B.A.B.E. Week 21: Supermoon lunar eclipse, three valuable lessons, and running

On Sunday night, we watched the eclipse of this year’s supermoon.  It was surreal and beautiful – at points like a blip of a moon sliver, at other points like a nectarine that could be plucked out of the sky, and other points a muddy reddish perfect sphere in the sky.   As a NASA scientist put it, we were watching the reflections of the world’s sunsets.   So wonderful to watch that celestial body and marvel at an occurrence that hasn’t happened since Wilson and I were toddlers. 

A supermoon lunar probably won’t happen again until 2033.  Right now 2033 feels like a lifetime away.   And in a sense it is.  Elle will have “grown up” and (hopefully) be heading to college.   It is hard to imagine Elle on her way to college while I am right now in the throes of watching for her first teeth to break through.  Indeed, it is hard to imagine her as a knowledgeable 18 year old when, at present, I am so easily proud of simple developmental acts like putting her pacifier back in her mouth or her yells with joy in order to hear her own voice.  Or holding a book to "read". 

My heart was especially warmed when I read that her outstretched arm waving is actually her reaching to be picked up.   This metamorphoses to a baby who has opinions and can act on those opinions beyond crying is amazing.  Thinking about her eventual metamorphosis to an adult just doesn’t seem possible but as everyone reminds me, it will come so soon, too soon.  So I try to remember that and enjoy these days and hours of cuddles and smiles (and yes, some opinionated crying).

Trying to remember and enjoy can be hard when striving to conquer some of the other aspects of B.A.B.E.dom – aspirations/career and body/health.   Keeping the long-game in mind is especially hard when work is stressful for me or Wilson or both.  It is also hard as I make fitness goals.   The balance between work, baby, and fitness has not been perfect in these past 21 weeks but I have learned some valuable lessons:

• Things will go pear-shaped but the small stuff really is small stuff.

 Yesterday while making dinner, a picture fell over – flipping my just-made salad onto the fridge and floor.   After cleaning the salad up, I got out a container of batter made the day before for these eggy bread things called popovers.  I opened the container of popover batter and:  mold!  In one day and in what I thought was a clean container in the fridge…mold had formed.   But I was less peeved than I would have usually been.  And I was less peeved because it has started to sink in how the stakes of life are now much higher now that Elle is here in our world.  And so small stuff about ruined dinner (when we have the resources to buy more dinner) just doesn’t seem as important any more.

• Multi-tasking is not necessarily good.

I love to multi-task but I have noticed that both my work and my quality time focused on Elle decreases.  And I am not sure that doing both at the same time outweighs the decrease in quality in both.   So I am going to be a little more thoughtful/careful in my multi-tasking decisions.

• Exercise goals (like marathons) will be there for many more years but Elle will only be [20 weeks and 5 days] once.

This last lesson I have learned is from my sister – mother-extraordinaire of 5 kids.   Among being a mother and many other attributes, my sister is an incredibly hard worker, a doctor, a runner, and a volunteer (to a multitude of people and causes in her church and outside it).  Despite her incredible life pace and the fact that she is usually universally supportive, she counseled me against training for a marathon right now while Elle is so young.  This surprised me because the last marathon that I ran was with her.  She counseled me against it because she wants me to have the ability to savor this time in Elle’s life.   I didn’t immediately heed her advice but it was in the back of my mind.  Her words gathered strength as “marathon training” began to eat up more time and cause stress.  I became pretty stressed as I ran longer that my milk-supply would dramatically decrease.   The running does seem to affect me on the margins and I would have probably been able to power through and get Elle the milk that she needs.  But I decided, why should I “power” through?  While exercise is important (still planking, running, etc), the time and stress aren’t worth it to go the 26.2 miles.  So, 13.1 miles here I come.

W's note:  Good choice mommy!