Exercise

Apparently my body is not giving me a choice about exercising this pregnancy. It's either do the damn yoga and stretches or get used to horrible muscle pain and a chest that feels like it's collapsing on the lungs. Pretty much, I can no longer breathe if I try to get up and do anything for more than a few minutes. Of course, this scares me in relation to labor - if I can't stand and do dishes for fifteen minutes without serious aching and a lack of air, how in the world am I getting through labor?

It scared me enough to take action today. I couldn't bare to actually go all the way up to the attic to grab my exercise dvd (because, you know, that would be exercising...) so I put on youtube. Turns out, they have an awesome pregnancy series on there for ten minute prenatal yoga. I turned it on, did it and...well, I barely made it through! I am not as limber as I once was, and doing anything with this giant belly is proving difficult. This is why, of course, they tell you to start these things in FIRST trimester, not on the last days of second. With that said though, it did help. It stretched out my back muscles, opened up my chest a bit, and helped with my hips and pelvis. I'm a bit sore afterwards, but honestly I want to do more. I need something for my neck and shoulders as well, as they're hurting badly.

Now that this "oh my gosh, I actually need to get this baby out of me soon" ordeal is becoming so real, I feel the need to start getting my body prepared. Even though I had a great, uncomplicated (for the most part) birth, I'd love if I could improve on it this time. Last time, I did no exercising at all, not a single day of my pregnancy, and I just went with it. I'm hoping this time, I won't need to push for three hours. I'm mentally preparing with the hypnobirth book so that I can control my pain enough to keep up strength and try to get the baby out sooner (last time I just felt like death once transition hit - which was around the time where my tailbone was breaking too, so while I pushed every time I was told, it was very hard for me to make my body work the way I wanted it to. It just felt broken and I felt like i couldn't get a handle on it.). I want to physically get those muscles working well so that I have more strength as well. I can't control how long my labor will be and how my contractions will go, but I can try to prepare for the pushing part, which is the hardest on me.

Of course, day time yoga is a challenge though. Keeping up the breathing while trying not to get frustrated at the little complaining toddler who decides that your lap is the very best place to sprawl and whine about something every few minutes is a bit rough! Me being on the floor and looking like I'm trying to do something is an instant toddler magnet! Since Katie is no longer taking daily naps so I can get her to bed earlier, which also makes her wake earlier, this means there's no real time for me to do it while she's not active and running around.

Slowly, I'm getting the nursery ready. It's had so much stuff in it since moving the attic downstairs and vise versa that now I'm just slowly picking away at it. There's Katie's toys mixed with baby toys, wrong sized clothing, leftover birthday stuff, etc. But I got all the clothing that isn't washed yet together to do another load soon so I can see what exactly I have, and I put up the Mickey Mouse curtains last night. I also took down Katie's name from the top of the closet (I put it in another part of the nursery) and put up the sign from the party announcing baby's gender and name. I also still have the balloons from the party that I put up, and the original sign from back in April to announce another baby on the way, which has been on the closet door for months. I also reorganized the dresser drawers so I can fit more clothing in - all the sheets and comforters are now under the crib where Katie's are. Three days until third trimester and I'm nearly ready!