One Year

On Sept 24th, Baby L turned One Year Old!!! :)
I have not given up on blogging, I just have to find the time.
I gave up pressuring myself to make time for the computer, for blogging... it'll come naturally when I start again, it won't be 'forced'...

Until then, here are a few shots of Baby L at 1.

He's already been to a TFC Soccer game :)

Daycare is going better than I could've ever imagined. He LOVES it there. I'm back to work at a new place, temporarily anyways. I have found a small project that will keep me busy for another 2 weeks (it was a total of 6 weeks...) It's a very quiet time in my industry right now.

It's going to take me a while to figure out how to balance work and family life - I know a ton of ladies have done it before me - I just have to figure out how to do it myself, in a way that works for my family...

One day at a time, right?! :)

I hope you are all doing well!!!!!!

The Pride Run

I am very sad to announce that I will have to skip running the 'Pride Run' this year :(
I was so excited to get a chance to do it again - but I won't be able to.
Zut Alors!

in 2012 though - I will be there and I will finally complete that race!!!!

I will be thinking of Mouse and the Go Skirt team in the morning - sending good vibes their way :)

June, The Month of Many Goals...

So things are going ok/well with sleep training - we're progressing, but allergies and eczema are making this a bit tougher and longer than it should be... we'll figure out what makes the little man itchy and hopefully everything will progress better...
That being said, I am now able to DO things when nap time arrives - not for all naps but for some naps!! We don't have a consistent nap schedule at all yet, but at least we have naps, and at least I'm not stuck with a baby on my lap all day! :) And you know what, I feel like he must be so much more comfortable sleeping in his bed and not all crooked on the nursing pillow on mommy's lap, no?!

Lots of things on my mind these days, lots of things to do:

Next week, we have a meeting at a good day care that may have a spot open for when my maternity leave ends. We might take a 2 day spot for the month of July, just so we are in for the full time. I might not take the baby to day care on all those days, but I figure I can slowly get him and I used to the whole thing that way...

Once we have that spot secured, I need to work on several things:

-Accepting the fact that I am returning to work and that my baby will spend most of his awake time away from me :(
-Find work. There are a few things in the air, but nothing is 'for sure'. Still looking...Anyone hiring? :)
-Get L to sleep through the night.
-Get L on a consistent nap and feeding schedule.
-Organize and figure out how I can continue breastfeeding while at work/day care.
-Get a flipping hair cut (Last time was Jan 2nd 2010 - my hair is a disaster!:)
-Go to the doctor's office (also hapening next week...) to figure out what's bothering me - I am experiencing pain that makes me think I might have this problem. It feels terrible when I run! :(
-Get lunch with a former colleague - the one lunch I've been meaning to have for about 8 months!
-Host 'brunch' for a few other former colleagues with whom I 'get together' every 6 months or so...

If I get the ok that I can run through the pain from my doctor, I want to run more!

And I have to get my head around eating well and getting healthier again. Would you like some numbers? Here are some:

NOV 2009 - Happy wedding day weight: 150
DEC 2009 - Holiday weight gain and official pre-pregnancy weight: 157   (+7)
SEPT 2010 - Just before giving birth weight: 222!   (+72!)
NOV 2010 - 2 months postpartum: 190 (+40)

JUNE 2011 - Now - 8 months (and a bit...) postpartum - 165 (+15)

so yeah, at this point I have lost 57 lbs... and I am only 8 lbs away from my official pre-pregnancy weight, but let's face it, I'm 15+ pounds overweight... and my body is certainly not as, um, tight as it used to be... Like the midwives were saying, this is 'the new normal' I guess... ?!

I feel like I'm all over the place in this post. I feel like my life is all over the place - need to work on that too...

meh. *sigh*
here I come June!

Sleep Training is Hard :(

Letting this little guy cry for even a second breaks my heart :( But I guess it's for his own good - he has not been sleeping well for a very long time now, and already we are seeing some progress... But most importantly, I get some rest. I need rest to take care of him the best I can, and it wasn't fair to him to just not give him my best. And now maybe I get a little time for myself to write a blog again? Don't know for sure, but we'll see :)
He's going to be 8 months on May 24th. My how time flies!

At the Park

 

Baby L loves to go to the park. His favorite activity? Going to the swing with his papa and his maman.

He finds it so funny :)

Wordless Wednesday: Blue Steel...

Harry's Spring Run Off - 8km - 2011

So I 'ran' Harry's Spring Run Off 8km today. My first race after having baby L 6 months ago. 

S insisted I sign up, and I'm glad I did. When I got to the starting line, with all the other runners and all the excitement, I remembered how much I like races, how much I enjoy running...

I didn't exactly train for this though - the winter is not ideal for training when you have to be accompanied by a baby! I can take the cold, but not the baby... Plus you pretty much can't use a jogging stroller until the baby is 8 months old... But we have been walking quite a bit, weather permitting, and I felt confident that I could take on the challenge, I did it pregnant last year - so I could certainly do it now, 6 months postpartum, right?

 

For timing, the race organizers used the new Mylaps 'Bib Tag' system (Can you see the back of my bib there?) It's basically a chip that's attached to your bib and that you can keep at the end of the race... No tying it up to your shoe and having to have someone cut it off. But somehow I kind of feel like it can't be as accurate as the thing that's right on your shoe and very close to the mat? But I guess it must be if they decided to go for it!

Woah! running was tough, I ran for 5 minutes, then walked for 1. Then ran for about 12 minutes (wow!) then walked for... well, I don't remember how long, but since my heart rate stayed above '100%' for a while I decided to give it a chance to get back to a more 'normal' number before I ran again. I knew I'd be out of shape, but didn't know what to expect... So I tried to run whenever I could, and push it a bit before walking again - as in, when I felt like walking, I would tell myself to go for at least an extra minute before allowing myself to walk. Often at the end of the minute, I would feel like running for a bit longer!

 

The second half of the race was much harder - I ran down the hills and quickly realized that it was a bad idea, my 'pelvic bones' started feeling sore, you know the ones that took a beating when I gave birth? Ouch! But I kept going - I didn't mind running slowly or walking, all that mattered was that I get a better time than when I ran it last year (even a few seconds faster would've made me happy:)

I did it! 

Last year's chip time: 1:13:57.8

This year's chip time: 1:08:52.4

Last year's pace: 9:38

This year's pace: 9:00

Pretty good in my opinion! The good thing is, this being my first race after baby, I know I can only get better! 

But I am starting from a pretty 'weak' point. To put things in perspective, last year, I ran/walked (mostly walked) and my HRM stayed between 83% and 96%.

This year my HRM says that  my highest heart rate was 107% and my average was 97%. That can't be good?!

Here I am exhausted after the race, with my medal!! :)

I had a very special spectator waiting for me at the end - he wasn't so happy with my time ''I don't like waiting for you in the stroller mommy!''

 

a HUGE thank you to my love, S, who pushed me to do this and took care of a grumpy Mister L. while I was out there running and having fun:)

OH! I almost forgot - I am 85% certain that I saw Marie the Mouse on the course! I saw this pretty lady with the lovely long wavy hair, cheering on runners towards the end with a bunch of people, I think she might have recognized me too (if it was her indeed:) But, let's just put it this way, I don't have great vision, and I was exhausted - it could've been someone who just looked a lot like her :)

But regardless, seeing her there, towards the end of the course - where the huge ($@%%?$%&? STUPID @%#$%@$?$@) hill is - it gave me inspiration to push some more and run a little more. All I could manage to do was point at her and wave - I couldn't speak - ha ha!

It was so nice of her and her friends to cheer on even the last few slow runners!!

Thank you Marie and her friends (or thank you kind strangers!:)