I joined Stroller Strong moms back in March. They were just finishing a fitness challenge around the time I started. Participants did weigh ins and assessments, they even gave prizes to the top 3 improved. Pretty neat idea, and I was bummed I had missed it. A few weeks ago I made a suggestion to Kelli that we do something similar, except monthly (and keep the results private). My assessment was Tuesday. I did 2 min of step-ups, 1 min of push ups, planking for as long as I could hold it, 100m dash, and an 800m run.
Now, let me tell you, back in highschool and college:
My 100m time was 13.7
I never ran an 800 timed, but my 400 was 60sec, I imagine my 800 would have been 2:30 or 3min (that's not fast, I was never good for more than 400m)
People didn't plank when I was in school, at least not normally. In college we did "benches" which were planks without the arm support. someone sat on your legs and you suspended yourself off the edge of a bench, even that was only twice a week, on weight days. We did crunches.
We also did stadiums, not step ups. And as for push-ups - I have no idea my numbers. In highschool, I was the amazing wonder kid who lead the pack, but in college I was more in the middle. It's hard to compete with those strong specialized sprinters!
Anyway, the point of all that tangent was that I used to be very athletic and it was something I was proud of. Tuesday was a wakeup call.
54 seconds of planks... 121 step ups, 18 push-ups, my 100m time was 18 seconds, and my 800m was 5m39s. Are you kidding me? What was worse is that I woke up the next day and was so incredibly sore!
My ankle is finally better, so now is the time, I'm going to SSM at Forsythe park in addition to Gregory. I'm stressing about the gas, but I inflated my FJ tires last night. I had a very low tire, but even the "full ones" were 23-27 psi. The max pressure is 44psi so I inflated to 37. I will ask Andrew if he thinks 40 would be better since we only do road driving. Hopefully my mileage will improve. I will still cycle on the off days, and lift my weights at home. Since I have nowhere to go but up, I want to go WAY up. Wish me luck!
After PT, 80 and I hit up the Savannah Once Upon a Child. They were having a 50% off sale for marked items (there were tons) so we got quite a haul! I was looking for bodysuits and shorts to spice up his wardrobe which is heavily dominated by rompers. I like rompers, no, I love them, but its all he has and it bores me.
I also found the only boys 4th of July outfit for a million miles. I also found a little brown "Daddy suit" which means -- Photo session soon! I am thinking it needs to be at the beach!
Little firecracker! Yes! 2 more rompers.. sigh
When I walked up, there was a red Schwinn double jogging stroller by the door, with some lady prodding at it. When I was paying, there was another lady prodding at it. It made me antsy, anyone who has dealt with OUC knows strollers don't stay long. I asked the price, $100 (its a $320 stroller at babies r us) so I snagged it. I haven't used it, but rolling it from the store to my car and my car to the house, its incredibly light on its wheels and highly maneuverable. I like it already, too bad it has to sit in a closet till at least next year! :/
Dane the bear got strapped in, 80 is a little small to strap without neck pads.
Hey, I didn't know it had this! I don't really run in the rain but this will be great during Savannah's sand gnat outbreaks. I'm more and more excited about this stroller, it has cup holders on both sides, and the rain shield, but no tray (even as an add on) but I don't really like the idea of my kids constantly snacking to keep them quiet so its not a major issue.
Here are some of the clothes he got:
Sully onesie? Onesie with a tie?! Put it in the bag!
First off, I weighed 150 when I got pregnant, and 190 when I had 80 back in November. I lost 20 of those pounds without doing any work, it was nice but I plateaued at 170. Before I joined SSM in March, I had started a pretty strict 1800 calorie diet (1200 with 500 added for breastfeeding) I was walking before SSM, and then when I started SSM I started running on my off days. Here I am in my rolly glory. It's not bad, at 6' tall I'm still within my normal BMI, but let's face it, it's a far cry from my ideal. My goal weight is 150, and my icing weight would be 140.
Ok, I am mentally wrestling with myself to even post these pictures, but here goes.
Fast forward a bit, I turned my ankle in April, and dropped the runs between workouts. I also severely cut back what I was doing at SSM since a lot of the exercises required jumping and twisting.
So the result is that after 2 and half months I'm the same weight. Though I think I'm wearing it a little tighter. I blame a combo of age and breastfeeding. I've since added cycling between SSM classes, but have only been doing that for 2 weeks, and it's only for ~3.5 miles around my neighborhood. Hardly a stressful workout though I am pulling 80 in his bike trailer!
I have been using MapMyFitness app on my android phone to track my route, it tells me my average speeds and elevation, and it obviously maps my route via live GPS. I am not too thrilled with its analysis feature though, it has consistently told me that I am, at times, travelling 500mph. I chose it because you can switch between a variety of workouts and it tracks them all, cycling, running, walking, hiking, even swimming. My second reason for choosing it was that my cell phone is due for upgrade mid July and I fully intend to replace my POS android phone with an iphone, so I wanted a program that was cross platform.
At the beginning of the month, I ran/walked the Savannah Komen race for the cure 5k. It felt good and I was glad I did, though I dropped my phone, shattering the screen, and there was no race clock so I don't know what my time was. The two other ladies in this picture are from Stroller Strong Moms, they're two of the strongest athletes in the classes so they probably could have run a 10k in the time it took me to run my 5k but whatever :)
80 turned 3 months adjusted! I celebrated by making this board, and taking this picture!
My mom and I had planned a trip to visit my Granny again in Alabama on the 17th. I was supposed to pick my mom up at the airport in Jacksonville FL, then we'd drive on to AL. I was feeding 80 in the car in the airport cell lot when I looked down and noticed that his hair was wet. I looked and the same place he had the white spot back in February was open and leaking. I called the neurosurgeon, picked my mom up from the airport, and we drove right back to Savannah. We took him to the neurosurgeons office, then were admitted to Memorial PICU. He had the shunt removed, a PICC line placed in his chest, and started a round of antibiotics the next day.
Because he has hydrocephalus, they couldn't just take the shunt out, they had to put a temporary drain in place. You can see it here as the yellow tube stitched to his scalp.
It reaches down into the ventricle and when the pressure builds it empties via gravity and pressure into a measurement beaker. They measure how much is emptied over an hour, or several hours, keep track of it. If he doesn't put out very much, they will reconsider replacing the shunt.
80 backslid on his development. He stopped cooing, and developed a torticollis. He has always appeared to have crossed eyes, but in the hospital he developed a very evident Strabismus.
It was determined that he should not see an ophthalmologist until his torticollis had been resolved. He saw a in hospital physical therapist instead. She gave us a laundry list of stretches for his arms, neck, and back, with a few leg and trunk stretches thrown in for good measure.
I mentioned before that 80 backslid a bit developmentally, well that is not entirely true. He did learn a new trick, he found his hands for the first time! It was nice to see him doing something new during his time at the hospital. He was all smiles and lovey the whole time he was there, but it is depressing for me!
The most important development during 80s 3 week hospital stay was that his temporary tubing slid up and out of the ventricle it was supposed to be draining, and into the plural space. It started draining the wrong fluids, and caused a minor hemorrhage. The short story is that Dr Thompson decided he wasn't comfortable replacing the shunt. The temporary tubing was removed, his head plugged, and everything stitched up. A week or so days later he was out of the hospital, getting CT and MRI scans to monitor the progression of his hydrocephalus.. of which there has been none! Again, I'm writing this in June and he still has no shunt. It's amazing! He was discharged on the 4th of May.
Back to me: My mother was in town for all of this, so I took the opportunity to have her go to the hospital in the mornings while I went to SSM to work out. One of the days, while running the trail, I turned my ankle. I thought I had broken it initially, I could put no weight on it and my toes were numb, but it seemed to feel better very quickly and I was able to put weight on it and finish the workout. I have turned my ankle like this before and it had never been an issue so I, thinking I was still 20 years old, thought that I was fine. I had forgotten that I was almost 30 and can't just walk alway anymore. The next day, when I took my shoes off after coming home from the hospital, I was greeted with my very own cankle!
Even now in June it's still very sensitive, but I have finally been able to work out without a brace so it is getting better.
The final chapter of the whirlwind of April was that we had all the carpet pulled out of the living/parlor/hallway/closets, and the linoleum pulled out from the entryway/dining/kitchen. Replaced it all with wood-look tiles. This was supposed to be a huge thing that I was so excited about, and now it's barely an afterthought! Sheesh.
before (well before, you can see we still had Sumo and the parlor was still unpainted)
I had made the decision back in February that I was going to start meeting new people. Actually my mom had harassed me since we moved for not going out and making connections. My first step was attending a meetup with other wives of Andrews troop. There I heard about Stroller Strong Moms (SSM) from my FRG leader Kelli, which I had decided to join in March. I did and it has been great. I had been walking on my own before I joined, and once I joined I also started the couch to 5k running plan again. I had done it last year before I found out I was pregnant and really liked it. My goal was to be able to run a 5k by my birthday. Since the c25k plan is 9 weeks it would be perfect.
80 continued to improve, he started smiling, cooing, and this cute little "inside out" laugh where he breathes in instead of out. I call it his Nerd Laugh because it reminds me of the tall guy with glasses from Revenge of the Nerds.
Smiling!
Chatting
I have been wrestling with Babies Cant Wait, the GA early intervention program, since January. Basically 80s caseworker is irresponsible, unprofessional, and has no business working in her field. If you want to be in public service and ignore the needs of your clients, go work at the DMV or the county tax commissioner!
