Well, well, WELL!

A couple weeks ago, Nate was away for the evening, pacing a friend through the Zumbro 100 miler. I put Greta to bed, changed into sweats, and plopped myself on the couch downstairs. I half watched Babadook, a scary movie (Nate refuses to watch them with me, and I secretly love paranormal movies), and half caught up on emails and life stuff. It was AWESOME.

I didn’t wander up to bed until midnight or later.

As I laid in bed, I felt a tiny bit queasy. I was on birth control, so being pregnant was unlikely, but for some reason I thought, “I should take a pregnancy test, just in case”.

So, I did. Even though Nate and I have a pact that I’m not supposed to test when he isn’t there with me.

Check out how well I kept that pact for my first pregnancy 🙂

You guessed it – this is what I saw!

After staring at it in disbelief for a while, I immediately re-downloaded the pregnancy apps on my phone. Hmm… what was the first date of my last period? I hadn’t been keeping great track, but thought it might have been March 10th. That would put a due date at December 15th.

Oh my gosh. A Christmas baby.

My mind raced:
What about Grandma’s Marathon?
What about our house build – will this affect it in any way?
Oh, my – Greta will be a big sister! Wait, does that mean she’ll need to be out of her crib by then? (That’s do-able, I told myself)
Guess this means I’ll be pregnant for our Alaska vacation this summer. Hmm. Hopefully I’m feeling well then, since our vacations usually center around exploring as much as we can, usually by foot!
What about… everything?!?

(Clearly, this pregnancy was not planned!)

The worst part about it was that Nate wasn’t going to be home until the next afternoon. Ack! My head was spinning with questions, dates, etc. I eventually calmed down enough to get a few hours of sleep before I had to wake to run over to the Color Dash 5k, where Greta and I were scheduled to volunteer that morning. After throwing some colored corn starch on the runners (Greta was a little scared by that), we headed to the Home & Garden show downtown.

Color Dash 5k Volunteers!

Both events were good distractions to keep my mind off of pregnancy until Nate got home. I heated up a quick lunch, and after we prayed & started eating, I slyly started:

So… if we finalize our house plans in another month or two, we’ll be in a new house, by what – the end of October? Nate thought a little bit and then nodded his head.

Hmm… well, then I might be, oh… 7 months pregnant when we move in!

Enter positive pregnancy test into view 🙂

—

Since then, short story version:

-The next few days were emotional for me. On the one hand, I was so excited. Nate was SO excited, too! On the other hand, I just saw someone pushing “pause” on my life and my goals. I had just begun to LOVE training & racing again! I was so strong & fit! A sub-3 hour marathon or faster was in sights! Now… did it even matter that I trained? I may as well just have eaten corn dogs for the last several months 🙁

YUMMMM

Did you know that I’m an all-or-nothing kind of person? Ha :).

-I’m in a great place now, thanks to a few very smart friends, and after having thought through timing, what our family might look like, etc. Now I can’t wait to meet #2 and to enjoy adventures as a family of four (or more!). *Love*

-I called the clinic last week (end of April) to see if I could come in for an ultrasound before my 8 week appointment. I told them I thought I was showing a little more than I should for 6.5-7 weeks, and that even though I was loosely keeping track of Aunt Flo, I wasn’t really sure since I spotted throughout the first trimester with Greta. They obliged (probably thinking that I was THAT pregnant woman who is uber paranoid) and brought me in on Tuesday, the 26th.

-Friends made guesses: 7 weeks? 11? Further? 1 baby? 2? More?!? (No… please!!)

-No one was right! Turns out I was almost 15 weeks, not almost 7!!! FIFTEEN! The due date is really October 20th or 27th (to be confirmed in June when they re-measure). Thankfully, it’s just one kiddo. *wipes brow*

Immediately the tech says, “Whoa! You aren’t 6.5-7 weeks along!”

-Then I did some math backwards. So… I did the Hot Dash 10 miler with PNEUMONIA, while 6.5 weeks PREGNANT? 10 miles at goal marathon pace (6:50s)? I’m still impressed. I guess I whipped into shape pretty darn quickly!

Craziness

-More math: remember when I noted that I needed to work on my “mom pouch“? Turns out that wasn’t a leftover-from-Greta mom pouch – it was the start of one! That’s kind of funny. I thought I was just getting a little pudgy.

-Even MORE math: I wonder how many high mileage weeks I logged during the first trimester? How long into my first trimester was I still getting faster? So, obviously, I have been feeling pretty darn good so far in the pregnancy :). I was a little more sleepy about a month ago (which I attributed to high mileage), but other than that… it’s been great!

Quite a few 20+ mile runs and 90+ mile weeks. Also crazy.

-I was able to tell my co-workers at a staff meeting this Tuesday. It feels so good to not have to wonder if anyone has noticed. They’re all really excited. I couldn’t ask to work in a more welcoming and supportive environment!