34 Week Pregnany Update & Fitness Vlog by Teresa Palmer
What week:
34
How big is the baby:
Baby is somewhere around 17 ½ inches/44.5 cm long and weighs around 5 to 5 ½ pounds/2.3 to 2.5 kg which about the size of a cantaloupe. I had my last scan pre-travel this week and our doctor said baby is measuring at 6lbs! and she even adjusted my due date back to Nov 27th!? Didn’t even know they would or could do that this late in the game, that’s less than 4 weeks away?!?
What’s something new this week:
I had a couple of moments whilst walking the streets of New Orleans of experiencing sharp pains “up there”! It was pretty shocking and definitely took my breath away. That pain so late in pregnancy is typically the baby’s head hitting the cervix, which means baby is very low which is great!
Most challenging moment:
I’m dealing with a very overly tired and sensitive child right now. The last few days have been hard to navigate, I’m always in such a good flow with Bodhi but I think he senses big changes coming including the upcoming travel. I’m feeling really tired and he is feeling extra clingy and he has definitely been testing me this week. I’ve been trying to remain as calm and conscious minded as possible, but sometimes I have my moments then feel badly that I didn’t handle his feelings as well as I know I can. It’s about not neglecting my own self care which has been a bit of a theme this week, next week I’m confident once we are in Australia, everything will settle. Despite these few moments we have literally had the best week of our lives…
Most exciting moment:
So I have seriously had one of the most incredible weeks of my life! The earlier part of the week I was in New Orleans promoting Hacksaw Ridge (coming out this weekend!!) and meeting some really inspirational veterans who fought in the same battle that our films protagonist and hero fought in- Okinawa during World War 2. It’s was surreal meeting them and completely humbling.
Then when I got home on Thursday it was my first time “off” but I spent it finishing Bodhi’s Spooky Halloween Monster Truck, I have definitely clocked in at least 15 hours of work on this one! But it was well worth it as Bodhi was so proud driving it around on Halloween night.
Saturday night I had the most beautiful and surprising evening with my great group of girlfriends from my Spiritual Mama’s group. Becca, Ellie, Jessica, Bridget, Marie and Kadee are such blessings in my life, we all have children the same age, most of us live within the same neighborhood and we all have similar interests in mindful parenting. We started our night at Gracias Madre where Jessica and Becca had arranged an incredible set menu with my “Mother Teresa” picture on it (hilarious!) Ellie brought flowers and Marie gifted me the most beautiful books from her sons to mine. We then ate amazing vegan food, had fantastic conversation and THEN I was surprised by a trip to an Escape Room. We all had a blast trying to figure out how to crack codes and clues to escape out of the “Secret Temple” (we may have been 20 mins late and MAY have been the only group to ask for every single clue available…) and WOW somehow we escaped!! Haha then unbeknownst to me, my friends had arranged a Blessingway Ceremony for me but no one knew where exactly to do it since the Escape Room was in some strange no mans land on Sunset blvd…so we meandered up the street to the first restaurant (ahem fast food joint!) we found which happened to be a Zankou Chicken (undeniably fitting for this vegetarian!) we all had a good laugh about it and decided that it was the most perfect and random place to hold this very sentimental ceremony. We pulled up a table and chairs and with the cheesy background music the girls proceeded to honor this new baby in the most loving of ways. Each Mama read out a poem of their choosing and selected a bead that had meaning to them to be strung on a necklace for me to have during labor to know that my sisters are with me. I cried, we laughed, I crunched on ice like the pregnancy anemic I am and we marveled at this special group of woman sitting in this stinky Zankou Chicken restaurant wiping our tears and forming even deeper connections. What a special night. Thanks Jessica for arranging!
Sunday was another EPIC day, I took Bodhi to Underwood Farms in the rain to meet up with one of his best friends Otis. It was wild city as the farm was covered in mud, had puddles everywhere, wet animals running around and our very excitable boys. At first I was bummed about the weather but then I realized what a beautiful opportunity to have some real fun in the mud the way I used to as a kid, so off Bodhi’s shoes came and away he ran, slipping and sliding in the mud, running through puddles, riding wet ponies, chasing his friends and jumping on a tractor ride followed by an intense I-don’t-want-to-go-home-but-it’s-2-hours-past-nap-time meltdown!! even that was fun because I knew it was coming out of his complete elation surrounding the day. I swear it was the best day of his life until…
…. the next day! Which then became the best day of his life… HALLOWEEN!! I gotta say my 1995 experience of attempting to trick or treat in Adelaide only to be met with “This isn’t America kid!” door slam was completely healed by last nights adventure. We started the early evening off with a party at Marie’s house (a friend from the Blessingway night) and then all the kids in their awesome outfits started to hit the road for trick or treating. Bodhi very excitedly showed off his Monster Truck, I felt completely relieved that the truck was a hit and that he enjoyed it so much, it seriouskg took me so long to make it and I even lost sleep over it. So when I watched him being so proud of it, I felt really chuffed! Bodhi was so sweet saying “trick or treat” and going up to all the scarily decorated houses so enthusiastically, he was literally bouncing! We went with his best friend Atticus and his parents (Kadee’s son from Blessingway night) I was giddy with excitement seeing how happy the boys were, it was one of those special moments where you get present and just think “this is the very best thing about being a parent” watching that pure joy and wonderment on your child’s face. As I’ve been saying lately “This bliss life!”.
Starting weight:
114lbs
Current weight:
140lbs
Exercise:
The one time with Jeff this week! Plus walking around a lot!
This weeks Fitness Vlog! Remember to listen to your body, take it easy and check in with your doc before starting an exercise regiment! NOTE: I accidentally say week 33 (Preggo Brain!)
Meals:
Breakfast
Vegan muffin, smashed avocado sandwich, smoothie.
Snack
Cacao hot drink, green juice, smoothie.
Lunch
Kale and Avocado salad, baked sweet potato, guacamole and chips
Dinner
Carb city!! Veggie pizza, veggie quesadilla, veggie pasta, vegan tacos!
Sweetest Bodhi/Baby moment:
Just B talking about him constantly and introducing him to his friends who are also getting very excited! Bodhi including the belly in trick or treating was so sweet too and really wanting to paint my tummy for Halloween with Dada!
Food Aversions:
Mark declared this week that he has made a “family decision” that we are all going to stop being Pescetarians and become vegan! We have been vegan on and off for 5 years and honesty we eat mostly vegan anyway but Mark has been rewatching a lot of animal cruelty videos especially surrounding the meat, dairy and fishing industries and just decided that we can still be really helpful with some extra work and dedication and be a vegan family. It feels much better aligned with our philosophies in life anyway, our spiritual beliefs and the things that we are passionate about, so I look forward to the changes and to further educating myself on finding the right balance whilst being vegan. Funnily enough my aversion this week has been fish!
Cravings:
Ice ice baby, I LOVE it. Also a diffuser with great essential oils mmmm so good!
Reflections:
The theme of this week has been all about change… We sadly decided to rehome our beautiful dog Luna Palmer because in a wrestling match with our bigger dog her eye was injured and she is now partially blind in that eye, it was so shocking and sad, she is 8 years old now. She had been a bit grizzly with Bodhi when he was younger and the vet warned us that now with less eye sight that we would very much have to keep our toddler and new baby separate from her. We thought about it for a long time, I cried as she was my first baby but we have made peace knowing that there is an opportunity for her to get even more attention, be in a family without small children to bother her and also a family that doesn’t travel nearly so often. Luckily that family happens to be Marks best friend so she will be in our lives still. Then the change back to veganism this week, the change of location (we leave today to move to Adelaide, Australia for a couple of months) and the of course the change in our family dynamic bringing this new baby boy in to our lives. I think Bodhi has sensed these changes this week and I have too, with an open heart and a hopeful and excited mind, but with all change comes some uncertainty, adjustment and of course patience which I’m really leaning in to this week. So from our tribe to yours, see you next week gang where I will be writing to you from sunny Australia!
