30 & 31 Weeks Pregnant

Today I am 31 weeks pregnant! Wow.

Baby is as big as...

Weeks 30 & 31 were pretty similar. After weeks of seeing the chiropractor my hips are finally aligned! Rejoice!!! I can definitely feel the difference. I only have really bad pain when I'm on my feet for a long period of time or when I get up from bed or sitting. So now I only have to go once per week which is awesome because I only have 30 visits covered so I should be good as long as I keep going and don't let them get completely out of whack again.

 I'm really happy that I did not just accept what my Dr first told me about my pain and did my own research and got help. I could not imagine how much pain I would be in on a daily basis now that my bump is this big on top of a completely misaligned pelvis. Take my advice, if you feel like something isn't normal get a second opinion, it can't hurt.

Baby girl has been super active the past 2 weeks which is fun to watch and interact with.  She's been busy developing her brain more and accumulating more fat. Sounds totally rad in there.

I've been feeling really motivated the past 2 weeks, I guess I'm "nesting." I've been organizing and working more. I managed to finish a rough draft of my first paper of the term! I also dedicated some time to my art work these past two weeks....

Going to be split into 2 frames for Arya's room.

A few details left to do but I'm pretty proud of it!

My total pregnancy weight gain is now 30lbs! Whoa!! I'm actually not too concerned because I know that I'm getting the nutrition that I need and that I'm staying as active as I can. No stretch marks yet! But my belly is getting super duper itchy. I have to apply my belly oil 3+ times a day now. Also I don't know if everyone who had a navel piercing had this but the old piercing area is extraordinarily itchy and also sometimes red and burny feeling. It's not so bad that I think infection I'm guessing maybe the scar tissue just isn't stretching very easily?

Here are belly pics for these 2 weeks!

30 weeks

30 weeks

30 weeks. D'awww. 

31 weeks. Looking like my mama here.

31 weeks

31 weeks

<3

29 Weeks Pregnant & Reflections

I'm 29 weeks pregnant! WOOoooOOOOOooo!

Baby is the size of a...

This week has been pretty good! I can tell baby is much bigger she must of had a big growth spurt over week 29. Her movements are big and sometimes painful but stinking adorable. This week shes mostly just working on plumping up in there and her body is making some big strides in brain development right now.

Oh and I don't have gestational diabetes! Yay! Look out doughnuts and cider! Which brings me to....

Fall is coming! What does that mean for me? That a lot of my time is going to be looking like this...

I attended Master's school orientation this week and came home pumped and excited about the insane work load that I have ahead of me. I really enjoyed meeting some class mates and hearing about how they got to where they are. I was surprised by a lot of things. I learned at the orientation that out of the whole entire Education Masters School I was 1 of 6 people who were first generation graduates. Out of about 120 students. That made me really proud knowing that I was one of the few who came from a home of GEDs and ended up getting into the masters program of my dreams.

It reminded me how far I've come, how hard I've worked and how much I deserve it. I should never doubt myself or my capabilities because I've made it. And I've done it all on my own. My parents didn't know anything about college or the process or really why anyone should/would want to go. I'm proud of my teenage self for deciding the kind of future I wanted and going for it. The whole academic journey was filled with moments of doubt and uncertainty. But I didn't rely on anyone but myself to figure it out. I'm really proud of myself and I'm really looking forward to once again proving how determined and successful I can be. And not to mention being a good example for my daughter and providing a great life for my family.

Fall is my absolute favorite time of year. I'm soooo happy my daughter is lucky enough to be a fall baby like her momma. September makes me super sentimental. I start thinking of all of the amazing memories I have from childhood and as an adult in the autumn. The cider mill, carving pumpkins, long walks in cozy sweaters and crunchy leaves, cuddling under a blanket with candles lit and a crisp cool breeze seeping in through the open windows. I could go on forever and I can't wait to experience all of these things with my little one.

This week I've been super emotional! It's kind of out of control I've cried every single day, for happy and sad things. Or just because I can't get the lid off of a jar.... It's kind of hilarious. I've had what I guess you might refer as heart burn except it's really not that uncomfortable I'll just randomly have vomit come up my throat and into my mouth. No warning, no heaving, no fuss, it just comes right up. It doesn't taste great but I'm getting used to being a big giant gross mess. As far as my SPD goes this week has had it's ups and downs. I'm starting to handle the pain way better and it seems like the chiropractor has helped a lot but I have some really rough moments.

As far as fitness goes I've been doing my "exercises" and cleaning that's pretty much as far as it goes. I actually didn't gain any weight this week which I'm super happy about. Last week felt like a huge jump in weight so it was nice to maintain for a week. My belly is getting big and kind of in the way now. It's hard to get in and out of some bathroom stalls, sometimes I bump it on furniture or people so that's new.

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28 Weeks pregnant

28 weeks pregnant!!! 7 months pregnant!!! Yay!!! And baby Arya is as big as a....

Right now she's working on storing fat and perfecting her whole lung/breathing thing. She's had lots of hiccups this week so I imagine she's practicing swallowing quite a bit. Her moves are getting bigger and sometimes even startling! She'll do a big kick and it takes a minute for me to process what just happened. She seems to be moving up more now or just getting longer because she's pretty close to kicking my ribs most days.

Last Monday I took my 1 hour glucose test.

Which entails not eating for a while then drinking this lovely beverage within a five minute span and getting your blood drawn an hour later. I failed the test. When the nurse called to tell me I was pretty devastated I was already having an incredibly emotional day. My SPD was acting up really bad and I was crying over everything it seemed like. I managed to pull myself together long enough to go pick up my forms from the Drs office. After I got home I did some research on gestational diabetes and got even more freaked out. But hey at least I wasn't a sobbing mess.

I was ordered to take a 3 hour glucose test. Before a 3 hour glucose test you are asked to eat a diet of pretty much only carbohydrates for 3 days prior. Which didn't make sense to me at all. I guess it's supposed to get your body used to maxing out on it's ability to process carbs... I'm really unconvinced. Since my 3 hours glucose test happened today which is in my 29th week I'll post more about it then.

Things I would prefer to live without this week:

1. SPD pain
2. Nausea
3. Fatigue
4. Muscle spasms (every night this week!)

I feel like people might feel as though I'm not happy about being pregnant and that's just not true. I'm over the moon. I'm soo thankful to have this baby growing inside of me and I'm totally okay with all of the curve balls I'm getting thrown at me as long as it means that she is happy and healthy and in my arms soon. I'm perfectly okay with my quality of life being kind of crappy right now. I just wasn't expecting it at all. I don't know anyone who has had the nausea and food aversions and cramping that I had in the first trimester. I didn't know anyone who had SPD and I don't know anyone who failed the one hour glucose test and didn't end up with gestational diabetes.

When I got pregnant I did not expect to be in constant pain for weeks/months. I did not expect to be in agony getting up in the middle of the night or turning over. I feel like when I bring these things up because I need to talk about them sometimes people look at me as if I'm just a whiny undeserving idiot. And I don't think it's fair. When I talk about this stuff I'm looking for encouragement and possibly advice. Because I've never done this before and it is absolutely nothing like how I thought it would be.

Mostly I worry about the pain and things that I'm experiencing because I'm scared it's effecting her in a negative way. I love her more than anything at this point and I just want her to be okay. So if I seem whiny/complainy/ungrateful I'm not. I'm just freaked out and looking for some help. Thankfully I do have lots of supportive friends/family but I also have just as many people who are discouraging judgey mcjudgesters.

Since I haven't been moving around to much. I'm going to attribute that to my weight gain. I'm up a total of 25 lbs! I have started doing some SPD friendly exercises as of last night and I plan to do them every single night because I can't do much of anything else anyway.

I notice a big physical change this week my belly button has gone from a belly button to what Nick lovingly refers to as a, "cat butthole."

It's not that pretty but whatevs.

My belly seems to change shape everyday depending on how she's laying/what she's up to in there. But here's what it looked like one day this week...

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26 Weeks Pregnant....

Boy do I feel pregnant this week! My tummy is getting huge! Baby is getting huge too, she's as big as a....

She's been super active this week. Kicking me so much it keeps me awake sometimes in the middle of the night. Which brings me to my biggest symptom of the week... EXHAUSTION. I feel like I'm waking up with a hangover everyday. It's hard to get things done when most the time it takes all my will power just to get out of bed. And my sweet baby girl has also found my beloved bladder to kick. It must be super fun because she just can't get enough while I'm trying to go to sleep. Alright enough complaining.

Here's some video I captured of baby kicking. It's the first time I've been able to catch her! I apologize for the awkward breathing in the video but when I take deep breaths she seems to kick more.

She's pretty impressive huh?

Despite my fatigue this week I managed to make it on 3 dog walks and do my pregnancy fitness routine 5 times! Not too bad! I've been focusing more on eating healthy this week as well. Nick just started a new nutrition plan so it's made me more aware of the ratios of protein/fat/carbs I'm taking in.

This week I'm up a total of 20.5lbs so far and my stomach has grown 10 inches around! But I'm trying not to sweat it because I'm pregnant and that's that.

Speaking of which here's my big ole baby belly this week!

<3

My Pregnancy Fitness Routine

During my pregnancy I try to get in a walk with the dog at least once a week. While I was working I got my cardio in there. Now that I'm done with work I'm going to be hitting the gym 3 times a week where I use the Elliptical machine for about 30 minutes keeping my heart rate between 130 & 145 bpm. And finish off with resistance machines for my arms.


Before bed most nights I try to get some exercises in, here is what I do.



First off I stretch.


Then I move on to doing standing pelvic exercises....
I stand with my feet about a foot apart and stick my booty out then contract my abdominal muscles and pull my pelvis forward. I repeat this 100 times.

Next I do about 30 regular squats.

I move to the floor and start by doing the "butterfly stretch"

I bounce my knees up and down about 50 times.

Next I do an abdominal exercise, you start of sitting with your legs straight in front of you and your arms extended out toward your toes. Keeping your back straight bend your need to begin scooting your bum forward shifting between the left and right leg you take 5 paces forward and five back. It strengthens the back and abdominal muscles.

After that I do a reverse table top pose

 I dip down and up 10 times then on the 10th time I hold myself up in this position for a 10 count. I repeat this 3 times.

Next I flip my body over and do 3 different poses in a row. The first do I do about 10 times holding each one for a 10 count. Then end with child's pose. 

I lift back up and do this exercise extending opposite legs and arms. I hold the position for a 10 count and do each side 5 times.

Next I get up to do prenatal squats.

These are supposed to help strengthen your legs and pelvic area for labor. I do 5 of these holding the squatting position for a 15 count each time.


To finish up I do 20-30 wall pushups and then end with some stretches and kegel exercises.


And that's it! Sometimes I do more or less reps depending on how my body is reacting to the positions. I am by no means telling other people to do this workout. I think it's important to consult your Dr about exercising before starting a new routine.