Life as a Working Mom: At the Office

3:00am - I wake up and realize that Emily has not yet been up. Brian stirs as well and I share the news with him.  

3:50am - Jinxed myself. She's up.  I head upstairs to give her a bottle and a little rocking. 

4:13am - I head back to bed. 

4:20am - She starts to fuss again. I sent Brian up to check on her. 

4:30am - He returns. 

4:37am - Fussing again. My turn. 

4:50am - Finally crawling back into bed with the hope of sleep. 

5:00am - Alarm goes off... time to exercise!  Screw that today! 

6:15am - I never hear Brian's alarm go off at 5:50, and finally wake up.  Jump in the shower to rinse off, spray some Dry Shampoo in the hair (Seriously my new favorite thing! I actually get angry when I actually have to shampoo, blow dry, and fix my hair now), make up, and dressed for the day. 

6:40am - Get the girls up.  Usually a bottle for Em first, then we head to Leah's room if she is still sleeping. She seems to wake up in a much better mood if her sister wakes her up. 

6:50am - Get the girls dressed.  I let Leah pick out Em's clothes. She usually wants to match whatever she happens to have been dressed in. 

7:00am - Out the door.  Brian currently takes Em to his parents. 

7:05am - Leah and I are usually a few minutes behind Brian out the door.  Of course last minute Leah always wants something new to take with her.  We are off to school.

7:15am - Entering construction traffic on the highway.  It adds an extra 20 minutes to my commute right now. 

7:50am: 29 miles later, finally get off the highway.

7:58am - quick little walk from the parking garage to my office, across the street from the beautiful St. Louis Union Station. 

8:00am - Finally settled in at my office.  Pull out my breakfast.  Check my emails.  Finally feel like I can catch my breath! Time to get busy.  Query writing, excel doing.... 

10:00am - Typical meeting time.... since I do not actually do any day to day work with a single person in my office, ALL of my meetings are on the phone.

11:15am - If its Tuesday or Thursday, its time for boot camp.  Otherwise its time to munch on Lunch while I work.

1:00pm - Fridays, time to run.  This particular day I ran 4.5 miles, at a 10 minute pace, and walked another 0.25 miles in my warm up and cool down.  Yep, Im awesome! 

2:00pm - Back to my desk. Try my best to cool down. 

2:30pm - Study time!

4:30pm - Time to call it quits.  Ready to end my time as Kim and start back up my job of Mommy/wife.

5:00pm - If I need too, pick up Leah from daycare. 

5:15pm - Home sweet home. 

5:30pm - Time to start dinner while trying to keep the girls entertained and happy. 

6:15pm - Brian usually gets home.  I immediately hand Emily over to him so I can finish up dinner. 

6:35pm - Time to fill our bellies. 

7:00pm - Bedtime for Em. Bath (if its a bath night), PJs, swaddled, rocked. Placed against the far wall of her crib because she is crazy and needs to rub her head/face against something.  Whatever gets her to sleep...  

7:20pm - Leah time.  Sometimes I am spoiled and Brian and Leah continue playing until I ruin the fun with making her get in the bath or get ready for bed.  But sometimes I get some one on one time with my girl by going for a walk outside, watching a show with her, or hanging out in the loft. 

8:00pm - First attempt to get Leah to start going to bed.  It usually fails. 

8:30pm - Second attempt to get Leah ready for bed.  Pjs on and mommy reads a book or two to her. 

8:45pm - Good night hugs and kisses, "I love yous" and a lecture about how we need to stay in our bed until the sun comes up.  I get sent to get daddy who "scares away the monsters" and lays with her.  I head down stairs to clean up, get bottles ready for Em, pack my lunch and clothes for the next day, do a little laundry, and veg out for a new minutes. 

9:15pm - Give Em a dream feed of 4 oz.  Check on Brian and Leah if I havent heard Brian come out of her room yet.  Its becoming pretty common that I find Brian passed out with her.  This particular time he didnt even wake up to my pokes and shakes.... so I let him be. 

9:30pm - In bed, passing out!

Body After Baby: Week 11

3.0 more lbs gone this week!

Whoohoo!

I really did not do anything too differently...

The only thing I can pinpoint is that I talked to the trainer at work about my running and did a few speed/interval runs as he suggested.

I also did reach my goal and ran 4.15 miles on Thursday!

At a 10 min pace too!

I really have started to feel good this week.

I feel stronger and leaner.

My old jeans, from pre-pre baby seem to fit even better than ever before.

Although I still weight more...

I guess the 30 Day Shred really is working to build some muscle!

I probably received way more comments from others regarding my weight loss this past week too.

I signed up for the 5k on the 8th.

I am excited, but nervous.

I also signed up for boot camp at work, which begins tomorrow.

Its all becoming easier. 

Part of my normal routine.

Something I even look forward too.

I hope it stays this way!

Catching Up

• I have been meaning to write more and catch up on so much, but since returning to work every day feels like a marathon.  I hope to write up a day in the life post soon... 
• Leah's potty training is.... going.  We are averaging 1 accident a day.  She does awesome at school where I think she likes to go often simply because that means 1 on 1 attention from the teachers but at home she will start to do her little potty, leg crossed, dance and will not always stop to go.  Or she refuses to poop on the potty.  I know its VERY common, but O-M-G! 
• Emily is sleeping pretty well at night.  Usually up only once in the 2 oclock hour... as long as I give her a dream feed before I head to bed. 
• Speaking of sleep, potty training has ruined Leahs.  She is still in pull ups at night, but she wakes up from the feeling of needing to go, and will just go in her pull up, but will come and get Brian or I to go put her back to bed.  Sometimes its multiple times per night!  And she is waking up really early too for the same reason.  It makes her a crabby little thing!  
• Emily is really starting to love her hands.  They are in her mouth at every chance.  I have started to put pull tab blankies, or little toys on top of her so she can work on grabbing on to them and pulling them in her mouth. She is getting better by the day!   Honestly I cannot wait till she can control those crazy hands & arms.  They are such jerks sometimes! 
• Leah started Soccer Shots at daycare.  She LOVES it.  And according to her teachers she pays attention very well, does everything she is asked to do, and yells at her friends if they are not listening or doing what they are supposed too.   I was also curious if paying to put her in anything so young would be a waste or not.  So often they will just cry and want nothing to do with it.  I am proud to report that Leah is the opposite! SCORE! 
• I have been thinking about Leah's 3rd birthday party lately... because OMG its in like 12 weeks!  I cannot decide between The Little Gym or Chuck E Cheese.  Leah loves Chuck E Cheeses, and its a bit cheaper, but it can get so crowded and then the kids will not even be kept together and they will all go off on their own.  At The Little Gym we will have the place to ourselves and the babies will also be able to participate in the fun. Thoughts?  I want to decide soon so we can get a prime 10:30, before nap, time! 
• My baby sister moved away to college last week. Its very strange.  It has made me think back to the amazingness that is college and how I miss those fun days and nights with my roommates!  I miss Cape! 
• And that's all I got because a certain 2 year old wants me to cuddle with her!  Peace Out!

Not Really Wordless Wednesday...

one of the first smiles I actually caught on camera!

Leah's first bonfire & marshmallow roast

photography fail... Leah in the shade, Em in the sun. I was just trying to click away before Leah dropped Em, or Em started screaming that I did not even pay attention or look at what the pictures were turning out like... of course afterwards when I wanted to try again in the sun, Leah refused to hold Emie again. 

my attempt to correct my error some....put it in my black & white... yep, doesnt help. 

I just love her little lips.  Its totally her daddy.  

love them. 

Body After Baby: Week 10

Only down 1.8  this week.

Although its less than 2 lbs, I know I am doing it the healthy way.

This week I had moments of eating great...

And moments of eating bad.

(work pool party... with cookies... and sangria....and why yes, I did get in a swim suit in front of my coworkers, 10.5 weeks postpartum.)

I returned to work and kept up my workouts.

Still working on 30 day shred.

I got up at 5 am to do it on days I went into the office.

Took my measurements again at the half way point...

Down 6 inches all over my body!

My runs varied from 2.2 miles to 3.2...

At 10 minute mile pace.

I shock myself sometimes.

I plan to sign up for a 5K in 3 weeks here in town.

I admit I mostly agreed to do it because the $25 dollars gets me a dry fit shirt instead of a normal tshirt.

I hate paying to run!

I already decided my goal is to run it in under 32 minutes.

Sept 8th...

Lets see what I can do!

Goal this week: 4 mile run!

Body After Baby: Week 9

2.4 more lbs gone.

Biggest loss I have had in a while...

And all thanks to a stomach bug I had Saturday.

Blah!

The rest of the week I actually slacked with counting my points.

I missed a few runs too.

One night I was just way too tired, another night we hung out at a neighbors house instead, and another night when I went to head out and realized that there was a gas leak in the neighborhood (and power outage) so I stayed home to hear what was going on, chat with neighbors, and ya know... not get super sick from the gas smell.

So yes... I think this is all the result of the stomach bug.

This week I will get back on track...

Because if I do not, I fear I will completely fall off.

I did however begin level 2 on the 30 Day shred.

OMG it hurts!

But it is all movements that I have never tried before so I actually like doing it.

I hurt in places I have never hurt before!!

And I have finished the C25K program!

Whooohoo!

Now I just will be heading out, and running for a set amount of time of time.

...which is hard!  I am pretty bad at judging how far I can go in a set amount of time.

My first time out I tried a new route and my 30 minutes were up WAY earlier than I planned....

I had to keep running home simply because I did not want to walk that far!

I am pretty slow right now... I'm just under a 12 minute mile so for me to reach any sort of goal of running 5+ miles, I need to get faster.

Brian laughed at that.

He pointed out that his ex-cross country runner self once ran 2 miles in 12 minutes!

I told him to shut his mouth unless he went out and ran a mile in less than 10 minutes now...

This week I head back to work too....

I cannot decide when/how I plan to workout on the days that I actually head into the office.

There is a gym at my office... with workout classes at lunch that I can do.

It is also located in downtown St. Louis and could be great entertainment while running.

You see people running all the time....

But you also see alot of bums.

I just cant decide if I want to take my lunch time to work out, work out for a bit before I leave, early in the mornings before I head in, or late at night...

Right now I am thinking workout before I leave the office so that I can keep my lunch open to study...

We will just have to see what I settle into...

It will definitely be a challenge coming up!

The End

Today is my official last day of maternity leave...

Although I actually do not return to work until Wednesday.

My awesome company allows a New Parent's Transition week where the first week back I only have to work 20 hrs, but get paid for 40.

I am sad that this time is over...

I will miss the cuddles with my sweet baby girl.

Hanging out with my big girl on our Mommy & Leah days.

The free time to do laundry, clean the house, cook dinner, exercise, shop, and anything else my heart desires...

But I think I have had enough.

I am anxious to get back.

I honestly LOVE my job.

I miss the people.

I miss feeling important and productive.

I miss spreadsheets.

I miss Excel.

I miss data.

I miss the  "schedule".

I miss studying and progressing on my actuarial designations.

I admit I am slightly terrified of starting my new life as a working/actuarial student, wife and mom of 2.

There will be alot on my plate and I am sure I will have moment of feeling completely overwhelmed...

But I am excited to figure it all out.

I am anxious to figure out the mornings...

Learn my new position on KY cost of care.

Figure out the best times to work out...

Continue to make healthy family dinners.

Treasure the moments with my family of 4 at night and on the weekends.

Begin our new normal.