Heart Palpitations

November 27, 2012:

Okay, so it's not really heart palpitations. I am just really excited. Gus and I have our first "real" prenatal visit together today! From what I've been reading this is the day that we can hear the heart beat of our new baby. It's like Gus is getting introduced to him/her for the first time. My appointment is at 2:30pm and Gus took a half-day, while I biked and bussed into work this morning. He will be picking me up at 2pm, and I'm getting pretty excited.

He is super punctual, right at 2pm on the dot! What do I see on the passenger seat??? GOLDFISH... I swear the man is too sweet. I didn't even ask for them. We are chatting on the way over, about the doctor, about what we read in the books last night about the first visit. My best friend sent us 2 books (Ina May and Mayo's Clinic) we also have 4 others from a colleague (What to Expect When You're Expecting, The Expectant Father, Your Pregnancy Week by Week, and one other book with beautiful pictures of the weekly changes of development). So we're talking about what we both had learned the previous night, getting ourselves prepared.

I have to pee as we walk in the door, so I ask to leave my sample early. Of course, they say. Thankfully for me! Next, we have more forms to fill out, different from the last time though. We're called in shortly after completing everything. Blood pressure, weight... I gained 4 pounds (but I SWEAR I was dehydrated the first time I came in and this whole pregnancy thing has me retaining something much heavier than water. The doctor later suggests more water and prunes to cure that). Anyhow, I am not too worried about the weight gain, because I weigh myself 3 times weekly, and I am still weighing in my normal 5 pound range (just at the upper end of my normal end). 

Next off, we talk to our wonderful doctor who was actually born in South Africa and has been in the business for many years now. We go through the whole yearly pap smear breast exam etc, and now Gus knows what us women go through for one of these. More importantly, now we get down to the ultrasound. Hooray! There's white and then black and then BABY!!! The head is big, the little arm buds and feet buds are so cute. Holy crap, Gus and I are giggling as the doctor points out the little heart beating super fast. Gus asks, "How fast is it beating?" The doctor looks at his watch, waits a minute and then responds 164 beats per minute. Perfect, as Gus and I knew from our previous night's reading. We also found out the "gold-standard" age of the baby and the expecting date. On November 27 our baby is 8 weeks and 4 days, and we are planning on delivery around July 5, 2013. 

The doctor also made a funny joke, it looks like a little Pillsbury doughboy!!! Hahaha. It does a bit, if you think of the head as a little hat, and those little arm buds sticking out.

Gus also took part in documenting my growing belly... So I asked him to take a picture of me the following night. It seems like everyone wants to see me grow! How funny. Here I am at 8 weeks and 5 days (I have a little tiny bump).

East Coast Bound

November 20-25, 2012:

Homeward bound... Well, I suppose I don't really consider the east coast my home anymore, but that's where Gus and I were going to see my side of the family and friends for Thanksgiving. The morning of the 20th I need to get in early so that I can train all of my teams before taking off for the east side. 

I wake up with nausea, big surprise (my new normal), and ready all of my bags to be packed into the car for our departure that afternoon. I don't want to eat ANYTHING, but I know I have to if I am expected to keep down my prenatal vitamin. Luckily, I haven't ACTUALLY thrown anything up just yet... it's just my stomach on a constant churn throughout the day to the point where I actually go and stand over the toilet for a bit. Most of the day goes by just fine, especially after I laid down underneath my desk for 15 minutes to ease my stomach. My colleagues (all males) found it comical at least. Gus calls, as I'm under my desk, "Do you need me to get you anything before I come pick you up?" I'm thinking... everything sounds revolting...hmm... GOLDFISH! Don't ask me why, but I knew that would make me feel better. I make it through the rest of my teams without spewing and what do you know, goldfish are waiting for me on the passenger seat when I hop into the car. 

You can guess how the airport went. I opted out of the scanner again; even though I know that an ultrasound can do more damage than these things do, I still think it's better to just take the pat down. So we make it back to the east coast unscathed, after our full day of travel. My father, who came up from Florida to see us, picks us up and drops us off at my mom & sister's house. He really knows how to make things happen! 

We get in and strangely enough my appetite is restored??? Maybe it's the familiarity or not eating most of the day or knowing that there is homemade eggplant parm and vegetarian lasagna here waiting for us. Oh man, is Gus impressed by my Ma's Italian cooking. I love it when she does her Italian dishes, they are the best! For Thanksgiving my sister had bought 4 different vegetarian sides especially for my homecoming from a specialty grocery store, and I just thought it was the sweetest gesture! So the question wasn't what do you want to eat, it was when do you want to eat it? 

My mom comes downstairs from her sleep, and almost begins to cry she's so happy! My sister is there too just saying baby, baby, baby in the background. They are so happy to be grandma and auntie. 

The following day "grandpa" comes to pick Gus and I up for a tour de Connecticut (at least the parts that we've lived in). We bounce around all day long, hitting up one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants on the way. New Haven, Madison, Hamden... We get to see it all. We also get to stop into two great Irish pubs and get to see some more east coast peeps. Unfortunately, I'm the one who just gets to enjoy the atmosphere instead of all of the wonderful beer choices on tap. Sigh... I'm starting to really get hydrated on water anyhow!

Thanksgiving was wonderful, just relaxing and easy. My dad came over to my mom's and the five of us all had dinner and pie together. It was a real treat to have both parents at the same table again on a holiday. I am so glad they're friends now. The day after Thanksgiving was a party my mom had put on for Gus and I as a small east coast reception to our wedding from this summer. This way we could see all of the wonderful people on this side of the continent too. Little did they know, we're pregnant too! As people came in, I greeted them and I also spilt the beans! Of course! The great great aunts and the great grandma and the grand uncle and the grandma's, grandpa's, uncles and aunts were all so happy. If you only knew my complicated family then you would understand all of who is who, but that's a whole different blog completely!

Next up was Gus' first time to NYC! My dad said he could even drop off the rental car in the city, so we got to RIDE in a car, not the train, the whole way in! Not only did I not have to bounce around from house to house and family member to family member this trip, but we were getting escorted into the city by none other than my awesome dad! We get dropped off at our hotel, and promised to meet up with my dad and his friend at Folly's Irish bar later for a drink. That is of course, before all of my Jersey friends, Gus and I go out to dinner for my best friend's birthday dinner. 

Everyone arrives in the city safely, and all of us girls get our time to catch-up again. Breaking down the outstanding or less than outstanding aspects of our lives at the current moment, and spending some quality time with each other. Luckily, no one or their families were severely affected by super storm Sandy. We all bounce around the city until just after midnight, and then return to the hotel as everyone gets ready to head back to Jersey. The following day, we grab brunch around the corner with two of my former colleagues, meet up with my dad and his friend again, have lunch with Gus' first cousin, and walk around the westside all before we make our way to JFK for our return flight. Here we are at Washington Square Park all bundled up.

Patience and Pregnancy

November 6-19:

Let's start off by saying that I'm not one of those people who loves to give surprises, if you are a family member or close friend and I bought a gift for you and it's the middle of January and your birthday's not until March. You're getting it in January. I just brim over with excitement, and have a hard time containing it. So when it came to telling people. I thought 6 weeks was sufficient. Why not, after all I'm a healthy vegetarian who exercises regularly, without any health conditions. Plus, it's not ectopic. I saw the little bean of a baby and it's yolk sack, so it's real. So I go about my business of sharing the news to people and family on an intermittent basis. I asked my husband his thoughts on my approach. "Well, you're going to do what you want anyway, right." Hahaha. Well, of course I have consideration for his feelings but then again I want to tell my girls! If anything did happen I would need their support, right? At least he and I can agree on finding out the sex of the baby... I can't imagine waiting until the day of!

One thing is for sure, I really do enjoy telling females more than I do males. The women just are so ecstatic, it just fills me up with happiness. An added benefit (which some people think is a curse) is the tribe of older women in your life who have all been through it before and tell you their stories. I love getting the good ole fashion wisdom from these women. Especially when my morning... let's just call it ALL DAY sickness began to strike.Who really coined the term morning sickness, anyway? All of the sudden my huge plates of greens seemed unfathomable, and all I wanted was bread, potatoes, soup and ginger beer (no it's not alcoholic). I was given excellent advice when all of the smells and tastes of the world offended me. They told me what they did. B6 supplements, ginger tea, saltines, etc. Loads of great personal experience.

Not only was my diet now changing but my training now has to change. Innately, I know this. At least I know that my weekend mountain biking, my awesome snowboarding year that is just around the corner, my Squat and dead lift 1RM that I was going to test, any potential contact activities, leading on rock climbing routes or bouldering and most extended high intensity cardiovascular training these things logically seem like they're out. There's just not enough information out there for people who are really active BEFORE pregnancy. So I need more advice on lifting and other training types of conditioning so I look at some of my favorite websites: startingstrength.com forums and eliteftns.net articles and Q&A from Julia Ladewski. These are now my main resources, because the babycenter.com site that I am beginning to love so much, just doesn't cover what I need when it comes to "real" training. Luckily for me I got some great advice. 

The first trimester I can pretty much continue my training as was (with the exception of my previously mentioned caveats), while of course being much more aware of my RATE OF PERCEIVED EXERTION and HEART RATE. At this point, I don't need a heart rate monitor to tell me that I'm over 165bpm, so I set a mental note in my head. If I'm getting close to that I need to knock it back a notch. Also I can't go grinding out my back squat sets to a failure point. Okay, I can stomach all of this. Although I am swallowing quite a bit of pride here, it's all worth it for this pregnancy though and for this baby. I just have to do a little bit of self-adjustment when it comes to shifting my personal identity here. It may sound extreme, but this whole baby concept is a bit extreme too!

So is there weight gain, yet? Well, there's not supposed to be but to be honest I feel real puffy around my belly lately. This picture below is from 6.5 weeks (there is a little puffiness that is visible here). My doggie is in the background wondering why the hell is she taking pictures when she just said we're going to run? We have to go on our RUN! (Once you say that word all hell breaks loose for our two dogs. They won't let it go until they are actually running).

The week after this picture Gus and I went to a friend's funeral, and had to fly. Let's talk about my concerns about flying... Not just the nausea, but the full-body scanners??? So most of us know X-rays are not a good thing for a developing embryo but what the hell are these body scanners all about? Either way, I'm opting out. I'll take the pat down instead. Gus agrees that since we aren't really sure it's best to avoid unnecessary risks. As it turns out, I research more as we are waiting for our plane to depart, the full-body scanners are okay since they are only using radio waves, and we're apparently being exposed to more radio waves in the first 3 minutes of flight than what one of the body scanners puts out. Even with the extra knowledge, I opt out on the return flight too. 

The best possible part of going to the funeral... if there is a positive here, is that we got to see our close friends again, with whom we shared our news with too. Gus even got to share the news to his good friend. I love what he says about finding out, "It was as if I were waiting for this to happen to turn on a switch. Everything seems more clear now." It's amazing to see him excited about this little offspring we have created together. It is one of the most satisfying aspects about seeing him talk about the pregnancy to family and friends. I know he will be a loving and involved father. Just by the way he's always asking me how I'm feeling, and if I need anything, I know he will be so sweet and gentle with our baby.

Here I Grow

Monday November 5, 2012:

At this point I now know I've been pregnant for about 4 days, and I'm thinking a little bit more into this strain I'm feeling on the right side of my uterus. It's starting to worry me. My rational mind is saying it's probably a strain from lifting. My newly overly read prego mind is thinking, it could be an ectopic pregnancy. I mean, it could be... there's no bleeding... I should be okay. Still though, I should figure this out. 

Wait where do I go? I don't even have a gyno/ob yet! I need advice. Who do I know that has had kids. Colleagues. I start asking around, one of my colleagues tells me where his wife delivered all 4 of their kids, and that other women from the university go there too. Sounds good enough for me too! I am calling them shortly after, and they tell me I should come in to check it out as soon as I can.

Luckily I have an opening in my schedule, but I rode my bike in today. So I ask another colleague to borrow their car. Luckily, all goes well and I make the appointment on time. First we go over the basics, blood pressure, height, weight, family history, medical info etc. Then I get a pelvic and an ultrasound... Confirmed... NOT ECTOPIC! PHEW! My doctor mentioned that the pains were probably from my growing uterus, and that the ligaments were stretching. I guess I am growing, even though it doesn't look like it. I also come away knowing that I am now 5.5 weeks pregnant! As it turns out I did ovulate a week late.

The Blog Title and Discovery

So let me start off by explaining the title of my blog. 

Why the name pride and pregnancy? Well, I have to admit I am a bit of a prideful person... at least when it comes to my fitness and strength training. As for my history, a multi-sport athlete all of my life never "taking-off" for more than a couple of days at a time. Rowed on a division 1 collegiate varsity level. I have completed an iron-man (full and half), a whole boat-load of triathlons (mixed distances), marathons (fulls and halves), road bike and mountain bike races, finished the whole JMT trail in seven days solo (here's the link to my trail journal www.summitpost.org/john-muir-trail/802049), and I LOVE to lift. I'm not talking about those pink dumbbells either. I Olympic lift consistently 5 days a week, and do my more serious strength training sessions three times a week (i.e. Back Squat, Front Squat, Deadlift, OH Press, Bench Press, Bent Rows, Pull-ups/Chin-ups, RDLs, Good Mornings, etc). Oh yeah, and it helps that I am a strength and conditioning coach at a university, I suppose. So this brief background can give you a more clear idea of where all of this supposed pride I have is coming from. 

When we found out that we were pregnant, I must admit we were caught completely off-guard. We were still going mountain biking on our weekends. I had just finished a marathon a few weeks prior (which I suspect to be the culprit of ovulating a week later than normal and hence why I now have a fetus growing inside of me). I was starting my series of new PR's in my Olympic lifts (which I am still PRing in). We had just had our official wedding ceremony in August and thinking about a baby was years down the road still. After all, we wanted to be as selfish as possible with this honeymoon stage of our marriage we heard so much about! 

November 1, 2012: Thursday 12:00pm lunch time

I'm at work, at my desk and thinking to myself, my period is really late now. My boobs are feeling bigger than usual PMS boobs and hurt the way they do if I was going to have a tremendously bad period. Still, I have been telling my husband, Gus, for days now: "Don't worry honey, I think I'm going to get it today." Well, as it turns out all of the signs from PMS are so darn close to that of being pregnant. What made me think otherwise were a few small things. 1) My boobs were now hurting for over a week. I needed to double up my sports bras for almost everything I did involving any type of movement. 2) My "cramps" felt like they were different somehow, like tendons stretching on the sides of my uterus. 3) I felt like I was retaining more water than normal (puffiness).

Lucky for me, I was the one driving today instead of bike commuting and bussing it. So my lunch break could be spent productively; Rite Aid here I come! As I pull into the parking spot, I spy on the white bumper of the car next to me about 4 bumper stickers about being pregnant and scared (call 1-800-blah-blah-blah), pro-life etc. etc.  Hmm, interesting I think to myself; probably just another weird coincidence. I walk briskly to the aisle with all different sorts of tests (of course all of us women have had a scare once before, and sometimes we even send our men out to get the test for us). There I am staring at these crazy pregnancy tests and ovulation tests by 16 different companies, all claiming the highest accuracy and earliest detection. I am thinking: "Cheapest for a two pack, cheapest for a two pack. I can always keep the second one." Rite Aid brand wins! I check-out (female checker, late 40's who gives me "the look" saying I know what this means). I hurry back to work, run to the female coaches' locker room with just one pregnancy test jammed into my wallet so no one can see what I am about to do. There isn't much explanation needed for this sort of thing. Here I am at work peeing on a sti-... oh shit... oh shit... I thought this thing needed two minutes and here it is showing positive within seconds of my pee hitting the strip!! OH SHIT! 

I put the test down on the counter and start pacing and sweating. I'm not just talking a few drops of sweat, I'm talking about the I just got done with a run type of sweating. Immediately, I'm dialing Gus. His damn phone doesn't work at his office, so luckily since his sister, Lyndsey's, does I call her since they work together. Oh man, is she happy to hear the news... Then she gets Gus... what's he going to say? I blurt it out... "Oh, wow." Is that a happy wow? "Wow, well, that speeds things up a bit." He's happy and somewhat shocked. I guess that changes the mental process for his day a bit.