I did it! 13.1 Miles!

About ten miles in.

Last weekend I completed my second half marathon.  I'm not going to lie, this meant more to me than just running 13.1 miles.  A couple of months ago I saw one of my family members sign up for the OC Maryland Island to Island 1/2.  I saw the date was in April 2016.  At that time I was still breastfeeding my son, working full time, and of course being a mom and wife.  I learned from my first child that I didn't have the will power to commit to running while breastfeeding and pumping.  My goal was to breastfeed Andrew until he was a year old, so that meant January 2016.  I breast fed Andrew until about March, but I started getting back to working out and training around February, so an OK amount of time!  And little did I know, that when I signed up, I was going to have two co-workers out on maternity leave around the time I needed to be training for this 1/2.  I didn't do the best training, I could have tried to do more speed work, I could have done more cross training, but I did the best I could with the time I had. 

I was feeling it here! Can't you tell?

Crossing the finish line for me wasn't about just finishing 13.1 miles running, it was about celebrating me breastfeeding my second child for over a year and celebrating me finding the motivation to get myself back in shape.  I shared my body with my son for over a year between breastfeeding and pregnancy, now it's my turn to have my body back.  It's time for me to continue showing my children how to live an active life.  Running has also helped me to embrace my new post-baby body.  I actually gained 5 pounds once I started running again!  There will be a time where I'm ready to lose these 20 pounds I'm still holding onto since before becoming pregnant with Andrew, but it's not right now.  Right now I run for me, not to lose weight.

As a freshman in high school I tried out for soccer, but I didn't make the team.  The cross country team was willing to take on new members, so I thought I would give it a try.  I was never the fastest runner, and I was always ok with.  I continued with cross country and track the rest of high school.  I never knew what I gift it was not to make the soccer team and to learn the joy of running.  It hasn't been easy getting back to running after taking off for over a year, but I knew it would get better, and it has!  Exercise soothes my soul.

I finished in less then 2.5 hours, my goal!  It wasn't easy, my legs hurt, but when that happened, I ran with my heart.  This run was for me!

As an added bonus, hubby did the 1/2 marathon too! Joe says we distance runners are a special kind of crazy.  He's probably right. 

Love him!

 I signed up for another 1/2 marathon in September.  I think I developed peroneal tendonitis from increasing my distance too quickly, so my goal is to do more cross training the month of May and pick up more miles come June.  We'll see how it goes!

Happy Birthday!

Photo by Jenni Combs

Ok, so life with two kids is exhausting.  My heart is so full, though.  Andrew has definitely experienced 2nd child syndrome.  As you can see, the last update I did was over 8 months ago!

Well, this past Tuesday our baby boy turned 1!

He currently has 8 teeth, four on the top and four on the bottom!

He can say dada, mama, hi, and hello.  He waves bye and blows kisses.

He sleeps through the night and takes about two naps a day.

His favorite things are taking a bath and playing with his older sister.  Man, you should see him dart across the room as soon as he hears the water turn on!

His favorite foods are ham and yogurt.  He shows us he's done by throwing all of his food on the floor, and he hates to wear bibs! (Probably because he wants a bath!)

He's not yet walking, but he's cruising and gets into everything.  One of his nicknames is "Andrew the Destruct-or!"  No joke, you should see how fast a tidy basement can be covered with toys.  He's even pulled all of Bri's clothes from her drawers.

He currently weighs 22 pounds, 7 ounces.  He hasn't had his 12 month check up yet, so I'm not sure on the length (and I forgot to check when I had him at my office this week).

And we're still breastfeeding! I made it to 12 months breastfeeding!  I had to supplement more with him than with big sister, but ultimately, he's had breast milk every day of his life.  I'm pretty darn proud of that.  Now to wean from the pump!

I can't wait to see what this next year has in store.

Photo by Jenni Combs.

4 Months Old!

Good thing we had another kiddo or I don't think this blog would have any posts!

Well, I've been back to work about 2 months now.  I think we have a routine.  For now at least, I'm sure it will change in another month or two.

Andrew has officially graduated to 6 month clothing.  At his 4 month check up he was 13lbs 14 ounces and 26 inches long!  He's eating about 5 ounces every 2.5-3 hours.  I haven't quite been able to keep up with him and pumping, so he gets a formula bottle about once every other day.  I'm ok with that.  When I'm home he eats about every 2 hours.  He's finally in size 2 diapers.  I should have switched him a little earlier, but I wanted to us up all of my size ones.

He's still working on his sleep.  He does about a 5-6 hour stretch, then every 2-3 hours.  I had two nights in a row where he slept 8-9 hours.  I had hoped that was a trend of good things to come, but nope, it was just a tease.

Andrew is doing great with tummy time, and likes watching us.  He can roll from his belly to his back.

Other than eating, I think Andrew's favorite thing to do is kick.  We'll put him in the vibrating chair and he'll just kick, kick, kick.  He also loves to eat his fingers!  I don't feel anything teeth yet, but the drool has certainly increased!

I'm glad Andrew is the second child, he does not like being by himself!  We'll walk out of the room and he'll start crying until someone comes back in to talk to him.  Bri's getting more talkative with him and is starting to understand the concept of "gentle" a little better.

And, I know the statistics aren't in our favor to have 2 blue eyed babies, but his eyes are still blue!

3 Months Old!

And 2 weeks late writing the post!  The photos are from when he's actually 3 months old at least.

At 3 months, Andrew weighed 12 pounds, 8 ounces and was 24.25 inches long.  He's a long skinny boy!  His weight is tracking right along the 25%.  It's so empowering knowing it's my body and my milk helping him grow.  I'm still limiting my dairy, but it seems like he can tolerate cheeses and baked dairy.  Last weekend I ate icecream, and man, back to horrible, painful crying! 

In terms of diapers, we're still squeezing into size 1.  He really should probably be in size 2, but we're using our supply up.  And heck, they're not leaking :)  He's wearing size 3 month clothing (well he was, but now at 3.5 months has graduated to size 6 months).

I love baby smiles.  He's started to have the social smile and it's just so heart warming.

In terms of favorite things, I really think it's eating.  This boy loves to eat.  Fortunately for me, but not really, he didn't really do any reverse cycling when I went back to work.  He's sleeping about 6-8 hours at night and wakes once to eat.  That would be nice if I was able to pump enough milk at work to compensate for what he eats at home.  So since he's not tolerating dairy and he turned his nose up when we tried hypoallergenic formula once, I'm either staying up late or waking up in the middle of the night to add in a pumping session.  So far I've been able to keep up.  I'm not going to lie though, it's exhausting.

Bri has started to become jealous.  Only I can brush her teeth, only I can get her out of the car, only I can put her to bed.  She's overall very good with the baby.  She likes to use his stomach as a drum though...  I'm really curious to find out how she reacts once he starts moving and trying to play with her toys.

2 Months Old!

We made it to two months without a fever!  The pediatrician in me is quite happy with that!  Not that I want him to have a fever, but now if he has a fever he won't automatically need blood work.

Little man is gaining weight like a champ!  At two months he was 11 pounds and 23 inches.  This puts his weight at about the 20-25%.  This is huge for me.  When Bri was 2 months old her weight was about 3%.  It is such an empowering feeling knowing my breast milk has helped him grow and continue gaining weight.  He's eating about 7-9 times a day.  I'm still dairy free.  I tried a milk shake one day, and man, he was a monster the next day!  It seems he can tolerate me eating baked dairy, so I do have an occasional cookie or piece of cake.  I'm surprised by how little I miss dairy.  It's been better that I can't eat ice cream, because I'm not very good with moderation when I start a pint of Chubby Hubby.  I learned I really enjoy almond milk and I've been able to bake with almond milk.

In terms of sleep, he wakes about once a night.  I hope it stays that way, but we'll see now that I'm back to work.

He has way outgrown his newborn clothes and is starting to be too long for the 3 month clothes!  He's officially wearing size 1 diapers.

Right now, his eyes are still blue!  And it's such a handsome blue.  Statistically since Bri has blue eyes, he shouldn't (we have a 1/8 chance of having TWO blue eyed children), but only time will tell.

In terms of things he likes, he LOVES the bath, and of course he loves to eat.  Unfortunately he hates tummy time :(

Bri has realized he's not going anywhere, but she's doing great with him!  The biggest thing I worry about right now is she uses his stomach as a drum...  Fortunately she's stopped trying to pick him up.  She herself wants to be carried more though, which I wouldn't mind if she wasn't almost 40 pounds!

One Month Old!

I swear, life goes faster with two kids around.  Little man turned one month old a couple of days ago. 

I've been going to a breastfeeding support group about once a week, so fortunately I know what his weight is.  On his one month birthday, he weighed 9 pounds 2 ounces.  (His birth weight was 8lb 8oz).  This weight is huge for me!  It took his sister about a month to regain her birth weight, and then she gained very slowly.  I wish I had known about the breastfeeding group with her because I truly think it was her latch that was affecting her milk transfer, which was affecting her weight gain.  I'm blessed to be able to breastfeed my children.

Overall, his demeanor has been decent.  He was very fussy the first week and a half, then I saw blood in his poop, so I cut out dairy.  Since cutting out dairy, his demeanor has improved.  However, it's hard to say if it was time or dairy that improved things since he only had the blood in the stool once.  Joe and I went out to lunch today, so I decided today was the day I do a dairy challenge and ate cheese.  We'll see how it goes.  Even if it goes ok, I think I'll try to stick with limiting dairy but not stress about the "hidden dairy."  Who am I kidding?  I'm craving ice cream.

His favorite thing to do is eat!  I mean, what else does a one month old do?  Eat, sleep, poop.

He's straddling sizes in clothes, I'm moving mostly to the 3 month clothing now.  He's definitely too long for the one piece newborn clothes.

For now, his eyes are still blue.  I don't think they'll stay blue just because they're a different shade than what his sister's eyes were, plus statistically we shouldn't have two blue-eyed kids.

Baby sister is adjusting very well!  The past week she acquired a cold and wanted to cuddle more and did regress to wanting to be carried more, but I think this will pass once she starts feeling better.

I want to try to start working out again.  Last week I did a 15 minute post-natal workout.  I think it's a good way to ease back in.  It is going to be even harder now to find time with the two kids though.  One day at a time.  Plus I can't wait until it gets warmer!

I decided to wean

Shortly after 14 months I decided to wean and stop breastfeeding this beautiful gal.  When I went back to work just after her first birthday I decided to only breastfeed morning and night.  I was starting to feel a little violated though.  It seemed as soon as I came home from work, she was reaching for me, either lifting my shirt or putting her hand down my shirt.  I feel like she was mostly nursing for comfort, so I decided to stop.  I was fortunate enough to be able to nurse her for over 14 months; the transition has gone well.  After about two days she stopped reaching for me and now our bed time routine consists of more reading and cuddling.  My baby girl is growing up.

Spilled Milk?

Yes!!!!  Thanks BabySteals.com for this so true photo!!!

Sayonara Breast Pump!

Well, for the most part, I'm done pumping!  The past couple of days I realized how nice it has been not to pump at work anymore.  I'm fortunate that we're still breast feeding about twice a day, but I decided once we hit a year and I started my new job I wasn't going to pump anymore.  I feel fortunate because I feel like I was able to multitask while pumping, but it's definitely nice to eat or do work without being hooked up to the pump.  I'm also LOVING wearing dresses again!  I love dresses, but it was always so hard to pump in them so I feel like I haven't really worn a dress regularly for a year. 

I work one night a week and Joe had to put Bri down to bed that night, so I'm still pumping when I come home, but I can deal with that.

And here's a picture from this morning

"No Mommy, you are not going. I'm going to block the door and I'll go ahead and call your boss."

6 Months!

Ok, yes, she's about 6.5 months now that I'm posting this, but I wanted to wait for her 6 month check-up!

On January 31, 2013, she weighed 17lbs 4 ounces (66%) and was 25.5 inches long (25%).  To think I was worried she was a small peanut when she was less than the 5% at 2 months old.  She's still primarily breast milk, taking about 5 ounces every 3 hours during the day.  She gets a formula bottle about once every other day.  I mentioned in her 5 month post that I was going to try to cut out pumping a little bit.  I have stopped staying up just to pump, but I'm still finding myself pumping in the car quite a lot.  I still have a not in my shoulders/neck, but it's such a good use of my time to pump and drive.

I don't want to jinx anything, but I think R2D2's eyes might stay blue.  I hope so because they are such a beautiful color of blue!

In terms of sleep, we're getting there. As most babies are, she's very attune to my schedule.  Since I'm a resident physician, I don't quite have a great, consistent schedule.  Just when we get to sleeping well, my schedule changes.  She has ranged from sleeping 6-10 consecutive hours. She sleeps in her crib at night, but man, we're going to miss the swing for her day-time naps.

R2D2 is rolling around back and forth, it's quite entertaining seeing her use rolling as her mode of transportation.  She's starting slowly to sit up on her own.

Oh man is she a talker though!  We don't have mama or dada yet, but she will sing her heart out.  I love listening to her in the mornings.  She wakes up and talks to herself for a good 5-10 minutes before crying to be picked up.

With her growth spurt, some of her 6 month clothes are getting a little snug on her.  She's not quite in 9 month clothes yet though.  We have a whole box of size 2 diapers left that we received for Christmas.  She could probably move up to size 3 but for now the size 2 is working.

Along with talking, R2D2's favorite activity is the exersaucer.  She jumps, and jumps, and jumps.  Then she spins herself around, plays with another toy, then jumps some more!

Bottle Feeding

About 10 days ago baby girl slept through the night and I went about 10 hours between feedings. I woke up quite uncomfortable so I had to pump for relief. Of course she woke as soon as I finished pumping and I ended up giving her some of what I just pumped. As I look at this picture, I love seeing her look up at me. I've been averaging 60 hour work weeks right now and I'm finding it hard to pump as frequently as I would like. Looking at the picture shows me though that we can still have special feeding times if I end up switching to formula. I'm hoping next week I won't feel as stressed and my supply will pick up. However, I keep reminding myself I'm not super woman and I I can only do so much. Baby girl prefers breast milk, but she's taken an occasional formula bottle and that's ok.

5 Months Old!

I'm not going to lie, I'm downright exhausted and I'm not sure how much I'm going to write.  I recently had two weeks of night work and it's so much harder sleeping during the day now that I'm a mom than it was before.

We didn't have a doctor's appointment this month, so her weight is the old school me holding her and subtracting.  So, Joe and I think she weighs approximately 14 pounds this month.  We didn't measure her.

R2D2's eyes are still bright blue! :)

Clothes: I've put away all of her 3 month clothes and she's comfortably fitting into 3-6 months and 6 months.  I'm still getting used to the sizing system.  Regardless, she has plenty of clothes.

Diapers; Comfortably size 2 now.  I have a wholesale size box of size 2s in the garage and I have a feeling she'll be in size 3 once we finish that.

Feeding: Other than a little bit of supplementing in the first week, R2D2 has been exclusively breast fed for 5 months.  That being said, I'm taking a step back.  I've been exhausting myself waking to pump or staying up late to pump after she's gone to bed.  I was keeping up, but I wasn't making time for myself.  I pumped daily while driving to work and my shoulder and neck ached so much.  I've decided to cut out pumping while driving to work unless I didn't get to feed her before I left and I'm stopping staying up late just to pump after she's gone to bed.  It took over a month for me to accept this, but I have.  I'm still making enough for her to have 3-4 bottles of breast milk a day and then she gets about 1 bottle of formula.  The first day Joe said she didn't mind it, but the second day she definitely made a face and pushed the bottle away.  I don't want to waste my milk, so I'm not going to mix breast milk with formula in one bottle.  If she's hungry, she'll get used it to.

We started solids this month too.  So far we've tried oatmeal, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, apples, carrots, and green beans.  She likes everything but the green beans. I've tried them on several occasions and she keeps spitting them out.

Milestones: R2D2 can now roll from her back to her tummy.  She rolled tummy to back when she was about 3 months and did that several times for about 2 weeks, then stopped.  She still doesn't roll tummy to back that much any more.

Sleep: We're still working on sleep.  For the most part, she can now fall asleep on her own in the crib, however she's still not consistently sleeping more than 5 hours before starting to wake every 3-4 to feed.

I know there is more.  I can't put down all of the changes and joys she's brought us in just one post, however, I hope she'll enjoy reading these when she gets older.

Four Months Old!

Our baby girl is a third of a year old!  Now that I'm back to work, the months are going faster :(  She had her 4 month check up on the 20th.  She weighed 12 pounds 4 ounces and she is 24 inches long.  Her weight is now about the 12%, so that makes me happy.

R2D2's eyes are STILL blue.  I love seeing her big blue eyes look up at me.  I really hope they stay blue because they're such a beautiful shade of it.

Clothes: 3 months clothes are getting a little tight, but the 6 month clothes are still a little too big.  I'm trying to rotate her clothes so that she can try to wear things at least once...

Diapers: She's comfortably fitting into size one diapers right now.


Feeding:  I'm happy to say we're still breast feeding.  I'm producing just enough milk, but just enough is still enough.  She's not sleeping through the night and I wonder if she had more to eat during the day if she wouldn't wake to feed overnight.  I'm not pumping enough for that to happen, so I'm ok with waking to feed her in the middle of the night.  I'm not going to lie though, I am reaching the extreme state of exhaustion.

Sleep: As I said above, she's not sleeping through the night just yet.  She'll sleep for about 4-5 hours when I first put her down and then wakes every 3-4 hours to feed the rest of the night.  We've transitioned to her sleeping in her crib though and she's been falling asleep on her own in the crib :) She takes 1-2 naps a day.

Activities:  She's become much more social, which I love!  Joe can get her to giggle up a storm and she's been talking more.  She enjoys tummy time more, but still doesn't roll over from tummy to back that often.  As you can see from the picture, she LOVES putting her hands in her mouth.  Mom said I had my first tooth around 4 months old, we'll see about R2D2.

As you can see, she's starting to outgrow the laundry basket :)

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Lactation Cookies

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Lactation Cookies by Noel Trujillo

Recipe from Food.com

This recipe made about 4 dozen cookies for me.  Honestly, I can't tell if it increased my supply because I'm not eating them regularly.  Regardless, they are absolutely delicious!!  I ended up freezing most of the batch and pull them out when I want a dessert.  My mom and brother loved them too!

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons flax seed meal
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups oats
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 2 -4 tablespoons brewer's yeast

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Mix the flaxseed meal and water and let sit for 3-5 minutes.
3. Beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar well.
4. Add eggs and mix well.
5. Add flaxseed mix and vanilla, beat well.
6. Sift together flour, brewers yeast, baking soda, and salt.
7. Add dry ingredients to butter mix.
8. Stir in oats and chips.
9. Scoop onto baking sheet.
10. Bake for 12 minutes

My Breastfeeding Woes

This past week was my first full week back to work.  I was fortunate enough to only work 3-4 days the first two weeks back.  This week, I'm definitely noticing a change in our nursing relationship, and not a good one.  R2D2 takes about 4 bottles a day and then I nurse her 3-4 times when I'm home.  This week the first feed she's almost always not taking a big enough latch and then often biting and pulling away.  Not fun!  I know that with her age, it could be that she's more easily distracted, but I definitely think it's laziness/nipple confusion because by our morning feed she has the pattern down again.  To help support my worries of laziness/nipple confusion so more, after having only the breast since Friday night and it's now Sunday, she's back to efficient and effective nursing.  I adore being able to nurse her, so I'm determined to make this work.  I have a medela pump, so right now we're using the medela bottles.  I thought about buying Calma Nipple but reviews state babies generally won't take it if they're already had other nipples since it's so much work.  Plus that darn nipple is expensive!  Others have recommended Avent, so last night I bought some Avent Natural bottles from Target.  The nipples are definitely wider than the the medela nipples so I'm hopeful.  I've also heard good things about Breastflow and Tommee Tippee, so those are options too.  I never thought I'd spend so long in a bottle aisle analyzing the shapes of nipples.  Again, such is the life of a working breastfeeding mom.

Oh! My other breastfeeding excitement for the week, I left my pump supplies home Friday!  Friday morning I pumped before going into work, washed my valves and flanges and put them by the sink to dry.  At work I go to pump in the morning and uh oh, no flanges and valves!  There was a Target about 15 minute from work, but I was carrying three pagers and it wasn't quite feasible to leave work for an hour.  Fortunately our hospital uses Medela for our breast feeding moms and our lactation consultant had extra parts.  That being said, we couldn't meet up until about 7 hours after my last pumping session.  Yowsers.  I know some moms hand express, so here I am in our resident work room looking up a you tube video on "how to hand express."  Thankfully no medical students walked in while I was watching that video.  But again, a breastfeeding mom does what she needs to do.   For some relief, I ended up trying to hand express.  Yeah, hopefully that will be the last time I have to do that.  It's not very easy trying to contain the milk and it's definitely a lot of work to get a little bit of milk.  All in all, I was still able to pump what she took by the bottle while I was at work, so that worked out and now I'll be carrying an extra set of pumping supplies in my bag.

I'm a Breastfeeding Mom

I love that I'm able to breastfeed.  My milk has come in, the baby has a good latch, and we've been successfully breastfeeding for 2 months now.  Our relationship has changed since I have returned to work, but so far so good.  Breastfeeding is important to me and I'm learning a breastfeeding mom does what a breastfeeding mom needs to do.  It's an amazing feeling knowing that my body continues to provide all of R2D2's nourishment.  Our bodies really are wonderful things.

 I have pumped in a public bathroom at Camden Yards.  The ballpark did say I could use the family bathroom at guest services.  Yeah, not very nursing friendly.

I then proceeded to pay $4.50 for a cup of ice to store above pumped milk.  Yes, ridiculous.

 I have nursed in a fitting room, but the furniture section is much more comfortable!

In an effort to help spend as much time as possible with my little one, I occasionally pump while I drive.

 And the car's cup holders make a perfect place to store my milk for the rest of the drive home.

I've always found a place to pump at work, even if it's a patient room during our lunch break.

It's not always easy, but breastfeeding is important to me and I hope I'll continue to find ways to make it work.

Return to Work

My maternity leave has come to an end and I officially return to work tomorrow (rather than casual work from home that I've been doing).  I've only cried once today.  We'll see how tomorrow goes.