Lucky 2013

I don’t even know where to begin to wrap up this past year.  This has been the best year of my life.  I couldn’t imagine being luckier.  I can’t lie, that also makes me a little nervous, because who gets everything they want, right?  I am going to just enjoy all of the blessings in my life and look back at the wonderful year we have had.

I’m going to try and highlight all of the best times of my year, but I am sure I will miss some things!

I was engaged as I entered this year, Chris and I had been engaged for almost a year at the start of 2013, with just four months until our big day in Jamaica!  It was also an exciting time for us because we were now home owners and still getting settled in our home, in our new neighborhood.

January is my birthday month, and this year was extra special because all of my college girls made the trip down to Charlotte to celebrate my upcoming nuptials with me!  We had such a fun, long weekend at Catherine’s house in Charlotte catching up and celebrating, having a shower and a bachelorette party.  It was so much fun, and went by much too fast!

This was only pic I could find :( missing some girls!

Chris and I share our birthdays within a week of each other, instead of doing gifts, we like to find somewhere to go for an overnight trip to celebrate and explore.  This year, we traveled a short distance to Greenville, SC.  We were able to stay downtown and explore the city, see the nightlife and do some hiking.  That was my first time in Greenville, and I really enjoyed it.

Between January and April, this was a busy time for us.  Planning and preparing for our wedding.  Luckily, we had a travel agent/wedding coordinator who specializes in destination weddings that made our planning so much easier.  I feel like this time flew by between dress fittings and last minute details.  I traveled up to Rochester, NY in March for my NY shower.  My mom put on a great shower for us, complete with my favorite Italian food.  It was so nice to see so many of our family and friends come together to celebrate our upcoming day!

Friends at my Rochester shower

Charlotte shower

During this time, I was also training for the Wrightsville Beach half marathon.  I set a goal of breaking 1:40 for the half, which I had not done before.  Chris helped with my training plan and I had additional help with my training from some of my running girl friends here in Charlotte.  I am happy to report that I finished in 1:39!  Chris ran the race with me to help, and I was so happy when I crossed that finish line and met my goal!  I would like to plan for another PR in the future, but I may wait a couple years on this goal…

celebrating after the race!

I remember being so excited in the weeks leading up to our wedding in April.  Jamaica, the trip, our wedding, far surpassed anything I had in mind.  It was just…PERFECT.  We had our good friends Jaime and Adam and Catherine and Matt with us on the plane ride to Jamaica, which made it so much more fun.  When we arrived, some of our family and friends were already at the resort and I can remember stepping off the shuttle into the resort, smelling the lemon grass aroma, and just feeling like we were in paradise.  I am not going to go on in details about our wedding weekend and honeymoon, because I have already written a blog about all of that.  Just thinking back on it all now, I would go back in a second; this was the best vacation I ever had.  Combined with family and friends, it was just icing on the cake.  I could not imagine a better wedding for us.  We both love traveling and more relaxed, less stressful events, and this was amazing.  I wish I had a trip booked there again.  We will be back to Negril!

Just married :)

making it official!

out honeymoon in Ochos Rios

Once we got back to Charlotte, I’m not going to lie; I had a bit of a hard time getting back to reality.  I missed Jamaica, so much.  More than any trip/vacation I had ever been on.  I felt a little down that it was all over, and I wanted to relive our wedding and that weekend over and over again.  It just went by too fast.  I soon came to realize that it probably was not Jamaica I was missing so much, but the year and half of wedding planning and excitement had come to an end, it was all over.  I was missing it all.  I did not expect to feel that way.  I remember watching our wedding video and looking at all of our pictures over and over again, I could not get enough of it.

Luckily, we have such great friends here in Charlotte who planned us a wonderful wedding celebration in May, when we returned.  The only downfall of having a destination wedding is that many of our family and friends were not able to make the trip with us.  Thankfully, everyone was ready to celebrate with us, when we returned.  

some of the girls at our Charlotte wedding celebration

In July, we traveled up to Rochester, NY for our church wedding and celebration with family and friends in NY.  I was able to wear my dress again, and have our marriage blessed by the church, followed by a backyard reception at my parent’s house.  It was a HOT weekend in Rochester over the 4^th of July, but luckily, we had many cold beverages to keep us cool while we danced and celebrated!  My parents had this reception catered by my favorite NY restaurant, Agatinas!  We also had a DJ and a dance floor to keep the party going.  Then we finished off the night by letting off paper sky lanterns into the sky.  It was so much fun!

Letchworth Park in NY

dancing at our NY reception

This is how fast the first half of our year flew by…in a second!

All of the excitement did not stop there.  In July I received a promotion with my company and made the switch from the medical-surgical division at McKesson to the Health Systems-Pharmacy division.  There was a chance we were going to have to move to either Raleigh or Charleston for this position, but when I received the offer, I was surprised to learn that there was a position that just opened where I could stay right here in Charlotte.  It all worked out just right.  I have been in my new position for five months now, it still feels like I am only a month in, it’s a big transition and a lot to learn, but I am really enjoying it.  I really like my new team and my new manager, and I’m looking forward to growing in my new position.

We had many fun local trips over the summer, Folly Beach, Charleston, Asheville, Blowing Rock, Kiawah Island, and Myrtle Beach.  We were enjoying every minute of it in our newly married life, then in August, I found out I was pregnant!  What an awesome surprise this was, and added excitement to the year we were having!

I am already 22 weeks pregnant, expecting a little baby boy, who we have already picked out a name for!  He is moving around in my belly everyday!  I can’t believe we only have four months left until we get to meet him.  He has already added so much joy to our lives!

In November we took a long weekend trip up to Philadelphia for the marathon weekend.  Originally I planned on running the full marathon, but since I became pregnant, I scaled it back to the half, and Chris ran the full.  On our trip to Philly, we stopped over in DC for a night to explore the city.  My family also met up with us in Philadelphia to support us in our races!

The White House

This brings us to the end of the year.  What a year it has been!  I cannot believe how much has happened and changed this year.  I don’t think anything can ever top this year.  Our wedding, the biggest event of our life, and now to come in, a very close second, a new baby to enter our life in 2014!  I thank God everyday for giving us such a good life and so much to look forward to as we start our family together!

Love of Pregnancy?

We have now made it to almost 18 weeks.  In the beginning, this felt like it would be so far away.  Looking back, it actually does go quite quickly.

I feel about the same way I felt in my first trimester.  I know I’m very lucky that I did not have to suffer through any of the common symptoms of pregnancy, mainly, morning sickness.  Overall, I think I have had a very easy pregnancy thus far.  

I am still very curious why women tell me they LOVED being pregnant.  I’m still waiting for this to hit me.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining.  I am very lucky and thankful that we were able to get pregnant.  I just cannot say that I love being pregnant.  No, it’s not difficult for me, but love it? Nope, at least not yet.
.

I use to hear of women that complained of getting ‘fat’ while pregnant.  I thought this was a selfish or superficial thought.  I get it now.  I really did think that you just gradually get this nice, cute little belly that grows over time.  I knew that some people over eat and use the term ‘eating for two’ and get bigger than others, but overall, I just thought it was a process where you just grow this cute belly bump.  I was so wrong.  I sit here at 18 weeks, and I still feel fat.  My stomach is growing, but it’s not just a cute little baby bump.  I feel like I’m growing out everywhere.  I can fit in some of my clothes still, but just not very comfortably, and I have one pair of maternity jeans, and they are too big.  I guess I am just in that awkward stage.  Sometimes it gets hard not to feel self conscious about it all.

I still have not felt any of my baby’s movements.  I was told this can happen between 17-21 weeks.  Maybe this is when it feels more real.  Right now I seem to just have constant heartburn, a constant dull headache everyday and what feels like constant stretching going on in my lower abdomen, which sometimes hurts to even cough, sneeze and blow my nose, especially after working out.  None of these symptoms are terrible, and I don’t notice them at all times of the day.

I was very lucky that little Baby Lamperski allowed me to run the Philly Half Marathon one week ago today.  Besides a few bathroom stops, the baby was very accommodating to me.  Luckily, only one stop was during the race, at mile 7.  I felt really good, it was a breeze through around mile 8-9.  My first stop was at mile 7 for use of the bathroom, there was a line, and some nice gentleman let me go in front of him, very nice!  This break still lasted 4 minutes with the waiting.  I took a gel there and water.  I stopped again going up a long gradual hill.  I think this was around mile 9.3, and I walked for about 3/10 mile up the hill.  Just didn’t want to exert myself too much, and kept reminded myself that this race was not a race for me, and just about having fun.  This was also the point I started to feel ligament pain.  My doctor said this was normal, and nothing to worry about.  I stopped one more time at mile 12.  Only b/c I felt very dehydrated.  It was much warmer that we thought it would be, it was in the upper 50’s, but it was over 90% humidity.  Not a hot humid, but I was sweating a lot and very thirsty.  It was always so crowded around me at all times, so I didn’t stop for many water breaks, I should have carried my own water.  So, starting around mile 11 I was looking for water, they only had a Clif Shot station.  I was so thirsty that I was starting to get worried about the baby.  So, I stopped and walked at 12, thinking maybe there would be a station at 12.5, but as I got to about 12.3 I could see no stations, so I just decided to run very slow to the finish, faster to get water that way.  

I finished with a time of 2:06, my slowest half marathon to date, but I think I was smart the whole time.  There were a few points where I had to argue with myself about time.  A few times I just wanted to keep going, or pick up the pace, but I had to remind myself, time does not matter and to just make sure you feel good the entire time so the baby stays safe.  So, I enjoyed the course, I looked around at all of the sights and people, and had a good time.  Since my longest run was 10 miles before this, my legs were hurting a bit toward the end.  I think this may be the first race where I think I was smiling just about the whole time!

It was fun, and I’m happy I was able to complete a half marathon at 17 weeks pregnant.  When I finished I crossed over to the full marathon finish chute and got to see Chris finish shortly after me, with a time of 2:38, for 26.2 miles!  Good day for him as well!  (I started the race 15 min’s late due to a line for the bathroom, so started with a slower corral.)

Tomorrow we go for the 18 week anatomy scan, ultrasound.  We should be able to find out if Baby Lamperski is a boy or girl!  We could have found out at my 16 week appointment, but the baby wouldn't cooperate and kept it's legs tightly closed.  I really haven’t had any sort of intuition on this.  My guess is a boy, but this is purely a guess and I wouldn’t put money on it.  I base this on the fact that my belly seems to be growing out high up, which I think they say is a sign of a boy.  Really, no other reasons, but just a guess.  Chris’s guess is a girl.  Can’t wait to find out tomorrow!!  Then we can get started on planning the nursery!