Duke's On Saturday

At almost 2 weeks old now, Moana got to go to the beach today!

I don't think she knew she was there because she didn't really open her eyes at all (that car seat in the BOB stroller is like a sleeping pill), but it was fun anyway. She was a totaly angel the whole day!


I actually met a couple of my friends/training partners down at the beach for a swim today... the old standby 'Duke's Swim' that I used to do religiously every Sunday with the gang (I missed you, Ellen! And Dana!). We start at Kaimana beach, swim out about a 1/2 mile, then head over toward Dukes on a one way route. Not sure exactly how long the swim is, and it varies depending on how far out we go and how the currents are treating us. Typically 55-65 minutes... I hadn't done this swim since... I can't remember? Maybe April? I missed it SO MUCH and couldn't wait to do it again. It was pure bliss today! Even though it was windy and kind of choppy, I felt awesome and was just thrilled to be out there. The water was warm if it wasn't crystal clear, and I continue to be pleasantly surprised at my fitness level. I'm not nearly as slow as I expected to be. :)

We end the one-way swim at Duke's, which is a popular hotel/restuarant/bar in Waikiki. We sit in the hot tub there and catch up on all the latest happenings in each other's lives... lots of interesting news today! Holy moly I've been out of the scene for quite some time and it felt good to hang with my pals again and be social.

My mom kept Moana while we were swimming and walked her down to Dukes where we all sat and had lunch and a beer. Life doesn't get much better than that, folks. ;)

And now that I have some confidence in my post-partum swimming ability, I'll be sending in my entry this week for the Waikiki Double Roughwater Swim on Dec 7. It's basically the swim we did today, but rather than stopping, we'll turn around and swim back. I think the race is like 4.5 miles or something like that. So I've got 4 more weeks to work up my mileage so I won't drown on the way back! :)

Any local friends out there wanna volunteer to babysit an angel baby for a few hours on a Sunday morning at the beach on December 7? ;)

Cumulative Fatigue

The fatigue is catching up to me. I. Am. Really. Tired.

I think I got through the first 10 days on 1) Adrenaline and those happy I'm-Not-Pregnant-Anymore Hormones, 2) the fact that I have a very mellow and easy baby, and 3) my mom is here to do everything from grocery shopping to preparing dinner, cleaning the house, laundry, etc.

10 days later, the adrenaline is wearing off and this mama needs some sleep. The days all run together in a blur and I have a hard time remembering anything. A few months ago I remember Kate writing a blog about little things she did to help herself when Alice was a newborn... she mentioned having a ring that she would switch from hand to hand depending on which breast was up for feeding next. At the time, I remember thinking, "How hard could it be to remember that?"... HA! Now I know. Good thing I have a ring that fits both hands.

Streamlined

All is right in the world.

Mama got to go for a swim today. :)

It was a long night last night. Moana is increasingly finding 'wake time' to be preferential to sleep, and unfortunately last night she thought that 2:00-4:30 AM was a good time to be awake and check out her new world. Mama thinks a better time would be during daylight hours but that's hard to enforce on a 9 day old infant.

Good thing my mom is still here. After our 7 AM feeding, she took over and I got to sleep until 10. And in between the morning and lunchtime feedings, I snuck off to the pool.

The lifeguards were shocked to see me. What are you doing here? Duh... Regaining my sanity. 2000 blissful longcourse meters where I could do flipturns and feel streamlined off the wall. Ahhhh....

I can envision making the late morning swim a habit while my mom is here to watch Moana. One thing I'll have to be more conscientious about is getting a better shower after getting out of the water. We found out today that chlorinated breasts are not Moana's first choice for lunch. Fair enough. I probably wouldn't like that either.

Moana Meets Her New Boyfriend, BOB

BOB has been waiting anxiously for quite some time now to meet his new little girlfriend.

I'm sure he thought he got a raw deal, being sold to a household where he just sat in the corner, week after week, with no outdoor activity. He must have thought that I was full of it when I promised that he's gonna some action one of these days...

But today I made good on my word, and introduced him to Moana.


The first date should always be short, I think. Just a little taste to check the interest level... Moana and BOB spent about 25 minutes together today, and I think that although the first impression was a bit stressful for Moana (mostly her mom's fault for not preparing the straps properly ahead of time), after just a minute or so I think I saw some of the first hints of a smile cross my little daughter's face.


The short outing was good for me too! I gave myself the green light to go after watching my BP stabilize over the last couple of days... it was down to 130/84 yesterday, 124/82 today before the walk/jog... And afterward? 117/80. Exercise is truly my cure-all.

One Week Later

Wow I can't believe its only been a week. I've heard other people say it... now I get it... I can't even remember or imagine my life without Moana! I'm totally in love.


She's the most mellow and easygoing baby ever. She sleeps like a champ (even the ear-piercingly loud jackhammer right outside my condo door this morning just made her squirm a bit before falling back into her slumber). She is eating really well, and always gives me a signal when she's starting to feel hungry (she sucks on her fist) so I can get her some food before she has a meltdown. Frantically hungry babies are so much harder to feed! We're not on a 'schedule' per say, but she's pretty predictable- wanting to eat every 3-4 hours. Last night she woke for feeding at midnight, 3ish, and 6ish. Now it's 9:45 AM and she's still sound asleep, although I expect her to wake up soon for some chow. I don't know about that advice about waking a sleeping baby to eat. I tried that once at the end of a particularly long nap, and it resulted in a particularly fussy baby who took forever to latch on. Lesson learned.


The key to this whole parenting thing for me has been to trust Moana to tell me what she needs. Since she's such a healthy baby, she has great instincts that are easy for me to follow. For example: Fist in mouth = feed her. Lips pierced tightly = stop feeding her. Eyes closed in a drunken and very relaxed state = let her sleep. It's really not rocket science. And when I pay attention to those little things, I'm able to meet her needs as soon as she has them so I think she feels really safe/secure and we rarely have meltdowns.

And I'm feeling good! My blood pressure is coming down slowly but steadily (130/82 this AM) so I'm feeling good about that. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll really be back to my normal self. It's Monday so I've started my weekly weigh-ins. I'm down 20 lbs from last Monday. Probably the biggest single week weight loss I'll ever see! (For those Biggest Loser fans out there, that's a 12.6% weight loss this week! Woohoo!) Now I just hope to be on the 1 lb/week plan so I can be back at pre-peggo weight by Christmas or so. My belly is still like jelly, but it's shrinking every day so I'm ok with it. It's good that others told me about the jelly belly or else I'd be a bit distressed about the softness of it all. Like what the heck happened to my abs? And how long until they get hard again? In other good news, I fit into my old shorts already! I didn't expect to yet, but it was really great to button them up this morning. And just because I could, I put on a belt too. It's the little things.

Grammy Is Here!

My mom flew in from Ohio yesterday to meet her first granddaughter... and she brought lots of pink clothes so Moana really looks like a girl now!


I'm starting to feel like my BP is normalizing some, so we thought we'd try out the Baby Bjorn for a very short walk outside. I think it went over pretty well, although I'll have to pay attention to the time of day that she and I normally go out because it's pretty hot out there, and even hotter behind this black fabric! But overall Moana did fine. In fact, I think she fell asleep within a minute of being put in it.


And now she'll be asleep for the rest of the afternoon. She doesn't quite have the same endurance as her mom (not yet anyway!)

Halloween... Past and Present

Last Halloween I was dating this guy.

Now he's the father of my baby.

And we're cruel parents. This is what we did to her last night.


I couldn't stop laughing.