You're pretty slow

Seems like the water is the only place I've been lately. Yesterday I swam twice, today I water jogged. Maybe with all this exposure I learn that mythical feel of the water.

I made an interesting attempt to feel the water last night. A guy at the Quarry had a pair of 2 lb medicine balls with Velcro which he was trying to swim with. Carla and I decided to be adventurous and try them out. The guy encouraged us to swim a 100 m loop around the close bouy line. Carla made it about 25 ft before deciding she was going to drown and turned back. I tested it out, felt pretty weird, I doubt I was even going straight. Personally, I'm wondering if the guy brought them down to the water to see how many idiot triathletes he could con into trying to swim with these things. After all, we're all dumb enough to try anything if someone else tells us it might make us faster.

This morning was another water jogging morning at Barton Springs. Trish and I completed a record breaking 2 laps. Although I completed 2 laps I was shivering for the last 10 min so I think I still have some acclimation to do before I enter the Aqua Jogging World Championship in Finland, that water must be cold. What, you don't believe there would be such a thing? There is; Wiki says so, go look ;)

In the middle of our first lap our conversation was interrupted by a swimmer, "You're pretty slow." she paused mid stroke to joke at us. For the most part it seems the people at Barton Springs are quite friendly and social although I was starting to wonder if some of them were actually using us as target practice today.

On the non-workout front, I had a lunch meeting today for the 26 miles for 26 charities program http://www.youraustinmarathon.com/26for26. I was not the only pregnant lady there but apparently I am still not noticeably pregnant. As spoken by the other pregnant lady, "I couldn't even tell."

She gave me a weird look when I said I'm now 8 months pregnant and replied, "I'm having twins."

Okay, I get it, I'm not showing as much as everyone else is. Good grief, why do I feel like I'm loosing a competition to get huge? Thankfully I happened upon something today which mentioned how petite 5ft tall girls often look like they are smaller and carry the baby low. It assured short girls, the mother's size does not imply the baby will be too small.

Still, I'm planning to go buy myself a screened t-shirt tomorrow with the following phrase:

"I'm pregnant, Due Sept 28th, 2009. I might look small but my baby is already in better shape than you!"

It's Contangious

It's been over 2 weeks since I've run. My hips have been bothering me quite a bit, they do that I guess. But they've been feeling better and I've been itching to run again. So, I decided to be logical and try walking. Trisha joined me (or should I say put up with me) for a spectacular 2 mile waddle/walk. I think the icing on the cake was when the white haired couple came flying past us, on their own walk. To say they passed us would be an understatement, they dropped us hard.

It was back to Barton for a lap of water jogging to finish out the hour. Although I'm a bit disappointed that I won't be one of the girls who makes it full term and keeps running, I consider myself pretty lucky. I made it to 29 weeks and I have plenty of other things I can be doing to stay active. The worst part is probably the benefit I have lost by not running, let's just say all the pounding helps keep me regular.

At the end of a highly eventful day of house chores and napping I made my way to the gym and to HEB for some groceries. When I got to HEB I was beginning to wonder what was going on, I walked in at the same time as 2 other pregnant ladies. I went over to the produce and spotted close to 10 other pregnant ladies, no joke.

Michael called on the phone and laughed about all the people having new year's babies. When we walked to the mailbox we saw one of my pregnant next door neighbors and he joked that it might be contagious.

Seriously, what is going on? Have I just never noticed all the pregnant women before or did I miss the memo? I'm starting to wonder if Obama said something in his inauguration, encouraging women to go get pregnant. Personally, I'm starting to wonder if I should buy stock in baby stores or something. Maybe there are some studies out there which relate economic downturn to increased pregnancy rates, I'll have to be on the look out.

Could I finish it?

Today was IM Lake Placid. Tereza Macel had an amazing day, she was first out of the swim, beat all the guys too. She then went on to win the women's race. I've met Tereza a few times when she's visited Austin so I am super excited for her. I always get excited when people I know have a great day, maybe I just like to live vicariously through everyone else.

Which brings me to my realization of the week, it's time to get my refund for IM AZ. This might sound funny, it's only a few weeks after baby G is due so there was no way I was going. Yet, I thought it might be bad luck to get my refund too early. This week I had a realization, I don't think I'm in shape to finish an Ironman right now and I'm not getting anywhere closer to that shape.

I know what some of you might be thinking, "Hello, you're 31 weeks pregnant, I'd hope you wouldn't be in shape to finish an Ironman."

This might be true but sometimes you have to figure things out on your own.

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Michael and I are having a conversation about the epidural... I guess you don't want me to be like I was in Boston:

"Don't let me walk" (statement to Michael when he joined me at mile 16)
"Can I walk?" (asked at mile 18 of the race)
"Sure" (Michael's response)

I've been asked a few times about the epidural. I'd prefer not to take one but I honestly don't know what it'll feel like. I can't be sure I won't change me mind. Michael's job is not to let me cave to quickly.

"You need to take it like a man" was his comment a minute ago.

Hmm, last time I checked there have not been any instances of men giving birth so I don't really think that comment applies.

If anyone has suggestions for encouraging trash talk during labor please let us know

Baby G status updates

Here's a picture of the current Baby G wall mural. Michael has been hard at work. When he got done he came in to tell me it looks like a South Park scene. He then reassured himself that Kenny would not be showing up any time soon, apparently the South Park mountains have more snow on them.

As for the room, there's still more to be done. We'll post another picture once we've added a few things. Just don't hold your breath for the letters of her name... it's still a secret!

We ventured out to the tour party at the shop tonight. I'm pretty sure there were a few hundred people packed into the parking lot, trying to sweat out the toxins from the beer they were drinking. Unfortunately, Logan would not let me try to auction off my beer ration for diapers.

I got a few questions about Baby G so I thought I might answer them in one shot.

Baby G is a girl. She is due on Sept 28th but since she is going to be an overachiever I'd predict she'll be born on Sept 19th. If this happens I will attempt to guilt my friend Josh into coming to visit her since that is also his birthday.

She will most likely be born with blond hair but it will remain a question for about 4 years if her hair will stay light or turn dark, as Michael's did when he was that age. Since her chances of being tall are probably slim we'll let her try out gymnastics and diving before deciding she needs to be an overachiever and excel at sports she is not physically designed for. Lastly, she will like airplanes, Legos and playing outside.

Okay, so maybe that won't all happen but every parent needs to have unrealistic thoughts about creating someone perfect, don't they? Did I mention that she's going to be an engineer? ;)

75%

I read an article once that talked about the hardest part of an endurance event as the portion from 50 - 75% of the race. I'm not sure how accurate that is for all of us, I believe it was targeted more towards long running races than pregnancy.

We're just a few weeks away from the Leadville 100 and this year a number of our friends will be heading up there for the race. I've had a lot of respect for that race for years and wish we were able to go up as support crew but that's obviously not in the cards for this year. Instead we will wish them the best of luck and patiently await the stories of how challenging the race was.

As for me, I am now 75% done with my pregnancy. I'll have to decide later if this past quarter was the toughest (I suspect the last one will be). For now I'll give some thoughts about the past 10 weeks.

Exercise - what can I say, it's getting harder but this is probably no surprise to anyone. I have a lot more fluff workouts during the week but I've listened to Angie's advice and I'm counting everything. My hips have started to shift and my pelvis has some misalignment which has made it difficult to run. But I am lucky, I have Kevin T to go to for massage and Performance Wellness to visit for adjustments and PT. They've helped me a lot during the past couple of weeks!

J&A - it's become a lot harder to stand all day, again no surprise. But, as with the exercise, I've got some good support from those around me. My co-workers at the shop help me reach things and even bring me ice cubes to stay cool. Still, it's getting to that time when I'm going to have to stop working at the shop. I've had a hard time adjusting to that reality but I will make it to my goal of working until Jack's Generic Tri. BTW, we could always use volunteers if you'd like to come help ;)

Body - yes, I'm getting bigger... no surprise. I'd like to say I consider myself lucky on this front. Although I've felt some frustration when I'm still told I don't look pregnant enough I'm pretty happy that I haven't gotten huge. I haven't had any strangers try to touch my belly and I haven't had anyone ask me if I'm due next week. On the other hand, I am frequently asked what race I have coming up next. The guy who asked me on Thursday was in shock when I said I am due in 2 months.

Friends - this part has been both difficult and rewarding. Although I don't have the ability to go ride outside or run on the trails, my friends have made great efforts to join me for workouts as well as listen to my chatter about being pregnant. The most impressive part was my friends who were willing to endure a road trip to Lubbock with a pregnant lady. It turned out fine, I did not need to stop and pee every 20 min, but none of us knew how it would go until after it was done. Overall, I've been impressed with how understanding and helpful everyone around me has been. It has taught me a lot about the value of good friends.

Now, we'll just have to wait and see how the last 10 weeks go... and of course everything beyond that point.

Something is in the water

When I arrived home tonight my neighbors were sitting outside their house. I went over to chat and they told me they are 20 weeks pregnant with a girl, their 2nd child. Over the weekend we spotted our next door neighbor walking around with her toddler and she looked pregnant. Thing is, we've only got 5 houses in our cul de sac and the people living in the other 2 can't get pregnant. I'm wondering if something was in our water. If any of our friends would like to come over for dinner just let me know, I'm sure baby G would be excited to get even more playmates.

I'm pretty excited about the neighbor being pregnant. I told her that we could draw a big chalk line at the end of cul de sac and tell the kids they can't go past it. She laughed at me, "Spoken like someone who doesn't have kids yet. We had 3 time outs before dinner tonight."

It's been pretty busy at the Garel house this week. Aside from a visit from Michael's dad and my brother's 30th birthday we also began to paint the room. It's far from finished but we'll give you a sneak preview. The sky blue area will soon become a mural with an outdoors scene; hills, mountains, clouds, and a bunch of wooden airplanes and animals Velcro to the wall.

After Baby G is born we'll probably add the letters of her name to the wall. My brother offered to go buy the letters ahead of time. I laughed, my family is not too creative in their attempts to figure out the name. Sorry... nobody finds out until after she's born :P


It seems that I have really popped out over the past few weeks. When I saw Richelle at the Splash and Dash she remarked that she hadn't been at the shop in a week and I'd grown a lot. It's true, for those of you who haven't seen me in weeks you are certainly missing out on the massive development which has taken over my stomach.

I've grown so big that I am now waddling. Yet, one customer still didn't seem to notice what was actually going on, "Why are you limping, did you fall off your bike?"

"I haven't ridden on the road in months, I'm pregnant."

...silence... I don't think she new what to reply.

Here's another picture so you can see what I'm talking about:

I told Michael I am huge. He's learning how to reply correctly, "You are not huge, you just have a big belly."

National Lollipop day

When Michael came home for lunch I gave him his I love you lollipop in celebration of national lollipop day. "How did you know it's national lollipop day?"

Let's just say I was a sucker for national lollipop day. When I saw the sign at Whole Foods I could not help myself, I had to get something for Michael. The little hand I love you was just too cute to resist.

I can't help but wonder if I'm going to be one of those mother's who is easily conned into buying useless things for her kid.

Over the past few months I've paid a bit more attention to the parents in stores. It seems the phrase, "You don't need that, you already have enough ___ (insert item of want)," is pretty common. Thing is, I almost feel I'd be hypocritical to limit my kids when I'm married to a guy who's got 5 GPS, 5 bikes, and a pile of old cell phones. I had about 100 stuffed animals in my room growing up (no joke, I counted them once). How can I possibly tell my daughter that she can't do the same? Maybe we will learn that skill when we begin to look at price tags, I guess we'll just wait and see.