Now that I never get an UNbroken night, I have realised that actually it's possible to run no problem even if you're not feeling entirely on top form. I should add the usual disclaimer that I don't try to run particularly fast and I'm relaxed about stopping for drink and photo breaks...but nevertheless I would never have expected that I'd be able to train relatively regularly (I'm aiming for 3 runs per week) despite feeding the baby every 3-ish hours around the clock.
I actually (shh, whisper...this is tempting fate) feel relatively ok despite Angel's comprehensive feeding demands. There are a variety of ways that parents try to deal with babies waking up at night, many of which are more or less controversial, and infant sleep is a MASSIVE topic that so much has been written about: one of those things that you just don't realise until you have a baby...see blogs like http://www.sweetmadeleine.ca/2013/10/14/here-are-some-lies-people-tell-you-about-infant-sleep/ for a run through some of the issues if you're interested!
My husband and I have gone for the "just have her in bed with you" sleeping option which works wonderfully for us: Angel can wake me up for feeds without needing to cry (in the early days I was so sensitive to her that I'd be awake as soon as she started stirring, whereas nowadays I've got a bit more relaxed and she sometimes has to do some hearty kicking), I can latch her on to feed and fall straight back to sleep, she goes straight back to sleep once she's fed and I very rarely have to actually get out of bed during the night. As I've got more used to it I've started to lose track of how many feeds she's woken for, and most wonderfully of all, I feel ok in the mornings. I can't recommend co-sleeping enough (as some friends of mine who've had babies recently can vouch for...but clearly, everyone can choose where they want their baby to sleep themselves) and it's ridiculous that the NHS routinely advise against it because it's supposedly dangerous (it's not, but you do have to follow certain guidelines to reduce risks: https://www.nct.org.uk/parenting/co-sleeping-safely-your-baby).
So in general, I feel pretty good in myself at the moment, but this Friday was a massive exception, which was NOT Angel's fault. She was sleeping beautifully beside me at 11pm on Thursday night, my husband on the other side, while I was still awake reading my book and very close to drifting off...when I thought "what is that strange crackling noise? And is there a weird chemical smell in here? hmm...it's probably nothing, but I'd better check."
Thank goodness I did - as soon as I reached the kitchen which was in a cloud of evil-smelling smoke, I remembered that I'd put a load of breast-pump attachments on to sterilise in boiling water on the stove top after finishing dinner that evening...at about 8.30pm. And promptly forgotten about them. The pan was a mass of molten, boiling and strangely crackling plastic, though luckily no flames had yet broken out, and in my horror and haste to move it off the heat and throw open all the windows I moved the pan onto the laminate kitchen worktop, which will never be the same again.
Once I'd sorted the immediate threat I had a crisis about how I could have let something like that happen with a baby in the house...while said baby continued to sleep peacefully. (Luckily our bedroom is at the far end of the flat from the kitchen so she was pretty protected from the smoke). Altogether, I was up very late and then woken at 6am because the bedroom was boiling hot - having left all the windows open to clear the smell, we'd forgotten to turn off the central heating which had kicked in!
So altogether I was not feeling my best on Friday, but I had planned to do a longer run, and determined not to let a little sleep deprivation put me off. I set off with the Maclaren at about 4pm with the aim of covering 10km and also popping into Mothercare to see if I could replace the melted breast pump attachments. This meant abandoning my usual routes (either the Southwark Park one I have blogged about, or Greenwich) and heading to Peckham instead.
The great thing about running with a buggy, as well as being able to take your baby, is that you have scope for stopping at the shops as well without it cramping your style...on this run I impulse bought a quarter watermelon and there was no problem carrying it shoved under the buggy for the final 4 km. My trip to Mothercare was fruitless, but it gave me a nice mid-run breather.
I have a quiet route into Peckham via Meeting House Lane, and then from Peckham Library I was followed the Surrey Canal path all the way to Burgess Park where a funfair was setting up across the lake.
London's parks are really wonderful. People fish in this lake, and there's an amazing children's playground that I can't wait to bring Angel to when she's old enough to appreciate it. On a Friday afternoon pre-bank holiday weekend the park was full of families playing, kite flying and cycling, couples walking, colleagues drinking beer after work, and groups of teenagers relaxing post-GCSE exams.Additionally on this run I discovered the old lime kiln which apparently was used during London's rapid growth in the 19th century.
On the topic of London's rapid growth, this view from the park is wonderful for showcasing London's changing housing fashions...the block on the left looks EXACTLY like our flat, as a lot of current new builds do. The middle one is super modern, while the right hand block is classic 1960s/70s housing estate. (My husband is studying a Masters in housing, and researched an essay on the history and controversial regeneration of the Heygate and Aylesbury estates in this area, which makes me take more notice of housing than I used to).
By winding around Burgess park before returning home by the same route I'd come by (I could have experimented by coming home via the Old Kent Road but decided not to for two reasons: it might have cut my route too short and stopped me reaching my 10km goal; and I try to protect Angel from the worst of London's terrible air quality by keeping her off congested roads with lots of micro-particle spewing buses and polluting HGVs, since reading this article about it) I reached my 10km goal in 1 hour 17 minutes, according to my Runkeeper app (the "pause" function of which is very unreliable, to the extent that I don't know if that time estimate is likely to err on the side of generosity or caution!). I still felt sleepy, and my kitchen counter was still ruined, but the post-run endorphins had certainly cheered me up. Plus the baby had got in a solid hour of naptime, which as all parents know is a very positive outcome!
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