Swim Swam Swum

Since about mid August, Tuesdays and Thursdays have been our swim lesson days. Camille takes them at our gym and it's really convenient for all of us. Today, with Barry being gone since the early morning, I needed to get in my run. So first, Camille, Miss Daphne and I headed to the gym after Daphne woke up from her nap. The two of them went into the play place and I did my run. Two miles on the treadmill (while watching Jeopardy! Totally makes the time pass) and then two miles on the track. I *so* run faster on the track. This is a good thing since it's more real than the damn treadmill. I can barely manage 8:15s on the thing, and on the track, an everyday run is sub 8s. Nice.

Then I rushed 10 minutes of core work. It was so not enough. I need more this week. I'm feeling sluggish and mushy in the mid-section. But it was almost time for swim lessons and I had to get the girls from the child care.

Camille started her class jumping in with "pencil jumps." Today it was a parent watch day since it was the last day of the session. She did amazing! I so wish I had the video camera to film her do her free-style and rotary breathing. She's awesome! Her technique is great; clean, straight, and thoughtful. She's not all that fast but jeeze louise she's 5! And her back stroke is the best in the pool. She's got my shoulder strength. 

I want to video tape her so that when she's in the Olympics (ha!) they can play the video as part of one of those character building films before the BIG event. 


She advanced to Platypus level today. That's the class with mostly 7-8 year olds. That's my girl. 

back in the saddle

Or so to speak. I guess it would be more accurate to say back on the mill. The treadmill that is. Since giving birth to sweet Daphne on October 2, I've had foot surgery to remove the neuroma in my left foot. It took a good 6 weeks of recovery to start running again after surgery. It was a slow start; combining running and ellipticalling for the first few weeks until I could finally build up to about 4-5 days of running a week. Currently I'm running about 25-30 miles a week and feeling pretty good. Still some aches in the feet but nothing like I had to deal with before surgery.

Today's run was glorious. I started doing structured speedwork a few weeks ago and since I'm still running on the treadmill most of the time, these days are my favorite. Today's run was 8x800 meter intervals at about a 10K pace. It's funny, since I have no idea what my 10K pace is, to even say that. I'm just guessing from perceived exertion level and also from about where I was 5 months post-labor with my first daughter.

Barry and I ran the Pints to Pasta 10K when Camille was exactly 5 months old and I ran a 46:xx. That comes out to be about 7:30 min/miles. So that's where I started. but today, I pushed the envelope a bit and did the 5 intervals somewhere between 7:19 and 6:53 min/miles. It felt great to lay it out like that. Especially the last 3 where I started quicker and held on to the sub 7s for longer. 7.2 miles total.

Currently I'm enjoying this quiet while Sweet Daphne sleeps. She's been down for an hour already and I know my time is coming to an end here.

Mile 15

This is starting to get hard. I'm uncomfortable, I'm tired. My feet hurt, I'm hungry, I'm tired of the scenery, it's difficult to move, I get irritated easily.

Sort of sounds like mile 15 in a marathon. Or, perhaps it's just week 31, or the beginning of the 8th month.

I was elated when I reached 30 weeks. It just sounds like you're almost done. So much better than say, week 28. I'm in the 30s now man. I'm experienced. But then I came back to reality and realized I still have about 10 weeks to go. 10 weeks is a long time. 10 weeks ago was 20 weeks. And that was a long time ago. Like May 20! A lot has happened since then, and I still have that to do again before I get this baby out of me? Help!

This feeling one that I feel at about mile 15 when running a marathon. Which, by the way, I would do any day over this! At mile 15, the halfway mark is 15 minutes back, and it's the beginning of no-man's land. It's like far along but not really. There's still 11 miles to go. But the feet are really starting to hurt and things are starting to get a little boring. It's the point in the Chicago Marathon where I have crack all three times I've run that race. The scenery is starting to get a little sad. No more buildings and the crowds have diminished by more than half. The excitement of starting, having a smooth stride, and feeling all great are no longer. It's starting to get pretty hard. I want to be done.

That's like week 31. It's hard. Every day, like every step during the race, gets more difficult. When does no-man's land end? Mile 22? 23? Oh boy. That's still like 6 weeks away. A long time. I think I'll go soak my feet.

And oh

I suppose I should add, since this blog is somewhat about staying fit while pregnant, that I haven't worked out since Saturday and feel no regret whatsoever. Obviously. But these days, a big workout is ellipitcalling or Gravitroning for 40 minutes and then doing some core work on the ball. Last week I managed 3 sessions of this, with just one complete with core work. The other two were simply Gravitroning. If I don't make it to the gym for one reason or another (like boredom) I walk for an hour. I'm fairly certain it burns as many calories as a 40 minute stint on the machines. And that's what I'm after lately - simple calorie burn to keep my metabolism aware that I usually run 40 miles a week and wear size 27 jeans.

My Flowers

One of the things I do like about living in the Midwest is the abundance of Cone Flowers and the discovery of Bee Balm. I planted two perennial gardens this spring, and here are some of the blooms. Since it's been a fairly wet summer, the leaves aren't as green as I'd like, but hey. Next year will bring another chance. And bigger and more plants!

Speaking of bigger, here's my 30 week belly. I expect each week will bring noticeable change for the next 2 months. So amazing! This past week has been a bit of a struggle for me. I got this horrific GI illness Saturday morning that made me so weak and comatose. After it all, I ended up going to the hospital to get an IV. Thinking it would be a quick saline IV and then we'd be on our way, we learned that I had low potassium (an electrolite) and needed to get a potassium drip. This takes 6 hours. Ten long hours later, I was home and feeling closer to normal. I'm still waiting to feel completely normal, and hoping that comes tomorrow. But babies in bellies take everything! And as full as I am, refilling everything is quite the task.

And Baby Makes 4

I feel "officially" pregnant these days. People no longer glance at my belly without saying anything, secretly wondering if I'm expecting or if I perhaps have been eating too many burritos. People now are confident enough to ask the question, "Congrats. When are you due?" And yesterday my sister clued me in that I am waddling. And, I'm starting to dread bedtime, knowing that the chances are high I'll be uncomfortable for most of the night. So yes, I'm officially a pregnant lady.

Today I decided to stay home and do some more crafts. Yay! Camille is off at Safety Village and then has babysitter, so I am free to spend my day as I please. This is one luxury I'm not sure I can ever give up; the weekly "me" time.

As I was ironing my new fabric, I turned on A Baby Story on TLC. The epitome of pregnant women shows. I watched it religiously while I was pregnant with Camille from about week 30 on. (It still amazes/disgusts me that 95% of those women have cesarean, but hey, we live in the US.) Today's episode featured a family who had just one other child, a 4 year old boy. I'm intrigued with families who have two kids because that's what we'll be, and especially intrigued with those who have a 4.5 year age difference.

I haven't really thought so much about missing time alone with Camille, more so because I just don't want to think about it. But this lady on the show today was so dramatic about it, I thought maybe I should be thinking about it. I plan on taking time alone with her, continuing our "Wednesdays" now and doing something fun, just us. But understand that this won't be so easy until the baby is a little older and I feel comfortable leaving her alone with a sitter or more importantly, she can go longer than a couple of hours without her milk-maid. We're doing our best to talk to Camille about the time that's needed to care for a newborn, but whether or not she really understands it is still questionable. And really, it's an unknown to us as all babies are different.

I also wonder about Camille's first visit to the hospital after the baby is born. How am I going to feel when I see her, and how is she going to feel when she sees her new baby sister? Will she feel jealous? Happy? Excited? Will I feel sad? Will she feel sad? And then upon going home. Will I want to spend more time with the baby, or with Camille? And will I neglect one more than the other? How do you balance that? And how do I balance myself? And the big question, will I love one more than the other?

I think the good thing about having the two of them so far apart is that Camille is old enough to express herself with words. She's old enough now to express her emotions and talk to me or Barry about how she's feeling. She knows when she's sad, happy or has hurt feelings and this should help us all.

28.5 weeks

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I'm lookin' pregnant!