Steam Showers

I've been playing nurse all weekend to two sick little kids. 

Alice is still in the midst of this nasty cold, but today Jack was over it. My mom came to pick Jack up- she offered to take him to her house for the afternoon and suggested I go for a run before they left. I'm so glad she did because I doubt I would have gotten out the door otherwise. The temperature was deceiving- 37 degrees but the 25 mph (with 40-50 mph gusts) made it downright frigid. I decided to go tech free. Well, not so much decided- more like my Garmin (which, by the way, I still love as much today as the day I got it) was dead. It wasn't as bad without once I got going. I ran around three miles and it felt so amazing to get the fresh air. I was feeling just as stir crazy as the kiddos. I think I've finally got my running mojo back. Let's hope I don't get sick next.

I came back and bundled Alice up in the Ergo for a walk around the neighborhood. I think the cold air was good for her and she managed to get in a little snooze, too.

Per doctor's orders, I gave Alice a steam shower to help open up her airways. After she was over playing with the bath toys, she played in the laundry basket to kill time.

Aside from our germ infested house, it was a nice little Sunday.

Sleep Habits

She's lucky she's cute, because this little girl is testing me. I'm usually reluctant to talk about baby sleep habits when things are going well for fear that I'll jinx myself. Well, nighttime sleep with Alice can't possibly get any worse so here it goes. The sleeping through the night stopped about four months ago (it was short lived). After successfully working with her to go down for naps and bedtime while still awake and putting herself to sleep, I was hopeful. She naps okay, sometimes they're short but most of the time she sleeps fine during the day- it's the night that is the problem. She usually goes down fine, sometimes going into the crib completely awake and talking herself to sleep. Sometimes there are tears, and sometimes I'm too tired so I nurse her to sleep. All these scenarios tend to have the same result: multiple wakings during the night.

It's 9:30 now,  she went to bed at 7 and has already been up twice. The first time, I tried to soothe her in the crib without picking her up, but that was a bust so she nursed and went back to sleep. Just now she woke up again and cried for a minute then went back to sleep. I feel like I've tried everything. I've consistently been playing music during the night for background noise in hopes that outside noises won't wake her up. But she's still waking up and the music is grating so I just decided to stop that tonight. When I go to bed, I usually have an hour or two before she's up again.

I hate to complain, but I just don't know what to do. I'm tired! She's eating solid foods now, which I thought would help but offered not change. Any tips from you mamas for me?

Running in the New Year

Stepping into 2013 is exciting. I'm excited to set new goals and have fun. After taking 2012 off from running any races, I'm excited to toe the line this year. I added up my miles from 2012- 463. I thought I'd be able to reach 500, but between sick kids and sick mama, miles in December just didn't happen. I used the treadmill at the gym on New Year's Day and covered three miles. After 2 1/2 weeks with no running, it was tough. I'm hoping to get outside runs in this weekend, with temps finally above ten degrees. I'll let you know how it goes!