Bullet Journaling

Bullet Journaling is a fantastic system for capturing and organizing all your various lists and thoughts. Getting things out of your head and onto paper really helps to clear your mind so you can prioritize and focus on what needs to be done right now. One of the best features of the system is that it is entirely adaptable to your needs once you learn the basics. I first heard about Bullet Journaling on the Pen Addict podcast. Brad and Myke interviewed Ryder Carroll, the inventor of the Bullet Journal system, in episodes 70, 124, and 255. Brian Goulet also interviewed him last year.

If you haven't been to Ryder's website and watched the intro video yet, it's a great place to start to get the basics:
http://bulletjournal.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/RyderCarroll

My friend Sarah put together a wonderful BuJo 101 presentation here.

Ryder's TED talk is very inspirational. Sit down with a notebook and take some notes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym6OYelD5fA&t=3s

After that, I'd recommend BohoBerry for beautiful layout ideas:
https://www.bohoberry.com/
https://www.instagram.com/boho.berry/
https://www.instagram.com/tinyrayofsunshine/

My favorite markers for BuJo:
Sakura Pigma Micron markers
Staedtler Triplus Fineliners
Paper Mate Flair

Boho Berry's favorite pens:
Faber Castell PITT Artist Pen
Tombow Dual Brush Pens

Some good notebooks:
Rhodia (very fountain pen friendly)
Leuchtturm (has numbered pages, saves time if you want to use an index)
Traveler's Notebook (flexible system that allows you to use separate books)

Here is my system.

I have separate books for work and home. It would be useful to have everything in one book if I worked at home and didn't have to transport things back and forth, or if I were a student and "home" was an extension of school. But for my week, it's easier to leave my home book at home and my my work book at work. I use email as the link between them. If I'm at work and I think of something I need to do that night or that weekend, I write myself an email with the task as the subject line and nothing in the body so that I can move those things into my weekend list. If it is something I can do quickly when I get home then I just do it, archive the email, and don't even bother writing it down. For me, this is all about efficiency. Less time capturing and organizing my lists means more time getting things done.

One thing that is helpful is deciding what you do NOT need to track or list. Some people list absolutely everything - wake up, brush teeth, make bed, dishes, etc. Last year, when I started bullet journaling, I decided there were certain things I did not need to list out. There are some things I know I will do every day and writing it down would just be a waste of time for me, i.e. everything I wrote above. This keeps my to do list short and purposeful.

These are Ryder's recommended symbols for tasks, events, and notes, but you can use whatever works for you:

dot = task
x = completed
> = migrated
< = scheduled
- = note
o = event
strikethru = irrelevant (or no longer relevant)
* = priority signifier

(snapshot from the Bullet Journal app)

Here's how I do it: 

• Strikethrough = complete
• Double Strikethrough = removed from list
• Strikethrough with arrow at the end = migrate

At home I use a regular size Traveler's Notebook. It sits on my kitchen counter and it's always open to my weekly list. A Traveler's Notebook is a system that allows you to put multiple notebooks into one soft leather cover. My TN has 3 inserts: the first is a place where I can write down cute stories about the kids, the next one is my "currently inked" log from Pen Habit, the third is my actual to do list. I use one spread per week. The left is usually blank except for random notes or side-lists that need to get categorized later such as letters to write or a packing list. On the right side is always my to do list for the week. I don't do the month at a glance or future log like a real bullet journal because I find that's redundant to my google calendar. My main use for this journal is to collect through the week what I need to do that weekend, and that's really it.

My favorite TN inserts are: 

TN Refill 013 - 128 pages of blank 52gsm Tomoe River paper, lasts forever! 

Goulet Refills - 52gsm and 68gsm Tomoe available in dot grid, lined, blank
Currently Inked log from Pen Habit

Zipper Pocket

At work I use a Hobonichi Weeks. I love the layout for work. On the left I write out my major meetings, reviews, deadlines, or events and on the right is my task list for the week. Short and sweet and focused. At the end of each week I "migrate" what didn't get done over to the next week. It is handy to quickly be able to look back at 4-5 weeks of crossed off lists to see what I accomplished that month or what took up the most time. The Hobo is Tomoe River paper, so it's fountain pen friendly.

I really enjoy looking at all the beautiful bullet journals in my instagram feed on a daily basis. But I tried doing that in my Leuchtturm once and it took so long that I decided it was not for me. My work planner (Hobonichi Weeks) already has a built in layout that's perfect for me and my home system is only 1 page per week. I also use google calendar for appointments. I tried the bujo habit tracker once and that just made me crazy. It's so important to try different things and do what works for you. It took me a good year to figure out the system that works for me and my life.

I love the copper clips from The Container Store. The page flags are Happy Planner accessories from Hobby Lobby.

Cover of my Traveler's Notebook

Currently Inked Log

Layout for Home

Hobonichi Weeks for Work

 

Fountain Pens

I just love introducing friends to fountain pens! I've always been into stationery and pens, but only recently got into this hobby.

The journey started for me in fall 2015. I was looking for a new journal and talking with Mitch about types of paper. He asked me if I had heard of Tomoe River paper, which led to a review on the Pen Habit, which led to Leigh Reyes videos, which led to Goulet Pens YouTube channel.... and down the rabbit hole I went! It's funny because Mitch had showed me his Safari several years earlier and I wasn't interested at the time. I thought it was "scratchy" and told him I preferred my ballpoints. 😜 

As with so many things, Mitch was waaaaaay head of me. But when I finally gave it another shot, I fell hard. The first taste is free...

So now that I'm two full years into the hobby, plus change, with a small collection of fountain pens and over 100 inks, my favorite thing to do is get other people started. Here is a collection of where to start. I guess I should back up and talk about what is a fountain pen, how does it work, what types of nibs are there, and so on... but others have already done that so much better than I ever could. Instead I would point you to this gem...

Goulet Pens: Fountain Pens 101
https://www.gouletpens.com/fountain-pen-101

Pretty Fountain Pen Instagram Feeds:
https://www.instagram.com/gourmetpens/
https://www.instagram.com/penfiend/

The hobby doesn't HAVE to be expensive. With just $10 you can get a pen and ink. But I like to start people out with the Pilot Metropolitan because it is basically perfect. It is a smooth writer. It will probably be the smoothest writing experience you have ever had if you've only used standard office supply ballpoints. It has a good amount of weight to it, so it feels like an expensive pen, not cheap plastic. It has a snap cap which is nice and easy to use (rather than a cap that unscrews) and you don't have to worry about it leaking in your bag. It can be fully disassembled which makes it easy to clean and swap out nibs. It has 3 types of nibs including "italic" which instantly improves the look of your handwriting. They come in a wide array of colors. I started out with a black one and a white one, and now I have 6 of them. Like I said about the first taste...

Good starter pens:
Pilot Metropolitan - $20
Pilot Plumix - $11
Jinhao x750 - $7
Fountain Pen Revolution, starts at $9 for flexible nib
Pilot Parallel - $10 <-- can probably find at Michael's or art store
Kaweco Sport - $20-25 for the plastic ones
LAMY Safari - $25

Noodler's Konrad was my first flex pen - $40
Other starter pens

Online Shops:
Goulet Pens
Anderson Pens
Vanness Pens
Jet Pens

Papier Plume

Pen Chalet

Brick and Mortar Store:
Dromgoole's in Rice Village, new youtube channel! 

Paper:

Rhodia

Leuchtturm

Nanami Paper (Tomoe River)

Clairefontaine

Traveler's Notebook (this is a whole rabbit hole in itself, will need a separate post)

Hobonichi (planners)

Field Notes (not always fountain pen friendly, but check out their awesome videos!!!)

Mnemosyne 

Stationery Podcasts:

The Pen Addict

Erasable

BYOB Pen Club

Favorite Pen People: 

Pen Addict, blog, instagram, twitter, podcast

Pen Habit, blog, youtube

Gourmet Pens, instagram, blog, youtube

The Well-Appointed Desk, instagram, blog

Leigh Reyes, instagram, blog, youtube

Goulet Pens, blog, instagram, youtube

Inkdependence, youtube

Hand Over That Pen, blog

SBRE Brown, youtube

The Nib Smith, youtube

Inks:

There are well over 500 fountain pen inks on the market today. As of this post, I have sampled 102 inks. The nice thing about ink is that a sample costs a dollar or two and you can get quite a few pages of writing with just a couple milliliters. So every couple months I buy a dozen or so and if I really like it, I buy a bottle. On the BYOB podcast they talked about a good technique for deciding whether to buy a bottle: if you're sad when your sample runs out then you should buy it. My ink drawer is currently full, so I'm trying not to buy any more bottles. We'll see how long I can hold out. 

Warning! ONLY use fountain pen ink in your fountain pen. Do not use calligraphy ink or india ink or anything else. 

My first ink was Noodler's Texas Black Bat which is a custom ink made for Dromgoole's fountain pen store in Rice Village, Houston. You can't go wrong with Iroshizuku or Sailor inks. Diamine has some very bold colors and shimmering (sparkly) inks. Robert Oster has some very interesting high-sheen colors. I like inks that have interesting properties like sheen, shading, or sparkle. There are just too many things to cover in this post, so I'll leave you with a couple pictures. 

Many pens come with a "cartridge" which is a plastic tube that holds ink. These are convenient, but they come in more of the basic colors. You can't buy every color in a cartridge. To really open up the whole range of inks available, you need a "converter" which allows you to use bottled ink, or samples, in your pen. There are a couple types out there. The Pilot Metro has a "squeeze" converter that works like a plastic eyedropper. You squeeze the converter, stick the pen in the ink, then let go and it sucks up the ink into the sac. There is also a piston type of converter which uses a plunger. You twist it so that the piston is all the way down, put the pen in the ink, then twist the opposite direction to pull the piston and the ink up into the pen. These are nice, too, but more difficult to clean. So I prefer the squeeze converters when available. Some pens have built in mechanisms (like the TWSBI piston filler) so you don't always get a choice.

When I buy inks, I like to sample them on my Col-o-ring ink testing book. I write the name of the ink with a glass pen so that I can quickly get through a lot of inks. Then I use a q-tip to swab the sample. Then I have a handy, visual catalog of every ink I've tried. Sometimes I also put the swabs in a traveler's notebook or currently inked log. 

This is enough info for one post, but I have many more things I could talk about: stationery accessories, bullet journaling, dip pens, types of calligraphy, traveler's notebooks, more on inks, pencils (that's another whole story)... let me know what you'd like to hear about! Thanks for reading! 

2017 in Review

January

• Degas at the MFAH and Mi Luna for dinner
• Baby shower

February

• Cora was born!

March through May

• Game of Thrones concert
• Stained the fence and did the spring gardening
• Easter family pictures
• Lots of fun stay-at-home mom activities

June

• Back to work

July

• 4th of July staycation 

August

• Trip to Fredericksburg 
• Solar Eclipse
• Hurricane Harvey
• Elissa moved to big girl bed

Harvey stats from Clear Creek Community Church

• 2500 volunteers cleaned out 1500 homes
• $1M donated to Harvey Relief Fund
• 1900 loads of laundry
• Many CCCC families are still housing displaced families and meals are being provided to the host homes

September

• Miss Sarah asked Elissa to be her flower girl next June!
• Swing Dancing at Rice University

October

• Pumpkin Patch pictures
• Astros won the World Series! 

November

• Marriage conference at church
• New nephew was born
• Family for Thanksgiving
• Elissa turned 3

December

• Mitch led us through our first family Advent devotional
• Snow in Houston
• STAR WARS!!
• Cora's first airplane ride
• Christmas with Colorado family
• Cora can crawl, wave, shake her head "no", clap, pull up to standing, and cruise!

Books Read in 2017

• Grace Based Parenting, Tim Kimmel
• Loving the Little Years, Rachel Jankovic
• Missional Motherhood, Gloria Furman
• My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers
• Uninvited, Lysa TerKeurst
• Field Guide for Everyday Mission, Ben Connelly
• Revenge of the Analog, David Sax
• A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle
• Almost finished: Give them Grace, Elyse Fitzpatrick
• Almost finished: Reflections on the Psalms, C.S. Lewis
• Started: A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin

2014 in Review

What a year! Here are some highlights:

• Natalie:
• Turned the big 3-0 in January
• Completed her second half marathon in February
• Sold her Neon and bought a new "mom car"
• Mitch:
• Climbed Long's Peak with his brother! 
• Got his CrossFit Level 1 certification
• Started coaching 3x a week at OSFX
• Completed first Tough Mudder - and enjoyed it?!
• Lots of friends had babies: Emily, Brittany, Kristin, Aimee, Megan, and soon Sara!
• Lots of trips!
• Florida in January
• Colorado in February
• Camping at Enchanted Rock in May
• CrossFit Regionals in San Antonio and Texas Hill Country Wineries in May
• Mexico in July
• Colorado in August
• Work:
• Boeing won the largest portion of the Commercial Crew contract
• Weddings: 
• Dylan and Mary in January
• Dan and Rachel in August
• Books read:
• Dude, You're Gonna be a Dad
• Classic Christianity
• Sequencing
• Womanly Art of Breastfeeding
• Your Pregnancy Week by Week
• Excellent Wife
• Cherish the First 6 Weeks
• Baby Preparation:
• Transformed the "junk room" into a nursery
• Completed Lamaze Class
• Completed all the pre-baby scrapbooks and photo albums
• Wonderful baby showers from church friends, work, and gym

Of course, the biggest highlight of them all was meeting our daughter last month. Our lives will never be the same! Merry Christmas and Happy 2015!

Dedicated to Elissa Claire

The other night I was listening to the Pandora "Lullaby" station while putting Elissa to bed, and this song came on. When I heard it, the tears just started flowing and we listened to it over and over. This is now our bedtime song. 

Elissa, this is for you, my sweet girl. Mommy loves you.

When the rain is blowin' in your face

And the whole world is on your case

I would offer you a warm embrace

To make you feel my love

Evenin' shadows and the stars appear

And there's no one to dry your tears

I could hold you for a million years

To make you feel my love

I know you haven't made your mind up yet

But I would never do you wrong

I've known it from the moment that we met

There's no doubt in my mind where you belong

I'd go hungry, I'd go blind for you

I'd go crawlin' down the aisle for you

There ain't nothin' that I wouldn't do

To make you feel my love

Storms are ragin' on a rolling sea

Down the highway of regret

The winds of change are blowin' wild and free

But you ain't seen nothin' like me yet

There ain't nothin' I, I wouldn't do

Go to the ends of the earth for you

Make you happy, make your dreams come true

To make you feel my love

Surprise Baby Shower

Today was the BEST day! 

I wasn't going to go to the gym this morning because I was really discouraged earlier this week with how difficult it is becoming to keep up with my friends at our gym. I asked Mitch what we were going to do today (since he is the coach now and he gets to decide), but he wouldn't tell me specifics. He just said "we're doing all your favorite moves!" And I was like yeah right.... but I decided to go anyway and just give it a try. 

We pulled up and I saw that the pavilion by our gym was being set up with a "baby shower" sign, but I didn't think anything of it.... at all. Talk about baby brain. 

So we get inside and I saw that Mitch had already written the workout on the board the night before. It was "The Nat" which is a workout that I programmed back in April when we were all taking turns making up our own workout. So I was pleased just because they chose to do my workout again. It's all things that I like to do. Although, I wasn't pregnant at the time, so we had to modify some things. 

THEN....Mitch pulled Saran Wrap out of his bag.... I was like "no way! we're going to do that?!?!" I had seen a video a while back where a gym had the non-pregnant people wrap medicine balls to their tummies to simulate being pregnant in solidarity with the ladies in the group who were pregnant. I thought that was really cute and would be a fun thing to do sometime, so I had mentioned it but decided to just let it go because I figured that would be kinda mean to make them all do it. But that's exactly what they all did. My whole gym strapped 8lb to 25lb medicine balls to their tummies and we did "The Nat" together. I was cracking up the whole time. Couldn't stop smiling. Couldn't believe they were actually doing this for me.  

And there was MORE! After they completed a grueling 2000m row and a 30 minute workout, we went out to the pavilion and it turned out that the baby shower that was being set up earlier was for ME! I still can't believe they did all this. So they put pink tablecloths on the 4 tables out there, hung streamers and a sign with hand-made flowers. They brought a watermelon cut like a baby carriage, pink popcorn that had little tags with poems written for baby, bundt cakes with little hand-made tutus, bottled water with custom labels, and of course chocolate milk - the ultimate recovery drink. They also brought gifts! Some warm clothes, socks, headbands, books, blankets, and a bottle of wine for later. :) 

I'm so grateful for this supportive group of friends. They've been so encouraging the whole time. Now I feel like I have the motivation I needed to keep working out the next 3 weeks - or however long - until she comes. I love you, OSFX! 

35-36 Weeks

Time it takes to walk up 4 flights of stairs at work: Mostly using the elevator now, but I can do it in 52 seconds (5 seconds slower than baseline)
Stretch marks? Nope
Sleep: Loved that extra hour we got this weekend!
Best moments this week: 

• Unexpected baby gifts from family 
• Helped Mitch with his bio for the coach page on our gym's website
• Dinner/pedis with bestie while Mitch had his "man shower" 
• 8th Annual Halloween at the Rosson's!

Movement: She moves a lot! 
Labor Signs: Nothing
Symptoms: Just the heartburn. And now my knees are telling me that I'm too heavy. 
Looking forward to: Showering this baby girl with love. This is a great blog post from one of our local radio personalities who had a daughter a few years ago now. I've always loved this post and it captures the type of mom I hope to be, too.

Waking up her sleepy head before dawn, filling a thermos with hot coffee and heading on a beautiful morning hike together, talking or just hiking in silence. Splurging for a massive bouquet of flowers after her dance recital, singling her out from the other kids and celebrating when she accomplished something amazing at school, listening to a song we both know by heart in the car and singing at the top of our lungs, asking her what she thinks about politics and allowing her to have her own opinion, creating an environment with no inhibitions to keep her from dancing wildly to her favorite music, chic flicks with popcorn together on a rainy afternoon, talks till 3 a.m. about why he broke up with her (loser), stopping for lunch together after shopping for a prom dress, and girl trips here and there to visit places and people we love.

These are the things I daydream about with her. I don't want to miss a moment. And I want her to know how celebrated she truly is.

God, give me everything I need to be the mom she needs and deserves.

Worst that happened this week: I'm a project manager for International Space Station, and some of the hardware that I built was on the Orbital rocket that exploded on Tuesday. I'm very sad that happened because a lot of time and hard work went into those projects, but NASA is in the process of determining what to rebuild. It looks like both of my items will be rebuilt in the near future. Also sad for the people who work at Orbital - this is a very tough thing to happen but I know they will find the cause, fix it, and learn from it. 

This week's accomplishments: 

Week 35: Hanging the shelves and pictures in the nursery. It's pretty much done now! Just needs a nightstand or little bookshelf near the gliding chair.

Week 36: Mitch's first Tough Mudder!

Next on the to do list: Pack the hospital bag and pray she comes early rather than late!

34 Weeks

I can still: Do pullups, row, lift, squat.
Maternity clothes? Haven't bought anything new in a while. Going to try to make it work up until the end. Finally learned to buy clothes bigger than what I need at the moment.
Stretch marks? Still none!
Sleep: Little more difficult
Best moments this week: 
Woke up 2 mornings in a row to temperatures in the 50s.... that called for baking some pumpkin cupcakes! 

Mitch went to the CrossFit Level 1 certification class at CrossFit EADO this weekend. He was all smiles! When he got back after day 1, he said "I think I need to switch careers." He signed a 6-month contract to teach at our gym. This is one happy guy!

CrossFit onesie from our former coach

(a pood is a unit of measure for kettlebells = 36 pounds)

Miss Anything? Good wine. We watched two really good documentaries about wine-making on Netflix this week: "A Year in Burgundy" and "Red Obsession."
Movement: There's a big baby in there!
Food cravings: Nothing weird. I'm kind of disappointed.
Labor Signs: None
Symptoms: Heartburn and trouble sleeping
Currently reading: Not spending much time reading right now because I'm trying to finish all the things that require me to move around before I get too big. I'm guessing that the last 2-3 weeks I'll be spending more time on the couch to read.
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy and excited
Looking forward to: Pedicures with Amber on Friday!

Best advice I got this week: Don't wear your glasses in any pictures at the hospital because no matter how cute and in-style they are right now, in 20 years they won't be. :)
This week's accomplishments: Put all the gifts away, washed baby's clothes and blankets, rearranged the nursery, finished buying all the essentials.

Before

After

Cutest load of laundry

So adorable

Next on the to do list: Find a nightstand, hang some shelves, and buy a pack 'n play.

32-33 Weeks

Time it takes to walk up 4 flights of stairs at work: 49 seconds (only 2 seconds slower than at 21 weeks!)
Stretch marks: Nope
Sleep: A rough night here or there, but overall I'm still getting 8+ hours of sleep a night.
Best moment this week: 
Week 32: I had one of the craziest days I've ever had at work. Everything was due at the same time, everyone needed something from me ASAP, I was fighting fires left and right, and then I missed our cutoff to leave for the gym so Mitch had to leave without me. I was so bummed. And then my neighboring cube-mate said "Natalie, I brought something for you, can you come to my car?" So we had a nice little chat on the walk out to the parking deck, and then she handed me two gigantic gift bags of baby gear! She gave me the Boppy pillow, some newborn onesies, pacifier, teether, and two blankets! So sweet and it really brightened my day!

Week 33: Baby Shower! Two of my friends hosted the cutest baby shower ever. We had quite the spread - mimosas (not for me!), coffee punch, pigs in a blanket, baked brie, quiche, muffins, pumpkin cupcakes, and yogurt parfait waffle cones (genius!). I loved that all the shower decorations were gifts for me to use in the nursery. It was so great to spend time with my dear friends. 

Movement: Hiccups!! So cute, oh my gosh. They are so tiny. She has hiccups at least once a day. 
Symptoms: Probably my least favorite symptom is heartburn/indigestion
Wedding rings on or off? Off 
Currently reading: So proud of Mitch - he picked up "Mayo Guide to the First Year" off my nightstand and read the whole thing in about a week. Beat me to it! 
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy with random moments when I could cry at the drop of a hat.
Looking forward to: Seeing if her eyes will be brown like mine or blue like Mitch's. He votes for blue.

This week's accomplishments: I've been scrapbooking up a storm the last couple weeks. I finished the books for high school, college, study abroad 2006, Ukraine mission trips, wedding, honeymoon, and Italy trip. I decided that it's now or never!

Next on the to do list: Finish getting all the essentials next weekend while Mitch is getting his CrossFit Level 1 certification! 

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. :-)