Marathon Mom

I cannot believe I am having to write this post, I am officially 1 week overdue as of today. My dates are based on a 6 week u/s so pretty sure I truly am a week overdue! This past week I have turned into a lazy, crabby woman who is addicted to ice cream sandwiches, at least they are the Skinny Cow ones. I have managed some walking and elliptical workouts and even 1 day of weights. 1 more trip to L&D this past week that resulted in being sent home. Once again on Sunday had contractions all day so we went in during the Vikings game. This time baby tolerated things well so I was only on the monitor for a short time before I was checked and still no dilation, so I was told to walk around for an hour, but still nothing so home we went. Once again sent home and told by the nurse that she'd likely see us soon, not quite 3 days later and I just finished working. That was interesting, waddling around the hospital the past 2 days getting plenty of questions about when baby was coming....

40 week appointment today and even after all the contractions I am still not dilated! What is that all about? I must have a cervix of steel or something. Good to know it was doing a good job keeping baby safe, but enough already! Since I’m still not dilated they won’t schedule an induction until 41 weeks, but at least I now have an end in sight. The plan is to be admitted on Wednesday evening and get Cervidil after be rechecked after 12 hours. After that things will either progress on their own, the OB will break my water, I’ll get Pitocin, or worst case my cervix stays closed and more Cervidil. So still a lot of possibilities, but at least we have a plan and a finish line in sight. Now let’s just hope that I can go before that and avoid all of the above. Now to focus on getting labor started on its own in the next 6 days, off to eat some spicy food for dinner.

Yep, I'm still pregnant and hoping to not be very soon. If she isn’t born soon I’m going to need to get more maternity clothes since I have very few things that still fit. The waiting and not knowing when is the toughest part, Matt and I are both ready for baby to arrive and are getting anxious. We thought that maybe she was coming on Sunday, after about 7 hours of contractions that were getting closer together I called my OB and went to the hospital. Along with the contractions I was having awful chills, who knows what that was all about. This turned into an interesting evening, I was monitored in the assessment center for about 1 hour and was having these contractions with multiple peaks that lasted forever, 4-5 minutes a piece. The baby had some late decreases of her heart rate after one of these big contractions, which looking back we think may have actually been caused by her kicking the heart rate monitor off for a few seconds. Even with these contractions, there was still...

Will it work? Yesterday Matt and I were online and came across this article about a restaurant in Georgia where pregnant women went to get this legendary eggplant parmigiana that was known to bring on labor. We went to the restaurant’s website and sure enough there was the link to the recipe for those of us far from the warmth of Georgia and the story behind the meal. This all started about 25 years ago and has grown to the point that Scalini’s has an “Eggplant Baby” Wall and link on the website with over 300 babies born within 48 hours of eating the famous meal. They even guarantee a baby within 48 hours of eating the meal at the restaurant and give those who don’t a gift card for another meal. We changed dinner plans and decided why not give it a try, so if it works for me we should be meeting our baby before Monday at 6pm, 36 hours to go. If it doesn’t work we had a great dinner and now have a new recipe.

Come on baby, time to come out! Looks like the dreams about a January 12th birthday were wrong. Contractions continue to come and go, but just when they start to feel like maybe they're working they stop. As of Tuesday still no dilation, I guess I just have a stubborn cervix that does its job and doesn't know when to give up. The good news from the appointment is that they will not make me go to 42 weeks before talking induction, my ob is fine with anytime after 39 weeks as long as my cervix starts to cooperate. She also thinks that once I do start progressing that things will go quickly since baby's head is so low. The looks at the gym as I lug my 39 week belly onto the elliptical are getting much worse. I now have people stare through my entire workout like they are waiting for me to give birth right there. It's a good thing that we finally have some warmer weather because as of Sunday, after work, my last coat that fit earlier in the day no longer buttons. Otherwi...

Okay baby, I know this is only the first on many times you won't listen to me, but come on can we just start out with a little cooperation! The outside world is actually pretty nice and we would really like to meet you soon. I know you are running out of room to move around and I can guarantee you that you'll have much more space on the outside, we promise to stop poking at your feet every time you move them. The weather is finally nicer so take advantage of the sun and heat wave in the 20s before there's a blizzard or subzero weather again. Your mom is getting really uncomfortable and needs you to stop putting so much pressure on her pelvis and would like some comfortable sleep. Yes, you will continue to limit my sleep, but at least the sleep I'll be getting will be pain free. Your dad is looking forward to some time off work, okay we both are. And I know everyone is curious to find out your name. So please make your appearance soon. The starting and stopping of contra...

I’m ready to be done with the pregnancy thing. I’ve got the lovely waddle and pelvic pain every time I walk and just moving around is sometimes terribly painful. I can still get in about 1 hour on the elliptical without pain, but not sure when I’ll be back to running. Now I get a lot of questions about when I’ll be back to running, soon I hope, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens with the pelvis after baby is born. I started having contractions on Saturday, Sunday brought extreme nausea and Monday increased pelvic pressure. I thought I might be getting close, especially when the contractions got to be 7-10 minutes apart for a couple hours. That’s when they decided to stop! After all that I expected some good news on my progress at my appointment on Wednesday, but nope, nothing, still no dilation which even surprised the OB. I guess I’ve got a cervix of steel. I know I can’t get to frustrated by this since some women can be dilated for weeks and others go from 0 to baby i...

Goals for 2010: -Pain free running after baby and a strong comeback -Continue with my new found attitude for running/racing -Start racing again and BQ -PRs at all distances, actually run some 5Ks/10Ks -Continue with weights 2-3x week and XT 2x week as I get back to running -Find a good balance between being a mom and running Races for 2010 (Pretty preliminary right now, any suggestions for filling in the open months?) May -Cinco de Mayo duathlon -Maple Grove Half Marathon -Stillwater Marathon June ? July -TC Half Marathon -Napa to Sonoma Half Marathon (coaching) -? Chisago Sprint Triathlon August ? September -Bear Water 20 Miler -? IronGirl Duathlon October -TCM

The Goals for 2009 -Cross train 3x week (bike, swim, etc.) -Much better after getting pregnant -Strength training 2x week -Most of the year -Heal and no more injuries -No, tibial sfx in Spring, piriformis issue in summer and pubic symphysis diastasis in Fall -Feel good at the end of races -Yes! -Straight As in my final semester of grad school -Yes! -More multisport events (although my schedule doesn't show it) -Only 1 duathlon -PR at all distances -No PRs this year -Qualify for Boston -Only marathon I ran was a 6 weeks pregnant -Possibly a 50K -Nope