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Are You About To Pop?

July 3, 2008 – 7:07 pm

That’s what the woman in Target said yesterday.  Yes, the one in the aisle grinning and staring as I tried to mind my own business perusing the yoga pants rack.  OK, yes I acknowledge you and will talk. 

I have two more months.

(Big, wide-eyed disbelieving stare).  Twins?

No.

You sure?

Yes.

You’re going to have a 12 pound baby.

(Oh, good Lord this woman is a charmer).  This top makes me look bigger.

Really (looking doubtful).  Do you know what it is?

It’s a boy!

Oh!  Why does everybody find out these days?  It was better when…yadda yadda yadda.

(wondering why the heck she asked if she was just going to be all judgmental about it)  I imagine there will be plenty of other surprises.  (Disingenuous mile).  (Please go away woman).

The thing is that I’ve gotten the bug-eyed suprised look that I have two more months followed by the query about it being twins several times recently.  A whole lot more than is necessary.  Yes, I’m big, I volunteer to many.  I look 8 months instead of 7.  Some confirm I look great, which I agree with.  I look great and 8 months pregnant.  Glad we cleared that up.

The midwife whipped out the tape measure at today’s birth center appointment and confirmed that I measure right on target for 30 1/2 weeks.  It’s just that I carry way out front.  From the back you can barely tell a difference except that I’m not quite so lean (appropriately) as I am when in super-athlete shape and I have a bit less of a waist.  I guess Remy likes to lead the way.  Yes, he’s a half-wheeler in the making.

Another thing I learned at the birth center is that I am having some Braxton Hicks contractions, which is pretty interesting because I can’t feel them at all.  She showed me a spot on my uterus that was a bit tight and told me that’s what that was.  Hm.  Go figure.  According to the Hypno-Birthing folks, those would be considered “practice surges”, which makes sense because those muscles have to get into good shape for the big day.  It’s not such a bad deal how it works this way.  How would you like to have your quads, hams and other leg muscles tighten and relax on their own without you feeling it to get you in better cycling shape?  Except, I don’t think that’s gonna happen, so don’t try to pitch that one to your coach.  Although Gary says that something like this is possible with this TENS Unit thingie.  I don’t know the first thing about it.  Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t, so don’t consider this an endorsement of anything except the value of Braxton Hicks for the fetus eviction event.

So, in answer to that first question, no I’m not about to pop unless your talking about my knuckles, ankles and various other joints.  Those pop readily.

 

 

Alicia | Journal, Baby News | Comments (2)

The Witching Hour

July 1, 2008 – 8:44 pm

Not every morning, but right around 4am seems to be that time that Remy schedules his biggest workouts.  This morning was a good one.  I woke up and thought I was going to have a fetus leg poke out of my belly.  It didn’t hurt but I really wondered if it might.  Then he did the jitterbug with what must have been both arms and legs going crazy.  So surprising that I called out loud.  Twice, which woke Gary up.  Barely awake and exlaiming with surprise, which is a pretty surprising thing.  That’s some serious activity.  OK, OK, I’m getting up to pee.  Again.  And laying back down.  Oops, sorry little guy, on the other side, because for some reason you aren’t digging me laying on my left right now.  Then he settled down just enough for me to fall back into a slumber.  Phew.  Crazy little man.

Alicia | Journal, Baby News | Comments (0)

Socializing

June 30, 2008 – 9:10 pm

I made it to a pre-dinner get together with the other prenatal yoga Moms.  I don’t know everyone’s name, but I thought it would be fun to expand my social circle outside of triathletes, close family and a few co-workers.  Fear not, though, I haven’t totally lost my triathlete quirkiness.  I did ride my cruiser bike to the restaurant.  In fact, on the way back from downtown Durham, I see a female and male runner just booking it towards me in the distance.  They get closer…who is it? Well, well, well.  It’s Nicolai and Brooke, two local triathletes. 

 

Alicia | Journal | Comments (0)

The Size Of A Small Watermelon

June 28, 2008 – 3:38 pm

I bet you thought I was pregnant, didn’t you?  An unnamed photog caught these surprising shots that tell the real tale.

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Ha ha, just kidding!  I’m just carrying a 29 1/2 week watermelon sized uterus everywhere I go. 

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Time to go eat watermelon now.  Yum!

Alicia | Journal, Belly Pics | Comments (5)

Be All You Can Be

June 27, 2008 – 7:20 pm

What am I?  Who are you?  I know how we respond to these queries– by listing our activities, professions and accomplishments.  For a partial list– I am a pragmatic Human Resources Consultant, somewhat decent yet out of practice artist, wife of awesome Gary, soon to be mother, previously fairly successful in academics and elite amateur triathlete.  You can come up with your own list that’s similar.  Go ahead, make it nice and long.  Try it on for size.  How does it feel?  Is that all you are?  That’s not all I am. 

I started thinking about this issue after reading Michelle Malay Carter’s recent blog post titled, If I’m Not What I Do Who Am I?  Somehow, I don’t feel satisfied with my identity being only what I’m doing now and have accomplished thus far in the past 37 years and 10 months.  That seems too limiting.  In my mind, I know I’m capable of much more.  This much more is part of who I am too.  But that’s not all, because if I really think about what I’m capable of, I get the sense there’s more there than I’m aware of now, here, from where I sit today.  How could I see all that’s in store for me from my current and limited point of view?  I can’t see it all, but that doesn’t prevent my strong sense that all that unnamed potential is part of who I am today too.  All these things are who I am.  You too, and I think that’s a great way to self-identify.

If you are all the things you’ve done, are doing, know you can do and might possibly do but don’t realize it yet, then any time you don’t meet your immediate goals it doesn’t mean anything except that you haven’t done it yet.  It doesn’t make you less than what you were, because what you are is so much more than what you’ve accomplished so far.  You tracking with me on this?  You’re only as good as your last race, they say, but that’s just a marketing thing.  It carries no real meaning. 

One more thought about that unamed potential.  Sometimes, often, the unamed potential is completely different than what we could have ever guessed.  I’m sure you could name several instances where this has happened in your life already.  Stay open to those possibilities.  Don’t short change yourself.  You are much more than you ever realized.  Revel in it.

Alicia | Journal | Comments (0)

Gnats And Tiny Robots

June 26, 2008 – 11:07 am

So I’m telling The Crumpler about how a gnat flew up my nose about halfway through my morning jog and didn’t get snotted back out for at least a mile and a half.  In the meantime, I can feel this foreign once-living object up in my sinus cavity in between fervent, ineffectual nasal exhalations.  Later, I come across this newspaper article about a Duke University scientist’s fleet of itty bitty robots.  Gary suggests that this is like some bad science fiction movie where microbots are flown around for nefarious purposes on the backs of insects.  Great.  So he’s suggesting that I now have top secret mini robots floating around in my bodily fluids that were originally cast adrift on the accidentally nose-snarfed gnat.  We’re waiting for the men with dark suits and ear pieces to show up and ask for their technology back. 

P.S.  I ran four miles and still keeping it under (barely) 10 minute miles, although it didn’t feel like it. 

Alicia | Journal, Run Challenge | Comments (0)

Nicknames And Relaxin And Running

June 25, 2008 – 11:19 am

It’s hard not to start using pet names for the little guy.  Rem Rem, Remster, Mr. Kickypants, Squirmy-Wormy, Thumper, Nuggin, so on.  Yesterday was an active day for little Remykins.  He doesn’t have so much room to float around freely, so many of his movements are right against the uterine walls right where they are easy to feel and make the surface of my belly do strange gyrations.  Having said that, he’s also figuring out ways to become stealthy, which he clearly inherits from Daddy Gary, who likes to fly under the radar when he’s not wearing his heavy, clompy hiking shoes inside the house.  If I’m poking around finding knees and legs and hips, Remy can adjust slightly and kind of float away into another corner without making a big fuss about it.  Sneaky, sneaky.

I ran 3 whole times last week for a total of 12 miles, which is more than the usual 2 times.  This week, no running yet because I’m starting to notice the effect of relaxin in my hip joints.  Things are starting to feel a little looser and stretchy, which is good for preparing the body to give birth, but not so super for maintaining a normal range of motion while running, walking, yoga-ing etc.  I might have minorly over stretched a spot in my left glute, so no point in pushing through on a strict running schedule at the risk of turning a little thing into a bigger problem.  I should be ready for a good jog tomorrow morning and get in my two.  On the plus side of the equation, I think some of my shoulder issues are getting worked out by being more consistent with shoulder stretching combined with this enhanced tendon flexibility.  Speaking of…I haven’t done that in a few days.  Come on Remster Thumpypants, time to get at it. 

 

Alicia | Journal, Baby News, Run Challenge | Comments (0)

Baby Shower News

June 23, 2008 – 7:51 pm

Yesterday was the baby shower that Stacey Richardson put on with her mini-helpers, Murielle and Gavin.  To everyone that couldn’t make it– missed you, but we had a good time.  To everyone that attended, thanks for being there!!  I appreciate all the helpful baby items, well wishes and getting a chance to see some of you since I’m not out on the racing/training scene these days. We played a few games, which were pretty amusing.  One was guessing the contents of baby food jars without the labels on them.  I think everyone missed the first one because we all mostly thought it was squash but it turned out to be macaroni and cheese.  Ugh.  Smooshed mac and cheese in a jar?  Yikes.  The last one had a brown color that I couldn’t figure out.  It turned out to be prunes, which my mother got correct making her 3 right answers out of 4 the winner of that round.

We also had a guessing game of how big around Alicia’s belly is using some ribbon.  This was an interesting game for a few reasons, the main one being that no one underestimated my size.  Not one.  Some people wildly over estimated by 7-8 inches, including my mother, which I had expected.  The winner?  My mother in law!  She was barely an inch longer than actual.  Right on!

We also guessed the number of jelly beans in a baby bottle (pink baby bottle, but that’s OK).  Nasrin was trying to do geometric calculations until Stacey caught wind of that and snatched the bottle away.  I made a wild guess and wasn’t really close.  Want to guess who won?  My Mom!  Yes, the Grandma’s made a run on all the prizes. 

Earlier, everyone had to write down mothering advice on a piece of paper and I had to guess who wrote it.  Yes, even the gals without children wrote down advice.  As for my prowess in guessing who wrote what?  Not so good.  I am, however, reasonably adept at the process of elimination, so my accuracy improved as the game wore on.  Here’s some of my favorite suggestions: 

  • sleep when the baby is sleeping (oh yeah, absolutley!)
  • remember kids need discipline to shape their character (written by one of Nasrin’s daughters, go Nasrin!)
  • be careful when changing diapers (obviously, the voice of experience on that one)
  • when you become a mommy, embrace your imperfections because you’ll never be able to hide them (wide open, baby)
  • you don’t have to pick him up every time he cries (from my mother– you wonder why I’m an independent sort of gal?)
  • bring the baby to grandpa and grandma (you bet, Grandma Violet!)

We tried to get some pictures, but they didn’t come out all that well.  More use of flash might have helped, but here’s a few of the better ones:

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One of the most popular items at the shower was my baby book, which my mother brought so I could see all my personal benchmarks and stuff that she recorded about my infant and early childhood days.  She has quite a bit of info in there!  The highlights are Stacey exclaiming that I learned to walk at 10 months and was I running a little after?  I don’t know, what does it say?  I don’t remember.  My mother did comment on me being a very active and alert infant, although I don’t know what parent wouldn’t say such a thing.  I will say that it is a believable comment about me and there isn’t anything in the baby book about me being particularly calm and sedate, so take that for what you will.  I also liked legos, puzzles and dolls.  If you’re creative in how you think it through, you can see how my early toy preferences might have led to a career in Human Resources.  Yeah, I like solving people puzzles and building systems.  Yeah, something like that.

Alicia | Journal, Baby News | Comments (5)

Feeling Grande

June 22, 2008 – 8:52 am

I feel big.  When I look in the mirror, I look big.  When I belly bump just about everything around me because I have no concept of my size, I know I’m big.  When I try and reach for a cup out of the kitchen cabinets, I have to watch for bumping into stuff on the counter.  When I scoot back on my crossbike saddle, by belly hits the front of the saddle.  It’s getting more and more difficult to get comfortable no matter what chair, seat, sofa, whatever I use.  I am big, big, big.

Yes, I’m 6 1/2 months pregnant, so what do I expect, but I look a month further along.  I promise you.  Just ask the cute, little Hispanic lady from the quarry who called her grandson over to ask me in English how many months along was I.  6 1/2, I said.  Seis e medio.  Yes, seis e medio.  Her eyebrows raise.  Grande!  Yup, I told you I was big.

But then I came across this article about some twins just born in Winston Salem.  The combined weight of these twins was 23 lbs and 1 oz.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Oh.  My.  Gosh.  I can’t conceive…oh heck, I’m speechless.

Alicia | Journal, Baby News | Comments (0)

Longest Day

June 21, 2008 – 5:36 pm

My sweetie pie has left town.  Sigh.  He’s gone up to Charlottesville, VA to be the lead USAT official at tomorrow’s sprint triathlon up there.  I’m staying in town to paint more nursery mural and attend tomorrow’s baby shower.  A quiet household can make a day seem longer, but sun’s up more minutes today than any other this year because it’s the summer solstice.  I know, I know…enjoy the quiet household now while I can, right?  I am. 

I’m also making good progress on the mural.  I finished up the detail on the baby turtles and, while I was a bit worried in the early stages, they turned out really great.  I did a few other piddly things in there then took a break to go ride my bike before some storms rolled in.  Which they did, happily, because storms bring rain, which we can definitely use. 

I’ll whip out the paint brushes again tonight to make more progress, but no new pictures yet.  You’ll have to wait on those until I’m further along. 

Alicia | Journal | Comments (1)