Emmett celebrated his first birthday on 8 July. We had a big celebration on the 9th with family and friends. Our theme was "Going Green". All the food was locally grown/raised (local meat and produce) and/or organic. We use real plates, cups, utensils and cloth napkins. Eric's mom made the birthday cupcakes from scratch. We asked people not to bring cards and instead did 1 giant homemade one.
Some of our guests really go into the theme with their gifts to Emmett. One little girl (3 years old) picked out some of her old toys for Emmett. Another couple gave us a baby Columbia sweatshirt that their daughter had worn and I had gushed about. One of my sisters made a donation to a wildlife foundation in Emmett's name. Emmett also got a firetruck made out of recycled milk jugs (online company called Green toys I believe) and a savings bond.
Emmett's first birthday represented a return to normalcy (or new normalcy) for both Eric and I. I think we are finally hitting our stride with this whole parenting thing. We sort of have our individual roles figured out and the clock is running smoothly.
On the fitness side of the house, the first year after Emmett's birth felt like forever while I was living it, but now, looking back, it seems manageable. There were days when I felt like I would never feel like myself again or never run again. Luckily, I was able to curb some of those feelings by trying to incorporate some cross training in.
Aside from my collegiate running days, I can confidently say that I'm in the best shape of my life. (And certainly in better all around shape than my running days). For me, it was very frustrating to go back to ground zero after Emmett's delivery and piece my body back together again, but it probably taught me patience and compassion for others in similar positions. Sure, there are some days when I say "why me?", why did I have such a rough road to recovery after delivery. Why was I the one who was gifted with so many post delivery issues/injuries? But most days, I'm happy to be moving and happy to be on my feet. Muscle wise, I'm definitely a pre pregnancy strength if not higher. My endurance is back up....leg speed is a little slow, but I don't do a ton of speed workouts anymore. My abs are still pretty shot, but definitely getting better.
I have started weaning Emmett and it's going really well. The first nursing session I dropped was the one that happened right after my morning workout...and that freedom has been amazing. I continually struggled to keep my milk supply up post workouts, so dropping that session completely eased that pressure. I'm still working to get off those last 5 lbs of baby weight, so starting weaning has also given me the freedom to watch what I eat a little more (before, I was so fearful to cut or change anything or risk having an angry/hungry baby latched on to me all day.) I also no longer pump/nurse in the evenings. Eric puts Emmett to bed when I work and we stopped giving him a bottle at night....which means that I could give up pumping entirely!!! Whoop, whoop.
As for those last 5 lbs of baby weight....well, this might be as good as it gets. And I'm completely OK with that as well! I put up a good fight, but my body is just different. I'm pretty much back into all pre pregnancy clothes which was more important than the number on the scale to me anyway (mostly because I didn't want to replace my whole wardrobe.)
