Welcome to Motherhood

Over a year ago I found out I was pregnant with my first child. Based on how the rest of my life has gone, I was not surprised that I happened to have almost EVERY possible symptom out there while pregnant. I was nauseated basically my entire pregnancy and only survived due to being prescribed Zofran from my OBGYN. Not only was I nauseated but I was incredibly exhausted all the time. Other than work and working out as soon as I was home I was napping on the couch.

After spending months dedicating myself to hardcore/high-intensity workouts it was hard for me to transition to lower intensity and lower impact workouts. I did LOTS of yoga while pregnant after researching the many benefits of yoga related to labor and pregnancy symptoms. It helps with balance as your body grows, it helps to relieve back and hip pain, teaches you some breathing techniques that come in handy during labor, slows you down and encourages you to connect with your growing baby, and finally it helps with your circulation. I tried out many prenatal workouts and I also dedicated myself to going on a 2-3 mile walk daily.

My daily walks were probably my favorite part of my day. It was nice getting out to enjoy the outdoors and it was peaceful. I never listened to my iPod during my walks because I wanted to take the time to listen to the world around me. Being as short as I am I had many times on my walks that strangers I passed by would ask if I was trying to walk into labor...this started as early as 5 months into my pregnancy. I appeared to be carrying low and carrying a pretty big baby. 

At 36 weeks I literally felt like I would burst any minute. I managed to last right up to 3 days before my due date when my son decided to make his appearance. My labor was pretty normal and fast with my son arriving healthy and normal. Due to how big he was, how small I am, and the fact that he was my first child I ended up hemorrhaging and having to stay in the hospital 4 days to make sure my body was healing and behaving normally. 

I think my saving grace when leaving the hospital was my Belly Bandit. I wore that thing religiously all day and night, other than when I was showering. This thing was AMAZING for my recovery. It really helped to tighten and shrink everything up and only 2 weeks postpartum I was able to fully cinch the whole thing in. With my amazing results I've been recommending it to everyone I know. For baby #2 this will definitely be in my hospital bag again.