Pregnancy Fitness

This is a topic I've been meaning to write about for a while as fitness has always been an important part of my life.  I need (and like) to work out for stress management 5-6 days per week.  Pre-pregnancy, I did a mix of cardio (running and spinning) with strength training (BodyPump and Hot Yoga).  Needless to say, now that I'm 7+ months pregnant, things have changed.

The beginning of pregnancy brought a lot of nausea and tiredness, which resulted in lots of naps and not much running (I felt so slow and would feel like I was going to get sick).  Add moving and giving up my yoga studio and gym to that and there wasn't much motivation.  Not to mention, I was totally out of my routine.  So I decided to take it easy on myself  until I felt better.  I did find a yoga studio, Inner Bliss Yoga and attended their slow-flow classes for a few months. Then I joined a gym, L.A. Fitness and started taking their version of BodyPump (aka Urban Iron).

These days, my goal is two days of strength classes at the gym and walking 2 or so miles 4 days a week with Lila.  I don't beat myself up for missing a day (or three) and realize that in order to have a healthy pregnancy, it's a balance of staying in shape and getting the rest my body requires.  I also am very aware that the better shape I'm in, the easier childbirth (especially important since we are planning an unmedicated birth).  And I'm trying to keep the pregnancy weight gain under control...I'm currently in the healthy range and want to stay there.

Here are a few photos over the last 20 weeks in the same (pre-pregnancy) work out top (no particular order due to technical difficulties):

32 Weeks:

14 Weeks:

20 Weeks: 

Not sure if this top will make it the whole 40 weeks and if it does, I probably shouldn't be wearing it in public :)  Either way, my goal is to keep it up til the end!

Loving our new camera!

As I shared in our Christmas Card Photo post, we got our Christmas present from my parents early so we could start using it and getting comfortable with it.  I think we'll be required to photograph the holiday :)  We are loving our new micro four thirds (kind of like a hybrid between a point-and-shoot and a DSLR camera).  We felt is a great step up from our Olympus Stylus without being over-whelming like a DSLR :)  After much research of C's part and asking friends and family, we ended up with a Panasonic Lumix GF3.  Here are a few photos we've taken of the dogs (of course,they are our babies until the real baby gets here) so far:    

Max, playing ball:

"Come on!  Throw the ball!"

Lila, relaxing on the couch:

Wearing our invisible fence collars (BTW, training is going well!):

Lila, our pretty girl:

Christmas Card Photos!

'Tis the season for all things holiday and our annual Christmas card!  We (um, I) thought it would be fun to use our new camera (thanks Mom and Dad for the early Christmas gift!) to take a self-timer photo for our holiday card this year.  Lesson learned: it's very hard to get two people and two dogs to all look in the same direction and not be blurry using the self-timer.  Especially since we were on a limited time frame since we had childbirth class to get to.  I imagine next year will be even harder with a baby to consider, we may be going the professional photo route instead.

Here are a few of our (failed) attempts!

Chris, pointing at the camera to get Lila to look:

Lila trying to lick C's face and Max not looking:

 Thank goodness, a usable photo!

 And one of the three of us :)

Meal Planning

It's Monday again...how the weekend seems to fly by!  We were very productive, paint party (round 2) happened on Saturday, we also worked on the nursery, did laundry and cleaned the house and did some holiday shopping.  It's just a regular week here with both of us home and I'm hoping to get in some Christmas baking since we are now 2 weeks away from the holiday.

My 3 favorites in front of Christmas tree!

Monday-Weekend leftovers (yummy Mexican food from last night's Christmas shopping outing)-We've got another childbirth class and don't have much time between work and the class
Tuesday-Oven baked salmon and roasted veggies (broccoli and/or cauliflower and potatoes)
Wednesday-Corn and Ham Chowder-My friend Lea's recipe,  I'll post the recipe after I make it because it's delicious!  Will also be making a test run of a Kale and Brussels sprout salad for Christmas
Thursday-Mexican Quinoa (I add a can of black beans)- per C's request
Friday- We are hanging out at home, maybe left-overs or soup out of the freezer?

Week 30-Childbirth Class

Last night, C and I attending the first of our natural birth class series offered by our hospital.  That's right, the goal is to do this thing with no drugs :).  Good thing I've got a great birthing coach (Chris) to help me through!  We practiced breathing techniques and labor positioning (using the birthing ball, sitting and standing).  It was kind of fun and we really liked our instructor, who is a L&D nurse who's had 4 un-medicated births, and meeting other couples with due dates close to ours.

Chris was practicing one of his roles this morning "Can I get you some ice chips?  How about some water?"  Our instructor really stressed the importance of hydration during labor.  We joked that he should just wear a Camelbak hydration pack like in his Army field training and deployment days.      

(I'm going to throw a disclaimer:  Every birthing experience is different, our goal is to have a natural, un-medicated birthing experience.  We are aware that it's not totally in our control and that things may change.)

Blanket for Colin

In October, I flew to Nashville for a girls weekend and to meet baby Colin!  I made him this modern, striped quilt to welcome him into this world and backed with nice, soft minky fabric.  Colin's Mom Alison told me she was decorating the nursery in green and brown and it took me a while to find fabrics but I loved the way this one turned out.  Hopefully Colin enjoys it for years to come!

Check out the contrast binding, I had bought this fabric to use in the quilt but all the pattern made it way too busy (C and I both got dizzy looking at it) so I swapped it out for cozy white flannel instead:

Meal Planning

Our crib, an early shower gift from my parents and brothers!

We had such a busy but productive weekend!  We painted the foyer/hallway area with my Mom, had a holiday party to attend for C's work, put together the crib, went out to dinner at a wine bar (no wine for me) and did some yard work and did some volunteering.  When it came time to sit down and work on a menu, I didn't have much energy to create one so here's our very basic menu for the week:

Monday-Chicken and black bean quesadillas
Tuesday-Roasted shrimp and broccoli
Wednesday-C is traveling so I'm not cooking
Thursday-Pork Chops with stuffed butternut squash and apples (I will be adapting the recipe to make it easier)
Friday-Burgers with bacon and cheese with sweet potato chips
Saturday-We are Christmas shopping so maybe out or maybe eating at home-we will wing it.

Yesterday I whipped up some brownie bites and a new no-bake energy bite recipe that were delicious (if you like chocolate, peanut butter and coconut, try the recipe!) so we've got a few healthy treats in the house before I start on Christmas cookies in the next week or so.  Now, how do I make primal/paleo holiday goodies????

What's on your menu for the week?