2013: A Year In Review

This past year has been an interesting one to say the least. My aunt says that the calendar should take a hint from hotels and omit the 13th year. It just doesn't always go right. At least my 2013 is ending on a high note!

My year began with the common, I MUST LOSE WEIGHT, mantra that all new years for most women contain. I worked with my doctor on a natural but very reduced caloric diet intake while taking medicine to help aid in the weight loss. I did lose the weight but SURPRISE, we got pregnant in March, found out April 1. Then all heck broke loose. Things weren't going well. Not even from the start. Matt was out of town the whole time I was pregnant. I had to go to the doc every couple of days for blood work and check-ups. Stress upon stress built! As did my waist line as I had many celebration and sympathy ice cream outings. All the weight I had lost at the beginning of the year was back, and it put me back at my weight from the 1st time I really lost a ton of weight back in 2010-2011.

May rolls around along with my miscarriage and the next day the arrival of Mother's Day and my husband who was hauling butt driving cross country to be with me, after his military training was done. I was in the dumps. I had low self confidence. My faith in Heavenly Father was altered. I thought for sure that it was our miracle. But nope miscarriage #2 in a row. And I had gained 15 lbs quickly and felt bad in that arena. I talked with some friends who told us about a great gym that provides day care, 2.5 hours worth a day. Membership was steeper than we like but the day care provided was the sweet note! So I enrolled in THE BIGGEST GYM I have ever been in. It has everything. Classes, track, weights, cardio, spa the works! I love it.

And I wanted/needed to get back into running. So I signed up for my first 5k. No more excuses. That was my new mantra! I put running races off for years. I thought I was too fat. Too slow. I don't have the running body type. But I have learned, it doesn't matter what you look like, or how slow you go. It is that you finish! Every time I cross that finish line, I cry because I am doing something I never thought I could do. And I don't care if I am the last one to cross. I am honored to cross that line!

I trained with amazing ladies for the women's 4 miler race! Made new friends, kept old ones from prior races. Fell in love with running again. Then BAM! SURPRISE, really, really surprise, cause we weren't "trying". PREGNANT AGAIN! But this time it sticks. My mantra, no excuses stuck in my mind. If the pregnancy is meant to be than I can still run. No excuse to stop running just cause I am pregnant. So run I did, and have! I have run in 5 races this year. 2 5k's, 1 4 miler, 1 10k, and 1 8k. I feel great about myself!

So now the end of the year, I am 20 weeks pregnant, almost 21 weeks. Still running. Still taking care of myself. And so happy with where this year has brought me. I am glad the year is over though, cause it was a rocky first half of the year but hey I survived. Now on to 2014 Where we will meet our new child, I will run more races and learn to run faster and better! I am so happy!

Prepping for Labor

This one goes out to the expecting momma's out there! Lately I have had ladies asking me how do I prepare for a medication free labor. I already talked about hypnobirthing, and that is one way, but seriously. How to prepare for labor??? It is hard to be completely prepared for it. And every labor is different. Women who find out that I birthed Mason without meds look at me like I am crazy or are in awe.

Some women want to try medication free. Some women know they want an epidural. Some women know they want to or have to have a c-secion. But if you are on the fence about wanting to try medication free first, good for you! Why not try experiencing the most painful experience in your entire life. We as women are blessed with the honor of experiencing child birth and all the pleasant and unpleasant aspects of it. One way or another that child is coming out, right? I often tell women if you want to try medication free, do it. Try it. But! You need to mentally prepare yourself for the what-if's.

I wanted med free birth. That was my plan. But I accepted that if I couldn't handle it and I needed help or sleep than yes, I would have gotten an epidural. A 17 hour labor is a long time without rest or sleep. Sometimes an epidural is just what is needed to let you sleep and BAM you are ready to have a baby. I also accepted the fact that if I had to have intervention then that is what needed to be done. I hoped I didn't need intervention or a c-section and glad that I didn't but I was ok if I needed it.

~Think about the kind of birth you want. Hearing or watching birth stories can get overwhelming. I watched TLC's A Baby story all the time while pregnant with Mace, and at about 30 weeks I couldn't handle it anymore. It freaked me out. I started to have doubts if I could actually do a med free birth.

~Prepare for the worst. I won't give birth at home. I will give birth in a hospital. For the Just in case! I am thankful for the medical advances we have available to us today. I know plenty of women that, without medical advancements to help with their labors they would have not made it through.

~Educate yourself on how labors go, what interventions can be used. Know what they are before so that if you have to have them you won't be scared, too much. Take a birthing class. Meet with professionals about it. Educate yourself on all the various drugs they can give you, pitocin, cydotec or anything else.

~Know your limits. Know at what point you are willing to say, GIVE ME THE DRUGS! I had a line in my mind and I never got close to it. I was weird per my doula. Usually during transition the mother starts saying, "I can't do this." or a variation similar to that. That is one sign that they are close to being near the pushing phase. Transition is hard, and fast. I never asked for anything. Never questioned my ability to keep going without meds. Merrie said that was weird. I am sure if it got a ton worse than I would have been asking and I knew my line. Just never crossed it.

~Make a birth plan. Come prepared to the hospital. If you are ready to go on things and everything is in your own wording you will feel better about it. Oh and talk to your doc before labor about what you want. Make sure they are on the same board as you and how they respond to different situations. My doc, totally open to unmedicated births, but not open about alternate birthing positions, (squating, all 4 or kneeling I will be having a talk with him about that when I get closer BTW!)

~Second time is not the same as the first. I have heard and read this. It will be faster or it will go completely different that the first. I am scared for that fact and still trying to prepare myself. Even though I have done an unmedicated birth for my son, I am still preparing these same ways for this next one because who knows what might happen. Just cause I did it once doesn't automatically guarantee that I can do it again!

QOTD: Do you read birthing stories or watch birth shows to help you prepare? Have they freaked you out too?

Merry And Bright!

Sorry about yesterday folks! It has been hard few days around here. Kid was/is sick, now I'm sick oh and Daddy is sick too, but I still sent him to work. It is so hard having a 2 year old be sick. He doesn't understand what is going on with him or why I have to give him medicine or why we have to hold an inhaler to his mouth. We ended up going to the Doc office on Monday for Mason. He has a pretty serious cold. He was wheezing all weekend and took him in and he had to do this steam medicine for 10 minutes. WORST 10 MINUTES! I had to hold him down and just deal with the screaming, bitting, scratching, and kicking.

Now I have been knocked down with this thing he has and I can't take a darn thing for it. Having a bad cold and no remedy really stinks! So yesterday I was dealing with him while I was sick. What I don't understand is that when I was pregnant with Mace, I never got sick. Not once. This kid the entire month of December I have been sick. ARGH!

Anyhew, on to Christmas. Matt and I were asked by Santa's elves to finish assembling a wonderful gift for the goomer! We spend 2 nights putting it together and Christmas Eve we finished super gluing all the pieces down. You will see in a bit what it is!

We started with these yummy cinnamon rolls for the morning breakfast, but it ended up being more midmorning before we ate them because they took a little longer than I thought they would. I used Paula Deen's recipe and they were really good. I ended up giving most away to the neighbors for Christmas! It was my first time making homemade cinnamon rolls, ever. So I think I did pretty well!

Mason took a little bit to wake up and not freak out about the gifts under the tree. He didn't want anything to do with opening the gifts until about 10 or so. Some were even later so we just listened to what he wanted. But it definitely wasn't the picture perfect Christmas morning we all think about with children. He cried when he woke up, cried coming down the stairs, threw a wrapped gift we were trying to get him to open and just cried. Like I said around 10 though he started to calm down enough and unwrap some gifts, including some cars which he loved.

The big surprise was in the basement though and once he opened up that sucker he was hooked! HE LOVES his new Cars Land table. We glued the track down completely so that it stayed a track. We know our son and it would have been destroyed in 5 seconds had we not. BEST DECISION EVER! If the super glue ever fails, then we will screw down the pieces but we wanted to start simple with the glue and it seems to be working after 2 full days of playing on it. The rest of the day we just hung out and played, watched TV. Let Mason rest, I rested. Oh I did make my mom's beef stroganoff for lunch and IT HIT THE SPOT! It was so yummy. My husband doesn't like it, and continued to eat the tamales we got for our Christmas Eve dinner. But after the drama of gifts were done we just hung out as a family watching Christmas movies and playing with Mason's new table!

 ~Daddy and Mason working on mommy's fav Christmas Drink.~

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas day today! We had fun here, there was plenty of screaming, sniffling and coughing going on in the house. But we survived and by the end of the day, with the help of medication to the kid, we were all happy and cuddly. I will post more tomorrow about our adventurous day today!

December-Week 3 Workout Re-Cap

Last week was a great week for me in the working out department! I really did well and am super proud of myself. I pushed myself but not too hard. I listened to my body (until Sat.) and I think we both did more than we thought. (My body and me)

Mon: 2 mile walk-17 min mile- super slow to get back into moving
Tues: 3 mile run/jog - 14:42 pace
Wed: Pilates stretching 20 min DVD
Thurs: 2 mile run- Interval walk @ 3.7 with 5.0 run on treadmill (2:30 sec)-15:09 pace
1 hour prenatal yoga class
Friday: 1 mile run/jog- Interval walk 3.8 with 5.0 run (2:1)-14:00 pace
Saturday: 5.5 mile run/walk-15:06 pace (first time I got hip pain going uphill.)

13.5 miles!

Spoke to my running coach for the training program I am in and he gave me a schedule to follow to help me get ready for the 1/2. My long runs are just getting longer from here on out.

I am doing much better today and yesterday after downing a ton of water. I have learned my lesson. More water! I now carry around a 32 ounce bottle with me and my daily goal is 4+ of them. It is a ton of water! I will also be running with my water bottle and a camelback on my long runs and when I get home, gatorade and more water, even if I don't feel like drinking anything.

Busy Being Mommy

The last couple of days have been something to say the least! I didn't drink enough water after my long run on Saturday and on Sunday I was dehydrated. I had a hard time eating and drinking and if it got worse I might have had to go in to see the ER. But I worked through it and I am much better now. I have learned my lesson. MORE WATER!

Also the kid has been sick too. That kind of took precedent over my sickness too. He slept in bed with me and was my little minion with a fart gun in my face all night! (see Despicable Me 2 if you don't know what I am talking about!) Went to the doctor today and he is on an inhaler until the cough clears and another medication for his cough/mucus. No ear infections though! THAT IS GOOD NEWS! Thankfully he has his appetite back, he just put 2 handfuls of Chic-fil-a fries on my lap for me to hold him. YUMMO! Anyhew today I have been just busy being a mommy. Taking care of my sick body and my sick son! I will get back to posting tomorrow though for your reading pleasure! Thanks for sticking around!

How Much Recovery?

(Mason decided not to nap in his room during Mommy quiet time and later passed out on the dog.)

Are you in the mood for a nice healthy meal after you run? Or do you like to just rest while stretching. Or how about a nice nap to help get your body feeling like it is back to normal. Ever since I got pregnant I have felt that I NEEDED a mid day nap just to be able to function during the later end of the day. Add in exercise on top of pregnancy, I will literally crash at about 5 if I don't get a rest/nap. The big key is to listen to your body. It will tell you what it needs. 

This week on Tuesday, I did my first run since Thanksgiving. Like actual, pushing myself run. Mace didn't want to nap later in the afternoon. I went straight during the day without a single rest. Then I had to teach, make dinner, family time, and put the kid down. At 8pm my body just crashed, and crashed HARD! I could hardly stand up. Matt had to help me up to bed and once my head hit the pillow I was out, until my dad called about an hour later. I learned my lesson. I know that I need to rest, I have to rest. I am pregnant. I am also putting my body through rigorous exercise while pregnant which means I require more recovery time. It is what it is. 

So now I know. I know that on long runs, like today, I have to nap. Even if that means for my nap to be during Sesame Street, then in my bed with my 2 year old next to me cause I don't have enough energy to deal with him not wanting to sleep in his own bed. (At least he slept for 2 hours, which is exactly what I needed.) 

I am planning ahead now. I know that the day of the 1/2 marathon we will be go back to our hotel, request late checkout and go back to sleep for as long as possible, then go play! (That is the plan at this point.)

Listen to your body. Do what it needs and it will thank you and work with you in the end! 

QOTD: How do you recover after a long run, or any workout in general?

HypnoBirthing

I am so excited to share this post with you. I have had a lot of women asking me about hypnoBirthing since they know I did mine with it and drug free. 

What is Hypnobirthing? Per hypnobirthing.com it is a simple, straightforward program, thoughtfully developed over the years to remind mothers of the simplicity of birth itself. Just as the majority of birthing women do not need interventions and procedures for safe and healthy birth, they do not need a complex set of exercises and scripts to prepare themselves for peaceful, calm and comfortable birthing. 

Here is a 9 min video on hypnoBirthing:

 

When I was 14 years old my nephew was born. I remember hearing about the epidural process and it freaked me out. Why would you put a needle in your spine? It didn't make any sense to me. I told my mom that day that I was never going to get an epidural when I have a baby. She just looked at me and said, "We will see." Ever since I got married I looked forward to getting pregnant and showing all the naysayers that yes I could do it without pain relievers. (I had told countless other people by this point my plan on a drug free labor. Common response was "yeah right".) 

When I finally got pregnant after 8 years of trying, I called my sister in law who had 5 kids all drug free. She was induced with all her labors because she wouldn't go into labor naturally. So yes, while on pitocin she did not get any pain medication. Did she want it, heck yeah. Until her 5th birth. She used hypnobirthing. I talked to her a ton about it. She sent me the CD's to listen to and told me the book to get. (HypnoBirthing the Mongan Method) I was about 24 weeks when I started listening to the CD's. I would listen to them when I walked on the treadmill. (Use your own judgement.)

I would listen to them about 3 days a week at the gym and then maybe 1-2 days at home just to relax. I loved listening to the positive affirmations CD the most. It just made me feel better. 

My labor story with Mason: 

Mason was induced with cytotec, not pitocin, since my hubby was leaving for Iraq 3 days after Mason was born. During the induction, waiting for things to happen, I listened to the positive affirmations to get them clear in my head especially for during the "hard part" and after. At 4:30 I had a failed induction. I was only a 4 and 100% and -1 station. Doc said I could go home or break my water. We broke my water and got the party started. (I didn't want my water broken prior to 7cm by the way because I was concerned about other things happening than can happen. But I needed my hubby there. Personal choice I made.) Water broke, doula was called and got there in 30 min (which felt like FOREVER by the way) I got in the tub to labor and that is when I found my relaxation spot. I imagined my white chair at the end of a long hallway. I had ever-changing walls around me and when I had a surge (contraction) I would see waves lapping on the beach all around me. In between surges I laid back in the tub and went to my quiet place. My husband said it looked like I was asleep. The only pain at this point that I complained about was my feet were hurting because I was kneeling in the tub and the top of my feet hurt in the tub. At about 8ish, I started feeling the urge to push in the tub so I had to get out. Couldn't relax in-between the contractions as much as I had to make my way back to the bed and contract in the middle of the room with my hubs as support.

Got checked in the bed and it was go time. Doc and nurses said I was an awesome pusher and baby could have been born in 3 pushes but they needed me to "stretch" So the doc kept the head crowning so I could stretch around it. I never once felt the "ring of fire." I felt pressure. I didn't scream. I grunted like a gorilla, because that is what my body needed to do. Mace was born at 8:52pm. I did have a 1 degree tear, not from the head by from the force and speed at which I birthed his shoulders. I also felt the stitch when the doc stitched me up. I said, "ouch!" when he stuck me with the needle, I guess he didn't numb me. He remarked, "You are complaining about a stitch after you just pushed a baby out!" He was dumbfounded by it. I told him it was a different pain. But it quickly went away as my endorphins covered up that pain too. It was just the first stick that was different. 20 minutes after I had Mason, I remember saying, "I want to do that again!" The nurses thought I was crazy! The adrenaline rush afterwards was AMAZING! Not even the scariest roller coaster has given me that much of a rush, but it was easier than I thought it would be. Then nurses also told me that I was born to birth with how well I did. (FYI I don't remember most of my labor experience. I was that relaxed and focused. My doula and hubby had to fill in the blanks for me about what happened.)

Ever since I had Mason I have been excited to get pregnant and bring another life into this world but also to go through birthing again. It was not like it was in the movies, or the 2 ladies around me in the hospital before they got their epidurals. They were screaming, like I'm going to die screaming. We knew when they got their epidural because it got very quiet. I made noise, I grunted a lot. I did a lot of breathing. I did it drug free. I was also open to the fact that if I needed an epidural I would get one, but I never got to that point. Now it is time for me to start listening to the CD's again and I am so excited. I am going to try this again. My concern, will I get into that super relaxed state if my labor is less than 4 hours. Mason was 4 hours, this one should technically be faster. We shall see. 20 more weeks and we will know for sure.

New Tab

I added a new tab! RECIPES!  Quick find for all the recipes that I have posted on the blog! Check it out!

Seriously the Spinach Salad is still the most viewed recipe I have posted! Anyone try it for Thanksgiving? Are you planning on trying it for Christmas too?

Food OVERLOAD!

Not only did I make 8 dozen cookies this past weekend, I also signed up to take some cookies to a church function tonight, which means more baking. Then I got a call from the hubs yesterday that he is supposed to bring something to a potluck today. I got the call yesterday afternoon. He has known about this party for over a week and I get the call the day before!

I told him, I bet this is what it feels like when a 10 year old comes up to his mom and says, "mom I have a project due tomorrow. Can you help me make it?" A mom would internally scream, takes a deep breath and calmly asks her kid, " how long have you known about this project?" "3 weeks." ARGH! I know this will happen to us at some point, and more than once. But it just goes to show that my hubby is a big kid! Anyhew, I am making my grandma's marshmallow fruit cocktail (see below for recipe if you want to try it, but my Grandma made it and it is really yummy!) for him to take to work and the cookies for tonight, I am making this easy fudge.

(source of photo)

Tuesday while on the on the treadmill running the Pioneer Women came on the food network and she made Quick and Easy Peppermint Fudge. It looked totally too easy! Just chocolate, sweetened condensed milk and peppermint candies for the topping. That's it! Not sure how it will turn out but 3 ingredients and 2 of them I already have on hand, can't beat that! (Also, I am going to add some chopped walnuts to it. YUMMY!)

Now, time to plan our Christmas meal. What should we do? Oh and yesterday I found out that my mom reads my blog! HI MOM!!! She was asking me questions about the hidden gifts in the house growing up.

Marshmallow Fruit Cocktail: 

2 cans Fruit Cocktail
1 can pineapple triangles
1 can mandarine oranges
1 can maraschino cherries
1 cup shredded coconut
1 c of "tiny" marshmallows
16 oz sour cream
12 tablespoons sugar

Mix together and let set in fridge for a couple hours before serving.

QOTD: Do you do too much cooking/baking around the holiday?