My Big Fat Belly 2.0 - 26 Weeks

Before I bust into my 26 week summary, I must say….I hate that the blog has become all about my children and/or pregnancies.  I never really intended for that to happen.  Justin and I are big travelers and we love taking trips all over the US and the world.  It’s just that unfortunately, with kids comes responsibilities.  It’s not exactly easy to get someone to watch your kid all the time so you can jet set across the globe.  We’ve been blessed to still be able to travel some, but we have no more trips planned before Garrett’s arrival so it looks like the blog will be solely dedicated to pregnancy and to anything fun we do as a family.  I intended this blog to be a “life” blog that documented our relationship, then our engagement and then our marriage.  Then it was a travel blog because that’s all we did the first 2 years of our marriage and now it’s a kid blog. 

The blog is kind of growing with our family.  I am trying to do my best to keep up with the weekly posts like I did with Carter because at the end of my pregnancy, I had a book made for Carter of all of those pregnancy posts.  Obviously I won’t give it to him for a super super long time, but I wanted him to have something showing him my thoughts while I was carrying him.  So I want to do the same with Garrett, which is why I still do these “belly posts”.   So basically what I’m saying is this….to those of you that followed the blog before parenthood-I’m sorry it’s changed so much.  Maybe when the kids are older and can travel with us, it will go back to being a “life” blog.  That’s our hope at least!

How far along: 26 weeks-Two more weeks and I’ll be in the 3rd trimester!!!!

Symptoms:  Started having some braxton hicks contractions this week.  Very infrequent as expected, but it was something I don’t remember ever feeling with Carter during my pregnancy with him.  Doc said it was normal at this stage.

Maternity Clothes:   Pretty much all maternity.  Still wear a few things that aren’t maternity, but it’s mostly just maternity for comfort for me!

Weight Gain:   I did gain a pound this week, but at some point I also lost it along with another 1/2 pound.  So I’m at 17 pounds right now.  The loss puts me at exactly 11.5 pounds less than I was at 26 week with Carter.  Victory :)  In comparison to my pregnancy with Carter, I was at a total weight gain of 19lbs with him at 26 weeks, so 2lbs less so far with Garrett.  They really are lining up to be the exact same pregnancy (except that I had some nausea with Garrett that I didn’t have with Carter). 

I imagine I will make up that 2lb difference all this weekend though.  Since I had to fast before doing my glucose screening I was starving by the time we left the doc at 10am so I made Justin take me to get breakfast at Burger King.  I haven’t eaten fast food at a place like Burger King in over a year at least.  And tonight we’re taking Carter to eat mexican to celebrate our 5 year anniversary.  Then tomorrow we’re headed to the lake with lots of people from our church that went to Israel with me for a reunion which will include lots of barbequed foods and casseroles.  So my guess is that I’ll be up to 19lbs by the end of week 27 :)

Sleep:  No big changes.  I sleep with a million pillows now to keep my back straight so that I don’t wake up with bad muscle pains. 

Belly Button:  Still in and I still think it will stay that way.

Stretch Marks:  None yet.  Didn’t have any with Carter so I’m hoping it stays that way.

Cravings/Aversions:   Still none.

Exercise Routine:  Only worked out 5 days this week, but still holding strong!  All 5 were P90X.  My Mommy and Me class was cancelled this week and I can’t really go to Pure Barre unless I have a babysitter.  Justin was out of town this week and Carter’s still out of school for summer so Pure Barre got the backseat until the end of next month when I can pick it up again.  I’ve got like 15 classes left of my package that Justin bought me for Christmas so I’m hoping I use them all before Garrett comes!  I can’t even explain how glad I am that I have been able to keep up this intensity.  I joke that my pregnancies are the same, but there’s a huge difference with Garrett’s because of how much I workout.  I never have back pain (except for one time where I apparently slept wrong and ended up being sore for a couple of days), I feel great, bending over isn’t an issue, I only get out of breath when I workout or when I lay flat on my back (at this point with Carter, I was out of breath if I walked to the mailbox).  I just overall feel soooooooo good!

Baby Size:  Garrett is a full 2lbs now and still about 14-15 inches in length.  He’s about the size of a head of lettuce.    The cool thing that happens this week is that they start to open their eyes, which had been fused shut up to this point.  Can’t wait to find out what color those sweet eyes will be.  Will they be bright blue like Carter’s?  Or brown like mine???  Hmmmm…..

Movement:   Still moving like crazy and these movements are getting BIG!  There’s also a pattern.  He is most active in the morning (he usually wakes me up around 7ish-am) and right before I go to bed around 9-10pm.  He moves a ton when I take baths and I had a dentist appointment this week and he was going crazy during that…even the dentist said something because he could see my belly moving.

Gender:  I am the queen in my house of boys!

Appointments and Such:  I had my 26 week appointment on Friday during which I had my glucose screening.  I still don’t know yet if I passed it though.  They said that if I haven’t heard from them by Monday that I passed so we shall see on Monday.  I passed the 1 hour test with Carter and I eat so much better now and am significantly healthier overall so I’m expecting to pass it.  My next appointment is 30 weeks and is on August 22nd and that will also be my 4D ultrasound where I get to see my sweet boy again.  After that, appointments are every two weeks up to 36 weeks and then weekly after that until Garrett comes.  How is this happening so fast?!?!?! 

Talked to the doc about post partum depression a bit today also.  If you don’t know, I was diagnosed with PPD about 2 months after I gave birth to Carter.  I was on medication for about 6 months and it helped TREMENDOUSLY.  He decided that he wants me to start getting on the medication again at 30 weeks to give my body enough time to adjust to it (most anti-depressants take about 4-6 weeks for you to see the effects, so he wants to start me early in case Garrett comes early).  We’re doing this in hopes that PPD, if it happens again, won’t be such a bad case as it was with Carter.  He knows how strongly I feel about not feeling that way again.   I have no idea what it’s like to bring a baby home and be so full of joy and happiness that you can’t contain it.  My PPD started almost immediately after pushing Carter out and I was crying multiple times a day the second I got home from the hospital.  Justin has told me that during that time I said the words to him “our marriage is failing” (don’t worry-we joke about this now…our marriage was certainly not failing, I was just a basketcase during those first months).  I don’t remember saying that at all but he definitely does so he’s all for trying to prevent it from happening again.  Since this will be our last baby, I desperately want to know what the pure joy and happiness of bringing a new baby home feels like so it’s crucial to me that we are proactive in this and I agree with what Dr. H wants to do 100%.

Other Comments:  Also happening around the time of my 30 week appointment will be maternity pictures with my fabulous sister, Lindsey Smith Photography.  I’m so excited for the pictures she’s going to take!!!  We haven’t picked a place to do them yet, but it will likely be outside at a botanical garden or something.

Bump Pic for Week 26:

 

My Big Fat Belly 2.0 - 25 Weeks

How far along: 25 Weeks, 2 Days

Symptoms:  Remember in my last post when I mentioned that I carry babies high and that the advantage of that is that I can still wear a lot of my non-maternity shorts (even though most of the time I choose the maternity route)?  Well there’s a downside of carrying babies high.  They sit on your lungs.  The past week, Garrett has positioned himself in such a way that all my other organs are pushing upwards on top of my lungs and it is making it so hard to breathe.  Exercise these days requires more breaks than normal because I just get so out of breath.  It’s not just due to his position, though the fact that I’m carrying him high isn’t helping, but also because of his size at 25 weeks.  We’ll discuss his size further down. 

Maternity Clothes:   Still wearing mostly maternity clothes.  I just recently started cleaning out my drawers and found a TON of old shorts that still fit as long as I have the rubber band tied around the button.  So I plan to start wearing those more often. 

Weight Gain:  I’m pretty consistent with one pound a week like I should be.  I’m sitting at about 17 1/2 pounds right now with 15 weeks to go.  Still thinking I’ll gain about 35 pounds total.  I’ve actually evened out to where I was with Carter at this stage too so I’ve gained the same amount of weight with both babies as of 25 weeks, yet my overall weight this time around is about 9 pounds less than what I was with Carter, so naturally that makes me happy :)

Sleep:  Only change on sleep front is that I’m finally to where I can’t sleep on my back.  I don’t mean “finally” as if that’s a good thing.  It sucks.  I’m only saying “finally” because usually that happens sooner than now.  They say not to sleep on your back after the first trimester (14 weeks) because it can create shortness of breath as well as blood pressure issues.  My doc said as long as it doesn’t physically hurt, then it’s fine.  Well, it just now got to where it physically hurts.  I am WAY too out of breath and get light headed if I sleep on my back.  So I’m now sleeping on my side.  I may even bust out the old maternity pillow that I used with Carter soon.  We’ll see.

Belly Button: In and it will likely stay that way.  With Carter it never popped out, it just got really really flat as my stomach got bigger.  Still no indication of the line that shows up on your lower stomach just yet and I finally found out that it was 28 weeks when Justin noticed that line.  I wonder if it will show up this time or if it will be so faint I won’t see it.

Stretch Marks:  None yet.  Didn’t have any with Carter so I’m hoping it stays that way.

Cravings/Aversions:  Haven’t really noticed any major cravings lately.  And to be honest, it appears that I’m one of those rare few that don’t crave things during pregnancy.  With Carter the only things I craved were eggs and chocolate milk, but I loved those things when I wasn’t pregnant so I don’t really count those.  Haven’t craved much of anything at all during this pregnancy either.

Exercise Routine:  Still 6 days a week friends!  I’m extremely happy that I’ve been able to keep up this intensity for so long.  I did fall off my pullup bar and about broke an ankle while doing P90X the other day.  Though it wasn’t because of anything pregnancy related, I just lost my footing when coming off the chair I use to assist me during pullups.  I fell straight to the ground and rolled my ankle on the way down and let out a short little scream.  Carter was playing in the den and heard me and came running to my aid like the little sweetie he is.  He came in the room and said “what mommy doing? Mommy hurt?”.  I told him that I fell down and hurt my ankle and then he went and kissed it and gave me a hug and said “Carter make it all better mom”.  Be still my heart.  Except for the part where he now calls me “mom”.  I’m so not ready for that!

Baby Size:  Goodness gracious how little boy has grown the past two weeks.  At 25 weeks, Garrett is now the size of a cauliflower (week 24 he was the size of a cantaloupe).  So that means that he’s roughly 2lbs and is about 14 inches in length.  I’m hoping that whenever I do my 4D ultrasound that they’ll be able to give me more specifics on weight and height, just so I have an idea.

Movement:   Garrett still moves all the time and I still love it.  Watching my tummy move is more and more fascinating by the day.  These days they aren’t just quick little kicks.  Now that his legs are longer and he’s bigger just in general, the movements I see are more of him moving across my stomach instead of just a quick jab (if that makes any sense).

Gender:  I am the queen in my house of boys!

What I’m Looking Forward To:  My glucose test is at the next appointment so I’m interested to see how I do on that.  I passed the 1 hour test the first time with Carter so I’m hoping that’s the case again.  And I’m also looking forward to scheduling my 4D ultrasound which is done somewhere around 28-30 weeks, though as of now I’m trying to determine whether to have it done at my doctor’s office or at a local place called 4D Mommies where it’s much cheaper.

Other Comments:  So I have been debating this for a long time on this and finally made a decision. I did make a registry for this baby.  And I can’t even begin to tell you how little is on it.  Several people have asked me what we want and it’s nice to have a registry so that I don’t have to keep up with what people get.  Also, the one thing everyone thinks that moms and dads of baby #2 need, especially when it’s the same sex as baby #1, is diapers.  This is very true, trust me, but it’s not the only thing we need.  There’s still several things that Carter still uses that we’ll have to get another one for Garrett.  Things like a sound machine, or stuffed animals, or a clothes hamper.  If anyone is interested in showering Garrett with a gift, feel free to get diapers or anything on our registry.  Click here to see the registry at Buy Buy Baby (I didn’t bother with multiple registries-one was enough!).  We certainly don’t need any clothes because we have all of Carter’s clothes stored away that we’ll use for Garrett.  Unless it’s monogrammed of course!  We live in the south so God knows baby Garrett will need some stuff with his name on it!  All this being said, the REAL reason we created a registry is to get the registry completion coupon that you get towards the end of your pregnancy.  It’s like 35% off of whatever is left on your registry!

Next Appointment:  26 week appointment is on July 25th, me and Justin’s 5 year anniversary.  How appropriate.  At this appointment I will have my glucose screening as well as scheduling my 4D ultrasound (assuming I choose to do it at my doctor’s office).   

Bump Pic for Week 25:

 

Bump Pic for Week 24:

My Big Fat Belly 2.0 - 23 Weeks

How far along: 23 Weeks, 2 Days.  Can’t believe I’m halfway through the 6th month!!!

Symptoms:  Nothing other than the belly!  Gah I feel like it’s poked out SOOOO much the past couple of weeks!!  Oh and I took a look at my 22 week belly post with Carter (I didn’t do one at 23 weeks).  There was quite a list of things under symptoms.  You can see it here.  It basically involved lots of back pain, being out of breath all the time and I even said “overall unhappiness”.  I can tell you with 150% certainty that this is because of the lack of working out with Carter’s pregnancy.  I don’t feel a single bit of unhappiness or discomfort this time around (at this point at least…all that discomfort will come in the third trimester I assure you).  Working out as much as I do this time around has made pregnancy SOOOOOO much more bearable!  I’m interested to see if I can keep up this pace throughout the end of the pregnancy.  I’m really hoping I do.  I would love to see the effect on the delivery and labor.  They say if you exercise regularly, your delivery and labor will be smoother than if you don’t workout.  Definitely didn’t have a “walk in the park” labor and delivery with Carter so maybe this time around Garrett will pop right on out after a couple of pushes!

Maternity Clothes:   I’m pretty much full on in maternity clothes.  I do still wear several non-maternity shirts and non-maternity workout clothes.   There’s a few pairs of jeans that I wear that I can shockingly still button.  They’re my old size 8 jeans.  I can button them and they’re comfortable as long as I’m standing up, but if I sit down, having them buttoned squeezes on the uterus too much, so I will unbutton them and tie the rubberband around it.  I basically never wear jeans though.  I only wore those because we were in California and it was actually pretty chilly there.  It’s WAY too hot in the south for jeans right now.  Also, I have noticed that I carry my babies pretty high during pregnancy.  That also makes buttoning jeans a little easier than it is for people that carry babies lower.  But I am going to have to go buy some maternity workout clothes.  I can’t squeeze into most of my yoga pants these days.

Weight Gain:  16 pounds.  I have a book that I had with Carter that you list your weight and your waist size every day that you’re pregnant.  It’s cool because I can look back to see exactly how much I weighed with Carter on that same day within the pregnancy.  So far these two boys are shaping up to be the exact same.  Right now I’m still about a pound ahead of where I was with Carter, but overall weight is about 8-9lbs less.  So basically if this baby shapes up to be the same as Carter, I’ll expect to gain about 35 pounds.  I was trying to gain less weight but from what I hear, most moms gain more weight the second time around because they are less worried about what they’re eating.  I can agree that I’m not as much of a Nazi this time around with things like caffeine intake or small stuff like that, but overall, I actually eat significantly healthier this time around.  PLUS there’s the whole working out about 5-6 days a week which I certainly DID NOT do with Carter.  So to be honest, I have no idea how my weight is the same as it was with Carter.  I guess this is just how I carry babies.  Good thing about this being my 2nd rodeo is that I know all this weight is going to fall off so I ain’t worried :)

Sleep:  No change.  Sleep is normal.

Belly Button: In and it will likely stay that way.  With Carter it never popped out, it just got really really flat as my stomach got bigger.  No indication of the line that shows up on your lower stomach just yet.  Can’t really remember when it showed up with Carter, but I do remember that it FREAKED JUSTIN OUT!  As of now though, the belly button is getting flatter and flatter since my belly seems to have grown an inch and a half over the last two weeks!

Stretch Marks:  None yet.  Didn’t have any with Carter so I’m hoping it stays that way.

Cravings/Aversions:  Haven’t really noticed any major cravings lately.  And to be honest, it appears that I’m one of those rare few that don’t crave things during pregnancy.  With Carter the only things I craved were eggs and chocolate milk, but I loved those things when I wasn’t pregnant so I don’t really count those.  Haven’t craved much of anything at all during this pregnancy either.

Exercise Routine:  Still holding strong at 6 days a week of P90X, Mommy and Me Fitness and/or Pure Barre.  The last week was a long break from exercising because of our trip to California but I picked it back up as soon as I got back.  I’ve actually already gotten through another 90 days of P90X, so I’m starting back over again on Day 1.  I am starting to do more modifications than I was at the beginning of pregnancy though.  I’m using a chair more during pullups, I’ll do the first set of pushups on my toes but I’ll drop to my knees for the 2nd set, I also eliminate any dangerous-type moves (if you’ve done P90X you know there’s plenty of those) and replace them with something a little more tame.  All in all, I’m still doing these workouts, I’m just trying to be a little more careful in how I do them.  I also don’t do Plyometrics at all.  I stopped doing that as soon as I got pregnant.  That DVD is INTENSE and not safe at all for pregnancy.  Way too much jumping around.  My doctor told me that was the one DVD from P90x to stay away from while pregnant and I agree.  I’ve been doing the Cardio X DVD in it’s place.

Baby Size:  At week 23, baby is the size of a grapefruit.  It’s about 11-12 inches from head to heel and weighs anywhere from a pound to 21 ounces.   At this stage, the face is fully formed and everything is in place.  He can hear my heart and my blood moving around in my body as well as people around me talking.  So this is when he’ll pick up on Justin’s voice as well as Carter’s. 

Movement:   Kid moves ALL THE TIME.  I can even see it on my stomach now which is crazy to me.  I very rarely use my fetal doppler to hear him anymore because if I just stay still long enough, he moves.  That doesn’t mean he’s awake though.  He still sleeps about 14-17 hours a day in there, but he rolls around a lot when he sleeps and I can feel all that.  I’ve been told the reason I can feel him so much more than I could feel Carter is because I weigh less than I did with Carter.  Someone told me that and then just days later I read it in one of my books.  Not sure if there’s really any truth to that, but I like feeling him move whenever I want to! 

Gender:  I am the queen in my house of boys!

What I’m Looking Forward To:  Finishing his room.  It’s been painted and we have his chair, but we still need to move all of Carter’s furniture into Garrett’s room (and put Carter’s new furniture in his room) and get a table and a lamp.  I’ll feel better when those things happen.  I’m not too worried about decor.  There’s plenty of time for that.  I just want furniture!

Next Appointment:  26 week appointment is on July 25th, me and Justin’s 5 year anniversary.  How appropriate.  It’s crazy that as of right now, I only have about 4 1/2 weeks left in the 2nd trimester and then onto 3rd trimester land I go.  This pregnancy is FLYING.  I’m doing my best to soak it up because it will likely be my last.  Neither Justin nor I want three children.  We know we may change our minds in the future, but we’ve both always said just 2 is fine with us.

Even though I haven’t blogged for 3 weeks on this pregnancy, I have done a decent job of still taking the pictures so here’s the pictures for weeks 21-23:

Bump Pic for Week 21:

Bump Pic for Week 22 (This is at the Golden Gate Bridge):

 

Bump Pic for Week 23: 

 

Western States 100 Mile Endurance Race

If you’re friends with me on facebook, you probably already recognize those words.  Justin had his SECOND 100 mile race last weekend.  I’ll give you a minute to process that and wonder what on Earth a human being would be running 100 miles for….

Ok so for the details-

This was his second 100 mile race.  His first one was in November 2013 and was called the Pinhoti 100 and the race covered the majority of the Pinhoti trail in Alabama.  I blogged about that race here.  This time, the race was in California.  Justin flew out a couple of days before me so that he could acclimatize to the elevation change.  The race was through the mountain ranges in California and there was lots of elevation changes.  Since the elevation in Alabama is basically sea level, he needed to get his body used to the changes in elevation before the race so that his lungs could do better.

I flew out to meet him on Friday.   Our favorite travel friends, Bonnie and Andrew, met us there from their home in Colorado.  Justin and his running buddy, Jeremy, picked us up at the airport.  Jeremy is in the same running group as Justin is-it’s called “Birmingham Ultra Trail Society” but is nicknamed “BUTS”.   Jeremy offered to come out to California to pace Justin during the race.  Let me explain pacing really quick. 

For these 100 mile endurance races, runners are allowed “pacers” after a certain mileage.  Basically that means that you can have a friend run with you for as long as you need it.  In the Pinhoti race, Justin had 2 pacers, our friend Rob and Justin’s brother-in-law, Aeron.  They were great during that race and extremely useful, but the downside was that they weren’t ultrarunners (and ultra runner is someone that runs over 26.2 miles).  For Pinhoti it wasn’t a big deal and Rob and Aeron definitely helped get him across the finish line within 27 1/2 hours.  But Western States is different.  The course is significantly harder and there were less aid stations that Justin could see his crew at.  Quick tutorial on aid stations-there are several spots throughout races like this where a group is there for whatever you need.  If you need more water, or your head covered in ice water, or food, etc….that’s what the aid stations are for.  During the Pinhoti race, I was the only person in Justin’s “crew” that went to all the aid stations to meet him.  I had everything he would need laid out for him.  I would replace his GUs, change his socks and shoes while he sat down, assisted him in changing shirts, hats, basically whatever he needed.  At Western States, they still had tons of aid stations, but crews could only access a handful of them.  Which meant that Justin was running a ton by himself with no familiar faces. 

This is why it was crucial to have another ultrarunner pace him.  Jeremy started running with Justin at mile 55.  You can imagine at that time that he was spent.  He needed someone to make decisions for him: tell him when to walk, when to run, let him know what his pace was, talk to him nonstop to keep him awake, and encourage the crap out of him so he wouldn’t quit.  Other ultrarunners know how it is and they know exactly what to do and what to say to keep you going.  Jeremy had already run two 100 mile races himself so he was definitely experienced and knew exactly what Justin needed and when he needed it.  Justin later told me that had Jeremy not been there, he was certain he would have quit because of how difficult the course was. 

Oh I forgot to mention, runners have 30 hours to complete the race and Justin finished in 29 hours, 35 minutes.  It was that close.  He hated it being so close to the cutoff too, but he did the best he could and between the elevation, the difficult trail, the lack of sleep and the fact that he started having some bad stomach issues that lasted from mile 10 until mile 100, he was just happy to finish. 

So anyway, here’s some pictures of the race:

Justin and I woke up at 3:30am and I walked with him to the start line (that was literally feet from our hotel) to pick up his packet.  We came back to the hotel room to get Bonnie and Andrew and Jeremy and then we all walked to the start line around 4:30am together.

I think the final count was 390ish people from 25 countries that were doing the race.   Only 296 people finished the race though.  It was that hard.

 

This was at the start line.  See that gigantic mountain in the background?  Yeah the runners ran up that in the first 4 miles.  About 2,500 feet of elevation gain in four miles.  That’s like running straight uphill for hours folks.  INSANE.

This is Bonnie, myself and Jeremy.  We were on our way to the first aid station that we were allowed to go to which was mile 30.  We stopped at this cliff because it overlooked another aid station below it and we were just seeing if any runners had come through yet.  We loved our shirts too :)

This is where we were camped out at mile 30 aid station waiting on Justin to arrive.  There’s a lot of downtime being a crew member of these races.  You don’t have any cell service and even though there was a website that was tracking Justin and when he came into each aid station, it wasn’t updating very quickly and we didn’t have service to access it.  So we had a lot of waiting and wondering when he’d get there.

And then he finally showed up and my nerves were much better.  We were expecting him a little sooner than he showed up but that was when he told us about his stomach issues and that they had been holding him back.

 

He had to get weighed in at each aid station to make sure he wasn’t losing too much weight.  There were definitely medical precautions in place to make sure these runners were being safe.  I think you were only allowed to lose about 5% of your body weight before they would pull you from the race.  At this 30 mile aid station, he’d lost about 2 pounds.

This is the aid station crew helping Justin out by filling up his water.  When he was done with their help, he came down to where we had camped out and were waiting on him.

We had a chair ready for him to sit in so that we could get everything ready for him.  He sits down at the aid stations at the beginning of the race, but once runners get towards the end, they won’t sit down because they know if they do, they won’t get up. 

Jeremy is taking off his shoes while I get baby wipes out ready to wipe down his feet for him.  Bonnie was getting his pack ready by removing any trash he had and stocking it with GU, sports beans, and other snacks.  After staying at this aid station for a whopping total of maybe 5 minutes, he got up and was off again.  We packed everything up and left to grab lunch and then to meet him at the next aid station at mile 55.

This is a screen shot of the online updates we got (when we had service at least).  Folks at home were able to use this website to check on his status and once we got to aid stations that had service, we used this to figure out when he would come into the station we were waiting on him at.

These are of Justin coming into aid station at mile 55.  At this point, the sun was about to go down.  This was also when Jeremy changed clothes and put on his bib and started running with Justin.  Pacers had to wear bibs with their runners numbers on them.  Pacer bibs were yellow and runner bibs were white.

This is Justin at the actual aid station stocking up on some food and getting weighed in again.  I think this aid station he was only down 1lb because he was drinking so much water.

So proud of my babe!  This is when he came to our spot and at this aid station he changed shorts and we stocked his pack with even more GU, sports beans and electrolyte pills.  He stayed for maybe another 5 minutes and then him and Jeremy were off.  Bonnie, Andrew and I had to walk kinda far to our car after this aid station because the shuttle that was taking crew to and from the aid station stopped running.  So frustrating.  But we made it back to our car and headed to the next and final aid station where we would see Justin that day, mile 62.

**These pictures are very dark because it was 10pm at night**

This is Justin and Jeremy at the aid station getting some food.

 

First pic is of Justin and Jeremy walking from the main aid station to where we had stuff setup for them.  This was the last time Justin sat down.  I think he’s drinking chicken broth in that picture.

After mile 62, me and Bonnie and Andrew went to our hotel to go to sleep.  The plan was to meet them the next morning at mile 95.  Well, just like when I was crewing Justin at Pinhoti, I got like no sleep at all.  I was constantly rolling over to check his status via the website.  Once I saw them come through mile 80 at 4:30am, I called Jeremy to ask the status.  Justin did well overnight and even picked up his pace a bit so I waited about an hour and then texted Bonnie and told her to start getting up because they had starting running a little quicker.  We all got ready and got some breakfast on the way to the aid station.  We got to mile 95 and waited for them to show up. 

Jeremy was chowing down on some bacon from this aid station.  It was hard to sit next to them cooking this kind of food!  They had eggs, bacon, pancakes, various soups, etc.  Luckily at this aid station they actually had food for crews too.  I drank two big ole’ cups of hot chocolate while I was here because it was really cold when we got there but warmed up significantly in a pretty short period of time.

A volunteer was helping out at the aid station after she was done pacing her runner so she helped Justin by filling up his water pack and putting it on for him.  He also got a “sponge bath” of ice water on his head by another volunteer.

They were probably at this aid station for maybe 3 minutes before they were off again!  We were originally planning to just go straight to the finish line to meet them but on the way to the 93 mile aid station, we noticed that we could probably get to the aid station at mile 96 so we drove there and waited for them.

We were glad we made it to this station because the views were GORGEOUS!

Making their way to the station.

 

Maybe a whopping 2 minutes at this aid station and then they were off again!  There was one more aid station but we didn’t want to risk not getting to the finish line and finding parking so we skipped that one and headed straight to the finish line at 100.2!

Just like I did at the Pinhoti finish line, I bawled like crazy when he crossed the line.  Y’all have no idea the training and hard work he put into this race.  Time away from me, away from Carter.  It was very emotional.  He even told me he got emotion seeing me at the aid stations toward the end of the race. 

Getting that buckle!!!  So most races you get a medal at the end.  He did get a medal, but the pride and joy of 100 mile runners is the belt buckle.  He was devastated at Pinhoti when he crossed the finish line and I had to tell him that they didn’t make enough buckles and they would have to mail it to him.  This time, they had his buckle there and waiting for him!

We stayed at the finish line and waited for him to recuperate for a little while, but then he wanted to get to the hotel so he could attempt a bath and then lay in bed.  This is what a bath looks like after running a race that big:

  

He did the same thing for Pinhoti.  Since he was incapable of standing on his own two feet (you would be too if you ran 100 miles and hadn’t sat down in 30 hours) we had to put his chair in the shower and let him just sit in it to bathe.

It was an intense race and to be honest, it almost as much of an adrenaline rush for the crew as it is for the runner.  After letting Justin bathe and rest for a little bit, we got in the car and headed to San Francisco.  It was only a 2 hour drive from the start line so we decided to stay an extra day and explore San Fran!  Jeremy actually met up with one of his friends that lives in Sacramento and left with him after the race so we said goodbye to him and of course thanked the dickens out of him for his help to Justin.  We dropped off Bonnie and Andrew at their hotel (it was a different hotel than ours) in San Francisco and then went to our hotel.  We ended up not leaving because we were both so exhausted.  Justin was obviously more exhausted than me and he needed some sleep.  I will say though, I’ve never been that tired.  I’m 22 weeks pregnant and got about 7 1/2 hours of sleep between Friday and Saturday.  Once we ate a quick dinner in our hotel, I was asleep by 8pm and Justin fell asleep shortly after.

The next day we met up with Bonnie and Andrew again and explored the city. 

At breakfast the next morning.  I was IMPRESSED at how well Justin was getting around.  His feet still hurt, but he was fine.

This is called “the painted sisters”.  You probably recognize it as the home from Full House.

This is the crooked road, which is also famous, however I’d never heard of it or seen it, which surprised my friends and husband.

And of course I had to take a belly pic :)

 

After exploring the Golden Gate Bridge, we headed to Fisherman’s Wharf and explored Pier 39. 

The last picture is at a beach and I honestly can’t remember which beach or where it was at.  Pretty sure it was close to the Golden Gate Park.

We flew home the next day.  Justin is shockingly fine y’all.  He clearly trained for this run much better than he trained for Pinhoti.  That’s not to say he isn’t hurting, because he is.  But to be up and walking around the next day was impressive to me.

So congratulations to my amazingly inspiring husband on completing his 2nd 100 mile race!!!