Bumpdate: 36 weeks!

Guess What?! I hit 36 weeks today! Officially hit the 9 month mark and holy crap, that means Baby Boy is going to be here SOON! It blows my mind that if labor starts next week that they won't try to stop it. Eeek!!

Bumpdate Stats:

Weight Gain: About 28 pounds at 9 months. I was hoping to not gain anymore than 30 so we're getting close to that mark. I've honestly ate pretty well throughout the whole pregnancy and stay active at work. I was hoping to get some more workout's in, but by the time that I'm done with work, I'm pretty spent for the day and crash once I get home. I really can't wait to be active again and to have some energy after pregnancy. :)

Baby Size: Head of Romaine Lettuce (18 1/2 inches long and almost 6 pounds). At this point baby gains about an ounce a day.

What I've Been Eating: Little meals at a time because there's no room for much more. Still eating lots of peanut butter, fruits and veggies. Been digging nuts lately too. And of course lots of Turkey this week. :)

How I've Been Feeling: Tired and getting a bit more achy. Work kicks my butt when I stand all day (back aches). Still no swelling though so that's awesome! I feel like he's moved down lower so that's becoming uncomfortable to the point that it makes me wince at times. To be honest, for being 9 months pregnant I thought that I'd feel a lot worse so I'm pretty thankful.

Am I Showing Yet:  Duh.

I can't really tell if I've dropped...can you?

Any Other Symptoms: Occasional Braxton Hicks contractions and some insomnia. I think a lot of it has to deal with my work schedule kind of being all over the place (some days I work 1st shift and then others I'm working 2nd shift)

Best Moment of the Week: We had a great Thanksgiving with family. We had my parents over and Ryan's as well. It was great to not have to travel on the holidays like we have done for the last 10 years. Lots of great foods, company and celebrating. My sister got to feel the baby move too, so it was a pretty good feeling too. We also did lots of relaxing on our days off and Christmas decorating.

My sis and I

Ryan and my mom helping out in the kitchen and carving the bird.

The dads hanging out by the fireplace

The turkey apron my grandma made has been passed down to me. :) 

Anything Else: I have a work baby shower on Friday so that's really exciting. I feel so lucky and thankful to have my co-workers do this for me. I'm sure he'll be spoiled. :)  Also started my week OB visits this week. His heartbeat was strong and steady at 150. And we FINALLY told family what his name is going to be.

At this time next week there could be a baby?!?!?! WHOA! 

Any last minute labor and delivery tips that I need to know/remember?

Run4Wine Race...you had me at wine!

This past week Ryan and I ran the Run4Wine Race in Grand Blanc, Michigan. I had signed us up for this race months ago a week after I had taken a nasty fall while trail running and sprained my midfoot (the sprain that prevented me from running for 10 weeks) and needed something to work towards and not be so pissed about hurting myself. Can I just say how glad I am to have found this race because it was AWESOME! I was a little hesitant going into this race since I spent the night before with the flu and becoming BFF's with our toilet. I'm so glad that I decided to go through with it anyways.

When we pulled into the parking lot it was already packed and we made our way up to to pick up our race pack. I couldn't believe it when I saw that there was 800 people signed up for the race and more signing up the hour beforehand. I have to say there was some sweet swag for this race and especially for the cheap sign-up (we paid under $25 each).

Included was:
-Sweet New Balance shirt
-Custom wine glass w/logo
-Buffet dinner (we ate LOTS..bonus in my book)
-One drink ticket (wine, beer or pop)
-Tons of wine tasting (wish I had felt 100% to take advantage of it more)
-Cover band

This will definitely be getting it's fair share of use. ;)

Bright pink and reflective! Ooo!

So much tasty food...not gonna lie, we had heaping plates full.
This is before it was ravaged by all the hungry runners.

Wine, wine, wine...yum! Definitely going to Fenton Winery &
Brewery to pick up some wine.

First off, I really liked the course. The 4 mile run was on the golf course, with lots of rolling hills which was a nice extra challenge and a wicked wind (freaking 30-35 mph gusts was just lovely). There were a few spots where the sprinklers were that posed some potential hazards and an excess of goose poop to navigate around though. Ryan and I split up at the beginning since he runs quicker than I and I tend to bonk out if I try to keep his pace (someday I'll get there), but was able to find a couple other runners to pace myself with.

The after party was great too with lots of BBQ fare foods to nosh on, lots of wine samples, bands and a pretty fun group of people. I really wish at times that we had more friends that were into fitness events because this would have been a group event to have a group of friends to run with. 

Hubs and I before the race began.

Lots of pretty trees changing along the way. 

At the finish line....before the race. Like how we're color coordinated?
Totally not planned. 

All in all, we had a great time. We hung out a bit at the end and enjoyed some wine samples and the band, but unfortunately I wasn't feeling the best still so we kind of ended the night earlier than planned. Ryan came in 7th place in his age group and I came in 8th so I'm pretty happy with that since I hadn't ran in about a week and also wasn't feeling that great after praising to the porcelain god the night before. This year was the first time they've done this run and I really hope they do it again. I was amazed how well it was put on for such a large crowd and first time event.

What's my next race? I'm not sure yet! There are a couple of fun Halloween ones (Headless Horseman Run in Howell) that we may do if we are able. I'd like to work my way up to a 6K soon, but not sure how that'll work since winter is coming up and I don't know how I feel about winter running.

Do you have any races coming up? Do you have any tips about running in the winter?

I'm Officially a Warrior! Michigan Warrior Dash Recap

A couple weeks ago I had the awesome experience of Warrior Dash.  I had signed up for this 5k+ several months ago and had some reservations about it since I had never ran one before.  I’m by no means a natural when it comes to running so the thought of adding obstacles to a 3 mile run added a bit more worries to this race. I just have to say, I TOTALLY LOVED it. 

This event was a blast and I couldn’t have asked for a better 5k to break me into races.  And you know what, I think I finally understand what everyone means about the runner’s high and addiction of running races such as this.  I can’t wait to do it again and am super excited to see that they are already planning on coming back. 

The weather that day was great.  A bit on the hot side, but lots of sun and a slight breeze made it more bearable.  It was great to see that this event brought so much revenue into the Flint, MI, which it desperately needed.  The Warrior Dash brought in nearly 26,000 participating runners, and that's not including all the spectators!

Ryan and I were signed up for the noon leg.  We had originally signed up with some other friends, but unfortunately they weren’t able to make it.  We made our way to the front 25% of the line in order to try to avoid the backlog that we had heard about at the obstacles. For the first mile and half we ran together, but I was having issues with breathing since I was fighting an infection and could not breathe through my nose AT ALL so I encouraged Ry to go run ahead because I didn’t want to hold him back.  I needed to take a couple run/walk breaks to catch my breath between obstacles, which was disappointing, but I’m still pretty excited about the run.  I wish I had been able to trim my time down some, but I’ll take what I had.  Now I have another, more specific goal for next time.  I also met some great people along the way. Everyone was so supportive, friendly and really looking to have a great time.

Some of the obstacles found at our event were:

• Junkyard/tire run
• Blackout (so hot in there!)
• Raised nets to climb over (easiest if you roll)
• Teetering traverse (balance beams of a sort)
• Up and downs (jump over wall, climb under, etc.)
• Logs to climb over in water
• Peg climb
• Rope climb
• Tall net
• Fire!
• 2 mud pits (one was so deep/thick and smelled like poo and the end one was much thinner, but had to crawl low)

I have to commend them on a well put together and organized race.  It was so easy to register and get to where we needed.  The swag was pretty fun too! It was just a great day and so much fun to get down and dirty and spend time with great friends that we met up with after our race. If you never ran a race like this, I highly recommend it.  I know that I’m HOOKED!

The fun hats everyone got. This is before we've ran. Notice the white shirt!

And after. There was mud everywhere! 

I'm sad I missed his front flip into the mud!

The wash station.  Not that the mud really came off. My shirt was ridiculously dirty after 3 showers in that so I just dumped it.

My knees and shins got completely jacked up! Bruises and scratches everywhere, but it was worth it.
I like battle scars ;)

So many shoes were donated! I wonder how many pairs they have after all the races? All shoes get cleaned and donated to third world countries.

They had awesome, huge turkey legs for $6.  I was starving!

Two of my favorite college girls, Holly & Angie. I love them and it was so great to spend time with them.

This guy ran the whole race as the cardboard robot.  I can't imagine climbing nets with all that bulk.

Angie killed it! She beat all of us girls with her time. Nice job!

My favorites!

We spent a lot of time at the finish line watching people bomb the mud pit.

The question now is: What's next?  I need to find another challenge for myself to keep my running going.  I think I'm going to do a little web research tonight to look for another race to run. There is the Dirty Dog Dash in September in Pinckney, but I'm thinking that something local might be more feasible (less money and easier to get to). Maybe we'll do the Turkey Trot that is held every year in Detroit. Either way, we're at least signing up for something soon!  

How do you keep yourself going after reaching your first goal? Do you have any fun races/events planned? Have you ran anything similar to this?