2013: The Year of Baby J

2010 was the year of running and PR's (yes, that's how old my PR's are - sad), 2011 was the year of Singapore, 2012 was the year of the dissertation, and 2013 was the year of Baby J.  And that about sums it up.

But let's recap, shall we?  So many great things happened in 2013 - from holidays with family to out-of-state visitors to ginormous smores to the Puyallup Fair to volunteering at races to beach trips to roommate reunions.  It was impossible to narrow it down to just 10 events - but here they are - the top 10 events of 2013?

10) I was pregnant.  I started out the year about 10 weeks pregnant and stayed pregnant for the full first half of the year.  I'm sure you recall, since 95% of my posts talked about it.  I was sick, I got fat, running hurt.  But I did grow a human inside of me, so that was pretty cool.

Whoa.  January to June.

I did not end the year weighing the same as I started the year, which was my goal.  Oh well - what are you gonna do? 

9) I went running!  This is a running blog after all.  I ran until about 33 weeks pregnant, though there were weeks when "running" meant 2 miles... for the WEEK.  I ran 482 miles total (unless I go run 18 miles on New Years Eve so I can hit 500), which pales in comparison to previous years when I've hit the 1,000 mark.  Oh well.

May, June, and July don't look so hot.  Especially considering I ran a 10k in May - making up HALF of the mileage for the whole MONTH.

8) I celebrated the big 3-1 in - where else?  LEAVENWORTH!  While wine walks may not be as much fun without the wine, I still had a BLAST celebrating with some of my bestest friends - eating up the town's brats and pretzels and getting kicked out of pools.  It was the perfect last hurrah before Baby J arrived.

7)  I ran some races while pregnant.  First, I ran the Seahawks 12k.  Real Seahawks gave me water!  I was 27 weeks pregnant and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it'd be.

Then I ran the Keizer Iris 10k.  I was 31 weeks pregnant and again, it wasn't bad at all, proving that all running should be done during races, since I felt terrible for all other pregnant runs.  Which, I guess, is why this race was HALF of my May mileage.

6) I made my triumphant return to running!  I ran the Leavenworth Half Marathon 3 months post-partum and it-was-AWESOME.  Seriously.  I felt amazing and blew my time goals out of the water.  Plus Leavenworth is, as always, a BLAST.  I think I already mentioned that.

 I can't believe how little Baby J used to be.  And that was after he got big.

I also ran the Salty Half Marathon and the Seattle Half Marathon, but neither were anywhere near as triumphant running-wise.

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5) RAGNAR VEGAS!  While it was so hard to leave Baby J, and pumping in the van wasn't the most fun thing ever, my vanmates were AMAZING and I had a BLAST.  I'm so lucky Nuun and Pro Compression gave me that opportunity!  I've already got two relays lined up for next summer and I can't WAIT.  Plus, I'll be done breastfeeding by then.  Yippee!

4) My baby shower.  While I admit I totally dreaded this (I hate being the center of attention) - and during the present opening part it WAS pretty bad and I got pretty anxious and sweaty, but having everyone come together to celebrate Baby J's arrival was pretty freaking awesome.  I was just plain blown away by everyone's generosity.  Plus my years of experience of eating candy makes me dominate at smelling candy bars melted into diapers. 

All pregnant women should always touch each other's bellies.  But NO ONE ELSE SHOULD.

3) We went to Europe!  London and Paris were a blast, even though a freak cold front made walking around pretty unbearable and obviously, it'd be a lot more fun to enjoy Paris if you could eat wine and soft cheeses.  Boo.  Just an excuse to go back for Wimbledon someday!

I want to go back.

2) I graduated!  After 4 years of undergrad, 2 years of Master's, and 5+ of PhD work, I FINALLY graduated and vowed to never-ever-ever-ever go back to school again.  Probably.  

That outfit sure wasn't slimming!

1) Duh - I had Baby J!  He finally arrived, and although the actual labor is an experience I will never (but would love to!) forget, his arrival has changed our lives forever (for the better, obviously!).

 

It's so hard to believe that this scrawny little nugget who never smiled despite my begging:

Is now this huge laughing 6 month old:

He's changed so much in the past 6 months - it's hard to imagine what he'll be like a year from now!

And that's a wrap!  I have so much to be thankful for.  But another year is gone just like that.  Time really does make fools of us all.

All You Need in Life is Nutella Banana Crepes

So, you've seen our 3 quick, cold days in London.  Then we were off on the CHUNNEL to Paris!  I definitely definitely recommend taking the chunnel.  It was the same price as flying, but soooo much less hassle.  The train station is right in the city and easy to get to (unlike the airports), there's little waiting / lines / security, and it's just so freaking easy.  Paris was a bit warmer than London, in the 30's now instead of the 20's, which was a relief despite it still being so cold.

Paris' metro stations are a bit more difficult to navigate than the Tube, partially because they're in French but mostly just because there's SO many different lines and the coverage of the city is so thorough, but we were able to easily navigate ourselves to our new hotel.  We didn't waste any time and were IMMEDIATELY out sight-seeing that night!

So here they are, the top must-see's and do's of Paris. Especially if again, you only have 3 days.  And you may or may not be pregnant. 

1.  The Eiffel Tower.  DUH!  You ARE in Paris after all!  You must go during the Day AND Night.

2.  Arc de Triomphe.  Again, during the day AND at night.  You can climb to the top for a fee, but it was so smoggy and hazy while we were there that this seemed like a waste of money. 

3.  Walk down Champs-Elysses - shop if you like to shop (which I don't) - or just get a feel for the atmosphere and more great Arc de Triomphe pictures!

4.  Notre Dame Cathedral.  Just plain gorgeous and impressive, it's one of the most well-known churches in the WORLD, and construction on it started in 1163.  It's OLD people.  You MUST go inside - it's worth the line (which moves quickly) and is free.  We actually planned on climbing to the top of this (you have to pay a fee to do so) but the line was CRAZY LONG and moving incredibly slowly, so we missed out on seeing the hunchback and the famous gargoyles. 

5.  Climb Something.  You can climb seriously EVERYTHING in Paris.  The Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, etc.  Most everything you have to pay to climb though.  We chose Sacre Coeur Basilica.  An impressive structure already on a hill, it definitely has gorgeous views of the city, and at 6 Euros the cost is small.  It was pretty smoggy / hazy the entire time we were there or else I probably would have made us climb more buildings. 

At 25 weeks pregnant I huffed and puffed up all 340 steps to the top and it was well worth it!  Too bad it was so smoggy / cloudy every day that we were in Paris. 

6.  Eat Pastries.  Don't discriminate - you must try them all!  Croissants, baguettes, nutella banana crepes, oh my!  We had an amazing nutella-filled donut and another awesome donut with strawberry jam inside.  Pretty much just keep your eye out for the "Patisserie". 

7.  The Louvre.  Duh.  Even if you're not into art (which we really aren't) you still MUST go.  It's expensive but worth it.  It's also VERY busy, but worth it, even if just to ogle the crowds and how impressive the inside of the Louvre itself is. 

I'm classy.

The famous Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo

8.  Roland Garros.  But only if you're a tennis fan.  Originally this trip was supposed to coincide with one of the Grand Slams, since both JMan and I are tennis fans (we both played in college), but again, Rudiger made that impossible!  We intended to go to Wimbledon as well but that didn't end up happening in London so we knew we HAD to go see Roland Garros at least!

The interview room

Centre Court!  Did you know they replace the clay every year?

9.  Eat delicious food.  French food, unlike British food (sorry London), is delicious and amazing.  The first night we were there we made a HUGE mistake and walked around without dinner until nearly midnight and had to grab crappy sub-par pizza - wasting one of our few dinner opportunities.  The dinners we had were all STELLAR.  Like regular Joe food there compares to our fancy meals here. 

10.  Do a self-guided walking tour.  Paris is very compact and really easy to walk around and see most everything.  Well, by "easy" you'll need to expect to walk 4-8 miles a day!  There's tons to see but very helpful if you have a map and a plan of what streets to walk on, because it's not that intuitive even though everything is fairly close.

Here are just a few of the things we saw on our walking tour:

Again, I can't say enough how much more fun this trip would have been if a) I wasn't pregnant, and b) it was the summer.  Although I felt like we were able to see the city in 3 days, there was NO downtime and I found myself feeling quite tired by the end of the week after walking probably 5-8 miles every day of the trip, being out in the cold all day every day, etc. 

Further, obviously in France you're supposed to drink wine!  And eat soft cheeses!  And I couldn't do either.  It's also a bit difficult to find quick food in both London and Paris when you're pregnant - as they seem to very much like prepared sandwiches (with deli meat of course) rather than ready-to-order sandwiches (with chicken!) like we have here.  So that made finding food to eat difficult at times.  But really, who needs real food when you can just eat nutella banana crepes all the time anyway?!?!?!

Have you been to Paris?  Have anything to add to this list?

Catching You Up

Lots of crazy stuff going on around here!  Let's catch you up!

1.  Yep, I'm still pregnant.  Still cooking that baby - it sure takes a long time!  I had my 24 week appointment the other day and everything looked well - baby's heart beat strong at 146 beats per minute (bpm), my blood pressure was still rocking at 102 / 60, and I was up about 12 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight (15 pounds from my lowest weight during the 1st trimester), which seems like a freaking ton to me but apparently is right on track. 

Bumpy abdomen courtesy of my refusal to wear maternity clothes.  Yes they are more comfortable, but they NEVER STAY UP!  It's so annoying. 

Although I think it's pretty freaking obvious that I'm pregnant, I guess I can understand why it's not so obvious to everyone else that I'm not just getting super chubby.  The lady who cut my hair the other day said, "Oh, I had no idea you were pregnant, I thought you just had a pooch".  When I'm not accenting the baby bump it does seem a little less obvious:

Same outfit, but less obvious. 

The doctor gave me the fun gestational diabetes test to take prior to my next appointment, which will be my last monthly appointment before I start going every 2 weeks!  Eek!  It's getting here soon!  Only a few more weeks left until I'm in the 3rd trimester!

2.  We spent last week on a babymoon vacation in EUROPE and it was freaking fabulous.  AND JMan finally felt the baby while we were there!  We went to London and Paris and I tried to pretend like the Paris Marathon wasn't happening while we were there.  :-)  LOTS to tell you about that so hopefully I get around to it someday and it's not one more post that never gets written! 

 

Also, banana Nutella crepes are the best things in the WORLD.  I really don't want to go back to living in a world where they don't serve them on every street corner. 

3.  I know all you runners already know this, but inner thigh chafe is NO JOKE.  Seriously.  It is NOT to be messed around with.  Speaking of my weight gain - which is at least some in my thighs, annoyingly enough, and speaking of my maternity pants that don't stay up, AND speaking of the 30-40 miles we walked in London and Paris - inner thigh chafe was a HUGE issue during the first half of the trip.  And it's not exactly like I brought my Body Glide! 

4.  Running is still happening!  It's definitely become a run / walk and it causes a CONSTANT need to pee which is highly obnoxious but it's still happening!  I ran 7 miles last Saturday and 7 miles again yesterday.  I only ran one sad mile in between those two days though.  Normally I LOVE to run while on vacation but a) it was freaking freezing cold in London and Paris, b) we were already walking 4-10 miles per day so it's not like I needed extra exercise, and c) the jetlag caused us to sleep weird hours like 2am - 10am so by the time I was awake it seemed necessary to start sightseeing! 

Last weekend's run was GORGEOUS and felt like SPRING.  Yesterday's run was stormy and rainy. 

For some reason my right calf has been really really tight when I've been running though, and I'm not sure why.  Do I need to stretch more?  Foam roll more?  I'll admit I don't think I've foam rolled once since I've been pregnant.  It's hardly seemed necessary with the few miles I've been logging.  Do you think my Brooks Pure Connects can't handle my growing weight?  Maybe I need shoes with more support?  Anyone have any thoughts? 

5.  Running had been happening enough that I even signed up for a race!  The Seahawks 12k will be April 21 and will definitely be stretching my abilities, so hopefully it's not a horrible decision!  Given my constant need to pee I'm also a bit worried about the number of port-a-potties the race will have (and how often on the course!), especially given that this is a smaller race.  But I did it last year (although then it was part of a 15 miler in the good ol' days of marathon training) and it was a blast, so it seems like a fun repeat.  Hopefully I'm also not dead last since I doubt many people will walk the 12k (there's also a 5k). 

Who wants to join?????

6.  I'm apparently the last person in the WORLD to finally WATCH Argo and READ Silver Linings Playbook (still haven't seen that movie) - which I did both yesterday on the 12 hour plane ride from Paris to Iceland to Seattle.  I LOVED both.  I HIGHLY recommend reading Silver Linings Playbook!  I really didn't know what to expect or even what it was really about but for some reason I just LOVED it.  Go read it!

What have I missed with you??  Who's pregnant / engaged / married / got a PR / ran a race / submitted a Nuun Hood to Coast application??