Project Fit Pregnancy: Week 20

20 weeks, yay! In honor of the halfway mark, I decided it was time to start showing current pictures of my ginormous self.

Oh yes, it’s the classic, and oh so classy, bathroom mirror pic. Lovely. But hey, at least there’s no toilet in the background!

I feel huge, and I look huge I think for only being 20 weeks. I’ve also gained some weight – 7-ish pounds I think. From the beginning I’ve told myself that I was going to gain weight, probably even more than last time, and that it’s alright – that’s what’s supposed to happen.

Weight gain is necessary. Your body depends on having adequate fat in order for proper hormonal function. Not mention that it draws on the fat reserves to support nursing babies.

Still, it’s hard, so hard, to see the number on the scale creeping upward. It’s been so ingrained into us women – and men too – that we’re supposed to weigh 110 pounds even if we’re too tall to sustain such a weight. I find myself resenting that pressure, and I’m so thankful to have a reasonable husband who doesn’t believe that nonsense.

If it wasn’t for needing to track weight gain for the midwife, I believe I would throw out the scale as so many of my weight-lifting cyber friends have done. Because in the end, it’s just a number. The scale can’t tell you how you carry your weight, whether you have an unhealthy amount of fat, or how in or out of shape you are.

Anyway…. Enough of that, right?

Last week Gabriel, Garrett, and I took a trip to Texas to visit some family and friends. It was so nice to see everyone, but let me tell you, a combined 29 hours of sitting in a truck is no trip to the park. I think I’m still sore.

I mentioned last week that I was going to take a week off from lifting and guess what, I stuck to it. Of course, we didn’t have access to weights in Texas, so that helped. I did do some walking though, and deadlifted a couple boxes of books.

We had our second midwife visit last night, and things are looking good, by which I mean normal. She had a hard time getting a clear reading on the heart beat because the baby was kicking around so much, but other than that, everything went well. We even managed to get the blood drawn this time.

Sadly, we’ve decided not to get an ultrasound and/or find out the gender of our baby. Since things look normal, there’s really no reason to get one, and to be honest, it’s not really in our budget. Or maybe I should say, we feel that the money could be more wisely used. It was a hard decision for me, because I really, really want to find out the gender, but the same thing happened with Garrett, so I was prepared for it to not happen again.

I started reading Active Birth again yesterday. My midwife lent it to me with my last pregnancy, and this time I have my own copy. It has instructions for a lot of stretches and exercises during pregnancy that I hope to employ. Who knows, maybe they’ll help minimize the back pain. Or make labor easier. That would be nice.

This week, I’m starting a new weight lifting program. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Linked with My Joy FIlled LIfe pregnancy Link-up.