21 Weeks and the Verdict is....

Our routine wasn't quite the same this past weekend since we were up and out of the house pretty early for Robert's half marathon, so we didn't get a belly picture in this week. But I definitely have better pictures to post this week anyway :).

Meet Baby Girl Harris:

Throughout the ultrasound, she kept putting her hands up by her face and trying to suck her thumb. She was moving a little bit, but mainly just hanging out the whole time which was good because the tech was able to get all of the measurements that she needed. She seems to be breech at the moment, but we still have plenty of time for her to flip around....I guess that's why I can feel lots of kicks pretty low.

How far along? 21 weeks

Total weight gain? 7 pounds total

Maternity clothes? Yep..hoping to have a couple new pairs of pants come in the mail this week.

Sleep? Getting a little less sleep now...

Best moment this week? Finding out that we are having a girl!!

Movement: Some...not very consistent though

Gender: Girl!

Labor signs? Nope.

Belly button in or out? Still in.

What I am looking forward to: Robert being able to feel her move and getting started on the nursery.

19/20 Weeks

So...again I was a slacker on getting these last couple of weeks up, but I blame it on the lack of a computer cable for the camera. I finally remembered to take pictures and then we couldn't get them on the computer. Anyway, enough of my excuses :). The baby has gone from the size of a mango to the size of a cantaloupe in these two weeks.

Here are the belly pictures for weeks 19 and 20:

How far along? 21 weeks

Total weight gain? 7 pounds total

Maternity clothes? Yep... and I love finding great deals on the winter stuff still especially since it has been so cold lately. 

Sleep? I am definitely not sleeping as well as I normally do.

Best moment this week? Feeling the baby fairly regularly.

Movement: Some...not all the time though.

Gender: I'll add that to my next post for 21 weeks :).

Labor signs? Nope.

Belly button in or out? Still in..

What I am looking forward to: Robert being able to feel the baby.

oh look...

...more snow.

We got another good dusting of snow last night, but here in the south, snow is snow. Just a few quick photos from outside this morning.

It's nothing more than a light dusting, but it's still pretty neat to get it. The best part is that most of it will be gone by noon!

photos from the race

Just a quick few photos from the race weekend at the Mercedes Half Marathon:

The Team Danny Photo pre-race:

   

The back end of the race group as Bethany and Laura headed to breakfast:

Final 100yrd push to the finish:

The smile (and salt) on my face after receiving my medal and shirt post run:

Final time: 2:10:41 for 13.1miles. Not bad for a first half marathon!

I'll have a full report of thoughts published soon...

post race festivities

So, what do you do after running 13.1 miles and completing your first half marathon?

You come home, put on something comfortable and start a fire in the fireplace.

Then, you take a nap for several hours.

Now, if you actually raced the half marathon, you eat and watch the olympics. Basically, you don't do a whole lot.

snow update

Overall, we got between 3-4" of snow throughout our area. Not bad at all. I do believe it snowed through most of Fri mid morning and continued through the day and into the early night. It was quite nice to get the snow around here, just because we didn't have to worry about it sticking around too much.

The best part, it was gone by mid morning on Saturday. So we went out and ran our errands without any issue. What did we do, well we did quite a bit.

We we started out by going to the race expo. Here at the expo, I picked up my race packet, saw many many vendors, sampled beer, and just enjoyed the atmosphere of all the runners coming together. After wandering through the expo, we realized we couldn't walk out empty handed.

Picking up the race packet for racer #2612.

Our purchases at the expo (Christmas ornament, 2 stickers, and 2 hats).

After the expo, we went to the Galleria for some maternity clothes shopping. Bethany scored a deal on some nice sweaters and shirts at one of the many many stores she walked me through. It wasn't too bad, but it's amazing at how long it takes to find a couple of sweaters.

We finally started our drive home, just so we could beat dark and start the "pre-race dinner" of shrimp pasta penne. Then we noticed a small problem. EVERYONE AND THEIR COUSIN WAS OUT SHOPPING OR AT LEAST DRIVING THROUGH THE CITY. You would've thought it was the day before Christmas, but instead it was the day before Valentine's Day.

Looking east...

Looking west...

Absolutely amazed at the traffic. Remind me to not leave my house on 2/13/2011.

Otherwise, it turned out to be a spectacular day, and like I said, you couldn't even tell it snowed the day before!

the snow

We were expected to get between 1-4" of snow today and into tomorrow. These were taken just moments ago from my office window. We're starting to get flurries and it's coming down harder every few minutes. Based on that, we may get the few inches.

Look closely, there's a few flurries out there :) Stay tuned. I'll update more as it comes down.

It's starting to stick (11:15)

race week

It's race week. It's what they call "taper madness". It's that time where you feel like you need to get out and go for a run, just to make sure you're ready, but by doing so, you'll destroy the last 12weeks of training.

This is the taper week. We have 2 runs this week. Both are 3mi or less. And with that, we'll go run 13.1 this coming Sunday. The Mercedes Marathon.

So far, I've had long runs that have built up to it, and I think I'm ready. Two weeks ago, the easy time trial run was 2:09. I felt great. It was easy. I wasn't pushing the pace or worried about the clock. I think I'm ready. But it's this taper week that makes you wonder if you really are ready. I mean, really? 13.1mi?

The good news is that I can let some injuries heal. I'm beat up and bruised. I need a little bit of a break. I'm just hoping the break heals the problems and then I can run hard on Sunday. The bumps and bruises are just part of it...

-I've managed to get what is similar to "turf toe". A minor pain under the ball of my big toe. It shows up everytime I lead off with that foot. So yea, running 13.1mi while trying not to lead with my toe, may be a small issue.
-I've somehow managed to get a bruise on the top of my left foot, right under the tongue of my shoe. Possibly from lacing the shoes wrong and then running large distances on it. Oh well.
-I have 2 black toenails. They don't hurt, but there there and annoying.

So, minor injuries, but injuries none the less. Here's to hoping a good week off will have the batteries recharged while we wait on the race.

I'm ready.... I think...

your mission...

...should you accept it:

We all need to break out of our comfort zones just a little at times.

freakishly fast

Today was a busy day at the office and I needed a bit of a break. So, during the lunch hour, I set out for a quick run around the area, just to break up the day.

It turned out to be a really awesome run, with perfect weather, and an even more awesome finishing time. It went a little like this:

Mile 1 - 8:21 (slow down, you can't sustain that for 4 miles)
Mile 2 - 8:34 (better. but slow down some more)
Mile 3 - 8:31 (what part of slow down are you not understanding? Oh look a new 5k personal best)
Mile 4 - 8:24 (fine, fine... you did it.... now hold your cookies!)
Total - 33:54

So, yea. It was much much faster than I had anticipated and much more painful on the lungs that I thought. It felt good to know I could go that fast. It felt good to get out, let my work trouble disappear, and just hammer out some miles.

I finished, took a few minutes to walk around, catch my breath, and let the thought of that time register in my head. Then I got the numbers for my heart rate; average 169 beats per minute, max 178.

The day has turned out much better too...

Meet Jonathan "Blazeman" Blais

Take the 11 minutes and watch this video. You'll thank me when it's over.


For more information on Jon Blais visit: The War on ALS

Pants on the ground

For those of you that watch American Idol, you've heard the "Pants on the Ground" song that's been going around, I'm sure. The best part, a mascot has now gotten a hold of it, and used it.



Of course, it's Hooper the Horse, from the Detroit Pistons.

Nice!

17/18 Weeks

So, I was a slacker last week and didn't get the 17 week post up. I also need to remind Robert to take some belly pictures before I get into pajamas and zonk out on the couch in the evenings....I'm probably asleep by 8:30 or so every night on the couch.

We are now part way through week 18 and the baby has gone from the size of an onion to the size of a sweet potato.

Week 17

Week 18

How far along? 18 weeks
Total weight gain? 4 pounds as of last week
Maternity clothes? Still in them...hoping to get enough use out of the long sleeve stuff I bought before it is time to buy things for warmer weather.
Sleep? Still sleeping through the night, but I feel like I toss and turn a little more now.
Best moment this week? Hearing the heartbeat again at the last doctor's appointment and feeling some movement.
Movement: I think so....it still isn't consistent though and feels like little taps or muscle twitches.
Gender: Only two more weeks or so till we find out :).
Labor signs? Nope
Belly button in or out? Still in...hopefully it stays like that.
What I am looking forward to: Feeling movement and knowing for sure that it is the baby, finding out the gender and getting some stuff done for the nursery.

Don't forget to vote

Don't forget to vote. There's only 19 more days left before we know whether it'll be a "Team Pink" or "Team Blue" baby!

We're both excited and counting down the days until the big reveal....

UPDATE - For those curious, Bethany's thinking girl, and myself; I'm thinking boy...

Medals for Mettle

I was browsing a local endurance training website (BeginnerTriathlete.com) regarding what to do with the finisher's medals received at some of the larger races. Some talked of hanging them on the garage wall with their race number, as a reminder, while others talked of hanging them on their Christmas Trees as decorations. One comment mentioned a company called Medals 4 Mettle, which I looked into, never hearing about it.

Talk about pretty cool thing to do...

From their website:
Medals4Mettle (M4M) is a non-profit organization founded in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 2005. Its mission is to celebrate and reward the individual and collective courage of all human beings by facilitating the gifting of marathon finisher’s medals from marathoners to people who have demonstrated similar mettle, or courage. The recipients can be any age and might have exhibited such mettle by dealing with disease, handicaps or any similar challenge. Marathon runners around the world, and others who have won medals, give their medals to Medals4Mettle. Then our nationwide network of physicians and others award these medals to those who might not be able to run a marathon, but are in their own marathon to continue to live their life. As marathoners run through the streets, large crowds cheer the runners for their effort. Medals4Mettle lets these runners, healthy enough to compete in such an event, to return the cheers to those who have supported them.

So, basically, you fill out a form with a brief history of your medal (where it came from, the race type, and a little about how you got it), then some info on who you think should receive it (where, why) and they do the rest. They attach their own ribbon to it, and present it, just like they would had they crossed the finish line at a race... talk about pretty cool!

Amazing what you can find when simply browsing a training website...