, "Since this appointment is actually 2 1/2 weeks after I delivered can I get an appointment on the Thursday before?" Michael begins to laugh because he can see right through this.

"No, just because this one was off doesn't mean we want to make the next one off too."

I don't agree with that statement but decided it was not worth the effort to argue. Once we get into the hall Michael laughs, "You didn't want to miss that weekend?!"

I turn to Michael and Leah, "I'm going to tell you now so you have 4 weeks to accept it... If I'm feeling fine 6 weeks after the surgery I'm not going to wait. I'm going to ride my bike that weekend." After all, I already have plans for a ride and pancakes that weekend.

Learning to share

2009-10-04T11:06:00.000-07:00

Most of us have heard some saying about learning life's important lessons in kindergarten. I'm of the opinion that you shouldn't put off the things you can get done today. Leah is years away from going to school so I've decided it's time to start teaching her some important lessons. She probably won't understand them yet but it never hurts to try.

Our first life lesson is sharing...

Leah has been very lucky, she has many friends who have already begun sharing things with her. Before she was even born there were people sharing their old toys, clothes, books, and blankets with her. She had so many people sharing things with her that she got doubles of things and started to give some items to others.

Toys are great but there is something more meaningful that Leah can share; the liquid gold, milk. My leaky faucets are still going strong so we've got enough for Leah to be a good eater and too share some with others.

How do we know she's got plenty to eat? Leah weighed in at 7 lb, 1 oz on Friday. As the pediatrician walked into the room he told Michael he was putting together the Weight Watchers information packet for her. Leah gained about 18% of her body weight in 2 weeks, that's a larger percentage than I gained in the 9 months I was pregnant. No wonder she only eats, sleeps, and poops.

We know she's a good eater and we know there's extra food so we decided we might be able to share. Turns out there are 7 milk banks in the US and one of them happens to be in Austin. I called up the Mother's Milk Bank, went through my initial phone screening, and got my package of sterilized containers in the mail. Hopefully the good eater and I will be able to store up a large enough donation for the bank.

The Mother's Milk Bank of Austin is a non-profit organization whose mission is to accept, pasteurize, and dispense donated human milk to premature and ill infants: www.mmbaustin.org

Life is Good

2009-10-01T15:40:00.000-07:00

Leah during the day:

I'm amazed at how content Leah is when she sleeps during the day. Nothing seems to disturb her relaxation time. Doorbells, phones ringing, visitors poking her, and dogs barking are all ignored when she's in the mood to sleep.

But once the sun drops and she's in the mood to get all the attention things change. At that point someone better be holding her or mom and dad will hear about it.

Leah at night:

Seriously, even our cute baby girl gets a bit ugly at night.

Thankfully, we may have discovered the miracle chair last night (thank you Donna). Michael's coworkers have hypothesized the chair makes her believe she is being cuddled. Yes, we have fooled the 2 week old. Lets just cross our fingers we can repeat this feat for another night.

Leah is 2 weeks old. I've been told the first 2 weeks after a c-section are the hardest. I'm expecting Leah to sleep through the night tonight and that I'll wake up in the morning pain free, with no more bleeding, functional intestines, and feeling back in the area of my incision. It might be a long shot but I can always dream big.

If you see me running at town lake tomorrow you'll know I ran into Miracle Max. mmm... chocolate coating makes it go down easy.

Dad's little girl

2009-09-29T18:41:00.000-07:00

Those of you who know Michael's personality well might not be surprised to hear Leah is mimicking Michael in the photo above. Seriously, he makes that comical face whenever he sees a baby but his little girl is the first baby I've ever seen making the face back at him. Guess we know she is his little girl.

Leah was a bit cranky last night. We're not sure if it was rebellion against the camera flash or a result of mom's milk being spiked with dark chocolate. I didn't eat any chocolate tonight, I'm almost hoping she'll be fussy so I don't feel any urge to give up my favorite stuff. Of course, one data point can not be considered a trend so I'll surely have some other nights of chocolate gorging to be have confidence in my analysis.

There's also a possibility that some congestion is causing her troubles. Personally, I'm really hoping this congestion doesn't stick around. It's bothersome to Leah but it also causes me some challenges at night. Leah's bassinet is on the left side of our bed and Michael sleeps on the right side. Last night I had their heavy breathing in stereo, it was not fun. The loud breathing is one of Michael's characteristics I wish Leah didn't copy.

Leah got mail

2009-09-29T15:36:00.000-07:00

We walked Leah over to meet the neighbors last night. "She looks quite regal," was his comment. At the time, Leah was sitting in Michael's arms with her hand on her chin.

On Friday we made a family trip to Dave's house for Leah's first photo shoot (http://www.dcmphotography.com/). She does not seem to be a fan of the flash so she might not be headed for a modeling career. As I just looked at this family shot I could not help but think, she looks regal.

Friday was a big day for Leah. Aside from her photo shoot she also became official, her social security card arrived in the mail. It was a little strange to see her name on the envelope. A mere few days after she was born, she already had a government issued identity.

Of course, the social security card is nothing compared to the GPS tracking device Michael is planning to insert before she starts dating.

19 lb Baby

2009-09-28T13:03:00.000-07:00

One night in the hospital, Michael went to get Leah from the Nursery, after her nightly tests. She was parked next to a 10 lb boy baby. The nurse referred to that kid as Gigantor. Next to Leah that kid looked huge.

Last week a 19.2 lb baby boy was born in Indonesia. This boy, who was 2 ft long at birth, was about 3 1/2 times the size of Leah. I can hardly understand how Leah fit inside me, I can't even begin to understand how a 19+ kid could fit inside someone.

Hopefully that kid grows up to be healthy and Leah never encounters him in a dark alley.

Hello World

2009-09-27T14:39:00.001-07:00

There comes a time in every person's life when you have to face reality...

It's time for me to move to this century and upgrade to a cell phone with picture taking capabilities. My handed down Nokia has treated me well although I have been known to beat up on it in return (it gets dropped and sweat on a lot).

The phone has finally rebelled. Over the past month it has lost communication with the SIM card almost daily. Like any good child of the 80's I responded with the classic Nintendo fix; I pulled out the battery pack and blew on the contacts. Works every time.

Although this solution kept the phone going the upcoming arrival of Leah made me second guess my insistence for keeping the old phone. After all, taking pictures of my baby, using my phone, seemed like a good idea. I'd intended to set up a knew phone last Thursday but The Boss had other plans for that day.

Michael pulled out his old Iphone this morning and got everything in order for me. I decided to test out the camera option, I wanted a new photo for my wall paper. I walked over to Leah and told her to look over for her picture. To my amazement she stuck her hand up in the air, looking as if she was waving at me.

So here it is, the one picture I have taken with my phone. My overachiever 10 day old is waving at me.

Okay... maybe she isn't as cognitively advanced as I'd like to believe but it was pretty impressive that she happened to wave at the moment I was taking the picture.

Limitations

2009-09-25T07:27:00.000-07:00

While I was pregnant a lot of people asked me how I thought I'd deal with all the life changes I faced ahead. They wondered how I'd feel about working out less and scheduling activities around a child. I didn't know, I still don't know, I just know it's all changed now.

I was not planning to have a c-section but that's the way the cookie crumbles. One of the tough aspects of a c-section is the recovery, it's longer and maybe a little harder on your body.

While I was in the hospital I felt much less mobile than usual but the nurses laughed at me a bit, telling me how well I was actually doing. On the first night, my torso and below were 100% numb. One of the nurses asked me if I could roll over towards my side at all. I pushed down on my arms and shifted my entire body to face the side wall.

"How did you do that?" she asked in complete amazement.

"I don't know, I just used my arms. You asked if I could roll on my side."

She started to laugh, "You have no idea... most people can't move at all."

Here are a few of these changes / limits and my perspective on them 1 week after Leah's birth...

Pain Meds - There are a lot of pain medications prescribed to c-section ladies. I'd been told by others to stay ahead of your pain medication, it's tough when you get behind schedule. I listened to this advice but I also wanted to get off those things as quickly as possible. By the second night after her birth I started having some really bad dreams and my body was retaining a lot of water. Plus, I can't imagine those things are good to have in your system. So I've been doing my best to clear this stuff out.

Driving - No driving for at least 2 weeks, longer if I was still on the pain medication. I get cleared to drive again at my first postpartum appointment. Although this limitation makes it difficult to go run errands I'm perfectly happy to have Michael do all the driving. It almost feels like having a personal chauffeur since I sit in the back next to Leah.

Laughing, coughing, sneezing, etc - These activities are among the most painful of all, the incision sight is not a fan. For the past week I've been begging Michael not to make me laugh. Every time he says something funny I do my best not to laugh. When something gets in my throat and I need to cough I grab water and hope I can wash it down. The other day I cried a bit and realized it hurts to blow my nose. I've put a kibosh on all emotions.

Water Exposure - no swimming, no baths, no water applied to the stitches for 6 weeks. The swimming and baths is to decrease the chance of bacterial infection to my inside as well as my incision location.

Exercise - 6 weeks with no exercise. Everyone just kept telling me no heavy lifting and no strenuous exercise for 6 weeks. The OB on call during the weekend told me I could walk as far as I wanted. I finally started to tell the doctors I needed more details to prevent me from unknowingly doing too much.

Heavy Lifting = 10+ lbs
Walk as far as you want = You should not want to walk more than 1 block
Strenuous exercise = Yoga, Running, Cycling, Swimming, Weight Lifting, etc

Of course, I do admit, even a short walk through the hospital seemed like a tough workout at first. This video makes me laugh every time. I was so out of it that day. Too bad it hurts to laugh.

Good Eater Award

2009-09-24T13:10:00.000-07:00

Leah's first pediatrician visit was Tuesday morning. Before going to Dr Louis's office we got to visit CPL to get a bit of blood drawn. She seemed to do pretty well having her heal poked yet again. Luckily the veins in her heal don't seem to roll like the huge ones in her mothers arms. Both forearms are still bruised from the 5 times I was poked for an IV last Thursday. The trails of veins in my arms could be used for a picture in an anatomy textbook but that doesn't mean they like to stay in place when being poked at.

Back to Leah's appointment...

We were happy to hear she weighed in at 6 lbs 2 oz. The doctor was sure to tell us there are often differences in his scale versus the hospital scale but in general this is a good sign. She's been an overachiever in the dirty diaper department (we know because we have a spreadsheet to record all of it) and has also been doing well eating.

Yes, my daughter is a good eater, we're giving her this weeks Good Eater Award. Unfortunately this has lead to some interesting side effects, mainly effecting yours truly.

The amount of milk the mom initially produces is partially a result of the amount of colostrum the baby takes in during it's first few days. Leah, being the good eater, got me all set up to produce enough food for a small army of babies. I now have a pleasure of two leaky faucets attached to the front of me. Or maybe we should call them leaking balloons, a faucet is much smaller than a water balloon filled to capacity, about to pop due to pressure.

Last night I had to make a trip trip to Target to purchase some new supportive undergarments. There were two in the maternity section for little people with big balloons. Michael tries to keep the spirit upbeat about this, "Some people pay big money for that." Somehow I doubt the leaking is part of their surgical reshaping. Of course, it would be much worse if someone who'd had plastic surgery started to leak for no reason. At least there's a usefulness in all this mess.

BTW, Michael is holding Leah in the picture above because she was already hungry when the doctor came in too see her. We knew she would not be too happy if mom held her and refused to feed her. It's a bit hard for a newborn to understand why it's not convenient to feed at certain times or places. Of course, I'm nobody to talk, I always carry a snack with me and have no problems sneaking them into my mouth whenever I want.

Sleep

2009-09-24T12:24:00.000-07:00

Newborns sleep a lot! They basically eat, poop, pee, and sleep.

But something amazing seems to happen every night, Leah has some internal alarm that goes off at 10:20 PM. I think it's the get up and play fussy baby alarm. Then another alarm goes off at 5:30 AM, be perfect and cute.

I don't know for sure but it seems quite a bit too coincidental that 10:20-5:30 are the exact sleeping hours I've followed for the past couple of years. For 9 months these were the hours when her environment was not rocking her to sleep. Therefore, these were the hours when she was awake to move around and it appears her internal clock has not changed.

Therefore, I am booking a flight back to New Zealand to visit some friends.

Oh wait... that won't work... It's not a good idea to have an infant on the airplane that long (germs, etc). I guess we'll just have to endure this adventure like the other parents out there.

For now we'll just go with the tried and true tricks:

Sleep when the Baby Sleeps: (oops, not doing that right now)
That's what Michael was doing in the picture above. He got in a 4 hr nap yesterday afternoon, the longest stretch he and Leah have slept in the past week.

Do Not Wake the Sleeping Baby:
I learned another valuable lesson last night, do not wake the sleeping baby just because you heard her poop. Last night I heard a big gurgle from her and knew there was a mess awaiting. I debated letting it go until she woke up naturally but felt bad about leaving her in a mess. I woke her up at 11:30 instead of letting her wake up on her own. By 3:30 I was wishing I'd given myself a few extra minutes of rest, next time I might wait to get her up.

Who's the Boss

2009-09-21T18:47:00.000-07:00

Leah's testing this morning showed a 1 oz weight gain over the past day and a decrease in the jaundice levels. She'd been feeding well but her crazy number of diaper messes had been all but eliminated. I was a bit concerned about the lack of bowel movements but since she'd had 17 dirty diapers in the past few days I figured it wasn't a big deal.

Our pediatrician cleared our glowworm to leave the hospital today. He wanted Leah to stay under the light until noon but said we were free to go home after that.

We spent the morning packing up all of our belongings and getting a bit more rest before getting discharged from the hospital. Everything was ready to go by about 11:45 but we decided we'd just stick around until 12:00 until turning the machine off.

As the clock struck 12 noon we flipped the switch and Michael got her into her onsie to return home. Just as her right foot was placed in her outfit we heard an explosion. We'd been waiting for 24 hrs for the first green runny poop and Leah had nicely saved it just for the moment we wanted to leave. It was a bit humorous and and also quite impressive when we saw the amount of mess she had been saving up.

Michael changed her diaper and we put her into the car seat, while in the room, to be sure the straps were adjusted correctly. They were a bit too loose, no surprise, and we made the adjustments to get it ready for her first car ride. While this was going on Leah began to show signs of hunger and I decided it would be smarter to just feed her in the hospital.

After spending a few minutes feeding her we got cleaned up and Michael went down to get the car. While he was out Leah started showing signs of hunger again. So I faced the fun task of unpacking all the feeding items and maneuvering us around the room alone. Michael walked in a few minutes later, "No way!"

"Yup, she's telling us who's in charge."

Cleaned up again, it was now 1 pm. We laughed at our nieve belief that we would just walk out at noon since that was what we'd intended to do.

All of a sudden we heard it... another explosion. Our daughter, who hadn't had a bowel movement all day yesterday, had just had 2 in one hour. Sweet!

Labor Report

2009-09-19T13:32:00.000-07:00

Before I write too much I must reiterate one thing that I have heard many times throughout pregnancy, "Everyone is different."

Years before I even considered getting pregnant I had been told, "You're so tough, labor will be a breeze for you." During pregnancy I'd heard stories of other people finding labor to be easy or telling me I'd have no problems because I was in pretty good shape.

Well... I can tell you without a doubt, Thursday was the most painful thing I have ever endured. For me, it was a huge challenge and I commend all those other mothers out there who have gone through it.

Now... for what I remember (I've been told there is a bit of labor amnesia that occurs)

On Wends night (Sep 16th) Michael and I went to bed with the intention of getting up at 5am to go for our Thurs morning workouts. As I laid down I noticed a lot of gurgling in my belly and wondered if I'd actually make it too the pool. At 11:30 I woke up, pretty sure my water had broken, I changed into some clean clothes and laid back down for a bit. I woke up Michael at midnight to tell him my water had broke, "Are you sure?" We were both confused b/c we'd heard it would have a distinct smell but we didn't smell anything... or well... I didn't smell anything and Michael smelled something horrible for a short amount of time. He said he'd had a dream already that night about my water breaking. We called the nurse line, took a few last minute belly pictures, and emailed the people we were planning to meet up with in a few hours.

Then we were off to Seton. I've never seen Mopac so empty or feel as empty as it did during that drive, yet somehow we had a diversion when the off ramp for 35th st. happened to be getting resurfaced. Not a big deal but a bit humorous.

We checked into the hospital and it was confirmed that my water had broken. Doctor said I get 24hrs to get the baby out, after my water breaks, before she gets taken out for me.

My plan was to give it my best to get through labor without any drugs but I knew I would have to see how it went. As my OB told me later on Thurs, this was not something I could train for.

At 1am I was at a "generous" 1cm of dilation. By 6am I was starving of hunger, and 1.5cm dilated. There was no choice, I was given Pitocin, medication to induce contractions. The painful part of the day soon began. Within an hour I was having intense contractions at a rate of about 3 min on, 1 min off. Michael tried to assure me, "It's just like doing 800m repeats at the track."

"But I've got about 100 of them to do," I replied half joking and half fearful of the pain to endure.

"I think you have a lot more than that." He was not joking but at the time of the statement we didn't realize how true that was.

Over the next 6.5 hours I went through the most painful thing I have ever endured. My contractions got closer, and at times they began to overlap. The few I remember the most were the ones that didn't seem to let up, when I would have a continuous bout of pain for 10 minutes. I couldn't hardly talk, I could not relax, I could hardly stand. At some point Michael had to leave my side for a moment to go to the bathroom and I could hardly deal with the agony of having him step away.

Mid morning the anesthesiologist came in to ask me if I'd like an epidural. I told him I wanted to keep trying and he said he would be available if I changed my mind. He also mentioned that it's rare for people who are induced not to get the epidural b/c you don't have the same progression of pain as natural labor.

I tried my best all morning to cope with this pain, after all, I believed I was supposed to be able to deal with it. After about 3 hrs of labor I really wanted to take the epidural but could not bare the idea of given up. Michael kept assuring me I was doing fine. I'm not real sure what he was thinking but that's what he told me b/c he was doing his best to support my efforts to make it through without the epidural.

If I am not mistaken, I believe I was at about 3.5 cm by 10am. As noon rolled around I was seriously questioning my ability to keep going. I could hardly stand up on my own and my body was getting fatigued. My nurse said my contraction patterns were looking like someone who is pretty far in labor, and we got excited for a moment. She checked my cervix, "You're at 9cm!, opps... I slipped you're still at 5.5 cm." She told me that most people could expect to dilate about 1 cm / hr up to 10 cm now. Once I'd get to 10 I'd have to push. After 6.5 hrs of this I was not sure if I could make another 6. The internal battle was huge but I asked for the epidural. I almost felt as if I was a quitter. What if I speed up and get to 10cm in 2 hrs from now, I could do 2 more hours. No, logic said it was unlikely and I should let myself get the epidural to have energy to push.

I got the epidural and almost instantly the baby's heart rate started to have trouble. A swarm of nurses and doctors entered the room and I felt even more guilt, that I'd made a decision that was hurting my baby to keep myself from feeling pain. This was actually not the case, it was the effect of her position and the constant contractions on her head leading up to that point. Her body was having trouble with the intensity and frequency of the contractions, and a decreased heart rate is her way of telling us she is unhappy. This decreased HR did occur a few more times during the day and was not considered to be good, a sign of fetal distress. To control the heart rate decrease, the nurses had to reduce the amount of Pitocin to reduce the contractions, which reduced the rate at which my cervix would dilate.

After the scare subsided I realized what had happened. Maybe I should say I realized how much pain I'd truly been in. All of a sudden I was able to relax and carry on a conversation. It's no wonder why so many people just tell you to take the epidural when you are given the chance.

For the rest of the afternoon I was stuck in bed, hoping my cervix would dilate and Leah's body would be able to cope with it well.

At 8pm, the doctor on call checked my cervix again, and discovered I was only at 6.5cm. I had progressed only 1cm all afternoon. Things were not looking good for a vaginal delivery. The doctor also expressed concern about the shape of my pelvic arch and the ability to have a vaginal birth. Even though this conversation was hard to have, the doctor did a great job of presenting this to me in a very professional manner. I had a good cry, but knew what choice had to be made. At this point, things moved the quickest they had in hours, by far!

At about 8:10pm I was wheeled into the OR. I was prepped for cesarean surgery, and Michael was prepped to watch. The room was full of people who were doing a great job keeping me in good sprits. One nurse by my side blurted out "We're havin' a birtday party!" The doctor announced when she made the incision, which was clearly one of the most stressful points in the day. The doctor eased the tension by mentioning: "wow, you have not body fat." I said 13%. She asked where, and Michael blurted out "boobs and butt". Great place, the doctor said.

A few seconds later, though what felt like an eternity, we heard some crying. The nurses dropped the drape so Michael could see Leah for the very first time. She was quickly moved over to a cleaning area and prepared to go the transition nursery with Michael. He and the nurses snapped a few pics and video and before I knew it, they were gone, and I was being cleaned up and taken to the recovery room.

About 20min later, Leah and Michael rejoined me for the first feeding. We got about 15min of feeding in, which the nurse said was pretty good. At this point, we were all very exhausted, but still had a lot of sleepless, though well worth it, hours ahead of us.

It's impossible to know what cards you will be dealt for your labor, however you can be assured it will be the most memorable experience of your life.

Leah Madison

2009-09-18T11:58:00.000-07:00

Leah Madison Garel
Born: September 17, 2009 @ 8:32pm
Weight: 5lb 15.5oz
Length: 18.5"

Mom and baby are healthy and doing great.

Labor report may be posted eventually....

Baby G's Library

2009-09-14T18:34:00.000-07:00

I just finished Baby G's library... okay... maybe not quite the picture above but it's still a good collection.

A few months ago Juli told me she had some books to pass along to Baby G. On Friday afternoon I made a trip over to her house to gather up the newest treasure. I had no idea what she meant when she told me she had some books. I assumed it would be a box or two of favorites that I would be able to add to my growing collection from friends.

After spending a few hours loading up an entire CRV full of books I was a bit overwhelmed. I made a trek to the Container Store on Saturday to buy some milk crates for organization (we need to set a good example and use the ones without a "property of..." stamp). I had to go back today because I had underestimated the amount of books I actually had. 10 crates later, I think I've got a good handle on them.

Now I'll just need to be sure I have enough building blocks that she doesn't begin to use her books to make forts when she gets to the construction age. If she takes after her mother she might realize how useful heavy books become when you want to be sure a sheet will stay draped between two pieces of furniture. This of course is not quite as destructive as using books to create a large scale domino game.

Euro Pregnancy

2009-09-14T15:55:00.000-07:00

For those of you wondering... still no Baby G. My efforts to convince her to come out yesterday were useless. I hear it might take some jalapeno eating too con her into coming out to play.

Yesterday afternoon there were two European couples at a gathering we were at. They've each had children in the past couple of years and one of them is pregnant right now. At one point the conversation turned to the topic of drinking alcohol while pregnant. One of the husbands commenting, "It's fine to drink while pregnant as long at you don't get stinking drunk."

They were pretty surprised by the warning labels on the beer that said not to drink while pregnant. They were even more surprised when I told them of all the signs posted in restaurants which warn people about the dangers of drinking while pregnant. Apparently if you are having a Euro pregnancy a few drinks a week is perfectly fine.

It's interesting to think about all the cultural differences out there. Aside from this whole drinking concept there are differences in views of what pregnant ladies can / should be doing. For example, do you think there are a lot of women in third world nations who get put on bed rest for the last month of pregnancy? How many of them are tested for gestational diabetes or get concerned about gaining too much weight? How many countries have a 12 week maternity leave?

Sometimes it's worth while to take a step back and think about how different we all our. What would things be like if you were born into a family on the other side of the world or even one on the other side of town?

09-09-09

2009-09-09T17:32:00.000-07:00

In the middle of the day I realized it was 09/09/09. No Baby G on labor day, no Baby G today. Wonder what day she's going to arrive...

----

I've been wearing the same TYR swim suit since the beginning of the year. Somehow the miracle suit has lasted / stretched through my entire pregnancy. A few weeks ago the strap stitching started to come apart and I worried, what if it breaks before Baby G arrives? No worries, I'll just keep wearing it until it stops stretching or breaks.

When I took it out of my swim bag after practice I noticed the strap had broken, no bueno. If you look carefully in the picture above you'll see a broken white strap. Carla thinks it'll be fine on top of another suit so we'll go with that for a while and see if it lasts until Baby G arrives.

Shortly after taking this picture Ali arrived and I told her my bad news, "My swim suit broke."

"At your stomach?" she asked.

We all got a good laugh at that image, my suit stretching so much at my stomach that burst apart like a Hulk Hogan shirt.

Benchmark testing

2009-09-08T11:12:00.001-07:00

After 9 months of being pregnant there's some inevitable physiological changes that take place. There are the shrinking parts; non-existent bladder, highly compressed small intestine, and all the muscles which have been working out less. Then there are the growing parts; you can see some of them but there is also a growth in heart and lung size.

This implies some potential fitness benefits, such as increased VO2 max, which I don't have a means of testing right now. Instead I have been subjected to a more simplistic testing protocol: the stair test.

My OB's office is on the 5th floor of her building. I've been assessing my fitness throughout pregnancy based upon my ease for climbing the stairs to her office. I must admit, today I had to take a deep breath at the top of the stairs. Trouble is, this test is flawed since I am currently congested and can not breath well to begin with.

The slightly negative results of today's test are counterbalanced by the fact that I beat another lady who took the elevator to the fifth floor. This (non-pregnant) lady boarded the elevator at the ground floor when I entered the stairwell. I'd already begun signing in at the office when she entered.

Therefore, I have concluded; I am still rating highly on my stair climbing test. If I could just find someone to give me a VO2 max test a month after pregnancy I'd actually have some numbers to analyze.

For those of you who doubted my ability to actually do a pull up on my own, I have no comment on the matter. Instead, I've added a couple pictures taken yesterday morning.

I have no clue why the publishers over at Fit Pregnancy haven't called me for my photo shoot...

Fund Raising

2009-09-07T16:03:00.000-07:00

Michael and I always joke, "I saw a lot of fund raising on MoPac today." Whenever we see cops pulling people over every couple of miles we joke about it. Today, I saw a lot of fund raising while driving to Whole Foods. Luckily, I've grown so uncomfortable in the car that I've started to drive more like my brother (Miss Daisy) than my mother (Mario).

Funny thing about this discomfort in the car... I feel as if Baby G is quite cramped when I sit so she's constantly trying to push my ribs out of the way. Every so often I set my hand on the top of my bulge and try to gently rub away the discomfort. It's so strange to be poking at yourself and not actually feel like you are poking yourself. If I poke my leg I feel it, if I poke my arm I feel it, but if I poke my belly I might not feel anything. Or... well... I feel Baby G's bum but I don't feel my poke.

I can't reach

2009-09-06T13:44:00.001-07:00

I bought my blue IKEA step stool during orientation week at CMU, 13 yrs ago. It's been on many adventures and has been quite useful to it's mildly short owner.

Over the past few weeks I've encountered a new limitation, my belly has gotten in the way of my ability to bend and reach. I feel as if I'm 6 again, I can no longer reach the bottom of the washing machine or reach the glasses on the 2nd shelf of the cabinet (forget the third shelf, those have always been too high). When I was younger I would merely climb onto the dryer and reach down in the washer or climb onto the counter to reach a glass. For some reason I seem to be a bit less agile right now. The stool is getting a little more use these days, glad I've been holding onto the $3 item for so long.

The stool was quite useful today as I was reaching for small clothes at the bottom of the washer. Yesterday Michael and I picked up a car load of goodies from some people moving to CO. Among the pile were a lot of 2T & 3T clothes. It's funny, right now we have a lot of 0-6 month and 2T-3T. In between are a few items but not nearly the collection of hand-me-downs for the other sizes.

As I was sorting clothes into piles I remarked to Michael, "Darn, this pair of pants already has holes in both knees."

"No problem," Michael smiled, "she'll need clothes like that when she's working on the airplane."

The Mammas and the Pappas

2009-09-05T09:56:00.001-07:00

Last night Raul and his Run-far crew put on the Zilker Relays. Once we found out Todd and Beth were expecting their second child I decided it was absolutely necessary to create a Jack and Adams maternity team for the Relay.

They were a bit hesitant at first, "Michelle, it might take us all night for 4 x 2.5 mi."

"Good news, there's a walking division, 4 x 1 mi."

We were all set to go; 4 pregnant mammas to walk, 4 proud pappas to run, and an entire crowd of onlookers to worry that their team might get chicked by some pregnant girls.

The shots above were from before the race started, before the wind and the impending doom of the oncoming storm system.

I'd write more about our evening but I've got a new pile of handed down baby / kid items to go through... time for some more "nesting."

Max Capacity < 1 NB

2009-09-02T15:23:00.000-07:00

Last week I joined Michael and his co-workers for lunch. One of them was mentioning his theory on pregnancy, "Women become so uncomfortable the last month that they'll do anything to push that baby out."

It seemed like a relatively humorous comment at the time but it has now become a reality for me. Almost like clockwork, 1 month before my due date I started to become very uncomfortable. It's as if I've completely run out of space for Baby G and she's left with no choice but to push on everything she can find. Who knows, maybe she thinks my ribs will eventually break or my pelvis will just move out of the way.

I guess this is why some people don't have any stretch marks until the very end of pregnancy. She's got a few weeks more to grow at a rate of .5lb/wk. That does not sound very promising for any thoughts of getting more comfortable before she arrives.

On the bright side of all this, it seems like I have a strong, determined little girl.

G Family Photos

2009-08-27T14:54:00.000-07:00

This morning Dave M (dcmphotography.com) took some maternity photos of Michael and I over at the Wells Branch trail. We picked that spot because we've gone on hundreds of runs there together over the past decade. Plus, it's got some fun spots for pictures.

Thanks Dave for waking up before the sun to catch the shots.

Yes mom, we will print one out for Grandma

The English Channel

2009-08-27T13:23:00.000-07:00

It's been just over 2 years since I watched Lynne swim the English Channel. We commenting on that Sunday morning as I chatted with her and Dave after a plunge in Barton Springs.

Our chat happened to coincide with the 30 hr cutoff time at the Leadville 100 mile trail race. We had a lot of friends out there for that race and Michael was there to help crew for Trisha.

These events had me thinking a lot about setting goals, watching my friends accomplish their own goals, and the mental strength of endurance athletes.

In our lives we all set goals, some are easily obtainable, some are meaningful challenges, and some of them are a long shot. It's the combination of these goals that makes us who we are. Those who truly achieve greatness have met goals that we know about but they have also faced challenges they could not complete.

Of all the friends whom I respect and admire for their achievements I also know of times when they have failed to meet their goals. Listing off failures is not the way to win over the hearts of your friends so I'm not about to do that here. What is important to mention is how and what they each seem to learn from those short comings. Learning lessons from the days you fall short of your goals is what makes you stronger. That strength is what allows you to thrive in situations down the road.

Although I try to learn from my own failures I must admit, I have learned much more from my friends. I say this because many of them have shown me how to truly thrive and learn from mistakes. I witness their actions and listen to their perspectives in admiration, they often seem to have a much better outlook than I do.

As you may have already guessed, Michael and I enjoy watching our friends along their journey to accomplish their goals. We've been lucky enough to make some great trips to support some of these adventures and I hope we continue to have such opportunities.

Of course, the times of not being present certainly out number the times of being able to watch from the sidelines. Good luck to all our friends doing Ironman Canada this weekend!

It's been said many times that endurance events are almost entirely about mental strength. I believe this is true, but merely knowing this does not imply you can figure it all out. The journey and the challenges you place before you are how you gain mental strength. We each have times when we thrive mentally. Conversely, we each have opportunities to melt mentally and make mistakes that set us back even farther. Again, it's what you learn along the way which makes you stronger.

This weekend marks week 36 of my pregnancy, full term. Baby G is due in 4 weeks but at this point she could appear and probably be relatively healthy at birth, it's a big deal. But it's a bit strange to think about the uncertainty of her arrival. I try to ready myself for the big event (labor) but I don't know when it'll happen.

Once again I loop back to the English Channel. After spending 2 yrs preparing for their swim, channel swimmers are given only an estimate of the actual date they will swim. Instead, they are assigned to a tide (7 days off chance). If the conditions are not right you might not swim during your tide. Instead you might just stick around in Dover, awaiting an empty spot in a later tide. Then one day, or maybe at midnight, you'll get a call to be down at the boat in a couple of hours, to swim. That's it, wait and wait to be ready at a moments notice. Kind of sounds like waiting for labor.

I Jinxed Myself

2009-08-25T19:03:00.000-07:00

I think the above cartoon pretty much sums things up for the way I was feeling the other day. Clea and I attended a prenatal yoga class together. As we went around the room introducing ourselves and talking about how we were doing I could not help but think, "Yes, there are things going wrong but for the most part I'm all good."

So when it was my turn to introduce myself I said with confidence, "I'm Michelle, I'm 35 weeks, and I'm all good."

At this point the instructor piped in with the predicted response, "Wow, 35 weeks."

Oops, I forgot to insert the part about not looking big enough because I have disproportionally short legs in comparison to my baby hiding torso.

After class we went out to lunch and Clea mentioned that her heartburn had made her voice change. I keep hearing about this so-called heartburn but never quite knew what it feels like. Stupidly, I asked.

Low and behold, that feeling hit me while I was swimming this afternoon. I must admit, it was probably my fault for eating leftover turkey loaf for lunch but I figured I could use the protein. Well, that turkey loaf kept visiting me over and over again and even decided to make a guest appearance. Thankfully I was quickly able to run over to some grass before loosing part of the lunch.

Lessons learned:
(1) Don't ask about ailments and then comment how you haven't had that problem.
(2) Turkey loaf should not be eaten within 1 hr of swimming
(3) Prenatal yoga is 20 min of bonding (i.e. venting) + 1 hr of light stretching

Last weekend alone

2009-08-24T17:01:00.000-07:00

Michael was up in Leadville this weekend to support some of our friends doing the Leadville Trail 100 mile run.

Before continuing on I'll take the moment to answer some of the questions I've fielded about this event...

1) Of course they stop, that's what the aid stations are for
2) Yes, they let girls do the race
3) That's correct, I meant to say 12,000 ft above sea level
4) Yes, they eat while they do this event
5) Why? Because it's a challenge and you get a belt buckle if you finish in time.

Okay, now that we have that clarified we'll move along to my last weekend alone:

For those of you who don't know my life story, you might not realize that I have never actually lived alone. I had roommates all through college and we bought this house before I even graduated from CMU. Technically I've never lived alone but Michael has made dozens of trips over the past decade so there's been a cumulative year plus of being alone.

Thing is, I don't seem to have much fun being home alone. It might have something to do with my extrovert nature but I think the inevitable troubles that arise when Michael is gone are the real issue. Things always break when he's gone, it's as if there's a curse on the house when I'm here alone. One of the most memorable break-downs was the night I was cooking dinner and the refrigerator suddenly started gushing water out the door, the water line had broken. Right before he left for this trip, I hit a rock driving up Mopac. I now have a cracked windshield and last night the garbage disposer broke.

Personally, I'm hoping this whole string of breaking will end when Baby G arrives and I am no longer home alone.

Okay, just in case you're curious, that is not my windshield, I just liked the picture. Mine is just one crack that is currently making it's way across the top of my windshield. It's not nearly as exciting as that picture but it'll cost the same amount to replace.

Knowing is half the battle

2009-08-21T18:16:00.000-07:00

That PSA is about the only thing I remember from all the years of countless GI Joe episodes we watched growing up. Maybe my brother got more out of it... he was the one who ended up in the army.

But, his Army carrier is not the real topic for this post. Instead, I will be touching upon the upcoming battle: nursing the baby.

Why do I label this a battle? After some of the things I've heard and seen I think we need to give it some respect. Without a healthy perspective on this topic, a naive mother may enter the battle ground not knowing what she is up against.

Yesterday afternoon the Garel family had an appointment with a lactation consultant. We decided it might be worth the time to find out some information before Baby G arrives. At this point I feel the 2 hours was time well spent, we learned a lot about poop diapers, feeding, and other lovely new baby experiences.

Note: If anyone is interested in learning about these experiences first hand I will be happy to arrange a diaper changing schedule for you. But act fast, there are fewer diapers in the first couple of days and those ones sound too exciting to miss.

The consultant was there to inform us of what to expect and she didn't let us down. Upon arrival in her office she handed us a folder with information. She went through the contents and eventually got to the color handout of, "What we are trying to prevent."

I'm going to be blunt, it was a bit horrific to look at some of the pictures of bleeding, scabbing, cracking, and shape distortion which can result from a bad latch between baby and mother. After about 10 s of utter horror the consultant placed the paper at the back of the folder, "It's not a good idea to look at that one too long, it'll scare you."

Good idea, let's just put that one out of sight and pray we never need to use it as a reference chart!

Where's yours?

2009-08-20T10:43:00.000-07:00

I just got back from joining the pregnancy and new moms meet-up group, we met at Genuine Joe's coffee on Anderson. There were about 15-20 ladies there, an almost even split between ladies who were pregnant and ones who'd had their baby in the past couple of months. There was also one token dad, who's wife dragged him along before their doctor's appointment.

As usual I got a lot of (now typical) comments from first time introductions to people, i.e. "You're due when? You're so small!"

It really does add quite a new element of humor when meeting a number of pregnant and new moms who make these types of comments...

When I began talking to the guy he was asking questions about our plan for the baby, etc. He then made the comment, "You have plenty of time to think about that, my wife is due September 18th."

"Not too much time, I'm due September 28th," I replied. That response just got a blank stare.

There were the usual comments from the other pregnant ladies talking about when they're due and how many people have told them they look huge. There were two girls due at the end of December who were complaining about others making comments about their size. Nothing new, I kept quiet for that conversation.

The part that got me laughing inside was the conversation I had with a mom who was carrying her son in a sling. I was asking her questions about it and she asked, "Where's yours?"

I pointed to my belly, "She's in there."

So we've got this down; I'm not huge, my baby probably won't be huge, it's now a game to see how long these comments last. The bigger question is, what will I be asked afterward, "Who's baby is that?" Or will I get the comment, "I didn't even know you were pregnant."

Tour de room

2009-08-19T20:59:00.000-07:00

Here you go, a tour of Baby G room:

My brother says I am nesting. Personally, I think it's more accurate to call it long overdue cleaning. After 9 1/2 years in the house I am finally scrubbing the wooden blinds, cleaning under the bathroom sinks, and wiping down the molding throughout the house. That might sound like nesting to some but it's probably more a result of my lack of employment and inability to fill my free time with 20+ hrs of hard training. Believe me, I would've been more than happy to ride my bike to Hutto today instead of drive there.

When did you have her?

2009-08-16T13:09:00.000-07:00

First a few new pictures...

Michael finished up all the painting and I've put up some animals, airplanes, etc:

Michael just installed the car seat in the CRV, we picked the color for Jack:

Over the past couple of days I've had some interesting conversations about Baby G's future arrival.

-----

Yesterday I was telling some friends about the way they are likely to hear about her birth; Internet updates. Although it's much more personal to get a phone call I am also a realist, Michael's phone will be posting twitter and Facebook messages long before my list of people to call is ever retrieved from the hospital bag.

Julia, "Did you know about the belt you can put on your stomach to send a message to Twitter every time the baby kicks."

Michelle, "Good thing I don't have one of those. Baby G would be sending out so many messages that nobody would be able to follow their friends. I can't imagine what Billy would do."

Billy is one of our friends who is lost in Twitter land. He tweets so much that one day we almost considered calling him to be sure he was okay, it had been almost 12 hrs since we'd seen something from him.

For those of you who don't have Twitter or Facebook (Kelly) you can check the blog, I'll post something on here as soon as I have the energy to type. Yes, there is wireless at Seton. Michael noticed the wireless access points when we were touring the hospital. He is currently storming out of the room because someone reading this blog might assume he's a dork for noticing that. What was that term... Enginerd?!

----

This morning Michael & I went down town to run, walk, lift (he ran, I did the others). Before leaving the house I tossed on a shirt, "Darn, my favorite dri-fit t-shirt is getting too tight."

As I was tossing on another one I've had for about 10 yrs Michael replied, "Uh, isn't that a little weird that you are upset that it's getting too small at 7 months of pregnancy? I think it should already be too small."

"I'm 8 1/2 months, give me some credit."

----

As I was walking toward the 0 marker a pack of Gazelles flew by and one slowed down to chat for a minute. "How's the baby?" she asked.

"She's fine," I happily replied.

"When did you have her?"

"I still have 6 weeks until I'm due."

A confused look took over her face as she looked again, "But you're so small!"

As a side note, this girl is about 1/2 inch taller than I am, weighs about 100 lbs, and has 2 kids. I was just about to mention that she probably looked this small too because she is also so petite but I decided not to take my chances of being wrong on that assumption. Of course, she'd just been wrong when she assumed my kid had already arrived.

Not quite my usual running form

2009-08-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

As promised... a video from last night.

Before you get too impressed with the fact that I was actually running at 33 weeks into my pregnancy I'm going to be honest and tell you it only lasted about 5 min.

For those of you who might question my logic too my doctor, chiropractor, massage therapist, or anyone else, "I declare my right to run when trying to escape from the wrath of the paparazzi." Clearly I am being chased by someone who wants to video tape the pregnant lady and see what it looks like when the baby falls out due to the impact of running while pregnant. Too bad I'm saving that type of craziness for Rich and Kelly's wedding, they're getting married 2 days before my due date. Rich is convinced it'll be a top hit on YouTube if there's a baby born during the ceremony, I don't think Kelly agrees.

Michael said the most humorous part of this run was watching the people stare in the 'dog off leash' area. I wonder if they could tell I was pregnant or were actually staring at Michael as he ran through with a huge Camelpak on his back.

Some of you may notice the forward tilt in my form. My pelvis has shifted due to Baby G's location, a mass sticking out the front of me. This has lead to quite an unusual feeling while running and becomes a bit uncomfortable after a few minutes. Therefore, I've spent a lot of time water jogging and have made a few 5 min runs in the middle of my walks.

I'd been running on the road and trail for the first 7 months but halted my ground travels after a troublesome run / walk last month. Although I noticed a decrease in top end pace overnight, I did manage to maintain a fairly 'normal' aerobic pace for those 7 months. The big difference was my increased bathroom use and general discomfort. I have a mental imagine of how I should look while running and that was no longer easy to maintain.

Keep in mind, this is me, not everyone. Some people stop running a few months into their pregnancy and some continue to run until the day they give birth. Some slow down a lot and others don't slow as much.

For me the question becomes, "Will I be faster and stronger afterward?"

My new friend: the UPS guy

2009-08-13T09:16:00.000-07:00

We've lived in our house for 9 1/2 years and I think I've only seen our UPS delivery man a handful of times. So far this week, I have seen him every day. Michael's family has been busy sending us some of the key items for Baby G. One of the bigger items is the rocking chair from his dad. When he visited a few weeks ago he insisted that we NEED a rocking chair and we NEED to be sure it has good cushions.

Behold the glider...

I felt the need to take the picture with my first book gift. When Trisha joined me for our Tues morning water jog she presenting a copy of Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots? I've never seen this book but thought it was quite fitting.

One of yesterday's activities included packing the bag for the hospital. I guess the theory is, if you pack it early your baby will be full term before you go into labor. I packed a pile of items into one of my nine blue MG bags (yes, we have a lot of matching bags) and tossed it in the car.

As I was packing the bag I realized a few flaws in the Mayo Clinic packing list

1) Lip Balm - although needed it will be a nasty mess if I put it in the car with our current temperatures.

2) Phone number list - not really needed any more, our cell phones have a long list of phone numbers in them. Plus, with facebook, Twitter, and my blog I'm pretty sure Michael will find faster ways to notify hundreds of people when Baby G arrives.

3) Clothes - aside from my confusion of what a "mid-maternity outfit to wear home" means, I also note the lack of mention of clothing for your SO. They mention clothes for you and the baby and seem to forget that my husband might want to some clean clothes too. Of course, he'll get to leave earlier... to go home and download more video and pictures.

Which brings me to mentioning another new item of the week... the video camera. We've been holding off on getting this, to be sure we get the coolest and newest one on the market. Michael decided it was due time to get one, especially since he wanted to have it before heading up to Leadville next weekend. Stay tuned, useless videos will appear on this site shortly.

Another belly shot (33 weeks)....

Mommy Poll

2009-08-10T18:43:00.000-07:00

Today is 7 weeks before my due date. Although I am seemingly close to becoming a mom I was quite surprised when a lady at the gym said, "You look like you're expecting very soon." This comment is quite the opposite of what I usually hear, "Where is baby G?"

Anyways... Michael and I gave up are initial plan of waiting until Baby G arrives to get presents for her. Over the past few weeks we've started to collect a number of items and have been preparing her room. It's been pretty exciting :)

I've realized I don't know what I need. When people ask what I still need I am never quite sure what to say. In the early stages of pregnancy I was warned about all the advice I'd receive from other moms, friends and complete strangers. Funny thing is, I actually haven't noticed that too much. Believe me, I'm not upset about the lack of belly touching or advice from strangers but I thought it might be useful to ask a few questions.

Also, over the past few years the cord blood banking has been a hot topic. We haven't quite figured out what to do about this and it seems like most other parents felt the same way when they were deciding.

So, I've decided it's time to ask a few questions of the mothers out there and see what they have to say. I thought it might be useful to myself and my other friends who are pregnant for the first time or will be in the future...

1) Did you bank your child's cord blood? (do you have an insightful reason why or why not)
2) What was the most useful item you had as a new parent?
3) What was the least useful / dangerous item you had as a new parent?
4) How long did you wait to work out again after giving birth? (what did you do first)
5) What was the most useful information you received from another mother?
6) What was the best thing your S.O. did for you before / during / after labor?

Thanks for the feedback!

Birthing Class

2009-08-09T16:54:00.000-07:00

Michael is on the phone to a friend right now. Here's what he replied when the person on the other end asked how birthing class was:

"If a girl who has not been pregnant yet attending a birthing class I'm pretty sure she'd never get pregnant. There were a few times during class when I was thinking glad that's not me."

Wonderful... thanks Michael, that's very supportive! ;)

We'll just refer to birthing class as the 'scare the pregnant lady when it's already too late' class.

A few examples...

The discussion about tearing. Let's be honest, there's no way you can possibly sugar coat this. My brother informed me of the tearing the day I told him I was pregnant, he'd waited until then to scare me. The nurse yesterday did a much better job painting a horror picture but I'll just let the others hear about that on their own terms and hope it isn't 4th degree tearing for me.

Then there's the result of the tearing... 6-8 weeks of bleeding. Holy $@&%!!! that is a long time! Trouble is, I also found out I'm not allowed to be swimming, water jogging, etc during that time. I knew I was not supposed to run for that long and assumed the idea of a bike saddle wouldn't be to inviting but I had not considered the risk of bacterial infection to the wound. Officially, I am not supposed to do any exercise until I am cleared at my 6 week OB visit. I'll find out a little more about this in a couple weeks, maybe yoga and walking will be fine.

Another memorable part of the day was the tour of the hospital and the trip past the nursery. As all the parents were looking in on the two babies currently in the nursery a collective, "Look at how small they are," came from their mouths. I turned to Michael in disbelief, "They look huge, how am I going to fit something that big out of me." Seriously people, those babies did not look small!

I know there are millions mothers who have given birth over centuries but that does not make it any less terrifying. After all, how many times have people said child birth is the hardest thing you will ever endure. Not knowing is a little daunting. I have an estimated 50 days too freak out about this ;)

Our veggie box was stollen twice

2009-08-06T16:08:00.000-07:00

This season Michael & I are part of a CSA for a local farm: http://www.hairstoncreekfarm.com/. We get to pick up a big box of veggies every other Wednesday night, which is great. The bad part is that we're always the last ones to get out of work and pick up our box. Therefore our veggies sit outside in the summer heat the longest and sweat up the refrigerator drawer pretty quickly.

But... yesterday we had some other bad luck.

After lunch Michael called me to tell me someone had stolen his veggie box. At first I thought he'd already picked up our veggie box and it had somehow been stolen. Thankfully, that was not the case. He'd brought a co-worker to grab lunch and left the empty veggie box on the grass for 10 min. When he returned someone had stolen his empty cardboard box. Although they are nice cardboard boxes it seemed humorous that someone would actually take it after a mere 10 min on the lawn. No biggy, we're still allowed to get new veggies even if we're irresponsible and don't return our old box.

Unfortunately, we seemed to have a string of bad luck with our veggie box yesterday. Michael was again the last person to arrive for his box. But the last lonely box was nowhere to be found. Seems that someone had picked up a box when they weren't supposed to. So now my veggie drawer sits almost empty, a lone bag of carrots and a few onions are the only veggies which remain. No worries, we get to pick up a box at the Saturday pick-up, right before heading off to our 6 hour baby class (I'm sure I'll have something interesting to write about after that).

For now, I guess I'll just have to use this as an excuse to head over to Whole Foods to get myself some more vegetables and / or a nice big grasshopper (why favorite veggie drink).

My mom might be tiny but I'm perfect

2009-08-04T18:37:00.000-07:00

We had our 32 week check up today. following yet another encounter with a pregnant lady who told me I'm small.

After eating a lot of food and drinking a bunch of water I managed to tip the scales at 0.8 lb more than 2 weeks ago. Trouble is, this was a 1 pm appointment and the one in 2 weeks is at 7:45 am. Therefore, it might be difficult for me to actually gain weight for that one but I'm not going to worry too much, I'm starting to feel a bit better about my small stomach.

Actually, for the record, the OB told me I was, "measuring tiny." Thank goodness today was the ultrasound because it verified Baby G is not measuring tiny. Her head circumference, the amniotic fluid, and her torso are all looking good. To our surprise, her estimated weight is 4.5 lb, putting her at the 42 percentile. But... that's 4.5 lb +/- .5 lb which sounds like quite a large margin of error to us. Personally, I believe this whole your child is in such-and-such a percentile is a load of crap. Is it really going to matter if my daughter has a bigger noggin than the girl next door? Not unless it's so abnormally large that other kids make fun of it.

Our overall conclusion: Baby G is doing well and likes to sleep after her mom's workouts.

Here are a few pics from the ultrasound:

First, "I'm definitely a girl" pic...

Second, "My nose is smaller than my dad's" pic...

Keep growing Baby G, we'll see you in a couple of months :)

Don't swallow watermelon seeds

2009-08-03T18:12:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures from this morning for those of you who are interesting in watching the progress of my growing belly.

First is the usual picture:

Michael then wanted to get a picture of me in front of his masterpiece:

Since my co-workers keep telling me I don't look pregnant from the back I had to get this shot to see what I think:

As for other parental type activity... we just got back from our baby CPR class.

Before leaving for class I changed from a t-shirt and shorts into a maternity shirt and skirt.

"Are you trying to look more pregnant?" Michael joked.

"Don't make fun of me. So what if I am?!" I answered.

Yes, we learned some useful things for infant and child CPR. For me, the biggest thing I took back from the class was the same old message; seems that I don't look as pregnant as some others. My feeble attempt to look more pregnant was useless. Of course, it is possible all the other ladies are 9 months pregnant with twins and triplets, I don't know for sure.

Earlier today I was talking with one of my pregnant neighbors. Her reaction to hearing when I'm due, "You're so small." To put this into perspective, this message was coming from a skinny Asian girl, who's 12 weeks behind me.

That's it, I give in, I'm waving my white flag. I am no longer going to bother telling people I'm pregnant. Instead I am just going to advice them not to swallow watermelon seeds because it obviously makes you look quite bloated. Maybe people will reply, "Holy cow, that was from swallowing a watermelon seed? You almost look pregnant."

Tomorrow is our next OB visit, we get our 32 week ultrasound. Stayed tuned, that means actual pictures of BIG Baby G instead of these boring belly shots.

You're pretty slow

2009-07-30T14:15:00.000-07:00

Seems like the water is the only place I've been lately. Yesterday I swam twice, today I water jogged. Maybe with all this exposure I learn that mythical feel of the water.

I made an interesting attempt to feel the water last night. A guy at the Quarry had a pair of 2 lb medicine balls with Velcro which he was trying to swim with. Carla and I decided to be adventurous and try them out. The guy encouraged us to swim a 100 m loop around the close bouy line. Carla made it about 25 ft before deciding she was going to drown and turned back. I tested it out, felt pretty weird, I doubt I was even going straight. Personally, I'm wondering if the guy brought them down to the water to see how many idiot triathletes he could con into trying to swim with these things. After all, we're all dumb enough to try anything if someone else tells us it might make us faster.

This morning was another water jogging morning at Barton Springs. Trish and I completed a record breaking 2 laps. Although I completed 2 laps I was shivering for the last 10 min so I think I still have some acclimation to do before I enter the Aqua Jogging World Championship in Finland, that water must be cold. What, you don't believe there would be such a thing? There is; Wiki says so, go look ;)

In the middle of our first lap our conversation was interrupted by a swimmer, "You're pretty slow." she paused mid stroke to joke at us. For the most part it seems the people at Barton Springs are quite friendly and social although I was starting to wonder if some of them were actually using us as target practice today.

On the non-workout front, I had a lunch meeting today for the 26 miles for 26 charities program http://www.youraustinmarathon.com/26for26. I was not the only pregnant lady there but apparently I am still not noticeably pregnant. As spoken by the other pregnant lady, "I couldn't even tell."

She gave me a weird look when I said I'm now 8 months pregnant and replied, "I'm having twins."

Okay, I get it, I'm not showing as much as everyone else is. Good grief, why do I feel like I'm loosing a competition to get huge? Thankfully I happened upon something today which mentioned how petite 5ft tall girls often look like they are smaller and carry the baby low. It assured short girls, the mother's size does not imply the baby will be too small.

Still, I'm planning to go buy myself a screened t-shirt tomorrow with the following phrase:

"I'm pregnant, Due Sept 28th, 2009. I might look small but my baby is already in better shape than you!"

It's Contangious

2009-07-28T18:57:00.000-07:00

It's been over 2 weeks since I've run. My hips have been bothering me quite a bit, they do that I guess. But they've been feeling better and I've been itching to run again. So, I decided to be logical and try walking. Trisha joined me (or should I say put up with me) for a spectacular 2 mile waddle/walk. I think the icing on the cake was when the white haired couple came flying past us, on their own walk. To say they passed us would be an understatement, they dropped us hard.

It was back to Barton for a lap of water jogging to finish out the hour. Although I'm a bit disappointed that I won't be one of the girls who makes it full term and keeps running, I consider myself pretty lucky. I made it to 29 weeks and I have plenty of other things I can be doing to stay active. The worst part is probably the benefit I have lost by not running, let's just say all the pounding helps keep me regular.

At the end of a highly eventful day of house chores and napping I made my way to the gym and to HEB for some groceries. When I got to HEB I was beginning to wonder what was going on, I walked in at the same time as 2 other pregnant ladies. I went over to the produce and spotted close to 10 other pregnant ladies, no joke.

Michael called on the phone and laughed about all the people having new year's babies. When we walked to the mailbox we saw one of my pregnant next door neighbors and he joked that it might be contagious.

Seriously, what is going on? Have I just never noticed all the pregnant women before or did I miss the memo? I'm starting to wonder if Obama said something in his inauguration, encouraging women to go get pregnant. Personally, I'm starting to wonder if I should buy stock in baby stores or something. Maybe there are some studies out there which relate economic downturn to increased pregnancy rates, I'll have to be on the look out.

Could I finish it?

2009-07-26T19:32:00.000-07:00

Today was IM Lake Placid. Tereza Macel had an amazing day, she was first out of the swim, beat all the guys too. She then went on to win the women's race. I've met Tereza a few times when she's visited Austin so I am super excited for her. I always get excited when people I know have a great day, maybe I just like to live vicariously through everyone else.

Which brings me to my realization of the week, it's time to get my refund for IM AZ. This might sound funny, it's only a few weeks after baby G is due so there was no way I was going. Yet, I thought it might be bad luck to get my refund too early. This week I had a realization, I don't think I'm in shape to finish an Ironman right now and I'm not getting anywhere closer to that shape.

I know what some of you might be thinking, "Hello, you're 31 weeks pregnant, I'd hope you wouldn't be in shape to finish an Ironman."

This might be true but sometimes you have to figure things out on your own.

----

Michael and I are having a conversation about the epidural... I guess you don't want me to be like I was in Boston:

"Don't let me walk" (statement to Michael when he joined me at mile 16)
"Can I walk?" (asked at mile 18 of the race)
"Sure" (Michael's response)

I've been asked a few times about the epidural. I'd prefer not to take one but I honestly don't know what it'll feel like. I can't be sure I won't change me mind. Michael's job is not to let me cave to quickly.

"You need to take it like a man" was his comment a minute ago.

Hmm, last time I checked there have not been any instances of men giving birth so I don't really think that comment applies.

If anyone has suggestions for encouraging trash talk during labor please let us know

Baby G status updates

2009-07-25T20:06:00.001-07:00

Here's a picture of the current Baby G wall mural. Michael has been hard at work. When he got done he came in to tell me it looks like a South Park scene. He then reassured himself that Kenny would not be showing up any time soon, apparently the South Park mountains have more snow on them.

As for the room, there's still more to be done. We'll post another picture once we've added a few things. Just don't hold your breath for the letters of her name... it's still a secret!

We ventured out to the tour party at the shop tonight. I'm pretty sure there were a few hundred people packed into the parking lot, trying to sweat out the toxins from the beer they were drinking. Unfortunately, Logan would not let me try to auction off my beer ration for diapers.

I got a few questions about Baby G so I thought I might answer them in one shot.

Baby G is a girl. She is due on Sept 28th but since she is going to be an overachiever I'd predict she'll be born on Sept 19th. If this happens I will attempt to guilt my friend Josh into coming to visit her since that is also his birthday.

She will most likely be born with blond hair but it will remain a question for about 4 years if her hair will stay light or turn dark, as Michael's did when he was that age. Since her chances of being tall are probably slim we'll let her try out gymnastics and diving before deciding she needs to be an overachiever and excel at sports she is not physically designed for. Lastly, she will like airplanes, Legos and playing outside.

Okay, so maybe that won't all happen but every parent needs to have unrealistic thoughts about creating someone perfect, don't they? Did I mention that she's going to be an engineer? ;)

75%

2009-07-25T15:49:00.001-07:00

I read an article once that talked about the hardest part of an endurance event as the portion from 50 - 75% of the race. I'm not sure how accurate that is for all of us, I believe it was targeted more towards long running races than pregnancy.

We're just a few weeks away from the Leadville 100 and this year a number of our friends will be heading up there for the race. I've had a lot of respect for that race for years and wish we were able to go up as support crew but that's obviously not in the cards for this year. Instead we will wish them the best of luck and patiently await the stories of how challenging the race was.

As for me, I am now 75% done with my pregnancy. I'll have to decide later if this past quarter was the toughest (I suspect the last one will be). For now I'll give some thoughts about the past 10 weeks.

Exercise - what can I say, it's getting harder but this is probably no surprise to anyone. I have a lot more fluff workouts during the week but I've listened to Angie's advice and I'm counting everything. My hips have started to shift and my pelvis has some misalignment which has made it difficult to run. But I am lucky, I have Kevin T to go to for massage and Performance Wellness to visit for adjustments and PT. They've helped me a lot during the past couple of weeks!

J&A - it's become a lot harder to stand all day, again no surprise. But, as with the exercise, I've got some good support from those around me. My co-workers at the shop help me reach things and even bring me ice cubes to stay cool. Still, it's getting to that time when I'm going to have to stop working at the shop. I've had a hard time adjusting to that reality but I will make it to my goal of working until Jack's Generic Tri. BTW, we could always use volunteers if you'd like to come help ;)

Body - yes, I'm getting bigger... no surprise. I'd like to say I consider myself lucky on this front. Although I've felt some frustration when I'm still told I don't look pregnant enough I'm pretty happy that I haven't gotten huge. I haven't had any strangers try to touch my belly and I haven't had anyone ask me if I'm due next week. On the other hand, I am frequently asked what race I have coming up next. The guy who asked me on Thursday was in shock when I said I am due in 2 months.

Friends - this part has been both difficult and rewarding. Although I don't have the ability to go ride outside or run on the trails, my friends have made great efforts to join me for workouts as well as listen to my chatter about being pregnant. The most impressive part was my friends who were willing to endure a road trip to Lubbock with a pregnant lady. It turned out fine, I did not need to stop and pee every 20 min, but none of us knew how it would go until after it was done. Overall, I've been impressed with how understanding and helpful everyone around me has been. It has taught me a lot about the value of good friends.

Now, we'll just have to wait and see how the last 10 weeks go... and of course everything beyond that point.

Something is in the water

2009-07-22T18:43:00.000-07:00

When I arrived home tonight my neighbors were sitting outside their house. I went over to chat and they told me they are 20 weeks pregnant with a girl, their 2nd child. Over the weekend we spotted our next door neighbor walking around with her toddler and she looked pregnant. Thing is, we've only got 5 houses in our cul de sac and the people living in the other 2 can't get pregnant. I'm wondering if something was in our water. If any of our friends would like to come over for dinner just let me know, I'm sure baby G would be excited to get even more playmates.

I'm pretty excited about the neighbor being pregnant. I told her that we could draw a big chalk line at the end of cul de sac and tell the kids they can't go past it. She laughed at me, "Spoken like someone who doesn't have kids yet. We had 3 time outs before dinner tonight."

It's been pretty busy at the Garel house this week. Aside from a visit from Michael's dad and my brother's 30th birthday we also began to paint the room. It's far from finished but we'll give you a sneak preview. The sky blue area will soon become a mural with an outdoors scene; hills, mountains, clouds, and a bunch of wooden airplanes and animals Velcro to the wall.

After Baby G is born we'll probably add the letters of her name to the wall. My brother offered to go buy the letters ahead of time. I laughed, my family is not too creative in their attempts to figure out the name. Sorry... nobody finds out until after she's born :P

It seems that I have really popped out over the past few weeks. When I saw Richelle at the Splash and Dash she remarked that she hadn't been at the shop in a week and I'd grown a lot. It's true, for those of you who haven't seen me in weeks you are certainly missing out on the massive development which has taken over my stomach.

I've grown so big that I am now waddling. Yet, one customer still didn't seem to notice what was actually going on, "Why are you limping, did you fall off your bike?"

"I haven't ridden on the road in months, I'm pregnant."

...silence... I don't think she new what to reply.

Here's another picture so you can see what I'm talking about:

I told Michael I am huge. He's learning how to reply correctly, "You are not huge, you just have a big belly."

National Lollipop day

2009-07-20T11:26:00.001-07:00

When Michael came home for lunch I gave him his I love you lollipop in celebration of national lollipop day. "How did you know it's national lollipop day?"

Let's just say I was a sucker for national lollipop day. When I saw the sign at Whole Foods I could not help myself, I had to get something for Michael. The little hand I love you was just too cute to resist.

I can't help but wonder if I'm going to be one of those mother's who is easily conned into buying useless things for her kid.

Over the past few months I've paid a bit more attention to the parents in stores. It seems the phrase, "You don't need that, you already have enough ___ (insert item of want)," is pretty common. Thing is, I almost feel I'd be hypocritical to limit my kids when I'm married to a guy who's got 5 GPS, 5 bikes, and a pile of old cell phones. I had about 100 stuffed animals in my room growing up (no joke, I counted them once). How can I possibly tell my daughter that she can't do the same? Maybe we will learn that skill when we begin to look at price tags, I guess we'll just wait and see.

You know it's hot when...

2009-07-17T13:00:00.001-07:00

... You're car starts panting in the heat.

Yesterday afternoon I called Michael and asked if he would mind going to Whole Foods for dinner. As usual I was wanting some meat but on this occasion I was trying to determine a way to get some cold, cooked meat. I concluded that I wanted some of the turkey loaf from the counter at Whole Foods. Seriously, this stuff is much better than it might sound, I'd highly recommend it with a side of veggies.

When Michael pulled up at the shop I looked outside and started to laugh. It looked like his car was sticking it's tongue out at us. Made me think of a dog hanging it's tongue out of it's mouth in the hot summer heat. I told Michael to look over at his overheating car and he started to laugh and took the picture above.

As for me I spent a good portion of the day eating ice cubes to stay cool. Jeff K is now working at the shop and he has a cooler full of ice every day. I can't imagine a better treat then getting a cup full of ice every hour, it's like a little bit of heaven ;)

A few firsts

2009-07-15T12:43:00.000-07:00

I had a few first time experiences yesterday. I'm sure I'll have many more in the near future but this is what I've got for now...

1st Barton Springs 1 mile swim sans wetsuit -

Although I have swum in Barton Springs hundreds of times yesterday was the first day I managed to swim a mile without a wetsuit. I tried it once a few years ago and made it down to the other end before getting out and walking back, I was too cold. But yesterday was a different story. A bit more determination and some extra baby-fat got me through a mile.

Tomorrow I was try and even more daring feat of strength: I will attempt to water jog before my 1 mile Barton swim.

For some of you, this might seem a bit humorous, I know plenty of people who have spent hours swimming in Barton. But I'm not that person. As one of my friends reminded me, there was an instance in the past when I hopped in a 77 degree pool with a wetsuit on. Don't plan on seeing me swim the English Channel anytime soon.

1st Prenatal Yoga Class -

After my hips started to tighten up on Saturday morning I decided it was time for prenatal yoga class. I'd been waiting until I started to feel really pregnant to go. Apparently I waited longer than everyone else, I was the farthest along in the class. When everyone else was saying they were concerned about not showing yet I got to be the one who reassured them, "Don't worry it'll pop out." Yippee, I finally got to say that, another first.

1st time using the pregnant lady pillow contraption for my massage -

I've been getting massages pretty regularly for years. Once my stomach started to grow the pillows started to pile up on the massage table. Yesterday I got to use the foam supportive pillow designed for pregnant ladies. Comes complete with a large indention for your stomach, pretty humorous looking but so comfortable to lay on that I was trying to figure out a way to get my own for sleeping at night.

1st time for our A/C to break -

When I got home from my massage I was greeted by Michael cooking dinner, "Did you do something to the A/C?"

It was already warm in the house so I knew this question was not a good sign. Clearly, Michael had already determined it was broken and tried to inform his pregnant wife as easily as possible. Still, it took mere seconds for the panic to show on my face. It was still 100 degrees outside and the idea of sleeping with out A/C sounded about as exciting pulling my teeth out or as Matt A. might say, "eating foil and shaving my head with a cheese greater."

A series of phone calls quickly began. We found a place to spend the night and found another friend who was willing to come over to look at it, "My A/C has broken 4x and I've always been able to fix it," he told Michael.

At 8:30 pm Michael and Matt P. were outside to trouble shoot the issue. But they weren't alone, Michael was also on a conference call to Taiwan and at a few points during the call I heard them discussing the A/C instead of computers. Once they'd determined the probable issue a call was made to another guy who used to work at Samsung and now owns an A/C repair company (Comfort Zone A/C). Crazy as it sounds he drove over to our house at 9:30 pm and replaced the broken part. I don't think it had anything to do with me being pregnant but I was certainly a happy pregnant lady when I got to sleep in my cool house last night.

As a side note... although I am clueless about Lynne's ability to swim the channel with ease I am even more mystified by women who have kids in TX without A/C

Happy Early B-day Colin

2009-07-13T18:58:00.000-07:00

My brother turns 30 on Saturday. He's 18 months younger but the closeness in age does not reflect a closeness in personality. Don't get me wrong, we do have things in common but we are quite different people.

I'm sure one could argue the root of these differences were his assignment to Mrs. Nelson's 2nd grade class after I'd had her for 1st and 2nd grade but there's no way to prove that. Instead, we'll just vote for nature in the nature vs nurture argument. Or... maybe it is nurture, he did always get better birthday presents!

To explain our differences I'll try to retell a story from yesterday morning.

Picture it: Decker Lake Austin TX, June 12, 2009, Couple's Triathlon. A guy in a volunteer shirt is sitting on the lawn next to 3 kegs of beer. A racer approaches the volunteer and proceeds to ask him a question...

Racer, "I have a question for you."
Mich's Bro quickly replies, "You've got the wrong guy."
Racer, "If someone doesn't finish the swim ---"
Mich's Bro interrupts him, "Seriously, you're asking the wrong guy."
Racer, "They told me to ask a volunteer. Just hear me out. If someone doesn't finish the swim --- "
Mich's Bro interrupts again, "Listen, I'm not the guy to ask. I smoke, I drink, and I don't exercise. I'm just here to serve the beer."
Racer walking away, "I'll go ask someone else."

It's important for each of us to know what are skills are. Although I'm sure I would've been able to answer, and possibly predict the racer's unasked question, I've never served beer from a keg.

Ironman VS. Pregnancy

2009-07-11T14:46:00.000-07:00

I've spent most of today sitting around doing nothing, the stereotypical pregnant lady according to my doctor. This was not the intended plan it just had to happen that way because my hips are in horrible pain right now. At about 25 min of running this morning they started to hurt so much that I was forced to walk back to the rock. I've been stumbling around the house like an 90 yr old all day.

This led to some comments on Facebook and a little more thought about the Ironman VS. Pregnancy...

The way I see it Labor/Delivery is the Ironman race. I need to convince Baby G she must be born in less than 17 hr to make it official. Of course, if she wants to come out in less than 11 hrs and make my Ironman races look long I'll be even happier. Maybe we can find her a medal or something. I can't imagine what the nurses at the hospital would say if Michael puts a medal around her neck after she's born. It might be worth it just to confuse them.

But aside from the actual event, there's also the training. Since most of us sign up for and Ironman 1 yr in advance and train for it almost as long I'd say the 9 months of pregnancy is pretty comparable.

When you sign up for your first Ironman you become engulfed with it, always thinking about it, wondering how it'll go, wondering if you are prepared, etc. The same appears to be true for pregnancy.

Food: "Am I eating the correct things? Am I eating enough or too much?"
Exercise: "Am I doing the correct amount? Am I getting enough recovery?"
Sleep: "Why am I tired all the time?"
Anxiety: "What will happen on the big day? Will I be prepared?"
Pain: "Why does my body hurt from all of this?"

The list could go on... people you know are asking questions about your preparation. There are stories from others about their experiences. Your friends who haven't had this experience are curious but don't quite understand.

That makes both experiences sound pretty tough, which they are. But there's a reason why we choice to do this, the experience itself. I signed up for my first Ironman because the half didn't seem like my limit and I wanted to see what I could do. I got pregnant because I want to be a mom and want to see how it goes. The challenge of it is part of why I am curious. I didn't expect it to be easy, new experiences seldom are.

I'm in the final 12 weeks of my "training." Guess that means it'll probably be the hardest part. I'm sure the warm summer and the long to-do list won't disappoint my expectations.

As for Labor/Delivery vs Ironman, I'll report back on that afterward.

Off to go spin on my bike and see if I can loosen up these hips...

3 hr Glucose test

2009-07-10T09:06:00.001-07:00

Michael came home for about 24 hours between his two trips so we took another stomach picture this morning (see above). His first trip was for business, the 2nd one is his baby shower trip. Yes, I'm serious, my husband is having a weekend long baby shower with the three friends he grew up with. They began their series of trips as bachelor parties but now they needed a new excuse to hang out for a weekend.

After taking some pictures I made my way over to CPL for my 3 hr glucose test. They said to arrive between 7-8am, I signed in at 6:55. After the 2nd of 4 blood draws the nurse jokingly commented, "You're ahead of the other ladies." I replied, "I think they were asleep when I got here."

There were 2 other women who'd also failed their first test. I'm pretty sure I was the only one of us wearing a kid's sized t-shirt, still able to sit Indian style in the waiting room chairs. The nurses taking my blood found humor in the fact that I'd failed the first test and was told to gain more weight in the same week.

Now I'll just wait for that lovely test results call from my doctor's office.

As for other happenings of the week. I'm trudging through this hot Texas summer with everyone else. It's hot out and I'm pregnant, at this point I can't really do anything to change either so I'm just going to have to deal with it. I just recalled someone telling me to "deal with it" about two months ago. At the time the comment angered me. As I'm writing this I've realized I should have listened then.

The other day I was reading a back issue of Fit Pregnancy. There was an article with women confessing what they hated about being pregnant. The reply to one lady was "Think of pregnancy as an Ironman triathlon. If you didn't suffer, crossing the finish line wouldn't feel so sweet."

... I don't know if the person writing this article has done an Ironman or not. I can honestly say that my two favorite Ironman felt the easiest and took the least amount of time. Crossing the finish line after enjoying the entire day is a lot more rewarding to me than feeling frustrated and wanting to drop out of the race. Sure, you can tell yourself you endured the pain but I'm much happier when I'm invincible and feel no pain.

Hopefully I won't have a tough time with labor. I don't know that I want to have seven kids, trying to see how many times it takes to have a speedy, pain free experience.

Go Treat Yourself to Some Ice Cream

2009-07-07T08:19:00.000-07:00

I had another doctor's appointment this morning. Before going I went for a run on Town Lake. The run itself was not so great, I had some side cramps and leg cramps which resulted in a number of stops. On the flip side, the stops lead me to see a couple of friends I would've missed otherwise. So overall it was probably a good experience topped off by a nice cold shower at Barton Springs.

Back to the doctor's appointment...

The nurse's assistant came in first. She measured my blood pressure, the size of my stomach, and Baby G's HR. As usual, these things were all good. Once again she asked if I feel kicking (yes, a lot) and explained the kick count test, which is used if you don't feel kicking one day. Essentially you drink cold water or a cold caffeinated drink and count the kicks for an hour. Cold caffeinated drink... I guess that means soda or ice coffee... not going to happen. By the way, I thought we were supposed to decrease our caffeine during pregnancy?!

Next question was to ask me about scheduling of my 3 hr gestational diabetes test. It's on Friday so I don't have results yet.

The doctor then comes in, and asked about the 3 hr test. I tell her I'm in disbelief about the entire thing and she tries to reassure me that it's nothing I've done wrong because I am exercising and haven't gained much weight. She said about 50% of those tests will come back negative so we'll talk about that later if need be. Okay, no surprise there.

That's when it got funny. I told her I'd been feeling some side cramps which lead into a conversation about what exercise I am still doing. She told me that hardly anyone can still run at 28 weeks and by 32 weeks she doesn't think that's realistic.

The next comment was about my weight gain, apparently I have 'not gained enough.' She then asked how much exercise I'm doing and told me that 10 hrs/wk sounds like a lot because it's more than 1 hr per day. Telling her I used to do 17-20 hrs/wk didn't seem to help. She then went on to tell me that I should now be gaining 1 lb / wk and if not I'll have to cut back on my aerobic exercise. "Go treat yourself to some ice cream," was her recommendation. Good grief, I ate 2 cupcakes and over a lb of dark chocolate this weekend (I kept that comment to myself). She then tried to make me feel better by telling me most pregnant women are couch potatoes and use it as an excuse to eat what they want, so it's good to see the other side... but, I need to gain more.

Is it just me or does this seem a little contradictory? Last week I tested positive to the preliminary gestational diabetes test. The nurse tells me exercise and diet may help. On Friday I have to fast for 12 hrs and get blood drawn. Today I'm told I haven't gained enough weight and I need to decrease my exercise level and eat ice cream.

Seriously people... is it any wonder that pregnant ladies get moody, emotional, and seem to change their minds at the drop of a hat? I feel like I'm in the middle of a loose - loose situation here... somehow I keep messing up even if I'm trying not too.

Note: The picture above is from a couple of decades ago, at my brother's birthday party. Can anyone guess which one is me?

Rylee & Michael

2009-07-05T18:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon Michael went over to my brother's house to work on his car (aka Midlife). While he was there he went to our niece's room to pick her up from her nap. When she saw him she began to scream.

Colin came over tonight to see if this would still happen. Apparently Rylee does not think to highly of Michael right now. We're not real sure why, unless he's not telling us about the time he stole her cookie, but we're hoping this is not an indication of how Baby G will react to her dad.

Running with a melon

2009-07-05T08:25:00.001-07:00

Michael and I went for a run this morning. Along the way I asked him how hard it would be to carry an extra 15lbs while running. He said he thought it would be pretty hard since an extra 10 was hard enough.

We got 'lucky' today, there was overcast sky for most of the run. Aside from a couple of stops for bathroom and stretching I think I did relatively well with my run. Of course, I wasn't able to drop my husband... that hasn't happened during any runs this year... yet ;)

Before heading out this morning Michael mentioned it might be a while until we get to ride together again, we haven't done that since my trainer got set up in April. Near the end of our ride Summer and Roger passed by on their bikes. It was their first ride together since their daughter was born, she turned 1 yesterday (Happy Birthday). Michael and I are hoping we can get a ride in together before that, so anyone who'd like some early morning baby sitting experience on the weekends is welcome to volunteer. Well... unless you happen to be one of our friends who's said they have a tendency to drop babies.

After our run I decided it was time to cut up the watermelon. When I lifted it up I realized it was pretty heavy and asked Michael to go upstairs and weigh it. Sure enough, it was 14.5 lbs, the amount of extra weight I am dragging along right now. Honestly, I have no clue how I'm doing it and still running, that water melon was heavy.

Lab Results

2009-07-02T11:24:00.000-07:00

When I got home yesterday there was a message on the machine from my OB's office, I needed to call them back to get my lab results. I assumed it was probably results from my visit last week, "Good grief they're probably going to tell me I have another bladder infection."

After my highly eventful trainer ride (okay, it wasn't too exciting) I called the doctor's office. The nurse on the line told me that my iron counts were good. Then she told me I have an elevated glucose level and will need to complete the 2nd round of gestational diabetes testing. At first I laughed, thinking there was no way I could have gestational diabetes.

The nurse told me that I'd have to schedule the testing for the 12hr fasting and 3hr blood draw testing. The comedy of it disappeared instantly and I began to grow upset about the situation. The voice on the other side didn't help much. I said I was surprised at the result b/c I haven't gained much weight at all. Her response, "Exercise would help."

That comment put me on the verge of crying. I asked what a positive result at the next test would mean. She said that I'd have to talk to someone about my diet, I'd be taking blood measurements 4x per day and if exercise and a good diet didn't help I'd have to get insulin injections.

I don't think the lady on the other end fully understood how I was feeling. After all, I exercise a lot (or so I think) and I eat pretty well (or so I think). I just couldn't seem to imagine how any changes I'd be able to make would help that much if my results were truly as high as she told me they were. So I got of the phone in tears and called Michael.

When I told him about the testing he made his best attempt to humor me. "Since I'll be away next week you won't have to worry about missing lunch with me on the day you're at the test." It was a good attempt but that didn't work too well. Then he told me, "Well, maybe you just don't eat enough sugar so your body is used to it and that's why your levels were still so high an hour after drinking the orange stuff." Thank goodness Michael knows how I think, try humor first, if that fails use logic.

I was still a bit bothered by the entire call so I called my step father who asked, "Did you tell them you do triathlons?" As if this would get them to say, "Oh, you do triathlons, the test results must be wrong, don't worry about taking the follow up test."

So, next Friday I'm scheduled for my 2nd round of testing. I'll just cross my fingers and try to look at it as an opportunity to get a bit of reading done. In the mean time I'll work on convincing myself it's probably not a result of anything I've done wrong.

Someone finally asked...

2009-07-01T19:44:00.000-07:00

"Are you pregnant?"

Yes, for the first time someone finally asked me if I was pregnant who did not know the answer to this question. With 1/3 of my pregnancy left people have finally realized I am not just getting bigger. I was so excited to be asked the question I almost gave the guy a hug. But then I remembered I don't give hugs.

This evening the neighbor asked Michael if the baby's room is ready yet. This is one of the most common questions these days. "Not even close," is our answer.

"Don't worry, you'll have time. At about 3 months left you'll realize you're running out of time and you'll panic."

"We are at 3 months left," Michael informed him. The neighbor was in disbelief.

After taking a few belly shots this morning I changed into my running clothes. We took another shot b/c Michael said I look more pregnant in running clothes.

After all the picture taking and a bit of extra sleeping, I was running late. So I revised my plan to a 5K run. Apparently I was racing the other pregnant ladies (ie the ghost running with me) b/c I knocked it out in 25:04, which included a slowed pace for the last 2 min when my belly began to hurt. So, even with my extra weight and the high temps and higher humidity I still seem to be running okay.

As I was finishing my run I passed a guy walking in our neighborhood, "Slow down, you're making me look bad."

"Nah, you're fine." seemed a lot nicer than, "Don't worry I'm only 7 months pregnant."

Orange Drink

2009-06-30T18:22:00.000-07:00

After swim practice I made myself some eggs, spinach, and tomato before downing my orange drink. From that point I had exactly 1 hr to arrive at a specified lab and get my blood drawn for the mandatory gestational diabetes screening.

At my last doctor's appointment I'd been warned of how horrible the drink was, how it made people feel sick and throw up, etc. I assumed it would lead to an interesting blog post. No such luck. I guess the sugary drinks don't taste so horrible when you've gotten your body accustomed to sports drinks and recovery drinks. My stomach wasn't feeling so great when I was waiting at the lab but the taste of the drink wasn't too much trouble.

To be honest the most interesting part of the adventure was the sky opening up. It was a downpour of rain when I needed to get in my car and drive over. Not too common in TX so it was actually a bit exciting. Especially since the overcast and rain earlier today resulting in sub-100 temperatures all day. Yippee, run outside tomorrow morning!

Nerd Road Trip

2009-06-29T18:08:00.001-07:00

Michael and I made the trip to Lubbock this past weekend to watch the 70.3 race. We'd been a bit undecided on going but when we checked the weather report, and realized it would be about 15 degrees cooler in Lubbock, we decided to make the trip.

Michael wanted to fly so he convinced Beaux to join him since I was not in the mood to get in the hot airplane with my bulging belly. Note the location of the double seat belt - not so comfortable with a kicking kiddo.

Instead, I took the longer method and drove there with some friends. Along our way we stopped for gas and couldn't help but take a picture of the drink we saw in the cooler, "NERD." Although Joe is trying to point me out as the nerd we had an car full of engineers so I'm pretty sure we all count as nerds.

Although it was still hot on Saturday we got a great bit of rain and colder temperatures on Sunday. I'm pretty sure I would've run the entire 1/2 marathon course if the water stops had been set up when I went through. Instead I just ran 8 and did some spectating along the way.

Joe & Michael took 1st and 2nd in their AG in the sprint. They are doing quite well with their minimalist training regiment. They keeping talking about forming a training group of people who would rather eat pizza and brownies so let them know if you're interested. Of course, I don't think their theories will speed you up but they might help anyone who needs to gain some sympathy weight while their wife is pregnant.

After the race we had a heart to heart with Carla. Translation: "No, we are not driving home yet, we're going to wait and see if the Kona slot rolls to 3rd." Joe (aka super driver) took a nap while the girls went to the awards ceremony. Unlike past years, this year's ceremony was at a bar, with garage doors and very dark walls. The band played for a lot longer than we'd expected and the awards were giving in reverse age. That made for a long night but we did get to see a bunch of friends go up on stage and got to celebrate with some people who got their roll down slots :) The spot in Carla's AG went to 2nd so she was one away, just as she'd been at IMFL :(

By the time we picked up Joe and got some more food it was 10pm. That lead to an arrival in back in Austin at about 4:30am Monday morning. It was a long ride but we had some good laughs along the way including a discussion of the best location to stop and use the bathroom.

There were a few ups and downs along the trip but overall I'm glad we got the chance to leave town and cheer for some friends. A big congratulations to Amy for winning her first 70.3 and to Brandon for finishing 4th.

Monthy OB visit

2009-06-25T14:56:00.001-07:00

I've always heard about all the doctor's appointments you have when you're pregnant. For some reason I had the impression there would be a lot of activity at these visits. After all, why else would you need to go so often? Now that I'm starting the third trimester I get to begin going every 2 weeks.

Personally, I think they just like to charge insurance as much as possible and therefore spread out all the fun into as many visits as possible.

I went to the OB's office on Tuesday morning. The big activities of the day were weighing in, measuring my blood pressure, measuring my stomach, and listening to Baby G's heart beat. And what did I learn from all this? ...Yes, my baby is developing correctly.

I also had the excitement of getting my bottle of orange syrup to drink. Like all other pregnant girls out there, I get to take the gestational diabetes testing. Rumor is this orange drink, which I have to down in less than 5min, does not taste very good and causes a number of people to feel like they are going to loose their stomach. I'll be sure to report back after the experience.