I'm running the Marathon!

Well no I'm not! But hopefully on Thanksgiving Day I will WALK the Manchester Road Race in CT (weather permitting).  Every year since I've celebrated thanksgiving with Nelson in CT, I "ran" more like "jogged" the race.  It's a lot of fun and it's only 4.8 miles.  Today I went to the Doctor and asked him if I could walk it and he said - absolutely by all means and if my heart rate is below 140, I can even jog it if I wanted to.  But seeing that there's a lot of hills, I'm sure walking will be enough for my HR.  I will wear my trusty heart rate monitor and continue on with the Turkey Trot tradition.  Hopefully Nelson will feel up to it... Unfortunately his foot hasn't gotten any better, so maybe I'll BEAT him in the race ;)  Here are the main reasons of why I want to partake in the race again this year:

A runner wearing a real xmas tree

 

Everyone cheering from their houses

Crazy men - it's always so cold!

Everyone's out before the race

 

It's the Hartford Whalers guy!

Cute sign

Nelson and I pre-race, cold and ready to go

Our Annual Photo.  Hopefully we can do this again this year!

Tree Trunks...

So after thinking that I would never get swollen ankles because I drink tons of water and keep my ankles active, I have finally started to experience swollen tree trunk ankles.  Nelson actually compared my legs to elephant legs...

Instead of kicking him with my elephant legs, I laughed. I actually grew a shoe size too, and hopefully my feet get back to normal size.  I read that usually they don't! OH NO!

I've been wearing my ugly shoes that I wore back in 2004 when I had back surgery.

These shoes are 7 years old! Thank goodness i saved them, but I admit, I don't like them at all.  But they are saving me!

I would normally post a photo of my tired feet from this evening, but I don't want to blind you with the ugliness.  Actually I went to a spinning class tonight and thought that the blood flow would help with my swelling, but it didn't help at all.  So I bit the bullet I bought a pair of compression socks...

They will be coming in the mail on Thursday and seeing that they cost about $17!!!! I only bought 1 pair and I'm planning on hand washing them every night until this baby comes out.  I feel like I'm 80 years old!  

This is when Nelson comes in handy! He will be my semi-permanent masseuse for my elephant legs!!  Good night people with normal ankles, I am jealous of your freedom to wear any type of socks! 

Need YOUR Opinion!To Decorate or Not To Decorate?

So as most of you know, our baby girl is due right around Christmas.  So not only are we planning to get our house in gear for a baby (nursery and other renovations) but do we suck it up AND decorate for the holidays as well?  I may just be in the spirit to decorate as soon as Thanksgiving rolls around, but are we crazy to do so when we will have a newborn in our arms around that time? How will we break it all down, etc?  Ideas, thoughts?

Saw this baby tree at Target and was thinking maybe we should do a small tree this year, maybe something that's real though so we don't have to store another thing!

She's our little (big) honeydew

 

According to thebump.com:

Baby's now the size of a honeydew!
Things are heating up inside as well: Baby may grow up to a full inch this week alone, and his brain is developing like crazy. Pretty soon, he'll be able to coordinate breathing with sucking and swallowing. Also, his bones are hardening, and he's started to keep his eyes open when he's awake. 

You are one hot mama -- literally. A 20 percent metabolic rate increase throughout pregnancy can leave you begging for a cool breeze no matter what the weather is like. Distract yourself with an exercise in blind identification. Try to distinguish between baby's feet, fists, knees, and elbows -- all doing some major pushing and nudging inside of you.
 
 

50 DAYS!!!

WHAT?! The days are just going by FASTER and FASTER!

This weekend was a BUSY one!  First we started off with an early Saturday morning at our Doc's office.  We are now Certified in Childbirth Education, woohoo! We can totally deliver babies!

haha Yea right!  It was actually a pretty informative and fun class.  Sandy is my doctor's wife and she is also a certified Doula.  Their practice is literally a family practice.  Their 23 year old son came to the class and helped his parents out with the food, bills, and he even showed us how to "push" during labor. I'm really happy I switched doctors because they really do care and don't rush you out for the next patient.  

After our class, we went to Lowe's to pick up door stops and we also bought a storage cabinet thing for the bathroom.  Nelson is actually putting it together now.

Please pardon the mess.  Can you see some of the baby stuff in the background?  All of it will soon have a home.  Nelson is actually multitasking - eating chili between drilling.  He's a good one!

Then after Lowe's we went to REI - Nelson got a hat! And THEN we went to Pier 1 imports.  We bought some candle, decorative thing to put in the bathroom.  It's pretty and once we have it up, I'll take a pic.  After all of that, we were exhausted AND cranky because we really didn't eat/drink much during the day.  

We got home and I cooked Chili.  We ended up staying up extra late last night - 1am! What is up with us?! 

Today I actually went into work for a few hours while Nelson, my brother and father did the typical work on the house thing during the day.  Slowly but surely things are getting into place.  I have to say that I know it will all come together but there's still that sense of urgency for me at least that things should get done.  And it all will.  I just wish I could help out more.  My job is to clean and cook but I also find myself getting tired a lot more easier these days.  So my job is also to rest, bc the biggest job I have is right in my belly!

She's doing good and still moving a lot.  Sometime I feel like her foot gets stuck in the upper right rib which is uncomfortable so I just stretch to the other side and sometimes that helps.  I also feel like I'm getting bigger and bigger by the day!!!

This Wednesday  I go for my monthly check up and then I think i start going every 2 weeks, then every week after 37 weeks I think.  Ok time to get ready for bed! Hope you all have a great week! 

I felt just like this when I was trying on a coat.

Just a little pregnancy humor, but seriously when I was putting together an outfit for work, I thought that one of my go to black jackets would work over a top, but nope it looks like I have on a little kids coat.  Ah well, not for long.  I will wear that coat again one day!!!

Good thing our baby isn't an April baby...

Because it would be expensive :)

She will either be Blue Topaz (on time), Citrine (early, crossing my fingers we get through November!), or Garnet (if she's late - let's ring in the new year with a new baby!)