Lake Michigan at Sunrise

Lake Michigan at Sunrise

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Dad Version 2.0

Greetings All!

As most of you already know (by either Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram), my son was born on July 5th at 8:47pm! He is a week old and that dude is a pig! He's growing fast, dude didn't even lose any weight in the first few days! Here are week one's "progress"pictures:
Day 1



Day 7

As for my daughter, she is in the obessesed stage with him:





My wife and I are trying to make sure to make my daughter feel extra special during this time period so she doesn't feel left out, but I'm sure the jealousy stage will rear its head soon enough!

The first week with my son, B, has been tiring, as anyone that has had to stay up with an infant knows! His nights and days are all messed up. Some nights he is awake screaming bloody murder, testing a parent's love and patience until 4am, and the other nights he lets us get a few hours of sleep.  During the day, the kid is an angel, and doesn't stay awake despite my daughter's tornado of activity or our efforts to keep him awake so that he sleeps more deeply at night.

I'm pretty tired and I just lost my train of thought... oh well!

So how does this transition into running? Well back in March my wife reminded me that I wouldn't be able to do heavy running once the kid was born. Three and a half months of being benched made sure that I couldn't do heavy running. So in a way, life made sure I put the baby before miles.

I have a much easier time finding 30-35 minutes in the day to exercise and not make my wife mad and my daughter too distraught than running for 1-2 hours a day (not to say I don't miss running 1-2 hours a day). And what is currently encompassing those 30-35 minutes?

Well today (the day is still Saturday as I write) was the last day involving walking in my Return to Run program. Next week I do three 30 minute runs. Before I started the program I was stoked to run those minutes, thinking I'd be flying through them. Reality set in during the last few weeks. I lost so much fitness, I am going to be sucking wind and getting cramps. I really hope I get my wind back sooner than later! (I also need to drop some of these pity pounds I put on over the last few months) This return has reminded me how hard running is. To have more empathy with people starting out, that you just don't go out and enjoy runs until you put a lot of heart, hustle, and muscle into training. I keep reminding myself of what I am capable of and that I can get back there. To become a good runner again, good enough to run with people again, and push a jogging stroller without getting hurt (I still don't have clearance to do this). I still tape my right ankle to prevent soreness, the next few weeks will be the major test.

Lost my thoughts again! Good stopping point.
I'm out!

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

And so my watch begins


Today is my wife's due date for baby number two. Over the last week I've been getting increasingly anxious and restless about the birth. At work I already passed on my projects to be worked on for when I take paternity leave, and my co-workers already started on them even though I haven't left yet! I've been scrambling to find some productive tasks, but it feels more like standing around and not knowing what to do with your hands:

While I roam around awkwardly, I will be hawking over my my phone for the call that it is time for a new lil smokie to come into this world!

What else is going on?

I started week two or four of the return to run program, 3 minutes walking to two minutes running. No complications there! I'm still staying reserved on this, as I mentally am not ready to get excited and face letting myself down yet.  But all good so far (and I'm still taping my right ankle). Right MCL is still stiff randomly, but I'm comfortable on it.

I love going to my daughter's gymnastic's class after work on Mondays!

Many of you know I'm a total Chicago Bulls homer, so I'm pretty hyped about the off season and what changes will be made in the team! (Nikola Mirotic? Carmelo Anthony? Chandler Parsons? Paul Pierce?)

And I love that the Bull's first round pick, Doug McDermott, embraces the Funny:

Also, I went to see an Allergist yesterday on the recommendation of my pulmonary doctor. After my results, the doctor thinks my allergy to cats and having a cat for a few years created my asthma.. Thanks Tucker.



I think that's all I got for now! Hopefully the next update is a birth announcement!

Have an awesome day!

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