The Black Belt and the Baby

Training While Pregnant

2011-02-17T08:05:00.000-08:00

I love stories about people who train while they are pregnant. I saw this article and thought I'd share:

A Modest Master

"I actually started a club up here before I got pregnant and taught all through my pregnancy.”

Oh yeah.

We did this!

2011-02-10T08:01:00.000-08:00

More updates will be coming soon. Man, even if I claim I was on blog "maternity leave," it's been a little too long.

So, I saw this picture and realized that the baby and I did our own version of this. You know, with the addition of a diaper and modern clothes. I didn't really think you could nurse with the baby sitting up, but it worked.

Cankles

2010-05-22T10:20:00.000-07:00

Ugh. My cankles have grown in.

They suck.

Birthing Class

2010-04-22T10:11:00.001-07:00

My husband and I officially started our birthing class last month. We are required to take what is called a Bradley class by our birthing center. Bradley classes promote non-medicated births/natural child birth and also advocate fewer hospital interventions. I know at least half a dozen people who've had babies in the last six months or so, and out of all of them, only one couple actually attended a birthing class. Now that I've been to a few of them, I don't understand why more people don't do it. They are great.

On the surface, it seemed like an expensive investment -- almost $200. It's probably not that much in the big picture of how much babies cost, but I'm sure we could have happily spent that money on something else. However, our tuition included a $100 gift certificate to Gymboree. I know for a fact we'd never spend that much money at a place like Gymboree (do we really need someone to teach us how to play with our kid? does anyone?), but at least it feels like we are getting half our money back from our birthing classes.

The information we are learning is fantastic. When I talk to my other pregnant friends now, I'm the one full of weird factoids about pregnancy and child birth. I feel knowledgeable. Plus -- and maybe this is the biggest benefit -- a LOT of what we are learning is massage and comfort techniques. Let me rephrase that: my husband has to learn how to make me feel better. And we are required to practice. We are learning things like back rubs and massages. Even the labor positions we are learning feel good right now, even though I'm nowhere near going into labor. It's great.

Persistence or 100%?

2010-04-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

The other night, I apologized to my instructor for skipping class a few times in a row (I always try to go once a week, sometimes more, but sometimes even once a week doesn't quite work out) and admitted that sometimes lately it's been hard to push myself to come to class. For one, I can't always participate in everything anymore, and that can make me feel left out. Also, I often have to dial back or stop early when we are working on something particular -- if we are in the middle of a highly aerobic exercise, for example, or if we are devoting an entire night to kicking routines -- and that makes me feel like I'm not trying hard enough. I'm also taking more breaks: snack breaks and bathroom breaks. I swear, this week, every time I stand up, I discover I have to pee again. It was funny for about ten minutes, then it became super annoying.

My instructor told me that every time I come out onto the mat, I am an inspiration to the other people in class, because if I can come to class pregnant, then everyone else's excuses for missing class seem lame by comparison. I was surprised to hear this. First of all, it's not hard to COME to class as a pregnant lady -- showing up is the easy part; it's doing my best that's getting more and more difficult. Or, perhaps, my "best" is just less and less as the weeks go by.

This brings up a lot of issues and ideas for me. First, let me acknowledge that the standards for my performance are stunningly low compared to anyone else in class. If I'm working out with everyone and an instructor is walking around offering tips or corrections, they never tell me anything anymore. It's as if they pass me over as long as I'm still upright and breathing. I realize that it might be a little harsh to tell the pregnant lady she's not kicking high enough, but I didn't expect the standards to be SO LOW that I could basically perform like a buffoon and everyone would just pretend they didn't notice. Some of the male instructors, quite honestly, still ask me every time they see me if I'm OK doing the stretching exercises or the warm-ups. I don't want to be snarky, but YES, I'M OK and if I'm not, I'll stop, I promise, you don't have to check in all the time. Maybe this is because my gut keeps getting bigger and, as guys, they are all waiting for it to explode into labor at the drop of a hat.

Second, before I got pregnant, I never really wanted to go to class if I didn't feel my best. If my muscles were sore from a previous workout or I had a cold or I was tired, I would skip class thinking that I needed to save it for when I was in peak condition. I'm still not sure how I feel about this on the other side -- since, now that I'm pregnant, every time I go to class I'm not in peak condition. Which one is more important, giving 100% or simply showing persistence?

My instructors have been pushing hard on the persistence angle recently, possibly because the classes have been smaller over this past winter. They want us to come no matter how we feel. They tell us that, for example, if you've hurt your knee or ankle, you can still come to class and do arm workouts. The idea seems to be that skipping is for sissies and that real martial artists would just come to class every night no matter what.

But, the other side of that is that those same instructors hardly ever want to hear about excuses or injuries when we come to class. If someone shows up with an injured wrist, it's pretty likely that an instructor will ask, "How bad is it really?" or "But you can still do self-defense [or whatever the workout is for the night] anyway, right?" I'm not sure they understand that when we come to class feeling less than great, we feel bad when we have to bow out of an activity, especially when they are pushing us to do everything anyway. Sometimes skipping class when we are injured is the only way to gracefully opt out of these weird, uncomfortable conversations.

I've discovered my own voice in this since I've been pregnant. I don't feel so bad standing up to the instructors anymore, but I know it's entirely because I can "blame the baby." Technically, it's someone else's fault that I can't hold the kicking pad today. But even so, sometimes I'm still super uncomfortable saying what I can and can't do to someone else, especially someone else who outranks me. When there are exactly enough people in the class for a partner drill, but I have to opt out because I can't hold the pad, I feel like I'm ruining class for everyone.

Review: Ina May's Guide to Childbirth

2010-04-04T12:19:00.000-07:00

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth

A lot of different people recommended this book to me, and I'd heard of Ina May Gaskin before, so I was excited to read it. I figured it would be somewhat along the lines of The Thinking Woman's Guide to Better Birth, but maybe more from a midwife's perspective. But actually, I found this book to a lot more involved. True, it does have some of the same information as Thinking Woman's Guide, especially about interventions at the hospital, but half the book is devoted to the stories of natural childbirth, and that was something I hadn't seen before.

I like the idea behind it. We are exposed to so many stories about birth from our family members and friends, movies and TV shows, that we think that labor has to be excruciatingly painful and full of danger. The birth stories included here dispel some of that -- these births are sometimes painful, but also very joyful. Some of them don't seem to hurt at all. Overwhelmingly, the feeling of confidence and accomplishment from the mothers is what comes through.

The second half of the book explores why hospital settings can be so irritating to laboring women. My husband especially liked the description of the "Sphincter Principle," which states that there are similarities to being able to give birth on command in a room full of strangers with being able to pee on command in a room full of strangers. To make it easier, you should be in a quiet, private space where you feel safe and respected and among people you trust. Gaskin gives plenty of scientific backup, but my reaction after reading it was, "DUH."

No ID?

2010-03-11T06:25:00.000-08:00

A few nights ago, my husband and I met downtown for happy hour. For some reason -- let's chalk it up to the Pregnancy Forgetsies -- I didn't have my wallet. I guess I'd taken it out of my purse for some reason and didn't put it back. The guy at the door asked for my ID and I scrambled around, feeling really embarrassed and hopeless.

Then I stuck out my giant tummy and said, "Well, I'm pregnant, it's not like I can drink anyway."

He waved me right in, no ID needed. Then I had a German non-alcoholic beer that tasted like ass.

Review: DVD Penatal Yoga Complete with Mary Poppas-Sandonas

2010-03-03T15:39:00.000-08:00

As I've previously stated, yoga and I don't really get along. I've taken a handful of formal classes and followed the show Namaste Yoga on FitTV. So, I'm not the expert on this field. But I figure it's ok because as soon as I'm not pregnant anymore, I'm planning to continue my life's work of avoiding yoga at all costs.

But I promised I'd give ol' prenatal yoga a shot, just to make sure I wasn't missing out on something; it's my first time being pregnant, what do I know? So I got the DVD "Prenatal Yoga Complete" with Mary Poppas-Sandonas. And let's just say my attitude didn't change much.

1. There are no pregnant ladies in this video. Instead it's just a skinny instructor who looks kind of silly using ten or fifteen props to get her lithe, flexible body into position. I didn't think this would bother me so much, but it did.

2. This kind of yoga hurts. The very first thing (after all the precautions, because nothing makes a pregnant lady feel like exercising than hearing about the eight hundred ways she's going to make her baby stupid if she does it wrong) was Hero's Pose, which is basically kneeling on the ground. But the instructions says to "move your calf muscles away from your legs to make room for your butt." Um, my calf muscles are attached to my legs. Where am I supposed to move them to? I did what she said and it just caused excruciating pain up and down my legs and knees. So I stopped, per the cautionary instructions.

3. It requires too many props. How many props to do Hero's Pose? Four! Four things required for a pregnant lady to kneel on the ground -- a mat (fine, that was expected), two washcloths for my ankles, and a wooden block for my butt. Every pose required many, many props, and I didn't really have any of them. I used all the spare bathroom towels and pillows and couch cushions and still had the distinct feeling that they weren't good enough.

3. This is basically just laying or relaxing in a position for a few minutes before assembling the required props to set up the next position. It was a lot of setting up (the instructions helpfully suggest pausing the video to get everything in the right place!) and then ... sitting in the position forever. I was expecting more movement. More, you know, exercising.

4. It claims to help with morning sickness. Wrong.

5. It has literally hours of video for every trimester. That's one thing I really liked. There are sections for sleeping better, feeling more energized and getting rid of headaches in addition to the section on morning sickness. And there are other sections for each of the trimesters, too, plus fertitility routines. A lot of information packed into one DVD, that's nice.

Quick Review: Fit and Pregnant by Joan Marie Butler

2010-03-03T07:29:00.000-08:00

Fit and Pregnant by Joan Marie Butler

Finally, a book that is about how to exercise while you're pregnant that doesn't include a meal plan and a prescribed workout. This one focuses on some popular sports and how to modify them for pregnancy. My only issue is that the "popular" sports don't include the one I like best (martial arts), but I'll cut some the author some slack because there's quite a lot about cycling.

One thing I've found a little silly about a lot of pregnancy workout books is this idea that they need to include everything about being pregnant -- as if this is the ONLY book I'm going to read about what happens to my body while I'm with child. Fit and Pregnant doesn't follow this method, thankfully, and only includes the physical changes that relate to specific exercises. For example, looser ligaments can lead to running injuries if you don't pay attention. I also appreciate that in the section on what exercises to avoid, most of the advice is about avoiding injury to the mom-to-be instead of the baby; the baby is relatively safe inside the uterus, but if the pregnant mom gets hurt, some drugs and interventions (I'm guessing surgery, for example) aren't recommended or allowed. So, in other words, the main reason you don't want to continue downhill skiing or whatever is because YOU might get hurt and then be stuck on the couch in a cast until the baby comes. This makes a lot more sense to me than some of the other advice I've seen.

Another great section is about weight training. I don't do much of that, but one thing Fit and Pregnant points out is that working on the weight machines at the gym is a nice, safe way to keep the right muscles working even if you can't continue to participate in your favorite sports. So, if you find you can't keep cycling like you want to, you can work out the same muscle groups on a machine instead. Ah, some practical advice.

This book includes sections on the following sports: pilates, yoga (always with the yoga, these books), aerobics, weight training, running, walking, hiking, swimming, rowing, cycling, and a bunch of winter activities that I skipped over (no winter down here in Texas). Plus, in the back is a section called "Resources" that lists a bunch more books and websites -- including websites for maternity workout clothes and equipment.

Quick Review: Super Fit Mama, by Tracey Mallet

2010-03-02T18:47:00.000-08:00

Super Fit Mama, by Tracey Mallet

Ah, yes, let's all be Super Fit Mamas, shall we? Under the title of this one are the words: "Stay Fit During Pregnancy and Get Your Body Back After Baby!" Arg, my body has been high-jacked by the baby I GREW ALL BY MYSELF, must ... fix it ... must ... pretend I never grew a baby by the POWER OF MY OWN BODY. This is slightly more annoying than the idea of Buff Mom-To-Be following on the heels of Buff Bride-To-Be.

Again, this book is contains a workout routine to do while you're pregnant and after the baby is born. I give it bonus points because she actually wrote several different workouts, one for each trimester and three for different phases of postpartum life. However, I'm taking away points because all her "success" stories involve people who hated working out and ate junk food all the time before they start her program. Let's all be clear: when you don't exercise but do eat junk food, changing those things usually results in you being fitter, no matter which diet or workout routine you pick. I'm waiting around for someone to address those of us who do eat well and already workout but don't ever see any results from any new diet or exercise program. Plus, most of her examples lost between 15 - 30 pounds; by the end of my pregnancy, I will probably need to lose that amount from each of my boobs, so I will probably need something more powerful.

The pregnancy workouts are pretty nice. They are short and use stuff you probably already have at home (I'm a fan of not having to buy anything to participate). Plus, the back of the book includes an eating guide with some recipes. I've made a handful of them and can attest that they are pretty tasty. Flax seed pancakes = yum.

Quick Review: Buff Moms-To-Be by Sue Fleming

2010-03-01T16:19:00.000-08:00

Buff Moms-To-Be by Sue Fleming:

I'll admit that I became less enthusiastic about reading this book when I realized it was the sequel to Buff Brides-To-Be (Lose weight before you end up in a wedding photo! And holy crap, you gained it back by getting pregnant! What were you thinking?). But the advice inside isn't too bad.

I am, as I've mentioned before, looking for a book that describes how to get through real-world (i.e., the rest of the unpregnant masses) exercising while you're dealing with all the new stuff pregnancy brings on. This book isn't exactly that, but I'm losing hope that I'll ever really find that book. Instead, Buff Moms provides some good general pregnancy facts along with a light weight-lifting regimen that can be maintained through to the end of most uncomplicated pregnancies.

What I like most about this book is the author's practical tone and advice that (duh) you should be able to do almost any kind of exercise you want while you're pregnant. Walking, jogging, swimming, yoga (always with the yoga) get special attention as "pregnancy friendly." Ice hockey gets called out twice as being bad during pregnancy. Maybe the combination of ice + skates + people ramming you = bad.

Most irritating piece of advice? "Wear loose, comfortable clothing." First of all, isn't that the advice about what to wear when you exercise even if you're NOT pregnant? Also, I have two types of clothes in my closet now: things that are too tight to fit anymore and maternity clothes I am still not big enough to wear. Where is this magical loose and yet still comfortable clothing (that I assume is tight enough not to fall off)?

Teaching Class

2010-02-20T11:41:00.000-08:00

Last week I filled in to teach some of the kids' classes at my taekwondo school. The first day, I had two students; the next day I had about eighteen. I have a new appreciation for the owner, who usually teaches every kids' class by herself. I'm pretty sure the parents drop their kids off in the hopes that they will have a bunch of energy burned off this before class is over ... and they are a huge handful.

Ok. They are also about 150% adorable.

God, I'm so pregnant. I would never say that stuff six months ago.

Here's a rundown of what class was like:

Warm up.
Two kids forget where to stand in line.
Three kids simultaneously have their belts fall off.
Break, re-tie belts; they are falling off all over the place.
Two kids and one mom stop me to say they are all sick/injured and can only do a few exercises today. I immediately forget who they are and for the rest of the hour, I keep asking them to kick pads or whatever and they politely raise their hands and tell me how sick/injured they are and then I feel dumb.
Kicks.
Four more kids end up with belts around their ankles. It's like trying to tie on a piece of jello.
Break.
We learn run-jump-front-kick or butterfly kick or whatever the kids are calling it these days. I discover that the kids have new and adorable names for about half the stuff we do.
Self-defense. Because there are a million kids in this class, I have partner an older kid with a younger kid and have them review. I kneel in front of the smallest girl -- I swear she was about four years old and was wearing the sweetest pair of purple eye glasses ever, they may have been butterfly shaped -- and teach her two moves. I remind her to kihap. She hits me in the head a few times by accident. It's cute.
Break. More belt retying. I wonder if I should get out the stapler.
Dodgeball. The kids all wanted to play it.
I say a silent prayer of thanks that the kids are good at lining up. Every time they got out of control or too loud, I could clap my hands and they would all dutifully drop whatever they were doing to line up.
After class, I deal with several parents who have varying requests -- paying a bill, needing a new uniform, looking for the lost and found, wanting a mediator between a few boys who weren't getting along.
My feet hurt for the rest of the day.

Coming Soon and an Anecdote

2010-02-10T16:23:00.000-08:00

I just got home from the library with a new armload of books. As I look through them in the next week or so, I'll put up quick reviews about them. I'm still looking for the golden goose: a book that contains practical advice for how to exercise like a normal person even when you're pregnant. I think what I have ended up with instead is a lot of How To Get Your Body Back After The Baby (cuz look out, the baby is about to hijack it). Not exactly what I wanted, but maybe there will be some helpful information in there somewhere.

But first, an anecdote:

I hate needles. When I have to have my blood drawn, I always warn the nurse that I HATE having a needle in my arm and I promise to try not to freak out. It takes concentration to keep myself calm. When I was in high school, I had to get my wisdom teeth taken out by surgery -- all four of them were impacted up in my jaw, so I couldn't just have them pulled like most of my friends -- and I know for a fact that this is where my fear and hatred of needles of comes from.

That day, I went to a new dentist's office, one better equipped to handle the surgery than my normal dentist. The man in charge, whom I had never met before, had a huge red nose like an old cartoon of a drunk. He didn't say much to me as I sat down in the chair. Soon, we were joined by about five nurses or assistants. They each had a different job to do and they didn't say anything to me as they got started, either, but they talked amongst themselves about medical things I didn't understand. The dentist was tying a rubber hose to my right arm so he could put in the IV of drugs. He didn't say what he was up to, so when I looked down to watch him, I was really surprised when he grabbed the lower half of my arm and slapped the inner side of my elbow hard. A giant vein popped right up from the skin; it really frightened me. That's when an angry nurse who was doing something on the other side of me shouted, "You better calm down, you're messing up your blood pressure." The tone of her voice was along the lines of "Hey, stupid, quit ruining everything."

I was about ready to cry at this point. I couldn't calm down. I was really scared. When I looked over to see what was happening to the poor vein in my right arm, I saw the dentist take a giant needle and shove it in with a hard jab. I opened my mouth to scream, but before I could finish drawing a breath, I passed right out from the medication.

I woke up after the surgery several hours later in extreme pain and I had big purple bruises up and down my chin for the next two months. You can see them in my school pictures from that year, even though I had my wisdom teeth taken out in the middle of summer vacation.

This memory has been coming back to me lately. I thought it was just that I've had to get my blood drawn more times in the last five months than in the last five (or maybe more likely fifteen) years put together (my favorite was when the lab admitted they dropped my first sample and I had to go back another day to do it over). Every time I see that needle approaching, I have to mentally coach myself through it. I feel like a baby.

But this week, after delving into the first of my library books -- Ina May's Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin -- I've decided that in my mind, when I imagine going to the hospital to have a baby, the whole scene from that dentist is what goes through my mind: bright lights, surrounded by people I don't know or trust, a million things going on that I don't understand and can't control, a nurse who might be having a bad day telling me I'm doing something wrong, and the feeling that everyone is really just waiting for the drugs to take over so they can do their jobs without any more interference from me. After I saw a picture of what happens when you get an epidural, I couldn't even THINK about it anymore without getting bad chills, and it was just a drawing, not a photograph. My mom thinks I'm obsessing over it, but I've gone through most of my life with little or no illnesses or injury. I never broke a bone as a kid and my worst sickness as an adult was a misdiagnosed yeast infection I had for a few months. Sure, it sucked, but most of my emotions about it were simply anger at the doctor who kept misdiagnosing it every month. So, when I start thinking about hospitals and medical procedures, my mind only has that one surgery experience to draw on.

I'm relating this anecdote as an explanation because Ina May's Guide to Childbirth will probably be one my first quick reviews. Of all the pregnancy books I brought home from the library this time around, this is the one that stuck out, and once I started reading it I couldn't put it down.

Baby Update

2010-02-02T07:29:00.000-08:00

I've been struggling with how much of the baby to include here. Pictures? Funny stories? Embarrassing stuff that will be here forever?

I haven't decided on most of it, but I can at least give a few updates here and there. My husband and I went for our ultrasound last month where we discovered that the baby is going to be a boy and that he seems to be healthy. I can feel him moving around now. He really loves to roll around inside when I am sitting at the computer or the kitchen table. Sometimes it's cute and sometimes it feel like that bottom-dropping-out-of-your-stomach feeling you get on a roller coaster.

Forms Class

2010-01-27T07:33:00.000-08:00

Class last week was devoted to forms. I had a great time, even though I can really feel the difference in my lung capacity now. I tried to do everything a little slower than normal and paid extra attention to my breathing. But I was still panting at the end of the longer forms.

The method for learning forms at my school is that you have to do ten push-ups every time you make a mistake. I think it is supposed to encourage upper body strength, since almost everyone messes up here and there. But I hate doing push-ups so much that I always make it a huge priority to memorize my form as quickly as possible, just so I can avoid them. It's probably why I can still hardly do ten push-ups.

At the end of class, the black belts did Kum Gong form. I love this form. It contains no kicks, but it manages to be very powerful all the same.

You can see a video of a black belt doing it here:
Kum Gang Video

The part where I'm supposed to balance on one leg? Not really going so well. I'm kind of tipping over a lot. Let's blame the baby.

Insomnia

2010-01-26T06:06:00.000-08:00

Last summer, before I was pregnant, I went for my annual check up and asked my doctor about my insomnia. I was having trouble sleeping about one week out of every month and, after paying attention to it for about six months, I noticed that it usually coincided with a certain anxious, energetic feeling I got around the time when I would have PMS. One month, this nervous feeling was so bad that I actually had to ask my friends if maybe I could be bipolar and not know it (they told me that, duh, you're not bipolar just from a few night of insomnia).

But it still didn't seem normal. I could fall asleep normally, but then I would wake up from bad dreams around two or three in the morning completely unable to get back to sleep. Sometimes I would wake up around midnight with an idea for a story or an essay in my head that just needed to get written down as soon as possible. I'd sit in front of the computer for a few hours, pounding it out, and then collapse back to sleep. And yet, on other nights, I would wake up for no real reason I could put my finger on, and I'd watch TV for hours, trying to lull myself back into something resembling sleepiness. There were days when nothing worked.

When I asked my doctor, she told me she didn't like to recommend drugs to solve problems. Fine, I thought, I didn't really like to take them to solve my problems, either. Then, she told me therapy was probably my only course of action. When I asked if there was something else we could try, she said maybe I could cut back on my caffeine. And that was end of her suggestions. I brought up the fact that it ALWAYS happened at the same time every month and was there any way it could be hormone related? Could changing my birth control help? Anything? But, no, my doctor just told me I needed to talk to someone about my anxiety issues. The end.

I still have insomnia. Except now, instead of it coming once or twice a month, I have it every single night. And guess what? It's totally related to my hormones. I guess pregnant ladies get insomnia all the time, mostly because their hormones are out of whack.

There's still nothing I can really do about it. I get up around two or three in the morning, the cat follows me out of the bedroom and into the living room, and we watch old reruns of Arrested Development or Buffy the Vampire Slayer until it's close to five, and then I can usually fall back asleep (the cat usually follows me back to bed and sleeps next to me on the pillow). I still think it's a little unfair, though. I have to get up and do stuff during the day, but the cat can just go back to sleep.

Simple Solutions to New Problems

2010-01-21T12:13:00.000-08:00

It's getting harder to and harder to fit into my poor clothes. I do have maternity clothes now, and they almost kinda fit, too (if they are big enough for me to breathe in and they aren't so big that they fall right off, I'm counting them).

But my workout wardrobe ... it has turned sad, my friends. My largest yoga pants now have to go under my belly. They are the ones I wear for taekwondo class, so now I go to class with my gut hanging over the edge. I look real nice. At least I've escaped without having to buy more workout clothes. I'm getting tired of having to buy more clothes every time I turn around.

Another simple solution I discovered? These bra extenders from the fabric store.

For $2, I have saved my bras for a few more weeks at least. I'm rather dreading trying to find a good nursing bra, so I'm trying to put it off for as long as possible.

The Baby Books My Husband Actually Read

2010-01-06T08:14:00.000-08:00

I got a little nervous when I realized my husband wasn't reading "What To Expect When You're Expecting" along with me. I'd leave it out on the coffee table, waiting for him to pick it up, and there it would stay, completely ignored. If I read him things from it, he'd scoff or laugh or suggest that the book was wrong. Not a good thing to say to the first time pregnant lady who's had morning sickness for a month. And can't sleep anymore. And who just wants someone to pick her up some french fries. And freaking read a baby book now and then.

Needless to say, this is not what I wanted and hoped for from my baby's dad. My friends offered to yell at him when I refused to do it. (OK, let's be honest -- I did yell at him, I yelled a few times. It just didn't do any good, so I stopped.) I even asked him once if he would tell me the difference between me reminding him to read the book or me nagging him to do it (because who wants to be a nag?). He said it was reminding if I did it one time before breakfast on the weekends; other than that, he considered it nagging. Come on, though, he probably belived it was nagging no matter when I did it.

It's not like he's not supportive of me being pregnant. He helpfully says no to all the baby names I come up with and talks about what colors to paint the baby's room (so far, he's picked out brown, so I'm helpfully rejecting to his choices, too). He's come with me to all my doctor appointments so far. It's just the matter of the dang books.

So I got a bunch of them from the library (because I am cheap) and, thank God, he atually looked at a few of them. I think it helped that they had due dates and therefore we had to read them pretty quickly -- easier to nag about something for a few weeks than for a few months, I guess. These are the books we got and the ones he actually liked:

A Child is Born by Lennart Nilsson and Lars Hamberger. This one is mostly pictures of developing fetuses, so he could flip through it while the Spurs were on.

Complete Book of Pregnancy and Childbirth by Sheila Kitzinger. This was light on the pregnancy part and heavy on the labor/delivery and first months of living with the baby parts. Maybe that made it a little less abstract or something. I really liked it, too. It has less "eating this will make your baby stupid" stuff in it than "What To Expect." I don't think my husband actually read the whole thing, but I caught him looking at it, so I'm counting it.

Planning for Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond from the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. We didn't like this one. It was like talking to a doctor for hundreds of pages. An old doctor. There weren't even any pictures. BORING.

The Thinking Woman's Guide to Better Birth by Henci Goer. Whenever I accuse my husband of not reading anything about the baby, he falls back on this one because he really did read it all the way through. This is not a book about being pregnant, but more about things that happen at the hospital during labor. It's probably why we're not having the baby at the hospital if we can help it, since hospitals don't come off very well. But he read it -- the whole thing!

What To Expect When You're Expecting by Heidi Murkoff. My husband hates this book and as time goes by, the more I'm starting to agree with him. I use it as a reference -- have you ever looked at your lunch and wondered if bean sprouts were dangerous to the baby? Check the book, they are! -- but sitting and reading it through is pretty tedious. I'm starting to see it as a catolog of crap I'm not allowed to do anymore.

Free Range Kids by Lenore Skenazy. Technically, this is more of a parenting book for people who have kids -- older kids, even, like older than seven or eight years old. But this is one my husband picked out all by himself and gave to me as a gift, so I'm going to count it anyway. The book is based on a lovely idea: wouldn't it be great if kids had a little more freedom and parents didn't have to stand over them all the time making sure they did everything just right? Not really having any experience as a parent, it's hard for me to say just yet if the advice in this book is actually doable. But I love the concept and I'm going to see if I can implement it when the time is right. I'm not looking foward to driving my kid to school every single day when it's less than a mile's walk (through a neighborhood no less) from the house.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to return to my new hobby: making sure my child doesn't end named for the Spurs starting line up.

The end of morning sickness? Do I dare hope?

2010-01-03T12:41:00.000-08:00

I had a relapse over Christmas that probably came from eating too much and laying down too soon after I ate. But since then, I've felt consistently good and I've even started to have more energy (I thought this was all supposed to happen a month ago, but I guess it's bette late than never).

On Friday, I felt great until I had some Chex Mix and last night I noticed the queasiness returned after I had a handful of tortilla chips, so I'm going on the path of the very heathy eater. But if it can make me feel better, I don't care what I have to do.

I May Officially Hate "What To Expect" Now

2009-12-30T08:56:00.000-08:00

Thanks to this gem they emailed me today: their advice on Clothing Size During Pregnancy:

Believe me, there's no such thing as a typical pregnant body — but some women find it more challenging than others to find a decent frock that fits.

This much is true. Nothing fits me right. Maternity clothes, even the so-called form fitting styles, are like tents on me. Generally, I’d say I’m a size large in shirts, but in maternity shirts I am a medium, and lately even some of those have been too big (because my stomach is the part that is growing, not my shoulders but the people who make these things don't always realize that). But smalls are too small because they don’t contain any room for boobs.

But, let’s let our friends at “What To Expect” continue – what wonderful advice do they have for me, the clueless first time pregnant lady who's down to wearing pajamas all day? Hand me some wisdom, o wise ones.

At 19 weeks pregnant ... the Internet may be the best place to find maternity clothes that actually work for you.

Oh, right, the Internet. Like I didn’t already think of that. But when even trying on clothes in what is supposed to be my right size in a store is leaving me confused, how is a thumbnail pic of a model supposed to make it all better? Come on, “What To Expect,” restore my faith:

Use a search engine to scout out resources.

Oh, really? A search engine? On the internet? Pardon me, but you suck.

For a moment, I thought maybe I was just being a cranky pregnant lady. Maybe you’ve heard, we have mood swings. But come on, can’t they even suggest A PLACE to check out on the internet? One or two online stores who have reliable sizing? Or a friendly return policy? Instead, they cheerfully hand out NOTHING. I think I'm switching to the Babycenter.com emails.

Ruined Lounge Pants

2009-12-27T12:25:00.000-08:00

I'm in the awesome stage of being between regular clothes and maternity clothes right now (that's sarcasm). I have been living in my lounge/sweat/yoga pants, since they are about the only thing that fits. I looked at them the other day and realized that the waistband is completely pulled apart and ruined. I guess once the baby comes, I won't ever want to look at them again anyway, right? Unless, oh God, they are the only thing that fits me again. Bleh.

No Maternity Work Out Clothes

2009-12-19T08:11:00.000-08:00

My dobok pants officially do not fit. I wore yoga pants to class and felt very exposed. Guess what no one makes? Maternity martial arts uniforms. I realize it would be quite a niche market, but I can't exactly make my own. I could learn, I guess, but I've vowed that I will never learn how to use a sewing machine. I'll do any other domestic chores -- cooking, baking, cleaning (well, I'm bad about cleaning, too), antiquing, gardening, canning, shopping at garage sales, whatever! -- as long as I can avoid the sewing machine.

I figure I may make it a few more months before my dobok shirt stops fitting. The belt is already getting too small. By January, I may have to resort to looping it around my giant belly once instead of twice.

Back to Class!

2009-12-17T08:43:00.000-08:00

Last night, I finally made it back to the dojang for class. I had been skipping lately, mostly due to the morning-all-day-all-night sickness. When I have been in the past, it felt like working out on a stomach full of bad tacos -- everything would get all shook up and I would be on the verge of puking within about 20 minutes. Good times.

But last night was different. For one thing, since Wednesday night is Forms Night at my school, I was able to participate with the rest of the class instead of working out on my own. I guess I forgot that the peer pressure of working out in a group is one of the reasons why I prefer martial arts to, say, an eliptical machine. I give up when I'm on my own, but I'm too proud to quit when other people are doing it with me.

I felt pretty good during class. Now that I am four months pregnant, I noticed that I got winded more quickly than usual, but I also recovered pretty quickly, so it didn't seem too bad. Stretching felt good and was also harder than it used to be, but that may just be because I have been absent from class. I know I am supposed to be doing yoga at home, but that hurts, so I have been avoiding it.

For part of the class, I took a new girl aside and showed her tae geuk Il Jang (yellow belt form). She is transferring from another school where they learned some other kind of forms, so she has to learn the ones we do before she is allowed to promote. The first three forms are all very similar to each other and I warned her that even those of us who have been doing them forever get them confused, so I told her to practice a lot over the holiday break.

At the end of the hour, our instructor asked the black belts to perform Koryo and Tae Bek. Nothing like a double side kick to make a girl feel like a giant whale. I remembered all the steps, but my moves are not as crisp as I want them to be. Sigh. Always something to work on.

Walking The Dog

2009-12-11T12:22:00.000-08:00

Mornig sickness is making trips to the dojang inconvenient, so I've been trying to walk the dog every day instead. I have to admit that one of the very best things about being home all day is that I can get outside on nice afternoons (and cold, soggy ones) to take him out. The only downside is that I am frequently reminded on our walks that I'm going to need to get a stroller soon. I don't want to shop for that. They are all so ugly.

Review: What To Expect When You're Expecting

2009-12-09T07:36:00.000-08:00

As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I went out and bought this book; I thought it was the one everyone bought and, to be honest, I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about it. The pregnancy/childbirth section of any bookstore is enough to make you completely overwhelmed, especially if you don't know what you are looking for, so I didn't bother looking around at anything else. Then I went to the doctor to get my diagnosis confirmed and the nurse was rather dismayed that I had already purchased "What To Expect."

She told me it wasn't a very good one. "It's a little scary sometimes," she said. Instead, she rcommended some other books that I did eventually check out from the library and look through. I'll probably write about them later.

I haven't found "What To Expect" to be scary so far (I haven't read the chapter on labor and delivery yet because, well, that part of my brain is not really ready to engage in that part of my future). Mostly, I just find it ridiculous as it continually lists the nine thousand or so things pregnant ladies should never do. Wait, let me take that back. It lists the nine thousand or so every day items and actions you've never thought about before and tells you that you shouldn't do them anymore. And while it does point out that while you're an adult and you can do whatever you want, most of these things just might kill/injure/maim/ruin/otherwise make stupid your unborn baby -- and don't you want the best future possible for your family?

A perfect example is the section on alcohol. Now, for me, even before I got knocked up, I knew it wasn't a great idea to drink while you were pregnant -- I knew about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). But I've also known a lot of friends who didn't find out they were pregnant until the first few months had passed, and they drank during that time, and nothing bad happened to them or their babies. According to "What To Expect," "there's no evidence that a couple of drinks on a couple of occasions very early in pregnancy can harm a developing embryo." But this is followed up with five long paragraphs telling you why you'd better stop drinking immediately. The advice is conflicting and probably for good reason -- if you drank before you knew you were pregnant, there's no way to rewind the clock, so it's no good worrying about it now, but to provide "the best" for your baby you have to start following the rules as soon as you read this chapter.

I'm using the alcohol section as an example because the danger of doing something to the baby is real (although they point out that FAS usually comes from having 5-6 drinks A DAY, something I don't know if I've ever done, not even in college). But the advice about, say, feta cheese and lunch meat sounds just as stern -- you can easily read the subtext as "you'll ruin your baby!" Same with the advice about spending too much time in hot tubs or the effects of sleeping on your back after the fourth month. Same with the advice about wearing high heels or gaining too much weight in the first trimester. They all have the same manner of, "if you didn't know about it before, don't worry too much, but NOW THAT YOU KNOW YOU HAVE TO QUIT!"

The list of things I can't or shouldn't do, or things that will, I don't know, make the baby stupid or something, is practically endless. And in reading this book, it's kind of hard to keep straight which things are actual dangers (too hot hot tubs), which things are just cautions (unpasturized feta) and which things simply increase your chances of falling down (high heels). You don't read it like that, or at least I don't. I read and make a mental list of "things to avoid" and at the end, I have no idea why. I just know that the list is growing with every chapter.

I'm glad I read the other books my doctor recommended because they were a lot less picky about the details, which really put this one into perspective for me.

(Quote is from "What To Expect" 2002 edition because I am cheap and bought it used.)

The Trouble With Yoga

2009-12-05T11:30:00.000-08:00

Practicing a martial art, as a woman, comes with its own set of problems. I faced a lot of these as I worked toward my black belt, and continued to face a lot of them even after I had it. They range from petty things, like working out in an all white uniform during my period or having trouble finding a uniform that actually fit over my hips, to things that I consider more serious: dealing with my fears of fighting and maybe hurting other people, yelling out loud in front of other people, being told I need to be tougher and/or quit acting like a "baby" ("baby" in this case probably meaning "girl").

I generally try to understand these problems in the greater context of martial arts. I put up with them all because I feel that the trade off benefits me. In other words, I like the best parts of martial arts so much that they make up for the annoying or bad parts. Even the worst day the dojang (and I've had them) is better than the best day on the elipical machine, at least for me.

But I do complain about the problems to my friends and family on occasion, usually after yet another person gets hurt in class when it could have been prevented, or when another woman in class says she feels uncomfortable around one of the more macho black belts, or when I put my uniform in the dryer and suddenly it's too small. For years, I have listened to my friends and family offer solutions, and one comes up more often than any other: Why don't you just switch to yoga?

Ah, yoga. No matter how genuinely and gently the advice is offered, I usually hear it as "martial arts is for boys and yoga is for girls, so you should switch." I'm sure this comes from my own neuroses after conversations with my mom when she kept asking, "Now, remind me, why did you pick taekwondo again?" My answers -- I like it, and it's fun -- were never good enough, not until I had my black belt. After that, I guess she stopped wondering when I was going to change to something saner.

I guess people make the connection between martial arts and yoga because they both involve some kind of spiritual component in addition to the exercise -- so, if I had chosen taekwondo for its spiritual side, maybe they would have a point. But I didn't. I did it to be more like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. Other than the meditative/spiritual thing, the comparison kind of falls apart. Taekwondo is very active, a high impact, very cardiovascular exercise, while yoga is the only exercise I have ever tried where they offered a nap at the end of class ("Go ahead and relax, meditate, and if you fall asleep, that's ok"). In taekwondo, you use the various training methods to gain flexibility and strength so that you can defend yourself if/when the time comes; in yoga, while you're also working for better flexibility, I'm not sure I understand what it leads to. Maybe so that afterward you feel more at peace with yourself? I find the concept of "hit this, you'll feel better," works a lot more for me. When I'm done with a yoga class, I feel fine, but not like I actually worked out or accomplished anything.

Or, to boil it down to the basics: taekwondo is fun and interesting, while yoga is just s-l-o-w-l-y frustrating and kind of boring.

Having said that, I'm pretty sure that yoga is, in fact, easier for girls. You can pick your own clothes instead of wearing a specific uniform. You never have to engage with anyone else in class. You never have to hit anyone or break anything. If someone is acting like a macho jerk, you can probably get him thrown out of class. There are no tests to pass or heirachy system to learn. And when you're done with class, everyone goes to Whole Foods for some green tea, instead of the pizza and beer we have, right? (Kidding! Everyone knows beer makes your unborn baby stupid [ok, that was sarcasm].)

But, am I only supposed to do things that are easier for me? Am I supposed to decide which things I want to do by how easy and accessible they are? Sure, it would be nice if someone, anyone (hint, hint, bored sewing machine user on etsy) would start making martial arts uniforms with grown up female bodies in mind, but that's only going to happen if more women start training instead of switching over to yoga when the going gets rough. I'll admit, one of the benefits of studying martial arts is the little feeling I have when I leave class, when I know I've just done something other women won't do, or are too scared to do. When I land a kick or a punch during a sparring session, there's always a little thrill of victory for me, even if I don't come out ahead at the end of the match.

Why the railing against yoga today? Well, wouldn't you know it, but the one kind of exercise everyone (friends, neighbors, doctors, midwives, books) seems to think is the best is for a pregnant lady is pre-natal yoga. I don't really want to do it -- I've spent the last six or seven years trying to convince everyone I know that yoga just isn't my thing, so the last thing I want to do is defect just because I have a belly.

But, in the interest of equal opportunity, I'm going to dip my toes in and give it a shot in addition to attending regular taekwondo class. Maybe the nap that comes at the end of pre-natal yoga class cures morning sickness or makes the baby smarter or something. We'll see how it goes.

Searching for Stuff

2009-12-01T07:02:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to do my internet research like a good girl, but seriously, there isn't much out there on the topic of "martial arts" + "pregnant."

I found this: http://www.pregnancytoday.com/articles/healthy-safe-pregnancy/martial-arts-for-the-mom-to-be-769/ It mostly talks about tai chi and kick boxing, but the principles seem to be the same.

http://www.pregnancy.org/question/what-precautions-continue-kickboxing. This is specifically about kick boxing, but it sounds like the same stuff as taekwondo kicking.

http://www.centrical.com/blog/8862111798780185820/martial-arts-and-pregnancy.html. I find this one the most comprehensive and yet, it's the one written by a guy. Don't pregnant ladies ever write about their training?

http://www.defend.net/deluxeforums/womens-counter-offensive-discussion-forum/27243-mt-pregnancy-conditioning-bag-work-etc.html. This one wins points for talking about how practicing falls and rolls can help when you fall in real life. Cuz us pregnant ladies have no balance. I'm still waiting for the day I actually fall down for the first time.

http://www.pocatelloparents.com/2009/01/26/tae-kwon-do-during-pregnancy. Yay! Finally, I find evidence that pregnant ladies have successfully gone to taekwondo. She went to class on a Thursday, gave birth the following Saturday. It sounds like her training was all "no contact," which is not what my school does, but still.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkQcJVhvsoM. Favorite thing I found today. A woman who is nine-months pregnant does koryo, the black belt form. I love that at the end she says the baby is kicking now.

Thanksgiving Weekend Morning Sickness

2009-11-29T16:05:00.000-08:00

Sorry to keep posting about how sick I am, but what can I say? It's the biggest thing going on right now.

This weekend, after a great Thanksgiving dinner with family, my husband and I went camping. Who goes camping when they're pregnant, you may ask. Well, we tried to go camping about six weeks ago, but I was too ill. I felt bad, so this was my compromise, and on Friday when we left, I felt great.

On Saturday, after a breakfast of hash browns, spam, and duck eggs (maybe this is where we started to go wrong), we went for a leisurely hike. Our plan was to walk three miles down the trail, have a little picnic lunch, and wander back. Instead, we walked out 1.5 miles, stopped for a snack because I felt gross, walked about half mile, stopped for lunch because we realized I wasn't going to make it three miles. On the way back, I made it maybe a quarter of a mile before I puked it all up.

But, looking on the bright side, my husband now believes me when I say I'm not feeling well. Huzzah!

Alcohol Free Merlot: FAIL

2009-11-26T16:06:00.000-08:00

Here's something I learned at Thanksgiving dinner this year: avoid all pretend wines.

No kidding, you say. Well, I had fond memories of Sparkling Catabwa from Christmas dinners from my childhood, so I thought maybe they would be worth a shot. First up: Welch's Sparkling Juice Cocktail. This one was so sweet it was like drinking Sprite mixed with grape juice concentrate. Please, don't ever buy this for an adult person.

The real revelation was the Fre Merlot, labeled "alcohol removed." Surely this would be a step up? According to the back of the bottle, this stuff is "19% juice." Maybe when you remove the alcohol, you remove 19% of the wine? And you have to fill up the rest of the bottle with ... juice? That's sure what it tasted like. If you enjoy your merlot with a big shot of Welch's grape juice in it, this might be the drink for you.

Otherwise, no.

Martial Arts + Morning Sickness

2009-11-22T07:42:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure why I thought this, but I always figured being pregnant would be easy. Maybe it's because my own mom never had any trouble being pregnant. Maybe it's because I have big hips. I don't know. But I should have guessed that since very little comes easily to me, this would be no different.

I am currently suffering from pretty terrible morning sickness. Let's not call it morning sickness, though. Let's call it what it is: 24-hour sickness. Simply put, I'm nauceous for most of every day, and then sleepness through most of the night, and if I take a nap during the day to make up for it, I wake up with the worst of the sickness. It's a big ball of yuck right now.

I went to class last night. The "What To Expect" book claims that exercise can help with feelings of nausea, so I was very excited to try this out. Fix me, taekwondo! I went through the warm up like normal, and it felt good to stretch out. After that, since the rest of the class was going to be practicing a lot of running and jumping and skipping sparring steps, I stepped aside and practiced forms on my own.

Relegated to the very edge of the mat, I didn't have much room to work with. I had talked to the instructor about it before class, and he seemed to be on board -- after I assured him that I was capable of working out in my "condition" -- but he didn't bother to make any room for me. The rest of the class did line drills up and down the mat, so when they came into my little area by the edge, I had to step aside until they went back down to the other end.

But it almost didn't matter, because within half an hour, I was on the verge of throwing up anyway. The best way I can describe what the morning sickness feels like is that it's like a bad hangover. I feel gross and icky inside, and all I really want to do is eat french fries and take a nap. It's been like this for a while now, so I obviously can't give in to those desires all the time. Working out is ... very different now. I've never come to class with a bad hangover, and now I can see exactly why: moving around -- the kicks, and even just turning around during forms -- churn up my insides. Churns them into throw up. It's like the movements aggrevate my stomach acid or something.

Last night, I tried my best to do forms for half an hour after the warm up. I didn't quite make it. After that, I tried to meditate, but the motion-sickness feeling got worse when I closed my eyes. Finally, I just excused myself from class and drove to a fast food place for some french fries and a vanilla milkshake. They tasted heavenly and I felt better immediately.

Martials Arts While Pregnant

2009-11-20T07:36:00.000-08:00

Because taekwondo includes a wide variety of exercises, I figured it would be pretty easy to modify it for the pregnant body. Even though my body doesn't look pregnant yet. It just looks like I gained fifteen pounds. Fun.

In general, it's really just a matter of avoiding getting kicked in the baby area. And not falling down. I hear us pregnant ladies fall dwn a lot. I haven't fallen down yet, but I have walked into the coffee table at least half a dozen times. Does that count?

For the kind of taekwondo I practice (WTF/Olympic style), this boils down to:

No sparring, not even light contact or no contact, because accidents can happen. I mean, I was sparring a six year old over the summer and he managed to punch me in the eye. At least I think that was an accident.
No self-defense practice. It's the whole "don't fall down" thing, I guess.
No jumping techniques. Cuz I might fall!
Limited or no sit-ups, ab workouts, or strength training that requires me to be on my back. Sit ups have been feeling funny lately anyway. I don't think that part of me is in the same place as it was three months ago.
Lots of forms. These are my favorite anyway, so yay!
Lots of stretching.
Lots of kicking and punching.

I think I will be able to modify most of the training exercises on the spot during class. I also plan to work out on my own when necessary. And, perhaps most importantly, I'm going to give myself a break when I feel like it. It should help that the weather is a lot cooler now and I won't have to work out in hundred-degree-plus temps anymore (last summer was a tough one).

Exercising While Pregnant

2009-11-18T07:04:00.000-08:00

I hope this can become a theme of this blog, because I am discovering that working out while pregnant is a little trickier than I originally thoughtit would be. I belong to a dojang where I study taekwondo, and since I started seven or so years ago, I have worked out with one woman who was pregnant and heard rumors that there had been another one before I arrived -- so I didn't think it would be a big deal to keep doing martial arts when I got pregnant. Yes, there are modifications to make, and I will probably go into those in another post, but a lot of it can transfer quite easily. Forms, my favorite part of taekwondo, are just fine.

However.

A few weeks ago, I went to the doctor to confirm my pregnancy and had an unpleasant conversation with the nurse. There were about a million forms to fill out and I had to check off all kinds of boxes about my own medical history and that of my family. One of the questions: what kind of exercise do you do?

I put down everything: martial arts, cycling, walking, jogging, swimming. The nurse went over my forms with me and when we got to that question, she told me that walking and swimming were just fine. Martial arts and jogging would need to be modified (I was expecting that). And then she told me I had to quit riding my bike. I was shocked, and then she gave me her explanation:

"You don't want to get hit by a car, do you?"

Now, I'll admit that she was right. I don't want to get hit by a car. In fact, I would include that item pretty high on a list of things I never want to happen to me. But what does it have to do with being pregnant? I mean, let's face it -- I would rather not get hit by a car even when I'm not with child.

My husband helped me buy my first bike shortly before we got married, about three or four years ago. He loves to bike around town, and we made a habit of biking to dinner, to the movies, downtown, to the bar, anywhere we wanted to go. I commuted to work by bike about twice a week when I had a job and it was about eight miles each direction. In all this time -- riding on the road with traffic, riding at night, riding out in the country, riding downtown at rush hour -- I have been hit by a car exactly zero times.

I was a little upset at the nurse's answer, because it was so obviously bullsh*t. And if she was feeding me garbage about cycling, then I had to face the possibility that everything she told me during that meeting was garbage. (And since one of the other things she said was that I would "never remember anything" from that meeting, and I can still recall most of it, I don't think I actually believe anything she told me. I switched to a different practice.)

But dealing with this nurse throws into high relief something I'm learning about being pregnant: there's no way to make everyone happy. Most non-pregnant people seem to think you should be on the couch with your feet up most of the time, except then you read in all the books about how fat you are going to get if you don't start working out more. But don't work out too much or you are going to faint and/or end up with a stupid baby or something. So. I can't make everyone happy. I can just do a little research on the things I like to do and try to keep myself and my unborn kid safe.

Whatever I find out in my search, I'll put it here.

Black Belt + Baby =

2009-11-16T13:13:00.000-08:00

... a black belt a little unsure of what the hell is going to happen next.

I recently found out that my husband and I are expecting a baby, due next June. We have always talked about having kids and were planning to start trying this fall, so it's not like this is unexpected in any way. But as I've already discovered, everyone seems to love giving pregnant ladies advice, and since I'm very used to making my own decisions, I'm not exactly sure I'm looking forward to that.

But I'm looking forward to being pregnant and working out at the dojang throughout my pregnancy. And I'm looking forward to having a baby and bringing him/her/whomever to the dojang with me and my husband. I guess we'll have to work out who gets to take care of the baby and who gets to work out, but there's plenty of time for that kind of deal-making later.