100 Words Per Mile: Newborn Growing Pains

My daughter won't remember any of this, and that's bizarre.

December 3, 2021
10.00 miles
1:23:25

I was supposed to run slow today, and I really tried, but when I’m alone, it’s hard not to run a little bit faster. I’m worried this is going to hurt me in the long run.

When Bill and I run together, he paces us somewhere around 9:30 to 10:00 per mile, which is really slow for me. But when we’re doing that pace together it wear on me so much and by the end of a long run I feel like I’ve barely run at all, which I think is the point he’s been getting at.

Today I ran at about 8:20 per mile, which is a good pace for a long race, but much faster than what I set out to do. Even funnier, my phone updates me every mile on the pace I just ran, so after the first mile my phone said something like 8:25, and I made a conscious effort to slow down the second mile. When I finished that mile, my phone said 8:12!

So no matter my effort, I ran faster anyway.

The good news is I feel plenty ready for the half marathon in ten days or so. Despite the foot surgery, I’d like to beat last year’s time, and I’m feeling pretty hopeful about it.

My wife has had a really fortunate road so far when it comes to breastfeeding. Our daughter latches with no issue (unless she’s crying so hard she can’t get her mouth on the nipple), and her production has been sound enough that we’ve been able to start freezing four to five ounces at a time. With daycare coming in only a couple months, it feels urgent and imperative for us to have some sort of supply, because who knows how much my wife will pump once she starts working again.

We’ve got a nice stack of frozen bags in the freezer, and now we’re wondering if we’ll run out of room. I found a nice set of plastic baskets at BJs and I was able to use them to organize the breastmilk a bit because it was getting in the way of breakfast sandwiches, small pints of ice cream, and Pedialyte popsicles (which are for us, not the baby).

The degrees with which my life has change are not actually all that substantial on their own. My wife and I had been early birds before our daughter arrived and we didn’t spend many nights outside the house. We are clean people, but only in spurts. We’re not afraid to let clutter gather for a few days before picking it all up in one fell swoop. Having a baby really kind of fit in with all of that.

But the degrees do add up, and when the bottle isn’t screwed on tight so the milk spills all over your hungry baby, and you have to warm up a new bottle but it takes some time, and your baby is hungry so she starts crying and your wife can’t sleep in like you promised because the baby is crying and not only is she still hungry but her entire outfit that you’d just changed her into is soaked …