Diplomas

Ben and I officially received our degrees in August, but our diplomas did not arrive in the mail until this month. They are now framed in official UNC diploma frames and are hanging in our guest bedroom.

Furry Friends

Okay, I'm not sure if this is a pregnancy craving or not, but lately I have really been wanting to hang out with furry pets. Ben and I don't currently have any pets, and I'm not suggesting that we get one at this time, but sometimes I wish I had a big furry dog that I could take running with me, or that would curl up with us on the couch (a cat or large rabbit would work here too). So instead, I'll post a couple pictures of the dogs that live at Ben's parents' house. The chocolate lab is Penny, the dark multicolored mutt is Dakota, and the lighter dog is Katie. Luckily we'll get to see them at Christmas so I can get my large dog fix. I just need to figure out how to take their pictures so that their eyes don't glow.

Running again

Now that my pregnancy nausea is pretty much gone, I have slowly started back to running again. Last week, I ran 3 days, 3 miles each time. Today I did 4 miles. I am enjoying getting out and pounding the pavement, especially since the heat and humidity of summer have been replaced by cooler, drier weather. I will say though, that running feels a lot different now. I think that it is a combination of 2 big things: pregnancy and the detraining effect of not running for nearly a month. It is really funny when I think back to a year ago, how I was doing 40-mile weeks in preparation for a half-marathon, a run of 7 miles seemed like a quick jaunt, and a 9 minutes per mile race pace seemed slow. Now, I am quite happy to be done after 4 miles, and I don't think I could run a sub 9-min/mile race to save my life!

All of these physiological changes make my runs feel harder. I feel like I'm running at altitude, and that my comfortable pace has slowed by probably a minute per mile or more. Also, even if I use the restroom right before I head out the door, I still feel like I have to pee halfway through the run (compression of my bladder from my growing uterus?).

I'll definitely try to keep up the running, and it will be interesting to see if things get easier, or not in a few weeks.

Article about exercise and pregnancy

Here's a link to a recent article about exercise during pregnancy.

http://www.physorg.com/news142691746.html

I will add that a pregnant woman should definitely discuss participation in physical activity with her doctor, in case she has any absolute or relative contraindications to exercise. But for the rest of us, let's get out there and move!!!

Times have changed

My friend Karyn sent this to several of us married women (click on the pic to expand it). It is an article from a 1955 issue of Good Housekeeping. How times have changed in the last 50 years! But I kind of wonder if this is really the way it was for most households in the 1950s, or just in TV shows.

Belly Progression, Part 1

Here are the first two pictures highlighting the beginning of my expanding preggy shape. My goal is to take pictures every 4 weeks or so, and I'll try to make them coincide with my doctor's visits so that I can also say how much weight I've gained from picture to picture (hey, you know you're curious!). The first weight gain number I'll post is for the 11 week pic, where I'm using my pre-pregnancy weight as the starting weight.

7 weeks

11 weeks (weight gain: 0.7 lbs)

Staying active while pregnant?

Anyone who knows me or has followed my blog for any thing of time knows that I am a recreational runner. I ran 2 half marathons and a 10K this past year, and I had started to train for the Blue Ridge Relay. Now that I am pregnant, things are a lot different. Up until I was about 5 or 6 weeks pregnant, I kept running and doing strength training, although my runs were all 3-5 miles and easy. However, once the nausea set in, I took a break from running. This was for a couple reasons. Firstly, I usually go running in the morning, but this was the time of day where I felt the most nauseous, and running kind of made me feel worse. I couldn't really go during the middle of the day because it was just way to hot outside. Therefore, I tried going to noon spin class at school, and I enjoyed that. Unfortunately, my school schedule over the past few week has been busy, and I my nausea isn't always just a morning occurrence, so my exercise has become very sporadic. However, I did go for a 3 mile run on Friday morning, the first in at least a month. At the beginning, I was thinking, wow this is really nice. But after a couple miles, I was thinking, okay I'm ready to be done with this for the day!

While women who were active before pregnancy can usually continue throughout pregnancy, some modifications do need to me made. First of all, no more high-intensity cardio workouts. A good guideline is to keep it between "light" and "somewhat hard" (an 11-13 on the Borg RPE scale for those exercise physiologists out there). If you can talk while you're working out, then you're at a good intensity. Secondly, you don't want to get overheated because then you're shunting blood towards your skin to cool off, which means less blood is available to go to your inner organs, including uterus and baby. Thirdly, I think you just really have to listen to your body. If you are feeling good, then you should definitely try to get out there and move. Going for a walk, hopping on the exercise bike, swimming, lifting weights, yoga, whatever you feel like doing. However, if you're feeling really tired and gross, then I would say definitely take a rest-this is not the time to "push through the pain" so to speak (that will come soon enough during labor and delivery!).

So as for me, I am going to try to stay as active as I can. I would like to continue to go for 3 or 4 mile runs a few times a week and lift weights. I'm nearing the end of the first trimester, so I think I'll be feeling a lot more energetic once I get into the second trimester. I initially thought that I'd be sad about losing fitness or not being able to go for a 10 mile run or really train for a race because that's been my mindset for the past year. But I can now honestly say that I'm okay with taking a break from that for a while. I believe that exercise should be fun, and if I focus on what I can't do or am not able to do, then I'm not having fun anymore.

So for now, I am going to enjoy my much shorter, slower-paced runs. Now that fall is here, hopefully there will be some nice foliage to look at while I'm outside.

Big news

I am happy to finally post that Ben and I are having a baby! We are due sometime around April 27, 2009, meaning that I will be 11 weeks pregnant on Monday. We went to the doctor yesterday and got to hear the baby's heartbeat with the Doppler. This means that the risk of miscarriage is now quite low (~2%), so we are really happy that we have made it over this first big hurdle.

I have been having many of the classic early pregnancy symptoms including nausea, bloating, tiredness, and hot flashes. Right now, I have a cold, so that's kind of ruling my body right now (I hate it when my nose won't stop running). I haven't had any cravings, but I have had some aversions. Right now, certain diet soft drinks and coffee make me feel nauseous. Early on, it was honey-nut cheerios and granola bars.

We will be taking belly progression shots over the course of the pregnancy so that everyone can have the pleasure of viewing my expanding shape. I'll have the first two ready to post by the beginning of next week.