May 7, 2008
New gear coming soon ...
I bit the bullet and next week I'll be the owner of this:
REI has BOB's 20% off, so I ordered myself the Ironman stroller. I went through ebates.com for a 3% cashback, and I'm going to pick the stroller up at the store to avoid shipping charges. I had hoped I might be able to get it this weekend, but I've been given a tentative 5/15 pick-up. It'll be nice to do something other than treadmill during the week; I hope Little Miss tolerates it.
March 20, 2008
A Birth Story
Here's my race L&D report - apologies in advance for the TMI.
March 17, 2008
March 15
So I have a much, much longer entry in mind to write, but someone's got me fairly preoccupied:
Katherine Elizabeth was born on Saturday, March 15 at 7:34 pm. She weighed in at 7lb 6oz and measured 20 7/8". There's obviously more to be said, but here's a fun fact: I did run 2 miles that morning (well, 2 x 1 mile because I had to pee), probably in early labor. I should add a category for "reasons I am insane."
March 11, 2008
40w3d
You know what's the worst part about going past your due date? The phone calls, e-mails, IMs, etc just "checking in," "wondering how you're doing," "any news/any changes?" I know they are well meaning but damn it's annoying. If there were any news, I think I'd have shared it. And since I haven't had the baby, what's there to talk about? I've never been interested in the sympathy people seem to want to bestow upon pregnant women and I'm even less interested in receiving any now. Maybe I'd feel different if I had had an actual difficult pregnancy, but since I haven't, it annoys me to have people cluck about how hard things are and how horrible I must be feeling, blah blah blah.
Still kind of running ... last week was down to 13 mpw. I would've liked to do 5 on Saturday, but stopped at 4. The baby is at zero station (the narrowest part of the pelvis aka "engaged") so it's understandably a little uncomfortable. I think the head is pressing on a nerve because my left leg has been bothering me more lately. I only ran 2 on Sunday because it was again uncomfortable - my hips/pelvis were bothering me along with braxton-hicks. I don't know how much I'll run this week. I ran 2 this morning, but it felt like crap. I'm sure part of that is that I didn't really sleep last night, so I felt like a slug anyway. I figure I'll just take it day by day - having run up to 40 weeks is a big enough accomplishment that I will not feel bad at all if I don't make it to the day of delivery.
On that note, I think I'm heading for an induction. At my appointment last week, I found out that I hadn't dilated at all in the two weeks since my last check. I'm more effaced and as I mentioned above, the baby has dropped. I am so confused about the lack of change for dilation - since all the internet advice suggests going for a long walk to get labor going, how am I not having any labor signs when I've been running (especially with the baby having dropped)?? I get to go into tomorrow for a biophysical profile - basically I get hooked up to the monitor for 20-30 minutes and they watch the baby's heart rate and then we get an ultrasound to check breathing and amniotic fluid (or something like that). I'm really hoping that they don't ruin the gender for us - I can't even begin to think about how extremely pissed off I will be if I find that out tomorrow after not knowing this whole time. If everything looks good, they'll let me go until next week before inducing. I'm allowed 10-14 days, and I did let them know last week that I want to wait the full 14 days if possible. Inductions scare me, because they all seem to go the same way: unbearable contractions from pitocin -> epidural -> slow or stalled progress = c-section. I don't even want a hep lock (IV access) so you might imagine how I feel about being hooked up to an IV. I'd like to hope the baby will decide to come out before it comes to that, but I'm not feeling very optimistic about that - other than the braxton-hicks while running, I haven't had anything resembling a contraction yet.
It's 43 degrees here today, which is amazing. I think I'm going to be really nice to my poor, sad dog and take her for a walk.
March 1, 2008
39w0d
Another week with the baby still perfectly comfortable on the inside. I didn't bother with an internal exam this week, so I don't know if there's any "progress" but I haven't had anything I would consider contraction-like. I did remember to ask about an estimate of the baby's size and the current estimate is 7 pounds. (The midwife said there's a study that compared ultrasound weight estimates to estimates done with hands and the hand estimates were pretty close while the ultrasound estimates were up to a pound off). The birth weight will probably be a little higher depending on how much longer I go, but she was fairly certain I don't have a 9-pounder.
February 23, 2008
38w0d
I am the worst at responding/reciprocating comments, but I really do appreciate getting them. The comments on my last post with the labor/delivery experiences were really interesting - and it's also interesting to me that people on the internet are much less likely to try and scare or horrify pregnant women than people "in real life" are. I've been pretty lucky with the stories that people have shared, but I know many other women have encountered people that seem to want to make them dread their upcoming labor.
February 9, 2008
36w0d
I reached 36 weeks today, officially making me 9 months pregnant and having less than a month to my due date!
February 6, 2008
35w4d
Missed another week of updating. I did end up cutting back to 15 miles the last two weeks. I ran 5 miles for the last time on the 26th. My legs and everything are fine, but the Braxton Hicks are too frequent for me to run that far. I had thought I might try and run 5 this past weekend, but was too uncomfortable. I feel sad in some ways that 4 miles is passing for a long run ... I could go farther if I were willing to do the run/walk thing, but I'd rather just run 4 miles than run+walk for 5 or 6. I either run, or I walk - there is no mixing of the two.
I was updating the training blog, and noticed something interesting. You can filter the entries by tags, so I looked at my monthly reports. I've definitely gone about pregnant running backwards - my highest monthly total was my 8th month. Since I've started cutting back on my mileage, that upward trend will not be continuing onto this month.
I said a couple of weeks ago I was going to play it by ear as far as how long I would keep going. Other than the Braxton Hicks, I'm not too terribly uncomfortable running (yet). With 4.5 weeks to my due date, I'm now really motivated to keep going until I either get told to stop by the midwife or I have the baby. Even if it's just a few days a week or just 2 miles at a time, it seems silly to stop now if I don't have to.
January 24, 2008
33w5d
I forgot to update last weekend. With the negative wind chills, I ended up on the treadmill for all 5 days last week. I ran a total of 16 miles again, just like the week before. The difference is that I cut my "long run" back to 5 miles, but only had one 2 mile run in there. I thought about running 6, but decided that 5 was good enough.
I think this week will be another cut back, probably 14 or 15 miles. Whatever I end up with this week I'll probably repeat next week and then drop another mile or two. But I'll have to see how it's going. In some ways I am surprised to still be running at almost 34 weeks, but what's really kind of odd is that aside from wanting to make more bathroom stops, running in my third trimester has been a lot easier than running in my first trimester was.
We had a midwife appointment today, and it was uneventful again. My blood pressure is still low and I'm measuring exactly where I should be. The baby is in the head down position and the heart beat sounded good. The midwife did say something about how the baby isn't very large ... I've been wondering what's going to win out: family history of large babies (brothers and I were all over 9 pounds) or women who run tending to have smaller babies. While I'm sure I'd be much happier pushing out a 7 pound baby, I've always pictured having a 9 pounder.
January 13, 2008
32w1d
I think I might have run my last pregnant 6 miler yesterday. The forecast for next weekend shows highs in the teens, which most likely means wind chills in either the single digits or below zero. Normally that wouldn't be an issue, but I don't think running in that type of cold is a good idea right now. I suppose I could run 6 miles on the treadmill, but I'm thinking that's not too likely. The temptation to stop running is just too high on the treadmill.
January 6, 2008
31w1d
I forgot to publish my 2007 questionnaire/mileage tally, so I just did that now. 2007 was a really weird year for running, probably just the first of what I'm sure will be many to come. I found that I hadn't uploaded any of my 2007 training log summary pages, so I went to fix those and upload them. While doing so, I found that the site I had been using has made some changes that aren't very user-friendly. So I am in the process of moving the log over to blogger. It's a slow process, reformatting and posting 4 years worth of training.
December 29, 2007
30w0d
If I weren't using the super boring pregnancy date title format, I think I'd be tempted to title this one "I did it!" (said in a Hiro from Heroes voice). I don't know why 30 weeks got into my head as a big milestone, but even though my running is far below what I would've liked it to be, I feel proud of myself for still running 4-5 times a week at this point. And again, even though it's a lot less than I'd like to be doing, I feel proud that I ran 6 miles this morning.
I even went outside for part of my run! We got hit with a few more inches of snow yesterday, but it's in the 20s and the roads are semi-clear. I ran really, really slow this morning in part due to the snow, but also the hills in my neighborhood. I've been running on my (flat) treadmill, and there were no hills when I ran at my in-laws last week so I'm really not used to any form of an incline. I got in 4 miles before running out of places to run and I kind of wanted a bathroom break anyway. So I stopped had a brief break (< 5 minutes) to clean off my shoes, pee and change into shorts. I then ran 2 miles on the treadmill; I was starting to get some possible braxton-hicks towards the end, so I was glad to stop.
I might go outside again tomorrow, but we'll have to see. My pants don't stay up too well and it's hard to adjust them when I'm carrying my water bottle.
December 23, 2007
29w1d
When I last updated, I'd had a lower mileage week. Last week went better, with my running 5 times for a total of 16 miles. I was still stuck on the treadmill, due to the ice and snow that is still lingering around. Moving on ...
I ran 18 miles this week! There is something odd about the "highest" mileage week of my pregnancy coming as I reached 29 weeks. I got to run outside for three of those runs due to being at my in-laws where there was no snow or ice and it was in the 40s! I ended up running 5 days in a row, which I don't like to do - but I wanted to take advantage of the warm weather. I couldn't turn down being able to run outside in shorts in December.
I was going to walk with Molly today, but we're now at my parents house where it is 13 degrees - with 42 MPH winds making it feel like -6. No thanks! Hopefully it'll be a little better tomorrow so I can run outside, although that's looking doubtful. Maybe I can see if my mom's health club will let me in under her membership or something so I can treadmill. I'd really like to get through this next week before starting to cut back. After reaching 30 weeks, I figure I'll take things week by week, but I think I'll be more willing to consider just running 2 miles instead of 3.
December 11, 2007
27w3d
I'm already tired of winter, and it hasn't even technically started yet. The Engineer used the snow thrower 3 times last week ... the roads are still all crappy because they do such a poor job of snow removal here. So I am still inside on the treadmill - bleh.
I only ran 4 times last week and one of those runs was a pathetic 1.5 miles. I made the mistake of thinking that I could run at lunch, only an hour after eating a piece of cake. That didn't feel so good, so I stopped early. On the plus side, I did manage to run 5 miles on the treadmill on Saturday - with only one break.
I had my glucose tolerance test on Thursday. The drink tasted like concentrated Sprite, so it wasn't completely horrible. A lot of places use an orange flavor, which would probably be really gross. I felt kind of crappy after taking the test, but that probably had more to do with having run 3 miles on an empty stomach and then only eating a piece of cheese than the actual test. I didn't have to fast, but they said to avoid sugar. Sugar's in everything - even fruit counts as sugar. But after the hour, my blood sugar level was 124 so I passed. My diabetic brother told me that for normal people, that wasn't a very good level ... I think he said it would be considered pre-diabetic. But for pregnant women, under 140 is good. They checked my iron levels at the same time, and mine was 11.something. Normally that would be considered anemic, but I was told that with the increased blood volume it's okay - but trying to add iron through my diet wouldn't be a bad idea. So I'm glad to have dodged the bullets of iron pills and the 3-hour test. I really wanted to avoid a gestational diabetes diagnosis because a lot of places require that you be on an IV during labor and I am very anti-IV since that can restrict your being able to move around. I don't know how much I'll want to move around, but I want that option. Now the next obstacle is the Group B Strep test.
My belly has definitely popped ... I think it's going to start resembling a basketball at some point.
December 2, 2007
26w1d
I ran 5 days this week - something I haven't done since May. I'm not sure how long I'll be able to keep that up, since it's getting uncomfortable and I'm now completely grounded to my treadmill. I've been tolerating the treadmill runs during the week because I've been able to go outside on weekends, but that came to an end yesterday.
Two things prevented me from going outside yesterday: temperatures in the teens with a windchill below zero and snow falling. Now, normally neither of those things would be enough to keep me inside. But while my tights still fit, my warmer pants are probably not a good fit right now. And even if I could scrounge warm enough clothes, the Engineer has forbidden me to run outside when there is snow on the ground. I'd think that was silly, but my mom and I went out later in the day and just trying to walk across the unplowed parking lots was very uncomfortable so running would have definitely been a bad idea.
Further grounding me is that it started sleeting and there is now a layer of ice on top of the snow. Molly, who loves snow, doesn't even want to go play in the yard. Add in Minnesota's poor snow removal on streets and spotty sidewalk clearing, and I won't be outside for quite awhile. So treadmill it is - blah.
On a happier note, the Engineer and I are now looking forward to New Year's Day football:
November 30, 2007
25w6d
Today is the last day of NaBloPoMo. I guess since I managed to post something everyday, it was a success. But then considering the lack of content of the majority of my posts, it was also kind of a failure. I just don't really seem able to write much of anything right now; my blog is at it's most "interesting" when I'm training for a specific something and well, that's months away. You'd think being pregnant would make for interesting posts but I don't seem to have a whole lot of new things to talk about there. Maybe posting weekly instead of daily would help me have more interesting things to write about. Guess we'll see. I've got a busy weekend ahead of me (hence, the AM posting) - my mom is flying in today and staying through Monday. She's got a whole list of things planned.
On a different note, we got maybe an inch of snow last night. And it is currently 7 degrees. Brrr!!
November 29, 2007
25w5d
Another 3 mile boring treadmill run this morning. Yawn.
People are starting to be a lot more comfortable asking me when my due date is, meaning I have officially passed from people thinking I'm getting fat to assuming I am pregnant. I've had a lot of people at work this week asking me questions, even though I think it's been common knowledge for awhile. Sometimes it's nice, and other times it's kind of annoying.
November 28, 2007
25w4d
I probably should try to blog at a time other than right before I need to go to bed if I want my entries to have any actual content.
I did have lights in the basement this morning, so I was able to run on the treadmill. The new light switch is very nice. I doubt anyone is interested in dimming lights, so I'll save the description of all the neat things that the switch does.
They said we might get snow today, but so far there hasn't been anything. It's cold again, though. The forecasted high for the weekend is in the low 20s, which sucks. I'm not really looking forward to running outside in that cold of weather.
November 27, 2007
25w3d
I ran on the treadmill this morning. I don't know if I'll get to do so again tomorrow morning, because currently we have no lights in the basement and it's pretty dark at 5-something AM. The Engineer was installing some fancy new light switch and I don't know what all is going on. I think these might be the light switches that can be controlled via computer, but I could also be confused.
It's nice and cold here now - 18 degrees at the moment. I heard we might see snow tomorrow. While I do look forward to chasing Molly around once we have snow on the ground, I'd really like to put snow off as long as possible.
November 26, 2007
25w2d
Cheating and just posting a picture today instead of an entry. Here's my belly at 25 weeks:
Depending on what I wear, it's starting to be a lot more obvious now. I don't know if that's considered carrying high or low, or if it's still to early to tell that.
November 25, 2007
25w1d
So much for my idea of running 5 days this week. I only ran 3 miles yesterday because I had intended to run 3 miles today, for a 5 day total of 15 miles. But I woke up this morning and it was barely 30 degrees with winds just over 30 MPH (so a windchill below 20) and that was really unappealing. I thought about treadmilling, but that was even less appealing. But maybe after a few weeks of "increasing" my mileage, it's not necessarily a bad idea to cut back a little before adding in that 5th day.
So instead I sorted through papers (and filled 2 gigantic garbage bags) while the Engineer watched Sunday Ticket. He's in a not terrible mood, after the Bears surprise victory. He's also pleased that I'm starting to get football and it's bizarre rules. We're both pleased with LSU's loss and Mizzou's victory (although it pains me to want Mizzou to do anything other than lose in a spectacular fashion - I'm from StL and HATE Mizzou) as it helps increase Illinois's chances of making a good bowl game. When it looked like the Bears were going to lose today, I told the Engineer to console himself with having a not-shitty college football team and that being from Illinois, he can't really expect to have both good NFL and collegiate football. And for having a team that was projected by some people to finish last in the Big 10, the fact that the Rose Bowl is being talked about as an actual possibility is amazing.
November 24, 2007
25w0d
Back home! Molly was very excited to play with her squeakers again; we no longer let her play with her squeaky toys at the Engineer's parents after their dog ate the feet off of her favorite toy. So she chased her monster squeaker (her current favorite) around for awhile and then fell asleep on the floor.
I ran another 3 miles around the park/town this morning. I was still the only one out. My run was pretty good - my last mile was 9:52! I haven't had a sub-10 mile in forever. I didn't feel like I was running faster than I have been so seeing that split was a bit surprising.
November 23, 2007
24w6d
Obligatory post to meet my NaBloPoMo quota. Molly and I walked at the park today; other than a few kids we had the place to ourselves. Molly was very interested in the ducks, and I wondered for a brief second what to do if she tried to dive in the pond for them. Luckily her interest was short-lived (and I doubt she would've gone in the water. I couldn't get her interested in the wading pool at home over the summer).
I've had a rather long week. A lot of "tight belly" feelings, along with feeling hot (or cold), occasionally having some chest pain and nausea ... as well as being even more irritable than usual. I am looking so forward to being back home, and sleeping in my own bed.
November 22, 2007
24w5d
I ran this morning, making it the third day in a row. It's been awhile since I've done that. I had the park and town to myself pretty much - I only saw one person at the park (not that there are many people there anyway) and traffic through town was even lighter than usual.
Here's something I've been thinking about a lot lately. One of the (many) reasons the Engineer thinks I'm weird is that I'll still go running even if it means I'm sore/in pain for the rest of the day. As long as I'm not causing long-lasting damage, I think being able to get a run in is worth it especially now. This means that I'm used to running while uncomfortable and I think I have a weird sense of pain because of that. When I went to the sports medicine people last fall, they wanted me to rate the pain I was experiencing - I think I have a tendency to really underrate things because if I can still run somewhat, it can't be too bad, right? Similarly, when they were moving my leg around to try and find the ouch spot, they kept asking if it hurt - and I kept saying that it didn't feel good, but I wasn't sure I would say it hurt. I can't help but wonder (and hope) if this skewed sense of pain will be helpful in managing a drug-free labor. It does seem like having been able to run through some of the crap I've run through should bode well for my pain tolerance, even if it is questionable as to whether I should've run through some of it.
November 21, 2007
24w4d
3 miles around the park near my in-laws house this morning. I was really grouchy when I left to go run this morning. I think I've mentioned before that my in-laws live "in the country" where it isn't really safe for me to run from their house, so I have to drive "into town" to go run. The Engineer got up to take his mom to visit his grandmother and I asked him if he was taking our car. He didn't know, but since he didn't come back to tell me otherwise (and I reminded him I was wanting our car to go run) I assumed he did take it and waited for him to come back. Apparently he didn't take our car, so I wasted an hour unnecessarily. Then when I wanted to get ready to leave, my sister-in-law was taking a shower and then drying her hair, preventing me from using the bathroom (a necessary step before running!) for another half hour. As I'm finally leaving, the Engineer points out that it has just started raining. Well yippee, especially since I only packed white running shirts. I still left because as I said "a little rain never hurt anyone ... except the dog because it makes her smell." But I was kind of mad because if I had left earlier, there would have been no rain - and I would've liked to have left a lot earlier than I did.
It wasn't really raining by the time I got to the park, and other than it being super humid I didn't get wet at all while running. I was feeling a little uncomfortable towards the end because I usually like to pee at least 3 times before I go run and well, see above about being kept from the bathroom.
Yes, I am self-centered, in case you weren't aware of that fact already.
November 20, 2007
24w3d
The Engineer's grandmother made it through surgery okay. It was a lot longer than expected, but she's awake now and in good spirits.
I had a pretty good run this morning, but have felt kind of cruddy the rest of the day. Taking another 5 hour car trip didn't really help.
November 19, 2007
24w2d
No running today, per usual.
One of my mom's friends had a baby shower for me yesterday. It was a really nice afternoon. We didn't play any games (my request - although I only specifically forbid the belly measuring and candy bar/diaper games), just hung out, had some food and opened presents. There was no belly touching or scary labor stories.
On a different note, the Engineer's grandmother is undergoing surgery Tuesday morning to remove a tumor in her large intestine (and maybe liver). Any good thoughts/vibes/etc for her would be appreciated.
November 18, 2007
24w1d
I offended Molly this morning by taking her outside while wearing my running clothes and then bringing her back inside and putting her in her kennel. I tried to make it not as bad for her by giving her a treat (she is a greedy bastard) but my dad said she did cry a little while I was gone. I don't really feel that bad about not taking her; I'm selfish and I feel like my getting exercise in is more important than getting her exercise.
Flags spotted:
2 Ohio State
1 Illinois
1 Michigan
1 Kansas
1 car with LSU flag and stickers
Many Bears flags
1 Cowboys flag (on the opposite side of the garage from a Bears flag - weird)
November 17, 2007
24w0d
I got in 6 miles of running this morning. It didn't start off as a very good run - I took Molly with me and she was really annoying. She alternated between lagging behind to smell things and pulling ahead to try and chase things. We hadn't even gotten a mile into the run when I decided I couldn't handle running with her any longer and turned back to take her back home. Her inconsistency was jarring and was not helping with the groin pain. After dropping her off (1.6mi) the run dragged for awhile, but then it got better. I stopped feeling like I was running through quicksand and started feeling more normal. So instead of stopping at the 5.5 miles or one hour like I'd planned, I went ahead and ran 6. I had pretty good timing since it started raining not very long after I got inside. I'd felt a few drops occasionally while running, which was worrisome when I was still 2 miles away, but it worked out.
November 16, 2007
23w6d
Does it count as a post if it's only a few lines? Hope so. I'm supposed to have my laptop off right now and the Engineer is going to get mad. Molly is freaking out because the last time bags showed up in the living room and we tried to make her go in the car, she had to go to the kennel. I wonder how long it will take before she realizes she isn't going there?
November 15, 2007
23w5d
Another 3 mile run on the treadmill this morning.
I'm starting to feel anxious, for lack of a better word, about going to see the families for the holidays. One nice thing about not looking pregnant is that I haven't gotten the unwelcome attention that I've heard comes along with pregnancy. Things like people touching your belly or commenting on your size. Apparently by this time in her pregnancy, the girl at work already had people telling her how much bigger her butt was and/or how much bigger she was in general. So I'm pleased to not have that happen, but who knows what's going to happen when we see people we haven't seen in months. I'm not a big of fan of people paying attention to my body, much less commenting on it.
November 14, 2007
23w4d
No running this morning - just elliptical. With this weird groin pain thing, I don't think this would be a good week to try for 5 days of running. And while I think running this morning would've been fine, if I'm only going to run 4 days I think I like having an elliptical day in between two of my running days.
Today is a really boring post day.
November 13, 2007
23w3d
I was able to run this morning. I walked for a few minutes and then decided to run. I had some pain/discomfort but it wasn't that bad. I've been a little sore today, but nothing like Sunday.
I had a grouchy afternoon. I went to the mall because I thought I had seen a grey cardigan on sale on the maternity store's webpage. I also thought maybe I could find something cute to wear to the shower my mom's friend is throwing me on Sunday. I found the sweater, but it wasn't on sale and I'm not wanting to spend $40 on one. (It turns out the ugly yellow sweater was the one on sale). And I hated every single shirt I tried on. While they did help make me look more pregnant than fat, they also made me feel like I looked as big as a house. Not flattering, in other words. Despite my thinking so last week, I don't feel like I look pregnant - just chunky. And I don't think I need to explain why that makes me unhappy. One of my work friends and I had a funny (to me at least) conversation yesterday. I was telling him that I'd actually gone and run around the lake and I even ran up the "hill." (We've argued about whether it is or is not a hill for at least 2 years, with me saying it isn't). He asked if I had people "looking at the pregnant girl funny" and I replied that I think people that see me running just think I'm chunky. So he told me I should get a shirt that says "baby" on it and draw an arrow to my belly. Ha! Then I would get funny looks!
November 12, 2007
23w2d
I had an OB appointment today, and it was not very exciting. The doctor measured my belly (no idea what the measurement was) and we heard the heartbeat. And that's about it. I did get to set up my glucose tolerance test (yuck) for next month and I am not looking forward to that.
She didn't have anything useful to say about the groin pain. Yesterday was pretty bad, although it got a little better by the end of the day. I was able to chase Molly around the living room for awhile. It's so funny because after awhile she starts barking and growling - but with a big smile and a happy tail. It still hurts some today. I'm not sure if I'm going to try running tomorrow morning or not. I may get up a few minutes earlier than usual and start out walking. If I feel okay, I can run and if I am still sore then I'll just walk. I'm probably getting to the point where I should start walking at the beginning of my runs to warm up again. I just hate having to do that because I'll have to get up earlier to get everything in before work.
November 11, 2007
23w1d
OK, so that's twice this week now that I cannot read and have been a week off. I got an e-mail a week or so ago about a conference call training thing I had to do. It was scheduled for Wednesday between 11 and 12, which made me grouchy because I go to lunch around 11. So Wednesday morning, I packed a lunch to take so that I could eat while on the phone (and then leave work early since I wouldn't have technically had a lunch that day). At 10:58 I logged into the website and then called in. Surprisingly, the "host" hadn't arrived. Then I noticed something kind of important: the training was scheduled for Nov 14, not Nov 7. Oops.
And I just found out from Jeff that despite reading about the Ryan Shay run on his page and on Complete Running (and maybe a few other places) I totally missed the Nov 17 part. I saw Saturday and just assumed it meant this Saturday. I would blame "pregnancy brain" but unfortunately I think this type of error is probably not really out of the ordinary for me. I can be very detail-oriented sometimes, but I can also be a total scatter brain.
Anyway, saving my "longer" run of the week for the day turned out to be an awesome decision. Whereas yesterday it was in the 30s (20s with windchill) and windy, today it is in the 50s, sunny and not very windy. I decided to go out to the lake and run from there because I am pretty tired of running in my neighborhood. I haven't been out there in forever, either. I had an okay run, but I'm now having groin issues (or Crotch Pain of Doom - CPD - as they call it on one of my boards). It wasn't too terrible while running, but it's bothering me a lot post-run. It's always something. I ran for an hour; the last time I ran for over an hour was June 7 so it's been quite a long time. I was at 5.58 miles when I stopped and I was tempted to go for an even 6 miles. But I decided hitting an hour was good enough, especially since I was already at my car. Maybe next week if the CPD doesn't get any worse.
November 10, 2007
23w0d
I planned on running 5.5 miles this morning, per Jeff's Ryan Shay Memorial, but that didn't work out. I admit to being a wimp about running outside when the windchill was 26, but I was about to suck it up when I discovered that my Garmin wasn't charged. So I went downstairs to treadmill. I might have been able to stretch my run to 5.5, but stopped at 3 because I hate being on the treadmill. Well, that and I was afraid of having a chafing problem if I ran any farther.
The Engineer and I are pretty pleased this afternoon. Why?
November 9, 2007
22w6d
This NaBloPoMo thing is a lot harder than I thought. We're only 9 days in, and I just really don't have a lot to post about today. Well, nothing I want to post about ... I did get pretty peeved about something work-related today, but I try to make a point of not discussing things like that online. You never know who's reading. We did have our benefits meeting today, and that was an hour and a half of my life I'll never get back. I only needed about 2 minutes worth of the information that was shared, as the Engineer and I only enroll in my company's vision plan, we are both on his medical and dental. It only costs us $5.00/mo for both of us to have my vision plan, so it's a very good deal. The medical/dental? Not so much.
Our crib mattress arrived today. The Engineer brought it inside, where it is now blocking the front door. We're going to have to find somewhere to store it until the crib comes; I would like to get started on the "airing out" process though.
November 8, 2007
22w5d
I had a pretty decent treadmill run this morning. For the first time in awhile, I ran the whole time. For the past couple of weeks, I've either stopped to use the bathroom (treadmill) or to stretch (outside). I stopped at Babies R Us yesterday to buy a maternity belt, but it's kind of scary looking. I haven't been brave enough to take it out of the box. What I did do, though, was use my Bella Band. I bought the Bella Band back in July, thinking I could use it to wear my regular pants a little longer. But I found it really annoying so I never really used it. I decided this morning I would try it out instead the scary belt. And since I didn't feel like I needed to take a break while running, I think it helped. I usually hate having my pants anywhere near my belly button, but I think I'm getting to the stage where that isn't as annoying as it would normally be. We'll see how things go over the weekend.
I got to have cake at work today - apparently my favorite bakery now has a cake that is regular carrot cake on the bottom and chocolate carrot cake on the top, divided by their really yummy frosting. One of the managers is leaving tomorrow for Poland tomorrow to adopt 2 brothers. She (and her family) might be gone for as long as two months. Pretty exciting for them.
November 7, 2007
22w4d
I did get up to run this morning. Running on the treadmill is pretty not exciting.
Last month, the Engineer decided he needed yet another TV. He claimed it would help give him incentive to finish the basement (a necessary step for our being able to turn our crap room/office into the baby's room). While I'm not as impressed with the new TV as he is, he started rearranging our living room this week and it's going to be great. The new TV is wall-mounted, and by flipping the room around we gained a TON of space. Molly's a little confused by all the free space, but I think she likes having more room to chase her toys around. She also has more places to flop down and make sad faces:
November 6, 2007
22w3d
They posted the results from Saturday's race and I didn't do that bad! I was 40 seconds off, and I placed 13th. As a comparison, when I raced three years ago I was 14th place and 19 seconds off. Considering that I stopped and stretched a few times, 40 seconds isn't that bad. I'd built in a 30 second cushion, but didn't end up starting at my original guess so the cushion got eliminated (the clock inside that told you when to go outside was different from the outside, official timer so when I got to the start line my time had already gone by so I had to start at a faster finish time than expected. That probably made no sense to anyone that wasn't there). Anyway, maybe if I'd started at the time I wanted I would have been close.
I got up this morning to run, but ended up just using the elliptical. I didn't go to bed as early as I should have, so I was a little on the tired side. I woke up fairly quickly, but my stomach was kind of grumpy this morning. I probably would've used the elliptical tomorrow, so I just did it today.
So I mentioned that it's gotten kind of cold here. Yesterday it was in the 30s but it was super windy so it felt colder. So of course, as I'm leaving work the check tire warning light came on - one of my tires was at 25psi when it's supposed to be 32 or 33. I hadn't counted on it being so cold, so I hadn't worn a coat - just a zip-up sweatshirt. And while I normally keep a pair of gloves in the car, I didn't have any. Trying to add air to a tire when your hands are cold is not very fun - and I managed to drop the cap 3 times. I got a lot smarter today and pulled out my winter coat. I think I might be able to wear it for at least a few more weeks, which is a relief. I'm going to be sad when I have to resort to the Engineer's not-as-warm coat.
In other excitement, I think my belly has finally popped over the last week. I've felt like it hasn't been very obvious that I'm pregnant when I'm clothed, but today it was. When we were at the baby furniture store on Saturday, I was the least pregnant-looking woman there. It was kind of funny, because the parents have made us feel like we are such huge slackers for not doing any shopping before now ... but then we go to the store and there were tons of more-pregnant women than me picking out cribs. So obviously we aren't that far behind. (Disclaimer: I really don't see anything wrong with the Engineer and my time frame for doing stuff).
November 5, 2007
22w2d
Really lame post today ... almost forgot. This afternoon was full of things that are annoying: high winds, temps in the 30s, stupid rear tire being 25 psi requiring me to go fill it with air when it was cold and windy, not having gloves in the car, not having worn a real coat today, snow flurries (ugh!).
Hopefully I will post something of substance tomorrow.
November 4, 2007
22w1d
I let Molly run with me this morning in an effort to be nice to her after we were gone almost all day yesterday. She wasn't as big of a pain as she can be, but it was still annoying to run with her. She didn't tug as much today, but she does occasionally pull and I don't like being jarred. I'm kind of annoyed today that just as I get back to running 4 times a week, running is starting to become kind of uncomfortable again. I'd really like to at least finish out the rest of the year before having to quit, well I really want to be able to run at least once or twice a week up until the end but we'll have to see. But the combination of pressure on my bladder and round ligament stretching is not very enjoyable.
Results from yesterday are still not posted so I don't know exactly how slow I was. Maybe tomorrow.
November 3, 2007
22w0d
Real quick, as the Illinois game is about to start.
I ran the race this morning. Time prediction races are hard since when people start catching you, it's hard to tell if that means you are running too slow or if they are running too fast. (This race starts the clock at 70 minutes and then counts down, with runners starting at their predicted finish time. The goal is to get as close to zero without going too fast). I ended up running with the eventual winner for awhile, and it appears I should've tried to stick with her if I'd wanted to place. But I've been having what I think are round ligament pains while running, so going any faster didn't seem like a great idea. Results haven't been posted yet, but I was probably about a minute off so I should've started earlier than I did. Oh well. Kind of a chilly morning - it was 30 degrees when I left the house.
We ordered our crib today, but couldn't decide on a glider rocker chair. I had the bad idea to check out the Gap Maternity store at the Mall of America on our way back home, hoping to find some stuff on clearance. First, I always forget how much MOA sucks. Next, the Gap store there has a very pitiful maternity section, with an even worse clearance section. Total waste of time!
November 2, 2007
21w6d
I have realized the big flaw in this whole NaBloPoMo thing ... I don't really have much to say today. I didn't run this morning, because I've been taking Fridays off. I haven't decided about tomorrow yet ... it might depend on how col