Gin, Cheese & Other Necessities

Three (3!) Things Thursday

I’m pretty sure it’s Thursday, anyways.

So – I know there’s not been a lot of bloggy activity lately. And I totally blame the baby. He takes up a lot of my time, what with his near-constant napping. I have to keep an eye on him. Because he is just so damn good looking. (which is good, considering that he decided that 3 am – 6 am was happy wakey time this morning…cute is totally a defense mechanism.)

1. Last weekend was gorgeous! Sunshiney and warm! The architect and I took the baby for a walk and ended up at McMenamin’s, sitting outside, soaking up the rays, and having a beer. And lo! it was good.

2. Saturday, the architect, Alvie & I get on a plane to fly back to South Dakota. My dad’s Celebration of Life service is Monday 4/30. The architect has to go home on 5/1 so that he can architect, but I am staying another week. I’m glad that I can do that, but it will be weird to be sans architect for an entire week. That will be the longest we’ve spent apart since we were married, and maybe even since we met…we were apart 5 days in August (last time I went to South D), and that was hard. And now that we’ve procreated together, it’s going to be really strange. At least he’ll get to catch up on sleep!

3. I have developed a terrible habit of checking my FB & email while breastfeeding, and then not responding to emails or FB messages, because it’s too hard to type one handed while also feeding the ravenous beast that is my son. Then – I totally forget about said messages, until several days later, and then it just seems weird/awkward to reply. Sorry everyone! But look! At least my baby is cute:

3.5 (Apparently not blogging regularly for a while leaves me with lots to say): I have been trying to get out for a walk every other day. Yesterday I walked an entire mile in 36:38 (this included grocery shopping, btw – I think if I hadn’t had to wait in a checkout line, it would’ve been even faster). I do, however, feel loose. My hips & ankles feel floppy. I don’t like it, and am trying to take it slow so as not to mess up my body even more than it’s already been messed. I am REALLY looking forward to feeling like myself again, though. Most of the edema is gone, but I’m still really puffy/swollen at the incision site. I am much smaller now that I was even two weeks ago, though, and am feeling confident that by the time I get the all clear to run (5/31, bitches!), I will be of a normal size, although not pre-baby weight or anything. I don’t dream that big. I did, however, pick this year’s A race. The Silver Falls Half marathon on 11/3. I am hoping that I get in. It’s a trail half, which I’ve never done before, so I won’t even have to worry about time – automatic PR! I cannot wait to lace up my trail shoes again!

Weekend in Review

Apr 2nd, 2012

by gazelle.

4 comments

No new pics today – I mostly just take pictures of cats now anyways. Of course, you should thank me, since soon, this will all be pictures of Alvie. And cats, too, probably.

So – the days are all running together now. I am (mostly) done with work. I do need to log in today & do a few things, as well as put in my out of office message. But – not going into the office has really messed up my concept of the passage of time.

Ummm…so…Friday! Friday I went to acupuncture, then made my mom go have mediocre suburban Mexican food with me before hitting Target for a couple of last minute baby items (like toilet paper and swiffer dusters to dust the ceiling fan – totally baby related). Whilst at Target, I started having contractions. “Yay!” I thought. Immediately followed by “I think I should leave Target now and go home.”

I made my mom drive home, and spent the rest of the afternoon having contractions. It was very magical. Or something. I did call the architect and ask him to come home a bit early – just in case. And he did! He skipped work happy hour and the promise of fried cheese sticks to come home! I showered and put on my going to the hospital outfit, and then…they just fizzled out. I made the architect miss cheese sticks for nothing! I am a bad wife.

I was pretty exhausted Friday night, though, even for just 5 hours of false labor.

Saturday I did…nothing. I rested. I hydrated. I crossed my fingers.

Sunday I had bursts of energy! I was putting away the flat ware from the dishwasher and realized that the drawer in which I store the flat ware was GROSS! So I (with the help of my mother) decided to clean it out. And then, I needed a new flatware tray, so we went to the dollar store. And then to the new nursery down the street (they had baby chickens! I didn’t get any) and then there was cleaning! And organizing! And more ceiling fan dusting (not by me, though – I am not allowed to climb on ladders).

Then, of course, I was wiped out.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading, and web surfing, and playing of Words With Friends.

And today – today is Alvie Bean Day. However, I do not think that Alvie is going to make an appearance today. He is just too cozy. Of course, there is now a FB movement to Free Alvie, and possibly a petition, and many people pleading my case (because Amy needs gin), so maybe he’ll listen.

I do, however, feel pretty confident that by the end of the week, I will have a new baby friend.

Happy week!

Darwin says you WILL have a good week...or else

April 2012 Goals

Apr 1st, 2012

by gazelle.

3 comments

Hi! still no baby! I have started telling people that it was just a very elaborate April Fool’s joke that I’ve been working on for the last 9 freaking months. I am so dedicated to my pranks that I will give up running, Advil, biking, and gin for this joke. ha ha ha ha. Nope. Still just mothereffing pregnant. Not that I’m done with this experience or anything. As I told a friend yesterday (an awesome, wonderful friend who brought me a bag of avocados and lemons fresh off a tree!), every second of this pregnancy has been a magical, wonderful miracle. Every frigging second.

March 2012 Goals

Get all my budget drafts done at work. – SUCCESS! All the budget stuff was done & in on time! Which is good, because I am pretty much done with this work thing.
Finish nursery stuff (not much left here). – SUCCESS! The nursery is all ready for the baby! The baby that won’t come out!
Start writing again, now that I don’t have to spend all my nights doing school stuff – goal is to average 750 wds/day, so a total of 23,250 words written in March. – 15% SUCCESS! I had a really good start, and then stuff just happened, and I got away from the habit again.
Seriously, for the love of all that’s holy, get these unused, old, junky computers, monitors, and printers OUT! I may need an exorcist at this point. – SUCCESS! Thanks 100% to Heather the Awesome who came & picked up everything and took it away! She is awesome, and I hope her garden blooms beautifully this year as a reward.
Knit one tiny baby item. I haven’t knitted regularly since starting grad school! -FAIL! I didn’t even bother getting my knitting stuff out of the closet. And you know what? I’m okay with that.

March 2012 Training Goals

Eleven hours of exercise-related activity (that is an average of 150 minutes/week; recommended for preggos) – 62% SUCCESS! I had no idea how exhausted I would be the last couple weeks of the month – add to that a couple of days of very exciting yet exhausting false labor, not to mention the emotional exhaustion of dealing with my dad’s death, and I did not get out there as much as I’d hoped.
Five yoga classes, minimum (estimated time: 6.25 hours) – 40% SUCCESS! I only did two. I am so ashamed. (I missed the first due to breastfeeding class, the 2nd due to my car not starting, and the 3rd due to the aforementioned exhausting false labor.)
Five swims, minimum (estimated time: 3.75 hours) – 100% SUCCESS! And not only did I swim five times, I swam over 4.5 miles! I had two 1 mile swims and 1 2000 yd swim, plus a couple shorter ones. Yay for me!
One 15-minute upper body weights sessions/week (estimated time: 1 hour) – 0% SUCCESS!I actually forgot about this until right now. Oops!
One 30-minute walk/week (estimated time: 2 hours) – 0% SUCCESS! I tried to walk as much as possible, but didn’t hit those goals…

Please note that nowhere in my March goals does it say “have a baby.” That is one goal that I never want to have to write FAIL! next to! – So glad I didn’t make this a goal, because as I mentioned, there is no baby. None. Nada.

So – I did pretty well with my regular goals, but not as well with my fitness goals, but also – ginormously pregnant, so I think that’s okay. I’m trying not to be too hard on myself about that, although I really, really, really miss working out. At least I’ve had my weekly swims. That’s been keeping me sane. I don’t know if I’ll be able to swim this week even if I am still sans baby, though. I’d like to – it’s the only time I feel even remotely like myself.

Also – see how cute I am? And plus, I can still outswim lots of non-preggos:

April 2012 Goals

Have a baby
Keep baby alive for entire month
Don’t check work email for 4 weeks post birth
Drink a Sapphire martini, dry, with olives
Send out thank you notes to all who need thank you notes.

April 2012 Training Goals

Ease back in slowly & sensibly.
Start walking a few days after Alvie is born – just a couple of blocks at a time
Do not get caught up in training plans or goals
Make time for myself to move and feel good, even when the baby is all brand new
Take it slow and listen to my body

Not a whole lot of excess ambition for this month – it’s going to be a weird month. I’ll be having a baby for reals (I’m due tomorrow! EEK!), and then a little bit after that, I’ll be heading back to South D for my dad’s celebration of life service and to stay with my mom for a little while. So – I am just intending on surviving April.

Three (3!) Things Thursday

Feb 23rd, 2012

by gazelle.

6 comments

1. I love how many guesses there are so far on yesterday’s “guess the baby arrival day” contest. Everything ranging from March 14 (which, no! too early John!) to April 10 (which no! too late, Megan!) My personal preference would be to give birth sometime between 3/31 & 4/6. (Although if I’m completely honest, if I could wrap up my work stuff & have that baby any time after March 19 would be fine. So – get your guesses in! Win a prize! Because who doesn’t like guessing on a perfectly random event?

34.5 weeks pregnant

2. I made steel-cut oats this morning for breakfast for the first time. Much tastier than my usual instant oatmeal. Also much more time consuming. I think that I will have to make this ahead of time & start taking it to work to heat up. Any oatmeal advice for me?

Image used under creative commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

3. Today is the first day of my exciting birthday 4-day weekend! Which means tomorrow is my birthday! This is the weekend of 35! I will turn 35 tomorrow. I will be 35 weeks pregnant on Monday! Also on Monday? 35 days left until my due date! I feel that I need to do 35 things this weekend. Or maybe just eat 35 pancakes…or cupcakes…or some other kind of cakes. ANYWAYS – happy weekend of 35 to me!

The Twelve Days of Gazelle-mas: Day 8 (2011 In review)

Dec 30th, 2011

by gazelle.

1 comment

First of all, I need to mention that I fell asleep about 11:30 pm last night and then: I slept until almost 7 AM! I woke once & briefly about 5, but did not need to get up. I’m sure those of you who aren’t/have never been pregnant (or closely associated with a pregnant person) are not sure why that’s news-worthy, so let me enlighten you. This is probably the 3rd or 4th time since late July that I haven’t had to get up to pee at least once. I don’t know if you remember me bitching about remodeling our bathroom in August – the month of no running water in our upstairs (read: bedroom adjacent) bathroom. I know you didn’t know I was pregnant, but I was, and holy balls, that sucked the big one.

ANYWAYS – looking back! Such an interesting year. A lot of surprises – mostly good ones. How did I do with my 2011 goals, you (probably don’t) ask?

Well – let’s just look at that, shall we?

Run a half marathon by the end of June. – FAIL! In fact, I didn’t run a half marathon all year. I only had one run over 13 miles, even. Boo! However, it took a LOT longer to recover from my foot surgery, and just as I was getting into the swing of things, I got myself all knocked up.
Read 52 non-paranormal romance books, including at least 12 from my Nobel Prize list. – FAIL! I only read about 50 books (not counting textbooks) total in 2011, and only 2 were from my Nobel prize list. There’s no way a majority were not brain candy.
SIRASANA! With no wall support. – SUCCESS! Albeit, briefly. I did hit this pose a couple of times, for short periods of time. This is something I will never stop working on.
Take fencing classes. – FAIL! Due to school/work/pregnancy, this, too, was put off.
Achieve contentment with my body (which may be a combination of weight loss and muscle gain) – EH??? I don’t know. Pregnancy has really thrown this off.
Take a few risks that may lead to happiness. – SUCCESS! Job risks, Toast risks, getting knocked up risks….
Secret Goal that I don’t want to talk about – FAIL! Job changes really got in the way of this (btw, it involved a career switch, and I did interview for a new job in January/February 2011, and was a finalist, but it was not to be….)
Finalize my capstone paper topic and get ready to finish grad school! – SUCCESS! I have only 7 weeks left until I’m done with grad school! YAY!
5K PR – FAIL! Again with the recovery from foot surgery + getting knocked up. 2013 is my new year of the runner!
Successful cheddar cheese! – SUCCESS! I love cheese.
Eliminate all non-mortgage & non-student loan debt. – EH….I am in much better shape now than at the beginning of the year. Of course, I’m sure that having a baby will make all my financial dreams come true, right?

Overall – even though it looks like I had an approximate 50% fail rate for goals, I am okay with the ones that are fails. I failed for good reasons (i.e. not pushing too hard during surgery recovery, getting pregnant, getting a new job that changed a few of those goals), and I am pretty happy with my 2011 overall.

I have some of the best friends a girl could ask for – both here in PDX, back in South D, and in the internets, as well as the best architect in the land. I’m having a great(ish) pregnancy, I’m almost done with school, I got a promotion at work (and no longer feel one step away from failure at work), and life is pretty damn good. There are still changes I want to make with my life and my job and all sorts of things, but overall, I’m generally pretty content.

***First the song, and then I will reward (punish?) you with a photo recap of the year!***

On the eighth day of gazellemas, Amy gave to me:

Eight hours a-sleeping

Seven miles a-cycling

Six yogis posing

FIVE PAIRS OF SHOES!

four pancakes,

three lazy cats,

two empty boxes, and

A Pooh Bear outfit, adorable and twee!

January 2011: