Oh Baby!

Well, that's cat's out of the bag... we're having a baby! I know it's been a hot minute (2+ months) since I last blogged, but I'd like to at least semi-regularly write about this pregnancy. So I can look back and see how crazy I was from all the hormones running through my body. Ha. 

I credit my friend Lindsey with our pregnancy announcement.
She is much more creative than I am. At least I baked the cupcakes??

I'll start with just a few details of the last 3 months.

How we found out: A pregnancy test. Duh. I had been tracking my cycles for awhile, and was a couple days late. Not wanting to get my hopes up, I forced myself to wait until I was at least 2 days late before taking a test. And there was a super faint line! My Business Man told me not to get too excited but the next day, there was a much darker line. After confirming with a blood test by the doctor, it was official! And we were officially excited.

I had my first appointment at 8 weeks, where we got to have an ultrasound and listen to Poppyseed's heartbeat. I have since had another appointment at 12 weeks, where basically I walked in, got weighed, and listened to the heartbeat. I will never get sick of hearing that!

Baby's nickname: Poppyseed. I downloaded the BabyCenter app for my phone, and in week 4, it said the baby was the size of a poppyseed and it stuck. (Though now it is the size of a lime.)

How we told our family: We had invited ALL the family (my parents, my Business Man's parents and brothers and sisters) out to the Bean Town for Easter. We decided to keep it a secret until then and tell them all at once. I was 10 weeks at Easter. Let me say, it was so hard to keep it a secret from my mom! 6 weeks of dodging questions and lying... not my usual relationship with my mom, lol. I will admit, we talked on the phone much less in those 6 weeks than usual. (Easier that way.)

The bottom right M&M is definitely a pair of balloons... not a pair of ovaries, like my mom thought.

When everybody got here for Easter weekend, we told them we were going to play a game. We had ordered some custom-themed M&M's, and put them in some plastic Easter eggs. We passed them out and told everybody to open them. It took a few minutes, but it finally clicked! Of course, everyone was excited. (Except maybe Ben's little sister Emma, once we gave her the nickname 'Auntie Em.' Ha.)

How I've been feeling: Pretty good! I had a bit of morning sickness (just nausea, no throwing up) during weeks 6-9, but that's mostly subsided. I was a little worried, considering the fact that I bake cupcakes for a living. There were definitely a few days when the smell of chocolate made me want to hurl, which proved to be a challenge, but it was really not that bad.

Sleep is hit or miss. Some nights I sleep really well, and others I'm up several times. Sometimes I'll be up for 2-3 hours, then realize I'm hungry, eat a bowl of cereal, and fall right back asleep. I also keep having this freaky teeth dream, where all my teeth break off and fall out, and it hurts so bad! Ben tries to tell me that it is impossible to feel pain in a dream, but I swear, I feel it. 

What I've been craving: Meat. Lots of it - burgers, ham, bacon, steak. I had the best filet on Lanai in Hawaii. Also, salty things like potato chips, Cheetos, french fries, etc. I think that's pretty typical. I usually have a HUGE sweet tooth, and for almost a month, sweets (especially ice cream) did not sound good at all. It was so strange to me. Luckily, my sweets cravings have returned. :) I've also been loving bread and butter, and blueberry muffins and butter. I swear, while we were in Hawaii, I ate so many blueberry muffins I could have turned into one.

Easter spread. Omg, my mom's baked beans. I could eat those everyday.

Breakfast sweets in Hawaii.

Fortunately, I've still been eating a good amount of vegetables and fruits, too. Gotta keep Poppyseed well-nourished!

Running: Still running and loving it! Prior to getting pregnant, I had cut back my mileage to about 40 miles/week. (A year ago, while training for Boston, I was running 50-60 miles/week.) I decided once I got pregnant, to take it one week at a time and see how I felt. 

Well, I've been able to get in about 35-40 miles/week up to this point (13 weeks). I'm feeling pretty good. Every run is an easy run, no speed work for me. From about weeks 5-10, I definitely had slowed down quite a bit, I think due to the crazy hormones raging through my body. Luckily, my running buds didn't seem to mind. I really felt like a preggo runner in Hawaii, where there were hills everywhere! I even had to stop and walk and catch my breath a few times.

Just a glimpse of the hills in Hawaii. One after another after another!
The view definitely made up for it though. ;)

However, since returning from Hawaii, I've felt like a new woman! I think my hormones have finally balanced out a bit. I've even had a couple runs just under an 8:00-pace! (Crazy to think that I'm excited about an 8:00 mile when my half-marathon PR pace was like 6:39. Ha.) I've been trying to hit an 8-10 miler on the weekend; the longest I've gone is about 11. Let's just hope we don't get any crazy summer humidity anytime soon so I can keep it up.

Well, I think that's it for now! I'm hoping to do a weekly update, but that's probably pretty unrealistic. Excited to share the journey!