bfgplanner

[bfgplanner]

20 months with this amazing human being

[bfgplanner]

Well, this little lady just turned 18 months, so better late than never. Here is a video of her first year. What a ride.

[bfgplanner]

9 months in, 9 months out. What a whirlwind.

[bfgplanner]

What a wild three and a half months it’s been since becoming parents. While we’ve loved every sleep deprived moment, we needed a small break and figured we should get one last maternity leave hurrah in before I head back to work. Luckily, Lucy has some amazing grandparents who let us skip down to Key West and South beach for a few nights. While it was so nice to get away to some warm weather, the last two photos show the reality of traveling while still breastfeeding… nearly 100 oz pumped over the course of 3.5 days 😶

[bfgplanner]

Before and after (and a couple of additional cute shots). The first photo was taken on my due date and then at 2 months postpartum. I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t concerned about what my body would look like post pregnancy, not that she wouldn’t have been worth every bit of new loose skin. But somehow, and I have no idea how, things just kind of went back to where they were (almost at least, I’m still only 2 months out). I could wax poetic for paragraph after paragraph about how life changing having a baby has been, but it’s all already been said and everyone with kids already knows, so instead I’ll stick to the theme of this blog. I’m officially back to running. It’s not what it used to be just yet and that’s ok. I am beyond slow and out of shape, but just happy to get outside and run what distance and pace I’m able each day, no matter how slow it is. I’m only running a 5k distance right now, but after a couple weeks I’ll probably build up to 5 miles. I’m purposely taking things very slowly and being gentle on my body, mostly for the sake of breastfeeding. I don’t want to risk a drop in my supply, so I’m just adding distance on gradually and keeping my pace nice and easy. I take walk breaks when I need them, but I’m glad to see those are becoming fewer and further in between. One of my best friends had her baby right around the same time and we have decided to set a goal to run a marathon before our babies first birthdays. We are eyeing races in the fall- my favorite time to race- and are close to narrowing it down. I just couldn’t be more happy to be back to running and closer and closer every day to feeling more like myself 🙌

[bfgplanner]

Lucy arrived just over 2 weeks ago (at 41 weeks 😬) after a night of intense contractions and just 15 crazy minutes of pushing. Our lives will never be the same, we are so in love. Also, I was a horrible pregnant person towards the end and am SO happy to not be pregnant anymore 😶

[bfgplanner]

So my due date has come and gone and now we just wait. I’ve started my maternity leave and these might just be the longest days of my life. Trying to enjoy our final days as a family of two, but desperately looking forward to meeting her ❤️

[bfgplanner]

3 week countdown. Couldn’t be more ready. That is all.

[bfgplanner]

This suburban live. We’re slowly but surely adjusting to it. We love having a big backyard with a deck for entertaining. We also love having an actual front porch we can decorate for holidays. Also, our cute little town has really grown on us. We purposely bought a house within easy walking distance to the charming little downtown, and we love being able to easily walk there for dinner or just coffee on the weekends. The town also has great parks with plenty of walking/running trails, and even an actual working farm where we go to get local-made groceries and seasonal items like this years pumpkins. We are now one month away from adding a third member to our family, and we’re finally settled in enough to be able to spend our weekends exploring our new town instead of just getting the house situated. I suppose that over my 5 months of maternity leave, I’ll be able to explore even more (albeit with stroller in tow 😊). I especially can’t wait to explore the town via runs when she’s old enough to sit stably in the Thule jogger! So, I’ve signed up for my first “race”. I won’t be able to race it as I’ll only be 3 weeks post-partum but I just desperately need to get back out in the scene. We have traditionally done the historic Troy Turkey Trot, but being that baby will be less than a month old for thanksgiving, we’ve decided to host just a small family group at our house this year instead of traveling upstate with her. The next town over, Westfield, has an annual Turkey Trot that I thought would be a perfect way to get back out there, and to introduce her to the fun environment of racing 😊 Granted, I won’t be able to run, and she will be too small to use the jogger, so we will just power walk it in the back of the pack. Fingers crossed that on race day she’s on board with this plan as well (we’ll bring a sling just in case!).

[bfgplanner]

Well, her room is finally ready. We are just so excited to meet her ❤️

[bfgplanner]

33 weeks and really looking forward to the day I’m able to wear lace up shoes again 🙈

[bfgplanner]

So we are less than two months away from meeting our baby girl and every day, things are getting that much more real (these shots are from our baby shower this past weekend). Selfishly, this also means I am hopefully 3 months away from getting back to running. As someone who’s been an athlete in one form of the word or another since I was very young, the body image struggle has been real while pregnant. My weight gain has been minimal, but in the healthy range, and I’ve tried to stay as lean as possible through weights and pilates. Pregnancy body changes are still so, so weird, though. I can’t wait to get back to a workout routine without the stress of worrying that I’m overexerting myself.

I am feeling her move constantly, she is so active, which we are grateful for! She’s getting big, too, at our ultrasound last week, she measured right around four lbs. Over the next month and a half, she will likely double in size which I just can’t fathom when it feels like there isn’t anywhere else in my stomach for her to go. Selfishly, I’m just kind of ready for her to be here, and not inside of me anymore!

I’ve decided to take 5 months maternity leave from work. This will put me back to work at the beginning of April, meaning I will be able to skip this winters daily commutes into the city- a nice perk since we now live in the suburbs. 

So the countdown is on... today marks day 227 of pregnancy (I feel like I’ve been pregnant for 5 years!), with just 53 days remaining...

[bfgplanner]

I finally got around to putting a quick video together from our 2 weeks in Spain last month 🤗

[bfgplanner]

I would estimate that we are about 2/3 settled into our new house in the suburbs, and we are also 2/3 on the way to meeting our little girl! I am NOT running anymore, it just became too awkard. I have what feels like a bowling ball in my belly, and she’s only getting bigger. I am staying as active as I possibly can, though. My doctor has made it very clear that the more toned and in shape cardiovascularly I can stay, the easier and quicker labor will be (which is now what I’m focusing on preparing for).

Suburban life has been quite the change from city life, but we love having so much more space, and a YARD! Last week I planted hydrangea bushes in front of the house. I’ve always wanted a front porch with hydrangeas. I bought the smallest bushes I could find, so that they will grow along with her once she’s here. Our house is an old colonial that was built in 1905. Although it was completely renovated inside before we moved in, it’s still retained much of it’s charm, and we are enjoying making it our own.

The neighbors that we’ve met are so sweet, many of them have very young children so she will have playmates in the neighborhood. Our immediate next door neighbor is a professional personal chef who has already offered to bring over meals in the weeks after she is born, we definitely didn’t turn down that offer :) 

I was worried about my new commute, but it hasn’t been bad at all. In fact, I’m able to get through more books this way, which I had really wanted to start doing anyways.

If I’m being honest, I’m a bit ready to get my own body back. Not only does this mean that she’ll finally be here, but I’m ready to get back into running. Cranford has a beautiful park called Nomahagen that we haven’t yet been able to explore and am looking forward to doing so.  

I can’t believe we are now less than 3 months aways from being a family of three! I’m trying to enjoy it as much as possible since we only plan to have one child, but patience is getting more and more difficult to practice as my belly gets bigger and bigger :)

[bfgplanner]

A rutabaga they say... really? That’s it? Where else is there to grow for 15 more weeks? 

[bfgplanner]

Baby girl has officially conquered Spain’s Andalucia region! We spent nearly 2 weeks there and visited Toledo, Granada, Frigiliana, Ronda, Sevilla and Cordoba. What an unforgettable trip. We can’t wait to show her this incredible world we live in and experience travel in a new way, through her eyes not just ours. We met so many families traveling with their children on this trip, and got lots of great tips on how to make travel with a young child as enjoyable (and beneficial for her!) as possible. We are thinking that driving southern Italy would be a great first trip for her and it’s a region we haven’t yet explored (but have wanted to). We commented that she could have easily joined us on our Spain trip, as many of our Airbnbs were 2 bedrooms and some even had rollaway cribs (in Europe, we only do Airbnb’s, as they’re a far better and more economic option than hotels- and more importantly, we like to try to live like the locals when traveling!). 

For now, it’s time to start getting things set up for her fall arrival, including moving into our new house in Cranford next week and getting her nursery all set up! I still can’t believe we will soon be suburnanites. We were recently at the house doing some painting and touch-ups and met some of our neighbors, many who also have very small children. We are so pleased that she will have playmates right on our street :)

Also, our first purchase was her jogging stroller! Priorities, right? 😂 We went with the Thule Urban Glide 2 jogger and plan to use this as not only her jogging stroller, but her primary stroller as well. I tried every single stroller set up in Buy Buy Baby and this was by far the smoothest to handle, fold and store, I’m not sure why I would purchase 2 when I would prefer to use this one all the time. Luckily, the newest model offers an adapter for an infant seat which we’ll use until she’s big enough to sit in the stroller seat. 

Only a few months left until we get to finally meet her 🤗

[bfgplanner]

Welp...