19 weeks - 133 days

Yum!  I'm carrying around one of my
favorite fruits this week!
Does this mean that the baby's in the
Mango Mansion?

Since last week's update post was pretty much the worse piece of investigative journalism (I am an investigative journalist, didn't you know?  I am investigating my body and the craziness that pregnancy brings along with it) I have published yet, I have decided to start this week's post a few days early so that I can actually remember some of the things that I'd like to report.  What would be ideal would be if I could somehow record my thoughts while I'm on my long runs on Saturday mornings.  Woo Hoo are there some doozy thoughts and ideas going on then.  Man.  I know I should rush right home to type out my deepest thoughts, but let's be real here.  On Saturday mornings I can be gone anywhere from 2-5 hours depending on how far I decide to go.  When I'm marathon training I can kiss a good half of my day good-bye.  While I am pretty amazing, I just haven't mastered the ability to remember 100+ deep thoughts I have while out on the trail.  What I can tell you is that I SHOULD be cutting the grass right now, but I'm not.  That's what I'm thinking about.  When I do get around to it I have decided that I'm probably only going to cut the front (shhh) so that the neighbors don't think we're completely lazy over here.  Anyway, back to the inner workings of my complex mind...

Changes in Me
This has nothing to with the baby per say but I ate like a champion this week.  My mom came down to hit the beach with me for a few days and we ended up getting a hotel room on the oceanfront.  Who cares that I live a short 20 minute drive from the beach, we needed a mini-cation dammit!  That's not the point.  Pancakes, crab cakes, tacos, oh my!  Yummy.  Despite my critically awful eating habits lately, I haven't noticed a huge change in my body other than the bump that is steadily gaining distance from my core.  I can still "hide" it in the right shirts, but I can tell that that's not going to last much longer.  Besides, I think it's really cute when B gets all giggly when he can actually see my belly through my clothes.  Adorable.  He does this thing where he "air rubs" my belly.  He's 6'2" and I'm 5'5" so he'll be standing up straight, hold out his hand like he's going to pet me, and then "air rubs" my belly.  If you can't picture that, think of it this way... have you ever taken a picture, say with the Washington Monument (ie. The Pencil) and you try to make it look like you're squishing it or touching the top of it?  It's kind of like that.  He doesn't actually rub my belly, he rubs the air in front of me.  I have to say that it's much more enjoyable than someone actually touching me.  Since my stomach isn't hard I just feel like people are caressing my fat.  No one wants their fat caressed.  Unpleasant.

Another change, which I'm going to continue to harp on, are my humongoid boobs.  I mean good Lord people.  I was a double D to start with and I am sticking by the thought that not knowing is better because I do not want to know what size they are now.  I had a hard enough time coping with the fact that I was a DD.  I don't think that they look much larger than they normally do, but B can't help but comment on them daily.  Not bad comments, funny ones.  I don't think he can believe how out of control they're getting.  On top of that, my nipples have decided to completely take over the breasts.  It looks like they're weeds growing out of control or that they've suddenly decided to eat my breasts.  B noticed them this week too.  More funny comments.  The one that sticks out the most came when I actually realized that my nipples were in the middle of a bresticle undertaking.
I said, "Oh my God you're right.  They're the size of shot glasses!"
B replies with (haha - laughing as I type), "Shot glasses?!  What are you talking about?  They're more like small dinner plates."
"Dammit, you're right," I respond.  Sigh.  At least nipples are something I can hide.
While I'm talking about boobs and nipples I have to slip in something that I hoped I'd never experience.  Chafing nipples while running.  Guys, all I have to say is "ouch".  Enough said there.  I hope I don't have to use knee band-aids to cover my nips up while I run because regular band-aids won't cut it.

To all you moms out there, why the hell does the skin on my stomach feel like a reptile's?  I mean, seriously!  My tummy is constantly dry, I am lathering the thing with lotions/serums/pastes/butters, and still... lizard belly.  Any input on that?  While I'm talking about the belly I have noticed a faint line starting on my prime meridian.  The dreaded linea nigra, so it's called, is beginning to show itself.  I was desperately hoping that I would be exempt from getting the disgusting brown line, but it looks like I am not going to dodge that bullet.  Gross is all I have to say about that.  I joked and told my mom that I'm going to put SPF 50+ on the line and SPF 30 on the rest of my stomach to try and even it out.  Maybe I'll break out the peach crayon from my childhood.  Quick story: I have birthmarks on my right leg, they embarrassed me as a kid, and I tried to color over them with a peach crayon.

"It"
This is the last post that I will have to refer to Baby T as "it".  Next week's blog posting will most likely be the gender reveal post, unless we decide we want to keep it from you all.  Muahaha!  No, we'll be telling, don't worry but don't expect to get a name out of us for a while because we literally have no clue what to name this child.  We tabled the discussion until we know what the baby is.  There are too many names and we have too many opinions, figured it might be a bit easier to narrow it down when we're comparing one list.
I feel baby flopping around in there at least once a day.  Usually it's at night when I'm laying in bed, but sometimes I notice it during the day when I'm sitting down.  One fun thing that has come to my attention is when the tiny one moves around while my bladder is closer to full than it is to empty.  OMG.  Let me try to describe: picture a waterbed.  Now take two fingers and quickly push on the waterbed.  Ok.  That would be an accurate description of baby making contact with my bladder.  What it actually feels like: think of what you feel like about 30-45 minutes before you reach the point of no return/pee your pants moment.  Now, think of what your heartbeat feels like.  Put an irregular heartbeat inside your pee your pants bladder and you have what I've been feeling the past few days.  What's bad is that, that feeling is only going to get worse.  Shudder.


Development
At this point some people claim that the baby may be able to hear us.  B plans on playing music to it.  I joked and asked if he was going to make the baby a mixed tape.  We laughed but I bet he will make a few mixed CD's especially when it's born and will listen to music while it sleeps.  He's really into all kinds of music, which is good since my musical library consists of rap/hip hop, tiny bits of alternative, and some country thrown in here and there.
The body is now completely in proportion to itself.  No more giant head and stumpy limbs!
The kidneys are producing urine, which is going into the amniotic fluid (vomit) and if it's going to have hair, the hair is starting to sprout.  I like minimal hair on babies and am hoping that my child does not come out with a full head of hair (knocking on wood).
Baby development at this point isn't very exciting to me.  Not like it was back when the baby looked like an extra-terrestrial fun-sucking parasite.  It's easy to look at the ultrasound picture and go, "There's the baby!"  It isn't as interesting as when the baby looked like a blob and I couldn't imagine how the hell it would turn into a human being.

19 weeks in clothes

18.5 weeks - bathing suit shot

The Parents Weigh In

B and I had a revelation this week.  The question has been asked by many, "Do you think the baby's a boy or girl?" and we finally both have an answer.  I don't know exactly where this answer came from it's there and we actually agree on it: we both think that the baby is a girl.

Now there really isn't anything "old wivesy" that points to girl, in fact, nothing "old wivesy" points even remotely in that direction.

• My face hasn't gotten wider
• I never had pregnancy acne
• No cravings for sweets and orange juice
• No moodiness 
• My "beauty" is still in tact
• I prefer to lay on my left side and not my right
• B hasn't gained any weight during the pregnancy
• No morning sickness
• Craved meats, cheeses, and salt
• More headaches
• I can only think of boy names
• Mayan Tale = year of conception (2011) + mother's age (30) = 2031 (odd number = boy)

While I was going through the list of old wives tales I did find a few that pointed to girl.  Here they are:

• At my last doctor's appointment the baby's heart rate was over 140 bmp
• Chinese gender chart says girl (http://www.babygenderprediction.com/chinese-gender-chart.html)
• History of my mother says that since I was the first born I will have the gender of my mother's 2nd born, which was a girl.
• My legs are still lean
• Dreams - apparently I was wrong about this one.  Apparently if you dream about having a boy you are actually having a girl.  I have had a boy dream.  Hmmm...
• Old wives' tale says that 71% of women have intuition on what they are having so the simple fact that I think it's a girl points to it being a girl.
• The hair on my legs isn't growing a rapid speeds

Clearly more signs point to boy but something deep down in both of us is thinking girl.  I even picked out curtains for the nursery yesterday while we were at Bed Bath & Beyond; they were purple.

So there it is.  Our prediction.  In 9 days we'll find out if we're right.

Week in Workouts (6/25-7/01)

Saturday 6/25
10.2 miles
The plan was to get up, out, and running by 7am.  That did not happen, shocker.  Even though I know that B loathes my Saturday morning runs he made every attempt to wake me up and get my butt going this morning.  He doesn't hate the fact that I run, he hates the aftermath of it all.  For one, it takes me forever these days to get my long runs in.  For instance, this morning I left the house at 7:30, started running around 8:10, finished at 11:00, and wasn't home until around 11:30am.  That's 4 hours total for those of you who don't fee like doing the math.  On top of me being gone for that time my normal ritual when I return is that of: take a shower, eat something, and then go into a deep, dark, running induced coma for no shorter than two hours.  Being pregnant has extended my post-run exhaustion.  To the point, hub is pretty bored on Saturdays because I'm either gone or completely worthless until the mid to late afternoon.  Today I'm going to break the ugly cycle but doing my best to avoid the post-workout coma.  So far, so good.

When I got to the park I checked the weather which was 80 degrees with 79% humidity - fun.  Lately the first 1-2 miles I have noticed that my mind and body go into somewhat of a panic mode.  My heart and breath both race like I'm mentally trying to psych myself out.  On top of that my calves were burning for some reason this morning.  Things were not looking good for the 10 mile run that I had planned.  After 2 miles I was soaked and the air was so thick I could literally see it.  Once I actually got into the park though, everything changed.  I got a tiny spring in my step, put my head down, and go a good rhythm going.  Granted the rhythm that I found was a 13:30 minute one, which normally would have mortified me but today felt very natural.  I took that rhythm and drifted off into my little running happy place where I daydream and think about everything going on in my life.  I easily got to the end of the trail where I was to turn around and felt the best during miles 5-8.  I felt fast even though I clearly wasn't.  Next thing I knew I was back at the entrance of the park feeling pretty damn good about myself.  Less than two miles to go, sweet.  Wrong.  Those last two miles were on the verge of excruciating.  Not in a painful way but in a very self-aware kind of way.  It was like I was in tune with every motion that my body was making, every muscle constricting, every breath going in and out.  I knew that I was mentally forcing my body to comply and it did.  Don't worry all you judgers out there.  Even if you don't verbalize it, I know you're out there reading and thinking, "If you couldn't physically finish your run then you shouldn't have.  Remember you're pregnant."  That's the thing, I CAN do it and I KNOW that I can, which makes all the difference.  I'm not overexerting myself, my heart rate isn't out of control, I was hydrated, and I was able to talk if needed.  I follow the guidelines and I know my body.  I could do it, I just needed to put all of my will into finishing and I did.  If half-marathon day was today I would have and could have finished it within the time range that I'm shooting for.  I'm not "training" I'm living the lifestyle that I created for myself and am glad that I've been able to keep it up.

Pain in the butt realization:  During my 10.2 mile run I had to stop to pee three times.  That is only going increase.   


Sunday 6/26
Rest Day


Monday 6/27
Rest Day
This was not intentional at all.  I was hoping that summer school training would be the same as it has been the past 5 years, but it was not.  What's happened in previous years was that we'd have a meeting/breakfast at our home school and then head off to training.  When we got to training we would get our materials and then be dismissed shortly after if we've taught the program before (it's the same every summer).  Because of this I had packed my workout clothes and was planning on hitting up strength spin class at 11:30 before grabbing a quick lunch to head back to get my classroom ready.  Unfortunately, I had to sit through two ridiculous trainings where fellow teachers griped, moaned, and complained all the while.  Fun.  I'm all mental so when my planned workout gets screwed up I can't get myself back together.  The result of that is an unexpected rest day...

Tuesday 6/28
60 min. RPM spin


Wednesday 6/29
2 mile walk w/dogs
Walking the dogs is exercise in itself.  I have a Weimaraner (80 lbs) and a Pit-Bull mix (60 lbs).  The Weim. wants to sniff and pee on everything in sight while doing his best to try to drag me down the sidewalk while the pit-bull mix is a horrible leash walker and doesn't realize he's attached.  I would have liked to go further than 2 miles and even jog a little of the way, but those to num-nums don't make it very easy.  It's alright though.  I'm only trying to fulfill one of the items on my baby bucket list: walk the dogs more.  It wore them out and they were passed out all over the house for the rest of the night.  Score!

Thursday 6/30
Rest Day
I went to the beach instead, sue me :)

Week in Workouts (6/18-6/24)

No that I've gotten my act back together I'd like to keep it that way.  In order to do so I have decided to add another weekly post obviously titled "Week in Workouts".

Saturday 6/18
7.1 miles - 12:30 pace
I already gave this run it's own post.  I won't torture you with it again.

Sunday 6/19
Rest Day

Monday 6/20
60 min. strength cycle (spin class)
I love spin and aside from swimming, it's a really good workout because there's virtually no impact.  I usually go to the RPM class, which consists of sprints and hills.  It's very "go, go go!" but I thought that since it was raining out and I didn't have to go to work that I would check out the 11:30am strength cycle class instead.  Phew!  This one was heavy resistance (well, you control the resistance so I wasn't trying to murder my legs like the people around me) with a lot of out-of-the saddle climbs and jumps.  Normally I think that jumps are fun - they're when you sit and ride for a few counts and then stand and ride for a few counts; so you're "jumping" in and out of the seat - but pregnant jumps are kind of uncomfortable.  I figured that out pretty quickly when I plopped back down into the seat and felt my poor uterus bounce in my belly.  I'm being over-dramatic but I definitely felt it and it wasn't comfortable. So to compensate for my not being able to plop back into the seat I had to anticipate her calls and overuse my quads to lower myself softly back into the seat.  Result of that = burning quads, happy baby balloon.  Aside from that minor setback I quite liked strength cycle.  I'll probably go after summer school on Mondays now.  Funny fact: the instructor is the mother of one of my students from this year.

Tuesday 6/21
45 min. kettlebell cardio
I haven't been to kettlebell in a few weeks because the instructor was on vacation.  I got up at 5am and headed out, excited that she was back.  That excitement faded when I realized that she wasn't doing stations like she normally does.  Instead she did the "stations" as whole group.  I hate that.  I don't know why, but I do.  Ugh.  I was up, I was there, so I stayed and endured the group workout.  It was fine, but I really hope that she changes the format back to what it used to be.  Aside from the kettlebells themselves, I also like going to this class because there's another pregnant lady in there.  She's 5 weeks ahead of me and tells me stuff I have to "look forward" to.  This time she told me that she finally broke down and bought granny panties and loves them.  She also told me a hilarious story about how she sneezed and accidentally peed all over herself.  Now, I have read about that happening but hearing the actual person tell the tale was too funny.  I remember when she was 18-19 weeks.  That's when I first introduced myself to her.  At that point she was very obviously pregnant so naturally I figured that I would look similar to that when I reached 18-19 weeks.  Well, here I am and I don't look even half as pregnant as she did.  The instructor even commented on how not pregnant I looked.  Hey, as long as there's a healthy baby in there I guess I don't need to look pregnant, right?

Wednesday 6/22
Rest Day

Thursday 6/23
6.2 mile run - 12:15 pace
I have one word for this run A-MA-ZING!  Let me make this clear to anyone who doesn't already know... I do not like running outside.  I do it once a week on Saturdays because there are tons of people out on the trail and it's basically become my weekly ritual.  I never throw on my running shoes, head out the front door, and run around my neighborhood.  No thank you.  My mom came down to have a mini-cation with me while I was off of work and before she went back to work from her recent back surgery.  We rented an oceanfront hotel for two days and were beach bums.  It was fantastic.  Normally when I'm on vacation I don't even bother to take my running shoes or clothes because I never end up using them.  I get caught up in the laziness of vacation while they sit rotting in my suitcase.  Not this time.  Oddly enough I woke myself up at 6am, jumped out of bed, got all of my gear on, and trotted my happy ass down to the boardwalk.  The sun was rising over the ocean, it was hot but not excruciating, and I just felt good.  I took off up the boardwalk passing other runners and early risers with their coffee.  I was slow but I was in the zone.  What was nice about running up and down the boardwalk was that there were water fountains at every other street so I didn't have to wear my grenade belt.  One sad thing that I did notice was that the tourists do not oblige by the friendly runners of Virginia Beach's unspoken camaraderie.   I could clearly tell which runners were local and which were tourists (or tourons as my friend ES calls them - tourons = tourist morons) because the locals made eye contact, waved, and said "hello" while the tourons completed their run stone faced and gave me a horrified look and/or pretended they didn't even see me when I'd trot by them smiling and waving.  I did read an article in Runner's World a while back about how some runners do the smile/wave and some do not, but VB runners are happy and friendly dammit.  Participate or go home!  Anyway, I ran 6.1 miles that morning.  Much more than I expected myself to do because of my hatred of running outside.  I also noticed that I have come to terms with the fact that I now run a 12-12:15 minute mile and that acceptance really changed my attitude.  I could have run further, but breakfast and the beach were calling my name.

Friday 6/24
Rest Day
Had and all day in-service for work and then had an afternoon beach date with my mom before she headed home.

All-in-all, it was a great week in working out!  Next week I'm going bigger starting with, hopefully, a 10 mile run Saturday morning.

18 weeks - 126 days

Yellow peppers are expensive!

Another week has come and gone.  I've had a hard time getting this week's update started for some reason. Maybe I'm less witty when school's out.  I don't have to be on my toes and my summer laziness has already started to kick in.  I will say that I am glad that the end-of-year parties and all of that is over because I am not one to avoid cupcakes, pizza, brownies, and all that mess.  I think that I had pizza three times last week.  Not that I'm complaining because it was delicious, but my weight goal is between 25-35 pounds not 85-90 pounds.  Right now I'm guestimating that I've gained about 10 pounds so far.  When I stepped on the scale this morning and saw 150lbs. I had mixed feelings.  First of all, I have never seen my weight over the 140s.  Not that there isn't a possibility that I was in the 150s at one point, but I never physically saw it on the scale.  When I started Weight Watchers back in 2007 my starting weight was 149lbs.  On the other hand, all of the weight is in my boobs and a little around the tummy region.  Seriously, my bresticles are getting out of control.

Oddly I'm at a loss for words this week.  Probably because I have already posted about my vomiting incident and my long run on Saturday.  I have been more awesome about working out this week.  So far I've run 7 miles, did a 60 min. spin class, and a 45 min. kettlebell cardio class.  Feels good.  I balance that out with bowls of Edy's coconut, pineapple ice cream at night.  It's good, but I wish that it was coconut ice cream with bits of pineapple in it.  I'm pretty sure that it's just vanilla with coconut and pineapple mixed in.  To tell you the truth I don't really taste the pineapple much.  Just can't wait to hit the beach a few more times before summer school starts on Friday.

                                                                          Food Musts:

There have been requests made for a 'naked' belly
shot so here it is in a shameless mirror self-portrait

-watermelon (seriously, I ate an entire watermelon last week and am now working on my 2nd one)
-pizza (hopefully I got this out of my system - too many parties at school)
-diet soda (must have carbonation - only one a day if that people, no need to give any lectures)
-cereal
-tomatoes

News from the Womb
There's a bump, sometimes.  I don't know what's up with my bump.  I know once it pops out I'll want it to go back.  I'm just glad that I'm not at work where people keep telling me to eat because I'm not really showing yet.  I eat plenty, trust me.  My book tells me that Baby T looks human now - always a good thing - but that's about all my book tells me about the baby.  The rest of week 18's chapter is about exercise, which may jump start this otherwise snoozer of a blog post.

Side shot - obviously

 Exercise - according to the book
Well, the mystery of why I now have to choose between talking and breathing while I run has been answered.  Apparently my body demands more oxygen and as my uterus grows/moves upward it's going to move organs and squish my lungs.  Great.  I guess it's good that DD only runs with me for about two miles.  I'll just have to listen to his stories instead of making a conversation out of it.  As I get slower he heads out must sooner so I'm usually running solo anyway.  Me and my iPod, that's how it's gonna be.
Green Light Exercises - swimming, walking, biking (stationary and mobile), and jogging.  Excellent!  These are all activities that I do and enjoy.  I still have to find a pool nearby to get some swimming in but I'm not sure if I'm ready to give up my spin and kettlebell classes to head back to my YMCA membership.  That will happen once the baby is born because I want to make sure that it's used to and enjoys the water.  Other green light activities include: tennis, golf, bowling
Red Light Exercises/Activities - horseback riding, water skiing, snow skiing is apparently ok in the first trimester but frowned upon later for obvious reasons, jet skiing, and motorcycle riding.  The only one that makes me sad is the no jet skiing.  Not that we own one or would get around to renting one for the day, but still.  Jet skis are fun.


Surprisingly the exercising portion of week 18 didn't get me as heated as I thought it would.  Looks like I'm a-ok on all of the exercised and activities I like to do.  Not that I need a book to tell me that, the doctor already has.  I was just kind of expecting some quack opinions on how exercise is bad and the only exercise you should do is walk gently around the neighborhood.  I'm glad that it didn't.


And with that, I'm finished recapping week 17 into 18.  Not my finest blog post, but what can ya' do? 

Baby Bucket List

I've been kind of thinking of things that I would like to do, have, or accomplish before B-day and figured it was time to post about them.  I guess as I think of more things, if I think of more things, I'll just update this post.

• Prenatal massage
• Hire a maid to clean the house
• Get all the carpets cleaned
• Finish the half-marathon
• Get a pair of Vibram five fingers shoes
• Paint my belly once it's big
• Go on a vacation, just B and I
• Job
• New car
• Walk the dogs more

These things are not in any particular order.  I also thought that there were more things on my list, but I guess I was wrong.  I probably forgot from the grocery store to now, which is where I was thinking.  Running and grocery shopping; those are the places where the big thinking happens :)

Running Confessions

It's been over a week since I've run or been in the gym.  Part of that week off was because of my travel to Ohio and lack of sleep from my flight being canceled, the rest of the week was entirely my fault and my laziness.  That's alright though because when my alarm went off at 6:45am I was up and getting ready for a 6-7 mile run.  I had noticed on previous runs that I was getting hungry about 3-4 miles in so I decided to bump up my pre-run breakfast this morning.  Instead of just having a banana and being done with it I added in a piece of whole wheat toast and some peanut butter, it worked.

Taking a week off whether planned or not cannot happen again.  My legs were screaming on my run today.  Mentally I could have gone further than 7 miles but for once it was my lower body telling me to turn around.  Right now my legs feel like they would if I had run a half-marathon.  I know it doesn't help that I'm now carrying around ten extra pounds, but that is only going to get worse.  The conclusion that I came to was that I'm going to have to treat my regular workouts like I would a training schedule.  I won't be "training" per say, but I think I need to keep a schedule so that I don't lose my stamina, which could cause me to not be able to continue working out.  As far as my legs go, strength training.  Body squats, wall sits, and lunges should do the trick.

While I ran today I thought about the half-marathon that I'll be doing at 7 months pregnant.  Right now it's 9 weeks away (yuk, I won't refer to it in that way again.  Makes it sound like the summer's already over) but I need to start preparing for it if I'm going to survive.  On top of the "training" I need to start thinking about coming up with a strategy and figure out what I will need to take with me on race day.  Here's what I've got so far:

Strategy:

• No talking while running.  I figured out this morning that I'm going to have to choose; talk and walk or be silent and run/jog.  It's too much energy to do both.  So if you plan on running with me, sorry SS, it's going to be a quiet few hours.
• Stop at EVERY water station.  This is going to take some discipline.  I hardly ever stop at the water stations because I wear my grenade belt, but that isn't going to be enough anymore.  Today on my 7 mile run I drank 32 oz. of gatorade and 24 oz. of water.  I'm going to have to stop and drink what I can then fill up my empty containers.
• I'm also thinking about doing the 10 minutes on 1 minute off or whatever those people do when their watch beeps every whatever minutes and they take walking breaks.  I have to do more research/thinking on this one.

What I'll Need:

• As little clothing as possible: underwear, sports bra, tank-top, shorts, socks, and shoes (duh).  If I could get away with less I would, but I'm pretty sure that won't be happening.
• Water grenade belt.  I may need to upgrade to a L-XL size before then because my S-M is hanging on by a thread.
• Gels and a snack - there is nothing happy about being starving without food.  Maybe a granola bar or something.
• A zip-lock baggie and some sheets of TP.  You read that correctly.  I'm fully preparing to pee in the woods multiple times on half-marathon day.  I'm going to be slow enough as it is, I don't need to waste more time waiting in line at a porta potty every 4ish miles.
• Sunscreen - I have been burning easily this summer.  I read somewhere that it's because I'm pregnant.  Pregnant women burn easily?  Weird.
• Sunglasses
• Body Glide - just say no to chafing! 

I was so wiped after this morning's run that I felt sleep coming on in the car ride home.  Bad thing about that was that I was driving.  I got home quickly, jumped in the shower, and passed out on the couch for a good two hours.  I feel bad for B because, even though he knows my long run ritual, I think it irritates him that I'm gone in the morning for a few hours running and then I come home and nap for a few hours.  Boring for him if he wants us to go do something.

So, I'm going to be healthier, which means that I'm going to get my workouts in regularly again and eat less crap.  I'm trying to cut out sweets for the week as a little detox.  The excludes, of course, our weekly trip to Rita's.  We'll see how this goes.

Princess Pukicheu (warning - very TMI)

Oh my sweet Lord.  To all those women who have morning sickness, all-day sickness, and/or all pregnancy sickness my heart and stomach go out to you.  Sadly this morning I fell victim to the vomits and it was not pretty or pleasent.  I have already made it very clear in a much earlier post that I DO NOT do vomit.  While I'm not one of those people who pukes at the sight or sound of someone else tossing their cookies, I would rather die than throw up.  I hope you sense the dramatization here.  The last time I lost my lunch was on my 26th birthday and that, I did to myself.  This morning was unwanted and unvoluntary.
I had to suffer through it so now you have to read about it.


Polenta - basically corn meal cakes



I have been trying to switch up my breakfasts lately because I am a very repetative eater.  I feel like I eat the same thing every day.  For breakfast lately it's been a cup of Honey Rice Chex cereal, a cup of almond milk, and sliced strawberries.  Today I decided to have a few slices of polenta cooked in olive oil and two pieces of whole wheat toast with jelly.  I park myself on the couch to have breakfast while I play on the internet and not five minutes after I had finished my last bite my heart started racing, mouth started watering, and I got instantly overheated.  "Oh shit!" I thought as I stood up and walked myself to the bathroom.  Normally I can "get over" the nautious feeling by laying down on the bathroom floor to get cool.  Not today my friends.  Within seven minutes of finishing breakfast I was on my knees praying to the porcelin gods and offering up a sacrafice of mushy polenta, ketchup, toast, jelly, and tears.  I'm one of those.  With each heave comes tears.  Not 'crying' tears, tears of upchucking forces causing all solids and liquids to seep or spew from my face.  It was God awful.  Not only that but I was originally hanging out in my robe and towel fresh from the shower.  Notice I said orginally.  I was reduced to a butt naked, pregnant, 30-year old woman hovering over the toilet and praying for her stomach to quickly empty. 

I don't appologize for being graphic and making you, most likely, picture things that you never wanted to picture but I feel that it is all necessary.  It is necessary because I am a very, extremely, thankfully, lucky pregnant woman.  I cannot imagine going through that disgustingness on a daily basis as many others do.  I can't imagine being afraid to eat because you don't know if the porclin gods will call you back for another sacrafice.  I'm also pretty positive that Baby T was not behind this act of cookie tossing.  When I get home from work I will be throwing away the polenta and fruit that I ate this morning.  I will not risk that nastiness again.

So now I sit here at work nibbling on some Nip-Cheese crackers and sipping on a Diet Coke praying that I don't have to make a mad dash out of the classroom.  So far, so good.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I was woken up at 5am by a heaving, upchucking grey beast. 

Wonder who that was?

**Update**
It is now noon and I have not had any recalls to the restroom!  I have successfully eaten a pack of Nip-Cheese crackers and am now having rice gumbo for lunch.  I do realize that all is not necessarily well yet.  As long as I make it through the day I will consider this mornings incident a fluke based on unhappy food choices.

**Second Update**
I think that I have found the pukicheu culprit.  When I got home from work I decided I was throwing everything that I ate this morning away in order to avoid another visit from the Exorcist.  While tossing everything that I had for breakfast I decided to do a close investigation.  To my surprise I found that when I dumped the container of polenta there was an obvious soury smell in the bottom.  AH HA!  At least I know that this won't be a reoccurring event (knock on wood).  

17 weeks - 119 days

So that's what a turnip looks like :)

This week has been pretty uneventful as far as pregnancy goes.  No new aches, pains, or discoveries.  I will tell you that traveling has been slightly difficult for me since I am not able to take Dramamine for motion sickness.  Not fun.  I don't have the kind of motion sickness that makes me vomit, thank God, but I do have the kind that makes me feel dizzy and nautious long after the car/bus/van ride is over.  Well, I did a lot of traveling in the past week.  Last Tuesday you all know that the 4th grade went on an all day field trip to Jamestown which is an hour and a half ride on the charter bus.  That trip was touch and go a few times especially since I met and was sitting near two very fun, interesting moms who were very easy to talk with.  I found that if I faced my body completely forward the feelings of vomit would lessen.  I was also lucky enough to be able to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousins in Ohio this past weekend.  B and I were originally going to drive up, but a few weeks ago he found out that he'd be in Mississippi for business that week which opened up the door for me to fly instead.  Sadly, it was only about $50 more than it would have cost for food/gas if I had driven myself.  I am very glad that airplanes do not trigger my motion sickness.  I have no idea why, but am thankful that they don't.  We did have to drive to Ohio State from Centerville, which was about 90 minutes in the van.  I took tiny naps to keep the motion sickness down that time.  It worked.  My airplane experience is it's own post, which I will get to once I have gotten over the whole experience.  I actually used up all of my creative juices on the airline experience last night when I wrote a disgruntled passenger report to United Airlines.  I have it saved, maybe I'll share later this week.

Gender Change of Heart
I have also had a change in heart lately on the whole boy/girl situation.  Obviously I cannot choose what this baby is, but throughout I have been slightly partial to having a boy until I realized something this morning.  Girls really can be super sweet.  I should have already had this revelation because afterall, I am a wonderful, caring, considerate girl myself (haha) but after caddy experiences that I've had over the years with girls both young and old I became partial.  The girls that I teach right now are dreams.  They give me hugs, tell me that they're thinking of me, and some have even made up little hand signals that only we do back and forth. These are girls who are raised right.  They have manners, compassion, sugar, spice, and everything nice!  These are elementary school girls of course.  In order to completely accept the fact that this baby may just be a girl... I have to block out the years of "I hate yous!" and teenaged mood swings that I am well aware of.  So, I'm going on record at week 17 as saying 50 girl/50 boy.  God and little girl clothes, dresses in particular, are just so damn cute!!

Me, Myself, and I
I'm wearing a button-up sweater today.  The bottom two buttons keep popping open, fun.  I was really hoping to avoid buying a lot of maternity clothes, but it's becoming harder and harder to dress myself in the morning.  Today I was a few minutes late for work because I turned into a tornado in my closet.  My regular pants are completely out at this point.  It's all dresses and maternity pants from here on out.  I'm also going to revert back to my food Nazi ways for a little while.  I have been feeling very bingy lately and need to put a stop to it.  Memorial Day, parties at school, and my recent travels haven't helped the binginess. 
I am still heavily proactive when it comes to avoiding stretch marks.  Last week, I think it was, I had a friend send me a private message about where to put my Tummy Butter.  Places she figured I wouldn't think about and she was right.  Thighs and lower back in addition to the obvious belly.  Upon inspection I sadly discovered that I ALREADY have stretch marks on BOTH my lower back AND my thighs.  They aren't from my current situation though. Probably got them during a growth spurt back in the day or during my fat phase in college.  Well, damn.  Good news is that they are barely noticable.  I noticed because I was stretching my skin and inspecting.  So, if I do get stretch marks they should be like the ones that I already have and go virtually unnoticable once I'm back to my normal self.  Oh, last thing about me this week. Apparently my boobs are becoming their own seperate life force.  I was told this by a few lady co-workers.  I stand firm in my denial and will keep shoving the lady lumps into my already large bra cups.

Food Musts:
Peanut butter - I cut this out starting today because I believe it's attributing to my binginess.
Imitation crab meat - shut up, it's good.
Bananas - I don't "want" these, I just seem to eat one every day
Popsicles
Meat - everything EXCEPT chicken.  I did eat a chicken parm. flatbread sandwich the other day but I'm not completely sold on whether or not it was "real" chicken.
Pizza - again, not a "craving" but damn it's delicious.  I sure don't pass it up when it's offered or suggested.

Inside the Uterus

Baby T is now 11-12 cm. long and about 3.5 oz.  I would tell you to get a ruler and figure it out, but my book actually informs me that the baby is the size of my hand spread open wide.  I am assuming that means from pinky tip to thumb tip or from wrist to the tip of my middle finger since I highly doubt that it's as wide as it it tall, if you can even call 11-12 cm. 'tall'.  Baby has begun to accumulate a layer of fat, which I am hoping that it sucks away from my stomach, breasts, or underarm area.  Sadly, I think that those are merely hopes and dreams instead of reality.
Interesting factoid: right now the baby is 3 oz. of the baby's body; at birth fat is 5 1/4 of the average 7 3/4 lb. baby.

B is out of town on business so I had to take the
infamous mirror self-portrait.  Oh, how I loathe them.

No More Secrets

...from my class that is.  For you guys I can't make any promises.  I wasn't sure if I was going to share the news with my 4th graders or not.  For one thing, they aren't "my" 4th graders.  While I have been with them since the beginning of April and feel like they are mine, I am only the substitute who is in for their regular teacher who, ironically, had a baby.  I am also barely showing so I thought that I would just skate through to Friday keeping my little secret to myself.  I was already convinced that they didn't know because every other elementary schooler that I have encountered over the last seven years was not able to filter their thoughts before they turned into words and statements like, "Are you pregnant?" which is what one of the 3rd graders asked me when I wore a dress to school that, apparently, wasn't fitting the way it used to.  I, in fact, was NOT pregnant or even thinking about it at the time... devistation and dieting...

Today the cat was let out of the bag when I walked my class past the music teacher on the way to PE.  The music teacher at this school is simply wonderful.  I think that she has the most pleasent personality and is very genuine.  So when she stopped me in the hallway, in front of the back of my line which happened to be where most of the girls were, to tell me, "I heard your good news!!  Congratulations!  Is this your first?" I knew that the jig was up.  Music teacher didn't say it loudly or profountly but the girls heard it and the look on their faces was simply priceless.  It was as though they found out that I was getting them pony rides for the last day of school.  The whispering began which was when I distinctly heard the word, "Pregnant!"

While they were at PE I thought about what I would say because I had to beat them to the punch.  When they returned I asked, "Raise your hand if you were in the back of the line going to PE."  The girls very excitedly threw their hands up in the air and wiggled them around to make sure I saw them.  All the while they had big, cheesy grins on their faces.  They were about to explode!  I followed with, "So you've figured out my secret then, huh?"  They had.  So I shared with the class who, by then, caught on.  They were stoked!  Asking questions, appropriate ones, like "When are you due?" "Is it a boy or a girl?" "How many months are you?"  Thank goodness there weren't any "Where do babies come from?" questions.

After all of this the girls admitted that when I turned sideways they were starting to notice, which restored my faith in the children race.  There are plenty of children with manners and filters and I am so lucky to have found them :)

Go on, take ORF!

Let me warn you in advance that this is not very much of a pregnancy post.  Instead it is a document of my solo adventure to Dayton, Ohio and possibly back.  At this point in my travels I am waiting out a three hour layover at Dulles International and I have to say that this has been an enjoyable airport/airline experience thus far (knocking on wood)
My flight from ORF was schedule to depart at 5:02pm today so B hauled my ass to the airport as soon as I got home from school.  By the time we actually got there it was about 4:15pm, 20 minutes before boarding was to begin.  One thing I love about ORF is that everything is quick.  Yes it is an "international" airport, but it seems like no one is ever there.  I got checked in, flew through security, and was at the gate within 10 minutes of arriving.  If any of you were following my FB posts you know that at this point there wasn't anywhere for me to sit because the idiot travelers that I was amongst thought that their carry-on luggage needed a special seat beside them.  Morons.  So, I got the balls up to ask someone to move their precious luggage because, dammit, I was tired of standing up.  This was where the fun began.

Topic #1 - Even though you're on your cell phone, we can still hear you!
I sit down across an extraordinarily large woman (if that offends anyone, you'll be ok, I promise) who is gabbing away on her cell phone.  Now, to give you a general idea of how loudly she was speaking, let me tell you that the man directly next to me was also on his phone and I could hardly hear him.  He was using acceptable public cell phone etiquette. Good for him; now back to my female friend across the way who was NOT using acceptable public cell phone etiquette.  I could hear everything she was saying.  I even had a hard time doing my on texting and such because I was so enthralled at the heinous conversation she was having.  So, since she was speaking so loudly in the terminal I am sure that she won't mind when I put her on blast right now.  During the time she was sitting across from me I overheard two separate conversations.  The first one was much more interesting because she was talking about her "love life".  There is a reason that I used the sarcastic quotes there, barf.  I am amazed at how stupid some women are.  I know that I have had my stupid moments hell, stupid years, but I'm 30.  I quit that sh*t long ago, ask my husband who endured much of my stupid woman phase.  This woman had to be at least my age if not older and the information that spewed out of her mouth made me want to get up and slap her across the face.  Ok, enough with the back story.  Here is the gist of her conversation:

Apparently she had just stopped seeing her latest guy.  She was getting advice from the person on the other end about why things ended.  Honestly, it sounded like he totally was not digging her, she knew it, and is trying to come up with some other excuse/reason that things ended.  IT'S YOU HONEY!  You're probably nuts-o!  I gathered that from the 15 minutes I was listening.  She had only been dating him a few months, during that time his father died, and then the relationship ended.  She was asking her friend if he left her because his dad died, thought it was weird because everyone was raving about her at the funeral (what!?), and the next thing I know she's asking her phone friend how long someone should date before they move in together - ding, ding, ding!!  That leads me to believe that she was dating this guy for a hot second (few months) and was pressuring him to move in or vice versa.  Well, I don't know what'll make a guy run quicker than that other than proposing marriage.  B and I dated for three years before we moved in together.  Even still, I'm pretty sure that he ended up caving and moving in with me because he had no one else to live with.  But that's off topic and seven years ago so... moving on.  Basically, this woman was not attractive (yes, that does matter) and seemed about halfway off her rocker.  Her second conversation was less interesting but she did go on to describe some bloody surgery that her friend had, talked about another friend's pregnancy complications, and did a little friend bashing.  She walked away when they announced that the flight deck was closed due to lightening and there was no telling when we'd leave.  I thought this would be a great time to hit up the Starbucks conveniently stationed right next to my gate.

Topic #2
Pregnant women should not drink anything before getting on a flight, no matter how long it is!  When we left It was about 5:50-6:00pm.  In the next 35 minutes my need to pee was off the charts!  Thank God that in 35 minutes we were touching down at Dulles.  I know, there are bathrooms on the plane.  I am a wuss!  I had a window seat.  I don't like bothering people.  Besides, the pee urge didn't drop until I got up to get off the plane.  Yikes!  At least I'm not to the peeing myself little bits here and there stage.

Topic #3 - Every woman needs a pair of maternity pants for long travel.
You know what happens when you sit for long periods of time.  I don't care how skinny you are, when you sit and sit and sit your jeans/pants start digging into your stomach leaving behind a lovely imprint for you to treasure for an hour or two.  Not with maternity pants!!  Fantastic creations I tell you!  I got two pairs of capri/pants from Motherhood Maternity.  One in khaki and one in black.  I decided to change out of my jean capris and into my khaki maternity capris for the trip.  Oh my Lord!  No creases, no imprints, no stomach pain from being hunched over in tough material, no nothing except for immeasurable amounts of comfort.  Go out and get some.  The look like regular pants.  No one would ever know.  I don't even have much of a bump but my normal pants don't fit anymore.  Do you hear me?  Get a pair of maternity pants.  You can thank me later.

Topic #4 - Airport food is the greatest!
I couldn't decide whether to eat at Five Guys since I had never been there before or at some other place called Cosi that served flatbread sandwiches.  B suggested the flatbread place so I went.  I ended up getting a grilled chicken parmesan flatbread sandwich and holy hell I destroyed that thing!  That was the most delicious sandwich I think I have ever eaten.  I am already trying to figure out if I'll have enough time on my way back through to get a sandwich to take home with me.  Hmm.. now that I'm thinking about it I'm going to google to see where their other locations are.

So that's my life over the past three hours.  I still have another two to hang out before my flight to Dayton.  I'll continue people watching for you all.  Never know what I'll see.

We have MOVEMENT!

I'm not 100% confirming this yet but I am pretty sure that I can feel the baby now.  I notice it mostly at night when I'm lying on the couch or in bed.  Actually what made me think to post about it is that I am feeling it right now.  It's about half-way between my bellybutton and pelvic bone.  I have been told that it feels like gas bubbles or like flutters, but what I immediately thought of when I felt it was a cat pawing at you.  That's what it feels like, except is coming from inside!  It's not all that exciting yet because I'm not positive that I'm correct.  Also, it's so light that I barely notice it.  I'm sure it will be more exciting when it's obvious that I'm turning into an internal human punching bag.  Maybe I went to body combat classes too much and it's rubbing off.

Four Months - 16 Weeks - 112 Days



chips and guacamole, yum!

So this past week was pretty busy!  I forget how crazy it gets near the end of the school year.  Here's a quick recap:


• B's 31st birthday
• Last Girls on the Run practice
• A friend's wedding
• Girls on the Run coaches dinner
• Girls on the Run 5k
• B's 31st birthday party/cookout

By Sunday I was dunzo.  I was also supposed to work in an 8-10 mile run Sunday morning but the Gods thought otherwise and sent down a fantastic thunderstorm that let me sleep most of the day.  B drug me out of the house around one o' clock to go see the new X Men movie, which was amazing.  That's what rainy days are for: sleeping and movies.  He even let me rent "The Last Exsorcism".  I say 'let' because over the years he has gotten severly tired of my movie choices.  I'm sorry that I thoroughly enjoy all types of horror movies, B horror movies especially.  I think that B has, over the years, lit a passionate flame of hatred for them.  I have to beg to watch them.  On Sunday he gave in pretty easily, probably because there really weren't any other options and last week he made the horrible movie choice of "Gulliver's Travels".  He owed me one.  Turns out the movie was pretty good.  Maybe my horror movie choice will earn back some credibility.

Jamestown Field Trip

This was the first time that I've gotten to go to Jamestown and actually have the chance to see and enjoy it.  I taught fourth grade before for two years, but I can't say that I ever enjoyed one of those field trips.  First of all, we always went to Jamestown (which is outside for the most part) right before Christmas break in DECEMBER!  It was always butt freezing out.  I also rarely had enough parent support to have a chaperone.  Today I had four chaperones and myself!  I got to enjoy Jamestown with three of my lovely students.  Much easier to manage!  Since we are much further away then we were in Newport News, we got to ride a charter bus!  Score!  I was nervous about not being able to take my Dramamine, but the charter bus is much smoother of a ride than the big cheese.  There were only a few instances where I wanted to projectile vomit.  Thankfully I controlled the urge.  There is probably nothing worse than throwing up in front of a bus load of 4th graders.  Mortifying, I'm sure.
I really enjoyed the trip.  Our tour guide was fantastic, I had 7 parent chaperones, and the kids knew the answer to EVERY question they were asked.  They even went above and beyond with their questions.  I know these kids technically aren't mine but it felt damn good hearing my class get praised for their knowledge and behavior not once, but many times today.  Refreshing.
My small group consisted of 3 kids and 3 adults (myself included).  It was supposed to be just me and the kids but one of the little girl's parents drove all the way to Jamestown, paid for themselves, and joined us because they weren't chosen to chaperone.  Astonishing.  We had a great time!  The other teachers noticed my tiny bump.  I don't know about the other parents.  I'm pretty sure if they did they wouldn't have said anything.  Nothing is worse than asking someone if they're pregnant and they not be.

Kids in a canoe

How's the Grandfetus? (as my dad would ask - hehe)

Let me start by addressing the baby to fruit ratio.  This week 'Tiny T' is the "size of anavacado". What that actually means is that it's as long as an avacado and weighs about as much as one.  By no means is is shaped like an avacado.  Thought I would throw that little tidbit out there just in case.

So, "Tiny T" is preparing to double in size soon, so says the internet, but right now it's about 4 1/2 inches long and weighs about 3.5 oz. 

Oh, more good news!  its' eyes and ears have almost migrated to their perminent position.  Excellent.  It's also starting to grow toenails.  I wonder how long his/her toenails will be at birth.  Can they scratch the inside of the uterus when he/she is kicking me?  Gross.  Probably not though.  I'll just keep thinking that they're not going to scratch me, it's easier that way.  Baby is also pumping more blood through its' body, but that's not very exciting or shocking information. 

All About Me!

1/2 regular baby and 1/2 food baby
Just ate dinner :)

On Sunday I entered a contest to win maternity workout clothes from http://www.fortwofitness.com/ I hope that I win because their stuff is super cute, but also pretty pricy.  All I had to do was tag them in a FB post and then get the most 'likes'.  The status with the most 'likes' wins a whole workout outfit.  I am assuming that is only pants/shorts and a tank, but still, that would save me about $100.

The bump is slowing starting to emerge.  I'm almost completely out of my regular pants and into maternity pants/shorts which are amazing!!  Normal on the bottom and yoga pant on top!  I'm never going back to normal pants.  I got a few maternity shirts but I'm not wearing them yet.  They make me look way more pregnant that I actually am.  My regular shirts are still holding up just fine.  When I wear a shirt that's more fitted to my body you can see the small bump.  I'm going to have to smooth down my shirt for this week's picture so that you guys can start to see it too.

New body changes: my stomach has started itching this past week.  That must mean it's starting to stretch.  I called my mom to see if she had stretch marks from pregnancy and she said that she did but they were very small, very light, and are no longer visable.  I'm glad that I got that Tummy Butter from Motherhood Maternity.  Maybe I'll luck out and avoid stretch marks all together.  I had a tiny panic moment after my 5k on Saturday when I thought I was getting a veracrose vein on the back on my knee.  Turns out it's just a bruise, thank God.  Nothing else is new.  Sleeping is still a bit irritating, but apparently that is going to get worse before it gets better.  Also, never take going #2 for granted - that's all I have to say about that topic. 

Funny Stuff from the Hub
B and I will talk about baby stuff randomly, but every now and then he goes off on, "I dare our child..." rants.  Tonight was one of those brief rant nights.  After watching The Secret Life of an American Teenager and listening to him bitch and moan about how terrible the acting is (not that I disagree with him, but I am still oddly in love with the show), a new show premiered called Switched at Birth.  Of course I'm going to watch it, it looks interesting.  Right off he commented that the acting was much better, which I agree with.  Basically, two girls get switched at birth (duh, that's the title).  One family is super rich and the other lives in the bad part of town.  The rich family is intruding on the poor family trying to "do what's best" for their 'real' daughter, which I find incredibly insulting.  As a result, the rich families' daughter is now rebelling because they have basically tossed her aside as they try to reconnect with their 'real' daughter.  Anyway, in this rebellion the girl gets her nose pierced, attempts to smoke in front of her mom, and then got arrested for trying to use a fake ID to buy beer.  This was when B threw a gasket.  He went off about how he's going to start extending his gun collection and how I'm going to have to get a tranquilizer gun to take him out before he is able to use his guns, etc... I laughed hysterically and asked if we could table this conversation for four more weeks until we find out if the baby is a girl or boy.  After that he couldn't take the Switched at Birth show any longer and went to bed.

Food Fantasies:
-diet coke
-PB & Honey
-cucumbers/tomatoes
-Gelati from Rita's
-gummy candy (still)

Weight as of today: 150lbs.  Kill me. 

For my teacher friends:  8 days of school left!

For everyone:  You have four more weeks to vote on the baby's sex!  We find out on July 5th.



Girls on the Run 5k

For the past 10 weeks, since March 14th, I have been coaching a Girls on the Run team with three other women at a local elementary school.  My Monday's and Thursday's were pretty full with the regular school day and then having to jet over to a different school for GOTR practice.  This running club was one of the reasons I left my old job in Newport News.  I wanted to coach some kind of sports team so badly and now I can.
Girls on the Run is a really great program.  Each team is made up of fifteen 3rd-5th grade girls.  Half of each practice is made up of a guidance-like lesson that helps the girls understand themselves, build their confidence, open up, and get comfortable in their own skin.  The other half of the practice is focused on stretching and running.  The end goal of GOTR is a community wide 5k that is made up of all of the Girls on the Run clubs in our area plus anyone from the community who also wants to run.  The 5k also acts as a fundraiser for the next season.
Coaching after school was particularly difficult during the first trimester.  While I didn't have any other symptoms I was much more tired than normal.  I was basically forcing myself to workout and run with the girls.  I am so grateful for having those girls as a motivation when all I wanted to do was sleep because if I had let myself completely slip off the workout radar, I may not be 'allowed' to continue.  Even though I loved coaching, the new people I got to meet, and of course the girls I have to admit that I was happy that the final day was approaching.

5k Recap 

I ran the Shamrock half-marathon two days after I got a positive result on the pregnancy test.  Since then I have been doing pretty regular workouts, but haven't participated in any 'races'.  I knew I'd be able to take it easy on this 5k because I would be running with one of the girls.  About half of them were pretty quick and the other half were walk/runners during practice.  I knew I just needed to pair up with someone who wasn't going to try to break the speed barrier.  I haven't run a 5k in a long time.  I just don't see the point in them anymore since I do at least 5k on the treadmill/elliptical machine when I'm at the gym.  My best time was 27 minutes and I haven't been able to break that.  I think I have hit a plateau on my short distance times.  Honestly, running less than a 10k really doesn't interest or challenge me anymore.

Like I said earlier, these girls really have inspired me this season.  My running buddy Lizzy not only inspired me but immensely impressed me on 5k day.  I noticed after the run had already started that Lizzy didn't have a running buddy.  All of the girls are to be paired up with an adult for encouragement and partnership during the race.  Since she didn't have a buddy and I wasn't paired up with anyone I designated myself as her partner.  I can honestly say that I was not expecting a 'workout' on 5k day.  Lizzy gave me a run for my money.  She was at a steady run for over a mile.  I had to concentrate to keep up with her!  This was my first run where I wasn't thinking, "I'm pregnant, I'm pregnant, I'm pregnant."  I easily psych myself out with my thoughts.  This whole pregnant thing psyches me out.  I know myself, I know my body, I know my heart rate but somewhere in my deep, dark subconscious is that little devil saying, "You can't do this, you're pregnant."  To that little devil and to all the people that scrunch up their faces or make comments that I'm still working out I say, "SHUT UP!"  I am healthy, I am in shape, and I am going to have a easier delivery because I am keeping my body in check.  One of my fellow runners made this comment, "What do you think labor is?  It's hours and hours of cardio work."
I went off in a rant.  The point was that while I didn't PR in the least (we came in around 43 minutes - by far my worst 5k time) but I felt fantastic because I didn't hold back because of the thoughts in my mind.  Lizzy needed me and I was there for her.  She was the perfect running buddy for me.  We ran and ran and ran.  When she got tired we walked and then started up again.  What a fantastic end to a season of ups and downs.
Until next season I say, "Girls on the Run is so much fun! Girls on the Run is #1"

If you're interested in coaching a Girls on the Run team click here!

What's in the Water?

Yesterday was exhausting for me.  Woke up at 5am to hit the gym, school all day, Girls on the Run practice/celebration, Girls on the Run coaches' dinner, tye-dying 20 t-shirts for field day, and then scrambling last minute to find a dress for a wedding we have to go to tonight.  Phew!  I was pretty much gone from 7:30am - 9:30pm.  That, however, is not the real point of my post.

My point is this:  is everyone pregnant!?

Is seems that everywhere I go I see pregnant women.  I remember when my last batch of friends were pregnant, they thought the same thing.  I guess it just happens that way.  In the past year five of my friends had babies.  Three of them were within two weeks of one another and the other two were as well.  I already wrote about the belly buddy that I found out about at work, well, last night I found another. 

Generally I hate going to functions alone.  I am one of those people who have no clue how to start conversations with strangers.  The entire time I'm talking I think in my head, "God that sounds so stupid!!"  Basically meeting new people makes me feel weird and batheos so I try to avoid it.  When I found out that my other coaches weren't going to the GOTR dinner last night my flight reaction started to kick in.
"Just don't go, Jessica"  "You have too much stuff to do anyway."
And then the guilt kicked in, "You already RSVPd and it's at a restaurant, suck it up and go."
I decided to go mainly because there were door prizes; one of which was a new pair of running shoes.  Who says bribery isn't effective?

I get to this dinner and am surrounded by strangers.  Awkward!  I founda nice looking girl about my age who was also sitting alone and asked to join her.  Everything was fine with conversation because a lot of the other coaches are teachers too so that gives me a ton of topics to talk about.  Her friend later joined us and was equally nice.  Anyway, come to find out that her friend is pregnant.  When I asked how far along she was she told me 15 weeks - holy sh#tballs, I'm 15 weeks!!  She gave me the customary glance at my belly and then told me she was due on Thanksgiving (11/24) two days after me!  Crazy!  We kept talking and relized that we both found out we were pregnant the same weekend.  Sadly, I will probably never see her again but it was cool to make a connection for the moment.

Bad thing about the dinner was that it was a pizza buffet.  Normally I would have been ecstatic about that except for the fact that we had just thrown our team a pizza party, where of course I had two slices, a few hours before.  I basically ate pizza all night last night.  My mom says the baby is going to come out with an Italian accent.  Maybe faux Italian since I'm sure our pizza isn't anything like it is over there.

Last night I had a dream that my bestie RH was pregnant and was due the same time as me.  I think I'm going to need to interrigate her tomorrow :)

**I'm adding onto this post because the topic is still the same**

We went to a wedding on Friday night.  We were at a table with three other couples and a single guy, nine of us total.  Out of the four women at the table, three of us were pregnant.  On top of that we were all due within a week of each other.  One girl was 17 weeks, another 16 weeks, and I am 15 weeks.  So crazy!!  We kept our water far away from SS who is getting married soon :)

Boy Dreams?

After checking the latest poll results I notice that you all are thinking what I am starting to think... the baby is a boy.  Let's recap, shall we?

• No pregnancy symptoms - if I didn't know there was a baby in there right now I STILL wouldn't have very strong indicators that I was pregnant.
• The desire for salty/sour foods
• My belly, while not actually showing much yet, appears to be starting to come straight out from the middle instead of all over.

As I have posted before, RH told me that I would start dreaming about what the baby was.  The one time I had a gender specific dream it was that I was having a boy.  Lately though I have noticed some strange 'trends' in my dreams.  Two that I've had this past week seem to stick out the most in my memory.  One night I dreamt about bugs.  They were everywhere, but not in a Fear Factor sort of way.  They were basically hanging out not bothering anyone.  I wasn't creeped out by them either which would never happen in real life.  Later in the same dream a swarm of bees appeared.  I don't remember them being particularly friendly, but I wasn't running from them so they must have been okay.  Of course I can't find it now but I read somewhere that dreaming of bugs indicated boy.

This next one I have no explination for other than I doubt that "sugar and spice and everything nice" would bring this much craziness to a dream.  I was on the beach with someone, no clue who, when the waves started getting Tsunami-like.  The water receeded and a wall of waves began crashing down upon us.  I remember thinking "hold your breath" but the waves never actually submerged us or even got us wet.  I'm sorry but I think boy on that one as well.  My dreams have just been different lately.  I have never dreamt about bugs to my recolection.  I have dreamt about the ocean but never in a traumatic sort of way.

I don't know guys but I feel like my "boy or girl"-o-meter is starting to finally sway to one side.  At this point, five weeks away, I'm thinking 60/40 it's a boy...

...watch, I'll be completely wrong :)