That’s right, we are having another baby! Ianiv & I are excited to share that Aiden will become a big brother in a few months! May 14th is our due date for “Baby #2″, putting me at 12 weeks pregnant now. We’ve had our first ultrasound already and baby is doing just great!
I’ve been able to feel the baby moving since about 10.5 weeks, which is just crazy. The lime-sized baby in there is sure making itself known! I know, second pregnancies are different, but it’s still a surprise to feel baby moving! We plan to find out the gender of the baby, as we did with Aiden.
We are both excited and nervous to be expanding our family. I have had a lot more sickness and fatigue with this baby than with Aiden (pretty much not existent with him), so hopefully that explains why I seem to have been offline so much of the time the last… well, 3 months! :)
Healthy Families BC approached me about helping to raise awareness on how to incorporate healthy eating and fitness into a busy family lifestyle. They offer resources and one-stop wellness information for how to be active, eat well and more. The new community, based on their website, Facebook and Twitter, wants to help you make positive changes in your life.
To help kick-start an improvement to your own lifestyle, they are offering a $250 Gift Card to Lululemon to one ActiveMama reader who shares what it means to be an Active Mama. Read on for more details…
My Fitness Story
For many years, I suffered from chronic pain and my fitness level went way down. I couldn’t walk or lift weight or do much of anything. Once I found a way to fix my physical pain, we decided to start our family. I wasn’t at my best fitness level going into motherhood, and my pregnancy wasn’t pain free either. After I had Aiden, I walked a lot (mostly to get him to sleep!), but after a few months, he refused both stroller and carrier and my fitness level went down.
I’ve learned that not every child is easygoing, that being a parent is tiring, and that sometimes you have to go out of your way to get fitness back into your schedule. Recent car accident aside (it set me back), I’ve done a lot to met my goal of becoming a Fit & Active Mama!
Ideas to be an Active Mama:
- Go to baby bootcamp classes with your pre-mobile baby (Rec centres offer many options)
- Take advantage of drop-in childcare at fitness centres so you can work out
- Go to a gym in the evening or on days when you have pre-arranged childcare
- Keep trying the stroller! Aiden eventually came to love it as a toddler
- Do yoga or basic strength training (squats, lunges, etc) while your child plays. It’s pretty non-invasive and still allows you to pay attention to them
- Set aside some money, if you can, for a personal trainer. They can help you learn how to correctly do many exercises and can put together a home fitness plan that requires little to no equipment
- Set aside 20 minutes of precious nap time to run through your fitness plan. Then you can relax (because you deserve to relax too!)
- Exercise as a family – take walks or hikes, or set up your toddler in a bike seat or chariot for bike rides
Prize
A $250 gift card to lululemon athletica to help you be fit and feel good about yourself.
How to Enter
Head on over to Facebook to ‘Like’ the Healthy Families BC page, then return here and share your recommendation on how to be a fit & active mama! How do YOU make healthy eating or fitness a priority as a mom?
Limit one comment per person. Contest open to residents of BC only. Contest will close on September 30, 2011 at 2pm PST. Winner will be chosen at random.
It’s been nearly 2 weeks since my car accident. The car is already in for repairs and so am I. I have a full team of health professionals working on me:
With the exception of the physiotherapist, I’ve been with these practitioners for some time. I’ve had nearly a year of fitness training and many years under the care of my massage therapist and chiropractor, who together helped me recover from 3 years of chronic pain from my first two car accidents (ART therapy was extremely effective for me). This was after seeing many other practitioners and doctors along the way.
I felt a little like a “pro” going into this recovery stage. I could identify my pains more accurately and knew kind of how to approach my recovery. I’ve seen my chiropractor twice, my massage therapist once, and my physiotherapist once. I’ve seen my family doctor twice as well, to give him updates and receive prescriptions to manage the pain and swelling (which should hopefully soon fade a bit).
For now, I am still in pain. My neck and shoulders are tense and tender, though I’ve had worse. My knee is screaming at me, and I also have pain in the tops of my feet / ankles and in my forearms. The knee pain is related to the knee, as well as my leg muscles and my hip. Complicated.
I can see that recovery will take time, and I’m a little frustrated about that. I’m not looking at years, though, just months, but it does set back my fitness plans, and that’s frustrating for me. Even more so than the pain itself, I think.
So, that’s where I’m at. I’m not online much, and that’s annoying me. I have to rest a lot, and that is both nice and frustrating. I find myself short on patience in afternoons with Aiden. But I’m coping.
As Aiden put it this afternoon, we had an “Uh Oh, Car” incident this morning. On my way to meet Jessica for coffee, we had a car accident. It was one of those slow-motion-see-every-detail affairs, and let me tell you, it’s not nice to see a van come smashing into your door. The door is crumpled on the exterior and will need replacing. The van had a minor scratch. I, however, do have whiplash and painful joints up and down my left side and parts of my back. Aiden is fine, though he was started at first.
Safety first, says Aiden
My need to rest and ice and not stay in fixed positions for long periods of time is likely going to limit my blogging for a couple of weeks. So, too, my fitness plans. Major bummer.
I’m annoyed about the accident and the need to fix the car. About having to go through all the process with ICBC and with all the medical people I’m sure to have to see. With all that, I’m glad we are both ok. It could have been a lot worse. Thank goodness for carseats!
After our Thomas Haas lunch and a short walk along the seawall path, Jessica, Nicola and I popped in early for our spa treatments at Spa Utopia. The North Vancouver location is quite large, so it’s great if you can build in extra time to relax in the facilities.
We started off the day with a nice steam before heading over to the lounge to relax on the couches with some tea. The lounge is co-ed, which I personally prefer over other options. Though they didn’t have a jacuzzi like Willow Stream did, that did take out the complexity of having to wear a swimsuit then having to change out of it. We simply sat down for some nice girl chat. The lounge was so large that it really felt like we had our own private ‘space’ to chat. So great for a moms day out!
All three of us had massages, though I opted for the longest one, the Royal Massage. I always find that 60 minutes flies by in a relaxation massage, and I have to say that 100 minutes felt a lot better – like I had time to really relax! I had my first warm stone massage experience, which was great. My favourite part, though, was the warm towels wrapped on my feet – WOW.
This is a treatment I think I’ll be repeating at my next visit, as I enjoyed it quite a bit. I was a lot more relaxed during the treatment as well because they had small pillows to wedge under my shoulders (though not actual ‘wedges’, it was way nicer than rolled towels). My past injuries makes shoulder support crucial.
