St. Ignace and the Mackinac Island Great Turtle

Last year I started running because my sister was running. Then Nathan decided to join me and we trained ,ost of the year for what we thought would be the half marathon at Mackinac Island in October. But come August we both felt that it was time for us to have another child. And I was going to be doing 5 classes at UNLV so we decided to just do the 5.6 mile race instead. We planned this trip to be our 9th wedding anniversary celebration as well. About 2 weeks before the race we found out I was pregnant! Boy was it hard to train! I was so sick with nausea I could barely run. We prayed right up until the race that I would be able to run and finish.

We stayed in the UP at a lovely Bed and Breakfast that overlooked the water and was in a perfect location for the ferry, right across the street! I forgot to take pictures of the place, sorry. But we enjoyed it there. We drove up the night before and the next morning we were up early to head over to Mackinac Island to be there for the race. The ferry ride was fun and the views were beautiful. We got there pretty early and were able to walk around and enjoy some of the sights of the island.
Then it was time for the race. I had been drinking a strong ginger ale the entire day to help with my nausea, and we continued to pray. I felt gross right up until the race started and then I miraculously felt much better and I was able to run the entire way without stopping! And from that point forward in the pregnancy I felt very good. Thank you Heavenly Father! The race was really hard. We started on this horrible hill that seemed never to end, but the weather was nice and cool. We ended up running through these trails in the woods, and ended up running along the very edge of the island with the most beautiful view, which was hard to appreciate because we were so tired. Or at least I was :) We finished the race in 1 hr and 5 minutes and I couldn't walk straight for a week afterwards. But it was so worth it. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I hope to be able to do the half marathon sometime before we move away from here.
Here are the pictures I did take while we were there:

The Country Mill apple picking excursion

Last September we heard about a great place called the Country Mill where you can go and pick apples right off of the trees! Not something you can do everywhere. So we went and it was so much fun! It was a bit chilly but we really enjoyed it. We also bought donuts and cider that were made on sight. They were very good. There were also animals to feed, and tractors to ride on. We had so much fun that we are hoping to do it again this year. Here are some of the pictures we took while we were there.

Nolan Asher Condie 6/8/2011

This is before all the drama.

The very last belly picture! :)

Boy do I look like I've been through heck! And I had!

Such a sweetie! 7 lb 8 oz, 20 inches long.

Everyone just adores him.

He is here! Much to my surprise he was born 5 days early! This was the first time I haven't had to watch the 40 week mark come and go. I must say that as much as I like that (my due date was today) the experience was not to my liking at all.

Here is the story: Tuesday night (6/7/11) Nate and I lay down to go to sleep around 11. Just as I was dozing off I feel this kind of gush, and I am wide awake. TMI ALERT: this post will be somewhat explicit so continue reading at your own risk :) So I get up and go into the bathroom to check my liner and it is full and pink. I start freaking out. Did my water just break??? I am in shock. I keep thinking I imagined it because I am only 39 weeks and 1 day. So I go back to bed thinking I will try and go to sleep and wait to see what happens. But of course my mind is racing and I can't sleep a wink. Finally I decide to wake Nate and see what he thinks we should do. I tell him that I think my water just broke and we both just stare at each other like "what do we do now???". So we discuss our options, stay at home and wait, or go to the hospital now. Knowing that my labors are usually short and a bit more gushing convinced us to call my dad to come over so we could go to the hospital.

So Nate packs the car and I get dressed. Luckily he has the presence of mind to put a towel in the car because by the time we get to the hospital I am drenched. So we get checked in, and get our room. I am still leaking a lot, but having short painless contractions. So we settle down to wait.

Side-note: I had earlier decided that I was going to do this delivery au naturale, because I barely got the epidural in time with Maddy and we were going to have to fork out 10% of the cost.

Ok, so I have these increasingly uncomfortable contractions from about 11:30-3:30 when I finally decide to wake Nate because I am getting to where I can't handle them anymore. As soon as I wake him and he joins me by the bed I start shaking uncontrollably. Not cold, just anxious I think. The contractions were very close together and getting unbearable. Nolan was face-up so I was having the most horrible back labor. Finally I ask him to tell the nurse I want an epidural. I felt like such a failure! I just couldn't take one more contraction. They were so hard and so close together that I could barely talk in between them. The Dr finally arrives and they get me to sit up. That was agony! I could barely sit, and I was shaking so bad I could hardly sit still enough to let him get the thing in. I kept telling myself, just one more, just one more. I wanted to be numb so bad! Let me just say that epidural took forever to kick in, and then it was only working on my right side, so I roll to my left to let gravity pull it down and true to form I feel the need to push. They checked me before the epidural and I was a 4, 30 minutes later, just after the epidural I was at a 10! That explained a lot. So they call the Dr. and then I start to feel better. When he arrives I am calm and can talk again. We start pushing and 13 minutes later Nolan arrives! :)

Sweet relief! There is no greater feeling than just after delivering a baby :) And I didn't even tear! He came out screaming his head off and with the crabbiest expression on his face. But none of that mattered to me. He was alive, and I was feeling great! I continued to shake for several hours after, weird. Nerves I think.

So this was the second time I barely got the epidural in time! I wonder if I can get it when I am only 3 cm next time??? This delivery left me with a sour taste in my mouth. Not at all what I was anticipating. And so much more painful than I remember! :( As of right now, 3 kids sounds perfect to me ;)