Introducing Henry

I’m back! I’m not five-posts-a-week back, but I think I am ready to go back to regularly updating on here.

So — the big news is — its a BOY! Early in the morning on June 4, Henry made his arrival into our now three person family. He is a beautiful and relaxed baby. People ask us how we are sleeping and seem amazed that between the two of us we’ve been able to get four hours continuously (for now).

I do not have the words to express how thrilled I am about Henry. Every cliche seems applicable. I am amazed sometimes that we made such a beautiful boy. Even though he has been with us for less than two weeks, it seems he has always been apart of us. I cannot imagine a life without him.

Sometimes I imagine Henry thinking as Bruno and I try to determine if he is hungry or gassy, “What a bunch of newbs.” But mostly he just eats and sleeps. I’ve taken him on a few walks, but it will be another couple of weeks until he is big enough for the Bob. I am excited for our first run together and all the good things to come.

I’m going to try to post three times a week for the rest of this month and see how it goes. Right now, teaching prep is a priority, so I’ve been trying to get as much reading done as I can during naps. I have not worked out yet and will most likely wait until I reach those six weeks, but I have been walking — increasing the walks by five minutes every week. I miss CrossFit and running. Life seems full, in all the best ways, especially as we try to figure things out.

 

 

Favorite Things : May 25 – 31, 2019

Contains Amazon affiliate links. 

This will be my last post for the next few weeks. After my ante-natal appointment yesterday, I was told I probably would not go beyond this weekend, but if I did to show up Monday morning bright and early to be induced. It is strange to think that there is an actual end in sight. In fact — it made everything seem so much less abstract. We came home and I immediately started cleaning. Must be prepared! Constant vigilance!

This week will mainly involve waiting. I do not think I will be able to finish the Harry Potter series as I had planned, but I should be able to finish Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I started Emily Oster’s book Cribsheet this week — so hopefully I can get through some of that to “prepare myself.”

I’m hoping to pop in to check-in in about two weeks! Until then, here are this week’s favorite things:

Cities are not the only location where innovation happens — turns out most of it is in rural areas.

30 lessons of 30 years.

I always feel terrible when I travel. Here are nine tips that can help.

Modern Mrs. Darcy on the writing process.

As someone who wants to do all the things (run, cycle, swim, lift, etc.), I like the idea of being a generalist in sport.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the early weeks of June!

 

Memorial Day Murph at 39 Weeks Pregnant

Last year I wrote a “race report” for my first Memorial Day Murph. At that point, I had only been doing CrossFit for less than a month. It was heavily modified with ring-rows and knee push-ups, but I finished and I was proud. I thought I would share a report from this year’s Murph — still heavily modified, because I am heavily pregnant. I am 39 weeks along — waiting any day (any second, really) for this baby to show up.

So what is Murph? RX’d it is 1 mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats, and another 1 mile run all done while wearing a weighted vest. Now, even under the best of circumstances, I would not be able to do this work-out RX’d. Last year, it left me completely drained and I could not walk right (from all those squats!) for at least a day or two.

Now I cannot walk right because of the baby. I was not planning on doing Murph at all. But all I have been doing is waiting for the baby. I felt like I had no events or any goals coming on to focus on and this has led to quite a bit of impatience on my part. Plus, I was starting to develop some serious fear of missing out and a little bit of a desire to give myself a nice pat on the back — look at me 39 weeks along, doing the Murph! (Humility is something I should work on.)

I mentioned wanting to do the Murph with another pregnant nooner. She asked if I would want to split it and do a partner wod — team Prego. We talked to our coach, who was encouraging. We signed up for the 10am heat. Here’s the thing, I knew I probably could do the whole work-out if I scaled it (ring rows, wall push-ups, etc), but it was more a question of should. I think doing half ended up being the better choice. I felt tired afterwards, but not drained.

Here’s how we did it — we walked 800m and split 20 rounds of 5 ring rows, 10 wall push-ups, and 15 squats between the two of us and finished with an 800m walk. I can honestly say that last 800m was super slow on my part. After each round, one of us would catch our breath while the other did a round. It ended up being a good plan, because I never felt winded or exhausted. I never had that “so much left to go, will I ever be done?” feeling.

It ended up being a lot of fun. I got a good work out in, but was able to cheer for my partner and other members of my heat. I still felt impressed with my body, especially the fact that I could manage to do 150 squats a week before my due date. I thought I would feel jealous of everyone doing the full thing, but I ended up feeling just fine with the amount I did. Plus, I figured I still was wearing my own version of a weight vest!

One thing I was hoping, which did not happen, was that doing half Murph would help encourage baby to make his or her appearance. A lot of people from my gym joked that I would have to name the baby “Murph” if a boy. I joked that I was trying to create an inhospitable environment in order to encourage baby to leave. It is Wednesday. Still no baby!

Did you do the Murph this year? How did it go?

 

What I’m Loving Lately VI

Contains Amazon affiliate links. 

It has been awhile since I have written one of these — not since January. I woke up around three this morning, not feeling well. I fell back asleep at five, but for the most part feel kind of groggy today. This is 38 weeks of pregnancy! Very glamorous.

Watching : Like nearly everyone else on this planet, I finished watching the final season of Game of Thrones the other day. That said, I’m not sure I can include it in things that I love. I liked the endings for everyone, but I thought it needed more time, more development to get to those endings. I’ve also been watching Chernobyl on HBO and it is terrifying and excellent. I feel so stressed out when I watch it, but it is so well-done I cannot stop watching. Bruno says there is a podcast that goes with it, but I have not listened yet. Other than that — I’ve been trying to watch how much television we watch. I’m tired of feeling like my evenings go to scanning through netflix, hbo, prime to find something to watch before bed. I’m not anti-tv. I love it, but I like to be a little bit more deliberative about what I’m watching.

Listening : My big post-dissertation gift to myself was a turn table. We bought an Audio-Technica. After it arrived, we went to our local record store and I bought Houses of the Holy by Led Zeppelin. For awhile it has been our only record, so I think baby will be a big Led Zeppelin fan. This last month, however, we bought Greta Van Fleet’s From the Fires, so we are expanding. I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to starting and maintaining a record collection, so I feel like such a newb. I will say this: there is a great pleasure to listening to something on analog. I like having to get up and turn the record to the other side. Plus, with headphones on all the time, Bruno and I do not get to share the music we are listening to, it seems much more communal now. I like that.

Reading : Plenty. I’ll share my May reads later, but I’m also trying to make it through some books in preparation for teaching in the fall. I am reading Paul Johnson’s A History of the American People. I did read a new history textbook the other week. I won’t share the name, because I’m not quite sure it is out yet, but I did not particularly care for it. I’ve been reading Introduction to the Devout Life by Francis de Sales in the morning and I love it. And of course — I’m still making my way through re-reading Harry Potter. I’m finally on Half-Blood Prince, so we’ll see if I get through all seven before baby arrives.

Eating : Probably too much. We bought Cook Once, Eat All Week to see if it would help save time and money. I think initially it cost quite a bit — all those different oils, spices, you know. But I think it will end up paying for itself. I spend all Sunday afternoon getting the components of the meals together and I love that it is step-by-step and I don’t have to think about it too much. We’ve been following it for three weeks and have been pretty happy about it. We had some bbq meatloafs with carrot fries which were delicious. Other than that — I am loving ice cream, lots and lots of ice cream.

What are you loving lately?

A Quiet Saturday

Contains Amazon affiliate links. 

I suppose, being 38 weeks pregnant, I do not have many quiet Saturdays left. I have had low-grade impatience for the baby to arrive beginning this month, but this past weekend I had a nice reminder to enjoy this time of waiting.

I think it began with the fact I actually had a good night’s sleep. Thank goodness, for Benadryl. I did not wake up once and woke up at around 6:30ish in the morning — which is late for me. Planning on going to my small group meeting in the morning, I read the Gospel for the week and some Harry Potter (what else, ha!) before eating breakfast, hopping in the shower, and heading to the church for my meeting. After my small group, I sat at the church for Eucharistic adoration for about an hour, reading Francis de Sales’ Introduction to the Devout Life.

I walked to Jilly Beans’ Coffee Shop and bought a coffee and cinnamon roll. I sat by myself and just read for about an hour or so. I’m not the type of person to let little moments pass me by and I’m grateful. While reading, I realized that very soon not every Saturday morning would be able to look as calm or peaceful. Even without a baby, not every Saturday goes according to plan. I think I very easily get sucked down the social media/internet rabbit hole and before you know it, I’ve had three cups of coffee and while I’ve been scrolling like crazy, I feel tired, stressed, and frankly meaningless.

Bruno picked me up and we had a quick lunch at home before going on a two mile walk. I hoped I would go into labor. I did not go into labor. Instead, my feet and what is left of my ankles swelled up like melons. I can barely fit in my shoes. It was hot out, so we joked we were training for living in Texas. The next several hours were spent sitting on our front porch reading. After that — we ate dinner and watched some HBO, before an early bed time of around 9ish.

It really does not seem like much. Dinner was left overs. We watched Chernobyl which was probably not the best choice for right before bed. Most of my reading was for work (though very enjoyable — I highly recommend) — I read Paul Johnson’s A History of the American People. Walking two miles is not an impressive work out and a far cry from my Saturday long runs (how I miss thee!). On the surface, the day does not seem special at all.

But, even though I’m impatient for baby, I’m grateful for these last few quiet Saturdays. I’m grateful for these last few walks with just Bruno and myself. Even as the the weeks until baby’s arrival turn into days, I’m going to take advantage that the quiet time I have: read more, write more, walk more and enjoy the calm, not before the storm, but before the creation of a new normal, with new Saturday routines, and a brand new person in the mix.

Monday Miles : May 13 – 19, 2019 (37 Weeks Pregnant)

I would be lying if I didn’t say it is just getting harder. I’m happy that I did a lot of walking this week, but I also have not been sleeping much — so nothing felt good for most of the week. Towards Friday, I started feeling a lot better, but I’m truly counting down the days now. My ankles are huge and swollen and everything for this week seemed to require a lot of motivation. I showed up though.

Things to improve on: Stretching, stretching, stretching. I suspect it is my lack of mobility, but the last thing I want to do is get on the floor and stretch even though I know my hips could use it.

5 – 13 : CrossFit. We did the Open Games 11.1/14.1 wod. Of course — I did it heavily modified. 10 minutes AMRAP – 50 single-unders, 35 lbs. hang power-snatches. I managed 4 rounds + 10 single-unders. Aside for all the jump-rope, I thought this was a fun work-out.

5 – 14 : Walk – 41 minutes, 1.5 miles.

5 – 15 : Walk – 40 minutes, 1.69 miles.

5 – 16 : CrossFit/Walk. The actual work-out called for a 5k time trial. I joined in for the warm-up and walked two laps of the 5k route. It was a good reminder that even when I really cannot do the work-out, it is nice to show up. 37 minutes – 1.89 miles.

5 – 17 : Rest.

5 – 18 : Walk – 53 minutes, 2 miles.

5 – 19 : Walk – 20 minutes, 1 mile. I actually stretched after this walk too.

Totals : CrossFit – 2 hours. Walking – Around 3 hours, 20 minutes. Around 4 hours of working out total (combined that crossfit/walk session).

Onward!

Monday Miles : May 6 – 12, 2019 (36 Weeks Pregnant)

I am thirty-seven weeks pregnant. At this point, everything hurts. I’m exhausted. And while I was counting down the weeks and days until my due date (June 3) before, by the end of last week I became impatient. I woke up last week, just feeling different. Walking has become much more difficult. I waddle and cramp up. I cannot seem to get comfortable no matter what position I’m in — sitting, standing, laying down. These are all normal things, of course. Once again, I know I’m blessed that my only complaints about pregnancy have all been the normal things that come with pregnancy. But suddenly, I can see why that ninth month can be long.

I still managed to get some moving in this past week and hopefully will continue to until the very end. I’m not sure how much CrossFit I’m going to be able to do. Suddenly it seems that no matter what movement I do, I look down at my stomach and it is coning. From what I read, that is a big no-no and can contribute to diastasis recti, but it seems like no matter what movement I get torpedo belly. Just a couple more weeks, just a couple more weeks.

5 – 6 : Walk – 30 minutes. 1.34 miles.

5 – 7 : CrossFit – 3 push-press every 2 minutes, 30 seconds for 13 minutes : 55 lbs., 60, 65, 70, 70, 70. Alternate every 10 minutes: Held 20 lbs. overhead, 10 pull-ups with green band. This is what I mean by torpedo belly, I would be trying to do the assisted pull-ups (badly, I no longer can get my chin over the bar) and I would look down and boom cone. This was not there before.

5 – 8 : CrossFit – 5x AMRAP 2 minutes, 1 minute rest – 3 hang power-cleans, 50 lbs., 9 wall burpees (squat, wall push-up combo). 13.5 rounds. I loved this work-out. I’m sure it would have been much for difficult if I was actually doing the burpees, but it felt good to be able to move quick and to push myself. No cone baby, either. Walk – 40 minutes – 1.97 miles.

5 – 9 : Yoga with Adriene — Deep Stretch.

5 – 10 : Rest.

5 – 11 : Walk – 30 minutes – 1.37 miles.

5 – 12 : Rest.

Totals : CrossFit – 2 hours. Walking – 1 hour 40 minutes. Yoga – 45 minutes. 3 hours 25 minutes working out.

Onward!

 

 

Thoughts on Laura Vanderkam’s 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think

Contains Amazon affiliate links. 

I re-read Laura Vanderkam’s 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think this week. I read it a few years ago, liked it, and of course, never implemented anything from the book. I never kept a time log, but I did like her approach to time management. Sometimes I just like to read these books for the inspiration and motivation.

This time around I think it was better for me. I’m not keeping a time log because I know life is about to be drastically different in the next few weeks or so, but because it was a good reminder that I can still have personal goals and ambition post-baby. Women do it all the time – she has the time logs (ha!) to prove it.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately as I move toward the end of my 36th week of pregnancy. As someone put it, “Baby can come any day now.” Yet – I frequently have people tell me all I can say good-bye to sleep, eating, working-out, reading, any sort of leisure time at all, and lastly my sanity. I’m sure that I am about to achieve a real shock to my system, but are these things true?

I appreciate Vanderkam’s answer to that question: no. I’ll admit, I’m very excited to be a mother, but not at the expense of giving up my entire self. One of my big post-baby goals is to train for a trail 50k. I suspect training for that will not happen until 2020, but I’m thinking about it, planning for it. Is this naive because I have no idea how motherhood will take up my time? Is this a completely selfish goal? Or, with a lot of planning, self-disciplining, and my new Bob stroller is this goal doable? I think the answer is yes to the latter. I hope it is.

Anyway — these are questions I’m thinking about right now. I suspect I will return to Vanderkam’s book again as I recover post-pregnancy and begin the new job. I hope to pick up I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time and have been scanning through her blog archives all week, happy to have hope that having a family and personal goals (or even work) goals do not have to be separate or even contradictory. As Jennifer Fulwiler puts it, it really can be One Beautiful Dream.

May 2019 Goals : Year of 1% Better

If you’re new here, I declared 2019 the Year of 1% Better. Here’s a list of all previous goal posts.

January: Goals | Outcomes

February: Goals | Outcomes

March: Goals | Outcomes

April : Goals | Outcomes

May will be my last month as a non-parent. I mean — I guess technically I am a mom, but rumor has it taking care of babies is a lot harder when they are on the outside. I’m inclined to believe it! Hah!

So it feels weird to make goals for this month. I mainly feel like I am holding my breath. This is the last month of the old normal, before the new normal arrives. I do not feel too stressed, thankfully. At the same time, however, I wonder, “Am I doing enough? Am I prepared enough?” This goes for baby, moving in July, and beginning to teach in August. Frankly, if I think about it too much I become mentally overwhelmed by newness.

Part of me wants to rush head-long into it. Let’s just get started already. I’m sincerely and truly excited for everything to come. I’m grateful that the baby will be here soon, to be moving somewhere exciting, and to teach subjects I love to smart students. But I have enjoyed my life with Bruno for the past nearly two years of marriage with just the two of us. I love living in Michigan (a bold statement for this Ohio girl!). I have had an exceedingly flexible schedule the last few years. Writing your dissertation does not require that you get dressed in regular clothes. All of these things are big changes.

I’ll admit another part of me questions, “What is the point?” Everything is about to be disrupted anyways — why start new habits? Why not wait – post-pone – until baby is here, we’ve moved, and I see what life looks like teaching in Texas?

But that just is not me. I have never been the type of person who says when “x” happens, I’ll do “y.” I just make “y” happen, whether that be run a marathon during an exceedingly difficult four class semester, get pregnant while finishing up my dissertation, or working-out while pregnant. Though I’ll admit circumstances do matter, for the most part we can do more than we think.

So – here are some of my goals for this month. Yes, the big goal is to just breathe, enjoy the calm before the baby, but nine months pregnant or not, I’m still capable of moving forward, of being 1% better. They are small, but that is the point.

Scholarly writing/editing – 30 minutes – 5x week : I found out at the end of last month my revise and resubmit for an article was accepted with minor style revisions. I’ll admit I’m still too burnt out (ok, I’m babying myself here) to just sit down and go through the revisions in one day and turn it in. Instead — I’m taking it little by little, thirty minutes a day of going back through and re-reading everything. I’m about half-way done and should have it re-submitted by the end of this week, but I’ve been thinking ahead. I think with baby and teaching full-time, thirty minutes will continue to be doable for me. I want to start the baseline for that habit now. I think people underestimate what they can accomplish in a focused 30-60 minutes and overestimate what they can get done in a day. I also plan on continuing with my April goal of fifteen minutes a day notebook writing.

Scan all class notes. I know it is tedious. I know sometimes the scanner refuses to cooperate, so I spend on hour scanning to find nothing was sent to my e-mail. Just get it done. I’ll be happier knowing that I do not have boxes of files sitting around my desk anymore. I’ll be happier knowing I can find what I need in DropBox and Evernote. I’ll be very happy to recycle everything and know I do not have to pack all these loose papers for Texas and find a place in a small apartment to store them. JUST DO IT.

Keep television to weekends. I do not even really watch much tv, but sometimes it can be easy to watch something I do not care about at all on Netflix or HBO or what have you. This is the last month Bruno and I have as just the two of us, I don’t want to waste it by staring at the tv for the last few hours a day.

Finish re-reading Harry Potter. Here is my fun one. I’m reading Order of Phoenix right now, so I should be able to get done by the end of this month. I want to be done before baby arrives when I plan on listening to them read by Stephen Fry (which I have never done before!). It is always the season for Harry.

I’m keeping it simple this month. Just four! Of course, I plan on continuing to CrossFit for as long as I can until baby comes and watch my social media (holdovers from previous months).

What are your goals for May?

 

 

 

 

Monday Miles : April 29 – May 5, 2019 (35 Weeks Pregnant)

Greetings from the land of raging heartburn and three hours of sleep! I keep getting told to enjoy my sleep while I can get it and believe me, I’m trying. However — I think when I start giving pregnancy advice, I might consider that the listener, especially if she is in the third trimester, is probably already not sleeping much. Tums can only do so much.

I’m feeling pretty positive though, because it is four weeks until my due date – June 3. Though I know first time pregnancies are more than likely to go over, I know there is an end in sight. I’ll admit I’m ready to have my body back. I’m ready to run again. I’m ready to lift to failure. And if you’ll permit me some vanity, I’m ready to start watching the pounds go down on the scale instead of up.

4 – 29 : CrossFit. 5 rounds for quality – 90 single-unders, 30 seconds double-under attempts, 3 squat cleans. Managed 50, 55, 55, 60, 60 lbs. for squat cleans. Oh man, this one was rough. And I’m pretty sure the only reason it was rough is because of all that jump-rope and my bouncing 35 week pregnant belly. Let me tell you — those two things do not go together well. I would stop every thirty to let things settle. I’ll admit I barely tried during the double-unders. I managed a few, but I treated the thirty seconds more as a breathing break.

4 – 30 : I didn’t go to CrossFit today and I cannot remember why. I suspect lack of sleep. I did go for a walk though — 30 minutes, 1.29 miles. Afterwards I followed it up with Yoga with Adriene – Stretch.

5 – 1 : Walk – 30 minutes, 1.4 miles. I think stretching the day before significantly helped how my walk felt. My hips have typically felt really tight, but I think I could treat this more like a leisurely stroll than normal. CrossFit – 2 rounds for time : 25 box-step ups, 20 inches; 50 air squats; 900m row – 16 minutes, 56 seconds.

5 – 2 : Walk – 30 minutes, 1.38 miles. CrossFit – “Diane.” I jokingly referred to my version as “Knocked-Up Diane” because it was so far from the actual benchmark work-out. 21 kettle-bell dead-lifts from a stack of weights (53 lbs.), 21 knee push-ups, 15 k-bell dead-lifts, 15 knee push-ups, 9 k-bell dead-lifts, 9 knee push-ups. 5 minutes 46 seconds. Probably for the best, since dead-lifts feel terrible to me pregnant or not.

5 – 3 : And then I was sick. I felt really awful this day. I was not planning on doing anything at all and then managed a mile walk after my massage. That is it. Walk – 22 minutes, 1 mile.

5 – 4 : Still not feeling the greatest. Rest.

5 – 5 : Walk – 40 minutes, 1.72 miles.

Totals : Crossfit – 3 hours. Walking – 2 hours, 34 minutes – 6.8 miles. Yoga – 22 minutes. 5 hours, 56 minutes total.

Onward!