A Day In the Life (2): the maternity leave edition

November 26, 2018November 25, 2018 / Amy / 2 Comments

I LOVE love love reading day in the life posts. If you’re reading this, please make one for me to read. 🙂

My last (and only) day in the life post is here (and here…I was long winded). I’m pretty jazzed that I’ve managed to get this post done because I really wanted a day in the life post from while I’ve been on maternity leave.

3:52 AM: Miss Newborn is fussing/making noises. She’s currently sleeping in our room, so even though this isn’t a full out cry it wakes me up. I get up 4 times to deescalate, then at 5:20 AM I wash up, get a bottle feed Miss Newborn.

By 6:17 AM, Miss NB is done eating, and I go change her and get her dressed. Mr. Husband has gotten Mr. Toddler up and washed up, and I help him get dressed. Then we all go downstairs for Mr. Toddler to eat. We read a few books before he and Mr. Husband head out the door to daycare and work. I boil some water to sterilize a bunch of teethers that belonged to Mr. Toddler. I also go through a box of baby toys and pick out some to keep and some to give away. While doing all this I take breaks to play with Miss NB.

By 7:18 Miss NB is ready for a nap, we pop upstairs and I quickly change her crib sheet, swaddle her, and put her down. She falls asleep by herself almost instantly (it’s magical when this happens). While she sleeps, I give our bookshelves a once over and pull out some to donate, I start collecting laundry, and straighten up.

Miss NB starts stirring at 8 AM, I try to settle her while doing upstairs chores. She never gets solidly back to sleep though, so I change her diaper and set her up on a blanket next to me while I attempt to fold some diaper laundry. She wants to be held though, so not much gets folded.

8:51 AM: Miss NB has a bottle while I watch Season 1 of America’s Next Top Model on Amazon Prime (can you believe this was 15 years ago??). Her bottle is interrupted by a diaper change. I take advantage of the trip upstairs to start a load of laundry, before heading back down and finishing her bottle. After eating, Miss NB falls asleep on me.

I love when Miss NB falls asleep on me, and I let her sleep there for a while before I put her down so I can grab something to eat. By 11:15 I’m eating and Miss NB starts to wake up. She’s not fussing, which is key, because I’ve knocked over my drink and need to clean it up. (This is the second time I’ve done this in a very short period, and it needs to stop.) I straighten up around the house after cleaning the floor and things are looking pretty good by 12:30 when I take Miss NB up for a diaper change and something to eat.

By 1 PM, she’s done eating and in a good mood, so I put her in her chair and empty the dishwasher, load it up, do the dishes, and make formula. I take breaks to play with her a bit here and there and have her do some tummy time.

By 2:30 the dish chores are done. I promised myself a snack of banana bread once I finish, but Miss NB is fussing, so I take her upstairs instead to change her diaper and attempt a nap in her crib. She is not having it, but while up there I put clothes away, get dressed, make our bed, and fold diapers. I normally do these things in the morning, but that didn’t happen today for some reason.

I give up the nap attempt at 3:20, and finally eat my slice of banana bread while holding Miss NB, and then I feed her (formula, not banana bread).

Once she’s done eating, I put her down in the swing and open some boxes that were delivered earlier in the day. Mr. Husband arrives home shortly after 4 and we chat a bit about our days before I leave at 4:40 to pick up Mr. Toddler from daycare.

We get home at 5:10 and do our normal routine of hand washing, having a snack, and playing before dinner. Tonight we read books and draw. Then we eat mac and cheese and sausages for dinner, do the dishes, and have a little dance party. Mr. Toddler LOVES doing the dishes with me these days. It’s a tad stressful (water everywhere, 2.5 year old handling breakables), but he has a blast and then the dishes are done, so I can’t complain too much.

At 6:20 it’s time to start Mr. Toddler’s bedtime routine, so we go upstairs for his bath. Mr. Husband is on bath duty and Miss NB has fallen asleep so I fold some laundry during bath time. Then we do PJs, read books, sing some songs, and say goodnight to Mr. Toddler right around 7 PM.

I take a shower and Mr. Husband feeds Miss NB when she wakes up. She’s not super interested in eating apparently so once I’m out of the shower, we give her a bath, get her PJs on and then I give her some more to eat.

By 8:30, she’s asleep in the swing and I eat as many snacks as possible before going up to bed at 9:10 PM.

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And, that’s the end because tonight, Miss NB sleeps until 2-something! I get a good solid chunk of sleep! 🙂 Ready to do it all over again.

I Need to Procrastinate Better

November 12, 2018 / Amy / 4 Comments

After my last post, I honestly thought I was going to be able to get back into the blogging habit…wrong again! I’m not sure why, but I’m eternally hopeful that I’ll start posting regularly again. I really enjoyed having the blog back when I was posting often, so that has motivated me to keep it and to keep trying to get back to it.

The same goes for running. It’s been quite a while since I’ve run consistently, (or at all) but I enjoyed it so much when I did that I am confident I’ll get back into it again. A lot of my hobbies are like this right now, actually: reading, knitting, playing board games. Honestly, a lot of this stuff took a backseat when Mr. Toddler was born. I’ll pick something up again from time to time and then drop it again. Right now, I’m in the habit of mindlessly scrolling my phone and binge watching TV when I have a free minute. I’m either exhausted or literally have only a couple minutes free. It’s hard to get into a book if you can’t even read an entire paragraph in a sitting. It’s hard not to screw up a knitting project when you have to stop in the middle of a row. And, it’s tough to get anywhere with running if you barely have time to lace up your shoes (or find them…it’s been THAT long)….you get the idea.

BUT I’d say that my main problem is that the times that I feel like doing any of these things rarely line up with when I have the time to do them. And there really is nothing I can do about that. What I NEED to do is make more of an effort to do something when I don’t feel like it, and just trust that I’ll enjoy it.

I also have the issue that I have so many things that I SHOULD be doing that I feel like I can’t pick up a book or project. However it’s easy to procrastinate doing something I should with an episode of something on Netflix. Then I end up not doing an activity I enjoy but also not getting X, Y, or Z done. It makes NO SENSE! I really should procrastinate more efficiently. 🙂

Miss Newborn is stirring now, and I’m working on borrowed time, so I guess I better wrap this up. I know that if I try to save it and come back, I’ll hate everything I’ve written and delete it.

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Catching up again…again

August 27, 2018August 25, 2018 / Amy / 2 Comments

It’s been 5 months since I last posted. (Yikes!) It has also been that long since I have run. (Double yikes!)

So, let’s get caught up, shall we?

In March I was starting a couch to 5k program to get back in the groove of things, but that got bumped fairly quickly as I started devoting more time to studying for the exam I took in April. Progress on the couch to 5k plan was already fairly sluggish, so it wasn’t hard to drop it all together.

At the time I was also feeling pretty exhausted ALL THE TIME, because (surprise!) I’m pregnant with baby #2 and that was the first trimester. So, I traded running for an 8:30pm bedtime or relaxing on the couch.

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By the time I started regaining energy, I was in super study mode and it was also quarter end; making for a very hectic time at work. April passed in a blur. I never started up running again since it just wasn’t at all appealing to me. Currently, I can’t wait to get back to it; but it’ll be a couple months before that’s a possibility.

We travelled in May for my niece’s birthday, which was a blast, and then also took some time off to get potty training started (this was very decidedly NOT a blast). We’ve celebrated several birthdays over the summer— still actually have some decorations up in our house that went up in June and were last applicable about a month ago. They are part of our décor now. 🙂

On the exam front, I found out that I failed (sigh) the April exam – for the 3^rd time. And made the depressing decision to start studying for the October sitting. I’m not enthusiastic about studying/sitting for an exam with a newborn, but I think this was the right choice. Time will tell.

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At the beginning of August, I rotated to a new position at work (!!!). I’m still settling in, but so far I’m enjoying it. It is not the best timing with maternity leave right around the corner, but as far as deadlines go, I think things should work out just fine. And no more quarter end work…huzzah!!!

So, that’s been the last 5 months around here – work, study, play, grow a baby 🙂

March Training Update

March 21, 2018 / Amy / Leave a comment

Since we last spoke I have completed the first two workouts of my Zombies, Run! couch to 5k training program. My goal is to run every other day, which should give me a little wiggle room to complete 3 workouts per week.

In reality, I completed my first workout on March 10 and the second on March 21. At this rate I won’t be prepared for the zombie apocalypse for years!

Multitasking

The workouts so far are a little different than any couch to 5k I’ve done before. It starts with a 10 min walk (normal enough) then alternating 15 sec running with 1 min walking. The 15 sec is a tad shorter than I’ve done before, but not super crazy. The weird thing was the last 10 minutes, which is a “free run”, so basically you just run as much as you can or alternate run/walking as you please. I kind of like this, I think. Jury’s still out.

I’m aiming for Saturday for my next run, and it seems doable.

Tomorrow there’s a possibility of a snow day, but it was supposed to start snowing hours ago, so who knows. I’m hoping that if there is snow, it’s not enough to close daycare. There have been too many snow days lately, this would be the 3rd in 3 weeks. I’d rather just get my work done and save my time off for something more exciting. Like studying for exams! HAHA!

My lackluster first week of 5k training

March 9, 2018March 12, 2018 / Amy / Leave a comment

First off, I should note that my training week starts on Sunday and I’m writing this on Thursday, so I’m jumping the gun a bit. If I feel the urge to blog though, I just need to do it; waiting usually ends in not posting at all.

When I first decided to do a couch to 5k,I figured I’d use the same app as I had previously used, but then I remembered that Zombies, Run! has a 5k program and I downloaded that instead. If you’re not familiar with the app: it gamifies running with a zombie theme. The workouts look a little different than the normal couch to 5k, so this could be interesting.

And now, a week of excuses plus one “workout”:

Sunday: Thought I might do the introductory workout Sunday night, but we had a tiring day and Mr. Toddler protested bedtime, so by the time I was free to exercise, I decided not to.

Monday: Stayed late at work to study. By the time I got home (with dinner), Mr. Toddler should have been asleep, but wasn’t. I rocked him a bit, and eventually was able to sneak out of his room to eat dinner. I didn’t really think I’d exercise after this, and getting done eating late didn’t change that plan.

Tuesday: By this time I was expecting a bedtime protest so planned to hang out in Mr. Toddler’s room until he fell asleep, before finally attempting the intro workout. And I managed to stick with my plan! I walked the workout which basically just introduces the story to you before you jump into actual workouts. It was about 22min long, and I had a good time. I was not eaten by any zombies.

Wednesday: The plan for Wednesday was to stay late at work to study again, but an impending storm sent everyone into a panic and daycare closed early. Not knowing if/when the snow would start, I worked through lunch and left work early. It was a fun family evening, and I considered running, but instead opted to study.

Thursday: We woke up to over a foot of snow, and daycare was closed. My plan to run in the evening was thwarted when I needed to finish up some work I couldn’t get to during the day.

At this point it looks like that first workout is going to have to wait for Saturday, since I’m planning to study, not run, on Friday night. Oh, well. Patience is a virtue, right?

I would have liked to get that workout in during the week, and hope to stick to a 3/week schedule when I start the program, but honestly running is so far down on the priorities list right now, that I won’t be surprised if I end up with more weeks like this one.

The one with the list

March 5, 2018March 4, 2018 / Amy / 2 Comments

Remember that time I said I was going to be really consistent with my blogging, and I actually followed through? No? Me either. I’m not even going to bother to explain myself this time or make another grand statement that I will now commence blogging regularly. We’ll just see what happens.

And, oddly enough now that I’ve finally taken the time to sit down and write a post, I can’t remember what it was that I wanted to post about. No idea. Instead I will try a list:

Running hasn’t been happening, but I’m feeling a renewed motivation. I’m planning to start a couch to 5k program. Either on Tuesday or Wednesday this week. I’ve done this before, most recently when I came back to running after having Mr. Toddler. It works for me because there is a lot of walking at the beginning. And in the beginning when running feels hard, I need a lot of walking. 🙂
I’m studying (for the third time) for exam MLC. That stands for Models for (or in?) Life Contingencies, which is basically me calculating premiums or benefits for a bunch of different types of life insurance. I like the material, but for some reason just can’t manage to pass this freakin’ exam. I need to make it happen this time. NEED to.
The first time I studied for this over a year ago. :_-(
Even though this blog is a running blog, and the name is “Let’s go Running” and the web address is awesomerunningblog.com; I’m considering branching out a bit. Mainly since I haven’t been running, and my couch to 5k program will likely not yield very many exciting posts. I’d love to change the name of the blog, but I stink at coming up with names. I didn’t even realize I was naming the blog when I wrote “Let’s go Running” in the box. If I had known, I probably wouldn’t even have a blog because I would still be working on a name.
One of the topics I’m considering branching out to is cloth diapering. I know a lot about cloth diapers, and I feel a need to share. I’d also like to write a little more about my work/job. Mainly in regards to the exams I take. I spend so much time studying, and I need a place to complain about it. 🙂 Both of these topics are fairly specific and probably boring to a large number of people, so I will give warning when one of these posts is coming.
This is a stuffed octopus wearing a cloth diaper. I bought it like this; did you know this is a thing? These are the hard hitting facts I will blog about.
A lot of times, the most time consuming part of blogging is finding the right pictures to go with the post. Sometimes it’s easy, but mostly it’s just annoying. I feel this NEED to post a picture, and it can be a real hassle. It may make things dull, but I’m going to try and stop doing this. Maybe this means some posts with no pictures. Or maybe an unrelated shot. This time, the pictures were easy to come by..hurray!
I’m watching Friends again. Can you tell from the title?

Have a wonderful week. Maybe I’ll be back to let you know how that couch to 5k program goes. Maybe it’ll be 5 months before you hear from me…one never knows.

Starting over (again)

January 23, 2018January 22, 2018 / Amy / 1 Comment

When I was pregnant with Mr. Toddler, I stopped running around 6 months. It got uncomfortable and was no longer fun so I didn’t see the point. I kept walking on the treadmill and outside when the weather was nice, but I decided to just give running a break.

knitting while walking

I promptly jumped back into running when I got the okay 6 weeks after giving birth. I started with a couch to 5k program. It was tricky fitting runs in on maternity leave while Mr. Baby/now Toddler napped. Then it got even harder when I returned to work, but I more or less kept it up. Until last August. I built up my long run to 8 miles and had a decent routine going, but I just got busy. Mr. Toddler went from 2 naps down to 1. I was painting the deck and studying in all my free minutes, so I decided that I would run less. I went down to one run a week. Then it got cold out, and I became even less consistent. I ran a turkey trot on thanksgiving and then pretty much stopped running for the rest of the year.

But once again, I’m ready to START OVER!

Saturday post-run

Monday in the Life – Part 2

January 9, 2018January 6, 2018 / Amy / 1 Comment

~Yesterday was Part 1, but in case you missed it…this is from way back on March 13th, 2017~

12:30 – Now that I’m a little hungrier, I grab my lunch, computer, and study materials and head to the room I’ve booked for a productive lunch hour. Unfortunately, there’s someone in there. (This is one of my biggest pet peeves, and I get unreasonably furious every time it happens). I don’t want to kick the woman out of the room because she’s on the phone, so I find another open room. I end up reading advice columns all lunch hour instead of studying (oops!)

1:30 PM – I head back to my desk to find that I’ve been invited to a 3PM meeting and have an email requesting I do some research to figure out why some numbers are looking different than we expected. Before I get started on this request, I want to finish what I was working on in the morning, but I get sidetracked when my coworker who sent the request starts talking to me about it.

By 2:15 PM I finally escape the work talk and decide it’s time for some coffee. In the kitchen I run into a coworker I haven’t seen for a while and we chat a bit. Then on the way back to my desk, I stop and talk to my manager about time I’m hoping to take off the next week.

2:45 PM – After over an hour of distractions, I am able to get back to what I was working on in the morning. I decide not to go to the 3 PM meeting, and instead finish up what I’m working on and then begin the analysis I was emailed about. Unfortunately, I barely get started on that when my manager comes over with a more pressing request. I switch over and review a file he created so he can send it out today.

Suddenly, it’s 4:00 PM and I wrap up my review and send one last email before shutting down my computer and heading out for the day. I listen to the radio on my way to pick up Mr. Baby from daycare. Traffic is wonderfully calm again (Mondays for the win!), so it’s a quick trip.

I arrive at daycare at 4:35 PM. When Mr. Baby sees me and gets all excited at pick up, it’s one of the best parts of the day.

5:00 PM – Mr. Baby and I arrive home. Jeff meets us at the door to help bring everything in the house. A lot of days MB falls asleep on the ride home, but he’s awake today, so we play on the floor while Jeff makes dinner “for the grown-ups”.

By 5:30 PM we shit down to to eat (sausages and potatoes) while MB plays in his saucer (this is not always guaranteed), and once we finish it’s his dinner time. He gets a bottle and 4 tablespoons of food (today it’s oatmeal with banana and yogurt). Once he’s done eating we head upstairs to get him ready for bed. Tonight is not bath night, so it’s a quick change into a night diaper and some PJs, and then we read a bit.

Mr. Baby falls asleep early (the time change?) at 6:45 PM, and I head downstairs to relax a bit. I watch some TV and play around on my phone until 7:30, at which point I manage to transfer my Netflix watching from the TV to my tablet for a 3.5 mile run on the treadmill. I’m not sure I would have run if I couldn’t watch TV while doing so…actually, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have.

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At 8:30 PM, I hit the showers, then eat some dessert while (you guessed it) watching a little more TV before heading up to bed.

At 9:20 PM I get ready for bed and finally….sleep!

Phew! Writing it all down made my day seem really full! I loved keeping track of myself and then writing it all out. And it was super interesting reading it over almost a year later. Keep an eye out for “Tuesday in the Life” one of these days. And please consider doing a day in the life post yourself because I LOVE reading them.

Monday in the Life

January 8, 2018January 6, 2018 / Amy / 1 Comment

I love reading day in the life posts and have been wanting to do one myself for years! Finally, I remembered to keep track of myself for an entire day, and this post is the result. Because I am a huge blog slacker this day was actually March 13^th, 2017 and it has taken me eons to get it posted.

5:25 AM – First Alarm goes off. Ten minutes later I manage to get myself out of bed. I wash up, then head downstairs. I pack my bag for work and Mr. Baby’s bag for daycare, and grab his morning bottle. Then I head back upstairs to make the bed and get dressed for work.

6:00 AM – I wake up Mr. Baby. Most days he’s already awake and I get him up and feed him before I get dressed, but on days he’s still asleep I wake him up by 6. Today was the day after the time change, so I wasn’t surprised he was still sleeping, and it took a little “prodding” to get him up. I play around on my phone a bit while giving him his bottle.

By 6:15 I pass him off to Jeff and gather my things to head out the door. If I get on the road early enough, I can avoid a lot of traffic. I attempt to call my sister on my drive, but it looks like she hasn’t left for work yet so I listen to the radio instead.

Traffic was miraculously clear this morning; this sometimes happens on Mondays, so I get to work at 6:45 AM, earlier than usual. I take advantage of this by playing around on my phone for 5 minutes before heading to my desk. I dump my stuff at my desk, put my lunch in the fridge, and boot up my computer before heading to the kitchen to make breakfast (a giant English muffin with butter and jam).

7:10 AM – I have camped out in an office to get some of my study hours in in the morning because I won’t be able to take a full day of study hours this week. I alternate eating and studying, and I read some blogs between practice problems and lessons.

At 9:00 AM I head back to my desk to get the workday started. The first 8 business days of the month are always really busy for me; since today is day 9 things have calmed down a bit and I’m able to ease into the day. I read emails, make a cup of tea, and place my CSA order for the week. I also sign up for the next session of the CSA.

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By 10:00 AM, I’m finally ready to really get down to business. Today I’m working on pulling together financial information for a monthly meeting. I don’t present or even attend this meeting, but I gather a lot of information for it and set up a draft of the PowerPoint slides. The numbers are already crunched at this point, it’s just a matter of pulling them together and organizing, so I listen to an audiobook (Harry Potter 7) for the formatting part of the task. And I have a second cup of tea.

11:45 AM – I can’t believe how fast the morning goes when I study for 2 hours. I’m not even close to hungry yet given the giant English muffin I ate for breakfast, so I decide to push back my lunch by a half hour. I book a room for 12:30 so I can get some studying done during lunch, and then get back to work for a little while.

— To Be Continued! I was VERY detailed in my Day in the Life notes, so this is getting excessively long. Part 2 will be up tomorrow.—

3 Things

January 3, 2018 / Amy / 4 Comments

Hi again!
I mentioned in my last post that getting back to blogging was one of my 2018 resolutions, but really the bigger resolution is to do my “hobbies”. There are a lot of little things I enjoy that instead of doing I often just read stuff on my phone, so in 2018 I’m going to try and do those things more often.

Some of them (like coloring in my adult coloring book) don’t necessarily need to turn into habits, but some of them (like meditating) I’d like to start doing routinely. My plan is to focus on one of these hobbies each month; January is (you guessed it) blogging. I’m hoping to make blogging a habit and I’m hoping that it will keep me accountable when I move onto some of the other things on my list.

The hobbies list:

Knitting
Reading
Blogging
Coloring/Other Crafts
Meditating
Running (not sure this should be called a hobby)
Painting my nails
Playing Board Games
Playing Video Games

I’ve already started doing some of these things more often because I’ve been thinking about this, but I’m really going to try and focus on the blog this month, and not worry about making habits out of any other things on the list. Except maybe running.

I also have some more “boring” resolutions related to cooking and cleaning and work. Meal planning/prepping is THE BIG ONE for 2018 for me/my husband. In addition to blogging, that is going to be a big focus in January. And lastly, I want to finish the last online course I need to take (Macroeconomics) in January.

Meal planning, blogging, Macroeconomics. It’s only 3 things. I can totally do this.