Giving Birth to a Yeti

I realized the other day that I haven't said much on this blog about my pregnancy since mentioning I was pregnant a few weeks ago.  Though it didn't seem like a big deal to me to keep quiet as I feel like it's kind of a private situation and doesn't really need to be blabbed about on social media, being that I have a bad history in regards to pregnancy, my lack of discussion made a few people nervous and afraid to ask what's going on.

So let me clear the air ...

Yes!  I am happy and healthy and pregnant!!  In fact, I just cleared 16 weeks this past Friday.  So I am officially 4 months pregnant and well into my 2nd trimester.

Technically, this is me a week or two prior to

the 4 month mark, but you get the idea.

"Bascom Baby", Madison, WI

And also ... Yes!  I am still working out as much as I can, although at a lower intensity and with some modifications when moves don't feel quite right.  For me these days, modifications mean things like: less running, more lower impact cardio, less forward folding, keeping up with swimming, and going a little lighter in terms of weight when choosing my dumbbells for the day. 

And for the record ... No.  I don't know what I'm having yet, though I'm looking forward to finding out.  I'll be 20 weeks in early December, so I see a special gift from Santa coming on the horizon.  A boy?  A girl?  We will see!

That all being said, on the downside of being pregnant, I feel like I have heartburn like ... All.  The.  Time.  And no matter what I eat, it seems to come and go as it feels fit.  Hence my latest trip to Costco.

 

And yes.  That is an economy pack of chocolate chip cookies.  I like them right now, ok?!

Speaking of eating while pregnant, apparently a "new" study released has people all wound up about Starbucks Cups maternity diet habits in the US.  The article I read was titled New Study Reveals What Half of Pregnant Moms Have Too Much of And People Are Not Happy About It.

Of course, I took the bait and read the article.  And afterwards I was like ... are you serious?!  People are really upset about this?

Here's the scoop: approximately half of pregnant women in the US are eating too much.  No surprise there, right?  There's a reason we have an obesity epidemic here, and let me tell you, it's not just pregnant women who are eating too much.

Anyway.

So, the article says pregnant women in the US are eating too much.  Which means they're gaining too much weight.  Again, no surprise there.  You eat too much, you gain weight.  Action meet consequence.

The article continued on to mention national guidelines for weight gain and caloric intake in pregnancy.  The same guidelines I am following per my doctor's office RIGHT NOW AS I AM PREGNANT. 

The guidelines mentioned in the article are as follows:

“Unusually thin” women: gain between 30 to 40 pounds

Normal weight: gain 25 to 35 pounds

Overweight women: gain 15 to 25 pounds

Obese women: gain 10 to 20 pounds

 Pregnant women only need 350-450 extra calories per day (which I actually think is too high, since everything else I read says 300, and actually 200 or less if you're overweight prior to becoming pregnant)

Using these guidelines, I am pretty much right on to where I need to be.  And while I haven't had any SUPER CRAZY urges to eat yet and am only at week 16ish, I can somewhat confidently say ... I haven't felt deprived or hungry yet either.

Well, strike that.  I feel hungry a lot.  But then I eat ... reasonably (at least most of the time anyway, just ignore that economy pack of chocolate chip cookies I took a photo of up there) ... and then I feel fine.

So you can see why I walked away from this article somewhat rolling my eyes already, and I haven't even gotten to telling you the best part.  Because here's where it gets good.  They continued on in the article to say that by publishing the above guidelines, many people feel the CDC is body shaming pregnant women.

Uh ... what?!

I read the article like 10 times trying to figure out how the hell publishing a healthy guideline for weight gain in pregnancy is body shaming.  I mean ... did I miss the part of the guideline where it said "and any woman who gains anything outside of these guidelines shall be tormented daily and lashed 30 times with a wet noodle"? 

Or maybe the people upset missed the entire part of pregnancy called "Risks and DEATH"?!

So of course, I couldn't help but post a comment on the Facebook thread where I originally discovered the article.  Which yes, was posted by George Takei:

Ok.  Maybe I should have just bitten my tongue and moved on.  But I just couldn't. 

Hopefully that doesn't come back to bite me, too.  LOL!

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What are your thoughts on the CDC pregnancy weight gain guidelines?  Do they encourage body shaming?  Did you try to adhere to them in your pregnancy?  Feel free to comment below.