Yoga Baby; Week 30

Do I look bigger on odd numbered weeks?????

Week 30

Only 10 weeks to go... even more exciting and terrifying.

Here's what's happening with me and the tiny one...

Cravings: Grapes, mostly. Not very interesting. I did really want In N Out earlier this week. Didn't manage to get over there though. Sad.

Aversions: I have a love hate relationship with food right now. I always want to eat, but I am always always feeling completely stuffed. So, I'm averse to everything and nothing.

Energy:  Comes and goes.

Missing: I'm kinda over missing things. Same stuff though - clothes that fit and are comfortable, fitting in small spaces, all the foods I'm not supposed to eat, all the drinks I'm not supposed to drink, etc.

Movement: My favorite thing right now is when I first get into bed and am laying on my side and part of my belly is resting on the bed. He stomps/punches into the mattress like "what is this? get it out of the way!" out of frustration. It makes me laugh every time.
He's big enough now that he can "kick" both sides of my belly at the same time, which is cool and scary.

Feeling: Achy, but generally good. I am always thirsty. Always always always. I can have a full glass of ice water and I'm thinking about when I need to get up for more. Weirdly, this does not make me have to pee more, which makes me think I may be really dehydrated, BUT you wouldn't think that if you saw how much water I drink.

Wearing: Tunic tops and leggings, maxi dresses, shorts. None of my old clothes. Well, almost done of my old clothes. I wake up in the morning, stare at my closet and say aloud "I hate clothes".

Yoga: Still one of my favorite parts of every week. I love that I can feel strong, like I'm getting a good workout and not hurting my joints or feeling like I need to support my belly. I have been taking major advantage of being able to get upside down as often as possible - especially since I'm carrying so low, it gets really uncomfortable sometimes. Inversions help move him up and out of my pelvis, so I can relax.

Can't Live Without:  Still my body pillow and ice water. I've started propping up pillows on the couch/floor/bed so I can lay on my stomach without actually laying on my stomach.

Getting Ready? The baby's room is furnished! Last weekend my mom was going to come over and me put up the decals I got on Etsy, but the weekend got away from us. On Sunday night I did manage to lay it all out flat so the edges won't curl up.
OH! I almost forgot and am adding this after hitting *publish* - I started putting up the decals last night. I'm a little worried about where some of the pieces are going to fit. The room is not very big, but I'm confident we'll figure it out.
I haven't been buying much because I don't know what we'll get at the shower. Once I see what we don't need, I'll probly go on a bit of a shopping spree.

I did start to work on an emergency kit in the last few days. We're gonna keep it in the baby's room because in the event of an emergency, that's likely the first place we'll go. I'll tell you about it next week. ;)

Seven Days of Yoga; Week 38

Wednesday morning I taught my mommy & baby class. That ended up being my workout for the day. We did some challenging stuff - some glutes and some core and somewhere in there I worked up a sweat, so I was perfectly comfortable taking the evening off and celebrating my anniversary with my honey.

Thursday night I did yoga with one of my girlfriends. I hadn't seen her in a couple of weeks, so it was really nice to catch up and do a little yoga in the process.

Friday was a weird day. I woke up feeling really icky. I hurt basically everywhere and I was especially exhausted. I decided to take the night off.

Saturday I planned to go to yoga in the morning, but it didn't work out. I wanted to be home to say goodbye to my hubs before he left for the weekend, so when he got out of the house a little later than planned, I wasn't able to make it to yoga. I did do a lot that day. Big accomplishments in terms of girly time. I got a massage, pedicure and attended high tea. All fun things.

Sunday I managed to make it to boxing! Hooray! I was feeling kind of tired, but I powered through it. It was one of those days I really wished I had a support belt for my belly, but I managed by just not doing too much bouncy footwork. Later I went back out again for prenatal yoga. We did a lot of shoulder work, which ended up being kind of tough because my shoulders had already been exhausted during boxing.

Monday night I had a hard time coming up with what I wanted to do for exercise. I finally settled on cardio barre, but then I didn't get home in time to change and make it out for class. So, Panda and I went on a walk. It's finally cooling down enough before sunset that I can take her out before dark. Hooray! We were about for about 40 minutes and managed just over a mile and a half. I briefly ran (so we would make it across the street before the light changed) and it was so weird feeling. I'm looking into options for belly support for exercise. Anybody have any suggestions? I've heard the FITsplint, Belly Bandit, and KT tape are good options. First I'll be trying KT tape. I'll let you know how it goes.

Tuesday night is not my usual night for yoga with Jenny, but this week we did some rearranging. We got a pretty good little yoga flow in. My tummy is finally getting in the way in pigeon pose, and I brought blocks in so we could do supported shoulder stand.

How was your week?

My Dad Climbed Kilimanjaro

Last month, my dad and a crew of 12 other guys climbed Kilimanjaro. He posted this on facebook last week and I wanted to share it with you. I'm so proud of him and so moved by his endurance on this trip. I'll let him explain...

POLE POLE, is Swahili for “gradually”, “easy does it”. At 2 AM Friday morning we had been hiking two hours up from the Barafu Camp where we had four hours of sleep before setting off at midnight and stopped thinking about how I was able to continue. This was day two of the worst lower intestinal illness I have ever had. Barely able to even hydrate, let alone eat, I was lucky to be drinking one third of the 3 liters of water I should have been drinking. I could not fathom the idea of eating, so I forced down bites of peanut butter sandwich and energy bars. Hardly matching the calories I was burning. Yet my legs felt strong as long as I followed the mantra of Pole Pole. And I knew that I had to bring Ken to the top. 

Ken is a friend who died several months ago, accidentally careening his truck into a river in Northern California. He was a fellow adventurer who knew the Sierra Nevada Mountains like the back of his hand. We had been friends since our early teens. We were together when he met his future wife. We watched our families grow. We rafted down rivers in Alaska together with our friend Jim. He ran with the bulls with me in Pamplona. Ken wanted a party to celebrate his life and we said fine things about Ken. Many fine things. But I wanted to give Ken a parting gift. I was able to find a somewhat recent photo of my friend, stuck his mug on an 8.5 by 11 piece of foam board and carried this memento in my backpack for seven days, ultimately to the top of Kilimanjaro. 

This recent trip was beset with logistical difficulties even if everything went according to plan. But El Al Airlines did it’s best to screw me over (more stories on this later) and Turkish Air cancelled a key leg, failing to let me know they had cancelled and rescheduling me, and the booking agency Vayama also failed to advise me. Yet I ultimate arrived at Kilimanjaro Airport, albeit a little more battered and bruised than planned. 

I sat in the lounge at the Mountain Lodge in Arusha the Sunday morning after returning from the climb and reflected on the logistical problems solved, the physical difficulty of the climb, and the spiritual realizations I had experienced on this most bizarre of trips. The first realization was being overwhelmed as I went through Hortus Gethsemane beneath Jerusalem, which especially surprised me as I never considered myself particularly religious. The second being how I managed to climb in roughly an eight hour stretch 1,800 meters in elevation to the top of the Roof of Africa at 5,895 meters (about 19,400 feet), while being sick as a dog, dehydrated and barely an extra calorie to burn. Asante, Ken. Asante Sana. 

And thanks to the twelve members of our climbing team and our guides.

We were kept updated on all of his trials along the way - being stranded in Newark when the plane left without him, a cancelled flight out of Istanbul, closed gates when he finally arrived at the lodge in the wee hours of the morning, and finally beginning his trek with little time to adjust to actually being in Africa. With the encouragement of the rest of the crew, they were able to "boogie" their way up to the Roof of Africa - taking along a friend who would never be able to make the trip himself. 

Pregnancy is Uncomfortable.

What I'm doing here I call my "belly stretch". I do it whenever my insides feel especially squished and I just stick my belly out as far as I can. It feels great, but usually as soon as I relax, I'm right back to feeling squished again.  Also, Panda Bear cracks me up in this picture. 

There. I said it. Pregnancy is uncomfortable.

Don't get me wrong. I am so so so happy and feel so very blessed to be able to grow this little human and bring him into the world, but I don't think there's a rule anywhere that says I have to be happy when my back hurts and my clothes don't fit.

Since I have just gotten into my third trimester, I wanted to take a few minutes and talk about some of the pregnancy symptoms that I've personally experienced thus far and how I'm dealing with them.

Sciatic Pain - Especially on my right side, since about the halfway point, I've been dealing with some sciatic pain. I've considered myself fortunate lately because I have the knowledge and understanding of how the muscles and bones work to optimally stretch it out. One of the key ways I've been able to work out my low back is literally curling myself into a ball and using the floor to hit points. If you have the stability and need to focus on one side more than the other, you can actually just hang out in a ball, letting only that part of your back hit the floor. My mat provided a really nice firm, but not hard/painful surface for me to work into my low back. I also found that by getting into a supported back bend like bridge pose with a block under my sacrum helps take some of the compression out of the low back and, if you're feeling stable, you can play with weight distribution.
The biggest thing for me, personally, has been working on engaging my glutes when I do lunges - not letting myself sink into the hip/pelvis. Even though it can feel better on the front of the hip to stretch it out, it puts all the extra pressure on the low back, so simply by keeping my glutes and pelvis engaged, I'm helping my low back.

Seven Days of Yoga; Week 37

I moved this post to Thursday this week to accommodate my annual anniversary post. ;)

Wednesday I took the Fit Ballet Body class my friend Chelsea teaches. I told her before class I was majorly lagging and super low energy. I did end up taking a few little breaks during class, working out some soreness, joint discomfort, etc, but I was able to do almost everything. Hooray!

Thursday night I made it to Power Yoga. It was one of my best preggo practices since before I really felt pregnant. It's been a while since I felt that strong. The woman next to me even commented at the end that I was doing amazing. I was doing all the pushups, side arm balances, handstands. I took a little break at one point, but mostly I was sticking with it through the vinyasas. It really felt awesome.

Friday night I had planned to take Bollywood with my sister, but when we went to sign up an hour before class, it had been cancelled. So, I stayed home while hubs went to the gym and did Dance Central Spotlight for 50 minutes.

AG; Year Three

Three years ago today, we ...

...got married.

 9.17.11

Two years ago, we ...

Currently; September 2014

First piece of artwork for the baby's room. My dad brought it back from Tanzania.

Currently, I'm...

Reading...
FOUR TO SCORE! Haha. My friend lent me her copies of some of the Stephanie Plum books aaaaages ago. I mean years. The last time I picked this one up, Panda was a puppy. She got ahold of it and tore the cover up. I have since taped it all back together, but its still kind of a fun reminder of my girl who chewed up everything. Anyway, I was looking for something fun to read and I remembered I still had my friend's copies of books 4-6 (having already read 1-3), so I decided to give them another go.
I also downloaded Happiest Baby on the Block and Bringing Up Bebe. Haven't touched those yet though.

Watching...
We got through Hell on Wheels so fast! The season was kinda disappointing, actually. Felt like nothing happened.
My honey finally agreed to watch Parks & Rec from the beginning with me. He LOVES it. I knew he would, but sometimes people just need to find things on their own. We're in Season 3.

Listening to...
I've added Take Me to Church to my short list of songs I play on repeat.

Struggling with...
Energy. Especially right at this moment. Sleep is a lot harder than it used to be. Plus its been really warm at night still, so if we opt for windows open over AC, I usually don't sleep very well.

Inspired by...
This kid. He amazes me. I haven't even met him and I am in awe.

Workouts are...
Harder and harder every day, but I'm keeping at it. I'm going for more fun, less focus. There is no part of me that feels the need to crank out 30 pushups at any point in a workout. Last week I was so tired in yoga, he gave us the option to do one or two pushups between side planks. I did one pushup and a childspose. I barely made it to the side plank on the second side.
Dance workouts are good. I can regulate the intensity better without skipping moves. I like Dance Central Spotlight and taking Bollywood classes for this.

Eating...
I'm not proud. Lots of carbs and lots of sugar. Hubs made cinnamon rolls last week. So. much. sugar.

Planning...
I keep going back and looking at our registry. I want to make sure that it's things we'll actually need and people will want to buy, so I'm constantly tweaking it. I need to stop though and just let it be.

Teaching...
Picked up some extra subbing gigs at one of the local gyms. Classes at the studio have been slow lately. Not sure why.

Buying...
I've been doing a lot of online shopping. Like, a lot - zulily, target, old navy, nordstrom, you name it. So, I just wanted to take a minute to share Ebates with you folks. Basically they pay you to shop online... which is the coolest ever. You should try it. They send you quarterly checks, or sometimes you can get your payment in an online gift card. Once I got mine in the form of an Amazon gift card. You just spend what you were gonna spend anyway and get a percentage of that back from ebates.
Anyway, I highly highly encourage you to check it out (and use my link ;) ), especially if you do a lot of online shopping like I do. They're not paying me, but I think I get some kind of credit if you sign up using my link. :)

What are you upto?

Yoga Baby; Week 28

Week 28

SEVEN MONTHS! 3rd trimester, yo! Sheesh, how fast this is all going! So exciting and completely terrifying!

Here's what's happening with me and the tiny one...

Cravings: Cake. I made a chocolate bundt cake after my last post, and for the entire following week I still wanted more cake.

Aversions: Not any one thing or things in particular. Sometimes I just have zero appetite for real healthy food. I'll think to myself how I'm not hungry and food sounds terrible, but 10 seconds later I'll be on the couch with a popsicle.

Energy:  Major energy drop these last two weeks. I crash hard in the afternoons. Sometimes my energy is never that good to begin with. I pretty much feel like I could sleep all day every day.

Missing: Mostly the above. Energy. I was talking to a fellow pregnant friend about what workouts we used to do pre-pregnancy, and it really got me missing my tough workouts. I miss being able to challenge myself. I miss being better at things. Ha. I know that sounds terrible, but I really miss feeling strong.

Seven Days of Yoga; Week 36

Wednesday was kind of a weird day. Hubs was trying out a new TKD studio nearby and its been tough to get motivated for most of my Wednesday night workout options. I used to love taking Power Yoga, but that class gets really hot and sweaty, so I'd rather do something more mellow. This week hubs downloaded Dance Central Spotlight on the Xbox specifically for me. So, Wednesday night while he was gone, I tried it out. It was kinda fun. Hard at times, but motivating because - at least for me - if I missed a move I had to do the whole dance again until I earned as many moves as I could or got sick of the song. I ended up dancing to 4 songs over and over for about an hour and a half. I worked up a sweat. I felt my quads and shoulders fatiguing. It was great.

Thursday was supposed to be my weekly yoga date. We missed Monday because of the holiday, but my girlfriend came down with a cold and even though she felt up for a light workout, I wasn't sure about voluntarily exposing myself to a cold, so I decided to give Power Yoga a go, even though I was pretty tired. Haven't been sleeping well and my workout the night before left me beat. So, yoga was really hard. I took more breaks than I had ever taken, made more modification than ever, and a few times even left poses to do something completely different because my body told me to. I did, however, start my practice with annoying sciatic pain on the right side, and by the end (thanks to engaging my glutes and using the block like a massage ball) I was feeling SO much better.

Revisiting Happiness

Photo snagged from Design Stitch Go's Instagram 

It's been 11 months since I wrote about happiness and linked up with some of my very first blogger friends. On my drive into work this morning I got to thinking about this one general sentiment that's been following me around a bit lately.

People post quotes on Instagram and Pinterest and Facebook all the time, and because there are so so many of them, usually they just go in one ear and out the other for me.

But this one is sticking. I'm not sure if that's because it's something I needed to be reminded of, or something I'm noticing about others.

Seven Days of Yoga; Week 35

Wednesday night I ended up just taking Panda out on a 30 minute walk. We had a nice time. She was very excited.

Thursday night I taught my class and I joined the ladies for mellow sunset yoga. It was an easy class, but I still had a hard time. The longer holds are what kill me - even if we're in a reclined position, holding it too long and I start to get uncomfortable/tired/achey.

Friday I went to Bollywood dance with my sister. Class was much more fun this time. We didn't feel rushed and the choreography was easier (but still exhausting). It was a great workout and I was wiped out afterward.

Saturday we ended up skipping exercise for the day. We had our first childbirth prep class and then ended up running errands the rest of the afternoon. I did a ton of walking though. :)

Sunday morning I taught yoga early and then stayed and took boxing at the gym. I definitely took it easy this week, but I still worked my ass off and sweated up a storm. Made me feel better about the four chocolate chip cookies and piece of fig tart I had later.

Monday we didn't have any real plans, so we took our time getting up and going to the gym. I did did about 45 minutes on the recumbent bike while hubs did some lifting. It was about all I could manage. I was still pretty wiped out from the day before.

Tuesday hubs and I took the day off work together. I had a doctors appt in the morning, so he came with, and then we went and worked out around noon. I took Vinyasa Flow at the yoga studio. It was only an hour class and it was perfect.

How was your week?