Modern Mothering – Babies, Toddlers and New Parents
 
Parenting: From pregnancy to baby names and toddler tantrums – instructions not included, batteries sold separately.

First Trimester Exercise

February 8, 2012
by modernmama

I’ve found a variety of exercise recommendations while pregnant.  Everything from preggo yoga to pilates.  None of which I did.

I was a runner.  …hmm “was”.  I would like to say I “am” a runner, BUT that would imply that I still run.  How about: I’m a runner at heart.  Yes, that does it.

So now that we’ve established that, everyday before work I would wake up and go running for at least half an hour.  Outside was preferable, but some days I took to the treadmill inside.  I did bits of weights to tone arms, legs and abs too.  I was a slim athletic woman. And I was very happy with that. Finding myself pregnant, I naturally asked how long I could keep running. And the answer:  As long as I was comfortable doing it, but my baby belly would tell me when.

The first two months were no sweat.  The third I still did, but getting a wee tired and randomly napping during the day too.

I’m glad I spent the first trimester keeping up my normal exercise.  In retrospect, I wish I had done more throughout the second and third trimesters.  Moving across the country, moving the in-laws in with us and finding a job in the recession, though, proved more stressful than I expected on top of raging preggo hormones. Go figure.

Funny story: Seven months pregnant and without a car, I was leaving work to go to school.  I saw the bus was already picking up people at the stop half a block away.  What do I do? I sprint, naturally.  I made it.  And I paid dearly for it.  Just on the bus waddling to a seat I had pain in my groin from having strained the already taxed muscles carrying an extra 35 lbs around.  The next two days I was sore with every step.  I swear I had bounced the baby’s head on my pelvis.  If ever you’re in that position, catch the next bus and be a few minutes late.

If you can do nothing else than motivate yourself to go for a walk several times a day, do it. But do more as much as you can.  Go swimming, take some yoga classes with a friend, anything to keep your body in shape.  You’ll want to have your body in a good place to counter the fat calories of cravings that many of us find ourselves slaves to on occasion.  Not to mention having a healthy bod to keep up with caring for the little one.

I went from about a size 1 to a size 6 and I’m still working it off.  I can’t run like I used to after two kids in two years, but I’m working back up to it and back down into my pre-kids clothes.  I’m proud to say that my husband and I have now started going to the gym on a regular basis too!

No Comments »

That Ain’t No Etch-A-Sketch

February 1, 2012
by modernmama

Hubby’s favorite movie (at the time we got together) was JUNO.  Ironically appropriate.

Best line ever:

Rollo: So what’s the prognosis, Fertile Myrtle? Minus or plus?
Juno MacGuff: I don’t know. It’s not seasoned yet.
[grabs products]
Juno MacGuff: I’ll take some of these. Nope… There it is. The little pink plus sign is so unholy.
[shakes pregnancy tester]
Rollo: That ain’t no Etch-A-Sketch. This is one doodle that can’t be un-did, Homeskillet.

Of course, our son’s nickname until month 8 when we actually agreed on a name, was Doodle.

 

No Comments »

Am I Really Going to Get That BIG?

February 1, 2012
by modernmama

A couple months into my first pregnancy, my mother did the excited grandma thing and offered to take me shopping for some maternity clothes before I moved across the US to live with my hubby’s family (long story).  But nonetheless in just a few short weeks I’d be on a plane and I wouldn’t be seeing my mom again until the baby was born and she came to visit.  So we hit Motherhood Maternity first.

Now I had never spent any time around a pregnant woman in my life.  I had very little concept of what was about to happen and how it all goes down.  So we enter the store and Mom starts picking up cute clothes and we get a room set up to try on.  At this point, I’m barely any bigger than I ever was.  And I was a whopping 98lbs, 5′ tall athletic girl.  I was still jogging every other day before work. No one could even tell I was pregnant, except for me, really.  I could tell my belly was no longer flat.  Mom mostly gave me the stink eye for making comments like that. Three pregnancies and thirty years had not been as kind as she would’ve liked.  And I’m sure somewhere within, she was thinking, “Just wait. You’ll see.”

I go into the fititng room with a pile of petite size garments and the woman helping us follwed, “You’ll want to strap this around your waist to give you an idea of how big you’ll be in three more months.”  She reached for what looked like an ugly blue pillow with a wide elastic band and velcro coming out of either side. “Thanks,” I replied.

The reflection was funny looking. I had my jeans on and a maternity shirt that draped over my pillow belly. It reminded me of the joke a co-worker unknowingly made just weeks earlier about looking pregnant when I was carrying a watermelon into the room.  The pillow was three months more, watermelon was more like four or five months.

“Ugh, Mom, am I really going to get that big?!”

“MMmm..bigger.”

“What!”

“I know it doesn’t seem like it now, but that’ll be too small towards the end.”

“What! I feel like I’m swimming in it.”

“Wait till you try on the pants with the elastic band.”

Those pants were bigger than the shirt. Little did I know, that those very pants would be so tight by the end of the day 8 months pregnant, I’d take them off by 7pm.

So our shopping trip was at an end, and I walked away with some modern maternity clothes I would soon grow into. In retrospect, I would have gotten longer shirts.  Towards the nine month mark, my baby belly would peek out the bottom of some of them.

No Comments »

“Morning” Sickness

January 25, 2012
by modernmama

While everyone experiences different symptoms the first three months, be happy if you have none, because they’re not fun.

Who would have known that “morning sickness” is by no means limited to the MORNING! The first day at work I wasn’t sure exactly why I didn’t feel well.  It was late in the morning, but not close enought to lunch to be hungry. The next day it happened again around the same time so I munched on some trail mix.  As the weeks went on this became routine and worsening.  I found I had to eat constantly to avoid being nauseous throughout the day. Saltines became my friend. I was working full time and the circumstances were that I had not told any colleagues that I was pregnant yet, so I had to act normal.

So one day, I was working and under a deadline to get some work done and go to the bank with a manager to do the usual banking.  It was two hours since I had last eaten and the hunger pangs were growing. Another half hour and we were at the bank….waiting in a long line! You’ve got to be kidding me! I’m going to barf if I don’t get something to eat! I was actually starting to sweat at this point trying to compose myself.  Banking done.

“Let’s go grab a snack on our way back.” My manager liked to talk – a lot.  So we’re on our way to the store and he’s chatting about all kinds of things and all I can do is think about how I would explain simply throwing up in front of him.  Finally – at the deli.  What looks good?  Pacing, nothing looks good. In fact thinking  about food at this point makes me want to barf more.  Ah ha! Mashed potatoes!  Yes, one small container of mashed potatoes please!

I devoured them. In minutes. Just sitting in the car before we headed back. Amazingly, my manager didn’t question it.

For many months, I woke up in the morning hoping not to feel nauseous.  When I did, I knew I just needed to eat a few crackers to settle it down.  Occasionally I had the misfortune of not making it to the kitchen and ended up throwing up in the bathroom sink. Not sexy.

Must have pregnancy item: Large box of saltines.

No Comments »

Am I Ready to be a Parent?

January 25, 2012
by modernmama

I think that most good parents at some point along the way ask themselves if they’re ready to have a baby.

My first instance of this came about a week after the shock of finding out I was pregnant for the first time wore off.  I was walking hurriedly down some stairs and my chest throbbed with each step – the constant reminder that my life was about to change.

That evening, my sore chest and I cozied up on the sofa for my routine bedtime read and I found that I hadn’t opened my book, but was lost in thought about the months and years to come.  In a few short minutes too much to type was thought. “I can’t believe I’m pregnant.  I’m not ready for a kid. I never planned to have kids. I’ve never even changed a diaper. I have no experience with children.  I don’t make enough money.  I’m so excited.  There’s no one else in the world I’d want to do this with other than my husband.”

And that was the first instance of this question, “Am I ready?”

There’s so many things to prepare for to make sure your little one has all the opportunity in life.  And suddenly it’s important to take care of yourself to make sure you can take care of your baby.  We were looking at college savings, health insurance, life insurance, organic food, vitamins, green cleaning products, going back to school ourselves and getting degrees, even a piggy bank!

Then there were all the baby essentials to get too!

Do I need a parenting class?  A birth class?  How do I breastfeed?  How do I hold a baby?  What if I drop it!?

I tell you, it REALLY sunk in when I was being wheelchaired out of the maternity ward nine months later with a 7lb 1oz swaddled boy in my arms. I felt the need to ask the nurse if they were really going to let me, of all people, just leave with another human being!

But I didn’t.  I just smiled.  And I realized that I probably wasn’t any more ready than I could be, but that I would do my best for that little guy, because that’s what parents do.

A friend of mine was recently thinking of starting the adoption process and said she wasn’t sure if she was ready yet.  I said, no one is ever really ready, you just prepare the best you can and throw yourself into it.  You learn along the way and love ‘em with all your heart.

No Comments »

Plus or minus?

January 21, 2012
by modernmama

Now I didn’t learn this small bit of important info from my first pregnancy, but I thought since it’s where a lot of women start, it might be useful.

Then again, if you’re here, you’re probably past this point….

Eh, well.  So your monthly friend has not come to visit yet and potentially, maybe, you think you could be pregnant.  What do we do at this point? We grab ourselves a home pregnancy test!  Now I was quite positive that I was pregnant when I first used one for our second baby, but I had two negatives so far and I was DYING to know for sure!  I was thinking, “This CAN’T be right!! I’m almost certain I’m pregnant!” I was tired and cramping in my uterus, but had not gotten my period.

Ok, so here goes the third test.

Do the deed in the bathroom after dinner one night and so impatiently, anxiously await the results. So impatiently that I decide to read the full directions to pass the time.  Ya know, that paper folded ten times with print so small you hold the paper two inches from your face to read.

Ok, About, Uses, How they work, yada yada, gets to the part about how it detects levels of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG).  Best time to take the test is in the morning with your morning pee because it has the highest concentration of hCG.

Really?  Couldn’t you have put that little tidbit in the directions on the outside of the box?

And another negative.

Eff it.  By this point I was two days away from my doctor’s appointment I scheduled a week before.  I didn’t do another home test, but I went to my 10:00am appointment with an o-so-full bladder, doing the pee dance because I wanted the test to have the best possible chance for accuracy.

By 10:15 I finally had that little cup and went into the bathroom.

My husband and I waited in the little waiting room for just a few minutes before the results were in. Wham! Baby #2 was in the oven!

So then, back to the original important information: For best results, pee on the stick in the morning when you wake up.  And read directions in life!

No Comments »
 
Copyright 2012 Modern Mothering – Babies, Toddlers and New Parents | Powered by WordPress