Today I got out and did my first run of 2012. An easy 2.5 miles at a 10 minute pace. I still feel discomfort in my uterus area is the best way to describe it. I’ve tried to find information about this on the internet and have been unsuccessful. I’m hoping it’ll just heal itself in time. I’ve started a morning stretching/sit-up routine that will hopefully make me feel normal again. Ever since the birth I’ve been very tight in my pelvic area and have had the pain/discomfort when I run and sometimes just walking. However, today it was beautiful outside, Grandma was watching Gracie and I took a nice easy run up to get my nails done and back. Tomorrow will be my first bike ride of 2012 and I’m sure that will be just as delightful as my run today!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Well, it’s been 12 weeks since I’ve posted anything here and that’s because Gracie did decide to come a bit early at 38 weeks and I have been so busy with her since! She was born in Thursday, October 13, 2011. What a blessing she is. I absolutely love being a mom and watching her change and grow every day. I have a million pictures already and lots to share but I just wanted to get on her real quick to get back in the habit of blogging, it being the first day of 2012 and all! So once again, stay tuned and I hope you enjoy reading my posts on this next journey I’m on!
One Day Old
10 Weeks Old
Week 37
37 Weeks 3 Days
This has been a busy week as we get closer to Gracie’s arrival. Keeping the house clean, multiple doctors visits, walking, time for friends, naps – it all makes the week go by so fast.
Donna brought over three huge garbage bags filled with girl clothes last week ranging in size from 3 months to 4T! They were all her granddaughters – many of them still had tags on them! So Sunday while Richard was watching football, I went through a ton of clothes, separated 12 months and under, 18 month and 2T – 4T into separate bins, washed all the 12 months and under, put away and labeled the drawers with what was in where. The bigger clothes are in storage for a later date. That took just about all afternoon!
Jackie and I have been continuing our walks Monday, Wednesday’s and Friday mornings and the last two weeks I’ve added Thursday mornings with Donna Stimson. Donna Blanchette joined Jackie and I this Wednesday as she is recovering from a 25 miler last weekend and was impressed by how quickly we kept our pace (Jackie and I usually walk around a 15:30 average; I’m closer to 16:30 on Thursdays). Shaun’s going to join us tomorrow which I’m looking forward to.
Tonight I went to a purse party at Kim Fiumara’s house and picked Jackie up on the way. We had a lot of fun, us two prego’s drinking our NA St. Pauli’s Girl while the rest of the group drank their wine. Shaun and Sue Ann were there and we all had a great time chatting and catching up. I’m suppose to see Little Shop of Horror’s with Jackie, and now her husband, this weekend which will be fun.
So today’s doctor’s visit was a littler uncomfortable – literally! Dr. Wiese had to go inside to see if I’ve dilated any and it was actually painful as she felt around in there. I was squirming all over the table, she’s apologizing saying something about the baby’s head in the way then pops out with “just 1 centimeter”. Dang, I was hoping for like 4 or more! Other than that, the baby’s heart rate is good, I continue to have contractions show up on the monitor but don’t feel them. Monday the nurse told me that because I’m “all baby and no fluff” they show up stronger on the print out but if I’m not feeling them it’s nothing to get excited over yet. Bummer.
All I know is that I would love for Gracie to come early. I’m ready! Shaun wants her to wait until her due date (the 24th) since she’ll be on vacation until the 21st. However, when Gracie decides to come will be the right time and I’m willing to accept that… for now! 
Someone’s Stirring
You know how little things will happen throughout the day you don’t think much of until someone says something or something happens that brings it all together? Well, that happened to me today!
Yesterday started out with a 2.3 mile walk on the island with Jackie then taking care of Starbuck – nothing out of the usual. At the end of the day when I went to change out of my clothes into comfy clothes I took my bra off and my breasts were sore. They hadn’t been sore for quite a while so I thought maybe my milk was coming in? I really didn’t know and they stopped hurting so I didn’t think anything more about it. Later that evening I felt a strange sensation in my belly. Yes, it always feels a little strange when she’s moving around in there but this was different. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Then we went to bed and I was up like every hour and half using the bathroom. As we were driving to meet the run club this morning I was telling Richard how I used the bathroom all night and how weird that was since I didn’t drink any water throughout the evening.
We got to the group run and as the group went off running one way, Donna Stimson and I started walking the other way. About 15 minutes into our walk she asks if my belly was lower. She said it looked lower from just seeing me on Thursday. That was my “ah-ha” moment. I said, “maybe”! The boobs, strange feeling in my belly, added pressure on my bladder making me have to pee all night – all could be signs that Gracie is moving into position!
When the group came back from their run, Gina mentioned my belly looked lower just since swim class Thursday night and Jamie agreed. Yay!! If she’s getting into position now there’s a good chance she’ll come a little earlier than her due date which is just fine with me! We’ll just have to wait and see!
Doctors Visit(s)
This is an exciting week as I inch closer and closer to my due date. According to what I’ve read (and our local hospital) you’re considered full term at 37 weeks which is only a couple days away for me!
Thursday I had my regular doctors visit where I was kept waiting for 45 minutes with my pants off and getting very agitated. I had been up since 5:30am, walked the island, took care of Starbuck, rushed home to take a quick shower to get to the appointment in time only to be kept waiting so long. No time for breakfast or coffee so I was hungry and caffeine deprived. 36 weeks is also when they test for Group B strep which is why I was sitting with my pants off.
So I was a little bit irritated by the time Dr. Wiese came in. Everything was good, baby’s heartbeat was 140, my blood pressure 110/70, no weight gain or loss (have only gained 15 pounds total!) so when she told me I had to come back for fetal monitoring I was confused and not very happy about that. She told me that at my age it was standard to monitor the baby to make sure there is not fetal stress syndrome. She told me to get dressed while she went to see if there was an opening at 2pm. I came out of the exam room and peeked my head in her office and asked if this was really necessary. I just had never heard of it and everything was good. Then I asked, “have you ever had a patient who lost a baby this far along due to that” and when she looked me straight in the eye and said yes, I said I’d see her at 2!
We didn’t know what to expect. We went into a different room where I got two round discs strapped around me – one on the upper part of my abdomen to monitor contractions and one on my lower abdomen to monitor the baby’s heart beat. That was hooked up to a machine that printed out the results on paper, like you see when they measure earthquake movements in movies. It was loud and when Gracie moved the heart beat would disappear then come back higher than normal, like 160-170. The nurse said it’s like us doing a sprint when they move in there – it spikes their heart rate for a moment then comes back down.
It was all very interesting and lasted about a half hour. Everything looked very good and they now have a baseline to go off of. I need to do this every Monday and Thursday until Gracie is born! The reason is that your placenta is not as strong as it is in your 20′s and 30′s so there’s chance of rupture or pulling off the uterine wall which would cause the baby to go into fetal stress.
If sitting in the doc’s office 30 minutes twice a week will ensure a healthy baby, I’m willing to make that sacrifice!
Family Vehicle
So I wrote a while back about the Volvo we test drove and made an offer on. Well, Richard wasn’t getting a good vibe from the seller so in the meantime he started researching what we could get for around $5000. There’s not a lot of good, clean, reliable cars in that price range – they’re out there, you just need to dig for them.
Sure thing, a week and a half later, the Volvo deal fell through but because of Richards intuition we had a backup plan. He had a couple Land Rovers on the radar. Initially he wanted a Land Rover as our off-road vehicle – we’d sell the Jeep and he’d modify a Rover the way he wanted it. One of the two was in Vegas and it looked good from the pictures and when he talked to the owner he sounded like a good guy so Monday afternoon we headed for Vegas. (Shhh, don’t tell my doctor I went out of town in my 36th week!).
We met the couple who had just moved to Vegas from New Jersey and drove the Rover across the country. It was in good shape, just a few minor cosmetic blemishes from wear and tear but overall it looked and ran good, he had all the paperwork of any maintenance done and Richard was happy with what he saw according to all the research he had done.
The next challenge was trying to find a place to certify the bill of sale. It was 4:30pm when we finally met, we got into Wells Fargo only for them to tell us they will only notarize if you’re a customer, which we were but the seller, who’s signature was the one that needed to be notarized, was not. So we rushed down to BofA where they are customers and BofA said they only do it on their own docs and it was too late, etc. Needless to say, the banks in Nevada suck!
Luckily Richard got locked inside BofA (it was after 5pm) while he was ranting at them and someone gave him a card to a public notary. He called and they were open ’til 6pm but clear across town. So we made our way to this other place and got there with 20 minutes to spare – whew! We signed the bill of sale, made the transaction and drove the New Jersey couple back home across town.
We’ve had the care for 4 days now and already Richard’s put in a new stereo, sewed on a new leather steering wheel cover, has done some other minor maintenance, ordered a new headliner and floor mats then I’m going to have it detailed inside and out. I LOVE driving it! It is going to make a great interim “family” vehicle until we save up enough cash to buy the Volvo XC70 that we want. Once I get that, we’ll sell the Jeep and make the Rover our fun off-road toy.
In the meantime, I’m enjoying our new vehicle and know that things happen for a reason. The initial Volvo fell through but it gave us the initiative to even look for vehicles in the $5000 price range making it much more reasonable to get a car now. Once again, I am truly grateful for life’s little hiccups.
(P.S. – we only ended up paying $3800 for the Land Rover!!! )
New Friendships
I wrote a blog post in August titled Girlfriends and mentioned the several different types of friendships you can have as you move through life. I even mentioned budding friendships at the time that I wanted to nurture and see if they grew.
Who knew that out of nowhere another friendship would develop, one that wasn’t even on the radar. I’m talking about my walking partner, Jackie. She is 18 weeks behind me in her pregnancy and has a much smaller baby bump than I do right now! 
We started walking just about four weeks ago, just after my baby shower. As a matter of fact, it was Shaun who suggested I invite her to my baby shower because she saw a post on Facebook, something about her not having any girlfriends and since she was pregnant and I was pregnant it might be good for us. Gotta love Shaun, always looking out for others!
Well, Jackie wasn’t able to come to the baby shower but did say she’d like to walk sometime so we made plans and have been pretty much walking 2 to 3 days a week ever since. She’s quite comical, athletic, loves to talk which makes the 3.66 mile walk around the island go by fast. She’s the manager of a Chase Bank branch so Richard opened a checking account up there last week. It was fun to see her in “dresss-up” clothes as opposed to early morning work-out stuff and no make-up.
We had a couple great walks this week, one through Rotary Park which was beautiful and a fast paced walk around the island on Friday. I went to her house on Saturday to bring her some business suits I no longer wear and to pick up a key to watch her dog on Sunday while she went to a Diamondbacks game. I ended up staying and watching Bridesmaid with her which was funnier than I had anticipated. Later we looked at photos of her wedding and friends, I showed her pictures on Facebook of Rachel.
As you learn more about a new friend it’s wild to think how much more there is to that person. Their whole life and friends they had up until now, helping shape their lives, making them who they are today. I’m enjoying exploring this new friendship and look forward to see it take shape. Even though our pregnancy dates are far apart now, our babies will basically be the same age which means this could be a lasting friendship for years to come. You never know though with moving, lifestyle changes, etc. I guess only time will tell. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy getting to know Jackie better during our walks and any other time we spend together.
Photo Comparison
I was recently looking back at pictures, comparing my belly bump earlier in my pregnancy to what Jackie’s is now. I sent her one of me at 22 weeks which is comparable to one she posted of her at 17 weeks. Granted I had been training for and just ran a marathon up to 20 weeks so I was very fit but it’s just fun for me to see the comparison.
So that picture was fresh in my mind when I was doing laundry the other day and had the same shorts on and folding the sport bra I was wearing in that picture. So I had Richard take a picture of me in the same outfit, standing in the same location, only now I’m 35 weeks pregnant as opposed to 22 – wow what a difference!!
Little Gracie is definitely growing! You’re considered full term at 37 weeks so technically she could come anytime in the the next two to six weeks!! I can’t wait!
22 Weeks
35 Weeks
Oh What a Day!
Richard's "one horse parade"
What started out to be a beautiful day of running errands and getting lot’s of work done was rudely interrupted by tending to Starbuck…. ALL DAY LONG!
The night before, Katie (the girl who’s been riding and training Starbuck) said she and Kristi wanted to take the horses to the island to ride. I objected only because the island is cluttered with broken glass and it’s small compared to the wide open desert you can conveniently walk to from the barn. However, after texting Donna and she assuring me everything would be fine, that it’d be fun for the girls, I told her to go ahead.
Katie has been working with SB to trailer her. I tried once with no success and never tried again. Why would I? I have miles of endless desert at the end of the road – no need to trailer anywhere! But Katie likes taking her to the lake and other trail rides with her friend Kristi and so far she’s been doing well. Supposedly she loaded up just fine and they were riding on the island by 7am.
Richard and I had a great morning and started running our errands and had just finished shopping at WalMart when I received a text from Katie that she was never trailering Starbuck again – that it was horrible. I have received many texts from Katie and never has there been anything negative said about Starbuck, only how good she’s doing or how much fun she’s having so I knew it was bad.
Pros and Cons
34 weeks 5 days
It’s the end of my 34th week and things seem to be going well for the most part – some pros and cons in there.
I got 14 miles in of walking and swimming. The only trouble I had was on Friday. Richard and I went for a walk on the island with the dogs after Run Club coffee so it was around 10am. Even though the weather has cooled some, it was still really warm at 10. We walked a mile out no problems but on the way back that same old nagging side cramp kept coming on. I had to stop a couple times to let it subside when Richard said he’d just go get the Jeep and pick me up. Once he took off ahead, I literally just mosied on toward the Jeep – at a 26 minute pace – and then it was fine. The rest of the week, however, I was able to keep a 15-16 minute pace with Jackie and never had any problems. Probably going earlier when it’s cooler makes a difference.
We had our doctors check-up on Thursday – I’ve gained a total of 15lbs now = Good. Gracie’s heartbeat was strong at 145bpm = Good. Going to Vegas to be a bridesmaid at 38 weeks = Very Bad! Dr. Wiese put her foot down and said no going out of town after 36 weeks. Despite all my objections, she made her point very clear when she asked if I wanted to deliver in Searchlight – something nobody wants to happen. So I had to tell Marla to find someone else that could wear my beautiful new dress. Guess I don’t need to worry about it not fitting around my belly now after all. :-/
Jim accepted the role of President for the run club this week, which I was super excited about. And Sue accepted the role of Vice President! Even though it’s going to be hard for me to let go, I feel much better knowing it’s these two who love running, and are already very active in the club, that are taking over. Of course I’ll still be very involved – it’ll just be such a big relief having others to do all the planning and upkeep of the website!
So week 34, a few cons – trouble on one of my walks and felt sick rest of day; no Vegas trip; Volvo hasn’t come through yet (the guy wanted to transfer the title from his business to himself first); – but several pros – still swimming and walking 14 miles for the week; healthy baby check-up; productive work week; cleaned the entire house on Saturday after group run then treated to a delicious steak and lobster dinner at Krystal’s; Richard walked with me twice this week; and Jim and Sue accepted their new positions as run club leaders!
I have found that my pros usually outweigh the cons and it seems to be the case this week too. A few cons make you appreciate the pros that much more. I have much to be grateful for and I give thanks for that every day!