Weeks 4-7 had been particularly mild. I wasn’t having much, if any nausea and the fatigue was mostly an early bed time, rather than a full on nap situation. In fact, after a very active weekend in Vancouver, I came back home to a another pretty active week.
I ran a total of 20 miles – 9 of which included 3,400 feet of climb to Soda Peaks Lake – holy hell.
While this run was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful, it was also REALLY challenging; I started to wonder whether my husband was trying to kill me. Though, in the end I beat him both up and down the mountain.
Plus, the views and the lake were spectacular.
The next two weeks – weeks 8 and 9 of my pregnancy- things started to get weirder (and in some ways, a lot more real!).
Running started to get a little weird. I ran 3 miles the Monday following our 9 mile trek to Soda Peaks Lake, and had to pull over more than a few times to catch my breath, and dry heave in the bushes. It was as if I went from feeling really strong to completely debilitated over night. And the worst part was, I had a 20 mile race that very same weekend.
The pregnancy itself started to get VERY real. On Wednesday (September 6), we had our very first ultrasound and got to hear Baby Danger’s heartbeat for the very first time. That made everything VERY real. There he was, just resting on his back, looking like a gummy bear, with his little heart beating so fast, just chilling in my belly.
My morning sickness and fatigue got more serious….After getting to hear the heartbeat and feeling like we could rest a little easier (not to mention start telling some family members), I also started having some bleeding. It was light, but it was scary, all the same. Along with the bleeding, my morning sickness and general fatigue had reached new heights. I made an appointment to see the doctor and they had me go to the lab for blood work. As it turns out, I have RH negative blood, or unicorn blood as I like to call it and my body was essentially producing antibodies against the babies positive blood. They gave me a shot of Rhogam, which went directly into my hip and told me I’d be receiving four more of those throughout my pregnancy. I was just grateful the baby was ok.
Racing got real weird. I decided I was going to run the Backcountry Rise 20 miler – 9 weeks pregnant or not. And it ended up being one of the hardest trail runs of my life.
I arrived at the start line with pretty bad morning sickness (which I told everyone, including those who read my race recap that I had “car sickness”), and the first part of the run, I honestly didn’t know if I was going to make it to the first aid station or not. I tried to keep a steady, easy pace, take deep breaths, and drink lots of water. Thankfully, the morning sickness had gotten a little better by around mile 7 or so, but right as it started to subside, we started a monster of a climb, and I was reminded how much harder climbing (and running, in general) is when you’re carrying another human. Aside from just feeling sick and fatigued during the race was the nipple factor. I don’t know why I never knew about this going into pregnancy, but omg, the nipple rawness and soreness is so real. All during the race, I felt like someone was taking sandpaper to my nipples – definitely a new and terrible experience for me (thanks pregnancy). I would say the best part of the race was that I got to pretty much non-stop eat the rest of the day. For the full race recap, read here!
More ultrasounds. Some decisions. And a due date! After my first ultrasound when we saw the heartbeat, the doctor recommended we go in a week later for a second ultrasound with radiology because she was having such a hard time getting a read on how far along I actually was. We went back in for a second ultrasound, this time over the belly, and got to hear the baby’s heartbeat again and also get a due date – April 22, 2018. We were also presented with a bunch of information about testing options and ultimately decided that we wanted to test for down’s and trisonomy 13 and 18, given my age (nearly 35). This would also determine the sex which I was VERY excited about.
[…] Ultrasounds and extreme nipple chafing. […]