"And if you ask her why she is still running....

....she'll tell you it makes her complete."

Sometimes is just feels good to indulge in something you love.

My daily fix of M&Ms for example.

Or my run this morning.

Oh. my. goodness.

It was short and it was slow. But it was HEAVENLY!!

I've been having some pain in my left foot-ironically the same leg that has knee issues (aren't I WAY too young for this kind of garbage??), so I've not run for a little while.

But I gave that foot a little test run from the store to the car at the back of the parking lot the other day and it felt great. Of course that meant I needed to test it for a slightly longer distance than the length of the Walmart parking lot.

There was a 5K this morning that I desperately wanted to do (proceeds benefit newborn hospice), but Aaron nixed it. I think he's going into protective mode here and worried I'll overdo things.

It's like he's watched me go through seven pregnancies before and knows I get a little stir crazy or something.

Anyway, with that off the calendar, waking up to a pristine perfect morning was just too much.

The Mizunos were calling me from their box. They just needed to get out.

And so did I.

And it felt so good!

Since I'm such a numbers focused person, I left the Garmin at home. That way I was paying more attention to how I felt than what my pace read. So I don't know how far I ran. Somewhere between about 2 1/2-3 miles. (Hey-when you run the same course very frequently, you kind of come to know the landmarks that make decent mile markers)

And pace? Well, I know I hit around 10-10:30/mi at one point for a couple of tenths of a mile, just because I know how my body feels when it settles into a 10min pace. But that didn't last too long until slowing down a bit more felt better. But still enough to get that satisfaction of breaking a good sweat. Why does that feel so good??

It was so nice to run. To feel the sun beating down on me and my feet beating the pavement.

Coupled with the bonus that my running skirt still fits.

The looks I get from people now are priceless too. There is something fun about running with a big old belly!

I was afraid I'd end up on a walk this morning. That wouldn't have been the end of the world by any means, and I'll be there mighty soon I think.

But today, to still feel like I can say "I went running" at 30wks and 4 days pregnant AND have a smile on my face.....well, that my friends feels almost as good as the little toes dancing on my ribs.

Almost.

Promptings

Please remember to listen. Or learn to listen. Or be willing to listen.

Wherever it is you fall right now.

Last night Charlotte was having a horrible time sleeping. I chalked it up to the fact that she had napped longer and later than normal, and I had then kept her up later than normal. Typically she goes to bed around 7:30, last night it was a little after 9. Between the time that she went to bed and the time that I went to bed, around 11, I had gone back in to settle her down and tuck her back in two or three times, and Aaron had gone in once. Each time I went in she had thrown something out of the crib, so I figured she was just getting super tired and realizing that whatever it was that she ritually sleeps with was missing from her reach.

I stirred a few times in the night when she started crying again, but she was settling herself down within just a couple of minutes, so I would drift back to sleep each time.

And then around 4am I was wide awake.

Being in the pregnant state that I am, this automatically defaults to a trip to the bathroom, after which I laid back down in bed. Wide awake.

And then she started crying again.

And I knew INSTANTLY what was wrong.

She had a hair elastic around her wrist.

You may call it intuition, or a hunch or coincidence, or whatever you'd like.

But really-what are the odds of that randomly occurring to me at 4am all those hours later?

I know without a doubt that I was very specifically prompted to get in to my daughter and get that off her wrist.

Quite frankly, I do not know how her hand was not completely black. I do not know how in the world she found one of her teeny tiny hair elastics in her crib in the dark, or why there was even one in there. But I do know that judging by when she started crying last night, it was on her for at least 6 hours. It was tight enough that it was cutting in to her skin. Her hand was swollen to nearly twice it's normal size-so big that it was almost hard to the touch.

She likes to wear the older girls' hair elastics as bracelets and has recently taken to using her own for the same. Problem being that while the others are big and loose on her, hers are tiny and even on her very petite little wrist they are too tight. The times in the past when she has put them on, her hand is purple within a matter of minutes.

She has always come to us and shows us her hand when she has put one on so that we can take it off, as obviously it hurts. And despite the fact that she doesn't talk much, she uses the word "hand" frequently. Why she didn't show me her hand any of the times I went in to put her back to bed or even just tell me "hand" like she normally does, I do know not.

What I do know is that I am grateful for the stillness of 4am, the prompting to check for a hair elastic, and that I didn't blow it off. Who knows what would have happened to her little fingers had I waited any longer.....

(and grateful for my husband who happily got up to help me just a few minutes after 4-giving up his last 30min of sleep this morning-since I could not for the life of me decide if I should go with a cold compress to reduce the freak amount of swelling, or a hot compress to encourage circulation)

Life is always so loud.

Don't forget to listen.

"Uh, hey mom?"

"Yes?"

"Sometimes I eat bugs."

"Uh...sometimes you eat bugs??"

"Yep. But I didn't give Jacob my blue marker."

"Ok."

"Hey mom-you need to be quiet now so I can draw my things. If you talk I will get marker on my fingers."

"I'll be quiet."

"Sometimes I eat bugs."

"That's pretty gross, don't you think?"

"Yeah, it is. Ok. I drew this for you."

"Thank you."

"And this is for Dad."

"I'll give it to him."

"And there is two for each of you. So NO fighting. Do you know what happens if you fight? I take them away from both of you. And you don't want that. So no fighting. Dang-there is marker on my finger."