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.

----

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.

You know it's hot when...

... You're car starts panting in the heat.

Yesterday afternoon I called Michael and asked if he would mind going to Whole Foods for dinner. As usual I was wanting some meat but on this occasion I was trying to determine a way to get some cold, cooked meat. I concluded that I wanted some of the turkey loaf from the counter at Whole Foods. Seriously, this stuff is much better than it might sound, I'd highly recommend it with a side of veggies.

When Michael pulled up at the shop I looked outside and started to laugh. It looked like his car was sticking it's tongue out at us. Made me think of a dog hanging it's tongue out of it's mouth in the hot summer heat. I told Michael to look over at his overheating car and he started to laugh and took the picture above.

As for me I spent a good portion of the day eating ice cubes to stay cool. Jeff K is now working at the shop and he has a cooler full of ice every day. I can't imagine a better treat then getting a cup full of ice every hour, it's like a little bit of heaven ;)

A few firsts

I had a few first time experiences yesterday. I'm sure I'll have many more in the near future but this is what I've got for now...

1st Barton Springs 1 mile swim sans wetsuit -

Although I have swum in Barton Springs hundreds of times yesterday was the first day I managed to swim a mile without a wetsuit. I tried it once a few years ago and made it down to the other end before getting out and walking back, I was too cold. But yesterday was a different story. A bit more determination and some extra baby-fat got me through a mile.

Tomorrow I was try and even more daring feat of strength: I will attempt to water jog before my 1 mile Barton swim.

For some of you, this might seem a bit humorous, I know plenty of people who have spent hours swimming in Barton. But I'm not that person. As one of my friends reminded me, there was an instance in the past when I hopped in a 77 degree pool with a wetsuit on. Don't plan on seeing me swim the English Channel anytime soon.

1st Prenatal Yoga Class -

After my hips started to tighten up on Saturday morning I decided it was time for prenatal yoga class. I'd been waiting until I started to feel really pregnant to go. Apparently I waited longer than everyone else, I was the farthest along in the class. When everyone else was saying they were concerned about not showing yet I got to be the one who reassured them, "Don't worry it'll pop out." Yippee, I finally got to say that, another first.

1st time using the pregnant lady pillow contraption for my massage -

I've been getting massages pretty regularly for years. Once my stomach started to grow the pillows started to pile up on the massage table. Yesterday I got to use the foam supportive pillow designed for pregnant ladies. Comes complete with a large indention for your stomach, pretty humorous looking but so comfortable to lay on that I was trying to figure out a way to get my own for sleeping at night.


1st time for our A/C to break -


When I got home from my massage I was greeted by Michael cooking dinner, "Did you do something to the A/C?"

It was already warm in the house so I knew this question was not a good sign. Clearly, Michael had already determined it was broken and tried to inform his pregnant wife as easily as possible. Still, it took mere seconds for the panic to show on my face. It was still 100 degrees outside and the idea of sleeping with out A/C sounded about as exciting pulling my teeth out or as Matt A. might say, "eating foil and shaving my head with a cheese greater."

A series of phone calls quickly began. We found a place to spend the night and found another friend who was willing to come over to look at it, "My A/C has broken 4x and I've always been able to fix it," he told Michael.


At 8:30 pm Michael and Matt P. were outside to trouble shoot the issue. But they weren't alone, Michael was also on a conference call to Taiwan and at a few points during the call I heard them discussing the A/C instead of computers. Once they'd determined the probable issue a call was made to another guy who used to work at Samsung and now owns an A/C repair company (Comfort Zone A/C). Crazy as it sounds he drove over to our house at 9:30 pm and replaced the broken part. I don't think it had anything to do with me being pregnant but I was certainly a happy pregnant lady when I got to sleep in my cool house last night.

As a side note... although I am clueless about Lynne's ability to swim the channel with ease I am even more mystified by women who have kids in TX without A/C

Happy Early B-day Colin

My brother turns 30 on Saturday. He's 18 months younger but the closeness in age does not reflect a closeness in personality. Don't get me wrong, we do have things in common but we are quite different people.

I'm sure one could argue the root of these differences were his assignment to Mrs. Nelson's 2nd grade class after I'd had her for 1st and 2nd grade but there's no way to prove that. Instead, we'll just vote for nature in the nature vs nurture argument. Or... maybe it is nurture, he did always get better birthday presents!

To explain our differences I'll try to retell a story from yesterday morning.

Picture it: Decker Lake Austin TX, June 12, 2009, Couple's Triathlon. A guy in a volunteer shirt is sitting on the lawn next to 3 kegs of beer. A racer approaches the volunteer and proceeds to ask him a question...

Racer, "I have a question for you."
Mich's Bro quickly replies, "You've got the wrong guy."
Racer, "If someone doesn't finish the swim ---"
Mich's Bro interrupts him, "Seriously, you're asking the wrong guy."
Racer, "They told me to ask a volunteer. Just hear me out. If someone doesn't finish the swim --- "
Mich's Bro interrupts again, "Listen, I'm not the guy to ask. I smoke, I drink, and I don't exercise. I'm just here to serve the beer."
Racer walking away, "I'll go ask someone else."

It's important for each of us to know what are skills are. Although I'm sure I would've been able to answer, and possibly predict the racer's unasked question, I've never served beer from a keg.

Ironman VS. Pregnancy

I've spent most of today sitting around doing nothing, the stereotypical pregnant lady according to my doctor. This was not the intended plan it just had to happen that way because my hips are in horrible pain right now. At about 25 min of running this morning they started to hurt so much that I was forced to walk back to the rock. I've been stumbling around the house like an 90 yr old all day.

This led to some comments on Facebook and a little more thought about the Ironman VS. Pregnancy...

The way I see it Labor/Delivery is the Ironman race. I need to convince Baby G she must be born in less than 17 hr to make it official. Of course, if she wants to come out in less than 11 hrs and make my Ironman races look long I'll be even happier. Maybe we can find her a medal or something. I can't imagine what the nurses at the hospital would say if Michael puts a medal around her neck after she's born. It might be worth it just to confuse them.

But aside from the actual event, there's also the training. Since most of us sign up for and Ironman 1 yr in advance and train for it almost as long I'd say the 9 months of pregnancy is pretty comparable.

When you sign up for your first Ironman you become engulfed with it, always thinking about it, wondering how it'll go, wondering if you are prepared, etc. The same appears to be true for pregnancy.

Food: "Am I eating the correct things? Am I eating enough or too much?"
Exercise: "Am I doing the correct amount? Am I getting enough recovery?"
Sleep: "Why am I tired all the time?"
Anxiety: "What will happen on the big day? Will I be prepared?"
Pain: "Why does my body hurt from all of this?"

The list could go on... people you know are asking questions about your preparation. There are stories from others about their experiences. Your friends who haven't had this experience are curious but don't quite understand.

That makes both experiences sound pretty tough, which they are. But there's a reason why we choice to do this, the experience itself. I signed up for my first Ironman because the half didn't seem like my limit and I wanted to see what I could do. I got pregnant because I want to be a mom and want to see how it goes. The challenge of it is part of why I am curious. I didn't expect it to be easy, new experiences seldom are.

I'm in the final 12 weeks of my "training." Guess that means it'll probably be the hardest part. I'm sure the warm summer and the long to-do list won't disappoint my expectations.

As for Labor/Delivery vs Ironman, I'll report back on that afterward.

Off to go spin on my bike and see if I can loosen up these hips...

3 hr Glucose test

Michael came home for about 24 hours between his two trips so we took another stomach picture this morning (see above). His first trip was for business, the 2nd one is his baby shower trip. Yes, I'm serious, my husband is having a weekend long baby shower with the three friends he grew up with. They began their series of trips as bachelor parties but now they needed a new excuse to hang out for a weekend.

After taking some pictures I made my way over to CPL for my 3 hr glucose test. They said to arrive between 7-8am, I signed in at 6:55. After the 2nd of 4 blood draws the nurse jokingly commented, "You're ahead of the other ladies." I replied, "I think they were asleep when I got here."

There were 2 other women who'd also failed their first test. I'm pretty sure I was the only one of us wearing a kid's sized t-shirt, still able to sit Indian style in the waiting room chairs. The nurses taking my blood found humor in the fact that I'd failed the first test and was told to gain more weight in the same week.

Now I'll just wait for that lovely test results call from my doctor's office.

As for other happenings of the week. I'm trudging through this hot Texas summer with everyone else. It's hot out and I'm pregnant, at this point I can't really do anything to change either so I'm just going to have to deal with it. I just recalled someone telling me to "deal with it" about two months ago. At the time the comment angered me. As I'm writing this I've realized I should have listened then.

The other day I was reading a back issue of Fit Pregnancy. There was an article with women confessing what they hated about being pregnant. The reply to one lady was "Think of pregnancy as an Ironman triathlon. If you didn't suffer, crossing the finish line wouldn't feel so sweet."

... I don't know if the person writing this article has done an Ironman or not. I can honestly say that my two favorite Ironman felt the easiest and took the least amount of time. Crossing the finish line after enjoying the entire day is a lot more rewarding to me than feeling frustrated and wanting to drop out of the race. Sure, you can tell yourself you endured the pain but I'm much happier when I'm invincible and feel no pain.

Hopefully I won't have a tough time with labor. I don't know that I want to have seven kids, trying to see how many times it takes to have a speedy, pain free experience.

Go Treat Yourself to Some Ice Cream

I had another doctor's appointment this morning. Before going I went for a run on Town Lake. The run itself was not so great, I had some side cramps and leg cramps which resulted in a number of stops. On the flip side, the stops lead me to see a couple of friends I would've missed otherwise. So overall it was probably a good experience topped off by a nice cold shower at Barton Springs.

Back to the doctor's appointment...

The nurse's assistant came in first. She measured my blood pressure, the size of my stomach, and Baby G's HR. As usual, these things were all good. Once again she asked if I feel kicking (yes, a lot) and explained the kick count test, which is used if you don't feel kicking one day. Essentially you drink cold water or a cold caffeinated drink and count the kicks for an hour. Cold caffeinated drink... I guess that means soda or ice coffee... not going to happen. By the way, I thought we were supposed to decrease our caffeine during pregnancy?!

Next question was to ask me about scheduling of my 3 hr gestational diabetes test. It's on Friday so I don't have results yet.

The doctor then comes in, and asked about the 3 hr test. I tell her I'm in disbelief about the entire thing and she tries to reassure me that it's nothing I've done wrong because I am exercising and haven't gained much weight. She said about 50% of those tests will come back negative so we'll talk about that later if need be. Okay, no surprise there.

That's when it got funny. I told her I'd been feeling some side cramps which lead into a conversation about what exercise I am still doing. She told me that hardly anyone can still run at 28 weeks and by 32 weeks she doesn't think that's realistic.

The next comment was about my weight gain, apparently I have 'not gained enough.' She then asked how much exercise I'm doing and told me that 10 hrs/wk sounds like a lot because it's more than 1 hr per day. Telling her I used to do 17-20 hrs/wk didn't seem to help. She then went on to tell me that I should now be gaining 1 lb / wk and if not I'll have to cut back on my aerobic exercise. "Go treat yourself to some ice cream," was her recommendation. Good grief, I ate 2 cupcakes and over a lb of dark chocolate this weekend (I kept that comment to myself). She then tried to make me feel better by telling me most pregnant women are couch potatoes and use it as an excuse to eat what they want, so it's good to see the other side... but, I need to gain more.

Is it just me or does this seem a little contradictory? Last week I tested positive to the preliminary gestational diabetes test. The nurse tells me exercise and diet may help. On Friday I have to fast for 12 hrs and get blood drawn. Today I'm told I haven't gained enough weight and I need to decrease my exercise level and eat ice cream.

Seriously people... is it any wonder that pregnant ladies get moody, emotional, and seem to change their minds at the drop of a hat? I feel like I'm in the middle of a loose - loose situation here... somehow I keep messing up even if I'm trying not too.

Note: The picture above is from a couple of decades ago, at my brother's birthday party. Can anyone guess which one is me?

Rylee & Michael

Yesterday afternoon Michael went over to my brother's house to work on his car (aka Midlife). While he was there he went to our niece's room to pick her up from her nap. When she saw him she began to scream.

Colin came over tonight to see if this would still happen. Apparently Rylee does not think to highly of Michael right now. We're not real sure why, unless he's not telling us about the time he stole her cookie, but we're hoping this is not an indication of how Baby G will react to her dad.

Running with a melon

Michael and I went for a run this morning. Along the way I asked him how hard it would be to carry an extra 15lbs while running. He said he thought it would be pretty hard since an extra 10 was hard enough.

We got 'lucky' today, there was overcast sky for most of the run. Aside from a couple of stops for bathroom and stretching I think I did relatively well with my run. Of course, I wasn't able to drop my husband... that hasn't happened during any runs this year... yet ;)

Before heading out this morning Michael mentioned it might be a while until we get to ride together again, we haven't done that since my trainer got set up in April. Near the end of our ride Summer and Roger passed by on their bikes. It was their first ride together since their daughter was born, she turned 1 yesterday (Happy Birthday). Michael and I are hoping we can get a ride in together before that, so anyone who'd like some early morning baby sitting experience on the weekends is welcome to volunteer. Well... unless you happen to be one of our friends who's said they have a tendency to drop babies.

After our run I decided it was time to cut up the watermelon. When I lifted it up I realized it was pretty heavy and asked Michael to go upstairs and weigh it. Sure enough, it was 14.5 lbs, the amount of extra weight I am dragging along right now. Honestly, I have no clue how I'm doing it and still running, that water melon was heavy.

Lab Results

When I got home yesterday there was a message on the machine from my OB's office, I needed to call them back to get my lab results. I assumed it was probably results from my visit last week, "Good grief they're probably going to tell me I have another bladder infection."

After my highly eventful trainer ride (okay, it wasn't too exciting) I called the doctor's office. The nurse on the line told me that my iron counts were good. Then she told me I have an elevated glucose level and will need to complete the 2nd round of gestational diabetes testing. At first I laughed, thinking there was no way I could have gestational diabetes.

The nurse told me that I'd have to schedule the testing for the 12hr fasting and 3hr blood draw testing. The comedy of it disappeared instantly and I began to grow upset about the situation. The voice on the other side didn't help much. I said I was surprised at the result b/c I haven't gained much weight at all. Her response, "Exercise would help."

That comment put me on the verge of crying. I asked what a positive result at the next test would mean. She said that I'd have to talk to someone about my diet, I'd be taking blood measurements 4x per day and if exercise and a good diet didn't help I'd have to get insulin injections.

I don't think the lady on the other end fully understood how I was feeling. After all, I exercise a lot (or so I think) and I eat pretty well (or so I think). I just couldn't seem to imagine how any changes I'd be able to make would help that much if my results were truly as high as she told me they were. So I got of the phone in tears and called Michael.

When I told him about the testing he made his best attempt to humor me. "Since I'll be away next week you won't have to worry about missing lunch with me on the day you're at the test." It was a good attempt but that didn't work too well. Then he told me, "Well, maybe you just don't eat enough sugar so your body is used to it and that's why your levels were still so high an hour after drinking the orange stuff." Thank goodness Michael knows how I think, try humor first, if that fails use logic.

I was still a bit bothered by the entire call so I called my step father who asked, "Did you tell them you do triathlons?" As if this would get them to say, "Oh, you do triathlons, the test results must be wrong, don't worry about taking the follow up test."

So, next Friday I'm scheduled for my 2nd round of testing. I'll just cross my fingers and try to look at it as an opportunity to get a bit of reading done. In the mean time I'll work on convincing myself it's probably not a result of anything I've done wrong.

Someone finally asked...

"Are you pregnant?"

Yes, for the first time someone finally asked me if I was pregnant who did not know the answer to this question. With 1/3 of my pregnancy left people have finally realized I am not just getting bigger. I was so excited to be asked the question I almost gave the guy a hug. But then I remembered I don't give hugs.

This evening the neighbor asked Michael if the baby's room is ready yet. This is one of the most common questions these days. "Not even close," is our answer.

"Don't worry, you'll have time. At about 3 months left you'll realize you're running out of time and you'll panic."

"We are at 3 months left," Michael informed him. The neighbor was in disbelief.

After taking a few belly shots this morning I changed into my running clothes. We took another shot b/c Michael said I look more pregnant in running clothes.

.

After all the picture taking and a bit of extra sleeping, I was running late. So I revised my plan to a 5K run. Apparently I was racing the other pregnant ladies (ie the ghost running with me) b/c I knocked it out in 25:04, which included a slowed pace for the last 2 min when my belly began to hurt. So, even with my extra weight and the high temps and higher humidity I still seem to be running okay.

As I was finishing my run I passed a guy walking in our neighborhood, "Slow down, you're making me look bad."

"Nah, you're fine." seemed a lot nicer than, "Don't worry I'm only 7 months pregnant."