My doctor's appointments are always fun. I love hearing that little boy's heartbeat, and I love learning about what is going on. You know, silly stuff like, "Now your uterus is a couple inches above your belly button in height--feel it, it just drops off like a little shelf," and cooler stuff like, "We actually want the baby's heart rate to be unstable, because it lets us know his heart is functioning properly in that it is accommodating to his level of activity at any given moment."
The only dark moment about my appointment was when my sweet doctor informed me I have gained almost 20 pounds thus far and need to watch it! TWENTY POUNDS! Sigh. And I'm pretty sure weight gain only accelerates as pregnancy progresses. They say 25-35 is ideal for the entire pregnancy, which totally overwhelms me, at this point. I have been SO good about going to the gym almost every day for the past two weeks (I think I actually went 4 days a week, which I now realize is not quite the same things as "almost every day," but still. It felt like a lot and I was proud.). But apparently my efforts are not quite sufficient to ward off whatever is happening to my poor, changing body. So, I'm back on myfitnesspal--if you're on there, we should be friends. I think I have--let me see--TWO friends on there. Thanks, Suze!
Anyway, I was a little baffled about my inability to gain weight at a normal, pregnant-lady pace (Chad said it was probably all muscle from all my lifting at the gym--bless him!), until I sat down to write this post and flipped through some of the pictures on my camera roll. Without really thinking about it, I managed to consume (and also photograph!) the following things all within the past week or so:
- delicious biscuits (I honestly meant to halve the recipe but my scatterbrained self forgot I was doing that halfway through, so don't worry, we shared most of an entire batch between the two of us)
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- tacos at El Luchador (Yummm! Happy Birthday to Chad!)
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- pistachio pie (Also yum, Happy Birthday to Chad again!)
- pistachio cream puffs (We made these to eat with some friends while watching General Conference on Sunday. Don't worry, we were also met with queso and salsa, and cookie dough fruit dip at their house.)
It's a real challenge for me--someone who grew up with six younger siblings (SIX!) to suddenly share meals and treats with only one person. (What's this? You mean I don't have to tackle my housemate before he reaches for the last dinner roll?) There is just such an abundance of everything I ever make. I mean, that pie, for example. We had sooo much pie. I'm happy to say that mostly Chad had a lot of pie, because he LOOOOVES it and it was his birthday pie, so he ate it for most meals for the few days after his birthday. But in general, sharing an entire pie with only one other person is probably not a good idea.
Anyway, this post has been a little long and rambly, but what are your thoughts? How did you stay healthy during pregnancy, if you have kids? Even if you don't have kids, what can you say about this topic? I'm sure you've got some words of wisdom.
Congratulations! I'm excited you're having a little boy! I can totally relate to your blog post. I gained way more than I ought to have with my first. But I've gotten progressively better with each pregnancy since. It's been a bit of a learning curve. I figure during the first trimester I really don't need to gain very much weight at all. I mean the baby is the size of a peanut for most of it, so really, the weight that it would add would be very minimal. So I try to really watch it at the beginning. I do this two ways. First - I weigh myself every morning (when I'm not pregnant I won't weigh myself more than once a week, I make an exception for pregnancy). Just weighing myself everyday has made a huge difference. I can tell right away when I've gone overboard and I naturally cut back, without even really trying. That's been a big help to ward off 4 pound weight gains in a week (which happened more than it should have with my first). Second - during the first trimester in particular I kept eating like normal. I know that a lot of pregnant women will snack throughout the day to "help" with nausea. But I found that if I ate it made me feel better for like 5 minutes, and then I was back to a stomach ache again. I figure 5 minutes of feeling better isn't worth the 5 pounds I gain from the extra munching. So for the most part I just keep eating like normal. 3 meals a day, maybe a little snack mid-morning. And it's worked great. Anyway, don't get discouraged about it. Most women I've talked to regularly gain more than the 25-30 pounds and they are all able to get back down to their healthy weights. You are a fit person and can do it too. And next time you'll have more of an idea of what your body does while pregnant.
ReplyDeleteOh girl, don't even worry about the 25-35 range. I gained 55 pounds with P!! The last bit was my fault, but hey I wanted 4 sonic blasts a week. Haha! So far this pregnancy I've gained at least 38! 5 of those lbs in the last 2 weeks. I still have 7 more weeks too. My dr said she's not concerned because I started at a healthy weight and the fact that I brought it up means I'm at least aware. My only advice is just stay active. I totally wasn't 1st go around. That'll at least make weight gain gradual (you're less likely to get stretch marks that way) if only I woulda known... Maybe I woulda dropped to 2 sonic blasts a week.
ReplyDeleteOh so excited for you! :) I absolutely cannot cook for two/three. We always have to have people for dinner :)
ReplyDeleteHere's the advice my doctor gave my friend Karen: You should eat whatever you want whenever you want. You are pregnant. And I like my doctor. I feel like he knows his stuff. Like how after an exhausting day of growing a 2nd body, the only thing that sounds good is 10 crisp bean burritos from Taco Time. Live it up as healthy as possible, because the weight WILL go away*, I think. (*I am still waiting for this to happen).
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