Being Pregnant
Can I count childbirth as my 6th marathon?
I have been a mom for one week, but I’ve been a runner for several years. Since 2008, I have run five full marathons and many other shorter races. Long distance running makes me feel healthy and alive.
Over the course of my pregnancy, I heard over and over again, “You’re a marathoner, so childbirth should be a walk in the park for you!” To be honest, I think I heard this so often that I almost expected it to be true.
Boy was I in for a rude awakening.
Here are three ways that childbirth is NOT like running a marathon…
8 pounds of wisdom!
It is amazing how quickly life changes the moment a baby goes from your belly to your bedroom. In these last few months and weeks, experienced moms said the same thing over and over again — sleep now while you can, take your time pampering yourself, get organized while you have extra time, etc.
To be honest, I found all of this advice annoying and redundant. Of course I knew I’d be sleep deprived. I knew I’d have a baby demanding every minute of my attention. And I knew that my days of spontaneous freedom were numbered.
And then my little man arrived… Continue reading »
The finale to our birth story!
Continued from part two…
It was around 1:30am when our team was finally all setup and ready to move to the final stage of the birth –- pushing. I was really nervous, so I asked Bonnie to guide me through the beginning while I got the hang of it. I’ve heard some women say they literally pushed three times before their baby arrives, while others pushed for hours and hours. Not knowing where I would fall on the spectrum, I was anxious thinking that our baby could be just minutes away. Continue reading »
Part two of my birth story.
Continuing from part one…
After being admitted, the first thing they did was get me started on monitoring my contractions and Cullen’s heartbeat. I met my nurse, Heather, and saw my midwife, Mia, when she came on duty – our whole team was excited for the day ahead. People came and go and checked on me as needed, but for the most part Casey and I were left alone to just be together and work through each contraction.
I imagine most new moms feel this way after delivery, but I can’t say enough good things about Casey. He was attentive, supportive, so loving, and managed to make me laugh in the few minutes I had between each new round of pain. I didn’t know it would be possible for us to get closer, but this experience made me see him in entirely new and wonderful ways. Continue reading »
My son's birth story.
Of all the stories and posts I’ve written, I find this one to somehow be the hardest. I know that no words can possibly capture the experience of this past week, but I will do my best to do it justice. It will be long and it will be detailed. I personally found that when I was pregnant, reading birth stories was one of my favorite ways to prepare for my own delivery day. It was intense, it was a struggle, and yet it was somehow the best 55 hours of my entire life. I hope that by journaling it here, I’ll be able to relive it over and over again, as it’s an experience I will cherish forever.
Here is our birth story… Continue reading »
I can't believe I've hit the big 4-0!
For whatever reason, I really never thought I would be sitting here writing about week 40 of my pregnancy. I fully expected this baby to come a week or two early, and yet three days past my due date I am now realizing that even a mega control freak like me must accept reality from time to time.
Whenever someone tells me, “it seems like you have been pregnant foreeeeeever!” I joke that I have essentially been pregnant for the entire year 2011. Pregnancy is LONG, and mine is only getting longer! But with d-day now behind me and a possible induction on the calendar, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at just how wonderful this journey has been.
It’s not quite 40 weeks, since I started taking pictures at week 9, but below you’ll find a photo retrospective of just how much changes over 9+ months. Pretty amazing!
The Odyssey dress from Shabby Apple
I wish that all 200+ of you who entered could win one of the beautiful vintage-inspired dresses from Shabby Apple maternity, but unfortunately we can only select one!
We randomly selected one winner – click below to see if it was you! Continue reading »
Aela Mass 
Casi Densmore-Koon 
Rebekah Kuschmider .jpg)
CaitlinHTP (Caitlin Boyle) 
Michelle Horton 
Ceridwen Morris 
Katie 
Devan McGuinness 
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