16 weeks..

Or 4 months as Pedro likes to call it. He prefers that I use months and not weeks. I still continue to feel good. My SI pain has even been a little better. However, some of that MIGHT be because I have gotten to run less because of the stupid heat here. Saturday I ran 4 miles, but I didn't get to run Monday night because of the heat. I got to do a great track workout tonight, I think that might be my favorite! I ran with Debbie at a 9:00 minute pace for our intervals. We ran 4x800's and then 4x400's. I liked them because I could run pretty comfortably for that pace for such a short distance. Then I walked a little, got a drink and we started a new interval. That is only 3 miles but it probably took us about 40 minutes, but it was a pretty good run. Yesterday, I wasn't really feeling the usual stairmaster so I did the elliptical for 20 minutes and then lifted, then finished with 20 more minutes of elliptical.

I have still been pretty hungry, but again, I don't eat all that much, but I apparently pack on the pounds no matter what! I was actually thinking, that from one doctors appointment to the next I had gained something like 5 lbs or so, that would mean that I ate 17,500 EXTRA calories in that time frame (4 weeks). I definitely know that, that is NOT the case. With the working out and normal eating, minus the fact that I don't want dessert, which is completely ABNORMAL for me! I would think just not eating the usual dessert probably has cut about that many calories from the day! I'm not worried about it, if that is what it sounds like. I just find it kind of interesting how my body gains weight while pregnant! Now, yes it is fine if I say that my belly looks like a whale by the end of the day, but I am pretty sure, that I wouldn't find it too appropriate if someone else said it! However, my mother told the home health care nurse the other day that I "wasn't fat, just pregnant". I didn't think about it until later, and I thought, do I still look FAT? and not PREGNANT? Probably so!

Since regular foods all sound pretty equal right now, I am trying to make sure I eat more fruits and vegetables than I have been. Early on I ate a lot of both, but then they were not sounding as good. Now they don't sound good or bad, so I am trying to make sure I have more each day. Today I had oatmeal for a late breakfast with juice, then a salad for lunch (snack), then for dinner I had a fake burger with some chips and an amazing limeaide, blackberry, blueberry, raspberry smoothie. I am also trying to drink more milk, since the baby is making it's bones more solid, I figure I need a lot of extra calcium throughout the whole pregnancy.

I am now officially in maternity pants. I wore my first pair of capris yesterday to a restaurant review. I found a pair of capris at kohls for $18.00 with discounts and coupons and then a nice pair of shorts for $4.95 at JC Penny's! I figured I would only buy maternity clothing if it is less than $20.00. Not sure how I will continue this, since the only maternity clothes I have are Karen's, which I wore one of her shirts last night, but I do not have many clothes, including shirts that fit. Apparently slim fitting clothing when you are normal does NOT work when you are pregnant, who knew??!!

The one exciting thing, or might be exciting, is that I THINK, I have felt the baby kick 3 times now. A few days ago I was laying on the sofa watching tv and I swear I felt a little kick. The next night I was bending over to read my book on the table and I felt two little kicks. Then yesterday I was just sitting there and I swear I felt a one jab. I might be completely wrong, but they were felt in the area where my baby could be, but I am not for sure. We will see, if that is what it feels like when it starts happening more regularly...whenever that is.


On a work note, this weekend is going to be a LONG weekend for me. I have three teams playing in a local tournament and for this tournament the games do not conflict, so I will be coaching about 20 games over a 3 day time period. One day my last game is at 9:45pm and I start the day at 9:15...ugh! that is the most horrible scheduling EVER!



Alright are you ready for some pictures?? I wasn't sure I looked all that much bigger but with these full body picture comparisons it appears that I am.

Here I am at 12 weeks (I think you can still see my abs line):


And now at 16 weeks (don't mind the hair, I just got out of bed):

And here is the front view, which I think is bigger looking. And no, we were not trying to have Polar in the picture, he is just very photogenic and choose to sit right in front of me:



Random facts:
Size of baby: Avocado, 4-5 inches long and about 3.5 oz.
Days till next doctors appointment: 21 days
Cravings: spicy food and a hamburger (the reason for the fake burger today plus I need more protein)
Movements felt: 3??
Total miles run this week: 7
Total minutes done on stairmaster: 225
Days/distance swam: 1 day, 1 mile and a sunburned back
Days lifting weights: 4
Baby items purchased: 5 pretty big purchases total, a few smaller gifts from people
Baby is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day

15 weeks...

I thought I was getting a bit faster (not really faster, just pregnant faster) because of last Saturday's run. I ran something like an 8:50 pace for most of the run, however it was very flat. I want to explain that I am not trying to get faster. I am only keeping track of my pace on one run a week, for entertainment factors. Today I ran for 4 miles, with two of them being nearly all up hill (yes, this is really the case) with 2 getting to be downhill. It was about 80 degrees out, so I was making sure to keep feeling normal, but today's pace was about a 10:05 mile!

The benefits of being in the second trimester have been that I don't wake up 10 times to go to the bathroom at night. Ok, 10 might be a bit of an exaggeration, but for those of you that know me, you know I go a lot even when I am not pregnant! I know this will be a short term benefit and will most likely come back again later, but I will take what I can get.

I officially no longer fit in to ANY of my pre-pregnancy shorts....besides the obvious workout shorts and skirts. I wanted to find just one pair of shorts and all the shorts I have found are either ugly, or expensive. I am not sure why someone would want to spend a lot of money of shorts that I will only wear for, at this point, 2 or 3 months if I am lucky, because then it will be winter. UGH!

The other day I was on the stairmaster and my cousin asked me how I was feeling. I was a little confused why someone would ask me how I am feeling while I am on the stairmaster, was I looking tired?? Then I realized he was asking because I am pregnant! LOL. Yes, I still do not feel really pregnant, so I frequently forget! It seems to be a question asked of pregnant people quite a bit, it seems almost like they are surprised when I tell them that I am feeling completely fine. I guess I shouldn't complain about that, because at some point I will probably "feel" pregnant.

I still get the looks at the gym, is she pregnant? or has she spent too much time eating? If you see me in the afternoon, my stomach is so bloated it is pretty clear I couldn't have packed on that much in the short time, but in the morning, it is still pretty questionable. I laugh because people say, oh you don't need to eat that many extra calories, you shouldn't put on too much weight. The funny thing is I don't eat anymore than I usually do, maybe even a little less. Except that now when I am hungry I will eat, instead of not eating because it is too close to dinner or something, now I just push dinner back. My weight gain is not on purpose and besides the fact that prior to being pregnant my weight could change quite drastically in a two day time period. So, I probably retain a lot of water and besides my food belly, which I have always gotten (doctors think I am allergic to something, but say as long as it doesn't bother me to not worry) now that doesn't go away until the next morning. As of now my total weight gain has been 9 lbs (on doctors scale in afternoon), I think it is a little less in the morning. Karen, if you are reading this, I am halfway to your total gain already!!!

Anyway, here is the comparison from week 14 to week 15 picture. Not sure if it is bigger than week 14, or if Pedro just took it closer.
14 weeks:

15 weeks:

Almost 15 weeks...

I will be 15 weeks pregnant tomorrow. I had my first regular measuring prenatal appointment today. The appointment took less time than the drive! I am measuring right on and the heart beat today was 163 bpm. I was told that at my next appointment I will schedule my ultrasound. It will be nice to have one because at that point it will be about 12 weeks or so since my last one. We did not do any of the testing, so we did not get an ultrasound in the 12-14 week area.

Everything has been going good, besides the horrible SI pain, with the shooting pain in my butt! I would still have no idea that I am pregnant other than my stomach is bigger than it would be normally and sadly my abs have pretty much disappeared :(

I am back to being pretty hungry again. I might be so hungry because I don't eat a lot of meat/protein so I am feeling less full without it. I am going to try and eat more protein and see if it helps.

Working out has been going good. I am trying to get at least an hour in a day of some form of cardio. Since it has been so hot outside I don't get the option to run outside too much.

Here are some interesting facts for the week:
Baby size: Naval Orange, 4.5 inches long
Cravings: Chile with cornbread (weird since it is so hot out!)
Doctors appts: 4
Movements felt: none so far
Days till due date: 177
Days till next doctors appt: 28 days (then I can schedule my ultrasound).
Favorite dessert: still not really wanting sweets :(
Current complaint: SI Pain

IT'S A....

BABY!

Yes, that is right, we are now 14 weeks pregnant. We are NOT finding out if it is a boy or girl, so we will just have to say "it's a baby!".

Here is some information about my previous weeks:

I took a pregnancy test on May 8th, Mother's Day and after looking very hard at the test, it appeared to have two pink lines. Now, I have to say if we ever take another pregnancy test, it will not be one like this. We will use one that says Pregnant, NOT pregnant, because this was actually more difficult than I thought!

A week before I got a positive test, I was REALLY wanting BACON! Now, if you know me, you know that I don't usually sit down and eat too much meat, especially things like BACON! This still didn't give me a clue. That week I was also having dreams about going to Subway and then Taco Bell (for my favorite nacho bell grande), again, love TB, but wouldn't just go there unless someone else was offering it.

At 5 weeks pregnant, I was starving. One night I went to bed and was a little hungry, but thought it wasn't a big deal. I woke up at 3am and I felt like I do when I am doing Ironman training. I was so hungry.

At 7 weeks we had our first ultrasound. There was hardly anything you could see, I felt like the episode of Friends when Rachel and Ross were at the Doctor's office and she couldn't see the baby! You could definitely see the heartbeat, which at that time was 143.



At around this time I was craving broccoli cheese soup. So, we had to go get me some soup!

At about 7.5 weeks, I started feeling very nauseas. NOTHING sounded good, and I was not feeling well ALL DAY long. I found that if I had toast for breakfast, with maybe an egg, and peanut butter and jelly for lunch and dinner, that was about all I could handle. Even the thought of something like the soup that I had wanted so badly a few days before sounded DISGUSTING!

Because I was going to be traveling on a plane to a tournament at 9 weeks, they gave us another ultrasound just to make sure every thing was ok, and to see if I needed anything for the flight. We were still measuring right on track, this time the baby looked like a gummy bear. This time the heart rate was 176. They told me they could give me something for the nausea for flying, but I decided I would just hope for the best. Oddly, I was quite lucky and started feeling pretty decent on my trip.

The gummy bear ultrasound:


I had decided that I wanted to change doctors to one that is in Brighton, so this doctor gave me another ultrasound (for free) because she wanted to verify the dates. This was at 10.5 weeks. Here is a picture from that ultrasound:


The difference was pretty dramatic to me between the ultrasounds. This last one was only about 10 days after the one before, so I told the doctor that I was pretty sure that it couldn't be our baby! Plus I don't really feel all that pregnant (not sure what "feeling" pregnant would be...).

I am still working out everyday. I still run although my pace has been quite a bit slower since about 9 weeks or so. I am running aerobically, which is A LOT slower now. I am only running 3-5 miles about 3 days a week. The other days I am doing stairmaster or elliptical and lifting. I plan on swimming some more, just haven't.

The only problem I am having, I have had for quite some time already...it might have started around week 9 or so. But my SI joint has been hurting. Which then leads to some sharp stabbing pains in my butt. When these hit, I almost drop to the ground. I find that when I am coaching all day and sitting it is worse, so I try to make sure I don't sit too much. I also think the slower running mechanics might have some impact, along with the regular idea of it being because I am pregnant.

I have also discovered this last 2 weeks or so that a lot of my "normal" shorts are no longer fitting. Today was the first day I had to actually wear the bella band with a pair of shorts. Looks like I will have to stick with my workout shorts or a skirt because I do not own any maternity shorts (unless I can find a pair that look normal, not like an old person's!).

I will publish a few photos of my stomach. These are morning pictures. By the afternoon, my food baby is in full effect and I look about 9 months pregnant!

10 weeks pregnant:


14 weeks pregnant:



I also decided to do some fun pregnancy statistics:
Pregnancy tests taken: 1
Days till due date: 180
Doctors appointments: 3
Pounds gained: different scales and not sure of starting weight, but 6 lbs
Times called the doctor: once to ask if I could ride the gondola up to the top of the mountain in Aspen
Movements felt: none so far
Favorite breakfast: egg sandwich on wheat toast
Favorite dessert: sadly, I am not wanting any sweets at this time :(
Baby items procured: 4 (crib from pedro's mom, changing table from pedro's mom, one toy from karen, blanket from my mom)
Size of baby right now: lemon, 3.5 inches long
Current complaint: SI pain
Current cravings: none