3athletejen

You may think that when one is on maternity leave, a three day weekend isn't that big of deal. You'd be wrong. A three day weekend means that husband is off for three days, which means more baby coverage and therefore a pinch more freedom. Fortunately, this weekend included many post-baby firsts. Friday night we actually watched a movie. Yes, it was in our own living room and a two hour movie took three hours to watch, but there was popcorn so it counts. Saturday was the first family outing to the Plaza for the opening day of Moosejaw. Baby C settled into the Ergo and slept the entire time. There was a photo booth at the store where we attempted to get a photo of her, quite unsuccessfully. This is a photo of a photo since I don't have my scanner at home, but you get the gist. Not really an event, but Husband's co-worker brought by a teddy bear for Baby C that is literally six feet tall and completely awesome. Steve, as he has been named, is now helping T...

For anyone who thinks maternity leave is a luxury, let me give you the real scoop. Here's my day: 5-5:30am - Feeding 6-8am - Baby sleeps and/or lightly squawks in crib. I do exciting stuff including: brush teeth, pick up house, unload dishwasher and take some Excedrin. (Husband commented life with a newborn includes a constant, low-grade headache, so we're both hitting the Excedrin extra-hard.) This time may include eating breakfast, if I'm lucky. (Today includes blogging.) 8:30am - Baby up for another feeding. 9am - Diaper change. (She dislikes this.) Clothing change. (She dislikes this, too.) A rousing game of peek-a-boo while she's on the changing table. (This is a whole new level of dislike - maybe even hate. But my face super-up-close scares me, too, so I can't blame her.) 9:30-10:30am - Carry Baby around seeing what I can accomplish one-handed. Maybe walk around yard to get her some Vitamin D. Have Baby do "tummy time" which is when she l...

Last night, Husband, Charley, Trudy and I ventured out for a family walk. This wasn't the first family walk that we've taken. However, it was the first walk where Trudy has been, well, Trudy. Bringing Charley home and combining baby with an overprotective dog gave me pause. Fortunately, things have gone well. We've been consistent with T's walk schedule and she gives Charley lots of sniffs and licks. T has taken to napping under the crib, which is quite endearing. But now I'm getting off track. As we're finishing the walk, Husband makes the mistake of unclipping the leash before getting in the house. That one nanosecond was all it took. T pulled her fake out move and was in the neighbor's yard in a blink. She paused, looked back at us with the distinctive "eff you" expression and took off. Baby was hungry, so I was off the hook for chasing, which left Husband. I settled on the couch to watch whatever Gordon Ramsey show is on at 8pm. (The man ...

A week before Charley arrived, a kind man at Latte Land dispersed some baby wisdom my way. (Pretty much everyone in the eighth month did this, but this fellow -- Bob -- made more sense than many others.) He said, "A baby takes away everything that was important before and gives those things slowly back, one at a time." Here's what I've received back this week: 1. The ability to run to Walgreen's and buy hydrogen peroxide. 2. A drive through the ATM. 3. A short walk with Trudy. 4. A quick trip to the grocery store where I still forgot butter. 5. The purchase of a bottle of wine. (That's kind of cheating since it's really due to not being pregnant anymore. Same situation with the ankle bones.) Note I haven't actually had any wine to drink, but it's nice knowing it's in the fridge. 6. And the big attempted finale... a pedicure. I didn't really get this back, but I did go by Oak Nails to see what the wait time was, which they said...

Well, I have about eighteen topics that are worthy of a blog entry and six minutes to write. So what does that get you? A modified top ten list covering the first nine days of motherhood. 1. I'm not going to horrify any new moms-to-be with a delivery horror story. Mine was actually okay. Not fun, mind you. Not painless. But if you told me I had to do it again next week, I could manage. (After a fair amount of complaining.) Labor lasted 24 hours. An epidural is a tiny gift from God. I pushed through five contractions and there she was - Charlotte Elizabeth Saab. 2. It is quite all right to have the nurses put the baby in the nursery at night. I enjoyed those few hours of stress-free sleep. They may have been my last. 3. If a tan, cologne-wearing security guard knocks on your hospital door and asks if there are any weapons in the room, it's a safe bet my husband will suspect he's a stripper. This scenario was made better by the fact that friends were there to witness ...

So what do you do when you're reclining in a hospital bed, Olympic beach volleyball on the TV and watching petocin slowly drip through an IV into your arm? You blog. As of 3:32pm, all is manageable. Ask me in an hour or two and the tune will most likely be different. Petocin scares the crap out me, but as long as it gets the baby out of me, I'm trying to not freak out. I woke up this morning and greeted the day as a normal Monday. After walking Trudy a few miles and spending 40 minutes on the elliptical, it dawned on me I felt a little crampy, for lack of a better term. And without getting too graphic, I started to wonder if my water had broken. (It was nothing like it's portrayed on television.) So I called a handful of friends and my sister to get some feedback. All signs pointed to yes, so I called my doctor's office which said just go to the hospital. I took Trudy for a second walk while waiting for Husband to get home and try not to overreact. At the hospi...

Blogging when you don't have any significant update is difficult. But I haven't been on here in ten days, so I feel some nagging responsibility to check in. I'm still here, I'm still pregnant, it's still hot as hell and I'm still freaked out about impending parenthood. (Though I'm desperate to be done with pregnancy.) A few things that are getting me through this final month: 1. The pool. Always my sanctuary, swimming still feels wonderful even though I'm S-L-O-W. I'm even over how scary I look in my Speedo and have ventured back to my Sunday masters practice. The outdoor, 50-meter pool is heaven and if I look closely after a workout, there's still a little tricep muscle to be seen. (Plus it does wonders for the water retention in my ankles.) 2. The Olympics start this Friday. Enough said. 3. One part of being an old mom-to-be is you get to go to the doc twice weekly the last month. These visits include checking the baby's heart rate ...