Bike Pregnant: We're Having a Baby!

On the island of Lido, Italy - July 2015

Since April, my husband Jon and I have been keeping a big secret: we're having a baby! We are expecting our first child on December 12, 2015. It has been a struggle to keep our news under wraps. For a while (that is, until my belly popped out), I felt like I was in hiding from nearly everyone. As an introvert, that wasn't so bad, but I always felt like a huge fibber anytime someone would ask me "What's new?" and I would deflect the conversation to some other subject, rather than blurting out "I'm growing a human with my own body!"

Also, my hair turned purple!

Baby's first appearance on the blog. Get used to it, kid.

Last month, we traveled to Venice with our extended family (Mom, Step-Dad, little brother, and little sister) where we were joined by Kelly from London and more old friends from all over. Venice is one of my favorite cities in the world. It's ancient, beautiful, and as Dorie from the great family-biking blog Hum of the City points out, practically car free!

However for the same reasons that car travel is impractical in Venice, biking is nearly impossible. But just a short vaporetto (water bus) ride away is the island of Lido. Best known for the wide beach that spans the length of this long and skinny island, it's also a great place to rent bikes for the day. You can easily ride the whole island in a day and it's impossible to get lost--this makes it the opposite of Venice, where you're lost five minutes after stepping out your front door.

Selfies for two.

Hmm, I'm not sure my arm is long enough to get me, the bump, and the bike.

Our trip to Venice was kind of like our baby-moon. We took all these photos while I was about 20 weeks pregnant, the halfway point until our baby's due date. Now that we are firmly in the second trimester, it has been great to have energy again. Looking back, I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I was completely blind-sided by how much I needed to sleep during my first 3-4 months of pregnancy.

I had been expecting the typical nausea, vomiting, food aversions, and weird food cravings: none of which showed up in a serious way! (Maybe it was hard to tell because I've always loved pickles?) I remember early pregnancy as a lot of naps where I would occasionally wake up to eat something and then go back to bed. I'm so grateful that Jon was able to keep the Bike Pretty Shop running--as well as all the cooking and cleaning--during that time. He was grace under pressure! I'm so lucky to have him as a partner in work and in life.

OMG YOU GUYS! WE ARE SO EXCITED!

We've been really, really lucky throughout this whole thing. The pregnancy is going well and the baby has passed all its tests with flying colors. We don't know if we're having a boy or girl and plan to keep it that way as long as possible. We kinda want to see how long we can keep our tiny human in a gender-ambiguous state as neither of us feels that the early assigning of gender roles is good for anyone.

And yes, I am planning on biking throughout my pregnancy. That is, for as long as I feel like it. My fantastic Raleigh Spirit bike arrived at the perfect time. It quickly became my pregnancy bike. Step-through bicycle frames with an upright posture are great not just for commuters, but also moms-to-be who find bending a the "waist" a challenge! At this point, I never want to ride a road bike again, but ask me in a year or two and I might have changed my mind.

I would like to thank Betsey Johnson for making awesome bias cut dresses that I have been wearing throughout my pregnancy. It'll be a sad day when I outgrow this one.