Which one is harder?

As I was spectating Melbourne Ironman yesterday I found myself wondering which is harder, having a baby or completing an Ironman?

Both involve 9 months of training with no drinking and partying, however in training for an Ironman over the course of 9 months you lose weight and gain extreme fitness. In the 9 months of pregnancy you gain weight and lose all your fitness. You then arrive at the day of days, one has a definite start time where a gun goes off and away you go, knowing what you are capable of and having a rough idea of how long you will endure the torture for. The other arrives with no warning and you have no idea how much pain you are in for nor how long you will endure this pain for. At the end of an Ironman you can finally rest and go back to drinking and partying, knowing that you have achieved something pretty amazing. After childbirth you have achieved something even more amazing by bringing a new life into the world, but your days of rest, relaxation and partying are long gone!!

Baking more than just the bun in my oven!

I had a sudden urge to do some baking tonight, has been a very long time since I baked some tasty treats and decided that bub and I needed some home baked healthy goodness for morning snacks. So as I sit here writing this I have a batch of raspberry and bran muffins cooking nicely in the oven (whilst bub is cooking nicely in my oven!)

Whilst whipping up the muffins, Luke pipes up from the couch 'I can't wait for you to go on maternity leave, I'm going to come home to amazing dinners every night.' He's dreaming!! Most women I know with new borns are lucky enough to manage to have a shower long enough to wash their hair, yet he thinks he's coming home to a gourmet meal each night. I think he believes that babies just miraculously sleep all day and that I'll have plenty of time to cook gourmet meals, clean the house and do mountains of laundry. Anyone with a new born that might want to share with him what the day in the life of a new mum looks like? If I do manage to get some time to myself it will be spent whipping my body back into shape not whipping up gourmet dinners!

Bub craves carbs!!

I think my bub is going to come out looking like a potato, she sure does seem to love her spuds! Any type of spud, though it seems the more fattening the better. Spud bar, chip, wedges and potato gems seem to be her favourite though, and what my little bub wants she gets. Hope she appreciates that mummy is ruining her usually fit physique to ensure she gets her daily spud craving satisfied. Funnily enough when I log into my 'What to Expect' app this week it tells me that bub is now the size of a sweet potato, pretty fitting really!

Decisions, Decisions...

Once upon a time I would be researching new bikes to buy now I find myself spending hours working out what pram to buy. At least with bikes it's pretty simple, they all have 2 wheels, they all pretty much do the same thing it's just a matter of what brand you want and how much you're willing to pay and really there are only a few big brands out there to choose from.

Prams are a whole different story. Firstly I find myself torn between buying a running pram versus a standard pram, then for each of these choices there seem to be 100 different prams, varying levels of prices and a million different colours. Even buying an apartment wasn't so difficult! I looked at 4 in one day, made an offer on one and 4 weeks later moved in. I've been researching prams for 4 weeks and am still no closer to making any kind of decision. Any recommendations???

Morning sickness is a bitch

Morning sickness or should I call it morning, afternoon and evening sickness has probably got to be the worst thing about pregnancy. For those people lucky enough to never experience it, I hate you (sorry that's the hormones talking). I was in a constant state of feeling nauseous for the majority of the first trimester spending all afternoon and evening feeling like I was going to puke. As I progressed into the 2nd trimester I started to feel better and was hoping that the morning sickness monster was finally losing its powers and then wham! As I approach my 17th week the morning sickness monster has decided to attack me again, this time far worse than before. Got to love almost throwing up on a colleagues desk at work or whilst trying to do Pilates. Looks like it's back to dry toast and lemonade icy poles, funny that my never fail hangover cure also seems to help with my morning sickness!

Pregnancy is a beautiful thing?

Who are these women that love being pregnant? For I am yet to meet one and I am certainly not one of them. Of course I think pregnancy is a pretty amazing thing to be able to bring life into the world and I certainly cannot wait to be a mum and meet my little girl but I just wish I could bypass this whole pregnancy thing!

During the first trimester I felt like I was permanently hungover, I got hideous back acne, my boobs hurt like crazy and I stacked on a few kilos because the only thing that seemed to make me feel better was carbs and lots of them. Everyone then kept telling me that the 2nd trimester is the 'honeymoon period' and you get all your energy back and your morning sickness goes away. Well at 16 weeks I am still awaiting this glorious honeymoon period because right now I am the most exhausted I have ever been due to crazy insomnia, I feel ridiculously fat and now have cellulite and to top things off this morning out of nowhere I was sitting on the couch when I suddenly felt sick and only just made it to the kitchen sink before I threw up brekky and half of last nights dinner.

It's no wonder women are the ones to bring life into this world, if you think men are bad with man flu imagine what they'd be like with pregnancy!

I know it's all going to be worth it when I get to hold my little princess in my arms for the first time but the thought of another long 24 weeks is slightly depressing!

Pregnancy Insomnia

For the last few weeks I have been suffering from insomnia which is extremely annoying given that being pregnant is leaving me feeling absolutely exhausted so I need my beauty sleep more than ever!  So today when I was lying awake at 4am tossing and turning I decided rather than staying in bed getting angry about not being able to sleep I would just get up and be productive then when I crash and burn later I can go for an afternoon nap. This the insomnia today has actually proved rather productive! Managed a solid session at the gym, a load of laundry, taken bags of clothes and books to the op shop, reconciled my finances (yup I'm still a geek!) and half tidied the house all before 8.30am!! Next up to paint the newly renovated wardrobe before I fall in a heap!