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...
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Ironman VS. Pregnancy
Friday, July 10, 2009
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.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Go Treat Yourself to Some Ice Cream
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.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
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.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
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.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Someone finally asked...
"Are you pregnant?"
