I Have A Race on Saturday and An Announcement to Make.

I signed up for my first obstacle race. It's on Saturday. It's kind of far away and I have to leave here at 4:30 in the morning. I'll be volunteering for the first few hours and then I'll run it in the afternoon. I've never done an obstacle race before, and if you volunteer you race for free. So I figured free race, community service, and I'll get to watch people do it to get the hang of it. It'll be fun. I'm excited. And it's only 36 miles away from Ikea, so I'll have to make a little detour on my way home. 

I'm so excited about this race, I decided to get a cool shirt to race in, and it came today!

Now I'll have a visual excuse for passing up the "jumping from post to post and hoping you don't slip and fall off because of all of the mud obstacle."

Yup, this is an announcement. We found out back in April that we were going to be a family of FIVE come early January! For some reason I got this really great idea that it would be fun to keep it a secret until I really started to look bigger. I'm officially out of my regular jeans so I guess it's time. Which is perfect because Mama Loveland came into town yesterday morning. What could be a better 'Welcome to Wisconsin' present?

The coolest and most fun pregnancy test I've ever taken. Love the digital ones!

And it's a really really big deal because I am the WORST at keeping surprises a surprise. We celebrate birthdays and holidays a month early in the Loveland household. 

 It's been an ....interesting experience so far. I absolutely loved the midwives that delivered the girls in Utah, loved the hospital, loved everything about it. I had such a great experience, I'm worried everything from here on out would just be disappointing. They set the bar HIGH.

So we found out in April. I called our insurance to get the info on how to get the ball rolling. For the last few months, every time I call the first question I get is if I would like to continue the pregnancy. I was shocked, appalled, and to be honest, really sad. It was irritating talking to people who thought they were delivering the worst news in the world that I was pregnant, when really we couldn't have been more thrilled. We aren't in Utah County anymore, that's for sure!

First I met with an OB coordinator who did all of the initial blood work and set me up with a Dr. She wasn't sure if I would need to see a high risk specialist or not, so I chose to see a family practice doctor until he thought a specialist would be better. Our insurance doesn't have midwives in the network, so it seemed like family practice would be the closest to the experience I had before.

The problem is, he books so quickly, so I haven't even met the man yet. My last appointment I saw another doctor who just took care of the general things that happen at prenatal appointments. She thought I was hilarious. I liked her. That was at my 12 week appointment, which was really at 14 weeks because the schedule was so full.

That appointment was actually a little scary. We couldn't find a heartbeat. I can't even tell you how long I laid on the exam table. I was immediately sent off to an office across town for an ultrasound to make sure everything was alright. Gratefully, it showed up on the ultrasound right away going strong. She's situated close to my back, which makes my back hurt like the dickens some days.

This is been my favorite pregnancy so far. Sometimes I forget I'm pregnant and just feel heavier. The sickness kicked in pretty early, but usually only in the mornings. The downside was, it started the second I kind of sort of started to wake up. Like a ton of bricks. The hardcore nausea medicine doctors usually prescribe works only sometimes, but Diet Coke has been my life saver. And I'm not even embarrassed to pop the can open at 7 AM.

The sickness has died down mostly. I'm not throwing up every morning anymore, and I'm generally feeling great after a few sips of soda. And as long as I remember to eat often during the day, I'm good to go!

No lasting cravings, though I did have a week long relationship with Chipotle earlier on. That was wonderful.

Ross' mom came in on Weds morning, and I scheduled a gender ultrasound at Stork Vision for the day before, so we could surprise her with that info as well.

Our little Loveland clan met up at the office Tuesday afternoon. It was really cute and they had it set up like a home theater room with a couple big screen TVs and a toy table in the middle for kids. The girls loved that. You could tell the gal really loves what she does. She was having so much fun showing us the little bean and even threw in some 3D pictures for us, too. Claire loved it and kept talking about the 'grey and orange baby'. (Grey for the 2D and orange for when she saw the 3D images.)

So here's the big news... Poor Ross is completely outnumbered! Even though it's our third, I was so excited and thought about all of the pink frilly things, headbands and bows, dresses, and shoes.

She was incredibly active and wouldn't hold still very long to get great 3D pictures. She loves to roll and turn, play with her toes, and always has her hands up by her face. She's a busy little thing.

(And just for the record, I was right! I guessed girl!)

I called my mom later that day to break the news. I told her that we were adding to our girl collection. She was silent for 6 seconds. (I counted.) And then she laughed and was excited.

I took the girls to Carter's after to pick out some sister shirts and a new outfit for the newest miss. The plan was to give Ross' mom a present with the little outfit to break the news. I ended up finding this one, and it was perfect.

Matching shits for the big sisters.

The 'Welcome to Wisconsin' present all wrapped up!

The ultrasound tech even printed a profile picture with "Hi Grandma!" as the caption. We gave Anma her present in the car. When we got back, we Skyped with the rest of the family back home in Oregon. Grandma helped Claire and Aoife tell the Aunts and Uncles one by one.

Honestly, it felt really weird telling people, I was pretty impressed with my secret keeping abilities. But I guess it's time to own up to my growing belly. We're absolutely thrilled to be adding another gal to the family. Ross was beyond excited to be adding another adorer. We're making the world a more beautiful place with blonde lasses.

I'm still doing CrossFit. When I met with the OB coordinator, she said I shouldn't be lifting more than 10 lbs. I laughed. At the 12 week appointment, I asked how that doctor felt about lifting weights. She asked how much I was lifting and I told her I could deadlift 135 all day long. She choked a little and said the recommended weight was 25 pounds.

We had a great chat. I've really done my research. I found this article and LOVED it. I highly recommend reading it. I searched for studies about high intensity training and pregnancy and couldn't find anything. I asked the doctor about it and she didn't know of any either. A lot of women give up their fitness routine during pregnancy, or seriously scale it down, so there just isn't a ton of information on it out there. (PS. if you know of any, send them my way!)

I've decided to continue my routine. I scale the workouts when there's an exercise I can't do. Like doing pike pushups, or kipping handstand push ups instead of hand-stand pushups. I take set breaks when I have a high rep/high weight lift, but I get them done. She was okay with that plan and would pass along the info and ask my doctor about it as well. She emailed me back and said we were good to go!

I have an appointment with my actual doctor on Monday and we'll chat more about it, but so far it's been wonderful. This is the best I've felt in any pregnancy.

My actual due date keeps changing, so I'm between 17-18 weeks along, not quite halfway. (Though about halfway for how early these babes normally come!) She should be arriving in early January.

The first u/s. Around 10 weeks.

The 3D ones were had to make out, and she's so tiny and pretty skeletal, but her face with her arm in front of it.

I loved how well you could see her hand and cute tiny fingers. She loved having her mouth open.

Sucking her thumb, playing with her hands.

Alien-like, but her her arm and hands and ribs.

Check out that belly button!

The classic profile shot.

And again, those little fingers covering her face.

I love her already and can't wait to kiss that nose!