The leaky nipple – pregnancy symptoms

May 20, 2012 //
0

Right, no one told me this could happen. You might think I’d have come across this as part of all my ‘research’ for this blog, but no. It may surprise you to know that I tend to write about things as they happen to me…And, when it comes to leaking nipples I thought that was surely the domain of the breast feeder.

Yesterday I stayed back at Mike’s Mum and Dad’s while everyone else went out for a walk. I decided I’d have a little nap and actually went into what felt like a coma, and I got rudely awaken by everyone as they trooped back into the house. I wondered around in a daze for a little while until Mike pointed out that I had something ominous looking on my t-shirt directly above my left nipple. It turned out it came from my nipple and it was sore for quite some time afterwards. And, everyone would have seen it. Mint.

After washing my t-shirt so I had a huge wet patch for a boob (rather than a weird little blob of…something), I found out what the hell is going on – just in case it’s a sign I’m about to go into labour. You never know.

I went to my go-to for all things medical, Baby Center, and after they assured me it was perfectly normal to leak (or not leak) something delightfully known as ‘premilk’ (or colostrum), this is what they had to say:

Colostrum is a thick, yellowish fluid that contains antibodies that help protect new babies from infections. If you choose to breastfeed, this precious liquid will nourish your baby until your milk comes in. Colostrum has more protein, but less carbohydrate and fat than mature breast milk. It’s easy to digest and has just the right amount of nutrients a baby needs in the first few days after birth.

Apart from the ‘thick, yellowish fluid’, which sounds rank, the rest sounds very good and I sincerely hope that I’ll be able to breast feed my baby for this reason. In the mean time, there seems to be more embarrassing pregnancy symptoms to get to know every week. What a joy.

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Categories pregnancy symptoms, pregnancy week by week

Trimester 3 and pregnancy exercises

May 17, 2012 //
1

Well, here we are. Third trimester starts today and if the last week is anything to go by, it’s going to be pretty shit! However, I’m an optimist and hope that it’s just been a blip (‘FOOL!’ I hear mothers from around the world cry!).

Despite only really wanting to go home to put my feet up (with my pelvis aligned. Naturally.), I have broken the rut and got myself back in the gym! Wearing something entirely awful that was too tight, I did 30 minutes of happy, unpainful (in the nether region) exercise, so I thought I’d share what I did here as I think it really is still do-able as far as pregnancy exercises go:

Aerobic exercise: 15 minutes on the cross trainer (you could equally walk but I find that painful), set to ‘random’ at level 9 (calorie wise I did 117 calories in that time and I would have happily done longer if I wasn’t so bored! I need to get an audio book or good podcast)

Strength training:

2 sets of 10 squats

Using 5kg weight:

- 3 sets of 10 triceps extensions

- 3 sets of 10 bicep curls*

- 3 sets of 10 shoulder presses*

- 3 sets of 10 squats*

* I combined these 3 moves into one exercise and did try to take some photos but they are truly atrocious (while reminding me why I need to exercise, it has highlighted my tree trunk legs, wobbly arms, huge face and general massiveness!) so please be happy with a description! …stand with feet shoulder width apart, dumbells by your side, lower yourself into a squat (making sure your knees aren’t over your toes) while simultaneously curling your arms into a bicep curl. Then as you stand back up push your arms into a shoulder press above your head.

…see what you think and please share what you’re up to.

 

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Categories pregnancy exercises, pregnancy week by week, Uncategorized

Not sciatica but a pelvis thing…pregnancy symptoms

May 16, 2012 //
0

Last week I said that I would take my back pain (over the pelvic issue) any day of the week…while this is still true, I am soooooo miserable! I have a pain on the left hand side of my lower back and sometimes it doesn’t hurt too bad, for example if I’m sitting or lying down. If I try to walk somewhere within about 15 minutes the pain becomes excruciating. There’s so much I want to do so this is really getting me down that I can’t do it – exercise is pretty much out of the question and even trying to figure out the logistics of getting to work (where I have to do the least amount of walking) is hurting my head. What I really want to do is work from my bed, but that isn’t possible at the moment, and as my time on this project is slowly winding down, I’m beginning to worry about how much I still have to do (not that that’s motivating me to get my arse in gear)!

So what’s the solution…is there any relief or will I have to spend the next 3 months more or less miserable and bed bound? I thought what I had was sciatica, which is where the baby and/or expanding uterus is sitting on your sciatic nerve. As a result, I’ve spent the last week lying on my right side trying to coax the baby to move.

However, yesterday I went to see my new best friend, Duncan, who is a chiropractor. He gave me an assessment and after pointing out that it was unlikely to be sciatica because the pain doesn’t run down the back of my leg or even into my bottom, he could see that my pelvis isn’t really aligned. So, therefore, the pain I’m feeling in my back is likely to be related to the same pain I had in my fanny last week (not his words). At this stage of pregnancy, the ligaments in the pelvis are really relaxing and, therefore, the extra weight is putting pressure on my tilted pelvis, namely at the top of my bum where it hurts, and sort of causing Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction.

Pretty in Pink has it right there…ouch indeed.

Aside from the chiropractic work he’s going to do to try and realign my pelvis, in the mean time he has give me the following advice for while I’m going about my business, which looks suspiciously like a list of things I’ve shouldn’t have been doing but have:

- Sit with pelvis aligned i.e. not leaning on one side or the other with legs curled up or with legs crossed (whoops)

- Don’t wearing heels (whoops – although I’m going to take that with spinach of salt, naturally. Surely if my pelvis is still aligned…?)

- Don’t do superman or donkey kicks or any other exercises that rely on your pelvis to keep you balanced (whoops)

- Try to sleep on your side with your pelvis, you guessed it, aligned using a pillow between your knees (whoops – I’ve been sleeping wonky as you like – hunched up and curled around my pregnancy pillow, almost on my front)

So, all in all, I’ve been doing completely the wrong thing and poor little baby has been continuously prodded and encouraged to move for no real reason. I also asked Duncan about exercise (hence no superman moves, etc.) and providing it doesn’t hurt, I should still be able to do exercise including swimming (but not breast stroke), and I’ll keep doing the cross trainer as, unlike walking, it doesn’t hurt. Very strange, if only I could move around town via cross trainer, shopping would be much more fun. Oh, and lunges are off limits too. Tried it yesterday and it hurt like buggery.

Duncan did say there was a chance that after my treatment I wouldn’t be able to move the next day but, so far so good, so I sincerely hope everything gets back to normal-ish soon.

If anyone else out there is also feeling miserable with your pregnancy symptoms, feel free to have a good moan in the comments below without  judgement – I have sympathy at the ready! xxx

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Categories pregnancy symptoms, pregnancy week by week, well-being

Happy First Anniversary!

May 15, 2012 //
8

Yesterday was Mike and my 1st wedding anniversary. We had a lovely time, staying at Henry VII’s hunting lodge, eating lots, going to the cinema and then vegging out at home while the rain lashed down. How different it all was to last year, when we were laughing and dancing and enjoying the sunshine. I feel sorry for poor Mike having to put up with me (I believe the last thing I said here was I’d take this back pain any day of the week – over the pelvic pain, yes, but in general I am now thoroughly miserable with it!) – it’s as though the weather is mirroring my mood. But to be fair, this is the first time I have had any bother and at 27 weeks pregnant, I think that’s pretty good.

Anyway, I was feeling very nostalgic for our wedding yesterday, particularly in the afternoon, which was when we got married. So, rather than moaning about my current predicament (that will come tomorrow, you lucky things), I thought I’d make this a short post and put up a few of my favourite photos, by the wonderful Caroline Briggs, from the day to cheer me up.

I was so nervous and my Dad was very emotional which was threatening to push me over the edge! I think we were both shaking like leaves.

Three little angels (for that moment!)

Because my Dad was the vicar of this church, the place was absolutely packed. You can see in the next shots just how beautiful the church is though.

I love this shot of Mike’s God Son, Gabriel. So cute!

You may now kiss the bride – whoop.

After a long service for the kids (and the adults, who all got a glass of bubbly afterwards while we mingled in the churchyard!). My three little bridesmaids enjoyed playing in their floaty dresses. And, my sort of page boys, Isaac (my brother, who was 11 at the time) and Dylan (my cousin’s little boy) were off playing in the graves…

One of my main regrets from the day was that we didn’t manage to get a good shot of Mike, Gabriella and me. The day was so full and after the initial photos, Gabriella was having none of it!

These little babies nearly crippled me, but I loved them.

The flowers for me were one of the worst things to organise in advance because I just couldn’t imagine what they would look like. Thankfully, Olwen Blair (from Blairs in Darlington), knew what I wanted and I was so pleased with the end result I almost cried.

The Sour Mash Trio warming up before the ridiculousness that was our first dance (a cover of Elvis’, I don’t care if the sun don’t shine).

Seriously, Mike got so into it at one point I had to just leave him too it! Our guest’s seemed to enjoy it though. I’m yet to see the film of it back – I’m sure it was meant to make it to youtube.

And, finally, I’ll leave you with some love bird shots *sigh*. Just think we were off to St Lucia for 2 weeks without a care in the world.

And, now I’m waking up in a rotten mood with a sore bum/back – sorry baby but I love you and it’ll all be worth when mini-Mike/Hannah pops out!

Categories well-being

Uncomfortable pregnancy symptoms (Fanny update)

May 10, 2012 //
0

So a quick update – I’m almost certain that what I experienced when pushing the pain barrier in the name of ‘curing my back pain’ on Tuesday at the gym was SPD (Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction).

Baby Centre have a very useful post about SPD and here’s what they say it is:

The two halves of your pelvis are connected at the front by a stiff joint called the symphysis pubis. This joint is strengthened by a dense network of tough, flexible tissues, called ligaments. To help your baby pass through your pelvis as easily as possible, your body produces a hormone called relaxin, which softens the ligaments.

As a result, these joints move more during and just after pregnancy, causing inflammation and pain, known as symphysis pubis dysfunction or SPD.

It’s another of those pesky pregnancy symptoms that seem able to strike at any time during pregnancy. Baby Centre say that it rears its ugly head through the following symptoms:

  • Pain in the pubic area and groin (most common and what I was experiencing)
  • Back pain, pelvic girdle pain or hip pain
  • A grinding or clicking sensation in your pubic area (also have this a bit when moving at night – youch)
  • Pain down the inside of your thighs or between your legs. It can be made worse by parting your legs, walking, going up or down stairs or moving around in bed
  • Worse pain at night. It can stop you sleeping well and getting up to go to the toilet in the middle of the night can be especially painful

One of the ways to cure this is through physiotherapy but I unfortunately missed the boat with the NHS one in my area by about 15 minutes. Fortunately my instinct of consigning myself to bed for 36 hours has paid off because I feel infinitely better and even managed a wee bit of light exercise this evening. I would highly recommend reading the Baby Center article if you are concerned about this, as it covers how to cure it (most of which you’d probably have to pay for), and more importantly how to prevent it (our friend, the pelvic floor exercise, comes in here!).

And, as I said yesterday…if you feel even the slightest twinge in your special place DO NOT PUSH IT! No more donkey kicks for me, and the back pain? Still there but I’d rather have that any day of the week.

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Categories health, pregnancy, pregnancy exercises, pregnancy symptoms

Stop fannying around – your guide to pelvic floor exercises

May 9, 2012 //
1

For anyone out there who was thinking: ‘geez, this girl has had it easy’ or ‘I’ve had morning sickness for X months, when’s she going to get something?’ or any combination along that theme… fear not as I am in a world of misery as I appear to have broken my fanny.

I’d been suffering a wee bit of sciatic pain on Monday and Tuesday, so walking was a bit of chore but I thought I’d ‘walk it off’ at the gym last night. Walking didn’t work, in fact it was friggin’ painful so I got myself on the cross-trainer, which was 10 minutes of blissful, ignorant exercise. But I was bored. I went down stairs (to where the big boys hang out and push massive weights) to do some back strengthening work in the hope this would also ease the pain. Instead something serious happened in my ‘area’ and I ended up nearly crying over the dumbell tree. It wasn’t pretty.

Now, while I don’t really know what it is and since my midwife can’t offer any help for another 2 weeks, I know what I think it is: Symphysis Pubis Disfunction (SPD). Great, something that sounds like an STD. It’s not but I shall get to that one tomorrow. In the mean time, if you think you might have it, do NOT do the superman back strengthening exercise or any donkey kicks – both require you to balance on one leg – and certainly don’t assume that the pain in your groin area is just something to battle through. That, my friends, is what did me in, so stop what you’re doing if you feel any twinges in your special place.

I’ve spent all day in bed feeling very sorry for myself but since I haven’t blogged for almost a week, I’ve dragged Business Hannah out of hiding to talk about the real issue at stake here – fannies. Back in the days of having a business, there were times when Business Hannah was needed to give everyone a kick up the bum (I basically wore a pencil skirt to work, but it seemed to do the trick to get me in the right frame of mind). Now it’s just me that needs a kick up the bum, I’ve got myself washed and dressed (less pencil skirt, more Cat from Eastenders in a leopard print tube dress. Better than it sounds. I hope.) ready to bring you…THE PELVIC FLOOR BLOG.

The background to this blog is that a while a go I had a semi-feminist discussion with a pregnant friend of mine about Pelvic Floor exercises. Her argument was why bother, Mike wouldn’t do something like that for you. And, what she meant by this? That the only reason to do Pelvic Floor exercises is so that your fanny won’t be like a Wizard’s sleeve (to quote my sister-in-law’s eloquent work colleague) and sex will therefore be better for him.

Having read up on this since, that reason for doing the exercise is probably at the bottom of the pile. It seems that in actual fact these exercises are close to preventing your whole body collapsing (as I’m finding out). Here’s some of the things you can prevent by doing these slightly uncomfortable and ever so boring exercises:

  • Incontinence – this can be anything from full blown issues to wetting yourself when laughing/sneezing/coughing/bouncing on a trampoline, in short anything that puts pressure on your lower abdomin. Nobody wants this. Nobody.
  • SPD - my new suspected pelvic issue, caused by a loosening of the ligaments that hold the pelvis together in preparation for child birth.
  • Prolapse – This is when the uterus pushes against the wall of your vagina. More of an issue later in life but it shows that you do need to keep up the exercise basically from here on in.

And, how can it help:

  • Supporting the extra baby weight on your pelvis
  • Easing back troubles (due to it’s vital role in supporting the spine)
  • Preventing constipation and piles
  • Rotating the baby’s head to the right position
  • Pushing the baby out
  • Healing that poor little area between your bum and vagina that gets a battering during child birth
  • And, yes, more satisfying sex and being more likely to reach orgasm (which in my book means it’s better for you, not just him)

So, what do you do and how often? In terms of what to do, NHS has the simplest explanation I’ve found (click here and scroll down to pelvic floor exercises ) but for something a bit more in depth for those of you who want to go beyond the basics (something I never thought I’d hear myself say about pelvic floor exercises ), this article from Baby Centre is an excellent resource.

How often is also a good question – I’ve seen also sorts from 3 times a day up to 1 set of fast and 1 set of slow contractions (which take forever!) SIX TIMES A DAY. I guess it’s up to you and your dedication to the cause/any issues you currently have. I’ve certainly increased from doing it when I remember (i.e. a couple of times a week) to doing it 3 times a day in the hope it will help my sore area.

If anyone else has advice, please do let me know what you think! Happy flexing xx

Resources:

Net Doctor – Pelvic Floor Exercises

NCT – Pelvic Floor Exercises During and After Pregnancy

NHS – Exercises for a Fitter Pregnancy

Baby Centre – Pelvic Floor in Pregnancy

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Categories health, pregnancy, pregnancy exercises, pregnancy symptoms, well-being

Jean Genie – Maternity clothes at 26 weeks pregnant

May 4, 2012 //
2

On Wednesday I caught myself in the lift mirror and this is what I saw. Fluffy hair, no make up, confusing clothing. All in all a bit of a frump.

Comfy but it’s not work-wear by any stretch. I panicked but then you would have as this is what had happened before the above mishap…

These are sexy times ladies! What I’ve realised this week is that I have more clothes than you can shake a stick at (especially thanks to Ania for giving me lots of maternity things!) so I can hardly shut my drawers and yet I’ve no idea what to actually put on! This is mainly due to the fact that I have no idea what still fits and can be classed as maternity clothes. So, in order to tackle this I have tried on everything in my teeshirt/jumper draw to get rid of the too small (there were about 30 t-shirts like the orange one above) and create my ‘things that go with jeans’ album.

The ‘things that go with jeans’ Album

The basics - please note that I have put this on purely for explaining a point not because I think it looks good (for example the boobtube is borderline see through). These tops are my new best friends. They are long to extend beyond the bump and seem to add more support so I feel comfortable.

1. Gray Vest (freebie from Ania)

2. Boobtube from Topshop (I also want to get this in black)

The jeans I have are – mothercare’s skinny jeans (from Ania), Baxter jeans from Topshop, and bootcuts from Next

For Work/Out and About - I’m probably quite lucky in that I can wear jeans to work so my work wardrobe is much the same as my play one.

Black Maternity t-shirt from Topshop (unfortunately in the sale, so it’s not online anymore), with green cardie and red cardie

I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of this top but if you are looking for something to throw on for work, this is it – it’s long, stretchy and looks cutest with a little cardigan.

1. Red top (freebie from Ania) – I had initially thought my arms were too fat for this. It now I’m quite a fan.

2. Orange shift top from Miss Selfridges with lace detail on the back – I really like this with the boobtube, something for those balmy days and nice with a blazer and dark jeans for work.

3. Maternity jumper, with lace shoulder detail, from Topshop (again in the sale) – I find this top is already a bit short so a t-shirt or boobtube underneath will be needed soon.

Sailor Style jumper from Topshop: before (at 12 weeks) and after (at 26 weeks) – it’s nice and long, so I’m still enjoying wearing it.

A bit more cas. - this is perhaps more weekend wear (I sound like Graham Norton) basically things that I probably wouldn’t want to wear to work (but might).

1. White t-shirt (not maternity), Topshop – worn with boobtube and grey vest for added support (plus it looks better with the grey layer rather than just white)

2. Gorgeous Sailor t-shirt from best friend Alex a few birthdays ago

3. Beige t-shirt (freebie from Ania), which isn’t my colour but I love the material and like it with this little Primark cardie.

The unsure pile - I have a few things that I’m just not sure about but because they are big enough, I’m going to reserve judgement (esp the sleeveless ones for those balmy, hot summer days that are so clearly on their way).

1. Rainbow t-shirt (non-maternity), H&M – worn with boobtube. I bought this for my holidays and at the moment it certainly feels as though it should stay a sun only top.

2. Flamingo (oi!) t-shirt (non-maternity), Henry Holland –  worn with boobtube. It’s long, and will fit for a while but I’m just not that keen, I don’t think it’s very flattering. Perhaps due to the picture on the front?

3. Stripy jumper (non-maternity), H&M – this is my cosy round-the-house jumper but I feel it’s bordering on frump-ville Tennessee, so best with really skinny jeans.

That’s it. Doesn’t feel like much but my drawers now shut.

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Categories maternity clothes, pregnancy week by week

Monday’s PREVENT STRETCH MARKS Shopping List (on Tuesday) !

May 1, 2012 //
3

This was meant to be your Monday ANTI-STRETCH-MARK Shopping List but I was in such a shitty mood! I’m telling you, staying up late on a Saturday night is not worth it.

I’d spent yesterday worrying about work, feeling emotional about the birth (a.k.a. pushing the baby out of that tiny hole and where I should do said pushing) and other such things. So, when I discovered O2 had taken £300 out of my account (when they shouldn’t have, I’d already spent 45 minutes on the phone with them to make sure they didn’t take any money and was assured they wouldn’t) it felt like the end of the world. And, the final icing on the cake? I dropped something on my hand and it hurt so I cried and that put paid to any attempt I was going to make to write a post.

Seems so dramatic now I’ve had a good night sleep and a chat with my boss!

Despite being a day late and being told that stretch marks are hereditary, I’m battling on regardless with my new obsession, foods that prevent stretch marks and ‘Monday’s’ shopping list…

As a recap from last week’s post, these are the vitamins and minerals that are said to particularly prevent stretch marks: Vitamins A, C, D and E, and Zinc, Silica, and Omega 3. Pregnancy hangover in hand, this is the list I took in a mad dash to the shops on Sunday to carry out my supermarket sweep before Mike’s family came over for lunch:

Now I have a fridge full of vegetables and, like an armature episode of Ready, Steady, Cook (with a lot more ingredients), I need to work out what the hell I’m going to do with it all. Aside from salad.

Dinners

The superstar things on the list are carrots, spinach, watercress, peppers, tomatoes, salmon and sunflower seeds. Between these 7 you cover all the essential vitamins and minerals you need. So, from this list the obvious thing to make is a type of salmon salad.

I’m a genius and this hot-smoked salmon salad from BBC Good Food looks particularly delicious. It combines all the leaves you need (spinach, watercress, beets) with the salmon and you have a gorgeous lemon dressing for added vitamin C. Include some grated carrot, tomatoes, peppers and sunflower seeds you’ve got a proper ‘up yours’ to the stretch mark.

Another dish I happened across yesterday was a lentil and asparagus number from Red Magazine, which has an orgasmic looking poached egg on it. Naturally you’d have to replace that sumptuous, runniness with a hard-boiled mother plucker but otherwise, high five from Mr Prevent Stretch Marks.

Snacks

The first thing that jumped out from a snack point of view was houmous and crudités (cut up veg), we can dip any one of those veggies in some lovely homemade houmous (here’s a super easy recipe from BBC).

Another simple snack is fresh fruit and/or nuts and there’s plenty to chose from on the list!

How’s that for starters then? Any menu suggestions would be most welcome. Plus any thoughts? – if you want to rain on my parade, please do as I’m going to carry on regardless!

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Categories health, pregnancy diet, pregnancy symptoms

Pregnancy exercises and Davina Body Buff [DVD] – a review (almost 6 months pregnant)

April 29, 2012 //
1

Ever wondered what a pregnant woman is like after a night out when she went to bed at 1am? Well, I tell you. She’s a pissed off grouch, with no sense of humour and her poor family gets it in the neck for a whole day. What a catch, eh? And that has been me all day thanks to a fun night out with a bunch of drunk people. (in case you can’t tell from my tone, I did really enjoy the night!)

I decided in the hope to release some happy endorphins I’d do some exercise but after spending 3 days doing all the exercises on the Davina – Body Buff DVD for today’s review post, I couldn’t face doing any more Davina. Having leant out all my other exercise DVDs I reached for my only other DVD – Ministry of Sound’s Pump It Up (image below for your enjoyment and to prove my point) and didn’t even manage to get past the intro before I wanted to kill myself. Super-skinny girls in knickers and a bra is not the domain for the pregnant (and sevearly pissed off) woman, let me tell you.

Ministry Of Sound: Pump It Up! See what I mean?

So, I reverted to one of my tried and tested Davina DVDs and I must say I’m feeling a bit better (I think sleep is the only thing that will really work). Despite being known as a wee bit annoying, I don’t find her DVDs annoying at all – they’re on the fairly to very tough scale (so you feel like you’ve done a decent workout), they are quite amusing (even though I’ve seen them a hundred times – e.g. today I still laughed at a boob related comment while doing my arms. Easily pleased perhaps), and they aren’t perfect (they haven’t spent forever trying to edit all the life out of the routines, so they make mistakes, which makes it all the more endearing and not annoying). Despite being able to recite it word for word, I think this is why I still enjoy doing the DVDs.

After doing Davina Body Buff Legs section on Wednesday, I decided I would do the rest of the workouts to see how appropriate the rest of the DVD still was for someone who’s nearly 6 months pregnant. I’d been focusing my excise efforts at home on non-cardio workouts, think lunges and arm exercises, so time to see how I fare with a couple of cardio sessions! Here’s your review.

Davina – Body Buff Menu – whole DVD is 2 hours

Buff Warm up

Buff Cardio – 25 mins (plus 5 mins abs*)

Buff Boxing - 25 mins (plus 5 mins abs*)

Buff Legs and Core – 20 mins

Buff Arms – 15 mins

Buff Abs – 10 mins*

Buff Stretch – 5 mins basic with a further 5 mins deeper ‘yoga-style’ stretch

* I’m not doing any of the abs workouts as they are all crunch based – I’m sure these will be great once I’m trying to get my stomach back and I’ll be doing them everyday!

Wednesday – Buff Legs

I’m not going to lie, I love lunges. I’m obsessed with trying to get smaller legs so I do this one all the time. It’s quite hard work (in fact I’d almost go so far as to say it’s the best of her legs sections on the DVDs I have)  so it feels like it’s doing some good. The section takes the form of 4 sections of legs (squats, sumos, lunges, side lunges, etc) each seperated by 1mins of cardio to loosen the legs up again and raise the heart rate (aka fat burning while you’re doing the resistance work).

From a pregnancy point of view, it’s getting harder to do some of the moves. For example, squats are harder as my belly is beginning to get in the way, so I’m using a bit of artistic licensing and am doing sumos (wide legs, upright back – see this post for full explanation) instead of squats. All in all, I love the DVD for this section alone.

Thursday – Buff Cardio

I’m not as keen on cardio sections as a rule and I think it must be because I like the predictability of the resistance training – the sections interrupted by 1 mins of cardio – you just know where you are with it. With the cardio I tend to spend my time thinking, when’s it going to be over? Am I even halfway through yet? Etc. I’m not the spontaneous person I once thought I was.

Having said that, I think this section is pretty good, especially for pregnancy. There’s a low impact version which I think (she says know sweet F.A. about trimester 3) I’ll be able to do for quite some time yet. On Thursday I was able to do quite a bit of jumping about, I got at least half way through before I had to start doing the lower impact versions of the exercises. So, all in all, it was a nice variation on my resistance stuff and I ‘m going to do it more now (particularly when I’m feeling extra flabby and want to burn a few more calories).

Friday – Buff Boxing and Buff Arms

After 2 days on the trot doing the warm up I was getting a bit sick, so I decided to do the last 2 sections at the same time… Buff Boxing, much like Buff Cardio, was pretty alright and a nice change. It’s lower impact than the cardio (i.e. less jumping around) and with all the kicking and what not, you do feel more like you’re working your muscles, which I’m keen on. The only thing I’m not keen on is the twisting, due to the reliance on your core, but I just ad-libbed so it worked out fine.

The arms, like the legs, is one of my favourites. It’s especially good if you’re short of time, not really feeling it or want to tag it onto one of the other workouts, but still quite hard (although I really need to get some heavier weights). Unlike their other resistance workouts, this one doesn’t use their tried and tested ‘section, 1 min cardio, section’ formula, but combines the moves with some cardio to African style bongo beats. Just what you always wanted from your arms workout.

Warm up and Stretch - just a quickie about this…the warm up does what it meant to, it’s entirely non-offensive so no comment. The stretch – the first section is a stand up stretch so ideal if you’re feeling stretch lazy. The second section is more tricky and my belly does get in the way bit (plus my amazingly unlimber bits didn’t help either) but I think I should try and do more of it.

 

There you have it! I personally think it is definitely a good one for pregnancy exercises and with the added abs sections, I’ll be doing it (probably everyday!) to try and claw back some semblance of my former body.

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Categories health, pregnancy exercises

Sex during pregnancy – step it up fellas

April 27, 2012 //
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Courtesy of  SERGE BIELANKO, from babble.com/dadding

Now I haven’t intentionally been thinking about it but sex during pregnancy has popped into my head a few times. For example, a book I downloaded about pregnancy didn’t download properly apart from the bit about sex (so I read it), it’s a topic of discussion amongst pregnant women, etc. so, I’ve naturally got to thinking about it in more detail – enough to want to write about it. Plus, it all counts as exercise, right?

A wee while ago I mentioned some of my pregnant friends had gone off it. And, then in another post I mentioned that pregnant woman can get a libido surge. It’s a bit of a mystery as to which way you’ll go – yuk or yes?

But never mind the lady in all this, apparently it can be just as much as a minefield for men. They too can go off it as much as we can. I can’t imagine anything worse than feeling like a fat, horny blubber whale and your fella saying, ‘not tonight babe, I’ve got a headache,’ which would be interpreted as you look like a fat blubber whale. But, at the same time the advice is to not take it personally, cut them some slack, do other things to be intimate (probably with the lights off), cuddle, etc.

I have recently found Pregnant Chicken, a blog about pregnancy and it is hilarious, please have a good read. I came across this post the other day about sex during pregnancy and more specifically the dad’s role, which sums it up just nicely. I’m not sure if this is the done thing, but it is so funny and so right that I’ve had to quote it for you …

As for you Dads, I recognize that this is a really tricky time. This rockin’ hot woman is morphing into the beautiful mother of you child and sometimes it’s difficult to get in the mood. A baby is involved now. A baby! How can you do dirty things to your baby’s mother?

I’ll tell you how. You damn well think of something and man the hell up because this is your moment, buddy. This is when the woman you love wants to feel sexy, and beautiful, and wanted, so you make that shit happen. You tell her she looks incredible and that you want her just as much as you always have. Don’t tell her that you want her no matter what she looks like – “Luke, it’s a trap!” – because that will be deciphered as her looking not good.

I hear ya sista! – or you hear me. Not that I’m having this issue at home, apparently Mike really fancies me at the moment (massive boobs, nuff said). But, I have read that a chap can get all grossed out at the thought of doing the dirty with a pregnant women and as far as I’m concerned this is exactly the time when your pregnant woman needs to feel good about herself and sexy (I realise I’m just paraphrasing what’s been said above now but it’s just so right!). So get to it.

And, Ladies, if the last thing you want to do is bonk and you couldn’t give a beep what he thinks, then forget this post ever happened.

 

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Categories pregnancy, pregnancy exercises, pregnancy symptoms
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