Busy Girl

A lot has been happening in my belly lately. I’m 18 weeks pregnant and baby is huge! In fact, baby is big enough to clearly tell on an ultrasound…

That we are having a little girl:

 

She was moving all around during the ultrasound!

Stretching out:

 

Sucking her thumb:

 

Smiling?! (probably just yawning):

   

So cute! We are so excited. I had a “feeling” it was a girl, but not a super strong feeling or anything. And hey, I had a 50% chance of being right.

I will still get a full anatomy scan in a couple weeks when they measure all baby’s parts to make sure she is growing ok. But the sonographer told me she perused everything and that it all looks great, so there should be no surprises. Good news!

My belly is getting big!! Here I am last Friday:

 

Taking baby girl for a swim:

Weekly profile shot:

  

Compare that 18 week picture to this old one taken at 13 weeks:

I feel like my belly got a lot bigger in the last week or so. I don’t know if I look obviously pregnant and not just chubby to people that don’t know me, I haven’t had anyone comment on it out in public or anything. But my friends have definitely commented this weekend when they saw me. Emily just said “Wow.” and Deana said “Look at you! You’re so pregnant!” ha! Love it.

I am almost halfway through this pregnancy and I feel right on track with everything. I’m feeling great and am so grateful for this healthy and happy experience.  

One last picture- for Valentine’s Day, Zach bought a onesie for me/baby that says “I love my mom and dad.” Cute!

We immediately put it on our fat cat (who happened to have a birthday on February 14th as well. Happy 11th birthday big man!).

Turns out he’s more of a “12 months,” this “3 months” outfit was a bit snug:

 

Thank you for reading. Next post will be another running update! Have a great week everyone!

Picture Perfect Weekend

What a weekend! I had so much fun and got in 2 amazing runs. And after my last no-photo post, I’m making up for it here. Pictures galore!

Saturday

We drove down to Eugene to spend the day with my brother and sister in law. But my first stop was a run with a new friend! I met up with blogger buddy Lauren, at Sassy Mollassy http://justcallmesassy.blogspot.com/, and as expected we hit it off and chatted nonstop the whole time.

My talking was in between huffing-and-puffing breaths, because although it was an easy jog for speedy Lauren, we were flying by my standards!! I was feeling great though and definitely felt comfortable. But it did feel good to push a bit. I like to have one “fast” run a month or so and this definitely qualified- 5.0 miles at 10:09 pace. Weeee!

Photo proof:

Eugene run with Lauren! We covered Pre’s trail and a bit of the riverfront path:

After the great run, we spent the day with my brother and sister in law. They were in town from California for a big roller derby invitational tournament. My brother Jon is a ref, and Bri skates for the Silicon Valley Roller Girls in the Bay Area. I love derby and especially love watching these guys in action. I absolutely insist you all go out and watch a local derby bout- it’s a growing sport that needs your support! It’s way more exciting than you might expect, and is far more skilled, professional, and legit than you might imagine.

Bionic Babydoll (Bri) in action: (center)

Johnny Demonic- ref with arm up on left:

Family!

 

More picture-perfectness- Gorgeous sunset on the drive home:

The only bad part of the day was hearing on the way home that Whitney Houston had passed away. I loved Whitney when I was a little girl- my mom had the record and I listened to it all the time. I learned “Greatest Love of All” by heart when I was in grade school and still sing it all the time! She was absolutely one of the greatest of all time. Rest in Peace, Whitney.

 

Sunday

Today was quite an adventure. I drove out to the gorge with Zach, Alisa, and Alisa’s husband. We dropped Zach off at a trailhead along the way and he began his 25 mile trail run. Go Zach! He had his own adventure, of course. In the meantime, Alisa and I drove on to the Historic Columbia River Highway trail and covered all 9 miles of it (including an extra bit to hit up a restroom). Justin ran this trail too, on his own.

This trail is one of my favorites and one of the things is how different it is at all different times of year. I’ve been there lots of times, but this time was kind of crazy. The paved path was in rough shape. It was covered in fallen tree branches, rock slides, and even ice and snow. We made our way around the obstacles and carefully past the icy spots and enjoyed the journey. We walked several of the hills but cruised on the few flats and the downhills. We ended up with 9.15 miles at about a 12:30 pace! Nearly 2 hour long run, not bad for this 4 months pregnant chick.

Lots of great photos of this run:

   

Long run done! Momma and baby both had fun:

Delicious coffee and breakfast after:

We headed back and picked up Zach about 5 hours after he started. He encountered some extremely challenging, basically impassable terrain in the last few miles and ended up taking nearly an hour longer than he planned. This is the course he’ll be running in a few weeks, so the race directors need to figure out an alternate route or something! We’ll see what happens.

Gorge waterfall on Zach’s run:

  Having fun after 20 miles:

The last couple of miles… do you see the trail? There is none. Zach said “it’s not even just like the trees had fallen, it was like a bomb went off in the forest.” This is all damage from a big snow, ice, and wind event a few weeks ago. YIKES.

 

That about wraps it up! Thanks for reading and looking at all my purdy pics.

Exciting baby update coming in a couple of days! Lots of good stuff has been going on. We even found out if our little gummy bear is a boy or girl! Anyone care to guess before I reveal?

Lil swimmer!

I mentioned this briefly in my last post- but now I've been swimming 3 times in the last 2 weeks, which I think deserves it's very own post! I've really enjoyed these recent swims and am hoping I stay motivated to keep at it.

I feel like swimming is something pregnant women are supposed to do. All the books and websites recommend it (right after walking, of course none dare mention running) and I suppose it just makes sense, especially late in pregnancy when all you want is to feel weightless and semi-normal. So, I felt like I should start swimming so I could be a proper pregnant person!

It had been a couple months since I'd gone swimming (and really I'd only gone swimming maybe a dozen times in 2011 total) so I was a little rusty. One key that got me back in the pool: finding a swimsuit that FIT. My old Ironman two-piece was embarrassingly tight and my not-yet-popped tummy just looked gross in it. Alisa loaned me one of her full-piece suits and I'm loving it. I am going to try a 2-piece again, just need one that actually fits.

My first time back I was surprised to feel totally normal and just like my "old self" in the pool! In fact, when timing a single lap, I was barely any slower than before! Very unlike running, where I'm 1-2 minutes per mile slower than before. (Um, to be fair, I was a rather slow swimmer to begin with) In that first workout, I was just so proud of myself for showing up that I considered it a big success. I swam 1,000 yards with a mix of freestyle and breastroke. It took me about 25 minutes of swimming and I was probably in the pool an additional 10 minutes, resting and feeling proud of myself (and of course rubbing my belly affectionately, so no one thought it was a beer gut).

A few days later, I was back and I had a GOAL! I was going to swim 200's. No idea where I got this. I ended up doing 3 of these repeats with easy breastroke 100's in between, and minimal rest, and WOW that was a wake up call. When swimming the 200's I would be tired by the first 100 and the last 100 was a sloppy strugglefest. Not pretty! I realized that while a 50 might take me my usual 1:00-1:05 ish, when I string together more than one I slow way down and my form falls apart. I have zero endurance! It's amazing to think I swam 4,000 yards without stopping a couple years ago (in training a couple times, and in the Ironman). I ended up doing 1,000 total again in about 25 minutes (mix of free and breast) but with way less rest, maybe 5 minutes total.

Then? I went again! Look at me!! I had the day off work (ahem, hookey) and that time I went nuts and swam 1,200 yards. I did the 200's again and while they were just as hard, I was a smidge faster. Then I did some sets of pulling which was fun! That whole workout took me about 28 minutes (plus a few minutes of rest). I am certainly not fast but that's fine! I think I'll get a little faster with practice, but who cares. I am having fun!

Speaking of swimming.... the baby inside of me is definitely doing some amniotic-fluid ballet and today for the first time I really could feel it for sure!! It is SO weird, but I love it. :)

Back with more updates soon! I'm doing a couple runs this weekend that are destined to be awesome- one is with a blogger that I'll be meeting in person for the first time (!!!) and the other is a long run with Alisa on one of the most scenic trails in Oregon! Also back with some pictures of said runs and my growing gut!

Have a wonderful weekend friends.

Random with a theme

A few weeks ago I was tagged by Kristen with that fun 11 things thing going around. I did not do it! Big surprise. I'm going to do a version of it as a way of sharing the mish-mash of thoughts floating around my skull!

11 random things (mostly about being pregnant) with lots of exclamation points.

1) Running! is still going well! I have been running 4 days a week and did 8 miles last weekend with Alisa. It was gorgeous and such great company. I'm still slow, and getting slower, but feeling good. That's what matters.

2) Bumpdate! (bump update)- I feel like it's huge but it weirdly doesn't show as much in photos. So weird. I'm definitely getting bigger though. And I love it!

3) Flutter Watch! I'm on high alert for any kind of fetus movement. Apparently he/she is thrashing around like mad in there, and soon I should be able to feel it. Twice this week I've had "maybe" movement but it was probably just gas. Could be a couple more weeks before it's obvious. Who knows. All the descriptions are useless and weird "bubbles popping, butterflies fluttering, goldfish swimming." How the F do you know how a goldfish swimming FEELS? Stop describing it to me! I'm just going to wait for a full on kung-fu kick where I can see the footprint before I can say for sure.

4) SUN! nice weather in the northwest this week and weekend! Sunny and low 50's. It's blowing my mind. I'm determined to run in shorts this weekend sometime.

5) Swimming! I did it! I went swimming for the first time in 2 months. It was great. I swam 1000 yards with lots of breaks. I did about half freestyle and half breastroke (love me some breastroke). I am surprisingly NOT much slower than when I was training regularly and not pregnant. I was rather slow to begin with, that might be it. I'm definitely going to keep swimming as often as I can. Once a week is good!

6) Umm! Totally lost my train of thought. This happens a lot. Of course it always has, I'm kind of an airhead. But I get to blame everything on being pregnant: being an airhead, being lazy, being awful to my husband, being a slow runner, eating as much as I want, etc.

7) Television! I've watched a LOT of TV since I have been pregnant. No two-a-day workouts or beer-drinking means lots of couch time with the Roku. Especially the first few weeks, it's getting slightly less now. Anyway, what I've been watching: Mad Men (re-watched the entire series), Downton Abbey, AFV (America's Funniest Home Videos- it's streaming on Netflix, folks. It's just basically You-tube and it makes me laugh a lot. That's got to be good for baby!), Walking Dead, Battlestar Gallactica (those last two are Zach pics but I'm into them). I've also been playing a LOT of Jetpack Joyride on my iPhone. It's so fun, you gotta check it out.  The guy's name is Barry Steakfries. BARRY STEAKFRIES!

8) Oh ya! I remember what I was going to say before. After that awesome swim session, I actually went bowling with Zach and his bowling buddies! I can't believe I actually went out and did something social on a wednesday night. I was very proud of myself.

9) Ultra-husband! Zach is going strong with his training- last weekend he did a 24 mile long run in Forest Park, and this weekend is doing 10 and 20 back to back. Every weekend brings some kind of craziness. His first race of the ultra season is late March, a 50k out in the gorge. Then he's doing a 40 miler in April, and a 50 miler in May. NUTS. Between him, Alisa's husband (who has been a great training partner for Zach), and Aron, I feel surrounded by crazies. I figure they are running enough miles for all of us, and I am more than content with my 20 mpw.

10) Umm! 11 things is hard.

11) Well I did my best. Gotta get ready and head to prenatal yoga and then running in the sunshine! Have a wonderful weekend. Thanks for stopping by! :)