That was me this morning after a harrowing night of endless feedings and diaper changes. From about midnight to 8am, there were easily 7 diaper changes and at least 5 feedings. As soon as I was done with one round and laid my tired head down for 5-10 minutes, we started all over again. If it weren’t for Gary holding and bouncing Remy from 2am-3am and the blissful 6am-7am nap, my entire night would have been totally sleepless. It was 8am before Remy finally settled down for a little longer sleep, but by then I was awake with the sunrise and completely frazzled and in tears from the experience.
Part of the problem was our foray into using the pre-fold cloth diapers with Bummis Whisper pants as covers as a night time diaper solution. They work and they don’t leak, thank goodness, but the little man pees like he’s trying to put out a forest fire, especially when he’s downing gallons of breast milk throughout the evening. What’s that? Gallons not believable? Keep in mind this little guy was at 8 lbs 13 oz on 9/10 (day 3) and just weighed in at 10 lbs 8 oz today. I don’t know how much milk it takes for a baby to grow an average of 2.25 oz per day, but it’s a lot. At any rate, this means almost constant diaper changes. I had one clean fancy cloth diaper, which lasted all of 15 minutes before he pooped that one into the diaper pail during one of the many feeds. Starting now, we just do disposables through the night. We’re still using cloth during the day, though.
So I do what any reasonable triathlete does when she’s feeling down and frustrated. I go for a run. I don’t care that it’s only been two weeks since giving birth. I don’t care what anyone says. If I’m upset, I need to workout, and a stroll through the neighborhood isn’t going to cut it. I expected the run to hurt and be difficult after not running for a couple months, but I was pleasantly surprised. I only went 1.75 miles, but I could have gone longer. I didn’t want to push my luck and end up unable to run at all for even longer. At 20 pounds lighter than my final weigh in before birth, all the hills are getting smaller. Thank goodness. I averaged just under 9 minute miles. Can you believe it? Maybe I’ll run again tomorrow with the tyke in the jogger stroller.
Hang in there! And feel great – you’re running faster miles than I ever could even when I was training for my 1/2 marathon. Granted you are superathlete lady and I am scum, but running that quickly 2 weeks after birth – you are now superathlete & supermom all at once!
this is good info…cloth at night might be too much of a pain in the a$$…i’m storing that for future (near future) reference. and glad to hear the run felt good, and was fast (relatively speaking at least)!
I’ve heard about the meltdowns… I think we all get plenty of them after baby’s born. So glad your run went well- I can totally picture that working to relieve some of your stress. Hope you got a nap today!
Yay for the run…Boo on the lack of sleep though. Hope you have a better night tonight.
I can totally relate to where you are coming from. Training and racing again as soon as I was physically able really helped me all around…physically and mentally. I just felt thankful that I had training as an outlet.
Hi. I heard about your blog from a friend and have kept reading because you are a great writer and this journey of yours has been truly inspirational. I am commenting, however, for only one reason. You may already be on top of this, but please please watch your hydration as you begin to run while breastfeeding a newborn! I speak from some pretty tough experience. I NEEDED to run. But I didn’t think about the physical toll of producing the known gallons. That dehydration experience wasn’t pretty. Easily fixed, however. Aqua.
You’re awesome and handling everything nicely!!
Tara
Wow what a night! The run must have felt so good! Not that I know much of what I’m talking about, but I was told (with my nephew) that we had to wait until he was a certain age before he went in a jogging stroller since it bounces their heads around so much (for some reason I think it was 6 months or something, but no idea why I think that) — I’m sure you are aware but wanted to mention it just in case! Feel free to go back to ignoring my non-mom ramblings – you probably have more than enough advice as it is!
So jealous that you are running. I went for a 500 yard walk today and thought my stitches might pop off. If I had any nagging injuries I guess they will certainly heal during this 6 week hiatus from everything but the baby that I am on.
I remember that first run. It was so werid, this body all alone now!!!! Way to go momma!
Hey Alicia,
I’m the worst blog reader ever. I haven’t been to your site since the last time that I commented. However, that will all change today! I am going to link you on my blog…finally:).
Congratulations on the your new addition.
xoamanda