Honest Moment: 35 Weeks & Exhausted

Pardon the interruption, but I’m exhausted.

Though talking about babies is much more enjoyable to write, and probably for you to read, you’ll have to excuse me as I use this post to remind myself of my goal and…vent.

FACT: I’m 35 weeks and exhausted. I can tell Baby Girl is getting ready for her upcoming arrival as she burrows deeper, causing sharp pains to shoot through my pelvis, lower back and butt. It’s a welcome pain in the sense that she’s getting prepared—a wonderful sign that the end is near—but this combined with a very active two-year-old boy knocks me out.

And don’t even get me started on bending over! My son is already showing how much of a life saver he can be when he helps mommy pick things up off the floor.

So enough of the complaining. What am I going to do about this?

Step 1: Remember the goal! 
Re-read my post from March 3—“You Can Do It: “Term” Pregnancy.” That was my goal and remains my goal because it’s what is best for my Baby Girl. So during these final five to six weeks, it’s all about taking care of us.

Step 2: Keep moving!
I've found that the worst thing I can do it NOT be active. My body aches for a warm up and a good stretch.

I worked out a ton my first pregnancy, but due to my schedule (my son), I haven’t been able to maintain that level of exercise (30-minute stair stepper/walk plus 20-30 minutes weight training).

Instead, yoga has been a great tool for me this pregnancy since I spend most of my cardio energy chasing my son. Yoga gives me time to decompress, breath and stretch. It’s also a great strengthener. I also do about 15 minutes of weight training. This happens 3/4 times a week instead of 5/6 like it did during my first pregnancy.

And yes, I’m still doing my squats. After all of this, I want to be strong enough to push this girl out in less than two hours, which was what it took me last time.

Step 3: Rest!
Balance your activity with rest. Even though I’m in hard-core nesting mode, as of this week, I’m forcing myself to be in bed sleeping by 9pm—Dr. Husband is also “requiring” this.

I’m also taking as much time as I can on the weekend to nap or at least lay down. Even one 20-minute stint has shown to do wonders for me.

More Ideas
Here are some resources that I think have great advice as well.

• Baby Center: adjust your schedule, stay hydrated, eat healthy, moderate exercise
• What To Expect: ask for help, get more sleep, eat right, get a move on 

You can do it!

Breathing & Labor Preparation

With this pregnancy, I’ve really come to like 10-minute workouts that I just find on YouTube. Considering my gym is now my basement at 5:30am, I have to do something to mix things up. These are doable and keep me entertained. Note: Dr. Husband doesn’t love all of the exercises in these videos, so he has suggested modifications to them to keep me safe.

But my main point in telling you this is that during a recent 10-minute yoga video from Katy Appleton yoga, I remembered the importance of breathing in terms of labor preparation.

Here’s the video:

I guess she just struck a chord with me in terms of embracing the pain and breathing into and through it. 

Proper Breathing
When I talked with Dr. Husband about how I think I need to work on this again, he used it as a teachable moment. According to him, proper respiration occurs when all sections of the diaphragm contract together as one unit. This flattens the diaphragm and increases intra-abdominal pressure. As you breathe and push, if you have a diaphragm that is strengthened and functions properly, you’ll have more intra-abdominal pressure pushing down.

With improper function of the diaphragm the muscle contracts mostly toward your back, and pushes your intra-abdominal pressure more forward verses down toward your pelvis. This is not ideal for pushing out a baby.

Practice
To practice proper breathing:

1. Put your fingers on your belly, and your thumb in the space between your pelvis and ribs on your back, so you’re digging your hands into the soft spot on your back and your belly. 
2. As you breathe in, your waist should expand out into your fingers and your thumb. The ribs can expand out in all directions, but they shouldn’t move up. When most people take a deep breath in, they suck their belly in and lift their ribs up; however, we want to do the opposite. We want to expand the ribs and belly and not move the ribs up. 
3. After you’ve gotten the hang of this, be mindful of the feeling when you work out and practice it. You’ll be thankful you did if it means a few less pushes! 

(PS: Dr. Husband said to note in this post that this function of your core/diaphragm is also the only way you’ll ever use your glutes and pelvic floor correctly...it's important!)

Squat—Great Exercise for Pregnant Women

There’s no doubt that staying in shape during pregnancy is tough. The last thing you might feel like doing is working out, especially as you get bigger and movement becomes more awkward. But exercise during pregnancy is extremely important for so many reasons—your baby’s health, your health, labor preparation, your post-baby bod, etc.

 In those moments you do feel inspired there is one exercise you should definitely work in—squats. 

When done correctly, squats engage your:

• Pelvic floor muscles
• Glute muscles
• Abdominal muscles

These not only help stabilize your pelvis as hormones relax the ligaments, but having these muscles in shape will also help with you delivery.

All this being said, Dr. Husband is adamant that your squat be done correctly. To quote him:

"If you don’t perform squats correctly, it’s not a matter of if you’ll get hurt, it’s a matter of when.”

Squat Technique

Every person’s structure is unique, but you probably want your feet a little wider than shoulder width and your toes pointed out a bit (not straight ahead).

Knees should stay over the foot, not inside and not too far in front of the toes.

As you squat down, you want to keep your back in a neutral position, meaning you don’t want it flexed or extended too much. For example, if you put a yard stick from your pelvis to between your shoulder blades, you’d want it to stay in contact with you back throughout the entire movement.

Finally, the key to a squat is that it is a butt muscle exercise, so if you’re not feeling contraction or activity in your butt muscles—if only in your quads—you’re not doing it correctly.

The number of reps and sets you do should depend on how many you can do correctly. If your form starts to break down, you need to stop.