It’s been a while since I’ve done a little bumpdate. I am officially in my final week of the 2nd trimester at 27 weeks pregnant. The longer I am pregnant the more excited I get for baby to get here- and I am relieved about that. I was nervous I was going to get more and more terrified the closer we got to our due date, but it’s actually the opposite. I feel really calm about becoming a Mother and a getting more and more excited to meet our little one.
I start training for my natural birth at the end of February. I’ve decided to go with Hypnobabies, which has come very highly recommended from friends, clients, doctors and my doula. I am so excited to get started. You attend a 3 hour class every week for 6 weeks then have independent study to do every night up until delivery. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.
WORKOUTS:
I am still working out 4-6 days a week, still teaching and training my one-on-one clients. My workouts still consist of strength training and conditioning as well as labor training and high intensity intervals. I am still lifting the same weights I did pre-pregnancy (15-30 LBS DBS depending on the muscle group and format of my workout). Lifting weights is def easier for me than interval training on the treadmill at this point. Running is still fine- some days are awesome and some days the baby is a weird position and its just uncomfortable so I scale it back a little bit. When baby is in a good position though- I am able to go hard. Being able to get after it on the tread doesn’t happen every workout anymore due to the baby’s positioning, so when he is cooperating I take advantage of it!
For example this morning, he was in a good position so I was able to do sprint intervals at 12.0 MPH, no problem. Some days he is in a weird position and my sprints are more like 9.0-10.0MPH. It just depends. Long intervals on the tread (more than 2 minutes) are tough- I still do them, I just have to be a little less aggressive with my speeds. It’s just fatiguing. It’s not that my heart rate is getting too high even, it’s just a lot harder/more exhausting than I remember pre-pregnancy. If you speak Barry’s lingo, long intervals my jog pace is 5.0MPH and intervals that are 2 minutes or less I can usually hang at 6.0MPH. It also depends on the instructor and what they have planned for the day.
I have started to notice that my hips do get sore from running, so that’s also part of it. I read this is common on some runner blogs so I wasn’t too shocked when it started happening. I space my treadmill/running workouts out a little more strategically to make sure I’m not running hard back to back days, to help avoid any injuries during pregnancy. My heart rate still EASILY gets into the 170’s and up into 180’s during my high intensity treadmill intervals. That doesn’t mean I think everyone should do this- I’m simply sharing this info because I know some women are scared to raise their heart rate when pregnant, so I just like to show women that I go WAY up and beyond what some doctors recommend and baby and I are perfectly healthy. In fact, every single time we have had an ultrasound or the doctor listens to the baby’s heart beat, they ALWAYS comment on how loud and strong his heart is. Studies have now proven that working out during pregnancy makes your babies heart healthier. It’s empowering when my doctors reinforce my fitness plan and how it is already showing to positively effect my babies health. It’s a very rewarding feeling!
WEIGHT GAIN/BODY CHANGES:
So far, 27 weeks in, I have gained about 12 pounds. They say I’ll probably average 1/2 pound a week from here on out. This would put my total pregnancy weight gain around 18.5 LBS. Anywhere from 20-25 LBS for me is what my doctor said she is happy with, so I’ll end up right around there which is great. Of course, the closer to 20 the better (from my point of view), but either way it doesn’t really matter. As long as I stay within her recommended weight gain for me, I’ll be happy. I know I’ll get it all off. It’s actually my muscle mass I’m worried about. Looking back, I wish I would have measured my arms and quads before getting pregs cause I swear I’m losing muscle mass, which makes me SO SAD. LOL. If I could pick, I’d rather gain more weight during pregs and not lose any muscle mass. It just takes SO long to put muscle mass on, it’s kind of depressing thinking about having to back track and build it up again.
BABY STUFF:
Wow- so much to think about. Do I want to eat my placenta? Should we bank the baby’s cord? Should we space out vaccinations? Man. Been doing lots of reading articles and trying to figure out whats the best way for our family. I probably will eat my placenta though. It’s hard to argue with the studies on this. Yummy 🙂
Xo
The Fit Life...Knocked up! 