Meet Freya Nichole!

I was scheduled to have a C-section on Friday, July 1st, but baby had other plans. My water broke at 4am on June 30th, and we welcomed a baby girl into the world at 2:45pm.

We decided not to find out whether baby was a boy or girl, but we were guessing a boy after our 20 week ultrasound revealed 1) longer femurs than any of our other kids, 2) a narrow face, like Nate’s, and 3) overall measuring in the 70th percentile.

I was super excited when they announced she was a girl, and surprised that she was both the lightest of all of our kids, at just 5# 10 oz, and our longest baby, at 20″ long. We had a boy’s name picked out, but still had a list of about 10 girl names. A day later, Nate and I settled on Freya Nichole. The middle name was Nate’s preference :).

Adjusting to Life as a Family of 6

Things have been going surprisingly well! Greta (7.5) and Anna (5.5) are really helpful. Jack is… well, his rambunctious 2-year-old self, but surprisingly, he does fairly well with his little sister. He did escape into her bedroom and explored what it felt like to draw all over the rug in her nursery already, though, so I can’t give him credit for entirely good behavior.

I’m trying to soak up every minute of this newborn stage, knowing that she is our last. There’s also a feeling of calm surrounding the thought of completing our family, which is not something I had after Jack.

Returning to Training and Racing

I am itching to get back out and feel my feet dance along the pavement. Running slowed and became much harder for me early on with Freya, so I logged far fewer miles and enjoyed those miles far less than my previous pregnancies. I didn’t stress about the situation as I knew my fitness, as well as the joy of training, would come back after baby arrived. Now that she is here, I’ll slowly ease into longer walks and then a walk/run routine within the first 6 weeks if my body allows. Then, it will be all about allowing the mileage and fitness to find its way back to me. As much as I’d like to believe I can hop back into things via a schedule, I know that isn’t how postpartum training goes.

The fun part of this journey? The fitness and speed I that I gain can be kept! I won’t be oscillating between trying to get in shape and then being pregnant again as I have done for nearly a decade!

I look forward to logging the journey here.