Ahhh, to get back into a workout routine again.
It's nice. I'm such a workout-aholic! Prior to pregnancy, I was in the best shape of my life. You kind of have to be when you're a personal trainer. I worked out five times a week & tried to do something on the weekend, like mountain biking or hiking. Then with the pregnancy, I was way too sick for the first 4-5 months. I really didn't start doing anything again until the end of the 5th month. I got a good 2-3 weeks in before I left the gym, now I haven't done anything for the last 2 months. Maybe a few workouts, but nothing worth bragging about. But now the holidays are over, the family has left (until Logan is born) & I have a nice schedule where I can get in about 3 times a week. Funny that it's come together at the end when I only have about 5 more weeks left in the pregnancy, then I'm out of commission again for at least 6 weeks. I'm glad we've made an agreement that once I'm ready to go at it again, my workout time is also father & son time for a couple of hours. We got an awesome Kelty baby backpack from Bill's sister for christmas, so this summer will be full of weekend family hiking too.

Even though the gym is like a second home for me, it feels strange when I'm pregnant. I feel like I'm on display, like no one has ever seen a pregnant woman workout before. I'm not even making a spectical of myself either, wearing halter tops & exposing my belly for everyone to see, like I used to pre-baby (I've actually become quite prudish in my opinion). A few weeks ago an older guy came up to me as I was in the middle of a chest press set to comment on how impressed he always is to see pregnant women work out. "My wife was still running 2 weeks before our son was born", he proclaimed. I find running while pregnant hillarious & couldn't even imagine doing it unless it was for my life. "That's cool. I am dissapointed that I don't see other expectant ladies in here", I said as I was remembering all of the soon-to-be moms at the gym I worked at.

I'm really counting on the workouts helping with labor. I'm actually imagining the whole event like a very intense workout or mountain biking trip. Like the ones where your whole body aches & you just want to give up, but you can't. You've gone too far up the mountain & if you don't push it, you're going to be stuck there on the trail. There's no giving up. But once you make up your mind, you breath into it, focus & get an increadible adrenaline rush. I guess that's the trainer inside me. I've actually told Bill that as my labor coach, he's really my "labor trainer". Instead of counting reps, he'll be counting for contractions, making sure I breath & cheering me on. It kind of makes everything a little less intimidating once I put it into that perspective. Actually, I'm looking forward to it!