This is not your normal birthday post

My mom was pregnant with my little sister Jean when I was 7, which is my only sibling for whom I was old enough to understand or appreciate the experience. I was also very sure that she was going to be a little girl and I was very focused on how awesome life would be once I had a sister.

I read books and I counted every week with my mom that she grew. And I remember being very bummed out on the day that she was born that I had to start over at 0.

20 weeks

Fast forward almost 22 years later and today I am celebrating two milestones: Today I am 29 years old, and today, Baby Runs* is 20 weeks old.

Twenty weeks is a big deal because it’s the half-way point. I guess it’s also a big deal because I could start talking about it in months (5 months) instead of weeks.

I posted that photo on Facebook earlier today and my friend Matt pointed out the irony in these ‘progress’ photos. No, not lost on me. I joke that I finally have the “rock hard abs I always wanted.”

I understand what friends meant when they said that the second trimester wasn’t that bad. Life is really not markedly different from before, except I can’t have a cold beer after a long day of working on the house and my pants are a little tighter. But life has largely returned back to normal — the nausea is gone, and my energy is higher.

Physically

At 20 weeks, I’ve gained about 6 pounds (169 lbs.), and my pace has slowed about 40 seconds per mile (10:00 average for the month of October, when I got pregnant, 10:40 average for the month of February).  I’ve mixed in a lot more swimming in, but I’ve gone down from exercising 4-5 hours per week in October to 1 to 3 hours per week in February. We’ve been busy working on renovating our house in Lewiston and I haven’t had the time to run on the weekend, but it’s still been very physically intense work and I’ve kept up.

At this point (4 weeks out) I’m not sure I still can participate in the half-marathon I planned to do. I haven’t pushed myself to get out there for more than 4 miles at a time, but I don’t regret it, either. Priorities. Running will always be an important part of my life, but it doesn’t rule my life right now.

Emotionally

My life (and this blog) is going to change in 4 months and I’m getting ready for it. I really wanted kids for a long time, and we waited until we were really ready, and now that it’s here … I’m ready. Ready in the emotional sense, maybe not ready in the “I feel absolutely prepared for everything that’s going to come at me sense.”

I also feel really … happy. And lucky. And happy.

Ally at More Bang(or) for your Buck sent me flowers! And baby clothes. :)

Ally at More Bang(or) for your Buck sent me flowers! And baby clothes. I am so lucky. 🙂

Tony and I were working on getting our house in Lewiston rented and that finally came to fruition this weekend. We listed it on Craigslist on Jan. 12 with a few bites but nothing that worked out, and the right people found us after one day in the classifieds.

We took a lot of risks this year. A lot of choices that we didn’t know if they would work out, but we knew we had to try. I embraced the uncomfortable place. And we have been very lucky, and very richly rewarded.

*A play on my former blog name, Pattie Runs

Pattie Reaves

About Pattie Reaves

I'm a new mom and renegade fitness blogger at After the Couch. I live in Brewer with my husband, Tony, our daughter Felicity, and our two pugs, Georgia and Scoop.