Take your baby with You

Well, I'm 16 days post birthing my baby girl, Zoe (8lbs, 12oz).
I also just received an email with the following future "due date" of my next big accomplishment.

"Red Carpet Warriors--

With 165 days until we head down the mountain from Timberline Lodge, we've got 11 of 12 runners for our Hood to Coast team."

I am one of those 11 runners!
So today my baby took her first bottle from Daddy and I jogged 1.8 miles while pushing my two-year-old in a broken down jogging stroller.

My pace was somewhere between 13 to 16 minutes per mile. Yipes. My goal will be to get below 10 minute miles in the next 6 months.

When I accomplish this relay in record breaking time (for me) I can confidently proclaim that I've run two relay races with over 11 miles in each 24 hour race within one year. Not to mention that within that same year I was pregnant and birthed a huge baby. This leaves all my female cousins and sister with no excuse not to exercise or run in fun relay races while pregnant or recovering from pregnancy.

Birth Story Summary:
To summarize my recent birth of Zoe; it was a mental challenge for sure.
Basically my labor started at 11pm and kept me up all night. No sleep for me.
We drove 40 minutes to Davis Hospital at 6:30am after I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I listened to my hypnotherapy music and birthing music on my Ipod as we drove out there. Once there I labored with Nate's help focusing till 1pm (in the shower, counting through contraction, etc. At 1pm I wanted to get in the birthing tub and they told me I was dilated to at least a 5 cm. But the hospital was packed and both birthing tubs were in use. So I started to panic. I asked for an IV drip of something to calm me down and I labored for another 1.5 hours. At 2:30pm the tub still wasn't ready so I begged for an epidural. I was likely deep into transition at this point but refused to let my midwife check me for how dilated I was. Right when the epidural doctor came in the room I was told the birthing tub was ready for me. But at that point I was to frustrated to want to go that route. I got the epidural and started being nice to everyone. From 3 till 4pm I rested and Nate took a nap. Then at 4:10 or so my nurse came to check on my and noticed that when I tried to turn on my right side that baby girl's heartrate dropped. She decided to check my dilation and when she started to exclaimed, "Baby's head is crowning! She is ready to be born." A backup doctor was rushed in and was very nice introducing herself and was coaching me to push when I asked, "Where is my husband?" A nurse said, "Oh is that him asleep on the coach?" They woke up Nate and got my Mom back in the room. The doctor asked if I was a fast pusher with Lincoln and I said, "very fast." After one push the doctor told me to slow down so that I wouldn't tear, and then with a second push Zoe was out. Overall, pushing took less than 5 minutes, just like with Lincoln and my recovery has been amazing. Only one stich, and the epidural wore off quickly with no adverse effects. So I have forgiven myself for not "making it" through the entire labor without drugs.

In the end I pushed out another almost 9 pound baby. At this hospital they took Zoe and put her right on my chest after birth and left her with me for 2 hours. She took right to nursing for 45 minutes and kept looking in our eyes so content. It was amazing. I walked into the hospital weighing around 206 pounds (about 20 pounds less than when I birthed Lincoln). After two weeks of nursing and sleeping and eating, I know weigh around 180 pounds and hopefully still going down.

My goal is to weigh in the 150s by August for the relay race, which will enable me to reach that fast 10 minute or less pace.