The final countdown & Hello Pain, I've been waiting for you

In case you dont Facebook, tweet or text this blog's for you! The boys will arrive via c-section on Saturday morning; April 3rd. I've heard women say; "Oh I am so done" or "so ready to have the baby". And... I have to agree, I'm there too. I wish my body were stronger because mentally I'm fine and could go 40 weeks or 42 weeks, I've really enjoyed pregnancy. My body disagrees with my mind however as my hips, knees, ankles and back have given up the ghost. The last two weeks or so I have been using crutches or a cane to get around and that's mainly from the bed to the couch to the bathroom. I've felt homebound for the most part and bored but too tired, in pain or lacked the energy to crutch my way anywhere. I take two or three Extra Strength Tylenol to take the edge off the pain. The chiropractor put my hip back in last Thursday but said; "it will just come back out because your joints are so loose getting ready to have the babies". Sure enough, the next day it was back out. (I guess my body didn't get the memo that I'm having a c-section?)

Last week my hips were really bothering me so I made my way to the Legacy Center to swim- feeling weightless in the pool is truly a gift. I arrived and saw an old friend that was my young womens leader when I grew up and she asked how I was; I of course just burst into tears because I was in pain and having a pity party, oh and I think because I'm pregnant. That's the good thing about swimming, no one can tell if you're crying or just wet from the water. I have now gained almost 50 pounds being pregnant and it's taking it's toll. The boys are each about 6 pounds, maybe more.

My poor puppy, Mini has accepted her fate and no longer begs to go places. She just mopes around with me and watches longingly out the front window at other dogs going places. She moans and groans to let me know she's got the worst life a young single gal could ask for.

Having an end in sight truly is keeping me sane because I've just kept telling myself; "I can do this 1 more week, or 4 more days and now today I can say I can do this one more day!" When my sister Doreen and I ran marathons with some friends we used to mentally prepare by saying in a voice like Newman's from Seinfeld; "Hello Pain, I've been waiting for you" because when you're doing 26+ miles the pain comes and it either makes or breaks you- You've got to decide. So I've applied the same mentality to pregnancy.
At mile 18 of our first full marathon we had just stopped at an aid station because both my ankles and balls of my feet had blisters on them. Each step was painful so we pulled over to see what could be done. The first aid station looked at them, put some wrapping on them and said, "that's all we can do, you can stop or keep going" so I kept going. By mile 20 I had tears but didn't want to complain because I didn't want to bring down the other girls so I asked them just to go ahead and leave me by myself for awhile. They went ahead and I slowed my pace a little and started to really bawl, I had what I call a pity party and started thinking why me, maybe I should just quit, I'm not cut out to be a runner anyway, I'm in the Clydesdale category because I weigh more than 140 pounds, I'm bloody hot and tired. But then I thought of Stephen waiting at the finish line and I thought of all the hours I had logged to get the this point, every day and every Saturday for the last 8 months I had trained and exhausted myself. I didn't know if the girls would let me quit, they were just ahead of me, I could see them but I could easily just keep putting distance between us and sit down on the curb and be done. I decided I'd better make a decision, so I said to myself; "hello pain, I've been waiting for you" and I made my mind up that I had to do what had to be done so I picked up my pace and caught up with the girls and we did it, we finished and I put the pain out of my mind for the last 6 miles and it's the best experience of not giving up I have had in my life. It was just me and the road (and the blisters) and I had to decide and I realized, I can do hard things in life and they don't kill you. So if you're having a really bad day, or your life has been thrown a curve ball, tell yourself; "hello pain, I've been waiting for you" and move past it.