I had a reader ask me yesterday how I am handling being pregnant and being a full-time Nursing Student.

I can answer that in one easy sentence: it’s hard, but what ya gonna do? You make it work.

I am really thankful that I am in an Accelerated Program. I graduated with my first Bachelors in 2007 and am now pursuing my Bachelors of Science in Nursing. Instead of two years of dedicated Nursing courses, my program is crammed into 14 months.

That means I have more clinical hours, more classes, and more tests crammed into a much shorter time period. That means I’m a little more tired then perhaps the “traditional program” and I never feel like I am able to learn the material like I want to. It sucks sometimes.

However, I’m so thankful that I did choose the shorter program because that means that I am ALMOST done.

I am done July 31st. I’m due July 19th. The program and my instructors are happy to work with me if any accommodations need to be made. The summer semester consists of 180 Clinical Hours (which I hope will be spent in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) . I know that’ll be tough when I am 8-9 months pregnant, but it is what it is.

I’ve changed the way I look at school. I’m much more conscious of my time because I can’t afford to stay up late and wake up early like I was in previous semesters. It means I get my shit done when it’s needed. I’m always in bed at 10:30 and I do my best to make my time count when I am awake. My body (and the baby) need as much rest as possible–especially on clinical days where I am working and on my feet.  No more late night cramming for me!

Another thing that has changed is I have to be careful when in the hospital taking care of patients. Contact rooms, different diagnosis, etc have to be avoided now to keep  us healthy.

It’s not ideal and I wouldn’t’ recommend getting pregnant while in school. It’s not the best option, but sometimes you have to just go with the flow and deal with what life gives you. In the words of Nike, just do it and try not to complain too much in the process.

I think that it’s preparing me for days ahead. I know that motherhood will be 100 times more difficult then what I am experiencing now.

And in the meantime, I’m enjoying my time learning and spending time with friends. It’s the last time I’ll be “in college” and I love the afternoons spent studying and laughing with the friends I’ve made in the program.

Like lunches out.

I didn’t have preplanning on Monday this week, so no scrubs for me.

Kirby surprised us with this to share at the end of the meal…

Thank goodness for Kaiser’s and good friends.

Life doesn’t end or stop just because you’re in school. And it certainly doesn’t end because you’re pregnant.

We all just do the best we can each day with the situations we are given. My situation is no different.

Hello hello.

I’m still alive, but just never blog. I decided that I need to start and TRY because my life is exciting and I have a lot going on these days. I’d like to have some sort of record to remember this time in my life.

I’m sitting in class waiting for it to start, but I had a few minutes and wanted to do a quick pregnancy update. I’d love to update more of my life, but I have no time at the moment.

This picture was taken at 14 weeks. I’m 18 weeks now—and honestly, I don’t think I look that much different.

My pregnant life feels much like my normal life. I study, spend time working at the hospital, and then spend the rest of time spending time with friends while I can.

I’m not craving anything specific, although sweets are of no interest to me these days. I’d much rather have pizza and Mexican over a cupcake or cookie any day.

I’ve gained about 6-7 lbs depending on the day and still fit in a few of my regular jeans. No maternity stuff for me yet. I’d like to hold off on buying maternity stuff for as long as I can. I’m hoping that I can get buy wearing tights and big sweaters and when it gets warmer I can get by with comfy dresses and cute skirts that I already own or can buy cheaply at places like Old Navy, etc. We’ll see though.

I’ve been decent about workouts. I usually try to do Crossfit twice a week and then walk when I can. I get a lot of activity two days a week at the hospital—so that’s helpful in terms of staying active.

I haven’t bought much in terms of baby, but I do have my first big item. I was lucky enough to have a friend give me her old Chicco travel system (stroller, car set) that she used on her little girls. I love the idea of using “used” items for the baby–especially considering these items are in use for so little time. Maybe that’s me being thrifty or cheap, but I really appreciated her thoughtfulness with giving the gift.

Eddie seems a little confused as to why we have this. Poor guy. I try to fill him on what’s going on, but he just looks at me with blank stares.

Lastly, my anatomy scan ultrasound is scheduled for March 16th. I’ll be 23 weeks at the time and I am so excited for Chad to finally be able to see the baby in action. After a lot of thought, we’ve decided not to find out the sex. I had always thought that I’d want that surprise of not knowing before I got pregnant. Then, after being pregnant, I felt urges to know. It’d be nice to know if a little boy or girl is growing inside me. However, it’s one of life great surprises and we’d like to do it the old fashioned way. I’m sure I’ll blog more about this later.

On that note, I’ve got some class to pay attention to now. I wanted to give a quick update on how things were going–I’ll be back soon.

Hope all is well with everyone.

I start school again tomorrow. The last full semester before I am done with Nursing School. This month off was MUCH needed, but I am itching to get back. Perhaps that’s the nerd in me, but I appreciate the challenge that school brings. Not only that, but I enjoy getting to see friends everyday and I’m glad that everyone is back in town.

I’d like to say that I spent my weekend living it up, but there’s only so much “living it up” that can be done when you are pregnant. “Living it up” now means that I might stay up till 11:30 watching a movie. Uh huh–party animal.

The weekend started with Beauty and the Beast in 3D with a friend I met while I was taking my Science Pre-reqs.

Confession: I know how to play “Be Our Guest” on the recorder. I took the mandatory recorder lessons from Elementary School a little too seriously.

It was a good time. I forgot a few things about the movie….mainly that Gaston is a primetime douchebag, the “bar” girls boobs were far TOO big for a Disney movie, and it’s a little weird that they had Belle falling in love with a beast…an animal. Ah well, still romantic and happily ever after. That’s all little girls want.

Sunday was spent at my part-time job. I walk two dogs a few times a week for extra money. Pretty easy gig for me. I get a little movement and get to play with dogs. It’s a win-win.

Immediately after dog walking, I went up to Native for a workout. Sunday is open gym and we have the chance to choose whatever WOD from the week that we’d like to do or we can simply work on skills, etc.

I chose Mary, as it was easily done and there was no need to make any substitutions for being pregnant. All of those skills are still easy for me and I simply took things a little slower and didn’t work out as intense.

Meanwhile, my mom was over on the other side of the gym working on her back squats and cleans. I truly think she was made for Crossfit.

I mean, look at this woman. She’s looking good. I’m extremely proud of her and working out with her is always a big highlight of my week.

Martin Luther King day was spent with a good friend from school. Just getting ready for the semester, talking about relationships, and eating good food. I missed her and am glad she’s back in town.

Hope everyone has a good Monday night!

It’s time to talk some baby! I’ve been debating on whether or not I wanted to do baby  posts here on the blog.

I’ve been keeping a journal to remember all of the wonderful (and not so wonderful) things about pregnancy, but I realized that the journal doesn’t have pictures. Also, friends and family follow this blog…and I know they’d be interested in keeping up to date.

Now that I am past the first trimester, I feel much comfortable talking about the pregnancy. I’ve had a miscarriage before and spent a good deal worrying through the first half of the first trimester that the same thing would happen again. After a good month of that, I began to feel more confident in what was happening with my body and begin to trust the process. Pregnancy became much more enjoyable at that point.

And now here I am…I made it to the second trimester.

It feels like just yesterday that I was staring down at a pregnancy test freaking out.

The first trimester was an easy one for me.

• Had very little morning sickness.
• No food aversions.
• No major cravings.
• No constant urge to pee.
• No mood swings or emotional breakdowns

The only thing I did experience was big time fatigue, some minor dizziness, boobs that hurt like hell during the first half of the first trimester, and a couple of cases of heartburn.

Other than that, life was normal. I was able to workout like normal (of course, I took it easy and kept the heart rate down) and even was able to snowboard for a few days.

The highlight of the first trimester was the First Trimester Screening. It involves a blood test to test for your risk of Downs Syndrome and Trisomy 18/13. In addition, an ultrasound is done to measure the baby’s Nuchal Translucency which also factors into the risk of Downs Syndrome, etc.

I’m thankful to say that the baby has a 1 in 10,000 risks of both of those disorders.

It was amazing to see the baby moving around and jumping left and right. It became very real at that moment. It was no longer the ball of cells that I saw when I was 7 weeks. It’s real—living, moving, and raising hell in my uterus.

As the second trimester neared, I’ve began to notice a few changes in my body. My hips and lower back all of a sudden became achy. Thank goodness I was in DC when this started happening. Chad had magic hands, was very attentive, and often made me feel much better.

In fact, at one point, we were laying in bed and I sneezed. A sharp pain shot through my lower abdomen (apparently, this is called Round Ligament Pain) and I rolled over to Chad and said…

“This is getting real.”

Indeed it is.

As each day passes, I feel more and more connected to the baby growing inside me. It’s very hard to put into words how much that love grows each and every day.

Now that I’ve given a little update, it’s time to get ready for the day.

I’m seeing Beauty and the Beast in 3D. Should be a good time.

I grew up doing gymnastics for over 10 years and even almost made it to the elite level–but fell a bit short.

I’ve always thought that gymnastics has a big impact on the way my body works now. Gymnastics is a high-intensity short duration sport. You sprint towards the vault, hurdle, and the skill is over in less then 30 seconds.

A bar routine takes power and grace and is over in a minute or so. Floor is the longest exercise and it’s still a few minutes at best.

I work best in short bursts. I live giving it everything I have and working at a high intensity. That’s probably a big reason why my body (and my mind) hated my short attempt at distance running.

I’ve gone through a lot of phases with fitness over the past four years. I’ve done the running thing (hated it and honestly wasn’t good), the weight room thing where I spend my time doing boring bicep curls and routines filled with isolated movements, and I’ve spent my time doing the treadmill and elliptical bit.

Crossfit feels like it fits. Movements come natural to me. Movements like kipping pull ups, ring dips, handstand walks, handstand push-ups all make me feel like I’m home. It’s a beautiful thing when the body is able to work as one functional unit—just as it’s meant to.

Even more than that, I love the people at my Crossfit box. I went to Breckenridge for a week last week and actually missed them. It’s like a big fun family.

You can see why it’s important to me to continue doing Crossfit into my pregnancy.

There are many many awe-inspiring pregnant women out there who have rocked Crossfit when pregnant.

I’ve turned to the trainers at Crossfit Native to guide me along the process. I’ve also turned to Crossfit Mom, an amazing website, that sets up WOD’s for pregnant women. It gives tips, guidelines, exercises substitutions, etc.

I’m still currently in the first trimester. The first trimester doesn’t mean many changes to your exercise routine. It’s generally noted that if you did it before you were pregnant that you can continue to do it during your pregnancy. Of course, slight modifications must be made.

Crossfit Mom recommends dropping weights on things like Olympic Lifts and kettle bell swings to 65%-75% of your normal weight.

In addition, I’ve been focusing on just generally taking it easier and keeping my heart rate down. I’ve been taking many more breaks in my WOD’s. In fact, my trainer and high school friend Kevin is somewhat of a Nazi when it comes to me taking breaks. He is always reminding me to stop and helping me pace myself which I really appreciate.

I make sure that I am always able to easily talk during the WOD and work to not become overly heated or overly exhaust myself.

There’s a lot of breaks and water sipping during my workout.

All that being said, I am currently still doing all movements with no substitutions and am enjoying these last few weeks of being able to do so.

Workout are much harder now. I seem to tucker out easier  and quicker.  My breathing and heart rate intensifies very quickly. It’s been a little hard mentally to take it easy because one of the best parts about Crossfit is giving it everything you have every single time.

I try to make it to the box 2-3 times a week, although, it’s usually more on the twice a week side. On other days, I just take walks outside with Eddie.

I always remind myself that pregnancy is not the time to raise my intensity or become quicker, faster, or stronger…but simply a time to maintain my fitness level for the health of myself and the baby.

I wanted to write this post just as a precursor into Crossfit during pregnancy because it it something you will see in my blog as the time goes on.

In my last post, I alluded to the fact that I might not be blogging as much. I’ve pretty much let myself dictate when I blog and when I don’t…and I’d never gotten the urge till today.

One of the reasons I love my blog is the fact that I can look back on my life over the past two years and see what the hell I’ve been up too.

I can look back and realize that I was a crazy disordered person and relish in the fact that I’m no longer that way. I can look back at old posts where perhaps I divulged too much information and cringe…but even those posts are fun to read because they are always an accurate account of what was going on at the time.

For awhile there, I was blogging to make a little extra money. It wasn’t much, trust me, but I was a student and not making a lot so I used blog money to do fun things. Things like get my hair done, eat out, drink, see movies, or save up for a trip.

At that point, blogging wasn’t fun. Trying to decipher what people wanted to see on my blog sucked.  Trying to come up with clever posts all the time was mentally draining on top of everything else that I had going on.

Where am I now? I miss blogging. I miss the journaling aspect of it and connecting with people out there who are interested in what I am interested in.

So, now my blog will be about my life. My day, crossfit, pregnancy, school, friends, food….whatever. It may or not have pictures. It may be boring at times. But it’ll be me.

I realize I will get judged along the way for how I live with my life, things I’m interested in, and decisions I make. That’s ok. I’m happy with my life as it is and make no apologies.

And now…it’s time for a nap. I stayed up entirely too late talking to a friend from school who has been home for the holidays. Not seeing her for two weeks feels like an eternity which led to a phone call that lasted well into 2:45 am.

See you soon!

Blogging just doesn’t do it for me like it used to.

I started blogging something like 2 and a half years ago after Julie and Tina (friends from an old fitness forum) started blogs. We had started veering away from the forum and I missed the interactions with women that I had been close to.

I started a blog to keep those interactions going.

I was in a bad spot in my life regarding eating and exercising. Because of this, I isolated myself. I didn’t go out, never went to eat with restaurants, etc. I would stay at home in order to be “safe.” Safe from temptations regarding food and eating something I wasn’t supposed to. I became so uptight. I lost myself and I simply wasn’t fun anymore. Due to that, I lost a lot of friends in my real life.

On top of that, I was in a job that didn’t challenge me. I was mentally bored most of the time. I had a lot of free time during the day to read blogs, comment on blogs, and write on my own blog.

I was in a relationship that I wasn’t happy in.

My life was stale and stagnant. I felt stuck, bored and scared.

Blogging provided me with the interaction that I needed. It provided me with an outlet to get my feelings and thoughts out. It provided me with positive affirmation that I really needed at the time.

I’m incredibly grateful for it. I’ve met MANY wonderful friends through blogging. Friends that I have met in person, gone on vacations with, call, text and constantly email back and forth to this day.

Friends that I don’t know what I’d do without.

Blogging, and my readers and friends, gave me confidence in myself. I slowly started to crawl out of my problems with eating and became more social and made more of an effort to put myself out there with friends. I got out of a bad relationship and started working on pre-reqs while working full time to go back to school.

I’m now in Nursing School. I have wonderful friends (through the Internet and in “real-life”) that I can rely on and relate to. I enjoy going out and having a good time without the fear of “messing up my diet.” I’m in a relationship where I am extremely happy. I’m mentally challenged on a daily basis.

I feel fulfilled and content with life now.

As you’ve noticed, I haven’t blogged much over the past 3 months. Part of that is because I am incredibly busy with school. Another reason is because my heart just isn’t in it anymore. I have time to blog…but the words don’t come to me and I just don’t care anymore. I don’t take pictures all day documenting what’s going on and feel clueless as to what to write about when I sit down to blog. I have to be honest and say that I haven’t missed it.

Blogging isn’t serving the same purpose for me anymore.

I know that my life will only get busier. Next semester will be filled with more Clinical Hours and I will have two part time jobs. I’ll be busy being a dog walker (incredibly excited about that) and working part time in a hospital here in Oklahoma City (which I’m also excited about. I’m thrilled that I’ll be getting the hospital experience that I need).

I’ll also be busy growing a baby. Many of you know this from Twitter, but I am indeed pregnant. It’s shocking news and it was shocking to both me and Chad. However, we are dealing with it and are excited to be parents together. With Chad’s chemo and cancer (which is now gone), we were surprised that he could even conceive…but obviously, this is all happening for an important reason and we are incredibly excited.

He’ll be moving to Oklahoma in February so we can go through this together. Thankfully, the timing works out and I’ll be able to finish school and become a nurse without a hitch.

I appreciate all your support throughout the years and all the fun you’ve let me have on here.

This isn’t a goodbye by any means…it’s just a “what’s on my mind tonight.” Blogging doesn’t hold the same appeal for me anymore. Maybe it will come back. Perhaps it will come back in a different form…we’ll see. I do know that I am going to quit trying to force blogging. It’ll happen when it happens.

Talk soon!

Nursing students are constantly on the go. Whether it be constantly moving in the hospital for clinical rotations or simply sitting on your butt all day studying—it’s never-ending.

Sometimes you just have to go DO SOMETHING, even if you should be studying.

That’s just what I did this past Friday.

I had a Eat Around Oklahoma City deal that was set to expire on December 9th, so I invited some of my friends for dinner and a night filled with christmas lights and snow tubing.

The food was good and the company was better.

I ordered meatloaf topped with bacon, side of fresh green beans, and some mashed potatoes. Bread pudding was shared by all.

And a friend ordered this smore’s martini. I made sure I got the marshmallow.

After dinner, we drove around town to admire all of the Christmas lights. Chesapeake Energy always puts out some beautiful LED lights that are brighter then hell and I love every last bit of them. You can get out of your car and walk around the maze of lights with Christmas music playing in the background. What more could you want?

Oklahoma City also offers snow tubing for the month of December at the Bricktown Ball Park. I have ALWAYS wanted to do this and never have. I even worked at the ballpark for a full year and never got around to doing it.

We had a 50 minute session and we went up and slid down a good 5 times. We quickly learned that the guy on the right was the one to go on. He would turn you backwards, push hard, and give you a good spin. If you wanted fun, you went on his side.

The night didn’t end there. We somehow ended up at the movie theater downtown watching Breaking Dawn. 

Embarrassing. I hated the first three (even though I loved the books). However, this last movie was a little more exciting. And the scenery (i.e.: the beautiful wedding and beautiful honeymoon location) made up for the obscene amount of cheese that makes up the Twilight movies.

I needed a night like this…because the rest of the weekend was filled with studying and mild depression due to my Sooners losing.

I’m still not over that loss.

I just got home from my first Thanksgiving spent with Chad.

My roommate from College now lives in DC with her fiancé and we joined them along with 2 other Okies for my very first “Friendsgiving.” It was wonderful to be surrounded by friends and someone that I love.

I have a test tomorrow that I need to go study for, but I wanted to stop in and say hello.

More on Thanksgiving later.

Hope yours went well and was filled with good food and great fun.

A lot of you wanted more day to day things….thankfully, that’s easy to do. I can certainly blog about what my day is like. Just have to actually remember to log in at night and perhaps take a few pictures throughout the day. Easy enough, isn’t it?

Monday’s are one of my longest days in Nursing School.

Monday morning test = sleep deprived.

I usually don’t start studying till Thursday evening which means that I have a lot to learn in a short amount of time.

Instead of staying up late, I always attempt to go to sleep around 11 pm and then wake up around 3 am. I know that sounds crazy, but it works for me. I don’t function well at night and going to bed early and waking up incredibly early works better for me. I am much fresher first thing in the morning than after a long day.

After a few hours of studying, me and Chad usually spend some time either talking on the phone and saying sweet-nothings in the morning or send a few short texts to start our day. It serves as a wonderful study break.

After 5-6 hours of studying, I head up to school and wish for the best.

I typically don’t like to get to tests early. People always seem to be shouting at information and freaking out. All of that information makes me feel like I’m not prepared, therefore, I do my best to shut it all out.

The test was rough. I felt like I guessed on 70% of it. I got nauseous and stressed halfway through it and just wanted to get the hell out of there.

Once I was done with my test on Urinary disorders, GI disorders, and Musculoskeletal Disorders I made my way out to the lobby of the school and found a Thanksgiving surprise.

The College of Nursing was hosting a free Thanksgiving lunch for all of the students. This was a FEAST. There was ham, turkey, 3 different kinds of dinner rolls, 3 kinds of stuffing, casseroles galore, mac-n-cheese, different salads and all of the Thanksgiving Day favorites.

And the desserts…oh the desserts.

I piled my plate.

I didn’t plan it out well. The line of food kept going and going. Nothing to do but start piling the food on top.

Fine by me. I am one of those people that mixes all of my Thanksgiving food together and takes a big bite of everything.

After a few bites of everything, I made my way to the dessert table.

I’m always a sucker for Apple Pie.

After lunch, I head up to the hospital for some Pre-Planning. I’ll be at the Ortho/Trauma floor tomorrow. I haven’t been able to spend time on this floor, so I am excited.

Pre-Planning basically means I spent about 2 hours looking through and learning everything there is to know about the patient I am assigned. I browse through lab values, medications, History and Physicals, assessments and anything else you can think. This all gets recorded in order for me to go home and look up all of the medications, what lab values mean, and conduct pathophysiology on the disease process of my patient.

I wasn’t done there. From there, I went on to meet a classmate to finish a paper we’ve spent a few weeks on.

Nursing School doesn’t end, does it?

Thank goodness for “The Sing Off”, because I’m not sure I would’ve been able to stay awake through medication after medication for my Care Plan.

6:30 at the hospital comes too soon. I’ll see you tomorrow.