Workout Tip: Exercise During Pregnancy

For my friends who have a bun in the oven: keep working out! Exercise can help you have a healthy pregnancy and can also make the delivery easier, shorter, and less complicated (ACE Certified News). You should first check with you doctor before beginning. But usually, if you were physically active before your pregnancy, you can do most of the same activities within reason during pregnancy. And as your belly grows, modify your routine to what is comfortable. Keep in mind that your resting heart rate is faster during pregnancy due to the blood supply going to the uterus and you want to make sure the uterus is getting plenty of blood and oxygen as well as keeping your core temperature stable, so maintain a moderate intensity. Some women prefer not to lay on their backs and if that is the case, you can do most exercises standing or on a ball. Evaluate each form of exercise and rule out any that have risk of:
1. Injury
2. Falling
3. Abdominal Trauma

Cardio that is great during pregnancy:
Walking (jogging if it is comfortable and you are used to it)
Swimming-you feel weightless in the water and it's wonderful! It is easy on the joints too.
Elliptical

Strength Exercises that are great during pregnancy:
Ball Squats (ball up against wall and back against it)
Standing Shoulder Press
Standing Bicep Curls
Crunches on Ball: small crunches are ok to do on a ball in more of a vertical position rather than horizontal. Sit on the ball and roll forward so that your bottom is closer to the floor
Pelvic Lifts on Ball: In that same position as crunches on the ball, lift pelvis up and down. Feels great!
Cat pose: Get on hands and knees. While inhaling, arch the back and exhale while flattening it out. Yoga pose- helps ease lower back pain.
Tail Wags: Sounds funny, but while on your hands and knees move your hips side to side. This eases hip and back pain.
Hamstring Stretch

Click on my link for Fit Mama to see all of my workout tips!

Happy 1st Birthday Eva!

Our Eva girl is 1! She has added so much joy, laughter and meaning to our lives. I feel so blessed to be her mom. She makes me laugh every day with the funny things she does. One of her favorite things is running around the house in her walker. Today she came out from the office and the tray on her walker was loaded with pens, pencils, and markers (and the box they were in dragging inside the walker). Ahh! With a big smile on her face and a little ink on her tongue, she came out to show me what she had found. I suppose I need to follow her around and keep a better eye on her or do a better job at child-proofing. She is an army-crawling champ, but doesn't have a lot of patience and would rather be on her feet. She has been teething- just two so far on the bottom but I think she is getting top ones. She has been a little fussy lately so they must be coming. It's sad, but sometimes amusingly funny to see her get mad. She arches her back and while crying, she rolls her tongue. Eric thinks it's just a sign she'll be an excellent spanish speaker.

I was really looking forward to having a little party for Eva this weekend. My parents and sister were planning on coming and then had to back out at the last minute (for good reasons). I was so sad, so they sent us this beautiful fruit boquet. It was so yummy. Eva took a strawberry in each hand and went to town then she had fun tasting a chocolate-dipped pineapple.

We were glad to have Eric's Dad come stay for a couple days. He came to see us and to have some dental work done. So he had birthday cake with us and got to see Eva dive into her first cupcake after he helped her blow out her candle.

Happy Birthday to my little sweetie!