No more McD's

Last night after I got home and changed into my comfy clothes, I went to put on my Crocs (yes, I wear Crocs around the house, sue me) and noticed that my feet and ankles were swollen up like sausages. I had cankles. Oh. My. God. It's too early for this! I'm not even 22 weeks! And it's not summer yet! My feet cant be swelling already!! In a panic, I texted Courtney and she suggested that maybe I just need to start watching my sodium intake. Hmm. I did have McDonalds for lunch. Dammit. Now, I have been pretty good lately, it's not like a few months ago where all I wanted was fast food. But every now and then I just want something greasy. Guess I wont be doing that anymore!

And on top of the cankles, earlier this week I was complaining to my friend Nemmie about some pregnancy related aches and pains, and she said "maybe it's 'roids in your girl parts!" Wait. What!? No, that cant even be a real thing, you are mistaken, Miss Nems. So of course I had to google it, and let me just say that that is NOT something you should ever google. EVER. Suffice it to say, it is a real thing, and I am now scarred for life. Pretty certain that's not a problem for me just yet (and hopefully never), but Christ! They should warn you that it's even a possibility before you decide to get pregnant!

19 more weeks. 19 more weeks. I can make it 19 more weeks. I'm over half way, I'm on the donwhill slope. Oh shit, I have to take care of a baby in 19 weeks! Baby dogs I am good with. Baby humans, I really know nothing about. And here in a few months, I'm going to be expected to like, keep one alive and healthy, and stuff. There's got to be a class that will teach me everything I need to know, right? RIGHT?!?!

21w4d

Its a....

Girl! Woah, I'm going to have a daughter. I'm sure she'll be all sweet and cute for the first few years, and then hate me until she's about 30. It's just the law of nature, it can't be helped. The ultrasound was really cool, baby was moving around quite a bit but not enough for me to feel. She must be going absolutely nuts when I am able to feel her! We got to see her do a somersault and suck her thumb, so that was neat.

Here she is with her foot up in her face, about to poke her eyes out with her toes:

Speaking of feet, check out the big gap between her big toe and her second toe! She definitely gets that from me, I have freaking lobster claws:

Here's a shot of her legs all stretched out with her ankles crossed. She's got her arm resting on top of her leg. Long arms!

....Long arms and big hands. This is looking down from the top, she's got her little (big) hand up in front of her face. Those are some basketball playing hands! Dan is so proud.

And just as a comparison, here are her hands at 13 weeks. She's done a lot of growing in the last 7 weeks!

Here she is the first time we saw her at 6 weeks, just a tiny, indiscernable bean with a flicker of a heartbeat. So amazing that she has turned into an actual PERSON in such a short amount of time!

That tiny gray blob that the arrow in the middle is pointing to? That's the baby.

Let the pink shopping frenzy begin!

20w3d

Half Baked

Halfway there! Halfway there! Man, I cant believe this kid is already halfway done baking. If this were a marathon, I'd be past mile 13. Except, in a few miles I'd start hurting really bad and crying and wishing for death. So, uh, lets not compare this to a marathon. Because if the first part of pregnancy was the best part, then I am in for a world of hurt. So lets just nix that comparison.

The belly is definitley growing-

Aside from the ever expanding waistline (and still NON-expanding boobs, WTF), there still isnt a whole lot going on. I did start work on the nursery by getting it primed and the trim painted. I know priming isnt all that exciting, but if you saw this room before I did it, you just might be excited afterall. For some reason, I had decided after we moved in that I should paint the room red. We're talking bright, Husker red. Except, painting a room red takes about 500 coats, and I got fed up after 4. So it never really looked very good. Plus, I made a mess of all the trim in the process, so there were red smears all over the trim. Awesome. Oh, and the woman who owned this house before us had touched up the trim using about 5 different shades of white, all in a flat finish. Who uses flat paint for trim?? Also, she didnt actually use WHITE, it was more of a yellowish, antiquey-white color. Barf. This is before I did the trim, so you can see how yellow it looks:

You can see Ashley's house out the window. Hi Ashley!

Ah, much brighter. Also note the new windows! Eh, they really dont look any different than the old ones, except for the fact that they aren't rotting apart.

Annnndddddd......we should find out boy or girl tomorrow! Yay!

5 on Friday

Well it seems that these "5 on Friday" posts are pretty popular in the blog world, and since I apparently need every motivation I can find to post, I will jump on the bandwagon.

1. Did you know that being pregnant makes it hard to pee? True story. I had always heard that you have to pee a lot when you're pregnant, and you do, but it turns out it's because you cant empty your fucking bladder. I go to pee, and barely anything comes out. So when I get up, I still have to go. WTF. I am going to start wearing Depends so I can just go whenever I want instead of having to run to the bathroom only for nothing to happen.

2. I miss beer. I think I miss it more than wine.

3. When I was driving back to work after lunch today, I was in the turn lane to make a right hand turn, there was a green right hand turn arrow, and the person in front of me had to do a granny roll through the entire turn. Dude, you are driving an Infiniti G35, I'm pretty sure it can handle turns better than the Element, we dont need to slow to 2mph. And when I passed you 3 seconds later, it was clear that you were not an 85 year old woman with bifocals, so there is no excuse. I HATE people that do this! Seriously, I spend half of the time I'm driving having road rage. If I ever mention wanting to get a concealed carry license, please stop me, because I'm sure it would end in me getting into some sort of shoot out over someone driving too slow.

4. I was in BRU the other day, I went on my afternoon off to avoid the cluster it becomes on the weekends. Plus, it is out at 135th & 69, and it is just best that I avoid that area during heavy traffic times for the above mentioned reason. Well apparently every stay-at-home mom in JoCo had decided it was a good time for a trip to the ol' baby supply store, so there were women and babies EVERYWHERE. Which was fine, until one baby started crying, which made another one cry, which made another one cry....you get the idea. I about had a stroke, and it cut short my perusing through the cute teeny tiny baby clothes. I dont know if I'm ready for my own screaming kid. I have a lot of patience for my dogs, I just hope that transfers to the baby.

5. I am so happy it's finally SPRING. I feel like I've been in such a funky mood lately, and I'm sure it's because I've been a shut-in basically since Christmas. This weather makes me actually WANT to get outside and do something instead of laying on the couch watching Criminal Minds reruns all night.

Hooray for the weekend!
19w4d

I had a doctors appointment today, and for the first time in my life they had to move the BIG slider on the scale. Yup, officially passed the 150 lb mark. Oh well, that mean's baby is growing and getting bigger. Although, if you look at any of the pregnancy weight gain charts, they all say I'm gaining too much weight too fast. Those charts can kiss my ass.

Baby is about the size of a potato, and the big news for the week is that I can finally feel it moving! Everything I've read says that they already have a sleep/awake pattern established, and it figures that my kid would sleep all day and be up all night. I feel it the most in the evening, and whenever I wake up in the middle of the night I can always feel it. Although, if I jiggle my belly during the day, it wakes up and starts moving. Ha! Wake up kid, we're going to start work NOW on getting you on an acceptable sleep schedule. You always hear that the first movements feel like flutters or bubbles popping or whatever. I think it feels more like I have a giant tapeworm crawling around in there. Not that I would know what a tapeworm feels like. Whatever it is though, had a nice healthy HB of 150 today though, so right on track

Last weekend I was reminded again of why men arent the ones who get pregnant. We were headed up to Omaha, and as we were driving through St. Joe Dan asked if I wanted to stop at this bar that one of his friends owns and have a drink. Um, no thanks? The man honestly forgot that his wife was pregnant. So you know if they were the ones to get pregnant, they'd forget about it until they were 3 beers in and then realize "Oh shit!!!"

Only 12 more days till we get to find out! I still say girl, we'll see if I'm right. Although, the only baby dream I've had so far involved me getting an u/s and the tech pointing out the boy bits. So really, I won'tbe surprised either way.

18w4d

What they don't tell you

In browsing various pregnancy forums, I have learned one main thing. There are a lot of dumb as shit women out there. (no, riding a bike will not "give you an abortion". Yes, your baby is alive even though it is not breathing air while it is inside you). My friend Jules and I have had numerous (drunken, sitting by the pool) converstaions trying to decide if people are really just that stupid, or if we are just that smart. Because lets face it, everywhere you go, someone is always making you wonder how they manage to function. And apparently, pregnancy bring the morons out of the woodwork. Gives a bad name to pregnant women and moms, if you ask me.

But aside from being shocked at peoples' intelligence levels, I am almost more shocked about all of the "OMG I DIDNT KNOW THIS WOULD HAPPEN" comments you see. Yes, being pregnant makes you fat. Yes, being pregnant makes your skin freak out. Yes, being pregnant makes you moody. Yes, being pregnant makes you tired. Yes, being pregnant makes you constipated. Yes, being pregnant can make hair grow on your stomach. Yes, the baby has to come out of THERE. No, your husand does not give two shits about what kind of bottles you register for. Seriously, do you people not have friends, or mothers? Because, uh, if you have ever met anyone who has been pregnant, you have heard all of this stuff.

The thing that nobody ever really tells you though, is that being pregnant is boring. There just isnt much going on. Every day at least one person asks me how I'm feeling or how things are going, and I usually answer with "fine", and they keep looking at me expectantly like I am going to have something to add. I dont know what people want me to say. "Oh I'm doing great, peed 6 times between the time I got to work and lunch, my belly is getting strangely fuzzy, got winded walking up the stairs last night, and I officially can't button any of my pants". Do they want to hear that? Probably not. Just like when they ask how a race went, they dont want to hear "well I pissed myself at mile 12, had to make an emergency stop at a port-a-john at mile 16 so I wouldnt shit my pants, and had a blood blister pop at mile 22". It's just stuff that nobody wants to know.

Speaking of marathons, I actually got a little teary eyed when I got the notification the other day that Chicago has filled up for this year. Yes, I'm thrilled to be pregnant, and duh, I didnt expect to be running a marathon a month after I have the kid, and yes, it will still be there next year. But after I did it last year, I sort of got it in my head that I was going to do it again this year. So it just made me a little sad thinking about not doing it.

Thats another thing that nobody tells you about being pregnant; that you will start to feel like you are missing out on stuff, and that it's NORMAL. But nobody ever tells you that, because, well, I dont know why. You're just sent the message that you are supposed to be 100% overjoyed about the prospect of being pregnant and having a kid, and any thought otherwise means that you are going to be a shitty shitty parent. So then when you DO start feeling kind of bummed about not being able to do this or that, you start feeling totally guilty for thinking that way in the first place. But, everybody says that being a parent means that you are in for a lifetime of feeling guilty about SOMETHING, so I guess this is a good start!

And on the topic of missing out on things, the other day I was thinking about the fact that summer is fast approaching, and that we live close to the Prairie Village pool. What's nice about that? They have an adults only pool! Yeah! We can go there and avoid all the kids at our neighborhood pool, and sneak in booze in plastic water bottles! For a minute there I honestly forgot that a) there will be no laying by the pool getting drunk for me this summer, and b) from here on out I am going to be one of THOSE people who takes their kid to the pool. Woah, man. Reality check.

16w4d

Car shopping, Hurley style

Those of you that know me know that Dan likes cars. As in, likes to get a different one every year or so. It's a disease. He has a spreadsheet of all the cars he's owned in his life, I saw it once, I think there are close to, if not more than, 40 on there. And for someone that is 39.....yeaaaahhh. He has slowed down a bit in the last few years though, he's only had 3 different cars since we started dating in 2005. And 4 motorcycles, but I digress.

I have been saying for a couple of years that "this is it! No more cars!", but now I mean it. I dont know, somehow it just doesnt seem very responsible to be trading cars like they are freaking baseball cards when you have a kid. Call me old fashioned. His latest car was a PT Cruiser, which I HATED, and may or may not have made fun of him relentlessly for driving. And my friends may or may not have gotten in on the action. But in all practicality, it's a pretty small car, and with 3 dogs and a new baby, I just thought we might want something bigger. Especially since I'd like to be able to keep a car for a while and use it when we have a second kid. Two kids and three dogs in a PT was DEFINITELY not going to work.

So here is what happens when someone like that marries someone like me who is all "I need immediate gratification, stop hem hawing, just do it NOW!":

Julie: so, I think we should trade the PT in on something bigger.
Dan: How about a Crown Victoria? (WTF?)
Julie: Um no, how about a Pilot?
Dan: OK
Spend a few days finding links to used Pilots
Julie: Want to go look at this one?
Dan: Sure. Tonight?
Go testdrive Pilot, be underwhelmed.
Salesman: Well if you like Pilots, you'll love the CX-9. Want to drive one?(we were at a Mazda dealer)
Dan: OK
Julie: OK
Testdrive CX-9
Julie: Wow, I really like it!
Dan: Me too!
Julie: Want to get it?
Dan: OK.

And that is how car shopping goes in the Hurley household. Although to be fair, it DID stretch into two days, because the first night we went to look, the banks were closed by the time we were ready to talk numbers. So we had to deal with all that the next day. At least we slept on it.

14w3d

Its a....

Baby! Yep, definitely a baby in there. I had an ultrasound last week at 13w1d (13weeks 1day, for those of you not up on the pregnancy lingo) to check for certain birth defects. It's called an Ultra Screen (or 1st Tri screen, or NT scan) and includes a blood test. Then they plug in the measurements they took on the ultrasound and the results of the blood test and your age into some program, and it spits out the probability of your baby having Down Syndrome and a few other chromosonal defects. It's optional testing, though I think most doctors recommend it if you're over 35. I'm not, but since I'm adopted and dont know any family medical history, figured it would be a good idea. Ok I'm lying, I just wanted an excuse to see the baby. Because even though I KNOW I'm pregnant, and my doctor had found the HB with a doppler at my last appointment, and I had an ultrasound at 6 weeks and saw the little flickering blob in there, and have been feeling like death....I still didnt really believe it. In my warped mind the blob we saw at the last ultrasound could have been some sort of tumor, and the HB I heard could have been mine. Granted, it was 176 bpm, but hey, that is a pretty normal running HR for me, so not out of the question. Except, I wasnt running at the time. But still! You never know. Anywho, here is the little bugger:

See, definitely a baby. Not a tumor. She was wiggling around all over the place and getting pissed when the doctor jiggled my belly (like a bowl full of jelly. Har) to get her to switch positions so he could get the measurements he needed. And I am calling it a her, even though we obviously dont know yet. I just think of it as a girl, and I dont like calling the baby IT. Conjures up images of scary clowns. And with the u/s picture already making the baby look like Skeletor, I dont need to think of scary clowns too. I truly, truly dont care what it is. Dan on the other hand, is hoping its a boy. But doesnt every guy? I keep telling him that he's so scared of having a girl that that's what we'll end up with for sure. And on that note, I made my appointment for the BIG ultrasound, so we should get to find out on April 21. Not too much longer!

Other than that, things are good. I'm officially in my 2nd trimester, and starting to feel better. Still feeling pretty crappy first thing in the morning and at night, but much more functional during the day. And, it's starting to get nice out, which is giving me the itch to go run. One of these nights I'll have to give it a whirl....if any of my running shorts still fit, that is.

It's the small things

Last week was more of the same, laying around the house and eating out. On Friday we headed out to Pennsylvania to visit my sister-in-law and her husband. She moved out there before we even got married, and we still hadn't been to visit. Oops! They are also getting ready to put their house on the market, so between that and and the baby, we figured we had better get out there. Plus, we found out last Monday that she is also pregnant and due about 3 weeks after me. So our wee one will have a cousin the same age. Fun!

On Saturday we went up to Hershey, and while you might think that the CHOCOLATE was the highlight of the trip (especially for a pregnant chick), it wasnt! Nope, it was these too cute for words, tiny, single serving ketchup bottles at the Hotel Hershey!

I need to figure out where to get them and buy a stash. I love tiny, miniature things. Like those teeny tiny binder clips. You know, the ones that only go around like 10 sheets of paper. Those are the best. So anyway, if you happen to know where to get those tiny ketchup bottles, LET ME KNOW!

Sunday before our flight left we hung out in downtown Baltimore, and had a late lunch at a great little Italian place. When we walked down by the harbor after that, I made the mistake of setting my to-go box down on a bench, and this seagull decided to try to get into it. I guess I cant blame him.

Sunday happened to be a really nice day out there and there were TONS of people out for a run down around the harbor. That, and just being by the open water made me want to do a race BAD. Ah, nothing beats jumping into a big body of open water and taking off on a swim with a pack of other people. So I was all "dude, I could totally do a race at the end of May, I wont even be 30 weeks, and I shouldnt be too big yet". Right about then I bloated up so bad I thought my stomach was going to burst and my head started pounding and I realized I was EXHAUSTED from a weekend of eating and driving around....and a 15 minute walk. So that killed my race fantasy. But man, I cant wait until next year! And yeah, I'm smart enough to know that racing while one is pregnant, especially if said person has been a total lazy-ass for the last 3 months, probably isnt advisable. But there is nothing like knowing that you CANT do something to make you really, really want to.

So that was the excitement of the weekend. We missed out on some sleet here, and for some reason our plane was delayed leaving from Baltimore because KCI had run out of de-icer. Not really sure why that matters when you are landing, but mmkay.

My goal for this week is to make dinner 3 times, and by "make dinner" I mean MAKE DINNER, not fish sticks and fries. Cooking just really holds no appeal to me right now, which is weird, so we'll see how that goes.

I'm not dead

I know, again with the lack of blogging. But I have been doing stuff. Since I started this blog as a training blog when I was getting ready for IMFL, blogging about anything less than IM or marathon training seems kind of....pointless. With the three marathons last year, I was able to have SOMETHING to blog about, even though it was never as consuming as IM training. I DO want to keep blogging, I just need to reconcile myself to the fact that it may not always be about an 18 mile run followed up by an 80 mile ride. And if you are OK with that, so am I.

So, if you get bored with the direction I decide to take, I apologize in advance. But, I wont be writing too much about any awesome training adventures or races this year. In fact, I wont be doing any races at all. But I do have something pretty exciting (at least I think it's pretty exciting) planned for Labor Day, or thereabouts. Yup, we're adding to the family, and no, it's not another dog. This addition will be of the baby human variety.

As of today, I am 10 and a half weeks pregnant (and no I have not announced it at work, so keep your mouth shut you know who you are), so I have about 30 to go. So far, pregnancy has been "interesting". I always swore I would never be one of those pregnant women who ate junk every day and sat on their ass watching TV. But sadly, thats what I have been doing most of the time. I swear I dont want to though! But when your "morning sickness" lasts all day, and you are doing good to keep your eyes open past about 2pm, thats what happens. The closest thing I can think of to compare morning sickness to is a hangover without the headache, and it's been with me for about the last 4 weeks straight. They tell me it's supposed to subside when you get into your second trimester, so I've got another 3 weeks to tough it out. And really, I HAVE been feeling better, the last week or so I kind of get a break during the middle of the day. So Dan probably thinks I'm a total faker since all I do at home is laying the couch but manage to function at work.

And I'm not ashamed to admit that so far I've gained about 8 lbs, which can no doubt be attributed to the fact that my body has decided all it wants to eat are McDonalds french fries and chocolate shakes. Oh, and lets not forget the complete and total lack of exercise the last 2 months. I have become one of THOSE pregnant women. Yuck! But, once I stop feeling like I'm going to hurl every time I stand up, I plan to get back at it. Of course I realize I wont be out running any marathons in the next few months, but I'd at least like to keep SOME of my fitness this year. And pregnant or not, I'm just not used to being sedentary this long (and eating this much fast food), so it will feel amazing to get moving again.

So! I dont plan to turn this into a total pregnancy or baby blog, but that will probably start occupying a lot of it. Hopefully pretty soon I can start talking about the fun of trying to run with a passenger, and next year move on to the adventures of dragging along my child AND husband to some races. Should be fun :)