Ahh, glorious vacation....how quickly you fly by

We had a nice long (10 day) vacation for Thanksgiving. It's been an eventful past 2 weeks so I'll spare you wordy paragraphs and give you wordy bullets instead.

• Thurs 11/19-after work we dropped Dickson and Tanner off at boarding, loaded the car with suitcases and Fiona, hit the road.
• Fiona got to go because we only had room to take one dog and she's the easiest to travel with and the boys don't seem to mind boarding at all.
• Trip took 15 hours, should have only been 13 but there was a detour due to rock slides in TN
• Fri 11/20- went to my Memaw and Pop's for breakfast and ate loads of delish homemade biscuits and gravy
• napped
• had friends over to my parents house for dinner. My friend Shelley brought birthday cake!
• Sat 11/21- MY 30th BIRTHDAY!!!!!
• celebrated by tailgating and going to the Hogs game, which we won..woooo pig soooiee!
• further celebrated by going to dinner and watching my friends drink margaritas
• stayed at a friend's apartment while everyone went out on the town later that night. Pregnancy makes me boring.
• Sun 11/22-had a very low key day relaxing at my parents house
• Mon 11/23-visited some daycares to get an idea of where we might send Baby Morris (BM...does that make it a Little Sh^!?) one day
• Tues 11/24-saw 3 movies, yes 3! New Moon-blah, boring. Precious-dark but good. The Blind Side-excellent. Also did some shopping in between movies 1 and 2.
• Wed 11/25-helped Mom cook all day for Thanksgiving since they host at their house every year
• Thurs 11/26-ate, ate, ate and then ate some more. I LOVE Thanksgiving food, and really enjoyed seeing everyone.
• Rich and I drove 2 1/2 hours south to Magnolia, AR to see his family
• Fri 11/27-spent relaxing and hanging out with Rich's fam
• Sat 11/28-AR/LSU game. Rich's family lives in south AR almost on the Louisiana line so they have a big party every year with lots of fans from each team. It was a great party!
• Unfortunately we lost in overtime :(
• Sun 11/29-after a very long 18 hours on the road (traffic and the darn rock slide again) we finally made it back to Charleston
• Mon 11/30-OB appointment that went well, my blood pressure was great and I got to hear the baby's heartbeat.
• drank a decaf peppermint mocha and it was fabulous
• am working but wishing it would slow down a little so I could dive into my google reader and see what you guys have all been up to lately

12 week baby pics

Yesterday I had my first ultrasound as part of the National Institute of Health (NIH) Fetal Growth Study at 12w1d pregnant. It was SO neat! The little thing was in there just rolling from side to side and doing some Jazzercize moves but it's still too small for me to feel anything. I was really hoping we could find out the sex, but all they could tell us was that either it is a boy or a girl with the umbilical cord in the way making it look like a boy. So, we have to wait til the end of Dec or early Jan to find out.

They took some blood and asked lots of questions about my health, caffeine and alcohol intake and exercise/activity level. The study is just getting underway and will run for 2 years, then it should be the standard by which fetal growth in utero is measured. How cool is it that we get to be a part of that! The little one will get a onesie that says "I am the standard by which other babies are measured." I am excited to learn in a few years what they find out about exercise and nutrition and fetal development.

Enjoy the pics of my little scrawny, alien-looking offspring:

Profile pic


Totally looks like an alien, arms and legs crossed in front of body.


A little more stretched out. That huge head and big ears kinda freak me out a little.


Back view of the spine and hipbones. They are so bony at this point. Me? Not so bony and skinny!

500 Miles!

I just ran a very rainy 500th mile around the neighborhood with Fiona. Ha, on an unrelated note: she just tooted loudly then reached her head around to sniff her butt and made a face like "Yuck!"

It feels good to accomplish that 2009 goal, and I'm looking foward to seeing what my yearly mileage will end up being by the end of next month.

Happy Wednesday!

10 and 11 Week Belly Pics

Well I am definitely growing! Here are shots from last week at 1o weeks and from this morning at 11 weeks (and one day, but who's counting). The bottom one is zoomed in more, but you can still tell that the belly is bigger. Now the baby is only about the size of a large lime at this point but I guess as the uterus grows it pushes everything else up and out, hence the pooch.



I basically just look like I've been on a beer and pizza bender for the last several weeks but hopefully one day soon it will actually look like a baby belly and not like I'm just chunking up.
The food aversions seem to be improving. I actually ate both a salad and a chicken breast today for the first time in over 2 months. I'm still consuming mass quantities of candy, namely sour brite crawlers, but at least I got some veggies in today.

Now I'd like to direct your attention to the top right of the blog, where it says "2009 mileage." Yeah baby, 1 mile to go to reach my goal! I feel like 500 miles is not that huge of an accomplishment when I compare myself to many of you amazing runners who knock that out in 2 months, but I'm still proud of it. I'm looking forward to making my victory lap mile around the neighborhood tomorrow!

The Be Band and Maternity Clothes...and some working out

This is the Be Band, the Target version of the popular Bella Band. Basically what this wondrous little piece of stretchy fabric does is allow you to go around with your pants unbuttoned. For the past few weeks, there has been no buttoning the pants so I just tie them closed with a ponytail holder then put the Band on over them to hold them up/smooth things out. It's a great way to postpone maternity clothes and get several more weeks or months out of your regular clothes.

Today is my first day in maternity pants and boy are they sexy. See for yourself...nothing says foxy like a big expanse of nude colored fabric stretched over your tummy.

They are still a little loose in the waist but you really can't tell they're maternity once you have your shirt covering that belly panel. I prefer pants without the panel but these were the only khaki pants I could find long enough to fit me so I didn't have much choice. It is really nice to not have to ponytail-holder my pants together today though, so I think I could get used to this maternity pant thing!

Update on November goals: I'm failing miserably at the run every day goal. I had been feeling great with no nausea for about a week or so, then I swear as soon as I commited that goal to the blog, I regressed and started feeling pukey again. So I took a few days off, but did still get in at least a couple miles of walking the dogs every day. I ran a quick mile yesterday, then went to Body Pump this morning. I found out that our local Yoga Studio won't let you go to prenatal yoga until your 2nd trimester so I have to wait 2 weeks before I can start taking classes there.

New long term goal: Half Ironman!!! The only tri I've done is one sprint back in the summer but I loved it. Go read Carolina John's report from his first half-iron and I promise you'll be inspired and want to do one too. It will be quite awhile before I can tackle this goal, but one day I will do it.

We had a busy weekend working around the house and in the yard, so now I'm off to catch up with all of your blogs and see what ya'll have been up to!

24 Hour Urine Collection

For the last 24 hours I've been peeing in a jug like the big one on the left. Well actually, you pee into this plastic hat thing that fits into the toilet, then you dump it into the jug, then you refrigerate it. So you get to have a giant jug-o-pee in the fridge...nice. I had to turn it in this morning to the lab at the hospital where I work, so I had to carry a large bag that it would fit inside and hold it like a baby to keep it from jostling all around. I'm SO glad to have it turned in and not have to grab the jug every 15 minutes when I have to pee.

Why did I get to participate in such a fun urine-collecting day? Because my blood pressure is a little high, and I tend to freak out (internally, outside I look cool as a cucumber) at doctor's appointments so my BP is always really high there. For example, at home it normally runs between 120-130/80-90...not good but not terrible. If I'm running at least 25 miles a week, it drops lower than 120/80 which is awesome. At the doctor last week it was 160/90. I thought she was going to admit me right there! I had to explain my freakishness to her and promise to bring her a log of my home-monitored BPs. It's technical term is "white coat hypertension" although the nurse and I joked because she was wearing blue scrubs that I have "blue scrub hypertension." It is the strangest thing. I get really anxious and can feel it going up, but for no reason. I know that it doesn't hurt, I'm not scared about the exam/appointment....it's like my body gets this completely unreasonable physical reaction that I can't control. As soon as they check my BP, I can feel it go down because the anxiety is gone. Wierd!! So this 24 hour urine collection checks to make sure my kidneys are in good working order and that I don't have protein in my urine. Having some borderline hypertension to start with puts me at an increased risk of preeclampsia and complications later in pregnancy, so they are going to keep a close eye on me to make sure my BP stays under control. I have great doctor that I trust to take excellent care of me.
For now, I'm just happy to have a urine-free fridge again!

Pregnant Running and November Goals

Pop Quiz:
Pregnant running is
a. hard
b. extra tiring
c. slow
d. rewarding
e. good for mom and baby
g. helpful for burning off Halloween candy
f. all of the above

And of course the answer is, f, all of the above. I am lucky to have a doctor who fully supports exercise in pregnancy and I've been given the go ahead to run, lift weights, bike, etc. Her only guidelines were to be smart about it and to listen to my body, which I can handle. Over the past 2 months I've kept running but it has been short and slow. Most runs are just 2 miles and I usually run them at about an 11:30-11:45 pace. It's like my body just won't move any faster. I've decided to start doing "long runs" on the weekend building up to 6 miles or so and hopefully continue that as far along in the pregnancy as I'm physically able. I may or may not be planning on diving headfirst into marathon training next summer once the little dude or dudette is here:)
My long run, don't laugh...it felt long to me, was 3.5 miles. Yeah, I know...lame, but it's the longest I've run since like early September. It felt great!!

November Goals:
1. Run every single day of the month-a minimum of half a mile. This is more of a mental exercise than anything, to conquer getting out there for even just a few minutes when I don't feel like.
2. Weight train 2 days a week
3. Yoga at least once a week

Happy November! (I turn 30 later this month!!)