Mama Needs a New Pair of Shoes

Something a lot of you probably don't know about me is that I'm a runner jogger who wants to become a runner.  I started jogging probably four years ago to manage my weight.  See, I was uber-active when I was a kid and all through high school, then upon graduation, like a lot of people, my exercise/activity just completely stopped.  And my over-eating didn't.  The freshman fifteen was a reality for me, and then I got married(translation: I gained an additional ten pounds)!  I weighed more four years ago than when I was nine months pregnant.

After looking at some vacation pictures of myself, I decided enough was enough, and I signed up for the 2008 Houston Marathon.  At the time, I couldn't run for thirty minutes without stopping, but I figured there was plenty of time to fix that.  Unfortunately, I am the world's worst procrastinator.  That's why I end up writing these posts at five every morning.  That's also why on the morning of the 26.2 mile race, the farthest I had ever run without stopping was 10 miles.  But I figured I could handle it.  (Mom, if you're reading this, did you drop me on my head as a child?  Because that might explain my "reasoning".)

About fifteen miles in, I was starting to reconsider my training program.  Maybe I should have tried actually using a training program.  I made a few race-day buddies that helped me finish.  They helped me pace myself, they explained what a bad idea it would be to try energy gels for the first time on race day, and they told me what to do with the vaseline.  One of them (I really wish I could remember her name) even hung back around the 18 mile marker after "meeting" Patrick and told him that there was most likely no way I would finish the race, but that just in case he should go buy me a Gatorade and power bar and get them to me as quickly as possible.  Of course, she was nothing but encouraging to me; I didn't know about her dire prediction until after the race.

I did finish the marathon, but there was a lot of walking and a lot of pain.  I don't remember my time, just that I scraped in under the 6 hour limit.  To this day, I believe that if it had not been for the elderly power-walker that kept popping up behind me, I would not have finished in time.  (Be honest, is there anything you wouldn't do to avoid being passed by a 78 year-old woman at mile 25?  I was fully prepared to trip her if necessary.)

Wow.  That was a really long tangent that had very little to do with my original reason for posting.  Long story short, after the marathon I kept up with my jogging, using the same shoes I bought for the marathon.  By my estimation, those shoes have well over a thousand miles on them.  But they don't look a foot over 999. : )

I think Pat and I will be going shoe shopping pretty soon. 

I'm curious: what's the most worn out item you still use?

-Kelli

One

That's it!  Just one.  We put her down a little early (6:15) last night, because her schedule was kind of weird yesterday and she was tired earlier than usual.  In what I thought was a bad start to a bad night, she started crying at around 7:30.  With my puppy-dog eyes, I asked Patrick to do "this one" since I would be up all night doing "the others".  I expected him to be gone about twenty minutes, so I was planning to pay close attention to Survivor in order to give him the summary when he returned.  But then he came back before the commercial was over! 

He said he picked her up, held her close, then put her down.  And then she rolled on her side and started babbling to herself.  I think he picked her up, dosed her with Benadryl, then put her down.  (Please don't call CPS; I am joking.  We never give her Benadryl 'til after midnight.  [Again, kidding.  This is why I shouldn't write posts before 6 o'clock.])  By the way, did I do those parentheses correctly?  For the life of me, I cannot remember what (if anything) you're supposed to change when you have parentheses within parentheses.

Anyway, that was the only time we had to go to her last night.  That means Monday night had 61 pick-ups,  Tuesday night  had 64 or 41, depending on how you look at it, and last night had 1.  I'd say that's a pretty big improvement, wouldn't you?

In the interest of full disclosure, I should probably tell you that she did still wake me up a few times last night.  I heard her whining/talking/yelling, but never crying.  Every time I thought she was about to work herself up to crying, I would hear her soothing herself.  It was the sweetest thing!  Well, I thought it was the sweetest thing until I started writing this paragraph and tried to come up with a way to describe it.  The first comparison I thought of was one of those Gollum/Smeagol scenes in Lord of the Rings!  Still, I think I'll stick with thinking of it as sweet.  Although she has been known to bear a slight resemblance...

No, she's much too chunky to be confused with Smeagol.  She's got the posture down pat, though!

I'm not calling our sleep training "done" quite yet; one good night does not a good night-sleeper make!  But I am praying that it sticks.  It kind of seems too good to be true, but I guess God can probably make it happen if he wants. : )

-Kelli

Mmm. Mmm. Good?

Last night just before bedtime, we gave Madison her first "food": rice cereal!  We used plain cereal with her milk.  I'm not convinced she actually swallowed any of it, but she didn't scream, so I think we'll call it a success.

I love the stink-face she made after every "bite"!  This girl cracks me up.  Oh, and make sure to at least watch from 0:50-1:00.  At 0:54, Pat thought she was wanting him to protect her.  I didn't have the heart to tell him that she wanted him to feed her.  For some reason, he tends to take that as an attack on his manhood.  

In other news, last night could best be described as two steps back, one step forward.  She woke up more than the first night, as in six times, but she soothed herself before I could get to her two of those times.  That never happened before (at least not during this three-week long nightmare).  She also took less pick-ups during each waking session than the first night.  It went a little like this:

1-23x

2-7x

3-11x

4-23x

Total-64 times.  

Yes, this is three more times than the first night, but the last 23 really shouldn't count.  See, she had been asleep (well, in her crib, anyway) for ten and a half hours at that point.  If she had slept straight through, I would have called it a night and fed her.  Instead, owing to my brain-deadedness (I do realize now, after typing this out, that this doesn't even resemble a word, but I think it nicely demonstrates the level at which I'm functioning right now), I tried to get her to go back to sleep.  After 23 pick-ups, she did settle down, but only for about ten minutes.  It didn't click for me that the poor baby was hungry until my stomach growled.  And I had eaten about an hour after her last night!

With that being said, I think I'm going to call it a 41 pick-up night.  I guess that makes it a step forward without any steps back.  Oh, and I almost forgot!

It is my great pleasure to present this award to: Emily, Amanda, Becky, and Dorothy!