Run by the (fun) numbers!

Todays run by the numbers:

Running buddy: 1 (my step dad)

Run Distance: 11 miles

Started run: 5:15am

Finished run: 6:55am

Deer: 6

Cars: 6

Rabbits: 4

Times I wanted to scream: 3

Times I actually did scream: 1

Bird that flew into me: 1 (Hence the 1 actual scream above)

Times we had to slow up to keep a 10 min/mile pace: 3 (One of these times was after the bird incident!)

Energy bar: 1 Chocolate Powerbar

Water Consumption: 1 Camelbak

Hours of sleep the night before: About 4.5 hours (ugh!)

Nap after my run: About 1 1/2 hours (yeah!)

Next run: 5 miles on Tuesday at 5:45am

Today's run

Got in 5 miles today and I am feeling wiped out.  Between getting up early, sleeping poorly the last 2 nights, having friends stay with us before their move out of state and working on this dang rental house (it just posted to MLS today-- fingers crossed we get a buyer!)... I just want to curl up and sleep.  Instead I need to keep moving and catch up on my own stuff.  Alas.

Today was 5 miles at a 9:30 pace.  It was decent temps at least and not as DARK as it has been that early!

The forgotten run

My 8 mile run this morning totally, completely fell off my radar.  I woke up at my usual time and had a missed call from my stepdad which immediately reminded me I was supposed to meet him at 5:15 for an 8 mile run.  Oops.  Looks like a long run alone (or with a jogging stroller) is in my future.  Bummer!

How did I forget-- aside from being human?!  Let me tell you a little story...

One of the dumb things my hubs and I did when we were early in our marriage was buy an "investment" property.  Dumb for many reasons but mostly because it has tied up a nice chunk of change and we didn't sell it right away like we thought we would! 

He's handy, I enjoy design and can swing a hammer when needed so we bought a fixer upper, added a full bathroom, bought carpet, updated tons... well... then the margin of profit wasn't as great as we thought so we decided to rent it out and wait on the market to go up more.  Low and behold a friend of my hubby's needed a place--so we let him rent it at our cost.  Another bad idea.  He also had a dog.  Bad idea again.  And without bad mouthing the guy-- the place did not stay looking nice in the 3-4 years he lived there and smells like dog.  He just moved out to change to an out of town job so I have camped out there painting and cleaning all week. 

Knowing all 4 bedrooms needed to be repainted I got the bright idea to attempt it while the kiddo was with me and awake. I brought his pack and play along but that lasted about 30-45 minutes before he really wanted out.  So I decided to let him roam for a few minutes and planned to put him back in.  That was until this happened...

Oh yeah-- that's a gallon of paint tipped over onto the carpet.  I only noticed (your backs to the room when you paint) because I heard him giggling and then saw him happily smearing his hands around in the puddle!  Whoa.  I scooped him up-- called my husband in a panic who said-- just take him home and get him cleaned up, leave the paint (there was no water on in this house at the time) and he said-- take a few pictures!

So here is kiddo after stripping him to his diaper...

 

So yeah-- all that to say-- the house and messes and constant working on it and knowing I was going to be back there all day again today-- is why I completely spaced that today was Saturday and I had a long run planned.

Disclaimers-- This was No VOC paint but did not make it a good idea to allow a toddler to roam in the room with a full can and a lid that obviously wasn't on very well!

Yes-- we usually use cloth diapers but knowing I would be here for a long day-- we put on the easier ones.

I do indeed do archi work at home but this week was a bit slower and therefore I tried to play this role too.  Little man has now had many naps there and I only paint during those.  Some lessons you do learn quickly. 

Here's to hoping we can sell the house and make an investment property another lesson-learned-- at least until a later phase in life!

Random Ramblings...

Do any of you ever feel "stalker-ish" for reading random people's blogs?  I know I do.  And with the advent of Google Reader and suggested sites I will sometimes just wander the blog world and find myself intruiged by the lives of random people.  Is that odd?  I do try to publically "follow" blogs I read most and leave comments to maybe be less stealth-like.

Y'all know I don't post many pictures of my hubby or me. I still feel wierd about the blogging thing and putting myself out there. Especially when I started this blog sharing lots of the graphic ins and outs of running while pregnant. But today I am going to share a couple photos of our family "trip" this past weekend to a local farm.

Little man and me. (Oh-- and a Llama)  I'm pretty sure we are all pretty darn pasty-white. 

Little man and his dad and an overzealous Zebra! Freaked them both out for a second!

And now a couple other randoms...

Little man helping his dad work on plumbing in my mom's new kitchen.

Little man.

Thanks for the comments on the jogger!  Yeah-- they seem pretty effortless until you add kid(s) and hills!  : )

Jogger

Next time I want to bail on my running buddy at 5:45am on a Tuesday or a Thursday morning-- remind me how much harder pushing a jogging stroller is and I will make sure I set my alarm!  Whew.  Arm workout today with the kiddo after cancelling for my early morning run.   Note to self-- go to bed earlier on Wednesday night!

An Early Saturday

Woke up at 4:45am to do an 8 mile run this morning before I needed to be back home and get the family going.  Whew it felt good!  It was perfect temps (around 65 degrees) and kept the pace slower (10min/mile as opposed to the 9min/mile I'd been running).

I don't think I've mentioned it yet but a few of my friends/family are planning to do a half marathon here (Kentucky) on November 12th.  I am looking forward to doing a race in a time of year I have never done one before!

After the morning routine-- during baby boy's first nap-- I decided to sneak back to bed for an hour and a half too.  Then we all headed off to a little family "zoo" of sorts here in town.  What a nice Saturday!  ; )  Hope you are enjoying yours too!

PS-- Hubs is saying he wants to start running again... we'll see if we pair back up as running buddies again soon!  He's such a good runner and inspires me with his dedication and enthusiasm once he's back in the saddle.

This weeks Weaning Update

Since I was soooo sick for a couple days last week I decided to extend the "dropping a feeding" out a couple more days.  How's that for justifying?  So as of today we will be down to just a morning and bedtime nursing.  My two favorite cuddle times with the little guy.  Let's talk about my emotions after one or both of those gets dropped.  For now I am feeling ok with things and my big 12-month old boy is nursing for shorter amounts of time anyway.  After a few minutes he signs "all done" and then he wants to eat real lunch or dinner.  He is still trying to get the sippy cup thing but we're sticking with it and he takes a bit more every day.   The kid loves big people food-- he loves him some veggie lasagna and red beans and rice this week! 

Have I mentioned my goal timeframe for weaning... I am taking a solo trip for a few days to Iowa at the beginning of October (for some architect continuing education junk) and thought it would be nice to go to bed and wake up without feeling full and needing to take along pumping stuff.  So that is when (right now) I am shooting to have dropped all feedings.  One month to go. 

Would love to hear what you feed your younger kiddos!  I want to keep him trying lots of stuff so he isn't a kid who will only eat two things when he's older-- but it has to be easy enough to cook for a non-chef person like me!

Supply

Yeah a reader question!

I mean ... Today we are going to answer a reader question... ; )

N.D. wrote-- That's great you made it to the year. I don't know how you did it - I failed both times! 10 months was around when my supply declined. Any tips for when I do this again?

Thanks for the question-- first you made it 10 months!  That is not at all failing!  That's great!

I was never one to make tons and tons of milk so I think this is a good question for me to actually answer... 

A bit of background first... I had a combination of a very content baby who didn't fuss even when he was obviously not eating enough, a little guy who would not nurse all I made and I was not really making enough to feed him.  So he wasn't gaining weight real well in the early weeks.  Thanks to an amazing lactation consultant (which I'd highly recommend at any point in the journey you reach a road block) we worked through early issues with extra pumping to increase my supply. 

At 6 weeks we started letting our son sleep through the night-- so the first thing I did was to keep setting an alarm to wake up and pump and save the milk.  If he has been gaining fine I might not have done that, but it definitely kept my supply up.  I would also pump right after he nursed (again, this was to feed back to him to help him gain weight normally but helped my supply).

Once we were past those hurdles and he was only nursing 4-5 times throughout a 12 hour day (and not any at night) I would just pump after the morning feeding when I was extra full and before I went to bed at night.  Since he goes to bed between 7-7:30 there were lots of hours left before I went to bed and when I'd feed him again.  So I was never going without pumping/nursing for over a 9 hour or so period of time.

I totally think taking Organic Fenugreek (found at your Health Food Stores in a capsule) several times a day was a huge help.  Early on you may smell like maple syrup -- you read that right-- taking this is natural and increases your supply.  I know some people like it in other forms like whole or in teas-- but I recommend this throughout nursing!

Once we started introducing solids I would still nurse first and at his usual times and then feed him solids.  I think that's important for you to keep supply up (and of course for baby).  And the final biggie was staying hydrated and well fed-- especially on running days when my body needed more fuel!  It can be easy to slack on that once nursing and a baby become such a routine.

I hope that helps.  When I put my mind to something I can be a stubborn mule.  I feel blessed this worked out but I also know it was not without a lot of hard work, tears and effort along the way!  Thanks for the question!

This weekends Run

Did 6 miles on Monday.  Felt my lack of running and lack of water the week before. 

Temps are down, finally!  Yeah! 

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Running For Two

Oops How is it Friday?

How is it Friday?

Oh yeah-- I got hit with that HORRIBLE stomach bug for a day and a half and missed one of my runs this week along with being completely out of commission!  That is when working from home with a 12 month old was just not working.  Thankfully I have an easy going kiddo because I literally only picked him up to nap or eat and I laid around and watched him play.  When he had both naps I took naps too.  I don't think I turned on my computer all day Wednesday which is saying a lot.  Very Sick.  I thought it was food poisoning as sick as I got and quickly as it came on but it seems to be going around here after talking to people.

So I shall get back to the grind and hopefully knock out a long run this weekend.  I have missed running and actually am kinda feeling bad about saying I don't feel like a runner... because when I miss running I am reminded that I am a runner regardless of how slow or often I get at it!

Weaning is going ok-- little man is 100% ok with it and actually is nursing for shorter amounts of time when he does nurse.  He kinda likes this people food thing!  One day he did great with the sippy cup and the next few-- not so much.  So we'll see how that continues to go.  So we've heard me say how much I have enjoyed the bonding moments and snuggles that come with nursing... here are a few things I won't miss:

Things I won't miss about no longer nursing:
Being sore when I shower
Wearing nursing bras
Craving sweets and carbs constantly (I honestly see a difference in just a week of tapered feedings in my level of cravings-- hopefully not coincidence!)
Wearing two bras to run
Pumping
Being engorged (... before a run, in the morning, after missing a feeding, traveling... anytime!)
Nursing pads