Baby on the Run

Baby Newman is growing by the day!  I am loving feeling his little kicks and finally looking like I have a baby growing, not just an unusually fast weight gain.  

Last month, my running bestie and I had a chance to participate in the Retro Run 5K in Greensboro, NC.  It was a lot of fun, and a totally different kind of challenge since I was about 22 weeks pregnant at the time of the race.  Running while pregnant is hard.  Not only physically, but also mentally.  I have struggled to drink enough water throughout the pregnancy, and between that and the added weight that comes along with being pregnant, it has been very difficult to continue to run.  Regardless, I am going to keep trucking along-with plenty of walk breaks!  My distance goals have certainly changed.  At the VERY beginning of pregnancy, I was still able to run 5 miles without too much of a challenge.  Now, I struggle for 2 miles, and have to walk if I plan on running 3.

Pictures from the Race:

We went with tie dye to stick with the "retro" theme.  I was very proud of myself for finishing this race, and never imagined a 5K could challenge me so much.  This whole process has definitely given me a new perspective on the challenge that non-runners face when they are starting to run for the first time. My goal is to run one more 5K in October-fingers crossed!

Welcoming Baby BOY Newman

Drumroll please.....

This week at our 17 week appointment, Mike and I found out that we are having a baby boy!  We could not be more excited to welcome Michael Ander to the world.  The doctors appointment went well-we have an amazing team at the women's clinic.  We could see all of Little Mike's anatomy during the ultrasound, and are so thankful that everything looks healthy and normal:-)

Here's the highlight reel:

This is a side profile-Mikey's head is on the right.  We think he looks like Big Mike.

Hi world!!

The day after our doctor's appointment, my best friend and mom threw a gender reveal party.  Mike and I already knew, but we wanted to do something special to let our families know.  With Mike's parents living in Florida, we had to FaceTime them and his sister-they were elated.  We left boxes with yellow and green bows on them, that had little boy and little girl slippers in them.  

For my family, we bought a gender reveal cake, and had a small get together. Here are some of our favorites from the party:

This was the gender reveal cake-it read, "Twinkle, twinkle little star; How we wonder what you are?"

This was the spread that my parents and friend put together.  It looked amazing!

Cutting the cake...

It's a boy!!!

Followed up with some staged photos:-)

This is my favorite:-)

I'm going to count this as my 17 week bump photo.

Now that we know the gender, we are totally ready to plan the nursery.  Let's do this!

Surprise!

Well bloggers, it's been a year!  In the past year, I have graduated with my MSA, completed a year long administrative internship, run a half marathon, and......found out I am having a baby!  Yay!  My husband and I are ecstatic to welcome Baby Newman to the world in December:-)

ECU Principal Fellows Class 20

Heart and Sole Half Marathon 2-7-2015

Zoey and Jax are excited too!

A few highlights of the changing bump:

5 weeks pregnant

13 weeks pregnant

Crazy Eats

Little Newman has grown so much already! I have definitely been through some body changes.  I started with crazy food aversions.  I could not eat any meat or have any coffee.  Just the idea of anything that was not a crunchy or cheesy carb was repulsive to me.  I am still not totally over the aversions, but it has gotten better.  I am typically a very healthy eater! so it has been really hard to not want healthy food.  Late in the first trimester, I started having cravings-mainly for slushies and pimento cheese?!?!?!  Healthy, right?  I also had slight naseau (which I understand could have been so much worse), and serious fatigue.  Today marks my move to the second trimester, so I am hoping that the fatigue will fade, and I'll be able to enjoy some healthy food again!

Workouts

Since I found out I was pregnant, working out has been challenging.  For a majority of weeks 6-10 I did little more than go for walks.  I have always been a runner, but it is a struggle now to run even 2 miles, but I am still trying.  The biggest challenge has been a constant need to pee:-). It results in frequent walk breaks.  I really had no idea that pregnancy would affect my exercise the way that it has.  Here's to hoping the second trimester will be a little easier!

Highlights

My favorite pregnancy moments so far have been telling our family and friends, hearing the heartbeat, and seeing our baby moving during ultrasounds.  It is crazy how active our little one is in there!

Spreading the News

I told Mike (the hubs) using the cinnamon roll pictured above.  We were ecstatic, and so thankful for a "quick" pregnancy.  The blessing of becoming pregnant is not lost on me.  We told my parents using the scrabble board pictured above, since we spend a lot of time playing scrabble with my parents.  We made coffee mugs for mikes parents, and served his mom coffee in the mug when she came to visit-and forgot to take pictures.  Typical.

Until next time...