Today's WTF moments (edited version)

This is one of those days where it seems everyone on earth has conspired to annoy the crap out of me, and IT'S WORKING. Here's a few WTF moments I can share without getting fired or facing other consequences.

Please, please keep continuing to point out to me how hot I'll be when I'm pregnant in August. Because there's so much I can do about that, and it's BRAND NEW INFORMATION.

This is the one gif you're getting, enjoy it.

Yes, I am so dumb for planning it that way. Because my plan was totally focused on "what can pregnancy do for me?" and not at all "have a baby".

Also, according to blogs, I'm doing this all wrong and I'm supposed to be preparing a gift for my husband, to make his time in the delivery room more enjoyable. Silly me, I thought moving his son from the inside of my body to the outside was gift enough.

I'm sick of being stupid. I was all upset that the book that I wanted to read isn't available on kindle. Well, it is, I just either can't type the name in right or I lack reading comprehension. Or both. Also, I've had to edit this post twice now to add more WTF moments that I forgot.

I went to a 5:45 am class this morning and it was canceled. I didn't find out until I was at the gym without my phone or even headphones, so I was forced to use the elliptical in silence. I could only take 30 minutes of that.

I've now had this idiot's dog next door run at me barking wildly THREE times when I've left for work. I've had to frantically sprint back inside or to my car, whichever was closer. Last time he tried to tell me that his dog was a therapy dog, so it was fine. Oh, I guess if a complete stranger has some dumbass explanation for why their insane offleash dog tries to attack me, that's cool then. He tried to say his dog could help me with my intense dog phobia. Um, you know what does help me? Visiting my friend's dogs, since they've put in significant time and effort to train them and they don't try to attack strangers. The local animal control is very difficult to get ahold of, and he doesn't actually live next door, he works at the office building there. Now Eric just leaves at the same time as I do so he can walk me to my car to protect me. Don't worry though, vengeance WILL be mine.

Apparently I rely on the placebo effect of decaf coffee. I skipped it today to focus on water so I didn't get dehydrated and feel like crap, like yesterday. It worked, so yay, but I felt like I could fall asleep on my feet for like the first 3 hours at work.

Daycare. I called like 6 the other day and guess how many returned my calls? Zero. Apparently there are so many screwed parents who need childcare that they don't have to give a crap or operate in any sort of professional, businesslike manner. So that's awesome.

I'm getting literally hundreds of spam blog comments per day. I woke up yesterday to 277 of them, and it's averaging 50-100 an hour. I don't know how to fix this. Please help. I tried word verification and that didn't work.

That's probably sufficient for now. 2 more days until it's bachelorette weekend! Sorry there's no gifs in this post, I'm tired now.

Feel free to share one, or all, of your WTF moments of the week.

I wish I could quit you, caffeine

As I previously mentioned, I have a huge weekend coming up: my little sister's bridal shower and bachelorette party is on Saturday! SO. EXCITED.

I swear she is my little sister, I'm just really short

 I'm spending this week preparing in the traditional ways. More importantly, I'm abstaining from all caffeine until the big day. That way, I can have all of my weekly allowance while partying, if needed. It's hard enough trying to keep up with girls in their early 20s in your 30s to begin with. Add in simultaneously trying to create life, and it's a recipe for falling asleep on the dance floor. I plan to keep up a steady regiment of diet cokes in order not to miss any fun.

Fun. #proof #primeofmybeaver

I don't have to worry about staying awake to drive though, because we have a limo taking us out on the town. I've been in limos only a few times in my whole life, and I think the only time I had an extended limo experience was my junior prom, which turned out to be pretty sub par. This will obviously be much better. Imagine a prom picture posted here, except I don't have any and it was back before digital cameras existed (at least in my world).

Unrelated, but it took me a really long time to find appropriate pictures to post.

I found a dress that fits, and also accentuates the blessings that pregnancy brings to your body, and I mean that literally. Bonus - I already own it. It still fit this past Saturday, so let's all cross our fingers for just four more days.

I've given up caffeine several times during this pregnancy. You would think I would just quit it entirely, but I really, really love coffee, and I swear I can tell the difference with decaf. I've learned that cutting down from tons of caffeine to only a tiny bit is shockingly easy. Cutting back from that little tiny bit to nothing is horrible and results in like 5 days of withdrawal. I keep doing it to myself because I don't learn.

In the same vein, this morning I did have to quit my run. I've complained excessively about how running is uncomfortable, but this time it was making everything feel really tight and crampy, and it just didn't seem right. I turned around after half a mile and ran/walked back home, and then did 20 minutes on the elliptical. Dr. Google diagnosed me with Braxton Hicks contractions. I thought those were supposed to hit when you're about ready to pop, but the internet said they were normal in the second trimester, so add that to my list of surprises.

The tight, uncomfortable feeling persisted throughout the school day, which I mention because it seems that a lot of commenters have been pregnant and can tell me if it's normal. It seems dehydration can cause it, and I find there's only so hydrated you can get in a small 90 degree classroom with 24 kids. Lying down seems to alleviate things as well, which also isn't an option during the workday, so I'll take this as God punishing me for not marrying rich. It wasn't painful, just annoying, and yet I still reserve the right to whine. Oh, and one other thing, now average sized meals leave me Thanksgiving level full. Normal?

Another fun thing going on this week is that Bank of America called me yesterday to inform me they were canceling my debit card. Apparently a merchant that I used it to purchase something from is under investigation for a breech of security. Which merchant is a huge secret and they refused to tell me, so I'll cross my fingers that none of you shop there. So now I have no debit card for this upcoming weekend out of state. Do you think I can work it enough to get free diet cokes all night?

Furthermore, I really wanted to read "This American Wife" but it's only available in the old fashioned paper version? There's no kindle version available. I may have spent over 20 years reading books that way, but once you go electronic, you can't go back. So now I don't know what to do.

On the bright side, I can now see kicks from the outside, so I spent a significant portion of my three day weekend just staring at my belly. He seems to sense as soon as I call Eric over to see and stops right away. Tricky.

What was the last occasion that called for a limo in your life?

I like books more than people (sometimes)

I've been enjoying a glorious weekend of three of my favorite things: sleeping, reading, and very little human interaction. Actually four, if you count the fact that I went to Wegmans last night.



Replace "scotch" with "sleep" for my philosophy on life. Yes, I know I'm choosing to give it up forever.

I've been continuing to go outside the box with workouts (meaning stuff other than running/workout DVDs). Friday morning, I actually strapped on a maternity bathing suit and swam laps. It was my first swim workout since my triathlon heyday of 2012.

Swimming is hard. I went in with the idea of trying to make it 30 minutes. After awhile, my arms were on fire, and I was exhausted, so I checked my watch. I was 6 minutes in.

I made it to 30, and it was rough, but also weirdly enjoyable. I've heard that as you get really big it's one of the most sustainable workouts, so I'm hoping I can continue with that after running and I part ways.

Saturday, I met my BFF Casi insanely early (before 8am on a holiday weekend) for a boot camp workout. Baltimore does a wellness series in the summer so you can go to all sorts of free, outdoor workouts on weekend mornings.

The boot camp was filled with a ton of activities that looked easy and then hurt like hell. I wore my heart rate monitor, but there were a lot of upper body things that were so painful, but didn't get your heart rate up, so I had no excuse not to do them.

On the bright side, we were working out to this view.

#nofilter

There was also a heavy kickboxing portion, and everyone loves a good pretend beat down to all the people who have passed you off throughout the week.

Sunday was a rest day, but I did walk to Ross Dress for Less to use gift cards to get some much bigger (much needed) pairs of shorts. As far as I know, the baby doesn't reside in my thighs, and yet my running shorts aren't fitting there so well. Obviously the waistbands weren't working for me anymore, either.

Saturday and Sunday I returned to my old self and drank my coffee the way God intended. (Well, it's decaf, which is a crime against nature, but still, it's black).

I used my favorite city mug to celebrate.

For some reason today I was back to putting half and half in it. I don't get it.

My hours of reading have been devoted to both fiction and nonfiction. My nonfiction selection is a book on breastfeeding, and my fiction choice is Lonesome Dove.

My mom recommended it to me. It's not my usual genre of choice (it's an action packed Western), but that's what I first said about Game of Thrones and we see what happened there. It is similar to Game of Thrones in terms of length, excessive number of characters, and GRRM's "no one is safe" style. I've been loving it, plus I can watch the miniseries on Netflix with Eric after I'm done.

I'm 89% finished with it now so the anxiety of "what am I going to read next" has begun. It's a real problem in my life, especially after a long book like this where I've become attached to the characters.

Today I'll mostly be getting stuff ready for my sister's bridal shower and bachelorette party this weekend! Also, hopefully doing grad work. Not that I ever want to, but my summer class officially starts tomorrow so I'd like to get that crap out of the way before the festivities this weekend, so I'm hoping they posted the assignments early.

Name five fictional characters you'd rather spend your holiday weekend with than actual people.

 

Some random pregnancy thoughts

Sometimes I get freaked out thinking OMG I'm about to be responsible for another human FOREVER. I hope this is normal. But I found a cure for this anxiety. Baby leggings. I started browsing them last night and they are so freaking cute. I stayed up an hour past my bedtime, but it was so worth it.

Baby hats are a VERY close second. My teammate just gave me a whole bunch of amazingly cute ones. Here's my favorite.

The little spikes. I die.

I called a daycare center and left a message saying that my husband and I would need care for our son and then I was like WTF AM I SAYING it sounded so weird that I could barely leave my phone number after that.

I can feel him moving all the time now and I love it so much. It's usually just sort of random weirdness but occasionally I can feel harder movements that I assume are kicks/punches. Eric has felt some too!

I joined a gym. Rejoined the YMCA, actually. It's across the street, somewhat cheap, and there's no joining fee so I can just do a month to month and quit when the baby arrives. I'd been considering it for awhile, with running getting on my nerves more and more. It's actually felt good recently, but I don't have any delusions that will last.

Last night I went to Body Sculpt, a weight lifting class. I figured I'd just do what I could and modify as necessary, but it was almost all upper body work so I actually could do all the moves. Not that I was lifting heavy weights, but you get the idea. This morning, I went to spin class. I forgot how much I loooove spin class. I think it was the first prego workout where I actually looked forward to the future when I can go full force. Usually I'm 100% comfortable half assing and phoning it in. I think this YMCA think is a good move.

I went to dinner with some friends after work at Corner Bakery and got desserts to bring home for me and Eric. I got him a chocolate chip cookie, and me a lemon bar. I choose lemon over chocolate, no regrets. Hormones are so weird.

Speaking of hormones, there's no middle ground any more between "slightly sad" and "sobbing". I started seriously crying at the end of Game of Thrones when they flashed the "3 episodes left".

Full disclosure - I have tears in my eyes just writing that.

My class is reading The Watson go to Birmingham. If you're not familiar, it's historical fiction dealing with the Birmingham church bombing that killed four black girls in 1963. As we got closer and closer to the chapter with the bombing, I was getting pretty nervous about teaching such a sad topic. It got to the point where I was crying just planning the lesson. I finally had to have my coworker take over and teach that day while I just sat in silence and tried to hold it together. Shining moment in my career.

I am slowly transitioning to maternity clothes. I only have one pair of pants that fit, length wise, and I am trying to just drag out my previously owned flowy dresses long enough to make it past pants season. It's practically memorial day, so I think I'm almost safe. 16 more days of school/"professional" outfits before I can wear pajamas 24/7.

Here's my one pair of maternity pants. Ignore my hair and face, this is how people look after a day of chasing children. I'll look better when I'm relaxed in the summer.

I think I had more but, pregnancy brain, and that's probably enough rambling anyway.

What anxiety keeps you up at night? Mine is often really mundane, like I'll wake up at 2am and realize I forgot to do some stupid paperwork and then be up for an hour and hate myself for failing at sleep.

 

This guy is a master

Once again, real life responsibilities get in the way of blogging. I thought I'd have all this free time on my grad-school free week, but regular work stepped up and took over. I'm not actually that busy, but when you fall asleep on the couch at 7:30 pm, it makes the day seem really short.

This past weekend, Eric went to go see Godzilla. I almost went with him, but then I remembered I hate people, movies, sitting upright, and IMAX. Instead, I spent Saturday afternoon running on the NCR trail (read: flat and shady) and shopping at Wegmans.

Sunday was a big day.



It was Eric's graduation from his master's program! Insert long paragraph here about all his hard work and how proud I am that random blog readers don't care about. Don't worry, he doesn't read and I've shared my thoughts with him in person, because we live together and I can do that.

Not only did he graduate - he joined instagram. A big day all around. Feel free to follow him at eric.lindsey.771.

Selfishly, I'm excited about getting to spend nights and weekends with him again. Also selfishly, I'm horribly jealous because I'm still not done with my masters and I started first.

One exciting moment in my life was trying to bring that water bottle in. They tried to deny me, but I told them I was pregnant and I needed it. The guy looked me up and down in a fairly creepy way and then allowed it. For a moment I thought he was going to outright call me a liar, but he DIDN'T. Also at dinner a random stranger asked me if I was expecting, SO THERE RANDOM CREEPY GRADUATION DOORGUY WITH AN INFLATED EGO.

I didn't really need the water, but I didn't feel like buying an overpriced one inside and I'm coming to realize there's an extremely limited time you can actually milk pregnancy to get favors.

Eric's family visited from Ohio for the big occasion and anytime people come from out of state, there's only one way to celebrate. Crab cakes (or actual crab, so technically two ways).

Photography courtesy of our waitress. You'd think she might have mentioned that my MIL was half hidden.

I'm an amazing wife, so I designed Eric a shirt on etsy to celebrate his new title and included it in the "relax" gift basket I gave him. The rest of the basket was basically junk food and a massage gift card.

It's especially great because it has a subtle double meaning.

Is it just me, or do weeks before a three day weekend go by exceptionally slow?

Do you enjoy graduations? It was fun going to Eric's, but I think I'm done with them for myself. Apparently I can attend one for my masters degree in August, but I'm heavily leaning towards no.

First world pain makes life so hard

The first world pain I’ve had to deal with has been terrible this week.

First of all, grad school. I’ve complained about this numerous times in the past. Luckily, I am now on a 12 day break before the summer semester starts. Even more luckily, my summer class is 7 weeks, and then I can kiss higher education goodbye forever and never learn again.

But for now, it takes up time that could otherwise be spent sleeping, reading, or generally being lazy. Wednesday night, I had to give my capstone presentation (basically a project summing up all my work for the past four years). While public speaking is on par with the dentist in terms of fun activities for me, it gets worse. The presentations lasted until past 9pm.

I can barely make it until 9pm to watch TV (actually, can’t make it), so being engaged in professional/academic discussions was a major problem for me. Thank god my friend offered to drive so my life was not at risk, but it was still brutal.

While I was writing this post, things went downhill. First, our internet stopped working. For someone who enjoys screwing around on the internet as much as I do, that essentially ruins my evening. After 25 minutes on the phone with Comcast where they pretend to try things that everyone knows aren’t real and never work, they finally agreed to send out a technician. After I informed them that three days of no internet was unacceptable (obvi), they suggested this genius plan.

“We’ll just take your number, and call you tomorrow in the morning or afternoon if the technician gets a cancellation and he can come over!”. Great, except I have this highly unusual situation that would prevent success here. It’s called a job. I can’t blame them for being confused, I’m sure they deal with so few customers who are unavailable between the hours of 8am and 5pm.

After another long wait, the guy finally came back on the line to tell me he had an appointment for me Friday after work. Then, of course, the call was dropped.

I finally got someone else on the line. While I was giving him my information, A MOUSE RAN ACROSS THE ROOM. Right where I’d just been laying on the floor, because Comcast guy kept asking me questions about the modem and putting me on hold and bending down was uncomfortable and I was tired.

While I could barely focus on what the new guy was saying, I managed to get that despite the previous guy telling me there were no outages in our area, there was, in fact, an outage causing the problem. So no modem replacement or appointment or nonsense was needed. I better be able to stream Buffy on my run tomorrow.

Which left me to focus on the new crisis – rodent infiltration. Now, I don’t have a specific fear of rodents. In fact, at our old house, we had numerous mice and giant rats and saw them pretty much on a daily basis. The same goes for my classroom, except it’s mice and cockroaches instead of rats. One time I took a picture of a mouse running around while I was eating my lunch and showed it to my class in a plea for them to stop sneaking food in.

But I’ve never had one this close to my bedroom (our old house was 3 stories and they mainly hung out downstairs). Also I was having a weird freak out that it would still be here in 5 months, but much bigger, and attack the baby. And that scene with Polliver on Game of Thrones still haunts me.

There's a mouse inside that bucket. Now you are all afraid of mice too.

I called Eric on his way home and told him the terrible story. He offered a variety of solutions, like buying traps, putting in a work order to catch it, sleeping in our cars (actually that one was my idea). He didn’t seem to understand what I wanted, which was the mouse to instantly disappear in front of my eyes so I could be assured it was gone and there was no messy cleanup. (I once arrived at work to find TWO live mice on sticky traps next to my desk. NO. )

The week hasn’t been all bad. I had a great run Wednesday, and good workout (kickboxing DVD) Thursday. I was really concerned about seeing all my grad school buddies last night for the first time since December (this semester was more like an independent study). I’m still not really showing, and I was concerned they would just all think I got kind of fat. I said I don’t care if strangers think that, and I don’t, but I know and like these people. Luckily, right away everyone said congrats and asked when I was due and stuff, so apparently if I dress right it’s clear that I’m P, not F. 

The baby, and my sweet sunburn.

Don't judge us for taking cutesy chalkboard pics, this is the first one I've shared on social media and I don't plan to continue. They are just for us to save in a file on the computer and probably never look at again.

Another high point of the week is that the baby has been moving like crazy. Later on, can you distinguish specific movements? Like, “oh, that was a kick! That’s a hand! He rolled over!” or whatever?

I’m just going to pray that the mouse doesn’t eat through my chest and I don’t have to face further trauma by trying to exercise without Netflix in the morning. Update: (I wrote this post Thursday night in word and saved it to the flashdrive since I couldn't use blogger, horrible, I KNOW) the mouse has been apprehended and I was able to enjoy some vampire slaying on the treadmill this morning.

What’s the worst infestation you have dealt with/don't want to deal with in your home?

Hodor

Happy Mother's Day! It's a little intimidating now that I'm officially applying for the job. Luckily I've had some time to study the world's best role models.

It's been an unusual week of Instagram worthy photos, and when you don't have children, pets, and are against gratuitous selfies, that's kind of a big deal.

On Wednesday, we celebrated our healthy baby BOY in the best way - with tons of food. Our absolute favorite food ever is Ethiopian, and we had been saving a Groupon for a new place downtown.

Doesn't look appetizing, but bread is the utensil. Enough said.

Then we used a gift card to "toast". Note to self - this is the best gift for a pregnant woman.

I got lemon custard, no chocolate?!

Friday night, we celebrated my friend Angela's birthday on Baltimore's Pirate Cruise.

You get pirate outfits, pirate tattoos, and pirate photobombs.

Birthday girl and Eric manning the cannons

The cruise is essentially an adult frat party on water, so going sober could have gone either way. While the jokes the pirates told weren't as funny as I remembered, it was still a good time. Plus, Eric got a DD and I felt great the next morning. Win win.

Since I'm done racing for probably the rest of the calendar year, I spent the rest of the weekend living vicariously. My BFF Casi ran her first marathon today!

She ran the Delaware Marathon, along with her cousin. I ran it last year with Kari and Ashley, and we all had awful races, so I had no qualms about staying on the sidelines this year.

2013 - so happy...before. Also, so skinny, compared to our most recent get together.

2014 - so happy.... the whole time.

I spent Saturday night in Delaware helping the marathoners carb load, and then ate Reese's Pieces in the glorious hotel bed while watching Forrest Gump. The baby is clearly a peanut butter fan, because he was going crazy and moving more than I've ever felt him.

The race began at 7, and my alarm went off at 5:50. I woke up, then realized that one of the many advantages to cheering, not running, was getting up at a normal human time. I went back to sleep until 8.

Kara came up with this genius sign idea.

I knew it wasn't for everyone, but I was going for that "OMG AMAZING" reaction from the runners who do make good choices in life and entertainment. It turned out that describes exactly one Delaware marathoner. Based on the likes I got on FB and IG, something doesn't add up.

I made the other side "normal" when I wanted a break from the confused looks.

 

My favorite running buddy, Lily, and I have done a lot of running and racing together, but never spectating. We staked out a spot at mile 14/16 (out and back) and had fun screaming all the marathoners' names. I love when they put them on the bibs. We had a pretty gorgeous view of the water and the weather was perfect for cheering (horrible for running, thank god I wasn't doing that).

 

Despite a crazy hot day after a long, cold training season, Casi looked great and finished strong!

 

Our grueling cheering schedule didn't allow time for meal breaks. Lily's aunt saved our lives by bringing us clementines and tiny drinkable yogurts. I'd never seen such a thing, but she assured me I would once I was a mother.

That fueled us enough to do a 30 minute run. I don't know how the marathoners did it, that was more than enough for me. I'm starting to understand the side eyes I get when telling people about my hobby.

I get a lot of grief from my friends, coworkers, students, strangers, etc for my devotion to sunscreen, even those in the medical profession! Well, it's not just for fun. Check out what happens when I miss a spot.

 

 

Now I'm striped.

 Since my own child is only halfway cooked, I was counting on next year being my first official Mother's day, and just focused on celebrating my own mother and MIL. But I got some sweet texts and Eric surprised me with a really thoughtful card (he's more the funny card type, so it was notable). He also got me two little gifts.

 

This was one.

At first I wasn't sure where to wear this item, but I decided it was perfect for some sort of pregnant bachelorette party. I already have one fellow knocked up friend committed.

 

 

What's your favorite ethnic cuisine?

Sunscreen - yay or nay? Call me crazy, but skin cancer sounds terrible.

 

 

 

It's a......

For all those who commented saying Mother's Intuition was not to be taken lightly...you were right!

If you could ignore my face in this photo and focus on the cute clothes, that would be great. 

Blue outfits - because it's a boy!!! (I changed my outfit the second we got home to match/celebrate.

I got some confusion on this on social media, but hey, I'm a teacher, I can't just spell everything out for people. I need to give just enough information for you to draw your own conclusions, at which point I will give you a high five and a gold star.

After last week's sonogram debacle, I was hesitant to tell people that we had rescheduled for Wednesday at 9am (that didn't really stop me though, I still told basically everyone I know). I've been really solid on the boy prediction, up until this past week, when I started to waver just a bit. Last night though, I had two very vivid dreams of being in the sonogram and finding out it's a boy. One also involved me getting up from the table in my underwear and seeing my boss. This doesn't really make sense because 

1. Why would she be there?
2. There aren't other people in the room creepily watching you during a sonogram.
3. You don't disrobe for a sonogram (at least in my experience).

Although that made me question the veracity of the dreams a tad, I still felt pretty positive that the boy part would be accurate. 

Our appointment was at 9, so I was super excited to sleep in on a Wednesday. Then I woke up out of one deep "it's a boy" dream at 5:30am and couldn't fall back asleep. I decided to just take advantage of the early daylight and go for a run. It wasn't a particularly pleasant one (3.5 miles), despite the perfect weather. But I did start listening to a new audiobook that my aunt recommended. It's a YA book about humans and dragons, so basically my two favorite things in the whole wide world (Hunger Games and Game of Thrones) combined.

For the failed appointment, they had told me to arrive with a full bladder, or what I like to call "my whole life these days". When I rescheduled, they didn't mention that, but I did it anyway to be on the safe side (and also because, as I said, it's just a constant state currently). It was pretty uncomfortable, and I was pretty nervous about laying there letting someone press on it for an hour.

As soon as the tech got started, she commented on it and told me it wasn't necessary. We stopped for a bathroom break. I probably couldn't have been happier if she had told me we were the 1000th sonogram and had just won a free trip to Disney World.

HE was moving like crazy the whole time. Modern technology is freaking crazy. We got to see the spine, organs, brain, palette, count all the fingers and toes - it was amazing. I'm sure this isn't news to most people but we were pretty fascinated by it. Everything is measuring right on target and looks healthy - jackpot. 

I would say probably 200-300 people warned us we might not be able to see the necessary items to determine the sex, which we appreciated each and every time. It turned out not to be a problem. The tech told us we wouldn't find out until near the end of the sonogram, but he turned and showed off the goods without us even asking. The tech was suddenly like "now you can see the gender!" and we were like "uhhhhh.....we can?". Once she explained everything it was pretty clear, and it was hard to focus on the rest of the sonogram after that.

But this happened, and it brought me back to reality pretty quick - HOW CUTE IS THAT???

We called our parents in the car, and headed straight to Babies R Us to finally pick out some gender specific outfits! One each - this boy already has so many adorable hand-me-downs coming his way.

Probably should have put those sunglasses on my face. #prime

Yup

It's really strange after 16 weeks of saying "it" or "the baby" to switch to "he". When the tech pointed out the  eye sockets, I asked if he could see (since my google search this weekend proved inconclusive). When the tech pointed out the  eye sockets, I asked if he could see (since my google search this weekend proved inconclusive). Eric thought I was asking if he (Eric) could see the screen - with the ultrasound images.

When we got home, we continued the celebration by scheduling our childbirth, newborn, and breastfeeding classes at the hospital. It's still hard to shake the feeling like this is all a joke or I'm just a kid pretending to play house, but little by little it's starting to feel a tiny bit more like real life.

I know gender reveal parties are popular, but I couldn't imagine finding out with a whole bunch of people watching me. This was perfect and happened just the way I always imagined – just me, my beloved husband, and a stranger holding a wand on my lube covered belly.  

We're halfway there

Today is the 20 week mark! For those not in the know, like my husband, your due date is on the day you hit 40 weeks. This makes today the halfway point!

Today is also one of my favorite days of the year: field day. I usually participate like crazy and race all my boys, but this year it would have just been embarrassing (they always beat me, but usually I can at least hold my own).

I had a great week of runs last week. My total was somewhere around 22 miles, which might even be a pregnancy high, too bad I'm too lazy to actually check. Naturally, that meant it all came crumbling down this week. Getting out of bed sucked even more than usual. Monday I did 30 Day Shred (a 25 minute workout) in the am, and an on demand "Skinnygirl" yoga workout in the pm. Tuesday I attempted to run 5 miles. I made it 2.5. My body was just really, really pissed about the fact that I was attempting to run, and not sleep. But I did spend 7 hours chasing children around outside, so there is that.

As if hitting the 20 week mark (I have serious been looking forward to that for some time now) AND field day wasn't exciting enough, I got THREE gifts this morning before the bell even rang, and I'd like to brag about them.

From my secret random acts of kindness pal at work. Naturally I ate half the bag at lunch and then felt ill, because I'm wise and make smart choices.

From my awesome teammate! More baby books to read this summer! Now I need a food processor....

 

The last one is from my college interns - I have amazing interns this semester, which is gift enough, and I don't even mean that sarcastically. Apparently my baby bump is somewhat visible because they caved and asked me if was expecting last week, after suspecting for awhile. They gave me this adorable gift card today!

The wise choice would be to save this and not blow it all on cute clothes. I don't make wise choices (see above).

It's funny how being asked about your baby bump when you are actually pregnant isn't offensive or upsetting at all! Side note - the person who asked me about it in August noted last week that she was a little early with her congrats. Yeah, just like five months, totally NBD.

Some other random crap I'd like to share:

1. My #1 pregnancy pain is being clumsy, because it causes me to injure myself in really dumb ass ways. For reasons that are complicated and boring to explain, on Sunday I crushed my finger under the heavy laptop and lap desk, and couldn't get it out for a minute. To make matters worse, I still don't bruise, evidently, so I don't even have a battle scar to legitimize the agony I experienced, AND Eric was taking a nap at the time so I didn't even have anyone to whine and cry to.

Then last night, I tripped and slammed my foot into the lap desk for the tablet (totally different item). The bright spot was that this time I have something to show for it. I hate when people post wound pictures, but then I realized that meant I've looked at enough, so I'm sharing mine. You've been warned.



It hurt.

2. Chipotle was BOGO today for teacher appreciation day. We may work thankless jobs with crappy pay and suffer bladder infections from never getting to pee, but dammit one day a year we get a free burrito (with the purchase of an equally priced burrito). Good thing I chatted with Eric a bit before he lapsed into his post burrito coma.

 



Two hours later, he hasn't moved.

3. We are also halfway through season 4 of Game of Thrones. This is very sad news and something we shouldn't dwell on because it's just too upsetting. Now that the series is deviating somewhat significantly from the books, I will be enforcing a social media blackout each week starting at 9pm on Sunday night until we watch (usually Monday night). I deleted my twitter and Facebook apps right on time this week. After 24 hours of going dark, it turned out no one noticed, I missed nothing, and my life didn't change at all.

 

While I was suffering from intense pain due to my injuries, I was really focused on thinking about all the Game of Thrones battle wounds/torture and how much more THEY must have hurt.

What's your bright spot and annoyance today?

 

 

Fetuses can see light, apparently

I got myself pretty psyched up for a lame weekend. My capstone project for my entire master's program is due tomorrow at midnight, which I've probably mentioned a million times this week. That's because writing a blog post, or cleaning the toilet, or organizing my apps on my phone, or things of that nature suddenly took precedence over actually, you know, just doing the damn project. The problem was that the bulk of the writing was essentially done, it was just honing and perfecting it left on my to do list, which I really hate.

My twitter was recently hacked. Or something. Every time I signed on, I was following an extra 100-150 new accounts that I'd never heard of, and often were not in English.

 

I dealt with this problem the usual way, by deleting the twitter app from my phone and all other devices, and hoping it went away, but no matter how many time I unfollowed all the weird crap, it kept coming back. Having a deadline for actual work looming gave me the motivation to finally deal with this tragic, terrible problem, and knock on wood it seems to be fixed. Which unfortunately meant I had to return to the task at hand.

I overcame this adversity and had a great weekend, and it's only noon on Sunday and my project is very, very close to being done.

On Friday, the weather was gorgeous and Eric suggested going for a walk after dinner. If you know him in person, you may realize this is shocking. He prefers manly, crossfit type exercise. At least that's how I understand it from him telling me about his workouts when he gets home, and clicking "mark as read" any time I see a blog post referencing crossfit. At any rate, lots of grunting and lifting heavy objects, or at the very least, some type of highly competitive ball game.

We went for a nice 45 minute-ish walk (didn't bring the Garmin, or even a watch or phone!) and it was just lovely. When we got home, the real fun started. We were laying down talking (because sitting up just requires too much effort, we had both been upright at work all day, enough is enough). Eric had his hand on my belly, which sounds really weird but I think/hope it's normal when there's a baby in there.

WE BOTH FELT THE BABY MOVE!

Like most first time expectant mothers, I'd been waiting/dreaming/imagining this for quite awhile now, and wondering if every single thing I felt was the baby, and frequently trying to feel it only to confuse my own heartbeat with baby movements. My doctor said it probably wouldn't happen until 20-24 weeks (19 now). This time, it was unmistakable, but we both jumped anyway and had a surreal "was that you?" conversation. Obviously this made no sense and there was only one thing it could possible be, but it was so strange and unlike anything I'd ever felt before that it was hard to believe even with hard evidence.

Friday night was a one and done. My sister recommended shining a flashlight at my belly, apparently the baby will see it and try to kick it. It worked for her, and I tried it Saturday night, and it (eventually) worked for me too! The first time (Friday night, when we both felt it) I was shocked and excited, but I felt a few kicks/whatevers on Saturday and got totally creeped out. That probably sounds horrible, but as wonderful as it is, it's freaking weird to have a human being moving inside your body, especially when you aren't used to it. I'll still be hoping to feel it again tonight, though!

While my weekend was mainly grad work, ensuring my ability to tweet wasn't compromised, and attempting to provoke my fetus, I did take a break from these activities to binge watch trash TV. Not just on my own, like I normally do, but as a planned event with my absolute, number 1 BFF in the entire world, John Williams. We kindly let his very pregnant wife and our other friend Casi join us. Our goal was to watch all of Marriage Bootcamp, season 1 (on Netflix, BTW). One of the DJs from the radio program that I'm obsessed with, and we were on last week, NBD, is on the show.

Sadly, we failed. There are ten hour long episodes, and even though we each watched the first episode prior to getting together, it was still too much. Casi's in marathon training, Carolyn and I are growing humans, and John has put together some baby stuff, leaving us all exhausted. Even fueling with Thai food and sundaes, we only made it through six episodes.

Are you a procrastinator like me?

What's the last show you binge watched? I guess if your answer to the first question is no, maybe this doesn't apply to you, but that's a life I know nothing about.

Running is hard, then and now

Once upon a time, this was a running blog. Now, I'm not really sure what it is, just one of many "random rambling" type blogs, I guess. But, for old time's sake, let's talk about running a little.

It's really weird and surprising to me that I'm nearly at the halfway point of this baby making adventure, and I still feel like I would be a solid contender for "I didn't know I was pregnant". I mean, yeah, almost none of my pants button, but it's not like I'd be the first American to ever experience such a thing.

The one major difference is running. It's not like running has ever been effortless for me, but it's a whole new ballgame now. I said at the beginning that I would only run until it became too uncomfortable, and then it was out. I said that was fine with me, and I meant it. I guess I had in my head that I would make it until at least like, 30 weeks before that happened though. I started seriously considering giving it up here in the teen weeks, and I'm really not cool with that. Apparently I like it more than I thought.

Here's what I've noticed about pregnant running (warning - a lot of it has to do with peeing).

• Speed. My old easy pace now feels like a sprint. My new pace (I won't say easy) is something I didn't even realize was a running pace before. It started right away, before I even found out at 4 weeks, and continued to decline. This isn't particularly troublesome, I didn't plan on setting any new PRs. I've kept my daily exercise time roughly the same, so now that time just allows for fewer miles.
• Walking. It now happens on every run. Even with my new slower pace, my HR still gets above what my doctor recommended, so I take walk breaks to get it back down. I used to HATE walk breaks, but now I pretty much live for them.
• Breathing. My lung capacity seems to have been cut in half immediately following conception. When I gave the Maryland state assessment, I have to read several pages of directions allowed, and I kept having to stop to gasp for air this year. During running it's even worse. Someone explain this please, because the state tests were when the baby was still like the size of a grape.
• Bathroom requirements. This is my major issue. I've been renowned among my friends for years about my extraordinarily small bladder. I've always out-peed every pregnant person I've ever hung out with, even within weeks of their due date. I literally have never, ever made it through an entire night without getting up to pee, even on Tylenol PM or codeine. Now, I enjoy about five minutes after every bathroom break where I don't have to pee before the urge hits me again. Running now creates this crazy pressure against my bladder so I constantly feel that "OMG I gotta pee NOW" sensation. This happens even when it's empty, so I can't even fix the problem by just stopping and finding a bathroom. I've been advised to just ignore it, but it's really hard to ignore a feeling that my brain has spent the past 30 years conditioned to attend to IMMEDIATELY. I usually make it a mile on the treadmill before I cry uncle and waste time on a pee break that I don't actually need.

That's about it for now. I haven't really had any round ligament pain while running, it seems to only hit with sudden movements, like hopping up from the couch. To deal with the annoyance, I switched to running every other day. In between, I've been doing Jillian Michaels DVDs. If this keeps up, it's possible that I wouldn't lose an arm wrestling contest with my baby, if such a thing were possible. I'm considering joining a gym to do some swimming and yoga and stuff.

Today, I shockingly had a GREAT run. I ran 2 miles without a break, and ran for an extra half of a Buffy episode (1.5 total) for a whopping five whole miles!

I reflected in the shower, and came up with two possible reasons.

1. Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment, and she assured me I wasn't doing any permanent damage to my bladder by running (she couldn't make the same guarantee for pregnancy), so maybe that gave me the mental boost I needed. I was sure I was setting myself up for a lifetime of embarrassing incontinence.
2. I had a McFlurry last night. I really wanted one and that fact that it was pouring rain didn't stop me from sending Eric. I had a Mcflurry the night before I unexpected PR'd the 10k last year, so clearly it's a recipe for success. To test it out, I bought some ice cream on my way home from work.

What's your favorite/least favorite type of exercise? My favorite is clearly running, least favorite is probably boring weight lifting in the free weight area.