Healthy Lifestyle & Fitness for Preggos!

[phoenixgirl]

I walked a little over three miles today and then swapped a bunch of books from the upstairs office/guest room (recently created to make room for the nursery) with some that had been put in the basement. I went up and down both flights of stairs at least 5 times. I was productive earlier in the day . . . laundry, French lessons, lesson plan preparation. . . so after all the stair climbing I decided to rest and watch a movie. Well, really what happened was that I felt a slight pressure in my uterus, so I decided to lie on my left side and make sure the baby was ok. She was, but then of course I started to drift off to sleep . . . that''s when I decided it was movie time!

Tonight DH and I are having leftover Cooking Light enchiladas, but tomorrow we are going to Sur La Table for a fancy cooking class for dinner. FIL and his wife gave me a gift certificate to do a cooking class for my birthday in April, but at that point I was still in my first trimester and feeling icky all the time, so cooking was the last thing on my mind. Dinner most nights back then was me announcing what I wanted DH to procure from takeout.

 

[Mara]

I love SLT classes PG! I have taken 3 so far...! Are you guys doing a couples one? All mine are baking related but they had some yummy looking cooking ones.

I am still BLAH about food, I am hoping it changes within 2 weeks or else Spain will not be as much fun with me turning up my nose at foods. I mean I am happy when I am eating but as for ''what sounds good''... the list is still very limited!

Has anyone eaten Hamburger Helper? I know that is a funny Q but I have never had it in my life and I saw a commercial and it looked really good but I don''t know if it will gross me out. I got HH Cheeseburger Mac and the picture is unappealing to me today. But I have the stupid hamburger so I feel like I should use it...but of course the thought of it grosses me out. HAHA. So just wondering if HH is even really good or if I should forgo.

I am supposed to Zumba tonite but I am *zzzz* right now finishing out my day. I feel SO much better when I work out in the mornings aka on the weekends, I can do Sat and Sun mornings and feel great but come 4pm I am dragging so my regular ''work out at night'' schedule is hard to follow right now.

 

[phoenixgirl]

Yup, our class was a couples one; the theme was a Nantucket picnic. We (the class) made shrimp with pancetta, fettuccine with tomatoes and arugula, filet mignon strips, and biscotti. We made the biscotti since it was the first thing she asked for volunteers for and everyone else sat there like they didn''t know this was going to be a cooking class!

Of course, we got suckered into buying a whole bunch of stuff during our break . . . we got a salad spinner, a Silpat mat, a Microplane cheese grater, and a cake pan scooper thingy. At least it was 15% off and we had a $10 gift certificate.

Your hamburger helper craving sounds like my beefaroni craving! I think a hamburger helper like dish -- hamburger with onions, garlic, carrots, mushrooms, etc. -- with macaroni could be good, but I don''t really know what comes in the box. Is it just macaroni and a packet of seasoning? What are the ingredients? If there''s anything weird in there I''d probably just improvise my own seasonings and add a few veggies.

 

[Mara]

well i am getting ready for zumba this morning and eating my cracklin'' oat bran cereal. i don''t know what my obsession is with cereal but i can eat 3-4 bowls a day!

PG...we haven''t eaten the HH yet... it just hasn''t sounded appealing. all the ones i saw at the store had extra stuff in it like pasta or whatever, i will have to see if they have other things in there like veggies i guess. but yeah i am sure it''s all artificial kinda thing...it''s HH! it''s like chef boyardee (which i also bought a can of HAHA)...haha.

last nite we went out to a vietnamese ''cheap eats'' crawl with some friends which included viet dinner and then viet coffee shop crawling. i shared 2 coffee''s with greg, they are strong and sweetened with condensed milk and my stomach did NOT like it later. i had horrible gas and indigestion half the night...ugh i felt like i was dying. i have had that stuff before but it never sits well with me so i should have known it would sit even LESS well this time.

i am still just at 3-4 lbs gain though sometimes it goes up to 5 but then typically the next days it''s back to 4. it''s prob more on the 4-5 now than 3-4. the dr told me to aim to gain around 12 in 2nd tri so hopefully if i don''t get too crazy in spain i should be ok. try to limit the churros and chocolate i guess...hehee.

anyhow hope the preggos are doing well and healthy!! or mostly...

 

[Burk]

Hello fellow preggos! Room for another?

I need to get back to working out regularly but it''s been hard the past 5 weeks since my MS has been unbearable and I have an 18 mo. old running around. Needless to say, I don''t even know if the people at the gym will remember my name!

Tayva and I have been going on walks most days and I''ve walked on our treadmill at home and played some volleyball here and there, but not like I used to. My food aversions have been horrible so I''ve basically just eaten what sounds okay at the time, which luckily is usually a lot of fruit. I''ve never been much of a meat person so the fact that it still sounds horrible doesn''t surprise me much. My MS seems to be tapering off a bit so hopefully and I should get my second trimester energy soon

so hopefully I can start posting positive progress on this thread!

 

[phoenixgirl]

Burk, I know how that goes! It sounds like you have been staying very active, and that''s really all you can do when MS rears its ugly head. I hope the energy returns and the MS tapers off soon!

Mara, I actually meant to add your own veggies (real ones) to the mix. Something like this: "Hamburger Buddy" recipe from Eating Well Not this exact recipe, though, because I made it once, and as I recall it was pretty bland.

Well, DH was really productive today. He put up two shelves, the nursery valance, and a roller shade, constructed the BRU glider and ottoman, and did a whole bunch of gardening. I, on the other hand, took a nap. But not until I did my Firm workout so at least it wasn''t a total wash.

Tonight we''re having dinner with some friends of DH''s, so no cooking for me until tomorrow. Tomorrow night we''ll be trying out this one-dish chicken and kielbasa rice recipe from Cooking Light since we have extra chicken and kielbasa from recent recipes.

The annoying thing is that now that we are pregnant, we get fewer invitations to do stuff. Well, probably we''re entertaining less because I don''t always feel up to it and am less inclined to stay out late/go to bars. But anyway, last night we got two invitations to do things and tonight we got another, but we already had plans. Why couldn''t our friends call us the other weekends when we were just cocooning? Of course, if we had really wanted to be social those nights, I guess we would have initiated something then. When we have been social, we''ve been doing more cooking at home with friends where they come over and bring half the meal and we prepare it together, which is definitely good practice for when the baby comes. But maybe we should do stuff we can''t do with a baby now while we can!

 

[Mara]

PG it''s funny you talk about cocooning and events. Typically every summer we are super busy, as in events Fri-Sun. But this summer since I wasn''t feeling well I was really limiting my events to maybe one a weekend. Now since I am better we are doing more, but it''s so funny because it''s not the same as it was when I wasn''t preggo. My friend''s aren''t preggo and only one out of our immediate group has a child, so none of them can relate, and one of them is so bummed I can''t ever enjoy a drink anymore so she is always moping around me, HAHA. So for us we are still doing a fair amt but it''s not the SAME. I feel different, I am different, my life is going to BE different. I am typically tired by like 9 or 10 and I feel like a blob even though I''m not one yet, so I don''t feel like my typical ''dressed up, sexy self'' when we go out either. More like something about me is screaming ''she''s preggo''. It''s such an interesting transition time. But then yes I think the same thing, well we better be social now because after the kid comes we won''t be seen for months probably HA! We do a lot of BBQ''s and dinners with friends but last nite was Greg''s bday party and I couldn''t help but compare it mentally in my head to last year''s which went til almost everyone was pretty soused and there was a lot of rowdiness , and this time it was a more sedate affair at a restaurant, a few tequila shots around the table and lots of merriment, but a way more mellow crowd. Greg invited people back to our place after but everyone was so tired (and hungover) from this event we went to on Fri thate everyone bailed (which I was happy about since I was tired!) and we all went home, hahaha. I guess we are all getting old!

Speaking of sleeping, I napped for a ridiculous 4 hours yesterday. I didn''t mean to but Greg had to go in and show support for his team working on a program release so I was alone for most of the day and on weekends I tend to sleep if I have nothing else to do now, the body seems to welcome it. The crazy thing is we went to bed at 11:30 and I slept til 8 again. Sheesh. I am def not used to my body taking so much sleep, but I know during the week it gets run down with grueling work and our schedules so as Greg says, it must need it. But because of it was I very out of it for our dinner and people assumed I was tired when really I had OVERslept.

I''m heading to 9am Zumba now and then hopefully can be partially active in the yard, we have a BBQ at my parents for Greg''s bday this afternoon and then a sushi dinner with some friends tonite, I am SO EXCITED about having sushi from this place, its my fave place and I have eaten there for over 10 years! It is prob the only place I''d trust to eat sashimi right now other than WF since I know they freeze, but I am just excited to have a few of my fave rolls.

Welcome Burk!! I hear ya re: not feeling like doing much, that is how I was during nausea, but now that I am feeling better I am trying to be as active as possible so I don''t totally turn into a slug, which is my native state! Walking is great though and I imagine your 18 month old keeps you pretty active without even realizing it.

 

[phoenixgirl]

Mara, yeah, you definitely need extra sleep! But I would be tired after a 4 hour nap too. Ugh, I hate that "overnapped" feeling.

I''m figuring I''ll probably wind up napping this afternoon. I walked 3.5 miles this morning. It''s a high of 99 today, and while it was supposedly only in the 70s during the 9 o''clock hour, it felt hotter than that. I drank 16 ounces of water on my walk and still seemed dehydrated when I came home. But it feels so nice to have my activity for the day checked off so I can relax. DH is off to a mountain bike race that''s 1.5 hours away so I won''t see him until late afternoon. I don''t know what he is thinking in this sweltering heat . . .

Oh, and I did have one serving of the smoked salmon I had bought, but then I was worried/guilty about it, so I made DH eat the rest of it yesterday. Mara, enjoy your sushi tonight, sounds yummy!

Maybe instead of or in addition to napping, I''ll also make some cookies as DH took the last of last week''s batch with him to the race. And I wonder why I have gained so much weight.

 

[phoenixgirl]

OK, chocolate chip cookies are cooling. Yum!

I have been drooling over the cupcake thread for a while now (which is so not like me usually . . . I''m not much of a sweet person, but you know what they say about your cravings with baby girls!), but I think it''s best that I not even go there.

 

[Mara]

lol pg...yeah i was thankful for a while i didn''t want sweets but now that is slowly coming back. however it''s FAR less than my ''typical'' sweet tooth thankfully or else i''d prob have gained way more. i still want more salty typically which is very unusual for me.

i am also still waiting for my love of water to come back...it still kind of grosses me out and also i can''t drink super cold water anymore. BUT i can drink a sweetened iced tea and water it down with water and that is ok tasting, in fact that can be super cold and i am happy. so bizarre the nuances.

i think i have a headache from sleeping too much, kind of a dull head ache, blah. it''s pretty warm here too but i just went out and did some gardening/clean up before we head to our bbq. PG enjoy the cookies!

hope everyone else is doing well!

 

[Burk]

phoenix~Thanks for the welcome. MS is a real PITA!

Chocolate chip cookies sound kinda yummy....which is odd because MS was back with vengeance today.

Mara~Thanks! It''s great that you''re feeling better and able to get back to being as active as you were pre-preggo. I continued regular workouts with my first pregnancy and I think I bounced back fairly quickly (pre-preggo weight by 3 months). Not sure if the working out was the reason why, but I''d like to think it at least contributed.

I found when I pregnant with Tayva, we def. didn''t get invited to do as many things socially. It was like people thought if there was alcohol involved we wouldn''t want any part of it, which is kind of odd since I very rarely drink anyway.

DH has had the stomach flu the past few days and I''m worried this MS relapse may actually be me starting to get it.

I really hope not because I start back at work this week (I''m a teacher) and I really don''t want to waste my leave on teacher work days!

 

[steph72276]

Hey, girls! I just got back from the beach and we had a blast. Adam managed to put on 5 lbs while we were there because he was enjoying lots of seafood and desserts, so I was worried, but I managed to not gain any during the trip. I think it must have been because of all the walking on the sand....that is hard work for a pregnant lady! I ate pretty healthy and avoided most of the sweets. They just don''t sound that good to me these days, which is a good thing I guess!

Mara, didn''t you say you were the same way? I craved lots of sweets with my son, so I''m wondering if that means girl

. Haha about the hamburger helper. I haven''t had one of those since college. I did crave beefaroni from the can when I was pregnant with my son but it sounds gross this time around

.

Burk, welcome! Hope you are doing well. No worries about not working out with morning sickness. It is hard enough trying to take care of a little one while sick, much less do anything else. I am 15 weeks now and still having little bouts of sickness here and there. I''m just trying to be as active as I can when I''m not sick. Hope you feel better soon!

PG, sounds like you guys got a lot accomplished in the nursery! I can''t wait to find out what we''re having so I can get to work on ours!

 

[steph72276]

Hi, Marcy

. Just saw you popped in. Hope you are doing well! Love seeing all your cake creations!

 

[steph72276]

Just got back in from a long, but very slooow walk in the neighborhood. I don''t know what it is I''m feeling. I ate dinner at 5 and started the walk at 8, so it''s not like I''m still full from dinner (which admittedly was not too healthy, but only 1 slice of pizza). I kind of feel like I can actually feel my stomach stretching out....has anybody else felt this? It''s like my stomach is pretty flat in the morning and then looks like I swallowed a watermelon by nighttime. Weird. Anyway, at least I got some activity in. I think I will do some swimming tomorrow. Hope everyone has a great night!

 

[phoenixgirl]

Hey Steph,

Could your feeling be your food moving more slowly through the whole digestive track? That definitely happens with pregnancy. Heartburn, burps, throwup burps . . . I''ve been experiencing all of these, and I never have before.

The good thing is you got some activity in!

Ugh, here it was just too hot (first day over 100 all summer), so I took an unplanned break day from being active. Tomorrow I''ll get back on track with a Firm video.

 

[steph72276]

PG, I wasn''t really having gas type issues, it was more of a feeling like after you eat waaaay too much and you are feeling stuffed, only I just had 1 slice of pizza 3 hours before. I literally think it was my stomach stretch out and it hurt! Lately I have been finding that I can only eat a small amount at a time, so I am just eating a little more often. I didn''t eat much for dinner the night before last, and as soon as I got up out of bed the next morning, I fainted....so I know I need to eat more, it is just hard when you feel so full. Weird. I will ask my doc when I go back.

 

[phoenixgirl]

Steph, you fainted, oh my! I would definitely ask the doctor about that! I hope it was just the hunger.


I''m back from my 30 week appointment and am happy to report that everything is good. I was very relieved that my weight gain slowed down a bit this appointment. I was steeling myself for another 2 pounds a week gain, so I was mentally preparing myself not to be upset unless I gained more than 4 pounds, but I only gained 1.2. I haven''t been trying not to gain weight (I ate country fried steak one night, filet mignon and shrimp another, made and then ate lots of cookies . . .) but I was just hoping I wasn''t going to gain 2 pounds a week for the duration and then be up to about 60 pounds by the end of my pregnancy, which would be just over half of my pre-pregnancy weight. I defy anyone to say she wouldn''t mind gaining half her body weight over the course of a pregnancy. So we''ll see, and I''ll try to prepare myself to have it be more next time (this is when the baby is actually gaining pretty rapidly so I should be gaining more than ever, but my sister says her weight gain slowed down in the end with her previous two pregnancies).

Does anyone have any good lunch recommendations? I am not a creative chef (as is evidenced by the fact that everything I make comes straight from a recipe), but now that I can''t have salmon and cream cheese anymore (thanks a lot Mara! J/K), I''ve been eating PB&J every day. I prefer not to eat meat/poultry at lunch, so I am thinking maybe a whole wheat pita with hummus or finding a healthier tuna fish recipe. I could probably do a sliced turkey sandwich with mustard and a slice of cheese. I just want it to be easy to prepare when I get hungry and I usually feel like something vegetarian or even vegan for lunch.

 

[steph72276]

PG, I was struggling to find lunches too. I just bought some whole wheat pitas and put some turkey deli meat and cheese and warmed it up in the microwave to have a turkey melt and it was pretty tasty. You can also buy some whole wheat tortillas and put some shredded cheese to make a little quesidella(sp?). I do that a lot. I have also started buying Amy''s organic frozen meals to have a few times a week and they are pretty tasty.

 

[Mara]

PG....i hear your pain... i am totally paranoid about over gaining, but you were so tiny to begin with. my scale has been jumping lately but i want to wait til it''s at one # for a few days (or around there) before i actually count it...because i had sushi the other night and the next day i was 2 lbs heavier and i know it was all the crazy sodium in there. but if it stays there 2 days later then its gain. so right now i am at about 5-6 lbs gained total. my little update for the week said i should have gained around 5 lbs total so i guess that''s near right...but my dr said really it just depends on what your weight was BEFORE preggo. PG you were so tiny you might have to gain a bit more than i would since i was at my normal weight (and prob could have lost 5 lbs hehee).

i finally took a pic of myself today with ''belly''... but i have to look at them and see if i feel comfortable giving them to anyone lol...but i did it mostly for my own records (my friend said i''d regret it later if i didn''t chronicle something) and maybe to send to greg''s family who is asking for some updates on the kid.

greg was sweet today and said i didn''t even look preggo in my clothes for work. sweet liar. LOL! oh and steph, in the first tri i would get CRAZY bloated in the afternoon and evenings, like in the morning i''d look normal then by end of day i''d be like 5 months preggo. i would like be like WTF is going on???? it was bad gas and indigestion, horrible! thank god now that is tapering off because i would be all depressed at night and feel like my belly was filled with air. it hurt to lay on it or near it and i am a side/front sleeper.

steph when you get up in the morning do you think you fainted from hunger or just the vertigo? i read that why most preggos faint is because of low blood pressure, super low....and that is what triggers a faint. i have not had one knock on wood!!! and sometimes at night i am not that hungry either... last nite i had a bit of mac and cheese that my mom made from scratch this wkd, and a slice of pizza from what greg brought home. i just didnt'' feel like eating much. i seem to eat the most in the morning until noon. and then a lunch i eat from typically 12-2pm ( i space it out) and then a snack around 3-4pm.

oh and PG i would still eat smoked salmon sometimes...but i was having it like 2x a week. also if you havent gotten sick from it then maybe it''s not a big deal. i had sushi this wkd and it was soooooo good...hehee.

anyway time for my second breakfast...lol...granola and soy milk. have a great day all!

 

[phoenixgirl]

Mara, I totally had that bloating too. It made me look like I had a belly bump before I really did. One time after lunch at Panera (so sad because it was a good lunch) I got so much gas/bloating that DH called the doctor because we were worried it could be M/C cramping.

I wish I were brave enough to eat sushi. I''ve been drinking a little wine here and there, so it''s not like I am a total rule follower/abstainer from anything that could have possibly ever been on an "avoid during pregnancy" list, but I guess that the thought of illness that could strike and put the baby in harm''s way from uncooked foods is scarier to me than the vague "no amount of alcohol is known to be safe" directive they''ve come out with recently that doesn''t seem to be based on any actual facts (studies lump people who drink 2x a day with those who drink 5x a day and then label that as "moderate" drinking and link it to birth defects).

I did my Firm video this morning. The nurse actually said I don''t need to be reducing my weights like I have been because it''s not like two 8 lb. dumbbells are excessive, but I''m just following what my body is telling me. If I try to use the heaviest weights they recommend for every exercise, I feel kind of like I did when I was first working out and decided that I would use even heavier weights than they were recommending since I was getting so strong. I immediately felt bad pain/strained muscles and knew that wasn''t right for me. Now when I hold the heavier weights I feel like it''s putting too much pressure on my middle; I think my chest or back muscles or biceps could handle the weight, but what with my stomach muscles being all stretched out, it''s best to avoid too much pressure on the abs. I''ve just been doing those teensy little crunches from the Perfect Pregnancy Workout Vol. 1 while propped up on a pillow.

 

[Mara]

PG ... yeah i have a much harder time abstaining from foods than alcohol hehee. plus when i talked to my dr she said...well if this is a place you have eaten at and are familiar with and have not gotten sick then your risks are extremely low rather than if you just decided to go to a new place. and i have been eating at this sushi place for over 10 years probably like 2-3x a month. it's my favorite place. so i figured well if i was going to have sushi it will be from there! and i am doing the whole foods pre-frozen sushi like once every 2 weeks in a v.small amt (one 6 piece roll with a sliver of salmon in each). so overall its def in moderation... but again it is soooo much harder for me to forgo sushi than alcohol. i did sip greg's lambic beer on sunday too hehee. i figure this kid will be tough! i am also still eating bleu cheese and feta sometimes, but infrequently, like maybe once every 1.5 weeks....i am eating way less salad now that it gives me more gas in general.

all of that data is soooo general and nebulous. honestly it is crazy how much people shouldn't do nowadays with pregnancy. i do agree with being careful but not going overboard yanno?? our bodies are pretty darn tough in my opinion. (of course knock on wood hahaha).

i am cutting back on tuna though, i hardly ever have it, i am more worried about the mercury risk and its potential link to autism than my salmon i guess.

though i did read some scary story about a guy who ate a lot of salmon sashimi and grew a big worm in him!!

 

[Burk]

steph~Thanks for the welcome! Saw your pic on the preggo thread and you look great!! Scary about the fainting. My MS is usually the worst in the evenings so I have a hard time eating but I try and force myself to eat some toast or something before I go to bed.

phoenix~I am not a creative chef either and lunches have been hard for me. I do a lot of sandwiches, pitas and wraps. Hot ham and cheese wraps are my new fav.

I had my 13 week appt today and all was good. I am up 4 lbs. I really don''t worry much about the total amt. of weight gain (I gained what most would say is a lot with my first and was working out and eating pretty healthy so what can ya do?). I just want to stay active and eat healthy and have a healthy baby. So, Tayva and I went on walks the past couple days. I wanted to go to step class tonight but couldn''t find a babysitter so I might go walk on the treadmill for a while.

 

[steph72276]

Well, I had a very active and fun day today. I took Andrew up to this little water park near our house and we swam there and played for about 4 hours. Then I had a burst of energy after dinner, so we took the dog on a walk while Andrew rode his bike. I think both of us will sleep well tonight

. Hope everyone is having a great week!

Mara, I don''t think my fainting was really out of hunger, but I do think something might be going on with my blood sugar. I seem to be getting dizzy every morning now and a big glass of OJ seems to help. I eat the most in the morning too. I just can''t seem to get thrilled about any food at night. It all sounds good during the day when I''m thinking about what to make for dinner, but when dinner rolls around, I''m usually just like whatever I''ll just take a bowl of cereal.

PG, sounds like you did a lot today. I am going to get back into doing weights at the gym when Andrew starts back to school. I will probably cut everything in half at first though just to be careful.

Burk, thank you...I feel kinda silly putting it up without much of a bump...kinda just looks like I ate too much

. I wouldn''t worry about the weight either. I am telling myself the same thing...I''m eating healthy (okay, like 90% of the time at least) and I''m being active. Other than that, there''s not much else I can control.

 

[Mara]

lol steph i am eating so much cereal. people say that is an old wives tale that it''s a boy..hehee. but yeah at night i am feeling the same too, like ''whatever'' about food. tonite we had leftover mac and cheese and some of the Trader Joe''s fish sticks.

speaking of those, try them PG... you can make however many you want at once and they are really good actually, the best frozen ones i have had. and they are not unhealthy, they are reduced fat. i think 8 is like 200 cals or something and i can only eat 8 before i am full.

i zumba''d tonite but i was soooo out of it. i made the mistake of laying my head down on the couch while reading and napped intermittently for 40 min which led to me being late for zumba and feeling totally zonked. but at least i went. i was talking to a friend at work who is 27 weeks and she just started swimming and loves it...so i might try something like that too when i am bigger.

burk..good for staying active! steph... the first thing i had to do in the mornings was drink something like juice...which i typically don''t like at all but it made me feel better and not as nauseated.

i wish i was eating healthier but so far not really. i have on and off days...but it''s not like i am eating cheeseburgers. i am eating just more like what i want, but not in huge portions, i think that might be what is saving me hahah. so far anyway. when i feel more interested in food, i would love to get back to being more healthy.

 

[phoenixgirl]

I'm back from a 3+ mile walk. It's a little scary to think that this is the last summer for the foreseeable future where I can just do what I want all day, footloose and fancy free . . .

Mara, we do need to check out Trader Joe's. One just opened up out in the burbs, but we find it annoying to drive 20 minutes just to fight for parking spaces with a million SUVs when we can walk to most of what we need where we live. I went through a phase where I had MorningStar vegetarian burgers and nuggets for lunch a lot, but I guess now I'd rather make something simple than look at the ingredients of my frozen meal and wonder what all that stuff is.

Steph and Burk, you guys have really good attitudes about weight gain! And the numbers you all are mentioning are way less than what I gained in the beginning . . . I was up 7 pounds at 9 weeks, 19 pounds at 16 weeks, etc.

Maybe it's all the articulating and discussing we've done here and on the Preggos thread, but I am currently feeling very good about my body. Even though obviously a lot of that 34 pounds I've gained is just plain fat, I am still muscular and I think the belly is pretty. It's just the numbers that are freaking me out; it's not how I look. I know I look good and healthy. Of course, I'm afraid I won't be able to lose the weight after the baby, but that is what it is.

There's a 10k about 5 months after the baby is due that I am thinking about setting as a goal, but that may be unrealistic since I'll have to take 6 weeks off entirely when she's born and will only have about 3 months to train on top of being a new mother and then going back to work. But it's good to have something concrete to work towards and I'm going to be trying my darndest to run and work out regularly anyway, so why not? In 2008 my goal was to run it in less than hour (was over by 4.5 minutes); next year I might just have to settle for running half of it or something like that. (I didn't do it this year as I was 9 or 10 weeks pregnant.)

 

[Mara]

I am so jealous of you right NOW pg...doing what you want this summer. Work is so busy for me right now so it''s hard to think straight. I would love to be at home just relaxing and taking long walks. Hehehe. But yep this is IT...next summer won''t be quite so relaxed hehee.

PG i seriously cannot believe you have gained what you said because your pics look so small! and your belly is very cute. i will be happier once i have that definite belly because then it''s like halleluah! i am def preggo. hehee. plus i think it will be more fun to dress and all that, right now i am at the in-between stage.

i am eating my 2nd breakfast... pumpkin flax granola with soy milk. for dinner it''s a team outing to one of my fave places, where i typically get the tuna burger done medium. i am excited as we only go to this place like once every few months so i plan to enjoy my tuna! today nothing sounds that appealing though, i had a bit of nausea this morning...boo. but on the other hand sometimes i don''t mind the nausea because it makes me feel like ''ok things are working the way they should in there'' aka hormones are still going.

 

[Mara]

Uh oh the scale is on the move!! Today it was up about 6-7lbs so maybe my weight gain is finally kicking in. Funny cuz I was reading something online about 15 weeks and it said ''should have gained around 5 lbs by now'' but then the 16 week one said ''weight gain should be around 5-10 lbs'' and I was like jeez is there some huge growth spurt during week 15 or something? Maybe so? hahaha.

I did have a big meal last nite since it was out with my work team at one of our fave places, I had cornbread, roasted artichoke, spinach dip, and 1/2 a tuna burger. The tuna was a bit more than medium so I don''t feel badly at all (except for mercury), and then dessert for 5 of us we shared FOUR of these crazy oreo cookie things, I won''t even tell you how good they are but they are BAD for you too. Of course I got extra chocolate espresso sauce.

Thankfully the meal was at like 5-7pm so I had plenty of time to digest because I''d have had horrible nightmares otherwise. I would like to work out tonite but I tend to get so tired towards the end of the week and I am about to start 3 hours of conf calls to begin my day...I am thinking I will be more like a big slug on the couch. If I can get a 1-2 mile walk in actually I would be ecstatic!

I ordered luggage online for us last nite through Amazon as we get ready for our Spain trip in about a week. I am nervous about the flying after the amnio and the swine flu, but it should be a fun vacation hopefully. I was kind of lax in planning it, meaning it''s all ready to go and all our hotels and airfares are done, but I have like this big stack of ''what to do'' and I haven''t made any sort of itineraries at all for us. I almost feel like we should just go down there and see what we feel like. I did the same thing in Paris and Germany and I tend to like it better that way than feel like every minute of our trip is scheduled. Plus then you can determine what you want to do/see when you are actually there. I do know I will be eating a lot of churros and chocolate, yikes! Thankfully we will also be walking a lot too.

Anyhow hope you ladies are doing well!

 

[phoenixgirl]

Hey Mara! Sounds like the baby is growing at a healthy rate! I don''t really know when the growth spurts hit, but as I recall weeks 12-16 were one of the two months where I jumped up about 2 pounds a week!

I got my workout in today but am feeling winded climbing the stairs. Ah, pregnancy . . .

It''s funny because I always try to avoid the Merry Maids when they come (usually we''re the first appointment of the day so I just run errands then), but today they came later after my errands. One of the maids was telling me how excited she was for my baby, and wasn''t I so small for only having two more months, and wasn''t I a runner? and she remembered when my husband left me that cute note calling himself "Baby Daddy," and how she told the other maid (who is a guy . . . do you still call them maids?) that we must be having a girl when she saw the pink nursery . . . It was really sweet, actually, and of course someone who comes in your home every few weeks gets to know things about you, but it was kind of funny/weird too! I don''t know how she knew I was a runner . . . The funniest thing was when she was telling me about her 9 year old son, and how "he was worth [all the indignities of pregnancy like stretch marks and varicose veins] . . . I guess . . ." You guess???

 

[Mara]

lol PG i love that...''i guess''....HA!

and i hear you on the maids thing it is funny... we have a dog walker for portia who i really never see even though we correspond via email about once every 2 weeks to talk about any schedule changes, and she left me a note like a week ago going ''i love your ultrasound pictures, congratulations!''...and i was like oh we have them on the fridge!

and i wonder if when the maids come (every 2 weeks) they are curious at all because we got a lot of ''congrats'' cards from our parents and friends and we have them up on the mantel plus the US pictures on the fridge etc. but i hardly talk to them...unless they need a date change or something, but yeah they will be cleaning the eventual nursery etc etc. kinda funny, i am like do i tell them even though they prob already know? ''etiquette''? lol.

 

[steph72276]

Mara, I think you are right on this being our week for a growth spurt. I gained 2 pounds this morning! Ugh. It could be from sodium since I had a frozen meal yesterday. It was one of those Amy''s organic, but I didn''t check sodium content. I will see what the number is tomorrow, but I feel like my stomach stretched out quite a bit. Adam''s like yeah, it did! I also got no workout in today and I made cupcakes and tried a few minis with just plain vanilla frosting. Oh well, sometimes we have those days...I plan to swim tomorrow for a while, so that will be good. Hope you guys had a great day.