Training for a baby is quite possibly one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever done. The mental game, for me, far exceeds the mental game that comes with preparing yourself to climb a mountain for a couple days. Knowing that I have to get my body ready for some of the worst pain it’s ever known (according to well, everyone) and then, after the pain has subsided, be responsible for keeping another human being alive… wow.

My training started in October when I learned I was about 5 weeks pregnant. The most immediate change I made was foregoing my 4 1/2 year tradition of having a beer with friends every Monday night at our local watering hole. My Monday nights transitioned into water with lemon, root beer, or the occasional coke. Honestly, it really wasn’t horrible.

The next step in training was learning to carry around snacks, water, and/or ginger ale to ease the nausea that consumed me till about 14 weeks into the pregnancy. I learned what worked and what didn’t and bought stock in mini pretzels & all things ginger! Not a bad training regimen. Eat, sleep, work, eat, work, eat, work, sleep – I was constantly munching on something! That concept was foreign to me in that I typically don’t eat unless I’m hungry, but in order to keep myself from getting sick, I needed to consume something and keep food in my stomach at all times. Not the standard practice when you think of training for a physical event such as climbing a mountain or running a race (which I’ve only done once and it was horrible)!

I’ve always had this grand plan to workout during my entire pregnancy so I wouldn’t gain a ton of weight and would be a cute and buff preggo woman! Welp, that plan went out the window thanks to feeling nauseous all. the. time. I get to walk a fair amount at work considering all of the people I work with are in a 1-2 mile radius of my office so that kind of counts as working out right – walking to meetings? Sure, I’m counting it!

As the months have gone by, I slowly started gaining weight usually in 1-3 lb increments within a month. My largest month gain was 5 lbs. Honestly, there were a few rough days as my abs were starting to fade away and an oblong belly took their place. But it didn’t cause me to sweat as much as keeping abs did – so that was a solid win. Other training techniques within the first 6 months consisted of drinking LOTS of water, remembering to take prenatal vitamins, fighting through the sadness that randomly consumes your mind, focusing on breathing while walking up steps or hills, learning what types of clothes are a bit more forgiving, and how to walk around with my pants unbuttoned! Definitely not what comes to mind when you say your “training” for something.

I’m now 1 week away from my due date and the past 2 months of training have gotten crazy for me. April and May were busy months for us as we had something planned almost every weekend. From baby shower, flying to KY for the Kentucky Derby and to see family, throwing a Preakness party, to getting a nursery put together and figuring out what we really NEED vs what would be nice for a baby – it’s been a hectic month 8 and month 9 of pregnancy. I don’t think I would have it any other way though.

A few training tips I picked up in the final months have been:

• Always carry a water bottle with you
• Flying makes your legs swell
• Jumping up and down in celebration of picking the Derby winner while wearing a dress, heels, and a big hat is not the best for your center of gravity – or breathing (Totally worth it though for that ‘Once in a Lifetime’ experience!!!)
• Yes, it is possible to eat too much food in one sitting – multiple mini meals a day are the way to go
• It’s ok to get a little sweaty because then you look like your glistening 😉

My daily training regimen consists of:

• Wake up & get to work
• Poke finger to check fasting levels
• Eat breakfast – try to maximize carb intake so you can eat multiple low carb items to help curb the starvation your feeling – Eat no more than 30g carbs at breakfast
  • A banana has 20g carbs
  • An apple has 17g carbs
  • An orange has 12g carbs
  • A glass of milk as 12g carbs
  • One brand of yogurt in the entire yogurt section has 7g carbs (everything else is 17g+ typically & surprisingly)
  • An egg has 0g carbs
• Make sure to get up from desk once an hour to walk around
  • Try not to cross legs while sitting at desk or feet will get numb and puff up
• Lunch – good luck – eat 45-60g carbs
• Ride bus home from work
• Enjoy the walk down and up the hill to the apartment – best if not talking on phone because breathing is rough
• Lay on couch for 15 mins with feet elevated
• Walk Sharma – don’t look at feet afterwards or you’ll cry
• Enjoy the evening

Overall – pregnancy hasn’t been the worst thing ever. I wouldn’t say that I looooove being pregnant, but I would say that I don’t hate it. Plus, I know waaaaay more than I ever imagined I would know about carbs – thank you gestational diabetes. It’s the craziest feeling having what feels like a little alien move inside of your stomach. Every time I stand up, the weight of our girl presses down making me unsure if I need to fart, pee, or poop. Word to the wise – it’s better to run to the bathroom instead of taking bets on which of the 3 options it will be. Trust me, it’s always one of those 3.

As Brice has been training for Rainier, our bodies have been changing together – I’m getting bigger and he’s getting smaller. And ya know what – I’m so happy about it. It’s a crazy thing to see our bodies change as we train for different things. I love that we can both be “in training” but have different body shapes and results. Both of our physiques are so drastically different but they say the same thing – We are passionate. We are focused. We are driven. We support one another in our differences. We will reach our goals.

I feel prepared to put my body through a pain it has never experienced before and bring a new human into the world. I know it will be hard, but I can do it. It will hurt, but because of this decision, there will be a new Burton in the world to be passionate, focused, driven, and supportive to others!

*Now if we could only decide on a name 😉