Jill Will Run

Another week… another ultrasound. Most people don’t have ultrasounds as frequently as I’ve been having them lately.  It’s all due to that damn “at the low-end of normal” amniotic fluid level issue.

But the results of today’s ultrasound show that my level is up one unit/measurement/point/whatever.  And that tiny difference seemed to make the staff VERY happy.  The kid also kept putting its hands and feet in front of its face.  The baby weighs just over a pound right now.

Daddy was impressed at the offspring flexing a bicep here.

Most of the things I’ve seen online say that you should start to feel the baby move around week 16-21(ish). As of today I am 23 weeks along. I was a little frustrated that I hadn’t felt anything that seemed like a living baby and that every physical manifestation in this pregnancy has been, well… crap.

At my ultrasound a couple of weeks ago I mentioned that and the tech basically said, “Well, duh. You have an anterior placenta. You’re not going to feel those as soon as most women.”

DUH! How come I didn’t think of that? (Soooo obvious, like I can see where my placenta is!)

This week on Monday I think I started to feel movement.  But it’s weird. It just feels like gas bubbles. In fact, sometimes I’m not even sure that it isn’t gas bubbles. It’s probably both.

But since my levels are minimally higher, they are happy enough to let me wait another 4 weeks before I go in again.  But when I go back in 4 weeks, I have to do the glucose test.  They also said that Kevin and I should start thinking about what we want from our birth experience, if I want natural, drugs, etc.  While I hear that recovery is easier for mom and baby with natural, I also don’t want to spend hours upon hours in extraordinary pain if an epidural can knock that out.  Basically my “birth plan” is to get the baby that is inside to the outside.  We’ll see…

I read the book Expect This by Heather Slee. It was a 99 cent Kindle book about a chick who was formerly anti-children and her pregnancy experience. I enjoyed that she wasn’t all “everything is FAN-FREAKIN-TASTIC” and “pregnancy is the bomb-diggity, yo!” There were spelling and grammatical errors (I believe this was a self-published short, as opposed to an actual publishing house project) but overall I found it to be an enjoyable read. And to spoil the ending, she disliked pregnancy but was immediately in love with her daughter upon birth. So it was kind of comforting too.

The other pregnancy book I’ve read is Does This Pregnancy Make Me Look Fat?: The Essential Guide to Loving Your Body Before and After Baby and it is PHENOMENAL. Seriously, I don’t care if you’ve battled an eating disorder in the past or not… the book is great at putting forward the changes your body goes through in a practical and loving manner. It’s not sugar-coated garbage about how beautiful the transition is, but it also doesn’t put it down either. There is info on all stages of the pregnancy as well as postpartum info. I honestly think I’m just going to start reading it again. However many times it takes me through this pregnancy… I’ll read it. It just soothes me. I think every woman should read it, pregnant or not. And if you live in our society, you are confronted by disordered messages about eating and body expectations and this book has reassuring messages about all of that. Seriously, I loved it.

Those are the only pregnancy-related books I’ve read.  I started to read What to Expect When You’re Expecting days after I got a positive test and it made me furious.  I wasn’t in a good place emotionally at that time, but I don’t need a book that basically feels like it is talking down to me and like I’ve spent my whole life dreaming of being pregnant. I am debating reading The Panic-Free Pregnancy but I’m also kind of in the mindset that people have given birth to children for eons without needing to know all the minutiae of the experience.

My latest gadget for holding my iPhone while running: the HB TuneBand.  I’d seen this advertised in the pages of Women’s Running magazine, so I was excited to give it a go.

My complete review can be found on TheRUNiverse.

Dimity McDowell and Sarah Bowen Shea, the authors of the popular “Run Like a Mother“, have released another book… this one about training for specific race distances.

Train Like a Mother: How to Get Across Any Finish Line – and Not Lose Your Family, Job, or Sanity

Not only do you get Dimity’s and Sarah’s signature humor (You like how I call them by their first names? It’s because they write in a such a personable manner, I almost feel like I know them!) but you get multiple training plans for races distances from the 5K up to the marathon.

I still remember following along with Dimity and Sarah when they trained for the Nike Women’s Marathon several years ago.  They had a whole series in Runner’s World about their triumphs and struggles of balancing family life, training and everything else while working toward 26.2.  I think that was my first exposure to a running dress as well!

They’ve built a whole community online where moms and moms-to-be can chime in and share their experiences.  They’ve carried some of that over into the book.  So in addition to their straightforward and frank descriptions of being a running mama, you get the perspective of SEVERAL real running mamas.

The training programs are written by Christine Hinton, a long-time running coach AND mother, so she’s qualified in more than one area when it comes to knowing how to provide training plans to mothers. Each distance has two versions of the plan as well, a “finish it” version and an “own it” version.

I like that the book also helps define a “Bad Ass Mother Runner”… especially since I qualify because I am pregnant and I run! (If I ran a half marathon during pregnancy I’d get gold-status, but that’s not going to happen. But if I run on the day I go into labor I can also achieve gold-status! I may run a few steps that day, just to give myself that honor. And I say that without having ANY IDEA how that whole day will go down! LOL!)

The book provides realistic training plans, information on cross-training and recovery and how those can fit into family life, TMI topics and debates on underwear with running gear, as well as nutrition for running success combined with feeding kids and a spouse help round out the essential information.

My one complaint* is that sometimes it feels like the advice is geared toward stay-at-home moms.  Like when it recommends training for a marathon when you have toddlers because you can nap together in the afternoon and the kid is too small to be involved in lots of school activities.  I want to be able to nap in the afternoon with the kid instead of working!

(*Maybe I just say that because I’m jealous. Staying at home to write about running and fitness while hanging out on social media sounds like the ideal job to me. I’m sure they have deadlines and stress that I am not thinking about. Grass is always greener, right?)

Legalese: This book was sent to me for free for the purpose of review. Thoughts posted here are completely my own!

Today’s post is a guest post from Sport Chalet!  I like Sport Chalet a lot… they didn’t ask me to say that, I just threw it in. I usually find the store is full of stuff that I want!

barefoot running (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With all of the advancements we’ve made, sometimes the best piece of technology is the human body. Running barefoot is quite common in less developed countries, and it may actually be better for you. In recent years, the subculture of running has unlaced their running shoes in favor of barefoot running. The theory behind barefoot running is that the movement is more natural than running with shoes and it makes efficient use of the biomechanics of your body. There is also evidence that it can decrease your risk of injury. The use of barefoot running shoes is a wonderful way to make use of the cutting edge technology while enjoying the benefits. Experts can agree that wearing regular running shoes will cause the smaller muscle groups and tendons in the feet to weaken because it impairs the arch from doing its job. Barefoot running shoes are able to correct your biomechanical problems.

Granted, running barefoot won’t cure all of your problems, however these shoes offer a great deal of advantages. Barefoot runners are able to develop a more natural stride and gait. Because of the minimal material, these shoes are able to strengthen the ligaments, tendons and muscles in your feet and legs. Barefoot running shoes do not include a heel lift. Without the heel lift, the Achilles tendon and calf muscles will strengthen and lengthen. This can protect from injuries like calf pulls, tendinitis.

The re-correction of barefoot running shoes will take a little getting used to. This is because the runner must re-learn how to run. As opposed to regular running shoes, the runner will learn to land on the forefoot instead of the heel. Heel strikes during running only started because of the over-padding of regular running shoes. New research shows that this way of running is not effective. Landing on the heel is similar to stopping in between each step. An efficient runner keeps the strides light and flowing as if they are gliding smoothly.

In addition to these other advantages, barefoot running shoes can also help to improve your balance because when you run, you are using all of the muscles in your feet. This can give you a stronger stance. Barefoot running shoes will allow you to feel more grounded and steady. This is because you can spread your toes out and expand the feet.

The human foot has evolved over hundreds of years because of overly padded shoes. However the structure of the foot and lower leg is built to be efficient in absorbing the shock of a landing. Barefoot running shoes use the natural rhythm of gravity in order to be more efficient in using the energy of your forward motion. Barefoot running is a fun, easy and refreshing way to exercise.

Last week I:

• Ran on the treadmill twice. (Weather was super windy and cold.)
• Did prenatal yoga twice
• Did a strength workout twice
• Continued doing the 200 squats program (so 3 days of squats)
• Daily simple strength exercises (in compliance with my work wellness program!)

It all felt pretty good.  I usually hate the treadmill, but this week I found myself grinning like a dope while on it, just because I was happy to be running and was so proud of my (measly) 2 miles!

This week I plan to run three times.  Unless I can slip away from work mid-morning, I’m afraid it will all be on the treadmill.  I’m making this guesstimation based on the iPhone forecast:

In my “previous life” I would still run after work in those temps.  However, in my “pregnant life” I find that heat is harder to deal with.  We walked Jade The Boxer to the dog park last weekend when it was 80° outside and I felt pretty uncomfortable. Part of the reason is that I’m not really acclimated to heat yet and our spring weather is all over the place (example: Saturday the high was in the 50′s) so it’s hard to acclimate.  But I’m pretty sure my internal thermostat is out of whack now too.  And I don’t think it is safe for “baby it” for my core temperature to get too high!

I’m still wearing my regular running clothes, but I’m feeling a little conspicuous in several of my tops, like they just cling a little too much.  I also feel like I had a huge growth spurt over a week.  And I guess when I look at myself it is obvious, but when I look at pictures comparing one week, I guess the belly isn’t THAT obvious.

20.5 Weeks

21.5 Weeks

Just when I start to look at myself and think “Finally, I no longer look bloated, I look pregnant.” I take these and realize… oh, I still just look bloated!

Yesterday I put up a post and then after some feedback I received, I proceeded to pull it down… as well as every single post on my pregnancy.  I strongly considered closing up this entire site and I questioned my entire validity as a person.  I seriously thought that I would rather be dead than bring up emotions like these from other people.

But my husband got home from work and talked me off the ledge.  And he told me it was a mistake to take the posts down.  He said they were good posts and he approves of them.

Here’s the thing… basically I took this critique as telling me that my feelings are invalid.  And I’ve spent a lot of time re-learning that what I feel DOES MATTER! I am an important person and what I think/feel has every right to exist. And the fact that I take a rational look at my feelings and try to see multiple sides of it instead of wallowing in negativity is a HUGE improvement over the old way of handling (or blocking) feelings.

As a mother, that’s something that I feel very strongly about.  If my child ever tells me that he/she is scared, I don’t ever ever ever want to tell them “That’s nothing to be scared of.” because that’s just brushing their feelings aside.  I want to ask them to think about it and talk about it, try to figure out why they feel scared.  I want to encourage them to own their feelings and talk them out.

Take your thumb out of your mouth, let's talk!

And because I want the baby to grow up to be a strong person, that owns who they are, I think this is proof that I will be an okay mother.  Granted, there are always things in this world that will label you as “bad” at something no matter what you do (you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t)… but really, we are all individuals and we need to do what is right for us.  And that’s what I’m doing and will try to encourage in my offspring.

My husband said he has no doubts in my ability to mother this child… and really, he’s the one that counts as the other parent to our little “it”.  (Yeah, no nicknames have really felt right for you yet, sorry baby.  And I don’t want to call you one gender if you’re the other! We do slip up and refer to you as she quite often.  If you are a he, I’m sorry.  You may call me dad as a joke. I did just see a story on the news about people naming their kids after The Hunger Games. Don’t worry, I won’t name you Peeta or Katniss.)

I’m not opening comments on this post. I don’t want to incite any kind of negative feelings.  I just want to stand strong in who I am.  I’ve spent a lot of time trying to unlearn feeling shame and guilt for every action I take… yesterday’s steps were a move in the wrong direction.  But I feel stronger now.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m spending the day in classes that will hopefully help me for impending motherhood. More proof that I’m not terrible.