The Diary of a Pregnant Crossfitter: Part Eleven - Feeling Awesome!

I think I'm in the homestretch... That's really weird to say.  I'm in my last month of pregnancy... that's weird to say too.  36 weeks?  Due next month?  What??  At this point in my pregnancy with Harlee I was DONE.  I was so done, so ready to get this over with, get this kid out of me... hot, tired, huge, achy, exhausted, crabby, wiped out, etc.  I was skipping out on things too - I remember some family was in from out of town that year about this time and they went on a tour at the Anheuser-Busch Brewery and I opted to stay home, I was so exhausted and swollen there was no way I would have been able to walk that whole thing.  Now?  Sign me up!  I could totally do it.  I'm sad I didn't have the knowledge then that I do now, and I missed out on so much...  But, it's all a learning experience.  That's what all of life is, really.

So here I am, 36 weeks, and I feel pretty awesome.  I'm still working out.  I'm still helping Justin with projects around the house.  I'm still going out and doing things and participating in life.  I still feel like I'm in my second trimester.  It's funny because I know I've got this bump hanging off of me that definitely looks like a 3rd trimester bump, but the rest of me feels like, well, normal.  And people automatically assume that when you're this far in pregnancy, you're miserable and over it.  So they make comments at me like, "I bet you're ready to be done with this, aren't you!" and "I bet you're tired and miserable, huh?"  And I'm like, "No, I feel fine, he can stay in there til August if he feels like it, we're good..."

Foreign concept, I know.

I just hope that this blog series has inspired at least SOME women to stick with a good workout routine and good self-care practices throughout their pregnancies so they can feel just as strong and healthy and capable.

So anyway, let's recap the last few days.  Yesterday morning I decided to see how I was doing strength-wise and started loading the bar for back squats.  Not trying to break records or anything, just wanted to see how far I could go before it started feeling a little strenuous.  I left off with a 175lb back squat record and haven't really touched it since then.  During WODs I usually stay around 65lbs.  I got up to 150lbs, which I was happy with because that's more than I weighed before I got pregnant!  I didn't bother going any further because that felt heavy enough.  I can't wait to get back to breaking PRs though!

Then we went to my aunt's place to shoot targets and clay birds, and I realized another benefit to staying active during this pregnancy - it was pretty stinkin hot yesterday and it didn't affect me like I remember the heat got me during my pregnancy with Harlee.  I've been outside working out and helping Justin so much that I guess my body just got acclimatized to the heat.  That and we've had such a hideous winter that I'm SO GLAD to finally have SUMMER.  But that's just me (I hate winter).

I look like I have bad form in that last picture... don't mind that.  I had fun, though!  I'm definitely not good at shooting moving targets but it was addicting nonetheless, and I have a nice bruise on my shoulder to prove it...

Okay so then today was just awesome.  Today was one of those days that I was able to say, yeah, working out throughout the whole pregnancy was TOTALLY worth it.  Justin loaded up some straw from our neighbor's farm and drove it back to our house (gonna use it for planting grass in the fall).  192 bales to be exact.

He probably did the most back-breaking part of the job - loading them all up on the trailer.  But then he got home and had me and Harlee come out and look at the load, and I figured that was it - all he wanted me to do was applaud him for his hard work.  But no, he set the elevator up from the trailer to the loft and said, "Alright, I need you to load them on the elevator and I'll put them away up there."  Whoa, I got to do some manual labor!  There was a point in time he seemed a bit hesitant to make me do too much work while pregnant.  I guess I've finally proven I'm capable of being useful regardless of my current physical "condition"!  So I started grabbing bales and setting them on the elevator, one after the other...

Later that morning my friend Rachael was going to come out to join me for a WOD on the patio, so I texted her to tell her about the pre-workout I was getting and that she needed to join me.  So she did!

And we had a lot of fun with it!

 And got all 192 straw bales up in that hay loft!

Woo hoo!  So we were already hot and sweaty and nasty, but not about to let that stop us from doing the WOD we originally planned to do, so down to the patio we went!

I gave myself a pretty gross blister... so I was sure to tape up before picking up the bar.  Gotta love my cool Cars bandaids!

 The WOD was 21, 18, 15, 12, 9, 6, 3 each of burpees...

And 45lb thrusters...

Gotta love our facial expressions... haha :)

We were pretty wiped out!  Elliot looks like he turned into a basketball...

We were pretty proud of ourselves though, finishing in just a bit over 15 minutes!  Having a workout buddy made it way more fun!

She kept saying how awesome it is that I'm 8 months pregnant and busting out a WOD like that, but I hope she knows how awesome she is - she has made an AMAZING transformation in a short time - she started Crossfit last summer and in a matter of months achieved some absolutely killer results.  I am super proud of her hard work and dedication, and seeing how far she has come is truly inspirational! High fives to Rachael!

Ah what a day.  I should probably wrap this up because Justin's outside with the trench digger so he can bury the drain tile and finally get rain water to channel out to the lake and not pooling and gushing around our foundation.  He'll need somebody handy with a shovel to backfill the dirt! :)

But before I go, here's a recap of the WODs I've done since I last wrote:

5 Rounds
5 Hang Power Snatch (45lbs)
10 push ups
20 air squats

3 Rounds
10 Hang clean & jerks (55lbs)
20 step ups
10 overhead walking lunges with a 25lb weight

21-15-9
Back squats (75lbs)
Push ups
Step ups
Overhead walking lunges with a 25lb weight

Like I've said before, I've been trying to include a lot of moves that involve hip and pelvis mobility since I'm nearing the end of this journey.  Gotta keep those hips limber and help keep that baby moving down!  Squats are a pregnant woman's best friend, and lunges are great too.  Definitely not going to be skimping on those these last few weeks!


Catch Up:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six 
Part Seven 
Part Eight 
Part Nine 
Part Ten