Another week of running complete… I said I wanted to run between 13 and 15 miles and I managed 13.05 miles. Go me!

Friday I ran outside with Ashley, which was both my first run outside and my first run outside. And of course we picked the day with with negative degree windchill…which is why it was a relatively short run (2.45 miles). We’re going to choose our running dates more wisely next time.

Tuesday’s run was more of an interval run to introduce some speed work to my runs. I can’t wait for some track workouts in the future! But this week I’ll do another interval run that will hopefully last a little longer this time.

I originally wasn’t going to run today because of how exhausted the ER situation was, but Lucy was apparently exhausted too and slept through the night last night!! Of course I didn’t (I woke up and checked on her twice), but I intend to run a very easy run during the Super Bowl because I am that interested in it this year. Seriously it’s a nightmare match up for a Steelers’ fan, right? But I guess I’ll go with the lesser of two evil and root for the 49ers. I think I’d rather them tie the Steelers’ championship record than see Ray Lewis and the Ravens win. Ugh.

Happy Super Bowl day to all of you non-Ravens fans!

Many of you heard that we took Lucy to the hospital last night and have been praying for her and now are wondering  what happened. Well, here’s a quick post to bring you all up to speed on the situation.

Last night, while I was nursing Lucy, she stopped breathing and I had a hard time getting her to breathe again. In reality, what may have been about 10 seconds, seemed like an eternity.

There have been plenty of moments since she has been born where it seemed like she choked on some milk. I would just pat her back and she’d gasp and be fine (some of you probably think I’m a horrible mother, but I assure you, it was never anything very startling. She’s a baby and she’s eating, of course she’ll have those moments).

Well, last night it was clear that this was something to look into and Dave and I took her to Children’s hospital where they ran an EKG and did chest x-rays, all of which were completely normal. However, I am so thankful for the ER doctor who said that, in spite of the normal tests, wanted to admit her for monitoring because “anything that makes a mom look like you do is worth investigating.” Yea, I was clearly that panicked, and if you know me, you know that I’m a laid back mom and it’s hard to rattle me. They classified it as an “Apparent Life Threatening Incident” and admitted her.

So after some hours of monitoring, there is no official diagnosis however, the doctors feel that she has reflux that, while nursing, irritates her esophagus, which in turn causes her airway to close to protect her lungs from any milk or vomit that may enter. It’s actually her body’s defense mechanism against a larger problem and self corrects after a few seconds. So while completely terrifying, it’s relatively normal. Actually, the one pediatrician watched me nurse her and saw a mild episode of it, which was reassuring. As of right now they won’t medicate her for it unless it starts to interfere with her nursing and she stops gaining weight. They told me warning signs to look for and told me what to do if the time arises and I am feeling much better about the whole situation.

So 12 hours later, we’re home! We were up for over 24 hours and Lucy let us nap this afternoon (what an awesome baby!). So we’re feeling much better.

Thank you all for praying for Lucy, David and me. We are so appreciative of it and see God’s graciousness to us in this. My family, in particular, was so great at encouraging us and I wanted to share some of the passages that they shared with us:

“Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for His steadfast love endures forever; to Him who along does great wonders, for His steadfast love. ” Ps. 136:3-4

“Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7

“But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. I cried aloud to the Lord and He me from His holy hill. Selah. I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me.” Ps. 3:3-5

P.S. Happy 8 weeks to Lucy! Sorry you had to spend part of the day in the hospital strapped to monitors. You’re a trooper!

“No really, mom, I’m ok. Calm down.”

Howdy!

I did it! One week of running down. I told myself that I’d like to run a total of 10 miles and I ended with 11.25 miles.

I’m pretty pleased with myself. I ran them all between a 9 and 10 minute mile, which is slow for the pre-preggo Abby, but post-preggo Abby found it challenging. However, the hardest part of staying at home is developing a routine to stay productive (I have a newfound obsession with “productivity”). I think that the best daily schedule I have found is to get up with Lucy (7-730ish), nurse her, run, shower, nurse… so by 10 or 11, I am ready for the day and can clean and tackle my to-do list.

So, this week I’m aiming for 13-15 miles. And I’m telling you that so that I do it, because we all know I follow through with everything I put on this blog.

That’s sarcasm, friends.

I have a hard time finishing everything except for dessert. I can always finish dessert.

Also, I want to add that I’m more concerned with regaining my speed than adding distance to my runs. I miss my long runs, but I’d rather get my speed back up to where it was before trying to add long runs. I think in the next week or so some of my treadmill runs will become workouts to help with that. For now, I’m just getting my legs back!

Abby-out.

It’s a hockey night in Pittsburgh! Lucy’s excited!

Sorry about that. She’s just so cute, I had to share.

Want to know the most terrifying thing? Lucy went 6 and 1/2 hours between feedings last night. I woke up and thought she had died. Thankfully, she hadn’t and after she ate, she slept another 5 and 1/2 hours. I felt so rested that today I made chili, cornbread, cookies and doughnuts. Plus I exercised, cleaned and even had time to shower. It’s amazing what a little extra sleep will do.

Also juice. I have to mention that I’m loving my juicer. Currently, my favorite is grapefruit, carrot and ginger. But this morning I had a celery, apple, lemon and spinach one that was delicious! And very green. So it has to be healthy. Just like St. Patty’s day. It’s healthy because it’s green.

And while I’m rambling about things in my kitchen, I took inventory of some things in my cupboard, and I have a lot of “mini” pans: mini muffin pan, mini doughnut pan, mini bundt pan…why the heck do I have a mini bundt pan? Who even eats mini bundts? Am I even spelling that correctly because my Macbook says I’m not? Maybe it just doesn’t know what a bundt is either. That squiggly red line is just its way of emphasizing how ridiculous that purchase really was.

I was going to come here and blog about setting a routine for myself now that I’m not working and about how hard it is. But my brain power has been wasted on mini bundts and the pans in which they bake. So I’ll save that for later.

In the meantime, can someone give me a recipe for mini bundts and an explanation of what they are? Thanks.

P.S. See that birthmark on Lucy’s forehead? She gets it from her mom. The doctor told my mom it’d be gone by the time I was 6 months old. Guess what? I still have it. Sorry, Lucy. I’ll also pass along my mini bundt pan to you if you’d like it.

To run again!  SO HAPPY. I celebrated with ~2.6 miles on the treadmill. My pace was pretty slow and I walked at the very end, but I am SO thrilled to be running again!

When I talk to people and say that I can’t wait to be running again, I usually get a comment about how I shouldn’t pressure myself to lose the baby weight. Well, as annoying as baby weight can be, my desire to run has nothing to do with weight and everything to do with how much I love to run. I think it takes a fellow runner to understand where I’m coming from.

I’m going to keep track of my miles this year on GarminConnect. If you’re on there, look me up. My display name is “AbbyJo” and I really have no idea how to use the system. I was logging a lot of workouts last year, and it’s easy with a Garmin. But it took me a good 30 minutes last night to figure out how to record a run manually. I’d say that Lucy is making me stupid, but the truth is that I would have had trouble with it a year ago too.

Also Ashley and I plan on breaking our “together running” fast on Saturday with a very slow (and probably short) run. I missed my running partner! We did go see Les Mis together last Saturday, but that’s just not the same.

In other news, Lu and I both have very stubborn stuffy noses. Mine’s a little runny with a sore throat actually and I’m just waiting for it to become a full blown cold.  However, I decided to be proactive in my health and well being and I bought a Breville  Compact Juicer last week and I’m currently enjoying a grapefruit-apple-lemon-spinach-carrot-ginger juice. DELICIOUS. Why didn’t I buy one of these things sooner–like when I had an income?

And that’s about it for today. Stay tuned for more mindless and numbing posts about pretty much nothing at all.