Waking up early is for the birds. They can HAVE their worm…

The last few nights (since Sunday, to be exact) I have been waking up at or near 4AM – wide awake.  I roll over, open my eyes, and groggily peer at the alarm clock knowing that I’ll see those same red glowing numbers… 3:59, 4:00, or 4:02.  Technically I’m really waking up at 3:49, 3:50, or 3:52 since my alarm clock is set 10 minutes ahead but it’s still the same thing – too damn early!

So far I’ve been pretty successful in getting back to sleep within 15-20 minutes of waking up bu I have to keep my mind contained because if not it starts racing ahead to start the day with thoughts of what I’m going to wear to work, who I need to call or what I need to do once I get to work, do I want to make my own tea or cheat and have Tim Hortons do it, are my library books due, if my bathing suit is clean for water aerobics, and other crazy things. 

I’m wondering if this is a pregnancy thing or just a Kristy-being-neurotic thing.  Maybe my brain is ready to start the day at 4AM but my body resists.   I’ve been getting to bed anywhere between the third quarter of any given football game and 11:30-ish so I know that I should be sleeping until at least 6:30 or 7:00. 

Could this be my mind/body preparing me to get up several times in the middle of the night and we’re just starting off light with the 4AM wakeup call?  Maybe next month we’ll progress and have both 2AM and 4AM eye-openers.

Week 18 Info

So here’s the scoop on baby at week 18.

~ Head to rump, your baby is about 5 1/2 inches long (about the length of a bell pepper) and he weighs almost 7 ounces. He’s busy flexing his arms and legs — movements that you’ll start noticing more and more in the weeks ahead.

~ Nerves  in the brain are further specializing into the ones that serve the senses of touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing. Talking about hearing, your baby’s is growing more acute, making your little one more conscious of sounds that come from inside your body (which means you could both be listening to each other hiccup  — a skill that your baby has by now).

Looks like back pain (from a changing center of gravity) and more general aches & pains (from relaxin making my ligaments and joints more loose) are in my future.  Not experiencing any yet, but it looks like all the exercise I’ve been doing is paying off at keeping those at bay.  Either that or I have a high pain tolerance *shrug*.

Next appointment is this upcoming Monday (19 weeks).  I’ve been told that we’ll be able to schedule our official ultrasound after that appointment.  Hopefully we’ll know if we’re having a boy or girl before Christmas – wouldn’t that be a great gift?

Fitness Program – Halftime results

We started Week 7 tonight and had the opportunity to weigh in and get our measurements taken after going halfway through the program.  Unfortunately, I gained back the 2 lbs I had originally lost (I’m telling myself that’s all baby related) but here’s the cool statistics!

• 2.5 inches off my tricep
• .5 inch off my neck
• 1 inch off my hips
• 1.5 inches off my chest (measured high – not like you measure the bust)

I also found a new mom / water aerobics buddy tonight!  She tried to answer her phone in the locker room, which is notoriously bad for cell phone reception, and couldn’t talk to anyone.  I commiserated and let her know that she’d have to go out front to even get close to having a decent conversation and she said she could hear her newborn crying in the background. 

We got to talking (her baby is almost 3 months old and is home with her husband tonight) and discussed how she took water aerobics up until the day before she delivered and that it made her delivery much easier.  I’m up for that!  Anyways, I think she’s going to go to tomorrow’s class with me. –   Plus she’s the same height shape as me – now I’ve got someone who was in the same shoes that I’m in just a few months ago.  Yay!

Water Aerobics – not just for blue hairs anymore…

I had previously taken a water aerobics class on Monday nights with Lisa – you’d swear she was a drill sargeant in a former life and really worked us hard.  I had heard through the grapevine that the other classes were more targeted for elderly people, those individuals with injuries who *had* to work out in the water, and those assorted malcontents who liked seeing other people in bathing suits in a group setting.  One day Lisa was absent and they had another instructor fill in for her.  Instead of spending the evening getting our heart rates up and sloshing some water out of the swimming lanes we were walking laps around the pool using the styrofoam dumbbells to work our triceps!

I woke up this morning at 7:30 (ok, more like 7:40) bound and determined to get to today’s 8AM class with Stephanie.  I figured that I could ease back into the water aerobics scene and get prepared for more classes with Lisa once my Team Weight Loss session is over; it’s too bad that the times conflict on Mondays.  I quickly brushed my teeth, shrugged into my swim suit – luckily I have a suit that is swim shorts with a halter top – wrestled my hair into a quick ponytail, threw on some clothes over my suit, kissed my groggy husband goodbye, and headed out the door into the bitter frigid cold of a late November morning.

I had hoped to snag a quick breakfast of a banana and a botle of water at the cafe, but just my luck that they didn’t open until 8.  I headed to the locker room where I grabbed my skimpy towel, my flip flops (can’t be too careful about athlete’s foot, yanno), and stashed the rest of my gear in the locker.    As I headed out to the pool area I noticed that we’ll be working out in the ‘warm’ pool today and not the lap pool that they keep at near hypothermic temperatures.  I grabbed my noodle and styrofoam dumbbells and hopped into the pool with the other ladies.  I started talking to the lady whose gear is next to mine and ask her about the intensity of the class.  She shocked the hell out of me by telling me that Stephanie will kick my butt if I’m not prepared for it.  I quickly assured her that I’m a pro, having survived several weeks of Lisa’s classes.  Imagine my surprise when she tells me, “oh, Stephanie is worse.”   GULP.

Imagine cross country skiing under water where you’re submerged up to your shoulders.  I had no idea there were so many different ways to vary arm and leg positions to target specific muscle groups – all based on one form.  Move your arms with your thumbs pointed straight up in the air and you begin your arms.  Modify that arm position so that now your palms are facing the bottom of the pool and you work your shoulders.  Flip your hands so that now your palms are facing the ceiling and you’re killing your triceps.  Take your arms and move them from the sides to the front and depending on the positions of your palms you can either work your chest or your back.  47 minutes of cardio later – mostly at level 3 – I was convinced that yes, Stephanie will kick my butt even worse than Lisa.  I can’t wait to see how my upper body feels tomorrow morning when I wake up.

I loved every minute of it and surprise surprise, I plan on going back on Tuesday night when she teaches again.  I think I like these classes even better than my Team Weight Loss treadmill cardio workouts.  If I’m really ambitious then I’ll tackle her 9:30AM class on Thanksgiving day.

 

Top 5 Reasons I love Maternity Pants…

5). Minimal # of pants I have on hand = less laundry

4). No more marks from squeezing into uncomfortable jeans

3). They e-x-p-a-n-d!  Genius!

2). I never have to worry if my fly is down

1). Can you say Thanksgiving Dinner??

Why do you love (or hate?) maternity pants?

Caution… bump ahead

It’s somewhat official… I have achieved baby bump status.  Whereas before I looked really bloated or just super mega overweight I now have somewhat of a bump.  I tried on shirts last night and REALLY noticed it when I put on one with an empire waist.  It’s been this way for a few days now and I can’t really blame it on anything else so we’ll just call it bump.

Poor Ben… I asked him his opinion (bump or bloat) and he thinks it’s bump, too.  I made him promise to tell me on point of death if I was just gaining weight.  I’ll see Jamie tomorrow in the empire waist shirt – she’ll be the true test to let me know if I’m starting to show or not.

Fitness Test – 6 Weeks into the program

I almost forgot – we did our fitness test for the Team Weight Loss Program again on Monday night and we all absolutely kicked butt.  Essentially, this is the 1/2 way point into the program and we compared our baseline distance that we did on the first night to this mid-point distance. At one point I was cruising along at 3.7, which is only .3 away from the jogging speed.   I did 1.51 miles in 30 minutes last time and ended up doing 1.72 miles this time.   That’s a 12% increase over the last time. 

Other noticeable things is that I have more stamina when walking or even working out.  An hour doesn’t seem to kill me like it used to.  I can easily do an hour+ on the treadmill at a pretty fast rate without wanting to keel over.  The incline increase is probably the most dramatic change that we’ve faced.  When we first started we would do a 2% incline with the max being 6-8%.  Now?  A 2% or 4% incline feels FLAT and we can all do a 15% incline (the max!) for over 4 minutes.  It feels like you’re climbing a huge hill but it gets your heart rate up like you wouldn’t believe.

The good thing about this class is that I’ve been able to keep all of my workout handouts (remind me to get those to you, Claire!) so when I *do* have the baby I’ll have a custom workout where I can start at a not-so-fit level after taking those 6 weeks off and will be able to get right back to where I left off without having to go through the program again.  Genius!

I’ve been thinking ahead to when the program ends in January… they have 4 nights of water aerobics classes and I think I’m going to start taking those for several reasons.

1).  You’re a lot lighter underwater and there’s less risk of injury when your ligaments are all whacked out from relaxin. 

2). Water provides hydrostatic pressure – basically, it has ‘counter pressure’ and pushes in on your skin, which is supposed to reduce swelling and edema.

3). I’ll be doing SOME form of exercise activity.

17 Weeks

Someone at work posed a particularly difficult question to me today and I didn’t really know how to answer it.  She asked me how I felt about becoming a mom.  Apparently, I haven’t put the ‘being pregnant’ = ‘becoming a mom’ thing together yet.  I told her that I honestly couldn’t answer her because I have no freakin idea.  It really hasn’t hit me yet.  All I can focus on right now is the small stuff – I’m not ready for the existential just yet.

The small stuff… pants continually getting more tight, heartburn after eating dinner (yeah, I got it from eating potato soup – POTATO SOUP!), and now unexplained emotional swings.  Well, I guess I can’t really call them unexplained but they’re certainly unexpected and unwelcome.  Yesterday I thought I would blow my top at my co-workers over Subway’s flatbread (don’t ask) and today I ended up bawling and sniveling over the ending to a stupid episode of Scrubs.  Seriously?  Seriously.

Aaaaaaaanyways, here’s looking at week 17 for me and baby.

Your baby’s skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord — her lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby weighs 5 ounces now, and she’s around 5 inches long from head to bottom. She can move her joints, and her sweat glands are starting to develop.

With me… pretty much the baby bump will make me more off balance and I’m supposed to wear lower heeled shoes – check!  I ended up getting 2 new pairs that are easy slip on / slip off this weekend.  If you haven’t tried Privo shoes yet then you gotta.  Also my eyes might get drier so I should expect to wear my contacts less and my glasses more.

I go back to the doctor for my next appointment on December 1st – 19 weeks in.  Hopefully we’ll be able to schedule ‘THE’ ultrasound appointment before Christmas.

Week 16 – has it been 4 months already?

Well, I guess the first month didn’t really count seeing as how we didn’t know until I was 6 weeks along.  Still, it doesn’t seem like it’s been 10+ weeks.  I can definitely feel that there’s more there than usual but someone who didn’t know wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.  Some of my pants are starting not to fit – I’m gradually weaning those out and putting them in a separate area of my closet so that I don’t have to play “What am I going to wear today?” every morning.  For the first time this weekend my maternity jeans actually fit without fallin down all the time!  I’m really going to have to take my mom up on her offer to take my sister and I to the Outlet Mall to get more pants. 

Our company’s holiday party is on Thursday and it’s going to be difficult to stick to water when everyone else will be downing unlimited 7&7s.  Maybe I’ll convince Ben to get a glass of white wine and just take a sip… yeah!  that’s what I’ll do.

Week 16’s baby development:

~ Get ready for a growth spurt. In the next few weeks, your baby will double his weight and add inches to his length. Right now, he’s about the size of an avocado: 4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces. And there’s a lot happening inside as well. For example, his heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, and this amount will continue to increase as your baby continues to develop.~

A growth spurt?  What do you call the last 4 months??  I get the feeling that I should definitely buy those maternity pants now instead of waiting until later.

Baby Got Back!

Well, a spine at least.  See it?  Those little white hash marks are individual vertebrae – amazing!  I can’t tell if the hand is near the baby’s face or not.  I’m terrible at reading these things.  I also got to see the baby move during this ultrasound, which I have to admit completely and utterly freaked me out but in a good way.  All of a sudden this little thing was careening off the wall of my uterus like a wayward ping pong ball and the strange part was that I didn’t feel a single thing.  I’m sure that will change in a few weeks!

14 week pic

A few more interesting notes from last week’s visit.  Apparently I’m rubella negative (as in MMR and those fun vaccinations) so I can expect a booster shot once I have the baby.  Talk about adding insult to injury.  Blood pressure is a little high but they’re not worried yet. 

I also lost three lbs!  Never fear – my doctor is on top of things and let me know that ultimately she would like to see me gain zero weight with this pregnancy as I’m already over weight.  She also said it would be ok for me to actually lose weight with a few caveats: eat what I’m supposed to and under the supervision of a dietician or nutritionist (check!), exercise under the supervision of a trainer with experience in prenatal stuff (check!) and make sure that the baby is progressing and growing normally (check!)  Next visit is a quickie on December first.  We will be able to make the appointment then to have the official ultrasound – just in time for dad’s birthday.