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May 8, 2006

Twofer

So weekend running last week didn't go according to plan. Thursday night brought the first of a series of springtime storms, and we've gotten one each night since then. We were out at Shady Grove listening to James McMurtry when the first rolled in, and our first thought was "Oh great. This will clear out the crowd." And it did. So we got much better seats for the last 30 minutes or so, and the ambience was enhanced by that weird pre-springtime storm glow. And then things got serious. People lost power; people lost trees. It was still storming Friday morning when I should have been getting up to run. I didn't run. I didn't make it up later. I don't have to. I'm not training for anything.

We'd planned to head to San Antonio for a 10-mile trail run on Saturday morning, but severe weather made driving down there unappealing. I didn't run. I did make that one up on Sunday, though, because by Saturday night I was getting that "if I don't run I may pull all my hair out" feeling. It was a big run for me. Since MG was born I'd only done about eight miles for a long run - all of it flat. Yesterday I did four easy on the trail and then headed out into the hilly neighborhood. The plan when we headed out was to do a five-mile version for a total of nine, but when we started the loop I'd asked our friend Fred to "give me [his] schpiel on religion" and by the time we reached the cutoff we were so thoroughly engrossed in our discussion (which eventually touched on religion, history, taxes, racism, political corruption, and various forms of intelligence, among other things) that we missed the turn and ended up doing the full seven-mile loop instead, for an 11-mile total. We even picked it up at the end, which wasn't hard since we'd gotten to the racism portion of our discussion and I was fired up. I was sore last night, though. I guess that's what happens when your long run is more than 50% of your weekly total!

This morning was supposed to be an easy five miles on the trail, but I ran with friends and the pace was just a hair past totally comfortable. The strides we did at the end were a welcome change of pace.

Can someone come help us get our three-month-old to bed? We don't know what we're doing. Seriously.

Posted by jenandmats at May 8, 2006 7:56 PM

Comments

Re: 3 month old: My brother uses a baby futon half the time and let Jashi sleep between them in bed half the time. I love the baby futon. It is basically a piece of foam shaped like a tiny halfpipe. Just lay him on his back, tuck a blankie around him (not his face obviously) or swaddle him, and then turn of the lights and lay beside him until he is breathing deeply and rhythmically.

If your baby is crying to much to go to sleep, swaddling is probably the answer. If you still need help, check out the forums at http://babyparenting.about.com. There will be a lot of people there that can help. Good luck!

Posted by: Jesslyn Cummings at May 9, 2006 10:34 AM

Funny you should mention the swaddling. That's actually what we're trying to get away from. She has a love/hate relationship with it. She sleeps oh so much better swaddled, but she *hates* the act of being swaddled, and sometimes if she wakes up after being asleep swaddled she'll work herself into a frenzy trying to get out of it. Sometimes it's really funny - I'll decide to go in and check on her and she'll be sleeping with just her hand sticking out. Other times it's not so funny because she gets so mad trying to get out.

Thanks for the link!

Posted by: jenandmats at May 10, 2006 8:21 AM

re. your 3mo daughter. Going from memory: first concern should be food. Is she getting enough? I have an almost 6yo girl and 3yo boy. Costanza was breastfed. Edoardo had formula. That in itself created a difference in treatment and sleep patterns. With the bottle, babies tend to eat more (easier suction) so sleep longer. On the breast, it's more work so they get tired. Costanza used to get so tired on her mom she would pass out while feeding :) At three months you are still probably feeding 6-7 times a day every three hours or so? So for a while still you have to be endure sleepless night :) No kid is the same but some are similiar. Many factors at play but food is a big one. Otherwise some vigorous cradling while pacing up and down the house also worked, especially with rhythmic monotonous dance-like pattern (amazing but true.) I used to make up slow repetitive songs as well... We tried, somewhat scientifically and commonsensically, a whole bunch of things (more or less conventional and otherwise) and eventually found what worked. It was long and frustrating but eventually we figured it out... Penelope Leach's book your child from 0-6 was actually quite helpful... eventually they grow up :) all the best corrado

Posted by: corrado giambalvo at May 11, 2006 8:29 AM

Clarifying: "...On the breast, it's more work so they get tired...." but they eat less, digest sooner, and hence wake up because they get hungry again! corrado

Posted by: corrado giambalvo at May 11, 2006 8:31 AM

I have a 2-1/2 year old and 9-1/2 month old boy. I think getting kids in a consistent bedtime routine helps.

Posted by: brian at May 12, 2006 7:29 AM