Seventy-five Percent

June 30, 2009 – 10:14 am

I’m just about 75% done with this pregnancy thing.  As of tomorrow, I hit the 30-week mark.  It is getting harder now.  I am worn out a lot more.  My trip to Richmond last weekend only served to highlight that.  I had an awesome baby shower (pictures/details to come) and hit the streets of Shockoe Bottom for some fun (not so fun when you can’t drink though).  I stayed out until 3AM and boy am I feeling it!

I’m finally seeing some of those extra hormones in action.  I was straight up evil to The Mister the other day and I’m not usually like that.  I woke up to a pile of vomit on the floor (thanks Caramel the cat!).  Then I went into the hallway only to be confronted with a steaming pile of kitty crap on the floor (because The Mister isn’t cleaning the litterbox frequently enough).   The last straw was a damp red Kool-Aid stain on the floor of our sitting room.  I start screaming at a sleeping Mister at 6:15AM about the litterbox and spilling Kool-Aid all over the floor before stomping out the door for work.

So yeah, The Mister didn’t spill that Kool-Aid but Caramel the cat did.  Oops!  She does love to stalk our table for food crumbs and to knock over cups.  I had to pay a huge apology to The Mister an undeserved screaming fit.  That litterbox mess is still his fault though!

I’ve got to get my emotions under control or at least recognize that the extremes I’m feeling aren’t normal.  I burst into tears upon seeing my best childhood friend at my shower after like 3 years.  Then I nearly wailed all the way through the “My Sister’s Keeper” movie (while others sobbed and snuffled quietly).  I can’t take this.  I’m usually a really even-tempered person.

Add physical discomforts that I know will only get worse to the emotional rollercoaster and I am sooo ready to be done with this.  Sleeping is getting really uncomfortable but I can still make it through the night.  Rolling over (which I didn’t do before) is a chore though.  I feel like a huge heavy whale.  Can you imagine how it feels to not be able to roll over without a huge effort?  Yeah - it sucks!

At least my fingers are not swelling and I can still wear my wedding ring.  I wish I could say the same thing about my feet.  Can you say Stay Puff Marshmallow woman?

10 weeks to go.  I can make it until then - I think.

By keyalus | Posted in Pregnancy | Comments (1)

Ugh

June 25, 2009 – 9:18 am

My local Bally’s, which is the perfect distance between home and work, is shutting down.  I went there today after CrossFit to hit the showers and there was a big sign saying they are not renewing their lease and June 30th is the last day they would be open.  I was at the gym on Tuesday June 23rd and there was no such sign.  Clearly they knew this was going down?!?

The sucky thing is that they annoyed me into signing up for monthly automatic payments on their website.  I was paid up through the end of July already.  However, every time I went to the gym and used my card I got the red light for access.  The girl at the front desk said that they were doing that to get yearly folks to sign up for monthly drafts.  After a week of getting the red light and having to wait for her to buzz me in, I went ahead and signed up for the drafts.  I mean it was only $10 right?

Yeah, well now the gym in the perfect location is closing and the alternate locations are 18 and 22 miles away from me.  Yeah, I won’t be visiting those spots!  I would have *never* renewed had I known this.  I’m upset that they chose not to mention the fact that they were closing all the while encouraging members to sign up for drafts.  What is that about?  Thank goodness I did not go ahead an pay my yearly dues in full as I typically do.

I called customer service to cancel and they claim it will be taken care of right away.  We’ll see about that. A cursory Internet search quickly shows just how easy it is to cancel a Bally’s  membership.

Ah well, at least I have the luxury of not being in a 3-year contract with them anymore (paid off long ago).  I feel sorry for folks who just joined earlier in the year and won’t be able to go a convenient location all the while being tied to a contract.  I signed up for an automatic draft of $10 month dues and they are being charged to my credit card.  If I don’t get the cancellation letter the representative promised in the next few days and they try to charge my card, I’m going to fight to get my money back but it is not huge loss.

In an unrelated “Ugh” moment, I watched that silly Superstars show on Tuesday.  It pairs star athletes with celebrities in physical competition.  Terrell Owens got eliminated on the first show.  What kind of crap is that?!?  T.O. let me down big time.  I was really looking forward to 6 weeks of seeing him shirtless* watching him compete.  I guess I’ll have to wait for his VH1 reality show to debut later this summer.  Ugh.

*The Mister knows of my lust love for T.O. (mainly because he played for his beloved Cowboys).  He has his Gabrielle Union and I have my T.O. LOL.

By keyalus | Posted in Gym | Comments (1)

Can’t Wait…

June 18, 2009 – 3:59 pm

…to meet you little one!  11 weeks, 6 days or 83 days (because you will be born”on time” right?).  I keep staring at these pictures and I feel so close to you.  I can’t wait to hold you and kiss your little cheeks.  Mommy loves you even though I haven’t met you yet.

So excited to share these pictures with The Mister on Sunday (even though he poo-pooed having a 3D ultrasound as a waste of money).

Thumbsucking? Waving?

Resting?

By keyalus | Posted in Baby, Pregnancy | Comments (5)

Spirit Of The Marathon

June 17, 2009 – 12:58 pm

I am Netflix’s dream customer. I pay my monthly fee and hold on to my movies for 3 months. $15 for two movies for 3 months?!? Since there is hardly anything on TV during the summer, I’m about to recoup my Netflix losses over the past few months and watch everything in sight.

I dusted off my red envelope to watch “Spirit Of The Marathon” on Saturday. This movie documents 6 runners as they prepare for the 1999 Chicago Marathon. There are two elite runners - one Kenyan and Deena Kastor who at the time had not won an marathon yet. Then there are the regular joes - a married couple of experienced marathoners, an older gentleman and his daughter, a first-timer running solo and another first-timer running with a group.

I love documentaries and this one did not disappoint. It featured interviews from a host of running luminaries and talked about the history of running and the marathon. I especially loved the tidbit about how women were banned from participating in track events over 800m at one point for fear that their uterus would fall out.  That reminds me of how my grandma thought my running would shake my babies brains out LOL.

The movie follows the runners through training to the actual marathon day to crossing the finish line. We get to know the featured runners and their struggles, their injuries and their fears. We find out what running this marathon means to them.  I may be hormonal but I totally cried as each person crossed the finish line. The movie took me back to my marathon and all the emotions that welled up for me that day.  It was funny that of the random people they showed at the finish line, 90% of the women racers were crying too.  It is such an emotional feat.

Someone in the film pointed out how running a marathon is one of the few things we can do in life that is a concrete example of overcoming some metaphorical obstacle.  You can’t just wake up on Friday and run a marathon on Saturday (unless you are an elite runner or crazy ultrarunner who regularly runs 150 miles a week anyway). You have to train and you have to prepare for a long time. The distance truly demands everything you can give and you are guaranteed to be pushed to your limits - physically and mentally.   I don’t think anyone has ever run a marathon and found it to be an easy endeavor.

Watching the movie made me really miss running…and start plotting on my triumphant return to form.  I’m thinking of doing the Thanksgiving Half Marathon as a walk/run event (maybe run 10K, walk the rest) and God help me the full ING Marathon in late March.  Talk about a way to get my butt back in shape post baby.  I won’t be looking to set any records with either race, but sometimes just finishing is everything.

By keyalus | Posted in Fun, Running | Comments (0)

Too hot!

June 12, 2009 – 9:35 am
  • I haven’t been to CrossFit all week. The last time I was in it was like 90 degrees in there. My core temperature already seems to be off the charts so this just won’t do. I was trying to remember how I hacked it last summer and then I realized that I didn’t. I came in at 6AM. I never was one for a dealing well with the heat.
  • I set it up so that I will be coming in mornings on Tue/Thurs and I will come in Saturday mornings.  So that makes my typical workout schedule M/W/F - 60 min walk or cardio and T/Th/Sat circuit training.
  • I’ve come to enjoy my morning walks rather than resent them for not being morning runs. I have a nice route that includes a couple of very steep hills. I can get in 4 miles in 60 minutes if I don’t have to take a bunch of bathroom breaks. I have to laugh when I remember walking an annual corporate 5K and it taking 1:20 min. We must have really been strolling if it took that long to walk 3.1 miles when I can do 4 miles in a shorter time while 7 months pregnant!
  • I was absolutely groove-walking to this song this morning. The disco breakdown at 1:50 always gets me going! Why do girl groups with two members like The Jazzyfatnastees (admittedly somewhat obscure but excellent music) and Zhane (loved-loved-loved) seemed doomed to ultimate failure?
  • I just put my Peachtree Road Race number up for sale.  Once again, I am missing out.  I skipped it last year because I wasn’t feeling well.  I had a good qualifying time too so I was up front not far behind the people who will finish faster than I could ever dream of running.  I could walk the 6.2 miles but even when I go walking at 6AM it is hot…and there aren’t 50,000 other people around then either.  Ah well, the number will sell for a pretty penny so I’m not too upset. :)
  • My sister is on a 750/day calorie crash diet to lose 10 pounds.  *Sigh*  Even when I have to lose all of this baby weight, I am going to approach it the same way I did before.  Diet and exercise.  I’d rather work my butt off in the gym and eat like a fairly normal person than starve and not exercise.  One pound a week is good solid weight loss.  Do you hear me sister dear?!?
  • I was thinking about it during my walk this morning and I can see where she is coming from.  It is sort of like Dave Ramsey’s “debt snowball” approach.  Conventional financial wisdom says pay off debts with the highest interest rate first.  Dave says pay off debts from smallest to largest regardless of interest rate  That way you get the psychological benefit of seeing debt disappear and are more likely to stick with the plan.  I tend to follow Dave’s advice when dealing with my debt (with a dash of conventional wisdom thrown in), but I wouldn’t do it for dieting.  I know that 10 pounds lost from starvation looks way different than 10 pounds lost through diet and exercise.  Some things are just worth taking the time to do.
  • My HypnoBabies home study course came in this week and I did my first practice session.  I really think I hypnotized myself!  I wasn’t asleep but I didn’t feel quite awake either.  I was just very relaxed and focused within.  In fact, my headphones were hurting my ear when I started and then I forgot all about the irritation.  As soon as I came out of the hypnosis, I was aware that my ear was hurting again.  I think this stuff might actually work for me during childbirth!
By keyalus | Posted in Fitness, Food | Comments (1)

Third Tri

June 10, 2009 – 8:52 am
  • I start my third trimester today!  Thirteen weeks (91 Days) to go and so far, so good.  As far as pregnancy symptoms, this pregnancy has been pretty easy so far.  I’ve gained a ton of weight, yes, but I managed to completely miss morning sickness (thus the weight gain!) and extreme mood swings.  In fact, asides from bouts of fatigue, I can’t think of that too much horribly negative stuff that I’ve experienced.  Annoying symptoms, for sure, but no TV/movie style pregnancy misery.
  • As I start the final countdown, I’m noticing that the fatigue is starting again.  I’ve also experienced some random swelling.  Our AC was acting up last week and the heat made my feet and ankles inflate like sausages.  More regularly, my right hand (the “mouse” hand) will swell unless I keep it elevated.  I can still wear my wedding rings though which is great because I’m all for not looking like an unwed mother!
  • The bathroom thing is out of control.  Is this kid sitting on my bladder or something?  It is so annoying to use the bathroom and 5 minutes later feel like you have to go again.  I never feel empty.  Thankfully, I can sleep through the night without waking up for the bathroom.  Exercise is a challenge, however.  Thirty minutes into my morning walk and I am wondering if I’m going to have an accident LOL.  I’ve had to change my route now to circle back home for a bathroom break after 2 miles.
  • Time has really flown and I can only imagine that it will seem faster from here.  Like any first time mother, I am simultaneously anxious for the baby to get here and absolutely freaked out about the baby being here.  I feel as prepared as I can be for the actual birth, but for everything that comes after?  Not so much!  The last baby I’ve spent any significant time around is now 17 years old.  I’m uncomfortable holding babies.  I don’t know how to change a diaper.  I find relief in knowing that since this will be my child, I don’t have to worry so much about him screaming his head off every time I hold him.  Plus, he won’t know that I’m doing stuff “wrong”, right?
  • I’ll be getting a little sneak peek of The Baby next Tuesday.  I’m doing one of those 3D/4D ultrasounds.  The Mister is very against “wasting” money doing this, but I want to see!  I’m keeping the visit a secret from him for now and will give him the DVD and pictures as a surprise Father’s Day gift.  I know he’ll be so happy to see the results.
By keyalus | Posted in Pregnancy | Comments (3)

Hanging Up My Running Shoes

June 1, 2009 – 9:14 am

Yep.  That’s right.  I was planning to attempt a 5K this weekend but after CrossFit on Wednesday that thought became a no-go.  I can’t remember the name of the workout, but it involved overhead squats and 400m runs.  It was blazing hot outside, so to keep myself from getting too overheated and winded, I attempted my usual run 100m, walk 100m pattern.  After one 400m interval, I was fine.  As I went into the run part of the second 400m, I was not so fine.  The back pain started again.  I get this weird stiffness and burning and I couldn’t help but stop.  Is this sciatica pain that a lot of pregnant women talk about?  I don’t know but walking it out didn’t help and I had to call it quits mid-workout.

After breaking for 10 minutes and doing a lot of cat/cow yoga stretching everything felt much better.  I even went on to complete the CrossFit moms workout of the day (30-20-10 snatches-pullups-squats)…because I’m no wuss LOL.  I felt fine but now I know for sure that I am hanging up my running shoes.  I did a 4 mile walk on Friday morning and that will have to suffice as my non-gym outdoor cardio of choice because running is out for now.  I wish I could be one of those women who runs up until their 9th month, but it just isn’t working out that way for me.

I still have step, elliptical, walking and of course CrossFit for exercise so I’m still getting a good variety of activities done.  I’ll just have to start from the ground up with running post-baby.  I’m scared though.  How long will it take me to return to form?  Will I even be able to run a 5K after all of this is said and done?

By keyalus | Posted in Fitness, Pregnancy, Running | Comments (2)

Nursery Time 1

May 28, 2009 – 10:41 am

My little sister came to slave for me visit over the holiday weekend and we turned my office into a nursery.  The Mister gave me full creative control over the design so I was (thankfully) free to run wild with my own ideas without considering his opinion in the matter.

I’m no fan of pink is for girls/blue is for boys so I wanted a gender neutral room.  We would like to have another baby in fairly short order so not having to go through all of this again was important to me.  I fell in love with this set from NoJo so that was the basis of the color scheme.  I purchased an espresso dark brown colored sleigh crib and dresser from Stanley Young America’s 4 Seasons line.  The other major pieces in the room are a 5×1 Lack bookcase from Ikea, 2 Floating Lack Shelves from Ikea, a Little Castle glider rocker in cocoa and a round storage ottoman from Target that will serve as a side table.

I wanted to use the brighter colors from the comforter set since my furniture was dark.  I love green but I thought doing the entire room in that color would be too subdued.  As much as I loathe yellow, I thought the brightness would play well of the darkness of the furniture and look more nursery like.

My sister was great to bounce ideas off of and we took the ideas that I had and ran with them.  After a lot of hard work, here are the intermediate results.

Nursery 1

Crib

Crib

Animal Wall

Animal Wall

Complete with Caramel the cat!

Complete with Caramel the cat!

The thing that looks like border print in photos is actually a chair rail that we my sister slaved over.  A nice man at Lowe’s cut a large piece of thin wood into 3 inch strips for us.  We covered the boards with fabric, glued grosgrain ribbon onto the top and bottom and then nailed it to the wall.  I like that it gives more texture and depth to the room in person even though a border would have been easier to do.

Another project was the animal wall.  I was planning to buy a bunch of those vinyl paint wall stickers to do this when my sister suggested getting wood  cutouts from the craft store…much cheaper!  We painted them in a yellow that was darker and brighter than the wall color and then nailed them to the wall.  It looks sort of like wallpaper in the picture, but again in person it adds depth and texture.  I also wanted something fairly subtle.  I still need to find 2 more monkey cutouts, I ran out!

I still have to do a few small projects but the major work is done.  The window needs blinds and some dressing up.  The bedding set came with a little valence topper that I plan to use along with some blinds and possibly one long curtain panel.  I have a cute pendant light to hang from the ceiling instead of the plain light that is there now.  I also need to find something to go on the wall space behind the crib.  I have 3 nice 11×14 frames that are lacking pictures sitting in my closet.  I am planning a maternity/newborn photo session so the frames might just be placeholders for these pictures.

I am also in search of the perfect rug.  I want a 4 foot diameter round rug in green.  I think I found a good candidate on Ebay, just waiting for some color samples from the seller.  Then there are a few missing accessories like a changing pad and lamp for the dresser that I hope to get at my baby shower.  If not, I’ll just buy them myself.

So that is what I did with my Memorial Day “vacation”.  I’m exhausted!

By keyalus | Posted in Baby | Comments (6)

A Lazy Week

May 22, 2009 – 8:08 am

Last Sunday I started sneezing uncontrollably all through childbirth class. I thought that I must have forgotten to take my Zyrtec the night before but boy was I wrong. Monday morning brought on the scratchy throat.  I went to work and by the end of the day, I could only focus on my body aches, fever and pure exhaustion.  This was definitely not allergies!

I guess it was just your garden variety cold, but couple that with growing a human inside your body and not being able to pop Dayquil like candy and it hit me like the flu.  I even stayed home from work the next day.  In the past, I’ve been able to exercise through my colds but not so this time.  All I wanted to do was sleep.  Does reaching over to get tissue to blow my nose count as exercise?

I was much feeling better by Thursday but still not back on track with working out.  I feel like a total sloth!  Between recovering and frantically cleaning and packing up my office furniture I haven’t had time to breathe.  Ah well, back on the horse starting Tuesday.

My sister is coming down today to help me with the nursery over the holiday weekend and I am beyond excited.  I’ve been buying stuff for the past few months and all of the big pieces are in place.  The crib and dresser were delivered this week and we put everything together last night.  My vision for the room has changed a bit (doesn’t furniture always seem to be way bigger than it was in the store when it actually gets to your room?), but I can feel it coming together again.  The creative energies of my sister will definitely help.  I will definitely be posting pictures of the results.

Next week, I’m back on the horse.  There is a 5K in my neck of the woods on Sunday morning and I want to be ready.  Despite how distance running (and walking) has been making my back feel lately, I’m planning to rest up and take on the challenge.  I miss running, I really do.  This might be my last race for a while but I am itching to get out there!

Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend!

By keyalus | Posted in Baby, Fitness, Running | Comments (0)

23 Weeks, 5 Days

May 18, 2009 – 9:22 am

23 Weeks, 5 Days

This is what 23 weeks, 5 days (or 5.3 months complete or early into 6 months) looks like for me.  Laila Ali or stick figure with a bump, I am not LOL.  I developed that line (linea nigra) very early on at about 7 weeks.  How come women in pregnancy magazines *never* have one of those?  Do they just airbrush them out?

It is amazing that even in pregnancy, you can find ways to have a poor body image.   I am definitely guilty of this at times.  Pregnancy is the one time people, including random strangers, feel absolutely free to comment on how your body looks.  No one has said anything ignorant to me yet, but I just know the day is coming. You can not look pregnant enough or people ask if you are carrying twins when you only have one baby.  Can’t women just live sometimes?  There is a standard even when a woman’s body is most out of her control?  Sigh.

casinonight

The Mister and I went to a Casino Night surprise party on Friday and from the front I think I just look like I put on a lot some weight. The profile is a different story though LOL.  I love that I found this dress for $20.  It is a regular (non-maternity) dress but since it is just loose, drapey fabric under the bust line it works for me now. I hope it still fits in July because I have a wedding to attend.  Of course at that point, my stomach will be a lot larger and it will be short in the front and long in the back.  When I was young and wore skirts, they got “hiked up” in the back because I had a little junk in the trunk.  How times change!

By keyalus | Posted in Pregnancy | Comments (4)

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