Quick Week

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.

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.

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!

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?

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

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

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

Testing the iPhone app called blogpress.



-- Post From My iPhone

Write More to Write Better.

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

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

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...

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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!

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

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 :(

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

...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!

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 :)

Baby's First Art Fair

This morning I opted out of running to try to get over this cold that is plaguing my system. In super exciting news (ok, it's not exciting at all unless you're me....or your pregnant and understand the waking up in the middle of the night), I slept through the night...FOR TWO STRAIGHT NIGHTS! I think I needed to get some good sleep so that my body could fight the cold and it seems to be working. So I didn't run and instead reshut my eyes on the couch while Jason ran.

After he got home we both got ready to go and walked out to the Wells street art fair. We were talking about how next summer we would have a baby with us (that's you in my tummy right now!) and how much fun that would be. We stopped at Fleet Feet on the way and pushed around the baby joggers that they have. Wow are those pricey.....but I know the little nugget would enjoy the ride in it. I mean the thing had shocks on the wheels. I think that's something that you don't want to skimp on either. Especially since we'll be using it A LOT next summer. I think that's the only thing I have really thought about getting for the baby....I mean diapers and stuff sure....but running jogger = #1.

So to the baby...

We are right now sitting on our back porch and your Daddy is blowing on the charcoal to try and get it to relight. You'll think it's normal to use a bottle of lighter fluid when you grill and I'm here to tell you that when there is a fire 5 feet tall coming out of a grill that is only like 1 foot in diamter that's not right. We gotta find those damn matchlight charcoals.....

The people upstairs from us are a really great older couple who have a puppy named Murphy. The man is from Brazil and they are always outside enjoying the city. Right now they are playing some really good music and asked if it was bothering us. I said no way we think it's great! I hope we become like that when we grow up. Yes your mother is almost 30 and still wonders what's she'll be like "when she grows up".

We were talking about you today and how excited we are for your arrival and how much fun you are going to have growing up in this city. Sometimes it'll get to you, I'm not going to lie. But we are going to make sure we take lots of camping trips so that you know there is a big world outside of this big city.

You are 16 weeks along today. which means that we'll all get to meet you in a short 24 weeks. Wel that doesn't sound short at all...but it's now less than a half a year so it's an improvement. We go see the doctor on Wednesday and your mom is hoping that she's a big calmer this time around...or at least is planning on talking to the doctor about dealing with my nerves when I'm there.

So I hope you enjoyed your long walk today. I probably over did it...I mean it was 8-10 miles..but until you complain louder, I'm going to say it was ok.

Alright, enjoy your development in week 17. If you feel like giving me a big ole' kick go for it! I can't wait to feel you moving around in there!

Grr. I love sharing but

...did you have to share your cold?

While Leah's cold rages on into week two, it seems that I've managed to pick it up as well. Thanks, babe! On the plus side, I'm not pregnant (we think), so it's not such a big deal. Just annoying. And unlike Leah's new pregnant-lady immune system, mine will hopefully actually do something.

(*fingers crossed*)

So, since I last wrote, my training went a bit wonky. I still got my speed-work in and most of my runs, but I did miss my long run and a couple of mid-week runs. Boo. I hate missing long runs. But, there will be others (eight miles next week) and, as I said, at least I got in my speed work. Last night was 7 x 400 and it went just fine. Wait, hold on...

Sorry, had to cough up some phlegm. I'm good now.

Anyway, that's about it as far as my running goes. Leah's been running as much as her cold has allowed, cranking out another three last night. And let me just tell you how impressed I am with her dedication to keeping it slow. We all know Leah's need for speed, so she's making a real sacrifice with the whole slow and steady thing. Yay, Leah! Way to be responsible!

I can't wait until the baby's out and we can stop acting like responsible adults.

Baby's current status: Hiding behind a uterine wall.

Sweat it Out...Really?

I must be an athlete from the 80s because after having a horrible day at work feeling like crud, and ending up really cranky I decided to go running when we got home thinking I could maybe sweat the sick out. And actually....I feel a ton better. I don't know if it was just a week of laying around feeling crappy and staying indoors was making it worse, but I think that the sweat it out might actually do something.

So Jason and I ran together for the first 2 miles and then he went ahead of me and did another 2 miles at faster than a snails pace and I kept nice and slow for my last mile or so. I went a bit over three miles though, probably around 3.5 or so. We won't run tonight because we are getting our hair cut. But we'll be back on it tomorrow. I'll probably do an *exciting* three or so miles and Jason has a 7 x 400m speed workout going on.

So I'm 15 weeks + some number of days pregnant and I have been doing the belly photos after our runs on Sunday. I only started doing it at 13 weeks because really there wasn't anything to show before then. So you can check out my smugmug gallery to see the pictures so far. And I'll make sure to post them here in the future.

Still Pregnant..But

SICK!

What the hell. I have now been sick with some kind of head cold or something for a week. I never get sick and when I do I get better in about a day or two, and now I'm STILL sick. I don't find it frustrating at all. Grr.

I guess I can't heal as fast as I usually do when I'm sick when I'm pregnant? I don't know but it's utterly and totally irritating. Jason started feeling sick this weekend as well but he was already feeling better this morning.

Even with being sick all weekend we still fit in a lot of stuff. On Saturday we went to The Melrose for big breakfast and then walked to Oz park to check out the chalk festival which was pretty cool. I think a lot of people opted to not show up because of the forecasted rain, but it was still amazing to see what artists can do with sidewalk chalk. I can draw like a rainbow and a hopscotch board and that's about it so I'm always amazed by artists. Later Saturday my good friends popped by with their two little kids to say hi. It's always fun to see those kids and when they come over I am always reminded about how un-babyproof our apartment is...good thing there is a lot of time to get that together.

Sunday my aunt came over and we went to the Printer's Row book fair where Jason and I bought about 5 books..usually we don't find anything because there is just too much stuff but lucked out and got some books we've been looking for at used prices. After the book fair we headed back to our apartment and watched Wall-E on blue ray and had some bbq dinner. although our charcoal was totally ruined (how does rain get into a plastic tupperware thing) and so we had to cook the meat on the stove...ah well it was still all delicious.

No running for me since I've been feeling like poop and looking forward to feeling better so I can get running again! well that and so I can stop feeling like poop. Did I mention I hate being sick.

Full Weekend

Well kids, it looks like LeahC is back (well....almost I guess) to her pre-pregnancy fighting self. As I'm sure we all remember before the ever expanding tummy came to be I would be busy and have a million things planned on our weekends and we would go for epic long walks just to have stuff to do. Then the first trimester came and everyone asked, "Where did LeahC go?", as I would be asleep on the couch for most of the weekends, and forget doing anything after work.

Last week I finally finally started feeling better. It's like when you are sick and you think you'll never get better and then when you do it's like...oh wow, the cloud lifted and I'm all better now. Very similar feeling to entering the 2nd trimester...at least for me. And while I still don't feel like myself, it's a ton ton better.

This weekend was full of good stuff. On Saturday morning I got a facial at a spa in Wicker Park and from that Jason and I walked downtown where I had a knitting class at 1pm. It's such a good walk and one of the things we miss the most about living over on the west side was how easy it was to walk downtown. On the way we stopped at the Blommer Chocolate factory and picked up some treats and holy hell does that place make a good chocolate. Jason and I both highly recommend the dark chocolate covered pretzels.

After knitting (where I finished a sock! yay me!), we took the train back home and got ready for dinner and then took the bus back to the bucktown area where we met some friends for dinner at Club Lucky. Fun kids to hang out with and hoping to hang out with them more in the future. We got home at like 11pm (I know! It's like I'm up with the big kids!) and Jason had a few martini's with dinner and wasn't feeling the get up at 6:30 to race a race that doesn't really matter. So we scratched the race from our Sunday dance card and started watching Terminator 2 (we are on a Terminator kick in preparation for seeing the newst movie).

We still got up early on Sunday...ok ok, I got up early on Sunday and the proceeded to jump on the bed until Jason got up. We went for breakfast at Ann Sathers (always delicious) and then headed home and decided to read on our back porch. As soon as I sat down in our papazon chair on the porch with the sun hitting me, my eyelids suddenly weighed a few tons and I was out for the count. So we each took some naps. After which Jason decided that since he already blew the race he might as well blow it totally and decided to run with me for my slow 4 miles. Feeling better in general makes for feeling better as I run as well. I wonder how long I'll be able to run in this pregnancy. I hope for the whole thing as I just feel so so much better when I'm running.

After the run we went for a walk to Lincoln park to enjoy the weather and then we were sufficiently all walked out. We had a relaxing evening at home, watched the Cubs get pummled by the Dodgers, tried to not throw things at the the TV in annoyance at the ESPN announces. We know, we know, they are the best team in baseball, they score the most runs in the national league....BUT really....Mr. Morgan? You think that Juan Pierre is a better player than Manny Ramirez and would rather have him in the line up. They kept talking about his first at bat...how about the second where he struck out in 3 pitches (that's the Juan Pierre I remember from the Cubs). Seriously it was just a Dodger love fest for 3 hours....well I'm assuming they continued the same behavior because we gave up on them and watched some recorded DVR instead.

It's rainy and crappy Monday today and I'm happy that the crap weather held out until Monday and let us have a nice weekend to play in.

Wednesday Speedwork

Yesterday Coach Leah and I slowly made our way out to the lakefront, cruising at a nice warmup pace. Once we arrived at the lakefront, we...

Hey, where's Coach Leah going? LEAH! Oh yeah, she's heading home to finish out her run and get dinner started (dinner which she's going to eat! How exciting is it that Leah has her energy and appetite back? Very) and I'm being left out here by myself to do my sprints. I was like a man abandoned on a desert island, but instead of a volleyball, my best friend was a women's Timex watch (forgot the garmin, had to borrow Leah's watch. Looks good on me, though).

So I did my sprints. 6x400 at about 5k pace. I tried to speed it up a bit from last time, which was my first outing, and I think I was successful. My times were still about the same (~2 minutes), but the course was a bit longer this time which is what extended the time to 2 minutes (well, I'm saying it was anyway. If not, something is seriously wrong with my pace recognition because I know I was going faster). The only down side of the sprints was they were BORING. Yeesh. Run out real fast...trot back...run out again...rinse, repeat. Blah. Way more fun running them with Leah. Oh well.

But the long runs are still fun by myself. I did 6 miles on Sunday and it was nice. For some reason, time still flies on long runs and I don't find myself getting bored. Speed work's just a whole different ballgame (maybe it's soccer. That would explain the boredom).

Coach Leah signed me up for a 5k this weekend, my first ever (woo! PR!). That should give me a better idea of what pace I should really be shooting for in the half and I can base some of my run times off of that.

Any baby news on the horizon? Not too much, really, other than the fact that Leah is feeling sooooooooo much better. See ya, first trimester. Don't let the metaphorical door hit you in the metaphorical ass on the way out (metaphorically speaking). The little fella (that's gender neutral, right?) was about the size of a medium shrimp on sunday and, if my calculations are correct, will be heading off to college pretty soon.

Okay, that's all from here. Time to get back to debating whether or not to find out the sex during the 20 week ultrasound.

Go Cubs.

What's That? Hunger? A Taste for Something?

I was so excited last night because the first time in a long time I was excited for dinner.

We went for a run last night and Jason did a "recovery" or run slower than slow with me to keep me company and I went an extra 1/2 mile because that's what his plan called for. So we did 3.5 miles in a long amount of time. We ended our run near a grocery store and got some food for dinner and somehow made it home before it started raining super super bad.

We got home and we made one of those caesar salads that come in the bags with all the parts that you need. I added some grape tomatoes and went at it. And holy hell did it taste good. I mean I don't know the last time that I was able to eat dinner AND be excited about it. It's been more force feeding myself to try and get some protein into my system before bedtime. Jason then made tostadas which were also delicious and I was really proud of myself when I ate the whole tostada (and almost cleaned my plate...couldn't quite finish the rice). BUT the point is that I ate dinner and it's a big deal and I realize that this post is all about the fact that a 29 year old woman ate dinner, but it's more that she was also excited and hungry to eat dinner. And since it's my blog I can talk about whatever I want to talk about. :)

Work is going good, and got to learn some new stuff yesterday on sending html e-mails and hope to finish off that project today. Running tonight includes just 2 miles for me and Jason is doing a 6x400m speedwork out so he'll do that and I'll do some regular running and then we'll see how spaghetti sits with me as it's on the menu for tonight!

I might be a bit faster than I thought

So, as I mentioned in the big announcement post below, I'm training for this Rock and Roll Half Marathon by myself since Leah is busy growing people. This is a new experience for me as I've always had a run partner, Leah (in case that wasn't clear), and she always took care of the details. She'd schedule the runs, set the pace, and make sure we hit all the milestones.

Well, she still takes care of all the scheduling and motivating in her new capacity as Coach Leah, but I have to pace myself. The problem is, I haven't run seriously since Chicago, 2007. Yep, that's a long time. We had a few half-hearted attempts at training, but mostly we were busy drinking at Sheffield's and being lazy. And then it was winter...and we still drank and were lazy, but now we had an excuse. It was too coooooooold!

But now there's no excuses and we're running again. We did three miles together (4 on sunday) at a slow pregnant lady pace up until it was time for me to start training which, while establishing a nice base, didn't give me much of an idea as to what pace I could really run. Having started up again, it seems that my legs are a bit ahead of my breathing. A "comfortable pace" for my legs is definitely somewhere in the 8 minute range, but my lungs have generally disagreed.

But today for my pace run, in which I was shooting for a 9 mile pace, my legs and my lungs lined up. I started out with an 8:45 mile in which I was kind of all over the lap. I'm not used to running with a garmin (Leah's always handled that end of things) and I got kind of caught up in the pace reading. I'd look down and it'd say 9:30 and I'd be all "oh shit" and then I'd look down and it'd say 8:02 and I'd be all "oh shit". Lotta shit that first mile. But then I got to the lakefront path and settled in nicely. My second mile was 8:10 and my last mile, when I tried to slow down a bit, was 8:20. A bit faster than I expected but I wasn't tired and it didn't feel that fast (yep, I know what you're thinking, that was 90% because of the nice weather. And you're right).

So I'm going to just live with the faster pace. Looking at McMillen, it seems that a 24 or 23 minute 5k will get me to around a 1:50 1/2, which would be nice. So I think I'm going to shoot for that. I have a 5k coming up in a bit and that should give me a better idea of my expected pace. I'll probably try to keep a comfortable 9 minute mile pace for my long run tomorrow and then go from there. Of course, when the weather gets hot, I'll get a lot slower, but right now the weather's perfect and I'm going to keep my legs turning over as fast as I can.

Oh, and I'm tracking my runs at the excellent running site Run. Track. Run. You should check it out. I'll have Leah show me how to get the graphs posted on here so I can show my milage graphs each week.

When You Can't Race....Coach!

So I've been missing the ramp up to marathon training and I am already thinking about the summer and how long slow Sunday morning runs are going to be short slow Sunday morning runs...which is fine because really at the end of this I get a little baby....however, that doesn't mean that I'm not missing the racing and marathon training.

However, I have found that I get to coach all the people in my life to run the races they are training for. Ok...all the people in my life is Jason and my parents, but whatever it's enough. I'm trying to get my mom motivated to walk 3-4 days a week and so I call her on the days that she should walk and ask if she's gone walking. She tries to pull the "But I'm too tired when I get home from work". To which I respond, "Um...I've been running throughout this pregnancy and when I get home from work I literally could fall asleep right as I walk in, so that's no excuse". Of course it isn't an excuse anyways, so she's getting there and walking more.

Jason as you know is running a 1/2 marathon on August 2nd that I am also signed up for but I don't think we need a 20 week pregnant lady running a 1/2 marathon. So I layed out his training program and it's fun to watch him train on his own. He has only ever run with me, so I think this is going to be a great opportunity for him to learn the little things about pacing yourself (instead of just following whatever pace I'm setting), and using the Garmin to your advantage and not too obsessively. He's been a lot faster than we thought he would be which is great. Maybe that year and a half of lounging paid off. Who knew?

The last person I'm working with is my dad. He's going to be running the Chicago Marathon in 2010, the year he turns 60. Wait...how is he going to train for the marathon when he lives on a sailboat you ask? That answer to that question deserves it's own post so stay tuned for that. In short my Dad and Stepmom will be in Chicago from August of 2009 to January of 2011 (yeah you read that right...a year and a half!). So while they are here he'll have plenty of time to train. I have decided to train with him for the 2010 marathon as I'll just be finishing up pushing a giant thing out of me and probably don't want to jump into tons of training and speedwork and 8 minute miles. More to the point I probably won't be able to. So Dad and Daughter are going to train together and it's been really fun thinking about how to structure that training, because it has to be a bit different that my last few years of training. So I'm already on him to get some running in on the beaches down in the Caribean which I think he's doing. He'll be back in Grenada in the next couple days and I think he'll be able to do some more consistant running while there before he gets back to Chicago.

So with all that going on, and my own slow 3-4 mile runs I've been keeping my running brain active. Although....doesn't make me miss the training any less. In good news this is the best I have felt starting some new training in a long time. I have no leg pain and my breathing is good...oh wait...because I'm running 11 minute miles you say...yeah that's probably it...but still it's nice.

Here's the Lot of Them

Like I mentioned in the post yesterday Jason and I have been writing secret blog posts for the past 12 weeks and as now everything is out in the open we are publishing them tonight. To get to just the posts about the pregnancy you can go to this link:

http://jasonleahrun.blogspot.com/search/label/pregnancy

And for them to make sense I would read them from the oldest to the newest, although you can do whatever you like...I mean if you like to do things out of order and it doesn't make the little vein in your head pulsate like mine would, that's your choice. :). I like order, leave me alone. ...and yes, you even have to click for older posts because there are too many for one page!

We went for a 3 mile run today and I didn't feel as good as I have in the past. I think that I have a really hard time running two days in a row and so I just have to try and do my best to avoid that in the future. So that's all from here. Enjoy the posts!

We Got a New Running Partner

Why has Jason had to start training alone for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon?

How come Leah can't beat Jason in a sprint anymore?

Is that Leah wearing two sports bras?

The answer to all these questions is yes! Wait. The answer to the last question is yes. The answer to the first two questions is

Because Leah's Pregnant! YAY!
(pause for effect)

Yep, for the last 12 weeks, Leah has been running for two and at a much slower pace (gotta take it easy, you know). About, oh, 14 weeks ago we decided to try for a baby and 2 weeks later - well, you've seen Look Who's Talking - and two weeks after that: pink line! Holy Crap! Didn't really expect it to happen so fast (that's what she said).

As so now we are taking a new turn in life as we try to deal with bringing a baby into this world and not ruining it once it gets here. So answers to questions you might have:

• Yes, Leah's already starting to show a bit, although it's the kind of show that's much more visible in the evening than in the morning (which we don't understand at all, but over the past few days even that's starting to change)
• Yep, she's still running. The doctor cleared her for 30-45 minutes of easy running. The rule is that she has to be able to talk. So she's been doing 3 miles 3 times a week and 4 on Sunday at about 11 min/mile or as Leah likes to say a lot slower than her normal comfy pace of 9 or less.
  
• No, Leah isn't runnning the 1/2, but Jason is. And, while he's sad to be training alone, he's surviving. Luckily it's only a half. Leah is now just Coach Leah and tells Jason what to do (insert joke here).
• Is the baby a boy or girl: yes
  
• We are in the 12th week of pregnancy and so just getting out of the first trimester, which is awesome.
• At 8 weeks we got pictures from the ultrasound when the baby was only 1.87cm long. Now the baby is the size of a lime. That little guy (or gal) grows fast! We think it looks like a gummy bear at this point. Which is good cause we know how much we love our gummy bears. Here are some blobular photos (there will be way cooler photos in the future...I can't help how blob like it is at 8 weeks!):
  

So yeah. Baby. Should be fun.
-----------------------------------

Leah speaking now:

Yep, we are oh so excited about this new turn in life. When we got back from our trip to Zurich we thought well we could start trying to have a baby because you know it's going to take a few months to get things going and by that point we'll really be ready and so on. Turns out it didn't take quite that long and 4 weeks later we had a positive pregnancy test. So yeah, we were a little shocked with the pink line (I might have taken 4 home pregnancy tests).

Jason and I have been writing secret posts (which I accidentally published a few of over the past 8 weeks or so, so you might have gotten a sneak peak if you were on your google reader on time). I am going to publish all of those in a day or so and you can read them all, by filtering on pregnancy, and I'll include a link when I let those out. Of course these are going to be in reverse order of when things were happening and we highly recommend you read the earliest post first and work your way to the most recent. There is a lot of them, but they are pretty funny (at least we think so). There will also be a lot more posting in the future, it's hard to not talk about something this fantastic and so that's why there was such a slow down in our posting.

We hope you enjoy the posts, and we hope you enjoy reading about this next challenge in our lives. I am going to continue running for as long as I can, so that should be an interesting experience and I know I'll be looking for tips from any women out there that are currently pregnant and running or have been pregnant and running.

Enjoy!

12 Week Visit

Baby-

You are going to be shocked when you get here and realize that your mother is a complete maniac and your father is a nice calm perfect man. Ok perfect might be stretching it...but not too far, you'll see.

Today at our 12 week doctors appointment they took my blood pressure and it was a bit high. And it was high because the nurse was terrifying and completely unfriendly and I want to ask her how she expects my blood pressure to be when she's just a terrifying robot in a nurses uniform. So that had me a little freaked out and the the doctor came in and gave me some tips about dealing with these fantastic headaches I've been getting lately. Turns out I need to drink more fluids. Apparently my blood volume is going to double (!) during the duration of your life in me and I just need to drink more fluids. I guess it's true that my headaches are a lot worse when I drink less, so there is probably something to that.

Then she used this little doppler machine to try and find your heart beat. The first thing she did was let me hear what my heartbeat sounded like and she was surprised because it was racing (I wasn't surprised) then she started looking for your little heartbeat. And she looked and looked....and I started to panic, and I might have cried a tear or two. She said it was totally normal and went to get the ultrasound machine. Your dad tried to calm me down which didn't work because I couldn't believe that I couldn't hear what you sounded like and yes....you'll find I tend to panic for no real good reason.

So she came back in with the machine and we got to see your very strong and beautiful heart beating and I had an easier time seeing it this time around. You currently have a *huge cranium* which is expected as I guess right now you are 50% head and 50% body. Then I was sad because you were sleeping in there and you wouldn't wake up....until I started laughing. I laugh a lot, so maybe you like when I laugh....I have a good loud laugh, I think you'll like it.

So everything looks great with you in there, and your mom is just manic and your dad is going to be your calm stable go to guy. You'll see, he's really the best.

Hey there, you are now somewhat less tiny!

Hey baby -

Today you Mom (or uteral-exterior-mass as you know her) and I had a twelve week visit with the doctor in the hope of hearing your heart beat. Turns out, no dice. We couldn't hear anything.

But don't worry! You have a heart beat! Geez, I bet I scared you there. You were all, whoa, are things not working, I bet. Actually, that's not true. You actually were probably thinking "what's a heart beat? I'm only 12 weeks old." Or maybe you were thinking "hey, I can't read. How did I know you said anything about a heart beat?" I will accept any of these as valid answers. But anyway, let's get back on topic. We didn't hear a heart beat because you were hiding your heartbeat from the nice doctor lady and her sonar machine. She tried for a bit to get a signal, but no go, and finally she gave up and went to get the real ultrasound machine. I probably don't have to tell you that your mom got a little upset and panicky when the doctor couldn't find the heartbeat. You know how she is.

Wait, you don't? Well, you will soon enough.

But with the ultrasound, we were able to see your itty bitty heart flutter and see you hanging around in there. Turns out you were actually sleeping and wouldn't move. The doctor kept pushing at your uterin home, but you wouldn't wake up. Perhaps a good sign for you future sleep-deprived parents? But finally a couple laughs from your mom woke you up and you started to move around all crazy like. Actually, it looked kind of like me dancing at a wedding.

Sleeping and a bad dancer? Maybe you really are my child.

See you in 28 weeks,
-Dad

Fun Things For You To Know

Hey there Baby. Well I'm feeling better which I'm excited about. Thank you for not making me feel like I'm coming down with a flu every day, it's the small improvements.

We went for a 3 mile run without your Dad last night. Dad is starting to train for a 1/2 marathon that's on August 2nd and he can't be running 11ish minute miles with us if he wants to finish the race in any kind of reasonable time. So we three ran together for 5 minutes and then your Dad took off. This was fine except without him next to me, I wasn't sure if I could have a conversation and hence I didn't know if I was going too fast. I think I finished a bit faster than usual, at about 31:30 instead of closer to 33:00, but still not too bad.

I've decided that I'm going to train with your grandpa for the 2010 Chicago marathon. I'm guessing you'll be going on a lot of those runs with us, hope you like your baby jogger!

So I thought I was over the tired, and into the feel better phase, but after the run last night and a yummy dinner (that's right! you get to eat dinner cause my evening nausea has passed) I thought I would pick up some knitting and work on a blanket I'm trying to finish. Instead I was curious as to what would happen if I tipped over on the couch and it turns out I would fall asleep. 8pm Baby. You made me fall asleep at 8pm. At about 9pm, your Dad suggested we go to bed so I stumbled into the bathroom, brushed my teeth and feel asleep in bed in about 5 seconds flat. Yeah. Then I slept till 6:30. I hope that this sleeping pattern continues for you after you arrive.

We are currently in our 12th week, which I think marks that we are exiting the danger zone. We have a doctors appointment in a week where your dad and I are hoping to hear your heart beating.

I'm feeding you some coffee this morning. Don't freak out, it's going to be a bit more than you are used to. That's because as you'll find out that "small" doesn't really mean small, it means 12oz and that's the edge of the edge of my limit for coffee. Yeah that's right...I'm drinking coffee after sleeping 10 hours. I just find the taste to be delicious!

iMeow....Meeeeeeeow!....Naughty Kitty

So I've been so flippin busy these last five days and so I'm finally getting around to blogging about an awesome new iPhone app that you should try.

A couple months ago I was talking to my boss and mentioned that a screaming cat is a really funny noise and that I would pay $0.99 for an iPhone app that would make said noises. After that I started working on it in the studio and this past Friday it was accepted in the app store. First try too!

A big thanks to Turner, Nate, Jake and Roy for all their help with getting the app up and running and then submitted to the app store. If you are interested in having your own iMeow cat, check out the app here : iMeow (iTunes link)

It's a funny and silly good time. Enjoy!

Finally Food You Seem to Like!!!

Baby JasonLeah you have the best Dad in the world.

You've been making me not want to eat anything. Daddy will say to me, "Do you want some .... um...pasta for dinner". And Mommy will glare back and him and say, "Does it freakin' look like I want pasta" as my eyes droop down, and tear up as I realize I'm just so sleepy that the effort to eat food is above and beyond anything that I can handle right now. Add to that fact that all food sounds super gross just makes me mad because I know I have to give you all kinds of good food to grow well in there.

Lunch has been a continuing problem as I thought Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches would be a good solution, until last week when I looked at said PB&J sandwich and wished I could just stomp on it rather than eat it.

You Dad has been trying to come up with combinations of food that I will think are delicious and tasty and he did it for lunch today! He grilled up some chicken last night, and made me a sandwich out of it. Add some pepper jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayo and mustard and I have a really happy belly right now. I think you like the spicy because I always seem to be able to get that down without a problem.

So enjoy your sandwich and we'll talk soon.

Running Long...or should I say "Long"

Hey there Baby.

Today I decided that we were ready to attack a 4 mile run. I was told by the doctors (you'll be meeting them in a short 30 weeks) that I could run for 30-45 minutes. Given how slow I've gotten lately, 4 miles should take me between 40 and 44 minutes, so given that it's Sunday (your Dad and I's usual long run day), I thought we should give 4 miles a try.

So off we went. I wore shorts and a white tank top and I'm noticing the belly you are giving me more and more. I especially notice it when I'm running. I'm wondering if you expand when I'm running...I don't know but it's weird for me for sure. I *might* look at myself in windows when I'm running and these days I'm like holy hell what is that below my chest...oh that's you!

Anyways. off we went. The test for if I'm running too fast is if I can keep a conversation going. Your dad has been great in slowing me down when he notices that I'm laboring a bit to tell some super boring story so he lags back a bit and forces me to slow down. I got a bit of a side stitch and so I had to walk for about 5 minute, but finished up the 4 miles in 44 minutes. SO our goal is to run 3 miles Monday, Wednesday and Friday and then 4 miles on Sunday.

Well that's my plan. Your dad is going to start training for a half marathon next week and so I'll just be running on my own, which makes me worry about the talking test as it will just look like I'm a crazy person talking to myself, but ah well, I'll just be one of the many in this great city. I'm going to miss training with your Dad, as I'm realizing this will be the first race we won't run together. I'll be coaching him though and making sure that he sticks to the plan. And I'm guessing I'll be making him some running mixes to put on his iPod during the speed workouts which I suspect will be more difficult for him to do on his own. Your Dad's really tough though and so he'll be fine.

Alright, well I didn't let you take a nap yesterday and so we'll say that it's you who got really cranky last night and as we don't want that happen again, I should probably go get in a nap.