It's been a while since I blogged...Life has been crazy with the move, starting our location of Iron Tribe in John's Creek, trying to make new friends, adjusting to our new city and enjoying married life.
Life sends us unexpected surprises. Boy, did we get a surprise...just 2 1/2 months into our marriage.
Team Tillman will be growing by 2 feet - due to arrive February 25, 2014.
Sunday, June 23rd was the day the news was confirmed. I was 3 days late for my period. I woke up around 6am because I couldn't sleep with anxious feelings about being late. I took a test - the digital expensive version. 3 long minutes later it popped up saying "pregnant". In shock I climbed back into bed and lay there for almost an hour...drinking water like crazy. I took another test - same result. I woke Chaz up by shoving the stick into his face - "OH MY GOSH - LOOK AT THIS!!"
Later that day, I took 2 more tests. They were not digital, so it was hard to read the result. The next morning, just to make SURE I took two more digital tests. Both said pregnant. OK. I guess we're having a baby!! (OCD much?!?)
I called the doctor and we got an appointment that Wednesday. They confirmed that I was indeed pregnant. The ultrasound was too early to see anything. :( They said I was only 4 1/2 weeks along. They took 7 (SEVEN!!) vials of blood and sent us on our way. Do I look pregnant?!? Sure don't feel like I am...
The next day we told mom and Jeff. They were in shock and SOOOOO happy!!! The day after that, we headed to Baltimore for our nephew's 2nd birthday weekend. We got to tell the Tillman's. They were SUPER excited too!! The families were both excited about adding yet another baby to their crew. That weekend in Baltimore, I started feeling the effects of being pregnant. I absolutely couldn't stomach the idea of eating a steak or eggs. I started craving peanut butter bagels. (Which has become a daily occurrence now!!) I get extremely out of breath while workout out if I push myself too hard. I'll have tons of energy, then 30 minutes later be debilitated by fatigue. Every night around 9pm I get horrible cramps. And of course, I've become EVEN MORE of a cryer - the emotions are CRAZY!!!
I got a phone call from the doctor while I was in Baltimore. They had gotten my blood work back and my platelet count was low and they wanted me to see a hematologist. Of course I freaked out...but they assured me everything was fine - it was just a precautionary and I'd probably be put on an iron supplement.
The day after we returned from Baltimore, we had our second ultrasound. We got to see Tiny for the first time!! All the doctor could see was the sack and not the yoke sack. She said everything looks good, but I was still only 6 weeks and it was a little early to see much. See that black dot?? That's Tiny Tillman! The picture now hangs on the fridge and I look at it every time I walk into the kitchen.
It still hasn't quite hit me yet that I'm pregnant. I think about it a lot - but I get distracted and think about work or working out or something random and then say "Oh yeah, there is a baby in my belly!" I think once I start showing more, I will really feel pregnant. I'm already starting to feel fat. Almost everything I read says this is just the result of being bloated, but my belly is already poochy. Bye-bye abs...see you in about a year!
This day was the first official pregnancy meltdown. Chaz and I had a meeting with a potential client at Starbucks at 3pm. Around 2:30 we headed out the door. We typically go our the front door (down about 20 stairs) but it was pouring rain, so we decided to go through the garage. We got into the garage and he asked me for the keys. "I don't have them, don't you??" "Oh shit...we're locked out." Yup. We managed to lock ourselves out of our house - in our garage in monsoon rain. I freaked out, started balling and began blabbing about taking care of a kid and how am I going to do it?!?!? An hour and $125 dollars later, the locksmith let us back into our house. Meltdown continues - "How are we going to afford a kid when we throw money out the window like this?!?!?!" I calmed down and blamed the hormones on the entire afternoon - passing out around 8:30 that night.
I'm sure the next 8 months will hold MANY ups and downs of pregnancy, marriage, and life. God has given Chaz and I a precious gift. We could not be more excited and are anxious to create a tiny version of ourselves. I look forward to learning more about parenthood, how to balance work and a baby, and sharing this experience with my best friend - I couldn't imagine not having Chaz here for all the craziness. We are beyond blessed and know that God wouldn't give us anything we couldn't handle. With lots of prayer, we know we are surrounded by a loving and supportive family. I'm so grateful to have two sister-in-laws and numerous close friends who have already been through this journey to guide me and give me helpful advice.
This past weekend we found ourselves at Babies-R-Us. We initially went in the store just to look at things...since I haven't bought Tiny Tillman anything yet. We started taking pictures of the things we liked, then we thought, what the heck...let's just go ahead and register. Didn't we JUST do this registry thing for the wedding?!?! I let Chaz man the gun while I looked over the extremely long list of "suggestions". We started at one corner of the store and worked our way around the perimeter. First up - infant feeding. Who KNEW there were soooooo many bottle options?? I got completely overwhelmed. So we just handled the basics that day - car seat, running stroller, pack and play, bouncer, swing, and toys. :) I think Chaz enjoyed the experience more than I did. 2 hours later we left with our "goody bag" in hand. And by "goody bag"...they really mean "bag of coupons and a million magazines to read about pregnancy and babies to overwhelm you even more". That night I had another meltdown...bless Chaz for putting up with my tears that night. I was exhausted.
So...some of you may know I signed up to compete in my first 1/2 Ironman on September 29th about 3 or so weeks before I found out that I was pregnant with Tiny. I talked to the physician's assistant who has done my last two ultrasounds and she advised against doing the race...but said I needed to clear it with Dr. Sun before I made any final decisions. She DID say that I could continue doing whatever I was doing before I got pregnant. So, I've been doing just that. I spin 3x a week, run 2-3x a week, swim 1-2x a week and do 4-5 WOD's a week. Yes, I'm exhausted, but I get to eat lots of food with all this training. :) It's awesome. And to be honest...I feel better when I workout. Chaz told me I'm grumpy when I don't get my workout in...guess it gets the endorphins going. Tiny is definitely a morning baby. I feel great from 5am until about 8pm and then I start feeling really poopy. The hardest part about my workouts...doing with with 1/2 the amount of Spark! Haha. I use to drink 2 sparks a day. Now I drink 1/2 a scoop at a time...don't want to overload my body with caffeine.
Got to see Tiny Tillman's heartbeat today!! You could barely see the body (those tiny crosses at the right side of the dark spot is the little peanut), but the heart was this giant flicker on the screen. It was awesome. My heart melted when I knew for a fact that there was a tiny living creature in my stomach. For the next 7-8 months I'll always have someone hanging out with me. Like this morning...I went to spin class and wanted to die because the 5:30am class instructor LOVES to pick on me for some reason...and I knew I had a reason to keep pushing. I want Tiny to be in great shape and I want to take care of myself to make this pregnancy as easy as possible. Spin class is my new favorite thing!
I had my first official pregnancy meltdown last night...at about 11pm. I was EXHAUSTED from the day - had told Chaz and my mom I was going to go to bed at 8am and at 10ish I was dragging myself away from Food Network's Chopped - my new favorite show. Laying in bed, my brain was spinning. I was thinking about a million things: how to generate leads for Iron Tribe, when will I start showing, when should I tell all my friends, I wonder how many people are going to come out to the park WOD this weekend, am I training properly for the 1/2 Ironman, should I even be doing the 1/2 Ironman, what will the doctor say about my training when we meet next week, will we see the body next week, I miss my friends, I wish I had more friends here, why is it so hard to make new friends, etc. etc. etc. I started the crying with the sniffing crying and Chaz asking me if I was ok. Through small tears, "no, I'm just overwhelmed." Then I went onto explain to him what all I was thinking and the big crocodile tears came, then the sobbing, then the gasping for air cry. I was in full fledged hysterics. I went to the bathroom and sat on the toilet balling long enough to blow my nose through 1/2 a roll of toilet paper. I finally calmed down and lay in bed attempting to breathe through a stuffed nose - taking me almost 2 hours to fall asleep. I have the puffy, swollen eyes today as a memento from the evening. I pray this crazy pregnant woman behavior is few and far between!!
Tiny is 9 weeks old...and measuring at 1.4 cm. And he has a giant head!!
So when I first found out I was pregnant, I was scared to lift too much weight. Not the past week. Last week I did a 1x clean and jerk at #145...my PR to date is #156. Not too far off. AND then today...I did a 2x split jerk at #145!! I've never done a 2x before but I know this was a PR!! Then the workout afterwards had #115 hang cleans; 49 of them during the course of the WOD. I was the only girl to Rx all day. Felt pretty good about myself. We had icecream last night...Chaz says that's why I had a PR. Haha.
Chaz and I have a membership to Massage Envy. We scheduled a massage for today...when we got there I had to sign a consent form about being pregnant. Well, right before the woman was about to start she asked me how far along I was. 9 1/2 weeks...apparently too soon to be getting a massage. She said she would do it, but since I signed the consent form, she couldn't be liable if something were to happen (since I was still in my first trimester). I started crying and left Chaz there to get his massage. I went shopping instead and bought two maxi dresses. Shopping when you're not quite showing yet sucks...all I was to wear is loose fitting clothes because my normal stuff is getting snug, but I dont have a belly yet. It's a really weird in between place. I'm ready for my belly to pop.
I'm constantly starving still...seriously wanting food every 2 hours. If I go more than 2 hours I get a splitting headache. Not one that slowly comes on...it attacks and is debilitating. I seriously need to start carrying snacks in my purse to help with the sugar drops. And it's hard because the only things I crave are the non-paleo foods that I'm typically not eating - bread, chips, sweets, cheese. That's about all I want. I eat meat and veggies, but I'm never satisfied when I have those. And I drink about a gallon of water a day...when I workout in the mornings in this heat, I cannot get enough water throughout the day.
So...I have some sad news. I'm not going to be able to do the 1/2 marathon. After talking with the doctor, Gretchen and my family we've decided it wasn't worth the risk on my body to do the race. Yes, I would probably be fine. But I'd be exhausted, have to train a TON, have a potential for dehydration and God forbid, if I had a bike accident, that would be horrible!!! So...I've decided to sit this one out. I'm still spinning 1-2x a week and doing ITF workouts, but I'm slowing down some on how much I'm working out. I'm constantly exhausted around late afternoon, so it's important to get enough sleep and train smart.
So...we've had quite a spell of things happening to us recently. We locked ourselves out of our house. Chaz's car battery died. We got in a small finder-binder in a parking lot - which was NOT our fault. The guy that hit us didnt speak English, so we called the cops. An hour later, they still were not there. So we exchanged insurance information and moved on with our lives. A few weeks later, I got a call from State Farm...the guy was placing a law suit because he had been harmed in the accident. BUT IT WAS HIS FAULT. Oh my gosh...just one more thing to deal with. I thought that was it. THEN...on Friday we got pulled over on the way to the gym. Apparently we had an expired tag. Great. We got all our paperwork and headed to the tag office. Well apparently you have to get your emissions done before you go to the tag office. So after waiting in line for over an hour, we left the tag office and headed to get our emissions tested. Meanwhile, I'm trying to transfer my insurance to a Georgia office because I can't get my tag with Alabama insurance. We head back to the tag office, wait another hour to get our tag - $1400 later, we leave the tag office. Who knew it was SO expensive to transfer your car tag and title to a new state?!?!?! Maybe our string of crazy things will be ending soon!!
10 weeks...I'm actually starting to show!! Oh my goodness! It's a really weird feeling to not have abs...
Things that are different...I cannot sleep through the night without waking up at least twice to go to the bathroom. I cannot drink a Spark when I'm tired and need a pick me up...I take a nap instead. I crave bad food like pimento cheese, chocolate, pizza and chips instead of veggies and salad. My speed shorts are getting tighter. My face apparently thinks I'm 16 again and wants to be out of control. No matter if I drink one cup or one gallon of water, I'm constantly thirsty. Working out is hard - I can barely breathe, it's impossible to stop sweating after a workout, jumping rope and box jumps are killer. I spend way too much time on Pinterest looking at anything baby. At any given point, I know what size fruit Tiny is compared to.
