baby update. Help with baby names.

So, we're sitting at a lovely 38 weeks preggo today! I can't believe I only have two weeks to go until I am officially ready to go. I had my appointment yesterday and I decided to have them do a check just to see, knowing that I'd probably not be very far along. And I was right. We've got a long way to go. But not surprised since I was 10 days late with Jackson. I'm really hoping that I don't go a long time over with this one, but I have a feeling that just won't be the case :-). I'll be walking and walking and doing whatever else I can to move things along.

We're still trying to decide on names. We had a tough enough time last time with Jackson and we knew we were having a boy. This time we have to come up with one for each since it's going to be a surprise. It seems every time I throw a name out there I get the oh heck no look from Jon.

Here are a few of my faves for each:

Girls:

Elise

Analise

Adalyn

Makenna

Boys:

Dylan

Blake

Will

I'd love to hear if anyone else has any suggestions and or comments about the names :-)

Emotions

It seems the pregnancy hormones must be kicking into high gear lately because holy cow I'm all over the place. One second I seriously feel like popping my husband in the head because he's annoying the heck out of me and the next I'm bawling my eyes out. This is pretty much a "this is why my life sucks at the moment post" so if you don't feel like reading I'd just skip it :-)

** It's finally hitting me that I won't be able to run Boston since we're moving. Kind of stinks to achieve that "big" goal and not even run it. I keep telling myself that maybe, just maybe, there will be more Bostons in my future.

** I'm really having a hard time getting over my goals of exercising during pregnancy and it not happening. I keep reading various blogs and it makes me feel worse because so many of you maintained your goals and barely gained any weight by exercising throughout the pregnancy. I know I can only be upset at MYSELF because it's me who doesn't get out there regularly. Enough on that.

** My really good friend in the area who just had her baby 3 weeks ago is getting ready to move to Vietnam in just about 5 weeks. I know we're moving, too, but that just means I'll be here without her for about 3 months. Not fun. Our kids are the same age, have grown up together since they were babies and are also pretty much best friends so it's going to be a difficult goodbye for sure. Not sure how many of these moves I can handle. Ugg!

** My sister jut moved to Hawaii so we're literally going to be half way around the world from each other and I have no idea how often we'll see each other. We have a very normal love/hate relationship but we talk everyday and I'm not sure how easily I'll be getting used to not talking to her everyday once we move. Thankful for Skype that's for sure. Jackson loves it!

** We still don't know where we'll be living in Paris and won't find out for a couple months I'm sure. So that means we don't know how much of our stuff we get to bring with us. Which means I can't plan. And which also means the planning process won't begin until right when the baby gets here, right during holiday season, etc. Not going to be fun I'm sure.

** My husband gets a whopping 2 days off for this baby since he's in training. We were fortunate to have him off for 3 weeks when Jackson was born. I seriously have no freaking clue how I'm going to do it. I think his mom is going to come out for a bit (they live in the area) but she doesn't cook, won't drive anywhere so running errands will still be on me and it's doubtful she'll be cleaning while she's here. I think it's going to be more work having her here :-)

** My parents just surprised us and bought tickets to come out for Christmas. But hubby's brother and wife will also be in town during the holidays so that means somehow we are going to have to figure out how to balance the time between all of them. I'm already dreading the damn holidays. Holidays after you're married just aren't the same since you have to split them up. Blech!

** How I'm going to get back in shape after the kid is born is quite questionable. I can't go to the gym since the baby has to be 3 months old; hubby will be in training from way early in the morning till way late at night. I know I want to work off this baby weight somehow!!!!

OK, if you actually made it this far thanks for "listening." Please just tell me that it will all be ok and everything will work out perfectly. I need a fairytale ending right now :-)

30 weeks

Here are the pics at 30 weeks. I need to pull out my last pregnancy pics and see how comparable I look. I'm thinking that I am pretty similar though ;-)

***added my pic from 31 weeks last pregnancy. Pic on top is #1 and pic on bottom is #2***

Runner's World Interview with Paula and Kara

I just finished reading their interview online and it's pretty good. Just makes me feel kinda crappy about not running, but I will get over it. I had really big goals of running this pregnancy and now that it's gone to the crapper I feel like I am a shammer, etc.

Interestingly enough Paula did point out that she learned during pregnancy #1 that using the elliptical really stretches out the sacral area so maybe that's why I had that issue back in July since that's what I had been using. It's too late to start running now but good to know for future, possible pregnancies. Now if I only had access to an anti-gravity treadmill and an underwater treadmill. Wouldn't that be nice :-)

I have been swimming and it feels great. I will never confess how far I am swimming or how fast I get it done. That is way too embarrassing. But I try to swim and keep the heart rate up for about 30-40 minutes a few times a week and that seems to be enough for me. Although, it is getting more difficult to look at myself in a swimsuit. The 'ol ass and legs aren't as trim as they normally are. Last pregnancy I had no issues getting fatter; not so with this pregnancy. Putting on the fat has been really difficult mentally. Definitely not difficult to put on though, ha! It seems I can't get away from the pound a week gain. At this rate I should gain around 30-35 pounds with this pregnancy. Hopefully it isn't too hard to lose again.

Where was I??

So I only found out a few weeks ago that both Kara Goucher and Paula Radcliffe are both pregnant AND due on the same date (how weird is that by the way!). Yup, where was I?? I guess I haven't been following my running stuff lately very well :-). And now Deena Kastor is pregnant. I just won't have anyone to follow this Fall for the marathons.

And I must say that I am totally in awe. These women are still running 75 miles; well they were a couple months ago anyway. That's more than what I was running at the peak of my marathon training!

Ahh....feeling like a new person today

I've been in a funk lately. I'm not sure if it's the pregnancy hormones or what, but I just felt DOWN. I knew what I needed to do (run/workout) and it was frustrating not being able to really do it. It's been even more frustrating watching the hubster workout and me not be able to do it. I SO BADLY want to be out there on my bike doing the 40-50 mile long rides out in the beautiful countryside. Seriously, why didn't I ride more last summer and Fall?? I was so scared to do it by myself. I should have found someone to ride with me :-). It's so freaking pretty out here!! Definitely going to miss it.

Anyhoo, I let myself feel really frustrated and sorry for myself since biking with the hubby, running and using the elliptical are pretty much out of the picture. But two days ago I said enough is enough and I hopped in the pool. I swam for about 20 minutes, not wanting to push it too hard incase it, too, hurt my pelvic bones. But it felt soo good. No issues! Yay! So today I went back to the gym and swam for 40 minutes. It's a SLOW 40 minutes with some breaks, but I feel so much better after working out. I know what my body was craving and it feels so good to give it what it needs. And I was really afraid it was going to be a super long session since I'm not the world's greatest swimmer but it went by so fast and I honestly could have stayed longer; it was like someone was giving me crack and I just couldn't get enough. I love it when it's like this!

Now I just need to find someone to help me out technique wise because I know I am not the greatest swimmer. I'm going to try and watch some videos to help me out.

Tri question for my hubby

To all the tri-athletes out there...I have a question for you. If you want to skip all the intro stuff just scroll to the bottom for the question :-)

My hubby has finally started to get into working out again :-). He's getting way into it like he usually does when he first gets into something. And for once, I am actually happy about this one since it is working out. He has his first-ever sprint-tri coming up over Labor Day weekend. I'm hoping it goes well!!

But now that he's getting into it he is starting to look at more races in Europe so he can stick in the tri-scene. He is having no luck finding any olympic distance races so the one he's looking at doing is a Half Ironman in July of next year. I told him I think it's too soon for him to do a race of that intensity, but I don't really have much knowledge on the tri stuff.

So here is the question...is doing the half next summer too soon? He only really started to workout again this summer so he'd only have about 7-8 months of training under his belt before he started the actual training program.

Thanks for your help!!!