The Princess has decided to sleep! I don't want to jinx anything (and I am sure tonight will be very rough, no doubt), but Sami has not only been sleeping 12 hours at night, but napping (napping!!!!) during the day as well (knock wood, send anti-jinx vibes pls). Whenever she wakes I tell her how much cuter she looks after her beauty sleep.
Between a nice stretch of sleep-ful nights, Sami's increasing intake of solids and corresponding decrease in nursing, and generally emerging from those difficult days of early babyhood, I feel like I am waking up.
The lack of running had really been getting me down. But my hip is better, and I can start working back up to some real distances. I have my sights set on a spring half, and am already perusing the online sales for cold weather running gear to get me through the winter. I am more optimistic about my running, knowing that the half or the full or the ultra will all be there waiting for me when I am ready. I know that my baby won't be a baby forever. In a few short months, she'll be weaned, and I'll be able to run early in the morning without pumping, or hit the gym after work without worrying about the next feed, and, most importantly, be able to run any time without having to accommodate "the girls."
Not only am I making plans about running, I'm also consciously embracing other non-mom hobbies and interests. Knowing that Sami is our last, there is an end-date to this gig of full time motherhood.* Not that I'll have to turn in my company ID, training manuals, and restroom key when she turns 18. But yes, at some point, she'll have friends of her own, and hobbies of her own, and she won't want me to carry her in the sling to prom. Weaning is just one milestone in the long process of separation that is parenting. So I'm getting fair warning that I will someday have to fill the hours that are now consumed with bottom-wiping, burping, tooth-brushing, dicing of food, carseat buckling, and a hundred other insignificant tasks that weave together to form Max and Sami's childhoods.
I'm back in the knitting swing of things - I've started my first non-baby blanket project since before Max was born. I renewed my flight instructor's certification (not that I plan to use it, but if you let it lapse, it is really tough to get it back) for another two years, and have started reading flight instruction blogs. Last time I actively sought information about teaching flying there were no such thing as blogs! I am becoming more involved with the Supportive Husband's business, and learning about his craft so that I can be an asset to his (our) business, and pitch in a little more as the kids get older.
I feel like I am waking up from the long sleep of my childbearing years, and I have a long day stretching out ahead of me.
*Astute readers may note that I also work outside the home full time. But I am, first and foremost, a full time mom, who just happens to have a day job, too.
