Happy birthday to Fudge's Maternal Grandmother!
In other exciting news, our pre-natal education started this week! My dad was kind enough to give us our first lesson: "Don't drop the baby." The midwives at Annerley then chimed in with their expertise with the first of 4 Monday night classes where they are going to teach us about all things pre-baby and immediately post-baby. If I'm honest, we weren't too sure we were going to go ahead with the classes but after having had the one class, I'm glad we are! Not only is it incredibly valuable to learn from an experienced midwife but it's also a great opportunity for us to sit down together and learn new things!
I followed up Monday's class with a birth breathing class on Wednesday morning. Unfortunately due to COVID the class had to be held via Zoom but it was still definitely worth it. If anyone is even remotely interested in hypnobirthing/birth breathing techniques, I highly recommend Lindsay Parfitt from Calm HK. She's fantastic! I'm definitely going to spend the next 11 weeks practising my breathing to fully prepare myself to breathe this kid out of me. I will be the master of my own body.
Edumacation aside, my activity levels this week were much better than last week. After a dismal average step count last week (I dare not actually calculate it but I want to say it's in the 8-10k range) I prioritised my steps and the average is definitely back up beyond the 12k mark. I also did manage to add a few studio sessions too!
Training
Monday
As with the past two weeks, I did the 3 hour offsite in Clearwater Bay and then made a mad dash back to Central for our weekly 2 hour studio clean up. This week, due to the birth class I actually had 3 hours to kill between the end of the meeting and the start of the class though, so I walked for 2 hours and did mobility for 30min.
Tuesday
Started off the day with a 90min podcast walk around the track in Happy Valley ahead of my morning of outdoor, masked sessions. I was going to go home and train on my balcony in the afternoon as it was a fairly cool day, but instead I ended up taking a 90min nap.
Wednesday
Started off the day with 3 back to back Zoom sessions. The Supreme Leader and I needed to have a meeting later on in the afternoon so we did what we do best and opted for a walking meeting. We walked for 45 minutes and I continued on for another half our or so, just to get the step count back up as unfortunately today was admin day so after getting back home I spent the afternoon on the computer.
Thursday
Started off with another 90min stroll before my morning clients. I was going to walk home from Happy Valley but by the time I was done with clients I was starving, very sweaty, and very hot - so I opted to go home and do a resistance band session on the balcony instead.
3 sets each:
A1. 10 Lateral Raises
A2. 10 Shoulder Presses
A3. 12 Bicep Curls
A4. 12 Banded No Moneys
B1. 12 Band Pull Aparts
B2. 12 Seated Rows
B3. 10 Tricep Extensions
B4. 8 Frontal Raise Pulses
Friday
Started off the day with a quick session (weights and mobility) in the studio before training clients. I decided to do a bit of balance training because my centre of gravity is slowly shifting and I want to make sure I don't become a fall risk!
3 sets:
A1. 12 Tip Toe Squats
A2. 12 Frontal Raises
B1. 12 Tip Toe Split Squats
B2. Banded Lat Pulldown
C1. Tip Toe Lateral Walks
C2. Bent Over Y Raises
30min hip mobility
Saturday
Set off at 9am for a "anything but the Peak" hike. So we spent 2.5-3 hours exploring the area around Pokfulam Reservoir/Lung Fu Shan Country Park/Pinewood Battery with great success! Then....we ended up at the Peak. After almost 4 hours of hiking I decided it was time to call it - my pelvis was getting a bit tight. We hopped over to TST in the afternoon to indulge in a pre-birthday socially distanced high tea at the Peninsula with my parents.
Sunday
Before heading over to my parents' to celebrate my mum's actual birthday, I made my way into the studio to train. Feeling like I've already done a fair bit of upper body this week, I switched to a more lower body focus.
3 sets:
A1. 12 Crossover Step Ups
A2. 30s Kettlebell Swings
B1. 10 Offset Goblet Squats
B2. 30s Single Arm Kettlebell Swings
C1. 10 Kettlebell Bottoms Up Presses
C2. 10 Kettlebell Halos
45min stretch and mobility
Life in General
Not too much to report on this front actually! It was more of the same and life is continuing. I'm just taking each day as it comes. My mentality from a few weeks ago has definitely shifted now that I'm into my third trimester. I don't set weekly goals, sometimes I don't even set daily goals. There are days where my energy levels are noticeably lower and on those days I just relax. A week or so ago, during a period of low energy, I attempted to go for a walk in the hopes that it would (as it usually does) give me a boost of energy, instead it did the exact opposite. Now if I'm tired or not feeling very motivated to do much, I pick up a book, turn the aircon on, and read. Or, now that I have a VPN, I watch a few episodes of The Office (US).
Last week I mentioned I was definitely uncomfortable for a few days, that's just because Fudge did a bit of a growing. This week I was a lot more comfortable and I found I could be a lot more active which was wonderful. As much as I am all for her growing and gaining her kgs, I also like being able to do things - even if it is just walking! Even in her not-so-obviously-growing weeks she's still a little ball of energy. Jack, adorably, still giggles when she kicks but that's probably because his experience of feeling kicks is rather different to mine. Luckily she has stopped punching me in the ribs (for now). Don't get too excited for me though, instead of the rib shots I'm getting a few jabs into the diaphragm which makes breathing a little interesting sometimes.
Other than that, I felt a bit sore in the pelvis towards the end of the day on Saturday - 4 hours of hiking was probably not the best idea in hindsight, but exploring is such good fun! I definitely continue to feel like I'm slowly ballooning around my stomach which I suppose is a good thing, I didn't feel as distended or bloated this week though.
The only other change I've noticed is that I have to eat 4 smaller meals more frequently as opposed to 3 meals a day. To be honest, as inconvenient as it is, it's way more fun as I can have a much greater variety of food in my day. The reason for the smaller meals is it feels as though due to the increasing size of Fudge there's less space in my actual stomach for food. This means if I eat a normal size meal, it feels like it takes my body a lot longer to get it into my stomach which can be a bit uncomfortable. I've never had heartburn and when I looked up what it feels like I still don't think that's what I experienced (it doesn't sound fun...). It just genuinely feels like I don't have the space for the food plus Fudge. So, smaller meals it is!
Apart from that, it's a pretty boring week. I'll take a boring week for now though, there's certainly a lot of excitement around the corner...
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