Exercise in Pregnancy

I want to jot this all down before I forget, as a reminder and because through this pregnancy I would have loved to find a resource with pregnancy specific, applicable information.

Let's start with why.  Why exercise?  There is enough change and trauma and work that your body does in pregnancy... why push it to exercise too?

My Reasons Why

- Vanity - By 20 weeks I had gained 20 full pounds (The "average" is to gain TEN... ACK!).  I didn't expect to lose weight by exercising, but I thought maybe exercising could slow the flow of poundage and lessen the pudge by the end.  The way I was headed, there was going to be pudge abound!! I ended up only gaining 13 more pounds over the next additional 20 weeks and I lost flab as baby girl grew and gained.  I never got super puffy and the pudge stayed at bay. YAY!

- Stress Relief - We have dealt with medical mysteries within the house and my dad was diagnosed with cancer during this pregnancy too.   The stress of those things, plus the toll of daily life with 4 kids ages 7 and under was enough to pull anyone under.  Exercising was my release and kept me positive and centered.  I looked forward to it and I felt better afterward.  Endorphins were working fo' sho'.

- Energy & Well-being - After the first 20 weeks, I felt wonderful.  My energy stayed high.  My level of comfort was awesome. I never hit that drag-out tired phase.  It's really a win win win which spurred onto emotional benefits.  I was happy because I felt so well and being happy just trickles down to everything else in life.  :)

- Health Benefits - In past pregnancies I would sometimes have protein in my urine (lovely, I know) and would eventually swell (ankles, fingers, and eventually my face -beautiful-).  My blood pressure was always low (105/70ish), buuuut:  This pregnancy: no protein at all, no swelling until 38 weeks and it's super minimal even still (and it's been pretty hot out!) and my BP had been in the 80's over 50-60's range the whole time.  My body is responding to exercise... and positively.  Awesome.

Overall, other than the motivation to actually push play and DO it, there wasn't a downside.  Not at all.  I'm so happy I stayed active.

This was a "sweat pic" taken on a day when they really made me work for it.

Did you workout the whole pregnancy?  How often did you exercise?  

Here's my breakdown for this specific pregnancy...  

Weeks 4-6: I worked out daily.  

Weeks 6-13: At 6 weeks I got slammed with morning sickness and tried to workout, but petered out to just not working out at all.  Stopping a workout to hold back gagging... no fun.  Once I was gaggy, the workout out ceased.  

Weeks 13-20: I worked out maybe once a week.  I was still feeling rough until 20 weeks so I listened to my body and took it easy.  

Weeks 20-26:  I worked out about 3-4 times a week.  I mixed prenatal workouts (youtube) with some standard ones.  I think at this point I was pretty much only doing YouTube workouts.  I will share links below.  

Weeks 26-37: At week 26 I joined a Beach Body Challenge and needed to workout 6 days a week doing the 21 Day Fix.  At first I felt like "Ooof I'm too pregnant for this."  or "Wow, yeah, this is hard."  Ya know what?  I pushed past that hump and got stronger.  I finished the challenge and continued on working out 6 days a week.  On days I was tired I would do prenatal yoga or a prenatal YouTube workout.  On the days I felt good (most days) I did one of the 21 Day Fix workouts, following the modifier as needed.  I can write a post up about what modifications I followed, but in general I just listened to my body and pushed when I knew I could.  

Week 37 & 38: These were my transition weeks.  Baby girl was posterior and I felt the need to tone down workouts to let my body prep for labor without things being pinched and tightened.  I wanted to let nature do that it needed without me adding stress.  I know others have worked out to their due dates, but it felt right for me to let baby girl find a better position and rest my body before labor.  During these 2 weeks I did the 21 Day Fix once or twice and did prenatal stretching or a workout another 2 days.  

Weeks 39 & 40+:  These weeks I decided to keep up the normal life of cleaning, organizing, laundry, running after kids, etc, but I stopped formal workouts.  This is my rest time.  This is my time to prep for baby.  I plan to begin 6+ workouts a week once I have healed from delivery, and this is my time to take a hiatus before I get back to working out.  I have put in a stretching video and a squat workout, but overall these weeks have been low key to let my body prepare for labor.  

What workouts did you do?  

The biggest one was the 21 Day Fix.  I borrowed mine from a friend, so it's not actually even mine to keep.  The price isn't cheap, but it is a really great workout series and one that you could legitimately do through all 3 trimesters.  The workouts are 25 minutes long and there were 4 of the workouts that I felt worked very well in pregnancy: Total Body Cardio Fix, Cardio Fix, Dirty Thirty, and Lower Fix.  There is also an Upper Fix, Pilates, Yoga, and Plyometrics. 

You can also do Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred.  I tried that out and could modify for pregnancy pretty easily.  

My YouTube stash: 

Colleen Riddle

She has 3 workouts per trimester and they are really great! 

First Trimester: Workout 1

First Trimester: Workout 2

First Trimester: Workout 3 

Second Trimester: Workout 1

Second Trimester: Workout 2 

Second Trimester: Workout 3

Third Trimester: Workout 1

Third Trimester: Workout 2

Third Trimester: Workout 3 (this is the stretching one)

Fitness Blender

This channel has a TON of workout videos.  There are crunch-less ab workouts which would be great for the second and third trimesters.  There are cario workouts, strength.  Overall, just good stuff.  There is a super lot of them so you have to wade through, but this channel alone could keep you plenty busy.  

Squat Challenge

This is an 8 minute workout that is all squats and is GREAT for preparing for baby! 

Prenatal Yoga

Denise Austin: Trimester 1 & 2

Denise Austin: Trimester 3

 These workouts tend to be on the easier side, which is good for a day you are tired or don't want to workout but will anyway.  Denise Austin is also pretty cheesy, but whatever.  :P

I think that's most of them.  You can search for "prenatal pilates" or "prenatal yoga" or "pregnancy workout" or "prenatal workout" or even trimester specific workouts and there are a TON more.  These are the ones I tried and liked. :)  

As far as pregnancy modifications, I stuck with staying off the floor after my first trimester, around 32 weeks I stopped any jumpy moves and kept everything low impact, and I would grab a drink of water if my heart rate felt to high to give it a chance to come back down.  I always felt ok challenging myself and pushing myself, but if something really didn't feel right, I would tone it down.  Listen to your body, but don't make excuses.  I learned that you can push and work and tone and stay very fit in pregnancy... you are pregnant, not powerless. :) 

Happy babies! 

40 weeks, baby 5

Today is my due date.

This little lady is taking after her older siblings (minus the eldest) and is taking her sweet time movin' on out.

I had an appointment yesterday.  I haven't gained any weight since last week.  My blood pressure was 84/55 (at what point does my heart stop beating, not from stress, but from laziness?).  No protein to be found.  Baby's heart beat was 134.  All good good good.  The doctor came in and checked her position also.  He said she is in a good spot (hallelujah!!!) and is "nose down."  I'm not quite sure why nose down is good, considering she doesn't lead with her nose to exit, but I think she's in the OA/LOA position which is the two favorable birth positions.   He also said, he doesn't see her being a huge baby.  He guessed around 7 1/2 pounds.  Emily was 8 1/2 so we will see if he's right.  My belly does feel a bunch smaller than it was with Emily.  I had NO space left with her and this little one can settle down when sleeping and I have extra space in the top of my abdomen.  Emily kinda filled up the whole thing 24/7 by the end.

We set my next appointment for next Monday.  At that point, he will check for dilation/effacement and sweep membranes.  That may set off labor on it's own, which would be pretty cool.  We will also look at possibly setting an induction date later next week.  

I'm hoping that I go into labor on my own.  I've done three inductions and while I'm not anti-induction (for me... I have thoughts in general though), I would love to feel labor come on and know that baby girl's timing is her own.  However, by 41+ weeks I will also be open to an induction.  I don't like the risks that are listed as you go further from your due date.  I know my dates for this pregnancy (last missed period, probable conception and all that jazz) and her due date is her due date, there is no chance that she's actually 37 weeks or something... she's fully baked.  My dates are firm.  So, my body has about a week to start moving and then it will get a nudge.  

I also got a final adjustment at the chiropractor yesterday so things should be nice and aligned for labor.  I've been cleaning like a nut-ball.  My laundry has been completely caught up for the last week... I've been putting in about a load a day and getting it done and put away by morning.  That's unheard up: caught up on laundry?!  That's like a large family urban legend.  Right now my entire upstairs is sporless... down to the floors being mopped.  I never mop the upstairs floors.  Rooms are tidy, floors vacuumed and mopped, bathrooms scrubbed, diaper pail newly emptied.  The downstiars is tidy too and tonight I will once again vacuum and mop.  The walls of the downstairs have been scrubbed down.  Dirty fingerprints are a pet peeve and I finally got time to wipe them all away.  What else?  Just this afternoon I cleaned the back porch.  I'm basically doing anything I can to have things completely in line for when I'm away at the hospital.  None of this nesting is bringing on labor though.

I also went and got a pedicure over the weekend, so I have pretty labor feet.  Haha.  I did my own nails this afternoon as well.  C'mon baby! 

The final baby gear is set out and legitimately all we are missing is... her.  Everything is ready.  EVERYTHING.  

 I have the hang of the new school schedule and we found our groove in that.   So from now until she comes we go about our daily business.  We will keep doing playdates and park trips and all that.  There are times where I want her out stat and times when I am ok waiting patiently.  I do feel ready to meet her though.  

Here is a photo I strung together and put on FB from our morning outing before Josh went to school:  

Happy Due Date!  Hopefully I will have a birth story to type out sooner rather than later. Only she knows... ;) 

39 weeks, baby 5

We are officially less than a week from my due date.  Next Wednesday, the 3rd, is d-day.  

I'm at a point where I feel like if I go into labor, I would feel ready.  I'm ready to go through the process and see her little face.  I'm ready to add her to our crew.  In the last few days I have felt like I shifted from being a pregnant chick, growing a baby, to a pre-labor vessel.  I feel like she's dropping and my body is working to gear up for labor.  I'm more tired and just feel somehow transitional. It's really weird to describe.  

I do know that if this were June's labor, I would be going into the hospital tonight!  My others have shown me that June is an odd-ball so I still see mid-September as the actual eviction time.  I do feel like I'm slowly physically preparing which is fun.  Spontaneous labor soon would be cool, but she's welcome to bake another week or so if needed.  I want her to come when she's ready.

Everything still looked good with her at the doctors: her heart rate was 164 and she kicked the nurse when she put the doppler on my belly.  I said "I felt that!"  The nurse replied with "I SAW that!"  :)  BP was 102/44, weight good, minimal swelling, no protein.  The baby feels like she takes up all the space in my belly... I'm very curious to see if she's big like Emily or if she's a tinier one like Josh or June.  

I'm still feeling pretty good.  It's hard to sit on the ground (my preferred sitting spot) and get back up.  Painting my nails is an act of contortion, sleeping is laughable between bouts of insomnia and just trying to get comfortable, and I've been feeling times of just being wiped out.  It all makes sense for being 39 weeks.  I have modified my exercise a bunch since 37 weeks too.  Up to 37 I was exercising daily... since then I have slowly backed off to let my body settle and adjust and spread and relax and prepare for labor.  I have still been making myself stay busy... I'm making myself remain friends with my stairs and bending to pick things up.  My exercise this week is doing stuff that normal people do all the time, but with a big 'ole belly, those things are more of a physical challenge. ;) 

So as she continues to bake...