Tuesday, February 28, 2017

16 & 17 Weeks: Pregnancy Update

These weeks are seriously flying by. I can't believe it was 2 weeks ago since I last did an update!

A few weeks ago, I was all about saying how unhappy I was with my growing belly. More with the shape of it as opposed to just growing a baby. I wanted to be a "pretty pregnant woman" with a nice "round" belly. And I felt as though I had some weird "2 belly" thing going on.

Since then, I've been trying to be kinder to myself. It's a baby. My "top" belly is not just food. It's actually really firm and is growing a human being! It's a beautiful pregnant belly and I should be happy that we are both healthy, no matter whether it's the "perfect" shaped pregnant belly or not! So let's just all be kinder to ourselves and our bodies, pregnant or not! Right??  Ok, back to the update!


17 Weeks (plus my cat Hazel)
How far along/size of baby: I'm 17 weeks 3 days today. Baby is the size of a pomegranate (or a turnip or a pear...depending on what app/website you look at). The baby measures around 5 inches and 5 ounces. I had to go back and double check my last post because at 15 weeks, baby was 4 inches and 2.5 ounces. That means the baby just double it's weight in 2 weeks!

Courtesy of "The Bump" app
Total weight gain: No new info. I have a doctor appointment on Monday. As of last time my weight gained since my first doctor visit mid December was about 9 pounds. I expect it to have gone up a couple pounds.

Maternity clothes: No but I really need to start. I ordered a pair of jeans and workout capris online and bought a tank top and casual shirt at target. I desperately want to get some maternity work pants because I just can't deal with a button and zipper squeezing my belly anymore! (Edited: bought 2 pairs of work pants tonight. I can bet you I'll be wearing one of them tomorrow!)

Sleep: About the same. Some nights are better than others but I at least get up 2 times a night. Sometimes a lot more.

Best moment of the past 2 weeks: Not much as happened although I'm definitely getting bigger. Not sure if I have a "best" moment these past 2 weeks though. Whomp whomp. Definitely next time! (Edited: We got our first baby onsies as a gift! SOOOOO CUTE!)

Miss anything: Not really.

Movement: Nope.  But I'm patiently waiting! Hopefully soon!

Symptoms: So many... Out of breath frequently (like just walking down the hall). And I believe I was having some round ligament pain on Monday. That was not much fun. I've definitely also got "pregnancy brain." I forgot to take off my shoes at the beginning of my barre class once (and you are supposed to be in just socks), and sometimes I forget the names of my coworkers when I go to say "hi" to them. "Hi!... Uh..." *Walk Away* Oops.  Otherwise, normal fatigue and some headaches. A little lower backache sometimes but nothing to be concerned about.

Food cravings: Not a whole lot these days. Just food.  Give me all the food.

Anything making you queasy or sick: I think my aversions are going away. Nothing is really making my stomach churn. But nothing is really sounding outstandingly appetizing either. Except maybe pineapple and grapes. Yum!

Have you started to show yet: Yes. So much yes. I thought it was just a food belly but it's not. I have gotten so much bigger in the last two weeks. And I feel it.

Gender: Not sure yet. Finding out March 21st!  My guess would be a boy.
Belly button in or out: In. Hopefully this never changes.

Wedding rings on or off: On.

Happy or moody most of the time: Mostly happy.

Exercise: Same as before. Trying to stay active. Running 2x a week, did a prenatal kickboxing video. I try to walk at least 10-20 minutes on lunch at work when it's nice out. I am giving myself an extra day of rest after my long run (8 miles) this past Sunday. I think my body needs it these days.
Looking forward to: Feeling a kick! Come on baby! Tell me you're there!  Also, finding out the gender.


Anyone want to venture a guess as to the gender of the baby?? 

Monday, February 20, 2017

My Workout Routine

I mentioned in my last post that I was still working out regularly even though I was pregnant. I still work out about 5 days per week right now, although my intensity level has decreased some (with good reason, obviously). It's my first pregnancy and so figuring out what workouts are good to do or what things might not be good to do can be a bit difficult and a bit nerve-wracking at first. 

My first priority is obviously the baby. But, working out and maintaining a fitness level is really good for the baby (and momma). So I read posts on the internet, asked some friends that went through this recently, and asked my doctor. Combining all of this with how I feel, I decided what I think is the right way for me to handle working out and pregnancy.

I'll admit though, it's difficult mentally. Am I doing to much? Can I be doing more? Should I do this ab workout? There is so much information out there and so much conflicting information, that it becomes overwhelming. And with being pregnant comes difficulty breathing, shortness of breath. Add running to that and some days, it's difficult.

With that said, I wanted to run through a typical 2 weeks of working out in the day and the life of a "pregnant runner."  I generally schedule rest days on Monday and Friday. So I try to do something all other days, even if it's a light/short workout.

Also, for comparison, I generally ran 3 days a week prior to becoming pregnant (around 9:45-10:30 pace), biked 1 day a week, and did "something" else (barre or bike) the other day.

Saturday, February 4th - Saturday, February 11th

2/4, Sat. - Barre class (1 hour)
2/5, Sun. - 5 mile run @ Waterfall Glen (56:33 - 5:1 intervals - 11:18 pace)


2/7, Tues - Prenatal strength workout at home (YouTube, 25 mins)
2/8, Wed - Bike trainer (12.5 miles, 45 mins)
2/9, Thurs - 3.8 mile run (Group Run, 42:54, 11:04 pace)

2/11, Sat. - 5 mile run (57:30, 11:30) - I really struggled this day
                  5.1 mile outdoor bike w/ Derek (28:22)

Sunday, February 12th - Sunday, February 19th
2/12, Sun. - Gym workout (20 mins stair climber, 20 mins elliptical)

2/14, Tues - 3 mile run (35:35, 11:50 pace)
2/15, Wed - Bike trainer (10 miles, 37:35)
2/16, Thurs - 4 mile run (group run, 42:39, 10:39 pace)

2/18, Sat. - Barre class (1 hour)
2/19, Sun. - 7 mile run w/ friends (1:25:54, 2:1 intervals - 12:16 pace)
                   25 mile outdoor bike (2:08:18)  - I mean...it was a really nice weekend. lol



So, I didn't swim even though I was starting to go. I just didn't want to go to the pool and leave wet and cold. Also Derek was working late and I opted to stay and do things at home so I was there for the animals. And last Sunday, it was in the 60's, so might as well do a million things outdoors. I've also slowed my pace for pretty much everything I do, at least a little bit (bike trainer, stair climber, etc.).

As you can see, my runs are kind of all over the place, pace wise. I'm trying to figure things out right now. The problems I'm having are shortness of breath and the fact that I have to use the bathroom every 5 seconds. Obviously both totally normal pregnancy running issues. But it can be frustrating nonetheless, especially when all the port-a-potties have been removed for the winter. I peed in the bushes twice this past week. I'm not proud of that, lol, but I have to do what I have to do.

I tried the 2:1 intervals with some friends last weekend because my solo run the weekend before was miserable (mentally). I'm signed up for a half marathon on April 1st and I will be almost 22 weeks pregnant. I signed up for the insurance so I can back down if I don't think I can do it, but I really want to do it. So my weekends right now are for trying to figure out the best long run strategy for me to get through the half comfortably.

Some runs feel great, some aren't so great (mostly breathing). But all in all, I feel fine running. No tummy issues or anything. I think baby likes it. I mean, it's going to be a triathlete... and apparently a soccer play (according to hubby). Haha!  I'll do an update on how the half marathon training is going in a few weeks.

For those interested, I'm doing Run the Bluegrass in Lexington, Kentucky on April 1st. Come join me! I hear it's beautiful but really hilly (hence trying to get some hills in my running schedule).

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

14 & 15 Weeks: Pregnancy Update

As of today, I'm 15 weeks 3 days. The time is flying. And thanks for all the wonderful comments on my last post about running the F^3 Half Marathon.

So let's see what's been happening the last couple weeks, shall we?

15 Weeks - Cameo by "Camo the dog"

15 weeks - Trying to be funny and "create" a bump
Yes, I tried to "create" a bump in the second picture to be funny. I'm tired of just being "fatter." I want to look pregnant. Not like I'm just eating ALL THE FOOD. Don't be fooled. I have two bellies (always have, I hate it). A top belly and a bottom belly. The baby is in the bottom belly. But my top belly is just getting bigger. I'm waiting until the baby makes the two bumps one. lol. Yes, all my insecurities laid out for you!  I think my insecurities are stemming from losing 40 pounds right before getting pregnant and now gaining weight again.

How far along/size of baby: I'm 15 weeks 3 days today. Baby is the size of a large navel orange! Wow! I think that seems pretty big! The baby measures around 4 inches and 2.5 ounces.

Total weight gain: Weight gained since my first doctor visit mid December is about 9 pounds.

Maternity clothes: Not quite yet but I did order some jeans that were 50% off. I'm hoping they fit when I need them. I've definitely moved from my smaller pants size back up 1 size though. Thankfully I have them from when I lost weight last year.

Sleep: I was never a good sleeper. I always woke up several times a night so this is no exception.  I definitely get up at least 2, sometimes 3 times to go to the bathroom at night but it has gotten better from before. I definitely hate the nights I get up every 1-2 hours ALL NIGHT LONG. Those are not too often now though.

Best moment of the past 2 weeks: Hearing the baby's heartbeat when I was 14 weeks pregnant. That was the first time I actually heard it and it was more amazing than I thought it would be. Seriously, I was on cloud 9 for two days.

Miss anything: Not really. Eating a cold turkey sandwich sometimes.

Movement: None yet. Still too early.

Symptoms: I'm still pretty tired but much better than I was during the first trimester. I have a general lack of energy right now. I'm still working out but my motivation to even get up from the couch is lacking. Also it's weird, but I say that I can "feel my uterus" which I think sounds weird. But I can kind of feel the lower area when I'm pretty much doing anything...walking, running, moving in general.  I also have had some discomfort in that lower area periodically. My guess is that it's my uterus expanding... ?  Also, I get out of breath pretty quickly.

Food cravings: Fruit. Sweet things. Bagels.

Anything making you queasy or sick: The thought of greasy pizza or ground beef was turning my stomach a bit. It "might" be starting to go away though because pizza kinda sounds good right about now.

Have you started to show yet: No I don't think so. Again, I think my belly is just filled with food.

Gender: Not sure yet. Finding out March 21st!  My guess would be a boy.
 
Belly button in or out: In.

Wedding rings on or off: On.

Happy or moody most of the time: A bit of both right now I think. My lack of energy and being tired makes me moody.  At times I feel a bit depressed.  Don't get me wrong, I'm still excited about everything.. but you know... life takes a lot out of you mentally sometimes.

Exercise: Still exercising. Just not as vigorously. I think I'm using baby as an excuse. But I'm running (2-3x/week), indoor biking (1x/week), swimming (on occasion), barre classes (1x/week), and workouts at home. Oh and I did the stair climber and elliptical this week. I'll give a general exercise update post soon. I generally work out in some capacity 5 days a week.

Looking forward to: Finding out the gender on March 21st. It almost can't come soon enough. Also, really looking forward to having an actual bump and feeling movement.

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

F^3 Half Marathon Race Recap

I signed up for the 2017 F^3 Half Marathon reluctantly around October.  The reason I signed up was that A LOT of my friends in the Frankfort/New Lenox Running Club were doing the race. It's so much fun when there are so many people you know.  Also, my running had been improving and I thought that maybe I could have a decent half (definitely not a PR, but decent nonetheless).

On the other end, I was reluctant to sign up because I wasn't sure if I would end up getting pregnant by then. Also, you just never know what the weather will be like in January in Chicago.

There happened to be a discount code for $10 off in October. I wasn't pregnant yet and so I thought, if I do get pregnant, I probably would be newly pregnant and still be able to do the half marathon. So I signed up. Why not. Plus is was "only" $50 so worse scenario, I didn't HAVE to do it if I couldn't.

Then I got pregnant in the beginning of November. Faster than I anticipated.  I found out on Black Friday but wasn't really sure how far along I was. I'm not "regular", if you know what I mean. But I calculated based on that anyway and then calculated how far along I would be for this half. I thought as long as I was feeling fine, I would still be in the first trimester and still be able to run.  I also asked my doctor if I could still run and she said yes, just to watch my heart rate.

So I kept up with my training plan. My friends didn't know yet so I had to make sure I wouldn't be running too fast with them on the long runs. Luckily I was feeling good, they were doing their long runs at an easy pace, and we took walk breaks every 1.5 to 2 miles as needed.  I ended up doing two 10 mile training runs for this half. I didn't want to run more than that for training.

DAY OF RACE

I was able to tell everyone before this day that I was pregnant, which helped me out in being able to take my time during the run without people wondering why I was running slowly and walking often. (I know that's all in my head and no one really cares how fast I'm running). Anyway, I had thought about wearing a sign on my back indicating that I was pregnant for fun, but wasn't sure if that was weird. My friend Jill made me a fun "baby on board" sign that I absolutely loved and decided to wear that. If nothing else, I figured it's good for people to know I was pregnant so that if something happened, people were aware for an emergency purpose.

I was pretty nervous about running this half, despite having run almost 30 half marathons, most of which were since 2011. This was the first time doing it while pregnant and there is just a lot to think about with that. I had been fueling with bananas and cliff bars on my long runs instead of with the normal gels in an attempt to be more "natural" with my fueling. I brought a cliff bar and a Huma gel just in case I needed it.

I also ate more for breakfast because I'm always hungry these days. Normally before a half, I would just eat oatmeal and then a banana before the race. This time I ate a rice cake with peanut butter at home, oatmeal in the car, and a banana before the race. Hopefully that would do the trick.  I also decided to wear my hydration belt so I had my own water in addition to the aid stations so I could make sure I was well hydrated.  Yes, I was definitely nervous!

I carpooled with a few friends, which is always nice. Met up with more friends at Soldier Field (the start and finish for the race), which was also nice. And waited in the nice and warm Soldier Field with real bathrooms for the start, definitely nice!  I went to the bathroom twice but I was sure that I would have to go during the race.  The week before this half, my running started getting harder (more out of breath) and I always had to pee on my runs. So I knew without a doubt I'd have to hit a port-a-potty during the half. 

As always, we took a group photo.  Meet part of the Frankfort/New Lenox Running Club.


I, of course, had to take a pre-race photo of my first pregnancy half with my Baby on Board sign.


RACE

Prior to the race, I wasn't sure what my "plan" was. I mean, clearly I wasn't going to attempt a PR. I wasn't even going to try to "run my best race." I mean, I'm pregnant and didn't want to exert myself too much. I also didn't want to "bomb" half way through.  My goal for the first time in a long time was just "to finish."

How to accomplish this goal? 

- I thought about doing what I did in training and maybe run 1.5 miles and take a walk/fuel break.

- I thought about doing a 5:1 run/walk interval. There was also a 2:30 pacer that was supposed to do that interval so I thought about joining them. I decided not to join the pace group though as I figured I'd lose them when I went to the bathroom.

- I thought about just running until I needed a break.

- I thought about doing a 9:1 run/walk interval.

My ultimate plan was decided when I started running. I decided to do choice number one, which was mostly what I did during training. I decided on running 1.5 miles and taking a 1 minute walk break (which turned into a 1 or 2 minute walk break depending on what I needed).

Here's how the race went down.  I had to use the bathroom as soon as I took my first run step. No joke. I rolled my eyes at that. I decided to wait until hopefully mile 4 or 5.  When I got to mile 3.5 and there was a bathroom, I decided to stop and use it just in case the other wasn't for a while.

I tried to keep my pace steady and slow. I tend to run faster than I want to because I'm just used to running that pace. And a few times, my run pace was a bit too fast. For the first 10 miles, I kept to my plan. Run 1.5 miles, walk 1 or 2 minutes. I ran a straight 2 miles from mile 5-7 just because I decided I felt fine and I would wait until the turn around to walk.

I was pretty happy that I kept my intervals for the first 10 miles. However, by mile 8, I knew I needed to use the bathroom again. Luckily I was able to hold off until after the race. I did NOT want to stop again! Also by around mile 8, I was starting to get fatigued. I could feel my butt muscles getting sore. I was just trying to keep hanging on as long as I could. 

By mile 10, I decided to bring my run interval down to 1 mile. By this point, I was actually struggling to keep running 1 mile.  I was feeling fine as far as the baby went. My legs and butt were just fatigued and I was really feeling it at this point. I managed to stick with the 1 mile run intervals the last 3 miles though and I was pretty proud of that.

As far as the sign on my back, let's just say I did get lots of comments. All the comments would come at the same time and then there would be a long break of nothing, then more comments, then nothing. Once at mile 5, I was taking a walk break and eating half of my cliff bar (more like stuffing my face), when a few women ran by and congratulated me. I thanked them with crumbs in my mouth, looking like a stereotypical hungry pregnant woman. lol

I got lots of "Congratulations!" comments, I also got a "good job pregnant lady!", which I thought could have been phrased better, lol. But my favorite were these 2 guys in bright yellow jackets that played leap frog with me from around miles 8 through 13. "Congratulations! I could barely get myself out here and you are doing it for 2! You are awesome! Way to go!", etc etc etc. They were so much fun and definitely helped brighten the end of my run. They also introduced me to someone after the race! I think they were truly amazed a pregnant woman was running. I was too guys! I was too! lol

I finished in 2:25, which wasn't bad considering that's what my halves were last year before I lost some weight and started improving them. I was pretty happy to have been under 2:30. No, I didn't set a time goal. I didn't really care as long as I finished and did it safely for the baby. But the time still made me a bit happy!

Around mile 2
 
Getting rough somewhere probably around mile 10 or so.
You can also see my favorite guys in yellow jackets just behind. I LOVED THEM!
Finished. Done.
For fueling, I was glad I brought my own water. I drank at the aid stations maybe twice but I liked having my own water to drink when I wanted to drink it. I ate half the cliff bar. I also chowed down a package of the Gatorade chews they handed out like I'd never eaten before!

After the race, I gladly took a bagel and proceeded to inhale that as well. Clearly I was hungry.

We met back up with our friends inside, I went to the bathroom, took some finisher photos of myself and sat down for a while. All in all, I was glad it was over, happy with my accomplishment, and did nothing for the rest of the day!

Happy Finisher
Don't mind my hair in the photo. I had a hat on during the race and didn't care what I looked like afterwards!  Half marathon at just about 13 weeks pregnant...in the done column! Thankfully.

Sweet medal and I loved being able to stay warm before and after the race inside Soldier Field.