19.1 & 19.2

I've only been going to the gym about once per week, but I figured why not when the Open came around.  Our gym is doing a fun intramural competition and having teammates counting on me to do the WOD every week is a great way to ensure I show up!

80s Theme... what a dork.

19.1

This workout wasn't anything glamorous, just 15 minutes of straightforward work.  I don't think anybody likes wall balls, but I am pretty decent at them.  Before I started I thought I'd probably break them up 7-6-6 but the first set felt manageable at 10-9.  I decided to stick with that since I knew I'd lose a lot more time resting between sets.  It's always so hard to pick up the ball again when you're sucking wind!  I paced myself pretty well and was able to complete 5 rounds + 19 wall balls for 209 total reps.

19.2

This WOD was a repeat of 16.2 with a twist.  Back in 2016, you had to do the whole first round in 4 minutes or you were done (vs 8 minutes for the first 2 rounds).  My whole goal for that WOD was just to make it to the bar for the squat cleans and I failed miserably.  Twice.  I actually did worst my second time.  My double unders weren't great then in general and they were a total mess with the pressure of the Open.

I've actually been avoiding dubs for... about a year now, like since last year's Open when I peed my pants during the workout.  I really wasn't sure how they were going to be and I was super nervous about it.  After a lot of warming up and using the bathroom 3 times, I was ready.

I've been doing pretty well on toes to bar lately, so the 25 went fairly quickly.  My dubs were pretty great.  I was able to put some long strings together!  However, apparently I haven't been doing enough PT homework because around 35 my pelvic floor was done and I felt some leaking.

On the bright side, I was pumped when I made it to the barbell at 3:09!  Despite feeling like I'm slacking at making fitness a priority right now, I am still seeing improvements.  I moved through the 85# squat cleans as singles trying not to take huge breaks in between.  That weight isn't super heavy for me, but 15 of them added up.  I made it back to the bar for 21 T2B before the 8 minutes expired.

Shoutout to Etya for the awesome photos that night!

I felt pretty proud of this performance.  But when I went to PT on Monday, I found out my abs had regressed and I had a 2 finger separation at my belly button.  Between that and the peeing situation, I am realizing that I need to step back and make sure I am doing what's actually appropriate for my current body.  And that I really need to step up my game with my PT homework.

All worth it for this one!

19.3 is happening tomorrow!

My Pregnancy: Week 38

I always figured I'd stop working out at some point near the end of my pregnancy... but maybe not?  I still feel good in the gym and although I'm modifying a lot, I could be doing less and still getting a workout, so it seems silly to stop completely.  I think working out has been a huge factor in how good I have felt throughout my pregnancy and especially now at the end.

For this Friday workout I did 10 calories on the bike instead of the run, I used the 10# WB instead of the 14, I did 10/8/6 pull ups instead of 21/15/9, I did the thrusters with 10# dumbbells, and I did 15/9/6 barbell incline push ups instead of the 9/6/3 HSPUs.  I finished in 23:10.

On Friday night Dave and I went out for a nice dinner date at Sage in Phoenixville.  I decided we were having the "mixed combo" appetizer before we even got there and it was so good.  It came with tabouleh salad, hummus, kafta (meat on a stick), goat cheese, stuffed grape leaves, tahini sauce, and super delicious falafel that I'm still dreaming of.  We ordered two entrees to share: veal saltimbocca (thin slices of veal with prosciutto and mozz in a marsala red wine sauce) and linguini pescatore (linguine topped with shrimp, clams, mussels, and lump crab meat smothered in a white garlic sauce).  The veal dish was fine but didn't wow us, but the sauteed veggies that came with it were actually awesome.  But the real star of the meal was the pasta!  The bowl was gigantic and filled to the brim with tons of seafood and garlicky goodness.  The waitress told us she was very impressed when we finished the whole thing minus some pasta.  We figured go big or go home because who reheats shellfish?  The service was great and between the BYO status and our gift card it was a super affordable date night.

On Saturday night I think I had my first practice waves (aka Braxton Hicks)!  Dave was in the city for a bachelor party and we had a loose plan in place in case I suddenly went into labor, but I was positive it wouldn't be necessary.  I had Jeff and Arley over to watch the Penn State game and keep me company for the evening and the whole night was uneventful until they left.  Around 11 pm I started feeling pretty lousy and was really nauseous.  I wanted to go to bed, but laying down didn't feel great so I stayed up watching Easy A and taking lots of trips to the bathroom.  I finally threw up a little which took the edge off my nausea and I went to bed around 1 am.  When I laid down I started feeling some cramping at the bottom of my belly!  It was pretty mild and just a little uncomfortable so I didn't think it was the real deal but it was definitely something I hadn't felt before!  I put on one of my hypnosis tracks and just tried to relax (and not think of the fact that Dave still wasn't home and hadn't answered my last text...) and within 20 minutes I was asleep.  I woke up later in the night with awful heartburn fire throat, but I woke up the next day feeling totally fine.  I haven't had any cramping/possible contractions since then.

I had my weekly OB appointment on Tuesday and it was super uneventful.  The doctor confirmed that the baby is still head down but her head is pretty high, which is what I suspected.  My due date may be 9/28, but I'm fully expecting an October baby.

I worked out this morning.  I still find it humorous that lifting weights feels better than walking around my office.  I skipped back squats and did some power snatching and got up to 70#.  It was definitely feeling heavier today.  The WOD was 30 Curtis Ps (clean, lunge L, lunge R, push press) for time.  Cleans and push press still feel good with the barbell, but I knew I didn't want to lunge, so I subbed those for 10# dumbbell squats.  I broke it up into 10 rounds of 3 cleans and push presses at 55# + 6 DB squats and finished in 10:04.

Other things:

• I still don't have any stretch marks.  I feel like it's a pregnancy miracle, but I'm also still expecting them to show up right at the end as a cruel joke.
• Friday is my last day in the office, I am so excited to work from home in my pjs!
• I still haven't actually packed my hospital bag yet.  95% of the items are laid out on our spare bed, but I still have yet to put them in a bag... maybe after I publish this post haha.  Here's a little snack basket I made as a thank you for the L&D nurses.

Anybody that knows me, knows that patience isn't exactly my forte, but I'm really trying to just relax.  In my birth class we learned that the average first time mom births at 41 weeks and 1 day.  So there's only 8 days till my due date, but really it could be double that.  Baby will come when she's ready!

My Pregnancy: Week 37

On Thursday I had an OB appointment with the doctor that really rubbed me the wrong way when I met her at my 30 week check up.  I tried to keep an open mind for our second encounter and everything was fine.  Maybe she was just having a bad day last time (it was the very end of the day on a Monday), but she was a lot more easy going in general.  The nurse said my blood pressure was slightly high, but nothing concerning.  I got my Group B strep swab done, which if positive would just mean I'd need antibiotics a few hours before delivery.  It wouldn't be ideal because I want to labor at home as long as possible and avoid sitting around getting an IV, but it won't ruin my birth plan if it has to happen.  We'll see.

Thursday we also had an appointment with a local officer to check our car seat base installations.  At one of our baby education classes we had learned that a large amount of car seats are installed improperly and that you can easily get yours checked at a local police or fire station, so Dave called to make us an appointment and they offered to come to us.  The officer told us the car seat safety certification class was 40 hours long, so she was a pro!  She was super nice and very thorough, giving us lots of additional tips and information.  She said Dave had installed both bases perfectly.  One more thing to check off the list!

On Friday I hit CrossFit:

With lots of modifications of course: I did 5 calories on the bike instead of running, used 55# for the clean and jerks and snatches, used 10# dumbbells for the thrusters, my bar facing burpees were squat thrusts, I did 3 pull ups instead of 5, stepped up to a slightly shorter box (16 or 18"?) and skipped the toes to bar without any sub.  It sounds lame when I type it all out, but it still felt like a pretty legit workout.  I finished in 15:47.

I make the cutest faces, I know.

At the end of last week my car didn't seem to be starting properly, so I drove the truck and Dave replaced my battery.  He took my car to work on Friday just to make sure everything was good and took it to the car wash and vacuumed it out!  I had wiped it down on Thursday before our car seat check, so now it's really sparkling!  I don't know the last time I actually got it washed, so that was a treat.  Then on Saturday we finally cashed in our extremely thoughtful shower gift from Leah, Kimber, and Shayna: a professional house cleaning!  I had never had my house professionally cleaned and it was really great.  We are now considering splurging on it twice a year or so.  The house looked and smelled absolutely amazing when they left!

While the cleaning company was finishing up, I headed out to lunch with Leah, Christine, Jen, and Declan!  We went to Collegeville Italian Bakery and had some super yummy Italian food and some nice girl time.

Afterwards Leah and I hit the thrift store next door and scored some great baby stuff.  The onesies looked brand new.  Baby didn't have any cloth books yet.  The pumpkin socks were 49 cents and will go great with the little Halloween outfit I recently picked up.  I couldn't resist the blanket with little purple hearts on it.  And we could definitely use some pack & play sheets since we now have 3 of them (thanks Paul & Jen)!  I got all this for $20! 

Sunday we went to my parents house for a nice little family get together with tons of delicious food and football on the deck.  The beginning of the week was pretty quiet otherwise.  I spent some time getting my hospital bag together and just relaxing.

This morning I peeled myself out of bed for CrossFit.  The strength was squats so I subbed the jerks from the day before and did 5 sets of 3 at 65#.  The WOD was 60-45-30-15 double unders and 12-9-6-3 snatches.  I subbed 8-6-4-2 calories on the assault bike and did my snatches at 55#.  I really didn't think olympic lifting would still be possible this far along, but my belly isn't a factor and I can somehow still bend low enough to pick up the bar.  I was cycling them in sets of 3 and finished in 8 minutes on the dot.

I also had another OB appointment this afternoon.  My blood pressure was good, my belly measured perfectly, and I am GBS negative, yay!  I went over my birth preferences with my doctor and she was super supportive and said a lot of my preferences were standard practice for my OBs and the hospital.

Other happenings this week:

• We got so many nice gifts!  My aunt Gina gave us an adorable purple flower bath mat to bathe baby in the sink, my aunt Patty sent us a bunch of really nice clothes she picked up at a consignment sale, my father's aunt sent a beautiful handmade quilt, and Dave's coworker gave us the cutest pittie puppy pants!  On top of all that, both Dave's and my coworkers each gave us cards with cash in them!  We are so grateful.
• I just noticed that my feet haven't been aching like they were before.  I suppose it's possible that I'm just on them a lot less these days, but they would start hurting first thing in the morning and I think that's gone.  My back has been pretty achy but nothing too bad.  I can only imagine how I'd be feeling if I wasn't bffs with my awesome chiropractor.
• My boss told me I can work from home starting the week of my due date!  People keep asking me when my last day of work is and my response has been "when my water breaks in my office chair!" lol!  My official maternity leave doesn't begin until I give birth and I don't want to waste any of my vacation time sitting at home without a baby, so I'm planning on working until I go into labor.  I brought up to my boss that I'm limited working from home (CADD doesn't work great with a remote connection) and I could end up being a week late and he just said "you really don't need to be here when your water breaks, priorities!"  I feel super lucky that I work in such a man dominated field but have the most understanding bosses.

I am such a planner and it's quite a weird concept that this crazy life changing event could happen tomorrow or in almost a month from now.  I feel like the baby is still really high and I haven't had any Braxton Hicks contractions, so I'm thinking she's still pretty comfortable in there for now.  We shall see...

My Pregnancy: Week 36

 

Week 36 and I'm finally feeling pretty uncomfortable!  My ankles are swollen, my pelvis is aching, and rolling over in bed is super painful.  My one hip has been doing this weird popping thing that is new this week.  And my back aches when I walk.  I know I can't complain because my pregnancy has been relatively easy, but I think it's finally time to slow things down a bit... which is really hard for me as a person!

Thursday was my birthday and I was supposed to get up for CrossFit, but I stayed up kind of late Wednesday, my pelvis was feeling achy, and to be honest I didn't really want to ruin my cute hair from my photo shoot on Wednesday lol.  No regrets.  When I woke up Dave gave me some really cute gifts and a card from the baby.

Thursday night we drove down the shore for our last prebaby weekend away.  Friday we worked a few hours in the morning and then headed to the beach for a few cool cloudy hours.  Dave went out Friday night but I fell asleep on the couch right after dinner and then opted for some ice cream and Modern Family in bed.  Saturday it poured all day, which was perfect for hitting the bar and watching Penn State crush Akron in their season opener.  We had a ton of delicious seafood for dinner and then headed over to Dave's aunt and uncle's place for a rainy night in.  Sunday we got some decent beach weather and Sunday night I finally made it out.  We went to 3 of our favorite bars.  I sipped on iced coffee and a mocktail, stayed out till 1:30 am, and survived the mile walk home.  I sure felt like a trooper!  On Monday we had a perfect day at the beach.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we got there nice and early to meet up with Karisa and Frank, their kids, and a few of their other friends with their children.  We got a nice sneak preview at our future at the beach with toddlers running around and had a lot of fun with everybody.  We stayed at the beach for over 5 hours and said a sad goodbye to the beach for this season!  All weekend I kept thinking I should be taking pictures, but it was sort of nice not to worry about it and just enjoy being in the moment versus capturing it on my camera.  These were the only pics from the weekend.

On Wednesday I made it back to the gym!  The strength was 20 squats and I'm pretty sure weighted squats are what left my pelvis aching last week, so I decided to do something else.  My coach suggested I do some push presses, which was the strength from the day before, but I really wanted to snatch!  I did them in sets of 2 and just worked up to a heavy weight that still felt super easy.  I honestly can't believe I put up 85# so easily.

The WOD was every 3 mins x 5 of 40 double unders (I did 30 air squats), 10 calorie row, and 6 handstand push ups (I did incline push ups on a low racked barbell).  I finished every round with about 30 seconds to rest.  I got a great workout and woke up super sore the next day... nothing in my pelvis or belly, just regular CF muscle soreness in my chest from the push ups and my inner thighs from all those squats, which means I'm still getting stronger!  But it did make me realize that I probably don't want to be sore AT ALL for my birthing time... I need to go in feeling my best!

This week was pretty uneventful pregnancy wise:

• I slept like crap at the beach and I was thinking that this might be it for any good sleep, but once I got home to my own bed I slept a lot better.  I generally only get up once to pee, so that's not too bad at all.
• I finally started packing my hospital bag.  I've had my list done for a while but I actually started getting everything together.  I'll be finishing this over the weekend, so we're ready to go!
• My feet are sausages, it's not cute.

And finally what you've all been waiting for!  I really had no plans to do maternity photos, I think if I had intended to do them all along, we would've done them like a month ago... when my face wasn't so fat LOL.  But my friend Megan offered and I said what the heck, why not.  Valley Forge was an obvious choice for the location, we had perfect weather for the shoot, and we got some gorgeous photos!

My Pregnancy: Week 35

Happy Birthday to me!  I'm 31 today and I'm pretty sure this year is going to be one I'll never forget.

Still got my pull ups!

Friday's WOD was a nice little chipper: 30 hand release push ups (incline PUs on the barbell for me), 20 squat cleans (95# Rx - I did 55), 30 pull ups, 20 jerks, 30 toes to bar, 20 clean and jerks, 25 minute cap.  I figured 30 pull ups in a row was too many, so I did 15 and then another 15 instead of the toes to bar.  I warmed up 65# on the barbell, but it felt kind of heavy, so I went with 55.  It ended up feeling pretty easy and I was able to cycle a lot of the movements.  The pull ups were the hardest part of the workout, I'm honestly not really sure how I'm still getting up there lol, but they actually hurt my hands more than anything.  My fingers have been aching, apparently carpal tunnel syndrome is common in pregnancy, so gripping the bar is more difficult in general.  I finished in 19:30.

Friday night we had a nice little date night out at Bonefish Grill.  We had a $50 gift card and a free entree, so it was very economical.  We split their famous bang bang shrimp appetizer, each got yummy seafood entrees (twin lobster tails for me!), and Dave convinced me to share the coconut pie for dessert.  Even with some drinks for Dave our bill came out to $18!

On Saturday Dave got up and took Carmela for a nice long walk and let me sleep in.  He's been so awesome with that on the weekends and apparently I really needed it, because I woke up at 10:15 after 10+ hours of sleep.  In the afternoon I attended a baby shower for Laura, a friend from the gym who is due 2 weeks after me.  It was great to celebrate her and get lots of post birth advice from the other mamas there.

Sunday we had our fantasy draft, so I stuffed my face with pizza and faked more than a few people out with my delicious rootbeer.

I'm the only girl in my fantasy league and everything felt like business as usual for the afternoon, like I was just one of the guys... until I rolled my ankle taking a step down out of the house and I went down!  Thankfully I fell straight to my butt.  My friends gathered around me in a panic... worried about the 35 week pregnant lady that just bit it!  I was a little worked up, my ankle hurt and I had tears in my eyes, but I insisted I was fine and was up and walking around with no issues except for a my ankle feeling pretty sore.  I never felt anything in my belly, no cramping or weird sensations, and my ankle felt fine the next day, but all I could think of was my OB telling me to avoid falling risks.  Apparently I can CrossFit, but taking one step down is too much!  Thankfully my ankle felt totally fine when I woke up the next morning.

I switched up my gym schedule this week and hit the gym on Tuesday morning.  The strength portion was build to a heavy single strict press and push press (aka strict press + dip with your legs).  I got to 85# on my strict press, which is pretty close to my max, so I was impressed with myself.  I did 105# for my push press and it was pretty easy.  The WOD was a bunch of burpee box jumps and double unders, so I decided to do Monday's workout.

I went with 65# and the first few rounds were super easy.  But then it got hard!  The squats were definitely the hardest part for me and I just got winded in general.  I made it through the 10 rounds and then the 11th (4 reps for each) and 12th (5 reps) and then made it through 6 cleans, 6 squats, and 3 jerks to finish.  I was totally spent.  My pelvis felt kind of sore for the rest of the day, so I'm thinking it may be time to back off of weighted squats.

Tuesday night Dave took me out for a fancy birthday dinner at the Kimberton Inn, which is where we had our rehearsal dinner.  The meal was absolutely delicious and the service was outstanding as well.  I started with the lobster bisque and Dave got the seared sirloin scalloppine.  Both were very rich and melted in your mouth.  For our entrees Dave got the boneless duck breast and duck leg confit, the breast was so tender and moist, and I went with the bourbon-molasses glazed organic king salmon fillet, which was really unique and cooked perfectly.  Dave said it's the first salmon he's actually liked haha!  For dessert we split the double chocolate torte.  It was a wonderful birthday treat.

On Wednesday we did a maternity shoot in Valley Forge with our friend Megan!  I was a little nervous beforehand since I'm feeling pretty large these days.  I was worried I was going to get the pics back and hate all of them because of my big fat face lol.  But the shoot was great!  It was a little awkward at first, but over the hour both Dave and I got more comfortable and she got some gorgeous shots.  I'm going to post a bunch of them later, but here's a teaser :)

Other random week 35 stuff:

• I'm finally starting to feel pretty uncomfortable.  My pelvis is aching (yes baby I feel your head), it's really hard to roll over and get out of bed, and forget bending over.  I guess I can't be too sad that I'm finally struggling at 35 weeks.
• My friend Jes got me this a few weeks ago and I totally forgot to post it, but I had to share!

•  The dog thinks my pillow fort is for her.  She's always trying to steal my snoogle!

Who me?

Less than a month left... except I'll probably go a week over my due date lol.  We shall see! 

 

My Pregnancy: Week 34

I seriously considered skipping CF on Friday in lieu of some extra sleep, but I packed my bag and set my alarm anyway.  I woke up "in the middle of the night" and got up to pee, and then when I checked the time it was 5 minutes before my alarm.  I was super annoyed, but I was up and going!  The workout was grueling, it was a hero WOD called Kalsu: 100 thrusters with 5 burpees every minute on the minute (30 min cap).  The last time I did thrusters they didn't feel great for my left knee or wrist, so I was thinking I would just go with an empty barbell (35#) or some dumbbells, but I figured I'd warm up and see how 55# felt.  When 55# felt totally fine, I decided to go with it knowing I could always pull the plates off midway if I needed to.  This workout had me winded.  I would finish my 5 squat thrusts around 20 seconds in, take a few seconds to breath, then rep out 3-5 thrusters quickly, and then have 15-20 seconds to sit my ass on a box and rest.  You had to do the burpees no matter what, but I took 2 separate minutes where I didn't do any thrusters to try and catch my breath.  100 is A LOT, so it was definitely a mental workout.  You get to 30 and go shit, there's so many left.  Then you get halfway and go shit, there's so many left.  I took my second break at 70 and thought shit, there's so many left!  80 was where I could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, I was pushing myself to do 5 reps per round and knew I only had 4 sets of burpees left.  I finished in 25:41 and it was glorious.  I was really proud of myself.

On Saturday we headed down to the city for a long day of good vibes and framily fun.  We ate lots of delicious food, dipped our toes in a baby pool, and tried our best to pretend we were at the real Folk Fest.  It was a wonderful time and I somehow managed to stay awake until 3:30 in the morning!

On Monday we finally had our hospital tour.  The maternity ward at Paoli Hospital was renovated a few years ago and it is really nice.  I had done my research ahead of time, so most of what the tour guide told us, I already knew, but it was really nice to see the space so I can envision myself birthing there.

Monday night was awful.  I had a little bit of heartburn earlier in the day, but it really reared it's ugly head overnight.  I woke up in the middle of the night to pee and then couldn't lay back down afterwards.  I could feel the acid in my throat and thought I was definitely going to throw up, but the feeling would go away as soon as I was upright.  I piled up all my pillows and tried to get comfy half sitting up.  I managed to fall back asleep at some point, but it was a rough night.  I couldn't really pinpoint what caused it, but it may have been the excessive amount of cheese I consumed.

Tuesday I had my 34 week OB appointment and it was easy breezy.  My belly is measuring on time, my blood pressure was good, and my OB wasn't concerned about my giant swollen ankles.  I asked her about any restrictions regarding working out till the end and she said as long as it feels good and I avoid any risk of falling.

Today I got up to workout and did not love it.  I was feeling really sluggish during the warm up and the gym was really stuffy.  It was another 20 rep squat day, but since it didn't feel great last week I broke it up into 2 sets of 10.  I did 90 lbs and it was challenging, but breaking it up was a good choice.  The WOD was 3 rounds of 5 bear complex (power clean, front squat, push press, back squat, push press), 10 bar facing burpees, 20 wall balls, and 5 bar facing burpees.  I used 55# for the bear complex movement (Rx was 75) and they felt good.  The wall balls felt fine as well but 20 was a lot at once, so I was breaking them up into 3 sets. The burpees (squat thrusts with a step over the bar) sucked and at one point I stood up quickly and was seeing stars.  I used to see stars a lot when I was tumbling, I'd always get them when I would first warm up my back handspring, so it wasn't super alarming to me, but it definitely warranted a long break.  I didn't feel dizzy or anything so when they went away, I continued and just really took my sweet time through the workout with lots of rest.  I finished in 17:53, well after most of the class, and was so overheated that I took my shirt off and let my big ol' belly hang out for everyone to see lol.

I also received this adorable package in the mail today "just because" from my friend Sarah all the way in Minnesota.  We are spoiled!  I cannot wait to be holding a little baby in my arms wearing one of these gorgeous headbands :)

1 month to go!