Spring!

Although I think it's supposed to snow tomorrow, we have really enjoyed our last few days of amazing weather. 

We are also thoroughly enjoying the long weekend. Now that Zoey can walk, she LOVES walking outside. If we carry her, she wriggles out of our arms saying "walk". She also says "hello" and "buh bye" to each person who passes. I am reminded each day why I love living downtown in such a great walking community. One evening after supper we walked around the corner to a playground and played for a while before bed. Delightful. 

Yesterday we walked to a park a few blocks away and Zoey spent quite a while exploring the playground. She is such a daredevil, just scrambling up the play structures and sliding down the slides all on her own. We then ran a million errands and took her to my mum's community garden and she showed her all around. My mum has been working on this garden for a couple of years and it looks amazing. It has sophisticated (to me) underground "plumbing" that collects water and then it seeps somewhere else and waters the gardens. I don't really get it but it's super fancy. Anyway she's there all the time and has wanted to bring Zoey there for a while to show her around. Zoey doesn't really get the concept of a hill yet so it was pretty funny to watch her all of a sudden start running down a hill or fall backwards when she came to an uphill. She'll get it eventually.

Today we walked to the diner for breakfast and then walked to a different park and she played some more. I need to film her walking on the tiny rocks some parks have because it is hilarious. (A few playgrounds near us have the solid rubber ground, which is really nice, but some of them have the old school rocks). The rest of today has been cleaning and napping. 

Tomorrow we will have a mini easter egg hunt and an easter dinner. I didn't want to give Zoey chocolate but I still wanted to do something fun, so I hit the dollar store and got a bunch of pom poms, foam shapes, plastic bracelets and little pinwheels to put in hollow easter eggs. We will hide a few and then give her the rest. I'm sure she will have no clue whats going on but oh well.

What do you do for easter? My dad has a sweet tooth, so the easter bunny was always very generous and we had lots and lots of candy to hunt for. One fateful easter, I stole one of my sister's "big ticket" easter chocolates and my punishment was that I couldn't eat candy for two weeks and had to give my whole collection to her. It was horrible. Although she was mad, I am pretty sure she snuck me some anyway since she doesn't love candy as much as I do. 

Have a great weekend!  I'll leave you with a few photos of Zoey walking down the hall of our condo building. If anyone has a welcome mat outside their door, she HAS to walk over it. 

December

It's mid December, and I feel like all I've been doing is working!  This month I've been gone for three nights at a time, which is taking it's toll on me. I asked for Christmas off, which I got, but in return I didn't get my short two day work shifts like I've had for the past two months. Working for four days, especially in the high travel and weather delay season, is physically and mentally taxing. Luckily things are great at home with Zoey, Matt and our nanny, so I don't have to worry about that. Also, being gone for four days means Zoey is weaned off breastfeeding, which I feel fine about. I wanted it to be a natural and gradual thing without being "traumatizing" for her, so this was a nice way to have it happen. I got home from my first four day and she nursed for about a minute, then just stopped and hasn't since. So that's that I guess!

When I get home on Wednesday, I'll be home until the 27th, so we can fit in all the holiday dinners and festivities. Zoey really likes Christmas trees and decorations, and I really think she will love opening her presents and stocking. She isn't walking yet, but she's standing on her own and crawling like a crazy woman! She is really starting to understand lots which makes life a little bit easier. She can say quite a few words, like "ya", "eau" (which is water in french), "uh oh", and she can shake her head for "no". She loves dancing and she sometimes sings along to music. I feel so lucky to have such a happy and hilarious daughter!

Hopefully my next post will have lots of pictures, but for now I'll leave you with happy and fun wishes for the holidays!

Delayed

You know when you know something is overdue and it stares you in the face every day, but you just can't bring yourself to do it? That's how I feel about my blog. I like most things about it, but I just feel overwhelmed every time I sit down to post. Maybe I'm trying to fill people in on all that's going on instead of just saying a thing or two. Either way, I know I've been absent, but I'm just doing my best.

I finally got my lazy butt out the door for not one but TWO runs so far this week. Monday, I dressed Zoey up in her winter woolies and we tackled 7.3 slow kms. I had a great time and even snapped a photo for Calgary Natural High's photo competition. (If you don't know about Calgary Natural High, it's a new low pressure fun running group in Calgary. They meet Sunday mornings and run various distances and speeds. Check out their website and facebook page!) It was pretty cold but not too bad. Zoey took a nap and then said "hi" to all the passers by.

Our entry for the snowy running contest. I figure babies get votes right? I think voting starts December 1 if you wanted to check it out.

Tuesday I ran my first treadmill run in over two years! I honestly don't remember the last place or time I was on the treadmill, but normally I'm in a hotel, and yesterday was no different. I went down to the shoebox sized "gym" in my hotel in Edmonton and ran just under 5 km. It was interesting... Not great but not bad. Today I took a rest since I had a very challenging night. I got home from a long and delayed work day around 1:00 am and Zoey was tossing and turning until about 4:30, keeping me up the whole time. This morning, Matt suggested that next time I get home late I should sleep in the guest room so that I don't disturb her. Anyway, we had a rough go today and after some snuggly naps, I felt human around noon. We took a nice walk and that was that for the day.

Tomorrow, my plan is to go for another run outside with Zoey and tackle maybe 6 or so kms. I think I'm gearing up for the Hypothermic Half, but I may reconsider and check out the race that Leigh will be running, Run for L'Arche. I'll look into them both and decide before the end of the week, when the fees go up for the Hypothermic Half. I'm just not sure if I can pull off the training for it yet since it's earlier, but I may just go for it anyway. Thoughts?

I'll leave you with a few pics of Zoey enjoying her first steamed milk!

Zoey turns 1!

This post is a little late, but I've been busy working in between Zoey's TWO birthday parties. We decided to split the guest list in half and celebrate twice so that there was less chance of being overwhelmed and we would be able to manage it space wise. I'm very happy we did that since everyone had a great time, got to spend a little time with Zoey, and she didn't get freaked out.

Her first party was at my mum's place.

Good thing she had help opening her presents... those packages are hard to get in to!

She looks so thrilled to be wearing her party hat.

She ate that giant piece of carrot cake in about 1 minute.

Her second party was at our house instead of the park since it was minus 4. She had a great time there too!

She got this fun baking set to go with her kitchen. And has been wielding the wooden knife ever since. 

This is her cool train cake. With a little too much sugar in it, we later found out when she was still partying at 9:30 pm

Zoey loved tickling her friend Nathan.

And there you have it. You can see from the picture with the party hat that I turned her weekly photos into banners and hung them at both parties. I would like to maybe put them around her room permanently and I'm most likely going to make a photo book too. Some of them are definitely better than others, but all in all the project was a success!  I'm still trying to decide how to post them on here... Should I really do all 52?

What have I been up to?

I haven't posted in a month!

At first, it was because I was having a really tough time alone with Zoey and I just didn't want to post and have a little pity party. Things weren't going well for me and night time was awful for us both. I definitely almost left her in her crib to cry many a night (not saying that that is wrong, just not something we are doing right now) but late night walks helped us both calm our nerves.  I realized that Zoey was having a rough go with her teeth and her poops, and once those settled, evenings and nights improved dramatically, as did my mood and outlook on life!  She now sleeps through the night until around 5-6, and I nurse her and cross my fingers for two more hours of sleep.  Sometimes I get it, sometimes I don't.  Oh well, c'est la vie!

Then I didn't post because I seemed to be too busy and overwhelmed with the idea of updating an entire month! I'll give you the coles notes:

1. Zoey did funny and cute things.

2. I had a birthday and got a Vitamix!!!!!

3. Matt came home and is now home for at least 3 months!

4. I'm running a race tomorrow that I am drastically underprepared for!

5. I have started the "back to work" wheels, ie. trying on uniform (The last time I wore it was January 2011 and it still fits, might I even dare say it fits better!), emailing the appropriate people, figuring out my password for our employee website, yada yada yada.

6. I and an other flight attendant hired a nanny to share.

7. Zoey graduated from her first set of swimming lessons. The comments on her report card included how the teacher liked to listen to her sing and scream when she got excited. My mum told me "the first of many report cards commenting on how vocal your child is".

I'll leave you with a few pictures and the promise of a prompt race report!

Me & Zoey after her first swimming lesson

Hiding under a chair

Showing off her new skill: waving

Making steaming hot soup in the new Vitamix. Is gets steaming hot IN THE VITAMIX. Seriously.

Summer Fun

After the hair posts I apparently didn't have much else to say!

A few fun days have happened since then. Canada Day brought some fun down at Fort Calgary.

Then the Stampede started, but Zoey slept through her first visit so we're going back tomorrow! I can't wait to see her around all the animals!

We also had some fun at Sandy Beach (a little park with a tiny, rocky beach... the name is a little deceiving) and Riley Park (a wading pool).

Also, Zoey started crawling and sitting up by herself! How exciting!  She's doing mostly the army crawl but every once in a while she pops up on all fours and crawls across the floor.

She's on the verge of getting her two front teeth and that combined with the heat wave has made things a little interesting around here in the evenings. (And by interesting I mean terrible.)  I HATE the heat. It definitely brings out the worst in me  so I'm working hard to keep my cool (pardon the pun) when Zoey freaks out at night. Heat, teething, no Matt, cranky me... It could be the perfect storm.  BUT, I'm doing my best and that's as good as it can get!

How do you deal with the heat?

Vacation

Last week we went on our summer vacation. It revolved around a family reunion in Vermont, but we tacked on a few days in Toronto before for some visiting with Matt's family.

We drove a lot, took some flights, but Zoey was surprisingly resilient to it all.  She was a huge hit with all of the relatives, and loved Max the golden retriever, despite being scared of my dad's tiny dogs at home. (Since being home and seeing the dogs, she loves them. So her fear of dogs was apparently temporary.)

We didn't do too much, which was great. Days were spent sitting on the grass, playing a great game called kubb (right?) and a little drinking tacked in here and there.

Spending the week together as a family was exactly what we needed, since Matt started a new job (yesterday) that takes him out of town. He is on a schedule of two weeks on (and away), one week off (and home). We started our relationship being apart half of the time (with me being a flight attendant and gone 15 ish days a month) so we are used to that dynamic, but having Zoey obviously makes it a lot harder on both of us. Luckily we can skype and talk on the phone lots, and I have lots of help around here for when I may need a little break. What makes it worth it is the week off, which is totally and completely off, so we can spend all day together and do all sorts of things that we didn't normally get to do when he was working a "regular" job. So far we're working on day 2, so in 11 days I may not be so happy about it, but we'll take it a day (or rotation) at a time!


Here are a few pics from the vacay!

Fun on the grass

Zoey and Papa sitting in the most comfortable chair ever

With Matante Kristen

Terrible...

Because you can't have too many pictures of a baby in a floppy hat

After the vacation and seeing everyone in cool hats, I decided that I need one. I have since purchased a hat and will have to blog about it. For some reason me wearing a hat is a big deal. Not sure why...

Calgary Subaru Half Marathon: Success!

I definitely surprised myself yesterday at the Calgary Half Marathon!

I was trying to be very realistic with my goals and set myself up for success, so I went into the race hoping for a time between 2 and 2:30. I really didn't know what to expect for a few reasons:

1. I didn't train nearly as much as I would have normally.  Most weeks I ran twice, once on Tuesdays with the Tech Shop running group, and a weekend long run.  Sometimes I got another run or two in, but not every week.
2. I did ALL my long runs while pushing Zoey in the stroller.  It is much harder to run with her, thus my times were quite a bit slower than I was used to. As the weeks went on, I decided this could work to my advantage mentally and physically. (If I pushed her for long runs, my race would feel easier running without her; if I did a long run without her and it royally sucked, I would be mentally dreading the race.) 
3. In the past two weeks, I ran the Mother's day race, and then one more 2.5 km run.  That's it
4. My longest long run was 16 km.

Sunday morning rolled in and I was jittery, but not as nervous as I normally am for races because I had a little less pressure on me.  I knew that I just wanted to finish with a smile and not hate running while I was racing. I am happy to say I didn't hate it, and it actually went by "quicker" than any other half I've done. Maybe it was because I was very familiar with the areas I was running, or that I knew no one had any real expectations so I was free to just run.

Waiting to start!

I was very thankful to be starting with Kaitlin, Matt's cousin, who was running her first marathon. Her nerves helped me forget about mine. We waited around, questioned a million times what to wear, (I ended up wearing capris, a tank, arm warmers and a headband. I was happy with that), and then just started running.

Zoey was wearing her running shoes too!

I LOVED the start, since we were in the Stampede grounds, (a nice, wide area) so I actually didn't dodge around people at all.  I also may have actually for once started in the appropriate "pace" spot for me, so I didn't waste any energy running in and out of people.  I wore my arm warmers over my garmin because I expected to take them off during the race and didn't want to have to fiddle around with taking it off, and then try to put it on again, so as I was running, I couldn't see the screen. (I ended up keeping them on the whole race... It was chilly!) As the first few kms went by, I decided I wouldn't look at it until 10 km. I was running at a comfortable pace, and I didn't want to let any times mess with my head. At 10 km, I'd look, see where I was at, and decide to push it or just survive at that point.  I ran all 10 & 1's (with the exception of the first "one" which I skipped) so I just listened for my beeps, took my walk breaks, and ran happily to 10 km. When I got there, I was happy to see my garmin said 58:something. I thought "oh, ok, I'm not totally out of it", but I also knew that I had run 10 km lots and lots during my training, and the second half would be harder for me.  I decided to "survive" for the next 5, see how I felt and go re-evaluate from there.

About 1 km later, my right hip started hurting. I don't know exactly where the pain was, but it seemed like it was in the joint where my leg stops and my hip begins. Running hurt. I wasn't super pleased. At every walk break, I tried to take big steps, lunged a little, and was so thankful to see an aid station (I walk for a few seconds at each aid station so that I can sip without choking). (Side note: I felt very pleased with myself that I thought to take my gu out of my belt early so that when I saw the aid station up ahead, I could choke it down while running and then get the water to sip it down and I wouldn't waste any extra time. I don't think I've ever remembered to do that.)  I couldn't physically run up any hills at that point due to my hip, so I was thankful there was only one little one that I had to walk up. I wasn't the happiest, but I remembered that I was supposed to be smiling so I plastered one on my face and kept going. My saving grace was that running faster didn't make my hip hurt any less, so I tried my hardest to keep up my pace. Each walk break gave me a little respite and my hip would just gradually start to hurt as I ran, so I only REALLY suffered that last few minutes of every interval.  As the kms kept ticking by, I got excited thinking about the finish and seeing Matt and Zoey. My mum rode her bike along the back side of the Stampede grounds so I saw her at 20 km. I waved up to her and she cheered. I told her I was in a little pain and she just laughed and rode over to the finish.

As I ran into the grandstand I picked up my pace, thinking that the faster I ran in, the faster I could STOP RUNNING, and I was pissed when a lady cut me off running around the last corner walked. I then turned my head to see Matt getting his phone out of his pocked and yelled "HEY!" and he looked up and was visibly surprised to see me! Zoey was fast asleep in the ergo and I think he yelled something. I booked it to the finish and stopped my garmin right on the finish line. It said 2:06:16.

Finished!

I got a medal, which was HEAVY, and wandered into the clusterf&%$ that was the grandstand. Why oh why would they pile all the finish line food and festivities INSIDE when the Stampede Grounds is literally parking lot?!?!?! It was so chaotic and it took me a good 20 minutes to get water, a banana and walk out front to meet Matt, Zoey and my mum.  At that point, the winner of the Marathon was crossing the line, and I think he got the fastest time ever for a Calgary race! Good for him!  (Another side note: I saw the guy who won my 70.3 running this race, though I don't know if it was a half or the full. He has long dreads so it's easy to recognize him.)  

So all in all I am very happy with this race. My lack of training took it's physical toll, but it felt good to know I had enough cardio to get me through and I do believe had my hip not gotten angry, I had a few more minutes to shave off.  It felt great to know that 7.5 months after having Zoey I could still manage a pretty good time (for me) and that my running life didn't end after having a baby. This was my 6th half marathon, and I do believe my 3rd best time. (7th if you count the 70.3, but I don't really.)

Probably my favourite part of the day, other than finishing my own strong race was seeing Kaitlin finish her marathon. I was tearing up while we were waiting for her to round the corner, and when we saw her I couldn't contain my excitement. I screamed and yelled and cried. It was amazing. She has worked very hard and she wasn't really sure what to expect. She ran in around 4:44 I believe (actually it was 4:41!), with her goal being 4:30-5:30, so she was super pleased. She felt great, and we are so proud of her! 

So another race is under my belt, and more to come. I just have to decide which ones!

My First Mother's Day

This post is slightly tardy, but I've been busy. Okay? (just kidding. well not really about being busy, but about being sassy).

I had a great first Mother's Day.

It started with me running to the start of the Sport Chek Mother's Day race. I planned to race the 10 km with my friend who recently started running, and I knew I would need a few more kms under my belt to feel good about my training for the upcoming half, so I ran from my house to Chinook Centre (the starting line) which turned out to be fewer kms than I thought. I think it was just under 4. I should have mapped it out and done a loop, but I was a little late so I decided to be satisfied with what I did and move on. We walk/ran the 10 km and finished in just under 1:20, which was her goal. We hopped on the train back to my place where Matt had prepared a brunch feast. Both my mum her mum joined us (and our babies) for brunch.

Matt had a card for me and Zoey signed a card for me too. For a gift, I am getting a necklace from etsy (sort of like this one) which I am eagerly awaiting to receive in the mail!

That evening we went to my mum's house to continue celebrating. Zoey got her first experience on grass which she sort of enjoyed, and we got to eat on my mum's back patio.

All in all, it was a great day.  I still have a hard time using the "mother" label on myself, but it is slowly sinking in that I have a daughter, and I'm a mother.  Just a hard thing to wrap my head around!

Sleeping while cuddling my arm

First ride in a shopping cart

I hope you all had a great weekend. I can't believe the half is THIS SUNDAY! Ahh!

Diaper Stripping with a million links

Today is a very exciting day around this household! Diaper stripping day! (cue the sarcasm).

Since I exclusively use cloth diapers on Zoey, they get a lot of use.  We have about 25 diapers (I seriously can't understand how Clara over at young house love survives on 12 diapers! They must wash and wash and wash all day long!) and we wash them every 2-3 days. I used to use Claudia's Choices detergent, but I recently picked up some soap nuts and am trying that for now.  Soap nuts are much cheaper in the long run and are defintiely cloth diaper approved, so we'll see how they work.  I normally hang them to dry using this drying rack hung over either the nursery or master bedroom door, depending on the time of day and when Zoey will be going to bed thus needing to close her door.  Once they are mostly dry (or I've run out of diapers) I throw them in the dryer for 10-20 minutes to soften them up for her little bum.

Big cloth booty!

Every few months, it's important to strip cloth diapers, which essentially means soaking and rinsing them repeatedly to get any soap residues out of the cloth. This helps them not stink and be as absorbant as possible.  We have been dealing with some absorbency issues at night (we actually use bum genius pocket diapers with two liners at night) and if I don't drag my butt out of bed early enough in the morning to change Zoey, she normally pees through her sleeper.  Yesterday I got up around 5 and changed her, but when I woke up again at 7:30 she had already peed through her shirt again. I wondered how that was even possible, and then I realized it was probably time to strip her diapers.

There are many methods to stip diapers.  This blog has a video (and a lot of other funny videos) that describes their method.  I actually don't have either ingredient they use, and so I just am doing repeated hot wash/rinse cycles.  A top loading machine is ideal for this process, since it uses more water and you have the ability to let your diapers soak by lifting the lid and halting the cycle. My front loader doesn't have the option for a soak, and in fact it won't even do a hot rinse, so I have been choosing the "quick wash" cycle, with a pre wash on hot. I have done 3 so far (without soap, which is the key), and will probably continue to do them until this evening and then I'll dry them.  That means that all day she's been in disposables and I'm realizing why I like cloth diapers so much.  First of all, these are probably too small since I bought them back in March for our plane ride to Montreal.  I also have a hard time knowing how exactly to put them on her properly, so she's leaked a couple of times already. Finally, her pants are too big! Those cloth dipes take up a lot of room!

In other news, I'm busying myself with bridal shower plans and running.  The race is coming up quickly!

Also, our baby & me yoga class was featured on shaw tv, so if you'd like to take a peek here's the link!  I am narrowly out of every shot, but it's fun to see the class in action.  About half of the people there aren't regulars at our studio since our instructor teaches the class at three different ones around town, so I had actually never met the girl being interviewed. If you watch the link, you will know why I mentioned that!

Have a nice rainy week!

To marathon, or not to marathon. That is the question.

If any of you follow me on twitter, you know I've been torn recently.  Last year, my sister and I entered the lottery for the New York City Marathon.  I just did it for fun, and of course, I got it.  I deferred my entry, since the marathon was a month after my due date, and just sort of forgot about it.

Fast forward to last week, where I get an email from the NYC marathon saying "don't forget, you have a guaranteed entry for this year's marathon!"  It got me thinking a little.

I have never imagined that I would run a marathon.  Yes, I ran a 70.3, but to me, doing three sports for an extended period of time is a lot easier than doing one sport for an extended period of time.  Running for over four hours has never been that appealing to me.

BUT, if there was any year to train for a marathon, this would be it.  I wouldn't have to juggle training with working.  I would just have to pop Zoey in the stroller and hit the path.  Yes, the weather could interfere with it (how cold can the temperature be and still be able to run with a baby?? anyone know??) and I may have to stop to feed her on some longer runs (if I couldn't leave her at home with Matt and a bottle), but those things aside, I really have nothing but time this year.  One big downside is the price.  $347 for international runners.  Ouch.  But I could probably save up and try to expedia the crap out of some hotels.  It would be a pricey trip, but it would be fun to be in the city we honeymooned two years later as a family.

So after looking up some training programs, I saw one that was doable that was 18 weeks.  That got me thinking, the Calgary Marathon is 19 weeks away.  And a shiny new route is in store for this year (with a big unveiling today!).  So, maybe I could run the Calgary marathon this May, and then run NYC in November.  Why not run two marathons in one year when I never thought I would ever do one.  Am I insane??

What are your thoughts? Can I train with a baby? Can my body handle it? How slow will I be? So many questions!

A look at 2011

*On my computer, there are random hyperlinks that are linked to ads in my post... I didn't put those there and I have no idea how to get rid of them.  So don't click on them.*

2011 was a big year for me!  At the end of January I found out I was pregnant.  I stopped flying and got a placement in our corporate office working for an event planning team.  This also meant that I was home all the time, which was new for Matt and me.  We had a little adjustment period but we soon found that we enjoyed having each other around all the time.

I struggled to get in with a midwife but after a little coaxing I got a team of 5 midwives for my entire pregnancy care until 6 weeks post pardom.  I was thrilled.

I took a quick little trip to Vancouver with my sis. That was very fun since that marked the start of my second trimester and I got to be really excited about having a baby.

I ran a 10 km and a half marathon in slippery snowy weather.  They were my slowest races, but I will definitely remember them!

I had to stop running in May, which led to a severe lack of motivation to exercise.  I sort of found my mojo again, but I really just wished I could run.

I learned that I was carrying a little furnace and was perpetually hot from June onwards.  That wasn't too fun for me.

Matt and I travelled to Ontario in the summer and spent some time at a lake and watched a Blue Jays game.

As my third trimester began, I really felt the physical effects of pregnancy.  I suffered some terrible heartburn, and was pretty much uncomfortable all the time.  In the grand scheme of things, my pregnancy was pretty easy (no morning sickness), but it was hard to remember that during the last couple of months.

Matt and I celebrated our first anniversary on October 15th.  We had expected to have a baby by then, but the little one held off so that we got to have our day to ourselves.

I worked right up until my due date, which was good in the end since I ended up being 12 days overdue.  Those last 12 days were doozies, but in the end, I was granted a VERY fast labour and had baby Zoey at home and without any major complications on October 17th.

Life with Zoey has been an adventure.  She is really starting to have a personality and it's so fun to watch her interact with various people and things.  I didn't feel like an "instant" mother, since at first I felt more like a machine than a lovey dovey oogling pile of mush, but as the days and weeks progress, I find myself just staring at her in amazement.  I miss her when I am somewhere without her, and I eagerly wait my turn to give her hugs and kisses when other people are holding her.  I didn't know what to expect before I had her, but I am having fun every day and can't wait to see her every morning.  I can't wait for this year to see her learn more things and grow more and more into her own person.

This year I hope to get back into exercise with a vengeance, to keep my relationship strong with Matt, to teach Zoey new things and to appreciate every day I get to spend at home with her.

Bring on 2012!

Feeling like a Mum!

This week has been interesting!

Zoey has been very congested for about 3 weeks.  It started with just a little bit of a stuffy nose, and then two weeks ago it got pretty bad.  She was having trouble breathing through her nose (babies are "obligate nose breathers" so they won't breath through their mouth except when crying or when they are forced to), which made sleeping a huge challenge.  She would fall asleep, and then wake up soon after because she'd choke on her snot or not be able to breath at all.  We asked the midwives, who gave us some solutions and then told us to follow up with my doctor since we were "graduating" from their care a few days later.  We then followed up with another doctor from the office (since mine wasn't working that day), and he gave us the same advice and told us to follow up in a week. (The advice was saline drops in her nose, suck out the mucous with a bulb thing, and use a humidifier).  Everyone agreed that she wasn't sick, just congested.

When I followed up again with my doctor this Tuesday, she was immediately concerned with how much she had to struggle to breathe.  (Side note: I love my doctor.  She is amazing.  She always takes things seriously, she has called me from her own home twice, she asks opinions, and is generally awesome.)  She brought another doctor from the office in for a second opinion, and they both thought I should go to emergency to make sure there wasn't a blockage in her airway.  At this point, I wasn't really TOO worried, and to be honest I was a little relived that I could take action to find a solution.  It has been exhausting dealing with Zoey in terms of sleep.  Otherwise, she is happy, but to hear her breathe just breaks my heart.

In Emergency

So off to the Children's Hospital we went.  I sat in emergency for a while, and at one point a nurse walked by, heard Zoey breathing, and brought me back to super suck the mucous out of her nose.  It involved tubes right up her nose and down her throat, vacuuming, and blood.  Oh and lots of crying by Zoey.  We eventually got into a room, and they hooked her up to a monitor to make sure she was getting enough oxygen and breathing out enough carbon dioxide.  Everyone who saw her was amazed at how healthy she was, but had never heard a baby so congested.  They were all puzzled.  After a while, they decided to keep her overnight for observation.  That was when I started thinking that maybe things were a little more serious than I thought.  Matt joined us at that point and we were seen by quite a few really nice and thorough doctors.  We got moved to a real room around 12:30 pm and Zoey got the royal treatment with her own little hospital crib, an awesome nurse-strength swaddle, and a cool noise machine.  Matt and I shared a single cot!

Fancy/sad crib!

After many theories (structual problems, RSV which caused us to be quarantined and everyone who entered the room had to be in full gown/mask/gloves, multiple viruses in a row...) no one REALLY knew what was wrong with her.  They all just thought she was completely healthy aside from being terribly congested.  Finally around 4 ish in the afternoon (about 26 hours after we arrived!) an ear/nose/throat doctor visited, put a camera up her nostrils, and decided that she has very small nostrils, a small infection, and that combined with our dry climate is causing her congestion.  The solution? A more powerful saline solution, sucking out the mucous with a bulb thing, and a humidifier.  Oh, and she has to grow.  Sweet.  So after all that, poor Zoey just has to deal with it, and every day it should get better with her growth.

Noise machine = awesome!

It was a bit of a surreal experience, since it was her first time in a hospital, and my first night in the hospital since I was born.  Also, the fact that everyone had to dress in full bio hazard attire made things seem a little more major.  Her poor nose was so red and irritated from everyone repeatedly sticking things up and down it, but she surprisingly was in good spirits in between it all.  I definitely felt like a "real mum" after taking my child to the hospital.  There was something about it that felt like initiation or something!

So now we wait for her to grow and hope that it gets better every day!

Has anyone had scary hospital experiences?  This was pretty minor in the grand scheme of things...

First Run

So I finally went for a run.  I got all dressed, made sure Zoey was fed, and set off with her in tow.  My start was a little difficult.  Sine Matt had the car (and the garage door opener), I had to wheel Zoey down some stairs to leave the building (instead of going up the garage ramp), and I also had to use the carseat adaptor on the stroller instead of just putting her in the regular compartment (since a piece I needed was in the car). Having the carseat meant that the stroller itself was harder to control and heavier.  Nevertheless, I set off and started a slow run.  I started huffing and puffing pretty much right away, but it felt really good to be running.  I was constantly worried that Zoey was too cold, or getting jostled too much, but she seemed happy (and asleep) and she actually likes being jostled.  (When we are driving and she is crying, she will settle if we go over bumps!)

All dressed and ready.  (Terrible picture)

I didn't really look to see how long I was gone, but I think it was about 45 minutes ish and I think I covered  around 5 km.  Nothing to write home about, but I did quite a few walk run intervals, and stopped to check on Zoey a few times.  Somewhere along the run she shook off her toque... She really doesn't like hats.

After the run, zonked out.

When I got home, Zoey was fast asleep, and she stayed that way for a LONG time.  I guess I know how to make her sleep if worse comes to worse sometime!  It's not the best to have her sleep in her carseat for a long time, but I was happy yesterday since it meant I could shower, eat and get ready for my Christmas party in peace!

Although my run was far from my best, I know that I can only get better from here!  Now that the first one is under my belt, I'm excited to get out again.  Maybe I should bust out my very first training program...

Baby Zoey

I've been a little MIA lately.  I'm sure you can assume that means I FINALLY had a baby!

12 days overdue, Zoey Murphy Brillinger made her grand entrance.  I won't go into the details, but what was supposed to be a hospital birth under the supervision of midwives ended up being a home birth due to a quick labour (sorry Linda).  Matt, with the help of the midwives, "caught" her at 2:30 am on Monday the 17th and got to tell me that we had a daughter!  She was 8 pounds and 2 ounces and I think 52 cm long?  Since then we have been on an insane learning curve, but we are slowly adjusting!

I'll try to post a little more frequently now that things have slowed down a bit!

For now, pictures!

My favourite sleeper that she has already outgrown!

Zoey's first car ride

Nice family portrait