Year in Recap: 2010 (Heather's PoV)

I saw this on another blog that I read and thought it would be a good exercise in summarizing this unbelievable year that we've had. Here is my best try with my terrible memory.

1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before?
Wheew this is a hard one to answer considering how much has happened to us this year. Just a highlight of the main ones:
Trained for a triathlon. Jogged (for part of the time!) in the Krispy Kreme Challenge. Got pregnant --pregnant with triplets even!. Canceled a cruise vacation. Saw my doctors far more often than I saw anyone else. Visited the ER. Went on bed rest. Stayed in a hospital (several times!) over night (many nights!). Had an emergency C-section. Gave birth to triplets. Lost my son. Watched my daughter die. Quit a job I liked. Learned oh so much about the neonatal intensive care unit. Gained some insight on how it feels to be a mother and the strength required to be one.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I never really make specific resolutions anymore since it is too easy to fail at them and then feel terrible about it. But I did plan to be more physical and possibly participate in a triathlon. Glenn and I both committed to the training and did a really great job I think. We both got bikes, joined a pool, and trained about 5 days a week. The triathlon was scheduled for May and a month before it I got pregnant and really sick with ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. I had to stop training and couldn't participate in the race. I'm sad that I wasn't able complete it but I am still proud of how hard we worked to get there. One day I hope to get there again.
Looking ahead to 2011:
I would like to be better at remembering the special moments. I think I am pretty good at living in them ( Hope so at least!) but as for recalling them later, I suck. Whatever I need to do to accomplish this... writing on the blog, taking more pictures, doing SOMETHING with the pictures, video, taking ginko biloba, or whatever works at the time.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yes, me! And a good friend had twins in the spring!

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Yes. Two of my triplets. Oliver when he was 3 days old due to internal bleeding (a liver subdural hematoma). Charlotte when she was a little over 3 weeks old due to a klebsiella infection and intestinal perforations.

5. What countries did you visit?
None.
 First year in many that I have stayed in the USA the entire time.

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
A more boring, predictable, plannable year.

7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
So many.

• Easter: when I found out we actually had ovarian follicles for only the second time in a year and that we actually had a chance of pregnancy.
• April: Found out I was pregnant.
• May: Found out I was expecting triplets.
• July: Beginning of major pregnancy complications, strict bed rest and last day of working in the office.
• August 27th: Devastating OB visit resulting in hospitalization for rest of pregnancy.
• August 30th: Eliza's water breaks.
• September 8th: Babies' birthday
• September 11th: Oliver passes away
• October 1st: Charlotte passes away
• September & October: The most brutal months of my life to date

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Getting pregnant, and surviving the last 4 months.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not being able to keep the babies in for longer than 24weeks 2 days. Everyone says there was nothing I could have done and that I did everything possible to keep them in for as long as I did --But its still my FAILURE.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Yeah the pregnancy was rough... ovarian hyperstimulation, retinal occlusion, cerclage, 3 hospital stays...

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Trip insurance for the cruise we had to cancel at the last minute.
A crib off of Craigslist that ended up being recalled. We got a voucher from the company for a brand new one. :)
A chest freezer for all of the breast milk we are storing

12. Where did most of your money go?
Baby stuff

13. What did you get really excited about?
Pregnant!! Triplets!!

15. Compared to this time last year, are you:
– happier or sadder? Happier and sadder
– thinner or fatter? About the same but in much poorer shape.
– richer or poorer? About the same.

16. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Relegated myself to the bed/couch the moment I found out I was expecting triplets despite the conflicting advice. Maybe it would have made a difference.

17. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Worried about how we would afford and care for triplets.

18. How did you spend Christmas?
At the hospital with Eliza, just Glenn and I. Then at a friends for the evening. My family came into town at 3 in the morning the next day. They spent the entire night driving through the snow so they could be here with us before we were all snowed in. At 3:30am our electricity went out. Luckily we had enough blankets to stay warm for the 9 hours it was out. It was one of the strangest Christmas's ever but it was still great. If nothing else, this year has taught us to roll with the punches and to never plan anything in stone.

19. What was your favorite TV program?
Dexter, Breaking Bad, United States of Tara, Nurse Jakie, Modern Family

20. What were your favorite books of the year?
Sookie Stackhouse books. Thanks to my sister for lending them to me.

21. What was your favorite music from this year?

Mumford & Sons, Matt & Kim, Ke$ha, Regina Spektor

22. What were your favorite films of the year?
How to Train Your Dragon, Inception, Date Night

23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Turned 29. Glenn made me breakfast, went out to lunch with friends and had dinner with more friends!

24. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Argh. Don't like this question. What would make me immeasurably happier RIGHT NOW? Eliza being healthy, happy and at home in my arms. :)

25. What kept you sane?
HAHAHAHA - who said I'm sane? NOT!!

26. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.
When all else fails, just one step in front of the other. Do what you gotta do, man.

Still exercising!

We're still continuing to train for Heather's triathlon, and looking at other ones to possibly do together later this year. (The problem with that is, by May it's already almost summer, and the idea of doing a triathlon in the summer heat is somewhat demotivating... but we're looking nonetheless!) I'm pleased and impressed (and surprised) that we're managing to stick with this so well - sure, we've missed a day here and there, but we're averaging 5-6 days a week overall, which I think is darn impressive!

We've hit a few exercise milestones over the last couple of weeks that are worth documenting. Firstly, a week ago we did our first "combination" triathlon training - we rode our bikes 5 miles to the park, swam for 15 minutes, then rode 5 miles back. It was a lot of fun, until less than a mile from home on the way back, I steered my bike into the gutter, hit the curb, and wiped out. I picked up a nice big scrape on my elbow (I'll spare you the pictures!) but otherwise escaped injury. Ever since we got the bikes, I've been waiting for the inevitable first crash, so I'm actually kind of glad to have it over with - and glad it was me instead of Heather!

Secondly, this past weekend we drove over to north Raleigh to try out the actual bike route that Heather's triathlon will follow - 9 miles through a hilly (and rather ritzy) neighborhood. We found that the hills in our neighborhood are nothing compared to the big ones on that route, and that we definitely have some more training to do. On the last big hill we both had to drop to the absolute lowest gear on our bikes just to make it up. But we did finish, and we've still got more than two months of training to go, so it's a good feeling.

Thirdly, swimming. Heather was a swimmer in school, and so it's coming back to her quite naturally as we train in the pool. Me, although I got my swimming merit badge as a boy scout, I've never been much of a swimmer, and my swimming technique has always been more of a way to stay afloat and not sink than a way to move through the water quickly. But with some good tips and suggestions from Heather, I've been rediscovering (or perhaps even learning) how to swim the freestyle, and am now at the point where I can actually swim several laps at a time freestyle without inhaling too much water. It's a good feeling. Today at the pool I covered a total of 1000 yards for what I think may be the first time ever for me - of course, I stopped between laps quite a bit, so it probably doesn't "count", but it's a start!

Krispy Kreme Challenge

So this update is a little late but 2 weeks ago we participated in the the annual Krispy Kreme Challenge at NC State. Apparently this started several years back with students and has now turned into a big, fairly well-known event. Four thousand registered in 2010!


With our new goals of training for my triathalon we thought this might be a sweet (hehe) addition to our weekly running schedule. You can register as a challenger or a causal competitor. The challengers have to run the 2+ miles to Krispy Kreme, eat a dozen doughnuts, run back and not puke, all in an hour. Since that sounds like madness to us we signed up for the casual category..get to Krispy Kreme, eat what you want, and get back to the finish line in however long it takes you.

Moving so fast the camera cant keep up!

We managed to jog most of the way there, picked up our dozen doughnuts, ate a couple, gawked at all of the people smashing doughnuts in order eat them quicker and walked ourselves back to the finish line. All in 1 hour 17 mins. :)

It was a fun and interesting experience and I'm glad we tried it!

Something New to Tri

I have been thinking about doing a Triathlon for several months now but had not committed to it for fear that I would end up not doing it or not being able to. I wasnt sure it made sense given that I hate to run, didn't own a bike (and have barely ridden one in years), and had no place to go swimming, plus the fact that even though I've been working out regularly for most of a year now, I'm far from in shape. Nonetheless I still just wanted to do it - and that counts the most in my list of pros and cons. So I've signed up for a super-sprint triathlon in Raleigh on May 23rd. Super-sprint is the shortest distance tri's come in so its no Ironman event but still something that will require much training on my part. Glenn and I bought bikes last weekend, I've found a beginner's training program (and started the first week!) and even convinced a couple of friends to sign for the the tri as well! So really that only leaves a couple of steps right?

1) Figure out how to jog for more than a couple mins at a time without dying
2) Find a non-gross-me-out pool to swim in
3) Figure out a bike route that wont get me killed by passing cars
4) Don't quit
5) Train for many days, weeks, months
6) Don't even think about quitting
7) Figure out what the heck you wear in a triathlon
8) Lastly, don't die while attempting to complete the triathlon

Not much left at all! :) I'll let you know how its going.