Running Army Wife

I was not one of those women that just wanted the pregnancy to be over. I was still feeling pretty good at 40 weeks. I hadn't been able to run in a while, but I was still walking and staying active. I knew my baby boy was comfortable below my heart, and told him I would just prefer that he get here before Christmas (he was due December 18th), so that I could enjoy a mimosa that morning.  I went to work on Thursday the 18th, his due date. I hadn't felt anything that made me think labor was close, so I figured I would work until my mom flew in that day. On Friday the 19th, I went to a doctor's appointment to schedule the day that we would induce labor, which I hoped we wouldn't have to do. I was dilated to 2 centimeters, 80% effaced. The doctor did a membrane sweep, and I immediately started feeling more uncomfortable and more regular contractions (I had been feeling braxton hicks for weeks).  We went to bed that night, and at 3am, I woke up with more painful ...

I know. I said I would update more often. But truthfully, I've physically started writing a blog post at least 4 times, only to get discouraged and not post. "Fit pregnancy" has been hard, ya'll. First I had really low blood pressure in the first trimester. That has thankfully gotten better, but then I started to get a pain in what felt like a groin muscle pull that radiated up into my back. Come to find out, this is something that many pregnant women experience (even non-runners). It's called  pelvic girdle pain , and it might not go away until after the baby is born. I'm pretty disappointed. I was talking to my mom about it over the phone and I found myself crying when I told her I might just have to stop running after I had a particularly painful run that morning. This might have been mostly because of hormones.. but still a huge disappointment! So I've had to adjust my expectations. Again. I had this idea that I would tally up all the miles that ...

Hmm. I'm not sure it's realistic for me to go back to blogging every week. I might switch to bi-weekly soon, but we'll see! Week 17 is almost over. I did run a couple times this week and it felt... good.. except that my bladder feels just kind of funny during the run. Kind of like something is sitting on it and causing some pressure. No idea why that would be. #saracasm But the good news is that I don't experience this at all while biking, so I might be doing a little more of that. I did get my two sessions of lifting in! I was cautioned by my doctor to not try to lift more weight than I already was. Just to maintain, since apparently it's really easy to injure muscles and tendons during pregnancy (everything is more stretchy to prepare the the huge amount of stretch that will happen to my torso). I did do pretty well on my goals and I think I'm going to continue to keep these basic goals every week for now. Yoga x 1 hour (check! did this on Sunday) ...

James and I just got back from a really nice weekend up at Kalaloch beach. We went to a first-come, first-serve basis campsite, and luckily got a spot around noon on the 3rd. So thankful that the Army decided to give James the 3rd and 4th off, because it worked out really well with my work schedule and got us there before the rush. Our spot was so prime that a guy came up to me within 10 seconds of me getting out of the tent on the morning of the 4th to ask if we planned on staying that night (I know, super peaceful wake-up, right?). Luckily, the next morning was a lot more quiet after the fireworks so we still had a relaxing stay. View from our tent.  How was camping while pregnant? Well, I didn't have to pee until about 5am both nights there, so I would call that a pregnancy-win! And during the day, we pretty much just hung out at the beach. It was a little chilly, but we (really, James) built a couple driftwood fires that warmed us up. So how as running been going? I...

I'm officially 12 weeks along today. My little bit of morning sickness that I had is subsiding. I'm now able to go grocery shopping and cook without feeling sick to my stomach! I am pretty sure that my husband is as happy as I am about that. I'm not officially at the end of the first tri, but I think the hardest part of it are over (the higher risk, the morning sickness etc). Here are the things I didn't expect: I didn't expect to be so tired. I'm struggling at work. Especially in the afternoon. Staying focused enough to actually work on my projects has become a daily challenge. And not drinking coffee isn't helping either (see #2). I hope this is something that improves going into the 2nd trimester. I didn't expect to, all the sudden, despise coffee. A cup or so a day of coffee is perfectly fine during pregnancy. I was set on keeping up my habit. Then one day around 6 weeks or so, I felt completely repulsed by it. I don't miss it. You don...

I haven't been blogging for a while. My husband got back from his deployment at the end of 2012 and life settled down and got wonderfully boring. In the back of my mind, I still remembered my little blog. I thought to myself.. maybe when we decide to have a baby... it would be fun to blog about being pregnant and running. And just.. being pregnant. So anyway.. I'm happy to announce that we're having a baby! I haven't felt very sick. I don't have a baby bump yet. Am I pregnant or is this just a little virus that makes me feel a little sick all all the time and happens to also make my boobs big and sore? It was such a relief to go in for the ultra sound and see that there was actually a baby in there. With a little heartbeat. That was moving . It feels more real now. Though still slightly unbelievable. I'm really excited to share this adventure with you. <3 Amy Keep on praying. Keep on running.

This has been a post that I've been wanting to write for a while. I don't claim that I handled the deployment perfectly. There were more than a few moments of heartache and complete meltdowns. But this is the list that I've compiled from my own experience and from talking to women much wiser than I. 1. Don't compare. James's unit was the last one to deploy for a full 12 months (deployments this long do still happen but they aren't the "standard"). The month after he deployed, they switched to 9-month deployments. I was really bitter about that for a while. But you know what? Deployments were 18 months not so long ago. And I'm sure there were plenty of people that envied the 12-month deployments when that happened. There will always be someone whose husband has a shorter deployment. Or who gets to talk to their husband more than you do. Or one who gets more flowers in the mail than you. Wasting time on comparison will only make the time go slowe...