So being pregnant was really something I wasn’t prepared for.  My body, has been very good to me but I have also be very good to it.  It has seen me through some very tough times.  In high school I was a basketball player, and sophomore year I tore my ACL.  I quickly recovered after surgery and began playing again.  I’ve always been active and plan on telling you pieces of just how active I’ve been along the way, but I’ve kept up with health and fitness, and try to continue to do that now.

But pregnancy is a funny thing.  When thinking about being pregnant (I thought I’d do it in my late twenties, early thirties) I thought to myself “I will be the healthiest prego ever.”  I told myself, “You’ll eat like a saint, because you already do, you’ll exercise daily, because you already do and you will never touch refined sugars and processed foods because you barely do it now, why would you subject your baby to that crap” — Then, to my utter surprise this happened:

Hello Baby V!

Oh did this little bundle of joy change my life.  The day after I took the pregnancy test (around 6 weeks) I started the famous morning sickness.  For me this was morning, noon, in-between, every second, even at night while I’m sleeping sickness.  Oh, my every day coffee (WHICH I LIVED FOR) became my WORST nightmare.  I literally could not think of anything on this planet that wanted to make me puke more than my morning coffee.  Not only that but vegetables (my life, no seriously) made quiver in disgust, peanut butter (which I’d have every morning) was the devil, and all my whole grains (yep pasta, brown rice, whole grain bread…etc.) were completely off limits or off to the bowl I went (I did anyway even if I didn’t eat these things, but the thought of these items immediately made my tummy turn) , even my favorites like bananas were a no no.  My food list consisted of white only things, white rice, white toast (plain NOTHING on it), the famous saltines, white potatoes (sweet potatoes, another fav was also out of the question), you get the picture…

Then there was fitness, before my little bean (we lovingly called Frijol until we knew what we were having) I was at the gym 4-6 days a week.  I’d also come home and do planks, or weights, or a dvd, I’d take Oso for short runs (he is a German Shepard so we keep him under five miles during any workout) or my sprint training (short sprints, long walks).  I figured that there was every possiblity that I could keep this up.  HA! YEAH RIGHT!  I heard that pregnancy fatigue hits, but oh m geeeeeee I wasn’t at all prepared for the walking zombie.  I could, if I didn’t have a full time job, sleep at ANY time.  No seriously, I could sleep while walking…. during the daytime.  Then when I was able to go to sleep like under the covers at night like a normal person… INSOMNIA! I kid you not.  I would toss and turn and toss and turn get up get down, go pee (like every five seconds, where the hell was it coming from?).  My super smell (oh god, yes super SUPER smell) and super sonic hearing kept me up all night long making days unbearable.

Needless to say, I felt like 1) The worst mom ever.  My baby wasn’t getting very good nutrition, and I wasn’t sleeping AND I wasn’t working out; and 2) I was getting depressed.  How could I go from running a marathon to being unable to walk from the bedroom to the bathroom?!

So much for my thoughts on pregnancy!  Luckily, it did get better, around 17 weeks I started being able to eat GREENS, and kept them down.  Then I got some energy too, though not enough to be training for my next marathon, but enough to walk a few times a week or at least do planks and arms.

What the first 17 weeks of my pregnancy taught me was: 1)  You are no longer in control and 2) Your body is going to change whether you like it or not.

Working on having a healthy pregnancy has been a challenge, which is weird to me because it is what I live… Healthy.  But seeing my body change hasn’t been the easiest, yet feeling my little guy (yep! we are having a boy, Evan) doing flips reminds me that this is OK for now, and that someday I will be in full control of my body again but for now, I have a guest and he needs to be taken care of.  So I take it day by day.  I’m now into my 24th week of pregnancy and it has been a ride.  Please continue to read… I promise there will be light hearted moments. 🙂

Here are some pictures!

Pre-pregnancy:

Pre-Pregnancy

15 Weeks

22 Weeks