Originally, I wanted to track my post-partum workout log partly as a way to make information available on the web regarding the ins and outs of nursing/pumping/generally being a mother as it relates to working out. It has now been nearly six weeks, and I hardly even think about the whole breastfeeding aspect anymore. When I started this venture, I was like “Oh my god, this is overwhelming, how do people do this!?!” But then I got used to it.

Breastfeeding and the other aspects of caring for a newborn are just another set of things that need to happen, the same way you need to pump up your tires and fill up your water bottles before a ride. If you prioritize it, you get used to it and you make it happen. If my boobs are full and Sweet Pea is asleep before a workout, I pump. If she’s awake, I move fast to get out the door just after she’s nursed and hope she won’t be hungry again till I return and/or leave her a bottle. Even if there’s no milk in the fridge, we have a little stash in the freezer.

As far as milk production, I don’t think exercise has interfered much, if at all. It’s nearly impossible to know what is going on in that department unless you are exclusively pumping, but given the fact that Sweet Pea has outgrown all her newborn clothes (although I can make the onesie undershirts fit if I really stretch them), I’d say we’re doing fine. And not to brag, but she was in the 70th percentile for height at her doctors appointment. I was astonished. If I hadn’t given birth to her at home, I would be suspicious that she was switched at birth with another baby. I mean, really. All my life I was as short as the shortest kid in the grade below me.

Hydration has been difficult, however. It is not unusual for me to have a certain headache that I know is related to dehydration. Often, I want a drink of water, but Sweet Pea is nursing, so unless it’s very very important, I don’t get up for anything until she’s done. Also, the logistics of holding onto a baby who is attached to your nipple while filling up a drink of water at the sink… I’m sure I could find out how to do it on You Tube just like I could learn how to do The Worm on You Tube… both of which are never going to happen.  Or maybe I have a water glass handy, but she’s nursing and I already have to pee, so I don’t feel like drinking. My best strategy has been to fill up a pitcher of water and keep it on the coffee table at the start of the day and refill my glass from that all day. I am guilty of not always doing this, though.
 
Day 33:  Friday May 4
Friday ended up being a day off. As always, I planned to go to Masters for 6am (aka 5am wake up call), but this didn’t happen. If I am not in bed with the lights off by 10:45 or 11:00 the night before swimming, I can’t wrap my head around the alarm going off at 5 and I don’t even bother with the snooze button, I just shut the thing off before going to sleep. Thursday was one of those rare nights when Sweet Pea fell asleep in bed with us. I don’t like to make a habit of this but when it’s late and she’s being fussy, it is preferable to repeated trips back and forth to her room. One of the issues I have with co-sleeping is that I invariably wake up in the middle of the night in a terror, imagining her little body lying under the bed, as a I pat the sheets and shake Dan, asking “Where’s the baby!?!?!?!” And then he will remind me that one of us put her back in her crib after she’d fallen alseep. I always feel the need to be absolutely 100% sure about this so then I put on my glasses, tiptoe up to her door, and peek in to make sure she’s there, or if it’s too dark to see her shape, I listen for the sound of rapid, little baby breaths.  

After my skipped swim on Friday, there was the possibility that I could take Sweet Pea for a run in the BOB but there was also the fact that I was trying to get us ready to go out of town. Getting myself out the door for a trip was challenging before there was a baby in the mix… The run never happened. We hoped to leave between 1 and 2. We left at 3. I wish I could blame this on Sweet Pea but Dan and I were the culprits there. The fact that the 3.5 hour trip to Basalt became a 5 hour drive… that on the other hand was was entirely Sweet Pea’s fault.  There were at least two feed stops, plus an emergency pacifier re-insertion stop and maybe one more that I can’t remember.

Although nursing can be inconvenient at times, it’s also been a cool opportunity for me to find a quiet space where I normally wouldn’t bother. Like, last weekend, Dan and I had some time to kill before our table was ready at Jax. So we bopped over to Trident to browse books. Sweet Pea got hungry, and in search of an appropriate place to sit down and nurse, I happened upon the back patio. I have been to that bookshop a hundred times but I had no idea this tranquil, tree covered sanctuary existed until last weekend. Same thing this weekend; I was shopping at a thrift store when Sweet Pea got hungry, so I left the adorable A-line seersucker skirt I had my eye on with the lady at the register and headed out in search of a bench or something, and I discovered this grassy area in between two buildings:

It even had a brick wall in the shade, which was the perfect surface for me to lean against while nursing. A few weeks ago we hiked with my brother and sister-in law to the top of Mt. Sanitas. Normally I would stop to check out the view for a minute, but Sweet Pea needed more than that to get her fill. It was so unbelievably pleasant to be up there for a half hour, just taking in the scenery.

Note: I did return to the shop for the skirt. Cute, right?

But back to the nursing in cool places thing- Ladies, what are some awesome places you accidentally discovered when you needed a private, private-ish, or just an alternative place to go nurse?