Riverton Half Marathon

I have been trying to talk my friend Mary into running a marathon with me for years. She always said she wanted to but never thought she could run that far. Boy was she wrong. She is much better than I am. I never claimed to be the fastest runner but I can finish. And that is all that has ever mattered to me.

 We began training before I found out I was pregnant and because I registered for the San Diego Marathon which she won't be able to do, we decided to do the Riverton Half Marathon on March 26th. That morning was soooo cold. The wind was blowing crazily which made it even more cold. I wish I wasn't so huge running this. I have a good 33 extra lbs on me which I never had before running. I didn't get to lose all the weight before getting pregnant again and I was upset about that but at least I could still finish even with the weight making me slower.

Mary stuck by me throughout the race and we were pretty much last. There were only 11 people that finished after us which was awful but oh well. It took us 3 hours, 1 minute, and 58 seconds. 

 The wind taxed a lot of my energy very quickly but I didn't stop running. I ran to the next mile marker and then would walk for just a little bit and run to the next mile. But when we hit the 11th mile I was DONE. I knew I had nothing left in me. I had just finished walking up the third ludicrously steep hill and it wore me out. These hills were so steep I could feel it in my thighs and glutes! I wish they had a rope I could have held onto to pull me up. I ran the next two miles but was running so slowly I might as well have been walking fast. The mojo had left me and I could feel my heart start to hurt a bit. Knowing I was pregnant I knew I needed to take it easy. I turned the corner and saw the finish line but I didn't begin sprinting that last quarter of a mile until I saw my husband and darling baby right there waiting for me! They gave me this unknown strength to just start running as fast as I could.

 

When I got to the runner's only area I quickly grabbed some water but didn't feel the need to eat anything. After all, I ate an energy bar an hour before. But shortly after my calf muscles began seizing and cramping up so bad I leaned against a pole trying to stretch them and holding back my tears. It hurt so bad. Jeff immediately told me that was a sign of dehydration and that my potassium levels were most likely low. Mary grabbed me a banana and I ate that quickly. I just wanted to go home but was scared to get in the car and have them seize up in that tiny space. But Mary helped me stretch them again and then I started to feel better. I got home and realized that with my being pregnant I should be going to the bathroom a lot and I wasn't hardly at all. I knew that was it and that I was in fact dehydrated. I think I drank 6 quarts of Gatorade the rest of the day and finally started peeing normal again. Yikes, lesson learned. I've never had that happen to me before. Baby must be taking what little I was drinking. Well after my second half marathon finished I am onto training for the full marathon in 2 months! Excited and hope little baby will let me get through it!

Some VERY Unexpected News!!!

A little more than 6 weeks ago I began rocking Faith to sleep in a chair and I would sing to her some songs. Some were Disney, some were lullabies, and some were church favorites of mine. I was all of a sudden overcome with the feeling that there was a little boy waiting for Jeff and I. It was so overpowering that I told Jeff later that night what I had felt. Roughly two weeks following that on a Saturday I was at the gym running as I was supposed to complete 4 miles that day. I was struggling. I had been on a fruit diet and had been complaining of being extremely tired for the last week. I was beyond tired that day and truly didn't want to be running. I could barely make it through this run. I was walking a lot of it and just could barely get through it.

I had made it 3.15 miles and suddenly the thought entered my mind, "You're pregnant!" I immediately wrestled with my thoughts thinking I couldn't be. But then I counted back and I was over a week late. I came home and told Jeff and it was the first thing that I said to him when I opened the door. He didn't think I was right but I was lying on the floor feeling horrible after the run. We went and bought a test. Not even 2 seconds afterwards the test clearly stated I was pregnant. I sat down on the ground and smiled thinking "I knew I was right". Jeff couldn't believe it. The next few hours were spent in a hysteria of crying and laughing. They would be only 12 months apart.

I am now 9 weeks and it has been a journey thus far raising Faith and being sick and tired all the time but I am now getting excited to bring a new little one into this world. I think it will be easier to get the pre-school years done with all at once rather than space it out and drag it out longer. Besides, now they will be best buds and can play with each other. So once again, Jeff and I are expanding the family.

Faith turns 5 months!

I can't believe my little girl is now 5 months old. That's such a short time yet so long ago that she was born. I am amazed at all that she has accomplished in just the last 2 months. She is still learning how to really be coordinated when holding things up to her mouth but every day she gets better at it. 

Her new favorite person is her dad right now. He of course loves it when I say that. She doesn't hardly see him that much so I think that has a lot to do with it. However he can just look at her and say "hi" and she is all smiles. I do the same thing a minute later and she just stares at me like she is thinking, "what do you want, mom?" I love that she knows her daddy though. It makes me happy. She has giggled a few times for me but I usually can't get her to repeat it a second time. The other day Jeff was playing and bouncing her and she giggled a few times in a row! I must admit I was jealous a little bit. Maybe she has too much mommy time. I guess I should take off and enjoy some "me" time so I become the new favorite person to her.

Her hair has started to really grow and thicken up. Sometimes I think she is about to have bangs. :) She loves to grab her toes. She does it all the time and that's how she moves herself around and rotates 180 degrees in a few minutes when she is lying on her back on the floor. I left the room for a few minutes and her head was on the right side and when I came back that's where her feet were. Silly girl!

She constantly is piling air up in her mouth and then blows it out to make almost a "farting" noise as it escapes. I call it blowing bubbles even though only a few times has bubbles come out of her mouth when she does that. Its soooo cute!! Sometimes when I try and put her down for a nap she will decide she doesn't want to go down and do that. A week ago I tried putting her down a half hour early and we are rocking in the dark (just a little light from the hallway) and all of a sudden I hear the bubble making sound and can feel air on my face. She was doing it again. I just looked at her in what little light I could and she was smiling at me. It was so cute I couldn't be mad at her for not going to sleep. She ended up not going to bed until 9pm.

My baby now sleeps through the night. I love it! She still wakes up an hour after I put her down which annoys me slightly but I guess its better that she does that than wakes up 5 hours later to wake me up. I just give her another bottle and she is back in bed. She is sleeping 12 hours total and I love that! So she is down at 7:30 at night and then up at 7:30 in the morning. I can't handle a 6am baby. That would be a little much for me and I get kind of grumpy when she does wake up early if I happen to put her to bed early.

My sister-in-law, Katie made her these headbands. I think they look amazingly cute!

I think they look amazingly cute! On another sleep note, I stopped putting Faith in a swaddle weeks ago. I was sooo beyond thankful for that because I hated that thing. I know it works and keeps her from the startle reflexes but I always felt like I was putting her in a baby straight jacket. So the last few weeks I would just cuddle her and then lay her down and wrap a blanket around her to keep her arms from flailing. However the last few days I stopped wrapping the blanket around her and she has still been sleeping through the night. Hooray! Tonight I went in to check on her a few hours after she had been down and both her hands were above her head. She had even moved her hand like she was circling her head. So cute! I just love babies when they sleep. They are so peaceful!

Faith has really showed how much she loves her Baby Einstein shows. I do limit them but she gets so excited. It first starts when the "Disney" music begins and she sees Tinkerbell bring on the words of Disney. I think its because she knows its about to begin. I could be holding her away from the TV so she can't see it but if she hears that Disney music she will search for it.

Its then followed by another big smile of excitement when the caterpillar crawls onto the screen. I sometimes rewind it so that I can see it again because it makes me happy to see her so excited!

This is a video of Faith being a "super baby" with her dad. 

And here is the excited face as the Baby Einstein caterpillar comes onto the screen. I bet you watched it more than once! :)

Faith is grabbing her toes and blowing air from her mouth in this one.

Oh, and something exciting happened today (March 23rd), Faith rolled over for the first time by herself without any help from me!!!! I was sooo excited to have witnessed it. I tried to get it on video but she wouldn't do it again. The exciting thing is that I have been taking Faith to the chiropractor to be adjusted. The doctor is working on making sure she is realigned so that it can stop her excessive spit up and that she doesn't poop. I've heard that chiropractic care can help fix these problems but never took her in until now. After the first visit that day Faith could lay on her tummy for 4 times as long as she used to. Before she would cry after a minute or two and put her head down into the blanket. She never reached for toys or anything. I thought it was because she just didn't like being on her tummy but now I know differently. It was because her back was out. Actually she was out in 3 different places. In her neck (right behind her ear lobes) she was out and it was pulling her head to the right. In the middle of the back she would arch away from the Doc when he would just lightly touch their with some pressure. He adjusted that and told me that it was really tight there and that's linked to the spit up region so it could be why she is so excessively spitting/throwing up all the time. Then both her hips were out so he adjusted those and advised me that those can also be linked to the colon region. So now that we are working on realigning the body, those nerves can now communicate correctly. However I take her in for a total of 10 visits ( 3x a week) to be readjusted so that he can loosen up those areas that are tight and hopefully by the end she will be pooping on her own and not spitting up. So far she has pooped 2 days in a row (only once) but I'll take what I can get. Her spit up is still occurring but it seems to have lessened a bit. I am hopeful since the other MD doctors don't seem to be able to tell me anything other than "wait it out". I must admit I love that I don't always listen to what ever doctor tells me. I so believe in natural methods and not a bunch of pills and surgeries (not that they aren't needed sometimes) but try alternative methods first.

Anyway, I love being a mom and Faith is the greatest daughter I could ever ask for!