Dear Soon-to-Be New Mom, How are you feeling? That sweet baby of yours should be entering the world sometime between now and the next two weeks. I hope this last stretch of pregnancy has been going well for you. That was the only time I had days of “feeling so pregnant” and my body was tired . I knew those last few weeks were prime time to sleep in, take naps, and rest up , but I was too uncomfortable. Know that even if you’ve been worried about getting your house set up or thinking about things that you need to buy, it really isn’t a big deal. Most of those things can wait, for a long time. Your baby will have a simple life for the first few months with only basic needs. There might be times where you’re awake every hour of the night to nurse or bottle feed and feel completely drained. You more than likely will cry over little things for a while, but that’s alright . Between the hormone change and lack of sleep, I was sensitive and cried a lot the first month or
We just finished up a big step in this surrogate journey...the Mock Cycle! Whenever I’ve heard the word “mock” before, it made me think of “mock trials” in high school or “mocktail drinks” before turning 21. So, what exactly is a Mock Cycle? This process is done to determine how your body will react to hormone medications and exactly how much is needed for your endometrium to thicken (that’s a fancy word for uterine lining). A thick (ideally >8mm) lining is ideal for the embryo to implant during transfer. Some women swear by drinking pomegranate juice, taking Vitamin E supplements, getting weekly acupuncture, and many other methods to assist the medications in this process. After quitting birth control and starting my menstrual cycle, the nurse scheduled me to begin meds on day three. Every other day I would stick on Vivelle patches which are transdermal Estradiol. The number of patches increased over time and Estradiol tablets were taken also. During this specific schedule, I had
You may be just as confused as me when you read “ultra (?) training”. What is up with the question mark? Well, that has been on my mind for the last week. Initially, I was excited simply to decide to run a six hour endurance race . Stepping out of my comfort zone and pushing the unknown limits of my body/mind is mysterious, desirable, and exciting. Nothing is more satisfying than reaching a point that you’ve never achieved before. I’ve always been a competitive person, and something I enjoy about running is that it’s more of a competition between me, myself, and I. Don’t get me wrong, I sure love pushing and trying to snag a place in my age group, but I’d rather beat my previous goal than focus on beating someone else. With that in mind, I have been reading and watching videos on ultra running. Technically, anything further than a marathon (26.2 miles) can be considered an ultra. After looking at some standard ultra race distances, I came across the 50k (31ish miles). Originally,