Karen's pregnant blog

Thanks for the tips everybody. My husband and I ventured into new territory with Snapfish. If you would like to see photos of my large belly (42cm at 38 weeks!) and the adorable, lovable Finnian (now 12 days old) you can go to: www.snapfish.com and then type in the following address and password: 2Finnian@comcast.net and the password is: swimmers (guess who we were thinking of with that password!) Enjoy :)

A great set of pictures congats again.

Cute, cute, cute!!!

Congratulations to all the Duggans! What a little cutie he is! And Karen, the photos of your belly were truly astounding! We will have to compare stretch marks sometime! Meg P.S. Love the name!

Ugh, stretchmarks. Thankfully, most of them have gone "invisible", however, there's enough for a badge of honor! Last Friday I got the all clear to swim. My appt was at 10:40 (and at 2 weeks I was 22 pounds lighter!) and I made the noon practice. It's LCM right now because of the Aquabear meet coming up. I did 2,000m back in my own lane again (notice how I claim ownership?!). I was last by a mile but it was great to move more freely. And everybody was really supportive. Swam 2,500m on Monday, and today I swam 3,000m. I about died, well my arms did (I'm so out of shape I can't swim fast enough to breathe heavy!) during the 4 x 500 pull. I did the first one, and the second one I did 400, and on 3-4 I switched to the optional 200 broken (10 @ each 50 back) with a 200pull. My 50's back were about :50s. So SLOOOOOOW. But I made it! Baby steps... PS I swam at 10:30 this AM and when I got out it was 39 degrees. There is snow on Mt. Diablo down to about 2000feet. Right now it's 38 degrees at 12:45 and it's raining. We're hoping for snow here at sea level!!!

I swam the whole week which I haven't done in years! As I said last Friday was 2,000m Monday was 2,500m Tuesday was 3,000m Wednesday was 3,000m Thursday was 2,500m (a lot of specialty in that workout) Friday was 3,000m. I feel some sort of accomplishment, however the scale hasn't moved an inch. That's kind of depressing! On that Th workout we did a broken 200 stroke (10 @ each 50). I did ***. My first 50 felt pretty good and I went :50 (from a push), however the next 50s were :54, :55, and :55! I willed myself through the last 2 because I REALLY wanted to stop. I just told myself to count my strokes (I usually take 25, and I did 28 on both laps- yup, I was hurtin'!!!) At least I now have a baseline for how much work I need to do... Anyway, I thought it would be fun to have a pregnant blog, and maybe it will help, or inspire, other Masters in the future. However, I am no longer pregnant so I will end this blog. I will check it occasionally, although, I'm not one for really posting my workouts- I usually write them down in my little book. Thanks to everyone for all of the well wishes and your support. And Finnian, at 3 weeks and 1 day, continues to do very well :angel:

HOWDY KAREN! CONGRATULATIONS ON A great pregnancy while swimming and the delightful news of your son's birth!! For some reason, the March/April issue of USMS published your blog site which I found very helpful. I wish I had found it sooner. In any event, the historical info is helpful. Still haven't found an ob-gyn either (someone else had this question) that is a swimmer...slightly vexing.... So I was swimming while pregnant with twins, but recently got reduced to FLOATING ONLY..... Background.... However, I ended up in the hospital twice in the last 3 weeks. All seems to be on even keel now. Basically, blood pressure and wacky headaches had my docs really concerned. Ended up finally at Columbia Presybeterian for 2.5 days. So they are watching me very very closely. So all my swimming came to a halt after Feb 24. I felt fine that day and had been swimming only 50 lengths (just freestyle) almost everyday for 5 weeks at a snail's pace, never getting pulse above 110 and drinking good amounts of water every 10 lengths. My docs were fine with that. Prior to that I was swimming about 80 or 90 lengths of various strokes and kicks... The next morning (Feb 25), everything went haywire with bps around 155/110s consistantly over an hour. So that was the start of tons of tests/diagnostics and two trips to the hospital....twins are fine and growing...It is just me that seems problematic at this point...The docs theorize that I may have had a propensity to high blood pressure for years, but it never was detected because I was always running/swimming almost every day for +5 years and kept it naturally in check (coupled with really decent eating habits)....Only laid off running the last 7 months...and then gradually reducing the swimming too.... Who knows really?? Imagine if I wasn't in such solid shape...? ....Just this past Wednesday, I got clearance to be able to go to the pool, but just FLOAT. NO swimming. At least, I will be able to get some relief from the twins sticking me in the ribs by being bouyant. Well, I'm at week 27 and obliged to work from home on the couch. So I am listening close to my docs to maximize the time of the twins in utero. Guess, I'll have a longer hill back to swimming decently than anticipated. HOPE others see this blog and keep the dialogues and sharing of tips going....I'll need them for the recovery too.... Particularily interested in how to fit in swimming with multiples and their care. Thanks so ever much! Diana

Congratulations. It sounds like you're doing great :) I definitely do not miss that "compacted-kicking me-in the ribs-feeling"! I mentioned that I had heart concerns during my pregnancy and they did an echocardiogram... I just met with my doctor a few weeks ago (I had pink eye!) and she told me that the report was totally fine. Wacky things happen when we're pregnant, as you're experiencing. Swimming, I think, has way more benefits than people realize. Twins, wow! I have absolutely no advice on that one. Although friends tease us that we have Irish twins because two of my kids are barely a year apart! Both in diapers, etc. It's one of those situations where you "just do". Someone said to me the other day, "You work full time AND have four kids, and you're out with them all? How do you do it?" My response was, "I don't know. I just do. It's normal." Not that it's easy, or really "normal", but it is a lot of fun most of the time. I wouldn't trade it for anything. The sleeplessness, etc. is only temporary... Anyway, please keep updating here, or start your own blog. That was my goal in starting this. I was hoping we could all help each other out. Again, congratulations!

:bump: Someone is pregnant, and it isn't me! :notworthy: I'm hoping to talk her into perpetuating the blog. Sshhh, it's a secret... :banana: That's the banana taunting you to try and figure out who it is.

My money is on Stud or She-man, can't decide. Maybe Fort also.