We had a wonderful Christmas this year and were blessed to spend time with all of our families. As everything is these days, we were very focused on the upcoming baby. As such, we were constantly reminded that this was probably a Christmas full of "lasts" for us:

Our last Christmas decorating the tree without "help" from a little one.

Our last trip where we just pack up our own stuff (well, the dogs' too) and head out the door.

Our last Christmas as recipients of Santa's magic instead of as the magicians.

Our last nights spent in my childhood bedroom as just daughter & son-in-law...soon we will be mommy & daddy at the grandparents house.

It's beginning to look a lot like infants

Soooo, let's break this down in a variety of statements to try and fully absorb it: Mack is due to arrive in less than a month; there are only four weeks left until my due date; the little swimmy guy on the ticker above is getting awfully close to the shore; my midwife told me today that if I went into labor now I would still technically be pre-term but they wouldn't attempt to stop it either. We are getting there folks.

I feel that I am approximately the size of a whale, but thank you to everyone who tells me I'm all belly and look great. I wish I felt that way! The uncomfortableness set in very very quickly last week: swelling, back pain, fatigue, nausea, heartburn, inability to sleep, hip pain, sciatica...I am thrilled. But I'm really whining more than I should ~ I actually do feel great for a really pregnant person and am incredibly thankful for the health and stamina I have! For example, Richard and I went traipsing through a swamped field last night trying to get the shore of Jordan Lake to view the sunset. We didn't quite make it but I was very proud that I forged through the rugged terrain without falling, whining, or getting completely exhausted from the effort.

And in good news, especially given the reality of the first paragraph of the blog: the little jungle nursery is almost complete! Sans the baby himself and a few other decorative items that need to be put up. Here are a few pictures of what we have so far:

I am very proud of this - the changing table. I sanded and painted an antique dresser to match the crib and then Richard helped attached the changing pad to the top. It's now completely full of teeny tiny diapers, hopefully those will last at least a couple of weeks, wowsers!

And here's the undersea "mural" for the bathroom. It is very very cutey but hard to tell from this picture.

So yay, at least when Mack is born - even if his parents have no clue what they're doing - he'll have a place to stay!

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and that gift of the savior brings joy to you all!

Baby Showering

It is kind of strange to sit in a room full of friends, surrounded by gifts, as the center of attention while you rip open wrapping paper and excitedly scope our your new loot. I haven't done that in quite a while (probably since I was about 10) until recently at 2 baby showers. Since Richard & I didn't have a traditional wedding (you know, one that was planned and involved a pre-planned ceremony and the usual events that lead up to a wedding) I didn't have any bridal showers or the like, so being a showeree has been a new and fun experience that has accompanied my metamorphosis into a giant pregnant lady.

My second shower was just this past weekend at Birdoo's house. It was spectacular. The gifts were generous and thrilling but mostly I was really excited to see everyone who came since I don't get to see all my pals nearly as often as I should. A great big thank you to everyone who came and especially to Meredith and Lauren for putting it together for me. Here are a few of the decent pictures I got from that day (hopefully I'll have a good group shot later on to post, my camera ran out of steam before we did the group photo session):

(Yes, I ate FOUR of these cupcakes - and two Rice Krispie treats - I like to have my cake and eat it, too.)

My first shower was at MSOC (my place of employment) for me and another gal at my office whose due date is exactly one week after mine. It was very fun (and out of the ordinary since there were men there who were at the same time incredibly uncomfortable as well as confused - out of respect for their feelings I opted not to post the uncomfortable men picture). Here are a couple pictures of Nerissa and I unravelling our new baby goods:

Richard asked me after the shower this weekend if we really need all this stuff to raise a baby. I said no, probably not - but it undoubtedly will make it a lot easier. We have been incredibly blessed by our friends and family giving us baby gifts and passing along hand-me-downs from their child-raising closets. It is amazing how the promise of new life brings out so much hope and excitement not only in Richard & I, but in our greater family, too. And it's not only material things and stuff for the baby, but just knowing we have people who will be there for us after Mack arrives and we REALLY need their support that overwhelms us and gives us strength.

Truly, from the bottom of our hearts

THANK YOU!!!!!

www.lorijacksonphotography.com

The father of my child just broke 9 hours at Ironman Arizona...he is the MackDaddy...ha ha!!!!(Quick reminder for those of you that don't have triathlon beat into your brains 24/7, the Ironman is: a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.3 mile run.) I am so super proud of him. He has been training and working for months with the sole goal of breaking 9 hours at this race. And he did it! His previous record was 9:04:22, his new record is 8:57:02.

He also managed to place 16th overall out of 2,027 total racers. 62 male pros started the race, making this the most competitive race Richard has done as a professional. And though he didn't place "in the money," he put together an awesome race while many of his fellow pros sort of fell apart.

And he rocked the marathon. Typically his strongest leg of the race is the bike (and he still had a great bike in AZ, going from 52nd place after the swim to 38th after the bike) but this race, he really put together the run and passed 22 people during the marathon going from 38th after the bike to 16th at the finish!

Yay! The bad part for me was I didn't get to go to this race and was really bummed to miss it since this was a really spectator friendly venue and he did sooooo great. I really wish I could have seen Richie's big finish-line grin in person instead of on my computer monitor. But a major special thanks to everyone who came over and watched the streaming online video with me - we had our very own finish line crowd here in Durham!!

Flowers for Grannie

I've been trying to figure out for 2 weeks how to post on my baby blog about my Grannie's passing on Halloween this year. I have never been good at things like this and feel inadequate and ill-equipped for expressing my emotions when they're so conflicting and encompassing. But since this is a baby blog, I will make a few notes of what I'd like Mack to know about his Great-Grannie (and she was really great), what I've learned from her, and the hope we hold onto:

1. You have a line of strong women who have come before you young man...and they expect you to respect and understand that strength in all women as you become a man. Grannie was a nurse, but not "just" a nurse. She went beyond standard nursing training and worked for 33 years with the Louisiana Public Health Department coordinating clinics for physically-challenged children. That's saying something for a woman in 1944. Don't ever underestimate us.

2. Grannie was a funny lady and you never knew what was going to come out of her mouth next. In the last few years of her life, Grannie spent a lot of time sleeping but would often wake from her cat-naps with a story. My favorite one began with her exclamation, "I like the men..." She may have seemed like she was out of it but she wasn't at all. I'm pretty sure she was just enjoying her memories and not bothering with the troubles of today...we could all take a lesson from that. Don't ever forget to remember.

3. Size and proximity don't have anything to do with the size of the love we share. My whole family is pretty small and we are very spread apart. Having grandparents in Louisiana and Wisconsin made for long trips and not more than 1 or 2 of them a year. All my grandparents have now passed from this life and I wish that I could have spent more time with them and been able to learn more from them (you don't figure that out until you're a "grown-up" though). I wish I could have had a chance to take a picture with 4 generations in it. But that aside, there's something about family that when you do get together, the time and distance between you fall away and there's just the love of family that remains.

The weekend that Grannie died, Richard and I were at the beach. Richard bought flowers for Grannie and we kept them at the house until the last day when we took them down to the beach. We said a prayer together and then left the flowers to dance in the surf while we walked back. I figure Grannie was dancing right along...and one day we'll all dance together.

3

It has arrived - the Third Trimester. I can't really believe it. I am both excited and stunned to be here. I realize I owe you a belly-picture and will try to get on it asap. (The pregnancy websites/books weren't kidding though, my belly really grows an additional 1/2 inch each week - it's a little crazy.)

I can tell the baby is starting to put a hurtin' on my body. I took Buddy (our "special" dog) on a 2 hour walk at Umstead Park yesterday. I was so proud of myself because I was going at a much quicker pace than we had gone the previous weekend . It was a gorgeous Fall day and Buddy was behaving himself nicely (for the most part). But the the back & hip aches that began last night & kept me awake until I finally took some Tylenol at 3:30 a.m. have brought me to the decision that hikes will be limited to a more reasonable time-frame from now on. I have yet to see another pregnant lady wandering through the trails of Umstead - maybe that should have been a clue to me?

In more exciting news, the nursery is officially "under construction" now! As I write this, Richard and Craig are painting the baby's room. It's really cute because I think Richie is very excited & proud to be working on his son's room. The baby's bathroom will be painted next and then an old dresser will be given a new life as a changing table. Yahoo!

And to clue you in on my current state of mind, one of the pregnancy sites for this week started with a quote that really sums it up: "Billions of people have children and figure it out. So I must be able to do it too, right? Right! Right?" Ha ha ha ha ha ha! I'm not freaking out, I swear. At least he'll have a bedroom :-)

And he shall be called...

Mack Kincaid Armstrong

Mack means "son," Kincaid means "battle leader," and Armstrong means "strong fighter." So watch out world. Also, a variation of Mack is the Native American name Machk, which means "bear." Oi vey. We may be setting ourselves up for a challenge. Kincaid is a family name on Richard's grandfather's side, so that's where the middle name comes from. Mack is just a name. And Armstrong...duh.

Richard came up with the name Mack and I immediately shot it down...after shooting down about a thousand other suggestions from him (Hamish, Abish, Thor...the list goes on). But somehow Mack started to grow on me and now it just makes sense. And I also decided that the obvious mean nicknames of Mack: Big Mac, Mac Truck, etc - are at least masculine nicknames...hopefully though little Mack (as I think of him) won't turn out to be a chunky tubster, hee hee.

I had no idea how hard it would be to pick a name for a baby until I was put in the position. It's a lot of pressure! And how are you supposed to name someone you haven't even met? But I feel pretty good about this name and unless he comes out looking like a "Julian" or something, we can't wait to meet our fighting bear son!

Pregnant Lady Crazy

I had my first "first-time-pregnancy" bothering of the doctors yesterday. I had a sharp pain in my lower-right abdomen all yesterday afternoon that was really killer. So by the time I was ready to leave work, I had worked myself into a worried-state-of-mind. Richard OK'd me to just run across the street to my midwives' office and see if someone there could see me (I can seriously walk to my provider's office in 30 seconds from my work, good for me - not so good for them). Now this is very un-Melanie-like, but I totally walked in there even though they were closed and a poor nurse who was still on site saw me. She was really really sweet, bless her heart. Took my blood pressure and temperature and told me to go home a put a hot water bottle on it and call them if it didn't feel better in a few hours. I felt pretty silly but I'm still glad I went by because I would have just come home and worried all night. The hot water bottle really did help and I feel perfectly fine today - gotta love the abdominal cramps, strains, and pains of being pregnant! I don't think I'll ever get used to it.

In other news - the Biscuit is developing all kinds of serious acrobatic moves. Now in addition to the big thumps & rampant flutterings, we have whale-like rolling somersaults that cross my entire belly. And the other day, I put my hand on my belly and felt a leg (or arm, or spine?) just hanging out below my ribs. As I poked at it, it slowly went away - I guess the Biscuit doesn't appreciate my pokes as much as I do his!

We are the Barking Spiders

Swim, bike, run has a whole new element of fun that was really lacking previously for me. This Saturday, I swam my first open water 1500m swim at the Pinehurst triathlon. My pregnant-belly began the race for our relay team that also consisted of crazy-guy Ed and his 50 lb-fright of a bike, and Lawrence's 1980's alter-ego. So the Biscuit had a water-adventure and the spectators at Pinehurst had a good chuckle.

The swim was a little foggy at first and when I got in the water with my wave, I had to ask which way we were supposed to be going:

But I made it through! After swimming a few extra meters while zig-zagging my way through the course and ping-ponging off and around the other swimmers, I feel my 30 minute swim was a decent showing for my (out-of-shape, never-swam-in-the-open-water-with-800-other-people, did-I-mention-I'm-pregnant) self.

Here's Ed, finishing the bike leg of the race (we were getting a little worried about Ed because he was gone over 1.5 hours - the chain came off 4 times and he had to readjust his bike seat; oh - and it was stuck in the big-gear so the up-hills must have been a real blast):

Ed's first words after finishing the bike, "That was stupid."

And for the crowning glory of our team (he was really the only one of us that laid down a respectable time), here's Lawrence coming down the finishing chute (that other dude doesn't know what hit him):

Here we are, the Barking Spiders, enjoying the victory of completion:

Oh, and Richard won the whole deal (he finished before our biker came back in to give you some perspective). It was a good day for us all! Richard is typically a long-course guy and this was a short-course race, so for him to win was a big deal since he was also out of his element (just like my relay team). He ran his fastest ever 10K and was running 5:57 min/miles - geez; and he tied the course bike record. This is me with the winner:

A big shout-out to Vicky for setting a new PR and to Martin for placing 2nd in his age-group, yay for our friends!!!! And special thanks to Craig and Megan for putting up with us all day and to Craig for taking these great photos during the race.

I really did enjoy my open-water swim, maybe after I'm back to my normal size (I know it's bound to happen!) I'll invest in a wet-suit and make it a habit of relay racing triathlons (since there's no way I'll be doing the whole thing myself!). I wonder if I'll still like open-water-swimming as much without the extra buoyancy provided by the baby-belly?

Where'd they go?

I can't see my feet when I stand up straight. I can see them if I lean forward a little or if I stand with my legs wide. But if I stand up straight, I have no feet. Ahhhhhh!

All better! (mostly anyway)

Glad to report I am feeling much much better now! My pregnant immune system is still functioning - hooray! I woke up in a fog this morning, but I think that was more because I slept for 10 hours, which I haven't done in a while.

So the Biscuit has learned a new trick - jumping up and down on mommy's bladder. Unlike the funny tummy kicks and adorable punches to my sides, the bladder jumping doesn't elicit feelings of motherly love in me. Instead I wonder if the child has a grudge against me - like perhaps, "Hey woman! You forgot to eat the 3 chocolate chip cookies I wanted today!" Oh, well. I'm happy with any & all movement, but the bladder-jumping makes me want to start doing hand-stands to get him back up where he "belongs."

New pregnancy symptom

#7 - Loss of immune system. I went from healthy and happy to sick as a dog today, lovely. I'm not sure if I picked up a bug from the infants in the baby nursery at church yesterday or caught it at the Embassy Suites church retreat Friday/Saturday. Either way, I really hope I'm not sick with this head cold for the next 4.5 months. Blarg. And Richie won't give me any kisses while I'm sick so I don't get him sick & screw up his training - which I completely understand & support - but it's still no fun to be sick and not get any sympathy kisses.

So, I think I might be pregnant

Duh, right? But I still wake up every morning surprised at my belly and wondering why on earth my rear-end is getting so big. Besides the obvious symptoms, here are a few recent events that lead me to believe I really really am pregnant:

#1 - My favorite pair of heels are now officially closeted until post-pregnancy. I wore them to work last week and my feet felt fine. But when I took the shoes off after getting home, my feet looked like big blow-up water toys! It was not good at all and I have never had swollen feet before. They were back to normal the next day, but I am all-flats for now.

#2 - I left my purse at Quizno's. So, that could easily happen, right? But I usually don't forget things in public places. I might leave stuff at home or at work, or misplace my car keys...but leave my whole financial world hanging in a bag at the local Quizno's - not very Melanie-like. Unless we're talking about pregnant-Melanie and then anything's game.

#3 - There is a mounting stockpile of baby stuff in my bedroom and garage. Apparently, someone in this household is expecting.

#4 - A complete stranger asked me the other day when my baby was due. That really floored me, because I thought I was still in the "is she pregnant or just chunky?" phase.

#5 - Crying. I feel somewhat justified about this given why I was crying, but normally I would have just been ticked or thought the whole thing was kind of funny. At my last doctor's appointment, the NP who saw me remarked "Wow, you've gained 7 lbs since your last visit - that might be a little much." And then launched into a healthly pregnancy spiel. I did not cry right then, but 15 minutes later while leaving the office I find myself in the office bathroom crying my eyes out because that stupid bitch called me fat. I composed myself, only to wind up sobbing again in the car after Richard, unprompted, says "You haven't gained too much weight, she was off-base." He had to take me to a coffee shop to get a cup of tea and compose myself before returning to work. Geesh. (There will be no more appointments booked with her.)

#6 - I feel sure there are others but I can't remember them right now (see #2)

Biscuit Adventure

So, if our kid gets to do half the stuff after he's born that he's done in-utero, he's going to have a pretty decent childhood: trip to England & Scotland, Ironman spectating, roller skating, and now backpacking. Yes, I took my pregnant self on a backpacking trip. Richard & I hadn't been on a backpacking trip together since we've been married - kind of pathetic. So we went on a little short one over the weekend accompanied by Lil the Adventure Dog. We headed up to Grayson Highlands Park on Saturday, hiked in about 4 miles or so, spent the night, and hiked out today (Sunday). It was pretty spectacular. Saturday was a little foggy, cold, and rainy. But still enjoyable because it was an adventure. This is the view on Saturday (can you see me out in the fog?):

And later in the day, this is Richie starting a fire with wet wood, in a wet fire-pit (with the help of a propane gas stove/flamethrower):

The fire eventually became a white-hot, cooking machine and we had fresh veggies & Spam (gag - OK it wasn't that bad, but I wouldn't recommend it for everyday consumption) cooked over the open flame. We then spent a while drying out our gear & ourselves before heading to bed (I managed to sleep pretty well despite being 5 months preggers - I can be tough when I want to!)

Then on Sunday we woke up to a glorious morning:

All in all it was a great trip. Richard carried pretty much everything and I had a token backpack with my sleeping bag and water in it :-) I don't know what more we could have asked for. We experienced: fog, rain, cold, sunrise & sunshine, warmth, wild ponies (Richard even pet one), fresh blackberries & blueberries, cold fresh moutain spring water, blazing campfire, stoned hiking hippies, beautiful views and peeing the woods. We had a blast. Here are some more pictures just because I actually took a few decent ones this trip (sorry for the visual overload on this post):

Big Weekend

Happy Birthday Richie! Well, it was last Friday but we were on the road so I couldn't post about it. Richard is now an old fart like me - a whopping 27 years old.

We were on the road going to Louisville, KY for Ironman KY. We had a lovely dinner at an Asian restaurant called August Moon. If you're ever in Louisville, I highly recommend it. We were extremely blessed to be staying with our friend Martin's parents there. Chip and Doris were wonderful and made us feel so at home. It was really marvelous and we're so thankful to have met them and spent time in their home.

The Ironman went really well, I am super proud of Richie. He isn't so thrilled with it, but he's being too hard on himself. He dropped his time from last year in Louisville and moved up the pro rankings by 3 spots to 11th. I'm sure eventually he will post his race report on his blog and you can read about it here: itsonlysuffering.blogspot.com. He's also been given several shout-outs on the triathadork web forum Slow Twitch for both his performance and sportsmanship on the course. He's a speed demon and a gentleman :)

This was my first solo spectating at an Ironman. For those of you who don't know, Richard typically finishes an Ironman between 9 and 10 hours depending on the course/conditions (9:38 in Louisville) - so going it solo as a spectator is no small feat! Yay for me!

In baby news, over the past two days I think the biscuit is developing a pattern. He is an afternoon person like his mama. He's quiet in the mornings and then starts practicing his kung-fu moves around lunch time, which continue on until the sun sets. Then we both get sleepy again. Oh, if only he'll keep the same schedule as me after he's born...I'm feeling lucky!

Here are some pictures from the race:

Finishing the swim See you in a few hours!
Almost done! All done!

Richard and Lawrence post-race

It's a BOY!

A healthy, rambunctious boy with longs legs and a big head! Just like his daddy!
Enjoy the pictures, we are beside ourselves with joy and thanks for such a good report today!

Big yawn! (My favorite pic)

The money shot!


Giving mommy a kiss! :-)

Oh the Antici pation

Tomorrow at 4 is the big ultrasound appointment. I'm not entirely sure how I'm supposed to get anything else accomplished in the next 22 hours.

Ahhhhhhhhhh!

Eloise Schwollywood

No, Eloise Schwollywood is not the name we've selected if we're having a girl - it's the name of my awesome new ride (bicycle ride that is). Richard finally realized that I will never be a badass-Cervelo-riding-triathlete and found me this fantabulous 1958 Schwinn Hollywood that is absolutely wonderful! So me and the Biscuit have been piddling around on it. Mostly just to my piano lessons (about 3 miles round trip) but I figure that counts as my excercise for the day.

Our biggest adventure was to the Durham Farmer's market (about 12 miles round trip). Now I know many of you reading this blog will think - ha, 12 miles, what a joke! But no my friends - Eloise is a 1-speed, 40 pound, steel beast. Put her up against the slightest incline in the road and the road will win every time. I made it to the Farmer's Market on my own (OK, fine, so I walked up the huge hill in downtown Durham) but on the way home (with the added weight of tomatoes, okra, peppers, and herbs) I let Richard ride beside me helping to push me up on the hills home! I have to give the girl credit though, on the down-hill right near our house, Eloise kept up with Richard on his high-dollar road bike while he was in the tuck-position! Go us! Maybe an Ironman is in our future after all (not).

Anyway, I love this bike and it makes me feel like a kid again with the kick-stand and pedal-brakes. I figure, too, I'll still be able to get my big ol' self on it for at least a few more months (until it gets really cold and I wuss out due to weather).

18 weeks, 2 days

Tuuuuuuuummy

Thumpity Thump Thump

So I mentioned in my last post that I've been feeling some flutterings. Since then I have felt a few goods thumps and many more flutterings...it is very exciting!

The other night as I was rubbing my newly funny belly while waiting for the tub to fill up for my relaxing bath, I got kicked (or punched or headbutted?) in the hand! I actually felt the little booger with my hand - and I totally freaked! I yelled downstairs to Richie to see if he could join in the fun, and he got to feel a thump-thump, too! That was very surprising because I didn't think I'd be able to feel anything from the outside for a while yet since I still don't feel anything regularly on the inside.

In other baby news, I finally got myself a little trunk-like basket to store the little baby items we've started accumulating, since we don't have a nursery-space yet. That was fun and makes me think the cute little things will actually survive until the baby's arrival (instead of being demolished by one of the dogs in the meantime). So now I can peek in the basket and visit babyville any time I want :)

1 week and 19 hours until the big ultrasound!

17 weeks - Potato

So the biscuit is the size of a baked potato and weighs about as much as a turnip now! (Note to self - go to grocery store and figure out how much a turnip weighs.) That seems huge to me, but we do always get the freakishly large baked potatoes when we go to the store - I think they mean a normal sized baked potato (5 inches long that is).

Every Monday when we arrive at another week, I allow myself to obsessively read every online website about baby development and pore through the many books I have on pregnancy. I allow myself to do this only on Mondays or else I would make myself crazy the rest of the week. (I stole the picture for this post from http://www.babycenter.com/ - one of my favorites for week-by-week updates.)

While I really enjoy my Monday-obsessive-readings about the baby's development, I have discovered that I am very un-obsessive about most other aspects of the pregnancy. For instance, I am not tracking what I eat or what my caloric intake is...I'm just not that kind of girl. I am also not obsessively reading about the various conditions and illnesses that can strike during pregnancy...I don't need any extra ideas about what could go wrong, thanks though. I also do not have a birth plan...why bother? Has anything I've planned ever gone according to that plan?

In other exciting baby news, we had a midwifery appointment last week and got to hear the baby's heartbeat again - it was much louder than last time and they found it right away instead of having to search for it. That was pretty thrilling! We have our big ultrasound in 2 weeks and 1 day to find out if I can finally start writing using "him" or "her" instead of figuring out ways not to call the biscuit "it." Yippee! I am also pretty certain that I've felt the little one knocking around in there. It's nothing big or constant yet but there's definitely someone in there trying to make themself known!

Working on it...

15 wks - Monday July 23rd.

Hee hee!