Baby Perez’s Big Arrival

Baby Perez’s Big Arrival

July 8, 2014 by · 2 Comments

It has been 12 weeks and 5 days since my last run (OK, pause, this post was written almost two weeks ago so now you know! 🙂 And unpause!). Today I did this…

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It was brutal. My intention was to just see what I could do and that was about the limit. I set out with the jogging stroller to run/walk 3 miles. In my head I wanted to be easier, I ran up to 35 weeks pregnant but I still pretty much knew that it would not be good. I took off way longer than I intended and here is why…

I went into my 36 week doctor appointment and the doctor told me that I was carrying a rather large baby. At the rate that he was growing he would be over 9lbs if he did not come on time. She mentioned induction but I knew that was not what I really wanted to do. My intentions were for no medical intervention. Induction clearly was medical intervention. Every week passed this date we waited for progress towards labor. Nothing.  Well nothing really, I dilated slightly but it pretty much never moved. This baby was bound and determined to cook forever. We got to 39 weeks and really nothing. I had an induction scheduled and still pretty much didn’t believe we would have to do it. I did EVERY old wives tale in the book…. Every single one… walk, spicy food, sex, eating pineapple, drinking weird teas… you name it, I did it. NOTHING. No progress. We came to the induction date and I had pretty much accepted that this would happen. My thought was, ok, I will avoid a C-section. He won’t be huge, I will have natural labor and this will be fine! Keep in mind this is my first, I know nothing but what I have read on the internet. I had googled the crap out of everything. I wanted to find stories of women who had had an induction but still had labor without medication and other interventions. There were tons. I felt confident going in. I had read the books, taken the classes, prepared/practiced breathing and had 2 very good coaches I felt comfortable with. My mom is pretty hippy and she kept convincing me that natural labor would work and we would get through it.

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We went in for induction 5pm the day before and they started me on cervidil. I actually went into labor with just that around 2am. Contractions started and were pretty mild and were definitely manageable. 7am hit and I was having more intense contractions, and starting around now I would start to vomit during every contraction. I was nowhere near transition and was only about 3cm dilated and was very worried about this. I went for about an hour like this. Contraction, vomit, break, contraction, vomit, break. In my head I was very worried about this. I was worried about being sore, hurting the baby, being dehydrated and really it is flat out horrible throwing up during contractions…it makes them soooo much worse because I could not breathe through them like the classes had said. My blood pressure would also drop drastically during this time and they would have to give me meds to try and raise it. I felt like at this point after 7 hours that I couldn’t make it. I talked to my nurse and she said an epidural would most likely stop the vomiting. I caved after 7 hours. I felt horrible about this decision and didn’t like it but I did it. I pretty much felt like the biggest weenie in the world and like I had failed myself. I really knew at this point I wouldn’t make it with all the vomiting.  At 8:30 I took the epidural, which took about 10-15 minutes to work. Immediately after that my blood pressure started to fall drastically again. They had to put me on oxygen and give me drugs to try to raise it back up again. It really wasn’t working and my contractions on the monitor began to get very eradicate.

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Around this time the nurse came in and told me to immediately role on my right side. I did and stayed there for like 10 seconds, at least that I what it felt like. She then said go to the left. We stayed there for almost no time. It was at this point she said “Teal, I need you to get on all fours NOW” and she hit the emergency button. I panicked. I hear emergency in room 310 on the speaker and within seconds we had about 18 people in the room. They were moving me, my monitors, and kept saying they had lost the baby’s heart rate. I freaked out. I start crying like crazy and asking what is going on and they just keep looking for a heartbeat. I have no confirmation that my baby is OK and it was about this time that my doctor was literally 2 cm from my face saying “We are going to take this baby now, he is telling us how he wants to come out.” I hear them say that “Dad needs clothes,” and know immediately we are going in for a C-section.

Within 12 minutes they had my baby out. I was still panicked and still crying even after they showed me him. My baby had wrapped his cord around his body and every time I had a contraction it would tighten around him and cause his heart rate to drop or get cut off. His cord was barely attached to the placenta and that’s why we had so many problems. He was out, however, and 100% fine. Nothing that had just happened sat with me and I really was out of it. I realized hours later that I am glad I took the epidural when I did because they would have most likely had to put me to sleep for the delivery since it works faster. I am glad I was awake!

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I remember being rolled into the room and getting my baby boy and thinking that was nowhere near what I had expected but I was so happy that he was OK. I was in the hospital from Monday to Saturday and really did not feel well the majority of the time. I have never been on pain meds or given so many drugs and really felt out of it. I can’t even tell you what all I had but I knew it was more than ever, especially for someone that you have to force to take Aleve.

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Because of the C-section I was told to do nothing physical for 6 weeks, including walking for exercise or lifting anything more than the weight of the baby. The pain for the C-section was a lot for me and I struggled. I took the pain meds at home for about 3 days and pretty much weaned myself off way before the doctor said I should. They sucked! It took me about a month but I decided to go for walks. The first one I cried through and it was painful and then got better from there. At 6 weeks the doctor cleared me to work out!!! I immediately went back to my trainer Will who I knew would help me and make sure I didn’t hurt myself but still was pushed. The workout was super hard. My ab strength is essentially gone and my stamina is blah.

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I took my first run today. You see it above, 14+mins a mile. Super sweaty, super exhausting, but super amazing. I am glad to be active again and ready to get back in shape. My goal is to run the half at Dallas Marathon in December and feel good about it. We shall see!! Today is Day 1 of working on that! I have tons of time but life with an infant is crazy! Ready to see how this all plays out!

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Kacie’s Run 2014

Kacie’s Run 2014

July 3, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

Not to get all sentimental but Kacie’s Run is special to us! We have now run it 3 times and was one our first races together when we started all this running madness. Last year we got rained out, booo mother nature, but this year the weather was awesome. As you know this race is put on by Teal’s school district to honor one of their former students and to raise money for Special Olympics! What’s not awesome about that?!

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We met up Saturday morning and found some of Teal’s old co-workers. We have talked about our friend, Chris, a few times before and he actually ran his first 50 miler with Catherine at Rocky Raccoon in February. We found him dressed as a Flying Monkey from Wizard of Oz. Yep, we really don’t know why but his entire school was dressed as Wizard of Oz… at least the ones cool enough to dress up. He cracked us up because he was going to just “run” the race until another co-worker, Duncan, wouldn’t dress up because he wanted to “race”. Chris said “Now, I am racing this thing and he will get passed by a flying monkey!” It was on and it was cracking us up!

 

How cute were this year's shirts?!

How cute were this year’s shirts?!

Teal really had no idea what would happen with this race. She basically just showed up either ready to walk the entire thing or run/walk, but probably not run. She really hadn’t run in over 2 weeks and the last time she ran she made it .25 of a mile and had to walk and pee. She basically ran/walked 2 miles and wanted to die. Sorry TMI, but good lord the bladder pressure is REAL! She didn’t drink water before the race (she knows this is bad) to give herself the best  chance at not having to pee over the 3.1 miles. IT WORKED! She was actually able to run that entire dang thing without peeing and without walking! It was very interesting to run sans headphones and that pregnant! People on the course were super awesome and supportive and really made it easier to keep running.  It’s nice to still be able to move at this point and just be active!

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Beth ran this race at just over 21 weeks pregnant! Remember how Chris was going to work on beating Duncan dressed as a flying monkey, well he did and Beth… pregnant Beth, was just behind Duncan by about 8 seconds. Take that! Ha

This was Teal’s last race before Baby Perez got here! We are glad it went well and we look forward to coming back next year. You guys should totally join us!  We say this every year, so when are some of you going to take us up on that?!?!

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Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas 2014

Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas 2014

July 2, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

So at this point it’s July and it’s about dang time I put up a recap of my last half marathon in MARCH, right?! Right! Here goes – when we ran New Years Double on January 1st Teal did the half and I did the the full so we found ourselves yet again at not the same half marathon number.  Don’t you love how we try and keep that the same?? It just makes it easier to keep count!

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I had signed up for Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas as the last half I would run during this pregnancy.  The weather has been pretty good for this race minus 2012 when it was hot!  I didn’t then and still don’t now really know how pregnancy and hot weather mix, but it completely scares me! 🙂  Anyway, I thought this would be a great last half to do plus it was great motivation to keep me going with running.  And my cousin/friend, Chase, would be coming up from Houston to run this race as well!

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It was hard to have goals for this race other than finish it!  At 20 weeks pregnant and still not really noticeable that I am pregnant I just didn’t know what my body would want to do that day.  While you couldn’t totally tell I was pregnant my pace had definitely slowed down some so I knew I was not going to be busting out a new PR or anything that day.  Of course, as race day got closer I did have this idea in my head that maybe I could achieve a 2:10 half, but again this would take a lot of listening to my body.

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I got in my corral just minutes before the first corral was signaled to take off.  I was getting nervous, but was also thankful that it was kind of chilly out there instead of really, really hot!  When it was our turn Chase and I took off together although we didn’t stay together long because of a potty break. 🙂  In our family we joke about how some of us have the world’s smallest bladders and lucky for both Chase and me we inherited it!  I knew I would see some friendly faces out on the course so I just tried to start off conservatively and keep an eye out for people to say “hi” to!

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photo cred to Amy Stubblefield

My first sighting was Amy from NTX Runners who snapped the above picture of me. Since I waited until the beginning of July to write this recap (minus the few notes I put in my phone) I can’t remember now when I expected to see Teal & Catherine out there cheering, but it was juuuust shortly after this and I was soooo happy to see their smiling faces!

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My happiness of seeing them is evidenced below. 🙂IMG_2814

 

A little blurry, but I was surviving which is good to do somewhere around the 3.5 mile mark of a half marathon. 🙂  So I kept on going and the next big thing I remember from the course was that I was running through a neighborhood, saw this group of people outside of a house and thought that little kid looks familiar! Ohhhh, it’s Cason!  As in the son of J-Si from KISS FM and sure enough his wife, Kinsey, holding their daughter and their son, Cason, playing.  Though I didn’t actually see J-Si out there anywhere. Bummer! But I thought that was fun since I’m a Kidd Kraddick in the Morning fan!

Shortly after this I saw the most awesome cheering squad comprised of FRUNNERS!!  Right around mile 8 which made me oh so happy!  I mean, look at those happy faces and look at that hot dog! 🙂

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photo cred to Mama C

This left me with a goofy grin on my face and not even a mile down the road from that sighting did I hear the sounds of a police officer being an awesome cheerleader for all of the runners!  This was the first time I’d really heard an officer be THAT encouraging and vocal towards runners on a race course.  I loved it! So pretty much the goofy grinned stayed on my face that much longer thanks to him.  Before you know it I was telling myself you only have a 5K left!  And then it was you only have a mile left!  Somewhere I was able to tap into a bit of a reserve for a final kick right before the finish line.

I don't know who exactly gets the photo cred here, but Lisa texted me the picture :)

I don’t know who exactly gets the photo cred here, but Lisa texted me the picture 🙂

Oh, did you wanna know if I actually came in around 2:10 or not like I had put in my head?! Well, I made it across the finish line in 2:09:19! I was pretty darn proud of myself and felt like I ran a really conservative race considering I was in fact running for two. 🙂

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With that I was caught up to Teal with half marathon no. 21 in the books! We will see you half marathons again on the other side of our pregnancies! 🙂

 

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Running for Two: Trimester One

Running for Two: Trimester One

February 28, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

So, hey, I’m pregnant! Ok, that’s old news, but I’m in my second trimester now! Based on the way in which your due date is calculated (which was something I didn’t really know, perhaps, I am a dum dum) I was technically pregnant when Teal and I ran the DRC Half in November.  Let’s just go with that so I don’t have to have a birds and the bees plus pregnancy calculation discussion on the internet. 🙂

Turns out Teal wasn't the only preggo in this pic!

Turns out Teal wasn’t the only preggo in this pic!

At the time I got pregnant I was not far off from finishing my training cycle for Dallas Marathon which was to be my last big marathon HOORAH! before I knew I’d take a step back from such long distances while pregnant.  Since this is a new thing for me I didn’t want to pressure myself at all with running and let it play out the way it would.  I found out I was pregnant around Thanksgiving which made me immediately think – wait, what all long run distances have I covered during this short amount of time?  And it made since why there were a couple of runs where they just felt HARDER already and I would come to find out why shortly!

 

My first race where I knew I was pregnant

My first race where I knew I was pregnant

A couple of side notes about my pregnancy that have nothing to do with running. 🙂  There was one point I thought I might be pregnant, I remember telling Teal this, but when I took a test it was negative. Which was fine thought I felt already like something was just different with my body.  As it turns out I’d really just taken the pregnancy test too early.  The other thing which I just think is neat that your body just naturally start do is…Brent and I like to drink wine, but my desire for it just decreased.  We’d sit down to unwind, I’d have one glass and I was just done.  Again, I’d end up finding out I was pregnant during that time so it would all make sense later.  OK, here is my final side not for you, I actually had a dream the night before that I got a positive pregnancy test so naturally I got up the next morning and took a test which was positive!!

Anyway, back to running, in the time that I was putting in long training runs for the marathon and I was pregnant but didn’t know it I’d actually run an 18 miler and 20 miler.   Honestly, I just felt like runs got harder but I didn’t at the time know why.  After my first doctor’s appointment they had told me to make sure I could still carry a conversation while running to know I wasn’t pushing myself too hard.  OK, well, that’s easy because when Teal and I meet Catherine to run we all talk each other’s ears off. 🙂  When I’m by myself you can sometimes find me mouthing things to myself to see if I could carry a conversation if I had someone with me to talk to. Ha.

End of my last 20 miler for marathon training...a very toasty day!

End of my last 20 miler for marathon training…a very toasty day!

I tried very hard in this first trimester (and still do now) to embrace that I will slow down, to remove any pressure I am guilty of normally putting on myself and know a slower pace of running is better than no running at all.  This was a little bit harder in the first trimester just because I was keeping the pregnancy secret until I was out of the woods with the first trimester.

Other than that I’m trying to drink as much water as possible and hope Baby H doesn’t mind my continued running! I’ve been trying to get in 20 miles a week, so we’ll see how long I can keep that up!

Please note I don’t actually know the gender of my baby yet, so don’t read into the color of the header.  However, I think, this baby will be a girl. 🙂

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Running for Two: Trimester Two

Running for Two: Trimester Two

February 6, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

They say the second trimester is the “honeymoon” phase and I have to say I am really not sure what they mean by that. I was not as tired which was awesome, and I didn’t have to just sit around and rest like I was in the first trimester, but that was about it. Everything else was still the same in terms of working out and running feeling more and more like extra work.

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I had previously complained about breathing but it did not really become harder,  which was nice. I just had some moments of feeling breathless and much of that started in the last couple of weeks of the second trimester instead of the beginning. Our last White Rock 9 mile run was tough and I had spots where I had to stand more to catch my breath even at a slow pace.

My pace has dropped again. I was normally around a 9:30 mile runner on average and am now closer to 10:30-11 average, which is hard to swallow sometimes. It’s slow (slow for me, not the world of running.)  I didn’t think it would get that slow, but it has, and mixed in with that slowness is also many breaks.

Towards the middle of the second Trimester I had a pulling feeling in my lower stomach. Some I really can’t explain what they were, but it more or less felt like tightness or soreness at the bottom. I hesitate to call it round ligament pain (I only know about that because I read other people’s horror stories) and what I was experiencing was not horrible, it was just uncomfortable. It mostly would happen if I did runs closer together and would just stay tight for a couple of days. Also with that I had a few runs where I just felt the baby in weird places and stopped running. My belly button has felt bruised and sometimes when running it would feel like he was pushing there so I would stop running. I have also had a few times where I had to walk until he moved or a random pain would go away. It’s just weird to have a human in there doing its own thing while you are running. Most of the time it is fine, but sometimes it is weird and I would just stop and walk until it went away! Not sure what else to do but really my advice, if you wanted it, is just stop!  I think if this was a second baby I would feel differently but having nothing to really compare feelings to it makes me nervous so I just stay cautious, even though I am sure it is fine!

My back HURTS. The last half we ran in California, the back pain started about the 8th mile and continued for a week… haha

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I don’t brave the elements like I would have before. It’s not worth freezing or burning up for any length of time to run a half while growing a human! As a matter of fact we both wussed out of our last half, and what would have been my last half with this baby due to poor weather.

In none running related news I got my trainer back!! I went 13 weeks without my trainer due to him opening a new gym, FIT, but am glad to be back with him and have consistent monitored cross training and weight lifting! It also just mentally makes me feel better. Packing on pounds is required and happens, but it’s not fun to see on the scale and being active really helps with this mental game. I struggle with it a lot and I am sure/wonder/hope I’m not alone in thinking lots of pregnant people do too.

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I am ready for the 3rd trimester and interested to see how much I will be able to keep moving. Many say it’s the most uncomfortable time, which I totally believe; I am not comfortable now but it is important to me to keep moving and do what I can. My plan is to keep running with a goal of 15 miles a week and will most likely not run any longer than 6-9 miles at a time.  No more half marathons until after the baby gets here!

 We really would love to hear from anyone who is or has run while pregnant! It’s nice to hear the stories, different experiences and advice!  Let us know.

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Running for Two: Trimester One

Running for Two: Trimester One

November 5, 2013 by · 2 Comments

Beth and I ran our first half marathon in 7 months yesterday and this was obviously the first while simultaneously growing a human. I am currently at 15 weeks just so you have a reference of time and how long I have actually been running pregnant.

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Running has been interesting and I have been asked tons of questions about how it is going, so we figured I could update you guys on how that is going and if anyone else is in the same boat or maybe will be in the same boat it might be helpful.  Also even though I have been a runner for a while now and run tons of races, I still had/have a lot of fear about running even though the doctor has cleared me to run, even at longer distances, and that I see women do it all the time. It’s almost like a switch changes when it’s your kid in your body. I went to Google and that just scared the crap out of me, so here is what I have experienced, and have done, and so far this baby is doing perfectly well and I have had no issues *now finds every piece of wood around to knock on*

Here is how the first trimester has gone:

  • I was scared to dehydrate so I only now run with water or where I know I can get water every other mile or so. I was NOT good at this before but also never had problems. We have pretty much taken all of our runs to White Rock where there is tons of water available.
  • I have avoided the heat as much as possible and am glad the majority of this pregnancy will be in the winter. I did not run when it was too hot and actually stopped all my hot yoga as well.
  • I eat during the run way more than I did before. Typically every 3-4 miles.
  • I wear out much faster, it’s harder to breathe in even though this baby is small there is a lot more blood to move around and it really does feel like it when you are running. At first it just felt like I was out of shape, which I knew was not possible and now I know why it’s like that and am pretty prepared for that to get worse.
  • I take more breaks and I don’t beat myself up for them. I have to stop and walk or stand even for just a minute or so or I won’t make it. During my ½ this weekend I walked every single water station and took water at all of them, which I never did before at all. I also walked about .5 of a mile to eat.
  • I was never one to be blessed in the boob area and never really thought twice about that ever being an issue. I thought that “those” came later in pregnancy and quickly learned that that is not the case AT all. This change happened around 8 weeks and that long run left me in so much pain. Invest in good bras!! I have not really had a problem since, but no one really told me about that so early and I never expected the pain that comes with not being prepared for that. I could barely roll over and I called my mom convinced I might be having a heart attack! Ha.  So far I have not had to wear anything around my stomach. That might change soon!
  • Exhaustion in the first couple of months is just stupid. It’s an exhaustion I have never really experienced before, and you can’t shake at all. I had to cut myself A LOT of slack when it came to running. I couldn’t stay awake passed like 7:30 at night, was napping all the time, and didn’t want to do ANYTHING.  My husband jokes that I haven’t lifted a finger… I didn’t want to move let alone but on shoes and run alone outside.  I cut running during the week for a while until that total exhaustion phase went away and now I rest when I need to.
  • I cannot do this without Beth. I wouldn’t run at all. She has been there for all my long runs and if she wasn’t I wouldn’t do it. You need a running buddy for sure, and one that won’t want to kill you when you have to do all the aforementioned things during your runs. She is training for a marathon and has stuck with me! I catch her on the last half of her run so hopefully she is worn out a little and it seems to be working!  I also do not run alone anymore unless it is like 3 or less miles in the daylight by my house.
  • My motivation level has changed more toward just being careful then getting a PR or running fast. I have not and will not push my stride speed at all passed what I have done this entire pregnancy. I have lowered my pace somewhere between thirty seconds to a minute and a half a mile, and am fully prepared to either not start a race based on how I feel or DNF if I need to.

I am running still because I love it and my pregnancy is healthy. I have been cleared from my doctor to run all the way up until I give birth. I am a super worry wart so this might seem like madness to some of you but I do have fear, so I am super careful and have more or less decided I will do this as long as it feels good. I want to stay healthy and in shape to prepare for delivery and carrying a baby all the way through. Running can help this and working out does as well.

I’ll keep you posted about how the second trimester goes with running. We do have Dallas Scheduled for December 8th and that race will hit at start of week 20, and also a race about 6 weeks after that.  Happy Running!

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