Whoa! We’re halfway there?!
If you are silently finishing that sentence by singing, “Whoa! Livin’ on a prayer!,” then congratulations! You’re brain is the same as mine. On second thought, that might not be something that you want to celebrate. Ha! As a side note, I always sing that song in my head when I cross the halfway point in a race. I don’t know exactly when it started, but it’s a mid-race tradition that has withstood the test of time.
Let’s catch up on the weeks between my last post and now, shall we? Great!
The second trimester has been really good thus far. Seriously, it’s so much better than the first! Baby is now the size of a papaya. He weighed in at a whopping 14 oz. at our 20 week ultrasound. So close to a pound. Grow baby grow! He has all his parts and his heart and brain look completely normal. I can’t tell you how relieved I was to find all of that out. Growing a tiny human is a wonderful, but also a helpless feeling. It definitely takes a lot of faith (did I mention “livin’ on a prayer”), because pretty much the entire thing is out of your control. How lovely.
Baby and I are now fully vaccinated! When the vaccine first became available we had just had a miscarriage and I wasn’t entirely sure what to think about the vaccine and it’s impact on fertility in general. Obviously there is a lot of misinformation out there and everyone is encouraged to “do your own research.” I’m honestly still not entirely sure where exactly I am supposed to go to find said research. I know how to research tax law, but medical stuff … not so much. Basically, I got to the point where in my mind where the risk of getting COVID and harming the baby outweighed any perceived risk that I had about the vaccine negatively impacting his development. Of course, my doctor fully supported the decision, which was definitely a plus.
The vaccine itself wasn’t too bad. I did feel pretty crummy for a couple of days after the second shot. BUT … now I can now go to the grocery store, the gym, church, etc. without feeling like I am putting the baby’s health at risk and the peace of mind that comes with that was absolutely worth the [literal] headache of the vaccine. I also got a flu shot for the first time in my life (also based on my doctor’s recommendation). Might as well bring on all the shots while we are at it!
I had a bit of an unexpected “turn of events” during week 15 and by “turn of events” I mean a turn of my ankle. I rolled it pretty badly coming down the stairs. I was in a hurry (more on that in a minute) and not being as cautious as I likely needed to be. When it rolled, I kinda just sat down, so thankfully I didn’t fall or anything crazy like that. The ankle immediately looked like there was a tennis ball under the joint, so I knew it was at least a decent sprain. For a couple of days I thought I might’ve torn a ligament, but I don’t think that ended up being the case. I did about as much RICE-ing (rest-ice-compress-elevate) as humanly possible for about a week and that seemed to do the trick! I know your ligaments get looser during pregnancy, but this was a bit much. Sheesh. No more quick descents on the stairs! Lesson learned.
I was actually in a hurry to come outside because I had really good news to share with Richard. The good news was a bit clouded by the ankle incident, but was good news nevertheless. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it yet, but I started a new job (WORKING FROM HOME!) in July. The timing of this was absolutely incredible in so many ways. I have wanted the option to work from home for quite some time (i.e., many years). During the past two years it seemed like the everyone in the entire world except for me was able to work from home, which was really silly and also very frustrating because my job could easily have been done from home the entire time. To make a long story at least a teensy bit shorter, I decided to change jobs. I am now a supervisor at the 40th largest accounting firm in the United States (quite the change from the family-owned, five-person firm that I worked at previously). I interviewed and accepted the new position before I knew that I was pregnant. We actually found out during the last week of my two week’s notice. I took a week off in between the two jobs and Richard liked to joke that I was “pregnant and unemployed.” He wasn’t wrong.
I started the new job knowing that I would be out during my first tax season with the firm. Eek! To make matters worse, the firm policy regarding maternity leave is that you have to be with the firm for at least one full year to be eligible for any maternity leave. No bueno for a newly pregnant new employee. I let HR know on my first day and asked what, if any, options I had. Unfortunately at that point it seemed like there wasn’t much that could be done. I sat with this for a while (for eight weeks to be exact) before deciding to pursue whether or not I truly had any other options. During those eight weeks I was able to “prove myself” so to speak and I got a lot of positive feedback from the people I was working with.
I decided to put myself out there a bit (definitely not a comfortable feeling!) and I sent an email to my boss stating my case and asking for a prorated maternity leave. I basically asked if I could have 8/12 (2/3) of the normal maternity leave as I will have completed 8 months of the first year when I have the baby. This seemed reasonable to me, but it also kinda seemed like a shot in the dark as rules exist for a reason. A couple of days later, my boss set up a conference call for us with the HR representative to discuss (and I quote) “what she hoped would be good news.” It ended up being NOT good news, but INCREDIBLY FANTASTIC news! They are giving me the FULL PAID maternity leave. I was and still am blown away. To take it one step further, they have actually decided to change this policy companywide going forward. Y’all. That’s a big deal! If you don’t advocate for yourself, who will? I asked for something that I thought I deserved and ending up helping other women get what they also deserve in the process.
And that my friends, is the very long-winded story behind why I was hurrying down the stairs and turned my ankle. Now that we are back from the rabbit trail, let’s talk about running! I did a long run of 14 miles during week 14. In hindsight I am even more thankful that I got that in when I did because the whole ankle debacle went down the very next week. The expiration date on running the number of miles per week would’ve been very short-lived anyway, but I thought I might be able to take it to a run + walk combo and get a few more weeks out of it. One and done was probably for the best!
It took the ankle a week or so to get back to its normal size and it was a tad stiff for another week, but after about two and a half weeks it seemed to be completely back to normal. Thank goodness! I know that I likely will not be able to run throughout the entire pregnancy, but I really didn’t want it to end at 15 weeks. The longest run I’ve done since then is 11 miles and I doubt I will go much over 10 miles from here on out. Running still feels pretty good, but it definitely getting a bit more uncomfortable each week and it takes a bit longer for my body to recover at this point.
At this point I feel like I am (very slowly) running a metaphorical marathon and while I may be halfway there, there is A LOT more than half of the work yet to be done. Fortunately, I got a sneak peek at the finisher’s medal this week and it is BY FAR the cutest prize on the entire planet. I can’t wait to cross that finish line and have him hug my neck.
For those that are interested, here are the weekly deets:
Week 14: 54.4 miles + 45 minutes Pilates
Week 15: 22.4 miles + lots and lots of RICE-ing
Week 16: 36.3 miles + 120 minutes elliptical
Week 17: 51.4 miles + 45 minutes Pilates
Week 18: 45.0 miles + 45 minutes Pilates
Week 19: 47.0 miles + 60 minutes elliptical
Week 20: 44.5 miles + 60 minutes elliptical + 45 minutes Pilates