2 Weeks Already

Yesterday as of 5:17 pm, Alfie has been out in the world for two weeks.  She's thriving, and it turns out that she's a pretty easy baby.

We had her two week appointment yesterday, where we learned that baby girl gained 20 ounces in 8 days.  In case you were curious, that's a lot; the average is about 1 ounce per day.  This just means that she's a good nurser (and that her mom makes some pretty awesome milk- just sayin').  She has an adorable double chin and some good leg and neck strength. I now hope that she will be a runner AND play rugby (probably scrumhalf or flank, since she will not be tall).

So civic-minded at such a young age!  Note the pudgy cheeks and double chin.

I feel pretty much back to normal, although my core is very weak.  Having muscles stretched out that far for that long does not make for a six-pack once the baby arrives.  Tuesday I started doing daily yoga and I can already tell a difference.  Here are some typical poses right now:

• sun salutations- at least 4 total, 2 per side
• cat/cow with leg extensions and leg and arm extensions
• downward dog
• seated spine twists- this feels amazing after several months of having to turn my entire body to see what was happening over my shoulder
• tree pose
• chair pose
• bridge
• seated and reclining leg stretches
• plank
• low lunge

Yesterday I also did a few lunges and some sumo squats.  They felt hard at the time, but today my legs are not sore.  The trickiest thing right now with lunges, squats, and a lot of the yoga poses is keeping my spine and hips in alignment.  Because it's hard to do, I know that I need to be doing it.  Next week Alfie and I will go to mom and baby yoga, brought to you by the same wonderfully demanding woman who teaches prenatal yoga in town.  I went to mom and baby with our son as well, and it was not easy.  Not in the least.  

On the running front, I think I might try a few very slow miles next week.  I feel great, and any concerns I might have had about my milk supply went away at the pediatrician's office yesterday- Alfie is a champion eater, and I know logically that moderate exercise will not harm supply.  Until then, I need to walk at least every other day to remind my body what forward motion feels like.  

Alfie's Here!

Alfie (actually Eden) arrived Wednesday, April 25 at 5:17 p.m.  She weighed 6 pounds, 7 ounces and has a head of strawberry hair.  She's amazing!  We came home Thursday evening and have been enjoying family time ever since.

Wednesday morning, contractions started but they were not very close together or impressive.  We went to the midwife's office at 1:30 because they weren't stopping, and she informed us that I was already 6 cm dilated.  It was hospital time!

We got to the hospital, got checked in, and the midwife broke my water at 3:17.  Exactly two hours later Eden arrived.  To say it was a fast labor is a bit of an understatement.  It was exactly what I had hoped for: no drugs and quick.

6 pounds, 7 ounces of adorable love

Baby Alfie arrived ready to nurse and very alert. We thought that she was going to be at least as big as her brother, who was 6 pounds 11 ounces at 3 weeks early, but she was a small peanut (but long!  21 inches!).

Mama and baby resting together- it was a big day!

A family friend (who is the mother of James' best friend) took the toddler home after school Wednesday and brought him to the hospital to see baby sis .  Then my parents arrived, cuddled with the new addition, and took James to our house.  He is still going through grandparent withdrawal, after several days of favorite foods, exciting toys, and new people to read stories.

Since baby and I were both doing well, and since I do not voluntarily stay in a hospital longer than necessary, we came home as soon as we could, which was 24 hours after her birth.  It has been busy here since Alfie's arrival, but it's also pretty amazing.

love!

The Bambino and Baby Alfie together- he is so proud of being a big brother!

37 Weeks- I Ran!

So, I stopped running at 34 weeks because running caused contractions for me.  At 34 weeks, who wants contractions?  It still felt good to run during the run, but afterwards made me nervous.  I backed down to walking, and I tried to enjoy it.

Fast forward to this week, and guess who's full term?  Baby Alfie is!  The Bambino, my 3.5 year old, was born at 37 weeks, a little early but totally healthy.  This prompted me to get myself out the door for a run because, at this point, so what if I have contractions?

Thursday afternoon I took the non-gimpy dog for a trail run and we had a blast.  He successfully passed not one but two dogs without barking.  He also managed to not chase the feral turkey who lives in our neighborhood, although I could tell he really wanted to.  The weather has been unexpectedly cool for North Carolina in April, so both of us enjoyed getting out in the fresh air.


I did get an unexpected and rather messy nose bleed near the end of the run, but I think that just makes me seem tougher than I already am.  Some people think running while pregnant is fairly hard core, so running home very pregnant with blood smeared on my sleeve must have seemed extra tough.  Honestly, I doubt anyone noticed.

Note the blood on both the sleeve and bottom edge of my shirt.

There's also some on my leg, but you get the idea.

This morning I went for my longest run in months.  A whopping 3.6 miles, I ran for 43 minutes in and around the hood.  Aside from a little ankle soreness, it was amazing.  I brought music instead of a dog this time and just felt free.  I didn't even have to stop for a potty break, which is a pretty big deal.  We spent the rest of the morning doing fun family things like the Farmer's Market, toy store (aka thrift store), and Science Center.



After this week's two runs, I know that my body and the baby it's growing both still have a lot of run in them.  I will run as often as I want until Alfie's arrival!

It had to end sometime...

Alfie

Monday marked 34 weeks.  We had an appointment today with the midwife, and things are going well.  Baby Alfie was very uncooperative with the ultrasound tech- we did not get a single good picture of her face.  She weighs around 5 pounds now, and we could even see her practicing her breathing.

Like the title of this post suggests, as of this week I am done with running.  It still feels good while I'm going, but the contractions afterwards are just not worth it.  I will walk and do yoga up until her arrival, but that's it.  I hope to maintain base fitness.  With the bambino, I quit running at 30 weeks and was able to come back to it quickly, so I hope that happens this time, too.

Race Weekend

Last weekend, my dad ran his first solo half-marathon; prior to Rock n' Roll DC, we had run several together, but this was his first chance running alone for 13.1 miles.  Even for a hot day, a crowded course (28,000 runners!!!), and some hills, he did awesome.  We hopped on the Metro to see him around mile 10, making friends with another group of fans on the train who told us what stop to use, etc.  I had forgotten the map at home, and it's pretty darn difficult to pull up a map on an iphone when you're underground.  Thankfully, this group had large posters, so it was a safe bet to ask them for help.  They even helped get my dad's attention when we finally saw him.  We all yelled "Pop-Pop!" (the bambino's name for his grandfather) until he saw us.

In the huge crowd, it was a bit like playing Where's Waldo to find your runner.  He was wearing a white hat, yellow shirt, and shorts, so as people came out from the underpass we'd look from the top down.

• "White hat... shirt's too dark"
• "White hat... no wait- it's a visor"
• "White hat...bright yellow shirt... oh, it's a woman"
• "White hat...bright yellow shirt...blue shorts- no, Dad isn't African-American"

Looking for our runner near Gallaudet University

And then finally we saw him coming and Jenn got a lot of photographs. This whole time, the bambino did great- he had his snack and happily watched all of the runners.  Since it was Saint Patrick's Day, there were some spectacular outfits.  I love fun running clothes, but the women running in plastic wigs on a warm spring day made me feel vicariously overheated.  Yikes!

White hat, bright yellow shirt, blue shorts- that's him!

After the Dad-sighting at mile 10, we hustled to the finish, arriving almost 30 minutes late.  The Metro was packed, and there was construction, so there was no hope.  We reconnected with our runner and quickly decided it was a far, far better idea to walk a few miles in the beautiful spring weather to food than to squish ourselves like sardines into the Metro.

After lunch we went to see the cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin.  The unseasonably warm weather had brought out the blooms a little early.

Isn't he cute?

with Mémé

Dad and I hung out under a tree while the rest of the family traipsed around looking at flowers and trees.  Dad had just run a race and had some good Salvadoran food; I am very pregnant and had likewise just eaten a lovely meal, so we were very happy to rest in the shade.

I Dream of Training

First, a disclaimer: I love being pregnant.  I love how my body has changed, and I love the purpose.  I already adore the tiny little girl growing in my (also growing) belly.  I cherish every head-butt, hiccup, and other movement that reminds me she's there.

I love being pregnant, but I fantasize about training and really running again: running more than three miles, getting progressively faster instead of slower, having different kinds of runs within a week.  Right now, the variety is indoor v. outdoor, music v. stroller.  I look forward to long runs, long race-pace runs, hill repeats (remind me that I'm looking forward to them, because when they happen, I will whine), speed work, tempo runs, stroller runs, and plain old runs.  It will be so nice to look at a month of training and see variety and progress toward a goal.

Perhaps this is the difference between runners and joggers: runners like goals and progress, whereas joggers just want a fitness routine.  Being pregnant has made my focus shift from goals to fitness, from progress to maintenance, and I'm itching to get back to normal.

30 Weeks!

This week, baby Alfie is 30 weeks along; 10 more weeks (or less!) until she makes her appearance.  We are, of course, very excited.  We also have a lot to do.  The nursery has most of its furniture, but there's no bed.  There are coverings on the windows, but we'd like to make curtains and reupholster the glider chair in the same fabric. We have plenty of cloth diapers, and we've begun to pick up some little girl clothes.  She will most certainly wear big brother's onesies and shirts around the house, no matter how blue they are, but it's hard to resist tiny dresses with bloomers.  Bloomers!  We have her car seats, one for each car, and we'll put them in the cars at some point in March, I guess.

The biggest thing we haven't done is figure out a name.  We have a few months left, but it feels funny to not even have it narrowed down.  We found out we were having a girl on November 28, and we then we moved.  Then it was Christmas, then New Year's, then school started back and the bambino transitioned to a new classroom, and now all of the sudden it's the second half of February and Alfie has no real name.

In running news, I'm still at it!  I ran Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, plus an extra walk Saturday with the bambino.  Last week's mileage was 12 miles (13 with the walk), and I am very proud of that.  30 weeks is when I stopped running with my son, and I don't feel like stopping at all.

Here's what I wrote at this point last time around:

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2008

No More Running

So, it finally happened. At nearly thirty weeks, with 70 days left to go, it is no longer fun to run, and that's a word I use VERY loosely at this point. I went out for a nice, slow jog and discovered that twenty extra pounds make your legs feel awful. Also, my belly is large enough that there's definitely a little bounce. I now know what it's like to try to run with a spare tire. The plan now is to walk and maybe hike a little, both of which do not cause nearly as much trouble.

In fact,  I ran tonight after our church's Shrove Tuesday Pancake Dinner.  I did 3 miles in 33:45 and then walked to 40:00.  Sure, it's not fast, but it's a good workout at this point, and I was smiling almost the whole time.  And not just because I was watching the first half of the Downton Abbey finale.  What a great way to work off the pancakes!

Speaking of pancakes, my diet seems to be doing a great job of managing the gestational diabetes.  I have the nutrition class tomorrow after school, but just monitoring my blood sugar has made me feel a lot better.  Exercising at night seems to control my blood sugar first thing in the morning, which is important.

That's what it's like around here right now!  I've gotten used to GD, I'm still running, and we need to pick a name for baby Alfie.  I've also been thinking a lot about this summer and getting back into running running, as well as Fall and Spring racing plans.  More about that later...

I do not like to fail tests...

... but I failed a big one last week.

The one-hour gestational diabetes test.

For those of you who don't know, it's standard practice to test women between 24-28 weeks pregnant for gestational diabetes, a particular kind of diabetes found in pregnant women.  There's a one-hour test that requires drinking a very sugary drink, waiting an hour, and having a blood draw.  There are also two- and three-hour tests for if you fail the one-hour test.  These longer tests determine if you've really got gestational diabetes.

That is, unless you fail the one-hour test so badly that they won't give you the longer ones.  The normal range, according to my midwife, is 65-130.  I scored a 212.

I was shocked.  I worry about plenty of things, but this wasn't on my radar because I am active, I eat well, and before pregnancy I wasn't 20% overweight. (I wasn't overweight at all, actually).  Women suffering from gestational diabetes often gain weight quickly, and they often have high blood pressure.  Me?  I've gained 15 pounds in 28 weeks, and my blood pressure at my check-up on Thursday was 100/58.

Even though some women have a greater likelihood of having gestational diabetes, and some women show symptoms of it before the test, other women (like me) simply do not fit the profile.  Some women (like me) do not show symptoms.

I will learn more at the nutritionist's office next week, but here's what I know so far:

• I will probably have to check my blood sugar levels many times a day (in the morning and two hours after meals) with a glucose meter.
• During pregnancy, the placenta produces hormones.  Sometimes, these hormones interfere with the body's ability to process glucose.  This interference increases as the pregnancy advances, and it can result in gestational diabetes.
• The most likely reason that I haven't had any symptoms is because I've been controlling this with my normal diet and my normal exercise routine.  Aside from occasional (okay, more than occasional, but still not frequent) sweets, I eat pretty well.  We eat lots of vegetables, only whole wheat bread and pasta, and I do not drink sugary drinks.  Diet and exercise are often enough to control gestational diabetes, and that may well be what I've been doing.
• If gestational diabetes goes untreated, you can end up with a really big baby.  I do not want a really big baby, since I'm one of those natural-childbirth-no-drugs-please-granola mamas.  

I found this out on Thursday.  Worrier that I am, I was very strict this weekend with my diet, probably stricter than I should be.  I haven't skimped on calories, but I didn't allow myself any refined sugar and had relatively few carbs.  Next week, the diabetic nutritionist should give me guidelines and a meal plan.  I tried to look this up online, but most were based on the idea that the mom-to-be was gaining too much weight, which I'm not.  I couldn't fit in the appointment this week, and the next one isn't until next Wednesday, giving me lots of time to freak out, so I bought a blood glucose meter yesterday to start checking myself.  Lo and behold, two hours after dinner last night my blood sugar was too low.  Today I'm trying to eat the way I did before I found out and simply check my levels.  We'll see how that goes.

So, there it is.  I have gestational diabetes, and it will affect the next 3.5 months.  But I'm also pregnant, and that will change my life permanently.  I want Alfie to get the best start possible, and if that means that I prick my finger multiple times a day and only get a teeny tiny slice of carrot cake for Jenn's birthday, so be it.  3 months just doesn't sound like much in the face of the rest of my life.