Monday, April 30, 2007

Yes, we're having a baby . . .

It's like an experiment in sociology to tell your children that you're having a baby and watch what happens. It's been a crazy week - not to mention coming home from vacation, having 2 days to recover, and then having company stay at your house for seven days, finding out you're pregnant, and really just trying to recover from a marathon emotionally and physically and wishing you can run.

So, yes - if there was any question after my last post - I am pregnant, and no, I had no idea when I ran the Boston Marathon. It's kinda funny to think about - maybe my body had it's own way of telling me to slow down. And it's kinda funny to think that I carried someone along that never qualified - oops! It's kind of a worrisome thing, too - to know that I ran that far and pushed my body to the limit while it was concentrating on other things. I've tried and tried to find research on the topic of running marathons while pregnant, but there isn't much out there but the standard - run easy while you're pregnant and don't compete. There are supposed heart rate limits (140 bmp) and supposed temperature limits (102 degrees), but there are articles that refute that, too. Perhaps when I talk with the doctor, I can find more answers.

The whole thing about telling the children . . . when you find out you're having a baby, it's a pretty exciting thing, and you want to share it with your children. It is highly unreasonable to tell a six-year-old such news, and expect her to keep it a secret. But it's also still very early in the pregnancy and there are reasons to not tell the general public. We chose to live in the moment. The kids - mostly our youngest - told the entire population in a matter of hours she was so excited. I've had very healthy pregnancies, but you can never predict such a thing - only take it one day at a time.

One day at a time? Me - who has no patience? Me, who was asking what next and planning my next marathon? Oh, my. It's so hard to take it day by day and not think too much about it all since it's so early, but it's so hard to not think about it when there is this child miraculously growing inside of me. I know that I have a scheduled 2 more weeks of no running, possibly 4, to make it either 4 or 6 weeks of no running post marathon to let my IT bands heal. And really, with no upcoming race, I have no reason to hurry it. I swam Friday, and can continue to up that training, and water running, just not with too much intensity. And I can lift weights lightly. And I read yesterday that I could bike up until 10 weeks when the uterus moves up into the abdomen. Prior to that, it is protected, and even falling off of a bike would not hurt the baby. But with IT issues, I won't be biking until after that, and then, I guess, I could ride a stationary bike. But that means a tri is out. Grrrrrr. But I've read that people do it . . . if anyone has more thoughts on that, I'd love to hear them. I did go for a 2-3 hour walk on Saturday and did lots of yardwork - my little leggies were sore after, so that was too much. Maybe I'll just walk the dog.

I'm seriously gonna go crazy. I need some focus - something to keep me occupied to take the place of training and training goals.

And all of our children were intentionally named after places - just something we chose to do. All five members of our family have the same middle initial as well - kind of a family connectedness thing. But it's so early to think of baby names . . . . and I really just want to take a nap.

20 comments:

*jeanne* said...

Wow! Working on a new little cookie dough, are you? :-)
We just found out that my husband's daughter is pregnant. Would be nice if she'd gotten married first, but it's her life after all. (Sometimes it's easier to be a step-mom)

But congratulations on your little marathon-cookie!

IHateToast said...

can we call cletus the foetus your little gumdrop button?

but wait. taking a while to read this and the last post. sneaking a read at work. ethics?!?! pah!

IHateToast said...

i think you need to name him/her
Itie Bea or Willie O. Toby for iliotibial.

or if you want to keep the place name going, Water Station is not overly common in kids these days.

The Salty One said...

Wow Ginger!! That's amazing!!! Little Baby Boston? Wellesley? Framingham? Heh.

That is going to be one heck of a story. I like that you're living in the moment.

Anyway, although to a lesser degree, certainly, I'm missing real training too. It'll be back soon enough--the time off serves an important purpose even though it seems like sometimes that purpose seems solely to drive us crazy!! Take care and keep us posted!

Anne said...

Somehow, with as active as your family is and summer just around the corner, I don't think you'll be complaining about a lack of focus for much longer. A lack of energy? Now that's a different story.

It's going to be fun following your pregnancy on the blog.

Sarah said...

Wow! Big Congratulations! : )

D said...

Oh my goodness - I had alot of catching up to do! Congratulations! You are superwoman!

JustRun said...

Oh you are definitely going to have to give this baby a Bah-ston name. :)
Congratulations, again!

Kurt said...

Wow congrats. I guess when I come out to Seattle in August to race Coach Tammy and Jessi you will just race a tad slower than me the sloth man.

I am working in New Hyde Park, if you have a son you can call him Hyde.

This is two bloggers on my list having babies now! Yeah!!!!

Legs and Wings said...

Congrats! Fantastic news...I have a feeling that this pregnancy won't slow you down much!

Kurt said...

GB, a second thought,

I guess this does solve the problem of being bored! Now you will have as many children as I have but I still have the grand daughter!

Still working on some names for you. Perhaps I will come up with a post for it. LOL

E-Speed said...

Oh Wow! Exciting! I hope everything goes well!

Beanie said...

wow - what exciting news! I think you need to contact the BAA and tell them the story of the youngest Boston competitor in history (possibly?)

4 kids, huh?! now I feel VERY lazy!

congrats again. looking forward to reading about your progress :)

Toasty said...

ok from what i have learnt since my training partner became pregnant, the biggest issue early on is breathing ... run in easy breathing zones .. long and slow .... hey, this is not research just an opinion without any real facts to back it up

Unknown said...

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!! I thought your week 16 development comments were very suspicious.

Again Congratulations.. please do share your insights.

Sarah Elaine said...

Wow! That's quite the morsel of news. Congratulations!

Danielle said...

Ah man, the baby is cheating and running without qualifying, that's bad!!

AS far as the running while pregnant thing. Now I personlly haven't had experience with it, but I just constantly go back to a woman ran Boston 8 1/2 months pregnant. I ran my first half and saw a woman finish about 15 minutes behind me that was 7 1/2 months pregnant...I see nothing wrong with it and from all I hear, exercising while pregnant can make birth easier AND exercising while pregnant might even lead to healthier, and maybe just a little bit smaller, babies.

For names, I'll tell you, nothing is wrong with Danielle...:)

Danielle said...

Oh, and a boy could be Daniel...:) See 2 for 1, what more could you want?

Robin said...

Wow, and wow! How exciting for you! Is this baby going to be named Boston by any chance? ;-)

On completing a triathlon while pregnant, I've only known one person who did that, and she went into premature labor, baby was born very early, not a good outcome. I'm not sure how much those two things are connected but I know that I didn't do any triathlons during my pregnancies for that reason. Swimming though is the greatest while pregnant, so it can be a good time to at least work that one of the three sports! I stopped biking pretty early and ran until around 5 months or so. So really that's only a few months off, not that much to worry about in the long run. There will be many more years to come for the rest of that stuff.

Congrats again, how exciting for you and your whole family!!!

miss petite america said...

congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so are you gonna name the baby boston?