Maternity Running Clothes

My shorts and pants are tight and riding down, my tops are riding up leaving the baby belly and love handles on display. Not what you want! I love running in skirts much more than in shorts so I had to have the Fit Momma skirt from runningskirts.com. It is cut much more generously than the regular running skirts in the same size. It has built in shorties, which was my only concern because those can ride up into a bunched, uncomfortable mess but these only budge slightly. I've worn it for a 3 miler and I only had to tug them back into place maybe once. It has a belly panel that can be worn up or folded down. It's still a little loose at the top so I wear it folded down under my belly. I highly recommend this skirt for anyone looking for maternity running gear. I just wish it came in more colors besides black!

My mother-in-law got me a gift certificate to fitmaternity.com for Christmas and I got my order in last week. The first thing I've tried is this cotton/bamboo blend tank from Ocean Lily. It's a pretty heavy duty fabric that is form fitting but stretchy. It is really long which is ideal for me but probably wouldn't work on ladies of below-average height. I've worn this running once and loved it. It stays in place, doesn't rub anywhere the wrong way and is comfy. I'm not sure how it'll do in the heat since it's black and pretty thick, but hopefully it will still be good. So far, two thumbs up!

On the pregnancy front, I'm 21 weeks today and the baby is developing taste buds this week. She is also now able to absorb small amounts of sugar and water from the amniotic fluid. According to the scale this morning, I didn't gain any weight last week which I find hard to believe. I'm still up 12 lbs but according to my baby books I should pack on some lbs in the next few weeks.


21 weeks pregnant wearing Ocean Lily scoop neck maternity tank from fitmaternity.com and the Fit Momma skirt from runningskirts.com. Yes, that's a Roomba vacuum on the floor, love it!

Showing the belly panel in the unfolded position, and the shorties under the skirt.



Belly panel folded down.


Hope ya'll had a wondeful weekend, happy Monday!

Randoms

Thanks to all of you who commented on my last post. I had 17 comments, so I'll round up to $20 for the donation.

If you promise not to judge me for the liberal use of butter, sugar and cream then feel free to check out the other blog to see what I've been up to in the kitchen lately.

Hope you're all having a great weekend. I've been a little achy today so we're just taking it easy around the house.

***Help for Haiti*** Read and Comment!!

As I sit here in my comfortable home with food, water and a safe place to sleep I just think about all the people in Haiti who have none of those things right now. I know we can't do everything to help everyone everywhere all the time, but to the people who you are able to help you make all the difference in the world.

I'm going to make a donation tomorrow night, and borrowing from Marlene's previous Comments for Cans campaign I'm having a comment-a-thon here at the Funny Farm. I'll donate $1 for every comment on this post in the next 24 hours. I am planning on just donating directly to the Red Cross but if any of you guys know more about this than I do and know of a different place to donate, I'm open to suggestions. So comment away and spread the word.

Ready, set, bang (that's my starting gun)!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Here are some ultrasound pics from yesterday, at 20 weeks.

Here her mouth is open and she's drinking. They basically float around in amniotic fluid, drink it, pee it out and repeat...gross!

profile

Let's hope her nose isn't quite as big and smushed as it looks here.



She always has her arms up by her head, which I think is pretty typical for babies.

20 week ultrasound pics from yesterday

A look back 2006-2009

I was getting a little behind and bored with these so I'm condensing the last 4 years into one bullet post.

2006:
-spent a month in Shiprock, NM on a reservation with Darcy doing our last pharmacy school rotation.
-graduated pharmacy school
-moved in with my parents for about 2 months
-moved to Charleston, this involved me, Rich, my brother Kirk, Dickson, Tanner and Molly and Shi%ty Kitty all spending the night in a Days Inn hotel room.
-met some great friends, but really missed others
-started my first real job

2007:
-bought a house
-started fostering with Blue Ridge Boxer Rescue and ended up adopting Fiona
-trained for and ran my first half marathon

2008:
-ran the half marathon at the Little Rock Marathon, Rich's first half.
-worked a lot, drank a lot of margaritas and wine, spent lots of days at the beach

2009
-ran half marathons at Myrtle Beach and Napa to Sonoma
-started training for my first full marathon
-tried to get pregnant, doc said cut back on running
-got pregnant, no more marathon this year but for a good cause
-met my goal of running 500 miles with a grand total of 523 for the year
-made the decision to run the full Little Rock Marathon spring 2011

Whew, so there you go. That concludes the wrap up of the last decade of my life. It was really fun to remember and it's nice to have it written down.

I just "won" my jogging stroller on Ebay

I'm so freaking excited!! I had my heart set on the pink and brown Bob Revolution jogging stroller and been scoping out Craigslist and Ebay for a good deal. I found a brand new one on Ebay tonight and ended up getting it for $50 cheaper than it costs in stores, with free shipping. At first I felt like I should buy a gender neutral stroller for the next bebe but after seeing how fast these strollers sell online I realized I would probably have no problem selling it if I need to for the next one. Plus...I just really really wanted the pink and brown. I'm going to get the carseat adaptor so this will function as one of those car seat/carrier/stroller travel systems and will be our only stroller. 20 more weeks til there's a baby to put in it!

A look back...2005

I apologize for the double posts today, but I really want to get this A look back series wrapped up since it's already almost the middle of January.
2005 started the 2nd semester of our 3rd year of pharmacy school, and Rich and I were newly engaged. The first half of the year was pretty consumed with school, work and wedding planning. I discovered that I really only cared about my dress, the flowers and the cake. Everything else I pretty much let my parents and our wedding planner choose, I just really didn't care.

2005 in pictures:

We got engaged:

I had a bachelorette party in New Orleans...yes they're twins

We got married:

We had a big party afterwards:


We went on an amazing honeymoon in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico:

We moved into a rental house in North Little Rock:

We started our started our final year of pharmacy school and decided to move to Charleston after graduation. I missed my roommates but living with Rich was great, and we all still hung out several times a week so I still had plenty of friend-time. Another great year!

Ocean Isle Bridge 5K Race Report

Yay, another state crossed off the list. 4 down, 46 to go...sounds a little daunting but we'll get there eventually. Saturday morning we got up at 4am, got dressed, played with the rather confused dogs (why are we up at 4am on Saturday?Wait, you're leaving? Why are you leaving? When will you be back? Oh, I get a Kong, ok, see ya.) It was cold for us, about 25F at race time so we had to bundle up. This has definitely been the coldest weather that the SE has seen in years.

Here is a belly shot before we left. I'll be 20 weeks tomorrow. That's halfway!!!

I discovered that it's really comfy to run in recovery socks and capris. I prefer it to the long Adidas running pants i have because at this point they are really snug. My mother-in-law got me a gift card for some maternity running/workout clothes but I don't want to use it for pants since I rarely run in pants and won't need them for more than the next month at most until it is warmer. The Recovery Socks are warm and cozy and just feel great on my legs.

Here is Rich in the car getting ready. We parked, registered, then ran back to the car where it was warm. There was a 5K and a half marathon and it was so hard to resist signing up for the half at the last minute, but that would have been a really dumb idea...it did cross my mind though. Why go 3 miles when other people are going 13? Umm...maybe because you're 5 months pregnant and your last long run of 10 miles was in August. So 5K it was.

It was a really small race, probably only about 200 people showed up for the combined 5K/half marathon start. The first mile was up and over a bridge into the wind. My hands were painful and numb all at once. The course went over the bridge, turn around, back over the bridge, then the last mile was on flat roads. I ended up walking about a minute up the steepest part of the bridge each way but other than that I ran (albeit slooowly) the whole way. Rich finished up several minutes before me and was able to go get the camera and get a pic of me heading towards the finish area.

The race was really well organized and they had lots of water, coffee, bagels and bananas for us after the race. I wanted to stick around and cheer on the half finishers but we were hungry and cold so we headed back to Charleston shortly after we finished the race. Rich's time was 28:16 and mine was 37:30.

A look back...2004

2004 was another great year. It saw the end of my 2nd year and beginning of my 3rd year of pharmacy school. I was still living in the same house downtown with Darcy, but Lynette moved out to get married and 2 more girls moved in. Rich and I were getting more serious and discussed getting married. This is the year that we got Shi^ty Kitty. For some reason I decided that no home was complete without 2 cats, so my roommates and several other girls from school and I all went to the pound one day after class. I wanted a young male cat to go with the female we already had. We picked one out, named him Ghetto because the pound was definitely in a bad part of town. A few days later I took him to the vet to be neutered and they called and told me that he was a she. So she was spayed and called Ghetto Kitty until one day when she pooped in Darcy's bed (in her defense, the door was closed so she had no way to get to her litter box) so Ghetto Kitty became Shi^ty Kitty. Although now we're going to have to figure out something else to call her since there will be a little one here soon that doesn't need to be calling the cat Shi^ty.

In November (or was it December?) of 2004 Rich and I got engaged. He spelled out "Will You Marry Me" in icing on sugar cookies, how could I say no to that!?! :) Then one of our friends ate the Y, so it just said Will You Marr Me. So 2004 ended on a wonderful note, a new shiny ring on my left hand and a wedding to plan.

2010 First Quarter Race Schedule

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program "A look back" to bring you breaking news in the running department. Ok so maybe it's not really breaking news but we just created the plan so I guess technically it kinda is breaking news to us at least:)

I was getting so antsy reading all you bloggy buddies' race schedules that I decided to sit down with Rich and create my/our own. I know I won't be setting any PRs but I miss running races and having running goals, and he wants to get in a spring half marathon so here's what we're looking at so far. Oh, and also we have the ultimate goal of racing in every state, not a marathon but just any old race from a one miler on up so we took that into consideration as well.

January

1. 1/9: Ocean Isle Beach 5K in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina will cross NC off our list. There is also a half marathon but we will be sticking with the 5K this time. It's pretty short notice since it's this weekend, but we are both off work luckily. It's about a 2-3 hour one way drive so we'll have to get an early start Saturday morning. I'm excited to have a race this weekend! (even if I will likely be walking some of it)

2. 1/30 Charlie Post Classic 15K/5K on Sullivan's Island which is just about 10 minutes from our house. I ran the 15k as a training run for the Myrtle Beach half back in 2007, and at the time it was my longest run ever so I have some great memories associated with it. Rich ran it last year and got a PR but I had to work so I missed out. I'm not sure if I'll be able to handle 15k, even with lots and lots of walking, so I may just do the 5K...although I really really want to do the 15k. We'll see how the next few weeks go and I'll decide right before the race.

February

3. 2/20 8K for H2O on Folly Beach, one of our favorite beaches in Charleston. I don't think the race is actually on the beach, but that would be pretty sweet. Forget what I said about no PRs this year...I WILL PR if I complete this race because it'll be my first ever 8K. Woo!

4. 2/27 Race for Preservation 10K/5K in downtown Savannah will cross Georgia off the list. Savannah is a really pretty city and I'm looking forward to running through some of it's historic areas.

March

5. 3/17 Catch the Leprechaun 5K should be a fun one, with Irish music and a post race party. I love St. Patrick's Day because it means it's almost officially SPRING so I'm really looking forward to this one!

April

6. 4/10 Charlotte Racefest Half Marathon and 10K will be the focus of Rich's training over the next few months because he wants to race the half. I would love to do the half but will be well into my 3rd trimester by then so I think I'll be doing good to finish the 10K.

Well that wraps it up: 6 races over the next 4 months is our goal and hopefully we'll be able to participate in all of them. I got in a good 3 miler last night so I'm hopeful I'll be able to run the whole 5k Saturday and not have to take any walk breaks!

Happy Wednesday!!

A look back...2003

In contrast to 2002, 2003 was pretty smooth sailing. It started with Rich and I getting more serious and dating exclusively. We finished up our first year of pharmacy school and when my apartment lease was up I moved into a really neat old house in downtown Little Rock with Darcy and Lynette, two girls I met in school that are still my BFFs today. It was such a fun time living with those girls and being with our group of school friends. There was a group of about 10 of us that sat together in class for 4-8 hours a day, then hung out or went out at least 4 nights a week...plus most of us lived with someone else or two or three from the group. So it was intense immersion therapy but somehow we managed to all grow closer instead of getting sick of one another. In fact, Lynette and I both ended up marrying boys from our group of friends. I really enjoyed the fact that Rich and I shared the same friends. We were always together, but very rarely one-on-one. We threw huge house parties at our house and I'm pretty sure I did a keg stand in the hallway once...maybe, I can't confirm for sure because I'd hate to tarnish my reputation:) I started working at Arkansas Childrens' Hospital as a pharmacy intern, where I worked 20 hours a week throughout pharmacy school. It was great because my shifts were 2:00-10:30pm but you could clock out at 10:23pm because of the clocking-out fairy and her grace period. Our house was just about 2 minutes from the hospital so I loved that on party nights I could clock out and be home by the time my shift technically ended. So on the social life front, I had an exciting new romantic relationship and tons of great new friends that occupied just about every waking second. School was going great as well and I really enjoyed most of my classes.

2003 is also the year that Rich and I got Tanner. We were walking in his neighborhood one day when we say this lady and her daughter out walking a 6 month old chocolate lab. We ooed and aahed over him and she asked us if we wanted him. He belonged to her neighbors, but they had moved to California and left him behind. How could we say no to that?? So that's how Tanner came to join the not-yet-Morris-family. His roommate wasn't a dog person so whenever the boys, Dickson and Tanner, were at his house they would have to stay outside. None of us liked that arrangement so it wasn't long before they were both at my house that I shared with Darcy and Lynette. I'll never forget the day we first brought Tanner in and Darcy looked at me and said "So like he is going to live here too now. We have 2 dogs now?" Darcy was not a big dog lover at the time, and was actually kind of scared of dogs but she was a trooper and let Tanner move in. These girls were really awesome to put up with me and my zoo!

I was still running, well more like jogging becuase I never ran a race and didn't care about time or distance, pretty regularly as well as working out at the gym. I turned 23 and started my second year of pharmacy school.

A look back....2002

2002 was quite a roller coaster of a year. It started off with me deciding to go to pharmacy school and taking the admission exam. After striking med school and dental school off the list, I wasn't sure what in the world I wanted to do with the degree in microbiology I was about to get. One of my best friends in the world had started pharmacy school already, and she encouraged me to go that route. I had no other real ideas so pharmacy school it was. I was also studying to get a major in Spanish and began planning to travel to Spain to spend the summer after graduation finishing up my last couple of classes. I was still dating college boyfriend, although his post-graduation plans were to move to Florida for a job. We were going to try the long-distance thing while he was in Florida and I was in Arkansas for school.

In May of '02 I graduated with a double major in microbiology and Spanish, moved out of the Pi Phi house, left the town, friends and boyfriend that had made up my life for the past four years and moved 3 hours away to Little Rock where I would start school in the fall. A few weeks after graduation, the boyfriend came to stay with me for a week before I left for Spain. All was well and I can distinctly remember him and my parents taking me to the airport and waving at me as I went through security. I haven't seen him since.

Spain was fabulous! I stayed with a host-mom in Valencia, a gorgeous Mediterranean city. There was a big group of students from around the country in the program and we were all staying with various host families throughout the city. Our mornings were spent in class, then we would catch a bus to the beach where we would eat the yummy lunches our families packed for us and just enjoy being beach bums. Late in the afternoon we would catch the bus back to town, eat a late dinner with our families, then meet up to go to local bars and discos. The weekends were spent taking day or weekend trips to other cities, or just exploring Valencia further. There was a park about a block from where I was staying and I would go there several days a week to run. I never measured time or distance but I think I was probably running about 2-3 miles. It was the first time in my life I ever ran alone, and was when I discovered how cleansing and cathartic it could be to be outside in a beautiful place pounding the pavement. I think that's where I first began to enjoy running.

All this time I still had the boyfriend and had plans to fly from Spain to Florida to spend a week with him before school started. We had been emailing daily the whole summer, but one weekend the emails stopped. A big group of us from school had just walked to a restaurant for dinner one night when I stopped outside at a payphone (really the only option we had of making phone calls there) to call him and see what was up. I don't remember the entire conversation but the jist of it was him telling me "I just don't think this is going to work." So there I stand, having my heart broken via payphone on a quaint little side street in Europe. It would have made a great scene in a movie. I spent the next week in a fog, then flew to New York where my parents were on vacation to spend a week with them. Then about a week later I moved into my own apartment, got Dickson (the yellow lab), and started school. Let's just say I was slightly emotionally unstable at this point.

Thankfully I fell into a wonderful group of friends in school pretty quickly and we partied it up like college kids (remember, I never did this in college so my newly single self was ready to go out!) which helped keep my mind occupied and off the broken heart. I had vowed to myself that I wouldn't look at, talk to, or think about boys for at least 6 months. Rich and I were inseparable about 4 months later. He actually had just been through a pretty rough breakup too and was struggling with moving to a new city like me, obviously we were a match made in rebound heaven. I remember noticing him at our orientation and thinking he was cute. Then one day I struck up a conversation with him to which he was completely unresponsive...as in grunting one word answers and would barely look up at me. For some reason I decided that he was the one for me. In one of my bolder moments I called him, played the damsel in distress card and asked him for help in one of our classes...then tried to act like I actually needed it:) We flirted, studied together, and hung out with our large group of friends for the next couple of months and by Christmas break we were definitely a couple. A dramatic, rocky one that everyone thought was a terrible idea but a couple nonetheless. We fought a lot, had loads of trust and jealousy issues and at first glance didn't appear to have much in common. I honestly don't know why I decided to pursue him, and why he decided to date me, or why we stuck it out for the first unstable year but we did and our relationship grew from rocky to rock solid as we both moved on and grew up together. So....2002...you were a year to remember for sure. I am so thankful to have had that year, with its joys and tears, because it was one of the most pivotal years in my life, leading me to the life I have today so for that I wouldn't change a thing.

A look back...2001

2001 was a really fun year. I was a junior in college at the Univ. of Arkansas, still studying hard but enjoying college life. This is the year that I turned 21 and I celebrated by going out to a local restaurant/bar with some friends. I was not a big drinker at all, so it didn't take many "Hey, let me buy you a birthday shot" before I was way past tipsy. At one point I remember laughing hysterically in the bathroom by myself, and when I came out they asked me what I was laughing at. My response was "The Me in the mirror is really funny." Add that up there with top life lessons and words of wisdom: sometimes you just have to laugh at the Me in the mirror.
I have no idea who this kid is but I thought it was an adorable pic:)

I had just about decided that I didn't want to go to med school, and was searching for what I wanted to be when I grew up. I loved the idea of being a doctor, but realistically didn't want to put in the amount of work and time that a career as a physician would entail. I grew up in a family where work was a means to an end; you worked to earn money so you could play. Careers were never the focus or most important thing in my parents' lives. I'm not sure it's necessarily the best way to look at things, but my view was and still is that I want to have a family, friends and a good home-life first, and work is just a necessary evil. Not the best attitude for a doctor in my opinion, so that was out. Sounds like the perfect attitude for a dentist though right? No fridays, no weekends, no holidays, no on-call, loads of dinero...sign me up! I visited a couple dental schools and took the admissions test and did very well. Then I signed on to work for/shadow a dentist the summer after my junior year of school. HATED IT! I'm not a work-with-my-hands type person, I'm not good at spacial visualization, and I hate the sounds of drills on teeth...what was I thinking?? I ended 2001 with no concrete idea of what I wanted to do with my life.

I was still running a couple miles here and there at the gym, lifting weights and doing the elliptical several days a week. I was in decent shape, but of course was never happy with my body. I thought I needed to lose weight and would alternate between being on extreme diets and pigging out all the time. Not exactly a recipe for health and fitness success. I was definitely still figuring out who I was and what my place in the world was in every area of my life, weight/body/exercise included.

A look back...2000

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

First let me start by apologizing for being a lousy commenter this past week. I've been reading and catching up with you all but I haven't had a chance to comment much. My family has been in town so we've been busy playing tourist in Charleston:)


Now for the fun part, lucky you!!! I've decided to do a decade-in-review series for my next several posts to reexamine the last 10 years. I was going to just do it in one post but my outline was getting longer by the minute, so I'm going to take it year by year.


In the Year Two Thousand...(any Conan fans?)


In 2000 I was a 20 year old college sophomore attending the University of Arkansas and living in the Pi Beta Phi house on campus.


Here's where I lived and spent a lot of my time during the college years.


Here's what I drove, I loved this car back in the day. Now I'm totally not a sports car person but it fit me well in those days.


I was not much of a partier (partyer? party-er?) in college. In 2000 I was dating a guy that I was convinced I would marry and we pretty much spent most of our time together studying, hanging out and doing things like going camping on the weekends. I was in the sorority but it really wasn't my thing honestly. I wasn't all that into hanging out at fraternity houses and going to parties. At this point in my life I was not a runner, but this is the year that I ran my first mile. If you feel so inclined, you can read about it here. At the time I didn't realize what a milestone that would turn out to be. I had no desire to be a runner, or run races, or really do much more than jog a few laps around the track or minutes on the treadmill to stay slim. Career wise at this point I was pre-med and planning on becoming a physician. I studied a lot and was really pretty high strung and focused. It's amazing how free of real responsibilities I actually was then: I had scholarships for school, my parents helped out with everything else, I didn't have a job other than making good grades, and I had nobody to take care of other than myself. I can't imagine what life without bills, home maintenance, a job, and mouths to feed would be like now!