38 Weeks

Honestly, there's not much to report on this end. After a lot of running around to a couple of parties and Gear West Du last weekend, I was exhausted for a couple of days. This weekend, I kept it a little more low-key. I let Steve and my brother Matt head up to Apple Du by themselves (traveling that far from home at this point makes me a little nervous anyway even though it doesn't look like the munchkin wants out too badly). Mostly I've spent this holiday weekend wrapping up some loose ends, cleaning, and doing a few small projects. Oh, and I've taken several naps.

Abbe and I got in another run on Saturday, and today I hopped on the recumbent bike at the Y for 85 minutes. I was reading a really big "Caring for Your Baby and Young Child - Birth to Age 5" book, and my arms were actually sore from holding it up by the end. Yikes I've got some upper body work to do!

I've decided that if this kid doesn't come out to meet us by next weekend, I'm running the Grand Old Day 5K. Steve and I ran it together a long time ago - way before he got too fast for me.

A page from my old running scrapbook


A close-up of our baby-faces from 9 years ago before we did our first 5K together

It's a local celebration that starts in the morning with an 8K run, an 8K inline skate race, and a 5K run/walk. Then there's a parade and TONS of food, alcohol, and people watching. Normally I work on this day, but my hospital scheduled someone else knowing there's a good chance I could be in labor and not able to report to work. The last few years, it's sort of become a tradition for me to do a long run on Grand Ave in the evening after all of the celebrating is coming to an end. It's kind of fun watching the carnage after an all day drinkathon for a lot of folks. When Steve and I ran the 5K years ago, it was pretty low-key. A lot of the really competitive runners do the 8K, and there are plenty of walkers, so if I need to take a quick walk break at 39 weeks pregnant, I won't be finishing dead last.

No news on the baby timeline - just a lot of waiting knowing we may be able to meet him/her in a couple of days or as long as 4 weeks. Looking at the increase in temps finally approaching, I'm really hoping for a few days. I'm a little worried that I'm still feeling too good for labor to be eminent. I'm having more and more days where I'm feeling uncomfortable, but I'm still feeling OK for the most part. I'm not sleeping any worse than I've been sleeping for the past few months, I can still get my wedding ring on and off, and all of my shoes still fit. My belly is getting HUGE, though :)

I received a lot of positive comments regarding the article about exercising during pregnancy that I was featured in last weekend. I can't tell you how happy it makes me that it is inspiring current and future preggos to stay healthy and active. Mentally, I would be in such a different place right now if I weren't able to stay active.

I have professed my love for NUUN many times here over the years. Even though I'm not currently into heavy training, I have been drinking it lately. Although it may all be in my head, I'm drinking a LOT of water these days (sometimes up to a gallon a day) and sometimes feel a little funny. Worried that I might be diluting myself out too much, I started putting NUUN in one bottle. As an added bonus, some of the electrolytes in it can help to curb leg cramps, a common occurrence during pregnancy. Well, they recently came out with a whole bunch of new flavors. I've given the Grape, Strawberry Lemonade, and Fruit Punch all a try, and they're DELICIOUS! I went nuts at REI this past week when the tubes were all 25% off. A lot of other companies (Hammer, Gu, etc) have come out with comparable products. Although I'm excited to try out some of those products someday to see how they compare, all of the ones I've looked at contain stevia as a sweetener, which has not been proven safe in pregnancy.

Well, that's a lot of random thoughts in one place. Now I'm off to set up the BOB with Steve - one more thing to check off the to-do list!