Running Mama Yogi

Tonight is night four of official sleep training. Since hubby is away during bedtime now during the week, and bedtimes had suddenly become a struggle - and sometimes as late as 9pm (wayyy too late!), I decided it was time to get little love into a routine in which she could rely upon herself to fall asleep. The first night was 45 minutes of absolute screaming. I busied my hands with dishes and chores, but was quite distracted and my heart hurt to hear her. Just as I was about to rush upstairs and scoop her into my arms, she stopped. Day two, she screamed again, but for 12 fewer minutes. I counted that as a win and I felt better hearing her cry when it stopped sooner than the day before. I knew I couldn't do two days straight of 45 minutes (or possibly more!) of screaming. Day three, she hugged me tightly with arms and legs before I put her in the crib, trying to keep from having to go to sleep alone. It was so sweet to have an actual hug, albeit, I'm sure it wasn't quite

I was really concerned that hubby working second shift would cause us to have a lot of arguments and drift apart.  There have been arguments and misunderstandings aplenty. However, in spite of our physical separation, our mental and emotional connection is so much stronger.  We try our hardest to communicate, and to be the cheerleader when the other is having a rough day or week or several weeks. I appreciate all the things he is and does for me, us, and our beautiful baby girl. Our hearts used to be more equitable to parallel lines - going in the same direction together, but separated by a space. Now, I feel they are like vines, intertwined and strong.

Lately, I've been finding myself to start rushing around, doing everything when I get home more and more. I carry Z around with me, but it is not the same as spending quality time with her. I know some of these things can wait, but some, like my growling stomach, cannot. I'm also becoming slightly concerned by how clingy Z is getting with me. I know babies go through a separation anxiety phase around now, but she does need to play by herself sometimes and be okay with seeing me doing something in the same room or next room over from her. I am starting to wonder if I have done something irreparable such that she will have massive separation anxiety. Then, another part of me thinks everything is just fine and that this is normal for now. This parenting thing is so much second guessing oneself!! On a good note, the other night, I made myself spend, what ended up being 30 minutes, with my yoga practice. It was well past my bedtime, but my body and soul needed it so badly. It was

It was a Wednesday afternoon at work, in my 36th week of pregnancy, and I was getting more (what I thought were) Braxton-hicks contractions which I had been getting in my back for a couple of weeks at that point. I didn't think too much of it, but sure was in a lot of pain. Back contractions aren't a joke. Think of having a really tight lower back that spasms and you can't do anything to loosen up or alleviate. It's wonderful! I would never wish it on my worst enemy (unless the right worst enemy comes along...). I think what kickstarted labor off was a little intimate time with hubby that Tuesday night (I'd gotten BH previously afterwards within the past month). Anywho, that night, I kept waking up every two hours due to the (what I thought were) BH contractions and to pee. The pee thing was not new. What was new was being woken up with my back essentially feeling like I imagine having lock jaw would but on your lower back multiple times. My hips had really been kil

There were many phases for my maternity leave prep, and I know hubby thought I was a bit nutso about the things I did to "nest" (my choice word and the word Dan came to loathe). The biggest buckets of things I did to prep were: 1. Work Prep 2. Nesting around the house 3. Stockpiling food 4. Making a list of maternity leave to-do's 5. Medical Directive / Will 6. Physical Fitness When it came to work, I was fully intending to take advantage of the awesome policy offered in which expecting mothers could take off two weeks prior to their due date as paid time off which does not count against their maternity leave paid time off. I also had a week of carry-over vacation I was going to use, so I had three full weeks!  of time ahead of Z's due date to get things done around the house, and try to catch up on sleep and whatnot. I was somewhat wondering, after I had this planned, what I was going to do with myself for three full weeks. Well...Z decided to come three

I wasn't the type of girl who grew up dreaming of her wedding dress or how her wedding would be. I was a reader. An avid reader at that, and so I did have the imagination for dreaming something like a wedding up, but the details of a wedding weren't something that important to me growing up. For me, I loved dreaming up stories for different characters, and loved keeping a list of intriguing names that I liked as I went through my reading adventures. When we started thinking about getting pregnant, I dusted off that list of names (yes, I had saved it...) and hubby and I started adding to it. Every now and then we would toss out an idea. For the longest time, neither of us cared for the names the other one would think up, so our list didn't grow very quickly at all. One name I knew for certain I wanted, which was my great-grandmother's name - Margaret. She was such a loving influence on my life, and I lost her when I was a teenager. I wanted to memorialize her by usi