Peaceful Times

So, 39+ weeks.  Will she come this week?  Next week?  41+ weeks?  I don't know because she won't tell me. :)  My family is betting on July 4th, while Dave thinks it will be this weekend.  My yoga instructor thinks I haven't enjoyed a vacation yet, so the baby will hold out for this week so I can relax.  I don't have any intuitive feeling one way or another.  I just think she will come when the time is right, and I love that.  

I continue to embrace every belly kick, nap, walk with my dogs, and conversation with my husband that I will have between now and then.  I am in no rush, and I find great joy in being patient and relishing in the surprise.  In a world full of expectation and the need to be immediately gratified, it is fun to relax and let change come to me.    

These days I am enjoying walking (if it is not too hot), swimming (if the pool is cold), and prenatal yoga (my favorite!!).  The heat really affects me more than I could have ever imagined.  With all of my blood being shunted to my tummy, I have a hard time cooling down.  I have to stay close to home when I walk, because I sometimes wear out very quickly!  One day I only made it 23 seconds before I realized it was not a good idea! I am getting a huge kick out of walking around my neighborhood because cars/people stare at me when I walk by, and I now hear things like, "you look like you are about to explode!"  Yes, yes....it is because I AM about to explode! :) 

Dave gets to be the picture of the week. I think by now we all know what I look like pregnant, so I won't bore everyone with more preggo pics.  I am giving the dogs as many walks and snuggles as I can so that they will be patient with me the first few weeks of new baby chaos. 

Pregnancy has been mostly fun.  It has been a great opportunity for me to spend more time with family and friends.  It has also been a great time to just spend quiet time with me and my baby as we just relax, think lots of positive thoughts, and just be.  I have heard that some women hate being pregnant, and some people love it.  I have loved it.  There have been a few tough times, but it is a very special experience too.  Of course I would love to be able to swim/bike/run again, but it has been a lot of fun taking a detour and seeing another side of life.  

My next prenatal visit is tomorrow, and I will write a post afterwards with my final weight gain number to hopefully normalize such a sensitive topic for my other preggo friends.  :)

xoxo  Happy week!!!   

Counting It Down

38 +

We are at full term around here, so things could happen any day....or 3 weeks from now.  Who knows?  I think she is still having fun and pretty comfy just hanging out where she is, so I don't know if she is going to make an arrival anytime soon.  And being a first time mom means I have greater odds that she will hang out in my tummy for a wee bit longer.  

I finally got a picture of Dave and I together at 38 weeks.  He is pretty excited to become a dad, and I am pretty excited for him.

We didn't do any professional pictures during the pregnancy, but I did try to get at least a spur-of-the-moment snap shot every few weeks just so we could look back and remember this year.  I knew if I didn't get any pictures, I would regret it later.  Even though being pregnant is not glamorous when looking in the mirror, it really is a neat time to watch your body do something so amazing on its own without your intervention.  As the months have gone by, I have really chosen to embrace the changes and love this fleeting and special time.  I am excited for her to come, but it is hard to believe it is almost over as well, after almost a year of work. 

I am not too anxious yet.  I am feeling so much more relaxed now that I am on my last week of work.  I am looking forward to having a little extra time to rest and clean.  I am still walking.  I feel like I am walking fast, but I wore my garmin the other day and I am at 18-19 minute miles.  ha ha!!!  And, I am still doing prenatal yoga classes.  Maybe I will jump in the pool another time or two...  :)

Happy week to all!
xo

The Calm Before

So things have definitely taken a turn.  If you asked how I felt the past few weeks, I would say "Great!"  I was working hard at work, swimming at lunch, and feeling pretty good.  Then the piano jumped on my back this week.  I guess it is the combination of the weight + heat + baby on her way that has made things so much harder.

I cut my caseload down at work to 50% this week, and it was the right thing to do physically (although my pay check does not like the 50% decrease.  Next week I am also going to work 50% and then that is it.  Finito!  So, just a few more days of work.  I have definitely been struggling to be a good PT to my patients, so it is time to make the break.

Everyone says I will get bored at home if I don't work up until the baby is born.  Bored?  I have never been bored in my life.  And how could I be bored with these two?  They have LOVED that I have been home more recently.  This morning they blocked the front door from more as if to say...."nuh uh, Missy!  not without our walk!"  I LOVE these two.  I love every minute I spend with them. 

This morning I picked up a strange mountain man on my walk.  :)  

 

I think I am now just a walker.  I still keep trying to swim, but I kid you not, I continue to be sabotaged.  For the 2nd time this week, I worked my schedule around the pool, took the extra pregnant effort to get swim ready, and then get out to the deck and a kid had puked in the pool thus causing contamination evacuation.  I was determined to not be derailed yesterday, so I went to a pool where I had to pay to swim.   I think I might have made it 1000 slow and "why am I here again?" yards before I just got out.  I wasn't really discouraged, it was more like I had come face to face with my pregnancy and the fact that my body is dramatically slowing now.  The end is nearing :)

Baby preparation calls for some extra cleaning.  I haven't had time to "nest" yet, but I am hoping I will be able to do that soon with the time off.  I have been trying to deep clean a little here and there, and this weekend I came across a roll of film that looked like it hadn't been developed.  What a surprise!  It was from 2005- pre-wedding stuff.  For those of you that don't know, I do not really have any pictures of Dave and I at our rehearsal OR our wedding.  I kid you not.  No one took any of us at the rehearsal, and the photographer took maybe 2 pictures of the two of us at the wedding doing things like cake cutting.  (but I have plenty pictures of my friends!) 

But, on this roll of film, there was a single picture of Dave and I on our wedding weekend (this was rehearsal dinner).  So exciting!!!!  And of course some cute pics of me and my sister partying a little bit.  Maybe I should clean more often!

Tri Talk

I am still loving to read and listen to all things triathlon.  That has not changed with pregnancy, and at 37 weeks, I am just that much closer to training, racing, and being involved again.  Yippeee!!! So, let's talk triathlon!!!

37 weeks- getting oh so close!!! 

This weekend- so many congratulations to go around:  BOISE 70.3:  Liz Lyles and Heather Jackson for 1st and 2nd OA,  Erin Green for a breakthrough 4thOA pro race, and Sarah Barkley for 2nd AG.  EAGLEMAN: ummm, Jen Harrison? Eagleman Queen- Frickin' awesome!  2nd AG and a another (yawn) trip to Kona.  :)  Just so many awesome results.

And ladies, the field is getting faster.  And faster.  Ridiculously so.  Semi- pro is the new AG.  I saw some of the results and times and I felt so overwhelmed.  How will I reach my goals post-preggo?  How will I be competitive when everyone else has gotten faster and I have gotten slower?  But, I think we all adjust and step it up.  So keep at it ladies! When the game changes, you must change with it.

Some good listening for the week is this interview with Peter Reid Legends of Triathlon.  There is a reason he was on the top of the podium so many times, and it is worth it to listen to him talk about how he did not race in training.  If he couldn't find partners that were there to train, watch HR, do the right types of work, then he trained solo.  Great stuff- and a philosophy in which I really believe.

Is that a baby or a bowling ball? 

A friend asked me today if I have missed racing this year.  Of course!!! Mostly I miss traveling to out of town races to see friends that I only get to see 1-2 times a year.  I miss finding that new and neat course.  And, I really miss being a small fish in a big ocean.  I love lining up with the really great women that race all over.  So, 2014...I am all about it.  But in the meantime, I got a pretty big race coming up in about 3 weeks :) 

36

36 weeks and I am no longer frazzled by the random waking up in the middle of the night.  Here I am!  I have decided it is a great time to play on the computer, write a blog post, plan some racing, and read.  (although I do finally understand why sometimes the more tired you are the less you are able to sleep)

Not 1, not 2, but 3 times at Babies R Us this weekend.  

 

We are pretty close to having things "ready" in the house for Baby Roberts' arrival, thanks to my mother-in-law who came up to help us make it happen.  Dave and I needed a little push to wrap it up. 

Kari and I were planning to run the St Jude Half Marathon this December, but general race entry closed up immediately upon opening.  I was not too bummed, as we can now just drink and heckle cheer for her husband. 



I am pretty much brain dead at this point and can't think of anything else to say.  Time to try to go back to sleep.

Am I there yet?
xo