Round Two

We debated trying to have two kids, or being content—and settling into a routine that had gotten easier with full-nights of sleep, transitioning out of diapers, cruising around with a little dude—with one. Mark had wanted another kid since about the time we got home from the hospital with Sam (to which I said, "Don't even talk to me about that.") But, last fall, he seemed to change his tune, thinking one would be fine.

I had been on the mindset of not wanting to go through pregnancy again, and, wondering how on earth we'd manage two as active parents who like to travel. And I was getting back into racing, feeling pretty good.

But something in me changed. For one, I hurt my foot with an odd, acute case of plantar fasciitis-like pain from racing a sprint triathlon last September. Secondly, someone I know emailed me a picture of her sons—one Sam's age, and a baby brother a few months old—holding hands in the back seat of their car. It made me cry.

Not long after, we were pregnant (see pic of an early ultrasound).

I'm happy to say that we still are. I turned six months, or, 24 weeks, this past Thursday. It did take me a few weeks...months, maybe, to wrap my head around the fact that we'd be having two. And it'll still take me every moment—even once this baby is born—to truly get used to the newer, crazier life. But, we feel happy, and lucky, and know we're in for a new level of insanity and a new level of family love.

Aside from the first four months serving up daily afternoon dizziness, nausea and extreme fatigue, I've been feeling pretty good this time around. A couple of months ago, about when the afternoon-sickness was ending, I got really achy from a mellow 40-minute run in the snow. It seemed like the same lower abdomen and abductor muscles and surrounding ligaments giving me pains that I had at six or seven months...at least five months, and I was only at four months. That was a bummer.

I've since been mostly running slowly uphill, and hiking down...shuffling down or on flats when I feel like it. I do this once or twice a week, and that's been okay for me, as a runner. Other days, I'm swimming and loving that (though, wondering how long I'll do flip-turns), sometimes aqua jogging, riding a bike at the gym and lifting weights, and sometimes pulling Sam in the Chariot for a 45-minute ride around town. I'm also doing a prenatal pilates class, which seems to be helping me feel better. Occasionally, I do a prenatal yoga class, or do some moves on my own. I was skate skiing once a week, but it's been probably a month since I've been up to the Nordic center to do that (it felt great, though, when I did).

So that's the news. The fact that it took me so long to post it here is testament to how busy life has been...with just one child! I'll try to post more through the rest of pregnancy, and to report on how nutty it is with two!

(Sam turns three in May; Baby #2 is due on July 14.)