Baby's First Half Marathon

Today marked a milestone I've been anticipating and dreaming about since we started talking about having kids... I completed a half marathon while pregnant!

Up until a couple of weeks ago, I was hesitant but pretty confident I could finish the race. Then, in what seemed like in just a few short weeks, I started growing exponentially and thought... uh oh, this might be difficult! Still, I signed up a month ago knowing there was a possibility that I would have to a) walk most of the way or b) drop out entirely. Thankfully my wonderful friend and running buddy Angelina agreed to come up from Atlanta to do the race with me, so at least I would have company!

So, after some hiccups with travel plans and other such things on Friday, race day arrived. We got to the start in Travelers Rest around 7 and discovered it was COLD and windy.

Freezing at the start line

 Started off and took a while to warm up, especially my hands, but a few miles into the race it was actually pretty comfortable. I started having some doubts in the first 4-5 miles because I was tired and we weren't even out of Travelers Rest yet. Just after we passed Furman, I spotted Scott on the side of the trail! It was a great surprise to see him, and I got a little boost after that.

Just after the 5-mile mark

We trucked along after that, stopped for a port-a-let and snack break right at mile 6. Also took my first walking break at that point so I could eat my Stinger waffle. Felt great after that and the miles just started ticking by really steadily from that point on.

Swamp Rabbit Grocery - Mile 9

 Excited to see Scott again at Mile 9 just outside the Swamp Rabbit Grocery - AND he'd bought me a cookie!! What a wonderful guy :) That certainly set the positive mood for the rest of the run, and the miles kept zipping by. We even missed seeing the 10-mile marker!

Finally reached Downtown, rounded the baseball stadium, and from that point on it was a straight shot up Main Street to McBee where the finish line was located. I'd fully planned to walk up the "hill" from the Reedy River bridge, up past the Peace Center, to where we turned onto McBee, but I felt so good I didn't need to walk!

Excited for the finish line!

Finished!

Official time: 2:34:54 

Hooray, we (three!) did it!

So so SO excited to have that crossed off my bucket list, and ever so thankful to Angelina for running with me. I don't think I could have made it through without her to keep me company!

After the finish we headed to MaryBeth's for some much-needed brunch. I had an egg with a bacon waffle - yum!

Chocolate milk - recovery drink of champions!

And now... I shall proceed to park my behind on the couch for the remainder of the day!

Bib for Beth + Cletus, and our finishers medal :)

More snow!

So this week we've gotten not one but TWO days of snow. Neither amounted to very much accumulation, but it was enough to make things look pretty and white for a while.

Front steps on Tuesday morning

View from the car as I pulled out of the driveway - still snowing!

Stopped for gas - coming down pretty good!

 Thankfully it had really just started around 5am and it hadn't stuck to the roads very much yet - they were mostly just wet. I heard from friends who came in to work later that it started sticking and getting a little slick and slushy to drive on, so I'm glad I decided to go in at regular time!

Parking lot at work upon arrival - just wet, but white on the grass.

Around mid-morning it had accumulated pretty well on the ground

Fountains w/ patches of snow around

It warmed up enough and stopped snowing pretty early on, so getting home wasn't an issue either, thankfully!

I had my thyroid check-up on Wednesday, which was a frustrating experience to say the least. My appointment was at 9am, and I'd gotten the automated reminder phone call a few days before, so I confirmed. I arrived at the office at 8:45am, 15 minutes early just as instructed to "update any paperwork". I brought my book to read (I'm now onto Bringing Up Bebe) and sat in the waiting area. After what felt like a while, I looked at the clock... it was 9:25! I walked up to the receptionist's desk, where there was a nice little sign that said "If you have been waiting more than 20 minutes, please see the receptionist." I asked why I hadn't been seen yet... and they inform me that their computer says my appointment is at 10:05! WHAT?! First of all, why in the world did you not mention that when I walked in an hour and 20 minutes early??? They finally call me back around 9:45, take my weight and blood pressure (which was a little higher than usual, not surprisingly) then I wait for the doctor to see me. Then he tells me he never got my lab work that was supposed to have been faxed over the day before... so really, my entire visit is POINTLESS. He leaves, makes some phonecalls, and finally gets my thyroid results... they're normal. YAY.

Honestly, this could have ALL been done over the phone - I get my blood drawn, they see if the number is too high or too low, and adjust my dose if needed. No reason for me to waste HOURS of my work day going in to the office. Unfortunately, there's no such thing as "speaking with customer service" or "talking to the manager" to complain at a doctor's office. You're basically at their mercy!

Oy.

But anyway, glad that my thyroid levels are stable... at least that was good news.

Then came the snow on Wednesday night! It started coming down right as I was about 10 minutes from home, and the flakes just got bigger, fluffier, and more abundant. It was exciting to watch it fall, but I did note that there wasn't much accumulation. It had been in the 40s most of the day, so the ground was pretty warm. The work weather hotline got updated about 9:30 to say they were going to delay opening until 11, which sealed the deal - working from home Thursday! Not worth driving up in the potentially dangerous conditions when I can get much more done at home.

I woke up and got to working around 6:30 this morning, and admired the pretty snow from beside the fireplace indoors. :)

Dark outside... but snow still falling before I went to bed last night.

View of the front walkway this morning - some slush on the roads.

My home office mate for the day - very helpful.

After about 7 hours straight of work, I took a break for an afternoon run/walk, just to make sure my legs work after all of the inactivity this week! Felt ok, good to get out and move. Logged a bit over 4 miles and called it a day. Got home and did a bit more work through the late afternoon/early evening.

Now one more day of work for the week, then it's race day on Saturday, at last!! :)

25 weeks, trip to Houston

Cletus the Traveling Fetus had some fun adventures in Houston, Texas this weekend! I'd been to Houston a few times for work, but this was my first trip with Scott, so he was able to show me some of the "weird Houston" sites and introduce me to some of his friends from when he lived there.

We flew out from GSP very early on Saturday morning and landed around 8am. First stop was Tita's Tacos for breakfast - so good! Authentic, homemade tortillas with lots of yummy fillings. Next we drove to Adickes Scuplturworx - basically a yard full of giant sculptures of presidents' heads! So strange, but really cool to see up close. Also a giant Charlie Chaplain statue!

Other highlights from the trip (more descriptions/photos coming later - they're on Scott's phone!):

The Art Car Museum:

The Beer Can House:

Texas-shaped waffles at the hotel breakfast:

Running a 5k (turned out to be closer to 4k) at U of H Clear Lake:

Post-race breakfast tacos at Rudy's BBQ:

BBQ brisket & eggs!

It was a short, whirlwind visit, but we packed in a lot of good food and fun.

And here we are at 25 weeks - how are there only 15 weeks left???

This week is a thyroid check-up on Wednesday, and final preparation for the GHS Swamp Rabbit Half Marathon on Saturday!! I'm a little nervous since I seem to be growing at an exponential rate, but I've put in the training and feel like it's now or never. Every day I look in the mirror and think, "Where did THAT come from??"

25 weeks and 1 day

Ice storm!

This week got turned upside down a bit due to weather. It started on Monday night after we got home from work (which closed at 3pm!) and started accumulating quickly.

Sleet accumulation on Monday night

I was keeping a close eye on my flight scheduled for 5:45 a.m. Tuesday morning from GSP. Even though all the other airlines had cancelled their flights for the rest of the evening, Delta still had everything "on time" which I highly doubted... got the text around 9pm that my flight had been cancelled and I was rescheduled for a 6pm flight, getting me to Pittsburgh at 11:45pm. Um, NO THANKS. Plus, I would have missed an entire day of my class with no assurance that I would have even gotten there then, or would have gotten home when expected. After discussions with my supervisor, it was decided to just cancel the trip. Bummer for missing the class, but at least I felt better about not traveling! 

So, worked from home all day Tuesday since the office was closed until noon and roads were super icy all day. I got SO much work done! It was fabulous to work from the couch in my sweatpants in front of the fireplace. :)

Back to the office as usual on Wednesday, and the rest of the week has been pretty normal but busy.

Hump Day Bump Day photo

This weekend Scott and I are traveling to Houston, then he'll be there (and Dallas) all next week for a conference. It'll be my last flight before Cletus arrives!

Speaking of whom, Cletus has been crazy active this week! Seems like after every meal he just dances, does kickboxing, or somersaults all over the place. It's really quite distracting to have going on during a meeting at work, but I can't help but smile. Very weird to watch my tummy bobble around! One of these days I'll catch it on video. 

24 Weeks - Happy Valentine's Day

Another week down, rapidly approaching the end of the 2nd trimester... the weeks that seemed to creep by in the beginning are now speeding by so quickly, and we have so much to do!

We're certainly making good progress though. This week we've both gotten books to read - Scott is currently reading Bringing Up Bébé - a book about an American living & raising a child in France and her observations about the differences between American and French parenting. I'm reading one of two books I bought on the Bradley Method of childbirth. We've chosen this as our "method" since my goal is to deliver unmedicated. I mentioned this method to our midwife at last week's appointment and she goes, "Well, if that's what you want... it's very... intense." After reading more about it, I think what she meant to imply is that it's very thorough and requires preparation and dedication from both the mother and father/husband. The Bradley folks equate preparing for childbirth to training for an athletic event (can you see why this appeals to me and Scott?) - you have to physically and mentally condition yourself for the big day, and it takes both the "athlete" (me) and the "coach" (Scott) being fully involved. We've signed up for a 10-week class, too, so we're excited to learn and prepare!

We've gotten a good start on our registry as well. Chatted with Amanda about plans for the shower - so many things to look forward to!

This past week we had several nice small celebrations of Valentine's Day. First was dinner at the Commerce Club on Tuesday followed by a beer & chocolate pairing event at Quest Brewing Co. featuring LaRue Fine Chocolates.

Chocolates from the beer/chocolate tasting (clockwise from top - descriptions below)

Beer & Chocolate Pairings:

• Golden Fleece with a cardamom orange infused milk chocolate ganache enrobed in dark chocolate
• Sassamanesh Saison with "GrandMa" (Grand Marnier) milk chocolate with orange
• Smoking Mirror with a dark chocolate sour cherry ganache enrobed in white chocolate
• Kaldi Coffee Stout with Moo Who, milk chocolate ganache enrobed in milk chocolate and rolled in cocoa powder, sugar, and coffee sea salt

Scott got to have most of the beers, but I was able to sip enough to get the effect of the pairings - so yummy! The chocolate maker is from Pickens, SC and basically hand-makes everything out of her home kitchen. They were so creative and delicious!

On Friday we went to Sidewall Pizza, the new restaurant in Travelers Rest that took over an old tire mechanic building (hence the "Sidewall" name). They had a really good special - meatball pizza, and BOGO homemade ice cream! We split the pizza and each enjoyed a delicious ice cream dessert. Everything in the restaurant is handmade or locally sourced. SO good! We'll definitely be making that a regular stop.

Saturday was a busy day - went for a long run in the morning, delivered Singing Valentines with some ladies from the chorus, ran errands including finally getting some real maternity clothes (PANTS!) from Macy's, and then home to make our Valentine's dinner.

Prosciutto-wrapped duck breast with white wine and parmesan risotto

Molten-center chocolate cakes with fresh whipped cream

Clearly, this was a big hit and we didn't have to fight any crowds to do it! Success! :)

All-in-all, it's been a great week and I'm excited to finally have some pants that I don't have to fight with!

Maternity jeans! Yippee!!

Appointment Update!

Had another excellent check-up appointment with the midwives this morning. Met with Susan again (she was the midwife who met with us our first time there as well) and she answered a lot of our questions, the primary one being "Soooo... what should we be doing right now??"

The answer: educating ourselves!

So we're now signed up for a breastfeeding class and are looking at childbirth classes... just have to find one that works with our schedule. Also need to visit the library to get some reading material! There are so many "methods" for childbirth out there... seems overly complicated, but I guess that's why education is the key.

We finally started discussing names last night at dinner (sorry, not sharing those, either!) and have made some progress. We decided it would be good to have 2 boy names and 2 girl names going into the delivery and we'll make the final decision when we get to meet him or her!

We also got to hear the little one's heartbeat (147 bpm) and measured my uterus to gauge baby's growth - so far right on track, right around 23 cm. Susan said the centimeters should align pretty well with how many weeks along I am... currently 23w 3d, so right where I should be!

Next month's appointment will be the gestational diabetes test... joy!

23 weeks

A little late on this week's update, but after traveling and yesterday being just incredibly frustrating at work, I was in no mood to post! But today is another (hopefully calmer) day, so here we go...

This past weekend was SO nice after being gone all last week, plus the weather was beautiful (60s and sunny both days) so Scott and I were both able to get outside a good bit to enjoy it. I got a 10-mile run in on Saturday, and was a good bit faster than my 11-mile run a couple weeks ago. I think I forgot to mention... last week I finally bit the bullet and signed up for the GHS Swamp Rabbit Half Marathon on Feb. 28th! I'd been holding out to make sure I still felt good as the weeks ticked by, and with one month until race day, I decided to go for it. Angelina is going to come up from Atlanta to run with me, so it will be awesome to have a buddy join me in the long slow 13.1-mile trot! :)

On Sunday, Scott and I went to church in the morning and then took a nice bike ride down the Swamp Rabbit. We even got a snack from Poppington's Popcorn and picked up some fresh baked bread from Swamp Rabbit Grocery (their stecca loaves are to DIE FOR!).

Dressed for church

Sporting the maternity cycling jersey that Scott got me for Christmas!

Overall it was quite a lovely weekend! If only Monday had been as lovely... though I guess after being away for a week, it would be expected that I'd come back to a little bit of chaos.

Other than that, still feeling great - Cletus is moving around more and more each day! He seems to wake up when I do and stays pretty active through the morning, perhaps takes an afternoon nap, then wakes back up in the evening after dinner... really any food will perk him right up!

Next appointment is tomorrow morning - just a quick checkup with the midwives. Looking forward to it!

Hump Day Bump Day!

It's the mid-week "Hump Day Bump Day" so I thought it might be interesting to take a little trip back through time for comparison...

Oh wowza! I think there's something in there! And to think I was "hiding a bump" at 8 or 12 weeks. Hah! Is it just me, or does it look like the bump is getting lower? I guess little Cletus is settling in there quite nicely. :)

Anyway, still in Daytona for work and starting to long for home. I just miss normal routine... eating, sleeping, exercising. I have been able to get out and exercise each day, which has helped. On Monday I went for a run on the beach and it was nice and sunny and warm.

Bump shadow on the beach

Moon reflection on the ocean

Tuesday it was sunny again, but much cooler and very windy, so I stayed in the hotel gym and rode the stationary bike instead of going out on the beach. I didn't plan for cool weather in Florida!

Sunrise view from my room

Today (Wednesday) it was warmer but cloudy all day, which just made it seem not as nice. I still took the opportunity for a nice barefoot 3-mile run on the beach.

I can still see my toes over my belly!

Now just 2 more days until I get to go home to Greenville. Not that I don't enjoy and appreciate the opportunity for travel and education, but I miss home!