Week 20

“Your baby’s eyebrows are growing.” What is it doing with eye brows already?! Why?! *insert blank stare here* Ohhhh thats right because now it has to have something on its face to be able to nail a shocked expression “Your baby may be trying out different facial expressions around now.”
“You may soon feel like your baby’s doing the Haka as his initial fluttering movements turn into fully-fledged kicks and nudges.”

Instant giggles reading my pregnancy update from babycentre.com this morning. How did you know we are kiwis-Right on!

Every Sunday these weekly updates are beginning to baffle me more and more. “He/she is around 27 centimetres long, has fingernails and can now hear conversations apparently. If you talk, read or sing to your baby, expect him/her to hear you.”

Its like magic. Seriously. A magical recipe of hot chips, lifting weights and a ridiculous amount of water is helping this mystical creature grow eyebrows and do the haka in my womb. Like WOW this is pretty cool right!

Week 20 has been by the best best week to date! A week of being tired but hands down the best to date. A week of constant movement but feeling like I’m beginning to figure out how to deal with this new temporary life.

Baby H has been turning and wiggling constantly- more so at night when I am trying to go to sleep. Sleep has been a mixed bag but to be able to feel that someone wants me to know they are there is worth it. Ant felt movement for the first time this week. Finally! Now maybe he can begin to understand how bad nights have been.

*Woke up down the other end of the bed during the week. Top in tale. (WTF I don’t even know)*

Ant: “You were a pain to sleep next to last night’

Me: “Try being pregnant and dealing with this baby moving around all night”

Ant: “Try sleeping next to a pregnant wife”

Lol. Fair call mate.

Between getting up to pee all night and saying Hi to Baby as he/she continues to pukana throughout the night- I’ve figured out a mid afternoon nap/lie down for about an hour is the only way to deal with life right now.

I got through a surprising amount of work this week by taking advantage of the support around me. I have realised that in order to keep moving forward I need to put my stubborn streak aside and welcome help. My mentors and my staff have been such a big back bone this week which has allowed me to get more done in one week than two without feeling stressed out or overwhelmed.

I trained 4x per week and I felt great! Putting my stubborn streak aside I acknowledged that training by myself was not as enjoyable as it once was. The weights I am lifting are just a mere fraction of what pre prego Ro is capable of. Changing my focus from progressively getting stronger to lifting for pure pleasure while having the opportunity to spend some time training alongside my girls at Barbell Babes Brigade is so refreshing.

Seeing some footage of myself training this week honestly freaked me out. It’s odd to see yourself in a different light. Weeks and months are passing by so fast!

I am now officially over half way and we will be finding out the gender of our creation this week. I have literally been counting down the sleeps every day. It’s like christmas. Seriously. I had a feeling it may be a girl for a very long time and then realised yesterday that maybe my subconscious has been telling me something with all the blue things I’ve got and me choosing blue nails this past week. 2 more sleeps!

Its Sunday night and I sit and think how proud I am of myself this week. I only have 2 more weeks left training at my current gym until I take on the biggest professional undertaking of my life- Barbell Babes Brigade HQ.

I think about the training facility that has been living in my head for so many years. The dream, the vision that is so close to being a reality is merely weeks away now. I think about the space in which our ladies are going to laugh, lift and flourish. I think about how my little baby is going to grow up around so much love, courage and strength. How he or she will see what women of all ages and all backgrounds can achieve. I picture he or she eventually walking around the gym, coming to work with me and eventually lifting a barbell for the first time.

July the 5th is fast approaching and I for one am certainly not slowing down. This baby is giving me far more than sleepless nights and mild nauseous. Its giving me an extra level up in life to go after what is important to me and those in our community. Its giving me the extra drive to pursue my true capabilities.

Thanks Baby

Your future Mum x