calibrateBUMPS: Cait's Week 30-31

Hello again,

So this week wasn't the most comfortable week but as much as it was a bit of a pain for me, it means Fudge is growing nicely so, as always, silver lining! The weirdest sensation of the week was definitely my first experience of feeling her hiccup. I was told it would be cute. I guess it kind of was but every time she did hiccup it put pressure on my bladder and made me want to pee so it wasn't very cute for long...

In non-urinary Fudge news...She had another check up on Friday. The last time we went for an appointment we saw the OB-GYN so this time we saw our lovely midwife. Again, as with every midwife appointment, we opted for no ultrasound - I know she's in there and she's doing well so if we can avoid unnecessary exposure to a scan, we avoid it. Our midwife never ceases to amaze me, she felt around my belly to locate Fudge's back, then head, and then went in with the doppler and honed in perfectly on her heart to do a quick check. How she managed to locate her back I still have no idea - something to do with "it feels more continuous on this side". The appointment was short and sweet, we'll do another more detailed check up in 3 weeks.

In other news, after our Monday night class I started writing the birth plan! In order to avoid a "too many cooks spoil the broth" situation, the birth plan will be kept between Jack, myself, and our medical team for now. However, I will be sharing my birth experience with you all afterwards and I promise I'll be 100% honest with how far I deviated from the plan.

This week I also had 2 different physio appointments, one with a Women's Health Specialist at Thrive Health, and the other with a more traditional manual manipulation therapist - just to sort out my hip. More on these appointments in the "Life in General" section.

First, training!

Training

Monday

Found myself with a completely free morning and early afternoon so I took the opportunity to sleep in until 7am and get some life admin out of the way. I left the house at 11am to just stroll. I think the walk on Saturday (the 17km one) was a bit too long, my pelvis wasn't super impressed with me so I've decided this week to just focus on getting a multiple shorter walks in each day.

Today I went for 2 walks, each between 60-90min.

Tuesday

Today I basically did an exact repeat of yesterday. I opted for shorter walks versus one long one. I went for an 80min walk right before my first client and went for a 90min walk before my last client. In between I did some work and spent some time indoors, sheltered from the rain.

Wednesday

What a storm! Had a VERY productive morning in due to the T8 in effect. I then walked to a physio appointment and then after the physio I walked over to my parents' place. Had a quieter day today, I didn't sleep too well on either Monday night or Tuesday night and I was certainly uncomfortable late Tuesday (I think Fudge is growing) so once I hit the 10k step mark today I decided to shower and call it a day.

Thursday

Once again I had to take it easy in the morning. I left at 11am to slowly walk into Central in time to find somewhere to cool off and freshen up ahead of 2pm physio where we continued to work on my hips.

After the longer walk in the morning I found some time to pop into the studio before training a client. My upper body was feeling rather neglected but my lower back was also a bit sore following physio so I took it easy.

3 sets each

A1. 10 Y and T Pulls

A2. 12 Lateral Raises

A3. 10 Tricep Extensions

B1. 10 Lat Pulldowns

B2. 12 Banded Chest Presses

B3. 10 Bicep Curl to Shoulder Presses

Friday

Decided to take all my morning Zoom classes from the studio which meant I had 90 min in the morning to train and then 45min in the mid morning to do a long hip and spine mobility and stretching session.

3 sets:

A1. 12 Goblet Sumo Squats

A2. 10 Incline Chest Press

A3. 15 Banded Hip Adductor Pulls

B1. 10 Tempo 1.5 Split Squats

B2. 12 Standing Banded Rows

B3. 15 Swiss Ball Pelvic Tilts/Hip Circles

45min mobility

60min walk

Saturday

Today was crib assembly day! After 12 years together and countless hours spent assembling IKEA furniture, Jack and I decided we did not trust ourselves enough to assemble a crib that we would feel completely comfortable putting our child in. Partly because it's a non-Ikea crib so it wouldn't be as straight forward to assemble but mostly because it's one thing to put together furniture for us to use (if it falls apart, no real harm done) but it's a whole other issue to put our child at risk. So we paid the whopping HKD 200 to have the delivery guy do it.

Prior to waiting for the delivery man, I went out for an early morning stroll for 80min or so but I did decide to take a semi-pregnancy day today. As I'd mentioned, this was a bit of an uncomfortable week (more later) so I wanted to take today to just chill out.

Sunday

Today I continued the trend of lazy weekend. Normally today would be the day I pop into the studio to train but I woke up with very little desire to go into Central and much more of a desire to just chill. Before a day of sitting and relaxing I did want to get some steps in so Jack and I did the 80 min stroll over to my parents' place where we spent the rest of the day.

Life in General

Physio week!

My first physio appointment this week as with Kate Smith at Thrive Health. Kate used to be a Calibrate client, she's a mother of 2, and she's a Women's Health Specialist. She and I worked together to launch a pre-/post-natal care partnership between Calibrate and Thrive, and I decided to sign myself up for it! It was great! We discussed all things pelvic floor in the lead up to delivery and immediately post-delivery. We also talked about posture in the latter stages of pregnancy. She then did an internal and external exam to make sure I'm contracting properly and able to relax properly. These exams also serve as a baseline measurement which will be useful to refer back to when I see her 6-8 weeks post-natal. She walked me through a few massages to start doing from about week 35/36. If anyone is apprehensive about an internal exam, she did also give me an option for an ultrasound exam instead. If you do want to know more about the partnership and the packages available at Thrive - feel free to pop me a message!

My second physio was with a manual manipulation therapist at Posture Plus who is helping me sort out my hips which are getting increasingly tight as the weight starts to add up. It's always a great hour with Heather, I feel miles better afterwards and she gives me great homework which I'm getting much better at actually doing.

On the growing front, I've managed to add 900g to myself in the last 3-4 weeks and I feel like Fudge certainly took most of that for herself. Not only is she getting increasingly active at basically all times but she also caused quite a bit of discomfort in the middle of the week. On Tuesday evening it was tough to get comfortable and the top of my stomach was cramping but luckily I found ways to take my mind off of it (ie. I watched The Office (US)). By Thursday I noticed it was significantly more challenging to take a full breath in. This won't really get better until Fudge drops (if she drops) so until then I'll just have to learn to cope with it. One huge bonus, it DEFINITELY forces me to maintain good posture!

Grossest sensation of the week: at one point her movements felt a bit serpentine...I had to walk around the room to readjust her to make her stop.

Other than all that, I don't have too much else to say! It was a much slower week because this week was all about Fudge doing some growing. I'll catch you all next week, until then, keep smiling!