We're back! And we have a baby!

Hello blog fans we're back! We took a bit of a hiatus when we decided we were going to try to get pregnant with our first baby and May of 2012...we did!

Christmas 2012, 7 months pregnant with McKinley

Pregnany was an amazing experience and a challenge to say the least. Mike and I have always considered ourselves a health minded couple, but nothing makes you analye your life like having a baby. I scoured the bookshelves for reading material on exercise to do while pregnant (having been a division 1 college swimmer, exercise was always a priority in my life and I wanted to be sure to go about it the right way for this baby) and the right foods to eat and not to eat. 

I focused on a vegetable, fruit and protein-rich diet. I made sure to eat a healthy breakfast every morning - something I did not make an effort to do before pregnancy, and stay away from too much sugar. I began baking more of my own pastries and snacks and started incorporating natural substitues. A great resources to find healthy baking substitutions can be found here: 

Healthy Baking Substitutes

One of my favorite recipes was this healthier banana nut bread. 

I could eat an entire loaf in one sitting if I let myself.

Mmm...and filled with so much good stuff! I discovered by eating the better items, I didn't have to worry about calories like I had been before, because these foods were feuling my body and satisfying my hunger in a whole new way! Eating natural, protein-rich foods was helping me get in the best shape I had ever been in. 

With as healthy as I was trying to eat, this is not to say the pregnancy cravings monster didn't hit me a few times, especially in the last trimester. Oreos and pizza found their way in my kitchen more times than I care to admit, but for the majority of the time I stuck to my guidelines of good, healthful foods that would help my baby grow.

Aside from a few nose bleeds, a very straining work environment, and a heck of a lot of braxton hicks, I had a pretty fantastic pregnancy. I worked out throughout the majority of my pregnancy - giving in only in the last month when my braxton hicks took over if I did anything too strenuous. I ran 4-5 times a  week during my first trimester and moved on to the eliptical for the second trimester, continually doing light weight lifting throughout to try to avoid the sagging everyone talks about!

By my third trimester I had succomed to walking the dogs a mile a day, just to keep myself busy, but I was still working between 8-12 hour days as a publicist for the entertainment company I was employed with, so I was getting more than my fill of activity at this point. 

Then, after 39.5 weeks, a total of 23 pounds gained, and 17 brutal hours of labor...

 I gave birth to a beautiful, healthy 7 lb 2 oz baby girl, McKinley.