Month 6 - The New Year 2011

Right after Christmas we headed to Loon Mountain to visit our friends the McCulloughs and see their kids. We both get skiing fever. Our heads start spinning, should we look at Condo's, are we going to be a ski family. Who else will be up here, it's only 2 hours away, wow this is great! OK, back to earth, I have to get this baby out and we plan (god willing) to have at least 1 or 2 more in the near future. I am too old to wait. So really am I going to be a ski bunny while pregnant for the next 3 years? OK, we'll hold off signing the P&S on a new ski condo. Dave isn't working this month either so we'd probably better save our pennies.

We spent New Years at the Rands, playing "headbandz" with the kids, eating a ton of appetizers and then watching entirely too much Tosh.0. I love Tosh.0, he is hysterical. We debated his sexuality and why half the time he is naked. We flipped back and forth between Ryan Seacrest and Tosh until Midnight then called it a night. The next day was the Frosty 5, a New Years day race in Salem that kicks off the race series. I really want this dumb race sweatshirt so I wanted to make the race to have it qualify. My good friend Amber joined me and off we went. I wasn't sure how fast I'd go since I'd had a lousy run a few days before but all in all a great race. I had to walk for half a mile but I'll take it. RUN Forest RUN is what I keep thinking as Dave again follows me on his bike and takes pictures. We saw our niece and nephew after that and I would say its a successful New Years Day!

I am feeling fine this whole time except for the 7 days in November. Dave builds a snow cave with the mountains of snow we were getting. Ah yes, I should note, we've received sooo much snow already this winter, more than I've ever seen. I was suppossed to take clients to see the Celtics but yet another snow storm hits and they can't make it. I don't like being inside for too long so I drag Dave and we take the train into see the game. It was SOLD OUT, not a seat was empty. People were tired of being cooped up.

One weekend we head to visit the Regan's in NH. They are always a breath of fresh air and I know I can get a work out in up there. Their beautiful home is newly renovated so you feel like you are in a hotel. Their kids, Annika and Carson are the cutest. The next day we go cross country skiing in New London, it's one of the best days of skiing I've ever had. OK, I wasn't flying off the moguls but the weather was like being out west and we came upon this little cabin after an hour that served organic turkey chili, hello AWESOME!!! The Regan's are master skiers and emmm we are not so much but we got 2 hours in and felt like a million bucks.

The end of the 6th month, it all catches up to me. All this good fortune and feeling good creeps up on me on 1/19. I am headed into the city to meet by boss for some meetings. I make sales calls for a living so this is not unusual. I get up maybe an hour earlier and get on the train only to be blind sided by dizziness, nausea and a almost total collapse. I had my jacket off and am fidgeting on the train trying not to pass out. For anyone who takes the commuter rail, knows it can be a bit claustrophobic. I start to pass out (mind you NO one says a word to me) but we are pulling up to the Chelsea stop, I gather all my stuff and sprint off the train. All I could think was get me out of here, get me out, I can't pass out on the train. I get out in the snow, tear my jacket off and lie on the bench like a homeless person for 30 minutes until the next train comes. Dave says he'll come pick me up but I had 2 huge meetings that day and my boss was in from NY. She is a great person but I don't want to let her down. I am now going to be late for my meetings and my blow out is wrecked from being drenched in sweat. Good times!!!! I fly into the office, grab a snack and fly off to meetings. She is circumspect on why I am not wearing my jacket. I tell her I need to take it easy and fake feeling good through my 2 meetings. I get through it then throw myself on the train home though I am scared to death it will get me again. From this day on I have these "spells". They happen at all times of the day and I can't pin point why. I often have to lie on my work floor behind my door until I feel I can get upright again.

Ahh these are the things that happen with babies. Onto the next month!

Photos:
6 Month Photo
Crossing Country skiing with Kristina
The Celtics game
Snow
Frosty Race

Month 5 - The Holidaze

Ah yes the holidays! In a previous life in NYC, I was out every night swilling champagne and red wine like it was water and doing cartwheels on the bar. 2011 was a much different story. We started out going to Nantucket Stroll with our good friends the Thoms, Rory and Donna. We had a blast of a day cruising around ACK. They drank all day and I coasted on Apple Cider. We had the most amazing meal at 56 Union and headed off to the Rose and Crown and Chicken Box. For those of you in the know, it's no place to be sober. BUT, I do not want to be one of those people that just can't hang. In the end I was the last to survive and stayed out later than Rory and Donna. I can say I've been to the Box, 5 months preggo and sober as a judge. The kicker is that my husband who drank himself silly woke up feeling fine and I was the one who woke up with the head ache. HAAAA

The next weekend was our annual TTT Christmas dinner and this year it was at the Palm. Good times had by all. There were 3 of us preggo this year so that was nice company to have. Some of the husbands sang which was hysterical, who knew they had talent. At midnight, I called Uncle and we drove back to Salem (saving $200 in a hotel room). We've saved so much money - HA!!

One other event this month was seeing Cousin Erik in his rendition of Scrooge. It's a great holiday outing for the whole family in Salem.

Christmas was tough. Some of you know why. We powered through and came out on the other side. This would have been a good time to be living oversees.

Photos:
ACK Stroll
TTT Party
5 Month Photo
Christmas

Month 4 (up to week 16)

So things are cruising along (barring some wicked headaches), feeling good, still somewhat fitting into my clothes. I've told my boss at this point and all is well. We haven't been doing a lot of anything except for looking at houses and I am still running.

Our 2 year anniversary was on 11/15/2010 so we decide to make a day in Maine. We head up to Kennebunkport to hit 2 galleries we like and then plan was to hit this place in Kittery Point on the water to eat. Both galleries are closed - BUST but its OK, I really didn't need the giant portrait of a hunting dog either. We head down the water to get to Chauncey Creek Lobster Pot (I had googled their fall hours and it said till 7). We head down around 4pm and since I go to bed early, we thought we could have the early bird special. BUST again, its closed, locked up tight. We have to laugh and continue on down the coast. We end up at Captain Patti's restaurant on the water. We are the youngest in there by 30 years but they have lobster and ice cream and that is all I care about. We caught an amazing sunset and had a nice dinner where we were back in Salem by 7pm and asleep by 8pm. Oh how my life has already changed. Saturday night and I am in my jammies at 7pm. The next night we see the King's of Leon at the Boston Garden with Lucy and Tate. We meet before for some North End yummies. Concert was great, albeit strange being there sober. I swear we had the drunkest girl in Boston behind us. She fell over on her head multiple times. Her friends were really good sports holding her up the whole time and I am sure she had no recollection of what concert she was at. Hysterical!

Out of no where on the night of 11/17 I am having horrific pains which I chalk up to a eating something bad. This started around 4 and walking around the block 2 times does nothing. I call my Doctor (who takes an hour and a half to call me back) and she says go to the hospital, it my be your appendix. WHAT? My appendix? Are you nuts? I spend 20 hours in the Salem Emergency room where they have no clue what is going on. I get an IV, some pain drugs that I didn't want (I didn't even take a tylenol for my wicked headaches). The Dr on duty proceeds to tell me his wife is pregnant with triplets and I say oh great! and he says, not great, we are going to selectively abort 2 of them though there were no issues. I thought get him out of my sight. He finally goes off duty and I go in for an MRI at 6:30 am. Good times, what the heck! I can't have a sip of beer but you can fill me with drugs and send me into an electromagnetic box for an hour. Really this doesn't make sense to me. At 11am the on duty OB Dr. comes in and says, it was my fibroids acting up and we can give you some narcotics to take the edge off. Well I could have told you I had a fibroid the size of a golf ball, you all suck! It was a horrendous experience starting with me waiting in a dirty waiting room while people with colds got seen first and being there 20 hours for something I knew about all along. Trusty husband has been up all night in a chair. I had jury duty that next day but since I couldn't walk I called in and for some reason I got a person and they deferred me. I go home, take half a percocet (though I could have taken 2) and tried to sleep. My OB never calls me to check up, so she's fired. I start searching for a new Doctor. I spent 4 days in bed while Nurse Dave (my husband) brings me cereal and cookies and a stuffed elephant that Colin had given him when he was sick. It went away in 7 days so I was really lucky. I later read that some people's fibroid pain is worse than labor so I am not scared since that was horrendous and I made it through.

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I am meant to help host a shower for one of my best friends in CT. Nurse Dave drives me the 3 hours to CT to do this as I am still not 100%. The shower was meant to be a surprise but the night before she was told. I get a text at 10pm the night before saying, "I know". I text her back "you know nothing" and show up at the shower where she greets me at the door. Oh well - it all worked out.

Thanksgiving is on the Thursday and we go from having a houseful to only a few over. I won't get into it but I am not sure why family drama has to start when I am pregnant and not supposed to have stress. The next day our friends from the island call and want to stay the night, since I had all this extra food, it was perfect. We had a tree trimming party and at one point had 14 people in our little living room, 3 dogs and a dog size cat. Now that made it a holiday.

The only bummer is that I was not well enough to run the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving day. I knew when to call Uncle and knew I shouldn't push it, there would be a million other races to run when I was better.

Photos:
Anniversary dinner in Kittery Point Maine
Month 4 stomach
Mel and Leah at her shower
Dave and Mel on Thanksgiving

Weeks 9 - 12

I am DYING to tell people at this point and we are holding out as I am 35 and lucky to even get pregnant. We told immediate family. At week 10, I let it slip at a friends pizza party and they said they knew it because they were wondering was was up with my baggy sweater and OH the grape juice I was drinking. At this point I had not even had a sip of something since the day I found out. I had no desire to either. Not a whole lot happened during this time. We went to Lake George to avoid having to see anyone socially when I couldn't tell people. We went on this mega hike and carried a 100 pound Kayak in a mile to this cool mountain pond. (see the pictures on why this was worth the haul). I still did not feel bad and the only "symptom" I was having, was going to bed at 8:30. I am a night owl so this was a switch for me. I had another race, the Salem Devil's chase 666. It was a 6.66 mile race through Salem on Halloween day. Again, my Sherpa husband followed me on his bike and took pictures and had Gatorade. Another great race!

Finally on week 12, I let it spill. We had a good ultra sound and my tests came back OK. There is always a chance of something happening so I let it ride on faith and being calm that all is well.

Photos:
3 Month photo
Devil's Chase photo
The Kayak
The pond we hiked to

Weeks 5 - 8

I am way behind in writing this (I'm 27 weeks now) but I can't sleep so this seems like a good time to start.

I find out at week five that I am preggo. I had almost no symptoms and was feeling great. OK I was eating a few more cheerios but no nausea, no bla and not particularly over tired. I was a runner so I was always tired so I didn't think anything of it. I was meant to run the Reach the Beach race with a bunch of college friends on the weekend of 9/17. I was to be seven weeks along and couldn't tell anyone. For anyone that knows Reach the Beach, it's an up all night, sleep in your car type of thing where you run legs anywhere between 2 and 9 miles and all hours through the night. I really wanted to do this and asked my Fertility doctor if I had his ok. He said, please don't run more than 6 miles. Thankfully, my longest run was 6.5. My main concern is spending 36 hours with some close college buddies and some new strangers in a van without telling them I was preggo AND I needed my sleep, it can't be good for the baby for me to not be sleeping. I enlisted my faithful husband to play sherpa and follow the van, pick my a$$ up after my legs and get me to sleep somewhere besides the floor of a van. Thankfully, my late night run was to be near my Mom's condo in NH so we could crash there. He was like a Nascar pit crew, following me, taking pictures and giving me gatorade. The race was a success and no one dared to ask me what my deal was. Nice crew I thought. They all could guess at the finish line when there was a huge beer tent and I was having water. Non-preggo I would have had 4 beers and a toast and a cartwheel.

The next weekend (week 8), I was to run the Salem 1/2 marathon like I had 3 times before. Mind you I had trained for a tri-athalon all summer and was in pretty good shape. I felt awesome on my long run for Reach the Beach so I decided to give the half a try and if I didn't feel great, I would stop. I had asked my running coach who at the time was 7 months pregnant what I should do, she said, in your shape, go for it and if you don't feel good, walk. OK so it's a deal. Again I enlisted my trusty husband to play sherpa and follow me around. The day goes great and I finish in 2 hours in 10 minutes. My fastest non-pregnant had been 1:47 so not too bad I thought. I did have to walk a few times and it was bloody hot but I never felt like I was too worse for wear. Later that day, we drive to Newport to see our new nephew, William. I went to bed at 7:30 that night and ate 2 portions of Dave More Sr's lasagna.

Photos are:
Week 7 stomach
Reach the Beach Crew
Salem Half Marathon
Baby William