Monday, January 30, 2012

Monday: The Longest Monday of All

As I said yesterday, it is always a mistake to think that any plans will actually work out.  Today, I thought that in the afternoon, we might get in an outing.  BUT, the baby was still rather peaked this morning and so sad and sleepy, so we stayed in all day.  We were all bored and busy with household chores.  There was not fun trip to the YMCA and only a 25 minute respite for a run.  There was no going out for groceries, and I literally folded clothes all day.  We NEVER turned on the television.  We ordered out dinner.

I did manage to work steadily at my Bible study and with any luck, I will get to attend for the first time in three weeks.  I am not even quite sure that I have worked to the correct spot in my Bible study as I have been out for so long.

My run from this weekend will not download onto my laptop, so I am unsure of what my mileage looked like.  I am confirming with Boston tomorrow, and this is the dullest blog post in the entire world.  Why oh Why am I am boring anyone with this?

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Saturday: Run and Yoga/Pilates Fusion

So, yesterday at 3:00 PMish, I figured out that my running group was going to do a point to point 20 mile run followed by breakfast.  This initially sounded great, BUT the carpooling and driving back to pick up cars and the eating of breakfast was a logistical time suck.  With the breast feeding and the care of children and the trying to get back to the house so that my husband could leave to go biking, there was really no way it could work.

I will just tell you that it is a pretty fearsome thing to be staring down the barrel of an 18 mile run alone.  Honestly, if a vagrant parolee with deep deep misogyny issues had been my only other option besides running alone, I would have gladly run with the parolee.  The only idea I had for 18 miles alone was to run 6 LAPS around my neighborhood loop.  MISERY.

Luckily, I heard of a couple of other people from my swim class who were running long today and we got in 18 miles.  It was actually a great run.  The great crew from my swim class paced me really well, I held 8:15s on most of my miles, and then dropped down to 7:30 for the last couple of miles I think.  I cannot find the computer plug for my Garmin so I haven't see the milage yet.

Back at home, everything was a zoo.  Baby crying, husband trying to get ready to get out the door, older son asking to play with this and that and not eating his breakfast.  The house was as if a cyclone had spun though it.  The sheets on the bed were so twisted that I still have not gotten them right.  I really need to take all the sheets off and rearrange.  How do they do it?

After a bit, I loaded everyone up and headed to the YMCA to take a pilates/yoga fusion class to stretch and strengthen which I think is absolutely integral for marathon training with as little base as I have and as much as my body is contorted with toting about baby carriers and dragging strollers out of the car.  My lower back is wracked on a pretty consistent basis.  The class was very good today and I felt like I really stretched out whatever damage was done on my run today.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Friday: Pilates and a Unique Recipe

So this morning, I woke up at the appropriate hour to get to my Friday morning swim class.  I woke up, however, sharing a bit of my son's cold.  My throat hurt and I noticed the rattle of a cough, and it just seemed unwise to submerge my head underwater in my swim class today.  I have an 18 to 20 mile run on the calendar for tomorrow morning, so a treadmill run at the gym was also not the best thing for my body.  A bike ride was clearly the best option.  SO, I lined all my ducks in a row to get to the Maryland Farms YMCA for a spin class.  However, as I find to be the course of my current existence, there was some toddler drama while trying to get out the door and I missed the start of the class.  SO, I milled about the YMCA with my children until the start of a mat pilates class.

Now these things happen, but it sort of itches at me.  I missed my cardio.  I only got in the core workout.  It was pretty good though, and I do not know if I have mentioned it, BUT I am having a love affair with the Maryland Farms YMCA.  I feel that it is cost efficient, a purveyor of very good services, and a place that my children enjoy as well.

Once back at home, I bundled everyone up and took my oldest son for a swim lesson.  It was generally a nice day.  What made it even nicer was a fabulous recipe that I learned about from Jamie Oliver.  Jamie Oliver is becoming my new thing.  He cooks all these great seasonal meals and has totally helped me clean out my refrigerator with all the superfluous ingredients that pile up from other recipes.

Tonight, I used all the baby carrots that were left over fro a lentil stew (that was fabulous) that I made last week.  I used some cumin, thyme, chile and garlic and mixed it together with some olive oil and vinegar and salt and pepper and roasted the carrots in the mixture for 25 minutes.  Then, when the carrots came out, I added a bit more olive oil and red wine vinegar.  I mixed the carrots in with two chopped avocados, and dumped it all on a bed of spinach.  It was so delicious.  I never would have thought that warm avocados and roasted carrots would be such a great combination.  I wish I had topped it with some vegenaise, but then I always wish I had topped everything with veganaise.

Will let you know about my run!!

Thursday: Run and Mat Pilates

So, I did not blog yesterday, because, honestly, my soul was pressed beyond its bearing point.  Yesterday was bleak.  My son was still sick, we were trapped at the house and by the end of the day, I began to feel that I was not a fit parent and that maybe my children were also unfit.  The week before Christmas, I took both children to have their picture made with Santa Claus.  When I got to the mall, it was freezing outside, both children were dressed to the nines and grumping and complaining, and I had dragged the strolled out of the trunk and had just gotten it all set up and put together.  A friend and inappropriate prankster came up behind me and was going to push the stroller away to scare me, which is not at all funny, but I turned around too soon and he was not able to implement his prank.  However, on that particular day, the prank would actually have been on him.

I had stuffed to resistant children into velvet Christmas outfits, we had all cried, their had been two incidents of pants wetting, and I was in a foul mood.  Had I seen someone I knew relatively well enough to know that they could be a reasonable guardian to my child sneaking away with my stroller full of children, my only words would have been "Via Con Dios".  "I will be at the nearest alcohol serving establishment". "Please call me when you have enrolled them in a good boarding school." "Please let me know when everyone is potty trained."  I sort of felt that way yesterday when my oldest son jumped on a cooking repeatedly until it was a paste on the floor and then, when I went to check on the baby, splashed so much water out of the bathtub that there was a standing pool on the floor.  It was the awfulest.

When my husband came home, I was able to sneak around the corner to get in a swim of 3000 yards But immediately upon stepping out of the pool I received an urgent text that said the baby was inconsolable and  I needed to come home straight quick.  I could hear the baby wailing as I parked the car.

THEN, as I sat down to breast feed, I realized that the something did not feel quite right and I felt achy all over, and suddenly I was painfully in the midst of my THIRD installment of mastitis within a span of two months.  It was brutal.  I dispatched myself to the drug store and picked up antibiotics.  Everything was all around unpleasant.

Today was like an ice cream sundae comparatively.  My antibiotics kicked in, the baby slept 12 hours, and my oldest was well enough to go back to nursery school today.  I went to the gym TWICE.  I ran in the morning, headed in town to have a fun lunch, picked up my oldest from nursery school and dropped him with his favorite sitter before heading back to the gym for a pilates class. I did not have to cook because we had leftovers, and I even accomplished some ironing while watching the republican debates. Things are survivable today!!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Tuesday: A Lost Day and Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Banana Almond Butter Pancakes

So I had a hunch that things were not going to run all that smoothly today when my three year old woke us up crying that his throat hurt at midnight last night.  We gave him a cough drop and popped him into bed with us hopefully, but I feared that today would be a day of milling about the house, boredom, long naps and frustration.

It was indeed a day of milling about and trying to keep the house reasonably clean as my three year old went through feeling really great when his medicine was kicked in to becoming frustrating and peevish when the medicine wore off.  It was a bummer.  I sort of intended to ride the trainer at home and maybe get in an abs workout, but I did neither thing.  It is really OK, as I have not had much of a day off in three weeks.  It was fine to lounge about and do nothing.

My eating habits fell off the wagon a bit, as my son and I made pancakes for lunch.  To entice him to eat, I mixed together queso and black beans.  I then managed to eat most of his dinner.  Then, I meant to have my healthier dinner option later, but instead dumped some chocolate chips into a bag of trail mix and ate that for dessert.  It is really pretty sad and my nutrition icon, Kimberly Snyder would most certainly be disappointed.

My Chocolate Chip Banana Almond Butter Pancakes are as follows:


  • 1 cup sorghum flour
  • 1/4 cup coconut flour
  • 4 tbsp  granulated sugar
  • 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • about 1 1/2 almond milk
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 1 medium sized banana- thinly sliced and a bit mashed
  • 1/2 bag milk chocolate chips
  • butter or coconut oil for greasing the frying pan

Toss all ingredients into your Kitchenaid, mix and then cook in frying pan.  Fabulous!!


Might swim tomorrow if everyone is well!!  Please everyone be well!!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Monday: Swim and Tracy Anderson and My Dinner was fabulous!!

Me at Hampton Court!!
I rarely watch the weather, and I waltz about ignorantly assuming that it is always cold in the winter and fall and always warm in the spring and summer.  I never anticipate rain or snow or anything else.  This is the reason that whenever there is some weather event, I am stunned.

Last night, for instance, when I went to bed it was drizzling a bit.  I assumed that since it is January, tomorrow would be cold and probably sunny.  For this reason, I was surprised to be woken at 1:00 AM with huge claps of thunder, the house shaking down to its foundations and sheets of rain.  My three year old was afixed to me like a spider monkey, and I heaved myself out of bed to figure out what the problem might be.  Of course, when I sat down to peruse the interwebs (three year old still attached to me), it appeared that a full on tornado situation was about to descend upon our house.  Terrifying.  I had no idea.

My husband never woke up.  He apparently checked the weather before bedtime and steeled himself against the coming uproar and slept straight through.  My son and I were robbed of aproximately 2.5 hours of middle of the night sleep, which meant that we overslept.  This set my morning back, and we really did not make any effort to arrive in a timely fashion for our 8:30 swim class.  I managed to arrive by 9:00.

After getting everyone in the nursery and myself to the pool deck, it was a bit after 9:00 AM, and I was able to swim about 1500 yards with my swim group (maybe more) before class ended and I swam another 1500 yards by myself.  I swam a 1000 pull, a 4 x 100 IM and then a 100 freestyle cool down.  It was not my best effort, but I will say that I usually cut myself a bit more slack on Mondays.  Sundays are usually a pretty tough swim workout, so I feel like Mondays are for recovery and repair.  

At home, everyone took a nap.  On a day when you lost two hours of middle of the night sleep, it is important to get a nap just to cope.  After everyone napped, we loaded up and went to Whole Foods to for a few integral items that we were lacking at home.  I had run out of Veganaise.  Veganaise really deserves its own post, but I will save that for later.  

In the evening, I prepared a dinner that rocked my world and totally bumped up my vegetable intake. I will tell you all about it: 

Butternut squash chopped and roasted for 25 minutes at 350 with olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme.  Then taken from the oven and put into the food processor with goat cheese and sauteed shallots.  Once food processed to the consistency of mashed potatoes, I sauteed some sage, walnuts and cranberries to put on top.  I served in a bowl with some sauteed spinach and some cold raw sauerkraut. (The Sauerkraut is called Bubbies, and it is in the refrigerated section of Whole Foods alongside butters and such. It rocks my world.)

After dinner, I settled down to a mountain of laundry and some Tracy Anderson ab work!!  A reasonable day!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Sunday: Swim

Last night Baby G slept from 8:00 PM until 7:00 AM.  It was quite exciting, except that as per usual in the world of breast feeding my boobs woke me up at 5:30 AM.  SO, I dragged myself from bed, hooked myself up to the trusty Medella, and pumped milk, then stored it in the fridge, then cleaned and rinsed the pump, and dragged myself back to bed just in time to sleep for 10 more minutes, before Baby G woke up.  At this point, I fed the baby and had deranged thoughts of going back to bed, but then my older son woke up with a sore throat and cough, and there was really nothing more to do but start up the coffee maker start my day.

It really was not all that bad, and I was finally able to settle everyone down and waste all sorts of time in front of the internet.  It was a nice morning, and I generally accomplished many household chores before heading out to swim.  

Swim was mixed lanes and about 2700 meters of long course or 2952 yards.  We switched lanes about every 1000 meters.  SO,
First Lane: left paddle and left fin worn while sprint swimming the 1000ish meters
Second Lane: swim 1000ish with bands on legs so pulling hard
Third Lane: swim with fins with the kick board in four different positions

Fingers crossed for a good night's sleep tonight and swim tomorrow!!


Saturday, January 21, 2012

Saturday: Run and Yoga/Pilates Fusion

Look at me traveling, baby free!!
Now approximately 5 weeks ago, I staggered out of bed at 3:00 AM to the cries of Little G, and I picked him up, nursed him, rocked him.  Then, I put him over my shoulder to burp him, as you do with an infant, and he immediately projectile spit up over my shoulder and down the back of the inside of my bathrobe and completely filled up the back of my underwear like a water balloon.  It was rugged.  All I wanted to do was get back in bed.  Instead, I had to balance a baby in one hand while I held a hand full of baby wipes in the other hand and did a shoddy cleaning job on parts of myself that I prefer not to address at 3:00 AM, which is the awfullest time of day.

I did such a shoddy job in fact, that the morning found lots of crustiness, and I honestly did not even remember getting back into my bed.  I did not remember getting back into bed because there were two other wake ups following the 3:00 AM wake up, and it was so awful.  It was just so awful, and I still had to drag out of bed at 7:00 AM.  That was five short weeks ago, and it already seems like 5 years.

Last night, Little G slept from 8:00 PM until 5:45 AM, and it was heaven.  I fed G at 5:45, he went right back to sleep, and then I got ready for my run, had a lovely breakfast and brewed myself some tea.  I arrived to meet my running group in a timely fashion and had a lovely, albeit cold, run.

I ran 13 miles before driving home and nursing again and then taking my older son to the YMCA so that he could play, and I could take a Yoga/Pilates fusion class.  It was great stretching and some reasonable ab work.  After Yoga/Pilates fusion, I took my older son swimming in the indoor pool.  It was fun times.  A lovely Saturday, that makes me think my life might return to normal, someday.

For dinner, I had a massive salmon salad and sweet potato fries.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Friday: Swim

I sort of knew what sort of day it was going to be when I looked in my gym bag after swim and realized that instead of a shirt, I had packed some of my husband's dress socks.  It was rather depressing and indicative of my state of mind as I rangle two kids out the door with only one cup of coffee in me.  At least I remembered a bra and breast pads or things could have been quite a bit worse.  

I was late to swim, because, amongst other things, Baby G was up three times during the night, I overslept, and then someone needed his pants ironed.  I will just level with you and tell you that my coffee seems weaker and weaker or do I just need it stronger and stronger? I can't add any more caffeine to my mix, so maybe I just need more help or to fast forward a couple of years.  And, sometimes when I go to bed at night, I fear that the overflowing laundry in the laundry basket is going to turn into a monster and eat us all.  It looks just that terrifying.  

At swim, I really was only able to swim about 2500 meters.  Lateness kills in any workout, and I felt sort of defeated that I did not get in my 3200 meters.  


Tomorrow, I am ideally running 13 miles.  I am meeting at 7:00 AM, and assuming that Baby G sleeps an untroubled night, I will get in my first training run for Boston.  





Thursday, January 19, 2012

Thursday: Run and Pilates and I need to let a few things go, but I know myself and I will not let anything go

SO, maybe Baby G just kept waking up last night.  He started fussing about at 3:00 AM, and it just kept going on. Then when he had been fed, then topped off, then soothed back to sleep while I rocked him and shivered in front of a space heater, I could not go back to sleep.  SO, I was left curled up in bed under my electric blanket reading a book on my husband's ipad which he just needs to go ahead and understand belongs to me.  And this is why:  I, Betsy Sloan, have been waking up with the baby umpteen times a night, getting the baby into a sleep schedule and ironing my husband's pants, YES, ironing his pants, all while still putting on make up in the mornings and sometimes, even hot rolling my hair.  I think it goes without saying in our household that the ipad has been relinquished to me.

Now, my 4:00 AM reading is currently a book called 1000 White Women . The jury is still out on whether or not I actually think this is a great read.  The novel is about an idea of 1000 white women integrating with an Indian tribe during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant.  The concept is interesting, but I have some critiques of the book.  It is a fast read one way or the other.

When I am breast feeding, I read a lot.  I have all this time where I am tied to the nursing chair and I usually read the whole time.  I can hit up to two books a week, and I have a long list of books to report to you.  After reading this novel, I have two non-fictions on deck and it is pretty exciting.  I will get going on my book reports soon, I think.  Also, I usually get into mini-series with my trapped in the nursing chair time and I am currently a big devotee of Downton Abbey. Though I think everyone is right now.

Anyway, though sleep deprived and saddled with one trillion things to do, I made myself a promise that when my pregnancy was over, I would try reformer pilates.  The reformer is a huge machine that you strap into, and the levers and pulleys stretch you this way and that, all the while working out your abs and improving your posture.

Reformer pilates was my entire push for joining the Maryland Farms YMCA, and my experience there has so far been a delight.

So today, I took a double private lesson with a friend, and it was great.  I have been stretched and strengthened and I loved it.  Though, as per usual, I was a workout class party foul.  It happens to me all the time.  Here is why: I run out of time for my cardio and I show up at my next thing DRIPPING sweat like a waterfall.  It is ridiculous.  In my initial plans, I thought that I, Betsy Sloan, would arrive at the YMCA in a timely manner and run on the treadmill, before cooling down, taking a shower and arriving at pilates calm and collected.  Confession: I have never arrived anywhere calm and collected.

Here is what really happened: I dropped my older son off at nursery school.  As I was leaving him in his classroom, I noticed a strange bulge in his pajamas (it was pajama day) and he was packing (PACKING!!!!).  He had managed to stick his cap gun in his waistband as if it was a holster and was sneaking into school with the gun.  SO, I had to set down the baby carrier containing my three month old, wrestle the gun away from my three year old, explain just why we do not take guns to nursery school, explain that there was no need to defend the nursery school from  "bad guys", and confiscate said weapon.

This cap gun incident set me back half an hour, putting me late to the grocery and late to the post office, then a feeding with Little G, impromptu visitors, and my refusal to even think about giving up my treadmill run led me to arrive at pilates dripping sweat like a river from every pore. To get my treadmill run in before my pilates class, I had to set the treadmill at an inhuman pace and sprint like a cheetah was chasing me for 20 minutes.  I then thieved an extra towel from the YMCA and made haste to the YMCA pilates studio where I dripped sweat all over the reformers.

It was pretty dirty, but I was unwilling to compromise either workout.  I was unwilling to compromise, and I think that sums up my drama with being a mom.  I cannot let go of anything.  I want my three year old to take amazing swimming lessons, I want him to learn to read early, I want to get in my workouts, I want to read, I want to write my blog, I want my three month old to have a perfect nap schedule, I want to knit a sweater and I want to eat eight vegetable servings every day.  I want to write all my thank you notes and I want to participate in a very academic Bible study.  I want to read my New Yorkers and I want everything ironed.  I want to maintain my job and look fabulous.  It cannot all happen and this means that I dripped sweat all over the reformers and grossed everyone out, I was late to pick up my son at nursery school, Little G's naps were not quite right, and I have still not ironed my husband's pants.

I have to let something fall by the wayside, but I have never been able to let myself let anything fall, I grasp it all until it gets rudely ripped out of my kung fu grip.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Something I Make Twice a Week

Oatmeal Bake

Such a healthy, fabulous breakfast!!


  • 3 cups old fashioned quaker oats
  • 1 cup almond milk
  • 1/2 cups melted coconut oil or butter
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsps baking powder
  • 2 eggs
  • 5-6 tablespoons chia

mix everything together and bake for 40 minutes in a greased 9 x 13 inch pan!!


Wednesday: Swim and Tracy Anderson

Now that Little G is three months old, we are attempting to full on hit our stride.  We are starting up the routine and going with it.  We are regulars at Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday swim, I am running like I do, and I am throwing some strength straining into the mix.  I am working a few days a month, and I look forward to it like a seven year old might look forward to going to Disneyworld.  When I work, it is three full hours of time alone.  I drive into work by myself and then work in my office and then drive home by myself.  It is so lovely.

Anyway, after the mammoth, absolutely epic, challenge of getting a three year old and an infant out the door to swim, I was slightly more than frazzled.  It is just so frazzling, but I did get to shower alone and honestly, that means a lot.

And once my list of things to accomplish was finished:
1) swim
2) lunch
3) visit to great-grandmother
4) older son to swim lesson
5) everyone home
6) dinner for three year old
7) dinner for me
8) bake breakfast for tomorrow morning
9) laundry, laundry, laundry

I was able to sit down and work through my Tracy Anderson video.  Tracy Anderson is this trainer that Gwyneth Paltrow raves about.  She is the size of an Olson twin and truly lovely.  She also wears her hair in this sort of bumpette look in the video, and it is adorable.  It makes me want to spend hours (which I do not have) in front of the mirror attempting to tease my hair just like hers.

Anyway, she has made a post-pregnancy workout video, and in it she states that she gained 60 pounds when she was pregnant.  This is a statement which I flat out do not believe.  I would sooner believe that she can speak parsel tongue or that she is a fairy with wings.  Anyway, that unbelievable statement is why I bought the DVD.  The workout is a very intense abs workout, and I will say that it is making a huge difference in my strength and form.  I recommend it.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Tuesday: Tornados

I am convinced that when the end comes it will be in the form of a tornado, and I will be naked in the shower.  It is rare that any weather disaster finds me properly dressed, and honestly, it finds me usually severely underdressed.  So it was no surprise today when, freshly off the treadmill at the YMCA, that I was showering away when a YMCA employee with hysteria in her voice said that we were all to get into the hallway post haste.  There was a tornado in Brentwood, and as per usual I was inappropriately dressed.  I pulled on Yoga clothes and scurried into the hall dripping and sweaty bearing all of my stuff.

I, of course, could not stay in the hall, but sprinted straight to the nursery propelled by mom guilt and worry to make sure that Baby G was intact.  He was, and then I learned something that I find to be rather constraining or maybe it is for the best.  I cannot make up my mind.  Apparently, at the YMCA, when there is a weather situation, individuals with children are not allowed to leave without signing a waiver that says they have been duly informed of the risks of leaving under the current weather conditions.

SO, I sat in the nursery dripping sweat and breast feeding and realizing that my one hour trip to the YMCA was turning into a 2.5 hour trip to the YMCA that meant I was not going to get to eat lunch or run my errand, AND I was going to be late to pick up my older son from nursery school.  I was late only to find that my son had not had a nap, as he had been in the nursery school basement in tornado drill position.  This made for a stellar afternoon of un-napped three year old meltdowns, and I can only say that there was not enough alcohol in my home to improve the situation.  It was bleak.

My son decompressed in front of Max and Ruby, which is an animated bunny show that my son loves, and I used to love for its wholesomeness, but now I just think that Ruby is SO bossy and I wish that Max would speak up every once in a while to tell her to stuff it.  Will my son never tire of them?  When will he want to watch 30 Rock, and cackle with me over the love life of the miscreant Liz Lemon.

Anyway,  all that to say that I did get in a really nice run on the YMCA treadmills today.  A fast four miles, made me think that I might get my running legs back.  I am signed up for the Boston Marathon and heading to race on April 16th.  It is something to look forward to, which currently means a lot to me.

Tomorrow, I will try to tell you all about Tracy Anderson!!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

More and More Lameness

So as I sit down to report to you the happening of our New Year, I will let you know from whence my inspiration springs.  My precious 2.5 month old managed to stealth spit-up on my shoulder and somehow my hand without my fully noticing, so that when I itched my inner ear, I managed to drag in some spit up, which though now largely wiped out, seems to be crackling a bit when I itch at my ear.  How do these things happen and why, oh, oh why do they feel so disheartening?

I think that my problem is that I am vainly attempting to hold myself to a higher standard than I should expect for the mother of a two month old.  For instance, I was invited to two New Year's eve parties.  One was kid-centric:  party from five until eight in the evening.  Drop the New Year's ball at 7:30 so that the kids got to see a ball drop and get to bed at a reasonable hour.  The second party was a dinner party that was definitely not kid friendly.  I wanted desperately to attend both.

It was clear that the kid-centric New Year's Eve party with my three year old as my date was the only option.  My husband stayed home with the baby and off we went, we were home by 8:05, and I was on the couch watching The Change Up (which will not be nominated for an Oscar) by 8:30 PM.  That was my evening.

The other party was impossible for so many reasons that I cannot count them, but I will list a few to you:

  • the baby's feeding schedule meant that I would have to feed at some point during the party
  • I did not want to take the baby to the party.  It was not baby friendly.
  • this meant that I would have to take my pump and sequester myself in the bathroom at some point and pump breast milk while everyone else did whatever you do at adult parties
  • I have no fun shirts to wear that do not reveal my big dirty nursing bra straps
  • I have to wear a nursing bra everywhere I go
  • For this reason, I am confined to terrible Target knit shirts that I will not regret ruining when they are inevitably leaked on
These are six of the reasons that the party did not work, so I consoled myself that I could at least get a decent night's sleep, and then get up early to run with my running group on New Year's Day.  I was enthused about this until the baby made the decision not to sleep until a reasonable hour, but wake up ready to party at three AM.  When he was finally soothed back to sleep at almost six AM, it seemed rather miserable to get up for my run, BUT it occurred to me that one way or the other my three year old would be up and demanding attention is just a few minutes.  If, I reasoned to myself, I could pull myself out of bed and get out the door, I could leave before anyone woke up, and therefor pass the whole morning wake up zoo off on my husband, which is exactly what I did.  I ran a slow, sad 7.5 miles at an 8:30 pace before betaking myself home.  At home, I could not help but think that it is nice I had so much time before I had children to do fun and fancy things, because being in the spit-up trenches seems rather bleak.  

Maybe next year will be my year.