Baby's First Race!

So we're starting the baby early on his/her racing career! Ha! Today was the first ocean swim race of the North Shore Summer Series... I've yet to miss one since I've lived here but wasn't sure what I was gonna do this summer since I'm pregnant and all. Didn't think I was actually gonna even attempt any of the swims since I hadn't been able to swim at all while I was traveling for work... then was all sick when I finally got home... BUT, I got back in the water about two weeks ago to swim/exercise and realized that I didn't feel too bad.. the first race is only a mile and about a week ago I decided that I could do it without harming myself or the little bean inside me!
Turns out it was a perfect day for an ocean swim! Water was clear and warm and totally calm. There was a record turnout of over 500 swimmers entered in today's race. I promised Scott I wouldn't race hard- just swim a moderate pace that felt comfortable. Goal was to not put the baby into oxygen debt!! I started off to the side some with my friend Ellen so we didn't risk getting kicked or anything in what can possibly be an ugly start. No issue at all with that though... I just swam behind Ellen and cruised through the mile, pleasantly surprised at how easy and awesome it all felt. Saw a bunch of fish along the way and all of a sudden it was over.

Scott was there waiting with a big smile at the finish which was really nice... then I saw some old swimmer friends who I haven't seen since last year's swim races so it was fun chatting with all of them. I can't even express how good it felt to be back out there in the mix of the athletic scene here. I do feel like I've missed out on some things while I've been preggo... but today I feel a little more like myself- having had the opportunity to participate in this fun event. :) On the way home Scott and I were looking into the future... thinking about next summer when we'll get to bring our 8 month old son/daughter to the beach to watch their mom race!

One other cool part is that I won a little tile award to put up in the baby's room... Commemorating baby's first race!

We've got some more pictures that are on Scott's camera and once I figure out how to download those onto this computer I'll post a few more... :)

Ok- here are a few of the other pictures... first, me with my friend Ellen before the start of the swim (notice I'm wearing my most slimming black suit! :)

Here are all the girls lined up for the start... Ellen and I are closest to the beach- we swam most of the way on the inside and I think it was a good line.

I'm out of the water in the red cap... (Walking instead of running up the beach since I'm not racing!)

Mom and dad congratulate baby on completing its first race!

Poor Ally!

My poor cat! Not sure the details on what happened to her... guessing she fell off the 2nd story balcony a few days ago? I found her outside on Wednesday evening and then yesterday when I was brushing her she yelped a lot like she was in pain... pulled up some of her fur and found this big puncture wound in her back! OUCH! I could tell she hadn't been feeling well because she just seemed so much less active and grumpier than usual. Anyway, I took her to the vet last night... what a trooper she has been through all this. The vet cleaned out her wound and put her on anti-biotics... now Scott and I (daily) have to clean her wound and make her swallow her pills. She lets us do it but makes it clear that she's uncomfortable. The vet said she needed to wear this big collar so she didn't try to clean the wound herself... poor thing was just scared to death trying to walk with that collar on last night! She would only creep backward very slowly but then she'd bump into things because she couldn't see where she was going... I couldn't put her through the pain and humiliation of wearing that thing so I took it off her last night. She seems to be doing ok but clearly she's in some pain! Hopefully it'll heal fast without infection issues!

Ultrasound Postponed

So the Dr's office called this morning and said we needed to reschedule our appointment for today. Apparently the doctor had been called into the hospital and was not expecting to return today. We've rescheduled for Tuesday. I'm a little disappointed that we didn't get to go in today, but I tell ya what, when it's my turn to be delivering in the hospital I'm gonna want my doctor there with me rather than doing routine ultrasounds on other women who are having very normal pregnancies! Anyway, I looked online and found an ultrasound pic of what a baby typically looks like at 21 weeks:When we get our actual pictures next week, Scott will try to scan them at work and post 'em here for you to see. So check back next week! :)

Wedding Pictures

I was asked to post more pictures from our wedding... so here are a few of our big day! :)

I popped!

I have been told by other women who have previously been pregnant that one day I would just 'pop' and all of a sudden look pregnant. It happened yesterday. I swear I got up in the morning and thought, "Wow... I look bigger!". That was then confirmed by Scott. It was also confirmed by my boss who was out here working with me this week. And then I was working in an account/office that I call on and one of the nurses put her hand on my belly and asked, "Are you hapai?" I assumed 'hapai' meant pregnant so I smiled and said yes (which then sparked a whole conversation about her child-bearing years...). Anyway, the point of all this is that I now officially look pregnant. It's probably about time since I'm 21 weeks into it now.

I can feel the baby kick a lot more often now too. In the beginning when I first felt it move, it was just like a little non-descript flutter that felt foreign. Now it's much more specific. Sometimes it's obvious that it's a kick because it feels like a little jab that comes from a narrow body part, like a foot. Other times it's like the baby is rolling around in there because there's a lot of movement but no specfic jab. Either way, it's actually pretty cool and I like feeling it move. It's sort of a reality check that there's actually a real living being inside me.

Tomorrow we're going for another ultrasound at the Dr's office. We're not planning on finding out if it's a boy or a girl in there, which may be a little harder to pull off now because at this point we'd be able to see (if we wanted to know) what the gender of our child is. I'm wondering if it's possible that we just might accidentally see when we're looking at the ultrasound? Last time I had one was 6 weeks ago and the baby was moving all around the whole time. It was pretty cool watching it swing it's arms and roll around in its little space... so I'm looking forward to tomorrow!

He's Home!

Well now it feels a little more like back to life as 'normal' in the Simmons household. Not that we really know what 'normal' is... much of the time since we've been married we've both been traveling or sick so we haven't had much time to just chill out and live together without some other big thing going on. But it appears we're finally going to have just a regular week! :)

Scott had a great time surfing in Mexico with his cousin and some other buddies. They went pretty far down the Baja coast (150 miles on dirt road to get to the little surf spot). Isn't my husband hot when he's surfing? He said the water was pretty cold, but great weather, great friends, and fun surf all week. I can just picture our very young child out in the water with his/her dad being led to stand on a surfboard...

So as much fun as it is to travel and explore new places, it makes you realize that there's no place like home! Hoku especially enjoyed her dad's return. One of her hobbies is playing soccer (like father, like dog) and as much as I tried to satisfy her desire to play this past week, I'm not quite the soccer player that Scott is... so the two had a good time kicking the ball around together. Hoku will chase the ball after Scott kicks it and bring it back by dribbling it with her feet and her nose. It's pretty impressive. All the neighbors think we have the coolest dog when they see us playing. ;) The only thing about Hoku is that she doesn't have a huge amount of endurance, so it's pretty easy to wear her out. When she's done playing she lets us know.

All done. Let's go take a nap.

Is That a Baby in There?

Or have I just been eating too much ice cream?

Well, if too much ice cream can create an extra little heartbeat and legs strong enough to kick my uterus, then maybe it is the ice cream... ;)

This morning I met a couple of my old training buddies down at the beach and we went for an ocean swim... it was a beautiful morning and the water was quite clear... perfect temperature too! It was really nice to be out there swimming and just moving around and getting some exercise. Being with my old training buddies again feels good too. For the first several months of my pregnancy I really avoided my old training partners b/c I really just felt like I shouldn't be 'training' so therefore I shouldn't participate in workouts with them. I'm getting over that some now and the socializing has made my head much more clear.

The thing I've realized about working out when you're pregnant is that your baby needs more food than you do! Usually I can get through an hour workout without refueling. Shoot, even 2 hours if I know I'm gonna eat immediately after. But the little bean inside of me (actually, the mommy-to-be websites say it's about as big as a large banana now!) sucks all the sugar right out of my bloodstream when I start exercising. I feel myself going into sugar lows within about 45 minutes if I don't have something to eat. No big deal once that's figured out. Today after swimming I ate a snickers bar and drank guava juice. ;) I keep telling myself that the snickers was the baby's idea. Ha!

After I was done working out this morning I hung out in Kapiolani Park just to stretch and breathe... My head is typically much more clear when I'm exercising and I had some good thoughts this morning... about pregnancy and how I'm already half done with it at 20 weeks... and about how people say to take time to enjoy it because it all goes by so fast. It doesn't feel like it's going by so fast right now, and there are times that I wish I was physically able to do other things. But then I remembered other times when I thought time was crawling when really it wasn't (like during the marathon run of an Ironman race...) Before you know it, it's all over... And the bad parts that you didn't like are the easiest to forget because you have that finisher's medal and all the pride of knowing that you completed the task at hand... Only with this journey that I'm going through now, I'll have a real living breathing being to show for my efforts rather than just a finisher's medal. And that little being is going to be part Scott and part me... How cool is that? I can't think of another person on the planet who I'd rather share this with than Scott. Our baby is going to have a great life- hanging out with us at the beach and parks like this!

And speaking of Scott, his plane is landing in about an hour! He's been on a surf trip with his buddies for the last 10 days and I've missed him a lot! I'm glad he got to go though b/c after the baby is born, 10 day surf trips to Mexico aren't gonna happen quite so often... at least not for a while! So it's time to go get my husband.... YEA!

Like Cats and Dogs...

We've all heard that the first year of married life is full of adjustments... I'd have to say that the biggest adjustment so far in this house has been the cat and dog learning to live together. In the single days, Ally and I lived together alone... a simple life involving just a woman and a cat. Ally clearly loved that life as she was queen of the castle (in reality, just a condo). She sauntered around without a concern, chasing geckos and basking in the sun.

Now, she has a real concern. Hoku, Scott's dog, has quite an obsessive personality and feels a primal obligation to monitor the whereabouts of the cat at all times. Ally rarely has a moment to relax as she sneaks around the house looking for the next safe place to take another nap. She has figured out a fun game to play called 'Hide from the dog while she's out for her morning walk'. Every morning when Hoku and I go outside to walk, Ally changes locations in the house. As Hoku enters the house, she tiptoes as slowly as she can so her nails don't clink too much on the wood floors (this is hilarious to watch) as she searches Ally's three most common hiding places. One of these days Ally will figure out that all she has to do is NOT be in one of those places and the dog is thrown into a crazed search obsession that makes her dizzy as she runs frantically in circles until she eventually will give up in favor of a nap.

What Hoku doesn't know is that in a few weeks we're going to be taking in another cat, Monti, for six months! My friend, Ellen, is being deployed to Kuwait (NP in the Navy) and I have agreed to keep Monti until she gets back in Jaunary. It'll throw Hoku over the edge for sure when she has two cats to monitor... and that simple life involving just a woman and her cat? Forget it! Soon that woman will have two cats, a dog, a husband, and an infant... Nothing simple about that! But all good stuff... :)