Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to my mom, my mother in law, and all the mom's out there. Thank you for your love, support, kindness, and sacrifices. I'm not so bold as to declare myself a member of the club just yet or to join in the celebration but I admit the card above really makes me smile. In case your wondering, I will be celebrating Mother's day in the same manner I celebrated Nurse's Day: working. Speaking of work. I learned, from one of my patients who got drunk, bonked his head and had a small brain bleed or bruise to the brain but mostly was obnoxious, a really mean joke to play on a pregnant nurse is to throw your chap stick on the floor under your bed. Repetitively. Of course the patient was on bed rest for his head injury so guess who had to fetch the chap stick...... Moving on. 

Now that we are past the half way point Tim and I are starting to think about what we actually need to take care of an infant and care for a child. 

 Isn't it obvious we have everything we need!

Currently that is our only piece of baby gear minus a onesie from the San Diego Zoo from Grandma N and a few hats I knitted myself on the way to Switzerland. 

Back to the backpack. Tim didn't want me to get any baby gear until month 7 initially. You know the whole cart before the horse. However, he made an exception for the REI used gear sale. My backpack is actually a "used once, didn't like" return and sold for 1/3 the retail price. 

Although it was quite a score, it was sort of like the third place podium finish as I went to the sale in hopes of purchasing a BOB running stroller. Turns out like any race you need to respect it and prepare appropriately. I arrived casually at 8:00 a.m. when the sale started. Silly me, if you want a single BOB you need to camp in the parking lot. Silly me again, there were a few double BOB's for 1/2 the retail price left. I thought a double BOB would be silly for me to buy. As my mother reminded me, I could have just put a doll in the other side, or some groceries. After all it would be a better workout.

I must thank my sister in law Val, for recommending the book below. It's basically a consumer report for all kinds of baby gear. I recommend reading it entirely before you go to Babies R Us and marking the pages that grade the gear. 

Elizabeth braved Babies R Us with me this week. It was the first time I entered a store such as that and my first exposure to a lot of that stuff. Did I mention we both bonked? Two girls who once rode 2X GWL with a 10 mile trail run off the bike bonked at Babies R Us. Yup, that about describes it. So anyway I am learning lots of stuff. Most of it is annoying or maybe I'm just hormonal but here goes. What is safe today, will be recalled tomorrow. If you are looking for a crib that is just a crib good luck. If you are looking for a crib that converts into a convertible corvette, you may be in luck. Also if a manufacturer sells a crib at Babies R Us under one name, it' sure to be sold at a furniture store under another, and Wal Mart under a third. Overwhelmed yet? Also when the people at the store tell you the stiffness of an infants mattress affects "bone development" the orthopaedic surgeon will disagree. Seems nothing is simple.

Except maybe running:

It's pretty simple. I'm getting a bit slower, but I can run "far" when I run at a relaxed pace close to 10 min/miles. I can run faster when chatting with Julie but we usually run shorter. Her recovery is my "tempo" pace. I am thankful for that as I might just give the chap stick thrower another head bonk if not for the release of running.