Eleven Months

Neil is eleven months old today! I can't believe we're going to have a toddler in another month. Holy cow!

I think, for me, more of his growth has been in how he looks to me. I watch him play right now and he just is starting to look so much older. His hair is growing in, he's standing up a lot, and just the way he looks around he looks more like a person and not a baby.

He really wanted to get that sticker off. And we really wanted to distract him.

Neil crawls around pretty quickly and I can no longer use my leg to block him- he has learned how to crawl onto and over things. He pulls himself up all the time and sometimes stands up on his own without holding anything for a few seconds at a time. Dave and I watch him and when he doesn't realize it he's really not holding onto anything. He's getting really good at just lightly touching something and moving around, grabbing things with his free hand.

Neil also lets you know if he doesn't want to do something. He is very good at pushing hands away now and only does something if he wants to.

Reading with Uncle Alex

Neil is hilarious when it comes to music. He loves to clap to both Bingo and If you're happy and you know it. And he bounces up and down (dances) to pretty much any music.

Still only one tooth but the drooling is stepping up again right now so we'll see if more are coming! I still don't have a good picture of his first tooth.

We went to my parents' for Christmas and I am very happy with how Neil is around other people. We need to keep showing him pictures of the rest of the family though just to make sure he remembers who is who. But he especially took to my sister Megan, which was funny. And seemed to really be comfortable with pretty much all of my family.

Speaking of Christmas, what a blessing he is! He can open presents, definitely. It takes some time but he rips off paper a bit at a time and then he notices that there's something in there and gets excited. It makes me wish we had taken some video of this.

Food wise we do more finger foods than purees now and when I make food it tends to be finger foods instead of purees (I just skip the puree step). I made a sweet potato recipe (scalloped sweet potatoes) that anybody could eat for Christmas dinner and I had to mess with the ingredients but it was tasty if you like sweet potatoes.

We're still on breast milk although I'm going to start scaling back the month of January. I'm going to drop from 2 pumps at work to 1. I'll still pump in the morning before work. This could be touch and go for a bit. I found out that daycare has consistently been dumping milk, which is honestly heartbreaking. If I had known, we could have adjusted. That's why I'm upset. I just wish they had told me. Meanwhile I've been sitting and pumping for 20 minutes at a time at work just to get every drop I can. It's NOT fun. The other thing daycare is doing is giving him solid food before milk, which is making him full. They want him to use a bottle to fall asleep for his afternoon nap. I have finally given up on asking them to do milk first. I don't want to come across as super controlling but it does bother me. There are two girls there who are about a month older than Neil, though, and I do know that neither of them are on breast milk anymore (and haven't been for months), and when they eat Neil is opening his mouth to eat. I guess this is a disadvantage of daycare. (There are advantages though- including him learning sign language, being more comfortable around different people, etc.)

We went through a biting spell with Neil. I am ashamed to admit that I pushed Neil pretty hard away from me one time. It was a gut reaction. I've heard the advice to push their face into you so that you can't breathe, but that would just get them to let go. My problem isn't him biting and holding, it's just biting for a second and letting go. It still hurts! And the day I had my automatic reaction he had bitten me 3 times already on one side. I felt so so guilty after but at the same time he hasn't done it again. And I'm hesitating admitting this in public because it is not the way I wanted to react, pulling him away really hard. But I did it. Once.

Neil really likes to point at things now

Neil has also started pointing a LOT. And he's really talking but most of the time we have no clue what he's saying. We finally figured out he says "tree" (Christmas tree) and there are times he repeats us. I can't remember if I said in past months but he says some form of kitty or Tigger (our cat's name). We definitely hear the "t" and it's two syllables, with the t every time. So I'm not sure if he's saying both kitty and Tigger or what's going on there. And of course he says mom, dad, etc quite a bit. He also is getting really good at signing milk if that's what he wants, as well as waving bye and blowing kisses.

Being away from home really screwed up Neil's routine and sleep. We're trying to get back into that. But he's still on 3 naps a day- one about an hour after he wakes up, a second in the early afternoon, and a 3rd when I get home from work. I still really cherish our cuddle time after work- that still tends to just be a short (30-60 minute) nap.

Holding one of the props we were using to try to get him to smile

While we were home we visited a friend how has a 2 and a half year old son and 7 month old twins. It was really nice to see Neil interacting with other kids and at one point both Neil and the 2 and a half year old were standing at the window looking out. It just made me feel really sentimental for some reason. And I know he interacts with kids a lot (at daycare) but I don't really get to see it so it was nice to see him play with some other kids.

Some stats that I haven't typically included (this is for you, Colleen, when you get here, ha!):
Size 3 diapers
Size 9-12 clothing except Gerber. And he can even fit some 6-9 clothing now.

We don't weigh him or measure height so we'll have to wait for his 1 year appointment for those.

Christmas Day 2013

We had a lot of fun for Neil's first Christmas. He is old enough that he actually did open presents, although it took forever and he was sometimes more interested in the wrapping paper or the tissue paper than the actual present. But he's also playing with the presents as well.

This was the first present he opened

Looking in his stocking

 

Loves tissue paper

 

Neil's presents to most of our family were various mugs with handprints and footprints on them

 



All the toys, and what does he go for? The iPhone... Go figure!

 

 

 

 Merry Christmas everyone!



The Boy Behind the Blog - December Edition

So not only did Dave answer the questions but he wanted me to post videos too. Who knows what he'll want in next month's blog post. ;)

1. What is your favorite cereal? 

My favorite cereal. hmm... anything with a good toy inside! That's what it was when I was a kid. I really liked this one as a kid:

haha!  

Maybe now, I think it would have to be Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

I love that stuff!  

Honey Nut Cheerios is pretty good too and comes in a close second.

2. Pancakes or waffles? 

Yes, please! I like 'em both. Maybe pancakes wins out slightly more.

3. What is your favorite holiday tradition? 

I don't know if I have a favorite holiday tradition. I don't know if I have any really. I mentioned last month that having tomato juice at dinner is a Thanksgiving holiday tradition, but I wouldn't say it's my favorite. For a Christmas holiday tradition, I mean beyond the regular stuff like decorating n'at, visiting family, exchanging gifts, etc, I don't think I really have any. Maybe we'll start a really great Christmas tradition in the next few years with Neil.

4. Finish the sentence: All I want for Christmas is... 

an official Red Ryder carbine action two hundred shot range model air rifle!

I'm just kidding. heh heh! Maybe just some tinker toys...

5. What was your best moment of 2013? 
Rush into the R&R Hall of Fame? Pirates making the playoffs for the first time in 20 years? All of that is overshadowed by the birth of our son. That is without a doubt the best moment of 2013. And looking forward to many more great moments with him and Jen in 2014 and beyond!  

Visit with Santa

I keep thinking, this is going to be my best Christmas ever. I've had some good ones, but to be able to watch Neil experience it for the first time is going to be exciting. He's at the point that he is learning a lot right now and it's just awesome to watch. I know I've said it before. But it does change your focus, your priorities, and how you look at things.

We took Neil to see Santa and had to go twice. The first time he just wanted to be held by me and we didn't get any good pictures. We did get the classic one of the kid crying in Santa's arms, reaching for their parents.

The second time we stood in line for an hour and a half. I thought this was going to be a bust as well because it was past his bedtime and he was definitely cranky by the time we go to the front of the line. And then the camera stopped working and they had to reboot their computer. But, I have to say, the photographer and assistant were great and got Neil to smile and not to be looking at me and wanting me to hold him. I guess it really does depend on the person and I appreciate them taking the time to get a good picture for us. In fact, we had a few to choose from. And the worst part is, I didn't even say Merry Christmas to them! Those poor people had a long line that was going to go over the time they had left and they were having issues with their equipment yet they were nice and friendly. Anyway, here are some of the pictures from the 2nd session.

Ten Months

Neil was ten months old yesterday!

No 10 month sticker because he kept taking it off and playing with it

Neil is definitely crawling around now. It's really cute when he crawls into my arms. He also sometimes takes steps but not when he realizes it. We have a little walking toy, and he was reaching for something on it and actually walked 5-6 steps behind it. They say that pulling up on furniture is right behind crawling but Neil isn't really doing that. He pulls up onto his knees but doesn't really go further most of the time, although every so often he does pull himself to a standing position. I still think this is just him feeling he doesn't need to stand but he could if he wanted. He seems to have really good balance now, and if I leave him he can stand on his own for a few seconds at a time. With the crawling, though, as Dave says, he has a very wide turn radius and it's still easy to stop him by putting obstacles in his way. For example, my leg. He doesn't crawl over it and just grunts at what's on the other side.

This is about how long the sticker lasted on his onesie.

Neil really enjoys reading books with us, as well as music and singing. I think he's starting to kind of sing and although he babbles nonsense, sometimes it seems like he's talking but who knows what he's thinking or trying to say. Neil also likes to "dance" by bouncing up and down when we sing or put music on.

We finally have a tooth! It's one of his bottom ones and he's been more clingy and crying more in the middle of the night. He seems to like the teething rings we keep in the fridge now. I've heard of freezing them but wonder if that would be too cold for him. At Neil's 9 month appointment the doctor said he might get a bunch of teeth at once since he hadn't gotten any yet but so far I just see the one tooth. It's impossible to get a picture of it. When I feel it he either bites my finger or licks my finger.

Lately I've been calling Neil "zombie baby" because he opens his mouth wide and I don't even know how to say what he does. It isn't biting. But he comes at us, mouth open wide, and puts his mouth on us. Dave thinks he's trying to kiss us. He does it to both Dave and me and it makes me laugh.

We are starting to give Neil more of what we are eating. Just the other day I gave him some little pieces of lasagna. We also gave him some bits of our Thanksgiving dinner- mashed potatoes, turkey, sweet potato casserole... Neil seems to want solids more than milk at this point. He still drinks breast milk instead of formula and I'm still nursing. He prefers nursing to the bottle but I can already see that he's less interested. I think nursing is more about mommy and baby time than about the milk but I'm not completely sure about that. I'm also trying to teach Neil to kind of bite off pieces of food but he's not good at that yet. He tries to grab whatever it is and stuff the whole thing in his mouth. Right now I can hold a banana and tell him to take a bite and he's getting the hang of it. When we give him animal crackers he doesn't always jam the whole thing in his mouth right away. We can't get him to raise a cup like a sippy cup up all the way, but my friend Jessica helped me teach him how to use a straw. She saw how to do it on youtube and it was ingenious! Now he likes drinking from a straw but I don't want to give him too much liquid that's not milk right now. Plus he drinks a lot and then has a very very full diaper. We tend to give him water with dinner and I don't want a full diaper to wake him up in the middle of the night.

Nursing wise, at this point, I think I'm going to wait until after Christmas/New Year's to make a conscious effort to wean. At that point I'm going to cut out pumps at work (gradually to avoid nasty things like mastitis) but as long as Neil isn't biting I might let him lead as far as weaning on the times I actually nurse him in the evening, and the morning bottle/pump before I go to work. Although I would love to get rid of the morning pump- that would save me 15 minutes of getting ready time in the morning! (But I have to admit I will miss the cuddle/nurse time on the weekends.)

We got some blocks out and for some reason Neil always wants one in his mouth. Maybe this coincides with the first tooth but he crawls around with stuff in his mouth all the time. We're worried he's going to fall or something and choke. So we had to take the smaller sized blocks out and put them away for now. I'm a bit nervous about Christmas, with ornaments and especially the hooks to hang them on the tree. I haven't decided what decorations we will put up this year. Neil really likes the decorations though (I saw that at daycare) so we'll have to make sure we put something up.

I don't usually give updates on sleep but I probably should at this point. Neil still sleeps at night pretty well. He makes a lot of noise but we leave him in there (if it goes on for 10 minutes or more we'll go in but it doesn't usually seem to). He still plays in the middle of the night at various times. He's also used to me getting up in the morning before 5am so on the weekends I hear him and when I'm pumping he's usually moving around but ends up going back to sleep while I'm in the shower (and on his own on the weekends). Nap wise, he might be taking too many naps. The one consistent nap is from 12:30 until he wakes up (usually around 2 hours) at daycare and we follow that at home. I think he takes a morning nap at daycare that varies and they don't write it down most of the time. And most evenings lately he's been back to napping with me after nursing when I get home with him (around 5pm). He still goes to bed for the night between 7:30 and 8:00pm so I'm letting the third nap happen but wondering if it's bad that he's taking 3 naps a day. He also doesn't do it every day so... this is one area I'm kind of playing by ear and watching.

We actually took pictures two separate days. The ones in a short sleeved onesie were on his ten month day exactly but he was really cranky and not really smiling so we tried again the next day (long sleeved onesie).

I'm really happy we're into the holidays- we'll get some solid time off with Neil and I'm excited about that. It was/is about 4 days in a row with Neil for Thanksgiving and I think for Christmas/New Year's it's going to be over 10. 

Wordless Wednesday

The Boys Behind the Blog

I found this through another blog and wanted to poll Dave (my boy behind my blog) each month with questions. I'm a day late but here is my first month of participating:

1. Who is your favorite band/musician? 
Well... anyone who knows me (or my wife) should know this already. My favorite band is Rush!!! Not many people know how I became such a Rush fan, so I'll talk about when I first heard them. I was introduced to them during my sophomore year of high school. I was in the percussion section of the band and orchestra, and the orchestra went on a trip to Canada and NY state that year. I don't remember all the places we went to other than playing at a high school and a church somewhere in PA or NY, playing at Edinboro University, and going to Niagara Falls. During the road trip, I roomed with 3 of the drummers (there were 7 of us total) and all 3 of them were big Rush fans. I sat with them on the bus as well, and they let me listen to a few of their tapes on my walkman (yes, I'm dating myself haha!). I do remember the very first song I listened to: 2112. After the "sci-fi" style of the intro, the band comes in with heavy guitars and drums, and I was like "what is this?!?! This is fricken AWESOME!" I've never really heard anything like that before. The drumming was truly amazing! I didn't really have a favorite type of music prior to this. I mainly listened to pop top 40 stuff and wasn't really into anything heavy. Until I heard Rush and 2112. And I've been hooked every since. I do think that Jen gets sick of hearing about Rush all the time, so I try to to bore her too much (hopefully I didn't just bore all of yinz to death just now). lol!

2. What was your first CD/tape? 

My first audio tape of music that I remember getting was either Michael Jackson's Thriller or a greatest hits tape of the Monkees. I can't remember which one was first, though. (on a side note, my first Rush tape was A Show of Hands, a live album. I remember trying to pick out which Rush tape to buy and bought that one, since it listed a drum solo on it) The first cd's that I ever bought was Bryan Adams' Waking Up The Neighbors and Rush's Moving Pictures. I got those at the same time when my aunt bought me my first CD player (yes, really dating myself). And I'll date myself even further... my first record album that I remember getting was the single Electric Avenue by Eddy Grant. I loved that song, and had one of my sisters take me to NRM to get it.

3. Who was your first concert? 

My first concert was June 21, 1992. It was Rush during their Roll the Bones tour. It was also my first trip to Star Lake Amphitheater (now called Post Gazette Pavilion). I went with my buddy Larry, another avid Rush fan. That show was just amazing! I loved it! I've seen them every tour since. I had to go to Buffalo to see them last year, since I missed them here in Pittsburgh as we were vacationing in OBX for that.

4. What is your favorite Thanksgiving food? 

Hmm... I guess my favorite food at Thanksgiving would have to be stuffing. I love stuffing. I could eat just that. I also love pumpkin pie. And we HAVE to have tomato juice at every Thanksgiving dinner. That's like a family tradition.

5. Finish the sentence: I am thankful for... 
What I'm thankful for. There's so much to be thankful for it's hard picking out just one. I'm thankful for being healthy, thankful for my family and friends. Thankful of the band Rush getting into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame (sorry, had to throw in one more Rush reference there.  haha) Thankful for my wife, Jen, and a healthy, very happy and playful son. He has been such a blessing on our lives. I guess I'm most thankful that we have such a great start to our own family. I love you two so much!  

If you would like to partipate, here's a link to the post explaining how it works.

They post the questions the 1st Thursday of the month and you have your guy answer them. Then post the questions and responses on your blog at 6am the 3rd Thursday of the month. Expect to see more of these on my blog! I really like this idea.

Nine months

Neil is now nine months old. I'm a little late writing and taking pictures (pictures are 1 day late) because I was out of town on a business trip the day that Neil turned nine months.

Neil is about to crawl. (As this posts a few days late he is crawling now.) We keep watching and thinking he's about to do it but he doesn't lunge forward. It's going to happen any day now. In the meantime he has figured out if he wants something how to get to it. It's a weird combination of rolling and I don't know what to call it. I think we might be able to claim he has crawled for the first time but he's still figuring it out. He took one or two "steps" towards me when I picked him up at daycare after my trip.

Neil is now clapping a lot and he definitely recognizes some songs we sing. I think part of the reason he likes to clap is the song "Bingo" which I've been singing to him for months. As soon as I start to sing, "There was a..." (There was a farmer who had a dog and Bingo was his name O) he gets excited and starts clapping. He hasn't gotten to the point that he claps in time (yeah I know, too young haha). But every verse he gets excited while I sing the beginning and then watches us clap. He claps randomly on his own as well while I'm singing.

I don't know what to call it but he also will make a noise and move his hand in front of his mouth to hear the fluctuation of the sound. Dave worked hard on that- at first it was just that Dave would put his finger up to Neil's mouth and when Neil finally got it, he will start just going ahhh and then Dave moves his finger up and down so the noise vibrates. I hope I'm explaining this well. Neil figured out he can do it himself with his hand. That is really cute.

We're trying to up the finger foods and Neil definitely likes to eat. I think that we're getting to the point maybe that he will up solids and possibly have less milk. I don't seem to be getting extra anymore so we are no longer building our freezer stash. And a couple of times I've had to dip into the freezer stash but not for a whole lot yet (1-2 ounces each time). We can't eat things anymore without Neil opening his mouth and acting like he wants what we're having.

We took Neil to his first hockey game this season and what a difference a few months makes. He actually watched the hockey game for parts of it, and his head was following the movement on the ice. He also likes to look at everyone around us and smile at them. The one bad thing is because he is much more aware and paying attention, he won't go to sleep. Last season I could put him in the ring sling and let him sleep at the game but now he refuses to even if he's tired. So I guess we will be limiting him to day games where it doesn't matter as much.

Neil really likes to stick out his tongue. He does it all the time.

Still no teeth! He did get fussy at daycare and they thought he was definitely getting teeth but none yet. I'm thankful when it comes to the nursing aspect for that though. ;)

We do think that Neil is saying mom. I was out of town for business and Dave said he definitely missed me. I asked how Dave knew and he said that Neil was making the "m" sound a whole lot.

We're still working on sign language. Neil doesn't seem to want to use it. I can also tell he's getting frustrated that we don't understand what he wants though so I'm hoping he'll catch on. He seems to throw his hands outstretched to the side when he wants something. That must be his universal attention getter sign.

Speaking of frustrated, I think we're starting with temper tantrums. If Neil gets really frustrated, he now throws his head back and cries. There isn't anything I can do, especially if I don't know what he wants. I'm not sure how to handle it. Sometimes I try to talk to him in what is hopefully a low, soothing voice. So far it doesn't seem to have an effect. I have tried holding/hugging him but since he's throwing himself back he's pushing away. I've kind of resorted to just setting him down to let him cry hoping that he will realize if he calms down we can work on what he needs. I'm kind of watching though to try to decide the best way to handle this.

I'm still struggling with work. It's in my nature to be a stay at home mom. I have always loved kids. If I could have been a teacher I probably would have gravitated towards that but I don't have a lot of patience and I'm terrible at explaining/teaching things so I knew that wasn't the right profession. I really miss Neil during the day and things like business travel are hard (not to mention having to pump in the bathroom at an airport. Talk about interesting there.) But I also know it's necessary and I'm still working on sucking it up. Some people say it feels like a break, I guess because you get the adult interaction. But when I was on maternity leave I did things like going to mom groups. I know being a stay at home mom is hard and I'm not knocking it. Even though I'm sure I would also miss the adult interaction, work doesn't feel like a break to me. It just adds onto the list of things I need to do and takes time away from being with Neil.

Exercise wise I am so happy with the Hershey Half Marathon relay. It made me feel like if I put my mind to it, I can run another half marathon and if I don't injure myself training (cough, by changing shoes and not ramping down, silly me and completely avoidable) I can run a half marathon I would be happy with. That's a goal of mine although it's not an immediate goal. For now I'm going to do what I can and sign up for smaller races 5K-10K range just to keep motivated with the ultimate goal of running a half again at some point.

Now that Neil is nine months, we're past the point of how long I was pregnant! I'm back in my old clothes for the most part. My body still does seem to be shaped a bit differently but my weight is down. I have a feeling I won't truly regulate until I'm done nursing but I'm so close. My weight this past month actually did drop below pre-pregnancy weight. I will probably stop putting updates on here about me and just keep it about Neil.

Hershey Half Marathon Relay

I signed up for the Hershey Half Relay months ago. The goal was to use this race as a motivator to get back into running after having a baby. Long story short, it didn't work because it didn't force me to find the time/motivation to train. But we ran the race anyways.
 
This race comes with two free tickets per registrant to Hershey Park in the Dark. Originally we had a big sized group going but some of the group didn't end up going for various reasons. We still ended up with two relay teams (so 4 of us including me) who ran the race, and Dave and Neil were there as well.
 
We enjoyed Saturday in Hershey and Dave and I went to bed (tried to) fairly early because we knew it was going to be an early morning to go to the race start. They closed the roads around the starting point about half an hour before the race and I didn't want Dave to get stuck there waiting for a few hours. Neil was sleeping in the same room as us and it was a rough night- he cried three times during the night and in general I didn't sleep well. That didn't seem to have any effect on me during the race though.
 
Since we had two relay teams, two of us ran the 1st half together and the other two ran the 2nd half together. The race had a shuttle that went from the start to the midway point, and cars were not allowed around the midway point (although if you know where it is you could park on the streets around there). As it turned out, though, the motel we stayed at was really close to the relay exchange point so we didn't have to use the shuttles at all. That also meant that Laura and John, who were running the 2nd half (Laura was on my relay team) didn't have to get up really early to get to the start line and the shuttle buses. They wanted people on the shuttles before the race even started.
 
The timing at the beginning worked out really well. Dave, Tim, Neil and I drove to the beginning of the race, which was at Hershey Stadium. I nursed Neil in the car (so we were nice and warm- it was about 44 degrees out according to my phone) and then Dave took off to try to leave before the roads around there closed. Tim and I walked around the stadium and we were able to use the bathrooms in the stadium instead of porta potties, which they also had lined up outside. Then we went to bag check because we both had sweatshirts on and Tim also had on sweatpants over his shorts. When we were done with bag check, we literally walked to the 12:00ish minute pace point and the race started right then. I haven't had that happen before but it was nice! No time to just stand around feeling cold.
 
I should mention that security was interesting. After the bombing in Boston they didn't want any bags in the runner area. We apparently walked the backwards way around the stadium and didn't get questioned even though we had sweatshirts on, covering our race bibs. When we got to where the bag check was, it was on the other side of the stadium and people were standing there checking for bib numbers and saying no bags allowed beyond this point. We didn't see anything like that coming from the other side.
 
It took us about 4-5 minutes to cross the start line and we were off. We had decided ahead of time, due to the lack of training, to use the Jeff Galloway method but in 3:1 intervals. I should make a separate post about the Jeff Galloway method and why it works so well. With the intervals we ran for 3 minutes and then walked for 1 minute. It was chilly out though so I said to Tim that I wanted to run through the first walk interval and he said that was fine. The race was pretty crowded- there were about 4500 runners. The race itself kind of just ticked by- normally I'm thinking more about how far I've gone and how far I have left but I was talking to Tim and looking to the next interval of run or walk and all of a sudden we were a couple of miles in. I still can't believe that. Usually the 1st mile is rough. But our pace was pretty slow and we were warming up. My hands were freezing until we hit around mile marker 2.
 
The first few miles are around the hockey arena, Giant Arena, and probably would have been pretty boring if it wasn't for talking to Tim and the adrenaline of the race start. Around mile 3 (I think, still wasn't completely paying attention to the markers) we entered Hershey Park itself which was really cool to run through. The crowd hadn't really thinned as I expected it would. I thought ahead of time that we would be towards the end, everyone would be passing us, and it would be easy to find John and Laura at the exchange. It never really did thin out (for us at least, running the 1st half). This made it somewhat crowded in Hershey Park. Note to anyone running this race in the future; some people had a good idea to use the restrooms in the park. I would never have thought to do that.
 
After looping for about a mile in the park, we were on the roads of Hershey, which were more hilly than I was expecting. And since the crowd hadn't thinned out, the hills were hard. I need to attack the hills and push through them. If I can't go at my own pace because someone in front of me is slower, it's mentally hard for me and I end up walking. After leaving the park, one of the first hills I asked Tim if we could walk and he said sure. I had to walk because it felt like I wasn't moving fast enough up the hill. Later on towards the end of our part of the relay, I pushed up a hill and left Tim a little bit behind but it felt much better to just push and be done with the hill. I really don't like hills but I'm finding that the Pittsburgh area (and my neighborhood in particular) is teaching me how to push through them.
 
For the most part we kept with the 3:1 intervals. It happened to work out that the 1st two water stops (at 2.5 miles and 5 miles I think but I'm not sure) fell at the start of our walk interval. But there were a few times (at a hill, either up or down- up if we wanted to walk early or down if we wanted to run through) that we adjusted the intervals but in general kept the same overall amount of walk and run time.
 
I think it was probably around 4.5-5 miles, I started to feel my energy go down a little bit realizing we still had 2 miles to go. The race felt very easy compared to how I thought it was going to be. I was so nervous about not really training leading up to it. But the intervals made it manageable, and we weren't trying for a speedy time. Our goal was to keep around a 12:00 pace overall. But when we hit a few miles left, that was the furthest I have run since the Pittsburgh Half Marathon in May of 2012, and I think I had a little mental block to overcome there. Tim didn't seem to mind that we slowed down a bit, either. The "worst" hill was a long slope somewhere in the 5th mile and we actually switched to 2:2 for that slope. But then we were getting close to the end and my mood picked up and I wanted to run faster again. It was great that Tim was pretty flexible and willing to shift around- it was really nice to have someone to run with and talk to, in general.
 
We turned onto McKinley and I knew we were really close! The halfway point was right on the intersection of McKinley and Chocolate Ave, and our motel was on Chocolate Ave. It was a great feeling to know that I did this. And once we turned onto McKinley it felt like no time at all before we crossed the finish mats. I raised my hands in the air and yelled at Tim to raise his arms, and I think he did. I saw an event photographer there and was hoping he would get that but seeing the pictures on the web site there isn't one of us with arms raised. In fact, even though I saw the photographer with the camera up and I thought he was taking pictures, there isn't one of me crossing the line. Bummer!
 
The exchange point was interesting. I've never done a relay before and a lady was yelling through a megaphone our bib numbers for the next person. I guess they're just allowed to leave and don’t have to tag up or anything like that. We didn't see Laura and John right away and slowed down, looking. One of the race people told us to keep going, that a lot of people were further down. So we started to run again, looking. We did see them a little after, and they were about to go but I yelled out to Laura to wait and ran over and gave her a high five. I was just so excited, pumped, and did feel like I could have kept running at that point (but would not have made the full 13.1).
 
Tim and I went to get our medals for finishing, and put them on. But all these runners were still going and I realized they were only halfway and I felt guilty for standing there with my medal so I took it off and kinda put it down by my side so it wasn't as obvious.
 
Also, Tim and I were looking down the street to go back to the motel (to see how far it was) and all of a sudden Dave was standing there with Neil in the stroller. Apparently he was standing right next to John and Laura, and not only that but he yelled "Good job, Jen" as I ran up to Laura. But I didn't notice him at all and walked away. Oops! Sorry about that one, Dave!
 
I was able to go back to the motel and nurse Neil, who was hungry of course. All in all this worked out really well. The weather was awesome. It was chilly, but that's great for actual running. The timing worked well. I didn't feel dead at the end. I am happy with my time (which is actually unusual; I'm usually kicking myself later for not trying harder). I know I probably could have tried harder but honestly I'm happy with what we did. We beat our pace goal. We ran almost 6.7 miles.
 
After I nursed Neil, we drove to meet John and Laura. There was a Chocolate Aid station (handing out candy with the water) at around mile 11.5 but we missed when they would have run by so we just headed to the finish. We were able to see both of them finish- they ended up splitting off and John finished about 5 minutes ahead of Laura.
 

Tim, me, Laura, and John at the finish

These are the splits for my run:

Mile	Mile Time	Total
1	10:56	10:56
2	11:16	22:12
3	11:26	33:38
4	11:47	45:25
5	11:17	56:42
6	12:01	1:08:43
6.63	07:05	1:15:48

Laura and I ended up with a finish time of: 2:40:18
Tim and John ended up with a finish time of: 2:36:18

Pregnancy and Infancy Loss Awareness Day

Once again this year I will be lighting a candle in honor of those babies lost during pregnancy or infancy. Here is my post about it last year. My intention is to light a candle every year at 7pm even if I don't explain why. I'm not sure if we will explain to Neil. Regardless of what gets said though, I will never forget.

My thoughts and prayers are with every one of you who have experienced this.

Since this didn't post as I meant to first thing this morning, I'd also like to pass on an article that really expresses how I feel about our losses and worded things a lot better than what I've attempted (and not posted).

A Mother With a Candle to Light

Pirates Playoffs

Neil has been to quite a few professional sporting events in the Pittsburgh area already. Friends and family have told us he's not even a year old and he's already been to more events than they have. Those are the perks though when it's free to go under the age of 2 (Pirates and Penguins).

On our way into the game, on the Roberto Clemente bridge

I wanted to make sure he got to a playoff game, and we got tickets to the 2nd home game (4th game) of the divisional series where we played the St. Louis Cardinals. This game also happened to be scheduled for a 3:07pm start which is great for taking Neil with us! So we both took vacation from work (I took a partial day) and headed to the game.

At our seats before the game started

The forecast originally called for lots of rain so we bought ponchos and of course that means by Murphy's Law that it isn't going to rain, which was just fine with me. It did rain the night before and that morning though and the clouds were just beautiful.

Neil is actually making this face for the camera.
Sometimes I really wonder what's going on in his mind.

It also cooled down so Neil had a Pirates onesie on but it was covered up by his sweatshirt.

The Pirates lost the game, 2-1. It was a pitcher's duel and there were only 3 hits total (1 Pirates hit by Pedro Alvarez, a home run). I really thought in the bottom of the 9th they could pull it out but it didn't end up happening. It was still a fun game and a great day.

Sitting in one of the seats

Neil fell asleep in my ring sling the whole walk to the car. He didn't sleep at all at the game although he seemed pretty tired. It was too noisy.

6.6K Run and Family Walk

Mario Lemieux played for the Pittsburgh Penguins (great hockey player) and does a lot for the Pittsburgh community. He/the Penguins sponsored a 6.6k run and family walk. The reason for the unique distance is that 66 was his number as a Pittsburgh Penguin. It comes out to about 4.1 miles.

I didn't sign up for this ahead of time, but had said when I first saw it was coming out that if I couldn't do this there is no way a few weeks later I would be able to run 6.7 miles for the Hershey Half Relay. So I thought it would be a good race to run. I kept putting off actually registering though and it closed unless you registered the day of the race before I actually registered.

Dave is really the reason I ran this race. He knows I really need to get out there to run and I've been having a hard time getting motivated and finding the time to do it. I said I was going to run every other day even if it was just a mile and I haven't been doing that either. We set the alarm for 5:00am that morning, and when it went off I just wanted to roll over. This is my day to "slightly" sleep in if you can call it that. ;) But Dave said we can do this and he got up and got ready as I kinda laid in bed still and glared. (And of course finally got up.)

My friend Jenny was also running this and it was her first official race- she did do a 1 mile race earlier but it was with her daughter and stuff. This was her first one by herself. She's part of the motivation to go as well. At least I would know someone there.

Before the race

We got there super early to register and make sure we were going to get our shirts. The swag for this race was nice- a long sleeved tech t-shirt, and a finisher's medal at the end. No bag with coupons or anything but that was fine with me. They also had free parking and opened the parking lots around the Consol Energy Center. Dave signed up for the 1 mile walk and got a regular long sleeved t-shirt.

Finisher's medal - Dave got one too for the walk

We had a lot of time to kill but I'm also still nursing Neil so I nursed him in the car about 45 minutes before the race. Nursing him is getting a LOT faster so I had a lot of time even with that, to run into the Marriott hotel and use a real bathroom. The lines for the porta potties were kinda insane.

There were corrals and the walkers were at the very end, so about 15 minutes before the race started, Dave and I walked to the start and split up, telling each other good luck. (Dave took Neil in the jogging stroller.)

My goal was to run/walk intervals because I know I just don't have the endurance right now to run the whole way. I haven't run further than a 5K since May of 2012 before I got pregnant with Neil!

I ran the first half mile and felt like I could keep going. The key to run/walk intervals is to start the walk before you're tired or else it's too late and you'll just be slow overall. So I did that right. However, looking at my Garmin, I was running way too fast. At one point I was at an 8:00 pace and I was figuring I was going to be more along the lines of 11:00-12:00 pace overall. I kept trying to slow it down during my run intervals but just couldn't do it.

There were enough people that almost the entire race I was weaving, but it was definitely worse the 1st mile. And surprisingly there were others walking fairly early too. I don't think they were doing intervals though because the ones who walked really early, I never saw them again. I think everyone just got caught up in the energy and went out waaay too fast.

Once I hit .5 miles, I started intervals. My watch is set to beep/lap every .25 miles. So when I got to .5 miles, I walked for .1 miles, ran the rest of that lap (.15 miles) and all of the next lap (.25 miles). So the intervals I started with were based on miles and not time- walk .1 miles and run .4 miles.

I also was extremely thirsty. Ever since having Neil I have had some bladder type issues so I tried not to drink anything before the race. It's actually what I would normally do to avoid having to pee (I pee a LOT normally, even before Neil). But with nursing it's not really a good idea because it can affect my supply.

The first water stop was at 1.5 miles. That coincided with my walk interval and I was so so thirsty that I actually got water. I almost never stop at the first 1-2 water stops, not even when I ran the Pittsburgh half marathon.  Shortly after that we ran over the 16th street bridge. The view was just amazing- some low lying clouds, fog and the sky was just beautiful.

When I hit 2 miles I knew I was around 20:00 and I was getting worried that I had started out too quickly. I was doing run/walk but my run intervals were just too fast. I was aiming for an 11:00/12:00 overall pace, which would make my run pace around 10:00. I was trying to slow my run pace down, but every time I looked down at my watch I was under 10:00 pace which was not good.

Maybe this is what started it but I felt myself struggling mentally. I really need to work on the mental aspect of a race. I started playing games and making my run intervals shorter to try to pep myself. And I tried to slow down my run even more. It felt seriously like I was moving through water because I was trying to slow down and when I looked at my Garmin, I was STILL running at under a 10:00 pace. Not good at all.

The 2nd water stop was at 2.75 miles and I walked there too. I had a really hard time even getting the cup up to my lips and I felt really parched. This is when it all really went bad for me.

Most of the last mile was uphill. The first mile was downhill (nice) but what goes downhill must come uphill when the start and finish are at the same place. It wasn't a huge slope but it was enough. I kept running when I could but that wasn't much. I just kept looking at it sloping up ahead and groaning in my head. I had hit the 5K mark around 33 something, so I improved that time, which was probably another bad sign right there.

When I was by the Consol Energy Center I stared running again and determined in my head that I was going to run the rest of the way. It was right about there that I saw Dave and Neil on the side. I raised both hands in my air- not in triumph but flailing to wave hi, haha.

After the race we met up with Jenny and her family. She did great! I never did see her during the race; she lined up at the 10:00 pace mark and I was behind at the 12:00 pace mark. (The marks were just in the corrals, they didn't have pacers.)

I'm kicking myself for that last mile but I tend to do that. Somehow I need to boost up my mental game. I think part of that is probably forcing myself to just go out and run every other day. There's also a huge hill in our neighborhood that I hate to tackle so just forcing that should help as well.

My official time was 46:42 and my watch measured short of 4.1 miles (4.06)

I forgot to turn my watch off at the end but these are the mile splits. So I did not do well at having negative splits and at the Hershey Half (relay) I really need to try to slow it down early on.

Distance	Mile	Total
1	09:34	09:34
2	10:32	20:06
3	12:02	32:07
4	14:10	46:17
4.06	00:49	47:06

After the race they invited race participants and volunteers to watch the Penguins practice in the Consol Energy Center. Neil actually paid attention some, although he was hungry and tired. I nursed him in one of the loges and that seemed to perk him back to his normal smiley self. It was also really fun to watch the Penguins even if we didn't stay the whole time. I definitely want to run this again next year (this was the inaugural year for this race.)

Here are some pictures from the practice in Consol Energy Center after the game.