Back in my jeans

So, I'm back in my regular jeans. Don't ask me how. Sleepless night? I have no idea...I work out once a week, IF THAT. I do walk everywhere since we live downtown and that must do SOMEthing, but seriously let's not talk about the why, and how, let's just be grateful that my clothes fit (pants at least). Tops on the other hand are still in shock from the size of my chest. Eventually, I guess, that will go back to normal too??? Today, though, I'm just going to express to all you pregnant ladies out there-- IT GETS better. Eat healthy, drink water, walk a lot and hey, maybe it will work for you. I lost the first 30 pounds in like 8 weeks or something but the last 10 hung out until about 6 months. My tummy is in need of some sit-ups but hey, I'm not complaining. I seem to be able to eat ice cream everyday (ice cream is the 5th food group). Finding the energy to exercise is another story. With bad sleep it gets hard to get fired up about a 4 hour mountain bike ride, but I did manage one of those recently. So YEAH! Jeans... they've been fitting for about a month and THAT is exciting.

Camping in Hart Prairie | Flagstaff, AZ

erin-kate and owen

los tres vans

approximately 6AM

I know this looks fake, but it's real

It seems a tradition that each year we go out to the spot where we got married here in Flagstaff at Hart Prairie and camp out. This year we brought out the vans. D.Kish brought her gimpy arm (went boom boom on a climbing photo shoot), Gomez and Erin-Kate brought their Westy (hello envious) and we brought the red stripe (our van). Have I mentioned that Matt is OBSESSED with the GoWesty.com site? He has given up his sports car addition (on ebay) and traded it for VW vanagon obsession. If Go Westy got a dime for every click Matt clicks on that site, they'd be LOADED. Keep in mind an average GoWesty Vanagon costs like $35,000. Yes, I know. I know.

Anyway, Owen was chillin' in his bear costume coupled with a cute hat that our friend Anne made for him. We hope Anne will make him another one as he outgrows this one and maybe a matching one for Mommy.

We used the Graco pack n' play on the first floor of the van and Owen slept well. We draped the pack n' play with blankets so it would stay warmer for the little dude. It's fun and Owen loves the scenery outdoors.

Baby Bike Trailer and car seat: Chariot vs. Burley

Owen is 16 weeks (3.5 months) and so alert and happy! We got a Burley bike trailer (it also becomes a ski trailer and baby jogger) a little premature, but we are so excited to get on the bikes, we couldn't help ourselves. We picked Burley over the Chariot trailer because we could buy locally from Bike Trailer Shop.com --located in Flagstaff, not to mention Chariot is a serious investment. Chariot is having a busy season and are tough to get a hold of. Burley just added the "We Ski Kit" which will allow us to cross country ski with Owen (Mom will pull on flats) which is initally why we wanted the Chariot, which boasts a ski adapter as well.

We don't plan on toting Owen on roads, or bumpy trails (yet) but Flagstaff has some really nice paved Urban trails that will be fun to ride on. Owen has extremely great head control (benefit to sleeping on belly) and loves to get outdoors (ah a child after my own heart). We have considered putting his car seat into the baby trailer and securing it down but haven't figured that out, until then, we are using the Burley snuggly which holds him in there quite nicely. Bike trailers have a "universal joint" so you can lay the bike down or crash yourself without the trailer flipping. Now, I'm sure you can flip a baby bike trailer if you are going fast and furious and hit a curb or something but we'll save that for our mountain bike rides without the dude or the trailer. Right now, it's just fun to transport the dude short distances on back roads powered by Mom, who can stand to lose about 5-10 more pounds. With gas prices on their way up, we are proud to be cyclists and will have a lot of fun in the coming years living in a small town that supports our decision to commute by bicycle. We hope to teach our child the value of alternative transportation when he's old enough to understand AND we cross our fingers that Owen will love biking as much as we do!

the dude would crawl if he could figure out the legs thing...

the dude asleep in the trailer

Mom pulling the rig...

Swimming during Pregnancy, Birth, and make the Olympic Team?

If anyone thinks I exercised a lot during pregnancy, how about training for the Olympics? My new hero, Dara Torres, did swimming workouts during her pregnancy and will attempt to make the Olympic team, AGAIN but this time with a 3 1/2 month old. Oh yeah, and Torres is 40 years old. Please, if you want to feel inspired, read this article. Just for your information when I was 7 years old I could swim 25 meters in 20 seconds allowing me to be make the "B" meet. My best friend, Kathleen, could swim it in 19 seconds. Dara Torres does 50 meters in 24:63 seconds. Thanks to Karla, my sister-in-law, for sending me this article.

In my "Mommy exercise news," which seems to pale in comparison, I completed my first mountain bike ride yesterday: 1 hour 45 minutes. YEE HAW! It was the inaugural ride on my custom made Coconico bike, which is pink, thank you very much. It felt great to feel the cool Flagstaff mountain air rushing through my lungs again. I was smiling the whole time. Owen slept at home while Mommy got to stretch her lungs, I mean legs. I can feel the residual fat melting away. On a weigh loss note... I'm down to somewhere around 145-147 pounds. I don't have a scale but occasionally stop by the midwifery to weigh myself (it's 3 blocks away). I have lost approximately 33 pounds in 8 weeks! I assure you I haven't done anything special to accomplish this. I have been walking about one hour a day maybe 3-4 times a week. My "usual" weight is about 135lbs, so I've got 10 pounds to go (I was 140 when I got pregnant, which is WHY I got pregnant but we won't get into that). I can't say I'm chomping at the bit to get back to teaching spinning (indoor cycling) but perhaps in July I'll be ready to put the mic back on. It depends on if Owen can handle the nursery and if it fits with his schedule.

Bottle update: Owen is still fighting it but I have another short wedding on Saturday (my last until June 6). I just got a Playtex drop in style, so we'll try that one today. I've spent a small fortune on bottles.

Sleep update: Owen is now sleeping 3-4 hour stretches at night. Yippie. Ex: down at 7:45, up at 11:45PM, down at 12:00 up at 3:30, down at 3:50 up at 6:30. He did wake at 1AM but Matt put him back down quickly and quietly. I accomplished this by focusing on Owen taking a full feeding on a single breast each nursing and having quality daytime naps. For nursing: 12-18 minutes each time. I have always done single side nursing to avoid the extra lactose (can make for colicky babies) that is found in the 'fore milk*,' but hadn't been watching the clock or him closely enough. Now I try to offer the breast to him until he's at least reached 10 minutes and usually he'll go for an extra 2-8 minutes. This affords him the 'hind' milk, which is rich in fat, proteins and apparently stuff that makes them sleepy. I also focus on nursing when he awakes from a nap during the day and conclude the session with playtime, so that he's more tired when he goes down for a nap, thus he naps longer.

* if you didn't know, one of the most amazing things about breast milk is that it's composition not only changes as the baby gets older, (ie: milk for a 6 week old baby is totally different than milk for a 3 month old baby) it changes as the baby is nursing. First comes the fore milk, which is mostly water, next up is the richer creamy hind milk, which has more protein and fat. If you find your baby gets hungry quickly, you might focus on single side nursing with some burping or diaper changing to keep him alert. You can witness this phenomenon by expressing some milk. If you cannot see the difference with your own eyes during expression, try refrigerating it and you'll see the hind milk separate and rise to the top. Note how much time it took to express that milk and you might have a guideline about how long your baby should nurse. Take into consideration how the pump relates to your baby's suck.