G Family Photos

This morning Dave M (dcmphotography.com) took some maternity photos of Michael and I over at the Wells Branch trail. We picked that spot because we've gone on hundreds of runs there together over the past decade. Plus, it's got some fun spots for pictures.

Thanks Dave for waking up before the sun to catch the shots.

Yes mom, we will print one out for Grandma

The English Channel

It's been just over 2 years since I watched Lynne swim the English Channel. We commenting on that Sunday morning as I chatted with her and Dave after a plunge in Barton Springs.

Our chat happened to coincide with the 30 hr cutoff time at the Leadville 100 mile trail race. We had a lot of friends out there for that race and Michael was there to help crew for Trisha.

These events had me thinking a lot about setting goals, watching my friends accomplish their own goals, and the mental strength of endurance athletes.

In our lives we all set goals, some are easily obtainable, some are meaningful challenges, and some of them are a long shot. It's the combination of these goals that makes us who we are. Those who truly achieve greatness have met goals that we know about but they have also faced challenges they could not complete.

Of all the friends whom I respect and admire for their achievements I also know of times when they have failed to meet their goals. Listing off failures is not the way to win over the hearts of your friends so I'm not about to do that here. What is important to mention is how and what they each seem to learn from those short comings. Learning lessons from the days you fall short of your goals is what makes you stronger. That strength is what allows you to thrive in situations down the road.

Although I try to learn from my own failures I must admit, I have learned much more from my friends. I say this because many of them have shown me how to truly thrive and learn from mistakes. I witness their actions and listen to their perspectives in admiration, they often seem to have a much better outlook than I do.

As you may have already guessed, Michael and I enjoy watching our friends along their journey to accomplish their goals. We've been lucky enough to make some great trips to support some of these adventures and I hope we continue to have such opportunities.

Of course, the times of not being present certainly out number the times of being able to watch from the sidelines. Good luck to all our friends doing Ironman Canada this weekend!

It's been said many times that endurance events are almost entirely about mental strength. I believe this is true, but merely knowing this does not imply you can figure it all out. The journey and the challenges you place before you are how you gain mental strength. We each have times when we thrive mentally. Conversely, we each have opportunities to melt mentally and make mistakes that set us back even farther. Again, it's what you learn along the way which makes you stronger.

This weekend marks week 36 of my pregnancy, full term. Baby G is due in 4 weeks but at this point she could appear and probably be relatively healthy at birth, it's a big deal. But it's a bit strange to think about the uncertainty of her arrival. I try to ready myself for the big event (labor) but I don't know when it'll happen.

Once again I loop back to the English Channel. After spending 2 yrs preparing for their swim, channel swimmers are given only an estimate of the actual date they will swim. Instead, they are assigned to a tide (7 days off chance). If the conditions are not right you might not swim during your tide. Instead you might just stick around in Dover, awaiting an empty spot in a later tide. Then one day, or maybe at midnight, you'll get a call to be down at the boat in a couple of hours, to swim. That's it, wait and wait to be ready at a moments notice. Kind of sounds like waiting for labor.

I Jinxed Myself

I think the above cartoon pretty much sums things up for the way I was feeling the other day. Clea and I attended a prenatal yoga class together. As we went around the room introducing ourselves and talking about how we were doing I could not help but think, "Yes, there are things going wrong but for the most part I'm all good."

So when it was my turn to introduce myself I said with confidence, "I'm Michelle, I'm 35 weeks, and I'm all good."

At this point the instructor piped in with the predicted response, "Wow, 35 weeks."

Oops, I forgot to insert the part about not looking big enough because I have disproportionally short legs in comparison to my baby hiding torso.

After class we went out to lunch and Clea mentioned that her heartburn had made her voice change. I keep hearing about this so-called heartburn but never quite knew what it feels like. Stupidly, I asked.

Low and behold, that feeling hit me while I was swimming this afternoon. I must admit, it was probably my fault for eating leftover turkey loaf for lunch but I figured I could use the protein. Well, that turkey loaf kept visiting me over and over again and even decided to make a guest appearance. Thankfully I was quickly able to run over to some grass before loosing part of the lunch.

Lessons learned:
(1) Don't ask about ailments and then comment how you haven't had that problem.
(2) Turkey loaf should not be eaten within 1 hr of swimming
(3) Prenatal yoga is 20 min of bonding (i.e. venting) + 1 hr of light stretching

Last weekend alone

Michael was up in Leadville this weekend to support some of our friends doing the Leadville Trail 100 mile run.

Before continuing on I'll take the moment to answer some of the questions I've fielded about this event...

1) Of course they stop, that's what the aid stations are for
2) Yes, they let girls do the race
3) That's correct, I meant to say 12,000 ft above sea level
4) Yes, they eat while they do this event
5) Why? Because it's a challenge and you get a belt buckle if you finish in time.

Okay, now that we have that clarified we'll move along to my last weekend alone:

For those of you who don't know my life story, you might not realize that I have never actually lived alone. I had roommates all through college and we bought this house before I even graduated from CMU. Technically I've never lived alone but Michael has made dozens of trips over the past decade so there's been a cumulative year plus of being alone.

Thing is, I don't seem to have much fun being home alone. It might have something to do with my extrovert nature but I think the inevitable troubles that arise when Michael is gone are the real issue. Things always break when he's gone, it's as if there's a curse on the house when I'm here alone. One of the most memorable break-downs was the night I was cooking dinner and the refrigerator suddenly started gushing water out the door, the water line had broken. Right before he left for this trip, I hit a rock driving up Mopac. I now have a cracked windshield and last night the garbage disposer broke.

Personally, I'm hoping this whole string of breaking will end when Baby G arrives and I am no longer home alone.

Okay, just in case you're curious, that is not my windshield, I just liked the picture. Mine is just one crack that is currently making it's way across the top of my windshield. It's not nearly as exciting as that picture but it'll cost the same amount to replace.

Knowing is half the battle

That PSA is about the only thing I remember from all the years of countless GI Joe episodes we watched growing up. Maybe my brother got more out of it... he was the one who ended up in the army.

But, his Army carrier is not the real topic for this post. Instead, I will be touching upon the upcoming battle: nursing the baby.

Why do I label this a battle? After some of the things I've heard and seen I think we need to give it some respect. Without a healthy perspective on this topic, a naive mother may enter the battle ground not knowing what she is up against.

Yesterday afternoon the Garel family had an appointment with a lactation consultant. We decided it might be worth the time to find out some information before Baby G arrives. At this point I feel the 2 hours was time well spent, we learned a lot about poop diapers, feeding, and other lovely new baby experiences.

Note: If anyone is interested in learning about these experiences first hand I will be happy to arrange a diaper changing schedule for you. But act fast, there are fewer diapers in the first couple of days and those ones sound too exciting to miss.

The consultant was there to inform us of what to expect and she didn't let us down. Upon arrival in her office she handed us a folder with information. She went through the contents and eventually got to the color handout of, "What we are trying to prevent."

I'm going to be blunt, it was a bit horrific to look at some of the pictures of bleeding, scabbing, cracking, and shape distortion which can result from a bad latch between baby and mother. After about 10 s of utter horror the consultant placed the paper at the back of the folder, "It's not a good idea to look at that one too long, it'll scare you."

Good idea, let's just put that one out of sight and pray we never need to use it as a reference chart!

Where's yours?

I just got back from joining the pregnancy and new moms meet-up group, we met at Genuine Joe's coffee on Anderson. There were about 15-20 ladies there, an almost even split between ladies who were pregnant and ones who'd had their baby in the past couple of months. There was also one token dad, who's wife dragged him along before their doctor's appointment.

As usual I got a lot of (now typical) comments from first time introductions to people, i.e. "You're due when? You're so small!"

It really does add quite a new element of humor when meeting a number of pregnant and new moms who make these types of comments...

When I began talking to the guy he was asking questions about our plan for the baby, etc. He then made the comment, "You have plenty of time to think about that, my wife is due September 18th."

"Not too much time, I'm due September 28th," I replied. That response just got a blank stare.

There were the usual comments from the other pregnant ladies talking about when they're due and how many people have told them they look huge. There were two girls due at the end of December who were complaining about others making comments about their size. Nothing new, I kept quiet for that conversation.

The part that got me laughing inside was the conversation I had with a mom who was carrying her son in a sling. I was asking her questions about it and she asked, "Where's yours?"

I pointed to my belly, "She's in there."

So we've got this down; I'm not huge, my baby probably won't be huge, it's now a game to see how long these comments last. The bigger question is, what will I be asked afterward, "Who's baby is that?" Or will I get the comment, "I didn't even know you were pregnant."

Tour de room

Here you go, a tour of Baby G room:

My brother says I am nesting. Personally, I think it's more accurate to call it long overdue cleaning. After 9 1/2 years in the house I am finally scrubbing the wooden blinds, cleaning under the bathroom sinks, and wiping down the molding throughout the house. That might sound like nesting to some but it's probably more a result of my lack of employment and inability to fill my free time with 20+ hrs of hard training. Believe me, I would've been more than happy to ride my bike to Hutto today instead of drive there.