Chicago

We used American Airline miles to fly to Finland for Anna's wedding. For some reason, the itinerary forced us to stay in Chicago for one night. So we did few hours of sightseeing. I really should say that we visited one park and ate lots of food.

I booked an airport hotel for us. However, it ended up being 30 minute shuttle ride away from the airport, so this made sightseeing little more difficult. However, I think we were happy with our experience.

After we arrived to Chicago, we just stayed in our hotel, watched some TV and ate some deep dish pizza.

Eerika was a big girl and snacked on her fruit nibbles.

We took the train from the airport to the city. Eerika enjoyed the train ride and made some friends with fellow passengers.

We've seen this monument in many movies so we decided to check it out at the Millennium Park.

This shirt could be a useful present for someone who likes to drink a lot.

Nothing like little snacking on some fall leaves.

Our lunch from American Hotdogs. The special treat was a fried twinkie. I don't think I have ever had a regular twinkie, but the fried one wasn't too bad.

We also bought a bag of Garret's gourmet caramel popcorn. It was so delicious that I kept eating it until I was seriously feeling nasty.

It was nice to break up the long hours of traveling and while we won't be going back to Chicago, we had a good time.

Almost medaled!

We arrived to Helsinki on September 30th and I was registered to run a 10K the next day. This isn't a big deal since I have been running for few months very consistently and I felt that I was in good enough shape to race a 10K. The night before, I only slept four hours so I wasn't sure how fast I should try to attempt to run it. Troy said that I would be selling myself short if I ran slower than an 8 minute per mile. I was little worried that it would be too fast because of the circumstances, but I went for it.

The start was really crowded, which was irritating. I haven't done a race for a while so I had forgotten about that aspect of races. Once I was able to run around some people, I settled into a comfortable pace and was running around 7:35 per mile pace for the first mile or so. I kept glancing at my watch and was thrilled with the pace, and little worried but I was worried that it was too fast and I would not be able to keep it up and would end up running way slow in the end.

Right before the 5K mark, my left shoelace came undone. I had double knotted them, but they came undone anyways, so I had to stop and tie the shoe and start again. Not a big deal since it only took few seconds, but it obviously messed up with my running rhythm.

As I stopped to tie my shoe lace, a girl passed me and I decided to try to stay with her for the rest of the race. I was getting more tired as the race went on, but I felt mentally and physically strong and was maintaining a pace that was under 8 min/mile. The finish line was right next to the start line; however, I had not realized that this wasn't a 10K, it was a 10.5k. Yeah 50 meters doesn't make a huge difference physically, but mentally it threw me off. I had planned to get to the bridge and sort of sprint downhill to the finish. However, when I was running down the hill, I realized that people kept running past the finish line(or what I thought was the finish line) and it made me worried. It ended up that we had to run up another hill and turn back down to come to the finish line.

I didn't end up slowing down, but I didn't sprint to the finish line either. And I should have since I ended up being 4th place (out of 72 women) and lost the trophy by 5 seconds! My final time was 51:20 for 10.5 kilometers. They called it the 1/4 marathon, which I have never heard of before.

The good stuff:

I was so happy with my pace: 7:43 per mile according to the official results

the weather was beautiful

my body felt good throughout the race

Annoying stuff:

my lack of knowledge of the course

the fact that I had to hold my ipod in my hand

the shoelace incident

All the happy runners (pre-race) and Eerika , who doesn't look so happy.

1/4 marathon runners: Katja, Eevi and Risto and 1/2 marathon runners: Anna and dad

My coach and my cheerleader

The course started with a slight uphill over a bridge, but it was nice to know on the way back, we would have a downhill.

Risto and I after we had finished our race. I was way tired after the race and it seemed so hard to hold Eerika.

OK. This picture is embarassing, but I am so glad to see it. My form is terrible. Yes, I ran a great race and I am proud of myself, if I can say that without being prideful. But I looked awful! So I will be working on my form in the next few months.

Katja ran her first ever 10K (actually 10.5K)

Anna ran a great 1/2 marathon, even with the nasty foot pain.

Dad officially holds the Aura 1/2 marathon record: 1:54:32

All the runners, plus Eerika's legs, post-race. We got medals and a Fazer chocolate bar as we finished. My chocolate was gone in 10 seconds!

Garmin Watch Details

I didn't turn my watch on until we had run 300 meters or so, the distance is little off.

1	7:32.2	1.61	4:41.0
2	7:40.8	1.61	4:46.3
3	7:59.0	1.61	4:57.6
4	7:51.7	1.61	4:53.1
5	7:58.5	1.61	4:57.3
6	7:58.2	1.61	4:57.1
7	3:05.6	0.62	5:01.3

Overall, I feel that it was a great first race since Eerika was born and I had started training more seriously.

Why I would Want to be a Dad

The only reason I would ever want to be a dad instead of a mom is so I could sleep through anything. The lights were on, Eerika was crawling all over the place and babbling and I was watching a tv show on my iPad and the man slept through all of it!

These are pictures from our first night in Finland. Due to the 10 hr time difference and my experience with children and jet lag from our May trip, I decided to not stress out about the fact that Eerika would wake up and want to be awake in the middle of the night. So our first night in Finland, she slept for one and half to two hours and was up for two hours, which means that she kind of just "napped" through the night. I slept about four hours that night, but it wasn't bad at all. It is amazing how different things are when you adjust your expectations and your attitude; in May, I was falling apart because of the time difference and weird sleeping schedules. Of course, I was by myself with two kids that time and this time, I had one kid and Troy with me, but stilli it is nice when I actually learn from my experiences:)

At some point, we did wake up isi because I was getting little bored:)

Sometimes You go Sightseeing

And sometimes you are the attraction!

As we were about to board our plane to London, I let Eerika crawl around for few minutes. She found her way to a group of Asian tourists and let me tell you, she was a hit. I would say six to seven people took out their cameras and took pictures of her (with the obligatory peace sign that they tend to use for pictures). Eerika even got to facetime with someone as seen in the picture.

Back in May, we noticed that few people took pictures of us as we were in Paris with Eerika. Maybe it is a strange thing to travel with a small baby?! Or maybe she is just so dang cute that we aren't the only ones who get excited about her beautiful smile.

Plus she knows how to get people "ooh" and "aah" over her. She gives them a coy smile and reaches out for her admirer. Don't let this fool you though. She does not want you to hold her. Just wants to play with your hand from far away.

On a sidenote, I should say that she has been confused for a boy several times during this trip. But as long as the people admire her, rather than complain, I am not upset about it at this age.

An Unusual Morning

This morning, we, as in Troy and I, woke up at 10:25 am. I cannot remember the last time that I have truly slept in. Granted, it is 8:25 am in London where we spent the last four days before arriving back to Helsinki last night. The room that we sleep in doesn´t have any windows so you are in complete darkness, which makes you sleep really well ; however, it leaves you little disoriented and you have no idea if it is a day or a night until you look at the clock.

Eerika is still asleep. Saku is Phoenix with Grandma and Grandpa. And Troy is somehow managing without any parenting from me. I am just doing whatever I want! What an amazing feeling. It is rainy outside and I am in my PJs. There are no chores to do and no obligations. Ah, the little luxuries of life.

But I miss Saku! Fortunately, our schedule is has been busy since we got here so I havent had time to sit around and think of him too much. Troy and I keep talking about the little fun and ridiculous things that he does and how much we miss him, so it would be an understatement to say that I am excited to see him on Tuesday. But I don't regret leaving him in the U.S. This trip was too short to deal with a two year old jet lag plus London would have been impossible with Saku since he is on the go all the time.

I am not going to lie. It has been so fun to spend time one-on-one with Eerika. It has given as a glimpse of a what life would be like if she was our only child. No, I wouldn't want it, but she is an easy going child so life is pretty chill and she is THE champion traveler. She seems to enjoy the attention as well and her personality seems to come out more and more each day. It is nice to be able to just concentrate on her and really pay attention to little details that I might not notice when life is crazy at home.

Every once in a while, she lets us know that she has had enough and her "I don't like this" facial expressions reveal her awesome two bottom teeth.

Most of this trip she has been happy, smiling, giggling and squealing.

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Reasons to Go to Bed Happy

We had two rainy and cloudy days. Saku got to wear his rain boots that are way too big for him.

Working out with excellent personal trainers. I ran 4 miles on Friday morning and felt great. I am trying to be patient and not push myself too hard, but I am ready to get faster and stronger. Now If I could only put away all the chocolate candy bars:)

Eerika loves showers.

Eerika's Birth Story-8 months late

During the past two weeks, few of my friends' have had babies. I love to listen to people's birth stories. I just read a book called The Baby Catcher and I devoured the book and the stories of the strength and endurance that women have. At a recent baby shower celebration, I told the girls that I wasn't baby hungry and I didn't want to be pregnant, but I was little jealous of them that they would get to give birth. It sounds insane, but I really get so excited about the process of birth. I wrote Eerika's birth story the day after she was born. Yet I never posted it. So to make sure that I won't lose it, I am posting it 8 months later. Yes, my little baby girl is 8 months. It is unbelievable. Yet somehow the fact that she took a bite of Saku's In-N-Out burger today makes it very real. And the fact that she loves marshmallows. I might get awarded the "best nutritionist mom of the year."

The birth of the baby gives you such a special feeling, and I was so happy after her birth. However, I am even more grateful for her today. And much more rested!

My sweet daughter's birth story.

I had a feeling that our little girl would arrive that day. I had few painful contractions the night before but they had stopped by the morning. In the morning I had a feeling that I should say a prayer for strength and courage to go through the labor without pain medication, the ability to stay home as long as possible and still make sure that my daughter and I would be safe.

When I was on the phone with Starla around five o'clock, I had a contraction that felt different. They weren't painful and were not consistent, but I still started to wonder if that night would be the night.

We went through Saku's bed time routine and put him to bed. Troy went to store to pick up milk, eggs, bread and a Sunday from Mc'Donalds for me. While he was gone, I had my first contraction(8:15sh pm) that signaled to me that this was the real deal. When Troy got home fifteen minutes, I thought I was in labor. I texted Camille to let her know that we could be dropping Saku off sometime that night. For 30 minutes the contractions were 10 minutes apart, but they quickly started to come five minutes apart. I jumped in the shower and hoped that it would help me to relax. With Saku's labor, I had insanely painful back labor and I was worried that I would have to go through again, so i figured being in the shower would help. I was in the shower for 30 minutes and listened to relaxing music and while the contractions were intense, I felt like I was coping well. Once I got out of the shower Troy gave me a blessing. At this point, the pain was so intense that I had a moment when I freaked out. Also I was irritated that Troy was just hanging out at the computer while I was in so much pain. Troy remained calm and said that we should to the hospital. We called Camille to tell her that we were on our way to drop Saku off. We left our house at 10 pm and then the worst car ride of my life started.. It felt like the seat belt and my pants were way too tight. I felt so much pressure while I was sitting. And so so much pain. After we left Camille's house, I told Troy to say a prayer because I really was so overwhelmed by the pain. It took us 20 minutes to get to the hospital. While we were driving, my left leg kept shaking uncontrollably. It was almost a relief because it distracted me from some of the pain. When we passed Kino hospital, Troy jokingly asked if we should stop there.

I had planned to give birth without an epidural, but the pain was so intense and I thought that I would still labor for few hours at the hospital. While the idea of getting an epidural made me feel like I was giving up on my goal, the pain had completely overwhelmed me. We got to the hospital at 22:30. Right as we walked up to the

receptionist, another couple walked in for a scheduled induction. And they took their sweet time, and I wanted to point out that I was in active labor and should be seen first. When she finally saw us, she was taking her sweet time so I went to the bathroom. I felt so much pressure at this point and my contractions were coming every minute to

two minutes. I could barely walk to the triage area.

Once we got into the triage area, the nurse calmly started to ask me questions such as my allergy status and due date. I know they see many women who are more or less hysterical or sure that they are "about to have the baby", but I just needed to be checked so I knew what the status of the labor was. I went to the bathroom to change. I took my pants off, which seemed to be an impossible task at that moment and sat down to pee. The moment I sat down, my water broke and I felt so much pressure. I yelled out to the nurse that my water had broken and I felt a lot of pressure.

To Troy's amusement, I walked out of the bathroom wearing only my regular shirt and no pants since the nurse wanted to get me on the stretcher right then. Fortunately, for everyone, we were the only ones in the triage area. The nurse checked me and I was completely dilated with baby's head right there. Interestingly enough, once I was laying there and knew that she was about to be born I didn't feel any pain anymore. She paged for STAT delivery and I was wheeled to the first room. There were about 6 nurses and techs in the room and obviously no time to call for my own doctor to deliver the baby. I felt like everyone was moving in slow motion. In reality, we started pushing within two minutes.

Oh what an experience pushing a baby out without an epidural. I pushed through two or three contractions. Apparently, I started to reach down and one of the nurses said "she is going to deliver her own baby" and the doctor said "let her do it". After one of the contractions, they told me to rest but I wasn't about to stop when she was right there . I really don't have words to describe how it was. It wasn't painful, it was just this incredibly amount of pressure and stretching. While it wasn't painful, I didn't want to endure it any longer than I absolutely had to.

I don't think I will ever forget the moment when they put her on my chest. I just started crying and thought that she was the most incredible thing in the world. It was so different from Saku's delivery. While his delivery was special because he is my first baby, this delivery was amazing. It truly was a labor of love. I am so grateful that I was able to have this experience.

I am undecided if I want to do natural again in the future or whether to show up to the hospital when I have my first contraction and demand an epidural. And good thing that I won't have to worry about that for few years:)