What to expect when you're expecting (89 page)

This exercise strengthens and tones your thighs and is particularly useful for women who plan to deliver in the squatting position. To begin, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Keeping your back straight, bend at the knees and slowly lower yourself as close to the ground as you comfortably can, keeping your feet flat on the floor. If you can’t, try moving your feet farther apart. Hold the squat for 10 to 30 seconds, then slowly come back to a standing position. Repeat five times. (Note: Squats are fine, but avoid lunges and deep knee bends because your joints will be more prone to injury.)

Weight training.
Using weights can increase your muscle tone, but it’s important to avoid heavy weights or those that require grunting or breath holding, which may compromise blood flow to the uterus. Use light weights with multiple repetitions instead.

Yoga.
Yoga encourages relaxation, focus, and paying attention to your breathing—so it’s just about perfect for pregnancy (and great preparation for childbirth, as well as for parenting). It also increases oxygenation (bringing more oxygen to the baby. and increases flexibility, making pregnancy—and delivery—easier. Select a class that’s specifically tailored to expectant women or ask your instructor how to modify poses so that they’re safe for you. For instance, you won’t be able to exercise on your back after the fourth month, and your center of gravity changes with pregnancy, so you’ll have to adjust your favorite poses accordingly. One important caveat: Avoid Bikram yoga. It’s done in a hot room (one that’s generally 90°F to 100°F), and you need to pass on any exercises that heat you up too much.

Pilates.
Pilates is similar to yoga in that it’s a low- to no-impact discipline that improves your flexibility, strength, and muscle tone. The focus is on strengthening your core, which will improve your posture and ease backaches. Look for
a class specifically tailored to pregnant women, or let your instructor know that you’re expecting so you can avoid pregnancy-inappropriate moves (including those that overstretch).

Waist Twists

If you’ve been sitting for a while or just feel generally tensed up or uncomfortable, try this easy circulation-boosting move. Stand up and place your feet shoulder-width apart. Twist gently from the waist, slowly turning from side to side. Keep your back straight and let your arms swing freely. Can’t get up? You can even do this exercise while you’re sitting.

Tai chi.
An ancient form of meditative exercises, tai chi’s basic slow movements allow even the stiffest person the opportunity to relax and strengthen the body without the risk of injury. If you’re comfortable with it and have plenty of experience, it’s fine to continue tai chi when you’re expecting. Look for pregnancy-specific classes, or only do moves that you can easily complete—take care with the balancing poses.

Exercise in Bed

Have you been sent to bed (rest)? Not only will continuing to flex your muscles (in a modified way) be possible, it’ll be extra important. See
page 571
for more.

Breathing.
Believe it or not, you even get exercise credit for breathing—at least, if you do it right. Deep breathing is relaxing, improves body awareness, and allows for better oxygen intake than the shallow chest breaths most people take. Here’s how to do it: Sit up straight and place your hands on your belly. Feel it rise and fall as you inhale (through your nose, unless it’s too stuffy) and exhale (out your mouth). Concentrate on your
breathing by counting: As you inhale, count to 4; as you exhale, count to 6. Try taking a few minutes each day to focus on breathing deeply.

Exercising during pregnancy can certainly do the average pregnant body good. But sitting it out (whether by choice or on practitioner’s orders) and getting most of your exercise from opening and closing your car door won’t hurt, either. In fact, if you’re abstaining from exercise on practitioner’s orders, you’re helping your baby and yourself. Your practitioner will almost certainly restrict exercise if you have a history of miscarriages or of premature labor, or if you have an incompetent cervix, bleeding or persistent spotting in the second or third trimester, heart disease, or a diagnosis of placenta previa or preeclampsia. Your activity may also be limited if you’re expecting multiples; have high blood pressure, thyroid disease, anemia or other blood disorders, or a fetus that isn’t thriving; are seriously over- or underweight; or have had an extremely sedentary lifestyle up until now. A history of precipitous (very brief) labor or of a fetus that didn’t thrive in a previous pregnancy might also be a reason for a red light (or at least a yellow one) on exercise. In some cases, arm-only exercises or water workouts designed for pregnancy may be okayed when other exercises are taboo. Check with your practitioner for your pregnancy exercise protocol.

Chest Stretches

Pregnancy changes your posture and center of gravity, and it causes you to make a number of new and strange bodily adjustments—many of which can lead to aches and pains. Gently stretching your chest muscles will help you feel more comfortable while improving your circulation. Here’s how: With your arms bent and at shoulder level, grasp both sides of a doorway. Lean forward, feeling the stretch in your chest. Hold this position for 10 to 20 seconds and release; do five reps.

W
HAT WAS ONCE COMPLETELY
abstract is fast becoming palpable, literally. Chances are that sometime this month or the beginning of the next, you will feel your baby’s movements for the first time. That miraculous sensation, along with the serious rounding of your belly, will finally make the pregnancy feel more like a reality. Though your baby is far from ready to make a personal appearance in the nursery, it’s really nice to know for sure there’s actually someone in there.

Week 18
At 5½ inches long and about 5 ounces in weight (as much as that chicken breast you’re having for dinner, but a lot cuter), your baby is filling out nicely and getting large enough that you might even be feeling those twists, rolls, kicks, and punches he or she is perfecting. Another set of skills your baby is mastering now is yawning and hiccupping (you might even begin to feel those hiccups soon!). And your one-of-a-kind baby is truly one of a kind now, complete with unique fingerprints on his or her fingertips and toes.

Week 19
This week your baby is hitting the growth charts at 6 inches long and a full half pound in weight. What fruit is it this week? Your baby’s about the size of a large mango. A mango dipped in greasy cheese, actually. Vernix caseosa—a greasy white protective substance (it resembles cheese)—now covers your baby’s sensitive skin, protecting it from the surrounding amniotic fluid. Without that protection, your baby would look very wrinkled at birth. The coating sheds as delivery approaches, but some babies born early
are still covered with vernix at delivery.

Week 20
You’ve got a baby the size of a small cantaloupe in your melon-size belly this week, about 10 ounces and 6½ inches (crown to rump). Your ultrasound this month should be able to detect—if you want to know—whether your baby is a boy or a girl. And oh boy—or oh girl—has that baby been busy. If you’re having a girl, her uterus is fully formed, her ovaries are holding about 7 million primitive eggs (though at birth, the number of eggs will be closer to 2 million), and her vaginal canal is starting to develop. If you’re having a boy, his testicles have begun their descent from the abdomen. In a few months, they’ll drop into the scrotum (which is still under construction). Luckily for your baby, he or she still has plenty of room in your womb, which means there’s plenty of space for twisting, turning, kicking, punching, and even an occasional somersault. If you haven’t felt these acrobatics yet, you almost certainly will in the coming weeks.

Week 21
How big is baby this week? About 7 inches in length (think large banana) and almost 11 ounces in weight. And talking about bananas, you might want to eat some this week if you’d like your baby to have a taste for them. Some carrots, too. That’s because amniotic fluid differs from day to day depending on what you’ve eaten (hot chili one day, sweet banana another), and now that your baby is swallowing amniotic fluid each day (for hydration, nutrition, and also to get practice swallowing and digesting), he or she will be getting a taste of—and a taste for—whatever’s on your menu. Here’s another baby update: Arms and legs are finally in proportion, neurons are now connected between the brain and muscles, and cartilage throughout the body is turning to bone. Which means that when your baby makes his or her moves (which you’re probably feeling by now), they’re much more coordinated—no more jerky twitches.

Your Baby, Month 5

Week 22
Forget about ounces, baby. This week, we’re talking a whopping weight of 1 pound and a length of nearly 8 inches, about the size of a small doll. But your doll is a living one—with developing senses, including touch, sight, hearing, and taste. What’s your baby touching? He or she may grab onto the umbilical cord (there’s not much else to hang onto in there) and practice the strong grip that will soon be clutching your fingers (and pulling on your hair). What’s your baby seeing? Though it’s dark in the uterine cocoon—and even with fused eyelids—fetuses this age can perceive light and dark. If you shine a flashlight over your belly, you might feel your baby react, perhaps trying to turn away from the “bright” light. What’s your baby hearing. The sound of your voice and that of your partner, your heart beating, the whoosh-whoosh of your blood circulating through your body, those gastric gurgles produced by your stomach and intestines, the dog barking, sirens, a loud TV. And what’s your baby tasting? Pretty much everything you’re tasting (so pass the salad).

As always, remember that every pregnancy and every woman is different. You may experience all of these symptoms at one time or another, or only a few of them. Some may have continued from last month; others may be new. Still others may be hardly noticed because you’ve become so used to them. You may also have other, less common, symptoms. Here’s what you might experience this month:

A Look Inside