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