Olympian Carrie Tollefson! #2

Olympian Carrie Tollefson! #2

jessica simpson, maybe

Jessica Simpson, maybe.

several of my readers, including Laura Hugo.

Several of my readers, including my costar from Bear Butte Running Camp, Laura Hugo.

This rinoceros

This rinoceros

Kate MIddleton

Kate Middleton. Bitch totally stole my thunder today. 😛

 

and me! won't be wearing one of these for a while...

And me! Won't be wearing one of these for a while...

 

So what happened? Besides the obvious? Three months ago, Jesse and I were having talks about “family planning” and decided we’d “stop preventing pregnancy” but not “try” to get pregnant. Take a ce la vis (half assed) approach, if you will, to see if a 2013 baby was going to magically happen.

We’d give ourselves from September to December, and then I’d focus on the 2013 season if it didn’t happen. I was pretty sure it wouldn’t. I mean, lean distance runner…missed my period for 1 1/2 years at one point…periods as predictable as a caffeinated monkey…more testosterone than your average fair maiden…

If it didn’t work out, I could just “try” again next year, or after the next Olympics (see the Truth About Running and Babies for the question of timing).

One Shot Wonder

Well, as it turns out, boom. First try. Well done J-Man, as if he needed the ego boost. 🙂 We didn’t know at the time, of course. Here I am, oblivious, with an embryo floating around in there, spending hours writing a blog weighing the pros and cons of when to start a family. Hopefully that ended up being useful to someone besides me.

Anyway, I delivered the positive prego test to Jesse in bed one night and we pretty much alternated between staring at the wall, and checking to make sure the other person was still there. We wanted to be excited, but it happened so fast. We hadn’t built up any anticipation. It seemed too good to be true. In situations like that, you either consider yourself blessed or start obsessing over what could possibly go wrong. We did both.

The Waiting Game

You may not know this, but 1 in 4-5 pregnancies miscarries. That’s why a lot of people wait so long to tell people. After 12 weeks, you’re pretty good to go. As a person who holds very little back in general (what?!), you can imagine how EFFING TORTUROUS it has been to keep it a secret.

I couldn’t blog about the craziest thing going on in my life, so what the hell was I going to blog about? Nausea and fatigue without a cause? I’d try to blither on about something unrelated and my brain was like a heat sinking missile, diving straight for the things I couldn’t talk about: sponsor relationships, pregnancy, arghhhh!

first ultrasound: 9 weeks

9 weeks in, it looks like a blob playing basketball.

The worst part of the waiting period was the feeling of lying by omission. I wanted to keep practicing with my OTC Elite team, but what would I talk to my teammates about? My 2014 racing goals? The fact that I planned to leave the team in a few months but not be able to explain why? Make up bizarre lies for why I was skipping hard workouts or modifying my weights routine? It was just easier to train alone, and huddle in the Harry Potter Closet under the stairs, waiting for the upcoming date when I could go to Hogwarts and be myself. I didn’t enjoy it one bit.

And now, sweet relief. Let’s hear it for freedom of speech! Jesse and I are making a miniature human.

Meet said human:

13 week ultrasound

At 13 weeks, it looks more like a human, and Jesse and I just sat there with a goofy ass grin on our faces watching it roll and bounce all over the place. It's the size of a peach. P.S. Why are all the standard size comparisons for babies food-related?

So what is this knocked up pro athlete up to now?

Headed to Austin Texas!

Three days will be spent at The Running Event to check out the latest and greatest from all the running companies and identify my dream team for the next four years. I can’t wait to see all the innovation and style that has progressed in the running market. My next blog will be about this “enormous event” that nobody besides the running retail world knows about, which I’ve been assured will amaze and astound.

Then, that ice cream sundae of awesomeness will be topped with the Professional Track and Field Summit hosted by the Austin Track Club. I’ll be speaking on a panel with a bunch of other pros you’ll recognize, and hopefully we get some good dialogue going that can make this sport’s future a lot brighter.

Are there any running companies, big or small, that I should be sure not to miss at this event? Any product you can imagine a runner using will be there. I’ve been under a Nike rock for 9 1/2 years (a very nice one, but still), and I’m totally out of touch with what brands are worth exploring. This is what I’m looking for:

Great gear made by companies that have a brand I can genuinely stand behind, which means they can’t be assholes, or dirtbags, or manipulative cults pretending to be something they’re not, like Lululemon. Gotta keep it real.

I’ll check out your recommendations and report back later this week. Thanks for reading and sharing in the good news!

I've traded in my bikini for foot pajamas

This is what I've traded in my bikini for. Sorry Jesse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

XO Lauren