Marine Corps Marathon 2009

Imagine, a post on a running blog that actually has something to do with running!

Since I have been out of commission as far as running is concerned, I haven't had much to write about but babies. But while I am taking the year off, my better half is still running up a storm.

The past few months, J has been training for the Marine Corps Marathon. This weekend was the big race and we headed out to DC for a weekend of running fun.

While I was a little sad to be going as a spectator and not actually run it, I had a fantastic time cheering everyone on and enjoying the beautiful fall weekend. It was definitely a great race to spectate.

We stayed in the Hyatt Regency (the official race hotel) and other than the paper-thin walls (the people next door to us the first night we were there must have been filming a porno), it was a great hotel. It was right down the street from the Capitol and a perfect location as far as Metro, sightseeing and dining access.

Saturday morning we ate an amazing (but expensive) breakfast buffet at the hotel and then walked to the metro to get to the expo. The expo was similar to pretty much every other expo I have been to. It was very well organized, which was nice. But for some reason, I thought there would be a bigger selection of vendors. It didn't seem as though there was anything new that I haven't seen before. It also got really crowded pretty quickly due to the large number of runners.

They did have great Brooks Marine Corps gear, which Jeremy loaded up on. He got a new hat, long sleeved tech and one of the nicest looking windbreakers I have ever seen from a race. I treated myself to a new hooded sweatshirt from the Back on my Feet booth and we bought the Bean a cute onesie that will motivate me to get back to running as soon as possible unless I want to look like a big, fat liar.

I must run faster than someone's father, right?



The rest of the afternoon was spent in the hotel as it rained the entire afternoon and I was suddenly feeling REALLY pregnant from my giant breakfast buffet. I just needed to lay down for a bit. We watched a lot of college football and then went for a crappy dinner at Gordon Biersch later on. I usually like their food, but for some reason, we both got a bad meal that night. Not a big deal for me, but not fun for someone's last meal before a marathon.

The next morning we woke up to beautiful weather. It had cooled down to the low 50's and the sun was coming out. We took the metro down the the start which ended up being a total clusterf@%k.

Most cities I have run in will usually throw a bone and give runners a free pass on race day (by showing their bibs). Not DC. To ride the metro in DC you have to insert your prepaid card to get into the station and then again to exit the station. This ended up being a nightmare as 30,000 runners were all trying to get off the same train station at once. We got off the train and were crammed shoulder to shoulder with hundred of other people and were not going anywhere. Then, 15 minutes laster another train came to let people off, but half the people couldn't get off the train because there was no were for them to go.

As a person who hates crowds anyway and add to that the fact that I suddenly have been experiencing a serious case of pregnancy-induced claustrophobia, I was not happy. Of course, none of the anxious marathoners around me were either. It was getting ugly fast. Finally, the metro workers realized there was a serious hazard issue on their hands and just opened the gates to let us all out. Phew. The metro issue (which was no better getting back) was really the only problem with this race from what I could see. But of course, that really has nothing to do with the marathon itself.

We got to the start and I wished J a great race and he headed to his corral.I had my course maps and told him where to look for me. I even made him a bright neon green sign so he could see me.



The other side of the sign was for all the other runners, which I have to say, was quite the big hit.



I stood right past the start holding up this sign as the runners ran by and got a ton of laughs as people started on their way. I even had a few other spectators take a picture of it and one girl actually stopped running (at around mile 16), took out her disposable camera and asked the woman next to me to take a picture of us. It was a great feeling to know that I could do something small to help bring a smile to a runner's face as they were about to embark on their marathon journey.

(If you don't get the Chuck Norris reference, please refer to this website.)

Anyway, the rest of the race was great. I watched the start go off and J run by. Then I scurried off from Arlington Cemetery to behind the Lincoln Memorial (around mile 11) to see everyone run by again. I only saw J here as he ran up to me and gave me a kiss before running off into the distance.



I saw him again at mile 16 and he was right on pace to hit his 3:50 target for a PR so I headed back to mile 25 to watch him come in at the finish. But sadly, I watched the 3:50's run by, then the 4:00 pacers and I knew something had happened. In my pregnant state of mind, I of course started overreacting thinking he had dropped dead on the side of the road somewhere. Just as I was about to start sobbing uncontrollably as I wondered how I was ever going to figure out what hospital he was in, I saw him in the distance.



He smiled as I called out to him as if to say, "I'm fine, it just wasn't my day."

After I walked about 2 miles (not kidding) to get to the family meet up area, we finally found each other. His official finish was 4:13:23. His second best time, but 20 minutes off of what he was hoping for. He chalked it up to nerves, early hills and the warm morning sun but said it was a great race with a ton of wonderful crowd support. He also said that even though there were double the amount of runners than the races we normally participate in, he never felt crowded. He said he would love to do it again.

Oh, and the medals are beautiful.





All in all, a great race. No PR for J, but he has his 6th marathon under his belt. Quite a huge accomplishment. Besides, he has a chance to redeem himself in less than a month in Philly. I told him to chalk it up as a great training run. :)

We spent the rest of the day wandering around the city a little before enjoying a great dinner at Founding Farmers and calling it a night.

Here are some more pictures from the big day. Hope everyone had a great weekend!



























































For more pics of the race, take a peek at my flickr album.

Lock up your sons...

...she's gorgeous.







And perfectly, wonderfully, happily heathy. :)

19 Weeks

Today is the last day of my 19th week of pregnancy.

Overall, Im feeling great. I still haven't had any bleeding or other complications in 5 weeks. At this point, all my nausea is pretty much gone and I have a decent amount of energy.

While I haven't been running or really even working out, I have been pretty active, especially on the weekends. Jeremy and I have spent any free time we have either walking around the city or hosting get-togethers at our new place, which leaves me little time to be lazy. This is good since I sit on my butt all day at work.

For the most part, I feel great walking around, but after a few hours I am spent. It's an odd feeling to have to take a nap after walking around for 2-3 hours when a few months ago I could get up at 5am, run that much, then walk another 4-5 hours in the city and feel fine.

I have also noticed that the steep stairs I have to climb to get up to my train after work have been taking their toll on me. I have never actually counted them, but I would guess there are over 40-50 and they are really steep. I used to be able to race up them to catch my train. Now I have to take each step pretty slowly, then spend about 5 minutes catching my breath when I get to the top.

It's odd how this little creature takes over your entire body.

Eating has been fine. I haven't had any weird cravings or anything like that, although I am loving anything salty (soy sauce, green olives, baby dill pickles, etc). I have been trying to eat well, even if tonight I had a croissant with dill dip and some chips and salsa for dinner. Sigh.

I haven't been overeating at all, which is actually a change from when I am not pregnant. I just get so full so fast. But I need to incorporate more veggies into my diet. I have been really good about eating fruits and salads. But with the colder weather coming in, I am craving soups and comfort foods, not salads.

But as of today, I have only gained 10lbs which is right on schedule for my height/weight, so I'm feeling really good about that.

I had another appointment with my midwife last Monday and all was good. We heard a really strong heartbeat this time which was great. J couldn't be there again because he had class, but he stepped out for a few minutes and called us so he could hear the heartbeat on speakerphone while we were listening on the doppler. My midwife gets a kick out of it every time :)

She also told me to just come in every two weeks for appointments for peace of mind. She said she doesn't care how many times she sees me, if I want to come in for a quick checkup and heartbeat check, I can. I think I am gong to take her up on it. With everything we have been through, there is something reassuring about hearing that "woosh, woosh, woosh" every couple of weeks.

So, tomorrow I will officially be 20 weeks pregnant. I know I say this every week, but I seriously never thought I would get this far.

We actually have our 20 week full anatomy scan on Thursday. Since we haven't had any other genetic testing done this time (besides the five ultrasounds in the first trimester) we are anxiously awaiting this day.

I have actually suddenly been overwhelmed with scary thoughts about losing this baby in the past week. I know this is directly due to this ultrasound which just makes me glad I never did any of the testing earlier. I would have been a wreck the entire pregnancy. No matter what happens now, at least we had a few weeks of stress-free happiness. But I am trying not to be negative since I know that is not going to help or change anything. I'm just staying positive and going in with happy thoughts about seeing Butterbean and hopefully finding out we have a perfectly healthy baby boy or girl.

Yes, as long as the Bean cooperates, we will be finding out the sex. I have no real feelings one way or the other about which one it might be. At first I was thinking girl, but since seeing the Bean on the ultrasounds, I have been slightly leaning towards feeling it's a boy. All my friends and family are split 50/50 with their thoughts. Jeremy and Dakota both said if they "had to chose" they would probably want a girl, which totally shocked me about Dakota. I thought he wanted a brother for sure, so that was a nice surprise.

Every random online quiz or old-wives gender test I have taken have literally come up 50/50 as well, so I guess we will just have to wait and see in a day and a half!!!!

Anyone want to place any bets???

18 Weeks and Counting...

...better weeks than kids, I suppose.

Things have been good around here. Good and uneventful, just the way I like them nowadays.

I haven't been having any more bleeding or spotting (knock on wood) for about 3.5 weeks. I know it could come back at any time and I still have my moments of panic when I am sure I am suddenly bleeding, only to find out everything is fine. But those moments only happen a few times a week now, instead of a few times an hour, like they did a few weeks ago. I think my paranoia is starting to fade a bit.

It's really no wonder all mothers end up crazy.

But I am finally settling into this whole pregnancy thing and even possibly thinking it may really happen for us this time. I will definitely feel better after our 20 week ultrasound that we have on the 15th. Even though we had five ultrasounds early on, we decided this time to forgo all genetic testing and just take things as they come. I'm terrified of going in because of what they might find, but I'm trying t stay positive and just focus on seeing Butterbean again.

We're also hoping The Bean isn't shy so we can find out the sex. We thought about waiting, but I think for us, finding out the sex will be a great way to help us bond to a pregnancy we have been to wary of attaching ourselves too. Awwww...is The Bean a girl or a boy?!?!? Honestly, I have been going back an forth. Lately, I keep calling it a boy on accident, but my first instinct was a girl. And even though J will never admit it, I think he is secretly hoping for a little girl :)

At this point they could tell me there is a chimpanzee in there. As long as it's healthy, I am totally cool with it.

Speaking of my little monkey, I think (but am not sure) that I may have been feeling it move now for the past week. It started last Thursday as I laid on the couch after dinner. I felt the little "flutter" or "bubble popping" as so many people call it. Actually, it felt exactly like gas, except there was no actual "passing of gas" to go along with it.

I have been feeling it at least once a day since then. Sometimes harder than others. A poke here or a light rumble there. It's like as soon as you realize what you may be feeling it's gone. Just like when you see a shooting star or something. It's still very light and honestly, it could just be gas (unfortunately for everyone else, my most intense pregnancy symptom at this point). Since I have never felt a baby move before and seem to have gas constantly now, I really have no way of knowing. But it does feel just a tiny bit different...I can't really explain why.

Also, the past few days, after some serious round ligament pains that scared the shit out of me, my stomach completely popped out. I have noticed it getting a little bigger over the weeks, but last Saturday I woke up and was like "WOW!" Then Monday I walked by a mirror at work and was even bigger! As you can see in the second picture below, I can't even suck it in anymore without there still being a big bump on the bottom. It's exciting to finally have a visual symbol of this kid inside of me, although most of the time, when I am wearing my everyday clothes, I still just look like I finished off a pizza and a six-pack. Oh well.

Other than baby stuff, things are great. Work is good and keeping me busy, the house is great (we are having our first get together this weekend), I'm feeling great right now and I am LOVING the cool fall weather. Although I have to say, it does make me a little sad not to be out there. It's PREFECT running weather!!! I'm so sad to be missing it and was SO bummed to miss my favorite race last week, the Philly Distance Run.

I even had a dream a few nights ago that there was a 10 mile race by my house and J wasn't around and I kept telling myself that even though I haven't run in ELEVEN weeks now, I could just sign up and run it and be fine. In my dream, I kept running around the parking lot to see how I felt and was like, "Yeah, this is no problem, I feel great. I can sneak in the race and he will never know!"

For some reason, I didn't end up doing it in my dream although I can't remember why. But I do remember that those few moments I was running around the parking lot, felt amazing.

You know you haven't run in forever when you are dreaming about sneaking in road races.

Oh well. I hope you like jogging strollers, Butterbean.

Second Trimester High

Tonight I had my 16 week appointment with my midwife. Actually, it was more like 15w5d, but who's counting?

Besides me.

Anyway, it was a great visit. I love my midwife SO much. My prenatal care did a complete 180 from when I was pregnant in Miami last year. Then, I was going to an OB in a practice with 5 other doctors. At my first appointment, I showed up all excited for my very first baby-doctor visit, only to be told, quite rudely by the way, that they had lost my appointment and wouldn't be able to see me until the next week. I should have known then to just find another place.

After that, we only had two appointments there before we lost the baby. Both of those times we had to wait at least 45 minutes, if not more, to see our doctor. When we did get in there, we were rushed through blood work, told what we were going to get done (screenings, testing, etc) and handed a pregnancy brochure as we were rushed out the door before we had a chance to ask any of the 500 questions we had.

Weeks later, after the perinatologist at the testing office noticed there was something wrong on the ultrasound we were a wreck while we waited for more testing. At our next regular appointment, we asked our Dr about it and were told, "Yeah, I saw something about that, I'm sure it's nothing, you'll be fine."

A week later, we lost Baby Z. We needed to get genetic testing done on it and the results were sent back to our Doctor's office. We spent almost a month playing phone tag, trying to get someone on the phone who could give us results. When we finally did, I was terrified, mad and beyond frustrated. I vowed, if I ever got pregnant again, I would find someone who treated me like a human being and not just another number on their list of crazy pregnant ladies they have to deal with everyday.

After doing a lot of research, I decided that the midwifery approach was right for me. I knew J would never go for a non-hospital birth and while I greatly admire people who do it, I honestly have no desire to birth in my home. So we made a compromise and found a wonderful midwife who has her own private practice but delivers in a local hospital.

My care with her so far has been amazing. She is compassionate, caring, hilarious and calm. She is also VERY accessible by phone or email. The best is that she is not some totally out there, hippy-dippy midwife, but very down-to-earth and filled with common sense. She is a complete advocate of natural childbirth, but at the same time, knows that sometimes there are things that are out of your control. Therefore, she is completely willing to create a birth plan that includes pain relief if needed without making you feel like some sort of failure to womankind. Midwives aren't for everyone, but for us, it's the perfect balance. We get the medical side if we need it (she works with backup doctors and perinatologists), the advocacy for natural childbirth that I want, and the coddling and reassurance that two terrified, baby-burned parents need from a caregiver.

So, Jeremy is in Amsterdam right now (I know, WITHOUT me! Can you believe it?!?!?) so he had to miss our appointment tonight. He was pretty bummed about not hearing the baby's heartbeat on the doppler (after all we've been through, we live for this moment every couple of weeks). Anyway, he asked me to call him during the appointment so he could hear the heartbeat.

So, here I am, laying on the table. My midwife has the doppler on my stomach and I'm all,

"Hang on, gotta call Amsterdam real quick."

Instead of getting impatient, she was cracking up and playing along. While we had him on speakerphone, she made some comment about it being her "first international consultation."

Love her.

Anyway, everything was great. The heartbeat was fine and if everything goes well, we have our next ultrasound appointment scheduled in a month. I had some more random spotting issues (sorry guys...) a few weeks back that actually lasted two full weeks, but she got us in to hear the heartbeat and said it was to be expected with everything we had been through. It wasn't as scary and gorey as it had been, so I just dealt with it. And after two weeks it stopped. I am happy to say that today it has been one whole week of NO blood!!! Woo-hooo! (Knock on wood). It's been nice to have a somewhat stress-free week for once.

Other that that, I have to say, so far the second tri has been everything people said it would be. My nausea has improved by about 85% and I'm feeling sooooo much better. I still get tired really easily, but compared to how I felt a month ago, I feel like a new woman.

And while I have felt completely bloated for the past 16 weeks, I'm just now actually starting to feel my stomach getting bigger. Normally, if I press on my stomach, it just squishes down. Now, it feels like a small balloon is growing in there. It's very odd. I am proud to say though, that at almost 16 weeks I am still wearing all my normal clothes. However, I know that wont last very long. Getting bigger is a scary thought, but one I am ready for.

That is really the only "complaint" I have right now which I'm not really complaining about. I'll take it any day over the excitement of my first trimester, which included, but was not limited to:

abnormal bleeding
round-the-clock nausea
insatiable need to gag
excessive salivation
constipation
acne
overly sensitive sense to smell (had to change deodorant and laundry detergent to unscented)
food aversions (to everything but Lucky Charms, orange peanut butter crackers, chocolate milk and pickles)
all day dizziness
disgusting taste in my mouth all day and night
total exhaustion
dry skin
gas that had me doubled over in pain

Yes. pregnancy is sexy.

P.S. My pics will be back in about a week. Somehow I exceeded my bandwith. I'm too lazy to repost every picture on here, so I will just wait until my account resets itself.

Home Sweet Home

Sorry it's been so long...again. After a week or two of no activity I get a couple of FB messages asking if I'm ok (much appreciated). I'm perfectly fine, and so is Butterbean as far as I know. It's been a crazy couple of weeks and I just recently got internet back.

First off, before I forget, I just want to say thank you all so much for all your encouraging words from my last two posts. When I wrote that first post, I wasn't sure if anyone would even come back to read it, since I'd been gone so long. I was shocked to see that an hour after I had published it, I already had 14 comments. Sometimes I can't believe the outpouring of support in the online running community. :) And trust me, with all the stress we have been under for the past few months, it truly means a lot. But I do have some wonderful news to report (finally), which is the reason I have been MIA for the past couple of weeks.

Two weeks ago, Jeremy and I had the pleasure of closing on our very first house!!! YAY!!!!

The process has been a total roller coaster and something we never thought we would see happen, but it finally did and we are beyond thrilled.

We started looking for a place to live in Miami a few years ago. Unfortunately, at the time, the homes we would afford (condos with high association fees) were all ridiculously overpriced. But little did we know, our disappointment was a blessing in disguise. Had we bought one of those condos two years ago, we would have lost SO much money last year.

Then we thought for a few months we were going to move to Sarasota, FL (where my parents live). Jeremy had a job opportunity there and for a couple of months, we looked for houses again. But that job opportunity unexpectedly fell through at the last minute and so did our quest for a home.

Here in Philly, we decided it was a good idea to rent for a year while we tried to figure out where we wanted to live. We knew it was a good time to look again once we heard about the first-time homebuyers credit. We figured out that we would qualify for the full $8,000 and we knew we could get a decent place for almost the same amount we were paying in rent. So we set up a time to go out with our realtor who helped us with our rental (he's the best) in late March to start looking.

But the Sunday we were set to go look with him was the same weekend I had the miscarriage. Jeremy offered to cancel, but since the worse of it was over, I insisted on going (stubborn much?). I needed something to look forward to and focus on besides the baby. So off we went.

We spent the next two months looking at properties with our incredibly patient realtor, Michael Steele (I love saying his name, it sounds like a superhero). In total, we saw over 70 properties. We fell in love with one house, saw it twice, then decided the neighborhood was too far from the city and we wanted to be on a train line. Then we fell for another house with a great backyard, deck and view of the city. We saw it twice, but we realize it needed too much work and the upstairs was too small.

The third house we fell in love with was a total rehab, huge, close to a train line and in a great part of the city we wanted to live in. We didn't totally, LOVE it, but we liked it and were at the point where we figured we would never have that "feeling" everyone talks about when they walk into a place and know "it's the one". We were so sick of looking at that point that we decided we liked it enough to put in an offer. We negotiated back and forth with a shady realtor and seller, but finally settled on a price. We were thrilled.

But on the day of the inspection, I had the strangest feeling I couldn't explain. Everything inside of me was telling me not to get this house. I don't normally get feelings like that, or think much about them, but this one was overwhelming. The inspector found a ton of things wrong with the place. It was nothing that couldn't necessarily be fixed, but it was way too much for us to be comfortable with on our first home and it would have cost a LOT of money. We left the inspection totally confused and scared we were about to make a horrible mistake. As we left the house, we drove by another place that had just come up on the market the week we agreed on the last house. As we drove by it, I remember thinking how cute it was and if we were still looking, I would love to see it. After two days we decided we didn't want to renegotiate and pulled out of the deal.

The next night I broke out in a horrible case of hives. HIVES!!! I have never had hives in my LIFE! I was so stressed out from looking for a house, and the agony of a bad inspection and deciding whether or not to take that bloody house, my body reacted by turning into a giant red, itchy MESS. It was so awful.

So the next week, we dusted ourselves off for another Saturday tour of homes with Michael Steele. We had 7 houses on the list. The cute house was number two.

As soon as we pulled up to the house and stepped out of the car, I knew this was where I wanted to live. It was a gorgeous, 1920's, tudor-style rowhome surrounded by huge mature trees on a wide, beautiful street. It was also four doors away from one of the best running trails in the city.

As soon as we stepped through the arched doorway and entered the home, I had "the feeling". It was the best feeling ever.

While we had to compromise on a few things with this home (mainly square footage), it had a lot of the things we were looking for (a ton of character, huge trees, close to our favorite park and train line, renovated, but not in cheap, shady, flipping the house sort of way). We decided we could size down a bit if the house had everything else we wanted, and this one did. We were in love. The best part is, the sellers were not some shady flippers looking to make a buck, but a nice family who loved the home and planned on being here a long time. The husband is a contractor and carpenter and renovated everything, so it's all done beautifully. It's a great feeling to buy a place and feel confident with the purchase, not scared that the master bathroom is literally going to fall off the back of the house (just one of the many concerns with the last house).

We negotiated back and forth, went through (and paid for, ugh) another inspection, got the house appraised, renegotiated again and after three months of waiting on this house, we FINALLY closed two weeks ago. We have been waiting for this moment for so long, that as I sit here and write this in my very own living room, I still can't believe it. I am at a single moment in my life where I feel totally blessed.

The past few weeks have been spent moving, painting, sewing, unpacking, shopping etc. It's been exhausting and wonderful all at once.

There is so much more I want to write about it, but I'll save it for another post (probably with pics). Until then...

I'll Miss You Running

It's been so long since I have gone for a run.

I honestly can't even remember the last time, but it must have been about 5.5 weeks ago. When I had the bleeding episode at 7 weeks I had to take it easy for awhile. Once I got the approval from my Dr and Midwife to start again (at least a week after no bleeding/spotting at all and to take it EASY) I was so nauseous I could barely make the walk from the train to my office at work, let alone go for a run. Plus, the summer heat was really starting to do a number on me.

So I just decided I wasn't going to worry about it. Some things are more important than running and right now I just needed my rest and try to make it through the first trimester.

So I rested. And on the few cooler days that came around, J and I would go for a walk after work. From our house, to the end of all the bars on Main Street and back, is a nice 2 mile walk. It was surprisingly hard. Not only was I constantly sick and dizzy but I had zero lung capacity left. Most of the time, I am more out of breath walking up the stairs in my house than I have ever been running any distance. It's so odd how quickly your body changes.

But recently, I have been getting restless. The past two weeks I have slowly been starting to feel a little better as far as the nausea goes. I still feel nauseous, but instead of it lasting from 11am-bedtime. It's last from 3-4pm-bedtime. Still sucks, but an improvement nonetheless.

So, I have been thinking about running again. Not a lot, but maybe two or three short runs a week. After coming back to blogland and reading about all your adventures in running, I realized how much I missed it. I hadn't had any bleeding in 6 weeks and got a clean bill of health from my perinatologist, so what was I so scared of? I would keep walking for a few more weeks, and then once it cooled down a bit, start with some slow walk-running again.

Then last Wednesday happened.

I woke up at 5:00am on the first day of my 12th week of pregnancy to a soaking wet bed. In my half-dazed state, I wondered if I had wet the bed. But come on. We have all had the dream where we were going to the bathroom only to wake up just in time to avert a crisis. And I didn't have that dream. As a matter of fact, I had to go.

So I stumbled through the dark bedroom to the bathroom and went. When I stood up, to my horror, I saw a toilet full of bright red blood. Not spotting, not "old blood" as the Drs like to call it, but a crime scene in my toilet (Once again, sorry boys).

Jeremy and I made our way to the ER in complete silence. We knew this was it and we couldn't believe it had taken this long for it to finally happen.

But once again, we sat in the dark ultrasound room to see a happy little baby, swimming around and waving at us. A nice, strong heartbeat. Cervix was closed. Everything was fine.

Tell me why we decided to do this whole parenting thing again?

Long story short, the ER doc (who was an ass) had no idea what was wrong with me. As I laid there he asked,

"So I assume you are here for an ultrasound?"

Like I was some crazy pregnant lady who just wanted to see a picture of my baby.

Um, I dunno doc. I'm here because it looked like someone cut their arm off in my bathroom. YOU tell me what my next steps are.

Ugh.

Also, maybe you could be a little more rough when you are giving me a pelvic exam? I think you could jam that speculum in me a little faster and crank it up a little farther. I don't think the people on MARS can see my cervix.

Anyway, we were relieved, but still terrified. What the hell was happening?

My midwife is a saint and pulled some strings to get us in the next morning to see another perinatologist and get more scans.

Once again, everything was fine. Baby looked great and they couldn't tell exactly where the bleeding was coming from. Since it seems to all come at once, then taper off to spotting before going away (miscarriage is usually the opposite) they think it may be coming from a small area where he said he sees the membrane had lifted up a bit and blood pooled before just releasing. He also said he can't be 100% sure, but as long as the baby is healthy, we are good. I may just be one of those unlucky women who bleed throughout my pregnancy. Scary, yes, but not necessarily a problem for the baby.

He told me to take it easy for a few days and no exercise for a week (anytime I have a bleed like that). Other than that, I can resume normal activity again.

I will say the one good thing about this happening when it did, was that I have been so sick lately that I have done absolutely ZERO exercise in the past week and half before this happened. So i know for a fact that it didn't have anything to do with it. Which is what they have been telling me all along, but now I can believe it.

However, even with all that, I am seriously considering just giving up on the running dream until this troublemaker is born. At this point, I don't know if I will ever be comfortable with it. And I know J will not be cool with it either. We have had so many scares, I just don't think it's worth it. If for nothing more, than just peace of mind.

Looks like I'll be taking up power walking. Maybe I can change my blog to "A Brand New Life as a Totally Stressed Out Mother of a Child Who is Already Sending Me to an Early Grave and Power Walker."

Good Lord, how bored will all of you be after reading about my pregnancy drama and WALKING for 6 more months? I feel for you.

So, you know what FIVE ultrasounds in 12 weeks means, right? MORE baby pics. These were taken at our 12w1d appointment with the peri. After my heart settled back into my chest after the terror of the previous day, we could actually enjoy the pictures. We can start to see some more features here, which is always fun.

Enjoy seeing the kid while you can. After it's born, it will be grounded for at least two months.