Tuesday, March 30, 2010

I'm going to be a mom

Well Baby Smith has decided not to make her apperance. So tomorrow at 41 weeks and 1 day pregnant we're making her come out. My induction is scheduled for 4 a.m. - so it's basically tonight - well for someone who is awake most of the night it is anyway. Jen drove out my way today for one last prego swim, panera and some grocery shopping. It was just what i needed today. I've been getting crabbier -and a workout with jen always seems to get me back into a good place. It didn't really hit me that this baby is coming tomorrow (hopefully - hopefully it won't take til Thursday) until I took off my terrible giant purple/pink plaid bathing suit for what i realized would be the last time. It's very exciting - yet very scary. I am so excited to meet my daughter and to shed this incapacitaded body... but i am very nervous about labor. I think of people i know that are the biggest wimps who have survived... but i'm still so nervous. Obviously the human race has survived and i'm not exactly the world's biggest wimp... but still...
Wish me luck and a non-terrible -non-horror story delivery and hopefully before i know it i'll be posting pictures of our little girl and be blogging about being a mom on the run - literally.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

so close i can taste it

It is less than one week until my little girl is due. I feel like I am stuck waiting for a delayed airplane - and that i have no idea when the plane will arrive. I know that even if i have to be induced - she will be here by easter - and that she could be here any day now...but I'm ready to be done. I'm ready to meet this little thing that has been kicking the crap out of ribs for how many months now. I'm nervous... nervous to actually go through labor - nervous to actually have my own child. I'm excited though - excited for the next chapter of my life to begin. I'm excited to have my body back. i'm nervous about what kind of condition my body is going to be in after this is all said and done.
I can't fathom how much I am going to love this little girl - I think about my nieces and what they mean to me and how much joy they have brought to my life - and I can only imagine what it will be like to have my own child. I worry that I will have to ground her for the entire month of march 2031 - b/c she will most likely turn 21 on her spring break. Can you imagine how much trouble one could get into celebrating their 21st birthday on spring break? I worry about the fact that I will now worry for the rest of my life about her...
Back to running though - this weather has me soooo excited. I know i have to wait 6 weeks til after i have her to start running again - but after 39 weeks of pregnancy - 6 weeks doesn't seem all that bad. I ordered new running shoes last weekend when fleet feet was having a sale. My current running shoes turned into everyday "dress shoes" and are in pretty bad shape these days. I've also started considering options for a fall marathon. I'm looking at something out of state so that i can check another state off my list - but i'm also looking for something not too far away - since I don't want to make too many grand plans with baby smith on the way.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

perspective

So i found out this morning that a kid I ran cross country with in high school died last night. He was 30 years old and collapsed while chasing a suspect. He was a police officer for Cleveland Heights. I haven't seen Tom in years. I remember mostly his goofball anticts - heck we were in high school - but he was a good guy. How is a 30 year old dead from chasing someone? I guess it just makes you think. Life is short. Too short to worry about the petty things. Enjoy each and every moment that we've got.
I was thinking this morning how much I can't wait for this baby to be born. I'm uncomfortable, I'm tired, and I don't want to go back to work this week. I am convinced my daughter is on a mission to break my ribs in two. How lucky am I that I am about to be a mother to a thriving daughter who is fiesty enough and strong enough to be beating on ribs so badly? How lucky am I to have a job that pays the bills? and how lucky am I to be tired and crabby because there is a new little life in me? I am beyond lucky - I have a wonderful life, a wonderful husband and family and I need to remember that each and every day - and stop taking moments for granted.
My thoughts and prayers are with tom and his family.

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

hello

So I've just found out that my blog is still up and running and that i for once actually remembered my password. Looks like i haven't blogged since around the time i found out i was pregnant. I'm not sure why that was - maybe because this is a trianing blog and I didn't feel I would have any training to blog about. I wasn't feeling really very well for most of the first trimester - and I guess I didn't want my blog to get even whinier that it probably already is. But now that I am 20 days away from my due date I wish i would have blogged - wish I could have gone back and read what i was thinking and feeling during all these times. I had no idea that I would become friends with jen and sara and that because of them I would learn to actually enjoy swimming, that i would consider 3 miles with a friend a very satisfying workout, that I would start doing yoga and that I would discover that apple cinnamon french toast is one of the best things ever!
I'm so anxious right now - I keep telling Steve that I will probably never go into labor - yet at the same time i'm very nervous about the whole ordeal. Let's face it - this whole process is going to hurt... a lot. Work continues to stress me out - but thanks to good friends that take me to yoga and swimming I'm surviving. And I have to give special thanks for having one of the best husbands on the planet. At times I have been downright evil over trivial things like cleaning the stove top or scrubbing the toilets. Add to this his stressful job, training for a marathon and oh adding 3 bedrooms and a bathroom on to our house that needs to be finished before this little one arrives - and it's a wonder he has any sanity left. I hope he knows how much I appreciate him - and that I apologize in advance for the evil things I will say and do while in labor.
Jen and I are signed up to run the 5k "to catch a leprechaun" race this weekend. I had a dream that i had the baby and couldn't do the race. It got me thinking what races and stuff i accomplished during this pregnancy...

charlevoix marathon: 95% chance that the baby was on board for this race.... since i'll never be sure - i'm going to go ahead and say she was. Steve had been injured and was just given the go ahead to run/walk - so we did exactly that. It was beautiful there in upper michigan (not the peninsula) It took us a long time to finish the race - but it was a good time. Steve was tired/goofy enough that he started singing around mile 20. He was also loopy enough that he agreed to re-run through areas so I could get a better picture of him.

Muddy Paws 10 miler : Was feeling a little off this day - didn't know i was prego yet - ran a p.r. though

Put-n-bay 5k: My brother-in-law and family were in town from China. Ran the race with Steve and Lance. I thought we were all just running together - steve decided to go into a dead sprint at the end and kick my butt.... i'll pay him back for that one - i promise! Afterwards we ran another 7 miles to get a good ten miles in.

Marine Corp Marathon: someone by the name of steve decided that at around 20 weeks prego I should not participate in the marine corp marathon. grr. Deciding it was probably for the best - I put on my spectator hat and decided to run steve in from mile 20. I started my garmin when the race started so that I would be able to have a better idea of when steve would be at certain mile points. I was also curious how many miles I would cover that day - especially since i think that we probably walked over a mile to get to the start. Long story short - by the time we got back to the hotel - my garmin had registered 17 miles - add the mile before i started it - i'm 18.... I so could have finished that race. Turns out that according the results - i did in fact complete the entire marathon... steve wore my race number and chip accidently... which would explain why i wasn't getting any text alerts as to where he was. I told him - this means i'll have to run a marathon in virginia under his name - so he can get credit for that state in our goal to run in all 50.

Turkey Trot: Ran with Steve, Jen, Matt, and Matt's sister. This was a fun run - I must say I didn't like the way they changed the course this year - it wasn't real pretty and I was really counting on a port o pot stop by the muni lot. It's amazing how being prego makes you need to pee just about every mile and a half.

Jingle Bell Run: this was a ton of fun - there were 10 ladies who ran this and went out for pancakes afterwards - 5 of the 10 were expecting! We even wore signs that said "running for two and running for pancakes" or something along those lines.

Tri-Club Swim Challenge: As I've mentioned before - i am not a very good swimmer - nor do i enjoy swimming - but since running has gotten more and more uncomfortable i've gotten to the point where I swim 3 days a week. At first I would try for 800 yards - sad i know and slowly it has increased... never quite got to a mile. I've only swam a mile once or twice - and that was several years ago now. However - swimming with jen I seem to be improving - she says i'm the only pregnant person that gets better as I get further along in this pregnancy. So one day jen sends me an email asking if I want to do the 25 x 100's challenge. Since breakfast afterwards was involved - i was in. We took it in small chunks and we did it. That's the furthest i've ever swam!

So what's in store for after Baby Smith's arrival? Well - the jogging stroller is ready and waiting to get out on the roads. Since i'm much better at swimming than i use to be - i think at least a sprint triathlon is in my future this summer... and I want to get in at least 2 marathons before I start baking baby smith #2. I still want to qualify for boston. so i'm hoping to do a fall marathon just to get back into training mode - check off another state and just finish in whatever time. Then in the spring I want to qualify for boston....

i think perhaps i'll start blogging again - it's going to be quite a journey i'm sure!