A fembot from Austin Powers
Andy just told me I looked like a fembot. You know the robots from Austin Powers who shoot from their nipples. I was trying out this contraption I bought while I was still pregnant at the advice of a friend who said it would be very helpful to be able to be hands free while pumping. The contraption holds the pump shields in place so your hands are freed up while you pump. Tonight was the first time I was both hands free and pumping both sides at once. I am in training to go back to work in less than two weeks. More on that later.
We went to Sun Valley this past weekend so Andy could run the annual Backcountry Run put on by the Elephants Perch. We rented a house with a couple of other friends and it was an awesome location. We were almost walking distance to downtown Ketchum and had a nice big deck with a hot tub overlooking a stream. It was a lot of fun.
In Sun Valley, Belén got to hang out with our friends’ daughter Gracyn who is five and a half months older than her. We think that her influence has rubbed off on Belén as she is acting more like a big girl every day. In fact, she even slept through the night last night, all of the way from 10:30pm to 5am when I woke her up to feed her before I went running. I cannot tell you how wonderful it feels to get six and a half hours of continuous sleep. It would be like sleeping in until 10:30am for normal people. Also, the big revelation of today is that she took not one but count them, two naps in her crib. Her morning nap was two and a half hours and then her evening nap was over an hour. It is amazing. She turns 12 weeks and she is suddenly a big girl!
She really is growing so much every day! It was funny because my mom and I were talking about weight we wanted to lose and she said, well I need to lose a Belén meaning she wants to lose about as much weight as Belén weights (14-15 lbs.) I would like to do the same and it seems really incredible to have the weight of a three month old hanging out somewhere on my body where it can be lost. It really puts it into perspective when you can feel her and know you have that amount of extra weight you would like to shed.
Belén becomes more and more fun every day. She smiles non-stop when she is not sleepy and coos routinely and even did a giggle today when I was kissing her ear. She has what I consider her exercise routines where she kicks her legs and arms while laying on her back. You can see her in action here:
I went on a walk with a friend last week and she told me about a friend of a friend who recently lost their three-month old to SIDS. I have heard about the same story from two other friends as well. Any time you hear about something like this, especially when your child is the same age, you cannot help but think about such a thing happening to your child. Needless to say, it freaked me out and I find myself making sure she is breathing more often than I used to. The silly thing is that if something like that is going to happen, there is really nothing you can do, so there is no use worrying about it. My goodness I don’t know how one would recover from such a thing though.
On a brighter note, I have reintroduced milk into my diet and it doesn’t seem to have increased the amount of gas or fussiness she has, so I think I may be in the clear. Life without dietary restrictions is so nice…and I love my cappuccinos!
I am working on mentally preparing myself to go back to work. I return to the productive world on August 3rd. Two weeks ago I would have been kicking and screaming if I had to go back but I am easing myself into it mentally and think I will be able to cope by that day. One nice thing is that my mom is going to watch Belén on Mondays and Eileen, Andy’s mom, will watch her on Fridays. So she will only have three days at day care which will be nice. We also feel comfortable with the day care we have chosen and think it will be a good experience for her, especially once she is older.
An update on the workout front finds runs getting easier and the road bike being more endurable. I also got out on my mountain bike for the second time and road the Hulls Gulch loop with a friend from work. Going down Hulls Gulch is scary due to all of the rocks but I did it, even though I had to walk my bikes around a few sketchy parts. I was proud of myself.
I am thinking about training for a 50K in March of 2010 and am trying to recruit others as well. Here is the website. I have friends who have done the race in the past and they said it is so much more fun than a marathon because there is no pressure on finishing in a particular time, in fact, you hang out and eat at aid stations. Also, this race has amazing views of the ocean and the Golden Gate Bridge and it is all on trails! You know you want to join me. 
Both with my evening of mountain biking on Sunday and with investment club tonight, I am realizing that I am finally feeling more comfortable leaving Belén. Up until now, I felt like I was missing a limb when she was not with me. I think it was partially the breastfeeding and hating to miss a feeding but also that bond between us was so intense that I struggled being away from her. I really see this three month point as a turning point both with her and me. We are both ready for more things than 24×7 intensive time together. The sad thing that I keep thinking about is that until baby number two, I will never share such concentrated time with another soul as I have with my baby the last three months. I never thought I would sound so cliche but it has been so wonderful thanks to being blessed with a VERY good baby. Things could have gone oh so differently.
Andy and I have a small business idea that we are going to try out . I was inspired by a story on NPR about a woman who built an artisan bread company while working as a nurse. Her key was to do one thing a day towards the company and after a few months, she had made a lot of progress and turned her idea into a successful small business. We are definitely not doing a bread company but I think that our idea could bring a new product and/or service to Americans that is currently not available. I have enjoyed brainstorming and planning with Andy and it gives us a common interest/purpose to focus on after Belén goes to bed. I will share more about the business as we make some more decisions, get a website up and make some progress on it. If nothing else, we will gain some experience and learn a lot.
A quick Tour de France update. Alberto Contador, Lance’s teammate is in first place after an attack on the first mountain stage in the Alps yesterday. Today’s race was exciting but there was not a lot of resulting change in the overall standings. Lance is still second. The big surprise of the past two days is the form of the British rider, Bradley Wiggins. He has ridden himself into third place. The images from the Alps today on the versus channel in high definition were absolutely breathtaking.
It is getting late and I need to get to bed so I will leave out any other details for another time. Oh I do have a good movie recommendation called “Happy Go Lucky.” Andy and I both really enjoyed this red box pick.
Cheers!
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