I swim between the Crystal Pool and Commonwealth now. Crystal I have a pass from master club with, and Commonwealth I have a punch card. I think drop in is about $5.

I finally found a pregnancy lap swim suit and love it. We ended up ordering it online, from a recommendation on my post from my first pregnancy… thanks! We ordered the size they suggested for the size my regular suit was and it ended up being too large, so I ordered another one a size smaller. I still have the unused medium size thinking I may get big enough to fit into it near the end, but not sure if I will need it now. It’s a Lycra suit, so won’t last much longer than this pregnancy as the chlorine tends to eat them quickly. Not pregnant I wear a polyester suit now, which lasts and lasts and lasts… as the sales people say you will get tired of the style way before it wears out! I have to have thin straps on my polyester suits otherwise I get chapped marks on my neck and it looks like I have hickeys all the time. Putting on Vaseline on my neck prior to a swim workout also used to help. Lycra does not bother me.

Pools in Victoria….. now I am a swim snob. I like swimming laps in a pool with other people that obey swimming etiquette. Fast lane for fast swimmers, swim up the rope and down the middle, etc. Hard to find when swimming with the public. I find the cooler the pool, the more I can swim, and the less tired I feel. For example if I swim 1000m at the Commonwealth Pool in their competition pool, I swim faster and am less tired than swimming the same 1000m at the Crystal Pool.

I think the Commonwealth competition pool is the coolest pool in Victoria. Runner up is UVic’s McKinnon pool. Then perhaps the Crystal Pool, then Gordon Head…. Oak Bay Recreation Center being one of the warmest (those are the pools I frequent). None of this is scientific, it’s just how I feel when I get in and based on how I swim. I’ve never been to Juan de Fuca Recreation Center pool but have heard good things. Their kiddie pools apparently are among the warmest, so you aren’t too cold when you are with your little one not moving to keep warm and their larger pool I’ve also heard is nice to workout in.

Not being pregnant Commonwealth and UVic are my top choices for the best swim workout (out of the above). However pregnant the Crystal Pool works well as it cuts down on the Braxton Hicks when I get into the water, which seem exacerbated by the colder water.

Only issue with the Crystal is their large theft problem. I have started wearing my key to my locker on me now while I swim and take only my towel and shampoo to the pool deck. I heard of a swimmer in my club that left only her clothes in a locker, unlocked, and came back and someone had stolen her pants. Her pants!!! Who steals pants? She had to walk out in a towel. The other day a woman brought her back pack with her purse in it to the deck while she swum, which was within her sight for most of her swim. She picked up her bag and her purse was gone.

Swimming is also excellent for pregnant women. It’s not only weightless workout, it also helps get the baby into optimal fetal positioning.

Speaking of fetal positioning it seems my little one, as of my last midwife appointment a few days ago, is now head down. At this stage, I am 30 weeks along, my midwife reminds me that baby still has room to move and can move back to be head up and that is perfectly normal, but reassuring that she is head down for now.

When he was born, our midwife said “take your baby”, so I leaned down and pulled him up to my chest… someone shortly after asked if it was a boy or a girl. I peaked up the blanket and announced boy. Very shortly after I looked up at my husband and said I think he is a _<childs name>____. My husband looked and me and nodded, as if to say ‘okay whatever you want’, in his emotionally exhausted state of having gone through a long hard labour with me. It’s not like I picked the name out of the blue, we had talked and agreed it was our top choice previously.

This time my hubby has made me promise that I don’t “declare” the name until we’ve had a chance to discuss it in private. Hehe, oops! I have promised.

We had a couple ‘back up’ boy names from when my son was born. We still really like them, so it will depend on what baby is like, if it’s a boy what name we choose… and there’s always a possibility that neither would work and we’d have to come up with new ones, but at least we have a starting place.

Girls names are a different story. We have not been able to completely agree on girl names. I have a favourite, which I am still hoping I will “win” on, but my hubby isn’t sold on. I certainly wouldn’t want to name our baby girl a name her Daddy didn’t love too. We aren’t at odds in our disagreements or anything… for example when one of us says I really like the name “Sara” (for arguments sake only) it’s not greeted with “oh I love that too”… it’s “yeah that one is okay but I don’t like ___ about it”. I feel we won’t be able to decide on the name until the a baby is born anyway and we see what he or she looks like. I would like to have some names we both really like so we at least have a starting place.

We both agree we want a strong female name, though funnily enough we disagree on what strong is . I agree with this site…http://pregnancychildbirth.suite101.com/article.cfm/strong_baby_names_for_girls However my husband does think a strong girls name can end with an “e” sound, where I’m not so sure it sounds strong, but more cutesy. Cutesy is good when they are little, but I’d like something she can grow up with and be whatever she wants to be… I think that is every parents wish. Maybe also because in my life I’ve always been called “cute”, instead of pretty, strong etc. and would like my girl to have more than ‘cute’ in her repertory.

My husband has two thoughts… 1) as above, that it is a strong name. 2) More importantly to my husband our sons name starts with a W, he feels we should try to name our second child at the end of the alphabet as well. There is a theory that says people with names close in letters on the alphabet, tend to be drawn to each other or get along better (years ago, we watched a 60 minutes program on names … I wish I could find it to watch it again!). We have yet to find a girls name near the bottom of the alphabet (s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z) we both like.

Then there are always those names you love but someone that the other person once knew brings up bad memories for them, or an association that won’t go away… and those are just out.

I am particularly drawn to girl names that start with the letters: a, c, and e…. and d, and l…. of course there are other letters I like too.

So suggestions??? girls, boys or both.

BTW…. there are some names that I really like, but would not consider naming my son or daughter it for one reason or another, so please don’t be offended.

Last week, I think it was Friday night April 2nd I started having Braxton hicks, which in and of themselves are a normal thing of a healthy pregnancy. Mine were accompanied with more muscle pain of the muscles bellow my belly and were tender to touch, and then a back ache. I do have a bad back, but in pregnancy thus far the relaxant hormone present in my system has normally worked in my favour. I was also having a sharp pain in the middle lower abdomen. I started to worry that it could be pre-term labour. After little sleep on Friday night I called my midwife on Saturday and she said from what I was describing it did not sound like pre-term labour. She suggested a couple things, one being more liquid calcium, and also ensure I was remaining hydrated (which I have been, drinking at least 2 liters of water a day), also rest and warm bath. Things subsided a little but not a lot. I went in on Monday and she did an internal exam to confirm things were indeed fine and there was no evidence I was going into labour. On Thursday we went in for our regular midwife appointment and the pain was still on and off . To put my mind further at ease she ordered another ultrasound. I didn’t think we’d get into for an ultrasound for another week or so, but the next day Victoria General Hospital called in the afternoon and said they could fit me in that same day in a couple of hours!

The technician ended up being a sister of a friend, small world! I recognized her as we went into the room. As she was going through the ultrasound she let us know things looked fine and pointed things out. She checked my cervix before I emptied my bladder (yes you still have to drink some water before the ultrasound) and after and confirmed it was a normal length. She also mentioned my amniotic fluid level was normal, and she pointed out the heart, kidneys, and a couple other organs and said they looked fine. She also took more measurements of the baby.

The baby is still head up, and feet up too! She is in what is called a “frank breech” position. Like a little “V” in my uterus. Perhaps this explains some of the discomfort because all of her weight is over my pelvis. I am definitely a little nervous that she won’t be head down in time. My son was head down the entire pregnancy. I am also concerned my midwife might mistake the little bum to be the baby’s head and we will assume she is head down when she actually isn’t. I’m told not to worry about it now, and if it gets to 32 weeks and baby is still head up then they like to start coaxing them down, but it is by 36 weeks the baby needs to be head down. I don’t know how baby is going to get out of the position she has gotten herself into, her feet are up by her head!! Look at this photo (“les” – supposed to read “legs”):

As for the pain and discomfort they continue, and so do the Braxton Hicks. It is hard to get enough sleep currently. The calcium helps a little I think?! My midwife is pretty sure the sharp pain in the middle front I am feeling is pelvic symphysis pain. I also have lower back pain that comes and goes. I will continue with chiropractic and acupuncture to see if that can relive a little discomfort. I am also going to go back to the pool, which I have been away from for at least about 6 weeks with all my colds. My midwife doesn’t recommend the kind of swimming I am used to (I swam with a Masters swim club), but something a little more relaxed. That may help coax baby to get into a better position too, or that’s my hope!

Yes I am still calling this baby a “she”. Still no boy parts seen on this 2nd ultrasound, but wouldn’t want to tell us for sure in case someone was wrong

This time around I am starting lighter than I did when I was pregnant the first time. Although I have already gained 6-7 lbs and I’m only 17 weeks pregnant! Last time I started where I am now, but by 16 weeks I was still at the same weight I am now. Nausea has been much more intense this time, and eating helps me feel better.

My first pregnancy I was more relaxed and had more time to myself to sleep and rest etc. With a toddler running around now I have little time to myself, not to mention to rest.

I am worried and a little anxious that I might gain too much weight this pregnancy. My midwife tells me it’s about quality of nutrition and not to worry about weight gain. In my first pregnancy I was quite unwell around 33 weeks with a nasty stomach flu (I’m still convinced it was food poisoning but that’s another story), and lost 5-6 lbs one week, I never regained it before I gave birth. I was already light when my son was born but actually gained weight postpartum because of depression etc. So in the long run I still had to work the weight off anyway. My son was smaller, born at 6 lbs 13 ounces about 5 days early. I would like this next baby to be a little heavier, as I contribute it to having troubles breast feeding with him. I wondered if his mouth was too small to get a proper latch.

It sounds silly, but it’s bugging me! I’m already into my pregnancy pants, the ones with the panel stretchy band attached fit, the other ones (low rider ones) still don’t fit.

When I was pregnant with my son, it took a really long time to look like I was pregnant, or “pop”. I would say I was almost 5 months pregnant before I showed with my son. With my son people would actually ask me if I thought the baby was okay because I was so small tummy wise.

This time I told work earlier than I did the first time, and someone at work one day said “it’s beginning to become obvious” and I was only 14.5 weeks pregnant at the time! I’ve told most people at work I am pregnant now and circumstances are different. People in my workplace know me now, when I started here I was already 14 weeks pregnant with my son. Perhaps people are more comfortable asking or saying something because they know me?

Some examples of what people have said are:

• I said oh if you didn’t know I’m 4 months pregnant, and she smiled and said yeah I know with a smirk.
• Another colleague said yea I figured.
• My male massage therapist said I thought that might be the case, then I thought maybe she just ate too many donuts.

Sorry pregnant or not it’s not okay to talk about a woman’s weight. Like most women I already have a weight complex and am often worried I am too fat. I think it is all tummy based now, or I feel mostly looks it, but I am really shocked at how my body is changing so quickly this time and honestly a little upset and jealous of ladies with a proper waist line.

I continue to exercise regularly. I would say I am more active than I was in my first pregnancy; I go to practices regularly (I was going 3x a week, 1 hr each time, now down to twice weekly for 45-1hr) with a Master Swim Club, I wouldn’t say they are easy workouts. From a post I wrote when I was pregnant with my son I got some good feedback on where to get a pregnancy race swimsuit. My husband ordered it for me for Christmas. It is too large, so I just ordered another one a size smaller. Likely I will be able to wear the smaller one until 6 months, and will have to use the larger one when my belly gets bigger in the last trimester.

I don’t feel I am eating poorly. I think I ate more poorly before I got pregnant actually! I have definitely cut down on the sweets and added in more fruits, veggies and whole foods. I am guessing I don’t eat more than 1800-2000 calories a day, which I think is okay for my 5’3” frame?!

I am open to any suggestions on how to get over this? I would like to embrace this change and stop worrying about it.

Picture of me 17 weeks 1 day preggers below:

Since I posted this post yesterday I have since spoken to my Naturopathic doctor and she said I need to gain at least 17lbs this time. She said the 17lbs needed is all for the baby, the rest you need fat for breastfeeding and postpartum. She thinks a good goal is 25lbs – 35lbs. The more fat I have on my boobs a hips the easier it will be produce milk and breastfeed. She assured me it will come off. I’m just concerned if I gain all 30lbs and I’m not able to breastfeed exclusively then the weight won’t just “come off”, of course she told me to let her worry about that and we will make sure to figure it out. Makes me feel slightly better.

My ND also mentioned that it’s not good to assume you will gain a certain amount each trimester. Some women gain the bulk in their first trimester, little in their second and nothing in their third. There is no right amount in each trimester, every woman and every pregnancy is different. I found this site made me worry about gaining in the first trimester, I don’t recommend basing your weight gain off this one: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/nutrition/prenatal/qa-gest-gros-qr-eng.php Your GP, OB, midwife or ND will have a much more realistic recommendation when it comes to weight gain specific to you and your pregnancy.

With my first pregnancy I only gained about 10-12lbs from start to finish. I did start heavier than this time, and I got stomach flu ill when I was 33 weeks pregnant and made up for what I loss while ill. I was “proud” of only gaining that amount my first pregnancy (a little sick head wise I think now). Now I see it wasn’t healthy. Baby and I would have been better off had I added another 5-10lbs at least.

Weight distribution:

• 7 1/2pounds is about how much the baby will weigh by the end of pregnancy.
• 1 1/2pounds is how much the placenta weighs.
• 4 pounds is attributed to increased fluid volume.
• 2 pounds is the weight of the uterus.
• 2 pounds is the weight of breast tissue.
• 4 pounds is because of increased blood volume.
• 7 pounds is attributed to maternal stores of fat, protein and other nutrients.
• 2 pounds for the amniotic fluid.
• Total: 30 pounds