Vegan parenting: Tales of Juggling It All

Getting pregnant againMy plan was to nurse my oldest - my son until he was two and then talk about weening so that we could have our second child. I was in delirium during the newborn stages of my son.  It was amazing and overwhelming and I even began hallucinating.  My husband thought I was crazy - "Barry, take the baby, please, I have to go to the restroom."  "Jennifer, you don't have the baby.  He's in the co-sleeper."  Uh, OK so that happened.  At about 16 months I began to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Having stopped hallucinating from my lack of sleep, I was actually beginning to sleep through the night, sort of.Wanting to avoid hitting normalcy before my next child was the main reason I wanted to have them close together. Getting pregnant while I was still sleep deprived meant I didn't have to start all over. You get to a place where you can almost function on sleep deprivation. So we began to ween my son from his feedings at the 18 month mark. I could not get my cycle back and didn't feel good; chronically fatigued and wondering if i didn't have a syndrome of some sort. Finally, one day, against my husband's better judgement, I just hit rock bottom went to the dollar store and bought $4.00 of junk and a pregnancy test.Morning Sickness (That lasted all day)I took that test and would you believe it I was already pregnant. Seven weeks! This pregnancy rocked my world. I was so sick, and stress took over. Food wouldn't stay down and I had a job that was folding in front of my eyes. It was so sad.  The job that I had worked at as a teacher for 4 years was facing scandal, upheaval and was shutting its doors after being in existence for 40+ years.  It was so heart-wrenching.  Having worked with at-risk youth as their teacher and as a caterer, offering internships, cooking classes and teaching about quality food.  It was all going to go away.  My passion was getting crushed.   Not to mention, I was pregnant and about to lose my job since the school was going under.  Thank God for Trader Joes vegan cherry chocolate chip ice cream.  It saved me.  Maybe it didn't save me from tears, heart ache, morning sickness but I could keep it down and it was comforting.On top of all this I had to worst morning sickness.  I could barely eat food nor keep it down. Some people say that during their pregnancy they began to crave meat.  OMG.  That sounded and still sounds horrifying to me.  What part of animal sounds appetizing ever, and especially when you are going to throw it up.  Dead animal was not and will not be a part of my menu.  I did not want any food.  I just felt food was the enemy which made this pregnancy rough.What I could eat was small bits here and there, like a handful of blueberries, a couple nuts, soy yogurt, a tortilla - the tapas of health. This went on until the middle of my second trimester. I found nibbly things worked best for me and making sure that I never got hungry. Nibble all the time and the naseau left.and then Adeline was born.That was a relief.Vegan Super HeroHonestly, being a mom makes me feel like a super hero. I feel like I can do anything. So in honor of each of my children, I ran a marathon about a year after they were each born.  Don't ask me my thought process.  I just new I gave birth and kicked ass and wanted to have that feeling of kicking ass again.  Running also became a meditation for me.I was not the fastest.  (And for Adeline's marathon it felt tough.)  I trained. Ran and ran and ran.I accomplished my goal - twice.All while nursing and vegan.The only thing that changed for me is that I ate more; a lot more.As I runner- there are so many things marketed to us to help us maintain our energy.  I call BS on all of those items and packets and gels.  I turned to real food with real energy packed into each bite.  When running the marathon I had dates in my back pocket as my energy "bar." It was my vegan long distance super food. I kept 13 in my pocket so I could eat one every 2 miles and I usually had left overs.Vegan is not a limitationA few people were surprised I ran a marathon. Being vegan is not a limitation and our children are healthy and precious.When we feel tired it is not because of our diet but for the same reasons anyone else is tired - due to juggling life - entrepreneurship, exercise, raising two children and so much more. What vegan is a super power story can you share?