Do what...?

I find it interesting that an impending due date makes everyone think that they need to tell you the "tricks" of going into labor. This started for me as soon as I was 37 weeks!! Seriously! 37 weeks!! that is barely inside a month away from my due date. Yes, I know that I am full-term at that point and definately ready to be done but seriously, if she was going to come then I think it would happen and nothing was really going to be the magic trick.
What is with all these tricks anyway? It is almost as if everyone thinks that because they happened to do such-and-such right before they went into labor, that makes it the secret to inducing labor. I'm pretty sure that you were really just ready to go into labor and it would have happened wether you drank your raspberry tea or not.
There are so many of them too! Here are just a few...
You have the usual... glass of wine, bounce on a ball, jump up and down(that sounds like something I want to do right now) drink raspberry leaf tea, and of course sex will make it happen. But I have also gotten some that I hadn't heard. Message the magic pressure point inside your ankle about 4 fingers up from the ankle bone, don't drink to much and get a little dehydrated (interesting concept), push pressure on the roof of your mouth while sucking your thumb, eat pizza, etc. I am sure there are more that I can't think of right now. But all of these I have heard at least once in the last 3 weeks. Pretty sure they are all a bunch of wives tales, I have now tried many of them over the last two nights and nothing...just as I expected.
I find it interesting though that people have such a need to tell you the secrets of going into labor or to tell you how it is going to be labor, motherhood and all. Really?!?
Anyway, I will get off of my ranting now! I am ready to have this little girl! Only four days! I wouldn't mind at all if she came today but I really don't want to spend Christmas in the hospital so if not today she has to wait until after and based on my level of comfort today sounds fantastic!!

Here is the latest pic! Taken 38 almost 39 weeks in all my hugeness of pregnancy!

Christmas time

I am loving the fact that I have a little time this week to relax and get the house decorated. I was fighting off getting sick last week and am still a little bit. So it has been good to take it easy. I need to get better and get some energy back before this baby can come.
Yesterday we decorated the house for Christmas. I love doing that it always feels so cozy. Maybe I will curl up and watch a Christmas movie and nip this cold. Drew is on shift so I am all by myself.
Also, I pretty much got the nursery cleaned up and Ashlyn's bed made so I am ready to go. Oh...except for that whole packing for the hospital thing. I have that half done. Not really sure what to do. I probably should finish that since I really don't have much time left. Any tips from those who have done this?

I got tagged!

I got tagged by the Poores

Here are the rules:
1. choose the 4th picture folder on your computer.
2. choose the 4th picture.
3. explain the picture.
4. tag 4 people to do the same.
















This is a picture of my niece, Alyssa on Christmas morning in 2004. She is holding the doll that we gave her. IT is a barbie type from India.

I tag:
Amy Porter
Susan Sullivan
Valerie Bauman
Jill McFarlane

Latest and greatest!

Wow! Only like 40 days left!! I think I just hit that point where I am now ready to quit being big and have a baby. I am suddenly feeling rather large lately. While time has flown I am ready for these last 6 weeks to go really fast.
Here is my latest preggo pic.



34 Weeks of belly!

That was fun....

Thursday I went to Denver to pick up Drew from the airport after his trip to Bhutan. He had a really good trip they didn't end up meeting the king because he got called away by the head religious person (Je Kenpo) for some stuff before his coronation in the 6th. However, the queen of the fourth King had read the proposal and was very excited about our ideas. She set up a meeting for them with her staff for the Taryana foundation. They had a very good meeting and they all seemed very positive. Now it is a wait and see kind of thing.

So, that wasn't the fun part though. I had a Dr appointment and my blood pressure has been going up since the beginning of my pregnancy. Nothing else has really benn happening but the midwife seems to be a little concerned about Pre-Ecclampsia or pregnancy induced hypertension. My blood pressure is still not at the point where they say you need to be tested for it but because it has risen enough from my starting point they wanted to test me more. So, guess what that means! I got to do a 24 hour urine test and give more blood! Yes, that is right I got to keep all of my pee for a 24 hour period. Fortunatly we were already planning to spend the night in Denver but we weren't planning on staying until 2pm. Well, this is one thing to save your pee when you are in the comfort of your own home with your bathroom and such it is entirely another when you are staying at some friends house and running around Denver. I put an old Nalgene to good use :) Now we will wait and see if they find anything.
Well, I decided I needed to find out a little more about Pre-ecclampsia if this was a possilbe issue. Pretty much all the information says that there really isn't any prevention for this and there really isn't any treatment besides getting the baby out. Wikipedia says that pre-ecclampsia (toxemia) can be an immune response to some of the father's genes and some studies have shown that continued and frequent exposure to the baby's father's semen has been shown to reduce the risk. Interesting...

What does that say!

Holy Crap does that ticker say 68 days! I can't believe it is sneaking up on me. The snow the last two days made it even more real that "it's snowing...we're going to have a baby soon!"
Well, this weekend we went to Colorado Springs and I had my first baby shower. It was alot of fun to get to see all of our friends and catch up. That is definatley the more pleasant part of being pregnant. I got to marvel that last couple days at how much weight I could gain in 4 days. It is amazing I will be slowly gaining or holding steady and then BAM I gain 4 pounds in about 4 days! The doctor will love that one tomorrow. Its so much fun...
In all actuality though I am still feeling pretty good. Of course I am getting bigger and it is getting harder and harder to move things around. My baby girl is getting stronger and stronger in my belly which cause for some uncomfortable kicks at times.

The Name...
Speaking of which I think that we did decide on a name!! I believe that we are going to go with Ashlyn Brooke. However, as my friend Jamie says I do reserve the right to change my mind at any time.

I am going to do it even thought this is getting scarier and scarier to post these pictures. I know there are some who want to see these things. :) So here it is....



30 Weeks!! Only 10 to go.

26 Weeks!

Yep I am now 26 weeks and almost into my third tri. I guess I have to keep putting up the pictures now. I actually think I am looking pretty big now.

Also, being the indecisive person I am I thought I would get a little input on the name! So I am putting up a poll! Please place your vote in the upper right corner!!

So long sweet summer....

I can't believe it is already well into September. You can certainly tell up here. IT was like September hit and it got cool right away. You can tell that fall is in the air.
So Pikes peak came and went this year. I had a friend that did this year. we were supposed to train together. I was sad that I couldnt' do it this year. but the fact that that was the weekend it snowed helped lighten the dissappointment a little bit. There is always next year! It is just crazy to think how much pregnancy changes you. Right now I am actually okay with the cooler weather coming because I want to put on sweats and big comfy sweatshirts.:)

I am so excited that the football season is finally here. It has been hard though having a whole new team! The first game last night went well. I am wary of making any judgements on how well they will do just based on the fact that the Raiders were terrible.

Well, here it is my 24 week belly picture with a little Bronco spirit.




















...and this was a year ago........

Really?

We had our Ultrasound on Monday and we are having a Girl!! Yep thats right she is a girl and I was wrong. Now I am having to change my thinking a little for a girl. I just thought it would be a boy so I had boy names that I liked but no girl names and now I can't even think of any. I'll get there though. Of course we are excited and I am happy to know. She gave us a very good view too! There wasn't really any doubt. Good baby! I was so nervous that she might not cooperate and we wouldn't find out. I finally feel like I can start planning somewhat. I already have a whole box of clothes too. There are all 6-12 months but my sister held on to them for me when she found out I was pregnant. I think she was pretty happy to get those out of her house.
Since we found out I have spent alot of time looking at girl names and Nursery bedding. I hadn't really done any of that yet, now I sense some urgency or something because I only have 19 weeks and I think it might be gone before I realize especially since part of that is November and Decamber which always seem to fly by.

Here it is!


That's me 21 weeks and our baby Girl!

Welcome to Winter Park

Yep, you gotta love Colorado. This is the view from our front porch and yes that is snow! It was hailing this morning as we headed to work which means, with the long cold winter, we didn't even make it two full months without snow this summer. Yes, I guess there are those down sides to living in the mountains.

In Other(pregnancy news) I am over halfway! That is crazy to me. We have an ultrasound scheduled for Monday and that is when we will hopefully find out what we are having! Then we can serious about this business. I am so excited, just praying that everyone cooperates. I will keep posted wit hthe exciting news.

I'll be brave

Okay so I guess I can put up some pics of my baby bump. It has just started and for the past weeks it hasn't begun to look like a pregnant belly yet but like I was just chubby. That is so much fun



So there it is my begining baby bump at 16 weeks.

WHAT! Him!!!

Apparently I can't watch the bachelorette while I am pregnant. Okay, first a little bacground. This is a show that I don't usually watch anyway because I hate the concept of everybody getting mad and all butt hurt about opening up and about hte bachelor being with other people. Hello, idiot, you knew that was what the show was about in the first place when you went on! The problem is sometimes if I do watch I get hooked by the absurdity.
Anyway, I have watched ONE episode this season but then I was bored and ended up watching the last two weeks. Well, I ended up bawling during the end of the show when she had to let the guy go. I guess I was kind of shocked.
I just thought this funny and absurd that I can cry at a show that I don't really like and I haven't even watched much of....
ah pregnancy...

Mt Hood

Well I made it! I survived 10 days of summer ski camp. I find that summer camp is exhauting normally but being pregnant made it really exhausting. Getting up at 5am and skiing from 7 to 12 then having dryland in the afternoon makes for a full day. If I didn't use my hour between lunch and dryland to sleep I never would have made it. That hour was my sanity. Aside from a few days that I got tired and crabby (sorry girls) I think I did alright for most of the trip. It came down to the last four days when I had afew emotional breakdowns. These swings from just being tired to walking through town bawling were all brought on by minor things from other coaches. :) It is good to be home. We did have our share of exccitement too. One of the girls got stung by a bee and had a mild allergic reaction making her hand swell like a balloon. Then on the way home we had one pass out in Subway because she doesn't eat and they called the ambulance. She was okay. I definately don't get paid enough! All in all it was a good trip I don't want it to sound all negative.
Its good to be home now.


So today is my birthday! I can't believe I am 27. I feel old. :) I am now the same age my dad was when he moved here to Winter Park. He never left. SO, I am now 27, been married 5 1/2 years and I am 14 weeks pregnant. I think next year will be very different.

Silly reasons to cry.

So I fugured it might be fun now to blog about all the great things of pregnancy. I have a good story. Of course the hormones are going crazy these days and I find I may have a huge mood swing over nothing in particular.
Well this, so far, is the winner for the silliest reason I have cried.
We were in Denver not too long ago for my first prenatal appointment. That was lots of fun I got asked all sorts of crazy questions examined and then they took all my blood (five vials!) As we were driving home we were both hungry and needed to stop and eat before we left Denver. Drew asked me where I wanted to eat, as usual, and I said I wanted Arby's with curly fries. If you know me at all you know that I am normally not opinionated at all about where we eat and I will go anywhere because I am not a picky eater and am very easy to please. Drew seemed slightly surprised, that didn't sound like the most healthly choice and we discussed for a moment if that was really what I wanted. YES. So, we are driving west through denver with no Idea where an Arby's is on our route. We drove up and back on some roads that looked promising to no avail. At this point Drew said that he knew where a Goodtimes was and that he really enjoyed that and I would too because they have good seasoned fries as well. If we did not find an Arby's by the time we got there we were going to Goodtimes. As we neared the exit I searched frantically for an Arby's but didn't see the beautiful sign. As we pulled into the parking lot I felt devastated and the tears welled up. Drew looked at me astonished not really knowing what to do. I think at first he thought I was kind of kidding but then he saw the tears. "Are you seriously going to cry?" Well, I did but also laughed a little at how absurd the whole thing was. I cried over Arby's.

Yes, its true

If you don't know already... you did see correctly my new ticker at the top.
I am pregnant! We are due on December 26th. I can't beleive all the changes already in my little baby.

Hot in AZ, Cold in CO

"Good morning here are a couple inches of snow for you on this first day of May, just in case you hadn't had enough of it all winter" Welcome to spirng in Colorado. by the way... did I miss April???

April

-Drew came back from the Grand Canyon refreshed and ready to go back
-I finished up the ski season strong with the athletes
-I did race the Spring Splash again and win $350 but I was a little disgruntled about the fact that the male winner won $800! What is up with that!!
-The ski area closed with a base of over 100 inches! so we decided to get out of town.
-I got a new bike so that I can race fast this summer and beat everyone!
-We went to fruita and spent a couple days biking and then we had to take it easy so I could rest up for my upcoming race. so we went down to Zion and did a hike there and then headed through Sedona AZ and then went down to North of Mesa so I could run my spring kick-off Xterra triathlon.
That went pretty well I knew I wasn't race ready yet and I would get worked some. Well, It was stinking hot on race day!!! I thought I was going to die but I pushed through and made it. I ended up taking 3rd in the age-group and 15th overall. kind of middle of the roadish.

Now it is May and it decided to greet us with snow! Currently unemployed for the off-season and I need to find a summer job... ugh
Lots to catch up!

Spring!

Yay! It has actually gotten warm out this week. It has been crazy this winter it just keeps snowing and then it is still cold when I go to work and I wonder what month it is. But the last two days it has actually been really warm! It is so exciting. It is at the end of the season now when I am kind of fried Junior Olympics are over and I am ready to ride my bike now. The problem is, I know the ski area is going to close and then there will be about a month where I go crazy. Skiing is done but there is still snow everywhere so I won't be able to bike and it will be muddy and gross an it will probably snow!

Anyway, things are good. I have races for the rest of the week and I am just hoping that it stays nice and doesn't rain. Right now I am bachelorettin it (like my made up words) cause Drew is down kayaking the Grand Canyon until April. I hope he is having fun. That makes it a little quiet around the house but I have been so busy I could barely notice until yesterday when I finally had a day off. It was great, I cleaned my house.

Qualified

Well, I just finished a week of hard training and racing with my athletes and I am wiped out. You would think I was the one doing it all.
This weekend we had the J3 Junior Olympic qualifiers here at Winter Park. It turned out to be a great weekend. 5 of my athletes qualified for JO's in two weeks in Vail. All of them did a great job at the races.

Now I am sick because I never rest and I am outside all day coaching so I have this cold that has been barely hanging on for a month and now it has flared again. I am trying to lie low and just get rid of it now. But, you know me and that is very difficult especially since it is getting nice out.

Well, that is all right now sorry it is nothiing too exciting.

February?

Can't believe it is already February! Sorry to my few readers for not posting in so long. winter has been a little crazy.

I got back from India expecting to work this winter with J4's on the weekends and then help my boss, Jeff Burrows, during the week with the ability women. Well, I came back for the first week of the season to find that the head Age-class/J3 coach had been let go and arrested. Well, that put a kink in the whole plan and I became the J3 full-time coach. This was going fine then we had a series of serious circumstances and the other coach, Fred, who was pretty much in charge of the J3's communication and scheduling etc, was taken out of the picture. His wife had a serious stroke. So, now my responsibilities got bumped up and now I am the head J3 coach which pretty much makes me the head age-class coach. I know many of you don't really know what all I am talking about, but basically I have a lot more responsiblity now. I think the hardest part is it is really challenging my decision making skills. If you know me you know I hate to make decisions. Now I am challenged with decisions on training and which races which athletes should go to and all sorts of things. That part is really difficult at times but also I am loving it. It had been a little crazy. Last weekend was the first weekend in a month that I was in town. I had been traveling for races quite a bit. Vail, Breckenridge, Keystone, Aspen, then I got to be home and train and Free ski.
So, the winter is going well. My athletes are doing well and we are getting ready for the junior Olympic qualifiers at Winter Park. It should be exciting to see who
qualifies.

So there isn't really much else going on right now. I am back though and will try to keep up on this again. For my three faithful reader. ;)