Hellooooo to February, and hellooooo to a new look for Going the Distance! The blog refresh is still very much a work in progress, but I’ve been looking to freshen up the look and feel of the blog for a while now, as well as organize the content a little better, and finally took a (very initial) stab at it this weekend. There are still lots of things that I’m trying to figure out in WordPress, so bear with me! 🙂

I’ve always really liked the transition from January to February for some reason. While I love the “fresh start feel” of January, February always seems a little more realistic, and like we’re settling into the year and can really roll up our sleeves and get into whatever goals we’ve set for the year. I took some time this week to sit back and really think about my goals for this year, and I’m feeling really excited about getting into them. I think I’ll do a separate post about 2018 goals and goal-setting in general, so stay tuned for more to come!

My Austin-Possum (lol) continues to grow and change every day, and sometimes I just don’t know what to do with myself I love him so much. I said to Matt the other day that I don’t know what we’re going to do when we have more children because I feel like my heart is already bursting through my chest and I don’t know that I can squeeze any more love in there without it bursting!!

Austin is such a good baby and has been really content for the most part the past two weeks, even though we are right smack dab in the middle of “Leap 4” according to the Wonder Weeks app (which is supposed to be notoriously bad for crying, clinging, crankiness). Normally when he’s fussy, there’s a good reason for it (he’s either over-tired, hungry, or just needs a hug and a walk-around), and we can solve the problem pretty quickly for him. I’ve hardly noticed an increase in crying / clinging / crankiness though, I’ve found him to be really smiley the past few weeks!

Sleep

Austin has still been sleeping really well for us, and we’ve been nudging his bedtime a little earlier and earlier each night so we are closer to a 9:00pm – 9:30pm bedtime now, which is nice because it gives Matt and I a little bit of time to do other things around the house after he’s gone to bed. He wakes up sometimes in the (very) early morning because his soother is out of his mouth and he wants it back, but that’s just a quick wake-up to pop the soother back in his mouth and he goes straight back to sleep so it’s not the end of the world by any means.

My sleep, on the other  hand, continues to be very disrupted, less to do with Austin, and more to do with this crazy anxiety that I’ve been having over something happening to him when he’s asleep. I’m still having a really hard time falling asleep, and wake up very easily at the slightest noise, usually anywhere from 5 – 10 times a night. I’m really trying to chill out and get some sleep because it’s really starting to wear on me.

One of my favourite parts of the day is first thing in the morning when Austin wakes up and I go into his room to get him from his crib. Normally he wakes up and starts babbling to himself rather than start crying. I wake up to him babbling, and come into his room, and his whole little face just lights up into this enormous beaming grin that just melts my heart. Sometimes I even get a huge dolphin squeal when he sees me, which just lights up my life! It’s such a great way to start the day, and even if I’m really tired and not quite ready to get up for the day myself, seeing his cheery little face always makes up for it.

I’m still dreading this four month sleep regression, but I’m hoping and praying that we’re kind of in the middle of the transition already, and that things won’t go off the rails for us too bad! We are about half way through Leap 4, and exactly one week away from Austin’s 4 month mark, so this is kind of crunch time if this regression really is going to happen! Cross your fingers for us!

Mexico

25 days until we leave for Mexico, and I’m starting to try and get my head around all of the craziness that will need to happen for this trip to be a success.

The first concern I have is making sure that we keep on our feeding / pumping schedule, and the cleanliness of the water on the resort to clean and sterilize his bottles. We will need to use bottled water to clean / sterilize the bottles, and I’ve asked the resort for a microwave, but of course they “won’t guarantee” anything for us until we arrive. As a back-up plan, I’ve ordered an electric travel kettle that folds right down and a big collapsible mixing bowl so that worst case, we can boil the bottled water and soak the bottles in there.

Sleeping hopefully won’t be an issue now that Austin is 100% transitioned to his big boy crib at home. I’m hoping that he won’t really notice or care too much about sleeping in a different crib.

I’ve bought a baby sun shade tent and a little Finding Nemo bouncer chair that I’m going to leave disassembled until we get to Mexico so that he has somewhere to hang out on the beach or by the pool that’s out of the sun. I seriously  have no idea how we’re going to navigate getting all of this gear into suitcases and down to Mexico in one piece, but we’re sure going to try!

I’m really hoping that this trip  will be a good chance to relax a little bit, even with all of this stress. It’s been a while since we went away on a vacation like this, and I’m hoping that it will be a really good chance for us to kind of exhale after all of the craziness of our first five months as a family of three.

Milestones

We had a pretty exciting event around here last week (week 15)! Austin rolled over from his tummy to his back for the first time COMPLETELY on his own, with nobody touching him at all! It was so exciting!

The very first time that he did it, I was actually out of the house and he rolled for Matt – I couldn’t believe it! We’ve been working on that roll for a few weeks now, and go figure, as soon as I turn my back, the little rascal rolls for us. He rolled again three times in a row at my parents house, and we all cheered and clapped for him 🙂

Since he went on his rolling spree last weekend, he actually hasn’t done it again since, but we’re kind of attributing that to the fact that he actually doesn’t mind being on his belly so much anymore. He kind of rests on his elbows now and is pretty content for at least 5 – 10 minutes before he starts grumbling and wants to flip onto his back. He’s also doing some pretty funny squirming with his legs that looks something like an attempt to crawl, even though we know he’s got a few milestones to go before crawling comes into the picture (sweet baby Jesus….what are we going to do when he starts crawling LOL).

Tickles and Tales

Austin and I are enrolled in a nursery rhyme group called “Tickles and Tales” that started this past week, and it was pretty damn hilarious to sit around in a circle with all of the other moms and babies singing nursery rhymes to our little guys!

Poor little Austin had had a busy morning already, and was pretty tired so started to get a bit fussy in the second half of the class, so I ended up swaying with him in my arms until he fell asleep and he missed out on the maraca fun of the second half haha….oh well, next time I’ll know better and we’ll have a more low key morning before the class. I think it will be a good thing for him to get out and interact with some other babies, and I’m looking forward to hopefully meeting a few more new moms as well.

I’m extremely anxious about this especially vicious flu season that we’ve been having this year, so I don’t love taking Austin out places with lots of other kids / people right now. I’m really looking forward to the Spring and the end of cold / flu season.

My Recovery

Oh you guys, I’m finally starting to feel better. Like, really better.

That estrogen cream that my OB prescribed me has been an absolute miracle for me, and things are really starting to heal well now that I’ve been using it regularly for about 2 weeks, and I’m extremely hopeful and optimistic that by the time I see my OB again at the start of March that I’ll be completely healed up on the outside at least. YAY!

Now that I’m finally starting to really feel better, I’m turning my attention and 100% of my effort on rebuilding my core and pelvic floor strength before I transition into more strenuous exercise. I mentioned in my last post that I was back teaching CXWORX now, and that is still feeling really good, but jumping and high impact stuff is still posing a challenge, mostly due to muscle weakness I think.

I’ve been doing lots of research and reading up on pelvic floor rebuilding, and I’ve been completely dedicated to doing some focused work on the exercises each and every day. So far they’ve been feeling really good, and I think that they will really help. My hope (and expectation, frankly) is that after a few weeks of focused work on both pelvic floor and core strength, that jumping and running will feel much better.

We are headed in the right direction folks! My OB did refer me to a specialist to check out a few things internally, but that appointment isn’t until July (seriously – what a joke. I can only hope that I was deprioritized because I’m doing relatively well, because if I was having severe symptoms and they told me July, I think I would have thrown myself off a bridge). I’m doing my best to put the specialist appointment out of my mind completely, and hey, if things continue to go well, then I may end up canceling that appointment as July gets nearer. Wahoo!

*************************************************************************************

I think that’s it for this update – we are off to Niagara Falls today with my family and Austin for the first time so that will be nice! I’m bringing along my good camera and am hoping to get some good shots of him, and all of us together actually! 🙂

Enjoy your weekend friends!

-Sara xo

 

 

 

• Uncategorized