Itty Bitty Plan Changer

You've probably been wondering why I haven't posted anything about running lately when the marathon is a mere 3 weeks away. You're probably also wondering why I'm not out on a 18 mile run today. Well, we've had a slight change of plans. Actually it's a huge change of plans.

At the beginning of last week I was just waiting for my period to start, and hoping it would be over before my first tri of the season. I waited, and waited, but it didn't come. I knew it was late thanks to my post complaining about it last month. As we headed down to St. George, I thought it must be coming soon because I was feeling really emotional and having other symptoms, but as the days went on I started to wonder if it was actually something else. I tried not to worry about it too much and just be happy that it had decided to wait for me to finish the race before it started. How sweet!

The friends that we stayed with have the same amount of kids as us and were totally shocked when they recently found out they were pregnant. I said, "Wouldn't that be funny if you got pregnant on accident and then I did? I mean, we have to have the same amount of kids!" She said she had a pregnancy test if I wanted to try it, but I told her I didn't even want to know until after the race.

Of course, the whole time during the race, I was thinking, "What if I am pregnant and I crash on this bike?" and things like that. Maybe it slowed me down a little, I don't know.

I was sure I wasn't pregnant, though. I had an IUD which is supposed to be 99% effective as birth control. Not very good chances there.

Sunday morning, I felt sick again and knew it was time to take the test. I had one handy so all I had to do was run into the bathroom and take it. I was nervous, though. We had kind of started thinking I was pregnant and I was actually afraid that it would be negative. Weird hu?

Well, I took the test and, you guessed it: Positive.

I didn't know weather to laugh or cry when I found out. I did find it very overwhelming, and wondered how it would change my plans. At first Pete was like, "You'll still have a great season." We figured I could just keep on doing what I've been doing. Isn't that what you're supposed to do?

When I called the doctor’s office to schedule an appointment and told them about it, they told me to just come in right away. This made me more than a little nervous.

The doctor took the IUD out, and in the process casually told me that removing an IUD can sometimes cause a miscarriage. I was thinking, “Why didn’t you tell me this before!?” Nothing happened, though. She said that it had slipped down a little and that might have been why I got pregnant, and that it could have happened during that extremely heavy period last month.

The doctor had me make an appointment later that day to get an ultrasound to make sure the pregnancy wasn’t in the wrong place because that happens a lot with IUDs and it could be life-threatening.

Ok, now I’m more nervous!

I went in and did the ultrasound, and she was really thorough, making sure there wasn’t anything where it wasn’t supposed to be, and she said she definitely saw a yolk sack where it was supposed to be. Whew!

The only problem was that it’s too early to even be able to see a heartbeat or anything, so I’m going back in 2 weeks for another ultrasound where we should be able to see a heartbeat and be able to relax a little bit.

When I talked to the nurse, after the ultrasound ordeal, I told her I was training for a marathon in 3 weeks and asked her if I should stop. She told me that they don't recommend doing any aerobic activity for longer than 45 minutes, and to keep my heart rate below 140. Well, that totally throws the marathon out then!

On the other hand, I had read some accounts online about women who did marathons or half marathons or even who just kept running while they were pregnant. I was thinking that my body is used to this, and that I'm in pretty good shape so maybe it would be fine. For a day or two I felt really stressed and conflicted about what I should do. I missed my run on Monday, then I went swimming on Tuesday and felt great so I thought maybe I'd still do it, and started planning my 10 miler on Wednesday.

Then I talked to Pete and he was like, "What? After that scare we just had?" And I knew he was right. We are incredibly blessed to even have this pregnancy, how could I even think about doing something that might put the baby in danger? It also helped that for the past few days I've felt so sick that I couldn't even think about running, let alone running a marathon! Yuck! I also thought about how hard my last few long runs were and that this is probably why. Maybe getting sick at the beginning of a pregnancy is our body's way of telling us to take it easy.

After that, it was really easy to make up my mind not to do it. I emailed the race director and told him my situation and he just put my name on the list for next year. That will be a fun thing to look forward to and to help me get back into shape after the baby is born. Besides, my sister had just decided to wait until next year anyway so we still get to do it together! I did the same thing with BAM, and luckily I hadn't registered for Bear Lake Classic Half yet.

So, to make a long story short (TOO LATE!), I'm pregnant and I'm no longer doing the marathon.

For the next few months, this blog will probably be a lot quieter and it will probably look a lot more like a mommy blog than a training blog so sorry about that for those of you who don't care about that kind of stuff. I will keep swimming a lot, walking, and riding my cruiser around with the kids this summer so I'm not going to be doing nothing.

It's amazing how something so small that you can't even see it can totally change your whole life!