Week 36-39

Hey Guys! This will be my last pregnancy post. I am all set to deliver by c section on Monday, 3 more days and this peanut is finally out of here! We have been back to the doctors every week to check the position of the baby and it is breech and has remained so this whole time. Being a breech baby the only option we have is to do a c section which is set for Monday in my 39th week. The last couple of weeks have probably been the hardest in my whole pregnancy. My journey has been a great one and I have loved being pregnant. I can say I have almost loved every part except for the pregnancy insomnia and back aches I have been experiencing over the last 3 weeks. Other than that it has been a dream pregnancy and I have felt fantastic.

I am very proud to say that I have been able to keep up my workouts through the whole 39 weeks. I wrote a post about exercising through my pregnancy on nycfitfoodfashion.com and you can find that post here. Exercise has been a life saver during my pregnancy and if we decided to do this all over again I will do it exactly the same. The weather has been getting better this week and almost spring like so I have taken my walks to the outdoors the last 2 days. I even managed to get in 6 miles on Tuesday, I feel great.

Food and diet wise, I ate the same as I normally did before pregnancy. I added a snack or two to get in the extra 300 calories a day but did not go overboard on that but I did indulge a little more than I normally do. My favorite things to snack on lately are greek yogurt, humus, pita chips, mini eggs and the occasional bowl of ice cream. I switched out my skinny latte at Starbucks for a soy green tea latte at Starbucks instead and I love them. During my pregnancy as of today I have put on 28 pounds and I am happy with that and I am sure I will lose most of that fairly easily with breast-feeding and using my fitness pal like I always have.

One thing I am looking forward to is fitting back into my old clothing again. I have really missed my skinny jeans! I have not been able to do them up since December so it will be a nice to change to get out of my uniform of leggings and tunics finally. The other thing that I am looking forward to most is the obvious. Finally meeting this little one and finding out its sex! I have been feeling boy since day 1 but Jon has been thinking girl. I can not wait to see which one of us was right on this one and we do have a few bets going within my family. I know my brother is wanting to collect on his $5 dollar winnings when it turns out to be a boy!

Thank you for sharing in this journey with me and I will for sure post an update once we are home from the hospital and settled in! Bye for now!

Week 34 and 35

Hey guys! I hope everyone is doing awesome. I am now in my 36th week and I am dying to get this little one out into the world. I had the perfect pregnancy up until week 35. The little stubborn peanut has decided not to turn and is actually moving further up into my ribs instead of head down. That means it will most likely remain in breech position and this will probably end in a C-section delivery. We finished up the childbirth classes at Mount Sinai and now it turns out I may not have needed them hahaha!

My back aches have increased with the weight of the baby. The crazy part is the best I feel all day is when I am at the gym. I can not say enough about how important it is to keep moving. It is sitting that makes me feel worse. I seem to not be able to find a comfortable position for sleeping either. I will get back to the sleeping in a bit. I have been at the gym 5 days this last week. Elliptical is now a thing of the past because of the weight of the baby I have been doing slower incline walking for about 60 minutes a day on the treadmill. That hour is one of the best parts of the day!

We have been taking advantage of NYC Restaurant Week. It has not escaped us that we only have so many date nights left for a long while. It has been great to get out every Friday night, dress up and enjoy each others company. If you are expecting for the first time I can not tell you how important it is to make sure you do this. I am so glad even though I do not feel the best that I can still get out and enjoy a night with my husband.

The thing I was not expecting was that I would not be able to sleep at the end of my pregnancy. I have been sleeping like a baby since the first trimester. We had hoped that in this last month we could get all the sleep we can in order to prepare for the baby keeping us up. Well my body and this baby has other ideas. I can not for the life of me find a comfortable position and I have tried many. This leaves me tossing and turning and keeping poor Jon up at night. When I do finally fall asleep little peanut rolls around or jams its head into my ribs and then I am awake again. Oh and I have to mention that I also wake up to hit the washroom in the middle of the night. We are both going on a small amount of sleep at this point and are pretty grumpy!

We have been finishing up our baby gear shopping. We have spent the last 2 weekends at BUY BUY BABY, looking at car seats, carriers and swings. So what did we get? We ended up getting a Cybex infant car seat, it was a little pricier than we wanted since it will not get much use. Living in NYC we do not have a car and walk to most places but Jon loved this car seat and was sold on it in the store. For a carrier we went with our favorite baby brand Stokke. You can tell we loved Stokke since they made our stroller, crib, second stroller at the in-laws and now our carrier. Also all of our textiles are from Stokke and I am so glad that we discovered them. They have an awesome car seat but it was not available in the United States. The last thing on our list was the swing, we ended up going with the 4 moms Mamaroo. I had heard so many great things about it we had to have it. I can not wait to put the baby in it and see how much he/she likes it!

Jon just testing out the carriers at Buy Buy Baby

We will be visiting with our OBGYN practice this week and they will be letting us know if the baby looks like it may be turning or if we are scheduling a C-section. Since I can pretty much see the baby most of the time my money is on the C-section. I will let you guys know in the next week!

Week 32 and 33

It is hard to believe another 2 weeks have gone by. I am now 34 weeks + 5 days, I can not get over how fast this pregnancy thing has been going. I never thought it would go by so quickly and also with no issues. I had always feared pregnancy because in my mind what I had seen, heard or read was that it was going to be this excruciating experience. I know it is different for everyone so I am not saying it is the easiest thing to go through but for me this pregnancy has been truly amazing.

I credit a lot of that with the daily exercise that I have been able to keep up with. I had taken it back from 6 days a week to 5 but found that the less that I move I had begun getting back aches. I have now upped it 6-7 days a week at the gym. It truly has been saving my back. If I can say one thing it is that sitting has been the enemy for me. The more I have been moving the better I feel. I do not go 7 days hard-core but I make sure even on what would have been my rest days that I at least head in to the gym and do a 30 minute walk on the treadmill. The only thing I could complain about is how hard it is to put on my running shoes and tie them up these days. That is honestly the hardest part of going to the gym for me!

The closer we are getting to the baby arriving the more my fur baby seeks attention. She loves to rest her head on my belly at night. We have also noticed that she has become a lot more protective of me when we go out for walks. If another dog approaches she get aggressive barking or snipping at them. This is concerning since she is tiny and has been barking at pit bulls. Hopefully she calms this down a little once I am no longer pregnant!

We had finished up our child-birth classes this past weekend. I am not sure if I feel anymore prepared. Don’t get me wrong the class at Mount Sinai was great but I think so far I have been in denial about actually giving birth. So the class kind of made me start getting paranoid about thing sI had already decided on. Like most women I have it in my head that I need an epidural. The more they explained the more anxiety I started to feel about it. Sometimes I think ignorance is bliss!

My diet has not changed at all in the last few weeks. One thing that was brought up in child-birth class was going low carb after week 36 in order to help the baby not be to heavy at birth. The goal is a 6.5 to 8 pound baby, going low carb should keep the baby in that range from what I understood in the class. I know that since we are looking at natural child-birth at this point, I would like the baby to stay under 8 pounds. We can only hope that it will turn out that way!

What are your thoughts on changing your diet to keep the weight of the baby down? Is this something you have thought about or have done?

Please visit me over at my main blog http://nycfitfoodfashion.com/

Week 30 and 31

Wow I can not believe how fast time is flying by. As I am writing this I am in my 32nd week and can not wait for this little one to make his or her’s arrival. We have been busy trying to prepare for the baby and things are coming along quite nicely. In the last 2 weeks we have now received our awesome Stokke Crusi Stroller. I never thought I would be crazy about a stroller but I am and Jon loves it too. It was really easy to put together and we can not wait to stroll around the city with the baby.

Our Stokke Sleepi has also arrived. I would love to say that it was easy to put together but we had a problem piece so we had to send away for a replacement piece. As soon as it arrives we will be putting it together and I will have pictures to share with you guys!

I have continued my workout and have been in the gym 5 days a week and usually twice a day. With the horrible weather still keeping me indoors it really helps to have a gym in the building that I can escape to for my walks. Here is one of my workout plans. I really can not wait to walk around the city again! I also find that exercise helps with back pain. The days that I do take off from the gym during the week I am plagued with back aches. The more I move the better I feel.

Fashion wise I have been wearing a mix of my regular clothes with some maternity items. I am leggings obsessed! I had a great opportunity through me blog nycfitfoodfashion.com to try out some new items from the Athleta spring line. I was able to still find some great items to fit over this baby bump and they were really comfy! If you are interested here is a look at the posts I did on them.

• Fit Style to Street Style
• Fit Style to Street Style with Athleta

We started out childbirth classes this past Saturday at Mount Sinai Hospital. We are learning quite a bit about the stages of labour and what we should expect. I do not know if we will remember all of this when the big day happens but it is helping us to feel a little more prepared. We have 2 more classes, I will be sharing more of this experience in the next couple of posts. I hope all of you have a great week and I will try to get photos of the crib as soon as it is ready!!

Week 28 and 29

We are already beginning to count down the days. Is it acceptable to be doing that this early? Time had been flying by and then we hit January. This last month feels like the longest month of my life and it is still not over. It may be the fact that the weather has been horrible, which leaves me in the house a lot. I normally walk around the city a lot but with this polar vortex, I have been house bound.

I do still get out to the gym 5 days a week. My workouts have been a mix of incline walks, elliptical and some weight training. I have been putting a lot of thought into checking out a prenatal yoga class. I need a little something new and something to drag me out of my place!

I had the opportunity to try out another amazing Seraphine Maternity style. Thank you to the people over at Preggonista for letting me be a fit model. I have been really blessed with so many great opportunities over this pregnancy. Preggonista is a website where you can sign up for monthly deliveries of a maternity basic. The basic will be fashionable and versatile for your everyday life. Here is a look at the Seraphine Maternity dress that they had sent me.

Over the last few weeks we have been debating strollers. I will admit I wanted something that was not only functional but that was stylish as well. Jon was more into just function and obviously price. Since we travel a lot we both wanted something that traveled, especially when it came to folding it down as compact as we could for flights. Well after lots of looking we made the decision to get the Stokke Crusi. It was my first choice and I finally won out haha. I love this stroller and one of the things we were looking for was if it would accommodate a second baby and it does. We do want to have another baby probably a year after this one. So, it was important that the stroller be able to have a sibling seat that you can add-on. I will admit the Crusi was not the easiest to fold down for travel. We were able to get a travel bag also from Stokke that will protect the stroller during flights. I think after peanut is not an infant we will probably travel with a cheaper umbrella stroller.

Other than the stroller choice we also went with Stokke for our crib choice. Since we will still be in our NYC one bedroom apartment when the baby arrives, we do not have a lot of space. We chose the Stokke Sleepi because it can start out as a mini crib and can be built up all the way to a junior bed in the future. When it is mini you can roll it in and out of rooms quite easily, that was a bonus. I will add photos of the stroller and crib once we have everything all set up! I never thought I would be this excited over baby gear!

What stroller did you go with?? Have a great week everyone!

Holidays (Week 25-27)

Hello Readers!! The holidays are now over and we have reached 2014. I hope you all had a fantastic holiday season. We did a lot of travel over the holidays and got to spend time with some of our favorite people in Texas and in Toronto. My baby bump really blossomed over the holidays and little peanut has been crazy active. It was definitely weird at first but now I am used to it and we love watching my belly at night. It is our new form of entertainment!

I would love to be able to tell you guys that I had kept up my workouts over the holidays but it just did not happen. We flew to Texas on the 21st and I came back from Toronto on the 1st. During that time the only workouts I had were walking in either the airport, shopping mall or to get up and eat! I had continued to wear my fitbit daily and I managed to average about 5000 steps per day. It could have been worse I guess. Traveling was still really easy for me. I was not sure how I would feel flying at this point in the pregnancy but they were short flights and went amazingly. No issues on the way there at all which was great. I did miss having my inflight bloody mary’s but Jon had my alcohol and I had mine virgin style.

 While in Texas we had an amazing baby shower brunch thrown by a family friend. Lots of good food, games and laughs. We played baby charades which was amazing, even though my team was not the best at it! We also had red velvet cake and it just happens to be my favorite!

Christmas was great and I was very spoiled. I am sure that will not be the case next year when the baby comes and obviously we will want to shower the little one with gifts! Christmas day was extra special because Jon made us an amazing turkey dinner. I will say I really lucked out in finding this gem of a husband that not only cooks but can make a turkey dinner better than anyone I have ever met. He truly is one of a kind! Luckily my aversion to poultry is long gone and I was able to really enjoy the dinner that her prepared for all of us.

The morning after Christmas we headed to the airport to get to Toronto. I take blame in the fact that we did not get there with a lot of time to spare but American Airlines did not make it any easier or help us to get on our flight. I did make it on but telling a pregnant lady good luck then telling her to run across the airport really is not the customer service you expect. Especially when we were flying priority class. I ran and I made it but I was not impressed with the way American had handled it. We got on our flight and Jon was able to enjoy some more bloody mary’s and I had some virgin ones. Once we got to Toronto we were greeted by a lot of beautiful snow and very cold temperatures.

We had a great week in Toronto. I was treated to a second baby brunch and I could not have been happier with the gang that could make it out that day. There had been an ice storm that week that had left a lot of people with out power. I know some people could not make it out but we had fun with all of those that could get out that day. I think Jon’s favorite part was the cake and its voluptious shape!

As for New Year’s We kept things low-key this year. Normally we would be partying the night away. This year we had a nice dinner out with family and toasted at midnight. We were in bed around 1am, this soon to be mamma was glad for the rest.

New Year’s Day we were headed home on American Airlines again. We arrived at the airport early and waited for our boarding time. Boarding time came and went with no messages of delays or anything told to us. We had rely on people just speculating that the flight was cancelled etc. Eventually they came on the speaker and said that crew members did not show up for work today and they were trying to get a crew together. We were only delayed about 90 minutes but there was a flight that was supposed to leave 4 hours before us and those poor people were still waiting when we left. It seems it was a trend that day at American Airlines. The weather was fine but all their flights going from Toronto to NYC had missing crew. You would think that they would have a back up plan for things like that on New Year’s Day. Well that is my rant of the day. I loved my visit with family and friends but it is always nice to get home to your own bed and sleep in. I also really missed my gym! I will be getting back into the swing of things this week.

How was your holidays? What did you do for New Year’s Eve?

Week 23 and 24

Hey guys! I missed a week so I have decided to wrap them into one post. Things have been pretty hectic since coming home from St.  Lucia and getting ready for Christmas!

We decided that we wanted to do a 3D ultrasound to give the photos to our families at Christmas. Going to the ultrasound was super exciting. It started off amazing! We saw the little peanut and he/she smiled and it was incredible. immediately after the peanut decided to hide out in a little nook that it has found in there. Once in that nook they can not be seen at all. The baby stayed there for the rest of the session. No matter what we tried, positions and stretches the baby did not come out! We made an appointment to go back the following week. We went back the next week and lo and behold the little one hid for the whole entire session. Back to the drawing board on Christmas gifts for the grandparents! Who knew the little one could be so stubborn in the womb, I think we are in for it in a few months.

Exercise has remained on the daily agenda. I have lost a lot of my strength and can admit I have not really been giving my 100% when I am at the gym. I thought it over and decided to go back to planning my workouts for the week in advance. Here is the workout plan that I have come up with:

5 Day pregnancy workout

I am hoping that this will keep me occupied over the next week. We will be in Texas for the holidays so I do not know how much exercise I will get in daily but I will try to fit something in!

I have had the honor of being able to try out Seraphine Maternity for review. This would be the famous Kate Middleton front knot maternity dress. Updated to a 3/4 length sleeve for the holidays. Take a look at my full review. Seraphine Maternity Review. I am in love with this dress and can not wait to wear it at over the holidays.

We headed over to Rockefeller Center, with the intention of watching the tree lighting. Once arriving there and being trapped in the crowd we realized that it was not for us. We went home to watch it on tv, so much better than standing in that crowd for 4 hours! We did manage to sneak in a picture or two.

I have to give a shout out to Big City Moms. Once again we attended a Big City Moms event and it was just as amazing as the Biggest Baby Shower. This time we had the pleasure of going to the Expectant Parent Dinner over at Kidville UES. What a great night! Jon was a little apprehensive since he ended up being the only Dad there but had an amazing time. One of the presenters was Daddy Scrubs and Daddy of the year was 90210’s Ian Ziering. He shared with us his experience in becoming a Dad and being in the delivery room. Ian was very entertaining and I think made the night for Jon. Being the only Dad there Jon received the Daddy Diaper bag. Which was an awesome Camo print back pack!

Ian really helped in making Jon feel a part of things. As an expectant Dad sometimes they feel left out and I am so glad that I have been able to include my husband in everything. I also feel blessed to have a man in my life that wants to be involved in every step of this amazing journey. Other than the back pack we won a joovy hi-lo high chair in the raffle! We love the new high chair and it is already assembled and ready for the little one to try out.

Now we are still getting ready for the holidays and they are quickly approaching us. The snow this weekend was beautiful and helped to get me inspired for Christmas. We spent out snowy afternoon looking at strollers. We are thinking of getting a Stokke Xplory. Do any of your moms out there have this stroller? I would love to hear some feedback on it. We also looked for cribs. This is more of a difficult decisions since we will still be in our tiny nyc 1 bedroom when the little one makes its arrival. We are considering the Stokke Sleepi, if any of you have one please let me know if you like it. Decisions, decisions.

How was your week?? What are your plans for the holidays??

Week 22- Our BabyMoon

What can I tell you about Week 22?

It was the best week of my whole pregnancy so far! If you are pregnant or are planning to be, you have to go on a babymoon. It was so great to get away with my hubby and have a full week of relaxation together. We stayed at the Sandals Halcyon in St Lucia. It is a quiet resort, with not a lot of night life. That suited us perfectly for this trip since I obviously was not there to party the night away! There are 3 Sandals Resorts in St Lucia and you can shuttle between the 3 resorts. We had a great time at all 3 and the beach at The Grande was the most beautiful I have ever seen.

The food was plentiful and I was on vacation so I definitely steered away from my usual diet. My favorite thing for breakfast was pancakes covered with blueberries and 3 scoops of whipped cream!! It was decadent and well deserved since I normally eat fruit and multi-grain cereal daily. I got some looks but I did not care! Lunch was different everyday. Some days I had a burger, pizza or sandwiches. Lunch was either really good like the pizza or just ok like the sandwiches. For dinner we had lots of great food. My favorite dinner was the Sandals Returning Guest dinner because I got to have the most delicious lobster tail. It was the only lobster that I had that week and it was worth the wait. The other amazing dinner was the veal chop at Kelly’s Dockside. If you ever go Sandals Halcyon eat at Kelly’s Dockside and have the veal chop because it is soooooo good!

I tried to work out everyday. I was doing really good until mid-week. I went to the gym that morning and then to breakfast. That had become my vacation routine. By the time we finished breakfast my feet were so swollen I could barely walk. That was it for my morning workouts. From that point on I struggled with the swelling until I got back home to NYC. Here is a picture of what my feet looked like our second last night there. This was the worst I have ever seen them. I have to warn you it is not a pretty sight!

My baby bump really developed this week when I arrived not one person noticed that I was pregnant but by the time we were leaving everyone there had been commenting on my baby bump. It was great to finally have people recognize that I was expecting and it helped with the puzzled looks I got every time I ordered a virgin drink! There are not a lot of virgin drinks ordered I guess. I did happen to see about 4 other pregnant ladies on vacation as well. It was great to know I was not the only one!

I spent most of my week in my bathing suit. I was so happy that I was able to fit into all of my swimsuits that I already had. I was worried I would have to invest in a maternity swimsuit that I would never use again.

I can not express how amazing the week was. I am so glad that Jon and I were able to spend this great week together. Who knows when we will be able to take a romantic vacation together again. I want to give a shout out to my hubby for putting up with me and my swollen feet! It was limiting at the end and he was trooper heading back to the room before 10pm most nights. I really would love to go back to St Lucia someday. It is honestly a little piece of paradise.

Did you take a BabyMoon? If you did, where did you go?

Caribbean All Inclusive Vacations

Week 20

Week 20 is now over and we are on to a new one. I am still really loving pregnancy I hope this period does not end because I feel awesome. I still have a great deal of energy and was able to make it to my workouts 6 days this week. I am hopping that will continue all the way through the rest of my pregnancy. Here is a look at some of my workouts:

Glues and Leg Treadmill Workout

Cardio Mix Up

Machine Leg Day and Cardio

HIIT

My diet has remained the same. We found a great new spot in the neighborhood for Kebab’s. It is so good we went twice last week! Here is a review I wrote about our experience at Ariana Kebab House NYC. The food is incredible! Jon has been awesome with the cooking and one of my favorite recipes he makes is Jon’s Famous Braised Short RIbs. I had to share this recipe. It is so yummy we made enough to eat it for 3 nights last week. It tastes better every day!

I am over my aversion to chicken and we have made it a few times lately. I really like the chicken to be roasted, so we came up with a different recipe for roasted chicken. This one has a lot more spice then the recipe that we usually use. If you like spicy check out our recipe for Clean Eating Spicy Chicken.

The best part of the week was attending Big City Mom’s Biggest Baby Shower. While there I had the pleasure of meeting daytime diva Susan Lucci! If you have the chance to attend one of these events you should. We had so much fun and received so many great gifts from all of the sponsors. Take a look at my full post on how awesome the Biggest Baby Shower was.

I have started my journey into pregnancy fashion. I was invited to a maternity sample sale and I decided this would be the best time to take a look at some actual maternity clothes. I really wanted to get some maternity jeans but there was none left in my size. The only ones in my size were still $175. I am still on a budget when it comes to my maternity wear, so this was not an option. I did find a great little dress by Bellyisma which is what I wore to the Biggest Baby Shower. I was able to get that dress for the bargain price of $50.00. Here is a look at my new maternity look:

We ended up our week with an ultrasound appointment. I am so glad that my placenta previa seems to have just been marginal and has fixed it self. This is great news because it means that a C Section may not be in order now. I was relieved until I then started to worry about natural childbirth instead! The last ultrasound we had we were able to see the babies face on 3D and get a few pictures. We were hoping to get some more but peanut had other plans. The baby kept hiding it’s face or was putting it’s hands over it’s face. The tech tried for about 45 minutes to an hour but it is going to have to wait till next time. It seems we have a stubborn little one on our hands! That is the end of week 20! How was your week??

Week 19

I hope you all had a great week! I know we did. The pregnancy is still going along amazingly. I feel really good and have a lot of energy. I worked out 6 days in the last week. Here is a look at some of the workouts I did in the last week:

Upper Body Weight Routine and Cardio

Elliptical Blast!

 Cardio Mix Up

Even though I have been exercising 6 days a week, I can not change mother nature. My body is still going through changes. I was having this conversation with Jon, being a guy he once again put his foot in his mouth. He meant this as a compliment but being pregnant and hormonal I did not take it that way. He actually said to me” you have more of a butt now”. I was floored but he tried and tried to back track on how great he thinks I look pregnant. Poor guy did not mean the comment in a bad way but believe me I took like he said “you have a huge butt!” I will say it again, these poor men go through a lot during pregnancy as well. They have to put up with us everyday! The other body change is that I found the beginnings of 2 stretch marks on either side of my stomach. Despite the fact that I spend a great deal of time lotioning and oiling my growing body, it is happening. I will continue to lotion a few times a day and pray that it does not get any worse! Have any of you had any success with taming the stretch marks?

One thing that got me running to Starbucks last week was the reemergence of the red holiday cups and drinks. SO of course I had to get there that day and get the new and improved gingerbread latte. I am sorry Starbucks but you should not have changed a good thing. It saddens me  to report it was no where near as good as it used to be. I will stick to the Skinny Peppermint Mocha from now on. I was so excited I photographed the occasion 🙂

I am very excited because this upcoming week we will be attending the Biggest Baby Shower here in NYC. I will post all about it next week but I am sure it is going to be a great event. I got very lucky to get tickets. My baby brain made me forget to actually buy tickets and when Jon reminded me I went online and they were sold out. I emailed Casey at Big City Moms, who runs the event. I got so lucky she got back to me and said one set was just put back up on the site. If it wasn’t for Casey I would not be going. Thank you so much Casey from Big City Moms!

How was everyone else’s week??