After my tough run on Wednesday, I took Thursday completely off. I had my 32 week doctor’s appointment that morning. Fortunately, putting my feet up the night before and changing my sleeping position seemed to really reduce the swelling in my left leg. Still, I told my doctor about it. She told me pretty much what I had been expecting. My blood pressure is great, so I’m not at risk for pre-eclampsia and I have a very low risk for having a blood clot. She said that if I was really concerned she could order an emergency ultrasound of my leg to check for a blood clot, or I could try to manage the swelling with what I’ve been doing. Since there is no pain or discoloration and I am able to get it to go down, we both agreed that I should just try to manage it myself.

So I didn’t run, but did walk the dog later that night, then promptly put my feet up for the rest of the night. Friday morning, the swelling was almost completely gone.

Towards the end of the day on Friday I did start to feel my left shoe getting tight and had the sensation that my left foot was falling asleep. Sure enough, the swelling had come back. One of my friends from Wayland Road Runners, Mandy was celebrating her 30th birthday with a bar run and I really wanted to participate. I put my feet up as soon as I got home and by the time I got to the run the swelling was still pretty minimal.

I was nervous for the running portion since Wednesday I felt so out of control of my own body. As I’ve learned throughout this pregnancy though, running through pregnancy is like a box of chocolates…you never know what you’re going to get. To my surprise, the run went really well. It helped that it was a fun run and I wasn’t feeling pressure to keep a certain pace. We all started out together as a group, and though I was breathing hard, I was fine keeping up the pace we were going. I got talking and completely lost track of the time and miles passing and suddenly we were at the bar with 3.1 miles under our feet. What a great idea for celebrating a 30th birthday, right!

Saturday morning was a different story. Since I had just run the night before, I wondered how I would feel running in the morning with less than 24 hours recovery. By my own darn internal clock, I was awake sometime around 6 am and couldn’t get back to sleep! So I got up and had breakfast and figured I’d hit the mall as soon as it opened (thinking it opened at 8 or 9 am). I looked online and found the mall didn’t open until 10 am on Saturdays! What?

Since we had my friend Val’s baby’s first birthday party at noon, I was planning on getting to the malll early to get a gift (yes, so last minute, but keep in mind we had been in New York last week and had the birth of our new neice so we still didn’t have any food in our house!) and then running before the party at noon. So the mall not opening until 10 through a wrench in those plans. So, I tried to hydrate as much as I could so that I could go on a run before going to the mall.

Well, I tried. I got about a half mile out and walked back. With every step, I could just feel the familiar sensation of friction on my bladder. I must not have had enough time to get it full enough to cushion it from my little babe.

Was I frustrated? Yes. I took a warm shower and went and got a Starbucks to make myself feel better and decided that I would try again after the party.

I made sure to hydrate a lot and went for my second attempt later on in the afternoon. I ran the first mile with my dog and then dropped him off and continued on my own. It wasn’t great, but I got it done and was able to get 5 miles in at nearly 33 weeks pregnant. I stopped and walked regularly, but I still got it in and that felt awesome! Unfortunately, I ate lots of good food at this party, so I was burping a lot of it up and that part didn’t feel very good. My legs were both very tired and felt like they were my biggest limitation. The walking breaks seemed to allow them enough time to get the circulation back and allow me to run for a half mile more before walking again.

I’ve now got just 7 weeks + 1 day until my due date. Running is starting to become incredibly hard and frustrating. I get through it though knowing that I’m doing good for my body and my baby and that what I’m experiencing now will make me mentally stronger once I’m going back at full on training mode.

Its so hard for me sometimes to have to stop, to quit and try again later. I think back to all the hard training times that Tim and I went through while preparing for Myrtle Beach Marathon and how, even when things got tough, we were able to push through them. That’s what I’m used to doing. I run into obstacles and figure out how to push past them. I’m not used to stopping, walking and trying again later. It seems like a quitter’s attitude. I know in this case, its not. Logically, I do know that and am not beating myself up inside, I’m not. I’m just trying to express that its really hard for me mentally to tell myself to stop and that its the right thing to do.

That’s where I’m at right now. I’m thrilled that Alexandra is doing so well and am just trying to find ways to get through these next 7 weeks. I feel like mentally and emotionally, I’m ready to have her. I’m even looking at labor with excitement and feel anxious for it to get here. Obviously, I don’t want to go into pre-term labor, I’m just mentally prepared for that time right now. I want to have her. Being around so many babies at the birthday party yesterday made me realize even more how much I can’t wait to be a mom!