True Gamers Don’t Quit They Respawn

I haven’t written an entry since FEBRUARY!  I know you all believe it because I go through fits and spurts of blogging and doing really well with a set schedule and then just fall away without warning.  Well, here I am for the latest spurt of fitness blogging!  Little Elfkin is 9 months old now and *so* adventurous.  She loves her Mama and Daddy but she also wants to explore any and everything in her little world.  She has been helping pull weeds, enjoys the swingset at the park, and has boundless energy.  She isn’t quite independently mobile yet, but when she is, you can bet that we’ll be on our toes.  She’s my inspiration for getting fit again.  She’s been my excuse, but now that she’s gotten so much bigger, I know that I really need to focus on getting stronger so that the day I set her down and never pick her back up again is as far away as possible.  Ahem!  I’m not crying, you’re crying! Moving on.. 

I’m going to be following NerdFitness guidelines for mindset, nutrition, and quests, but I have group classes available to me at work too.  I went to bootcamp on Monday and only made it through about half the class before getting completely winded, sore, and super-duper sweaty.  I said I’d be back on Tuesday for the next group class, but here it’s Friday and I haven’t gotten away from my desk for any amount of time that matters.  I’m so *busy* that I just don’t feel like there’s time to go.  I got stuck in meetings over the time that the group class was offered, but then I didn’t make up for it after-the-fact either.  Instead, I went to a happy hour with my colleagues where I ate chips and drank beer.

I need to revisit the mindset module to document the Big Why in an official format, and I need to figure out what my first challenge is going to encompass.  I cannot just hit the ground running and expect to be where I was back in 2012 by next week.  3 words: Not gonna happen.  There are changes I can make though, that will make a huge difference in my health and wellness, so I need to explore what changes I can make NOW that will help lead me towards the end-game.

Coming up on Saturday–The Weigh In and the Big Why.

New Mom Injury – What a Pain In The Neck

Parenthood is filled with all sorts of new movements that were definitely not in my repertoire before having our little girl.  Daily lunges, for example, and trying to make sure I’m alternating legs when I go to change her diaper at the coffee table.  Don’t judge–it’s a 2 story house and I don’t always want to lug a soiled baby up the stairs.  Then there’s the lifting and twisting to get her out of her cradle and comfort her when I’m lying in bed more asleep than awake but willing my sluggish limbs to just move.  Then there’s the bouncing, cradling, constant hand washing, limbs-falling-asleep-snuggling, and must-sleep-on-your-back-because-otherwise-the-baby-won’t-sleep type moves.

I’m good with all of them.  I’ve been doing really well at this whole “stay-at-home-mom” thing.  Until this morning..

It’s been usual and customary for me to hold our little Elfkin against my shoulder while I carry her around.  She’s not quite big enough to sit on my ample, child-bearing, hips–and she seems heavier when I cradle her with my whole arm, so I let her perch on my forearm and look at the world over my shoulder while I get things set and we go about our day.  This is how she sits when I’m getting things started for the day, when I’m consoling her in the afternoon, and when we’re heading up to bed.  Basically–I’ve had 11 weeks of holding her in this position and thought I had it down pat. So it’s not unusual that I was holding her that way this morning.  I had her clothes picked out and clutched in the hand that held her, her pacifier in my teeth, and was just about to go downstairs to get her bottle ready when I remembered my cell phone.  It was under my pillow because we had one of those nights where she slept on my chest… [Sidebar: she slept there for half the night because she fell asleep in a cloth diaper that completely failed to keep her wetness contained and I need to wash her cradle.]

MOVING ON.

I leaned over the bed, holding the Elfkin with my chin/cheek–as I had learned to do–when suddenly CRACK! ooooohhhhhh something was wrong.  Something was very very wrong.  Apparently the small, rather delicate vertebrae that hold up my head are not meant to also support this growing girl now that she’s 12+ lbs!  Thankfully, it was the pain of acute injury and not the burning pain of broken bones. 😉

Now, I haven’t been to the chiropractor in over a year.  There’s nothing, though, more motivating in finding a doctor or chiropractor than your body screaming at you “you done f****d up.”  After giving Evelyn her bottle, and realizing just how badly it hurt to look down, left, right, or really anywhere but straight ahead, I started seeking a new chiropractor.

This brought back all sorts of nostalgia for my old chiropractor.  I miss him all the time and wish he were around.  I could just imagine him admonishing me for being so careless with myself.  This is a completely avoidable injury.

The new Chiropractor seems effective.  He saw me right away this morning and the girls at the reception desk took care of my little girl.  She rewarded them with all sorts of smiles and I came back to find her asleep in the woman’s arms. Meanwhile, I got an x-ray and scans, had an adjustment–my bones were all too ready to move! They were cracking just by breathing–then they did even MORE.  I was treated to a massage, electromuscular stimulation, and vibration therapy.

The DC had another adjustment and some home exercises that he wanted to recommend, but I was in too much pain and he didn’t want to do too much too soon.  I’ll be going back on Friday, so hopefully, fingers crossed, I start feeling better.

Lesson learned, though: when moving with the little one, have a care and move with intent! I’ll be keeping my core engaged and using my legs to lift her.  I’ll be using proper squatting form/technique to lift her car seat in and out of the vehicle, and I’ll be downing much more water…

We found our village

While I’m not familiar with the origin of the proverb, I’m wholly in agreement that it certainly does take a village to raise a child.  In this day and age of internet-connectedness where our closes friends could be hundreds of miles away, I feared that our village would be rather small indeed.  I have been pleasantly surprised, though, at just how large our village can be.  My close friends and family know who they are and so I’ve taken away a few paragraphs where I named names and deeds from our friends and family who have helped us with our little elfkin. The appreciation still blossoms when I think of how they’ve helped and the lessons they’ve taught us. I was most interested, though, in writing about finding unexpected people in the village that helps us to raise our child.

I was surprised the most to find that we had a village even in the strangers in our neighborhood.  Little old ladies smile with eyes twinkling and offer helpful information–where the restrooms are at the grocery store.  Other moms come congratulate me on my little one, tell me how beautiful she is, and reassure me that I’m the only one bothered by her wails of dismay in the middle of Toys R Us.  The librarian at our local branch showed me how I can put the entire stack of books on the check out all at once instead of having to scan each bar code–a real lifesaver when you’re on the count down to a melt down because it’s almost meal time.  The woman at the coffee shop who admired us as a tag-team, out on the town running errands–and who kept an eye on her while I got cream for my coffee just 5 feet away.  Yes–gasp–I let a stranger keep an eye on her for just a moment.  When I returned with my cup of coffee, we talked, the woman and I, about babies, schooling, and the variances in different Montessori schools.

It was then that I sort of realized that these strangers are the village that it takes to raise a child.  Without these people I’d be, for example, running out of a store at top speed the moment our little one’s face crumples.  I’d be stuck going no further than 5 miles from home so that I knew I could be home to change her diaper or give her more food when the time ticked down.  I’d be unable to take the time to run the errands necessary to keep the household running smoothly…

At first, the attention made me shrink.  I like attention, yes, but on my terms, not someone else’s.  But then, as the hints proved helpful, and the smiles proved warm and genuine, I began to enjoy being a part of this village and taking the opportunity to make life easier by listening.

There’s more to be said about this, but she’s calling me now.  In summary–I’m thankful for our neighborhood, our neighbors, and the kind smiles from strangers in the world.  When given the opportunity, be that kind person who lends a helping hand or understanding smile.  I think it makes the world a much better place. ❤

Happy Thanksgiving.

Roasted Chicken with Lemon and Rosemary

Please forgive any typos, I’m sure to go back and fix them, but this blog is being written from my phone while the Little Miss sleeps on me.

Things I’ve learned in 1 Month as a New Parent

“Sleep when the baby sleeps” is easier said than done.  Old habits die hard.

“Blowouts” are just as much fun as they sound… Bonus–did you know that infant outfits are designed to be able to pull down over the child’s body instead of over their head? It really helps..https://youtu.be/rrISmbf8LBM

Swaddles are a miracle invention.  Nothing says ‘calm down and go to sleep’ to my BabyGirl quite like being confined 😛

Formula is a God-Send.  My girl wasn’t getting enough food to thrive, so we’ve been supplementing–now she’s healthy, alert, curious, and gaining weight on target with recommendations from the pediatrician.

Daddies do things differently–and that’s okay.  Jeff swaddles, changes, dresses, plays, snuggles, and burps BabyGirl differently than I do.

There are more hours in the day than ever before–and yet fewer of them can be used for house work.  The house work will wait.  Baby snuggles are important.

A month flies by faster than ever possible.

8pm is a really reasonable bed time.

Waking a sleeping baby is actually really adorable.  If you get them before they get you, you get to feed them, change them, and snuggle them before they realize they need it.  If they wake up before you? Hoo boy.. hope you like your ear drums.

It’s worth it. Everything that “it” represents–from the pain of birth, injury, changes to bodily functions, exhaustion, mood-swings, fear, worry, the lot of it.  It all pales in comparison with the gratitude felt at being able to be a parent.

Introducing our Baby Girl

Yay! My Facebook friends are already aware, but it’s time to let my readership know that Baby Girl has arrived!  The following is the story of labor, delivery, and the first few days at home with our little one.

Wibbly Wobbly

The Doctor:  People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint – it’s more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly… time-y wimey… stuff.

[spoiler] If you are sensitive to the subject of miscarriage, for your own sake, read no further.

Gotta dash. Things happening. Well, four things. Well, four things and a lizard.

And then there’s me: seeking fitness friendship

It may just be the exhaustion talking, but I almost feel like giving up on the Facebook page AND the photo tracker. I’d also be “giving up” on my fitness group on Facebook, and instead start thinking of it like a secret group of occasionally fitness minded friends instead. We’ve all been friends online for so long that we share all of our secrets there. Love, life, even.. You know.

The secret group has about 9 “active” members–a couple are so busy they don’t really post too often. Of those nine, 5 are growing their families, so it’s less about fitness these days than it is about life.

And then there’s me. I love these girls and they’re great to be around. I love being involved, and I’ll appreciate their support when my husband and I start our family, but that’s so far away. What do I do in the mean time? I need a fitness support group. Should I join spark people and blog there again?

Are there other online support groups (preferably on Facebook) that I could join?

I’m mulling these questions over while I get ready for work. Hopefully this will clear up by new year–especially with people getting a renewed fitness inspiration.

If you have ideas, share them in the comments below 🙂

Feeling so lucky!

My goodness… Out of respect for my friend’s privacy, I’ll not be posting photos here, but I am seriously on cloud nine after visiting my good friend and her new baby.  She is so happy and her baby is so bubbly… I just couldn’t be happier for them 🙂 I love her system of baby care, too!  The table in her living room is all set up with a station for warming the wipes, a pile of cloth diapers at-the-ready, a wicker basket of extra diaper covers, etc.  and on the other side of the couch–a lined hamper to keep the soiled cloth diapers in.  The fabric burp cloth that she has is embellished with a fabric with a ‘monsters’ cartoon theme to it that just adds to the child-like whimsy.  AH! Love.

*Ahem*

Please excuse my reverie 😉

Besides having awesome friends, I also feel very lucky to be getting back into personal training.  Raise your hand if you remember me talking about the Warrior Dash… anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Yeah, me too.  I kept telling myself that it was so far away and that I still had time, but here we are on the cusp of summer and the dash is just 4 weeks away.  I will be the first to admit that I. Am. Not. Ready.  Oi.  I am waffling about whether or not to even go, but I think that I just need to solidify in my mind that it is an event, and my life–both fitness and non-fitness related–with go on regardless of my performance.  Besides, the whole point is that it’s a *party* with an obstacle course thrown in.  I am sure I will psych myself up for it before the big day comes 🙂

Yesterday was day one of personal training with Emily, my new trainer.  Ramon is still a great friend and fitness trainer, but I got burned out.  I think that Emily just might get where I’m coming from and I feel like she can help me get to where I want to go.  She is big into form and function and so my first session was just getting the basics down so that she could see how I move.  We did things like Farmer’s Carry/Walk, static lunges, over-head presses, cable pulls, and squats.  The thing that I liked the most is that the warm up involved flexing muscles and moving joints that would actually be challenged in the strength training workout.  I have had injuries in the past, and she kept that in mind during the warm up and paid special attention to making sure that my previously-damaged-joints were limber and ready to work.

I think the thing that I am most excited about is that my session with Emily was spur-of-the-moment and inspired Jeff to start personal training too.  I didn’t have my workout clothes with me when I talked to her in the afternoon, but I was able to call Jeff and ask him to bring them to me.  Taking the opportunity for himself, he chatted with Emily about setting up some personal training for himself.  She is on the ball and didn’t waste any time.  I had talked to her at about 1pm that afternoon and she had a goal sheet and routine ready for me by 5:30pm.  Jeff talked to her at 5:30pm and she had a goal sheet and routine ready for him by 9:30am this morning.  Now, since she is officially training both of us, she put together a couple’s work out that we may be able to try this weekend.

I am really excited ❤