31 Weeks - 9 to go!

Maternity clothes: Bought some XXL workout shorts at Target...crazy! Thanks for the gift card, Aimee! 
Stretch marks: Nope!
Sleep: Has been pretty good this week. Can't complain. 
Best moment this week: Picking out sheets for her crib! 

Another special moment this week: Mitch and I attended our last two pre-baby ballets this month. On Sept 6 we saw Midsummer Night's Dream. I loved it! On Sept 20 we saw "From Houston to the World" which was a compilation of 3 pieces. The second piece, Murmuration, was one of the best we've ever seen. There are a couple clips on Houston Ballet's YouTube page. We have been going to the ballet together since 2008. It's just one of the sweet things he does for me. We'll still go to the ballet after baby, but not without a baby sitter. We'll have to start buying a third ticket down the road! 

2008:

2014:

Movement: She moves all the time! I love it! Mitch loves to play with her. If he feels a foot he taps it gently and she moves. Then if she hides her foot he pokes somewhere else until she puts it back out. It makes us both laugh. Baby feet are the best!
Food cravings: We never drink soda, but this week I was craving root beer so I had one at Rudy's BBQ - it was so good!
Wedding rings on or off: Off .... sad face
Currently reading: Mayo Clinic Guide to Your Baby's First Year 

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy
Looking forward to: Baby shower in 2 weeks! 

Most annoying thing that happened this week: Growing out of the jeans that I thought would last the whole pregnancy. 

Best/worst advice I got this week: Take turns getting a full night sleep so that it's not always one person who is sleep deprived. 
This week's accomplishments: Finished baby classes! We really loved the nurses who taught the classes. We learned a lot. I highly recommend the Cradle Club classes at Clear Lake Regional if you're in the area. We did the 4-week childbirth class plus an all-day nursing and baby care class. I feel so much more informed about all those things now. I especially loved the hospital tour. Seeing the actual Labor & Delivery rooms made it a lot less scary. Those rooms have all been remodeled this year and are very nice! I love that CLRMC is a Texas Ten Step hospital so they focus on ensuring the best bonding experience for mom and baby. Just to name a few things...they let you hold your baby skin-to-skin for an hour after birth, they encourage rooming in for the night, and they encourage breastfeeding and provide ample resources available to help with that. 
Next on the to do list: We need to settle on her name!

Doing CrossFit while Pregnant

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, so don't take this as medical advice! I just wanted to share some resources I've found if you want to keep doing CrossFit during your pregnancy. You should obviously make sure to check with your doctor.

Our gym has a CrossFit certified instructor, but it is not an affiliate. It's not "real" CrossFit, but we do "constantly varied, high intensity, functional movements." Our gym's program is called "Outer Space Functional Training" or OSFX for short. We have classes on Mondays and Wednesdays at 4:30pm, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:30am and Saturdays at 8:30am. Mitch and I go 3 times a week. Mitch also adds in 2 other days a week because he is a rock star, and he is getting his CrossFit Level 1 certification next month! When I married him, I had no idea he'd become my personal trainer! 

I started doing OSFX 1 year ago today. I had been participating 3 times a week for about 6 months before I got pregnant, but I had been doing other workouts for years before that. I completed my second half-marathon one month before getting pregnant. High intensity workouts aren't something you should start when you become pregnant, but I was happy to learn that there are women who continue CrossFit during and after pregnancy. If you're considering continuing CrossFit while pregnant, here are some resources that I found helpful. 

I started by reading the CrossFit Journal post on the topic.

This site, crossfitmom.com, has a lot of helpful resources such as guidance for each trimester, scaled workouts, and substitute exercises. 

BirthFIT has a website, facebook, and instagram feed all with helpful info and inspiring pictures to keep you going.

I loved this article written by a mom who is a CrossFit coach and doula:

The majority of the women who have continued to do CrossFit throughout their pregnancy have had extremely short, relatively easy labors. Hands down. In all the births I've attended I've noticed CrossFit Moms having a great deal of stamina, mental focus and endurance, and with all the squats we do -- shorter pushing times. Oh and let's not forget recovery. CrossFit moms have shorter, easier recoveries. All of this can be attributed to exercise but let's not forget about diet. CrossFitters usually eat very clean, minimally processed, high quality diets. THIS MATTERS.

There is also a quote from the American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) website from the article above:

Twenty years ago, very little research was done on the effects of exercise on the pregnant woman and fetus. Therefore, doctors erred on the side of caution and recommended a sedentary lifestyle for pregnant women.

Now, numerous scientific studies have shown no correlation between moderate or even vigorous exercise and miscarriage or pregnancy-related complications. In fact, ACOG says if a woman is accustomed to vigorous exercise, she can continue to do it as long as she feels okay.

I also found some inspiring videos.

This one talks about modifications you can do: 

This girl rocked out pullups during her whole pregnancy!

And one more:

I immediately noticed a huge drop in my ability to do anything cardio when I became pregnant. I went from being a middle-of-the pack runner to being the slowest, by far. At first I wore a heart rate monitor to ensure that I stopped when my heart rate was getting too high. But eventually, I figured out I can just listen to my body and I know when to stop. I modify just about everything. Double unders became single unders. Box jumps became step ups. No more max lifts, but still enough to be a challenge. Instead of burpees, I do pushups on an elevated surface. Now that I'm in my third trimester, my belly gets in the way of the barbell so I use kettlebells instead. I used to be on the crew team in college, so rowing is one of my favorite parts of CrossFit. I can still row, I just can't go as hard as I used to and my knees stick way out instead of being inside my arms where they're supposed to be. At the end of a workout, though, I'm just happy that I completed it... no matter where my name falls on the board. 

Staying active and strong while pregnant has helped keep my blood pressure in the normal range, baby's growth and heart rate are perfect, my weight is right on track, my ankle swelling (from sitting 8 hours a day) goes away after I work out, and I am able to get better sleep on days when I work out. Labor and delivery is basically the hardest "WOD" (workout of the day) that I'll ever do, so my main motivation is to prepare mentally and physically for that. 

I hope that one day, my daughter and I will be doing this together... and since her daddy is into it too, I'd say it's a given. :-)

29 Weeks

Total weight gain: 27 pounds
Maternity clothes: Just got a bag full of clothes from my best friend!
Stretch marks: still none!
Sleep: Once I hit 29 weeks, it started to get more difficult to sleep. 
Best moment this week: Free breast pump - thanks ObamaCare! 
Movement: Really strong kicks now! She is the most active right before my bedtime. Still haven't definitively felt hiccups, but I can see the movement visibly from the outside. It's amazing!
Food cravings: Anything with buttermilk: pancakes, biscuits, ranch
Symptoms: My feet look like Miss Piggy's in heels:

Wedding rings on or off? On
Best advice I got this week: Read all the books, and then throw them all away.

This week's accomplishments: 

1. Got the glider/ottoman - first VarageSale purchase!
2. Visited daycares
3. Got the car seat
4. Got the mattress 
5. Completed Baby Care and Breastfeeding class

What's next on the to do list: crib sheets and decorations for the nursery

Funniest thing that happened this week: My team at work voted on the list of baby names. Many of them are acronyms of NASA boards that we support. The winner was Hailey Elise Bland (HEB) which is our grocery store's name. No, that's not going to be her real name. 

27 Weeks

Total weight gain: 20 lbs 
I can still: Paint my toenails (amazing, but true)
Maternity clothes: Going to have to start borrowing Mitch's gym clothes because mine are too small.
Stretch marks: Still none
Sleep: Still waking up a couple times per night
Best moments this week: 

1. Getting the crib and dresser! Pics below. 
2. Free swing and baby carrier from my boss! 
3. Lamaze class! We are taking the 4-week class every Tuesday this month. Walking inside the hospital was a really special moment. I was thinking, "wow, I'm really here, taking this class, with my sweetie." It's just something I always imagined doing someday, and now that day is here. The instructor is really fun. She is an RN and a mom of 2 girls. There were 10 couples in the class. We're all about the same age. Three of the others work for NASA as well! Three of us have the same doctor. For introductions, the spouses had to give all the stats about their wives (how many weeks, doctor's name, etc) so that was cute. Then the moms had to say how they told their husbands the news and what their main concern was. No one did anything creative to tell their hubbies, so I felt better. And almost everyone's main concern was c-section. It's comforting and reassuring to know that we're a normal couple. After the very informative class, the instructor talked about massage techniques and breathing. Then she turned out the lights and played Enya while our hubbies gave us a 20 min massage. It was so nice! I almost fell asleep. So Tuesday is now my favorite night of the week and I wish I would have signed up for 6 classes instead of just 4.

Miss Anything? Nope
Movement: Bigger, stronger
Food cravings: Nothing in particular
Symptoms: It sure is nice having a little fan at work because I'm always hot.
Belly Button in or out? So that's what the inside of my belly button looks like...
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy
Looking forward to: Visiting the two daycare options tomorrow with Mitch

Best advice I got this week: Coworker told me the only piece of advice he got that turned out to be good advice was if your baby is uncontrollably crying (too hungry to sleep and too tired to eat) turn on the vacuum and let it run. He said that it worked both times that happened. Baby was distracted enough by the noise to start eating and then go to sleep.