Life as a Mom

I still can't believe sometimes that I'm someone's mom!

Obviously this blog will be more baby-centered for awhile. Heck, I can't even workout for several more weeks! But in a few months when I can train again it will turn more back into a triathlon/baby blog :) So after 11 days, this is what I've learned about being a mom:

• The sleep thing is tough. Newborns are supposed to be fed every 2-3 hours, and this 2-3 hours is from the time of the beginning of each feeding. So if you're feeding the baby every 2 hours, maybe you start at 7pm. He eats for 30-45min, and if you're lucky he goes to sleep. If you're not, he's squawky and alert. But wait, you have to feed him again at 9pm! -- 2hrs later. So when exactly do you get sleep?
• I've been feeding Logan on the 3 hour schedule, and pretty much every time at night I have to wake him up to feed - some people have told me to let him sleep, others have said, no he needs to eat a lot. I let him sleep for 4 hours last night before I got up...maybe a little selfishly because that meant I got 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep.
• All told, I get 6-8 hours of sleep, it's just all broken up
• I don't want to make any assumptions, but he seems like a good sleeper right now. He is only 11 days old, and I'm sure this will change over the coming weeks.
• I did get to experience some projectile poop and then a fountain of pee right after yesterday morning. Hi mom!
• I am doing most of the legwork right now since Marty obviously can't breastfeed. I'm not going to wake him up just to change a diaper. There's no reason for both of us to be sleep deprived. But once I can start giving him bottles you'd better believe he'll be doing some nighttime feedings.
• Even though I do a lot right now, I think I have a bit of an advantage since Marty works out of the house for the most part. So if I need to take a shower, I can. I'm not totally chained to the baby like some moms who's husbands have to go somewhere for work.
• Speaking of, I even got out for fro-yo with my girls the other night. Marty took care of squawky baby - he seems to be most disgruntled in the evening. This can last for a short time or several hours. I'm not talking about hours of crying, just hours of wakefulness with bursts of crying and not liking anything we do.
• Also, breastfeeding hurts! I don't care that everything I read online said it's not supposed to, that's a bunch of bs. Probably he didn't have the greatest latch at the beginning which contributed to the problem, but now it's pretty good and it still hurts. A lot of mothers have assured me that after 2-3 weeks it gets better. I'm really hoping it does because I definitely want to continue. Even though it means I get not much sleep and Marty sleeps like a baby (a baby who sleeps through the night, at least). A friend pointed out to me that I must be doing something right if he has several wet diapers a day, he has bunches of wet diapers.
• My weight has literally fallen off. I weighed myself this morning and I'm only 5lbs over my pre-pregnancy weight, and my exercise has consisted of several walks with Logan in the Bob around the lake in our neighborhood. Things are different, though, like my belly although I only have a bit of pooch right now, is super soft, like dough. I can't wait until I can do some core to help that tighten up.
• Tassie is doing fantastic. She hangs out with me when I feed him, seems concerned when he's crying, and gets very excited to see him in the mornings. Like wiggly and want to lick him all over excited. Logan, for his part, doesn't seem to mind.
• I'm getting lots of reading done on the kindle while feeding him. If anyone has awesome books recommendations, send them my way
• I am continually amazed that Marty and I made this little guy!
  

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Baby Makes 3

I know I have been delinquent in getting an update out, but I feel like I have so much to say and it's now overwhelming. It's actually not because I'm sleep deprived and exhausted, just haven't had the mojo to write something. But after some prodding from Marty, (Bri, when are you going to make a blog update) I figured WTH.

Soooooo, quick birth story. If you're interested in the gory details, you can email me - I have no problem talking about it but don't really want it all out here on the world wide web. Sunday afternoon I started having contractions. We went to The Mellow Mushroom for a last supper then came home and watched movies. By about 3am the contractions were extremely painful and my water broke. I got Marty up and we went to the hospital where I immediately ordered an epidural. It took quite awhile for the doctor to get to my room and administer it (a couple of hours) and man those few hours without anything hurt. I don't know why anyone would NOT get one! Because once I was hooked up I was able to sleep for awhile. By 11:30am I was fully dilated and ready to push this baby out. That took a long time (2hrs) and with a little help from a vacuum, Logan Marton Gaal was born at 1:44pm on 12/12/11 weighing in at 7lbs 13oz and measuring 19.5 inches.







Marty and I are figuring things out. Up until Monday, neither of us had changed a diaper! It's been helpful having my mom and sister here - really nice to have others give us advice and help out. Newborns sleep a lot so that part hasn't been so bad. I'm not counting on it lasting forever, though. The hospital was the worst as far as trying to rest! Always someone coming in constantly waking you up to do something or ask some question - it was nice to come home on Wednesday.

I can't do any real working out except for walking for quite some time, which is fine so I can just concentrate on Logan and doing what needs to be done for him. Exciting times ahead for sure!

Our little glow worm:

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Pics and Randomness

I went to dinner with some good friends on Tuesday night. It was a "you can do this Bri" dinner but really just a good excuse for us all to get together. We had a great time with lots of laughs and even ate a traditional New Orleans cake with a baby Jesus tucked inside (thanks Kari). Heather came waltzing in with this poster:




What do you think? Should I hang that up in my hospital room?

Tassie is on the DL.

That would be the disabled list. Not the down low. Marty often lets her go out front with him to retrieve the paper. She never actually retrieves she just stands guard halfway down our driveway. Except on Saturday she spotted a bunny and shot off like a cannon (helped by the fact that our driveway is steep like a ski jump). To get to the bunny she had to navigate between a huge pile of leaves and parked car - when she went to make the extremely tight 90 degree turn at top speed she slid out and ran right into the car. Of course she didn't catch the bunny (she never does regardless of obstacles) but what we didn't realize until she got into the house was that she tore up some of her pads and broke a chunk of nail. Luckily, the pads she tore were on the high part of her leg, not the bottoms of her feet. After putting ointment on it all weekend which she would proceed to lick off, Marty took her to the vet on Monday.

Now she is bandaged up. She wasn't limping until they put the bandage on. Now it's like "oh poor me, look at how sad I am. give me a cookie"


I will say she is such a good, patient dog. I changed her bandage last night while Marty was at a CPR course and she sat their letting me pull and cut and redress and wrap without moving. I did give her a cookie after that.

Last night I was having difficulty sleeping (pregnancy pains) and got hungry so I wandered downstairs to the kitchen to stuff some unhealthy snack into my mouth. While I was munching on 1 or maybe 5 of these:

I noticed a new warning on the package - Please do not eat raw cookie dough

What the what? Isn't that was this is for? Oh, you mean I'm supposed to bake this?!

Then this morning they actually mentioned this on air. The universe is conspiring against me. Raw Cookie Dough Ready to Bake, Not Ready to Eat

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Home Stretch

I'm 10 days out from my due date. Will he come on time? Early? Late? It seems most first time pregnancies are late so I'm not counting on anything until after the 15th (just please not too late Logan!). I have finally started feeling the uncomfortable-ness that a lot of women talk about. For the most part I'm pretty good, but I'm definitely not sleeping as well as I used to and I'm having all sorts of little pains and pressure throughout the day. I have gained around 27lbs so far, and feel like a moose. People tell me I'm not but who is really going to say anything too horrible to someone 9 months pregnant? But I'm ready to be done and not have to lease space to another human in my body anymore :) I know we are in for a ride when he gets here but it will be nice to not be pregnant.

So here I am in all my glory. We've been taking weekly pictures (just a missed a few) with me in the same outfit. I thought that maybe I painted myself into a corner and wouldn't be able to fit into it at the end but it surprisingly does still fit. Even the shirt - I think right now just a bit of my belly peaks out on the bottom if I were to put it all the way down.


And here I am from the front. I think it's weird that you can still sort of see my waist, with what looks like a basketball placed on top.

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