Survival Mode

So...I'm thoroughly convinced that the whole reason that you need to wait to be medically cleared before starting back exercising after a baby has nothing to do with your physical healing process and everything to do with lack of sleep!
If I'm being completely honest, I'm in survival mode right now.  I thought I'd be ready to get right back to healthy eating and exercise, but this lack of sleep thing is throwing a big wrench in my plans, and it's all I can do to throw something from the freezer into the microwave for a quick and easy dinner....forget meal planning right now! Every time I say "tomorrow I'll get back at it", I have a rough night with the baby and barely get any sleep, so I give myself another day of promises to start back tomorrow.  
The truth is, I think I'm being a little hard on myself - I have a newborn at home, and I've never done this parenting thing before.  Throw in the fact that C isn't a good eater, and we've been struggling with breastfeeding (another story for another day), and, well, frankly...I'm exhausted! I have my postpartum check-up in a few weeks, so I won't be cleared for exercise until then, but until I start getting a little more sleep I don't think I'll be doing much meal planning either.  Survival mode.  It's not the end of the world, it's a few weeks, and I know how to get back to things when it's time, so for now...well for now I'm going to take a nap :)

C's birth story

Ok this one may be a little long, but I think it's worth documenting....my story of how Clara Lena came into this world :)
The day after New Year's this year was a Friday...and since I had been saving all my time for maternity leave, I opted to work that day, even though the rest of my office (literally) had the day off.  I worked from home, and head out around 4pm to go to my 37 week checkup at my OB's office.  They did the usual when I first got there..urine, weight, blood pressure..but this time the blood pressure reading was a bit off.  She took it again to be sure, and confirmed that my blood pressure was running high (in the 140s over high 80s).  She said it wasn't scary high but it was very high for me since my BP my entire pregnancy had been running on the low side.  She asked that we finish the appointment and then take my BP again at the end.
So...I had my exam, I was actually 1cm dialated but not effaced at all; the doctor started explaining that if my blood pressure readings came back high again she might send me to the hospital to run some more tests as a precaution.  She said if it were a Monday night she might just have me go home with a 24 hour urine collection but since it was the weekend she didn't want to let it wait.  This of course made me a little nervous, and by the end of my appointment when they re-took my BP it was up in the 150s over 90s...yikes.  They told me to head straight to the hospital for testing, as they suspected I might have Pre-Eclampsia.  
I called my husband balling...I was so scared, my BP had never been that high and I wasn't sure what would happen. He got out of work right away to meet me at home, and drove me to the hospital so I didn't have to go alone...I grabbed my hospital bag to leave in the car "just in case" but fully expected that I wouldn't really need it that night.
So...we get to the hospital, and they set me up in triage.  More urine samples, bloodwork, and a few blood pressure readings.  We had only been there 20 minutes and the 3 readings they took kept getting higher...the last one they took was 179 over something, ridiculously scary high, and I knew right then I wasn't going home that night.  They waited for my bloodwork to come back to confirm, but I did in fact have Pre-Eclampsia, which apparently is pretty common in first time pregnancies and is totally out of your control, you just get it or you don't based on the way your placenta grows.   Since I was 37 weeks, I was considered full term, so the doctors told me they were going to induce, it was the safest option for me and baby.
The induction started at 10pm on Friday night, along with an IV of magnesium to keep my blood pressure regulated.  The mag left me feeling totally groggy and yucky - I was not allowed to get out of bed since the medicine makes it difficult to walk, and I had doctors checking my reflexes every half hour to make sure the mag was doing it's job (but not too well).  They gave me an ambien to help me sleep, but the mag made me nauseous and I promptly threw the medicine up :( Cue night one of no sleep.
By about 5am on Saturday morning, they decided to start Pitocin to bring on the contractions stronger.  I was dilated only about 2-3 centimeters at this point, and although I had started to efface, the baby wasn't actually in the birth canal, she was floating still...the contractions would likely move her into a better position.
After progressing very slowly all day and getting more powerful contractions, they decided to break my water at about 6pm.  I knew that was it...there was no turning back, so if she didn't come out on her own within 24 hours, they would have to go in and get her with a C-section.  They came and gave me an epidural right before breaking my water, which numbed my legs pretty effectively but did NOTHING to take the edge off the contractions, and they were pretty intense.  A few hours later, I cried to my husband that I didn't think I could do this anymore...they had the anesthesiologist come back and "top me off" to take  a little edge off the pain, but they wanted me to feel the contractions so I knew when it was time to push.  I couldn't sleep at all. and I was getting concerned that a C-section might be the only option.
Aftern another night of no sleep and constant checking, the doctor came back in around 5am Sunday morning to check on me again...and announced that I was 10cm and ready to push!? I burst into tears, I didn't think I would get there with the induction and I was so ready to meet my little girl. 
They let the contractions do their job for another hour, and at about 6am the nurse asked me if I wanted to do a "practice push".  I asked her what the hell a practice push was, and she laughed and told me it's still a real push she was just going to teach me how to do it...at the start of a contraction, breathe in deeply, hold your breath and push hard for 10 seconds, then repeat...do this 3 times per contraction.  
I'll save you the gory details, but after an hour of pushing, Clara Lena entered this world at 6:58am.  I still remember when they told me to open my eyes and look down as she was coming out of me...what an amazing image to have ingrained in my head :)
They put her on my chest right away, but it became evident pretty fast that something was wrong.  They were working on my pretty intensely, and they pulled the baby off to get cleaned.  I heard them say that the placenta wasn't coming out on it's own, so they had to go in and get it....then I heard them yell for a hemorrhage cart and say that I was losing too much blood.  It's all pretty foggy for me because I was still on the magnesium (which had to stay on for 24 hours after birth) but talking to my husband afterwards it sounded pretty scary for a while there. Luckily everything turned out ok...I did have to get iron and calcium transfusions in the hospital because my hemoglobin levels dropped too low with the blood loss, but otherwise I was ok.  My blood pressure remained pretty high for about a week or so after birth, and my swelling (which is a direct side effect of Pre E) has pretty much gone away since about 10 days post partum.  It was a terrifying and amazing experience and I specifically remember saying to the doctor...it's amazing people have more than one child! As traumatic as it all was, it was worth every minute because my little girl couldn't be more perfect, and I fall more in love with her every day :)

I'm Baack!

Well, Happy 2015!! I know I've been out of touch with this blog for quite some time now, but if you follow me on IG or FB you'll already know that my little girl made her debut a little earlier than expected!

Clara Lena was born on 1/4/15 at 6:58am, weighing 6 pounds 7 ounces, 19.5 inches long. She has beautiful eyes, mommy's nose, and dark brown hair, and I couldn't possibly be more in love.  I have so much to catch you up on, so I may have to do this over multiple parts...I'll save her birth story for another day, but for now, I'll let you know that she is growing happily, getting more alert each day, and sleeps very well for a 2 week old baby.

2 weeks.  My god the time has flown by already!  So now that I am 2 weeks post partum, I'm about ready to get back into the swing of things with getting back on track with my exercise and nutrition.  I'm not quite ready to start working out again (I haven't gotten cleared by the doctors) but I can certainly start to do better with my nutrition for sure! I'm starting a FREE 5 day group next Monday to kickstart my weightloss plans again, and after that the all new 21 day fix extreme program is being released so I can't wait to get going with that as well! I'm taking new customers for my free group up through the next few days, so shoot me an email if you're interested in joining me...it's time to get those resolutions kickstarted! babebeforebaby@gmail.com

The honeymoon is over....

Good morning and hello to the few blog readers I might have after neglecting this poor corner of the internet for far too long! As I’m sure you can imagine, pregnancy has been more consuming than I ever thought…and while I’m so very grateful for being able to carry a child and the blessing of being able to get pregnant at all, I’m now 36 weeks and it’s safe to say the honeymoon is over J

I’ve had a fairly easy pregnancy – no major issues to speak of, especially compared to many of my friends whom I watched have terrible morning sickness, battles with Pre-E, back issues, etc, but I’ve been lucky enough to avoid all that thankfully.  I’m nearing the end now with less than a month to go before my due date (eek!) and as of next week I’ll be considered “full term”, which means she could come at any time after that!  In short, I’m exhausted! My hands and feet are super swollen pretty much all the time, and it’s a chore just to roll over in bed.

I’m feeling huge these days…officially at my highest weight ever, and ready to get back on the fitness bandwagon.  I guess it’s good timing that she’s coming in January since those weight loss resolutions always seem strongest this time of year, right??

So, I’m planning on starting off January with a little kick-start to my own resolution…. As tired as I am right now, I know that even just getting in some walking on the treadmill each day will help me when it comes to my delivery and post-partum recovery, so I’m starting a new accountability group 2 weeks from today, January 5^th, to kick off those resolutions….I’m going to be using the 21 day fix again to get myself back into pre-baby shape, and I’m super excited about the new 21 day fix EXTREME that’s being released at the beginning of February (again, perfect timing!) for when I’m really ready to hit it hard.  The other great news is that they’ve broken out the nutrition program by itself now, simply called the “portion fix”, so you can use it with ANY fitness program you choose, including those of you who like to go to the gym as opposed to doing home workouts.  Pretty genius right? Anyways, if you’re interested in joining me, shoot me an email at babebeforebaby@gmail.com, as you’ll have to get your order in soon to get it in time with all the holidays quickly approaching!  2015 is going to bring some pretty amazing things, I can feel it!

eShakti Review and Coupon Code

Happy Black Friday! I hope everyone is recovering from their Turkey Comas today, and if you're looking to do some online shopping instead of braving the storm, I've got a good post for you today. Note that I was given free merchandise in exchange for my blog review, but the opinions below are entirely my own and in no way affected by the nature of this relationship. Have you heard of eShakti? They're an online retailer that specializes in custom orders (website here: http://eshakti.com/Products/FALL)  They contacted me last month to see if I'd be interested in doing a review for my blog, and while I was excited to do so, I was nervous because they didn't carry any maternity clothes and here I am 8 months pregnant.   No maternity clothes? No problem they said! Just send us your custom measurements and we'll customize any dress so that it fits your pregnant belly :) I was really excited about this, since I was having a hard time finding a dress for my baby shower, I figured this was the perfect opportunity. I chose this dress to customize, because I loved the color and I LOVED the ruffle detail at the top.

Now, this is the important part..send them your REAL measurements! Not the ones you wish you were, or the ones you think you might be when the dress arrives...I was super nervous about how much my chest and belly would grow over the course of a month and a half, so I basically added "a few" inches to all of my measurements just in case...the result was a dress that was pretty big on me all around.  I was in love with the dress otherwise though, so I just pinned and tied it the best I could...I'm actually hoping to be able to have it altered after the baby comes so I can wear it again, I love it that much, and I got TONS of compliments on it at my shower!

Overall, the company was great to work with, they have so many beautiful dresses to choose from, and it's no big deal to get custom measurements, or change the length of the hem, or add sleeves, etc, so I really think I"ll use them again in the future.   If you join their email list, you get a $30 credit right off the bat, and they've also thrown in a coupon code for all of my readers to use for an additional 10% off! Just type in the code "babebeforebaby" at checkout :) Talk about a good Black Friday deal!!

Please note:

Code has to be entered in the ‘promotional code’ box.   It is not case-sensitive.  

Code can be used any number of times until the validity period. 

It can be clubbed with any other promotional offer, gift coupon or gift card in the same order unless explicitly specified otherwise in the offer conditions.

This discount code is not applicable on clearance / sale, gift cards & overstock categories.

Not applicable on previous purchases.


And while you're at it, check out the eShakti pages on FB, Pinterest & Instagram  where they post specials and sales! Happy Holiday shopping!

Showered with Love

This past Sunday, my sisters threw me a beautiful baby shower! It was perfect in every way, and I'm so grateful to them and all the hard work they put in.  We got more stuff for our baby girl than we know what to do with...thankfully we have a few more weeks to sort through it all before she makes her debut, but she's already spoiled :)  My sisters (and my nieces) were amazing and made the room beautiful; they even decorated the present table with a whole clothesline of new clothes for our little girl!

My best friend and her mom also helped by putting together some beautiful diaper cake creations for all of the table centerpieces, they were so adorable and too pretty to take apart!! 

One of my favorite parts of the shower was this little activity my sisters came up with, to leave us notes on a diaper for those late night changings...they're seriously hilarious!

Overall it was a wonderful day; I feel so very lucky to have so many people in our lives that were willing to shower us with their love and gifts for our baby girl...now to find a place to put everything!!

Third trimester!?! You snuck up on me!

Wow! Here I am, neglecting this blog, and before I know it, I’m already 29 weeks and into my 3^rd trimester!

Things are moving along quickly…I’m actually feeling a bit panicked lately realizing that I have about 10 and a half weeks to go until my official due date, and with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s thrown in there, there’s not much time to get things done and get all my appointments made!

We’re checking things off the list slowly but surely, I've been touring daycare centers for a few weeks now, and we’re close to making a decision on that (side bar: holy expensive!).  We have an appointment to meet with a possible pediatrician in 2 weeks, we took our maternity tour of the hospital last week, and have a few birthing and breast feeding classes to get to in the next few weeks.

I’m starting to think about things like packing for the hospital, and meanwhile I don’t even have anything in the nursery ready!

We’ve decided which room to make the nursery (we have 2 extra bedrooms right now), so we did start cleaning that room out last weekend, but we’ve got some serious work to do still! I’ll be sure to post pictures when we get it further along, but there’s nothing to look at right now lol.

I’m trying my best to stay active and make healthy choices, but I’d be lying if I said I was perfect.  I’m working out a few days a week, walking as much as I can, and probably eating more poorly than I have in a few years, but I’m trying not to be too hard on myself about it.

The baby is moving around pretty regularly now, so it’s fun to watch my belly jump up and down, especially when I eat something sugary (like all that Halloween candy!).  I’m looking forward to these next few months of excitement; we've got a lot to do still but I know we’ll get there!