I'd like to take this opportunity to have a little Q&A with myself. It might sound a little narcissistic, but this is a blog, so narcissism is a pre-requisite.
I'll stick to questions I've commonly gotten since telling people I'm pregnant.
Q: Some variation of "was it planned" or "were you trying"?
A: This one surprised me, not because I was offended (although so far it's only come from people I'm fairly close to), but because we're both in our 30s and have been married for over 5 years. I just attribute it to my youthful glow, people can't possibly think a young spring chicken like myself purposely got pregnant.
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| I thought posting a wedding picture would make me feel a little less fat right now, and it did! |
Q: Are you still doing the 100 miler? Seriously, every family member and most friends went to this right away.
Reflecting on my surprise at the previous question, maybe that whole "signing up for a 100 miler" thing threw people off. It does seem like an odd juxtaposition - train for a race so long it takes two days while working on getting knocked up. Well, I've come to find out that this whole thing isn't as easy as high school health class/MTV reality shows suggest. In fact, the reason my training for the Stone Mill 50 miler back in November was lackluster was because I was sure I'd get pregnant and DNS. That clearly wasn't the case, so I decided I wasn't putting off any future plans just because MAYBE I'd be in the family way. I figured if I had to drop out of the race and concoct some story for the blog, well, that would be a "problem" I'd be thrilled to have, and I was right. Side note - if you have tons of time to spare and recheck my "foot injury" post, I worded everything very carefully and never actually lied!
That was long. The rest of the answers will be shorter. Probably.
Q: When are you due?
A: September 23!
Q: How far along are you?
A: 13 weeks - aka day 1 of the second trimester - a day I've looked forward to a ridiculous amount.
Q: Are you finding out the sex?
A: Um, yes. I'm pretty impatient. Waiting nearly 9 weeks to announce this on my blog nearly destroyed me. Eric is probably the most patient person on earth but he's dying to know too. My doctor said we could probably find out at 19 weeks, so not too far away!
Q: Is everything healthy?
A: So far - yes! Knock on wood! We saw the heartbeat at 8 weeks and heard it at 10 weeks - I've never had a clue it was possible to look forward to doctor's appointments.
Q: Have you been sick/had weird cravings/etc?
A: I really hate admitting this, although I love living it. Nope, no sickness. I've been eating completely normally, although I'm probably growing a 15 pound baby because I'm constantly starving. I've felt pretty much normal - I've heard a lot about this first trimester exhaustion, but I don't know, I've yet to meet any teacher who isn't exhausted. Any adult at all, really. (I pre-wrote this post on Saturday and then couldn't stay awake past 5pm Sunday, so clearly I jinxed myself.) Basically so far I hit the jackpot, and I'd really love it to continue for the next 20+ years with this kid.
The one strange thing is that after spending literally half my life devoted to coffee (ages 15-30, drink it by the gallon every morning, 6 years as a Starbucks barista, look forward to it before I go to bed, you get the picture), I thought it would be so hard to reduce. Well, now I hate coffee. When Eric makes it I barricade myself in another room and spray air freshener everywhere. So I did spend two weeks with headaches/fatigue, but I am attributing it to severe caffeine withdrawal. Now I have chai tea in the mornings. It's really not the same.
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| First stop after the Shamrock Marathon in 2011 |
Q: Is Eric excited?
A: I never really know how to answer this, so I might start saying something like "well, he's pissed that I tricked him, but he knows I could prove paternity, so he's basically backed into a corner".
Q: Are you still running?
So far, yes! I've been running, very slowly, usually with walk breaks about 4 times a week, and doing our after work boot camp twice a week. Don't expect any "OMG compliment me I'm such a badass" pregnant marathons, or even any double digit runs. I might rejoin Daily Mile now, and you can look forward to treadmill runs that are the length of whatever show I'm watching that day, at an undisclosed pace, for as long as I can keep it up. My doctor said to keep my heart rate under 150BPM. I've read that's outdated, but I trust my doctor, and I like having a nice, objective number to make sure I'm in the clear. Plus, I'm not sure what I would accomplish by letting it get a little higher - finishing my runs 1.5 minutes faster? Great.
A question I frequently ask myself is "am I showing yet?". It seems that when you start this whole process out without a flat stomach, a little food baby bump, if you will, it's hard to tell. That's not a plea for compliments, by the way, because lets be serious, I've sucked in my stomach on every picture I've posted on here, so they would be meaningless anyway. Just stating a fact - when you don't have washboard abs, it's harder to know when your natural bump is actually a baby bump. Some days my pants button fine and other days it's a stretch, so it seems to me that's probably more fat and less baby. So hopefully soon I'll be past that awkward "p or f" stage.
I think something is up with the blog. There's a HUGE gap between your "are you still running" and then "A question i frequently ask myself."
ReplyDeleteDon't get your hopes up about showing soon. I did and then had to wait in the awkward fat stage for months lol
Pretty sure I broke your blog-- half your post disappears as I scroll down!
ReplyDeleteI like your response to "Is Eric excited?" and I think you should use it. People can be so intrusive, and the nosy ones could use a jolt (with humor employed) of realization. Congratulations on your pregnancy! I just looked fatter until about month 7, so...there you go. ;)
ReplyDeleteOh man, I bet Kara is already making a calendar for play dates with Baby CIML and her girls. (CIML - Chocolate is my life. See what I did there?)
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to lie, I was expecting the less running/
ReplyDelete"foot injury" post to be a baby announcement. Then again with the post about enjoying running normal distances. But maybe that's just because I know like 8 people having babies this year so my baby radar is on high alert.
I've learned people have an inability to keep thoughts/opinions to themselves. Getting married yielded comments ranging from we dated too long before getting married to being too young to get married. Then it didn't take long for people to start asking when we were going to have kids. Maybe people thought it was a surprise/unplanned since you were signed up for the 100 miler? Meh.
Re: coffee. One of my friends went from coffee addict to coffee tasting metallic when she was pregnant.
My mom wasn't big on rehashing pregnancy details with us, but I distinctly remember hearing about her aversion to the smell of coffee when pregnant with my older sister. My dad had to take the coffee maker outside. In South Dakota, in the winter.
DeleteI'm just going to say congratulations. Again. I'm excited for you and Eric! (Is that weird if we've never met in real life? Oh well... you put it on the internet, so I'm allowed to be excited for you!) I love your answer to "Is Eric excited?" You should definitely go with that answer every time.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! I didn't guess at all so the announcement was a shock to me. I'm glad though because I was sort of sad that you went from training from a 100 miler (a goal of mine!) to the running blahs. This makes sense now.
ReplyDeleteI was training for a 100 while trying to get pregnant too. My attitude was that if I was meant to run it, I would. 3 months out and 1 week before a 50 miler that I spent many long hot months training for, I tested positive.
Really looking forward to seeing if you get back to ultras and can balance it with working FT. I try, but it is a struggle!
Congratulations! I'm due on Sept 21st and get weirdly excited reading about other people's pregnancies, especially since we are just in the early days of it not being top secret any more.
ReplyDeleteOops.. I was one of those family members who asked about the 100 miler. Or 100 Miller depending on how you look at it. If it is still a goal for you later in life, then it will be a goal of mine to make you a sign that says 100 MILLER.
ReplyDeletePlease do more Q&A's, I like these :) I will start it off by asking you the first question:
If L'4eous is the unborn's first name, what will the middle name be?
L'4eous?!?! This comment just made the whole post. I love your sister.
ReplyDeleteAlso I'm really happy that you guys are excited and everything is going well. Sounds like you are lucking out with the first trimester. CONGRATS! And I can't wait to hear if it's a boy or a girl. Are you going to share the name on the blog?