Apparently everything changes after becoming pregnant, and earlier than you'd expect. At this point I'm just past halfway. The hash marks at the top of one of my pregnancy apps is now slightly right of center, making the visual representation now much more impending. My three pairs of faithful surgical green scrub pants, the only non-pregnancy pants wearable past 12 weeks, now bind when I bend over.
And, baby started kicking and punching two weeks ago exactly, at 19 weeks. We were in Denver for the Rock 'n' Roll series so I could run my pregnancy swan song race (the half marathon). The day before the race Nathan took notice that the Royals pulled ahead of the Blue Jays 5-3, and baby gave three quick jabs just as he announced it out loud. Before then the whole thing was happening and yet still so abstract. Not any more -- the little parasite move constantly since two days after those first moves. There's no waiting for me to sit or lay down quietly like some articles say. We might just have our hands full with a little tirade. My mother will be so pleased if that's the case....
It's great to be out of first trimester, but on the whole my experience has been tame. The air felt like thick molasses, so walking two minutes to get lunch felt like an hour excursion. Nausea started around 11:00 and progressed in strength throughout the day. No vomiting, though once I was very close. My good habit of making enough dinner to have leftovers to take for lunch came to a crawl since food never appealed two days in a row. Took a while to realize that, so more foot went to waste than I'd like. I was very worried about accidental ingestion of dairy causing GI rejection because historically that leaves every internal organ in my abdomen on fire for a good 48 hours, so throughout the summer I meticulously worked my way from a taste of yogurt to an entire container to now even tolerating foods like real pizza. In a rural area like we have, its hard to avoid dairy (hence the accidental ingestions before - all from four little pieces of feta!) so a reinstated tolerance has been a relief.
I was able to run the Creede Mountain Run, a 22 mile trail race that goes up to the Continental Divide and back down, at 13 weeks -- OB approved and with evidence based data on pregnancy and exercise to bolster the method. Instructions were to keep the pace at a level for which I could still talk and to make sure I consumed lots of fluid. Spent at least half the race with a woman named Andrea from Colorado Springs. Turns out she is a speech therapist and a former dancer. We had fun. The more races I run in Colorado the more time I get to see and spend time meeting other female runners instead of all guys. As for my time, I was only a half hour slower than last year, and I even stopped part way down the descent to pee (which means fluid intake was good). 4h14m, 4th female and 8th overall out of 22 runners. Women took five of the top ten spots (!!), AND my time from last year was two minutes faster than this year's first female finisher. There's only a little bit of pride in that last note.
Since I hit second trimester things have continued to slow down and grow. Running "intervals," which I usually refer to as "fast waddles," means on days when I feel fast for the first time in eons I'm still at least two minutes per mile slower than before. Not worried about that, but it is interesting to note the different in effort that gaining at least fifteen pounds creates. I'm able to stay awake past 7:30pm, though I'm still in bed by 8:30/9:00 most nights. If I have more than a small portion of sugar -- and I mean small -- then the nausea comes back with a vengeance. A coworker once gave me a silly pretend superlative deemed the Human Vulture Award for all the chocolate (and everything available) I usually eat; now I can barely have one snack sized Snickers or equivalent. Same thing goes if I don't stick to a high protein diet, which means my saliva will make me nauseous in the evening.
As I mentioned above, I did the Denver Rock 'N' Roll half marathon two weeks ago (at 19 weeks). Dropping four thousand feet in elevation made me feel five if not ten pounds lighter. I planned to be satisfied with just breaking two hours even, but managed a surprise 1h48m. My back was tired and my feet were sore, but baby kicked its second day in a row not even an hour later. I kept with the fluid plan and took all water and Gatorade stops along the course, so I even stopped to pee at mile 9. The race photos, on the other hand.... I may look like a waddling pregnant lady with a packaging problem while running (ugh...), but at least I don't waddle when I walk!
Nathan has been very tolerant of the hormones so far. The few times I have tripped and fallen, like one week ago when my foot snagged the garden hose on the way to the car, I always superman slide and always bonk my knees (not my belly), just like before pregnancy. But because hormones are involved now, I immediately cry upon hitting the ground and it keeps going for at least five minutes. Poor Nathan had no idea what to do about me. I usually drive to work and he drives home, so as we make our way off the ranch and onto the highway I was still a sniffling and snorting mess. I can't recall that morning without laughing hysterically, even now, especially when I picture Nathan's bewildered face.
We are almost done getting wood for the season, with a plan for two cords tomorrow to hopefully round out our pile. Nathan does all the cutting and we stick to smaller trees. I use an ax to clean off the branches, a super easy task when you pick fully dry trees, and I stay in the back of the truck to stack and organize instead of carrying unless they logs are small enough. Even with being pregnant it is still more efficient for Nathan and I to go out on our own since the neighbors and their kids can be, in their words, like herding cats. At least for now, that is. My guess is I only have a couple more weeks left in that window when considering how fast my belly is growing.
One last note: No, I am not taking weekly bump pictures. I say this because numerous people have asked. I've never had that kind of sentimentality in my adult life. There will be a million baby photos after it is born, but baby bumps and documenting an awkward process is just not my thing.
