Seriously, 2009, already!

A new year….wow. 2008 flew by. I am one of those people that really cherish the beginning of a new year, a fresh slate, a clean start. I think those of us that are planners to a fault (I freaking love making list and filling out calendar) get a little giddy around Jan 1. This year is no exception. When I look back on 2008, it is filled with mixed emotions. The year got off to a horrible start with the unsuspected, premature death of my father. My father and I were did not have the type of relationship where we talked every day or even month, mostly he just answered the phone when I called and we exchanged small talk, but we were undeniably close as I was always daddy’s little girl. We were so much alike that it was hard to not feel like he was part of my cloth. I go many days without thinking about him and then BAM it hits me – my father is dead, I am 29 years old and have no father. It is usually something little a white Explorer will drive by (what he drove) or a box of chocolate covered cherries will sneak up on me in a store (his fav) and my insides will be reduced to mush. It’s almost been a year, but it doesn’t sting any less. The months that followed I was very numb and I don’t recall many particulars, but I had some definite fitness highlights. I was training for the Cincinnati marathon and was very proud of myself b/c I got out there in many a snowstorm and ran my butt off, many times alone. I had my 2 best 30Ks ever in Feb and March. My running pace was finally coming down and I found in 5Ks that I could easily hold under a 9 min pace. This was new for me! On my long distance runs I was constantly well below a 10 min pace, giving me hope of being well under my goal of 4:20 for Cinti. Unfortunately a foot injury got a hold of me with a vengeance and I opted to sit Cincinnati out and took a whole month off of running. In May I had an awesome trip to Lake Placid with my friend Kim and her training group to ride and run the IM Lake Placid course. That was lesson in humility! But I was able to get through 1 loop biking and 13 miles running. The summer was full of lots of training. It seemed that every Sat & Sun were ruled by running, biking or bricks. I enjoyed training with some people from the tri club like Beth, Jen, Tracie, Janet, Gina and Laura P! As well as my normal running companions Sara, Sherri, Ilana and Karen! I felt good and strong. I only did 2 sprint tris b/c I found out the hard way that I am absolutely terrified of open water swimming, yikes! My tri future is uncertain at this point as I have only swam a handful of times since July. Not good! But I found that I really do love biking and running, so if those are the races I stick to next year than I am fine with it! Gary also got a road bike in June and we started riding together weekly, which was great. I look forward to getting back on the road with him in 2009! In late summer I started training for Akron and my times on my long runs were even better. I markedly upped by running miles and was averaging around 30ish miles running a week and 50 biking. All the biking helped and I saw my times on my long runs continue to come down. I thought I might have a shot at getting near 4:00 for the Akron marathon in Sept….until I got pregnant!What! Yes, just like that. Gary and I had talked about it, but I thought it would take us awhile, but I was wrong. I knew I wasn’t feeling well in Aug, but thought there was just no way I was baking a baby, but I was. I continued to run 10-15 miles for my long runs for the first month or so of pregnancy to keep Sara company on her marathon training.

But come Oct, I was slowing way down. In Sept, I did a marathon relay with 4 other pregnant women and we finished in under 4 hours! That was great and we even got to be in the paper. In Oct Gary and I went to CA & OR on vacation where the baby and I did a half marathon. But that was about it, I knew from that race that the running was coming to an end as I was sick for a few days afterwards and my feet and belly ached. Since then I have been trying to keep up the exercise, I have good weeks and bad. The loss of my beloved Taiko in November was just awful and led to a horrible month. Ugh then we got a really bad puppy! 2009 is scary people. I am having a baby! Hold the phone. I am going to be responsible for keeping another human alive. Eek. And I turn 30, double Eek!!! All joking aside, I can’t wait to meet this little monster and work hard to get back on my feet. I think I won’t be setting any big goals for 2009. I would like to see myself at least ready for half marathons by the fall. I want to concentrate on getting the weight off and getting back under 9 min miles before I worry about another marathon or endurance event. If I can get myself back in the pool soon, I’d like to think I could do the same 2 sprint tris I did last year and they were in small inland lakes and I didn’t have much issue with those. I would also like to do Eddy’s Sweet Corn challenge, at least the 50 miler. I think that is enough to think about. I do know that 2009 will probably be the best year yet.

Is it 2009 yet?

Okay holidays are over...well we still have one more visit with G's mom. I am honestly not a very big fan of the holidays and am glad to have them behind me (just too much rush, money and chaos). It was wonderful to see my family though. I always love to get to spend time with my mom and sister Tina and her hubby Tim, but this year was extra special b/c my other sister Melanie and her hubby and kids were in town. They moved to SC awhile back and we just don't see each other enough. So, it was awesome to see them and spend time together. But back to reality. I am glad we have a short work week this week, that will be nice. I have a monthly doc appt on Wed. I plan to talk to him about any ideas to help with the fact that my back is killing me. Hopefully he will have some ideas on some things to try to alleviate the low back aches. My eating has been out of control lately, so I am going to make a conscious effort to cut back on sugar starting tomorrow. Holiday junk be gone!

23 weeks

Yay, I am almost in my 6th month. Exciting. I hope you all had a fun Xmas and to all of you with new babies, I'm sure it was just the best Xmas ever. We went to Gary's aunt's house last night and her cousin had her 5 month old there. She is just so cute and smiley. I can't help but think how fun Xmas will be next year. This year is tough b/c it's the first year without my dad. It's hard not to focus on that. I haven't thought much about it, but we are heading to my mom's today and we will do Xmas & Stockings tomorrow. My dad really liked to open presents. Oh well, next year we'll all have the baby to focus on and I'm sure it will be much more fun.

Nursery Decorating

Can I just go on the record and say it's absolute bullshit how expensive crib bedding is!?! It's for an infant for goodness sake. Every time I find something I really like I then find it's $200+, sometimes $400 or $600. Who spends that kind of money on something that is going to get pooped, peed and puked on? Not me. I am starting to plan out the nursery. I am going to go with a tree/bird theme. And I am going to make the main focal point of the nursery a big tree with different colored paper leaves, it will look similar to this:


I found a cute set of bird bedding at baby supermall on sale - babysupermall.com. Ultimately I will probably end up going with it b/c it's only $99 for the whole set. Granted I don't like all 6 pieces, but I love the bumper and skirt, so I can just get plain sheets and blankets for the rest. If I don't do that, I found this lady who makes custom bedding and her prices aren't too bad, here's one I like: http://babylovin.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=22&products_id=62

I like the idea of buying from an independent person as opposed to a store. She has some beautiful fabric selections. Again if I just got a bumper and skirt from her it would be under $200. But then I found this! It's not available until 2009, so I don't know how much it is, but how stinking cute.
http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/droolicious/archive/2008/09/16/abc-kids-expo-2008-crib-grass-crib-bumper-from-boon.aspx

Unfortunately it doesn't indicate where the sheets are from, they are too cute.

This is my favorite bedding, but I can't spend this much: http://www.allmodernbaby.com/DwellStudio-Charlotte-Series-DWL1139.html

And just for your perusing pleasure here are some great etsy shops:
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5696519&section_id=5661011
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=18654793
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6949939

I spent all last night searching the web and am sick of it. So, like I said I will most likely end up with the baby super mall set. Then use the tree to plan the colors of the room around. I am thinking purple or aqua. We have 3 rooms upstairs, we already have an orangish bathroom and a green bedroom, the hallway is eggshell. I'd like a bright color that isn't too obnoxious b/c we do plan to sell the house as soon as I go back to work full time and the house market looks a little better. Whenever that will be!

On the baby front....my belly button is starting to kind of change. Ugh. It's flatter, not as inverted as before. When does that thing start popping out!

Pic update

Here is a 22 week belly shot and to join the crowd, I will include a covered belly shot too. It looks so much smaller with a shirt on.




Still feeling pretty good. I worked out 4 times last week and worked out yesterday, so 1 day so far this week. My goal is 6 times a week, but I will likely not be able to get to that until after the holidays. It is bitterly cold outside, so I don’t think I will be doing my outside run I had planned after work today, but hope to make it to spin class. I have also included a ridiculous picture of our dogs from last night, I couldn’t resist. Seriously who sleeps like that? Fonzi is such a brown noser. And lastly a pick of this adorable diaper caddy I got at TJ Maxx/Home Goods. I filled it up with goodies, including the softest little sheep I got for free at Bath and Body works, score. I love the pattern on the basket. Too stinking cute.

22 weeks

Woohoo, today the ticker turns over to 22 weeks. I can't believe I have under 20 weeks today. If I say 18 weeks it sounds like nothing, but if I think of it as 4 + months, all the sudden it sounds like an eternity. I am curious how much do your babies kick? I swear mine is crazy active. I feel it constantly throughout the day when I am at work, I think its the position I sit in. Then I don't feel it much in the evening, but as soon as I lay down in bed the baby goes crazy. Last night I got up to take the dog out to potty at about 3 am and laid back down and the baby was going crazy. It was kicking so strongly that I lay awake for awhile just feeling it. I contemplated waking Gary up b/c I am convinced it's strong enough to feel on the outside now, but you know you can't really tell if you're feeling it inside and out very easily until you literally see the stomach move. I had Gary try to feel the other day and he couldn't. There's another question - when could people feel the baby kick on the outside?

21 weeks

21 weeks, woohoo offically over half way through! Lol. Current belly shot to the left (notice the gnarly veins! I am like a roadmap!). I had a great day. I joined a new gym and started the day off with a nice workout, weights and cardio. Running and I really aren't getting along right now. It's just already so uncomfortable for me to run. I feel like my belly is going to fall out my hoohah or something. Also I have to pee the whole time. I wonder if it has to do with my placenta pervia? For those who don't know, that means my placenta is below the baby, so it's lower than normal. The pressure when I run is just so distracting. I did 2 miles on the dreadmill and then jumped on the ET for another 20 mins.
I also went to a Xmas party today of my tri/running girlfriends. I got to meet my friend Salty's (blog is the LIttle one) 3 week old son. He is just gorgeous and she looked great. It was nice to get out and do something and so nice to talk to someone who just went through what I'll have to soon enough!

My baby is kicking constantly, it's so fun, but just odd to me how freaking active she is. Also, my back is really killing me. By the end of the day I just have to lay down, I can't stand it. I think I'm having sciatic nerve issues...I think? I have a prenatal massage this coming Sat. I can't wait.

Look how big little Fonzi is getting!

Check out my rack

Being pregnant is an amazing thing. Full of good and bad all mushed together to just equal a weird time in life. Take for instance my boobs. At this point in time I have an amazing rack. I myself can’t keep my hands off of them, poor Gary is defenseless. If I want something done all I have to do is flash him. I can’t imagine how my life would have been different had I had these puppies in my early 20s where I mostly just drank and waitressed and then drank more. Probably a good thing I am getting them now at the ripe mature age of 29 and know how to use them properly. Oh you don’t want to paint the basement tonight…well look at these BAM! I am used to being a flat as a board gal who had to wear a nearly B bra. NEARLY B, I repeat, I'll let that sink in (it's a nice way of saying i need an A cup bra). Now all of the sudden I am overflowing the 34B I picked up a few weeks into the pregnancy. It’s time to move to the C cup I think. Oh vey. So, I have these great boobs, my clothes look so much better from the 1st rib cage up. But then again my stomach is now equal to my boobs in how far it sticks out, so really, the boobs don’t really do my body outlook a whole lot of good. On top of that they are absolutely covered in a map of veins that you could see from New Jersey if I was standing outside topless. But nonetheless I have boobs! And they feel weird. Just this morning I bent over the seat to get something out of the back of the car and I smooshed my boob and holy shit batman it hurt. So, I have these great boobs, and as long as I have a shirt on they look pretty good.
So, score 1 point for something more attractive going on.

But then you move on to fun pregnancy symptom #2. I fart like crazy. Gary can attest. I spent the entire night last night stinking up our room so badly and so loudly that I laughed until I cried. The dogs looked at me in shock and Gary had to watch the Cavs game with the covers pulled half way up his face. Now prior to pregnancy I was someone already obsessed with farts. Farts = damn funny as far as I am concerned. So I will lump this new super power into the positive developments of pregnancy category.

However, the excessive sweating, urination, snot and weight gain….those can go into the bad category. That and the out of breath feeling I am plagued with most of the time. I must say that overall I really do like being pregnant. Of course this is coming from someone only 21 weeks along. And a bitch who never had a day of morning sickness. So, my tune will likely change when I am all of 5’2 and weighing so much you can roll me to my cube at work and covered in stretch marks on my new fantastic boobies. But I love feeling the constant flutter of the baby, reminding me I really am doing something great here. Going from someone who was pretty ambivalent to children. I get it now, before the baby is even outside of me. I get why people are obsessed with their kids and act like they are little gifted wrapped packages that were dropped from the heavens. I used to get so annoyed that people acted like if you weren’t having children you were missing out on something great. Half way through this little science experiment, I think they may be right. I always thought that pregnancy would be the worst, I didn’t want to ruin my body or put all my workouts on hold. But really in the scheme of things who cares if I spend my weekend biking 5 hours and running another 2. I’m not winning any races, I’m not even placing in any races…so taking a year off it really not going to make a difference. Baking this baby is a lot more fun!

daycare

Is $215 a week expensive for daycare? I have no idea how much this should cost. There is a small baptist church within walking distance from my house. 2 people recommended it to me and told me they love it and the staff are awesome. They have a waiting list, but happen to have an opening for July, when we would be needing daycare. I just don't know how much daycare normally is.

Let the nesting begin

Thank you for the comments ladies! But the fact of the matter is that I have gained 20 lbs already! For someone my height (5'3 on a good day) you really don't want to see me gain more than 30 lbs. So at this rate I probably will. Which is not the end of the world. I think my doc was okay to tell me to watch it, it just stings to hear.

I ordered some new DVDs from the lovely Netflix so that I could work out at home. I did one last night that I liked, it was some ballet lady and it was yoga/pilates fushion. My belly is sore in a good way today. My plan is to keep a DVD for 2 weeks and do it 2-3 times a week, and then do my standard Slim in Six (lunges, squats, weights) 2-3 times a week. Then send it back and get a new one. I also think I need to join the gym sooner than I was expecting. Getting outside in this weather is just not going well which means my cardio is null and void. So after Xmas off to Urban Active I will go ready to give them a large sum of money. Yikes.

Seriously could we get some more snow and rain here in Cleveland? What a wet 2 months we have had. On the good news front, my lovely husband has been busting his ass the past few weeks getting our nasty unfinished basement finished! He repaired the drywall damage on one wall and the ceiling. He repainted the ceilings white and the walls a bright yellow we agreed on. We were going to get carpet, but after getting a quote for a looottt of money we got paranoid that it would get damp down there eventually and ruin the carpet. So, we opted for this flooring made out of recycled tires, how green of us. It comes in big puzzle pieces and it looks like a floor you would see in a gym. Which is pretty appropriate b/c one side of the basement will have a weight bench and all the free weights and then the middle of the room will have our cushy futon and a tv/xbox setup and then our 2 bikes on trainers in view of the tv. I hope it will be nice enough down there that someone could sleep and not feel like they are in our gross basement. It will also become a much needed storage area for all things baby I am sure. Baby things are so stinking big – excersaucers, pack and plays, swings, high chairs, who has room for all this stuff! I expect our basement to be sleep ready by Jan 1. I will take some pics. Next room after that to get a makeover is our office, it will be turned into the guest room. It’s tiny so it will be minimalist at best.

Pics

Here is a week 20 shot of meh big belly(please ignore the monkey pj pants) and G and me from Turkey Day and Mushi being ever so handsome and the pup.

20 weeks

Officially, no really I did the math right this time. This is it folks, 20 weeks down. Where has the time gone. I cannot believe I am half way through this pregnancy, maybe more than half way I guess! I will take a new belly shot tonight, so you can see my buddha belly in all my glory. I think I am going to get that line the runs down your belly vertically, not sure what it’s called, but I seem to have a faint line starting near my ribs down to the pubes. Odd. It’s not dark yet, I hope it doesn’t get dark, I am a very pale person. Oh well. Refelecting back on the last 20 weeks I must say pregnancy has not been so bad. It’s different for sure and can be very trying. I think for people who were really active it can be a bit of a rude awaking at times. My get up and go must have got up and went…what song is that from? I am now officially starting to freak out! Not in a bad way, there is just soooo much to do and soooo little time. The countdown begins. I like making lists, so here are my immediate concerns and the order I (well mostly Gary!) plan to do them in:

1. Fix drywall in basement, paint basement yellow, install flooring
2. Move area rug and futon down to basement
3. Buy tv, tv stand and lighting for basement
4. Arrange weight bench area and bike/trainers in basement
5. Get new CycleOps Fluid 2 trainer as a congratulatory you now have a finished basement gift! Basement done by Jan 1
6. Pull all furniture junk out of office and move to basement temporarily
7. Paint office auqa and baseboards white
8. Bring queen size bed and bamboo rug from upstairs down to office along with desk from our room and Gary’s nightstand, arrange in room, computer set up will now be in this room, along with cat food stuff. Office done by Feb 1.
9. Remove door from our bedroom and get crib into our room where desk used to be
10. Paint downstairs bathroom and closet in some complimentary color to the office
11. go through towels, wash cloth heap and get rid of nasty ones, clear off shelves in this bathroom for baby bath stuff, start buying baby bath stuff! Bathroom done by March 1.
12. Now it’s nursery time, move all remaining furniture from this room to the basement temporarily
13. Paint nursery purple with white baseboards, use rug from office
14. Set up crib (get from G's dad's house), try and arrange twin bed in this room as well if it leaves enough room (figure I will be sleeping in there sometimes)
15. Buy glider and dresser from Craigslist, maybe changing table?
16. Order decals for the walls – trees and birds off of etsy, just need to pick
17. Await buying anything else until after shower
18. Showers in Feb and March, Nursery done by April 1
19. Last if there is time, paint linen closet upstairs and arrange, clean up big closet in bedroom and Gary’s closet in nursery to make room for baby storage/items
    
    Sheesh. Now I am even more freaked out!

Who got my early bird worm?

Why oh why oh why can’t I wake up in the morning anymore? Not so long ago bloggy friends I was a morning person. I have been struggling with morning workouts since sometime this summer, well before I got knocked up. I recall making a go at 5:30 workouts again at some point, but I was so thrashed from my weekend warrior ways that I never got back to it. Now my dear hubby is off of night shifts after several months of working 8pm to 7 am. He is not getting up at 5:30. He takes the pup out and puts the pup back in bed with me. Pup does not go to sleep and I no longer fall asleep as easily as I used to, that I believe it baby related. It’s harder to get comfortable for one thing and the other is I just lay there with my head a jumble. Anyway, so I wake up at 5:30 too, and lay there half awake until 6:45 – 7ish. Why oh why don’t I just get my ass out of bed and work out? I am so tired when I get home from work that it’s not happening often. So, since I’m not getting quality sleep during this 5:30 to 7 window, wouldn’t it make sense just to get up??? But alas I just can’t seem to muster the willpower, any ideas bloggy friends? I think my real problem is that I have an hour or two in the middle of the night where I lay awake. As I said I can’t fall asleep very well right now, so when puppy wakes me around 2 or 3 to go out, I drift in and out of conscientiousness until 5am sometimes. I do go to bed at like 9:30 though… But regardless b/c of this mid night wake up I am just totally woozy when G gets up and can’t seem to get it together.

I have firmly decided that all those people who say that being pregnant in the winter as opposed to the summer are dead wrong. If I do this again, and it’s planned, I will be getting pregnant shortly after the new year. Being pregnant equals feeling tired and lazy all the time. Winter’s short days equals feeling tired and lazy all the time. Not a good combo! Now I know some will say you don’t want to have a newborn in the winter, but I don’t care, they are wrong J Being most pregnant when it’s warm also means you get to wear flowy little dresses and flats. Being pregnant when it’s cold means I have to have jeans and tops and coats and ugh. Okay rant over.

Classes

Oh vey we are going to be busy over the next few months. I just signed Gary and I up for the following classes that our hospital offers. It might be overkill, but we know nothing:

Breastfeeding 101 – Sat, Jan 10, 9-12
Baby Basics – Sat Jan 31, 9-12
Fast Track Lamaze/Child Birth Prep – Sat, Feb 21 & 28, 9-12
CPR for infants – Sun March 8, 1-4
Night with the Anesthesiologist– Tues, March 10, 6:30-8

Plus throw in puppy class on Sat for the next 5 weeks, 2 showers sometime in Feb & March and I'm going to visit my friend over MLK weekend in Bloomington. Shewww. Time is going to fly.

Tuesday doc appt

I had a doc appt at 8:45 this morning. AS usual they made me wait forever. I got irritated after 20 mins and went and asked to be rescheduled at which point, they had another doctor see me. Sheesh. For all of 10 mins. It's hard to be excited for the appt when you have been stewing in the waiting room thinking about how you are going to be even later to work than you anticipated. This was my shortest wait yet at 25 mins, normally it's 45-60 mins. I have contemplated changing practices, but this one is 5 mins from my work and delivers by my house. So, que sera I suppose. But I am so impatient, nothing makes me more upset than waiting.

This new doc pretty much told me I have gained too much weight, which makes me sad. I have struggled with my weight for years and always been a little chunkier than I should have been considering the level of working out I did, training for marathons, biking 80 miles a week, etc. I was about 5-7 lbs overweight when I got preggo, so if you take that into consideration I weight 23 more lbs than I would want to weigh otherwise and I am only 19 weeks along. Yikes. I think I may end up in that 40-50 lbs weight gain category. I really wasn't too upset about the weight gain until the doc said I needed to watch it. Booo. In the scheme of things I know it doesn't matter, but for someone who has to fight to keep a lb off, this just scares me even more about what will come when it's time to get this weight off. I got back Dec 31 for another routine checkup and then Jan 5 to the hospital to see if my placenta moved and hopefully find out the sex!

They opened a new gym by our house, Urban Active. It's not far from our house, but is part of an outdoor mall, so the getting in and out and parking would be a pain in the ass. But get this! If you are a member, it's only $3/time or $15 a month to bring your baby (6wks and up) to the daycare at the gym. Now granted, who the hell knows who is watching your baby, but the guy said everyone who watches the kids is CPR/first aid certified and I'd be in the gym. I thought that was an amazing deal. I said to the guy, what if I want to work out for 3 hours! And he said 2 hours is the limit. I was just joking, I would have thought an hour was. So, I think we will join, it's $800 for the both of us for 18 months, which is pretty cheap. $10 a month cheaper than our current gym, but you have to pay it all up front and cash is a little tight right now with home renovations going on.

We have a lot to do to get our house in order. First piece of business is carpeting our basement, which means hubby has to repair the ceiling drywall and we have to paint the walls first. He started on the drywall yesterday, I hope he gets it finished this week. I am so ready for the basement to be done, so I can move everything out of the 2 bedrooms into the basement while we work on painting those rooms and figuring out what furniture will go where.

Week 19

Yes week 19 again. I am not very good at keeping track of this baby's growth. I keep wanting to get ahead of myself. Before my week changed on a Thurs. I would take my pic on a Sunday and just jump to the next week, but I got myself ahead. When I had my u/s last Monday, they said I was 18 weeks a few days. So, I will change weeks on Friday now and take my pic on Friday as well. So, not half way through quite yet. Officially my body is no longer mine. The first 17 weeks I would say were really no big deal I didn't even realize I was pregnant most of the time. But over the last 2 weeks I've had some big transformations. It no longer feels okay to lay on my stomach, when I squat or bend down the pressure is uncomfortable. There's a baby in there ya'll!

My running isn't going so swift. I ran 6 miles twice this week, but the whole time my bladder aches. It feels just like I have a bladder infection, that I have to pee but then I go pee and barely pee feeling. I don't like it! But such is life. I am so slow now an 11 min mile is good for me and that's really hard to deal with. The effort to do my 6 mile trail run is a solid 8 when it should be a walk in the park. I haven't been consistent at all with my exercise and that's probably a large part of the problem. I am going to focus on running 4 times a week, and do my Slim in Six DVD (mostly lunges, squats, push ups, kind of a bootcamp) 2-3 times a week, just keep it simple. I really need to get on my bike trainer as well, but the puppy is putting a kink in that as I know I cannot use it in the living room with him loose as he will just run right into the pedal, but I guess I just need to confine him and do it anyway. I don't want to lose my entire biking ability over the last 4 months.

Shy baby

Well we have a modest baby and it didn’t want to show off it’s stuff today. So, we have no idea what we are having despite an hour long u/s today. Oh well, I can’t be too disappointed, all the limbs and fingers & toes were there. Baby opened its mouth and closed it for us and the brain, spine and organs look good. The baby sure is crammed in there. To me it looks like it has really long legs and big feet, just like daddy, but what do I know! It was fun to see the baby for that long, but frustrating that we didn’t get to find out.

My placenta is low, which could be an issue. If it doesn’t get itself situated correctly it means I’d have to have a c-section. I got back in early Jan to have the placenta checked and they’ll try again on the sex. I hate not knowing, I was ready to register for all kinds of girly stuff. Guess we’ll have to stay neutral. That’s okay. I saw some turquoise and brown bedding I really like, that’s neutral. And I want to do a bird theme anyway, so that is neutral too.

The baby is low, and right on my bladder, which explains why I have to pee every 2 seconds when running.

Sat Snowy run

Well I've been trying to get back on track with my workouts. I lifted weights Monday, did an Aeorbics DVD on Thurs and ran 5 miles this morning. I am going to run tomorrow morning too. It's not the 5 good solid workouts I wanted weekly, but it's a start to getting back on track. The puppy is making it really hard to get anything done. We're having issues crating him b/c he craps on himself everytime he's left alone...seperation anxiety, greeeaattt. It's been a really bad week, but I'm hoping he gets better, we're just not making much progress. Aside from this big issue, he's doing good. Mushi and him play and get along and he's very sweet and loves to snuggle and give kisses.

I'm having a wierd symptom. I'm not hungry at all. It's very wierd. I'll go all day and realize that I haven't eaten in like 7 hours. That's unheard of in my world. Is it stress or pregnancy? Also when I run now my bladder kills me within a mile. It's really frustrating. Anyone else deal with that? I guess the baby is right on my bladder. We get our gender ultrasound on Monday at 11:30. I cannot wait!!!

Tell me honestly what do you think of the name Magnolia?

Finally comfort

I have been shoving myself into the same 2 pairs of jeans with bella band and 1 pair of maternity jeans I got at old navy, for weeks. I knew I needed some pants, but I hated everything I tried on. I did get some cute corduroys from Target, but they must be hemmed. After having an extremely stuffed sausagey feeling kind of day on Thurs I decided enough was enough and I was going to have to go shopping. But I didn't head to any maternity store, nope I headed straight for New York & Co. I remembered getting these extremely comfy knit dress pants there a few years ago and was praying they still make them and they do! They are called City Knit and they have an elastic waist, no buttons or fasteners of any type. So, if you are looking for some comfy pants that are nice enough to wear to work head to NYCO, they are even on sale right now. They are much cheaper than maternity pants at only $29. I bought a pair of black and a pair of brown for now. As I am not sure if the Medium will fit for too much longer. They are plenty roomy for now. One warning though, don't dry these things, they get really pilly, I remember from the pair I had a few years ago, that's why I never bought more.

19 weeks and Fonzi Nowac

Well we had horrible weather here this weekend, rain and snow and sleet. So what did we do? Go get a puppy! Smart huh. He's being a very good boy so far, introducing Fonzi Nowac. And then a 19 week belly shot.

I hate veggies

I used to be a really good eater. I liked veggies. I liked fruit, I very rarely ate processed garbage and prescribed to the whole foods movement for the most part. Ever since I got pregnant it's like nothing tastes good to me but junk. Now that's not to say I am eating McDs for every meals, I am not. But I have eaten so much cereal and balony sandwichs and trader joes frozen thingies that I can't remember the last time I ate a leafy green. Not good for a pregnancy. Is it totally bad that my baby during it's formative first 12 weeks was growing on McDs soft serve ice cream and cheetos? I try to eat veggies at dinner but they just don't appeal to me anymore. I will eat a salad no problem, but my old standbys of squash, asparagus and green beans taste gross to me now. What the hell.

Gag me

Seriously, ugh. A friend of mine has been losing her mucus plug and I am so excited/anxious for her that I decided to google how long you can go after losing your plug before delivering (answer up to 2 weeks) and am so thoroughly grossed out right now. After reading all the descriptions of this giant piece of bloody snot I just want to lose my lunch. Seriously I know some people think of all this is so beautiful and amazing, but I just find it all really disgusting. I am now having visions of walking into the bathroom one day and finding a huge bloody slug looking thing in my undies. Can you imagine that happening at work, sitting in a meeting and then all of a sudden you feel that working it's way out. No thank you. Please let me be one of the lucky ones who never even sees their bloody show (seriously what the hell does that term mean, I am too scared to further google) and just go into labor and lose it at that time. Blech.

Week 18

I'm going into week 18 this week. Crazy. I can't believe in 2 short weeks I will be half way through this pregnancy. In reflection I can say that the first 13 weeks or so were really hard as far as just being thoroughly worn out and tired, but I have felt great since then. I have had a totally text book pregnancy and other than a few reminders such as being out of breath quicker and heartburn, I forget I'm pregnant most days. I hope the second half of this pregnancy goes as smoothly. The countdown starts for the anatomy ultrasound, 15 more days! I cannot wait!!!!

I think you can tell from the picture this week that I am showing. I am still fitting into my jeans, but they are starting to get too uncomfortable when I sit down. I got a really cute pair of maternity jeans at old navy and I have a few pairs of khakis I got off of ebay, none of which i

like that much. I do like the pair of khakis a bloggy friend sent me (thanks Claire) but they are still too large, so all of this means that I need to get some more pants. I just want to be comfortable. I hate to buy maternity clothes, but I am not going to be pulling at my clothes for the next 4 months.

Getting my butt in gear!

The week of vacation was very active. I ran a half mary and did a ton of walking and hiking. Since I got back from vacation, I have ran once and that is it! AHHHH. I hate to even say it out loud. It is beyond time for me to get my ass in gear. It’s more important than ever that I stay in shape now that I am preggo. I have some very inspiring ladies blogs that I read that have worked out their entire pregnancies. I need that to be me! I want to be able to rebound from this baby quickly and be back on my bike and running within weeks. In order to do that I must keep up my workouts. But lets face it I am pregnant and it’s harder to get moving, plus the gray and gloom of winter will be setting in soon, so I am making a schedule for myself and my goal is to hit 5 of these workouts. As long as I hit 5 I will not feel bad, if I hit more, awesome. I think I can always make Sat & Sun and it will be more enjoyable to run those days b/c I will see daylight, I hope to always make all 3 of the runs (2 around 4 miles, one at least 6) and then at least one spin and one swim. I haven’t swam in a REALLY long time and it’s time to get my toosh in gear with that. I want to get back up in the yardage by end of Nov and then hopefully hit a masters class in Solon once a week. I will do weights after spin class & also try and get one weight session in weekly while watching tv. I am going to keep a tally in my sidebar starting next week to keep me honest. So today is Thurs, think I will hit the pool if I can fit into my bathing suit!!! I need to order a new one online stat.

Mon – AM Spin class/weights
Tues- Run & swim
Wed- Run
Thurs- longer swim
Fri- Spin class/weights
Sat- long Run
Sun- Run & yoga

Last year over memorial day weekend I went to Lake Placid for a weekend workout on the Ironman course. The same group is going back next year, but this time in June. I really want to go, really bad. But is it crazy to think that 2 months post partum I could be ready to bike the 56 mile course of Lake Placid??? I really want to be able to do a fall marathon and be a kickass buff mom. I look at people like TriSaraTops and know it is possible. I tend to border on extreme working out and no working out. I don’t have much of a happy medium. I need to find it until this baby is out!

Sad times

Sad times at my house right now as my beloved dog is dying from Kidney failure. You can read about it on my other blog - trainingtotri.blogspot.com.

But I have some baby updates. My mother and I went to babies R us this weekend and did my registry. That was fun, but horribly overwhelming. Those of you who already have babies, if you can comment any things you can't live without, I'd really appreciate it. There are so many unnesseary items out there. And I know a lot of it is just preference. I have some friends that love their boppy, some that hate it. Some that think bottle warmers are a waste of money, some who use theirs everyday. I didn't register for any bedding, etc. I'll wait until we know the sex. Which is only 20 days away! Woopee.

I think I am starting to feel the baby kicking. It's like a wierd butterflyish feeling in the pit of my stomach. So that is new and exciting. I can't wait until you can feel the kicks on the outside. I think it'll help make all of this more real for Gary.

Ouch

I had a doc appt today, nothing exciting, just a check up. I am u/s spoiled and wish I could have gotten one, but I did get to hear the heart beat. They also gave me a flu shot, ouch. I am such a baby, I want to cry whenever I get a shot or my blood drawn how will I ever have a baby?

My mom is in town for a few days. I think her and I are going to go to Baby's R Us and do the registry on Sat. I am looking forward to that. I got opinions from a few friends on the must haves. I am getting a lot of hand me downs so we are lucky in that sense. My in laws are giving us their crib, my mom has an awesome cradle. My friend Jane who had a baby in June is giving me some stuff that her child doesn't like, that hopefully mine will (swing!!!). So, I hope to keep my registry list streamlined and only get what we need. I think I will just register at BRU for now. Once i know the sex I will probably register for bedding at Target b/c they have the cutest stuff.

Back to reality

Hi Bloggy friends. Back from vacation, you can read a recap over at http://www.trainingtotri.blogspot.com/. We had fun and I made it through the half marathon 14 weeks pregnant. Not bad right?!? I felt totally fine most of the time, but I did have some tenderness at the bottom of my stomach afterwards, I'll definately be cutting the long run distance down now.

Feeling pretty good. I have a check up on Thursday. My mom is coming to stay with us for Halloween so she is going to go with me and meet my doc. I am for sure out of the first trimester fog now, thank god. But everynight I wake up around 3ish with the most painfully full bladder. So I get out of bed and got sit on the toilet and nothing happens! I have to push and a little stream will come out and then eventually I will be peeing. Is that normal? It hurts a little at first and once my bladder is empty it still feels a bit sore. I had a bladder infection around 8 weeks and took some antibiotics, so I don't think it's that....wierd though.

almost time to get away

One more day of work and then freedom! Gary and I are going on a week vacation starting Sat. We are flying into San Francisco and then taking highway 1 up the coast to Humbolt CA. We’ll stay there Sat night, then Sunday we will wake up and run the half marathon at the Ave of the Giants marathon. That should be pretty, or really boring, trees might get old after 30 mins or so, I hope not! Running has been slow, slow, slow, but I’m still getting out there, so I think I will be fine. We’ll then grab some lunch in northern CA and head to Medford OR where my sister in law now lives. We’ll stay with her for 3 days. We are going to go to Crater Lake, other than that I’m not sure what we will do, but we’re planning on lots of hiking. On Thursday G and I will head back down to San Fran and stay there for 2 nights. We haven’t been on a week vacation since our honeymoon 4 years ago. I am going to miss my dogs L But luckily a good friend is going to stay at our house and sleep with them so they don’t get lonely.

Last night I met Salty and we ran about 3.5 miles, it started to rain and got too dark. But we had fun. After that I power cleaned my house in prep for my friends stay. I still have some work to do. Nothing feels better than a really clean house. Tonight I am meeting some friends for dinner, but when I get home I have to finish up and tomorrow I will worry about packing.

Oh and get this the AKron marathon sent the members of team speed bump onesies and a thank you note. How freaking thoughtful is that. I will definately run at least the half there next year. What a great race.

Monday

It's a Monday for sure. I ran twice this weekend, lifted weights and made it to spin/ab class this morning. Although I just learned that after your first tri mester any ab work on your back in a big no no. Glad to read that b/c I hope to get back to spin class now 3 times a week and we always do abs afterwards. It's a no no b/c you can block the blood supply to the baby. There are other ab exercises I can do though and the 2 articles I read said crunches on the ball are fine as long as you put it higher up your back.

I am trying not to let it get to me but things are so bad at work. We work in teams and we just lost our best developer and best quality assurance analyst. Both had been here for over 5 years and had invaluable knowledge. The developer is already done with his 2 weeks and the QA gal just put her notice in. Our team was already down about 4-5 people and now we are really going to be hobbling by. It makes it hard to want to come to work. On top of that, one of our team members who worked from home and has been sick for awhile finally lost to her cancer last night in hospice. She was a wonderfully nice lady with a beautiful family and she lived on a farm full of animals that I'm sure will miss her too. I wish I had gotten to know her better. It puts things into perspective that's for sure. Life is too short.

The first 3 months

So, I've made it throught he first 3 months Munchkin. I must say I had my doubts the whole time that I could do this. It just seems like some wierd science experiment. I just kept expecting to go to the doctors and you'd be gone. But I've gotten to see you 3 times so far! You've gone from a little round sac to a full blown baby that wiggles and sucks it's thumb. The doctor said a wiggly baby is a healthy baby. That's good to know since I've been doing pretty much the exact opposite of what I should be doing. Instead of feeding you leafy greens and fruit, I've been filling up on wendy's chicken sandwichs and mcdonalds ice cream cones! I haven't had any real cravings, but eaten way too much junk food b/c I just don't feel like cooking. I did give up coffee though and have had only a few diet cokes along the way.

You came on like a sleep filled tornado from day 1. I cannot get enough sleep and I am really getting sick of that! Due to this my workouts have been sporadic at best. I went from the best shape of my life while training for a half ironman (I was biking 40-50 miles on the weekend and running for an hour after!) to about 15 lbs overweight (Mamma was already 7 lbs up from where she should be before you even came around! oops). Surprisingly I am not freaking out. I don't mind my gut, now that it's getting more round and everyone knows I'm pregnant, not just getting fat :) The big boobs are interesting as well. I kind of love being pregnant, I don't mind it for a moment. 6 months will fly by I am sure and I cannot wait to meet you. I have been very lucky to have no morning sickness, although I've felt fluish for the past several weeks. Hopefully as I step into our second trimester that will ease up a bit.

In just a weekMunchkin you will take your first cross country flight. Probably your last for awhile. We're going on vacation and we're going to run a half marathon surrounded by the redwood forest. It's going to be great!

12 weeks

Okay so today I am officially 12 weeks along, time to start telling people. Haha. Considering I started showing so early I don't know how I would have made it to this point w/o telling people. Seriously in clothes from the side, you can totally tell. They say short people show sooner, I guess its true.

I have felt like ass this week, sick to my stomach and dragging, I've been asleep by 9 every night. I have clients on site and also a bunch of work fires, so I have been going non stop and horribly stressed. I try not to get stressed out, but it's so hard when your job is dealing with angry clients all day. Which is unfortunately what my job has become. I cringe everytime the phone rings. I almost cried 2 times already this week. I am so ready for vacation. In 9 days I will be landing in San Francisco. Thank you!

11 weeks 5 days actually

Well I thought I was through the first trimester, but today the doctor told me I was 11 weeks and 5 days. So, on Thursday I will be at 12 weeks. But does that put me through the first trimester, or do I have to get to 13 weeks first? My brain can’t figure that sort of thing out.

Today I had a nuchal translucency test. It was fine, an u/s and a bloodtest. The measure the neck folds on your baby and you don’t want to be near 3mm, my baby was at 1.2. So, my risk for downs, tri 18, etc should be pretty low, but I have to see what the bloodwork says. I had my first successful belly u/s. It was really neat b/c they had a flat screen on the wall in front of you and you could see the u/s there. It was long b/c they took all kinds of measurements, so I got to watch my baby wiggle around for at least 5 mins, it was great. The doc said my baby was very wiggly and that’s a good sign. It was sucking it’s thumb and moving it’s arms and legs and twice it just kind of bounced up in the air like on a trampoline. I got some big u/s print outs, like 8 x 10! That was fun. One has the hand waving and the u/s lady put some text on there that says hi everyone. Too cute. I can’t wait for the sex u/s on the 11/24. I have another doc appt on 10/29, but don’t know if I will get another u/s or not.

I am very nervous about my insurance. The doc just told me that he usually has his patients get the test and asked if I wanted it and I said would my insurance cover it and he said most of the time they do. So, I decided why not, the more info the better I figure. So, I called my insurance and the first lady told me it was covered, but I didn’t get her name and G told me I should call back. The second lady thought it was covered, but wasn’t really sure so she sent me a page from their handbook. I asked her if in her interpretation it was covered and she said yes. So, I went ahead and got it. I sure hope we don’t get stuck with the 2500 bill.

12 weeks, yikes

Big difference since last time!

Phew I did it

I ran 12 miles today. I wasn't sure I could do it. I haven't ran over 8 miles in about a month. So, I was able to get through it and felt pretty good. I have a half marathon in 2 weeks and I have been pretty worried I wouldn't get through it. But I did. We started at Station Bridge this morning at 8:30 and it was COLD and foggy and kind of surreal, but by the end of the run it was a gorgeous day. I got a kick out of seeing all the wooly worms that have come out. Fall is here.

I ran 6 miles on Wed night, but I was pretty sick Thurs & Fri and just took it easy. So, my tally for this week is one spin, 2 runs and 1 ab DVD. Not quite what I was looking for, but better than nothing. I will run or spin tomorrow, but I didn't get the weights in. This week was pretty tough. I didn't feel good and I was a bit of an emotional wreck due to some work stress among other things. I am through my first trimester now and I am ready for that supposed burst of energy I will getting soon.

Ugh I felt so so sick yesterday, well and the day before and still do today. I think I am sick, I don't think it's just pregnancy. But I was feeling very lazy and got in bed at 6:45 and stayed there. I was asleep by 9, but didn't wake up feeling super refreshed or anything. I was on youtube and watched some slideshow videos of pregnancy belly progressions. They were so neat, I can't believe I am going to get that big. I watched a few birth story videos too, those made me teary eyed. Starting this week I will take a belly shot every Sunday, I want to have a record of this, it is so amazing when you patch them all together to see how much you change! The videos totally made me cry, just from the baby stuff, but also b./c I miss my dad (he died in Jan). Well he died the funeral home put together this great video of all these photos of him with music behind it and one of the songs was this stupid country song by Rascal Flats about Jesus and it was on one of the progression videos, so now every time I hear that song (as well as the other songs on his video, I am totally ruined now by Fire and Rain) I just bawl like a baby. So, I sat in bed and cried and missed my dad and got really angry that he's not here for all of this. Then I watched Sara Silverman videos and got cheered up. Then I tried to watch the debate, but got depressed by that, so I decided I better just go to bed!

Hide and Seek baby

So yesterday I had another checkup with my doctor. The last 2 appts I have had to wait between 45-60 mins before they got to me, so I scheduled this one late in the day so as to not impact work. I set it for 4:15 and just skipped lunch. Well, the doctor took an hour again to get to me! I scheduled my next appt for right after lunch, if the same thing happens I am getting a new doctor. I don’t adore the guy, but he is nice enough and answers all my questions and likes to give me an u/s every time I go, which I love. Well, so after sitting for an hour he comes in with a med student in tow. He was just going to check for a heartbeat that day, so he tells me to pull my pants down a bit and they put this microphone thing on my pubic bone. They move it around, but can’t find a heartbeat. The doctor keeps telling me it’s hard to get it sometimes and not to worry and since I have a tilted uterus that makes it worse. I wasn’t worried. So, he takes me to a different room and tries to do a stomach u/s. He again can’t find anything, I’m still not worried, I’m only 11-12 weeks along, so I just figured it was normal. So, at this point he decides to do an internal u/s, still not worried. He moves it around for awhile and tells me it takes time to find the baby sometimes. Then he does and the baby has it’s back to me, so I don’t get as good of a view as last time, but you can totally see it has arms and legs and it’s moving them all around and having a good old time swimming. Then the doctor says – shewww you had me worried. I couldn’t believe it, I had no idea he was worried, I never got worried at all. Kind of funny. I got another u/s pic and you can tell the baby is much larger, but it’s not a great picture. I have my first scan test next week so I will get another u/s. Then I don’t have another appt until the end of the month. I was really pissed for having to wait so long b/c I had plans to run with a friend at 5:30 and I wasn’t able to make it. But I found her and joined her for the rest of the run and got 6 miles in.

I’ve really been feeling pretty shitty for the last 2 weeks. Just extra worn down and I don’t look well. Bags under my eyes, I feel like my hair is just hanging on my head and nothing I put on looks right. It’s great! Such is life. All in all I really like being pregnant, but I hope to feel better soon. I’m running 12 miles on Sat, which will be interesting. I hope I can do it. I have a half marathon scheduled for 10/19, so I am doing the 12 miler to give me confidence I still can. I haven’t ran over 8 miles in over a month.

New pants already!

• Speed Bumps, 5 woman pregnant relay finishing in 3:57! How about that! I only ran a 5K portion so I didn't contribute too much to that kickass time, but I did manage to come in a little under a 10 min/mile and that was my goal. For the most part I didn't feel very good for my run. The hand off section was very congested and confusing so I took off like a bat out of hell and was running at between a 7:56 and 8:30 min pace and trying to slow myself down. I did of course and then had a hard time getting under 9:50ish and I stopped and took a sip at the 2 water stops. I kept trying to get my breathing under control, but for the most part I felt like crap! Oh well. After my run Gary was waiting for me at the hand off area and he and I and Janet (whose team kicked ass!) headed over the the stadium to watch the finish. I found one member of my team and we hung out for awhile while we waited for Laura to finish. Laura's my hero, she is 7.5 months pregnant and ran the 7.6 mile last leg in under 1:10. How amazing is that! I'm glad she organized this it was a lot of fun. If you've never done a relay before, give it a shot, it's very well organized and easy to pull off.
• I ran 5 times last week! On Tuesday 3 miles with Gary, Wed 4.5 with Ilana, Thursday 4.5 with Sara and Sat the 3.1 mile leg of the race and Sunday 5 miles with Ilana! I also did my ab DVD twice and my pushups most days. Woohoo. Now if I could get 1 spin class and 2 weights sessions in there (probably drop 1 run) I'd be golden! That's my goal this week, 4 run, 2 bikes, 2 weights.
• I had to go buy new pants this weekend, already! I'm not even out of my first trimester yet! I have one more week. It was a truly depressing shopping event. But I did walk away with some good steals on a pair of maternity jeans (although I can still wear some of my jeans!) and some clearance capris and some regular long sleeved tshirts from old navy. I just want to be comfortable right now, I am sick of tugging and pulling on clothes.
• Gary and I were walking the dogs on Sat. There is a little trail that runs a few blocks in my neighborhood called the cinder path. There is this little old lady with a wheeled walker who walks up and down the path for 2 blocks and we always stop and say hi to her. Her favorite joke is to say that Taiko looks like her b/c of the wrinkles. So, we're talking and I look down and you know what? Taiko peed on her walker. Seriously, how embarrassing is that? Good thing he's so dang cute!

TV debut

To keep extending my 5 mins of fame, hahah. Here is a link to a tv spot we did, I'm the redhead.

http://wwwphp.10tv.com/vplayer.php?clip=2008_09_25_Pregnant_Moms_Form_Relay_Team.wmv&site=ONN


Oh and I ran on Thursday too! So I got 3 workouts in a row this week. So far, we have 1 ab workout and 3 runs. I really need to get back into weights asap.I really wanted to go to spinning this morning and didn't. I think I am getting sick. Ugh. The past few days I have just felt really run down and funky. Boo. Not good for the relay race tomorrow, I really want to run well. So, i thought I'd take today off.

Workouts 2 days in a row!

I finally having something to blog about on my workout blog! Imagine. I worked out! 2 days in a row! So, last night I got home from work and cleaned the house and took the dogs for a walk while Gary worked on grinding up more sticks from the storm. Then we headed out for a 3 mile run! And I actually ran it in under 30 mins. Now to most of you that's nothing. But I have been running a steady 10:30-11 min mile since this pregnancy started. I've also mostly been going out on 6 & 8 milers with my friend who is training for a marathon, so we ran slow and steady. I knew I was only going out for 3 so I tried to kick it up a notch. It was gorgeous out and perfect running weather. We ran from our house up to Shaker Lakes and back. The second half is a steady incline that really got me out of breath. It's amazing how quickly I end up panting now when running. I read it's actually b/c I am taking in more air and my lungs are working more efficiently and harder. Who knew! I was able to do some strides around a 9 min mile. This gives me hope that maybe I can do my 5K Sat in 27 mins. That would make me really happy. I finished the evening off with one of my favorite activities - watching The Biggest Loser! I freaking love that show.

Then I got up this morning at 6 and met my friend Ilana for a 3.5 mile run. This one didn't feel quite as great. I was having some stomach issues though so I will blame it on those. I had to take a few walks breaks near the end b/c I was feeling light headed, I think I will have to eat now before morning runs. When I got home I took Taiko to the vet, he's having kidney problems, which I haven't blogged about, but it's a huge grey cloud in my life, kidney problems usually only get worse and once a dog has kidney problems you pretty much know what will be the end of them. Hopefully we can eek out a few more years with some herbal supplements that were recommended to me. But onto happier subjects. After the vet appt. I drove out to the towpath and met 3 of my other Speed Bump team members and the Ohio news Network did a spot on us. It's supposed to be on tomorrow night for the evening news. Fun! I will get a link to it when I can.

5 mins of Fame

You can read the article on Team Speed Bump here -http://www.ohio.com/news/29204974.html

I haven't even read the article myself yet b/c of internet filters here at work, grrrr. We all met up for the first time on Thursday night and met the reporter. I hear he took some liberties with the quotes, but all in all it's a good article. It was nice to finally meet my teammates, as I only know one of the other runners - Salty, her blog is in my blogroll, the last one. I think the relay will be a lot of fun and it'll be interesting to see what our time is. I am only running a 5K and am worried about it, I really hope I can pull off under a 10 min mile, it's been so so so long since I've only ran 3 miles. I tend to always run at least 5 or 6 and haven't tried to run fast since I got pregnant, and really not for a long time before that b/c I was marathon training. Not like our time Saturday matters, but it would be nice to have a solid 26 min 5K instead of a 33 min one! But I'll just see how I feel.

I went home this weekend and helped my sister work a booth at the Constitution Square Festival. You can see her wonderful jewelry at www.thefriskyfeather.etsy.com. I beleive she has everything off of her site right now b/c she didn't want to double sell, but check back later. Her booth was a hit, she sold so many scrabble tile pendants and everyone was just raving over her. She really is amazingly talented, I have no crafty skills at all, but she can make cards, scrapbook, knit, make purses, jewelry and so much more. Me? I run! And I read a lot, I can't make anything with my hands! Oh well. I can live vicariously through her and hope to make this an annual event. Next year I will have a baby in the booth with us!

Heartbeat

So, the appt Wed went fine, other than the fact that my appt was at 2:15 and they didn't take me in until 3. I was livid. I am horribly impatient anyway, but when you are trying to not take any time off work and just use the hour you are allowed for lunch, oooohhhh stressful. Gary came along. Once the doc got in there it was fine. Very quick. It's amazing what a difference a few weeks make, the baby totally looks like a baby now, I can see it's little head and nose. The doctor said I'm somewhere between 9-10 weeks and I am due April 22. I still thought I was further along, but oh well, I'll be further along in no time. I got back in 2 weeks for another appointment and in 3 weeks I get that First Scan test done that checks for downs, etc.

Tonight we are meeting a reporter from the Akron paper. I am doing a relay at the Akron marathon with 4 other pregnant ladies, they want to do an article on us. My 5 mins of fame! Exciting.

U/S day!

Yeah it's ultrasound day, I can't wait. I get to leave work at 1:45 and head to the doctors. Today G gets to meet our baby! I had quite the scare yesterday. Gary called me and told me the OBGYN had left a message on the home machine to call the office. He thought nothing of it, but I went immediately into panic mode, Doctors never want to speak you unless something is wrong! I had just had my bloodwork done, so I started imaging all kinds of bad stuff like I have Aids or I'm a CF carrier, etc. But it turned out I just have a bladder infection, I can't believe it took them 2 weeks to tell me that. I am on anti-biotics, which they said was okay, it's a kind I've never heard of before. I don't like the idea of taking them, but don't like the idea of having bacteria in my pee either, so oh well.

I had a brain fart and said in a previous post that I got my first gift in the mail and that wasn't true! My wonderful friend Jane, who had her first baby in June - a boy, sent me a gift as soon as I told her I was preggo, it was some onesies and blankets and they were the first thing that went into the Munchkin's dresser, I had to correct that. She's the best and I'm glad she went first so she can teach me everything I need to know. She also very generously gave me a big box of her baby's infant clothing b/c he's already grown out of them and some maternity clothes. Here is her baby in a robot onesie I got for him! Isn't he a cutie. Love you Jane!

My running is really stinking right now. I assume it’s due to being pregnant. My legs are just so achy and my hips and back hurt. I think I need new shoes as well. I ran 8 yesterday with some friends, it was supposed to be 11, but at mile 5 I just couldn’t hold the pace anymore and it was a sloowww pace. So, I bailed and ran/walked 3 on my own. I sure hope in a few weeks I am able to run with a little less effort. It was really humid yesterday though.

This is the week I get another ultra sound! I am so excited. We go on Wed. I'll get my "offical" due date and find out really how far along I am, I think this is week 11, doc thought 9 or 10. Then I will let everyone at work know. We also got our first gift in the mail, a gift card to Baby’s R’ Us. I can’t wait to go buy something!!!

I am also going home this weekend and I'm sure my mom will be pretty excited to see my sonogram!

Oh my poor chubby butt

Oh bloggy friends I made the worst mistake today and am paying for it. I got up late, later than usual and rushed to get dressed. I put on a black wrap sweater with a tank under it and some brown dress pants. At like 7:57 (I leave for work at 8) I decided the dress pants were pulling too much on my thighs and I had a panty line so dammit I was just putting jeans on. So, I ran upstairs and put on this cute pair of black jeans that I have, did a few squats and thrusts to stretch them out and ran out the door. In the car, when I realized the jeans were totally cutting off my air supply I started to panic. Should I turn around? No I can't turn around I'm almost to work. Oh how I wish I had turned around. My jeans are so tight and show no sign of comfortably stretching out, I have a camel toe and a bad wedgie and I am miserable. I don't want to get up from my desk. Thank goodness I only have 1 meeting today, so I will try and avoid everyone at all costs! I was a bit upset, but I am over it, so I can't wear my size 4 jeans at nearly 3 months pregnant. Oh well! I am tempted to go to Target at lunch and see if they happen to still carry these jeans and buy a size up!

It's what time!

You know what doesn’t work well for me right now? Getting up at 5:30, I keep trying and keep failing. Either I wake up and just feel like I got ran over by a truck or I am nauseous and I crawl back into bed. I have a real aversion to working out after work. It just leaves too many things to interfere. I NEED to work on in the morning, yet I can’t seem to do it. What to do? I am probably only getting in 3-4 workouts a week right now. Which doesn’t work for me. So, I think what I will try is getting up at 6:30 instead. That leaves me with about 30-45 mins to work out if I can be ready to work out by 6:45. This will no longer allow me to run with anyone in the morning, but I am tired of bailing on my running partner anyway. If I can do this at least 3 mornings and have a good workout on Sat & Sun and maybe a good evening run once during the week I should be fine, right! Right? Ugh.

I feel awful today by the way. I have been much more nauseous this week. Still haven’t thrown up, but feel on the verge. It makes it hard to be at work and want to get on the phone or sit in a meeting. It could be worse though, I keep telling myself it could be a whole lot worse.

Cats out of the bag

Happy Monday Preggo Bloggers. I am feeling yucky today. Ugh. I started feeling green yesterday and still do. This would be week 9 for me. So, maybe I am not going to get through this first trimester without morning sickness, we shall see. I really thought I would throw up this morning. Luckily I didn’t.

I told my boss. I just couldn’t take the secret anymore. He has 7 kids. He was really happy and I told him I wasn’t ready to tell everyone yet and he said my secret was safe with him until it was time to tell. I told him after my u/s on the 17th I’d be ready to spill the beans. It feels so good to have that off my chest. He asked me if I knew my plans yet, if I thought I’d be back. I told him I hadn’t figured that part out yet, but that I would probably be back.

I ran this weekend with Salty, we did 6 miles in the rain and it felt good. I meant to run again on Sunday and got a case of the lazies. I feel a lot less bad about missed workouts now that I am pregnant. I have lived the past 4 years basically going from one training schedule to the next. It’s really nice to just relax and not worry about it. I could get used to this J But won’t. I need to get back into the pool and work on my swimming all winter while I’m pregnant. Then if I can pull it off there is a HIM next Aug I’d like to do. That’s only like 3.5 months post partum so I don’t know if it’ll be possible. But it’s something to shoot for. If not I will at least do the oly, I only got through 2 sprints this year b/c my swimming didn’t come together. I got freaked out in the open water. Maybe after having a baby rip open my hoohah, a lake snake won’t seem so scary.

Shhh...don't wake the sleeping beasts

Here’s pretty much how my mornings are going for the past few weeks. Wake up at 5am, have to pee soo soo badly, bladder full to the brim. Yet I lay there and I fight it. I don’t want to get up b/c if I get up the Wonder Twins (Mushi and Tai) get up and that means I have to traipse downstairs and out into the yard with them and stand there for 10 min while I beg them to please come back in the house as you’ve already peed on 20 things. So, I lay there and I hold it and hope I can fall back asleep. When I should really just get up b/c the 15 mins I will be up will be less than that time it takes me to fall back asleep due to full bladder. Things make no sense at 5 in the morning. I have successfully been holding it until 7am, but I really need to stop! It’s amazing how even in early pregnancy you have to pee so much. I thought that only happened once the baby started sitting on your bladder, but boy was I wrong. I read in my book – Exercising Through Pregnancy – that as soon as you are pregnant all of your bodily functions just go into overdrive. You sweat more, you breath more, you pee more, you sleep more, you eat more, etc. Crazy.

8 weeks

Okay seriously. I am already showing. Big time. The scale says I've only gained 4 lbs, but I feel like it's so much more. Although I was about 10 lbs overweight to start with. This is going to be really tough for me, gaining weight, I mean of course I know it's for the greater good, but I have pretty negative body image as it is, so gaining 30 lbs is just going to be tough. Ithink I can handle the belly fat, but the thigh/butt area will really be tough. But I do want to post belly shots along the way. Here I am tonight. Basically the blubber layer on top is new and I feel like I am totally pooching out. Crazy. Oh and believe me, normally my boobs don't even stick out!

Hips of pain

Starting last week I noticed that my lower back was really bothering me. I said something to my friend who just had a baby and she said that it happened to her in early pregnancy too and her doc said it had to do with your pelvis expanding and then in my Week by Week book it said some people can get sciatic nerve pain early on. Well, now it is my back and my hips and it freaking hurts. My hips have been hurting so badly since I ran this weekend. I guess the 11 miles on Sat and the 6 miles on Sunday were a lot of pounding. We were walking the dogs last night and I stopped b/c I got this sudden jolt of pain like my hip has popped out of place or something. Ugh. Did this happen to any of you?

To Tell the Truth

I am still just floored that I got to hear the heartbeat! I cannot wait until my appt on the 17th. I think after that appt. if everything looks good, I will go ahead and tell my boss, then maybe wait 2-3 weeks to tell everyone else here. And post on my other blog. I am so eager to tell my other bloggy friends, especially since I only know like 6 of my readers in flesh in blood. But like I said before, one reader dates a co-worker and I am not ready for work to know yet, so I am better safe than sorry. I want to tell b/c I find myself lying and I hate that. People ask me how my training for the full Akron marathon is going and I just say fine, yadda yadda. Someone asked me if I was to taper on Sunday or if I had one more long run and I had to fib and I hate that. Speaking of running, baby and I had a nice 11 miler on Sat and a 6 miler on Sunday. But my back is killing me now, so I think I overdid it. My hips and back have really been aching.

Speaking of Sunday I got to go to a baby shower for my friend L, her blog is in my blogroll – the Little One. I have always loved baby showers, but I love them even more now. I totally found myself tearing up as she received such lovely things like handmade blankets from her grandma and a bib that said I love grandpa. My dad died this year and it’s in the back of my head constantly that my child will never get to meet his grandfather and that makes me sad. My dad liked babies. I never had strong relationships with my grandparents, but I hope my baby does. He gets 3 grandma’s since G’s parents are divorced and one grandpa and one boyfriend of his grandma, whatever you call that. And it’s hard b/c I live 6 hours from my mom and sister. I hate that. It’s not how I pictured things when I was younger and I thought about having a family. I always thought I’d live closer to home. It’s all very depressing when I sit and think about it, but all I can do is do the best I can with what I have. I just feel sad for my mom b/c I know she will want to be around more and it’s such a long drive. Oh well, such is life. I’ll quit being depressing now.

On a funnier note. I got drawn into youtube this weekend and found myself watching videos of babies moving in bellies. Gary had no idea that you could actually see the baby move through the skin and it totally grossed him out. It was priceless. I also started watching a few home birth and water birth videos, but stopped that pretty quickly, I think I am better off never seeing any births, it just makes it scarier. Although the water births look kind of nice. Minus the part where you float around in a bloody pool afterwards, yuck.

First Doctor's appt - 7 weeks & 3 days

So, it turns out my math is really bad. According to the doctor I am only 7 weeks and 3 days since my last period. Woops. Here I was thinking I was already somewhere between 8-9 weeks. Yikes. I'm nowhere near out of the water for miscarriage.

I liked the doctor. He was coridial and quick without making me feel rushed. He went ahead and did an ultrasound since I didn't really know when my last period was since I'm irregular. He said judging by the size of my baby he thinks I might be more like 6 weeks along, but he couldn't really tell and I go back in 2 weeks to get another u/s to get more accurate info. It's wierd to find out you are not as far along as you think. But I don't know why I'm in such a rush. So, for now I'm calling it 7 weeks along. I was going to try and scan the ultrasound pictures, but they were so black I didn't think it'd work. Hearing the heartbeat was awesome. He said I have a tilted uterus so it was hard for him to find the baby at first and I was so worried, it was such a bad feeling - what if I'm not preggo, just crazy! But then there it was and I could totally see the little flash of the heart just a pumpin away. The doctor gave me the go ahead to keep running long distance and said I could do crunches, I wasn't sure about that. I can't wait until Sept 17th when I go back!

When to tell work?

So I am faced with a new dilema. I am doing a relay at the Akron marathon on Sept 27th with 4 other pregnant ladies. We were organized by the lovely Salty (blog in links - The little one). I totally want to do this and a local paper wants to do an article on us. Exciting. The issue is that the marathon and the article will be before I had planned to tell work. I was going to wait until Oct to tell work. The only reason being that we get our reviews in Oct and I didn't want to stand the chance of affecting my raise. But I think the chances of that are pretty slim since everyone pretty much gets the same piddly raise every year. So, now do I wait until my first ultrasound to tell work? Or just go ahead and tell them after I've had my first doc visit tomorrow, I am somewhere between 8-9 weeks along right now. I know that for a fact b/c there are only a handful of options for this babies conception. I so want to tell right now b/c I am so excited. But I know that things could go wrong and I should wait longer...When did you tell bloggy friends? Do share -

Seriously in need of gym time

I can't do it. I can't. I just can't seem to work out. I have been totally off the ball for about 3 weeks now and it feels awful. I have managed to run at least 3 times a week, but that is it. And some of those have literally been just 2 miles. I haven't lifted a weight, I haven't done a crunch, I haven't gotten on my bike. It stinks. I'm not that sick, although I feel that I am getting greener as the days go by, I thought for sure I would puke this morning. The issue is that I can't wake up. I have to get up at 5:30 in order to get to the gym and back and get to work. I try everyday and I haven't done it in a long time. Then when I get home from work I generally feel worse than I did in the morning and just want to collapse. Just.so.tired. I hate that. My body is totally changing. I've only gained like 3-4 lbs, but I feel like my stomach just looks different. More dougy. Probably b/c it's been over a month since I have regularly done any ab work. Boo. I mean I know I have to gain weight, I am not afraid of having that big round belly, but I am afraid of losing all muscle tone and having to start over with running and everything else with a newborn in tow. The plan was to keep up my workouts the entire time.

So, what do I do. Do, I listen to my body and sleep in the morning or do I push through the haze and get up, knowing once spin class is over I will probably be glad that I did? In a perfect world, here is what I think I should be doing, which believe me is a lot less that I was doing 2 months ago. Up until July I had been working out about 10-13 hours a week bc I was training for a half ironman.

Monday - Rest
Tuesday - run 3-4 miles, ab DVD
Wednesday - Spin class, weights
Thursday - run 4-5 miles, ab DVD
Friday- Spin class, weights
Saturday- Long run 6-10 miles
Sunday- Yoga class or weights

Oh what a baby filled weekend I had! I started out on Friday staying with my friend in Cincinnati Mindy who is moving back to NE this week. She gave me a cute baby gift, one of my first, a little monkey t-shirt with Baby Nowac puff painted on that back, too cute. Sat morning I went to a baby shower in Cincinnati for two old college roommates. One is 31 weeks along, the other 35. They looked great and got a lot of cute stuff. I wrote down one thing I must have it's the Boon Frog Tub somethingorother. It's basically a huge frog full of bath toys. Too cute.

Then I headed to KY to stay with my mom and we went to babiesrus so I could get another gift for a baby shower I have this coming weekend (peanut!). I had a nice night with my family and then I headed to Bloomington IN to visit my friend who had a baby in June. A boy, Nils Henry. He is 10 weeks old and just gorgeous. He had the nicest head of red hair and was all smiles. He was just so stinking cute and giggly. It was fun to see my dear friend being a mom and I am glad she has done it first so she can give me tips. And being around the little one just got me really excited for what's going on in my belly. Well uterus really I guess. My book says that this week, week 8, my uterus is the size of a grapefruit, how exciting.

In other pregnancy related news, my hips and lower back are frigging killing me. I cannot seem to escape the spine pain. I feel like I can't sit up straight enough, like everything is collapsing down my back. Jane said that her midwife told her (when her hips were hurting) that its b/c your pelvis is already starting to expand. Also my week by week book said that some women have intense sciatic nerve pain, I assume that is what I have going on. It stinks! But I should count my lucky stars, one girl at the shower was 12 weeks along and had thrown up so much she even had to be hospitalized to get fluids. Poor thing.

Sheesh what a difference a day makes

Sheesh. In a matter of 12 hours my boobs went from being just fine to hurting like hell. I could barely sleep on my stomach last night, I kept moving and then getting a stab of shooting pain up my boobie. Today I feel like I have swollen watermelons (okay who am I kidding apricots) shoved in my nearly B bra. Yes readers, I am really flat chested. I am one of those people who actually buys a nearly B bra, b/c the A is just too depressing. Well, this morning the girls are filling out my B so much that I might not be nearly anymore. But they hurt. And of course the first thing G does this morning is grab my boob. Ouch. I keep wanting to pull my shirt out and look at them. But I guess that's inappropriate at work. I just did it anyway, though. No one saw me.

I feel like everyone should be able to tell just looking at me that I am Woman, I am Pregnant! Look at me Fertile Florence. Then I remember I'm all of 7 or 8 weeks along. No big deal yet, no big difference. But why do I feel like my stomach looks 3 months along. Ugh. It could be b/c I can't take a good poo to save my life. Oh bodily functions, how I detest you right now.

Oooh Knock on Wood

So I dragged my ass out of bed this morning to run with a friend at 6am. Which requires getting up at 5:30 am, which in my first trimester fog is not easy. But I did it and we had a nice 4 mile run. But during the run I was talking about how I hoped I wouldn't get morning sickness and that I was about 7 weeks along and no morning sickness yet and don't most people only have it bad during the first trimester and so on. Well, I get home and take a shower and Mushi and Tai (my dogs) were just being so stinking cute and cuddly that I had to get back in bed. So, I lay down for about 20 mins. When I got back up. I was so sick. Just a horrible wave of nausea, I got out of bed and immediately lay back down. I ate 2 pieces of toast and felt a little better. But now I have like one of those motion sick headaches. Icky.

Now I need opinions from my fellow running preggos. I signed up for 2 half marathons pre preggo. One is Sept 7th (I'll be about 9 weeks along) and one is Oct 19th (already in second trimester). Now the one in Oct I am definately doing even if I walk it b/c it is in CA and through the Redwood Forest and it will be my hubby's first half. But I wonder if I should do the one on Sept 7th, it's just here somewhere I run a lot and I originally really wanted to try and PR and am a little afraid I'll push myself too much? On one hand, the Munchkin has already run over 13 miles 4 times now. So, I know she can handle it. But on the other hand, I'm like what's the point, why risk it? I don't know if I want to run it really slow. I kind of want to just run it and if I am able to run it fastish great, if not, then I will jsut run/walk if i need to. So, should I do the Half Marathon in Sept? Give me your honest opinions. I am torn.

I am still feeling so elated and happy. I hate that I can't tell everyone. I want to post on my tri training blog so badly, but I know you can't just tell everyone at 7/8 weeks. It's too early. I keep telling myself, but that doesn't stop me. So far I've only told my family. 3 or 4 friends & a neighbor in Cleveland and then my 2 best friends who don't live here. But I want to tell everybody!

Superhuman olfactory senses!

Yesterday wasn't such a great day in pregnancy land. I had my first real case of nausea at work. I really thought I was going to have to run out of a meeting, luckily it never got past the stage of that pre vomit slobbery feeling in my mouth. Then towards the end of the day I got really crampy. I thought for sure I would spot, but I didn't. I just felt generally icky. I was supposed to go run with some friends, but I decided that I better listen to my body and it wasn't having a good day.

My smell is out of control. Do any of you have this problem? It's like I'm a nose super hero. Everything stinks to me. Like I almost lost it in the kitchen last night, I'm standing there and I can specifically smell the coffee maker, the garbage disposal, the garbage can and my dog. It's gross. Plus I went to eat some salsa last night and I thought for sure it had spoiled, it tasted carbonated and so acidic, but G said it tasted just fine. I brought hummus for lunch and ended up throwing it away, I love hummus. Too wierd. I don't like it. But if this is the worst that I get, I'll take it.

I had planned to go to spinning this morning, but was up all night worrying about money! Already! Argh. I really want to take a year off of work. But when I think about living on just G's paycheck, it covers our bills and not much else. I know that he takes a lot out of his check for retirement and our car funds, so he can make his check larger, but still I just don't think it's possible. I am going to have to figure out a way to get my work to keep my part time. Maybe they will let me work part time for 3-6 months after I come back...maybe...Ideally I would want to work part time until munchkin is in school. I think we could live off of half my salary and G's for that long. BUt I don't really have the time of job that translates into part time. I know even if they pay me for part time and I'm only here in the office 20 hours a week, I'll still have to work from home and check email...maybe I can talk them into 20 hours in the office and 10 hours from home. Maybe. It'll depend on how good my baby is b/c I have lots of conference calls. If I had to work 10 hours from home, I could just schedule for all those calls to happen from home. It could work out. Too bad I work for like the least progressive company ever. So, I doubt they'll want anything to do with it.

PS = I added some links, if you don't want to be linked, please just let me know and I will remove it.

Oh I have opinions, lots of them

So I have my first official doctors appt on Sept 2nd. I can't wait. I wish I could go sooner! I don't know if I will like the doctor. I picked this place only b/c it is on my insurance and b/c it is only 5 mins up the road from my work. I figure that will be the most convenient. It is a group practice, which I am fine with. There are so few private practices anymore anyway. At least with a group, I will meet all the doctors at least once so I don't have to worry about some stranger delivering my baby if my private practice doc gets sick or in on vacation, etc. I still think I like the idea of a midwife, but I need to learn a little more as I have no desire for natural child birth! I know very few things, but I know I was the epidural as soon as humanly possible. Actually if they can give it to me at 8 months, that would probably be good. Give me a month to get used to the feeling of being numb down below. Yes, yes, I know epidurals could end up making me paralyzed. But I am going to take that chance over feeling my vag split open. But that's just me. I also know I want to breastfeed. Even though I am very worried about getting orangutan titties. I am alread extremely flat chested, but at least there is a little perk to them. I have seen what happens to your nipples, oh my god, I didn't know they could get so big, it scares me actually. But when the milk is gone, those things are going to fizzles like a 3 day old party balloon. Uh oh. I don't even want to breast feed b/c I believe it's that much better for my baby, I want to breast feed b/c it is hella cheaper and burns a ton of calories. Materialistic and Superficial, yes, but that's how I feel about that :) In fact I almost think I would prefer a c-section. But I won't go there unless I have to. So, I know what I want already on some things. I am seeing a woman doc for my first visit and we have the same first name. Sounds like a good sign to me.