5 months

Okay, here it is: the pregnant belly around 5 months, clothed in a top from Japanese Weekend that's already a little snug (I've only had it for about five weeks or so, but fortunately, it's also a nursing top so I think it'll get plenty of use postnatal). The pants are from Gap Maternity...one of their "demi-panel" styles, which, as my belly expands, I'm finding less comfortable. The denim part goes up to about a couple inches below my belly button (whereas my pooch seems to start an inch or two lower) and the 3 or 4-inch elastic band doesn't have as much give as I'd like. I think it's time to upgrade to a roll or full-panel style that won't divide my pregnant belly in half. It makes me feel less like the Pillsbury Dough Boy, but a little more like the Michelin Man.


On the topic of maternity clothes, the two pairs of pants I've bought so far - both from Gap Maternity - including the previously mentioned demi-panel style and a "hidden panel" variety of cords - are both a little uncomfortable now. Again, though, I think they'll get some more use after delivery. Fortunately, I borrowed a couple of pairs of pants from a friend that she bought while pregnant at Old Navy. The panels on those are only a couple of inches, but they sit much lower on the belly so that when I sit down I don't feel like I'm compressing my uterus as much. Those, sadly, are getting a little snug in the hip and thigh area. I don't understand why everything expands. Not that I've been as consistent about eating right, but still. Indeed, ironically perhaps, I've been obsessed with two related things lately - food and how my clothes fit. I've never been into velour, but I could just live in one of those Juicy Couture pantsuits right about now.

As far as tops go, fortunately, the other two I ordered from Japanese Weekend (thanks to a gift certificate from the same friend who loaned me the Old Navy pants) are much roomier and the four or five tops I bought at Gap are pretty generous and stretchy. I also have a couple of more blouse-style tops from Motherhood/Mimi Maternity, which will be great once the weather finally warms up in New England. I thought I'd hit Old Navy to try and fill the pants void. Or maybe iMaternity. They have that "Secret Fit Belly" that looks so comfy. I didn't think I'd be into the over-the-belly approach, but as mine expands, that particular style is looking awfully tempting.

Perhaps addressing the cause-and-effect relationship between my two obsessions lately (well, you know, other than the fact that I'm growing a human being in here) is the ongoing quest to find the perfect pregnancy workout. I received and tried out the Gabrielle Reece workout late last week. It's not bad. The entire program is designed for the first two trimesters, divided into six 15-minute workouts, one for each of the first six months, meaning it's essentially a pretty short workout that includes some iffy moves (for me, at least), plus a warm-up and cool-down. Some of the upper body moves I really like. But the workout requires a couple of sets of weights (I used 3 and 5 pound sets), a resistance band, an exercise ball, a chair (and one much wider than the chairs I own), and preferably a personal trainer/partner. Some of the moves that used the resistance band I could do with weights, but even if my exercise ball was inflated at the moment, I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable doing exercises that involve modified crunches and balancing skills that I'm temporarily lacking. So I'll try to squeeze it in a few times over the next month, but it seems my staples will continue to be walking and yoga.

halfway

...and then some! I meant to write when my baby ticker noted 20 weeks so far AND 20 weeks to go, but the past couple of weeks have been busy. And there's that whole EDD discrepancy so maybe I was at the halfway mark one week and five days ago, or maybe just five days ago. Either way, I think it's safe to say the glass is at least half full.

The main development in baby land over the last couple of weeks has been movement. I've been feeling flutters and flicks that might have been the baby moving since right around the week between Christmas and New Year's. That was pretty early, but the movements I was feeling did seem to get more frequent and stronger over the next couple of weeks. Still, by our check-up on the 11th, at 18 weeks 1 day, when asked if I'd noticed any fetal activity, I couldn't answer with any real confidence that what I was feeling wasn't gas! But on the evening of January 17th, I felt, with confidence, internally and against my hand, which was resting on my belly, what I'm putting in my pregnancy journal as the baby's first real discernible kick. The next week or so was pretty sporadic but he's been pretty active since about the middle of last week and seems to have a pattern down. I feel him moving around almost every night when I first go to bed and just about every morning when I first wake up, before I get out of bed, and then after almost every meal if I'm sitting down. If I'm up and moving around it's pretty rare that I feel anything. One of his most active periods occured this past weekend, possibly because I'd had a few sips of his father's diet Pepsi earlier in the day. I felt guilty for consuming caffeine and possibly keeping him up all evening, but it was pretty cool to feel what had to be somersaults performed in my belly.

Otherwise, I finally had to put my step exercise equipment away as The Firm workouts I'd been doing pre-pregnancy and continued to do for the first four or so months had become a little too intense, even in their modified versions. My main outlet now is walking and Gaiam's pre-natal yoga DVD, which I love. Some of the reviews on Amazon complain about how instructor Shiva Rea doesn't pronounce the 'h' in 'exhale' and how annoying that is, but compared to the other pre-natal workouts I've sampled, that's the least of my gripes. One of the first workouts I tried was Leisa Hart's FitMama. Now that I have a few other workouts to compare it to, I think it's pretty good (especially as my waistline expands I welcome the easier workouts), but at the time I couldn't believe how incredibly boring it was. There are essentially two main sections (plus some labor and delivery prep and stretching at the end) - salsa and yoga fat burn - and in each section you learn four or five moves and repeat them over and over again. If I can get through to the end, I do feel like I've gotten a decent workout, all things considered, but it's so monotonous that I can rarely bring myself to even get started. I was tempted to try the Perfect Pregnancy Workout, since it seemed like the favorable reviews were from women who specifically cited boredom with some other workouts. I wasn't exactly in the best shape of my life pre-pregnancy but I could run a few miles without stopping. The fitness level of the reviewer pre-pregnancy is vital to accurately gauging their review of a particular workout. Anyway, when a product is well rated I of course immediately jump to the few one and two-star reviews and was sufficiently freaked out by this one. Granted, this woman may have miscarried for other reasons, the fact that she did so after doing this workout two days in a row possibly being coincidence. But the workout is led by a Cirque de Soleil performer and some of the examples of positions she leads you through I'm not sure I'd be able to get into and out of if I was perfectly svelte, let alone now.


I finally found something that falls somewhere between boring and questionable in Erin O'Brien's Prenatal Fitness Fix. The sound quality on the DVD's not great, and the music she sets the workout to is essentially modified nursery rhymes. Conceptually I can dig that but nursery rhymes don't exactly provide the best tempo for counting reps. At any rate, I enjoy the workout, which is based on pilates, sports conditioning, and body sculpting moves that don't require any weights. Some of the pilates moves I skip over, partly because they feel a little too intense, but mostly because even with a carpet and folded blanket underneath, laying on my side like that kills by hip bone! Anyway, I'm anxiously awaiting Gabrielle Reece's new release from my Netflix queue. It's designed for the first two trimesters, so by the time I get it, I'll only have about another month to try it out! By the time I find the perfect pregnancy workout, it'll be time to move on to the postnatal category!

On that note (i.e. this pregnancy flying by!), it's already almost time for an updated belly pic. I'll be back this weekend with the 5 month update.