It's Been A Long While

Wow, it has been a long time since the last post here. My main purpose to this post was to talk about running. In a very condensed short summary, we are back in Hawaii. On Sunday December 8th, I completed my first Marathon in 4:12:10. Alexandra has completed 2 half marathons this year, and Maggie has completed multiple 5ks and a 10k. How did we get here? I hadn't ran much since joining the Navy, once every 6 months for 1.5 miles and on occasion I would run off and on. I ran a half marathon with Chief Ransdell in 2013, but did not train for it properly and that resulted in me not running much again. Alexandra, to my understanding, did not ever consider herself a runner until this year and here we are cranking out the miles in 2019 in Hawaii. So again, how did this happen? Well I was an instructor at prototype which was a stressful rotating shift work job. One way or another medical noticed on multiple occasions that my blood pressure was borderline hypertension. Had I been drinking coffee, yes. Had I been very active and probably stressed about getting back to work, yes. So they wanted to monitor me, they also recommended eating healthier, cutting out fast food, drinking less alcohol and coffee. But I already did not eat much fast food, at most a couple times a month. I wasn't really into the other options, but I did try them out, by the way a week without coffee sucks. Oh and they recommended more exercise. I tried running more, but my knee just didn't want to hack it for anything over 2 miles. So I turned to biking and started going for bike rides a couple times a week for anything from 2 - 10 miles. My theory was this would strengthen my knees. It seemed to work and I was able to start running more. I barely got the doctors off my back, and when I arrived in Hawaii they were also interested in my blood pressure, so I started running more and more. 2-3 times per week, and I successfully got my blood pressure where it needed to be. But I kept running. Now Alexandra was looking for mom friends and discovered Stroller Warriors, and began their Couch to 5K program, and as the running progressed with these new friends she began enjoying the running as well as the company. She graduated from Couch to 5k to the Bridge to 10k. She was now a full fledged runner, and volunteered to coach the next couch to 5k and bridge to 10k groups. Like I said before she has ran 2 half marathons and multiple 10ks and 5ks now. She is planning on running the Honolulu Marathon 2020. Through stroller warriors the kids got involved in a fun Mini-Miles program. This is how we discovered Maggie is a running machine, she can just run and run and run. We decided to sign her up for a 5k. Which she won for her age group, and by age group I mean she won the 14 and under girls. She is 7. So wow, she won another 5k later. We did a bigger (bigger scale, more people) trail style 5k and she came in 2nd, she was bummed, but we are still impressed. She is motivated and wants to get faster! So now I have Alexandra and Maggie both motivating me to be a better runner. For one, I just want stay faster than Maggie as long as I can hang, so for now I am her pacer on her 5ks. So all of this has happened in about a year of moving back to the island. It has been nuts and life changing. Nolan is also getting into running, and Max a little bit as well. Carson is chomping at the bit for his chance as well, he ran a mile with me at his little tiny legs pace. With all this running and the hiking we are doing, we are being a very outdoor and fit family and I am loving it, who would have thought this is where we would be and what we would be doing at this point in our lives, but its been awesome! I almost started a brand new blog for this, but realized I might as well continue the story where I left off.

NOLAN Birth and First Month

First off wow, it has been almost a year since this was updated.

So, I had a sneaking suspicion he was coming earlier than the other two. Something told me it was going to be during the 37th week. And he did, earlier than I thought but he came earthside at 37 weeks and 3 days. July 27th, 2014 at 5:20pm. Btw, we swore it was 5:25 but all the paperwork says 5:20 so we'll go with that. My water broke at 4am. We really didn't have anything ready so we packed my bag and got the house ready. We texted our sitter who had agreed to be on call if he came earlier than my in-laws. We also texted the Birth Photographer, Cory Danner Photography to let her know we'd be heading to the hospital sometime that day. We finally went around noon because Matthew was bugging me and I wanted to make sure we called the sitter to come over in plenty of time.
 So we get to the hospital around 1 and I am about 4/5cm. No iv, no constant monitoring except for an initial 30minute to check everything. Contractions 3minutes apart like they had been all morning. Finally around 4:30 the nurse checked me again and still 4/5cm. However, my contractions are alot closer together, not that the nurse seemed to notice. She told me I needed to walk but then left me attached to the machine for one of the intermittent monitoring sessions. She left and I told Matthew to run the bath. The nurse came back and told me the Ob on call, it was a Sunday after all, wanted to start me on Pitocin. I said no. She wanted me to walk the hall, I said no. She is a little angry I can tell. This is 4:50pm mind you. I get in the tub and not long after I feel I need to push. I am basically crowning as the Ob on call pokes her head in to check on me. The angry nurse is yelling I need to get out of the tub. The Ob tells her " you and what army, I'm not moving her." I deliver Nolan Patrick in the tub and this is the only 2minutes I see of this Ob. Matthew said he peed as soon as he came out.
The angry nurse grumbles something about Mixson's (my ob) patients always do this and shouldn't be allowed to use the tubs. When I tell one of my midwives about this she just laughed and said there is no hospital policy against it. Nolan weighed 6lbs and 8oz and 18" long. He weighed the exact same as Maggie but an inch shorter. He dropped down to 6lbs 2oz in the hospital and by Thursday he was 6lbs 5oz and the following Thursday he was 7lbs 1oz and the next Tuesday he was 7lbs 7oz. So at around 2 weeks old he gained his birth weight back plus 15oz. He is growing like a champ.
By 3 weeks he was rolling from tummy to back mostly towards the right. He does this a few times a week. At 6 weeks he is in 3m clothes.
Maggie is the sweetest big sister always wanting to play and give kisses. She has always been gentle so far. Maxim doesn't care since Nolan can't play cars or trains yet. Nolan is such a happy baby.

Maggie is 15months

So Maggie had her 15month well baby yesterday. She lost a few ounces and has been having strange poops so they took a stool sample and told us to add some pediasure into her diet. I hope that helps. She doesn't want to poke and prod Maggie since she figures the few ounces is because Maggie being more active and has a great metabolism. She said she doesn't want Maggie to be plump just to maintain her growth curve. We go back in 6 weeks for a weight check. She is verbally more advanced than Maxim at this age. She says no, go, uh oh, night night and we swore she said "where you go" two separate times. Matthew actually asked me about her saying that before I said I thought she said it.  She also can feed herself with a spoon and is practically run.  Update yall in 6 weeks.

14months Old

So our little coconut is 14months old. She is now walking. Matthew has been gone alot this summer. A few days before he came home he got an email about Maggie is taking steps a few here and a few there but the days between were getting fewer. Then in the week he was home she went from that to full blown walking. It was crazy. I am so glad he was there to see it! I think she had some kind of intuition that he was coming since this visit home was a little unexpected. She is still a huge eater. It doesn't matter what it is she wants it. Fruits, veggies, meats, cheeses, crackers you name it she will eat it. She is still in 6month clothes though some are slowly getting retired. She is still in size 1 diapers. Her hair is getting thicker and longer and it is getting easier to put a small bow in and have it hold.
Her newest thing besides walking is she puts on a necklace and sits on the dino rider. I don't think she knows it moves or how to figure it out but as of now just sitting on it makes her happy.

Look Alikes

I recently got some pictures of my husband as a baby. I put some collages together. I think Maxim and Maggie are little clones of him. You be the judge

 I couldn't find a good picture of me at 2 to compare. Though my face was round at 2 like Max's is but he has all daddy's features.

13month Coconut update

Our little Coconut is 13months today. No, she is not walking. She does have days where she takes a crazy amount of steps and then nothing for a week or more. I think she is waiting until Daddy is working less. If you remember she didn't really start rolling over until 7months but by 8months she was crawling and 9months pulling up. She just likes Daddy to see her milestones just like her big brother. No weight or length updates until 15months. She babbles alot. Her newest thing is she tries to blow kisses. It is so cute. She is still a huge foody. There is not much she doesn't like. Maggie is still in 6month clothes and her hair is getting so long that I often take a small clip to keep it out of her eyes. I don't plan on cutting it anytime soon. Her hair doesn't surprise me since about 11months Max has had monthly haircuts. Hair on the ears bugs me.

Max though he still isn't most understandable 2 year old his vocabulary is definitely coming along. I think the newest addition is Water and Bubbles. Bubble Guppies is the first tv show he has requested. He will point to the tv and say bubbles. Sometimes he will just point and say tv. He also calls both the radio and tv, "tv." Whenever we try to differentiate different items like radio and tv or car and truck, he just looks at us and says okay. He doesn't say "yes" he says "okay." For instance, "max, are you hungry?"   "Okay" will be the response. "There you go," "here we go," "no" and "uh oh/ oh no" are still big staples of his vocabulary. Maxim also loves to grab people by their finger and show them things where in a store or in the house or at the aquatic center.  We love our little buddy. He is also doing so well transitioning into a toddler bed. I have also been leaving the door to his room ajar and when he is finished reading books to sleep he wakes up and comes out. I am so proud how well he is doing.

Boys Home

As you may or may not know I am part of an organization called MOMS Club. It is a great group of ladies with wonderful kids. It is such a great drama free environment. Seriously! For example a little boy in the middle of potty training peed on a little girl during a playdate in the backyard and nobody got mad. What can you really do but laugh?  Anyway after a year I was asked if I was willing to join the board. So I am now the Administrative Vice President (Admin VP). I am in charge of charities and fundraising.
One of our ongoing charities is the Methodist's Boys Home. They house about 12 boys at any given time. Each friday we volunteer to bring a baked good. We also keep track of birthdays and if a birthday falls that week then we make sure to bring something like brownies or cupcakes.
Well it is back to school season and to help them out a little more we are donating some school supplies. I am so thrilled with what we are donating considering we only have about 25 members and probably half are actually actively involved. We have 22 notebooks, 2 package of paper, 3 packages of pens, 2 packs of highlighters, 2 packs of colored pencils and 4 glue sticks.
I know they are grateful and appreciative of our donations especially when we drop off the baked goods and the boys look excited. It just feels nice to give back.