A Work Day in The Life

sunrise at the track

I love reading day in the life posts by other bloggers, so here is a look at a what a "typical" workday looks like for me.

A Day In the Life

5:30 Alarm goes off. I grumble and look at the baby monitor. Cooper is still asleep so I go brush my teeth.

5:35 Cooper is still asleep so I go downstairs to pump

5:45 Cooper wakes up mid-pump. I dump what I’ve pumped into a bottle and go change and feed him

6:10 Cooper falls back asleep after eating (yeah!) so I head out on a solo run.

7:00 Back from running. Check the monitor while starting to stretch. Cooper is just starting to wake up, so I abandon my stretch and go get him.

7:10 Bring Cooper into the bathroom with me while I shower. He plays on the floor and we play a lot of peek-a-boo during my shower.

I am a sweaty runner, so a shower is a must

7:25 Head downstairs, put the baby on the floor to play, start the coffee, stick my pre-prepped oatmeal in the microwave

7:30 Put Sushi out and feed her

7:35 Eat breakfast while sitting on the floor and playing with Cooper

7:45 Realize I never finished pumping, so I put the pump parts back together and do that.

7:55 Frantically get re-dressed, gather all my bags (lunch, pump, work bag), and go wake up my husband

8:00 Drive to work. Braid my hair (at a stoplight) and gulp coffee while driving

8:15 Get to work, get settled, prep for the day

8:30 First patient

10:00 pump break, check in w/ my husband

12:15-12:45  lunch break. I eat in my car while driving to Target to grab a couple things

getting baby pics at work always makes me smile

1 Afternoon patients start

2:00 Pump Break

4:45 Head home

5:00 Walk in the door to a hungry baby, so I feed him right away

5:15 Rory heads up to take a nap before he goes to work at 9

5:30 Put Cooper in the bouncer in the kitchen while I unpack from the day (wash lunch dishes and pump parts, store pumped milk). I set the coffee maker for the morning.

5:45 Heat up leftover pasta for dinner for me and cook an egg yolk for Cooper.

6:00 Dinner with Cooper. He gobbles down his egg yolk and a couple bits of broccoli and then amuses himself with his spoon and some Cheerios.

6:20 Clean up Cooper and our dishes

6:30 Stroller walk with Sushi

6:50 Bedtime for the baby. He eats, but because his teeth are bothering him, the feed is a sh*tshow. He alternated between gulping milk and crying in pain first from his teeth and then from gas from gulping. Despite my best efforts, he is so loud that he wakes Rory up. Whomp. Eventually he calms down, we read a couple books, sing a song, and then he is out.

7:00 My legs have been killing me all day since I never stretched after my run. I do some foam rolling and stretching while watching an old eposiode of Grey’s Anatomy on Netflix.

7:20 Ice Cream

7:30 Pump

8:00 Brush my teeth and get ready for bed

8:15 Climb into bed , Rory wakes up and we spend 15 minutes talking before he gets up to get ready for work

8:30 Read

9:00 Lights out!

11:45 Cooper wakes up crying because he is teething and in pain. I soothe him and feed him since I’m up anyway

12:15 back in bed

2:00 Cooper is up again. I decide to give him some Tylenol since he really seems uncomfortable and it is not like him to be up so many times in the night

5:30 Cooper is up, hungry, and ready to start the day.

Half a Year

Holy Moly, I’ve had a baby for more than half a year.  We have settled into our new normal and I can hardly remember what life was like before a baby. So here’s an update on what’s happening with us.

Cooper

banana pop

Sleep: He is sleeping! We did sleep training at about 5 months and transitioned him from the Rock N Play to the crib. It went way better than we expected and he is now consistently sleeping 8-10 hours and sometimes even makes it through the whole night.

Eating: We are still breast-feeding. Kudos to all those breastfeeding Moms out there- breastfeeding is hard! I had an over-supply at first which had one set of problems, and now that I’m back at work I can’t pump enough to keep up with my greedy little guy. Feeding him at the moment is like trying to wrestle a distracted alligator because he is getting so big and is so curious about everything around him. We started solids a month ago and that has been a lot of fun. It is great to watch him experience new things. He LOVES food- especially bananas, avocado, and peanut butter. He bangs his spoon and yells if we aren’t feeding him quickly enough for his liking.

Favorites: Baby Einstein Jumper- he will jump and jump and jump. Bath Time and the pool- he loves to kick. Chewy Q- We now have 3 of these and it is his favorite toy by far.

naked baby

Milestones: He is rolling, sitting, and desperately wants to crawl. He responds to his name and is “talking” up a storm. His first tooth is just about ready to pop through.

So far month 6 has been my favorite age. He is so interactive and fun- and sleeping again makes life so much better! I can't wait to see what the next 6 months brings

Me

Work: I went back to work at 12 weeks and am working 2-3 days a week. I am so conflicted about work. At times I love getting to be  a real adult- to be someone other than Mom. But at the same time I miss my baby so much on work days. These are also such a long days- I am completely wiped by the end of them. I’ll post a day in the life post soon. Pumping while working is also a challenge, despite having a supportive work environment. At times it feels like the worst of both worlds- I’m away from Cooper more than I want to be, and yet I’m still not working enough to make much money. I do recognize though that I am lucky that I don’t have to work full time, like many people do.

Body: I’m actually below my pre-pregnancy weight and have been since about a month post-partum. This just happened naturally and I didn’t feel any pressure that I had to “get my body back.” It was relatively easy because I didn’t gain much weight while pregnant (because I was sick for so long). The extra calories from breastfeeding definitely help too! However everything on my body seems to have shifted, so none of my old clothes fit quite right! My sweet tooth also came roaring back with a vengeance as soon as I delivered. I was hoping I could continue the better eating habits I developed when pregnant (fewer sweets and smaller portions), but I have not. Whomp. Oh well- my days are very long and having a bowl (or 2) of ice cream at the end of the day is not the worst thing.

Running: I ran my first races this month (a 5 miler and 10) and was very happy with my times. I’m back to my pre-pregnancy running, if not faster, thanks to weighing less and gaining some fitness from running with the stroller. Given that I’m really tempted to sign up for a fall half marathon to see if I can break 2 hours. However, I just don’t know if I can devote the time to it that I need. My husband and I work alternate schedules, so I either am working or have the baby. Fitting 2 + hr training runs into that schedule is going to be nearly impossible and I don’t think it is fair to the baby to stick him in the stroller for that long. I keep vacillating and probably will continue to do so until it is winter and too late (way to put off making decisions).

Also Sushi would like me to remind you that she still exists and that since she is now horribly neglected, you should feel bad for her and send treats.

Baby is up for his nap so bye for now!

Beach to Beacon 2017

I ran another race! Two blogs posts and two races in 8 days? It’s almost like I’m back to being a runner blogger!

Elite Women! I heart Shalene

So my second race post baby couldn’t have been more different than my first. Peak’s Island is a low key, small race while Beach to Beacon is a major event. For those of you not familiar with the race, The Beacon to Beacon 10k was founded by Joan Benoit Samuelson (the1984 Olympic marathon gold medalist) who wanted to bring world class running to her home state. This year’s race had more than 7,000 runners and featured elite runners Mary Keitany (who set a new women’s record at the London Marathon), Shalene Flanagan, Abdi Abdirahman, Stephen Kosgei Kibet. It is pretty amazing to have these world class runners just minutes from my house!

nice guys at the bike valet

The race totally takes over the small town of Cape Elizabeth for the weekend. I was hoping to beat the crowds by heading to the expo as soon as it opened at 4 pm on Thursday, but apparently a lot of people had the same idea! Luckily, it is incredibly well organized so I still had my bib and shirt within just a few minutes. I had planned to stay and browse the expo a bit, but it was really hot and I had a sweaty baby strapped to my chest. So I just said a quick hello to the ladies at the Spandits booth and then headed home.

bathroom line selfie

Race morning is a little more complicated with a baby, especially since I’m still breastfeeding. I have to either feed him or pump as close to the start of the race as possible, which in this race was a good 2 hours before the race started. With a point to point race in a small town, traffic on race morning is also an issue. Luckily, the Bicycle Coalition of Maine started offering a bike valet service a few years ago. This is absolutely the way to go! I had a nice 3.5 mile bike ride warm-up to Fort Williams Park, checked my bike in, and then hopped on a shuttle bus to the start. It was so easy and stress free! 

My one complaint about this race is that there are never enough porta-potties! Knowing this, I skipped my pre-race coffee in favor of a straight up caffeine pill (#hardcore). So I only had to wait in the long bathroom lines once. Then I found my husband who was working, providing security at the start, and then headed to the corals.

I was not exactly raring to go. I’d barely slept the night before and had also made the mistake of doing a million deadlifts on Thursday so my legs were super sore. So I decided to just go out at a pace that felt comfortable and see what happened.  Once I got running, the energy of the crowds and the other runners definitely helped motivate me, but I never felt the surge of energy and motivation I felt during the Peak’s Island race. It was also incredibly humid, I felt like I was running through a cloud. The first couple miles are mostly flat, with couple gradual downhills, then the next 2 miles are a gradual uphill followed a big downhill and then steep rolling hills in the final 2 miles.

The Beach to Bacon sign on one of the final hills always makes me laugh. Probably the only time in my life I say no to free bacon.

I just kept running at a comfortably hard effort, only checking my pace at the mile markers, and not stressing about my pace. As I clicked off the first couple miles I realized I was on pace to finish in under 54 minutes so I made that my goal. I actually ended up way under that: 51:40- a 8:19 pace. I’ll take it!

The beacon behind the finish line

creeping on the elites at the finish- that's Deena Kastor in black!

I got my medal, took a finish picture, and then booked it to the Dunkin Donuts tent! After skipping my morning coffee, I had a major craving! Iced coffee in hand, I headed through the food tent and then ate my blueberry bagel, blueberries, and watermelon. There are a lot of fun things to do after the race, but I skipped them this year because it had been 4 hours since I pumped and I was getting uncomfortable. Plus I missed my baby!

Thanks to the bike valet I was home in less than 15 minutes- unlike all the other people stuck in traffic in their cars! After a second strong race performance I think it is safe to say I'm officially back in shape after having a baby. Now what?

Peak's Island 5 Miler 2017

Well hi there! I'm still alive, and I even ran a race! I've done the Peak's Island 5 Miler for the past 7 or 8 years so I figured it would be a good first post-partum race.

The race takes place on Peak's Island, which is a short ferry ride from the Casco Bay Ferry Terminal in Portland. But even that short boat ride makes the whole day feel like a little vacation. Although the race is at 10:30, we always take the 8:30 boat (which they add just for race day). This year I went with my friends Brad and Dana, and then my sister and a friend also decided to come at the last minute. It was going to be Cooper's first race too, but since my husband got a (minor) injury at work Thursday night he was able to be home with Cooper. I missed my baby, but travelling solo is definitely easier!



Packet pick-up is just a short walk from where the ferry docks. And although the race has grown a lot since I started running it, we still had our packets within minutes. The best part of the pre-race experience this year is that my friend's boyfriend has a house on Peak's so we had our own private bathroom to use while we waited for the start. Where was that last year when I was pregnant?!

Since it was my first race since having a baby in January I really didn't know what to expect in terms of performance. I have been doing some speed work, but I also haven't been putting a lot of pressure on myself in terms of running. And of course I managed to cut open the bottom of my foot 2 days before the race! I decided to wear my Garmin, but not to have my pace on the screen, so I wouldn't be constantly checking it. I ran by feel and let myself check my pace each mile.

Going in I kind of wondered if I was done with racing for awhile. It seemed like so much work and I didn't know if I wanted the pressure. But once the race started I was so happy to be racing. It was so nice to be surrounded by runners and spectators and I really enjoyed the feeling of pushing myself (and not pushing a stroller haha).

The first 2 miles of the race are my favorite. There is a nice downhill and the course runs along the back of the island. There is always a nice sea breeze and the views are amazing. This race is often really hot, but this year it was only in the 70's (yeah!!).



The only hills are between miles 2 and 4 and I had given myself permission in advance to walk if I needed to. But I didn't need too! I still felt strong. I saw my sister during a section where the course doubles back and seeing her as third woman gave me a boost of energy. The 5 miles flew by and the race was over before I knew it. As I got close to the finish I realized I could be close to a 40 minute finish, so that became my new goal. My official time was 40:30, which is a 8:09 pace. They didn't do chip time this year (which I swear they have done in past years). I was so happy with that!

After I finished I found my sister and then we waited for Brad to finish. Then we headed straight for the free beer. Does anything taste better than a ice cold beer after a hot run?

After we enjoyed our beer, we headed over to the Peak's Island Inn for lunch and then headed home. My race back was definitely a success- which is good because I am doing another race this weekend!