Guest Post from Katie at Yes, I want Cake! {Pregnancy & Exercise}

I’m so excited to have Katie from Yes, I want Cake here to share some of her knowledge and experience with pregnancy and exercise!  I love reading about Katie’s adventures as a new mom, drooling over delicious recipes, and getting motivated by her workouts. 

And right now, I could use a little motivation.  I like to think I’m dedicated to working out but sometimes when I’m pregnant (especially during that gosh darn first trimester) I just want to say “To heck with it!”  KnowwhatImean?  

Now that I’m feeling a little back to normal and have some energy back, I’m ready to get motivated again!
Here’s Katie….

Hello! My name is Katie, and I blog over at Yes, I want cake.

I’m a new mama (well relatively, my little Adrienne is almost eight months old…how did that happen?!) and I am thrilled to be here on Sweet Treats and More! I’m so happy about Kristy’s pregnancy – I thought I’d share a little bit of my own experience.

I’m an admitted exercise freak. I live and breathe Crossfit – my husband and I started doing it about four years ago, and I had no plans to stop when I got pregnant. In fact, I think I relied on it even more than I did pre-baby.

Because I was in pretty good shape going into my pregnancy, it wasn’t too much of a stretch to just keep it up. I followed the website Crossfit Mom and did a lot of walking. Despite all that, that little girl stayed put until they induced me at 41 weeks. You’d think all that moving around would get things going – but it didn’t.
What it did do for me and little Cheeks up there was amazing. According to Crossfit Mom – and my own personal experience…

Mothers who exercise during pregnancy…
Have reduced weight gain and fat deposition during pregnancy
Have fewer pregnancy discomforts
Report a more rapid physical and emotional recovery from delivery
Tend to have easier, shorter and less complicated labors
Have less need for pain relief during labor
Have more stamina during labor
Increase their aerobic capacity
Decrease their susceptibility to illness
Increase their energy level

I loved being pregnant, and my labor was miraculous. I did have to be induced – which was intense, but it was a short (hah!) 4 hours of effort and I was able to do it without any pain relief. I recovered in about five seconds and was at the pool, back in my bikini in about 5 weeks.

Babies of exercising mamas…
Have significantly lower heart rates than babies of non-exercising moms
Are better able to cope with the stress of birth
Have a greater ability to adapt to life outside the uterus
Are more healthy at birth
Are leaner at birth and tend to stay lean as they grow
Sleep through the night sooner
Are better able to self-calm
Have decreased risks of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases later in life
Score higher on tests of general intelligence and oral language skills

See? Genius baby. In all seriousness, the doctors were kind of in awe of how perfect she was. They kept saying…babies at high altitude just usually aren’t this healthy. She slept though the night at about 12 weeks, rarely cries, and is pretty dang amazing, if you ask me. I’m definitely not biased or anything.
I don’t want to attribute all of our blessings to exercise, but I’d say it was a pretty big part of the incredible journey that this motherhood thing has been.

Thanks so much to Kristy for having me guest post today! Come by and visit me at Yes, I want cake! I swear, I don’t talk (type?) about myself nearly this much. However, you will be subjected to a lot of baby pictures – I just can’t help it.