1st swim!

Bill and I took the baby with us to the pool today and split the class so one of us could swim at a time. Liam loved being at the pool, the sound of the swimmers in the water lulled him to sleep after he watched them swim for a good 15 minutes. It was lovely for everybody!

Swimming felt amazing except I had a hard time kicking, I think my core is still trying to figure out what is going on. It was an uncoordinated swim but I got to do flipturns and back stroke and breast stroke and! It was so exciting! I can't wait to get back to the pool again. My parents are coming tomorrow and my mom promised to babysit for me and I'll be at the pool first thing.

Pregnant swimming was fine and all but non-pregnant swimming is soooo much better. I feel like I'm getting back to being myself again and it feels great! Yeah!!!!! Yeahhh!!!!! Yeah!

Yeah!

1st run post baby

It was a glorious day here in Corvallis today. Sun and 59 degrees is just too lovely to stay indoors in November! I packed Liam up in the car and found room for the dog too and drove over to Bald Hill for what was supposed to be a nice long 4+ mile walk. That was the plan anyway.

After about 1/2 mile the baby started fussing so I stopped at a bench and changed his diaper and gave him part of a bottle. He settled down so I put him back in the stroller and continued on into the glorious sun. 10 minutes later, baby was howling again. LOUD! So I stopped and gave him the rest of the bottle but that was not the answer. He started screaming when I took the empty bottle away. OK THEN!

The child does not appreciate a sunny day in November. Obviously. I turned around and started walking back to the car but his howls were so alarming I could hardly stand it. I wanted to stop at the bench again and nurse him but there was an old man sitting there glaring at me and I forgot to bring a blanket to cover myself so I would have had to whip out the boobie next to the old man with an attitude. I was really tempted to do it but the baby's cries were hurting my head so I did the only thing I could think to do: start running.

This is the first time I have run in over 10 months but I still remembered how to put one foot in front of the other. The only probably was my bouncing jelly belly, I had to hold it with one hand and push the stroller with the other while trying to keep the leashed dog with me and OH! Did I mention the baby was screaming all the while? What an awesome return to running!

I got back to the car and nursed the baby who looked at me calmly like there was never any fuss. I spent the rest of the afternoon napping on the couch with the baby. Who needs a sunny day outdoors?

Tomorrow I go the Dr for the 6 week check up and will hopefully get cleared to exercise again and start the comeback in earnest. Hopefully my next run goes better, it couldn't get worse could it?

Ironman plans

Ironman Cozumel is next Sunday and we had quite a winding road leading up to the race. Initially, it was supposed to be a fun get away for Bill and I and some friends we hardly get to see who live in Denver. Bill's buddy registered for the race, his 1st Ironman. Then I got pregnant and my due date was 7 weeks before the race. Initially, I thought I would just take the baby to the race. Newborns are rumored to be portable. Then I looked at flights and from Oregon you end up with 2 layovers and it takes 12-15 hours to get there. I decided that was not something I was willing to do so I suggested Bill go ahead without me. Then his buddy's wife got pregnant, so he was going without his wife too. Dudes weekend in Cozumel! Watch out bikini girls!

Bill managed to get some training in during my pregnancy which I am sure was a nice break from his cranky pot bellied wife. He had some great training sessions, but couldn't run most of the summer due to injury so he was basically ready to be competitive at a 1/2 Ironman, without the run. Then the baby came and our world came to a halt. Except Bill had to go back to work. He was getting in 1-2 training sessions a week once the baby was born.

Then I flipped out. I cried and said I couldn't handle him leaving me behind to contend with the baby by myself. So he left me, with the baby, for 2 days for a business trip and I somehow survived so I told him to go ahead and go to the race without me. Then his work picked up even more and he had a night where he was up until 3am and still was behind at work.

Ultimately, the only reason to go to the race was to hang with his buddy and support him for his first Ironman which was reason enough to go, they have been friends since childhood. Bill was ready to book his ticket (last minute) when he found out he would have to be gone for 7 days rather than 5 days and that was the end of it. He couldn't miss work, his wife, his baby, and all of the things weighing on him to go race in the sun.

No bikini girls for Bill this time. Now I have a depressed husband who feels like he let his friend down. He feels awful about it and so do I. Sometimes... life just doesn't go the way you want it to. Fortunately, we have a baby to keep us up at night and remind us of our priorities.

He likes the twinkle music dammit

The baby wants to be awake more often now, but he doesn't know what he wants to do when he's awake. So it's up to mommy and daddy to entertain the 5 week old whose interests are... boobies. Hmmm. I'm already pulling out toddler toys and music to try to keep him interested in something other than my chest and I tell you, it's almost as exhausting as waking up every 2 hours during the night.

One thing we did figure out today is that Mr. Liam likes twinkle music. Not cradle or lullaby but twinkle music. So do not mess around with his twinkle music or he will SCREAM. Tomorrow we are taking him in to my office for a visit and then to swim class. I'm hoping to dip his toe in to the pool as a "christening" but it will all depend on whether or not he's howling for a boobie or loudly tooting. This should be fun!

Tomorrow, I will either write a rant about breast feeding and the psycho advocates or about Bill's upcoming Ironman plans. I'm too tried to write either or those topics right now.

His tooty pants are on

First: my blog yesterday didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. I was blogging at the end of a long day and Bill was trying to get the baby down but the baby was fussing up a storm. I meant to add in stuff about how much Bill handles around the house and how he is so confident with the baby but all that came out was "my husband is a big buffoon who can't keep a kitchen clean." I rarely take back a blog post but I probably should have reworked the one I wrote yesterday. Someday I'll write about the "where to buy mustard theory" which will explain how I drive Bill nuts.

Hey, so do you know what a baby that is gassy sounds like? WAH WAAAAHHHH toot tooot WAAAAHHHHH! Our child burps like a frat boy and toots like an old man. We didn't get a lot of peace and quiet today so I'm going to head off to bed now. I COULD REALLY USE A TALL GLASS OF BEER AND 8 CONSECUTIVE HOURS OF SLEEP. I'm just saying.

The dirty dish rag theory

FYI... I made it to the grocery store, by myself, with the baby today. It went great except the Starbucks espresso machine was broken. LAME. Plus I had to get out of my pajama bottoms.

My husband and I are slightly off when you compare us to other people. We do take on some traditional roles but we also have high expectations of each other in non-traditional ways. Example: my husband is perfectly happy if I am making more money than he is. He thinks it's awesome and tells people that he has two masters degrees and I don't even have a bachelors and I make more money.

It's really because he spent so much time in school that I have high expectations of him to get things done around the house. He did the dishes for 95% of our relationship because he wasn't working and was home while I worked full time and had a web store. When you work as a team like that, you have to let go of certain things, like how the other person does things differently than you would.

This is where my dirty dish rag theory comes in. Bill used to frequently leave the dish rag lying in dirty dish water. I asked him not to do that, because it's disgusting, and he did manage to keep it out of the dirty water about half the time. The other half, I found the dish rag in the sink soaking in filth. I had to tell myself that this time would pass, that someday, I would be in charge of the kitchen and it would be clean the way I wanted it to be.

Well that time has come, I am home with the baby and guess what? The kitchen sink is clean before I go to bed each night. It could have been that way all along if I would have taken over and done it myself which is what most women do when men don't do something the way they like. But I won't do what most women do because I think women cheat themselves when they do that.

Now on to the baby. Yesterday, Bill was trying to soothe the baby by loudly listening to Billy Idol. I suggested that he run the vacuum cleaner instead to which he scoffed. It seems the crying baby is the great conqueror because within minutes he was vacuuming, the baby was quiet, and peace had been restored. Bottom line is the baby is in charge and we are all just servants.

I bet you are wondering what annoying things I do that irritate my husband? Good thing he doesn't have a blog!

Soon we'll need a twin bed

Liam 2 days old

Liam 4 weeks old

What do you think he has been doing all this time? Eating! Wildcat! This kid was up every hour to 2 hours last night eating. I woke up feeling drained and just a little tired.

My goal for next week is to go to the grocery store with the baby, by myself. This will be one of the scarier things I've done so far, I've yet to leave the house with him by myself in the car. But if I can make it there, there is a Starbucks in the store so I will be free! Free to drink lattes and grocery shop at the same time. Wish me luck! Hopefully the child will not starting screaming as soon as I get the cart full of groceries. This could be ugly.