Pregnancy Update - Home Stretch!

I  keep meaning to post an update on how my pregnancy is going and keep wondering if the baby will arrive before I ever have a chance to do it. I'm now 39 weeks pregnant and still no baby, so here's an update of what has been going on since I passed 24 weeks.

 

I've been traveling a lot for both work and personal trips and in my second and third trimester I've been to Tahoe, San Francisco, Scottsdale, San Francisco, Vegas, DC, Maryland, Montreal, San Francisco, and Napa. I'm happy to say that during my no-travel-time-allowed period after 36 weeks I missed another trip to Vegas for work for a tradeshow and during my maternity leave will miss tradeshows in Dallas and Chicago. Although my elite frequent flyer status is in borderline jeopardy for the year because of this, I don't care. As soon as I return to work I'll have a trip to Boston and New Orleans before being done for the year. Yay!

 

 

March

In March my company had a sales meeting in Tahoe followed by a tradeshow in San Francisco. The sales meeting of course included two free afternoons to ski, and I was heartbroken to miss out on the festivities since skiing is off the list of safe sports for pregnant women. As someone who LOVES to ski and who hasn't gone skiing in about five years I was pretty bummed out, but filled the afternoons with reading, working, and a trip to the spa. Oh well, there's always next time. The show that followed in San Francisco was a nice free trip home and allowed me to see some friends and my dad, and I wish I had more occasions for work to get back to the city.

 

 

Beautiful View of SF From My Hotel

 

 

April

In April I was in Scottsdale and Vegas for tradeshows, went home to San Francisco for the weekend for a high tea baby shower hosted by my BFF Garley. The baby and I also participated in our third 5K together at the March of Dimes walk in San Diego.

 

 

Found My Cabbage Patch Kid in My Dad's Basement

Found My Very First Stuffed Animal Too! Wooly Lamb

High Tea Baby Shower at the Rotunda

May

May was a crazy busy month and marked the end of me flying for several months. David and I flew to DC to participate in Head to the Hill for a second year in a row and to advocate on Capital Hill for brain cancer funding and research with the National Brain Tumor Society.

 

 

Representing California & Arkansas

California Representative Selfie

Head to the Hill Advocates for Brain Cancer

 

 

While we were there we got to visit his family and go to a Nationals game. And ... lucky for David the game we went to had a bobblehead giveaway so our collection is growing. Growing a bit too much if you ask me ... ;o)

 

 

Go Walgreens! Err... Nationals!

 

 

This month also marked my third time as an adult going to see NKOTB (New Kids on the Block) in a concert that was opened by Nelly and TLC. (In case you're wondering the L in TLC "performed" via a backup track while T-Boz and Chili sang.) The concert was fun but was SO loud I am pretty sure that the baby and I have permanent hearing damage. Is that a sign of being old? Wondering why the music is so loud?

 

 NKOTB Time

 

 

David and I also headed back to the East Coast later in the month for his brother Ken's wedding. Straight from the wedding David flew home and I flew to Montreal for one of my last tradeshows before maternity leave.

 

Baby's First Wedding

 

 

In May the baby got to participate in his/her fourth 5K at the National Brain Tumor Foundation San Diego Brain Tumor walk. Go Team Unicorn!

 

 

Always Be A Unicorn

 

 

The month also ended with a baby shower hosted by Tara and Devika where the baby was showered with a lot of love and built up his/her collection of custom onsies.

 

 

 Custom Onesies For The Baby

 

 

June

June is the best month of the year since it's my birthday month! The month started off with a roadtrip from San Diego to Napa via LA and San Francisco for Jenny's wedding. Kris flew out to LA from Michigan and I picked him up from LA and we headed north via the coast stopping in Santa Barbara before getting to San Francisco where I got to have an early birthday-twin dinner with my dad.

 

Celebrating Another Birthday Together 

 

 

Celebrating With The Beautiful Bride

Having Fun With Kris

Go Gauchos! UCSB Alums

 

 

David's work also threw us a lamb themed baby shower complete with lamb decorations and a lamb rice crispy cake! In case you didn't know I can't stand cake but love rice crispies. And lambs. The only thing that could have made this cuter was having Hello Kitty riding the lamb. ;o) jk

 

 

Cutest Crispie Cake Ever!

 

 

Soon after getting back from Napa it was time to head off to my next tradeshow in ... where else? VEGAS! Always Vegas, ugh. Since I was too far along in the pregnancy to fly David took a few days off work and drove out with me. I was hoping to drag him to the Mariah Carey show or Michael Jackson One Cirque show while we were there but both were on break that weekend. What the heck?

 

The month of June ended with David proving yet again that he is the best husband in the world by accompanying me to the Hello Kitty Super Cute Fun Festival. Yes, it exists. It was actually kind of lame and totally over priced but hey, I got to meet Hello Kitty!

 

 

Hello Kitty Festival

 

 

This last trip to Vegas marked the end of any type of travel for me until October, and now that I was back home every weekend it was time to focus on preparing for the baby. David and I took a number of classes offered by UCSD on infant CPR, childbirth, breastfeeding, and infant care.

 

 

Infant CPR & First Aid

 

We also finished the nursery and bought the rest of the items we need to prepare for the arrival of our little one. We've been pretty much ready for the baby since week 37 when I hit full term, so I've been pretty antsy for the past two weeks waiting for the baby to come. I've had Braxton Hicks contractions on several occasions that got me excited but never led to anything.

 

 

World's Most Complex Tree Decal

Nursery Complete!

 

 

I've also been going in for twice weekly fetal monitoring non-stress tests and once weekly appointments with my OB so my life right now is consumed with baby related doctors appointments.

 

 

Hooked Up For Fetal Monitoring

 

Yesterday also marked my last day in the office, although if the baby doesn't come this weekend I still plan on working from home next week. As a control freak the idea of not being involved with decisions at work for three months kind of drives me crazy, but maybe when I haven't slept in a month and am surrounded by dirty baby clothes and diapers I just won't care as much. We'll see.

 

 

Still Working Out - Round and Proud

 

 

My due date is July 26th and my induction date is the very next day on the 27th so at this point we only have 9 more days max! And many less I hope. Keep your fingers crossed! We can't wait to meet our baby!

 

 

 

Catching Up

The past few months have been a blur of travel and races. What would have been probably seven separate blog posts in the past will now be one, filled mostly with pictures. Here’s an update on what I have been up to since May.

 

GOTR 5K
Twice a year Girls on the Run San Diego hosts a 5K to celebrate the end of the season for the girls. Although Tara and I are no longer coaching, I am still on the Board of Directors and we attend the 5K both to support the organization and also to exhibit at the expo for Glam Runner. The race is always fun but this year’s race was extra special because we were brought up on the stage (with a red carpet entrance!) to be thanked for our fundraising of $8000 for the organization through the whole Tutugate ordeal.

 

 

Girls on the Run San Diego 5K

 

 

Even Our Husbands Know #tutusrock

 

 

Self Magazine Visit
Speaking of Tutugate, a few weeks after the GOTR 5K our Executive Director Amy and I had a meeting with the new Editor in Chief and the Director of PR at Self Magazine. Back when the whole media storm was going on, the previous editor and I had made plans to meet up the next time I was in NY. Soon after we planned that though she was replaced by a new editor and I thought the meeting probably wouldn’t happen. I reached out to the new editor though and told her I’d be in NY for work later that month and asked if she would she still like to honor the meeting and she said yes. Great! I invited Amy to join me for the meeting and we met with her to talk about GOTR, what the organization is about and how it was started, what the impact of the program is locally and nationally, and suggested some ways that GOTR and Self could work together. Not sure what if anything will come of that, but hopefully something will.

 

 

Selfie at the Self Magazine Office

 Posing With "My" Issue

 

 

Feature in Self Magazine

 

 

 

San Diego Century Ride
Hot on the heels of my NY trip (aka I actually had to leave a day early to make the race) I was back in San Diego for the San Diego Century Ride. This would be my second time completing the metric century distance (67 miles) and I committed to this race to keep myself accountable with bike training for my big triathlon in July. My friend Shannon and my cousin Giselle joined me for the ride and we had a great time. Just like the last time I did this race, somewhere around mile 20 or 30 I thought “I should do the real century distance (100 miles) sometime!” BUT … about 20 miles later I was pretty much over it and the ride couldn’t end fast enough. Distance riding doesn’t seem as physically exhausting as marathon running, but you are on the bike for SO long. SO SO long. Ugh.

 

 

San Diego Century Metric Course

Halfway Done With The Ride

Best Part Of The Day

 

 

GOTR OC
The day after the San Diego Century I slept in – nope, no I didn’t. I was up at the crack of dawn again to drive up to Orange County with Tara to attend the inaugural GOTR OC 5K. We had been asked to come up on behalf of GOTRSD and Glam Runner and it was hard to say no. The event was great and we ended up having fun and were happy we came. So glad we were able to support our sister chapter!

 

 

With The GOTROC Leaders

 

 

Maui
The weekend following the GOTR OC 5K though I finally got some rest. David and I went to Maui for a week to celebrate my birthday and our one year anniversary (a month early). We had an extremely low key week which was exactly what I needed. Aside from going to the beach, shopping, eating, and relaxing, the only big adventure we went on was ziplining. No road to Hana, no sunrise at Haleakala. Those are fun but are pretty tiring since they involve so many hours in the car, and we’ll save doing those things again for a future trip.

 

 

View From Our Condo

One Of Many Gorgeous Beaches

Dinner at Mama's Fish House For My Birthday

 

Vegas
What would my life be if it wasn’t going from one trip directly to another? A couple days after getting back from Maui I was headed to Vegas to work a tradeshow. Why yes, this would be my fourth time in Vegas this year. That's about three times too many!

 

 

Appetizer At Michael Minna - Seriously?

 

 

San Diego International Triathlon (SDIT)
The weekend after I came back from Vegas I had my second triathlon of the year. I had competed in SDIT three years ago and liked the course and thought it would be a nice intermediate length race between the Spring Sprint in May and Barb’s Race in July. Fortunately, in this race I didn’t freak out in the swim as much as I did in the Spring Sprint, and I made it back to the shore without a near panic attack. My dad was also visiting for the weekend and the night before the race we went to the Padres game. Pre-race carbo loading with garlic fries? Sure, why not!

 

 

San Diego International Triathlon

(1000m swim, 30K bike, 10K run)

Twinsies! We're So Cute ;o)

Getting OUT Of The Water

 

 

Selfie With My Dad At The Padres Game

 

 

Coronado 15K
The next weekend after SDIT was 4th of July weekend and Christina came to visit and we ran the Coronado 15K. This would be my 6th time running this race in the 7 years I have spent in San Diego. (I was up in the Bay Area one 4th of July and ran a race up there instead.) I love the 15K distance because it’s long enough to feel more challenging than a training run, but short enough that it doesn’t warrant any stress like a half marathon.

 

 

Showing Off Our American Pride

Padres vs Giants Game

 

 

Next Up
This coming weekend I’ll be heading up to the Bay Area for Barb’s Race – a women’s only 70.3 distance triathlon aka a half-Ironman. To say I’m nervous about the race would be an understatement.  I feel completely undertrained and have probably only put in about half as many workouts as most training plans recommend. A lot of this has to do with the fact that I’ve been out of own NINE times in the past four months and I can’t swim or bike on the road and often don’t have time for longer runs when I'm traveling. With my 12 ½ hour day thanks to my commute I also don’t have time to workout morning and night which is pretty common for triathletes. I’ve done what I can though and hope that I’m in good enough shape to get to the finish line. If you want to track me on Saturday you can do so here. Wish me luck!

 

 

My Bare Bones Training Schedule
That I only completed about 75% of

Green = out of town!

 

 

 

 

 

2013 Year in Pictures

Happy New Year! I'm a bit late for the calendar New Year but I'm just in time for Lunar New Year. Whoo hoo for the Year of the Horse!

 

2013 was a big year full of a lot of races, a bit of travel, a lot of doctor's appointments ... and best of all a wedding! The wedding and surrounding trip to Maui was the highlight of my year, and I'm excited to be starting 2014 as Mrs. Allen.

 

 

2013 Races

In 2013 I ran five 5Ks, one 4 mile run, one 10K, two 15Ks, 3 half marathons, 2 full marathons, and was the runner in one triathlon relay.

January - Resolution Run 15K
(first race during chemo)

 

 

 

 February - Cardiff Kook Run 5K

 February - Mermaid Half Marathon
(first long race during chemo)

 (Cardiff Kook & Mermaid Half Recap)

March - LA Marathon 

(Marathon #19, first during chemo)

 (LA Marathon Recap)

June - San Francisco Half Marathon

 (San Francisco Half Marathon Recap)

 

June - Los Angeles Brain Tumor 5K

July - Coronado 15K

 

August - End of Summer Fire Run 4 Miler

(first race with Devika!)

October - San Diego Brain Tumor 5K

(Team Mokie representing!) 

(Brain Tumor 5K Recap) 

 

 

October - Long Beach Marathon

(20th marathon, 2nd during chemo)

October - Long Beach Marathon with Barb

(Long Beach Marathon Recap)

 October - Esprit de She Triathlon Relay

(participated as the runner)

(Esprit de She Recap) 

November - Silver Strand Half Marathon

(Team Minion for the win!)

(Silver Strand Half Marathon Recap)  

November - Hagerstown Turkey Trot 5K

December - Jingle Bell 5K

 

 

 December - Hot Buttered Run 10K

We made the news!

I also participated in one non-endurance event called Over the Edge which involved rappelling 365 feet down the side of a building while raising money for brain cancer research.

 

 

Over the Edge for Brain Cancer Research 

(Over the Edge Event Recap) 

2013 Giving

Speaking of fundraising, in addition to the $1225 that I raised for Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure for the Over the Edge event, Tara and I also raised $2310 for brain cancer research for the Kesari Lab, and also returned for the fifth season as a $500 Mile Marker Sponsor for the Girls on the Run San Diego 5K via our tutu business Glam Runner.

Selling Tutus at the GOTR 5K 

2013 Travel
This past year I traveled a lot less than usual, and visited:

• San Francisco, CA (2 times)
• West Allis, WI (1 time)
• Las Vegas, NV (1 time)
• Nashville, TN (1 time)
• Maui, HI (1 time)
• Shepherdstown, WV (3 times)
• New York, NY (1 time)

 

 

Easter in San Francisco 

 

 

 Carlson Reunion in Wisconsin

(Two Weeks in Wisconsin recap) 

Stupid Cancer Conference in Vegas

(OMG Cancer Summit Recap)  

Getting Married in Maui

Marrying the Love of My Life

 (Wedding Recap)

 

Wedding Celebration Part 2 in West Virginia

 (Wedding Celebration Part 2 Recap)

2013 Cancer Fun

I spent the majority of this year going through treatment for my wonderful brain cancer, and had bi-monthly blood tests, monthly (and then some) doctor's appointments, and quarterly MRIs. Over the course of the year my tumor managed to slightly shrink (~5%) and as my body adjusted to each cycle of chemo I got more used to things and felt better each month.

Blood Tests, Blood Tests, Blood Tests

Pills, Pills, and More Pills

 

 

 

December Celebration Dinner

(David's Birthday & My Last Night of Chemo)

 

 

 

Christmas Cookies for My Oncologist

 

 

 

2013 Hair Watch

Most important of all this year ... my hair started to grow back! Half of it was shaved for my Oct 2012 brain surgery and then another ring of it fell out the following month when I went through 6 weeks of radiation. The shaved part started to grow back right away but the part that fell victim to radiation didn't start growing until a few months later. Over the course of the year I had hair extensions to make up for most of what was missing and in November after 11 months of extensions I finally took them out, chopped my hair off (several inches longer than the length of shaved hair growing out underneath), and dyed it back to my natural color. As much as I loved maintaining my full, long hair, I just couldn't deal with the extensions anymore. Neither could my wallet. My shorter hair continues to grow out underneath and I'm hoping that by the end of this year everything will be even again.

 

 

My Hair Sloooooowly Growing Back

Radiation Hair Grew Back in Curly!

Hair Extensions Out, Cut, & Color

2013 Crafting

I dabbled in crafts this year and went to a Paint Nite event with Tara and also relearned how to knit over the holidays with David's mom. My grandmother would be so proud! I obsessively worked on a knit infinity scarf over Christmas and am now the proud owner of a beautiful merino wool creation of my own!

Paint Nite with Tara

Future Picassos

 

 

My First Big Knitting Project

 

2014 Outlook

This coming year will be full of more races, more travel, but fortunately less doctors appointments. I've finished chemo for now and I've started the quarterly MRI "wait and watch" protocol. It is such a relief to be done with chemo, but absolutely TERRIFYING to be going through no treatment at all. At least while I was on the chemo I knew that something was working for me in my corner. Now I have nothing ... but healthy eating, healthy living, exercise, and a good attitude. Which together, really isn't nothing, it is everything I have.

 

I'm looking forward to a great 2014, and hope you have one too!