So I Had a Baby!

Steph checking in here after a little blogging maternity leave! I have spent the last two months learning the ropes of motherhood, maxing out the storage on my iPhone by becoming a momarazzi, and falling more and more in love with our little guy.

The few days leading up to labor brought on quite the myriad of emotions. When my due date came and went, my pregnancy sparkle went along with it. I was puffy, anxious about the physical requirements of actually birthing a human, and feeling unsettled about meeting the little being that I had been hosting in my body for nine plus months. Me, the girl that pretty much only loves babies in 15 minute increments, was about to become a mom!

I went into labor five days after my due date. Once the contractions were starting to become consistent, I did what any rational gal would do- I went and got ice cream. I spent the first few hours of labor in the bath tub and jokingly told my husband that we should just deliver the baby at home. When the jokes subsided and the contractions were about 4 minutes apart, I knew it was time to go to the hospital. We grabbed our bags and as we walked to the car, I clung to Jeff in a big teary hug. These were our last moments together as just the two of us and our life was about to change in a big, big way.

Two days later, after 7 pushes, Hudson Edward finally made his grand entrance into the world. Born at 9lbs 9ounces, with a giant mop of fluffy hair, he became the newest, most awesome member of our little family. My husband's first baby-book worthy words when he saw Hudson were "is that the baby?" and my first thoughts after seeing him were "did I just birth a sumo wrestler?" We were in love. Like, crazy love.

Our little sumo wrestler.

The last eight weeks have been full of new emotions and full of relief. Good news- I still feel like the same old Steph! If you read my blog post regarding my fears of motherhood, I can confidently tell you that I’m not yet wearing mom jeans, I haven’t posted 1.3 million pictures on Facebook of Hudson (granted, its only been 8 weeks and I make no promises!), and my friendships are still in tact. I am feeling hopeful, inspired, and super pumped about getting back to chasing those dreams of mine. I’ve laced up my running shoes, am building back my mileage, and even have a half Ironman triathlon on the schedule for May 2016.

So while Kendra takes you through her journey to the Boston Marathon, I’m going to cover the other side of the athletic spectrum and share with you my journey of fighting to run faster than a sea turtle on land, forming a healthy relationship with my post-pregnancy body, and jumping back into triathlon training. It is going to be a journey filled with adventure, bumps in the road, and celebratory dance parties. So here we go!

My newest training buddy.