Marathon Running

2010-03-19T13:20:00.001-05:00

photo, originally uploaded by LeahC.

Tilt shift dagny

2010-03-18T16:04:00.001-05:00

Tilt shift dagny, originally uploaded by LeahC.

Chase

2010-03-18T12:34:00.001-05:00

Chase, originally uploaded by LeahC.

Tilt shift bike

2010-03-17T17:13:00.001-05:00

Tilt shift bike, originally uploaded by LeahC.

Tilt shift street corner

2010-03-17T16:15:00.001-05:00

Tilt shift street corner, originally uploaded by LeahC.

Tilt shift switzerland

2010-03-17T16:12:00.003-05:00

Tilt shift switzerland, originally uploaded by LeahC.

Tilt shift cars

2010-03-17T16:12:00.001-05:00

Tilt shift cars, originally uploaded by LeahC.

Reflections

2010-03-17T12:49:00.001-05:00

Reflections, originally uploaded by LeahC.

2010-03-16T16:33:00.001-05:00

photo, originally uploaded by LeahC.

Goodbye Blogger. Hello Wordpress.

2010-02-01T22:10:00.000-06:00

Well this was inevitable.

http://jasonleahrun.com was available and I thought it might be fun to host my own site. And so I did. So far so good with the wordpress although I don't know how I feel about the template. I mean I think it looks good, but I don't like the back end of it. It's a place to get started though and start testing some bigger ideas I have for jasonleahrun.

So go there. Change your RSS feeds to http://jasonleahrun.com/feed. Look I even linked it for you so you can add it easily.

Contact us at jasonleahrun@gmail.com if you come across any problems or whatevers. Hope to see you there. In fact go there and leave a comment and say hi so we don't feel so lonely out of blogger-ville.

We Put Our Coats On

2010-01-27T09:45:00.001-06:00

Well I think that picture says it all. We live here, we all hate February, but in the end we put our coats on and deal with it.

There is nothing, and I mean nothing, that compares to that first warm day. It's usually followed by a snow storm or sub zero temperatures but we all cherish that day. A few years ago there was a random 50 degree day smack dab in the middle of February. Jason and I went on a long walk along the lake front path as did the rest of Chicago. People were our running in shorts and no shirts and the lake front was jammed with people. The edges of the path were still covered in snow and the weather for the following week was gloomy, cold and horrible. But for that one day we had a glimpse of summer. And it makes the winter worth it.

Yesterday I bundled Lucy up good and tight and she resembled snowsuit Randy from A Christmas Story but we had fun. We went to visit Obtiva for a few minutes and then met Jason for coffee and cupcakes at Starbucks. Lucy was a traveling champ as always. A few times she almost woke up and she would get real excited, but I think it was more, "What the hell are you doing mom, don't you know it's cold out here?" and then she would go back to sleep.

In other news, I'm starting another photo project. My current one is just to post a picture every day on my photoblog. But I don't care when I take those pictures and there could be several from the same day. So I get away with going to take a bunch of pictures and then setting my camera down for a few weeks since I have so many in the bag. Ok well the camera is not really set down as it's in Lucy's face, but as far as taking pictures of things other than the baby. So I'm starting a 365 project where a new picture has to be taken every day. I hope to learn a lot and force myself to see photos where I usually wouldn't. So today is day 2. Let's see how long I make it. I'll be putting the pictures up in this smugmug gallery and also over at flickr. I suppose I could also do a Lucy 365 project too and take a picture of her every day.....I just about do that anyways....three photo projects at once? What the WHAT? Alright, fine that is started too, with photos being housed here. With all the photo work I've been doing, that new 27" iMac is calling to me. Why can't I be rich and just go out and buy it. But alas I am not and so that'll have to wait.

Should be a lazyish day today as not much going on. My Dad is coming over to get some stuff sometime this morning and then just reading and playing with Lucy. Perhaps a walk to starbucks this afternoon. Thinking if I take my small 50mm lens I could take my camera and the baby and it wouldn't be too much to carry...can I take pictures with a baby strapped to me though? Something to test I think.

Oh Chicago How I Hate Your Winterness

2010-01-26T08:21:00.000-06:00

Every year. Every single year at this time Jason and I start the, "Why do we live here? You know how nice it is in California? What if we got jobs there? Maybe we should look for some."

I HATE THIS TOWN IN LATE JANUARY, FEBRUARY AND MARCH IS JUST A FUCKING JOKE. Like oh it's March, spring is coming. Yeah right.

Yesterday I was thinking Lucy and I could go somewhere, but as it's horrible outside where would we go....we could go walk to Starbucks and sit inside. We could walk to anywhere and then sit inside because it's cold out and so you can't actually be outside. So why walk somewhere when I can sit inside my apartment where it's free.

Well, I'll tell you why. Because if you don't go walk somewhere and sit inside there you go FUCKING CRAZY SITTING IN YOUR APARTMENT.

Oooooooooh hate.

When Jason got home I gave him the baby and put on my running clothes and went out for a quick run. The song Minority by Green Day came on and I started running really fast, and now I used to be a fast runner, but when I caught a glimpse of myself in a window reflection I looked ridiculous, like I have never run before and was just running because I was late for something. Like my arms and legs weren't really connected to my body.

So I ran a mile and walked a mile home. It felt to get out there, in the running and just leaving the apartment sense. I'm noting that I have a long way to go from 1 mile to the marathon so that's a tad daunting. And by tad I mean hugely.

When I got home Jason and I gave Lucy a bath which was *hilarious* as she was all splish splash I was taking a bath style. After that I fed her and put her down and she was out at about 8pm. Then she slept till 6. I'm so lucky having such a good sleeper and so soon too!

Today after her morning snooze that she's taking right now we are going to go downtown and visit Obtiva and then get some coffee with Jason. Then this afternoon my Dad is coming over to watch her so I can go to the gym. Which by the way will be my third time going. My big plan is to go Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays. Also I would like a trainer but I figure that I would like to be able to lift more than just one weight before getting that so I won't just be a piece of meat. So maybe in a month or so.

SO that should keep me busy until Jason gets home today. At the end of this week my Dad is speaking at the Strictly Sail show and we'll be there helping him with that.

With the weather being so gross I am also missing taking pictures outside. Although I can take 800 pictures of the baby on a daily basis, she's still not doing much. So I'm trying to think of photo projects to do indoors. Not really coming up with anything. Hopefully during the sailing show I can get some pictures of the show itself and then some of Navy Pier and downtown.

That is all...except for some pictures...and not just of the baby this time!

Just Go Do It, Trip to Bernies...and Pictures :)

2010-01-21T13:43:00.001-06:00

So I just deleted this whole post I had written yesterday that was all about how are Jason and I going to run together and I had all these options, we could take the baby to my Dad's, we could run separately, both of which were kind of complicated. Then we realized that we could rig the running stroller pretty well to deal with the winter and the fact that Lucy is still only 6 weeks old so we could just go with her AND use our swanky awesome new running stroller. SO that's what we did.

I fed Lucy and right when Jason got home he got his running clothes on, we put the baby in the running stroller all bundled up and we carried it down the stairs and away we went. We stopped at my Dad's to show her off (and take a break...um...yeah when was the last time I went running? Yeah.) and then we continued onto the path for a bit and then back home.

It was *great*. I love running with Jason and so I was just really excited to make it happen with the baby. There is a lot of talk of, "You can't do anything you did before" when you are pregnant and I am determined to not let that completely happen. I mean obviously things are going to change, and be different and hell yes it's more complicated doing the things we did before now that we have the baby, but you just do them. Take the baby with and head out the door. And the running stroller equals pure awesome.

That being said, I think we need a better solution for the cold for the baby and I was worried that with all the ice on the path and the streets that it was a little too bumpy for her.....so we have to do some more experimenting and testing. And yes we are still going to do runs without the baby, but I can't wait till she is a bit older and it's warmer out so it will actually be a fun ride for her.

After we got home we ate dinner and then fed the baby then gave her a bath, gave her a bit more foods and then the kid passed out. I think the run tired her out (Mom too!!). Her bath was a little exciting yesterday because for the first time she crapped in the tub. And so we took her out, cleaned the tub, put more water and soap in there and literally we put her in and then she really unloaded...so we repeated and finished up quickly.

Yesterday in the afternoon I called my Dad to save me from some ansyness and we took Lucy on her first trip to Bernies (a bar across the street from Wrigley Field). My Dad's friend was bartending so it was fun to show the baby off and we think that she liked Billy Williams' jersey the best. Yes...we are winners taking the baby to a bar at 6 weeks old.

She really gets smiling these days which is a lot of fun and we just make ridiculous faces at her trying to get her to smile more and more. That and I just about have my camera permanently attached to my face hoping to catch one of the big ones.

So as usual I'll leave you with some pictures. The first four are of Little Lu playing, "LOOK AT ME I CAN SIT UP!", followed by, "My Dad is so comfy", followed by, "Really...they took me to a bar? What's wrong with my Mom and Grandpa?". As always, lots of pictures at my smugmug page: http://leahc.smugmug.com/

Look at the Change!!!

2010-01-15T06:12:00.000-06:00

I know she's changing and growing, but it's not until looking at pictures that it's so visible!

2 Days Old

1 Month Old

Amazing!

That last picture was taken during her favorite time of the day, bath time. We got her a new tub because it was getting difficult to hold her in the sink and we wanted her to be able to sit in the water for a bit longer. Turns out she loves her new tub and it was the bst 17 bucks that we have spent. She just sits in there and smiles and floats around. It's so much fun!

She's still doing really good and sleeping longer and longer at night. It seems that she can go 6-8 hours so it depends on when she falls asleep but either way I'm happy about it. Today she got up at 4:30 and we decided to just stay up. This is all part of my master plan to just get up at 4amish in general. We'll see how long I make it before nap time.

She had her one month appointment on Tuesday and she's doing great. Of course she's in the high percentiles for height, weight and head size but that is to be expected given where she started. She's up to 22.5" long (90th percentile) and 12lbs (95th percentile) and head size is up in the 90th percentile as well...but looking at my family that was coming. She gave the doctor a smile and held her head up for some tummy time. So she's doing great. She had to get a second HepB shot and that was hilarous. The nurse gave her the shot and it was totally a delayed reaction, like...wait...that hurts...that hurts ME. Her face got bright read and then the screaming started. But it was only about 15 seconds of screaming and then she was back to her normal self.

This week we have taken some adventures on the CTA. We took the bus to the doctors appointment and then on Wednesday we took the Red line down to Loopy yarns and then met up with Jason for lunch. The doctors appointment adventure went 100% smoothly, but the Red line trip got a little hairy at the end. I pushed the feeding window a little too far and she started fussing and crying towards the end of the trip back, but it wasn't too bad and all was fine once we got home.

Today I have big plans to get my hair cut and highlighted because it's a *disaster*. When Lu looks at me, she smiles and while I think it's cute and I'll do whatever I can to keep her doing it, I kind of wonder if she's looking at my hair and thinking, wow that woman looks ridiculous. :)

I know you want pictures! Ok. Here's a few.

One of my favorite shirts for her. Thanks Scotty and Brandy. Rock.

The doctor says she thinks they'll stay blue

I LOVE BATH TIME!

When to Wake (and Pictures!)

2010-01-11T08:49:00.000-06:00

So Little Miss Lucille has two speeds. On and Off. Shockingly just like her mother. That and as soon as you put her in her car seat and or Pikkolo carrier she's out like a light. When my Dad and I used to take our summer Dad Daughter road trip vacations I would be all set with books and crafts and things to do in the car, and instantly I would be out. I would wake up and my Dad would inform me that I had missed a couple of states while I was sleeping.

So she's a good sleeper and as soon as she's out at night she's out, but right before she goes down it's LittleMissLetMeShowYouHowICanTalkReallyLoudly. She's been going down between 8 and 9 and sleeping all the way until 4ish. So yesterday I was planning on just staying awake after feeding her at 4 because I can get some stuff done in the mornings while she is sleeping. She gets a little crankier and more awake in the afternoons and so I can't do as much stuff.

So last night she woke up at 2:30 instead of 4 and so the plan was thrown off. However after finishing feeding her and putting her down it was about 3am and I was pretty awake. Not that I had a problem falling back asleep as I am the queen of sleeping, but I could have totally stayed awake. But that's a bit early and so we went back to sleep. The problem is that when I then woke up at 6 with the little one I was totally groggy and heavy headed. So I'm wondering why I'm pretty clear and awake at 3 but then stupid acting at 6.

Anyways.

We had a great morning this morning, she was up at 6 and I fed her and whatnot and she played on her Boppy activity mat for about an hour and a half before going down for her morning nap. I have still gotten a lot done this morning so not a big deal not getting up at 4, but going to try and make that happen. I always thought that it would be awesome if you didn't really have to sleep cause you could get so much more done, so maybe I can use the baby to train myself to cut down on my sleep. Of course the coffee and excedrin will have to increase :).

Gotta run some errands today and then tomorrow it's off to the doctors for Lucy's one month appointment.

For those of you that don't keep up with my smug mug account here are some of the latest of the Little One.

One Month

2010-01-08T19:21:00.003-06:00

Holy hell does time fly. Little Miss Lucille is one month old today. She's still doing great most of the time. About 20% of the time she's gotten really good at getting her crank on. She sleeps from about 9-4 so we can't complain about that. At 4 so goes back down until about 6:30 or 7.

This computer is currently making my head pulsate and so I'm posting this picture and that is all for today.

Happy 1 month birthday kiddo! You sure are a lot of fun!

Getting Out of the House! A Must!

2010-01-06T09:34:00.000-06:00

Yesterday little Miss Lucille Jean was quite the crank. She woke up at about 4am and while I was changing her I noticed that she was shivering, then I noticed the glass of ice water I had been drinking at 12:30 still had ice in the glass.....then I looked at the thermastat and realized that the heat had gone out. It was just a pilot light and the landlord came by at about 8:00 and showed me how to light it. But between 4 and 8 I just had Lucy lay on my chest under many many blankets. I think the scheduling weirdness weirded her out and she was just cranky yesterday. She didn't take any long naps, and she was just whiney.

When Jason came home, I handed him the baby and went out for a walk. I have two weeks before I'm cleared to run again but I can start doing some quicker and longer walks so that's what I did. And it was awesome. I put on some headphones, cranked up the volume and just enjoyed being out and "working out" again. Plus when I came back to the still cranky baby I wasn't as frustrated or as tired even though I was still running on only a few hours of sleep. When Jason and I were in graduate school we never got that much sleep but we were always always working out and running. I think even though it makes you tired, for some reason it also gives you more energy. So I am looking forward to doing more of that to keep me from going crazy being indoors all day and pump up my energy level.

The running plan for the year is to run in the Shamrock Shuffle 8K, the Soldier Field 10 mile, the Rock and Roll 1/2 marathon and ending with the Chicago Marathon. My dad and I are going to train together for all of these and he's been doing a great job of running in this cold weather. I have all the cold weather gear that I need except for a pair of gloves which I plan on getting in the next few days. 2010 is all about getting the distance back and 2011 will be about speed. Just going to cruise and concentrate on becoming a long distance runner again and getting back into the shape I like to be in.

The little one is starting to wake up. My dad has given her the nickname of Lucy-fer when she's being the crank and the name is sticking. So Lucy, in the future when mom teases you and calls you Lucyfer, you just blame your grandpa.

2009 and the 00's in Review

2009-12-31T09:45:00.000-06:00

Well here we sit at the end of the year. I was looking back at the posts from the beginning of the year looking for that "Here's what I'm going to do this year post".

So let's see. I said I was going to learn photoshop. Done and Done. I find the program very useful and have gotten pretty good at taking good pictures and just touching them up to give them that bit of pizzaz and also using it to fix pictures that are totally screwed up due to bad exposure settings or what not.

My Dad, Jason and I had all planned on reading "I'm a Strange Loop". Didn't so much happen. But we can put that on the burner for this year.

Go to the YMCA ALL THE TIME! Yeah...seriously went like 5 times.

Travel to Zurich. Done and Done.

No where in that post did we talk about the the "Let's Try and Make a Baby" plan. Turns out that is what 2009 ended up being and go figure we made a pretty awesome little girl. The whole year ended up being somewhat consumed by preparing for her arrival. In the "Here's what I'm going to do this year post" I say, "Our little family unit is 180 from where we were last year" and I think I can safely say that again this year. This time last year Jason and I found ourselves seated at Sheffields most evenings for delicious beers and bbq, or out with work crowds downtown. Now we just find ourselves staring at the little one and wondering what the hell she is thinking and looking at and learning and it's just amazing!

And what will become of 2010? Who the hell knows but I can only hope that it's as exciting as the last few years have been. I like the being 180 from where I was the year before...although...you keep going 180 don't you just end up back where you started two years previous? Wait...what the what? Anyways.

2009 is also the end of quite a decade. I was talking to Jason and I was like...wow, at the end of the last decade I was 20. I mean..wow I can do math right? But seriously I was at a New Years Eve party in Chicago with friends from Indiana.

I was still an undergrad and only in my junior year of a physics degree. 10 years later and I have a PhD in the subject and had a ton of fun getting it. We got to work at the biggest lab on the planet at the time and I measured something more precisely than anyone else had (and it still stands as far as I know).

Jason and I weren't even dating 10 years ago. We were very good friends, but didn't start dating until May of 2000...wow that's so weird to think about. Now we are married and have this wonderful little person that is half of each of us.

During the decade we never really had any money but didn't let it stop us from traveling to Europe and the Caribbean and living in Chicago even though we were working out in Bativia. Of course if we hadn't done those things we probably wouldn't have been quite as poor...but I would never ever give up those days. We laugh now at the shithole apartments we lived in because we didn't have a choice, but I mean really the Iowa Street apartment? What the fuck were we thinking?

We grew up in the 00's. We dated, we broke up, we dated, we got married and along the way became even closer friends than I could have imagined. How many people marry their best friend? I mean really! I am so lucky. And little Lucy? Well she's going to grow up with two wacky ass parents. We of course aren't finding ourselves at Sheffields every night for beer and bbq, but we are still planning on a trip to Europe this coming year and because we can we are planning on Little Miss Lucy coming with us. Just because you have a baby doesn't mean that *everything* has to change. Of course....as long as Miss Lucy is under the age of two her seat on the flight is free....so that might have something to do with it.

And so we close out the decade miles and miles from where we entered it. I'm thinking the 10's are going to be just as amazing.

And So We Start

2009-12-28T08:08:00.000-06:00

Jason just left for work after being off for about 3 weeks. He's back to work full time although this week he gets Friday off for New Years Day so at least he's going back to a short week. I have mentioned how much I hate that we don't work together any more and so I'm not going to mention it again...except that I just did. Damn. Ok well I miss him and this will be a tough transition to make. I think a lot more difficult than when he started working separate from me in the first place. Ok that's it. Going to stop talking about it now.

And it being winter and gross out I have no plans although I have to get out of this apartment today as I've been inside for the last two days. My Dad is coming by late morning and I think we are going to take Lucy to Bernies which should be a nice walk. And then we can put her first steps in to a bar at less than 3 weeks. Which is nice and classy I think. Hopefully it's not too too cold out, we'll see. So far not a big fan of having a winter baby.

Lucy continues to be a great kid and is sleeping in her own room and waking up one time during the night to eat. She goes down for bed around 9:30-10 and gets up around 2:30-3 and then wakes up between 6 and 7. It could totally be a lot worse and so I'm happy we have such a good sleeper. What's awesome is that after she wakes up in the middle of the night she goes right back to sleep as if she knows it's 3 in the morning and not time to be up and on it.

We are not even talking about the Colts in this household, but we are hoping that the Bears can pull of a win tonight. Favre is old and it's cold in Chicago so you never know. Miracles can happen.

No pictures of Lucy today but my Uncle recently scanned this one in of me at about 3 I think.

Ok...well just a few pictures of Lucy:

She does this often with her right hand, right up by her ear like that

When she gets these eyes we know it's going to take some work to get her to sleep

Her eyes are still blue. I've done the genetic tables (yes. It's the only part of freshman biology that I was good at) and she has a small shot at getting blue eyes because Jason and I both have grandparents with blue eyes....maybe it's like a 1/16 chance. I did find out that her Great Grandmother Lucille who she was named after had blue eyes....so we'll see

First Time Parent Syndrome, Christas Eve, Jason Back to Work and Pictures!

2009-12-24T09:43:00.000-06:00

So ok. Lucy had some congestion. I mean the child was racked with pain with said stuffy nose. How am I supposed to know that IT'S JUST A STUFFY NOSE. Sigh.

Yesterday Jason and I were convinced that the stuffy nose was something more than a stuffy nose. We realized we had a shitty thermometer as it was giving us readings that varied by over a degree in a 10 second span. So we called the doctor who said, stuffyness was very common in newborns to which I yelled, "THE CHILD IS SCREAMING. IT'S MORE THAN JUST A STUFFY NOSE." So they told us to bring her in and we did. And then of course Lucy just sat there and cooed and was cute and yes had some congestion. The doctor we saw was pretty funny. He's an older guy and I think he said he had 6 or 7 kids and so yeah. He said...ah first parent syndrome, usually I don't see that until at least week four. I told him that's probably true but I'm clearly neurotic. He said, well I can see that.

So yeah, Lucy is fine. And we are going to try and calm down a little bit. We've been trying to keep her on a pretty strict sleeping/eating schedule and so we are going to back off that a little bit just because she seems to do better when we let her dictate what she wants to do. She's already sleeping 5-6 hours at night and actually last night went 6 hours between feedings which is awesome. My parents told me that I was sleeping through the night at about 2 weeks so hopefully this kid is following that same plan. It's horribly frustrating though becasue all the books are like, newborns have to eat every 2-3 hours so you have to wake them up. Lucy is probably the hardest sleeper that I have ever seen and it's really hard to wake her up so I hate doing it. Plus she's not exactly the size of a newborn. So yeah....in short we are figuring it out day by day and probably making tons of mistakes along the way. But like the doctor said, she'll let us know when she's hungry and uncomfortable and so maybe we should try listening to her instead of books....or probably more accurately a little bit of both.

Our little niece who is just 5 days older than Lucy is having a hard time these days. She caught a respiratory virus and is in the hospital hooked up to all kinds of tubing. Jason and I cannot even imagine what his brother and wife are going through and hope that she turns the corner soon.

I was planning on making a big Christmas Eve dinner and then I thought...wait...we live by lots of restaurants that deliver. So we are ordering a nice Christmas pizza. But I'm baking cookies today so we got that going for us.

Today was Jason's first day back at work. If he takes Christmas Eve off he has to take a full vacation day but if he goes into work he only has to work a 1/2 day so he went in for the morning today. He goes back full time on Monday. After him being home for the last almost 3 weeks it's really hard for me to see him go back to work. I miss working with him and seeing him all the time and him just being home reminded me of those times when we would see each other all the time and work together and I fucking miss it. Not many people get to be in love with their best friend and have gotten years to work with them. We'll get back into a rhythm soon enough I know. Although we'll have a new rhythm that involves the baby. But anyways. It's tough to see him leave for work and I'm sad. Good thing we all get presents tomorrow. Presents makes everything better.

And as usual because everyone just likes pictures, here we go:

I don't quite fit yet! But when I do this looks like it'll be a rockin' good time. Thanks all grandparents!

Those are my toes! And I kind have the fat man boobs and belly....but I'm loving my first bath!

Strange, Wonderful, Perfect and then Overtired

2009-12-17T09:02:00.000-06:00

Being a new parent of course is very strange but it's helping that Little Lu is apparently the perfect child. She doesn't really cry, she eats, sleeps, looks around a little bit and then goes back to sleep. I know she's looking at Jason and I and thinking, "Oh great, I got a bunch of rookies. Just put the fucking tshirt on already, this shouldn't take you 5 minutes. Can't you see I'm pretty much naked? LET'S GO ROOKIES, GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME"

Jason and I have settled into parenthood like champs although it helps having the support staff of the Gods. My Mom has been staying with us and cooking meals for us and cleaning up which is so awesome. She thought that it would be the crazy house with the baby and would have to help more with her, but since Lu is so perfect and Jason and I have a lot of that under control there hasn't been much to help with there. If she wasn't here though...it would be D'Augs or Penny's Noodles every night and our living room would be covered with baby blankets, diapers, pacifiers, pillows and god knows what other treasures we would find there. So that has been such a huge help. My Dad and Sue of course are here all the time and my Dad has been able to run some errands for us when we need stuff and so on. I don't know how calm we would be without the three of them around.

So all was perfect and Lu slept and she ate and she slept and she looked around quietly. Then last night we did our tree decorating and my Mom made dinner and there was just a ton going on. Poor Lu couldn't quite get to sleep between two of her feedings and then the poor kid was so overtired that she was awake for many many hours. She was fussy and just could not close her eyes. Well she would, but then they would snap open like a baby doll and we would have to start trying to calm her down all over again. She stayed awake till her next feeding and then for a few more hours after that. Finally finally, she fell asleep on my chest. She did wake up an hour later to eat, but then we put her right back in the bassinette and she drifted right off for a nice 4 hour snooze. This morning she hung with Jason and I in our room after eating and is now back asleep. Before she went to sleep she was making some pretty spectacular faces which was fun to look at. She makes one face and she looks just like Yoda which of course Jason the Star Wars King loves.

Today Jean and her baby Ethan are coming to visit so that should be fun and then tomorrow we are having a Holiday Party/Come poke the baby open house deal so that should be fun....hopefully not too much stimulation :).

As far as me, I'm feeling great. I'm not going to be one of those people that is all talking about my weight and if I'm back to my pre pregnancy weight and yadda yadda. I know I'll get there soon enough but I will say that the weight was a whole lot of baby and fluids I think because I just have a little pooch left. I can start running again in like 4 weeks and I'm really looking forward to that. I'm going to coach my Dad and I think with me coming off of abdominal surgery he'll be able to go a lot farther than me, but he better get ready for the coach from hell that's going to come knocking on his door with the temps at 2 degrees. LET'S GO RUNNING!

And of course since no one really cares about all the of above and just wants to see pictures of the little one. Here you go. There will be lots and lots of pictures at this location which is updated daily if you are interested: http://leahc.smugmug.com/Children/Lucy. Enjoy!

It's Baby Lucy!

2009-12-15T07:38:00.000-06:00

So Leah's already recounted her epic experience from the perspective of the lady in the hospital gown, but I thought I'd chime in on the view from the sidelines.

Heading in to the hospital to get started with the induction was a pretty simple process. The admission process was easy and the early induction steps were a piece of cake as Leah was just strapped into an IV and the pitocin started dripping. No problem. Easy peasy. La di da. I just hung out over on the day bed and we watched TV together, too tired and excited to go to bed. The baby was almost here! Yay!

Sure, the nurses cautioned us that it could take 18-24 hours for induction to work its magic. Our first resident even warned that it could take as long as 48 hours, worst case.

Yeah, okay. Sure. I think we'll be fine, thanks.

And so the pitocin kept on dripping and we kept on hanging out. We tried to get a bit of sleep that night, but it wasn't really possible. Every half hour Leah's automatic blood pressure cuff would start pumping and wake us up. But no big deal if we didn't get sleep because, really, the baby would be here soon!

And then noon the next day started to roll around. Leah had been contracting for almost 14 hours and had nothing to show for it. A mere 1.5 centimeters and no pain. Boo to no pain! And so the doctor decided to break Leah's water and let nature's pitocin take over. Out doctor was pulled into a c-section and couldn't make it in for the water breaking, so a resident was sent in instead.

And then the breaking of the water began.

I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say it's the worst thing I've ever seen. The look of pain on Leah's face while the resident was on top of her, wielding her instrument of torture (which I swear to god was a meter long), was just horrifying. And all I could do was sit over on the sidelines and watch, doing nothing. In the end it worked, but it was distinctly not awesome. Afterwords, I remembered to breath again.

Eventually.

And I think I'm just about recovered from the trauma.

Almost.

But, in the end, the water breaking was a good thing as the contraction began to really kick in. Yay for pain! On a scale from 1 to 10, I believe she said her pain was a fortheloveofgodstopaskingmethatgoddamnquestion. We spent the next little while walking the halls and dilating (well, she dilated more than I did. I'm still at 1 cm) and the pain kept on increasing. Leah was starting to get really uncomfortable and then the time came. Get me the drugs! And some for Leah, too! Druuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggggggggggs.

And so she got the epidural. And it was delicious. I remember walking back into the room (they make the fathers leave during this procedure) and I did a double take. Leah was sitting there on the best smiling and joking with the nurses, back to her pre-pain self. I was starting to feel pretty good about this. And, as a bonus, she was up to 3 cm dilated. Woo Hoo! The baby was on the way!

And then it was a lot of hanging out and waiting. We watched Monday Night Football then slept for awhile. During that time, Leah passed 6.5 and 7 cm and the night was starting to really drag on. Leah covered this pretty well and there's not too much to day about this time. Leah needed her medicine re-dosed a bit, but once the pain was well under control, we both slept a decent amount. Actually, we slept a lot more that night than the night before (when the contractions were very mild), because the real issue with sleeping was an uncomfortable bed. (Note to all the ladies: get the epidural when you *enter* the hospital. Otherwise your butt will keep falling asleep on the very uncomfortable bed and no sleep will be had).

And so, in some regard, nothing interesting happened. Leah just grew more tired and frustrated with the process and time began to slow. But what I remember more is her waking me up and having me come over because she had started shaking violently. Leah broke down with tears of frustration and fear, the big fear being that she wouldn't have enough energy to push when the time came. Her body had nothing left. All she wanted was a drink of water. And still, shaking violently. And through it all, there wasn't a thing I could do. I couldn't give her water. I couldn't help the shaking. Nothing.

Very frustrating.

I could see things were starting to spiral out of control, so I was very relieved when our amazing doctor came in and had a talk with Leah. It was time to consider a c-section. Or, at least, a c-section was now a viable option. Leah had given it her all and, after 32 hours of labor, had started to lose it. The contractions had lost their zing and her body was out of baby-having juice.

It as time for a c-section. There was really no choice. The doctor, although she wouldn't tell us what to do, gave me the impression that she really felt surgery was the only realistic option at this point. At this point it really appealed to me as I wasn't wild about the direction this was heading and a c-section meant we got to meet little Lucy much sooner.

After a bit of deliberation and waiting a bit longer, the decision was made. Let's make the cut! Yay! It's slicin' time!

And so Leah was wheeled out of the room and I was left to get dressed in my sweet-ass scrubs. The nurse came to get me and took me over to the other waiting room, where I waited for them to get Leah all prepped up. After 5-10 minutes of waiting (or more, I have no idea), it was time to head into the operating room and have a baby, Julius Caesar style.

My job during the procedure was to keep Leah calm. I just kept letting her know that this was a very easy surgery and that, in the end, we would have a Lucy. She must have actually been quite tired as she actually nodded in agreement with me a few times. And through it all, we listened to a live episode of ER unfold. Our doctor was in complete command of the operating room, calmly directing the procedure and explaining each step of the way. The best part was that it was a teaching hospital, so the whole time a med student was getting quizzed and, I might add, getting some answers wrong. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

After a mere ten minutes, out doctor announced that she was making the incision on the uterus and that there would be some pressure (I'd imagine so as she was wrist-watch deep in Leah's insides) and, 1 minute later...a baby cry. I was told I could stand up and see the baby (I think that's what I was told, anyway, as I certainly stood up) and saw little Lucille held above Leah's belly, crying her little (well, "little") head off. Yep, that's what I'd been waiting for.

After that it was a bit of a whirlwind. She was brought over for me to hold along side Leah and then off to be warmed and cleaned. I was allowed to head over to the "giraffe" and watch her get all weighed and whatnot. I really couldn't believe how big she was. To me, she looked like a toddler. It was unreal. The nurse asked what I thought of the size and I threw out a guess of 10 lb 5 oz and, as it turns out, I wasn't off by much.

Yeah, I rule.

What I remember most was just that she was actually cute. I mean, let's be honest, most babies aren't when they first make an appearance in the world. Most are damn ugly. But ours came out full formed and ready to rule the world.

And so now here we are. At 9:12 today she turns a week old and she's already a completely different baby. We've started looking at colleges already (SAT flash cards are a great investment!) and it's pretty clear to me her #1 choice is IU. Go Hoosiers!

She's Here! And She's Spectacular!

2009-12-13T18:00:00.000-06:00

As I get back to feeling to my normal self...still quite a ways off but each day gets better I can't believe that the little thing sitting next to me used to be inside of me. So here we go with how she got from in there to out here. Get some coffee as it's not a short post for obvious reasons :)

On Sunday night we went to the hospital to start the induction process. It's a slow process and so they start at night. So went in and got all hooked up and the pitocin started started pumping.

And it pumped.
And pumped.
Then it pumped some more.

Then it was 12 hours later and although I was having contractions I didn't feel *anything* and I wasn't any farther along that I had been 12 hours earlier. Still only 1.5cm dilated and 50% effaced. They decided to take a break and let me eat some lunch and totally disconnected me from most of the machines so I could walk around more freely.

At 12pm on Monday afternoon they started again and at about 1:30pm they broke my water manually. When they were done with what I can only describe as hell on earth I looked over at Jason and the poor guy was literally as white as a ghost. I was worried because I had never seen him look like that. He told me that it was the most horrible thing he had ever seen and I told him that I thought childbirth was going to be even worse.

After they broke the water, things finally started moving. A few hours later I was 3cm dilated and 70% effaced. I started feeling the contractions. And then holy hell did I start feeling them. I had never planned on doing anything naturally as I don't really feel the need to feel the joys of childbirth and so I got an epidural. I'm not kidding it was the best thing in the world. I could have hugged that anesthesiologist and when Jason got back in the room he was like holy shit you are like light and day. I felt so much better, not only with the contractions but also with the bed. I had been so uncomfortable in the hospital bed and so being able to sit on it or lay on my side without there being instant pain in my butt and side was awesome. So I was finally able to get some sleep.

The nurse at this point was awesome and we discussed a mutual love of candy. She was then able to get me a grape popsicle which I swear has never tasted better.

At about 11:30pm I was 6.5cm dilated and 80% effaced. Things had sped up and so we thought that I might be doing some delivering around 2 or 3am. So we went to sleep. The contractions started to get worse and so we upped the epidural amount but we were on our way!

At about 4am they checked again and uh oh....I was only 7cm dilated, although 90% effaced and -1 station. Things were slowing down.

At 6:30am they checked again, and I was at 8cm dilated, 90% effaced and +1 station. So Ok. I was making progress but it had sloooooowed way down as this was 7 hours after being 6.5 cm dilated. So then I totally freaked out. I mean I was hysterical, my blood pressure rocketed and I couldn't catch my breath. The nurse got my doctor and I told her how tired I was and did she think I was ever going to get to 10cm. She said she couldn't tell me for sure but if I was done we could do a c-section and call it stalled labor. She left and Jason and I talked and I called my parents and I was just so exhausted. At this point I had been in labor for 32 hours. The first 12 might have been "easy" but my body was still contracting and I hadn't slept hardly at all.

I told the doctor to check again in an hour. At that point I was exactly the same and I was done. There was no way that even if I made it to the pushing part would I have had enough energy to push for the amount of time it was going to take to get her out. I had gotten close, but in this game close doesn't cut it.

So we told her that were ready for the c-section and to just get it done. From that point they stopped the pitocin to get it out of my system and who knows, maybe my body would have kicked it into gear. They checked back with me at about 8am, I had still made no progress and so we were a go for surgery.

I was so scared. I have never been in a hospital let alone had surgery done.

I was shaking so hard when they took me to the room. The anesthesiologist was great and he kept me pretty calm telling me what was happening for all the things they were doing. When we got the room I was already totally numb and so they were like you move a little to get over to the surgery bed. And I was like sure. Then I didn't move anywhere, so I was like. umm...maybe not.

They got me moved over to the surgery bed, and started doing the prep work. And I was shaking a lot. And it was pretty fucking scary. But then they finished up that and suddenly Jason was in the room and things got started. We kind of felt like we were on a episode of ER because there was a med student in the room and they kept asking questions and going what is that or what would you do here. And I kept wondering what they were doing as I bet it would have been fascinating to see what was going on. Gross but pretty cool.

It didn't take long before they said, ok you are going to feel a lot of pressure here. And I did. And then a baby started crying. And the doctor said, "I'd say Little Lucy is here but she's not very little!" I started crying because I could hear her crying and I could hear everyone talking about her. Another doctor in my practice said, "You look just like your mom!".

Soon they told Jason they could come over to see her and told him to guess the weight. I couldn't hear what he said, and then they said, nope 9-6. And I said, "9-6?" and they said no....10-6! I laughed and said to myself, "Well I win!" Gotta love having the biggest baby among friends who all have big babies. Eventually Jason brought her over to me and I couldn't believe that she was finally here. She was wonderfully wonderful :).

From there we rolled into a recovery room where they tested their blood sugar. I tried to breast feed and while it didn't work it was nice for her to get a chance to know my skin. They said if her blood sugar was under 40 she would have to go straight to the NICU, if it was 40-55 we would want to give her a bottle of formula to pump it up, and if it was over 55 we were good to go. The nurse tested and it was 35. I was thinking, "Oh no!!! She just got here don't take her from me." The nurse said when it's under 40 they do two tests and she just had to get another nurse. This nurse tested it and she measured 42. So we did the formula and after a 3rd test her blood sugar was up in the 80s. Before we went to our room there was one more test and her blood sugar was 56, so right above the cutoff. The NICU said it was fine for her to be with us but we would be testing her blood sugar ever 3 hours for the next 24 hours.

From there they wheeled us upstairs, and she was with us. More stories from the hospital to come. But Miss Lucille Jean is here, she's wonderful and she's made Jason and I so flipping happy.

There will be lots of pictures of her at my smugmug account. This gallery will have all of her hospital pictures in it. Enjoy!

Little baby cuteness

2009-12-11T06:42:00.001-06:00

Little baby cuteness, originally uploaded by LeahC.

We're going to the hospital and we're not leaving until they give us a baby

2009-12-06T20:18:00.003-06:00

Alright, about an hour until we head to the hospital for what ended up being a very planned birth. At 10:30 we will check in to Prentice Day Spa and Baby Center. Sometime tonight they'll start pushing the pitocin and then sometime in the next 24 hours a baby will pop out.

Bing.

Bang.

Baby.

Or something like that.

For the last nine plus months, we've really been pretty much focused on getting the baby out of Leah's uterus happy and healthy. We haven't done a ton to deal with the baby when she comes out and becomes our responsibility. I mean, sure, we've bought all the stuff we need and prepared a very lovely room for her to sleep and poop in, but we haven't done a ton to ready ourselves for raising a real, live human.

How do we raise a young lady who's adventurous, clever, interesting, freethinking, active, fun, happy, healthy...basically, how do you not screw up a kid? I dunno. I guess we'll just have to do our best. For now, however, the bigger question is: how do we change a diaper. Or feed a baby. Or...any of that crap. You can bet we'll be leaning pretty heavily on the nurses over the next couple of days. I envision a lot of:

Nurse: I'm not sure if you noticed, but your baby's crying.

Me: I'm sorry, what now?

Nurse: You might want to change the diaper.

Me: Diaper?

Nurse: Diaper.

Me: Diaper?

Nurse: *sigh*

But luckily babies give you lots of practice with the feeding and diaper changing early on, so expertise is pretty much guaranteed after a few weeks (yay?). And the whole raising a decent human thing? I guess we'll just have to figure that out as we go along.

Like Marathon Training?

2009-12-06T08:42:00.000-06:00

So today is the big day and I was a little bit (ok a lot bit) anxious last night. It was almost the same feeling I have as before a big race. So it got me questioning how similar this pregnancy was to a summer filled with marathon training.

I always thought that the two things would be very similar. You train your body to go through something horrible and wonderful at the same time. With racing you run speed workouts, you run long runs, you run some races for practice. When race day comes you are prepared to toe the line even if you are nervous because all the work you had done for 6 months has you ready.

With this pregnancy I would have to say I feel like I'm toeing the line for a marathon without having done one single run. Aside from the fact that you can't really prepare for the first time you are going through childbirth, but it's more than that. This pregnancy has been maybe not the most fun thing (really....I weigh what?) and holy hell do I miss running and jeans that can button, but in general it's been super freakin' easy. I have zero, yeah you ready that right, swelling in my hands and feet. Well maybe not zero as my wedding rings became a bit uncomfortable, but very very slight. I can still walk around with the best of them, I wake up to go to the bathroom only about once a night and I'm easily sleeping 8-9 hours per night.

I have talked to other people that are 41 weeks pregnant or at least at the end of their pregnancy and they are so uncomfortable and have had enough pre labor signs that they might be more prepared for labor than someone like me who hasn't.

Add to the fact that if this was a race, when you cross the finish line they hand you something that is literally going to change you life for. ever. I mean not that I didn't know this going in. But it's not just getting through a race. It's starting a new kind of race.

I keep saying, "Oh this is the last time this apartment is going to be so quiet." or "This is the last time we are going to be able to go do this or that". What I have to start doing is thinking about all the firsts that we are going to get to do and how exciting that is going to be. I have a giant fear that Jason and I are going to lose who we are in this process and our relationship will change. And we probably will change, but it doesn't mean we aren't going to change for the better. We have to still make time for each other otherwise we will become what we despise. The people that talk about their loved ones with a hint of annoyance. Or talk about parenting like it's a chore. Jason and I are so excited to be parents and drag that little one all over this city doing fun things. We don't really lead a very glamorous lifestyle and most of the things we like to do will be more fun with a kid in tow anyways. Zoo lights? The beach? Gay Pride Parade? Anything else happening in the city? Hell. To. The. Yeah.

And so like marathon training? Not for me anyways. Marathon racing perhaps. But at the end of this race, instead of JUST being sore and tired, we will meet a Little Lucille Jean. And I'll be a Mom. Wait...who the hell let me be a Mom? WHERE ARE THE ADULTS?

<14 hours.

Less than 36 hours

2009-12-05T11:30:00.000-06:00

Well these posts aren't too exciting as Lucy can't seem to get her head in the game and figure out how to come here all on her own. I am being induced tomorrow night at 10:30pm unless something happens between now and then that makes the baby come out. I am doubting that and so we are just counting down till tomorrow so that if she comes early it'll be like a fun little surprise.

Yesterday we had an appointment just to make sure it was ok to wait until Sunday night for the induction and everything looks great. The tech at my doctors appointment was wonderful and said that the baby looked perfect and although she's going to be a big baby she looks great. The doctor also calmed me down giving me some recent weights of babies they have delivered recently. Not that I could do anything about it anyways and we say the bigger she is the more of her there is to love. That's what I'm telling myself anyways, although I don't know if my vagina is in agreement with me.

I had another internal exam and the doctor said that I'm now maybe 1.5cm dialated. I wanted to tell her that she doesn't need to grasp at straws to make me feel better :). Also I'm about 50% effaced and I hadn't been anything effaced previously so I guess she's moving down a bit. When I got home I'm pretty sure...and here is where I'm questioning how detailed I want to get on this blog but what the hell...that the bloody show they talk about happened which was gross and scary. But I totally thought that it was a sign that labor was starting right then. I called the doctor and she said that it was probably due to the exam that got that stuff started. So yeah. I got that going for me. Just no labor.

We think that the baby is going to have to be ok with cat fur as everything in our apartment has at least one cat hair on it. Dagny the Wonder Cat has taken to sleeping on the changing table and inside the little bouncer that we got. She's going to be in for quite the shock next week I think. Anyone else out there with cats and new babies?

Everything in the apartment is ready. The bags are ready although I'm guessing since I have no idea what to expect I'm not going to have anything that I really need. What did you bring to the hospital? What did you find that you wish you had or that you had that made your time in the hospital that much easier?

I'm going to try and get some sleep today and tonight and tomorrow given that I'm going to be up for many hours starting Sunday night so I'm going to store up some time, although I know that's not really possible. So napping and football today and napping and football tomorrow. Good thing the Bears are so boring this year as they are super easy to nap to.

So that is all. Just waiting and waiting and waiting.....

Two Knitting Projects

2009-12-03T10:29:00.000-06:00

Over the summer I took two knitting classes. One to learn how to make a lacy ishbel scarf thingy and then one to learn how to do fair isle colorwork stuff. For the later my friend Jean and I took a class to make a Christmas stocking. The big plan was to make one for Lucy, Jason and myself but things got put down and so only Lucy will get one this year.

Here are some pictures of the Ishbel:

And of the Stocking:

For more details about each project you can check me out on Ravelry if you are a member of that. My username is LeahC (shocking) :) ).

Mini Contractions(?), Dreams and Teddy Bears

2009-12-03T07:32:00.001-06:00

Last night as I was sitting on the couch I was again hit with some lower abdomen pain type things. I looked in the pregnancy books I have and these could be a sign of early labor. So that's cool. I don't know why I only get them at one time of the day when sitting in one position but there they are. Jason kept his hand on my belly and said he thought it was getting harder as I would get uncomfortable. So who knows. As soon as I went to bed they stopped though, or I was just too tired to feel anything.

Last night I had two crazy ass dreams. The first was the baby was here but it was time to take her home from the hospital and I was worried it was too cold out. So I put her back in (yes. I know it's fucking weird) and then birthed her again when I got home. What the what? Seriously.

The other dream I had was that I went back to work the day after I gave birth. And after work I was like, wait what the fuck am I doing? How could I have not take the day after the birth off? How is the baby eating? I wanted to breast feed. So I went running back to the hospital and when I got there I was like..um, yeah I'm back.

These dreams are not making me feel any more confident about my abilities to parent. At all.

Today my sister-in-law goes in for her scheduled c-section. I think it's at 11:30. I'm not going to lie, I'm a little jealous as I thought Lucy would be here first, but I can't wait to see pictures of that little one! It will always be fun I think for our kids to be almost the exact same age. Little Alice will always be able to do the, "I'm older than youuuuuuuuuu" routine. That'll work until they are about 30 and then Lucy can be all, "oooooh I'm still only 29!"

Jean and her son Ethan are coming over to visit this afternoon if Ethan is feeling up to it as he had his first round of shots yesterday afternoon and so might be a cranky baby and not feeling up to it. It'll be fun to have some company this afternoon so I'm looking forward to that.

Early doctor appointment tomorrow morning for another full round of tests to see how she's doing in there. Assuming all is fine and she's just clueless, we'll be enjoying one last weekend alone and then Sunday night we head in. Kinda scary. I'm wondering if I'm not any closer to labor Sunday night if I can just take the el downtown. I mean seriously what's the point of driving or taking a cab? The train won't be crowded at that time of night. Ok Ok, we'll get a ride. I'm just saying not much of a point I don't think.

Anyone know of any companies in Chicagoland that do teddy bear restoration? We went to this doll place on the north side but they only worked with dolls only and not plush animals and I'm sorry to say the woman working there was a little bitchy. She didn't even ask how old Charlie the Bear was! He's 50! Which I think is kind of impressive. Our plan right now if we can't find a teddy bear hospital is to take out the stuffing and handwash him and then restuff him and patch him up. So if you don't know any restoration places what would you stuff a teddy bear with? Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated.

So yep. Still pregnant. But I'm beating the shit out of Mario Galaxy so I got that going for me.

Thought Maybe. Then Not So Much.

2009-12-02T08:07:00.000-06:00

Last night I was sitting on the couch and Lucy was doing her usual night time dance routine and all of a sudden I was all, "WHOA, ouch."

I was thinking this is it. This is labor. It's going to happen tonight. Yeah. No. Not so much labor I guess as her just moving around and hitting me in some bad places that caused a lot of pain. What the hell, how am I supposed to know what a contraction is.

So then I was all excited because I kept thinking that it would happen that night. And again, not so much.

The biggest problem last night was that she would not stop moving, which is totally a good sign, but oh my god she was an animal in there. I couldn't get comfortable in bed, and laid awake for many hours wishing she would go to sleep so that I could as well. So. Not too good of a nights sleep and with me tossing and turning and Lucy beating on my stomach which has Jason's hand on it most night he didn't get much sleep either. I can take a nap of course but I feel really bad because he has a full day of work he has to get through.

It's looking like Jason is almost going to take the entire month of December off. His company gives a week of paid paternity leave (actually it's a week of paid leave for men and woman who have new babies, and then for women the short term disability kicks in) which is awesome and then he has a bunch of vacation saved up, so it's looking like he'll take the next eight days off as well. So this is his last week at work for awhile it's looking like.

Today I'm going with my Dad to take a 50 year old teddy bear named Charlie in for surgery. This is my Dad's teddy bear from when he was a kid and we all feel that Lucy should have it. However, Charlie is in critical shape and needs a lot of work and apparently Dad and Sue found a place that restores such things.

So it's Wednesday December 2nd. 5 days at the longest until we meet Lucy.

Progress Lacking but an End in Sight

2009-12-01T12:45:00.000-06:00

Well. I'm not surprised but I'm no farther along than I was 2 weeks ago. Still only 1cm dilated and nothing else is happening down there. No softening, no head moving down anywhere, no effacing. I have literally had 0 contractions. I mean nothing. No braxton hicks, nothing.

So. Yeah.

But we have a plan now and it helps to have that at least in my head. We go back to the doctor on Friday for another ultrasound, NST& checkup as that will be my exact 41 week date. If all looks ok, in other words that don't need to induce right away the induction will start at 10:30pm Sunday night. I know I know, there are a lot of people out there that are against inducing, but Jason and I are not. The baby is already measuring very big and frankly I'm done with being pregnant and so I'm looking forward to it.

The time sounded weird to me at first, but now I'm happy with it. The doctor said they don't like to just pump me full of lots of pitocin and would rather try to have it take some time so that my body can maybe figure out what it's supposed to be doing with just a little nudge. My doctor will be at the hospital on Monday and so with me going in on Sunday night I'm pretty much guaranteed to have her there to deliver the baby which I'm happy about.

If the baby is born on Monday her birthday would be 12/7 and what's cool about that is Jason's birthday is 7/12 so we got that going for us. The non-cool part about that is that we have to wait till Monday. Not that it can't happen on it's own before then, but worst case is the plan laid out for us and we really trust and like our doctor and that's the most important thing.

I never went into this with a set plan of "This is how the birth of my child HAS to go". About 18 months ago I went through some pretty major panic attacks and through that experience learned that as soon as you think something HAS to go a certain way, you can end up panicking and being severely disappointed when it doesn't go that way. Then being upset that you are upset and it's this awesomely bad spiral of badness :). I'm not the best with going with the flow, but I'm getting better and the thing I did to make that better was to stop saying, I HAVE to do something only one way. One of the best things for me to do is to ask, ok, this is how I would like something to go, but what if it doesn't? Then what? Knowing that the other options or outcomes to a certain situation are laid out and aren't "bad" is extremely helpful to me.

Yes I had to go to a therapist to learn to stop saying I HAVE to do this. Those months a year and a half ago might not have been the most fun in our household and I would say that they might have been the worst of my life. But I would never take them back because I am a better and calmer person for it. This situation would have been out of control I think had I not had some internal tools to deal with situations. So Yay for panic attacks!

Jason took a personal day today in case something went bad and now that it's not we are going to run some errands and then decorate for Christmas tonight. We are going to get the tree after Lucy gets here I think which should be fun. It'll be all decorated for when my mom gets here on the 12th which is perfect.

And so I'm off. And who knows, maybe Lucy will get her head in the game and figure out that she's very uncomfortable and make a move to exit on her own. You never know.

Diagonal

2009-12-01T11:45:00.001-06:00

Diagonal, originally uploaded by LeahC.

What to Talk About?

2009-11-30T08:12:00.000-06:00

Well how annoying has this blog gotten? I'll give you one guess to guess what I might mention in this post.

Guess yet?

How about now?

Well if you said, "Leah's going to talk about how she's still pregnant" then you would be correct! DING DING DING!!!!!

I know, this blog used to be filled with all kinds of wittyness, and awesomeness and so on and so forth. Now it's just repeating the same thing over and over.

LeahC is still fat and pregnant and not happy about it.

I should have known better to think that she would be early or on time. My family tends to make big babies that arrive late. Which is awesome. In addition to being late, I'm pretty sure she's going to be giant sized. I think my adviser said that his son was over 11lbs at birth (seriously...he was born in Switzerland when he was working at CERN) and so Jason is wondering if we can beat that one. Oh please I hope not.

Not much going on today. Reading, walking, knitting, mario galaxying and patiently (!!!) waiting for labor. Tomorrow we go to the doc so we'll see if something interesting is happening. Happy Monday All.

Lucy Room Pictures

2009-11-28T16:32:00.001-06:00

We finished Lucy's room about a week ago and I realized I had yet to put pictures of it up here. My tripod broke and so not as clear as my photos of her room usually are, but you'll get the idea.

These are a few of her crib area. The print above her bed was purchased at the Wells Street art fair and the cubbie mobile plays, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and was purchased by Lucy's grandpa. Although her Baba (my mom/ex-wife of grandpa...Baba is Ukrainian for grandma) would like Lucy to know that she saw it on Amazon a long time ago but didn't purchase it and so really she wins. Yes it's all about winning in my family. My entire childhood was me asking, "Is this a winning game?"

This corner is directly across from her crib and hosts several of the prints we got including room for many to go up in the future. The rocking chair was also purchased at an art fair and is one of the most comfortable rocking chairs I have sat in. I think Lucy will like being rocked in it. I love the little reading light next to the chair and am realizing that Lucy's room is way way cooler than our room and that we might have gone overboard.

We got this light fixture at Ikea and think it's pretty fun and makes the light a little less harsh in the room.

This is her changing table with two prints of little pigs over the top shelf which we got at an art fair in Bloomington, Indiana. Right now Teddy is holding Lucy's place and we are using him to practice diapering/any baby swings, car seats etc. No I'm not kidding that we strapped him into the car seat. And it was super cute.

This dresser was actually my Dad's grandparents dresser. Then it was his, then it was mine. Then we refinished it and now it'll be Lucy's. The clock on the right was given to Jason and I from my mom for our wedding and it's supposed to do fun things on the hour. It's supposed to play a song and the face opens up and turns around but it's not working for some reason. The print is another one we got at the Wells Street art fair.

This final one is just looking into the room from the hallway.

Did we do too much? Probably.
Is her room way cooler than any other room in the house? Yes.
Am I worried about when we move out and then landlord seeing that green paint? Absolutely.
Are we totally excited for Lucy to arrive? More than you can imagine.
Is mom totally bored out of her mind and wondering what the hell she's going to do this week? Yes. With a capital 'Y'.

Earlier today she moved so much and we don't know if she realizes she'll be so much more comfortable out here with us as I'm guessing those long legs and giant head are running out of room.

So I guess this is just preparation for me to get ready to not be able to control every little thing like I like right now. I'm just such a planner and I'm always on time for things and so on and I'm guessing sometimes I'm just going to have to let things go if they don't go exactly according to plan. Maybe Lucy is already teaching her mom a lesson. Maybe....but maybe Lucy will just have to learn to be on time in the future. Not even here yet and already a Daddy's little girl.

The Stuffing Didn't Do It

2009-11-27T08:52:00.000-06:00

We had a wonderful thanksgiving yesterday at my Aunt's house. There is a story that my cousin's wife's sister (got all that) went to thanksgiving there two years ago and then at about midnight went into labor. AND she had gone to the doctor a few days before and they told her that she wasn't even close to and so nothing to worry about. I thought maybe there was something special in the stuffing that induced labor. Apparently my Aunt is batting .500 as I am clearly not in labor and I am thinking the stuffing has made it through my system.

And so we continue to wait and hope and not be in labor or have one single fucking sign of starting the labor process. I really really want her to come on her own or at least have some progress before I have to be induced in 10 days. I just worry that there won't be any progress and I'm starting to worry that she's going to come out giant sized. Although, I was giant sized and look at how perfect I turned out, so I suppose that will be ok.

Today I'm going downtown to take some pictures of the holiday shopping crowds and walk through the German market and meet the soon to be dad for lunch. Maybe black friday crowds will do it....although I bet that it's calmed down a bit by this time given that the crazy starts at like 4am. So the crazies that did got out should be back home and napping by this point.

Should be a pretty fun weekend. With no plans I'm guessing we'll just be enjoying each other's company and staring at my belly hoping for something different to happen with it.

Run Her Out?

2009-11-26T11:54:00.000-06:00

Jason and I just went for a nice little walk in some cold weather. Feels like winter is almost upon us, which is perfect timing since we got our firewood supply delivered yesterday.

So on this walk it was a little chilly and I was like hey, I'm wearing running pants and running shoes let's see what happens if I run a little. So I started running, and might have started yelling, "I'M WINNING". Winning what? The crazy pregnant lady race? Yeah.

So I ran from about Racine to Ashland, about 1/2 mile. Aside from shin splints felt good. It would be funny if it worked and my water broke in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner, right? If anything else, just to see my Dad and Jason's reaction. I think so too.

We are very much enjoying Jason having the day off. Watching some Indiana Jones this morning, and now watching some Turkey day football. Leaving in about 2 hours to go pick up my Dad and Sue to then head to Downers Grove for yummy dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Hates Lateness

2009-11-25T09:15:00.002-06:00

I put in an order for firewood on Monday and the original plan was they were going to deliver it yesterday between 2 and 4pm. 3:55 rolled around and so I gave the place a call just saying I was checking in and seeing if they were going to still show up. They said that holiday traffic was killing them and the guy would be there, but just be late. Eventually I talked to the driver at about 4:50 who was still stuck on the Kennedy and asked to reschedule for today at 9am. No problem on this end.

It's now 9:09 and he's not here yet. Granted he said 9:30 at the latest, and so I'm not mad yet. However, I just think that 9:09 is later than 9am even if you did say the latest would be 9:30. How about a call saying, yep, still on our way or something.

I HATE LATENESS. I know there is nothing you can do about traffic (or babies not being ready to come out on time or early) but when you reschedule you should be on the phone calling me if you are going to be late. Now I am going to have to be the bad guy on the phone and be like yeah your delivery guys isn't here yet and I have to leave at 10:30. Yes I know he might still be here in the next few minutes. That doesn't make me any less crazy.

Lots of errands to run with my Dad today. I'm sure he's going to be super excited to go into a Jewel, Carters, Be By Baby, Target....all the day before Thanksgiving, let's see if we can make his head actually explode. Maybe most people have left for the holiday already and so it won't be that bad. Wishful thinking? Probably.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow and while it's my favorite holiday of the year all I can think of is baby and so I keep forgetting that I'll soon be eating some delicious Turkey dinner. So Happy Thanksgiving everyone and think good baby coming thoughts!

editors note: the firewood guy showed up at 9:25 so not late which is good.

Feeling Good, End Date and Belly Pictures!

2009-11-24T12:08:00.000-06:00

So I'm feeling pretty good these days, I mean not good in the sense that I feel the baby is going to come out. But rather that I feel exactly perfect like the baby isn't moving anywhere uncomfortable.

Doctors appointment today went really well. Had an ultrasound and everything looked great, another NST and although Lucy started off sleeping soundly she woke up and passed. I'm still only 1cm dilated though which isn't awesome. I got the go ahead to head to Thanksgiving dinner but just to watch how much salt I eat. IT'S THANKSGIVING. LEAVE ME ALONE. Although....my blood pressure was 118/84 which is the lowest it's been all year. I also dropped some weight so goes to show that I was probably retaining some water. I've been drinking a ton of water this week and really watching the salt so apparently it helps. We asked what is going to happen if Lucy doesn't greet us on her own and we found out that I would be induced on December 7th. So we got that going for us. Anything that happens, the baby will be here in less than 2 weeks. Which is exciting to think about.

Here is what I look like now. A nice normal picture and then me being a little wacky, cause really when you are carrying around a basketball under your shirt you can't help but be a little wacky.

Today is a pretty lazy day for me. We are getting some firewood delivered this afternoon and I'm just reading (currently reading Dracula which is good although been slow going), knitting, doing some things with photos. Tomorrow I have a lot of errands to run which my Dad is going to join me on, and then that's it. My doctor is on call Thursday and Friday so maybe I'll go into labor at Thanksgiving and get to have my doc be there to deliver. I hope so! Maybe enough Turkery will push her right out.

So yes we wait. Lucy COME ON OUT! WE ARE READY TO MEET YOU!

We Are All Ready

2009-11-23T08:00:00.002-06:00

Well....with all the stuff. With the being parents part maybe not so much.

Jason and I had just about the best weekend. We had planned on spending all of Saturday walking around the city and enjoying that. But turns out when you don't sleep enough and are 39 weeks pregnant that's not so easy to do. But we did go to Yolk at the River North location for breakfast and if my doctor is reading this, I had the fucking oatmeal ok! No Salt! Even though they have the best egg breakfast in town, I declined. The oatmeal was delicious though, so there's that.

From there we walked to Dearborn and then to Lincoln Park. Along the way we took a belly picture at the same location that we took one at 20-something weeks. It's still living on my camera though so I'll post it tomorrow.

We stopped in Lincoln Park for a short rest and the stopped at starbucks at Wells and North and then as I was sitting in comfy chairs and sleepy we decided to just train home. After getting home I passed out for about 3 hours. Which was *awesome*. We spent the rest of the night doing *nothing* (yes mom, I know I have to finish those thank you cards...tonight for sure!). We watched a lot of football and then watched the first two Indiana Jones movies. Those movies really are the best. I started a few new knitting projects and have been in a knitting craze. I have a project 99.9% completed for the new niece we have arriving next week and I'm thinking I can get this other thing done before she gets here as well. Hence. Maniac. But maniac in a good way. I seem to get crazy about things and then I'll put it down and then get crazy about something else. I'm guessing when Lucy is here the photography will bump back up a bit.

Yesterday I got up at 6 and from that point on didn't stop moving. We had a bunch of things to do around the house including a bit more rearranging of our bedroom to get the portable crib in there so Lucy can be near us for the first few weeks to a month. We cleaned off our back porch and can now put our order of firewood in now that there is somewhere to put it! My Dad and stepmom came over around noon and we watched football and then we hung all of the prints in the baby's room. Even though I was so tired I had a really hard time falling asleep and then spent most of the night fairly uncomfortable. Yay for pregnancy!

So yeah. Done. Done? Maybe? I think we need a *few* more things but other than that we are good to go. I'll take some pictures of the finished baby's room tonight. I know we did way more than you have to do, but it helps my crazy and anything that can calm that down is a good thing.

Tomorrow morning is another appointment with an accompanying ultrasound (high blood pressure is keeping these coming). So I'm guessing we'll get to hear that her head is in the 90whatever percentile and I have too much fluid and blah blah blah. She's been a little moving crazy thing all weekend and so I know she's doing fine. Maybe just anxious to come out?

So here we go. Any day now!

Under the Bench We Sat On

2009-11-21T09:55:00.001-06:00

Under the Bench We Sat On, originally uploaded by LeahC.

Needs a New Knitting Project

2009-11-20T08:08:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I finished the last of three projects that I had started over the summer. Yes. That's right, over the summer. They shouldn't have taken me so long but I would get into a bad state on all of them and not want to fix any of them and so I would just put them all aside. Then I would pull one out and rip out the bad rows and continue one until I screwed up again and so on. Eventually they all got done with the exception of the baby sweater I was knitting. I ripped that whole thing out but used some of the yarn to make a little baby hat. I just have to get a button for the chin strap and I think it's going to be really cute.

Last night I finished the Christmas stocking I was making for Lucy. I was so proud of myself, it was the first colorwork I had done and I think I had done a pretty good job on it. I knitted her name through it and everything! Then I went to iron it to try and block it out and what's that....oh wait...WHAT BURNED? You can fucking burn things with an iron? Of course I burned right through her name on the white part of the stocking. This whole thing sent me into hysterics which would have been a funny story if those hysterics had sent me into labor, but they didn't and so the story is not funny and is just tragic. Ok, not *tragic* as it's a fucking stocking but it made me sad anyways. Jason tried to scrape the burned parts off the stocking and in the process scraped holes into it. SO I reinforced those parts with just some yarn and a needle, and it really does look a lot better. So Lucy will have the crappy stocking and I'll work on ones for Jason and myself and make them all perfect and it will just be the start of me ruining her life forever. The problem with me and knitting is I hate having mistakes, and I will rip things out if I see that I did a perl instead of a knit so every time I look at that stupid stocking I'm going to throw up a little bit in my mouth.

Anyways.

I also knitted an Ishbel. Which actually came out beautifully and I'm excited for it to get colder, and for me to fit into my black pea coat so that I can wear it. I'm going to take some pictures of these projects today and I'll start a smugmug gallery with all my knittings.

Had a meeting at Obtiva yesterday and have a full plate of things to work on today which is good. Looks like it'll be a nice day today too so maybe go meet up with my Dad for lunch or something as well.

Happy Friday all!

Bright Lights

2009-11-19T14:38:00.001-06:00

Bright Lights, originally uploaded by LeahC.

I Know It Means Nothing...

2009-11-19T07:37:00.000-06:00

but I say it's something.

Went to the doctor yesterday for our ...let's see 38 week appointment, even though it's closer to 39 weeks than 38 weeks, but what. ever. Now I understand that I'm not even at term yet, but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't like to see some progress in the baby is going to come out at some point. We had another Non-Stress Test I guess because she failed the one before, and perhaps because they have had to keep an eye on my blood pressure throughout the entire pregnancy.

Doctor came in and gave me a lovely little internal exam just because I wanted to see if I was dilated at all. And yay! I am currently 1cm dilated. Now I realized that I could have my water break and still be 1cm dilated, or go another 3 weeks at this state, but I don't care. It means something is happening down there and so an end is in sight. As we get closer to the end I get more and more freaked out. Obviously our lives are going to change forever and I know in a good way, but it's still scary.

I got a little talking to about my lack of drinking water and what I have been eating the past week because I had gained some weight and my blood pressure had gone back up. I realized that I've basicallly not had any water and have eaten like *crap* for the past many many days. And so we are reeling all that in. I have to really really watch my salt intake over the next 2 weeks, and pump up the water drinking. So I did that yesterday and shockingly felt a lot better.

I had a lovely afternoon with my friend Jean after the appointment. We had lunch and then got pedicures and just had a really relaxing time chatting and so on. Jean had a baby boy about 8 weeks ago so always fun to hear what she has to say about the baby growing and so on.

So here we are. Under double digits to go...meaning 9 days to go. At least until the due date. Maybe I should start counting down to a week late, so that if I go before then I'll be all WHEEEEEE. Nah, I'm sticking with the due date. So yeah. 9 days.

The final month of pregnancy as told through Star Wars, Part III

2009-11-18T07:20:00.003-06:00

I'll know Lucy's my daughter if, after a harrowing trip through the birth canal only to arrive in this cold, foreign world, she looks up at me with a wink and a smile and says, "Just like beggar's canyon back home."

Hell yeah!

Still Nothing

2009-11-16T09:14:00.000-06:00

Not shocking I know. And I know I'm a broken record with the, "Yeah there is still no baby and no progress towards baby." But I can't help it, I want her here so badly and so every day that nothing happens is killer. As soon as we found out that she had turned head down it's like time stopped moving.

We have another appointment on Wednesday where we will get another NST, and I'm guessing have the doctor tell us that there is no progress down there and so we will continue to wait.

Jason does have a pretty big meeting at work tomorrow, so maybe I'll go into labor right in the middle of that. Also I don't have a bag packed yet, so maybe my water will break, I'll have nothing packed, Jason will be in a meeting and you can see everyone just freak out. Ok, probably won't happen...but you never know. Shit, I should probably pack a bag as that would be a bad thing to not have ready to go.

This weekend we finished up getting everything put together, purchased and the only thing left to do is get some art prints for the baby's room framed. They are in at the frame shop and we are just waiting for the frames to come in. I'll take some pictures when it's totally done. I know that I'm going into overkill mode as a lot of this shit isn't necessary to have a baby come home but I like to be overly prepared, it calms me down a little bit.

So yes. We are still waiting. 12 days out from the due date.

The final month of pregnancy as told through Star Wars, Part II

2009-11-14T07:51:00.004-06:00

I don't know who you are or where you've come from, but from now on you'll do as I say, okay?

Yeah, Lucy! That's right. Once you're out of that womb, you're on my time and you'll do as I say! Daaaaaaamn straight.

Wait, no. Stop. Wait, don't cry. Stop. Stop crying. Shit.

Fine, I take it all back. Want a cookie?

The final month of pregnancy as told through Star Wars

2009-11-13T06:56:00.004-06:00

And so, with just over two weeks to go before Lucy is due, we turn to the Great Bard. Through his immortal words, we tell the story of Lucy's final days in utero.
"Just for once... let me... look on you with my OWN eyes"

Soon enough, Lu. Soon enough.

Remember When I Slept?

2009-11-12T06:50:00.000-06:00

Oh and I was soooooo cocky. I can't believe I'm getting 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep, I'm like the best pregnant lady ever. Yeah. Well that's all gone down the shit hole. Still not as bad as it could be I'm guessing and not as bad as it will be in a few weeks that's for damn sure. But our bed has gotten very uncomfortable and Jason won't believe me.

I woke up at 2:30 to pee and then flopped around for like an hour because I couldn't get comfortable, Then when I got up at 6 my back was in a world of uncomfy.

We got this really comfortable bed about 18 months ago and when we got it, it was like magic. Now it seems that it's all sunken in in the middle and I'm frustrated because it wasn't cheap at all. We have a warrenty on it and I have half a mind to go in there and be like, well I used to like it AND NOW IT SUCKS. Jason still thinks it's awesome though so maybe it's just the pregnancy, which isn't totally unreasonable.

I think I way way over did it on Tuesday because I totally felt like poop yesterday. I was so exhausted in the morning (after a pretty good night's sleep) and fell on to my couch and fell asleep. I'm frustrated, but on the other hand that's exactly why I wanted to work at home part time. Some days I know I'm not going to be able to dictate to my body what I want it to do and so being home is a great thing.

Today I'm going to spend most of the day working at a coffee shop/library/other coffee shops. Just going to try and get out and about a little bit more today. Hopefully the crappy nights sleep doesn't effect that plan too much.

17

2009-11-11T07:13:00.000-06:00

Maybe I'll just title each post from now on with how many days until the baby comes. But that's dumb cause what if she comes two weeks late, then instead of 17 days to go it's going to be more like 31 days to go and that thought makes me want to vomit a little bit. Although, I guess 31 days is probably the most that it could be....so there's that.

I fear that my fingers are starting to swell up as my wedding rings aren't as comfortable as they usually are. And by that I mean when I can finally slide them off, there is a nice little dent going around my finger. I feel naked without my rings on though and so I don't want to take them off so we'll see how long I can make it. It's not that bad....yet.

We had a great evening last night with my Dad and stepmom coming over for dinner and some Dead Space game playing. Before that I made my Dad go for a walk with me. Did about 3 miles and I think I'm still walking at a pretty good pace. Holy hell do I miss running though. I talked a lot about training for the marathon and I think my Dad was very, "Yeah Yeah Yeah....stop talking about running" Ok, but if I stop talking about running I'm going to start talking about the baby's head in the 93rd percentile and you've already heard that a time or two...or a thousand.

Today going to do my usual work in the mornings and baby prep things in the afternoon. My Dad took all of the prints we found for the baby's room into a frame shop yesterday and we are going to make some of the frames. So if they can get the wood cut I'll go with him to do that this afternoon.

This weekend Jason and I are going to go get all the final things that we need for the baby. There are just a few more things that have to get done for me to feel like we are really ready, then we can really play the waiting game.

Last night she was *crazy* I am so active during the day that I don't feel her as much, so last night I layed down in bed and all of a sudden it was like a monster in my belly. It was hilarious. I put my Kindle down on my stomach and it almost flew off. Can't wait to see those kicks and rolls in the world!

So yeah. 17. or 31. Whatever.

And The Weight Lifts

2009-11-10T09:14:00.001-06:00

...and not in the way that I don't have a giant belly anymore as Lucy is still all comfy cozy inside, but rather that everything is fine with our little chubby cheeked little girl and now we just play the waiting game.

Yesterday we had our 37 week appointment and had to do another Non-Stress Test. I have been so clenched since last week's failing NST and so was worried about the appointment. We were in the waiting room and Lucy was going crazy and I was thinking, oh perfect she's going to move now and then she's going to sleep again for the test. However we got into the room and got all my vitals down. I dropped a pound and my blood pressure was again lower! It was 128/80 which is damn close to normal! So that was good. Then they got the sensors on me, I had some juice and then we started the test. And what do you know, Lucy did a little dance. And by little dance I mean crazy town. Which was nice. The doctor showed us the difference between last week's graph and today's and now I understand why they sent us to triage given that there was basically a flat line last week.

We also talked about the fluid levels that I was so worried about and the doctor we saw yesterday wasn't worried about it at all and said we didn't need another ultrasound. I asked for some numbers even if I didn't really know what they meant. She said we were at 21 and that she starts to maybe get worried if that number gets to 24. She wasn't worried about it at all and since I'm not having any kinds of contractions it doesn't look like a problem at all.

I just feel so so so much better. But I have that feeling after a big presentation or test or something when you are just drained. I think worry takes a lot out of a person.

So now we wait. They did an internal exam and there is no dialating yet, but that's to be expected I think since I'm only just past 37 weeks. So right. Now we wait. I know after being all excited about knowing the exact date and time that she's coming, she's going to end up being late. As long as she's healthy I don't care, I just want to meet her already!

Yay Jason!

2009-11-06T08:13:00.000-06:00

Last week Jason talked to his boss about the unfairness of his review since he didn't get a raise for no good reason. His boss talked to his boss and they came back with a 6% raise as well as an end date for the current project he is on and an actual new position in the analytics department that he'll be moving to. So yay! and a big congratulations to him.

Yesterday I did my 1/2 day of work and then my friend Jean and her 6 week old little one Ethan came to visit. We had some lunch and then we went for a walk over by the lake front path. It was a great time, even if Ethan got a little cranky for about 15 minutes. A new diaper, some foods and some walking with mom calmed him down and knocked him right out. Jean also left me some baby knitting books that I'm going to get some patterns from. I ripped out the sweater that I was making and so I need a new baby project. I'm about done with this Ishbel scarf thing, and then I have to finish this stocking that I was making for Lucy for Christmas. But I like have 3 projects going at once because inevitabley I'm going to screw one up and thus need to put it down for a bit. The bad thing is that then I end up with 3 screwed up projects and I don't remember why they are screwed up. Anyways. Yes. new baby knitting project.

I'm considered full term today which is very exciting. So any day now Lucy. Any. Day. Our appointment next Tuesday morning got moved to Monday morning because of the NST failure I guess. I don't really know, but apparently it's so important that we come in a day earlier that now we won't see our primary care doctor this week. So that's a bit annoying. Not that all the doctors aren't good, it's just frustrating because it's easier to just always have to deal with the same person. I'm guessing I'll be going to triage again or at least I'm just going to plan it because then when it does happen I won't be so stressed out. Tip from my friend Lydia which I think is a good one.

So Happy Friday all. Jason is going to Bloomington tomorrow for the IU/Wisconsin football game with his good friend. I am not at all jealous about that trip. All I know is that I'm going to have a super good time in Chicago, so there. My only instructions are that I don't go into labor, although I do think it would be funny to call Jason in Bloomington after he's had many beers and be like...actually you need to get home, baby is coming. The freak out would be legendary.

Looks Like Silent Hill

2009-11-05T17:06:00.001-06:00

Looks Like Silent Hill, originally uploaded by LeahC.

Always A Little On the High Side

2009-11-05T06:57:00.000-06:00

Seriously. I'm going to start to really panic. First it was my blood pressure. It's not high, but it's not normal either, it's just on the high side of normal. Then when the measure the baby on the ultrasounds she's never crazy big, but just a week or two ahead of where she should be (except for her head...wowza!). Then apparently the fluid levels surrounding here aren't too high...they are just on the high side of normal.

GRRRR.

The doctor yesterday said that she wasn't losing sleep over the fluid levels, but it's something she has to keep an eye on because while they don't see any structural problems on the ultrasound it could mean that she doesn't know how to swallow. Awesome. Glad you aren't losing sleep over it doc I'll make sure to rest easy now. And of course if you google that only bad things come up. Ok well not really, but still. So now I have to have yet another ultrasound at 38 weeks. I'm so sick of getting these. Yeah they were really cool the first few times around but now I'm like, yeah, that's her with her chubby chubby cheeks. I just want her to be here so I don't really care about the pictures. We did find out that her head is in the 93rd percentile, yeah that's right she's got a big brain! And her legs were in the 90something percentile. Both Jason and I are really tall and I, along with most of my family, has a big head atop our shoulders so it makes sense. Pushing out a head in the 93rd percentile makes less sense, but I'm sure I'll be fine.

Yesterday I also had to do a Non-Stress Test for the first time. I had no idea I was going to have to do it. As soon as they put the sensors on me, Lucy went straight to sleep. Well apparently the non-movement of the baby was much more of a concern to the doctor than the fluid levels and so she sent me to the triage to have them do some prolonged monitoring. I was a little mean to the nurse because I really thought the NST was bogus in the office and I didn't want to be there. So they hooked me up to monitors and left Jason and I in a teeny room for about an hour. They gave me some ginger ale and Lucy perked up enough for them to send me home. So that was a "fun" little experience. I guess they are going to do these NSTs every week now, and I'm guessing every time she isn't going to move and so I'm going to get to know triage really well.

The only thing that isn't on the high side of normal right now is the positiong of Lucy's head. Sometime in the last two weeks she has managed to turn herself around and so she's head down like she's supposed to be. So no more worries about a planned c-section for right now. I'm hoping she stays that way, I mean with all the fluid that she has to float around in in there who knows what she's going to do.

Shitty shitty night's sleep last night. Crazy dreams and then I woke up to pee at around 1:30 and the dog upstairs would. not. shut. the. fuck. up. I'm sorry. I'm not a dog person, but seriously what is going on up there that you are just letting your dog bark and bark and bark. I think they were home because I could hear them talking...but maybe that was after the barking. Then I think they were having the dog run up and down the fucking hallway plus more barking....maybe...I don't know, but I do know it was *really* annoying. I'm happy Jason was able to sleep through it because he had to get up at 4am this morning to do some contractor work.

Going to do some work this morning and then my friend Jean and her baby Ethan are coming over to visit around lunchtime, which is going to be a great time.

So now we wait until Tuesday at 10am to see what is happening with the baby. This last month is *very* frustrating!

Feeling Overwhelmed

2009-11-04T07:40:00.000-06:00

You know that feeling. You have your to do list. And it's long...or at least it seems really long. And so you think, well I could that...or that ... or maybe that item. But instead I'm seeing that there is a Law and Order SVU marathon on so I'll just watch some of that while I figure out where to start. Of course if you just do one thing on the list, you're pretty motivated to do another and eventually you are done or at least feeling like you've accomplished something.

That's where I am right now with the baby coming in about 2.5 weeks. If she came right now..honestly we would be fine. But I want to be a little bit more ready and so there are things that have to be done.

Today is our 36 week appointment. We have an ultrasound scheduled at 3pm (yes...this will be the 5th one...I'm over it) and then we meet with the doctor at 3:45. Like Jason said, we think she might be sitting a little lower (I mean did have to get up twice last night to pee compared to my usual dead to the world sleep for 9 hours that I've been enjoying!) but I don't think she has turned around. I wonder if this would make it harder for them to manually turn her. That's why we are getting another ultrasound, to check and see exactly what is going on in there so that we can have a reasonable estimate for the probability of externally turning her to work out. I thought that we would have a definite feeling of what we should do by this point given that we have had 4 weeks to think about it, but we don't really know. I think that this situation is making the whole baby thing more overwhelming.

ANYWAYS. Don't say overwhelm.

My Dad has been away visiting his sister and his dad for about a week and a half and comes home tomorrow and I'm looking forward to him being back. It's funny, he was gone for 4 years and I only saw him once or twice a year for a few weeks and now that he's been around and we have seen him almost every day, it's like...wait, I haven't seen you in forever! With him back it will help too as now that I'm working part time we can work on getting the baby's room finished in the afternoons.

So that's it. Working part time has been *wonderful*. I do my work stuff in the mornings and have the afternoons off to relax and enjoy myself. So here's to Wednesday!

Black, White & Blue

2009-11-03T16:53:00.001-06:00

Black, White & Blue, originally uploaded by LeahC.

Getting lower (but still head up)

2009-11-02T21:12:00.002-06:00

(I think)

Looking over at Leah as she was getting ready to go for our nightly walk (she had her stretchy pants pulled up somewhere around her armpits), I noticed something different. She was clearly still pregnant (no doubt), but it was just...different.

Her tummy bulge was pointing more...south. Hey! I think the baby dropped! Of course, as of yesterday we were still able the feel the baby's head sticking straight up, but her ass seems to have nestled gently in between Leah's hips. Which is cool, because it's a nice little sign that things are progressing.

Actually, now that I think about it, how is the baby going to turn if she's really dropped. Isn't it going to be about impossible for her to get a leg down at this point to hike herself around? And if her center of gravity is now somewhere around Leah's belly button, Lucy can't really tip forward to flip over either, right? I mean, maybe she can, but it just doesn't seem possible.

Maybe it's just me (and I'll admit that I'm no medical expert), but I see our little weeble-wobble wobbling but not falling down. I guess we'll find out over the next three weeks.

Love that sky

2009-11-02T10:58:00.001-06:00

Love that sky, originally uploaded by LeahC.

Lactation Consulting!

2009-11-01T20:20:00.001-06:00

My stepmom's sister is a lactation consultant and so I asked her if she would give us her class instead of us taking the one at the hospital. She being the awesome Cindy she is agreed and today was the day we learned about BOOBS (hee hee I said boobs) and breastfeeding and different positions you can put the baby in and lots of other good information. A lot of information. An overwhelming amount of information. But it was so awesome to be able to have a family member give us all that information and take out her Sunday afternoon to talk to us about it. Hopefully Lucy is a good latcher on-er and we don't run into too many problems with breast feeding. I'm really hoping to breast feed for the first 6 months and then go from there.

Yesterday being Halloween we had some friends over and watched some scary movies and had a great time. These are friends we haven't seen since New Years Eve...seriously they live about 4 miles from us! Lots of screeching during Drag Me to Hell and then we watched Halloween, a classic and one of my favorite movies of all time.

Today is November 1st...and there is this whole NaBloPloMo deal. Given that this is the last month that we await for Lucy to arrive, we are going to give it a try. I know I know, you've gotten so used to us posting like once every two weeks that this will be quite a shock to your system. We hope it to be funny as in 3 weeks from tomorrow (assuming that she doesn't turn around) we'll have some little thing that we are responsible for. That's 21 days. 15 business days. Wait...what do you mean? Who the hell let us have kids? We aren't responsible or old enough. I mean seriously....let's talk about Halloween candy and how much I had this weekend. Hello SPREES! I love you!

So stay tuned, and well, let the countdown begin

Before the street cleaning

2009-10-29T08:19:00.001-05:00

Before the street cleaning, originally uploaded by LeahC.

Fall in the City

2009-10-28T16:21:00.001-05:00

Fall in the City, originally uploaded by LeahC.

Work and Pregnant Life Balance

2009-10-28T08:46:00.000-05:00

I'm tired people.

My belly knocks people over on the el train.

I'm so out of breath in the mornings (I don't know why it's worse in the mornings) that Jason ends up walking my backpack the 3/4 of a mile to work and then turns around and goes back to his company, even though the el stops right outside his door (yes, he's that guy...and thus the best). I hate that I can't do this for myself anymore. I'm a marathon runner and have trouble walking in the mornings...it. is. so. annoying.

I'm so consumed with baby thoughts and stress because I don't think that we are going to get everything done in time that it's even more exhausting.

So right. What's an 8 month pregnant woman to do?

Well this pregnant woman talked to her boss and the woman who is the director of operations yesterday about options. We can take unpaid time off here which is great, but I didn't exactly want to give up all work. SO we came to a conclusion that Friday will be my last day in the Studio and then for the next two weeks I'll do some part time work from home as it comes up.

It's like a giant weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Would I like the money of working full time? Sure! Who wouldn't!?! But there is a balance and sometimes (lots of times!) money isn't everything. When I mentioned to my sister-in-law that we had a crazy, busy, stressful weekend, she suggested that I try and take it easy because in a few weeks my entire world is going to be upside down. And of course she's right. I need some time to get prepared (I know I know you can never really be prepared) and relax and wait for the crazy to come to me!

So starting Monday I'll be doing just that.

It's nice working at a company where this was even a possibility as I know there are places were you have to work all the way till the end with no other options. Nice of Obtiva to work with me to come up with a solution that works for all.

Today I'm officially 8 months pregnant. Jason got up really early to do some contract work and came back to bed at about 5:45 to doze with me for awhile. I think I have mentioned on here that I am a really hard sleeper. I woke up and Jason was like, "dude the baby was going crazy and moving more than I have ever felt her before" I was like...oh really? I slept through it. Back in the day when I was convinced she wasn't moving at all, I bet she moved a ton at night and I just never woke up for it...hopefully I wake up when she cries in the night!

A week from today we have our 36 week appointment and we'll have *another* ultrasound to see what she's doing in there and then we'll have to decide if we want to do the external versioning. Today I'm on the planned c-section bus, but we'll see what the doctor says next week. And of course she could still turn on her own...she's just running out of time and space I'm guessing.

These are exciting times. That's for damn sure.

4 Weeks From Today....Maybe

2009-10-26T08:54:00.001-05:00

Well little Lucy, unless you turn that big ass head around we will be meeting you in 4 weeks from today. Yes, yes...your mother likes schedules and plans and loves when things come early and so loves the idea of know the exact time you'll be greeting us. Although...still she's a wary of the abdominal surgery.

Anyone out there have a planned c-section? Advice, tips, stories, recovery (my biggest concern) would be *greatly* appreciated as Jason and I go back and forth a couple of times a day on whether we should try the external versioning or just stick with the planned. She of course might turn on her own too, but assuming she won't I'd like all the information I can get.

We had another jam packed weekend. Hung out with my Dad all day on Saturday and Saturday night we stayed up...wait for it...wait for it....all the way until 11:30! I know....the Coca Cola Classic that I had at about 7:30 kept me up with the big kids. By the way...after about 10 years of Diet Coke (which I still crave and will return to in obscene amounts I'm sure), I freakin' love regular coke. It's so spicy and delicious and it's a little treat on the weekends.

Sunday we did some work in the morning, and then went to Target to get some stuff for the baby's room and some of the stuff to just try and set me at ease. We washed all of the baby's clothes, blankets, sheets and diapers and so the room really is starting to come together. We need a bookshelf still, have to hang pictures, and some other things but we are getting really really close to done in there. Our goal is to be done at 37 weeks as that's when she is full term and so that's when we could most likely really start to expect her....if she doesn't stick to her schedule.

We got rid of a *ton* more stuff, consolidated some storage tubs. Found all my kid books that I've been making us move around for the past 10 years, I knew they would come in handy some day! We do need another "Monster at the End of the Book" though...because my copy was completely disintegrated.

Jason's parents came to visit in the afternoon for a few hours yesterday and after they left, we did some more cleaning, work and then relaxed with some more work and some playoff baseball.

So yeah we're looking at about a month. I still can't believe that we are so close to the end. I can't wait to meet her! No belly pictures today, but here is a great one of a subway performer who was singing old motown songs at the Jackson redline stop in Chicago:

Belly!

2009-10-19T07:30:00.002-05:00

Another great weekend for us here at JasonLeahRun. Saturday my Mom was in town from Florida to host a baby shower for me. We had tons of fun and Baby Lucy has a ton more cute clothes. Now that the showers are over we are going to make an inventory of things we gotta get that are must haves and then we'll be ready...well I don't know if you are every *really* ready for a baby...but as close as we can be.

Yesterday we went to visit friends with babies stopping first off to see Baby Ethan who is 3 weeks old and then little baby Eleanor who is 7 weeks old. Ethan is a big baby and it's funny because the two are almost the same size!

In between the visits we went to the forest preserve to take some pictures of the fallness (my photoblog will have a photo *everyday* this week....so don't forget to check that out http://leahcphotos.wordpress.com). While we were there, Jason and I got a little goofy and we decided to take some more belly pictures. Given I haven't taken one since week 22, it's hilarious for me to see the difference. I thought I was *huge* at 20 weeks....yeah. Not so much. All the belly photos can be found here at my smugmug account. Enjoy a select few of the photos we took below (realizing that these are rare, as usually I am hiding behind the lens not in front of it!)...I think I look pretty good for 34.5 weeks through! It's all baby in there!

Today we have a doctors appointment in the morning. I don't think Lucy has turned freakin' anywhere, but we'll see. I'm pretty sure I felt her giant head up near the top of my stomach...but we'll see, maybe I'm not a doctor and don't know what I'm feeling :).

Enjoy the start of the week everyone!

Baby's Room Part II

2009-10-15T08:02:00.003-05:00

Last weekend we spent a lot of time in the west suburbs buying baby furniture and crib mattresses as we had use of my cousins hatchback car for the day. After doing all of that we spent the day building the crib and changing table, putting in new lighting in the room and also putting up some curtains. The room is starting to really come together. My mom is in town this weekend for a baby shower and when she comes over on Saturday night we'll go through all the stuff we have and make lists of all the stuff we need, and she can help us put the furniture in good places. Should be a great time and I can't wait to see her!

So here are just some pictures from our Saturday furniture putting together extravaganza. Notice that the cat is all ready to suck the baby's breath out. Seriously we put together the crib and she jumped right in!

Best Sleep Ever

2009-10-09T08:16:00.002-05:00

Seriously, I would like to know what 33 week pregnant woman is sleeping as much or as hard as I am at night. I go to bed at like 9:30 and read for about 30 minutes, and then I'm out like a light until the alarm goes off at 6am. Which I then snooze for about 45 minutes. In addition to the sleeping, the dreams I'm having I think are movies they are so vivid and detailed (not to mention super super strange!)

I maybe would sleep like this when we were in the midst of marathon training, but seriously it's crazy. The good thing is that I'm way full of energy in the mornings....the bad thing is that at night I'm dead and feel like crap. I have always always been a good hard sleeper from like 2 weeks old apparently, so it's not like something totally new. I just thought when I was this far along in the pregnancy I would have trouble sleeping. I just think it's hilarious that I'm sleeping so much and so hard. The feeling like crap in the evening I have noticed is more exaggerated when we don't go for a walk or anything in the evenings. I walk a lot to get to work and back but I think I have to do extra to combat the sitting at work all day.

I know a lot of woman at this stage of their pregnancy have to get up a lot in the middle of the night to pee or are in general just uncomfortable. Given that Lucy is all folded up like a lawn chair and upside down in there, I'm wondering if her head is not sitting down on my bladder like it would be in the normal case and so I don't have that problem. And as far as the uncomfortable goes, I'm fine. Sometimes at night she really gets rocking and rolling and it's not the best feeling in the world and it kind of makes me sick, but again..maybe because all of her business is up near my stomach and so when she moves she's doing funny things to my tummy. Who knows.

All I know is I feel great, and have been sleeping great and have about 6-7 weeks to go. Which is crazy.

This weekend we trading cars with my cousin Lisa and using her hatchback to go to IKEA to get the furniture for the baby's room. Then we are going to spend most of the day tomorrow putting that together and getting our bedroom put together better, throwing more things out and hopefully getting books together to donate. Sunday we are doing work type things and that's all we have planned so far. So busy as usual for the weekend, but good busy.

Are You a Gymnast Already?

2009-10-06T20:32:00.007-05:00

Hey there Little Lucy.

How you doing in there? Remember 4 weeks ago when we got some pictures of you and you were all nicely head down? That was a fun time wasn't it? But no, you apparently don't agree and have decided that you are much more comfortable with your head up and your legs right in front of your face.

Sigh.

We were so surprised when the technician told us that you were in the breech position, and you are in the frank breech position. We are 32 (almost 33 weeks) and so you are running out of time to flip around.

Luckily we seem to have the best doctor in the world who talked to us for a good 20-30 minutes about what the next steps were and actually there are no steps for the next 4 weeks, but if you are still enjoying kissing your knees at that point we are going to need a new game plan. If you are sticking with your breech positioning we'll be scheduling a c-section for you on November 23rd. Now. Your mother likes to have plans and schedules AND even more loves to be early for things. So in this sense that makes her giggle like a little school girl. However, a vaginal birth is of course better for everyone.

We also got a measurement of your head. Of your giant giant giant head. We just went to visit your grandpa and grandma Sue and spent roughly 1 hour teasing you about your giant head. Sorry! But you are being born into a big headed teasing family so you can get used to it. Your father who has a nice normal sized head compared one of your pictures to the picture of Darth Vadar sans his helmet and I can't help but agree:
Other than your giant headedness (You get that from your mom's side of the family. Sorry kiddo!) you look great. You have long legs, and all is well with your growth. Just the concern about the breech stuff and we'll worry more about that in 4 weeks. We think you might have some Angelina Jolie in you as well with this kisser:
Here you are just looking cute and not making faces at us...although that head. whew. It's big. Maybe if you do turn we'll have get you out through the front...don't know if your Mom is ready for that business.
As for me, I'm doing good too. Blood pressure still on the high side although a little bit better than 4 weeks ago. We got back to visit the doc in 2 weeks and so we'll see if anything interesting happens then.

In other news around here. Your room is getting more and more done, and your Dad has realized how much has to happen before you get here and has gotten a little bit on the concerned and stressed out side...which is cute cause your Dad is never ever stressed out.

So if you feel like being a gymnast in there and turn yourself around, go for it. Either way we'll make sure you get here safe and sound in about 7 weeks. I can't wait to see you in real life!

A Baby Room Makeover

2009-10-05T09:01:00.002-05:00

So yeah, I wanted to paint the baby's room green. So we got some paint card things, and compared the colors to the sheets and art prints we have in the room to find a match. We picked one that didn't seem too bright, but wasn't pale either so you could tell that there was something on the walls.

Yeah.

Well it's going to be a damn happy room! And she won't be able to sleep because it's so bright that she she closes her eyes she'll be seeing some little green spots. Well ok it's not that bad, and after a few hours it's totally growing on me. PLUS once we get more furniture in there and stuff on the walls it won't just be an empty room with bright green walls, it'll be a baby's room...with bright green walls which is fun. So there. We also replaced all the outlets and covers since the previous painters just did the lazy paint over the outlets and covers thing...which is ugly. So now it's all nice and waiting for baby furniture. Here are some pictures from before, during and after, and if anything we can say that the before was *really* ugly.

Where's the Time Going?

2009-10-01T08:16:00.007-05:00

So yeah, tomorrow we hit the 32 week mark. On Monday we hit the 2 months to go mark. What the what? When did that happen?

In the last week my good friend who has been about 9 weeks ahead of me in pregnancy gave birth to a boy named Ethan. We went to visit them in the hospital and all of a sudden I was very much, "Um, we don't have anything ready for Lucy" So I am starting to panic a little bit although we've gotten a lot done this week and hopefully the room will be looking more baby like by the end of the weekend as we are giving the room a fresh coat of paint and we were supposed to have furniture, but then we went to visit the said furniture and the furniture I thought I liked I didn't when we got there (although it's totally fine if that's what we go with) and the one I did like turns out is apparently part crib, part baby killer. I don't understand these review sites. So this crib apparently has a gap between the mattress and the bars, and so all these people are like, "THIS IS OBVIOUSLY BAD AND DANGEROUS!!!!" But they don't say why it's bad and dangerous and Consumer Reports rated this crib 2nd on it's list of best cribs. So I don't really understand what the problem is. I would like some scientific fact and experiments saying, ok, this could be bad because this and this could happen. Not just, well obviously that's bad. I also think we can get a little bit of a wider mattress and it would take care of the problem. I'm just really annoyed because it was the only crib/changing table I have seen that hasn't made me want to vomit all over it.

Ok. Ok. See this is what I'm talking about. Panic.

The crib we are looking at is the Leksvik crib at IKEA. Just do a search for "Leksvik mattress gap" or something and there are a few google things to see. Why does a mattress need to be super snug to the rails? Does anyone else have this crib and see no problem with it? I've found a few posters that have said it's no big deal and other that are like, OH MY GOD THIS HAS TO GO BACK TO IKEA RIGHT THIS SECOND BUT I'M 6 HOURS AWAY FROM IKEA AND I'M CURRENTLY IN LABOR. So I mean there are ranges, I just want to know what could go bad with a space like this or if it's just some overly worried parents being nuts because I'm sorry the first thing my parents did when the got me home from the hospital is put me into a bassinet who's legs then went out from under it and I went shooting out the back of it...and I'm fine. I mean...I wouldn't recommend baby bassinet shooting, I'm just saying it seems that the crazy has gone up lots of notches in the last 30 years.

Alright. That's my rant and some LeahC crazy to brighten up your Thursday morning.

***NOTE***
At the bottom of the post on the baby bargins site about this crib they say that they heard back from the CPSC and they have ruled that the crib gap does NOT pose a safety concern. That is, it does not violate any current standards.

They said they heard back from them after they went to print and will update the book in the next printing....I think it's funny that they went to print with unscientific evidence about a product. Like maybe you should have heard from the people that deem safety stuff before saying that something is not safe and putting it into a book that obviously gets a lot of press. So Anyways. It looks like it will be fine.
**********

As far as Miss Little Lucy goes, she's doing great. She's moving weirdly now and I can feel her rolling over. Yesterday we would see little feet or hands or I don't know what poke out of my belly and the roll around. Jason was like, "Well that's a new one." I'm still sleeping pretty well although if I roll over on my back I wake up with a lot of pain in my stomach area so that can't be good. After I woke up though I rolled over and then had lots of dreams of the baby moving a lot and being nuts and I wonder if she really is being nuts and I'm just such a ridiculous sleeper that I'm not waking up fully to feel it. Also in the dream I was in labor, so that was fun.

And finally to the two douche bags on the train this morning, if you see a pregnant woman standing next to you don't just talk to each other loudly about things like "Can you be with a baby mama if the baby daddy wasn't around" or "Maybe I just need to sow my wild oats and get some strangers pregnant" and not give up your seat because you have obviously seen the pregnant lady standing and you are just choosing to try and channel Jack Black or Seth Rogan and be "funny" And you aren't funny. Jack Black and Seth Rogan already did the bit, they already have the act going. You can't just copy it and think you are just as funny or clever or witty. BECAUSE YOU AREN'T. YOU AREN'T FUNNY. You are just two jackasses that talked loudly on the train because you thought you were funny and clever and you weren't you just looked like assholes. So there.

Everyone is out of my office today except for me which makes things a bit on the quiet side. I'm meeting my Dad for lunch at 12:30 so that should be a nice time.

So yes, it's almost Friday. Almost 32 weeks done. And we are looking at the Baby Killer Crib 1000. GRRRRR!

Well It Happened

2009-09-24T08:53:00.003-05:00

Today I turn 30. I decided to take the day off of work, and thus in effect I'm calling in 30.

So I guess this is one of those years where it's a turning point right? The big ones 16, 21, 25, 30 then maybe just every 10 after that....who knows. When I look at my life and where I am in it and I ask, "Is where I envisioned myself at this age" (Oh who am I kidding, I never thought I would turn 30, that's like old people town. Kidding. Kind of.) I have to answer yes.

I have a great husband and honestly I never thought I could find someone I could love that much. Lucky me that boy is also my best friend and partner in crime. We live in a great apartment, an apartment that I always dreamed we would live in (especially after the last shithole where the little Dagny cat would find some little furry friends to play with). We are expecting our first child in the next few months...hopefully she'll keep on schedule and not greet us early.

We decided to wait on kids and I think we were so smart on that. Jason and I had such a good time in our 20s, we traveled, maybe became too regular at Sheffields or Murphy's or Fill_in_the_blank, we studied our asses off and got our PhDs in physics, we ran marathons, we traveled (oh I said that already...but it's an important one). Most importantly we learned more about each other. We had a life with each other and it didn't revolve around what the kids wanted or needed and now we know what WE need and what WE want. Just because you have kids doesn't mean that you have to give up that, give up yourself or your desires or your relationship as you know it. There is this fear that when you have kids everything has to change. AND yes, things change...BUT, they can just morph into a new similar shape, and not become a life that you don't recognize. We recognize that we always have to keep that in the forefront our minds to keep ourselves happy which in effect will keep our kids happy.

And so today, well tonight at 7:47pm (30 years ago my mom was in *a lot* of pain and not progressing in her labor) I'll say goodbye to my 20s and know that I wouldn't have changed one damn thing. Ok...maybe I wouldn't have rented that apartment in the Ukrainian village, but I guess it'll always be a story that we can laugh about. And I expect the 30s to hold many of the same things as the 20s did as we don't plan on deleting who we are (of course!). But we'll be able to do those things with a little bit more money, and little more security and well...hell, it's going to be a great decade.

Finally! A Weekend With Nothing (Much)

2009-09-21T08:33:00.002-05:00

This weekend was the first time in a loooong time that we didn't have anywhere to go (for the most part), our apartment was back in our own hands as my Dad and Stepmom moved into their place on Saturday morning and Jason and I could just *be*.

It. Was. Great.

On Saturday we took the Great Expectations class at the hospital where were learned about the birthing process, what to do after the baby and got the grand tour of the hospital. The class was pretty good. I gotta say, those women that do it naturally...doesn't look like a lot of fun. At. All. So yeah, maybe I'll be saying, "Yes, Please!" for the epidural. I'm not going in with any set plans, just an idea of what I think I'm going to want. The tour was awesome. All the rooms are private at Northwestern. And the Labor and Delivery room is awesome. I guess I didn't really know what to expect. But you labor and deliver in the same room (giant room with giant windows looking out over the city), so they have the baby station and everything so you never lose sight of the baby which is great. The post delivery rooms are smaller but still private and pretty nice. I'm so excited that the next time I'll be there I'll be delivering little Lucy.

Now. Let's talk about the the breathing exercises. So we are sitting on these birthing balls (and I would like to know if the birthing ball or the workout ball came first as they are the same thing) and we are going through some exercises on some breathing techniques that you can do when the labor starts. The partners sat behind the pregnant woman and squeezed their shoulders "simulating" a contraction...or at least how the pressure will build and build and then hold steady for awhile and then drop off....and then the woman are doing these breathing things. Now. It is a well known fact that I am a) a jackass and b) a giggler. So we go through one round of said breathing and I'm doing ok. Then the woman leading the class (who was great) said that there was no encouragement coming from the Dads and that they should say things like, "You're doing great" or "Almost done!" etc etc. Jason knows that I am not a fan of such cheerleading and that when he would that to me when we were running I would just about kill him. But he tries because he doesn't want to get in trouble with the nurse and I'm not kidding, I totally lose it.

I mean. Gone.

I am laughing so hard, that tears are rolling down my face, my makeup is everywhere. I'm sweating and my face has apparently turned the color of a ripe tomato. I'm still trying to do the breathing and Jason is going "You're doing great" and that sends me deeper over the edge. The nurse/teacher lady was like...are you ok? I was like...yeah I'm really sorry.....I just can't reel it in. I hope I didn't ruin the class for everyone else...but really 10 minutes of breathing exercises is probably not going to get me through the labor pains very easily. I'm just happy we didn't take one of those long birth classes because it would have just been more of an exercise in LeahC learning to not be a jackass and less of here's how to have a nice calm birth.

So that was that.

After we got home we went for a long quick walk on the path and met the parental folks at a bar they were hanging out at. Then we came home and ... did...well....not much.

OH YEAH! We did have an electrical fire in the bathroom off our bedroom on Saturday morning. So that was exciting. Electricians are coming today to fix it. Gotta say, not trilling to see black smoke blowing out of some outlet holes. We've had the breaker off for that bathroom and our bedroom for the whole weekend which has been pretty annoying.

On Sunday we went for a walk and went to the grocery store and then did some rearranging of the bedroom to allow the desk to come in there and out of Lucy's room eventually. Plus we are now using the space a *ton* better as we have a whole extra wall to work with. I've gotten really good at using smallish spaces in apartments and I get really excited when things work out the way I think they'll work out :).

No big plans this week except the looming of Thursday which is the day I'll no longer be in my 20s. Should be a fun day as I'm taking the day off work and going to enjoy the City. Hopefully it'll be a nice day out.

Happy Monday All.

Baby Shower! Lockdown! Big Belly! Oh My!

2009-09-15T10:19:00.005-05:00

Well here I sit at 30 weeks....ok almost 30 weeks which is why this post isn't titled 10 WEEKS TO GO. The flip over date for my appointments is on Fridays. So I'm *in* the 30th week. Hey...kinda like I'm in my 30th year so I won't really be turning 30 next week as that really happened last year. Yes. I know it doesn't make sense...but if you were in LeahC's head it just might.

So right...I'm sitting here checking in some code at work, and thought I'd throw out a blog post. This past weekend I had my first baby shower which was a total blast. The theme was 'I Love Lucy' which was one of my favorite shows when I was little (hell it still is...that Lucy, she's so wacky!). A good time was had by all and Little Lu got some cute clothes and jumping contraptions and clothes and I got some cute diaper bags. We got a nice black messenger bag type one so that Jason and I can share that duty. I also got an *awesome* Vera Bradley one from my Aunt in a new pattern that I love. Oh ... and more clothes.

Jason and I are going to be putting ourselves on Lockdown. We have been so overly booked and busy the past, well I'd like to say few weeks but I think it's more more like 6 weeks. With the baby coming I really want to make sure Jason and I enjoy some alone downtime together. Next week is my birthday and we are going to Wildfire (my favorite restaurant in the world) and I think that's about the only plans we have. So if you ask us to do something and we say no, it's not because we hate you, it's because we are really big losers. :) Fall is also coming and is my favorite season of all time. Just walking around the city with the air a little crisper is just about the best time I think you can have.

My belly continues to expand which now apparently gives strangers, coworkers and random office people the right to say things to the effect of, "WOW YOU'RE HUGE!!!!" To which I say, do you want me to stick this pen in your eye? No? Then shut the hell up. I'm growing a baby! I've been doing some more walking and that feels great. No more running because when I tried to run the other day (for like 3 minutes :( ), I had a pretty hard time with it. Poor Bridgette was out with me and was like...um, are you ok? It wasn't the best. But walking is good, and so Jason is making sure we do that together most nights. I really really miss running, and not running like a 3 mile run but getting out there and cruising through 9 or 10 miles. It'll take some time to get back there and I know I have to patient...good thing I'm so good at being patient!

So right. 10ish weeks to go, which should seem like nothing and yet it seems oh so far away. Dad and Sue move out on Friday so then we can really get rolling on the baby's room which is going to be really really exciting. We totally redid our closet and threw out *tons* of stuff which is a good step and we have to do more and more of that as the closet in the baby's room became a "put stuff here for now" place. Which is always a little scary.

We are all more and more excited to meet Lucy. This weekend we are taking the Great Expectations baby class at Prentice hospital which should be a lot of good information and I'm looking forward to getting a tour of the hospital.

Checked in code worked! On the branch, but unfortunately the trunk line build is broken so can't check in there yet. One more bug to look at ... if I can even find the text field that the tester is referring to. OH yeah and today is my last day at the client site and I'm looking forward to rejoining the Studio crew tomorrow.

Ok I Broke a Sweat Alright

2009-09-10T13:43:00.004-05:00

*note* I'm not that concerned about my weight gain....just frustrated at the doc a bit...this will come out in the following post.

So all good at the docs yesterday except my apparent elephantness. Even though when I look at myself in the mirror all I see is baby belly bump. No nothing anywhere else. In fact I would say my arms have gotten a bit thinner. ANYWAYS.

TheDoc apparently doesn't agree and so I took her advice and went for a 45 minute cardivascular workout yesterday. Does anyone else think it's strange that she is telling me that I should be doing that much working out every day WHILE I am also dealing with some high blood pressure issues at 28 weeks pregnant. Not that I think 45 minutes of working out is hard by any means, but I just think it's strange.

SO FINE. I'll break a fucking sweat alright. So I walked to the lake front path in about 14 minutes (quickly!) and then ran for about 10 minutes and then quickly walked back home for a total of about 50 minutes. No problems except some pretty bad round ligament pains which is just more uncomfort than something to worry about. I'm going to try and do the same tonight although might cut it down to just a 30 minute brisk walk since we are going to meet a possible pediatrician at 5pm and then Mrs. Bridgette is getting here at about 7:30. But I think we can do both.

I'm going to keep eating healthy and just see what happens at the next appointment. I also should have a plan of what our birth plan is...I think its a positive plan. I plan on having a baby. I bet that doesn't cut it. My plan right now is to go as naturally as possible. I'm going to hold out on the epidural if I can, but if I get one I won't be super dissapointed. I'm going to try and not be induced unless the doctor thinks it's the way to go and has a good reason...other than, well we need to schedule it so it fits into our schedule. So yeah, that's my plan right now. As always I'm guessing this will change as time goes along.

Going Cloth and Lucy at 28.5 Weeks

2009-09-09T12:07:00.003-05:00

I've mentioned in the past that we are going to cloth diaper our baby. So you make that statement and then there are like 8000 different options to choose from. For example there are Fuzzibunz which have one sized diapers as well as something called the perfect sized diaper. Then there are prefolds and covers and other all in one diaper brands. It's an endless amount of information!

What are people out there using. We are starting with prefolds and covers because it seems fool proof for the most part and when she's so little she won't be moving that much. We have no idea what we'll do in the future, but maybe as she gets more mobile we'll switch to a pocket diaper or an all in one.

Any tips and or advice from anyone out there?

In other news, Lucy had her 28 week appointment today and is looking good. SEE:

I apparently have gained too much weight. I didn't look at the number when I was weighed but then Mrs. Doctor woman was like, "Ha ha ha let's talk about your weight gain this month". And I was like um ok. It's not like I'm eating that much and I've way cut out eating out and I don't eat a lot of salt in general. So I have to workout more because I'm not doing that. So I have to walk 30-45 minutes and work up a sweat. Yeah, that's almost like running 10 miles.

I'm a little frustrated at that but so happy that our little baby girl looks so beautiful and is healthy. Oh and her head size is in the 66th percentile (ouch!) and she already weighs 2lbs 15oz! And she's right on track for being at 28 weeks. So that's all good news.

She's Funny, Dad's Running and Bloomington Here We Come

2009-09-04T11:28:00.005-05:00

Well...at least for the last few days anyways. Monday and Tuesday of this week she was really really inactive. Enough so that I called the doctors office to ask them what a reasonable amount of movement at this stage would be. Turns out I'm golden and she's doing fine.

From Wednesday evening on however she's been a little motor in there. On Wednesday night Jason got out of the bathroom and I asked him to press on the left side of my stomach and then on the right side of my stomach and I asked if they felt different. He said, Holy hell the right side is way harder than the left. So he pushed a little harder and Lucy pushed back. Then he started feeling around and thinks he could feel a foot or something. Something was kind of pointy and rounded off. So that was kind of crazy. Then last night my stomach looked like an ocean of waves. I still think she's calmer than a lot of babies, but that's ok with me! I mean if it's true that behavior in utero translates to behavior after birth. But she's funny to watch and I'm getting more and more excited to see her! Actually..because my blood pressure has been on the high side we have to get some extra ultra sounds meaning that we get one this coming up Wednesday, so we'll get to see her then! I can't wait to see how she's changed in 8 weeks!

Today we are at 12 weeks to go. 12. weeks. to. go. Wow. that's crazy. I need a list. Because there is a lot to do before the big day. And really it could be a little as 8 weeks. Right. Need to make a list. I'll start it with, "Throw your shit away so there is room for the baby's stuff".

My Dad and Sue have finally gotten their apartment drama settled and found a great place just south of Belmont on Sheridan. They are about exactly one mile from our apartment. AND apparently their building has a pool on the roof deck. Look out Summer 2010.

As I have mentioned my dad is going to run the Chicago marathon in 2010. Right now he is dealing with a cramp popping up in his right calf about one mile into his run. I suggested he ice and rest it until next week. Everything else feels good so I know how frustrating that can be. He looked great running last Sunday though. He's a smooth runner and doesn't look like he's straining too bad. If you want to follow his Chicago running trials and tribulations and also I'm guessing grandchild updates in the near future please check out and subscribe to his blog at: http://runmarathonmaybe.blogspot.com. He loves tips, advice and comments so go say hi!

This weekend we are going to Bloomington, IN for a belated anniversary trip. On Sunday night we are going to have dinner with one of our favorite people on the planet, our old advisor. I haven't seen him for...well shit, a year? When I defended I guess. Wow. Yeah, so that should be a great visit. Hopefully the rainy forecast is wrong and we can just enjoy the town and walk around and read and relax and just enjoy the only small town that we like :). Maybe we'll go bowling in the union, where Mrs. LeahCStraightBall can actually beat JasonRFortWayneCityBowlingChampion because apparently they don't wax the lanes right...or they wax them too good...or whatever. And I'm kidding I'll never come close to beating Jason at bowling..except the one time he bowled a 94, but we like to pretend that didn't happen.

So that's all from Chicago. Thinking of a new project that could combine photography and me needing to know how to develop a Rails site from scratch as this front end only stuff has gone on too long. We'll see how that turns out and more details to follow.

Hold the Phones...It's Not Just Me & You?

2009-08-31T15:55:00.000-05:00

Ok. So right. This is an obvious one.

In about 3 months Lucille Jean R. will be here. In our lives. Consuming them. And we'll be consuming her with love and kisses and pictures and excitement.

Now here is where I get to sound like the worst soon-to-be-mother ever. What happens to You and I? And by 'You' I mean JasonR and by 'I' I mean LeahC. Jason and I have known each other for over 10 years now. We are both a little on the odd side which we recognize and it's because we walk on that side of weird that I think we love each other so much. In addition because we worked together for so long with a group of people that we didn't really fit in to we spent a lot of time together alone.

We found that we love hanging out with each other. The fun thing about being friends for a year and a half before dating is that we are still best friends. People always have these packed weekends filled with fun Chicago parties and outings and whatevers and when they ask what I did I always say, "Um...well Jason and I went for a walk. Then we sat in the park and read". Or something to that effect. We don't have to have any plans to have a great time together, in fact it is the weekends and the evenings where "we don't do anything" that I enjoy the most. Of course we are doing stuff, but it's not anything that would be interesting or fun sounding to anyone else.

Well what happens when a third party enters the party? Will we have time for just him and me? Will we care? Will we notice? I think what's important is recognizing that this could be a question and is a new situation that will arise. A baby changes everything as we all know. And it changes it for the better. But recognizing situations that could be a little tough or stressful is a good thing. Well that's my opinion anyways.

Ok. Thus ending my worst soon-to-be-mother rant, I'll go on to say that Lucy has been kicking up a storm and I love it. She moved a lot when I was getting my tooth drilled out for a cap that is going on a back tooth and I'm wondering if it was loud for her. Hopefully she get's her father's teeth and not these awful teeth that come down the LeahC line.

Hi there, it's Jason. And yeah, I also hope she doesn't get the LeahC teeth. She can have all the rest of LeahC's traits though (and whaddya know, she does!), but the teeth we can pass on.

I think having a baby is a funny thing. It's like, hey, things are great between us and we're happy so maybe it's time to have a kid. I mean, it's only a decision that will effect our lives UNTIL WE DIE. No biggie. And if we lose us, no biggie, it's not like it's a irrevocable decision or anything.

Oh wait.

And so, yeah, it's a scary concept. I guess I just try to look at the people who don't stop living their lives because they have a kid. The kids just become a part of their lives and joins the fun instead of the parents rewriting their lives completely because they had a kid. I look to the parents who didn't erase who they are and what they enjoy in the name of having a family. Perhaps there are times that has to be done, but I'd hope that's a last resort.

And what I most take to heart is that nobody has ever said that a kid has changed their lives for the worse, which is pretty impressive. So while changing a dynamic that has been working pretty damn well for the last 10 years is certainly scary, I think it's just another challenge to incorporate Li'l Lucy into our family the right way. We just have to make sure we don't lose "us" when we upgrade to "all of us".

(oh, and don't believe a word of LeahC when she says anything about being a terrible mother. It is not physically possible for her to be anything less than a spectacular mother. She just don't have the capacity to be anything other than great. So there.)

Quick Week

2009-08-28T08:30:00.004-05:00

Wait it's Friday already.

And Hold. The. Phones. Today is August 28th. Ok so then. September 28th = 1, October 28th = 2 & November 28th = 3. Shit. That means 3 months from right now Lucy could be here. Knowing my luck she'll being enjoying herself too much not joining us and so I'll still be large and round and just hoping she comes out soon. Either way. 3 months. That's crazy! I feel like we found out we were pregnant like just a few weeks ago. Time flies!

To ring in her 3 months to go she's been moving like crazy. After the Software Craftsmanship North America conference we went out to a meetup and I stood around and chatted with people for oh about 4 hours. When we got home and I had the chance to lay down the child went crazy. Jason looked at my undulating stomach and then at me and asked, "What the hell is she doing in there?" Who knows...what do the babies do in there. Maybe she's like her father who can never get comfortable (seriously..have you ever sat next to him in a movie theater? It's infuriating.) and so she's just trying to find that impossible perfectly comfortable position.

We also think she's really shy because I'll be sitting there reading or knitting and she'll be moving and I'll call people over to look at it or feel it and then she stops. All together stops moving. So there, she doesn't like to be looked at and already wants to be left alone. When I was a little girl and I would get mad I would always shout, "DON'T EVEN LOOK AT ME!!!!" As if not looking at me would solve all the problems and thus I would win the fight. I never won the fight.

Great day at work yesterday. Finally was able to help the code base a little and fix a teeny tiny part of it. But baby steps is what it's all about. Hopefully people pay attention to the e-mail about where to keep parts of the code so that we can keep things nice and neat!

We have another packed weekend this weekend although I'm about 1/2 through The Hunger Games and I might have to cancel everything to finish it. My cousin Lisa has been telling me to read this for about a year now and wow is it good. I already highly recommend it. Looks like book 2 in the series is coming out soon and I'm already itching to read it. But other than the reading we are meeting friends for breakfast tomorrow morning, then we have a wedding for the rest of the day. Then on Sunday we have the cloth diapering class and that's about it.

So yeah. We bring in the third trimester and we keep up with the busy. I think that next week will be pretty calm which is nice. Also if you live in Chicago start using the Chicago Public Library online holding system. You can search for books and then send them to whatever the cloest library to you is. Then you get a nice e-mail telling you when your book has arrived. I have not taken advantage of the library like I should have been and so it's been a nice find. Also the Lincoln-Belmont branch is very nice and I highly recommend it.

Good. Long. Weekend.

2009-08-24T08:27:00.003-05:00

Jason and I took off early Friday morning for a long weekend trip to Manistee, MI where we hung out with our good friends Jake and LaurA!

Jake's Dad is a sculptor (you can see his work here at http://lesliescruggs.com) and does really amazing things. Outside their cottage they have a deck, called the Artdeck and his sculptures are set out on display. And not just on the deck, but he has things hanging from all the trees surrounding the deck and placed in the woods around the house. It was really really amazing and beautiful. You can catch pictures of the artdeck via that link.

Although it rained most of the weekend we had a great time. The area is beautiful and it was nice to be away from the city for a few days. After we got there on Friday Jake and LaurA! took us to the beach and we walked and chatted and I took this picture of our hosts:

Remember when I said that I have to get better at people and low light photography? No? Well I did. So this is me practicing taking pictures of people. Not bad...or at least getting better all the time. Like with anything practice makes perfect.

We got back to Chicago at about 1:45 and enjoyed a beautiful Day in Chicago. We went for a run which didn't go so well. Did 2ish miles instead of 3...and did some walking in there. Spent the rest of the night relaxing, reading, working on photography and of course a Law and Order was thrown in there for good measure.

This week should be pretty great. One evening we are meeting up with my old friend for dinner. Well she's not old but we met when we were in preschool. Yeah...that means I've known her for about 27 years. Holy hell. yeah. That's right 27 years....cause I turn a big fat 30 in exactly one month from today. Also going to the Software Craftsmanship North America conference on Wednesday which should be a great time. Tomorrow morning I am getting a crown put on my tooth. That won't be fun, but hoping to bypass needing to get a root canal and pulling the tooth by doing some preventative care. Why does preventative care mean big bucks. I guess it does mean that but it probably also means less big bucks that if you wait it out.

This weekend we have a wedding AND I know now this is the really exciting thing A CLOTH DIAPERING CLASS! I know. I know it's so exciting that you just lept off of your chair in happiness. Well exciting for us anyways. Our friend Lydia has already given us lots of information about said cloth diapering but we are trying to get as much information as possible because it's all new to us.

So yeah, that's the recap of the weekend and the plan for the week. And it looks like this build might just about be done so time to look at some tickets for today.

100.

2009-08-20T09:46:00.003-05:00

So according to that little widget over there ------------------>

There are 100 days left until Baby Lu comes to greet us. Give or take a few days.

100.
Days.

That's ... well...that's close. When we got the positive pregnancy test back in March we were in a bit of shock to say the least and it seemed like we had so far to go. But there were milestones to look forward to. Our first ultrasound at 8 weeks to see her little heart fluttering, getting through the first trimester free and clear, the big boy ultrasound at 20 weeks to find out if we would be greeting a son our a daughter and of course making sure that all the parts were in place and 100 days has been on my list of ok, now we can start counting in double digits. After this there is week 28 to start to the last third of the adventure, and then just holding on until she arrives. Well maybe 36 weeks is a good one too....a month to go seems like a good milestone.

When I run a marathon I have similar ways to get through the race. I look forward to parts of the race because I can't think about the whole thing because I'll just curl up and cry at the beginning. But if you just think about getting to the next big thing then it's not so bad.

Oh I have some baby showers coming up too...so that will be fun to start getting the baby's room put together and organized. Not at all terrifying. Right?

This weekend Jason and I travel to the Artdeck and are really looking forward to a relaxing trip. Also always fun to hang out with the Jake and the LaurA! I had planned on getting to the lake front path to take some pictures very early in the morning tomorrow but turns out that even though the sun doesn't rise until 6am, I would have to be set up taking pictures by 4am to get the dark light that I want for the experiment that I want to run. So I'm guessing we won't be doing that. Jason is hoping anyways.

Rainbows, Bellyaches and Kicks...Oh My!

2009-08-18T08:08:00.005-05:00

I have become enamored with my new iPhone photo apps. They are obviously no replacement for my real pictures (not even close) but I have become much more inspired to get moving with my real photos on a more consistent basis. I use the regular camera on the iPhone and then I use two programs that I mentioned here earlier, CameraBag and Photogene. Then I use Flickit to push the photos up to my flickr account. I don't use flickr for anything except these iPhone photos because it's so fast and it's a nice way to keep a record of places I've been. Or at least scenes I've seen. Like these two:

I took those while I was waiting for Jason at the corner of Clark and Madison for our afternoon coffee meetup.

So with my new found inspiration, Jason and I went for a walk out to the lakefront path after dinner so I could take some photos with my real camera of the rainy evening.

As we were walking out there my stomach starting to hurt really bad and my skin on my belly felt really hard. I was like..hmm..that's annoying and a little worrysome. But it wasn't anything really bad like a contraction or anything so we just stopped for about 5 minutes. Later I was realizing that I ran out of the house right after eating dinner. I'm wondering if my stomach and Lucy's home were fighting for space and the baby had to get pushed to the outside. I have no idea, but I only ever get that feeling after I eat and so that's what I'm saying the deal is.

We almost cut the walk short (because as Jason told me I didn't have to be a hero) but kept going to the lake front and when we got to Sheridan Road we saw a FULL rainbow! It was 180 degrees and amazing! We continued walking to about Diversey and then headed back home. It was a great evening walk even thought things started a little on the rocky side. Here is one of the pictures I ended up with (click on the photo for a bigger version at my photoblog http://leahcphotos.wordpress.com):

I need some work with low light photography. I tend to shy away from both low light stuff and pictures of people and so like with everything practice makes perfect. When I got my camera it was hard for me to take any kind of picture with it and I just practiced and tried things until I had the hang of it. I have to do the same thing with low light photography. As far as people goes..well I'll probably start with Lucy and go from there :).

Speaking of Little Lu, she has been a little calmer during the day. I had gotten used to her doing a little dance around 10 or 11 in the morning and I don't know if it's because I've been a little more on edge or what but she hasn't been doing that as much. The last two mornings as I am just waking up, however, she's been a crazy baby. This morning I grabbed Jason's hand and put it on my stomach. He was like. oh holy hell there she goes (I might have been sad the night before because I hadn't felt her move as much). Maybe she's turning into a night baby...or a morning baby. Oh who the hell knows. I just know I love when she wiggles in there.

Tonight I am going to visit my friend Jean who is 35 weeks pregnant. Apparently her baby will stick a foot out the side of her stomach and kick back if you push on it. I hope he does that when I'm there, I'm guessing it's painful for Jean, but fun for spectators!

How Did That Happen?

2009-08-17T08:39:00.004-05:00

So I've kept up running throughout this pregnancy but you have probably noticed my posting about said running has gone down. That's because most of the running has really been "running". My usual course of action is to walk to the lakefront path and then run two miles and walk home. But the running part has been filed with leg pain, back aches and this fun pregnancy thing called ligament stretching (or something like that). So it hasn't been fun and more just pisses me off that actually being able to enjoy the time on the path.

On Sunday my Dad, Jason and I all laced up our shoes for a run together. We did the same thing that we usually do, but at the one mile turn around I realized I hadn't stopped to walk yet, nothing hurt, I wasn't laboring for breathing and so I said let's go out for another 1/2 mile and make this a 3 mile run. So we did and I continued to feel good. Still no pain, breathing was good. At the end of the run I realized that I could even pass a group of runners and that always feels good and so I did.

I'm pretty sure we were running about 11 min/mile (I haven't been starting my watch because my runs have been so worthless) and felt really solid. We are also working on gearing my Dad up for some training. His goal is to run the Indy Mini 1/2 marathon in May (so that we have to train through the winter) and then of course the Chicago Marathon in the fall. He's at a perfect place to start training and so we (and by we I mean I) just have to get him a training plan so he can get into a nice rhythm.

The rest of the weekend was great. I'm working on knitting a little sweater thing for Lucy which is making some progress. This picture is from Saturday night and I did a bunch more yesterday:

(Lucy is trying it on....she likes it I think). The bottom part of the sweater and the arms will be in a simple lace pattern and will continue in that purple color.

I'm hoping that I'm done with the body of it by the end of the weekend. Then I can go to Loopy Yarns on Monday when they have a sweater workshop to help me with the arms. After that I will have even more questions about the edging and this little tie thing that I have to make...plus these pom-pom things that have to go on the end of said ties. The good thing is that baby clothes are tiny and so none of it should take that long. Just so so so many questions! It's a great way to learn about sweater construction though because again, they clothes are teeny and so I can learn all the parts of a sweater in a short amount of time. This is a kimono style sweater so it should be nice for a baby.

This is short week because Jason and I are driving up to Michigan on Friday to hang out with Jake, Laura and Jake's Dad on the Artdeck. We are going to leave very very early on Friday morning and take our time driving up there. Hoping to find some small highways for part of the drive anyways.

Oh when I woke up this morning Lucy woke up too. It was funny. Hopefully she keeps that same behavior out of the womb. Up when Mom's up. A good rule I think!

3 Apps Worth Checking out

2009-08-14T15:18:00.001-05:00

BlogPress - For blogging on the go! Works great for blogger and has other platforms available as well. $2.99

CameraBag - Update your photos to have cool effects on them. Several different effects including the sharp black and white in the previous post. $1.99 (This might be limited as where I saw it listed it was $2.99)

Photogene - Photoshop for your iphone. Lots of photo editing including, cropping, rotating, effects, sharpening, frames, + lots more. ($2.99).

So Yeah, go have fun with your photos.

CameraBag

2009-08-14T14:15:00.001-05:00

Is a cool ass photoapp. Take a picture or use any picture on you camera and apply cool effects to them.

Blogpress also works really well

-- Post From My iPhone

Us after 5 years

2009-08-14T13:36:00.000-05:00

Testing the iPhone app called blogpress.

-- Post From My iPhone

Write More to Write Better.

2009-08-14T12:02:00.004-05:00

An e-mail got sent out at work today with some tips on how to be a better writer without having to work at it. While there was some good tips in it, I didn't like the topic of becoming a better writer without working at it. It's impossible to do that. The only way to get better at anything is to work at it. Want to run a marathon faster? You train harder. Want to get better in your job? Work harder and study. So why is it different for writing? True for all of these things it's nice to have some tips and tricks in your pocket, but in the end it's all about practice.

So now that I am on my high horse about writing making you a better writer, I better work at writing more. So while my code checks in at work, I'll take some time to do some updating here. Jason and I have a goal to write 4-5 times a week. Jason is working on starting a new blog. I'll post it here when he gets more in a rhythm of writing on it, but I can tell you so far it's *very* funny.

It must be funny as a parent when you see your kid acting a lot like you. Even more funny is when the kid realizes that they have so much of their parents in them. My dad is slightly stressed these days as he deals with some apartment renting drama and getting ready to go back into teaching after 4 years of retirement. Jason and I have been laughing because I'll question why he is acting the way he is and Jason just looks at me and say, "Really? You don't see it?" I'll step back and laugh when I realize that there is just about no difference between the way he is acting and the way I would respond to the same situation. My mom called me the other day and told me she fell off her bike and her knee swelled up. Not only did she finish her planned bike ride, but added on a couple miles for good measure. Yeah. How many times have I gone out running injured, just to get 5 or 6 miles out and have to hobble home in pain because I couldn't take the day off.

We are naming our daughter Lucille Jean after my two grandmothers and recently I realized how much of those two woman are in me. Lucille was my dad's mom and Jean is my mom's mom. I was knitting the other day and my dad said, "If my mom was here she would say, oh put that down and let's go to Wrigley Field". I laughed and said, "Yeah well my other grandmother would be fixing all these mistakes that I made." Not that I don't wish that I could be a every Cubs game because I do. My Dad's mom died when I was only 9 months old so I never met her (or that I remember anyways), but from the stories I have heard about her we are a lot alike. My mom's mom was always around when I was growing up and while me and her tended to disagree a lot some of her has seeped into me. Unfortunately, she is doing very badly these days as she struggles with the end stages of Alzheimer's and I think about how much she would have liked playing with Baby Lucy and it makes me sad that she won't be around to see her grow up. Or moreso see me being a mom.

But then I step back and I realize that she is in me. And Lucy will have some of that. And thus it continues down the line. We are all made up of the people that came before us. Now, I wonder what Lucy will be like with the crazy of the LeahC side and the calmness of the JasonR side. Maybe intense but calm about it? She'll be an oxymoron that's for sure and I can't wait to find out!

5 Years Ago

2009-08-13T08:01:00.003-05:00

We were getting ready to get married! I can't believe that great days was 5 years ago. So much has changed since then, most of all of course is my ever expanding stomach. So happy anniversary JasonR, I can't wait for the next stage of our life together.

Lucy is kicking like a fool these days which is fun although I think people I work with think I'm crazy because sometimes I'll just lean back and start staring at my belly. I think people are like, what is that woman doing. But since it took me so damn long to feel her in the first place I love it and I can't help it!

So you must all remember the shattered iPhone incident. Jason and his nerd boys at his company thought that they could replace the glass with a $22 kit they got off eBay. Since my shattered iPhone was in a way worse state than Jason's iPhone we decided to try mine first and then if it didn't work I'd get a new one and he would still have a functioning phone. Well shockingly it didn't work. I actually thought it would work, but oh well, it's only money right. So after work yesterday we walked acros the street and I got a new iPhone 3Gs. Oh and a case this time. I didn't get the big case because well it was huge, and I don't want the iPhone to turn into a spaceship. But I got some kind of protecting thing for it...hopefully if i drop it the case will break and not the phone this time.

The 3Gs does seem a lot snappier in speed than the 3G. The battery is already proving to last longer, and of course the camera upgrades are great. Plus there is the video camera. Which is fun.

My dad and stepmom are having a good time in Chicago. They are actually looking for a furnished condo to rent (the deal they had looks like it's fallen through). If anyone out there has a lead on such a place please let me know by e-mailing jasonleahrun@gmail.com.

I took a bunch of pictures of Jason running at the Rock and Roll 1/2 marathon and you can see them all by going to my smugmug gallery here.

A Bit Short

2009-08-11T08:17:00.003-05:00

So I have been a bit short of breath these days. According to my pregnancy book this is totally normal, but no less annoying. It's nothing crazy either like I'm gasping for breath. I'll mention it when I see my doctor tomorrow. Tomorrow is our 24 week appointment where I will do this glucose screening test. I have to drink some orange drink (the doctor said it tastes kind of like Fanta...I say she's not telling the full truth) and then they will draw blood within 1 hour of that. If that comes back negative I'm good to go. If it comes back positive I'll have to do some other kind of 3 hour test where I have to stay there and they'll pull my blood every so often during that 3 hour period. I'm hoping I pass with flying colors on the first round.

My Dad and stepmom are safely in town and already being put on lots of little odd jobs around my apartment. Although they both start real jobs in the next few weeks so they'll be a little busy with that (and a little anxious these days ...not that I'm talking about anyone specific...not you Dad ;) ).

With them here and all the stuff that still has to get done I'm thinking time will start to fly by. They are staying with us for the next couple weeks and then will move down the street to their awesome place on Addison and Sheridan. After they move out we can start getting the baby's room in order (it's very fun calling it the baby's room). We are getting rid of our guest bed and moving a desk into our room and thus need to rearrage our bedroom as well. We are going to paint in the room and we have a lot of things to hang on the wall, and we want to figure out some clever lighting solutions. We thought about keeping the desk in the room and making it a joint nursery/office, but decided that we want that room to be for baby only and a nice room that we can hang with them in if we want to.

Baby showers galore coming up and so we've been working on our registry. Thankfully my friend Jean is about 9 weeks ahead of me and has taken a lot of classes and knows a lot about things I should really make sure I have and things I hadn't thought about.

Jason and I went "running" yesterday. I use the word running fairly loosly these days. We walk to the lakefront path (1 mile) then run out a mile and back a mile and then walk the 1 mile back home for a total of 4 miles of activity. The running isn't easy (for obvious) reasons so I'm just doing my best and walk if I feel like I need to. I figure I ran about 1.5 miles of the 2 yesterday. Since I haven't been as consistant with the running as I would have liked I'm having non-pregnancy issues like sore legs and some shin splints. It really helps to have someone to run with me though as I can make sure I'm not going to hard and I just feel more comfortable knowing if something were to happen someone is there. So we'll go again Wednesday. Now that Jason is done with his training for the 1/2 he is free to run with me full time. And I want to try and run 3-4 times a week and see how that goes.

24 weeks means 16 to go. That's the amount of time from when I found out I was pregnant till the 20 week untra sound. Which went pretty fast....although this time I'm going to be much more whale like and slow so I'm guessing time won't be moving as fast. Good thing there is so much to do before Little Lu gets here!

How Jason Shattered His Time Goal...

2009-08-03T15:50:00.003-05:00

OR..

The Day My iPhone Shattered.

Jason did really well in the rock and roll half marathon. I did a good job spectating, even though I was pretty sad about being on the sidelines for the race. I stood outside Jason's corral at the beginning and then I ran around so that I could see him within the first 1/4 mile. Then I saw him at Mile 5, Mile 11, Mile 13.05. Then LeahC (TheJackass) arrived. I really wanted to cross the line when he did even though I would only be on the outside of the race itself, but then I could yell at him and be like YAYA YOU ARE A ROCK STAR. So I took off sprinting (and I could have kept up with him for the 0.05 miles that was left), iPhone in my backpocket, giant camera around my neck, back pack on my back..

And I'm moving. For a non-pregnant lady I'm sprinting pretty fast...for a pregnant lady whoah, I was on it. When all of a sudden. That little feeling following by something falling on the ground. It was the iPhone. I have dropped that sucker millions of times so I thought no big deal, it'll be fine. Then I picked it up and saw this.

I am kinda sad about it. On the other. It's just stuff. Stuff is replacable AND the things still works. So until it utterly stops working I'm not going to do anything about it.

Jason ran a 1:55:something and had a goal of 2:00:00 so that's super awesome. He would write a race report but in addition the 45 hours he's working this week he's moonlighting on a C# project as a contractor for many many hours a night so we won't hear from him or see him for the next few days. Even those that live with him. Not that either of us are that upset about it because it's a) a great opportunity and b) extra cash is nice (especially after my trip to the dentist last week...grrrr).

So busy busy times around these parts. Another crazy deadline on a new project at work so lots of long hours for me too.

My Dad flys in on Thursday!!! And this time not only for a month or a week of time. This time it's for 18 months! I am thinking that I'll be able to calm down a bit with him here because when my parents are around things seem to settle down more. Plus with my dad and stepmom around things will really get rolling for Lucy's arrival.

So right. It's Monday. Here's to Tuesday!

I Especially Like This

2009-07-30T16:31:00.003-05:00

Because last Christmas at the end of Christmas morning we had in our possesion

A star wars popup book
Lots of Legos
Sock Puppet Making Kit
Several video games

Sleep?

2009-07-29T07:46:00.003-05:00

No thanks I'll just be tired.

GRRRRRRRRR. Wow what a bad nights sleep last night

Working late and early this week and I am of course only drinking one to two cups of coffee. And even if I was able to drink more coffee this tired is not even breakable with coffee.

I'm so stressed out these days. I tend to get stressed out at times and then every little thing feels like a monolithic mess even if it's something as small as cleaning up a bedroom. Because in my head it's not cleaning up a bedroom. It's perfectly organizing all the crap in every corner of the room and making sure that I don't keep stuff I shouldn't keep or throw away things that I should be keeping. IT DOESN'T MATTER. IT'S JUST SOME CLEANING. THROW SHIT AWAY, KEEP OTHER SHIT. OR THROW IT ALL OUT. IT. DOESN'T. MATTER.

I have been missing working with Jason too these last few days. We worked together for 6 years and it was great. Not all the time. There were times when we were like.....um. GET AWAY FROM ME. But 90% of the time it was the best. He's my best friend and the best coworker I have ever had and sometimes I just miss working with him. Plus with the busy and the evening classes and all the stuff we have been doing, I feel like we haven't seen each other that much these last few weeks.

ANYWAYS. IN SHORT. It's been a stressful few weeks for LeahCMomToBe. But for no real good reason. Lack of sleep is contributor, and I have to try and get better sleep at night. But I don't know what to do when I just keep waking up.

Alright. The build is done and thus I must go see what's on the plate for today.

Running and Weekend Update

2009-07-27T08:32:00.005-05:00

Well this is still by definition a running blog. And so perhaps one of us should talk about running instead of baby things.

Jason is running the Rock and Roll 1/2 marathon on Sunday. We both signed up for this race back in April when we were trying to get pregnant but didn't want to not do things or sign up for things just because I *could* be pregnant at the time. This goes for the super cute super skinny jeans that I bought too. Yeah, I got like 3 weeks of wear out of those guys. ANYWAYS. I am obviously not running the 1/2 marathon on Sunday but Jason is.

His training has been....eh...well yeah. eh. He has a pretty loose time goal and we have been busy this summer and he has been enjoying running with me, even though I'm slow and so probably didn't do all of his runs at the paces he should have done them at. He's missed some training runs but has consistently gotten in the important speed workouts and long runs. His 12 mile run on Sunday went really well coming in at about 9:30 min/miles which should translate to about a 2hr 1/2 marathon. Hopefully it's not too hot this weekend and he can go out there at a quick but comfortable pace and enjoy himself. This is the first time that he has raced without me and I'm sad that I won't be running with him.

As far as my running goes, I've been enjoying these lower ligament stretching pains which seem to come out more when I'm running. They annoy me to no end. And I miss running far and easy so much. I now walk quickly to the lakefront path. I think it helps to get my heart rate up and moving before I start running, then I just run a mile out and a mile back. I think I could go three on the path but it was really warm on Sunday morning and I get worried that something could go wrong and I would be out there without any support. Jason will be able to run with me more starting next week when he doesn't have training runs to do and so that should help a bit.

I was super busy last week and so I didn't run at all during the week, and so just ran on Sunday. Hoping to do better this week. We are walking home from work today, tomorrow we have dinner out, Wednesday I have a knitting class....SO maybe I'll do Thursday and Saturday. Then I have to get ready to cheer and chase Jason around the course on Sunday.

Had a great weekend. Got to see friends on Friday, stayed up till 2:30am (!!!!!!) but I still got up at 6:30 in the morning. After breakfast we went and checked out the Newberry Library Book fair, stumbled home because guess what.....I can't get 4 hours of sleep anymore! My cousin came by and picked up some stuff, and then when they left I tipped over on the couch and slept for 3-4 hours. Jason and I realized we hadn't seen each other for most of the week and so decided to stay home and be lazy for the rest of Saturday night. I got a ton of knitting done on a fair isle stocking I'm making (fair isle knitting is really fun and tons easier than I thought it would be). Pictures of the finished product to be featured.

Sunday we went to Indiana to visit with my mom who is in town for the week and her husband's family. His son lives on a farm near Fowler, IN and wow, is it funny when the city mice visit the country mice. They have a ton of animals and I am hoping that next summer when I'm not pregnant they could teach Jason and I how to ride horses.

And thus it is Monday. Happy start of the week.

First Half of the Last Half

2009-07-24T08:16:00.004-05:00

You know...that part. You've crossed the half marathon point and you are all, "Whoah I'm halfway done!" Then you run another block and you go, "Holy hell, I'm only 1/2 way done." Then you put your head down for the next 6 miles or so and look out for that 20 mile marker where you can feel like there could be a possibility of an end in sight.

I hate that part of the race.

I got better at racing it as the years went on, but I never enjoyed that part. Especially in the Chicago marathon as miles 13-17 are not the most exciting parts of the race.

So I just finished week 22 of this pregnancy, so I'm finding it very similar to that point in a marathon. Wow, it looks like she'll never get here! I know I know we have a ton to do and the time will fly and blah blah blah. But that doesn't make it seem any less endless right now.

My friend Corey once told me that when she was pregnant she just missed wearing jeans and drinking coffee. I totally feel that. I have two maternity skirts and a couple of pair of shorts. AND I'M SO SICK OF THEM. I want to wear regular jeans. I know it's stupid. But I love jeans. I love MY jeans. With buttons, not elastic. And coffee ooooh the pots of coffee how I miss them. With all the extra work I've been doing and classes I've been taking I could use more than one cup of coffee....and I might have mentioned it here before, but they say that excess caffiene lowers head circumference and birth weight. Now looking at what I need to do in the 18 weeks or so, those seems like two good things. Especially with the head size that runs in my family. Perhaps Lucy will have her father's perfect normal size head.

So yeah, for me being in the first half of the last half is a little annoying, but then last night I had my hand on my stomach and Lucy gave me a nice big kick. Which was nice.

Hey Little Lucy

2009-07-21T08:21:00.003-05:00

How's it hanging in mom's uterus? Good? Comfy? I know you don't like sour filled twizzlers or when I sleep on my back so I'm trying my best to stop the sleeping on the back thing. Wow do you know how to cause some pain little girl. I know it's not you...but rather you sitting on all my vital organs. Don't worry I still like you a whole lot.

So I'm guessing you are wondering why we are naming you Lucy. Well actually your full name will be Lucille Jean, and those two names come from my grandmothers. Now you are going to say,"But Mooooooom that name hit it's peak of popularity in 1910, don't you know it's a century later." To which I'll respond, well the Cubs haven't won the World Series is *over* a century, so consider yourself lucky. Also the name Lucy is making a comeback as it's currently listed at number 112 in popularity, so you'll have that going for you. Plus you get lots of cute nicknames : Lu, Luce, Lucy, Lulu, and of course when you're bad the full on Lucille will come out. But you are never going to be bad so we won't have to worry about that. Right now your Dad and I are enjoying calling you Little Lucy.

I am enjoying being with you very much these days. They say that the 2nd trimester is the best part of the pregnancy and I have to agree with these people. I have a ton of energy and doing all kinds of things. I'm working late hours at the office, taking knitting classes, meeting friends for movies in the park and all kinds of other exciting things that fill most hours of the day. I like when you let me know you are in there, it's such a strange feeling but I really enjoy it.

This weekend your Baba will be home and she will for sure be talking to my belly (well she'll be talking to you *through* my belly...which at this point I say is still just at my belly and kind of weird). Then in two weeks your grandpa and grandma Sue will be coming home to stay with us for awhile. They will be with us for about a month and then they'll just be living about a 1/2 mile away. You'll be seeing a lot of them in the upcoming year.

Alright, well my 30 minute build at work has finished and so I need to figure out if my changes are the things that were breaking things last night.....probably but I don't see why they would. Alright, kiddo enjoy the rest of the day!

It's an X, so a gal is next

2009-07-16T21:39:00.007-05:00

Hey Lucy* -

Your mother just called me over to the fridge to look at your first baby picture. Do you remember? You were 8 weeks old and not quite two centimeters tall (long? wide?) and now you're so big you make your mother's ligaments stretch and force her to make the occasional old lady noise.

Wait, what's that? Oh, right, the name. Yeah, you're a girl! We just found out today! I guess I just assumed you knew, but I suppose it's dark in there and you're probably not coordinated enough to feel around. Plus, sex ed isn't until 6th grade, so you wouldn't even know what a boy part or a girl part is. Well, you have the girl parts and so you're a girl. YAY!

Now that we know what you are (and as it slowly sinks in), it's getting really exciting. I like to think about all the things you're going to do while you grow up. You can put on routines with your cousins at family gatherings (3 hours of preparation, 30 minutes of arguing, 14 seconds of routine). You can dance around the apartment to whatever crap pop music 11 year olds listen to 11 years from now (although if we have our way, you'll just listen to the oldies like your loser parents). And, of course, you can go to Cubs games. Just like your mom when she was a little girl.

It's going to be a blast.

One interesting little fact is that, if our 3D ultrasound is to be trusted, you look exactly like your mother. I'm not sure about the eyes, but everything that below is exactly your mother. You have her nose, mouth, and chin...but hopefully not her teeth. You know, you could do a lot worse. As it just so happens, your mother is quite the looker, so you're already off to a good start already.

Oh, and the Cubs won on your Gender Day, so you've got that going for you. Which is nice.

Pictures of you:

(* we're 99% sure you're a Lucy, but reserve the right to name you Mabel or Mirabelle should you look like one of those name)

Today is the Day

2009-07-16T06:18:00.002-05:00

Well, littlest one...in about 2 hours we'll know if you are a boy or a girl and if you are a healthy one of those. Last night you suddenly got a lot more real, because I said to your dad, wow tomorrow we'll have a son or a daughter.....which sounds like it takes a lot more responsibility than I'm pregnant with an 'it'. I don't know why, but it had me freaked out a little bit.

Our appointment is at 8am, and I know you don't love to be awake in the morning, so if you can make sure that your important parts are facing the right way so that we can see what you are that would be great. Also if you could give you mom a little dance that also would be appreciated. While I don't think you are a weeble wobble anymore...I would still like to see those arms and legs moving. Yes...you read that right, when I wasn't feeling you move I thought you were a weeble wobble, that might be mean, but your dad responded to that bit of crazy with well that's not going to be fun to play catch with. You'll see. He's really funny.

Alright, well I am off to give you some honey nut cheerios, and start drinking some water as apparently they need a full bladder for this deal. Can't wait to see you!

2 Weeks later...

2009-07-12T17:19:00.002-05:00

means that I'm at the 20 week mark. oooooh baby! 1/2 way there. I'm feeling the best I have felt yet in this pregnancy and finally starting to enjoy it a bit. The baby is wiggling around in there and so that's been fun. Jason can even feel it if he touches my stomach. He'll say, wait was that it, and I'll say...yeah I think so, I felt something too.

Running has been good....or maybe "good" is the right word. I went running on Tuesday for 4 miles and had some pain and annoyances during the last mile so I had to run and walk. Today I went three and felt a lot better so I might shortening my runs down a bit. Jason's runs have been fine. He hasn't been on top of the training as maybe he should be, but he's getting enough runs in. He had 10 miles today and I guess it went pretty good.

Work has been busy for both of us which makes the weeks go pretty fast.

Today Jason is 30 (! 30!!! people really live that long) and he's currently playing Fallout 3 on the new Playstation 3 that his awesome wife organized to get for him. Yay for fun kid presents when you are an adult...and an old adult too!

My Dad and stepmom come home in 26 days (that's almost here!) and I can't wait for them to get here. My Dad is planning on running the Chicago marathon in 2010 and he's already really jazzed up about it. He's been running down in the islands and hasn't had any muscle stiffness...how about that for a 59 year old man. Oh yeah....his birthday is today too! It's been fun reading about his runs. He's up to about 30 minutes now, and when he started about 2 months ago, I think he could run for a few minutes. Like I always say...just move that stick slowly and you'll get there faster than you think. Look out for a joint father daughter running blog in the near future.

Thursday is our 20 week ultrasound and so we'll get to know a) that everything is ok with the little one and b) find out the gender!!! I am so so so excited about this appointment. We weren't going to find out what was in there and then realized that 40 weeks is a long long time and so finding out was a nice thing to look forward to. Plus with all the knitting that I've been doing lately I want to knit some gender specific clothing.

So that's all from JasonLeahRun land.

Well...that was Busy!

2009-06-29T06:57:00.004-05:00

With a capital 'B'.

This weekend was chock full of all kinds of crazy things. On Friday I went to loopy yarns for their Friday night knit along. My cousin is having a baby *any* day now and the baby blanket I'm making for them has to be done by the time I head down to their area for the holiday weekend. So I got a ton done on that on Friday and actually just finished it up last night. Just have to bind off, weave in that last end and it'll be done. And by it being done it means my biggest project to date will be done.

Saturday morning we woke up at 5am because I wanted to go downtown to take some pictures in the early morning light. The photoblog is in the process of being revived, although with the holiday weekend I'll probably miss some more days this weekend. This weekend postings, if you missed them, were these two:

Modern Wing

Tiny & Swiss

Ok, so before we went downtown we were sitting in our living room contemplating actually going downtown at 5am when someone started tring to get into our apartment. We were like...um...hello? A girl was like, yeah I need to go to the bathroom. I was like...well OK, but we can't really help you with that. She said she was looking for the bacherlette party, and I told her that our apartment wasn't it. She started to go upstairs were I knew there wasn't going to be that kind of party either. I asked her if she was in the right building she said she was and went back downstairs. Turns out she was just confused as our downstairs neighbor came and apologized last night. Kinda funny though.

OK, so then downtown. Pictures and breakfast at Yolk and then I was suddenly inspired to finally rearrange our living room with some ideas I had awhile back. So it was back home and, since we got up at 5am, it was only like 8:30am. So we moved all the furniture around and took things off shelves and found a *great great* arrangement for everything. Giving us more space even though we added a desk unit to the room. We did, however, have to run out and get some things from Home Depot and Best Buy, so back to the red line, south a few stops. Walk all over there. Then back home. Then finishing putting things away, and then whew it was all done at about 3pm. At which point the Cubs were on, so I layed down to watch them and was out instantly for like 2 hours. Wow! Saturday night we watched a movie and just relaxed in what seemed like a new apartment.

On Sunday we got up early again. Jason had a 9 mile long run and I had my usual 4 miles. I don't know if it was all the walking/working/moving on Saturday but my run did not go well. I kept looking at all these couples running together and all these girls that were really thin and fit, and since my run wasn't going so well I just felt like a big fat whale out there. I know I know, I'm pregnant and this time is so "magical" but I wasn't feeling the magic. I miss running with Jason and I miss running fast and I miss being able to fit into my clothes. Maybe if the baby was moving more or something I would all, "ooooh being pregnant is magical". It IS moving I think.....but I want it to move like all the time and that doesn't happen. Plus I move so damn much and walk so much it probably isn't getting a chance to move or at least let me know it's moving. I did feel a lot of something when I was reading a Lee Child book last night...maybe the baby just likes Jack Reacher...just like the rest of it's family.

Anyways. I was done before Jason and he came over and was like, "OOOOH YOU LOOK SO CUTE" He thinks it's funny because when I face him when he's running towards me I don't look pregnant at all, and then I'll turn to the side and he says my stomach is like a door opening. He came up to me and was like, how'd it go? And then I started crying. Just a little crying though and then he gave me a hug and we walked back home.

Sunday was the Gay Pride parade and we went to our usual place to watch it. It's a bar that we used to hang out at *a lot* when we were 21-22 years old. Everyone that went there then comes back for the parade so it's always a fun day with a lot of, "HEY, so how was your last year?". We watched the Parade but holy hell is it long. Doesn't seem so long when you're a few vodka lemonades into the day. We saw all of our favorite floats, but missed the school that was marching this year for the first time. I was surprised that they weren't towards the front of the parade. From the parade we walked to the lake to sit for a few minutes. Then, realizing how hot and exhausted we were, decided to walk back home - first going another 1/2 mile or so North to hit a grocery store. So we got some foods and then walked back through all the crowds. We got home at about 4pm. I layed down on the couch...and what do you know. Fell asleep for about an hour.

So whew. I'm kind of exhausted just writing that post. Time for me to get ready for work, and Jason to proof read this (ed note: done). Then work time! Short week this week because of the holiday and the 4 days (!!!!) at my Aunt's lake house! I can't wait!

Betting on the ponies

2009-06-24T06:53:00.002-05:00

Hey, it seems that I get to celebrate a new holiday now. Yay! That holiday, of course, is Father's day. And so, on Father's day Leah, our little in utero baby and I went out to Arlington to lay a few bets down and win the baby a college fund! And to be clear, that would be Arlington Park, not Arlington National Cemetary. I'm pretty sure gambling is illegal at the cemetary ("alright, I've got five dollars on Patton to rise from the grave in 2012").

I'd never been to the race trace before, but it was awesome! It's a lot different than I expected. It was a really pretty park with lots of areas to walk around and lots of greenery/flowers. It definitely had the feel of something out of an older time. Or more southern time. Or something. But we were there to play the ponies, not tree-gaze, and play then we did. And we were serious about it. For all our races, we studies the program up and down, compared it with the paper, and made our picks. We had theories. Theories based on facts and science. We were betting animals.

And we won! In a sense. I mean, we basically won. That is, by the end of the night, I had winnings in my pocket. 16 big dollars and 20 cents were ours to keep after 8 races. Woo Hoo! And yes, we had to bet 80 dollars to win 16, but that's still a return on investment. It's not technically a positive return on investment, but I think it still counts.

Oh, and all those 16 dollars go towards the baby. Congrats, baby, you're in the money.

I just hope you're okay with a state school.

Oh, and I also ran yesterday in what I would call an oppressive heat. It was 90 degrees out when I got home from work and I had 8 x 400 speedwork to get in. Guh. But I did it, although somewhat slower than a couple weeks ago. I may not be getting in all my extra miles, but I'm getting in the speed work and long runs and I think that'll get me through the race in August.

Heartbeat! Running! No Moving :(

2009-06-22T12:33:00.002-05:00

So yes as you saw in our last post we amazingly got to hear the heart beating. It was so great to hear it right away and not have a problem finding it. Makes me calm down *a little*. Not a lot mind you, but just a little. I am really looking forward to the 20 week ultrasound where we can make sure that everything in on track development wise as well as find out the gender. I care more about the first part of that, and the gender will just be a nice little bonus.

I haven't felt the baby move yet. I know I know, it's early and why would I assume that something is wrong when everything else looks good. It's not that I think that something is wrong, I would just like to be assured that everything is fine. Plus it might be moving at night and I am a really really hard sleeper and so I might not wake up when the thing is most active. But where are the damn "bubbles" I'm supposed to have. GRR.

Even if the baby is lacking on the active, I've continued to be active however. I ran 4 miles 3 times last week and ran about 42 minutes on Saturday which is the best it has gone for me since the pregnancy started. I wonder if it's like training. I'm mean I'm not "training" but I'm running about the same distance and so I would think that the training and the weight gain will offset each other for awhile and so I'll be able to keep on running well and feel more comfortable as time goes on. Eventually of course this will not be the case and my mileage will probably be cutting back/I'm going to slow down a bit. But until I feel really bad I'm going to keep on keepin' on with the 3-4 miles, 3-4 days a week.

Jason's training is going pretty well. Since it's not a race he particularly cares about he's not as strict about runs as he would be if the race mattered (needed it to qualify, working for a PR). That way he can drop some of his run and run with me if he wants to. I like when he runs with me, especially with the weather getting warmer I feel better having him next to me. Plus it's more fun.

It looks like summer has finally come to Chicago with degrees in the 80s for the next 10 days. I love summer in this city and so I welcome it and the heat with open arms.

Two senses down, three to go

2009-06-17T20:41:00.002-05:00

...although touch, smell, and taste will have to wait for another five months or so. And I'm not so much looking forward to smell. Guh.

Oh, yeah, I'm talking about you, baby. We heard your heart beat today! 160 amazing beats per minute! It went whoo whoo whoo (not to be confused with a train, which goes choo choo choo). But before I get too carried away, let me back up a bit.

Today we had our 16 week appointment where, once again, we were going to try to hear your heartbeat. Last time, as you may remember, you were not terribly cooperative. I don't know if you were hiding behind a bowel or something, but we couldn't get any reading at all. And your mother...didn't take it well. Given this, we were naturally somewhat nervous going into this appointment and I was a bit concerned that your mother might be facing another slight freakout (really, a teeny tiny freakout. hardly worth talking about). But this time the doctor lubed up your mommy's belly and threw down the little wand thingy and...

WHOO WHOO WHOO

"A little front and center diva," remarked the doctor. Yep, you were happy to comply this time. Probably because you didn't want to make your mother worry this time.

(thanks)

In other news, this doctor - the third in the practice we've seen so far - was fantastic! She was so nice and you mother just clicked with her. Combining the great doctor with the great heart noises and we just had a great doctor's appointment. Good stuff.

In four more months we're going to find out if you're a boy or a girl, but I think you already know. If not, just take a look down. If it's an innie, you're a girl. Outie and you're a boy. And don't get fooled by the umbilical cord. That's a common mistake. Okay, now, if you're a boy, blink once.

Did you blink? Wait, try it again.

Wait. This isn't working.

Damn. I guess we're just going to have to wait four more weeks.

(and sorry for saying damn. Daddy said a bad word)

Happy developing!

-Dad

Maternity Running Clothes!

2009-06-15T20:39:00.004-05:00

My stepmom sent me some running clothes for preggo ladies and for the first time since this pregnancy started I thought I looked cute when I looked in the mirror. I love love loved the clothes and I'm excited to have more specific running clothes to accommodate my growing belly. The official belly picture (which has really changed in the last week...although it might be the pose + the different shorts) with the usual outfit can be found at smugmug, but I wanted to show off the running clothes here.

Also. I wanted to show off me being crazy because fun is fun and wacky is wacky and I'm both. I think the kid will like it's mother :)