Pregnancy: Month 8

Feeling very pregnant. Apparently I look very pregnant.

Among the many people at my work having babies this calendar year, there was a guy's wife due one week before me, and a coworker due the day after me - they both had their babies a week and a half ago (the weekend I turned 36 weeks)! So 3 weeks and 4 weeks early, respectively. So that got me worried for a while that I'd go early too (and motivated me to finally finish packing the hospital bag), but then I realized that means somebody has to pull the average back to where it normally is, so I'll probably go 2 weeks over.

Weeks 12, 24, 36

Month 1. Month 2. Month 3. Month 4. Month 5. Month 6. Month 7.

Official weeks: 33 - 36

Milestones: 

• Got everything squared away to donate the cord blood.
• Finished putting the nursery together. (Which, really, is silly because the baby's not even going to sleep there for a while.)
• Installed the car seat.
• Got my work to buy me a balance ball chair, which is supposed to be good to keep/get baby into the best position for labor, and also makes my back feel a lot better while sitting for hours.
• Attended baby classes - infant CPR, breastfeeding, and basic baby care. 

Symptoms: 

• Heartburn
• Carpal tunnel, this time mostly in my right hand (in the second tri I had it some in my left hand, but that went away after a few weeks). 
• Waking up during the night to pee. 

Mental health: 

I feel bit more iffy and wanting to cry on occasion, but not tons. After feeling almost more stable than usual for most of the pregnancy, I'm starting to feel like hormones actually are out of whack and making me slightly extra emotional.

Food:

I have to be cautious to eat smaller meals/snacks - eating too much makes me feel sick, but so does going to often without eating. It's a fine balance, not quite as fine as avoiding morning sickness in the first tri, but kind of along the same lines.

Purchases & gifts: 

• Bottles - we bought just a couple of a couple different kinds, so we can try them out and see if the baby has any preferences before stocking up. 
• A friend gave me some maternity work clothes, which was perfect as I was starting to reach capacity on some stuff. And, also a nice light jacket - I haven't truly needed it yet (though it is getting chilly in the mornings), but I very well still might in the next 2 to 4 weeks as we move into fall, and I was really not wanting to spend the money on a maternity jacket for such a small potential window of needing it.
• She also gave us some small size gDiapers - ones that are basically like the one-size pocket diapers we're planning to use long-term, but sized for 8 to 12 pounds. Not a full stash to use full time, but enough to be able to ease into cloth versus disposable before the baby's ready for the regular cloth diapers. 

Weight gained: +38 pounds

Clothes: 

Very grateful for the stuff my friend gave me to have some additional options, especially for work. Many non-knit shirts no longer fit.

Currently reading: 

I kind of just stopped reading baby stuff, at least in books (still doing some various research and reading online, though). I should probably try to do some more of that sometime soon...

Most surprised by: 

Somehow I was thinking in the back of my mind that the mobility/back ache/etc. associated with pregnancy had at least as much to do with the overall weight gain than the bump itself, and well, I've been that heavy before, it didn't slow me down then, surely it won't be so bad? No, gaining 40 pounds in bump (ok, maybe more like 30 in bump and 10 extra elsewhere) constricts getting out of bed in a way that having 40 extra pounds spread out over my body does not even being to resemble. I guess it was wishful thinking, in a way, but it really is very different.

Pregnancy: Month 7

Feeling pretty much the same, just getting bigger. Some aches and pains, especially after sitting pretty much all day at work, but really any symptoms are still fairly mild. But seriously, getting huge. 

Weeks 7, 16, 24, 32

Month 1. Month 2. Month 3. Month 4. Month 5. Month 6.

Official weeks: 29 - 32

Milestones: 

• Took and passed the glucose test. Therefore continuing to eat plenty of ice cream. 
• Picked out and met with a pediatrician. I was slightly concerned about the fact that we're going to raise our kid vegetarian (until they're old enough to comprehend the gist of the issue and decide for themselves) - but, of course, it's Portland. She said this was far from unusual, and she's in fact semi-vegetarian herself. So we'll have plenty of support with that! 
• Stopped running - the Oregon Trail Game 5k, being a race and at what I'm calling 7 months (exactly 2 months before my due date), seemed like a nice place to stop. If I hadn't been registered for that, I probably would have given it up a week or two sooner. 
• Asking for more help with tasks that involve leaning or bending over, such as having Abe tie my shoes (fortunately I don't wear shoes that need tied very often!). 
• My belly button is basically fully popped - it still has an inside, but the edges of it are popped up.

Symptoms: 

• Motion sickness - never in my life have I had motion sickness, but experienced it earlier in the pregnancy while flying, and more recently on trips that involved driving on some curvy back roads. It's really not fun. 
• Uncomfortable to lean/bend over.
• More frequent heartburn.

Mental health: 

Every once in a while it crosses my mind that - oh shit, I have to go through labor and deliver this baby. And then we have to raise it. What did we do? Did I really intentionally get myself into this?! 

But most of the time I'm good. I actually mentioned to Abe that it seemed like I was actually almost more emotionally stable over the pregnancy than I usually am. He agreed, but that seems like the answer you'd give a pregnant woman if it were true, but especially if it wasn't true...

Food: 

I haven't done any calorie counting or anything to make sure I'm adding extra, especially in the later months, figuring that as my activity is going down, if I continue to eat about the same but burning less through exercise it'll wash out to what I need anyway. I'm definitely having to eat smaller amounts more often - occasionally I'll get super hungry and eat a big meal, and very much regret it.

My current obsession is cereal. 

Purchases & gifts: 

• Pack'n'Play - for best versatility, we bought one with a bassinet attachment to use for the early weeks for sleep, then we'll have the pack'n'play itself for naps, play, traveling, whatever, later on. 
• Baby book
• Ergo carrier
• Crib and dresser
• Sheets, diaper pads, etc. 
• Replacements parts for breastpump
• Car seat 

Weight gained: +34 pounds

Clothes: 

Some early maternity items that aren't knit are now too small. (Which makes sense, as I bought them early on because they weren't super voluminous in covering a smaller bump.) I feel like that's a sign of being really pregnant once you start outgrowing maternity clothes.

Currently reading: 

Continuing to work on What to Expect the First Year and The New First Three Years of Life. I just haven't been prioritizing much reading lately, which I need to fix! Not that much time left to be prepared. 

Most surprised by: 

Changes week by week and day to day. For example, once I started feeling kicks, I figured that's what I'd feel for the rest of pregnancy - but the type of movement has actually changed. Now it's not really kicks out, but parts sort of dragging across the side or pushing outward. And some days my back hurts, some days it's fine, even when I've had similar activity, or heartburn acting up some times but not always even with eating similar foods. 

Oregon Trail Game 5k

I think I remember hearing something about this race in it's inaugural year last year, but it was back on my radar earlier this year and I decided I definitely needed to sign up for it this year, even realizing that I'd be 7 months pregnant. I wasn't clear on the exact details of the game aspect, but it sounded super fun! (So I was excited to host a guest post about it when they approached me more recently.)

There was packet pick-up for the race earlier in the week, but it's the other side of the metro area so we just decided to do pick-up the morning of. After both Abe and I apparently turning off our alarms, we woke up about 15 minutes before we intended to leave, but ended up getting out the door pretty quickly and arriving at the race 10 minutes before pick-up officially opened. There was tons of street parking available within a few blocks of the race start when we arrived, but we saw it fill up pretty quickly. 

There were lots of bonnets being worn!

We got our bibs and the t-shirt I'd ordered (you had to pay extra, but I think it was only $10 ahead of time and $15 day of). You also got a string backpack, with some coupons, a pen, and chapstick from the sponsors.

Occupations were assigned that would ultimately impact your game play - based on the race's major sponsors, you were either a carpenter, doctor, or actor. The bib also had a spot to check off your pace and food ration. 

The race got started just a few minutes late, but they were pretty organized - they had pace signs and had at least reminder over the loud speaker to pay attention to how you were lined up. Though a smaller race (under a thousand people), they started us off in smaller waves, so as to minimize congestion at the beginning of the race which included a staircase almost right off the bat. It was still a bit congested - if I'd been trying to PR I might have been annoyed, but they were clearly doing what they could to mitigate that issue.

The course goes up a staircase (those with strollers could take the municipal elevator up to the top of this area), then continues on a paved trail alongside the hill, into neighborhoods and eventually back towards downtown. You get some nice views of Oregon City and the river! The elevation profile didn't looked nearly as bad when I looked at the data afterward as it felt during the race, but realistic the first 2.5 miles is going up, and then there's a steep downhill in the last half mile. Mostly on paved trail or streets, although there was one block of a sort of alley that was gravel. Not a race you'd want to plan on PR-ing, for sure, but could be a pretty fun challenge to push yourself on!

Mile 1: 14:15
Mile 2: 14:13
Mile 3: 13:05
Mile 3.1: 0:22 time (10:03 pace for 0.04 by my Garmin)

During the race, there were also 5 decision points where you had to decide between things like floating or fording the river, or stopping to hunt or continuing on. They first three I think had volunteers on each side ready to hand you one of the two cards; at the second two you had to grab it off a clothes line. Not sure why the difference, but either way it didn't take more than a few seconds at each point to get your card. You got an immediate consequence on the back of the card, such as that you made it safely to the other side of the river or that your wagon broke down. However, none of them gave an ultimate outcome of making it to the end of the Oregon trail. 

After the race, you had to submit your occupation, pace, food ration, and decision point cards to come up with your ultimate outcome. There was a place to do so at the race, but the line was ridiculously long. There was a website to submit the data yourself; they were having some technical difficulties for a couple hours, first it wouldn't get you to the place to submit your data, then it wasn't processing it as quickly as it was supposed to. But by midday it had all been resolved and you could submit and view your result. 

There were game standard outcomes - you died of dysentery, you drowned, etc. Also some fun twists - the dramatic election year made you reconsider your westward plans, you mistook Pokemon Go for the trail map and barely made it out of Independence. Abe and I got mostly the same cards but made some decisions differently, and he ended up making it t to the Willamette Valley, whereas I ran out of food and starved to death.

Finishers got the most amazing medal, made out of an old floppy disc! There were other goodies at the end of the the race, too, including beer and ice cream. It was definitely a bit crowded with long lines for the various things at the end (even though I think we were relatively midpack). But it was still a really fun event! It's the type of novelty race that while I enjoy, I'm not sure I'd go back for every year, but I would like to do it at least once more while not pregnant to see how well I can tackle the running aspect. It's also walking friendly (a friend of mine walked it in just over an hour), and even stroller friendly. 

Pregnancy: Month 6

Once I got some adjustments on my thyroid medication and iron, I felt pretty good through the rest of the second trimester; as I got closer to the third trimester, though I definitely started feeling more pregnant! I feel like I've peaked and am now on the downward slope of being fatigued and uncomfortable. Really nothing's too bad, but I have more aches and pains, and it's difficult to find a comfortable position to fall asleep in - either my back, hips, and/or ribs are guaranteed to start hurting. 

Weeks 12, 20, 28

Official weeks: 25 - 28

Milestones: 

• Hit the 3rd trimester, at 27 or 28 weeks (depending on what you read). 
• More frequent assumption by strangers that I am indeed pregnant. 
• Had a birth class (a family friend who's an L&D nurse and training in doula gave us a private class as a baby gift), and our first session with out doula .

Symptoms: 

• Mostly just achey back, hips, and ribs at this point. The left side of my rib in particular.
• A weird side stitch thing along the bottom right side of the bump while running is still happening.
• Mild heartburn, but nothing that a couple of Tums a day can't take care of. 
• Belly button still isn't popped, but is stretching and looking weird.

Mental health: 

Generally feeling pretty good! Getting some more fatigue, which can impact my mood a bit, but overall ok.

Food: 

Abe's making sure I get plenty of veggies, and I'm making sure I get plenty of ice cream. I do have to still bit a bit aware of making sure I eat often enough - nothing like early in pregnancy, but going more than 3-ish hours without eating something definitely leads to some queasiness.

Purchases & gifts: 

A friend who's youngest is beyond the baby stage gave us a bunch of stuff they're done with. We now have a crib mattress (crib to be purchased soon!), high chair, and a bunch of other goodies. 

I'm so grateful to friends who've passed on baby gear (and will be sure to pass it on when we're done with things!), not only to save the money and have a lighter environmental impact, but to seriously reduce the decision fatigue. For example, I hadn't even gotten into researching high chairs and was kind of dreading it, but you have one? It's functional, safe and not ugly? I'll take it! I think for the majority of baby stuff there's not that much practical difference between options, so narrowing it down just by what a friend has available to give or sell us is awesome.

Weight gained: +30 pounds

Clothes: 

I'm quickly approaching capacity on the few non-maternity I've still been using (largely some tanks for exercising, and some other tanks and tees for layering). 

I finally ordered a few maternity exercise tops - I used to wonder why people were willing to pay $45 for a tank top from the For Two Fitness company (the ones with stuff like "running for two" written on it, but they also have plain ones). Then I tried to find cheaper options, and even the places that have been pretty reliable for regular maternity wear (Old Navy, Macy's, and to a lesser degree Target) had very limited options! Most included loungewear in the "Activewear" subsection in maternity, and no, I'm not going to go running in a terrycloth sweat suit. So I ended up splurging on a couple plain tops from For Two, and along with a couple cheaper options to round out my workout wardrobe.

Currently reading: 

Continuing to work on What to Expect the First Year and The New First Three Years of Life.

Most surprised by: 

How little the midwives talk about exercise or eating habits. They'll have suggestions if I bring up issues (e.g., the side ache thing while running), and generally say "good job" that I'm staying active, but don't question how much I'm running or anything like that (I've said I'm running less than I used to, but for all they know that could mean cutting back from 20 milers to merely 15 every weekend!), and they really haven't brought up nutrition at all beyond the very first visit where a nurse did a group session with some general pregnancy advice. While I certainly don't think, for most people, exercise or food will make or break the pregnancy, nor is there necessarily a one-size-fits-all recommendation they could give, I think it can certainly have an impact on other factors (e.g., backaches or fatigue could easily be helped by some types of exercise, even if not eliminated), and even though I've chosen the midwives in the practice over OBs, it's still not something they initiate discussion of.

Twilight 5k

Side note: I kind of hate when races make their primary distance part of the official name of the race, because then how are you supposed to reference when you did a different distance, without being misleading? "Twilight Half" is how this race is branded - not Twilight Run, or Twilight Race, but Twilight Half, despite also offering a 10k and 5k. But it feels inappropriate to mention my participation in the "Twilight Half", even if I go out of my way to clarify that I did the 5k, because half is still in what I'm saying and I definitely didn't do a half!

I originally registered (knowing I was pregnant, but a while ago) for the 10k. Fortunately, given that the longest I've run in the last six months is about 4 miles (and even that far hasn't been frequent), the confirmation email the week of gave instructions on how to change race distances (in fact, you could even change at packet pickup the day of - a friend switched from the half to the 10k when arriving for the race). I gratefully stepped it down to the distance that I knew I could do without being too uncomfortable and at least still enjoy somewhat.

I arrived about 90 minutes before any of the races started (two hours before mine), as I was worried about traffic and parking (this is an evening race - even on a Saturday there was a bit of slow downs getting from Portland to Vancouver). Parking nearer to the start line did start filling up not too long thereafter, but the overflow parking in the park was still not that far away. I was able to quickly get my bib and shirt - as we got closer to race time there was a bit of a line for pickup but I didn't see it ridiculously long. What was long was the line for the porta potties - they had portable sinks which was nice, but I think overall not quite enough units.

The 5k course went out of the park for about 0.7, then turned onto a bike path, out and back. (The 10k then went a bit further with another turn north, before turning around.) A path obviously tends to be somewhat narrow, but the race was small enough for there to not be too much congestion once we got going. (The race announcer also reminded people before we started to try to line up based on pace, which is great! I'm surprised by how many races don't bother to do this.)

My goal for the race was to finish in under 36 minutes - my pre-pregnancy PR (29:14 but rounding up to 30 minutes) plus a minute for each month pregnant. That's been my goal in the two previous 5ks I did this year, but I missed it each time by a minute or two. I've actually been doing more faster (relatively speaking) than easy running, though, lately, as somehow (either my running form or breathing?) that's enabled me to run with fewer round ligament and side stitch issues. So I had more confidence this time that I'd be able to get close. 

I challenged myself, as I got 5 minutes in, then 10 minutes, to try to not walk until I got to the turnaround point/aid station. And I actually did! I stopped to walk then and grabbed a cup of water, giving myself a minute or two of a break (for a slightly slower second mile). I let myself take another quick walking break after the second mile, then made it the rest of the way running. Official time: 35:45, 11:32 pace. 

Mile 1: 11:28
Mile 2: 12:02
Mile 3: 11:32
Mile 3.1: 8:03

Even the 5k and 10k runners got a medal! (A different one than the half marathon finishers.) Which, honestly, was part of why I registered for this. (If I can't get a PR, I want to at least get something for the cost!) The race shirt is really cute, too (a tank top with a glow in the dark owl image). 

Right near the finish line was water and electrolytes (especially for the half marathoners it might be nice to add in bagels or something else light and easy to eat right away, though). But for the post-race event there were burritos from Laughing Planet (they had meat, vegetarian, and vegan options), cookies, beer, chips and salsa, and lemonade/fruit punch. The way the race start times staggered, even as a middling 5k finisher I was near the first to make it to the food, so I didn't have to wait, though by the time 10k and half marathoners started coming in the line got pretty long.

Overall, very good swag and goodies, and a well-run race. I only wish I'd done it last year (their inaugural event) so I could say I've done it all years! Will definitely be keeping it mind to do again in the future.  

Pregnancy: Month 5

Still kind of feeling like there's not a whole lot happening but waiting, in part due to having a lot more energy and generally feeling more normal.

Month 1. Month 2. Month 3. Month 4. 

Weeks 7, 16, 24

Official weeks: 21 - 24

Milestones: 

Had the anatomy ultrasound and found out we're having... a healthy and normally developing baby! 

First stranger assuming I was pregnancy and making comments accordingly. Also two instances of seeing people I only see occasionally and who didn't know I was pregnant, seeing me and exclaiming, "oh you're pregnant!" Definitely have a legit bump (but still really ballsy for the stranger to assume!)

Starting to feel a good amount of movement! It's still a bit inconsistent day to day, but gradually getting stronger and more constant. I found out at the ultrasound that I have an anterior placenta, which explains not feeling anything much sooner and it still not being super strong feelings. Fairly often the baby kicks out to the side, though, which is more noticeable. 

Tried a support belt for running, which is starting to get uncomfortable - not really from specific pains or aches, just a generally heaviness. I'm not sure the support belt really helps though. The biggest issue right now is getting a weird side stitch thing while running, and it doesn't impact that at all. 

Symptoms: 

Not too much! Feeling more energized, though still getting a good amount of sleep on weekends. A little mild heartburn here and there, but nothing major. Most annoying thing is the side stitch while running, but I think maybe compression of my lungs is the problem, so I just need to focus on breathing. 

My belly button is far from popped yet, but it's clearly making its way towards turning, and it's just super weird. 

Mental health: 

I've been having the occasion few days where I feel off, but fortunately it's fairly sporadic and not sticking around too long at a time, so nothing I'm terribly concerned with yet. 

I had Abe accompany me to a counseling appointment, so my therapist got to meet him, which I think is helpful just for providing additional context when I talk to her, and also a chance to talk through some joint parenting and family boundary type of issues. 

Food: 

Pretty normal. Trying to eat more veggies. I have a contest going with my mom - she has to lift weights a certain number of times a week and I have to eat veggies.

Purchases & gifts: 

We got a running stroller! We found a great deal on a barely used Bob running stroller on Craigslist.

Went to Ikea and picked out a crib and dresser - though due to time constraints, didn't purchase at the time, and now it looks like they're discontinuing the dresser! (It's one of the Malm line, which they're recalling due to risk of tipping over if they're not anchored to the wall. Even though it comes with an anchoring kit and the instructions tell you to anchor it to the wall. People are dumb. I know next to nothing about kids, and even I know you should attach large and heavy furniture to the wall around little kids. This is not a problem unique to this product, and it has a simple solution - one which Ikea was already promoting as the recommendation installation of their product.)

Weight gained: + 25 pounds

Clothes: 

Starting to reach capacity on some knit shirts, as well as my sports bras. Need to look for some of both of those in maternity/larger sizes.

Currently reading: 

Working on What to Expect the First Year, The New First Three Years of Life, and Raise a Smarter Child by Kindergarten. Note on the latter - my MIL gave it to us, it's not a book I would have picked on my own as the branding/title rubs me the wrong way, but the underlying premise is actually less abrasive/egotistical than it sounds, and it has some good information and ideas (along with a little bit of bunk that I'm disregarding). 

Most surprised by: 

The progression of the belly button is seriously weird. 

Pregnancy: Month 4

Not really that much going on for these weeks. Mostly feel like I'm just waiting for things to happen, while the belly gradually gets a little more noticeable.

Month 1. Month 2. Month 3.

Weeks 7, 12, 16, 20

Official weeks: 17 - 20

Milestones: 

First unsolicited belly rub. There's a woman in my Toastmasters clubs who's very touchy feely - has to "collect hugs" from everyone at every meeting. Apparently she needs to rub my belly at every meeting, too. 

Started the process of having our will written, primarily so we have our preferred guardians named for our kid(s) in case something happens to both of us. 

Symptoms: 

Still pretty tired, so I asked my primary doctor to run some labs, including iron and thyroid. My iron turned out to be borderline - just barely within the low end of normal, so I started taking an additional iron supplement (though there is iron in the prenatal I was already taking). My thyroid was also out of whack, per pregnancy guidelines, so they bumped up my prescription. A few weeks later, feeling much better as far as energy! Still sleeping in on the weekends and taking an occasional nap, but the tiredness seems like a normal pregnancy amount, no longer an overwhelming amount.

I started getting some carpal tunnel symptoms in my left hand, which if caused by pregnancy is from fluid pressing on the nerves. It actually only lasted in a significant amount for a couple weeks, then started substantially improving, though still a tiny bit present. Fortunately, working at a computer didn't exacerbate it (though I'm sure it didn't help), but it was larger movements, like in yoga, where my wrist got bent that cause it to feel the worst.

Started getting mild heartburn - not too constant, fortunately! In fact, inconsistent enough that I can't quite point to exactly what causes it to flare up. 

Mental health: 

I flew to Spokane for Bloomsday - and I normally love flying. I want to take flying lessons at some point. Even on turbulent flights, I trust the pilots and the industry to be safe. On these flights, I was actually super nervous! It was really weird. On the way home when I had lots of baby clothes from thrift store shopping, it even crossed my mind "but I have to get home with all the baby stuff!" - never mind the baby stuff would be irrelevant if I didn't make it back with the baby in me.

Food: 

Though I occasionally feel slight queasiness (mostly if I go more than 3 hours or so without eating), nothing that prevents me from eating normally. Trying to rein in the sweets and include more veggies.

Purchases & gifts: 

I went to multiple thrift stores with my parents while we were in Spokane, and came home with a suitcase stuff fulled of things. It's great to shop with my mom, "oh, this is so cute..." often results in her buying something for us. :) Though we'll probably acquire a few more things in the small sizes, I think we have enough in the 0 - 3 month size to at least manage! Now we need to start deciding on and acquiring the bigger things 

Weight gained: +20 pounds

Yeah. I don't love this. Doctors clearly aren't at all worried, though. I know at this point I have to keep gaining a certain amount to keep the baby growing, so it's not like you compensate for having gained earlier on, I'm just going to be on track to gain at least 40 pounds or so. While I went overboard with crappy eating and minimal exercise in the first tri, that was just as much due to tax season as the pregnancy, and I do feel like I was doing the best I could at the time. All I can do is try to manage those habits as healthily as possible from now on, and let my body do whatever it's going to do. 

Clothes: 

I can still fit in a few regular shirts that are particularly long and stretchy, but mostly in all maternity wear. 

Currently reading: 

Finished Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn. Read through a booklet from a family friend who's going to give us an afternoon labor class when we're in town visiting my parents next month. Started in on What to Expect the First Year.

Most surprised by: 

How quickly the bump seems to be growing now! I know it's still not even that big yet, but it still seems huge, relatively speaking, each time I look at it.

Friday Five: Pros and Cons of Running While Pregnant

Linking up today with Mar, Cynthia, and Courtney for Friday Five.

I'm trying to keep running as far into my pregnancy as possible. I'm even doing an occasional (short) race! Obviously, it's been a fun hobby of mine for a while, and I'll be sad when eventually (whether that's at 6 months or 8.9 months) it will end up becoming too uncomfortable for the time being (and hopefully it'll be my choice to make, and no complications will make it inherently unsafe). But as much as I appreciate any time I get to enjoy it, there are definitely both pros and cons to continuing to run.

Con: No matter how many times you go to the bathroom before your run, you'll still start feeling like you have to pee no more than 10 minutes into your run. 

Pro: But you know the real reason you make sure to use the bathroom before a run? No longer that crucial. The lovely pregnancy symptom of constipation (which has actually been fairly mild for me) means even all the jiggling of your intestines on a run no longer makes a bathroom stop for #2 even remotely urgent.

Con: It can be a bit disheartening to know you're not going to set any PRs, and will in fact probably be getting slower each week. 

Pro: You don't have to train for a PR. No need to follow a set schedule - do whatever you feel like doing. A nap feels more appealing than a 5 miler? No problem, take nap! No need to do quarter mile repeats literally as fast as you can, pushing yourself to the limit of having to catch your breath. You get to just do the easy, fun, relaxing running. (Or push yourself when you feel like it, but only when you truly feel up for it.)

Con: None of your cute running shirts fit you anymore.

Pro: You finally have a use for the unisex or just too big (cause standardized sizing is apparently just too much to ask for) race shirts you've accumulated.

Con: In part due to those unisex race shirts, you spend a large portion of early pregnancy with a stomach that maybe kinda looks like you're pregnant, but could very easily just bea little extra weight. So presumably everyone who sees you run - so incredibly slowly - is assuming that you're a brand new runner trying to run off that beer gut.

Pro: Eventually, you'll have an obvious baby bump, and it will make sense to everyone why you're chugging along so slowly.

Con: Even if you want to challenge yourself, do some races, keep up with a modified race goal - your body often just isn't having it. Some days it's just going to be a slog fest no matter what.

Pro: Maybe you can't brag about a new PR, but everyone you talk to is in awe that you're still running at all. It's never been easier to be so impressive!

Portland Parks 5k: Fernhill Park

Since I know I'm not going to be setting any PRs this year, I didn't want to spend too much money on races - but it's still fun to have an opportunity to push myself a little! Abe doesn't like spending money on races in general, but is focusing on trying to set a new 5k PR, so he signed up for several in the Portland Parks $5 5k series, and I figured I'd join him for a couple of them. The series does each race in a different park; the first one of the series for this year was recently in Fernhill Park. 

We were able to find parking pretty close in the neighborhood, and arrived about an hour before the race started at 9. Packet (ok, bib) pickup is just the morning of, as far as I could tell, but it's a small-ish event so it's not crowded or long lines. We quickly got our bibs, checked out the route map, used the porta potties, and tried our best to stay dry from the rain. (We could have gotten away with less lead time, for sure.) There was a kids' race of one lap around the track before the 5k started. 

The course was three loops (just over a mile each) around the park; starting on the track, going around on a sort of dirt trail, some across grass, then back onto some dirt trail to lead back onto the track. It was definitely a bit more of a cross-county type of race than I realized I was getting into, with some caution needed to avoid mud and tree roots, but I don't think it ended up slowing me down too horribly. 

Mile splits:
1 - 11:29
2 - 11:17
3 - 10:55
3.1 - 10:00 (1:14 time for 0.13 per my garmin)

Negative splits! Total unofficial time: 34:58, which is only 20 seconds slower than the Race for the Roses four weeks prior. For pregnancy, I think that's a sign of making progress. 

There were a few issues overall - they were out of bananas by the time I finished, when there must have been at least a third of the people still on the course. Though I don't actually know how many were really still on the course after me, though, because the timing systems somehow got messed up (they said because of the rain), and many people (including me) were left off all together, and others' were messed up (Abe has a time that looks like it only includes his first two laps, and shows an age of 116). I realize you can't expect tons for only $5, although I think their reaction to the issue (more jokey than apologetic) left a little to be desired - just because it's inexpensive doesn't meant people's times aren't important.

I'm signed up to also do the June 5k, so hopefully that one goes a bit better to at least provide an official time, but as long as that time isn't much slower than this one I'll be happy with it. 

Bloomsday 2016

Previous Bloomsdays: 2013, 2014, 2015. 

Through three years of running Bloomsday, I've tried to talk my parents into doing it too (walking). My dad used to run Bloomsday (20-ish years ago), but doesn't run anymore. My mom has never done running, though she does walk a lot for exercise, but the longest she'd walked was the 5k Turkey Trot I convinced them to do last Thanksgiving. Finally I told them that if I was pregnant at the time for it this year, I'd walk it with them. 

I flew in Saturday (the day before the race), we grabbed a quick lunch then checked into our hotel (just a 10-minute walk across the river from the expo center and race start). Next we headed to the expo to get our race bibs. There was a mix up with my mom's bib, which we discovered later, so we ended up having to go back the next morning (they do packet pickup only for out-of-towners the day of the race - which, even though we were already in town before that, we did qualify for). 

That meant we were up a bit early, even though we were starting in the second to last wave. We went back to the expo, got my mom's correct bib, used the real plumbing bathrooms while we were there, then headed to the start line. Though it didn't get too hot by the time we were done with the race, it was getting warmed up pretty quickly, and we were starting to ditch layers while waiting. We got right in the porta potty line by our corral, then starting moving towards the start line, officially beginning around 10:15.

I'd been doing some training walks in the 17:00 - 18:00 mile range, and my parents said they'd been doing some in the 18:00 - 19:00, so I figured we'd end up around there, maybe slowing some on Doomsday hill. Whenever I looked at my watch, it seemed like the instant pace was much slower than that (22:00 - 23:00 or so), and the average got skewed (for actual walking pace) due to a long wait in a porta potty line in mile 2, so in the end I was surprised that our actual mile splits were closer to our goal than I realized. 

Approaching Doomsday Hill

I kept trying to be encouraging and get my parents moving  faster - my competitive side definitely made me a little frustrated, although I tried to just enjoy the time. There was lots of "come on, you can keep up with the pregnant lady", and "let's try to catch up with the grandma pushing the double stroller". I'm not sure my mom entirely appreciated my motivational methods...

Despite my mom feeling some pain in her knee (though her feet, which had been giving some trouble during training, held up fine), we kept up a pretty good time overall, ending with an official time of 2:45:10 and 22:08 pace. That included a long-ish wait for a porta potty at one point (not for the pregnant lady, I might add!), so my garmin shows moving time of 2:33:51 and moving pace of 20:01. I really wanted to come in at under a 20:00 pace, so we got close to that!

Still at least able to smile long enough for a photo, in the last mile.

Mile splits:
1 - 20:09 (a bit congested at the start, so hard to move as fast as we wanted to)
2 - 28:25 (includes about 10 minutes stopped, so awesome pace while moving)
3 - 18:57
4 - 19:42
5 - 19:45 
6 - 21:33 (Doomsday Hill starts at the end of mile 5 and into mile 6 - didn't slow down much!)
7 - 20:56
7.46 - 23:04 (15:31 time for .69 per my garmin)

We were all glad to be finished, and by the next day my mom was sort of able to say she was glad she'd done it (and her knee was feeling much better, no permanent damage as she'd feared during the event, and as I'd told her during the event would be the case). For next year, though, I've given her the out of asking her if she'll watch the baby while I run the race.