So, a few years ago I sent the following email to my cousin in LA:
“My dog got into a fight with a coyote outside my front door and I’m wearing jeggings from Target, so yeah, I’d say the move to suburban Colorado is going OK”
And you know, all kidding aside, the move to Colorado IS going Ok. Better than, even. (I love that there is wilderness for my dog to romp in; those jeggings from Target were, frankly, totally awesome.) It’s absolutely different than living in the middle of a city, but it’s become more and more clear to me and us that that the ‘different’ is also ‘better’. Colorado fits our family very well, and as long as I can keep my career momentum up and moving – which, so far so good – I suspect we’ll be here for quite a while.
Things ARE different, however. Example: This past weekend we went up to the Crested Butte area to get away and celebrate Mike’s birthday. Mike took advantage of the steps-away river to do many hours of fly fishing, and since our dog has not really embraced the concept that fly fishing is a solo sport – or, at the very least, a sport not aided by him splashing around – I decided to take the pup to one of the trailheads nearby and do a little hiking.
Now, we were fairly deep into the middle of nowhere. Crested Butte is five hours out of Denver, and we were 20 miles out of Crested Butte, so there was basically river and national forest land, and not much else. Which is my way of saying: given that I’ve encountered bears and mountain lions walking around my suburban home, it seemed likely there would be wildlife encounters hiking around the middle of nowhere, especially during bear season. So. The smart thing to do, of course, was bring a gun. Which is how I found myself with my .45 clipped to the waistband my running shorts, straining ever so slightly against my 26 weeks pregnant belly:
City Liz did not have a side holster. Or a .45. Or consider using either one of them (“I do not have a gun, let alone many guns, that would necessitate an entire RACK”). But City Liz also didn’t get to go hiking in Gunnison National Forest, which, frankly, is too bad for her.
(Side story re guns (I’m sure I’ve told this before?): When Mike deployed in 2008 we put all his stuff in storage and I subletted a tiny apartment from a friend so that I could live off just my salary and we could bank Mike’s pay, saving for the home we eventually bought. During one of our Skype conversations while he was deployed, we somehow started talking about guns and I mentioned: “Yeah, I don’t know how i feel about having guns in the house” and he goes “Well, there’s two under your bed right now, so I’d figure it out pretty quickly. [pause] Don’t you EVER clean?”)
(I *do* clean, JUST NOT UNDER THE BED WHO DOES THAT)
Anyway! So, yeah, as noted above, I’m about 26 weeks pregnant. (Maybe more. I don’t know: my doctors and I disagree on my due date by about 5 days, so they always think I’m about a week more pregnant than I am, and depending on how pregnant I feel on any given day I agree with them or not.) Anyway ANYWAY: It would appear that 26 weeks is when the wheels COMPLETELY FALL OFF THE WAGON w/r/t pregnancy activity. LAST week, my friend Laurel was in town and thought a fun way to celebrate her third trimester would be to hike the Incline. (The Incline: a mile trek up a mountain that used to be an old rail car route. The rail car is gone; the tracks remain. It is about 2000 feet in elevation gain in that mile, and then there is a four mile switch back trail on the back side of the mountain to get down.) And you know what? It WAS fun! We had a great time, made it up the mountain and down the switch back and felt great. Granted, it was SLOW, much slower than the other times I’ve climbed it (“other times” = once. I’ve climbed it one other time), but all in all it was a nice day and I loved catching up with an old friend and talking pregnancy and fitness and totally felt like myself, just a bit more lumbery.
Flash forward to the hike mentioned above, just a week later: I found myself out in the woods with my dog and my gun and thinking “What the hell? Why am I out here just WALKING? You know what what I’d rather be doing? SITTING. And NOT WALKING. MOVING IS HARD. THIS IS STUPID.
So. We turned back after a few miles and went back to the house, where I did this for the next many hours:
And yes, I know that activity is good for the baby, but you know what else is good? Literacy. Literacy is good for the baby.
(Speaking of that book: it was lovely, and I do recommend it, HOWEVER: I think I am too pregnant to have read it. It tells you right up front this is a story about a Jewish girl from Austria in 1938 who is sent to live in England as a housemaid because, well, you know: Jewish girl. Austria. 1938. And while it is a nice little love story and period piece and it gets very Downton Abby-esq, there’s also, you know… parents sending their children to opposite ends of the globe in order to avoid the horrific war that is coming! Promising them they’ll all meet up when in fact they know they probably won’t! Siblings ripped away from each other! Parents with no way to contact their kids! GAH! I’m not entirely sure why I thought a Jewish family in a World War Two themed story would end up with a happy ending (spoiler: …no), but nevertheless I found myself ugly crying at the end, all WAR IS HECK OMG. Having said ALL THAT, it *is* a good story and I did enjoy it, just… maybe not so much while pregnant, is the thing.)
Anyway. Maybe 26 weeks is the beginning of the end for pregnancy working out, maybe I’m just tired and needed to take a break. Who knows. We’ll see how tomorrow goes, and the day after that, etc. In the meantime, imagine me near a river in the woods, with my man and my dog, happy as I’ve ever been. It’s a good life, ya know?
InnerTeub 
I think I read that book at a comparable gestational stage, and yeah, no. Not my best plan. I can go ahead and tell you not to follow it up with Unbroken, in case you were thinking more WWII and POWs and sadness and would be nice. Nope. I should have just stuck with the assassin nun books on repeat.
I bet you’ll get another month or maybe more of decent exercise, just with longer recovery and more ups and downs. If I hadn’t gotten derailed by bronchitis, I think I’d have been able to keep jogging till the end. I am actually finding it harder to work out now, 2 months post partum, than during the last couple months of pregnancy. It’s kind of a mind fuck.
Ha! There were so many funny parts here! Also: CRESTED BUTTE.
Since having children, there are Certain Themes that I cannot do in books or movies or tv. Those you listed above–that would be one of them. Families torn apart = NO BUENO.
Also, I feel like maybe the picture of you and the belly and the gun should somehow be on a birth announcement. I like it.
that gun photo is AWESOME. and will now be what I picture you looking like all the time.
the “this felt fine and now it doesn’t (and sometimes, wait, now it does again!)” pregnancy thing is a stupid and irritating. also (speaking of stupid and irritating, here’s some advice from a stranger), maybe see if they’ll check your iron at your next appt? crazy fatigue from weeks 22-28 is often just low iron. you may rock the Incline again!
Can I take a minute to tell you how impressed I am that you did the Incline at 25 weeks pregnant? Holy crap. That hike kicks my ass completely, and I’ve never attempted it while lugging a baby belly with me. Well done, seriously.
I like having you in CO too 🙂
I still completely applaud your activity levels. Doing the incline at 25 weeks? Last time I did it I barely made it up and I most definitely wasn’t pregnant. I read your first few posts on exercising while pregnant, found out I was, and got all gungho about keeping things going. HA….then fatigue and nausea hit and now I look at your posts and think HOW in the heck!!?? Approaching 12 weeks though here, hopeful to hit the honeymoon phase soon and be able to walk more then a mile without feeling like I need a nap.
Oh, and glad you are enjoying the big CO. Its been a pretty good summer thats for sure. Loved the gun packing pic. Just need you elk hunting next month with a bow in hand and your set 😉
oh ERIN. First: CONGRATS! Second: the first trimester, if I remember it objectively and scientifically, is a complete shit show. I was tired all the time, if I worked out it was NOT a first thing in the AM workout,a nd there were more than a few weeks when there were no workouts whatsoever. Around week 12 is when I felt myself spring back into feeling normal, and was able to resume activity. You’ll be fine! First trimester is the time for sleep. And cake, if you can stomach it. 🙂
Gun, Pregnant, Moose, location .. and LIZZIE – great picture !
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