This week brought the warmest temperatures we have felt since last fall and our first visitor to Minnesota! Mom made her way to Minnesota on Monday and was able to stay until Thursday. As usual, I am left wishing I took more photos to capture our time together. It was so much fun to show Mom around our new town!
My mom is awesomely thoughtful! We came home from work to find Easter treats. 🙂 We also found a new box of Kleenex in our Kleenex dispenser that had been empty since January, extra food in a our refrigerator, Easter cookies…etc!! Mom things. 🙂
Davey and I have been getting outside every chance we get in this warm weather. We keep thinking it’s going to snow again, so we better get outside when we can. We took a long walk around one of Minneapolis’ many lakes!
And Baby Hiatt has started to collect handmade baby blankets from my sweet, thoughtful patients!
We have 14 more weeks until we get to meet Baby Hiatt…I can’t stop thinking about what the baby will be like!
I guess I am feeling very brave today (or something), but I am posting pictures of myself (sorry) at 23 weeks pregnant. I say sorry because I am not one of those gorgeous pregnant woman on Pinterest that look so adorable that I pin their maternity fashion mainly because I want their body. But I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to share the top 3 exercises every pregnant woman should do!
I have treated countless pregnant women in physical therapy for various aches and pains, but it took being pregnant for me to realize that even our own doctors, although eager to help us, don’t consider how exercises may ease our aches and pains. I told my doctor I had calf cramping in the middle of the night, and her quick response was “magnesium!” I told her my back was aching, and she said, “Tylenol and a heating pad!” While these are good options, stretching and gentle exercises can provide pain relief without adding another pill to our evening prenatal rituals.
Without further adieu, the top three exercises every pregnant woman should do are: 1) The Pelvic Tilt; 2) Quadruped Stabilization While Rocking Back; and 3) Hip Abduction with Lateral Rotation (“Clamshell”).
The Pelvic Tilt
Step 1: Sit or stand with good posture.
Step 2: Contract abdominals by pulling your belly button toward your spine.
Step 3: Hold 5-10 seconds. Repeat 10-20 times at least twice per day.
Purpose: Maintain and/or strengthen abdominals. Our abdominals, when strong and firm, act as a natural back brace that stabilize and support our low back. Additionally, labor will be easier if our abdominals are strong enough to help with the pushing! We all want labor to be easier, right?!
The pelvic tilt; Step 1The pelvic tilt; Step 2
Quadruped Stabilization While Rocking Back
Step 1: Position yourself on your hands and knees. Make sure your hands are directly under your shoulders and your knees are directly under your hips.
Step 2: Contract your pelvic floor muscles (the ones you use to stop the flow of urine). Hold.
Step 3: Contract your abdominals by pulling your belly button toward your spine.
Step 4: Holding the contractions, rock back toward your heels while keeping your back flat.
Step 5: Hold 1-2 seconds. Repeat 10-20 times twice per day.
Purpose: This is a great position because it is non weight-bearing for the spine! This equates to relief of lower back pain by just putting ourselves in this position. Can I get an amen, sista? It is also an easier position to recruit contractions from our abdominals and pelvic floor muscles, allowing us to fully engage our stabilization system to help our low backs!
Quadruped Stabilization While Rocking Back; Step 1-3Quadruped Stabilization While Rocking Back; Step 4
Hip Abduction with Lateral Rotation (“Clamshell”)
Step 1: Lay on your side with your pelvis exactly perpendicular to the floor. Knees and hips should be bent 45-90 degrees.
Step 2: Contract pelvic floor muscles and hold.
Step 3: Contract abdominals by pulling your belly button toward your spine.
Step 4: Keeping feet together, roll top knee off bottom knee. Make sure you keep the muscles in your thigh relaxed; you should be contracting your gluteal muscle to lift your thigh. Do not allow your pelvis to move.
Step 5: Hold 5-10 seconds. Repeat 10-20 times twice per day.
Purpose: This exercise engages our posterior gluteus medius (and minimus), one of the greatest muscles in our bodies that we all tend to ignore. By strengthening our “gluts”, we provide more stability around our sacroiliac joint which tends to be looser during pregnancy due to the affects of those fun things called hormones. The “Clamshell” provides us with muscular stability around our pelvis which further leads to a more stable spine.
Hip Abduction with Lateral Rotation; Steps 1-3Hip Abdcution with Lateral Rotation; Steps 4-5
Good luck, ladies!
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This weekend was monumental for a few reasons–the greatest reason being that I finally caved and purchased maternity pants. I entered a new dimension of comfort that I have never known before and I love it. The pants make me feel better about my changing body since I no longer have to pull my pants closed with a hair-tie extending from the button to the buttonhole (see here). Once I put the pants on, I magically felt like my body is supposed to be this way, and I no longer have to compensate for it.
Another reason this weekend was monumental is that we finally had an opportunity to play with one of my birthday presents–a camcorder! Here’s a short video of our adventure to Minnehaha Falls:
Minnehaha (hahaahahaha….) Falls was so beautiful! Melting snow isn’t the most photogenic thing in the world, but I couldn’t love it more. We soaked up the 40 degree weather, which is about 50-60 degrees warmer than the past few months. Maaaaaaybe spring will come?!
I shared a room with my sister growing up. Our brothers’ rooms were right at the end of the hallway next to ours. At bedtime, my dad would stand outside our doors and say a “Hail Mary”. Our small voices would repeat each line after him.
After he walked away, I would always pray that I could be like Mary. I told God that I would be courageous enough to do whatever He wanted me to do, and I asked him to use me for something great, like he did with Mary.
As I grew up, life took some twists and turns, and I realized it’s not always very easy to know what God is asking of me. I spent more time doubting and questioning than I did saying, “I am the handmaid of the Lord.”
Through all the doubting and questioning, I still imagined that prayerful decisions I made in my life would fill me with an overwhelming sense of peace and allow me to reflect on how all my previous experiences have led me to fulfill the purpose God has for me.
Last Sunday in church was one of those occasions.
I have sang “Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary” countless times in life, but that song takes on a different meaning at 17 weeks pregnant. This Sunday in church, I fully recognized that God has indeed prepared me to be a Sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true. He is using me and my body to fully create another human.
With thanksgiving, I’ll be a living, sactuary, all for you.
Sometimes we don’t know where we are going…or what we are praying toward…but somehow it all comes together. And that’s when we get a glimpse into God’s plan.
The feeling of being almost 15 weeks pregnant is similar to the feeling I get right after eating Thanksgiving dinner. I just want to lay on the couch with my pants unbuttoned and take a nap…after eating one more piece of pie.
