Inertia

I mentioned in a previous post that I registered for a marathon. In fact, I regiestered for the St. Louis Marathon, which will take place April 9, 2006, which is just under 21 weeks away. I am not sure I will be ready at this pace.

I am using the program devised by a Professor at the University of Iowa, which is a 16 week program that involves running only 4 days per week. Over 200 people have taken this course and only ONE person has not finished the marathon. Based on the success of the program, he published a book which has rave reviews on Amazon. So I bought the book and have been following their pre-training-training program (gets you up to 30 minute runs 4 times a week, which I have not been able to do for several years).

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1570281823/qid=1132105486/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-6276787-8671960?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

I've been stuck on the 6th week of pre-marathon training for two and half weeks now. First I had some issues with my ITB as a result of my knee injury a few years ago when, riding my motorcycle, I drove my knee right into the tailpipe of DH's motorcycle (don't ask, it's a long, embarassing story, about which I am sad to admit there was no alcohol involved. Just plain ol' distraction).

Here's the dent I made in the tailpipe:


After that, my ligament was damaged for several months. I couldn't walk on my left leg properly for months, but I found a way to run despite the injury. I think I was doing about 15-20 miles per week with the injury.

Unfortunately, I ran by avoiding bending and landing on the knee at the same time, which completely changed my gait. So now my left knee is much weaker than my right knee, which results in me placing all my weight on my right side and now, with the loosened joints from pregnancy, the extra weight from being a bloated pregzilla, and overly strong right leg, things are just all whacked out. My new Mizunos help, though. And after resting for a week and consciously focussing on properly striding, things are getting better.

But just when I thought I was back on the treadmill, I got The Cold. The first of what will be many, many, many colds this winter, I am sure. It started off rather benignly but stuck around for a long time and turned into bronchitis and laryngitis and another meeting with my dear friend Zithromax. So I decided not to run last week.

I am determined to make it past pre-training week #6 and move on to my 15/5 week (run 15 minutes, walk 5, repeat once. Do it 4 times per week). I'm gonna do this! Or die trying...

By the way, Adam is almost over The Cold. Natasha is sick with a double ear infection. DH had The Cold for a few days, but he seems to be better. I no longer sound like a smoky jazz club singer...

I Need Your Help

I am at a loss for my next speech topic. It's my final speech and must be as close to ten minutes as possible. I never have a problem with having enough to say about anything, so the problem with time will be for me to keep a narrow focus, not add too many asides, and not to add too many personal anecdotes to try to illicit a laugh from the group.

So far I have done speeches on the following topics
1) Sleep (importance, how much, what happens when you do it, what happens without enough, ways to get more)

2) Ukraine's Orange Revolution (I was assigned the country to do the speech on)

3) Nursing in Public (persuasive speech. I argued that it should be considered acceptable, why it's sometimes necessary, and that boobs are not just for selling beer. I also got to open my speech with the following words [because everyone was busy chattering when I took to the podium, and I had a picture of this book on the projector] "hey everyone! look at the boobs!". It worked!)



4) Affluenza. How you can do a few simple things to reduce your level of consumerism.

Now what should my next topic be on? Here's what I am considering. Please vote and help me! (Note: you have to scroll down a bit to see the poll because I am too lazy or dense to try to figure out how to change the html code so that there's not this giant space below this paragraph).

What should my next speech topic be?
Advanced Directives
Disaster Preparedness
Marathonning. You can, too!
Current results

Gotta Love Minnesota Weather

Today it was balmy for November in Minnesota. This morning when Adam and I went out for breakfast for our Saturday morning date we didn't even need coats. It was a warm 60 degrees out. I still have a few tomatoes growing in my barrels, for crikey's sake!

Things will change after tonight.

We are currently under a tornado watch. In November! I can't get over it. Hail, lightening, wind, rain, you name it. We're getting it. Next week is supposed to bring snow. Some sick part of me is looking forward to it. I think that means I'm becoming a true Minnesotan. The part of me that knows how insane I get after 6 months of being forced indoors knows better.

http://www.weather.com/weather/alerts/nswxcategory/MN

It Only Took Two Years!

Well, technically it took 25 months, but it finally happened. We can now go through our bedtime ritual with Adam and then leave him in his room fully conscious and he'll fall asleep on his own! It has been the routine for about a week now and I'm hopeful it's going to stick.

When it comes to Adam sleeping, we have tried just about every trick, tool, gadget, aid, piece of advice you could imagine. I have read no fewer than 6 books devoted to getting your kid to sleep more. The thing is, he sleeps more at 2 than he did at 1 month (when babies are supposed to be sleeping 16 or more hours a day).

Here's a few sleep things we tried with Adam. I'll describe them in chronological order (that is, the order in which we tried them).

Co-Sleeping
I tried sleeping with Adam next to me (co-sleeping as they now call it) in his first few weeks of life but he was a nonstop wriggler. His little arms would flail about all night punching me in the face and he didn't seem to like being too close. So I kicked him out of our bed and into the pack n' play next to us.

To the pack n' play! To the crib!
Every time he would move about in the pack n' play it would jiggle for a few seconds afterward and made these tiny scratchy noises. Well, he flailed every few seconds so the thing was constantly jiggling, constantly keeping me awake. So I moved him farther down the hall into his own crib in his own bedroom.

Adam Meets the Straight Jacket
After about a month of being outside the womb, his nervous system started to mature causing him to constantly startle himself. I would literally have to hold his hands down to get him to sleep. I felt like I was wrestling him. Once you laid him down he would startle himself awake again. Normal blankets didn't work for swaddling him so we had to find something stronger. That's when I found the Miracle Blanket, which does the job of pinning your darling angel's arms down for you so they can't startle themselves awake. It really did work miracles for him. It didnt' turn him into the fantastic sleeper all the other moms in the world seemed to be blessed with, but he did eek out a few decent naps a week.

God Forbid, CIO
Still, it was a 50/50 shot that he would wake up and not go back to sleep once you laid him down. So we got frustrated and tried the Cry It Out routine a few times. He would cry hours upon hours if you let him. I could not.

The Wonder From Down Under
Don't ask me how, but I eventually came across this contraption called the Amby Bed. By this time I think Adam was about 7 months old and I was so exhausted that I was willing to try just about anything. It's a hammock that is suspended from a frame (that comes with it). When the baby starts to move around it gently bounces and sways lulling your baby back to sleep. Plus, it swaddles them while they are on their back so they feel secure. Get this. The first night we put him in it, he slept 11 hours straight! After that, he caught on to the fact that it would make him sleep so he was a little more difficult to get to sleep, but we reached a turning point with the hammock and you could put him in it semi-awake rather than waiting the full 45 minutes until he was in "deep sleep", or stage 3 of sleep (infants take this long to reach stage 3; adults take less than 20).

More Black Eyes
After about 11 months Adam decided he needed to sleep on his tummy. He would get terribly frustrated at not being able to roll over in the hammock, which the Amby bed prevents. So we tried the crib, which he detested, of course. So he spent a few weeks in bed with us again. However, after waking up with his foot in my mouth, fist in my eye, and fingers tangled in my hair on several occasions, I had to boot him out again.

Cribs
Back into the crib he went. He did a little better after he learned to get himself onto his tummy in his sleep. But we still had to go into his room several times a night. A few times I even fell asleep in his crib WITH him.



After this, I decided it was time to make things easier on everyone. I bought Adam a twin-size mattress and put it on the floor against the wall in his bedroom. This way, he could climb in and out as he wished. Roll around all he wanted. And if we fell asleep with him trying to get him back to sleep, we wouldn't wake up with leg cramps and crib rails embedded on our foreheads. One of the best decisions I've ever made.

For many months, Adam's twin bed was, admittedly, his and DH's bed. The queen bed was mine (it's not called a queen bed for nothin'!). Now it is, properly, mine and DH's bed again. Natasha does join us in the middle of the night after she wakes up to eat at 4 am, but she's not like Adam, practicing to be an NHL enforcer in her sleep. She's pretty still all night long. Adam taught us a lot of tricks that I have used on her. She's definitely easier to get to sleep, but knowing so many tricks certainly has helped.

So tonight, after Adam had his bath, watched his 1/2 hour of tv (these days it's usually Little Einsteins, but tonight it was Dora), he got his one book read to him in his new bed (a really cool upgraded bed - it's a bunk bed but he doesn't know that there's anything on top yet) while his "stars" were on (it's a spinning lantern). We said goodnight to him and left him alone listening to his sleep tunes CD I made for him.

Wonders never cease to exist! Only two more years and maybe the second kid will be going to sleep on her own (and sleeping through the night).

Go on! Google Yourself!

Seriously. Do this now.

Go to http://www.google.com

In the search field type in your first and last name and click Search. See what you get.

I used to be way more popular than I am now. In fact, the first few links that popped up were actually about me. Then, a few years later, most of them were about the Jenny with the same last name, but this Jenny happened to be some leader of a gay and lesbian organization. I swear I'm not leading a gay and lesbian organization in my copious amounts of spare time (between the hours of 11 pm and 5 am, during which time I should be sleeping but am putting off sleep or am being interrupted by Natasha to feed her).

DH was a very well-known college wrestler. What's your alternate identity?

House WiFi

I am so connected. But not by wires.

If it weren't for DH, I would still be using my old desktop we procured about 8 years ago. I wouldn't have an iPod, would have no clue about wireless modems. You see, I am by all descriptions a "late adaptor". I rarely see a need for new technology. I don't have the desire to learn a new technolgy, don't want to spend money on new technology, so it must first change society before I even consider buying it.

Fortunately I am married to someone more forward looking than I am when it comes to technology. He bought me my Vaio, against my protests. I love this thing. He bought me my iPod for a birthday (or Christmas or mother's day, I can't remember which), which I protested against. Tonight, after a very trying 48 hrs he sent me to a coffee shop that I usually go to on mornings that both kids are at daycare to do homework.

So here I sit, connected to a network, able to surf, download U2 songs for my iPod, drinking a glass of wine, watching the musician set up for his live show, and I'm doing my homework! God I love technology. God I love DH.

Happy Ween!

I know it's late, but things are hectic. So happy belated "ween". That's how Adam truncated the sentiment.

He did pretty well this year. Once he caught onto the fact that going up to strange houses in the dark meant getting candy his fears started to fade. He definitely got the hang of saying "trick or treat". However, his normal bed time is 7'ish so the festivities did not last long.

Natasha was clueless, of course. But that made it easier to dress her up like a monkey since she couldn't object to wearing the silly hat. As you can see, she didn't really know what to make of Adam wearing the hat.

He loves the bag, too

Adam and I were out in the back yard yesterday raking leaves. Well, I was raking, he was plowing through the piles. But that's what you're supposed to do, right? Anyway, he came over and told me again, "I love you, mommy". I responded in kind with the same amount of affection that overcame me the first time he said that. Then he walks over to the bag of raked up leaves and lovingly leans on and says "I love the bag, mommy."

It was a very special bag.