Weekly workout summary:Mar 1-7 2010
Mon Mar 1: run 3.5mi
Wed Mar 3: run 2.7mi
Thurs Mar 4: run 3.1mi
Sat Mar 6: run 6.7mi
Weekly total:
run: 16 miles
swim: 0m
Some good running last week. Had a lovely long(er) run on Saturday, and managed to maintain a good pace for ~6miles before easing off for a cool down for the final 0.7miles. Still no swimming last week. The weather was bad. I was busy. Blah blah blah, excuses excuses. Oh well, will try to do better next week. As always.
Suzanna turned 3 months old yesterday!
So much has happened since her 2 month update. Firstly, the ranitidine (Zantac) that the doc prescribed for suspected reflux has made a huge difference to Suzanna’s comfort levels. She is such a happy little girl now that she’s no longer in pain after meals, and it has helped her to sleep better too.
A typical day in Suzanna-land looks something like this:
7am: wake up, stretch in crib while I get ready to feed her, settle in for a nursing session.
7.20am: pat and burb o’clock
7.25am: change her nappy, then she likes to hang out on her changing table, looking up at the butterflies on her mobile, cooing and gurgling while I give her the reflux meds. She opens her mouth now when I put the syringe to her lips and swallows her meds without coaxing. She usually makes a “yeuch” face when she takes her meds, but she doesn’t spit them out any more, and she doesn’t cry.
7.35am: Suzanna usually hangs out under her gymini, watching the lights or ceiling fan or following Alexander around the room with her eyes, while I take care of a few things that are better accomplished with the full use of two hands (make and drink a cup of tea, pump, check email, help Alexander get ready for school while Mark is in the shower).
7.50am or whenever she starts to yawn and/or grumble: pick Suzanna up and start the wind down routine for nap time.
Suzanna is typically back down to sleep within an hour and a quarter after waking up. Sometimes she naps for an hour, usually she naps for about two hours, and sometimes she even naps a little longer. Soooo different to her brother!
When she wakes up from nap, she’ll feed again if she’s hungry and coo/smile/play if she’s in the mood. Sometimes she wakes up mid-nap because she’s got gas and all she really wants to do is burp and fart and go back to sleep. I can respect that.
We basically follow this same routine through out the day: She eats, she plays, she naps, she wakes, we change her nappy and we go again. If Suzanna cries, we just need to figure out what is wrong and fix it and she will usually stop crying. Hungry? Wet? Tired? Overstimulated? Uncomfortable in some way? It’s kind of like the baby books say it should be. And thus pretty much nothing like our experiences with Alexander.
By 6.40pm it’s time to start Suzanna’s bedtime routine. Bath, change into pajamas, cuddle, nurse, swaddle, sleep…eventually. Evenings are her fussiest time of day, and sometimes she puts up quite the bedtime fight. She typically is ready for bed around 7.15pm and is usually down and asleep by about 8pm.
Mark gives her a dreamfeed of pumped milk at around 10.30pm, and then we cross our fingers and hope she sleeps until morning. Sometimes she does. And when she does, it seems Alexander doesn’t. But I think that overall we’re gradually getting a bit more sleep and that is a very good thing.
Suzanna’s features are starting to emerge from her baby face. There’s more definition to her chin and cheeks and nose, more expression in her eyes and forehead. She likes to push off things with her feet, and acts as though she wants to stand up. She holds up her head a little more steadily every day. She likes to go for walks in the Baby Bjorn, and opens up her little mouth and sticks out her tongue to taste the wind.
Suzanna’s favourite thing to do is to lie in her crib and watch her mobile go round and round. She smiles and coos and laughs at that thing. Her second favourite is to watch her butterfly mobile flutter in the breeze from the heating vent in the ceiling. She recently discovered ceiling fans and seems to be a big fan of the fans.
Suzanna is not a fan of taking milk from a bottle. I started back at work part time last Monday, and she has been holding out and refusing the bottle while I’m gone in the afternoons. Apparently she’d rather go 4.5 hrs between feeds than accept pumped milk from a bottle during the day. We’ve tried her on the following bottles so far: Avent, Playtex, Dr. Brown and Tomee Tippee. She doesn’t like any of them.
For the time being, it’s not a huge problem, but in a couple more weeks I am due to go back to work full time, so she’s going to have to get over the bottle aversion somehow. I already suspect that she’s not getting enough milk now during the day and is beginning to wake earlier in the mornings so as to get more milk directly from the source. Again, this is pretty much the polar opposite to our experience with Alexander, who would take any milk offered from any source at pretty much any time of the day or night and demanded to be fed at regular intervals of 2-3 hours.
Suzanna is currently around 15lb and is wearing mostly age 6 month clothing, mainly because she’s so tall/long! In this respect, she’s right on track with her big brother at the same age.
And so the adventure continues.
Rum, Pum, Miss Suzanna
Originally uploaded by krisalis.
13 weeks old.
Weekly workout summary:Feb 22-28 2010
Mon Feb 22: run 3.5mi
Wed Feb 24: run 3mi
Thurs Feb 25: run 2.2mi
Fri Feb 26: run 3.1mi
Sat Feb 27: run 4mi
Weekly total:
run: 15.8 miles
swim: 0m
Pretty good week for me, running wise. I’m back at work part time now, so it has been a bit more challenging to fit the workouts in, so I had to settle for a couple of short-than-I-would-have-liked runs, but tried to run them a bit faster to make up for lack of distance with some tempo efforts. I didn’t make it up to the gym at all this week, which means I didn’t get to swim. Maybe next week.
My back is still sore, but it’s not bothering me nearly as much as it was a week ago. I’ve got an appointment to see someone about my back on tomorrow. Hopefully they will help put me back together again.
On Februrary 23rd 2010, it snowed in Austin. This was a rare and unusual treat for Central Texans. I took photos.
Amongst my Mum’s extensive arsenal of special skills is the ability to remove almost any stain from almost any surface. If I can’t get a stubborn stain out of an item of clothing myself, I invariably turn it over to my Mum.
So it made me laugh out loud when she emailed me a link to this photo.
I guess I’m not the only one.
Weekly workout summary:Feb 15-21 2010
Mon Feb 15: swim 1800m
Tues Feb 16: run 3mi
Wed Feb 17: run 3mi
Sat Feb 20: run 3mi
Weekly total:
run: 9 miles
swim: 1800m
Last week was a tough week for me, exercise wise. The combination of last Sunday’s 6 mile run and the following Monday morning swim session left me way more sore that I ever would have expected, and by Thursday I was really hurting, despite getting a massage on Wednesday. My back and shoulders are so tender! I think the combination of workouts and carrying around an increasingly heavy baby are taking their toll. So I eased off the workouts in the last few days and my running mileage for the week is therefore pretty low. Meh.
I’m going to try to take things easy in the coming week. I don’t want to not work out, because then I’ll fall behind on the fitness I’ve gained, but I also really don’t want to hurt myself, because then I won’t be able to work out and I’ll fall behind on the fitness I’ve gained. Hmpf.
Suzanna is 12 weeks old today, and thus my meagre American maternity leave draws to a close.
It is with much trepidation that I shall be returning to the land of the office-bound folk, where it is customary to to speak in full sentences, unusual to wear yoga pants, fleece hoodies and slippers, and unlikely that I’ll be able to take an afternoon nap.
I’m wading in slowly, and will be working part time for a month before taking the plunge back into full time employment. Hopefully this will give me and my family a bit more time to adjust to the new normal and help make the transition a bit smoother for all involved.
I will definitely miss spending my days with the kiddos, but there is also a part of me that is genuinely looking forward to getting back to work. For the most part, I really like my job and my colleagues and I find a certain satisfaction in what I do. Sure, it has it’s difficult days and it’s frustrations, but so does everything, including – or perhaps especially – parenting.
Wish us luck.
Flower Power
Originally uploaded by krisalis.
Suzanna is not sure whether she likes the ridiculous flower arrangement.
