Gorgeous, the Baby is 17 weeks now (4 months) 🙂
How do I Feel
I feel great, I can’t even believe the huge difference there is with the first trimester, when I only thought ‘This day will pass, too’. I have a lot of energy and strength. I’m in a good mood and with a positive attitude to everything that is coming. Most of the time I forget that I’m pregnant, because I’m quite busy with a store I’m opening with Boby; I also work with my clients and filming a workout program for pregnant women – both in English and Bulgarian. At night I feel tired and desire to spend some time lying down. I still lie down in my favorite position and the couch is the most attractive furniture for me at night. I love to lie down, cover myself with a blanket and feel cosy with a book.
What’s New
I’ve been trying to connect with the Baby and feel it. While I lie down, I focus my consciousness to it and wait to feel a signal. I haven’t felt anything yet, but for the past 2 days I’ve had this bubbling feeling in my tummy, bubbles that go from the pubic bone up to my navel. Are those the baby’s movements? Or I have gases 😀 (rather strange ones, I haven’t had such and they stay there, they don’t go out 😀 )?
How Big Is the Baby
It’s like a big pear, around 13 cm from the head to bottom and around 150 grams. So tiny 🙂 Why do I have such a big belly like 10 pears then 😀 ?
Symptoms
When I’m sitting down, it’s better when I stand up if I’m slightly bent forward and finding my way up slowly, because I feel a stretch on the right side of my belly and when I stand up slowly, I don’t feel such a thing. This can be influenced by the formation in my uterus, that I have. Or it can be something completely different. I found out that if I’ve been sitting for a long time, I have to give myself some seconds for a slower stretch and then I’m all good. Excluding this, I don’t have any other symptoms.
*Doc saw some formation in my uterus that was transversal, it’s like a second navel. I just think the baby has its own horizontal bar 🙂 Doc said that the reasons for such formation are unclear. He wasn’t worried and neither am I, he said that there are no blood vessels in it, which sounded right as it’s supposed to be. I’m not scared of anything, whatever it may be. Formation, OK formation
Food I Can’t Stand
There isn’t anything that disgusts me as it was in the first trimester. I’m not attracted to candy and sweets. I still prefer fruits over cake.
I still can’t stand strong spices. I prefer to cook with salt only.
It happens often when we eat out; I’d later feel some aromas going up to my throat from the stomach. It’s not a pleasant feeling, but it’s nothing dramatic like in the first trimester.
Food I Love
There isn’t anything I specifically want to eat. I have good appetite and in this week I can stand being hungry (not that I stay hungry) and I eat like a normal person. Wait for the other normal people to sit on the table (and not to say that I’m hungry and I HAVE to eat NOW, because otherwise I will collapse, shake, sweat and feel like I’m sick).
I have my previous strong bond with the food, BUT there is a new problem 🙂 I came back to my previous 2-3 meals and surprise! – there is no more room for them. When I eat a big meal and I feel squeezed for room. The food stays up, slightly below the solar plexus and it’s visibly bloated. It needs time to get down. I think that 4-5-6 smaller meals will be more comfortable for me having in mind I don’t have room in my belly 🙂 It’s not a big deal at this moment, but I’m preparing myself for the moment when I won’t have any feasts, but I will be snacking all day long.
Workouts
The workouts are great! After no training from 6th to 11th week, I started easy workouts in my 12th week and I got my strength back. I feel in good shape now and this week I filmed 2 workouts for the first trimester of my pregnancy program. I also tried 2 new workouts that I will film next week + I made one more with base exercises (squats, lunges, push-ups and pulls). That is my workout with no fantasy when I’m in a hurry but it’s quite effective. Working on a workout means that I make it up, write down the exercises, and do it. I review how long does it take, observe how I feel and if I have to change anything in it before I film it. Workouts don’t really need adjusting on the level of hardness. But my experience with people learnt me that people search for a certain feeling of satisfaction that is achieved if a certain muscle group stings, is shaking and it’s on the edge of its abilities. But it’s not okay for the whole body to feel like this because the feeling is of overtrain. So I look for that feeling at the end of my workouts as well.
Steps
I track my steps with a Fitbit wristband which sends me an email every week with a report of how many steps I’ve taken, how many stairs I’ve climbed, how many calories I’ve burned and how much sleep I’ve had. I aim to have at least 15 000 steps a day. It’s EXTREMELY important for pregnant women to walk every day so they can be prepared for the labor. That is an awesome workout for the pelvic. I will also post how to walk proper. Because I learned that as well. I walked the wrong way for 40 years!
I’d say the calories I burn, according to Fitbit, are not exactly right. I noticed that without any effort I burn between 1700 and 1800 calories per day. I set a goal for myself to burn over 2000 kcal per day which I achieve with long walks. The exact number 2000 or 1800 doesn’t really matter, as long as it’s more than I burn without effort. I.e. to be more than 1800 and because 2000 is quite near, I just set that as a goal.
Side note: I don’t think that the wristband tacks the calories very accurately. But I rely on the algorithm of tracking and according to that I put more effort to be over a certain number. I don’t take it as an exact number and just for a unit of measurement that I’ve put additional effort than what I usually achieve.
Weight
I’ve gained 3 kg from the beginning (for 4 months, I’m in the beginning of the 5th) and I also don’t measure myself every day. I check my weight once a month for 4 days in a row and I see how much I’ve gained. My weight varies with 1-1.5 kg because of the many veggies and fruits I eat. This is why I have to track it for some days in a row, it usually stabilizes to a number and I just remove the days that have serious diversions.
Side note: the weight is most accurate at morning, before breakfast and after going to the bathroom. It happens often clients to measure their weight after a meal and what follows is ‘But why I’ve gained weight?” It’s because you’ve added 0.5-1kg food in your stomach and the scale gets that. If you don’t want to measure how much food you’ve eaten, measure your weight before eating.
Sleeping
I sleep quite well, even though I have 3-6 bathroom visits at night. I have a trick: I go to the bathroom with my eyes closed. If I need to see something, I slightly open them, just enough so I don’t bump in anything. I don’t think of anything and I go back to bed very quickly. If my thoughts start to wander, I will wake up. This is why I have a goal to get back to bed as soon as possible.
I sleep on one side. Doc said I should sleep on my left side, because of the formation on the right, but I can’t only sleep on one side because my arms and shoulders start to feel numb. I have to change sides all the time. Sometimes I sleep on my back. Sadly, I can’t sleep on my stomach because of the breast pain, otherwise it’s okay to sleep on your belly if you’re comfortable up to 20th week.
The breasts pain is almost gone, I feel it only when I press them. But I have a habit now of sleeping on the sides and it’s best if I don’t break it as I’m near 20th week and I won’t be able to sleep on my belly either way (as I love to).
Stretch Marks
My skin easily gets stretch marks, even though I don’t have a big change in weight. I used to have some on my thighs. But they are super light and they gone unnoticeable as I was in great shape for the past years.
Now these stretch marks are here, but I’m the only one who can see them, they are very tiny. I.e. I don’t think they are new, I had them before, but because of me losing fat they were gone.
I fanatically use a combination of Shea and coconut butter on my skin after showering.
Just because I want, I use the following products as well:
Shea and Rose hip Butter. You will need several minutes to rub in in the skin. It doesn’t absorb fast. It absorbs in the clothes, but it doesn’t leave a stick of rancid oil like other oils. Some leave the smell of rancid and you have to wash it. You don’t have such a problem wit this combination.
A Mustela Cream for the moments I don’t want to rub anything oily and it also saves time, because the oils need rubbing and massaging.
Rose hip Butter has the most absorbing features of all, and it’s awesome for wrinkles. I rub it on my face and around my eyes as well. It also goes on very smoothly.
How I rub them on: my whole breasts and down to the stomach, the belly and to the pubis. Then I do the booty, under the booty, the thighs. From the waist down I do the whole legs. I’ve seen women with stretch marks on all places you can imagine so I rub everything from the collar bone to the toes in the front and from the waist to heels in the back.
I mostly like the combination Shea and coconut (the first one in the picture), have in mind that’s a personal choice. Everyone needs to try what they like best. In the beginning, when my belly really itched, this combination helped a lot and I felt the itching least. It’s also suitable for non-pregnant ladies 🙂 .
The rose hip butter is always my favorite choice even before the pregnancy, more like you can put it on your face. I wait 10 minutes and if it didn’t absorb, I gently tap with a towel to get the excess. It’s awesome for wrinkles, but you need to use it regularly! Not just once in a while 🙂
What Is The Baby Doing
I have no idea 🙂 . On the first echography it was like a kitchen robot. It was throwing arms, legs around, doing side-splits; I was speechless of movements going on in my belly. This child is restless 🙂 On the second and third echography it was sleeping. Didn’t move at all, you could only see his heart beating and floating around, but without moving its limbs. It was really boring to watch the baby sleeping 🙂 . I wanted it to move, to do something. On the first one it would touch its head, legs, nose, the navel, side-split, full circus program 🙂 .
Mood
I’m in a super mood. I have so many things to do that I don’t have the time to think about being pregnant and to dramatize over nothing. I don’t have fears or expectations. My mind is open to accept what is about to happen. There is no point of worrying for things I can’t control. This is why I focus only on the things I can change – meals, exercising, my attitude towards everything that is to happen 🙂 .
Do I Miss Anything
I miss being stronger, more mobile, harder. I miss not being careful for myself. For example, every time I get off a chair, I used to get vertigo, I had that 30 times a day and I invented the stable pose that we practice every time in the workouts when we get off the ground. The vertigo disappeared. But there is that something in the belly that stretches, which doesn’t allow me to get up quickly, because I feel this stretching. I have to fold myself out from sitting to standing position slowly. If I am in a hurry – I run off bend (with a straight back) and in the next 10 steps I slowly fold the torso out.
Advises I Get
Almost every day I get advises I didn’t ask for, some of which are rather funny and controversial. Right now I can’t really think of something though 🙂 .
Waiting For
The next ultrasound 🙂 . This is my favorite and every time I try to negotiate with Doc to come in two weeks, but he says that there is no need, to which I reply that I know, but it’s interesting for me and he insists in 4 weeks. …
Shopping
I got pregnancy jeans from H&M. They are super comfortable. They go on like yoga pants and the button is only there so it looks like jeans and not yoga pants. The belt covers the belly well, which bothered me because I was worried that I will get itchy, as it itched until 13-14 week and I could only wear dresses.
The first time that I put them on, I pulled them up just like jeans, but there, where the button is, I felt like it sticks in and in an hour I felt that it started to press against my belly. That’s why I pull the button down, right above the pubic bone. I think these jeans are sexy and that I will wear them a lot 🙂 .
Shared from you
I’ll be glad to read your pregnancy stories and advices in different situations.
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