The Girl With The Pink Sneakers

Well, it only took almost 9 months but I FINNALY get to post my first race recap after having a baby! This was actually my first 5K race “take two.” Remember way back in August when I told you my girlfriends and I decided to train and run a 5K race together? Well, this is what motivated me to start running again. I hadn’t finished my training by the time the race rolled around but by golly I was going to run with my friends. They all assured me we would stick together and that they weren’t that fast so I had nothing to fear. Well, the day of race dawned COLD and POURING rain. Even though I thought we were crazy to go out in the weather I still wanted to run this race. We gathered at the race site only to find out,  just minutes before the start that they decided to cancel it! I have to admit I was a little bummed….but not really!

I had my sites set on this Turkey Trot as my next “first race. “I had run this race in the past and I knew it was a fun one. There were a few things that I needed to take into consideration now that I am a mom.

First of all, sleep. Hunter actually went to bed last night pretty easily and at a fairly decent time. I on the other hand was stupid and stayed up late surfing the internet, hanging out with Brian, and reading! Hunter got up bright and early at 5:30am! I changed him and nursed him and some how convinced him to go back to sleep. I unfortunately did NOT go back to sleep. I only had about an hour before I wanted to try and get up and start getting ready so I decided to just stay awake in bed. I was hoping Hunter would keep sleeping so I could ready sans baby.

Another thing I had to take into consideration, and also one of the reasons why I found running when Hunter was younger challenging was breastfeeding. I wasn’t too concerned about Hunter being hungry while I was gone now that he nurses less frequently since starting solids but I was more concerned about myself being comfortable. As I got ready I debated if I should pump. I was afraid that he might wake up too close to the time that I would have to leave and then I wouldn’t have time to nurse him. So I pumped and prayed he didn’t wake up while I was doing it. I was able to get enough milk for a full bottle and I sure am glad I pumped because he didn’t wake up until almost 8:30am, right when I had to leave! Other than that I knew he would be safe and happy hanging out with grandma while I was gone!

One of the best parts of this race was that it was within walking distance of my house! The perfect distance for a nice warm up. I had honestly debated signing up for this race because I figured I didn’t need to pay money to stay motivated I was pretty sure I would still run. But as I walked to the race, heard the music blaring to pump people up and saw all the participants walking towards the start I was glad I signed up just to experience the race day excitement. This is a pretty popular race with between 1500 and 2000 participants. People dress up (I saw lots of Turkey hats!), the University’s marching band plays, their mascot is running around and there is a lot of excitement in the air!

I actually got to the race site about 15 minutes before the start. I walked around a little bit to see if I could find my friend Nicole and her son but I never found them! The weather this morning was beautiful! It was cold but not freezing and once the sun got a little higher in the sky it really warmed things up. I can remember doing this race in past years and it was snowing!  This race is a prediction run which means when you register you try to guess what your time will be and there are prizes for those who come closest. It also means you can’t wear a watch. This was a good challenge for me because up until today I was using my Garmin to do run/walk intervals. I really wanted to run the whole race and without my watch telling me when to walk I had no excuse not to. I wasn’t really sure how the run was going to go. I had some pretty good training runs last week which consisted of two 20 minute run intervals with a 5 minute walk in between but I had yet to run 30 minutes straight. I actually hadn’t run at all this week because of a bad cold and a change in my schedule which had me working on a day I would normally run. When the gun went off  I just went for it figuring the enthusiasm of the crowd would carry me that last mile.

Because there are so many people in this race and the course is somewhat narrow because some of it takes place on one of our local bike trails you are always running with the crowd. It is also pretty cool to see a sea of runners headed through the Marsh (where the trail leads) while you are farther back on the course. The BEST part of this race is the finish. A few years back they redid the stadium and football field at the University and because of this they rerouted the finish line so that you end on the field. I was so excited about the race that I even put together a new play list. My final motivational song “Don’t Stop Believe’n” (Glee version) came on just as I was nearing the entrance to stadium. I pushed it all the way to the end with a big smile on my face!

Normally I would have hung around the race finish snacking, finding out my time and chatting with people I know but I wanted to get home to this guy

He was so proud of his momma!

I’m so glad I got to run in this race! My finishing times were 32:02 gun time, 30:51 chip time. I looked up some past results and I had pretty similar times to this year’s. Thanks to my mother-in-law and her friend for watching Hunter  (Brian was out hunting today).  I would really love to run the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot on Thursday BUT it’s a 5 miler AND I’m not sure if I can get someone to watch Hunter. Not sure if I’m up for future races this Winter but at least I got back in the game and I look forward to maintaining my running and looking ahead to more races as a momma!

This is a year of firsts! To me Halloween always seems to kick off the Holiday season so I was excited to celebrate our first Halloween with Hunter. To be honest I personally don’t really get into Halloween. I don’t like scary movies, I couldn’t tell you the last time I wore a costume, and I think one year we even decided to go out to dinner on Halloween to avoid the Trick or Treaters. BUT one thing I do love is seeing cute little kids in their costumes. Growing up I know I always put a lot of thought into what I wanted to be for Halloween and my mom always helped me get a costume together. I don’t think we had one store bought costume growing up. We just got creative with what we had and bought a few accessories here and there. Now that I have my own little one I just couldn’t wait to be creative and dress him up too! While I was on maternity leave and waiting for Hunter to be born (since he was 10 days late!), I picked up my knitting needles and made him a Yoda hat! I had good intentions of knitting him a Yoda robe to go along with it but that just didn’t happen! So we improvised with a brown hoodie and pants. I think he looked pretty cute!

We didn’t take him trick or treating seeing as he is too little for candy. We did stop by one of Brian’s friend’s houses to see their creative Halloween decorations. Can you guess their theme?

It was Men In Black! Brian’s friend and his son dressed up like Agent K and Agent J and his wife and other two children dressed up as aliens! They were so cute! They also built and AWESOME and elaborate spaceship. Hunter even got to sit in it!

He wasn’t too sure about the aliens though!

I look forward to stopping by this house in years to come to see what other creative themes they come up with!

And of course we carved pumpkins! I loved doing this as a kid and still do love it. Our two pumpkins featured baby feet and baby hands to signify “Baby’s First Halloween” and we made our Jack O’ Lantern to look like Hunter with is one little front tooth!

All lit up!

I got the boy to bed early (well, it was later than he should have gone to bed!) and Brian sat outside to hand out candy (so the dog wouldn’t bark). And that was it for our first Halloween as a family of three! I am looking forward to some other first holidays this year and many more fun Halloweens to come!

Well, another month has just flown by. I had such good intentions of updating this blog more often but it just didn’t happen. I can’t believe how much my concept of time has changed since becoming a mom. Time seems to be going so fast and there never seems to be enough hours in the day. I work at the church three days a week, this is when Hunter goes to daycare. Brian picks him up and by the time I get home there are only a couple of hours before Hunter has to go to bed. In that short amount of time I have to feed Hunter, sometimes bathe him, then get him ready for bed. After he goes to sleep I try to do some preparations for the next day whether that be packing lunches, making sure I have my work bag and Hunter’s daycare bag ready or prepping dinner for us or baby food for Hunter. Once all that is taken care, if I don’t have to go back to work, I just want to veg out! Needless to say my house is not even close to as clean and tidy as it once was and blogging has definitely been put on the back burner! But it is totally 100% worth it! I usually go to bed with a smile on my face and joy in my heart I LOVE being a mom!  Fortunately for me I have a great husband who pitches in and does a lot of the cooking and dinner clean up. But enough about me! On to my sweet little boy.

I swear sometimes I get Hunter up for the day and it seems like he has grown over night! I have no idea how much he ways but he  moved in to 6-9 months clothing shortly after turning 7 months.

Was he really once the same size as that elephant??

He continues to LOVE to eat real food. I don’t think there is anything we have given him that he doesn’t like. I’ve tried getting him to feed himself but he just plays with the food I set on the tray. He also still prefers a smooth puree. I’ve started experimenting with adding some spices to his food to add a little flavor. I still nurse him (or he gets a pumped bottle at day care) 5-6 times in a 24 hours period, but he is now eating three meals a day!

Since learning to sit up Hunter has been enjoying bath time a lot more. He loves playing with his froggy bath toys. They blow bubbles, spit water at him, and give him kisses. He also really likes to watch water pour out of the cup.

He hasn’t started crawling yet. When we put him on his belly, if he doesn’t flip over on his back right away, he usually flaps his arms and kicks his legs. I can tell he kind of knows what to do he just has put is all together.

Instead of working on crawling he’s been working on talking. He frequently babbles on and on and he also has discovered that he can screech and scream. When I put him down for his nap he talks and talks and squeals and screams before he finally passes out. Who knows who he’s talking to in there!

Speaking of sleep things continue to improve in that area. I think what has really improved is my attitude. I have just come to accept that I don’t have a baby who fits “the norm” when it comes to sleep and that is perfectly fine. For the most part he goes to bed fairly easily and sleeps 11-12 hours waking up once to eat. I also try to dream feed him (keeping baby asleep or rousing him just enough to  feed him) before I go to bed. Sometimes he surprises us and gives us a looooong stretch of sleep or even sleeps through the night. When that happens it is AWESOME! What is most challenging with night sleep is when he wakes up too early. It kind of throws the whole day off because by the time we have to leave the house for day care he is ready for a nap but we have to leave so he gets over tired. Naps are still pretty iffy. I try really hard to put him down before he gets overtired, especially if I am home with him but he often times has a hard time falling asleep on his own for naps and they are still pretty short (30-45 minutes). Again, sometimes he surprises us with a 90 minute nap and the other day he napped for 2 hours at daycare! I usually have to put him to bed really early (which results in an early wake up) because his naps are so short. Of course there are bad nights/days too due to illness, teething, or who knows what! We just take it day by day, night by night. It is sooooo much better than it was 3 months ago! I love seeing Hunter totally crashed out on the video monitor. I’m so happy that he can fall asleep on his own!

One final exciting development this month was that Hunter’s first tooth (teeth?) started poking through on the bottom! They are so cute! I feel like he has been teething since he was three months old (drooling, chewing, crying etc.) so it was exciting to finally see a tooth!

I am really looking forward to celebrating Hunter’s first holiday season! Last week we took him to a pumpkin patch and carved pumpkins. He wasn’t too interested in the pumpkins and preferred playing with the newspaper we had set down on our table!

The jack o’ lantern is suppose to look like Hunter and how do you like those baby hands and feet? You’ll just have to wait to see him in his Halloween costume!

Every time I write these updates I think about how words really can’t describe how much I love being a mom and how much I love my little boy. I just love watching him explore and discover new things. Every day brings something fun and new. My first favorite part of my day is when I go to get Hunter out of his crib in the morning he just smiles and laughs and gives me a big kiss. My second favorite part of my day is when I come home from work and see my boys! And my final favorite part of my day is when I nurse Hunter before bed and snuggle him in my arms. Sure there are still challenges and frustrations. But everyday I feel blessed that this little man is in my life.  He fills my heart with such joy! I can’t wait to see what happens each and every day!

Good morning mama!

Well hey there! Tonight you’re in for a little treat. A post reminiscent of days past, meaning I’m not going to write about Hunter. Well, I might write a little bit about him but this post has a different focus.

One of the cool things about having a blog is that you can look back and see what you were doing at this very time last year or even farther in the past. Two years ago around this time I was teaching a TON of fitness classes, participated in a 2 hour Zumbathon, and was preparing for a 7 mile training run. Last year at this time I was 6 months pregnant and slaving away over my master’s thesis taking breaks to cook some healthy recipes. My goodness how life has changed! It’s true my posts and my life are lacking in the fitness and food department. I have failed to give update on how my plan is working out. The long and the short of it is I have kept up with my cardio, mainly with running. Today in fact I ran/walked 4.5 miles! I have not however kept up on my core strengthening workouts which I NEED to do!

Finding healthy recipes, making them, and blogging about them use to be such a big part of my life. Since Hunter was born I honestly haven’t done much cooking. I have a pretty awesome husband who plans and makes a lot of our meals. Every now and then he likes a break and asks me to make one of my “stand by” meals that we both like. I do miss cooking but am grateful that I have a husband who takes care of this chore so I can take care of my baby boy.

Well, hunting season is upon us and this is when I would usually make meals that I knew Brian might not enjoy because I knew I’d be eating alone a lot. I must say Brian has been home a lot more this hunting season because he’s a new dad but I was just itching to get back in the kitchen and make something just for me!

Now that Hunter is going to sleep more easily and also fairly early tonight was my chance to prep something new, wonderful (at least I think it will be), and healthy for tomorrow in the crock pot.

A few weeks ago I  “Pinned” a recipe for Hearty Vegetable and Bean Soup and made it tonight with a few modifications.

Don’t all those colors look beautiful!

Here are some of the changes I made

• Instead of green beans I sliced up two zucchinis that need to be used up
• I didn’t use allspice since I didn’t have any. Instead I used garam masala and turmeric
• I didn’t use fresh parsley or a bay leaf because I didn’t have any. Instead I chopped up the leaves from the celery stalks. This adds great flavor to soup (at least this is what my mom told me!)

This was so easy to prepare and didn’t use very many dishes (trust me I had already washed this dishes once tonight and didn’t want to wash many more). You could really modify this and add any veggies or beans you have in your house.

Can’t wait to smell this simmering away tomorrow and see how it tastes!

I have an 8 month Hunter update coming soon! I just keep forgetting to take a picture with is stuffed elephant! I’ll leave you with a little bit of cuteness from bath time tonight!

Seriously! This month has just flown by! I guess with my work picking up my days are a little more full and time with my little man more precious. I feel like so much has happened and Hunter has really grown and changed in the last 30 days.

Most notably this month, just days after turning 6 months old, Hunter was able to sit unassisted!

We’ve also continued our adventures with eating “real” food! I was planning on doing a whole post on how I made my own baby food but basically I steam the fruits and vegetables I plan on using, puree them, and then freeze the puree in an ice cube tray. Each cube is about 1 oz. so I take out 1-3 cubes for Hunter’s breakfast and dinner.

The only food I haven’t made has been rice cereal that a co-worker of Brian gave to us since his daughter no longer eats it. But now with the discovery of high levels of arsenic in rice we are using it sparely. I would like to try and make my own baby cereal soon.

Hunter LOVES to eat! He gets super excited when I come to the table with his bowl and spoon.

So far Hunter has eaten:

• Bananas
• Avocado
• Peaches
• Pears
• Peas
• Plums
• Green Beans (from Grandpa’s garden!)
• Sweet Potato
• Squash

He seems to like them all! He prefers his food cool or room temperature and is still liking things to be pureed pretty smooth. Chunks sometimes surprise and upset him!

We are still working on sleep. I mentioned last month that Hunter was now sleeping in the crib and not the swing (thank goodness!) and falling asleep on his own. We had some really good nights where he slept for a 7 hour stretch and once he even slept 10 hours straight. Lately though he’s back to 3-4 hours stretches. Not really sure what is going on there. His naps are still frustratingly short so I know he is short on day time sleep. He’s also had a stuffy nose for about a week and we aren’t sure if it is a cold or teething that is waking him up. Our pediatrician said that since he is breastfed he will more than likely need to eat 1-2 times a night so usually when he wakes up, after waiting awhile to see if he’ll fall back asleep, I feed him. I am just thankful that after I feed him he goes back to sleep on his own and fairly quickly. This is a HUGE change from when he was 4-5 months old. For the most part he falls asleep on his own. There are a few occasions where he gets over tired and can’t fall asleep on his own for naps and we have to rock him but they are few and far between. Still not sure if that is what we are “suppose” to be doing but oh well!

This past month I can really see Hunter’s personality shining through. He has definite likes and dislikes. He loves to watch me dry my hair. I usually lay him on a towel in the bathroom and give him some toys to play with. Once I turn the hair dryer on he just stares at me, mesmerized. He loves watching Izzy, petting her, and having her lick him. He also loves bouncing and playing  in his jumperoo.

Now that the weather is cooler but not yet cold we’ve been out for more walks. Hunter is even able to sit in the stroller without the car seat. I think he enjoys seeing more of the world this way!

So far, I haven’t seen any evidence of separation anxiety. He still loves his mamma but he warms up to other people fairly quickly. I’ve taken him to the YMCA child watch a few times and he snuggles right up to the ladies there. He also hung out with one of the high school students I work with at church for the entire length of our outdoor service!

Hunter has also been introduced (for better or worse!) to football season! He and his daddy can often be found cheering on (or yelling at) the Green Bay Packers.

Day care is still going really well! I feel so blessed to have found such a wonderful care giver in Cassandra and a fun companion for Hunter in Lily!

Well, I guess that’s about it for this month’s update. I’ll leave you with some fun photos I took outside the day Hunter turned seven months. His adorable personality really shines through in these. I am so lucky to be his mommy!

I love him more than words can describe!

It seems as humans that we mark time in such predictable ways and mostly by years. How often do we find ourselves saying, “Well, last year at this time…” or, “It was four years ago that….” That is why it seems nearly impossible that Hunter is half a year old! I can’t believe I have been a mommy and had this precious little boy in my life for half a year. While there may have been some long days (and nights!) these past six months have flown! And I am sure in just six short months I will be shocked to find that we are celebrating Hunter’s first birthday.

Facing front for the first time in the Baby K’Tan!

Yesterday we had Hunter’s sixth month appointment he weighed in at 16lbs 9 oz., a little over half of his birth weight and was 25.7 inches, almost half a foot longer than when he was born!

I caught him sticking his tongue out…his latest trick!

I decided for Hunter’s sixth month appointment that I would try a new doctor, a pediatrician. For Hunter’s previous appointments we were visiting the Family Health Clinic in which residents are the primary doctors working under an attending (think Grey’s Anatomy only in family medicine not surgery). They were great and I liked the doctors we saw. It was also conveniently located and they had good hours with easy to get appointments. However, at his last appointment Hunter peed on the doctor and the doctor was so shocked! He said he had never been peed on before! He also seemed a little bit rattled when Hunter cried almost the whole appointment (he was tired) and said, “I hope I didn’t forget anything, it’s hard to remember everything with the baby crying.” It was at that point I figured we should probably see someone who is use to getting peed on! I was very pleased with the doctor we saw yesterday! She was very reassuring that I was doing everything right, she gave me some advice, and was great with Hunter. All looks well! He had a round of immunizations and today isn’t feeling the best but other than that it was a great appointment.

This month Hunter started going to daycare. I feel so lucky and blessed to have found our daycare provider. She is a woman from my church who was looking to stay at home with her daughter but also needed some income and wanted to care for children in her home. So far it is just Hunter and her daughter and he has only been there a few days but it has gone REALLY well! I love watching Hunter observe Lily who is 3 months older than him. I’m not quite sure if he knows that she is another baby as all his baby “friends” are closer to his age. He just loves to observe her crawling, and pulling up on things. I think he is going to learn a lot from her! She is super cute with him and shows him how to use some of her toys. She also thinks he is a baby doll and pats his head and kisses him. It is too adorable!

Another HUGE change in Hunter’s life is sleep! We are still not there 100% and I don’t want to go into specifics (afraid I’ll jinx it!) but I will say he is NOT sleeping in the swing any more, he is learning to fall asleep on his own, AND it has not been as bad as I thought it would be! I will probably write a whole post just about our adventures in sleep some day!

Hunter also went to his first family reunion. My mom’s mom was the oldest of 10 and every other year the remaining brothers and sisters, their children, their children’s children, and now their children’s children’s children (follow all that?!)  get together for a little picnic and to catch up.

Here are 4 generations of Seefeldt’s. My mom’s aunts Ruth and Charlotte, my mom, me and Hunter!

Sadly, my Great Aunt Ruth died rather suddenly a week after the reunion. I’m glad that Hunter got to meet her!

Brian and I also celebrated our sixth anniversary. I would definitely say that having a baby has changed our marriage for the better!

Here we are before we went out for a special anniversary dinner sans baby.

Grandma and Grandpa Johnson watched Hunter for us. Here’s what we found when we came home!

I’m not sure who has more fun Hunter or Grandpa!

And finally we just started venturing into the world of solid foods! Up until babies are a year old their primary source of nutrition should be breast milk or formula and solids are really just to get them use to different tastes and teaching them how to eat. Brian’s cousin sent me a book The Wholesome Baby Food Guide this book gives simple recipes and instructs you on how to introduce food to your baby. I’m not opposed to buying jarred baby food but I thought I’d give this a try since all the foods are whole and natural. So far we’ve tried banana and sweet potato. Hunter loved both! The initial look on his face when he tries the food is pretty funny but after that he just opens his mouth for more. I have a lot of fun feeding him too!

Izzy is also excited for Hunter to start solids. She has her spot all scoped out!

Can’t believe how fast time has flown! Each day presents it’s own joys and challenges as we continue to grow as a family. I love being Hunter’s mom so much! Such a blessing to have this little man in my life!

Hello there! It’s another one of those nights when I’ve gotten Hunter to bed quiet early. I know that I should go to bed soon (since he still isn’t sleeping through the night!) but I am staying awake because I don’t want to get too comfortable or sleepy just in case he thinks it’s a nap and he wakes up after 45 minutes! So far so good!

So, awhile back I lamented the fact that I really hadn’t gotten back into the swing of regular exercise but I knew that when I did manage to find time I felt so good! I think I finally have a plan and some motivation to get back into some regular routine as far as exercise goes. I got my idea for a plan from Caitlin at Healthy Tipping Point.  When she was pregnant her “plan” was to exercise at least three times a week. She didn’t lock herself into a specific type of exercise just a goal of doing SOMETHING 3 times a week. This is totally something I can do, even if it is walking. I also want to make it a goal to do the core exercises on my Be Fit Mom DVD (full review to come!) at least 3-4 times a week, so far I’ve only done it once! I’ve going to try and do this at night when Hunter goes to sleep because even if he thinks it’s a nap the exercises only take 35 minutes plus there are also some stretches and they are really relaxing. And finally I set my sites on a race I want to run the Friar Frolic 5K at my alma mater in October. I got together with some of my girlfriends this past week and our conversation turned to exercise (or lack there of) and my friend Emily brought up this race so we’ve made it a pact to run it together. I may not be able to run the whole way but I am at least going to try to run/walk it! It will be good to have my friends sharing this goal with me! I even created a little chart to track my progress and remind me of my workouts. I am not pressuring myself to run/walk 3 times a week (I know some weeks I’ll only get in 2 because of teaching at the Y) but I don’t want to move on to the next week until I’ve done the previous week’s workouts 3 times.

In order for me to get in my runs I know I will have to do some of them with Hunter in the jogging stroller. I took it out today for the first time for a little practice spin.

It was an epic fail! I didn’t know I was suppose to lock the front wheel and when I figured out that is what I needed to do I didn’t know how to do it! The whole thing bumped and jiggled and did not ride very smooth. I knew I couldn’t run with it so settled for a long walk, which was also quite annoying with the jiggling wheel.  Hunter loved it and was laughing the whole time, except for at the end when he fell asleep! When I got home Brian figured it out for me so I hope to have a more successful run next time!

Well, it’s been almost and hour and Hunter is still asleep (in his crib not the swing!) so I better get myself some shut eye before he wakes up again! Can’t wait to start my new plan! A healthy momma is a happy momma!