Undertaking

'Cause I might die in the process. No, seriously.

My friend Melanie and I are taking up the daunting (for me - you may be in perfect shape to do this) task of walking a half marathon. Here is our training schedule. I figure if I talk about it, I won't chicken out. We are gonna be walking the St Jude half marathon in Memphis, December 5th and I'm very intimidated by this.

I'm not one of those type A folks who sets a plan and gets it done. I'm more type B, or Type C (if there was a more slacker version of type B, it would be type C). So this is a pretty big undertaking for me. I'll be posting my progress as I go. And let me just say, in closing, HOLY CRAP, I must be out of my mind!!

Don't Panic!!

I'm really trying not to. The Geek lost his job shortly before Christmas and now the severance package is drawing to a close. We still have medial bills from the baby bear's birth (that we didn't have enough savings to cover), and I am wondering what in the WORLD we are going to do! I am desperately trying to remember that my husband is not my provider. God is. I need to remember that!! The Geek is weighed down by all of this and I can tell it's effecting him, both in heart and mind. He suggested I go stay with my parents until he finds a job, but I'm not sure that will be the best plan. I don't want to be apart.

I really struggle with this whole 'God is my provider' thing. What if God wants us to learn a hard lesson about our finances and is letting us fall on our face before he picks us up? The scripture about him 'chastening' us so we learn keeps running around in my head. I'm asking for bread and it feels like I'm getting the stone! It's hard not to get into panic and fear (my hangers-on of old) when I know that the last check is on it's way to us and after that, (although not immediately) we could lose the house and default on our bills! That's worst case scenario, I know, but I feel like it's there, like a cliff I'm being pushed toward.

I don't understand the plan, but I'm supposed to trust and do what He asks me to. So what are you asking me to do?

Things I wish I had known, but never could have known, because, honestly, you never know (notes to me for next time before I forget)

For pregnancy:

• Get a massage often. It's worth it.
• Do your pre-natal yoga. It's more than worth it.
• Swim, a lot. Your joints will thank you.
• Have shoes that will fit you when your feet look like the pillsbury dough boy. Not just flip flops!
• Sodium is never your friend. (unless you dig looking like a toad)
• Set a reminder on your phone to take your vitamins. Baby brain is a real thing!

In the hospital:

• Bring more than one robe. If by some random chance you end up having to stay longer than 3 days, that one robe is gonna be funky. Cotton, not flannel or fleece so you can sleep in it and not sweat your face off. And it could be pretty and not that raggedy old man robe you've had for years. Very un-sexy. (not that being sexy post partum is remotely on or near my mind)
• Waddle on over (or send hubby) to the Lactation boutique (while in the hospital) and BUY a second set of pump flanges and valves. It's only 10 bucks. Really. After 4 weeks of washing out the same set every 3 hours (to skip the washing is to risk thrush), I finally did this. Now I can go 6 hours! Weeeee! (Better yet, ask the lactation nurses for another set. It's covered by your insurance and they are happy to help.)
• They may give you an Ameda pump in the hospital but good luck finding parts for it at Target (see previous note about pump flanges)! Go with the Medela if you can, but know that the bottles for Medela fit the Ameda flanges. (discovered this yesterday)
• Bring slippers. The kind that slip on. Scuffs, I believe they are called. Better than compression socks and flip flops. It was a very Geisha look, let me tell ya.
• Shave your legs when contractions start (or your water breaks!). It's gonna be a long time before you can do it again.
• Bring something to put on the door to help visitors find you and to help people whom you don't know from wandering into the wrong room while your hubby very nearly stands naked in the hospital room fresh from a shower. (yes, this happened. He had just gotten pants on!)
• That sign that says 'no visitors right now' is a beautiful thing. Use it and sleep.
• Take (and wear) a pair of earrings. It helps to see something pretty in the mirror to go with all of that swelling.
• Modesty with L&D or Recovery nurses is wasted. They've seen it all! If they want to help you get dried off from your first shower post partum, it's actually nice and in a way feels like being a kid again.
• Ask for what you need and don't worry about what people think. If it is time for meds and they aren't there yet, buzz the nurses. If you are hungry, ask for a snack.
• Buy a meal ticket for hubby. Sending him off to forage every 4-5 hrs can be stressful. At least breakfast!

Post partum:

• Give yourself 6 weeks to start feeling normal. Your body is not 18 any more!
• A tiny fridge upstairs is your best friend!
• Buy some bottles. You may think you'll be a champion nurser, but your body may have different ideas.
• Maternity underwear. Buy them, wear them, both before and after delivery (after you are no longer wearing the hospital issue mesh undies and mattress sized pads!). Ignore comments from hubby about 'granny panties'. You try wearing underwear that hit you where your stomach was recently cut open!
• When people ask what you need, be honest... Tell them to bring food!
• Trips to the pediatrician are hard those first coupla weeks. Take a friend or family member to help you carry things like, say, the car seat and diaper bag.
• You can never have enough burp cloths!
• Formula will mold on baby clothes if allowed to stay damp and those stains will never come out.
• When they say rest when the baby rests, find a way to do it. Laundry, dishes and dinner be damned! No one will die or starve if you don't do those things, but you will feel like crap if you do them.
• Hubbies are great for ordering take out or rummaging through the fridge to find a feast of leftovers.

In general:

• Buy a car seat at the end of the second trimester, because anything beyond 30 (28 really) weeks is fair game. Just leave it in the box if you think you might get one at at a baby shower. It's very returnable!
• Likewise, pick a 'going home outfit' for the wee smidge and wash it. Doing a load of laundry while sitting on a towel after your water breaks sucks.
• Read up about possible delivery scenarios, instead of thinking 'this will never happen to me' and winding up relying on a vague memory of the video from birthing class when a C-Section comes your way.
• Your feet WILL eventually go back to NOT looking like refrigerator biscuits. Even though it seems impossible. You do, in fact, have ankle bones.

I'm sure all this will go right out the window when it's baby number 2 and I have to take care of them AND take care of me when the Geek goes back to work!

Drowning,,,

Help! I'm going under! The last of my family help left this morning. The Geek is back at work as of last week. The meals have stopped (except for 2 days/week which frankly isn't enough, but what can a gal do. I'm grateful for it!). My milk still isn't in and if I have to look at that pump again I will cry (more that I have been already). If the Geek didn't make me eat I wouldn't remember to. Low sodium diet restrictions rule out a lot of processed food so I have to make food, wash out bottles and breast pump bottles and the somewhere in that haul my recently cut open self up and down stairs (WHY DID WE BUY A 2 STORY HOUSE?!) and try to get some rest. (HA!) I can't do this!