Cranky Pants

On Sunday, yours truly stuffed her pregnant self into some spandex and went for a bike ride. I actually had to retire my x-small women's bike shorts and bum a pair of my husbands, but it was a gorgeous, sunny, 70 degree day and a bike ride was in order no matter whose shorts I was wearing.

The husband, Beavis, and I got in a short 20 mile ride and I am happy to say that the hills didn't kill me and I only had to stop and pee twice.  That is one pee for every 10 miles; score one for the pregnant woman.  I had to take the ride a little slower than usual and had to yell at my husband to "Slow down!!" a couple of times, but overall, I felt good on the bike.    

I finished my 15th week on Friday, so I today I am 15 weeks and 4 days pregnant or as I like to say, I am starting my 16th week.   My energy level is better in the second trimester and I no longer deal with morning sickness and dizziness, but different symptoms have now taken hold.  I burp more than a twelve year old boy due to constant indigestion,  constipation is making me angry, and speaking of angry, I can go from happy to "I'm going to light your ass on fire" mad in an instant.  My co-workers call me feisty, but I know they are just being nice.  I realize that I'm just a cranky, old hormonal pregnant woman who burps too much and hasn't taken a crap in three days.

Saturday, I wanted to do my long run of 6-7 miles; however, another pregnancy symptom put a crimp in my plans.  In the second trimester a lot of women will experience what is called round ligament pain.  The round ligaments hold your uterus in suspension and as the uterus grows, it stretches these ligaments, which in turn pulls and tugs on nearby nerve fibers causing pain.  This pain is totally normal and can vary in intensity from a dull ache to sharp pains.  I remember this from my first pregnancy and I was experiencing it again.  Saturday was another gorgeous day out, but I knew that the round ligament pain combined with the fact that I hadn't crapped in three days, would make for a very uncomfortable run, so I opted to swim instead.

Skipping out on a long run on a beautiful day and having to go to the pool made me really crabby.   Borderline bitchy.

I got crabbier as I drove to the pool and by the time I got to the gym, I am sure my face was frozen in a snarl.   I checked in and headed to the pool, sure that I would hear over the intercom a warning for all people in the pool.  "Warning to swimmers.  Bitchy, pregnant woman headed your way."  Actually that would have been nice, it might have cleared some people out, every lane was full, so I had to wait.

I finally got a lane and once I started swimming, my cranky attitude started to dissipate. I was using my new Zoomers swim fins and my ligament pain was actually subsiding, so my mood was definitely improving.  That is until I saw gross sauna man jump into my lane.  My gym has a sauna and a steam room located right next to the lane pool and people will go sweat themselves silly in there and then come out and jump right into the lane pool to cool off.  Never mind that there is a shower located less than 2 feet away from the pool/saunas.  Normally, I can tolerate these people, it's gross, but I let it slide, I figure chlorine will take care of their gross sweat, but today it just took me over the edge, especially since it was MY lane he was in.

I had originally planned to do 2,000 yards, but I was starting to get cranky again, so I grabbed a kick board to cool down and end my swim at 1,500.  Gross sauna man saw me barreling his way with a glint in my eyes, so he quickly dodged under the rope to the other lane.   Every single lane was full of swimmers and I watched him dodging them back and forth.  When I got to the other side of my lane, the swimmer in the lane he was in, was unknowingly headed right for him, so he swam back into my lane.  Well, I didn't stop, I headed straight for him and kicked him.

I know.  I am going to hell for that kick.  Karma will for sure come back to bite me on this one.  I'm sure he'll probably be the anesthesiologist when I go into labor in August, but I bet he won't jump into my swim lane again until then.

Tara 15 weeks 4 days or starting the 16th week.  Smiling.  Today is going to be a good day.  

Meet Beavis

The other day I caught my husband staring at our 12 week ultrasound pictures. My first thought was: "Awwww, that's so sweet, he's looking at his little baby".

And then he opened his mouth...

"Doesn't really look like a baby yet does it?"

"Well, no, the shots taken from the front definitely look like a little alien because the head is still so big" I replied

"I was thinking that it looked more along the lines of Beavis (from the show Beavis and Butthead)". He then proceeded to throw his hands in the air and proclaim: "I am Cornholio and I need TP for my bunghole!".

I didn't know whether to be more scared that he still remembered the lines from Beavis and Butthead or the fact that he was comparing our baby to Beavis. I mean, he was right. The baby has a big head and his hands are waving in the air. If you look at it just right, it does kind of look like Beavis from Beavis and Butthead.

So we are now calling our unborn child Beavis. We will be awesome parents.


I was looking extra pregnant this morning, so I took some belly shots for you. Here I am just starting my 15th week of pregnancy. I still look fairly slender, but my waist has definitely thickened up quite a bit and I have retired a lot of my jeans and work pants and am now resigned to my former fat pants.



Front View- 15 weeks.



Beavis and I are still running.  We usually take the the dog with us; I figure her old butt could use the exercise just as much as my pregnant butt does.  Plus how can you really resist this face.

Running has been a lot easier for me over the last week; it seems my heart has finally accepted the 40% extra blood volume and has allowed me to resume running (fairly) normally.  I know this won't last, pretty soon I'll be as big as a semi truck, but for now, I will enjoy it.

Now if someone could just convince my bladder to resume normal function.  The other day the dog and I had 6 pee and 2 poop breaks between the two of us on our 4 mile run.  The poop breaks weren't mine, but I was a little envious.  Constipation......another joy of pregnancy.  


Anyway, my heart seems to have accepted its new workload, which is nice; however, I am still running slow,  I figure I am not training for anything, so why push it?  I first noticed the effects of the blood volume increase around week 7 or 8 and it literally felt like I was running under water, I had no breathing capacity what so ever.  My pace didn't match up with my effort and my heart rate would be through the roof.  I would have to take constant walk breaks to bring my HR down to normal even though my pace and effort were extremely easy.

I honestly never really noticed a difference in my biking.  The leg strength is still there and I hope to keep it that way.  Of course I have been doing most of my biking on the trainer, which definitely helps since I don't have to deal with the lung capacity needed to ride the Colorado hills.  Gasp...gasp.

As for swimming, well....let's just say I never thought that I could actually get any slower then I already was, but of course I did.  Mainly because I would have to breathe every stroke and it would seem as though I would be gasping for air if I tried to swim "fast", so I would just take it slow with lots of rest breaks.   I have noticed a change in my swimming over the last week or so, definitely a little easier.

So that's it.  Still hanging in there with my workouts and fitness routine.  Now that I am in my second trimester, I have a little more energy, so I have been putting in at least 6 hours a week doing swim, bike, run, and strength and trying to stay on a consistent schedule.

My nutrition however, is a different story.  When you wake up at 2:00 in the morning craving baloney sandwiches with mayonnaise and chips crunched on top, you know you are in trouble.   I think it has been 25 years since I've eaten a baloney sandwich, but this is the sort of nonsense I am dealing with.

Off to devour some candy bars.....