This Runner's World

Foto Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Sat, 18 May 2013 01:16:00 +0000

I've been internally debating how much I want to post about the baby. It's not his choice to show up on my blog. And I don't want any weirdos creeping on him, ya know? So, I've been taking daily pictures of them and posting them on Instagram as I have it marked private. If you are interested in having access to my Instagram, send me an email and let me know you're a real person and I'll give you my username and most likely accept your friend request.

But today's picture I took is too precious not to share. Seriously, I make cute babies.

Thursday Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Fri, 17 May 2013 01:10:00 +0000

With the plans coming together to take on trail running and some longer races later this year, it's time to load the iPod up with some good tunes with which to train. Yes, I wear an iPod when I run. The problem is I moved, or I tried to move, my music from one computer to another and basically lost everything. I went from about a gazillion songs to about 147. And I don't know where those other bajillion songs went to. So, I need your help. What are some good songs to run to? What do I absolutely need to download? Help me load up the iPod. There are miles and miles to run!

Week in Review

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Mon, 13 May 2013 03:05:00 +0000

So much for easing back into things. I went full-throttle this week. It's been six week; I'm allowed!

Monday - 4.25 miles run/walk; 0.50 hours of weight training
I actually did two workouts today. I started the day with three miles of 3 minutes walking, 2 minutes running. The walks were in the 14:00/mile range and the runs were in the 9:00/mile range. Then in the afternoon Dave joined me for a little weight training. We did 5 rounds of 400m run (treadmill) followed by 15 overhead squats. I did my 400s really conservatively, greater than 10:00/miles and did my overhead squats with 35 pounds. My core - abs and back - were torn apart from pregnancy so it's going to be a long process of getting them back.

Tuesday - off

Wednesday - 3 miles run/walk
Again today I followed the plan of 3 minutes of walking followed by 2 minutes of running. The walks were in the 14:00s and the runs were sub 9:00s. The last two minute segment I averaged an 8:27 pace.

Thursday - 3 mile run
And this is when I said enough of this walking shit. Walking takes too long and I just wanted to get the workout done. The runs from earlier in the week were started to feel more and more normal so I thought that I would just run. And I did without any walking, no garmin, and no watch. This was a great run.

Friday - off

Saturday - 1.5 mile run; 0.5 hours of weight training
This was one combined workout of 3 rounds of 800m run, 50 back extensions, and 25 sit-ups/crunches. The sit-ups were supposed to be full sit-ups and I was supposed to do 50 of them, but I just couldn't manage them. I did the first round as sit-ups, second round as crunches, and the last round back to sit-ups.

Sunday - 5 mile run
Five miles might have been a little advantageous. Nevertheless, I did the run with minimal breaks and a good pace - 9:00/mile.

Totals:
Run/Walk - 16.75 miles
Other - 1 hour of strength training

Next week I hope to get my buns to the pool. After all, there is an aquathlon on the schedule in three weeks and if I don't practice swimming it's probably going to suck.

The Approach

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Wed, 08 May 2013 00:25:00 +0000

I haven't the foggiest idea how to attack training for a trail marathon and/or an ultra. First and foremost, I want to train for the half marathon and to try to a PR with somewhere in the 1:30-1:35 range (doable). I am once again going to follow the Run Less Run Faster plan because (a) I have limited time with two jobs and a baby, (b) I am prone to injury, do not recover very quickly, and cannot do high mileage, and (c) it works. If, and it's still a big IF, I decide to tack on the trail marathon and/or ultra I think I will only add one more day of running onto the plan which would be a long, slow trail run. I see it working like this:

Monday - track work
Tuesday - swim
Wednesday - mid-week speed long run
Thursday - swim
Friday - tempo run
Saturday - off (I'll let Dave run with the group - he doesn't get married to training plans like I do)
Sunday - long, slow trail run

Right now with Anderson being a whopping six weeks old this seems doable and completely insane. I am having trouble getting anything done because I am always holding him. You put him down for two minutes and he cries. When he sleeps I sleep. And he doesn't sleep very long (2-3 hour segments). But Dave has also promised me that I can continue my training and of course, I'm allowing him to also. He's already signed up for a half marathon in September. This will save our marriage and our sanity.

Have you trained for an ultra? How much mileage did you do? How many days per week did you run?

The Long and Short of It

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:37:00 +0000

Andrea texted me yesterday saying she wanted to go back to running marathons because they were "easier" than racing halfs. I returned the text, laughing, because I said I didn't plan on running a marathon until after the age of forty because I wanted to spend the next few years working on my speed. We both laughed knowing we would change our minds.

That took all of less than 24 hours.

I haven't done a race, racing or participating, since November. I've got the itch really bad. I don't care if it's fast or slow, long or short, I just want to get out there and race again. But, I do have one race plan for this year. I was hoping to train for and RACE a half marathon this fall. Leading up to this I was hoping to do 5Ks, 10Ks, 10 milers, etc. to work on being fast, fast, fast.

But I've also had this pull to do some trail running even though it's not easy to find a trail around here and well, I've not really done any trail running. And I can't get it out of my head that I'd like to try a 50K. Yeah, I don't know, but it just interests me. There was one locally last November that would have been perfect for me because it was mostly on roads (I would consider myself a road runner). I'm not sure, though, if they're going to have this one in 2013. Then I got searching the internet and I started to find some races. First I found a marathon on November 3rd. Then I found a 50K on December 7th. Hmmm, interesting. I could train to race the half marathon and yet still be able to do these races. Then I thought, but I've never done a true trail race (I've done two races on towpaths - not exactly the same), so I though maybe I should find something shorter to start with and I found a 10 miler in Dave's hometown on August 17th. Dave and I could both do this race if Dave's parents were in town and willing to watch the baby for a while.

Honestly, I have no idea what my running plans should be for the rest of the year. Remember when you used to be able to decide, "hey I want to run a race this weekend" and then go and sign up the day of? Yeah, that just doesn't happen anymore. Plus, I have to do a little more planning with photo booth events and now that we have a baby.

What do you think? Do you think you can gain speed by going long? Have you ever done a true trail race? Have you ever gone longer than a marathon?

Week in Review

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Mon, 06 May 2013 02:48:00 +0000

As mentioned earlier this week, I am back to running - this time with permission from the doctor. I started the week walking and ended the week with a walk, but in the middle I did some running.

Monday - 3 mile walk
Dave and I loaded up the kiddo and hit the golf course for a loop. I walked, Dave ran, and then he came back to finish the walk with me. The plan was to go to the bike shop afterwards to pick up some new tires for Dave's bike but the shop had closed at 6:00. What store closes at six? Are we in an old people's neighborhood? We picked up some dinner on the square and that was that.

Tuesday - 2 mile walk
A short family two mile walk before my parents had us over for dinner.

Wednesday - 3 mile run/walk
Finally approved to run! I celebrated not only with the margarita socks but by doing a little three miles to the end of the park and back. I did 4 minutes of walking, 1 minute of running for an average of about 13:00/mile

Thursday - 3 mile run/walk
Same as yesterday!

Friday - 1.63 mile run/walk
I was planning on doing 4 miles but when I got out there (a) I just wasn't feeling it and (b) I had some guilt regarding leaving Dave with the kiddo for that long when he hadn't done a workout. So, I just did a short loop in the neighborhood.

Saturday - off

Sunday - 3 mile walk
Just took the stroller out for a long walk with The Bug.

Total - 16.63 miles

Foto Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Sat, 04 May 2013 02:56:00 +0000

Halfway through my pregnancy my mom started telling me that I needed to be keeping this and that for Anderson's baby book. Say what now? I've got to make a baby book? Crap! So, right now there's a pile of stuff sitting in the hallway to be put into a baby book. One other thing I guess I am supposed to do is create a birth announcement. I mean, didn't I do that on the blog and on Facebook? Now I've got to send one through the mail?! For the last couple of weeks I've been putting this off and finally got around to doing it this week on Shutterfly. Um, if you think you're getting one of these, don't be running out to the mailbox any time soon. You'll be lucky if I get everything done by his first birthday.

I'm Back!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Fri, 03 May 2013 02:39:00 +0000

I had this whole post written with picture included. I went to save it and then publish it, but because I never shut down my computer or close any windows and the fact that my computer is like 6 or 7 years old and starting to get tired, I lost everything I had written. So here I go again...

Tuesday I had my postpartum follow up at my doctor. First, I'm going to do a little bragging. :) At my final weigh in before having the baby I was up exactly 30 pounds from my starting weight. I knew it took me nine months to gain all that weight and it was going to take me a while to take it off. But, just two weeks after the baby was born I was already fitting into my pre-pregnancy skinny jeans. My body isn't quite there - I have some swelling around the incision and some rolls I don't quite like - but overall I'm amazed how quickly my body has bounced back. I was really surprised when I weighed in at the doctor's office and had already dropped 23 pounds. I attribute that to (a) not gaining a whole lot of weight and (b) working out before, after, and during my pregnancy. I'm not sure I'm going to try really hard to lose those last seven pounds as I was pretty small when I got pregnant as I was training for a marathon. I am hoping to just tighten everything back up and get back to at least a good fighting weight.

Secondly, let's talk about the good stuff. I asked the doctor about running and swimming. I mentioned to her that I had been walking a lot, including 18+ total miles the previous week. She said I could go ahead and start adding in some light jogging to my walking (um, sure, I might have already done that last week) and that by six weeks postpartum I'd be good to go. She said it was perfectly okay to return to swimming as the cesarean incision was healed.

Leaving the doctor's appointment I was absolutely giddy. I made a "return-to-running" plan. This week I would do 4 minutes of walking, 1 minute of running; next week would be 3 minutes of walking, 2 minutes of running; the following week as 2 minutes of walking, 3 minutes of running etc. until I was back to fully running. Today I headed out for a three mile run/walk and celebrated my return with my margarita socks:

I'm back, y'all.

I'm a Reading Fool

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Wed, 01 May 2013 13:30:00 +0000

I've been a reading fool. I finished three books in April alone. When you're up half the night feeding the baby and trying to get him back to sleep, it's easy to get some reading done. I have found it really great to be able to read books on my iPad and thankfully our library has a great selection of e-books (although I wish they had more).

Books I read in April:

"Sway" by Amber McRee Turner
I actually got this book free on iBooks from a promotional card at Starbucks. This is a story about a girl who idolizes her mother, but finds out that it's her dad that is the hero.

"Forever" by Judy Blume
This book was like reading a teen romance novel. Quick read, but a little trashy and inappropriate for a Judy Blume book.

"That's Why I'm Here" by Chris Spielman
Every Columbus-ite knows Chris and Stefanie Spielman. They're legendary here. Chris played football for OSU and eventually in the pros. Stefanie, his high school sweetheart and wife, got breast cancer at the age of 30 and succumb to it 10 years later. This is their story as written by Chris. I used to teach their youngest daughter gymnastics and frankly, was quite intimated by the Spielmans. This book is sad, but powerful and peaceful.

What are you reading? What can you recommend (that I can get read in 21 days from the library)?

April Totals

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:42:00 +0000

The baby has come and it was time to get back to work. For the first four weeks post-pregnancy all I did was walk with increasing length and speed as the weeks went by. By the fifth week, however, I was feeling anxious and ready to do a little running. When I was by myself I did a little running. You know, from here to the corner, almost like a fartlek run. Today is my follow up doctor's appointment. I am hoping she gives me the green light to return to running and swimming.

Run / Walk Total - 52.25 miles
Annual Miles - 167.45

Week in Review

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 01:45:00 +0000

I finally got the opportunity to head out by myself this week to do a longer walk. I added in some jogging into that walk. I put a snarky comment on Twitter about adding in some running and I got some feedback that I did just have major abdominal surgery. Yes I did. And no I haven't been cleared by the doctor to return to running but I stopped bleeding weeks ago and the incision is healed and I only would run in small blocks in between walks. I know, patience, patience.

Monday - 3 mile walk

Tuesday - 3 mile walk

Wednesday - off, we had friends over for dinner (without a working oven)

Thursday - 3 mile walk

Friday - 4.25 mile walk/jog

Saturday - 2 mile walk

Sunday - 3 mile walk/jog

Total - 18.25 miles

Ramen Noodles, Anyone?

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 17:50:00 +0000

We were very fortunate that the first couple weeks with Anderson we were provided with many meals from our friends, family, neighbors, and church folks. We enjoyed good meals like homemade chicken and noodle soup, meatloaf, johnny marzetti, lasagna, chicken divan, etc. We feasted for weeks. But now that it has been a month since Anderson's arrival, the meals have stopped and now we must fend for ourselves. Luckily, we were smart and made some meals and froze them before the baby's birth. Earlier this week we had one of those meals in the oven. We were sitting on the couch, playing with the baby, when we hear this POP! from the kitchen. We went in to discover that the oven was no longer on and none of the buttons on the control board would work. Oh crap! Dave went to the basement to see that the circuit was turned off. He turned it back on and the oven started making more popping noises at me. We tested the stove and all the burners still worked but we could not get the oven to turn back on. Doing a little googling, it looks like our control panel on our oven got blown. I don't know if it's the age of our stove or what, but the part was not available locally and we had to order it on the internet. We can't fix our oven until next week! Thank goodness we have the local pizza shop on speed dial.

Week in Review

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 03:24:00 +0000

The weather somewhat resembled spring this week (minus Saturday) so Baby A and I got many opportunities to get out and enjoy some walking in the sunshine and warmer temperatures. I'm starting to feel good and normal and the walks are getting easier. I can't wait to get back to running!

Monday - 1.5 miles
We intended to do more miles, but the boy wouldn't cooperate. He was crying and screaming so we cut the walk short.

Tuesday - 3 miles

Wednesday - 3 miles

Thursday - 3 miles

Friday - Off

Saturday - Off
It snowed a little today. I certainly wasn't taking the baby out in that crap and after having spent all winter on the treadmill I didn't want to do another walk inside.

Sunday - 3 miles
I had hoped to go out by myself and do about four miles today, but I had Dave watch the baby while I took a nap so I didn't think it was fair to have him watch him for another hour while I went out and walked. Instead Dave hit the bike trainer and I took the baby with me for a walk. Hopefully next week I can get out by myself and get in a good solid long walk.

Total - 13.5 miles

Shopping on Saturday

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 03:40:00 +0000

After three plus weeks of being inside and doing nothing but babybabybaby, I thought I was going insane yesterday. So, Dave promised me an afternoon to myself and getting out of the house. I planned a short shopping trip of buying a pair of shoes and a quick trip to the baby store. I wanted a pair of Chucks for work (yeah, that's what I get to wear to work). I knew what color and what size. This trip would be short. But when I got to DSW, they didn't have my size in either navy or grey. Argh! So, I started just looking around at other shoes. I had a $20 off coupon and it was getting ready to expire. You have to use it right? And then I stumbled onto a pair of Saucony Kinvara for $69. These shoes would normally cost me $100 and they were on sale for $69 and I had a coupon for $20 off making the shoes $49. I couldn't pass that up. Sure, they're ugly, but $49?! You can't pass that up. I even tweeted my excitement to Saucony and DSW and DSW responded telling me I did get a good deal. Yay!

I did wind up finding the Chucks at Kohls for cheaper than I could have gotten them at DSW.

Foto Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:34:00 +0000

The most recent photo dump of my kiddo. Yeah, this is what it's going to be like now. :)

Miscellany for Thursday

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 02:30:00 +0000

Let's start with the obvious. On Monday I wished my friends good luck at Boston on my Facebook status and stated that I was super-jealous. I had planned on qualifying and being in Boston (pre-pregnancy). I wanted to run it so badly. But in light of the recent events, I'm obviously glad I wasn't there.
The news in Boston makes me so mad. Those marathoners weren't there to make a political statement. They were there as a celebration of all the hard work they had put in to finally get there. The spectators were there to cheer them on in their celebration. The Boston Marathon is a joyous event that has now been tainted for, probably, dumb, dumb reasons.
However, I am not scared to go back and run Boston. In fact, I can't wait to run it again. Although, I have no plans for running a marathon any time in the near or distant future. I will, though, rethink bringing my son to the race.
Moving on....the weather this week has been beautiful and I have been a walking fool with the little bug. We have put many miles already on the BOB. Now if only he'd sleep through the whole walk instead of waking up and crying and screaming his head off. People are staring at us!
I'm thinking of cutting my bangs again. I know. I know.
I'm starting to get incredibly anxious about racing again. I can't wait to get the all clear from my doctor to get back to working out. Although the walking is good for me and at least I can do something, I'm really looking forward to running and swimming.
My 35th birthday was two days ago and I had a great day. I got some great presents including a case for my iPad, some Yurbuds, $$$$, and Dave gave me a beautiful charm for my necklace that's a scripted letter 'A'. That's what I really wanted to keep little baby A close to me at all times.
Our friends and people we don't even know have been so good to us since the baby has arrived. In the last week we have only cooked one meal (on my birthday) and only ordered two pizzas. All our other meals have been provided to us. We still have a backlog in our refrigerator as well as some meals we froze before we had the baby.
I have to admit, I kinda miss work. Not so much the work, just being able to get out of the house, socialize, and wear real clothes. Although I don't want the little bug to grow up any faster than he already is, I am looking forward to him being old enough that I can take him outside in public. I don't go back to work until mid-June, but I am looking forward to it.
That's all for now. Lots of pictures tomorrow.

Week in Review

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I am very lucky. Or maybe all that running, walking, and swimming I did during my pregnancy paid off. Around two weeks post-pregnancy and I am already back in my pre-pregnancy jeans. Zipped and buttoned! I also wasted no time getting back at it in hopes of racing competitively this summer. All I've been cleared to do at this point is walk, which is fine because the cesarean incision still really hurts. This week I did a total of 9 miles and I hope to ramp that up in the coming weeks and hope to be running again by mid-May.

Monday - 1 mile
Took the family out for a walk. Dave walked the dog and I strolled the baby down to the park in our neighborhood so Sloopy could run in the open space.

Tuesday -2 miles
I went out on my own in the neighborhood for a brisk two mile walk. Things still feel really weird - my hips feel out of place, my back hurts, I feel like I have no ab muscles. I hope everything starts feeling normal again soon.

Wednesday - Nothing

Thursday - Nothing

Friday - 2 miles, treadmill
I busted out a fast two miles on the treadmill this evening. It was probably a little too fast than what I should be doing. I also included a little bit of jogging which I know I'm not supposed to be doing. The jogging felt weird as my insides were jiggling.

Saturday - Nothing
We had lots of people come over to the house today to check out the baby as well as a visit from Dave's family. There was not time or energy to work out today.

Sunday - 4 miles
I did two walks today. One was with Anderson in the stroller down to the big tennis/soccer park and back. That one was three miles. Then we did a family walk where I put the baby in the front carrier. I was so worried that he was suffocating that I stopped every block to make sure he was breathing. The front carrier was a bit too much for me at this time as it sat right on my incision. I guess I'll stick to the stroller for a while.

Total - 9 miles

It's all about the boobs (The Aftermath)

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:05:00 +0000

Because of the cesarean our stay in the hospital was four days. We had lots of visitors who brought gifts and snacks and loved meeting Anderson. This stay, however, was far from a four star experience. Sure, we had fantastic nurses (I cannot say enough about the nurses), but no one really let you rest. The first day I was still hooked up to a lot of equipment so it was constantly checking this, that, and the other, taking medicines, and making sure Baby A was eating EVERY THREE HOURS!

So let's talk about this...

My plan all along was to breast feed. We knew it was the best, healthiest option for the baby and well, it's free. But, I had a feeling all throughout my pregnancy that breast feeding was not going to come easy. First of all, my boobs didn't really grow throughout my pregnancy. In fact, I never bought a new bra or really outgrew my bras. And then I kept thinking I would "leak" something at some point and I never did. But, when it came time to feed the baby things seemed to happen naturally. He was able to latch on no problem and it appeared that he was being nourished. By the end of our stay in the hospital, however, Anderson had dropped 11% of his weight and the nurses were concerned. The baby was not sleeping, was quite fussy, and the nurses were now pressuring us to feed the baby every two hours. With the hormones, the not sleeping, and the fact I missed two days of my Prozac, I was a flipping mess. I was just crying and crying over the fact that my baby was not eating and I could not provide for him. Finally, we made the decision to just supplement with a little bit of formula so I knew he was getting something, anything. Wow! What a difference. He was content and sleeping like a rock. Something was definitely not working with the breast feeding.

About two days before we were discharged, I started feeling a little off. The nurses noticed my temperature was elevated but not enough to alarm anyone. I would wake up in the middle of the night, though, drenched in sweat yet shivering as if I had been out in the snow. I figured this was just hormones or whatnot so I didn't say anything to anyone. When I got home, though, I started to feel worse. The sweats and chills continued and I was a bit delirious, feverish, and just overall not feeling well. The breast feeding was still not going well; Dave was pressuring me to continue with it; and my mom and my sister were at my house trying to be helpful while continuously telling me how hungry the baby was. All I could do was cry and cry and cry. My sister finally convinced me to call the doctor about how I was feeling. The doctor thought it was not normal and that I probably had an infection. She called in a prescription and within 24 hours I was feeling better.

Back to the breast feeding. Dave's aunt is a lactation consultant and we called her to ask her some questions. She gave us a few suggestions which we tried, but we continued to feed Anderson formula to make sure he was eating. When we took Anderson to the doctor just shy of one week since his birth he was back up to 8 pounds. Eleven days post baby I still hadn't gotten my milk and stopped trying all the things I was doing like pumping or having the baby latch on. My milk was not coming in (and still hasn't). Even though we would have preferred Anderson be breast fed, he is being formula fed and that's okay by us.

The first week was rough, I'm not going to lie. I knew it would be but I didn't expect a cesarean followed by an infection followed by not being able to breast feed my child. Every day it gets a little easier.

Baby A's Birth Story Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 15:08:00 +0000

When we last left off, my doctor had sent me to the hospital for the fourth time. Hopefully this time in active labor.

I got to the hospital around 11:00am, still contracting every few minutes. I had now been having contractions for 7 hours with no pain relief whatsoever. The nurses did the exam and I was 3cm dilated. Yes, I was progressing! They still didn't know if it was enough so they talked about sending me on a walk (good gosh!) but wanted to talk to the doctor first. So Dave and I waited, and waited, and waited to hear back from the doctor while the contractions got stronger and stronger and almost unbearable. I was in bed, out of bed, moaning, swaying. At one point I yelled at Dave to SHUT UP!!! Finally after an hour and a half the nurse came back and said she had talked to the doctor and they were going to admit me. Our baby boy was finally coming!!!

I knew I wanted that epidural right away. Sure I had taken all the classes and learned the techniques, but honey, contractions hurt like no other. I had labored for a long time without and still had a long way to go and there was no way I could keep it up. Unfortunately, though, they have to do a full workup on you along with getting a bag of fluid into you before an epidural can be administered. Finally around 2:00pm, I got that epidural. For those of you keeping count at home, that's 10 hours of laboring without any pain medicine and only 3cm of dilation. It was going to be a long day!

Let me tell you something, the epidural is the miracle drug. More power to those who want to do it without. Frankly, I think you're crazy! As soon as the epidural and the medicine was inserted, I no longer felt the contractions. Ahhh, relief. The doctor came in and broke my water. (Note, this was the only doctor I saw until MY doctor delivered the baby. The nurses do ALL the work.) I rested for a while, eating popsicles and ice, and enjoyed the company of my nurses and family. The next check they did, I was somewhere around 5cm. Yes! Halfway there. They figured that I would probably have the baby in the early morning hours the next day.

So, laboring (for me) with an epidural was a lot like a game of assisted Twister. Because the baby's head was not exactly in the correct position, the nurses had to turn me and maneuver me into positions to get the baby to corkscrew the correct way. Every hour my nurse would come in and turn me like I was on a spit. For one hour I would be sitting straight up with my legs in a frog position. The next hour the nurse would turn me on my side with my outside leg up in a stirrup. The next hour that position would switch to the opposite side. Needless to say, it was not easy to get comfortable or get any sleep. I would fall asleep and then every 15 minutes my blood pressure cuff would contract and wake me up. I was starting to get delirious with sleepiness.

Around 11 hours into the epidural (around 1:00am), it started to wear off. I began having pains in my left ribs and my left side of my lower abs around my hips. The doctor who administered my epidural had warned me that I would feel increasing pressure as the baby moved down and I dilated more. I was feeling plenty of pressure (seriously, am I shitting all over myself?!?!) but this was more. This was sharp pain. I was feeling every contraction and having to breathe through them all over again. Luckily they came in and pushed more epidural goodness and I felt better again.

Now 24 hours into labor (4:00am Wednesday), I had dilated to 7cm. This was taking forever, but everyone reassured me this is usually how labor goes for first time pregnancies. I had expected 12-14 hours, not double that. I was tired and getting a little restless. 5:00 came and went, 6:00 came and went. Things were starting to get a little more intense. The nurse noticed some problems with my catheter. I wasn't producing any urine and there was blood coming out of the catheter. She readjusted it. She did a straight catheter. She put in a new catheter. She pumped me full of fluids. And still nothing. A doctor came in sometime in the 6:00 hour and checked me again - 7cm. I was going nowhere fast. They talked to my doctor and decided to give it one more hour. They were concerned, and these are the words they used, that my bladder was going to "explode." Awesome.

Around 7:00am the resident doctor came in again and checked me - absolutely no change. They consulted my doctor and a decision had to be made. A cesarean it would be. Now, I didn't go into labor with a plan and knew with as big as baby as I was carrying that a c-section was high probability so I was not disappointed when this would be the final outcome. Shoot! We would have our baby boy soon and I would get two extra weeks of paid leave for work. Score! It was now shift change and the new nurses came in to prep me for surgery. I've never had surgery before so I was quite scared about what was going on. I began to shake violently and worried everyone. I cried a little, but kept being reassured that everything was going to be alright. After 8:00am I was wheeled into the operating room.

Everything got prepped, Dave came into the room, and the surgery got started. I couldn't feel anything but I could hear the doctors talking. My doctor schooled the residents on my awesome abs (seriously) and made sure they weren't doing any damage to them. And then came big pressure where it felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. Dave was watching the whole surgery and I kept looking at his face. He began to cry and then the baby cried and I felt nothing but relief. Not only did I physically feel better, emotionally I felt great. They brought the baby to the warmer on the side where Dave was and I could see him too. We named him and he stopped crying. He was totally cool and collected throughout the process. I watched Dave cut the cord and then they swaddled him up and I got to nuzzle him. Welcome to the world, baby boy Anderson!

(My pictures got a little bit out of order when they were imported. You get the idea.)

As it turns out, the baby was facing the wrong direction. He was face up instead of down. And his head was in such a position that it was pressing against my bladder every time I had a contraction and thus why I couldn't produce any urine.

They stitched me up good (ouch, I could feel this), gave me some really good drugs for the dizziness I was feeling, and moved us into recovery. I was so out of it I could barely keep my eyes open. My family and Dave's family came in to meet Anderson. I kept him close and loved him from the start. I'm so glad he's finally here.

Baby A's Birth Story Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 14:23:00 +0000

Caution, this post might be a little graphic, although I'll try to spare some of the details. I have many friends who are pregnant right now who may not want to read this until after their little bugs are born. Baby A's birth was not very easy. I've decided to break this post up into two parts as it is a LONG story. This is part 1.

Anderson's birth seemed to be a several day event that actually started on Friday March 22nd. I had gone to bed around 11:00 on Thursday and had fallen quickly asleep. Dave had stayed up playing a game on his iPad. Around midnight I woke up with a big gush and announced to Dave, "my water broke." We kinda stared at each other in a freak out style and quickly packed up our stuff. I called my doctor and she told me to head to the hospital.

At the hospital, the nurse and doctor did a few tests to see if my water had indeed broken. First was a litmus test with a little PH strip. That test said yes, my water had broken. Then the doctor did a "fern test" which was not comfortable to say the least. That test came back negative. What? So the doctor sat me up in bed and let gravity do it's magic for an hour. After an hour I had the fern test done again (ouch!) and again it was negative. They sent me home.

Throughout the remainder of the night and morning I continued to leak. A lot. So I called the doctor's office and they sent me back to the hospital. Again I passed the litmus test. This time my personal doctor was on-call at the hospital and she was the one who did the fern test. Again it came back negative. We concluded the leaking was something else. Once again, I was sent home.

The weekend was pretty lazy. We were being induced on Wednesday the 27th, so we just began to prepare ourselves and our house for the new arrival. Also over the weekend I started to have real contractions although they didn't really go anywhere.

Sunday/Monday in the middle of the night the contractions got serious. They hurt. A lot! I began to time them. Around 3:00am Monday the contractions were 5 minutes apart, lasting over a minute, and had been like that for over an hour. I woke Dave up and we drove into the hospital yet again. Trip #3. Thank goodness the hospital is only 15 minutes away. I got all hooked up to the machines and began getting evaluated. The contractions were BIG, off the charts big, but I was only 1cm dilated. The doctor sent me on a walk for an hour to see if anything would change. They were not quite ready to quantify me as being in active labor. I walked around the empty hospital for an hour in terrible pain. With every contraction I had to stop and hug the wall and with each contraction I felt like I had to pee. A million stops in the bathroom later, we were back up in the evaluation room. Unfortunately, nothing had changed - only 1cm. They decided to send me home. What?! I was in terrible pain from the contractions and they wanted me to go home? They told me to take some Tylenol and some Benadryl and try to relax. They thought for sure I would be back later in the day.

The Tylenol and Benadryl knocked me and the contractions out. By the afternoon I felt like a zombie, but was doing better. This was definitely annoying. I spent the rest of the day basically resting in bed.

Around midnight I was woken up with contractions yet again. They weren't terrible but uncomfortable enough that it would wake me up every time. By 4:00am, they were strong and close together - like every four minutes. All I could do was sway and moan and breathe to get through them. I did not want to go to the hospital as I was afraid they'd send me home yet again. I had my last doctor's appointment at 9:30am and I was going to try to make it until then and let my own doctor evaluate me. Around 6:00 the contractions went back to 8 minutes and I was able to take a shower. Well, I took a lot of showers during this time, actually. It helped with the pain. I tried to eat some breakfast, but only could manage a half bowl of Cheerios. Finally at 9:00 we headed to the doctor.

The contractions continued and I felt totally self-conscious to be in the wait room trying to get through my contractions. I would sit in my seat and sway as little as I could and just breathe. Dave would rub my back. The nurse happened to see me and asked me how I was doing. I let her know I was having contractions and she thought I was probably in labor. I asked her if she could get me back in a room right away and she said she couldn't because the doctor wasn't there yet. You have got to be kidding me! I'm making everyone uncomfortable, including myself. Finally I was called back and the doctor walked in, took one look at me, and said, "I know that look. That look is labor." She did my exam and I was 2cm. She said it was time to go to the hospital (again, #4) and she would go ahead and call letting them know I was coming and that I would like the epidural. I figured if she was sending me to the hospital they were not going to send me home again. Luckily, we had already put our bags in the car and we were on our way.

Would our fourth trip to the hospital finally get me admitted? Was I finally in real, active labor? Stay tuned for the rest of the story...

He's Here!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 22:07:00 +0000

I have so much to say about the last week, but we'll start with this...

Anderson Reid Gordon was born Wednesday March 27th at 8:36am. He weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces and was 20 inches long.

Much more to come in the next couple of days.

37 Week Doctor's Appointment

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 01:14:00 +0000

Thank goodness. I'm almost done with all these doctor's appointments.

Dave was instructed to attend this appointment with me, so we knew it was an important one. The doctor talked to us at length about labor and delivery and our options. Since we had taken the childbirth classes at the hospital, we felt comfortable with everything that was being said. The high risk doctor had not yet sent over the results from Tuesday's ultrasound, but we filled in the blanks of just how big the baby is. She decided that maybe going to my due date is not such a good idea.

Then it was time for the measurements. Everything was normal - weight, blood pressure, belly, and thankfully, I was a whopping 1/2 cm dilated.

At the end of the appointment with the doctor's approval, our induction was scheduled. This is both exciting and nerve wracking. We're happy it's all coming to an end and we're finally going to meet the little devil, but the anticipation of having an actual date and knowing how it will all come to an end makes me a little nervous.

Except for our immediate families and our bosses, we have decided to keep our induction date to ourselves. We don't want our phones and Facebook blowing up when the date does come.

Last Ultrasound Picture

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 02:20:00 +0000

I don't know how well you can see this picture. I didn't scan the picture; I took a picture of it with my phone. Plus the baby's so big that it's hard to get a good picture. This is a picture of the face. You can see at least one eye open, along with the baby's pudgy cheeks and big lips. Next pictures of the kiddo will be the real deal.

Little Girl, Big Baby

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 15:12:00 +0000

Our last ultrasound was approximately six weeks ago. That was supposed to be our last ultrasound but because of the size of the baby (head was 99th percentile with the overall size about 76th percentile) the high risk doctor decided to do another ultrasound. This ultrasound will supposedly determine if we should be induced early. We had that ultrasound earlier this morning.

This ultrasound wasn't really about looking at all the parts and taking measurements, it was more about seeing the size of the head, the size of the body, and determining approximately the weight of the baby currently knowing we have three weeks left and the baby would gain about a 1/2 pound per week until the end.

The first measurement was the head and it was still in the 97-99th percentile range and exactly at 40 weeks. That's gonna hurt! We were really surprised to see how much hair the little bug had. Dave and I were both blonde babies and I fully expected to have a bald baby. Guess I'll have to pack a brush for the hospital so kiddo takes good pictures.

The next measurement was the amniotic fluid. We don't exactly know what the number means but the amniotic fluid was at 18cm. That's at the high end of normal. The good news is that not only am I losing the weight of the baby when I give birth, I have a lot of fluid that I'll be losing too.

Lastly was the belly measurement. The belly was also measuring at 40 weeks and in the 99th percentile. Good gosh this is a big baby!

The shoulders were measured too to make sure they weren't too big to get out and luckily, they were normal sized.

Overall, this baby is big. Really big. The measurements have us at 39 weeks plus. The baby is currently weighing 8 pounds 1 ounce, although the tech said it's probably a little higher than reality. The high risk doctor said he wouldn't recommend going all the way to my due date. Thursday we see our regular OBGYN so it will be interesting to see what she says. The thought of having an induction date makes me anxious but knowing that if I go all the way to my due date I have about 0% chance of having a vaginal delivery. Hopefully we'll have some answers by the end of the week.

Foto Friday - 36 Weeks

noreply@blogger.com (Meredith) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 16:48:00 +0000