Pre-partum Tips

My Prepartum Journey as a PT

Week 27:

I’m 27 weeks pregnant with twin girls! This is my third pregnancy, but first time carrying twins. Sleep is starting to get more difficult, as my body is more uncomfortable and the babies love wrestling at 3 am. 

Here are three things I’ve been doing to help improve my sleep quality: 

1. Invest in a quality pregnancy pillow (mine is a flexible C-shaped pillow). This provides support under my belly, behind my back, between my legs, and under my neck all at the same time while I’m sleeping on my side. 
2. Mix organic lavender essential oil with coconut oil and rub it all over my legs, lower back, and neck before going to bed. This has helped reduce instances of leg and foot cramps at night, and has helped me to relax more overall. 
3. Stretching before bed. I’ve especially focused on calf, hamstring, and glute/hip stretches to reduce instances of waking up with leg cramps or really tight and sore muscles.
   

Getting the best sleep you can during pregnancy is so important, not only to improve cognitive and emotional well-being throughout the pregnancy, but also to improve maternal and fetal health outcomes long-term.

Week 29:

I’m 29 weeks pregnant with twin girls, and my pelvic floor is definitely feeling the weight of the situation (pun definitely intended). I have noticed some difficulty activating my pelvic floor in a standing position due to the increased stress in this area. 

Here are a few things I’ve been doing to make sure I am keeping my pelvic floor as strong and healthy as it can be during this last stretch of pregnancy:

1. Gravity-minimized pelvic floor muscle activation. While I sometimes have difficulty fully activating my pelvic floor against gravity, I can still perform pelvic floor muscle activations while lying on my side at night or in the morning, or even in a hands and knees (quadruped) position. 
2. Full relaxation of the pelvic floor timed with breathing. Being able to relax the pelvic floor is very important during labor and delivery. I make sure to time inhalation (breathing in) with full elongation and relaxation of the pelvic floor muscles. 
3. Hip strengthening. There are days when pelvic floor muscle activation feels uncomfortable or too difficult. Because of the anatomical connection between the hip muscles and pelvic floor muscles, performing some band resisted hip exercises has helped my hips and my pelvic floor feel so much better!

Week 31

I’m 31 weeks pregnant with twin girls! Lately I’ve been noticing my neck and upper back are getting tight and sore; the weight of my baby belly is pulling everything forward and I’m not sitting or standing with as good of posture as I know I should.
Here are a few things I’ve started to do to minimize strain on my upper back and neck, and to work on postural strength as I prepare to welcome (and hold, and carry, and nurse, and rock) two babies!
Neck and shoulder blade retractions – I sit up tall in a chair with my feet flat on the floor and squeeze my shoulder blades together while also retracting my neck (giving myself a “double chin”).
Pec stretches – I stand in a doorway or corner with my arms up in a 90/90 position and lean into the stretch. This will be important to keep doing once the babies are here because nursing and holding babies a lot tends to keep the shoulders in a forward position and the pecs tight.
Theraband shoulder and postural strengthening – I use a resistance band to perform strengthening for my shoulders and postural muscles. The nice thing about this is even if I am feeling worn out, I can do these exercises in a seated or reclined position and still get an effective upper body workout

Week 33

I’m 33 weeks pregnant with twin girls! As I near the end of my pregnancy, I am being extra mindful of my eating habits, both for my and the girls’ health, but also for physical comfort.

Here are some things I’ve been focusing on:
High protein, low carb/sugar diet – Protein is super important for the growth of babies in utero. The growing babies are also placing a high demand on my protein, so getting extra protein is also important to help me stay healthy and strong. I am focusing on lower carb and lower sugar foods to ensure my blood sugar stays at healthy levels, since the babies are putting more strain and stress on my body and I am having to produce more insulin as a result. Thankfully, my blood sugar has been in a healthy/normal range so far, but I want to reduce stress on my body as much as I can and hopefully maintain healthy blood sugar levels for the remainder of my pregnancy.

Eating smaller meals/snacks throughout the day – As the babies grow, my internal organs are getting more squished and there’s not as much room in my stomach for large meals. I find that smaller meals and spaced out healthy snacks are more tolerable than 3 large meals a day.

Avoiding eating too late in the evening – I’ve been blessed overall to not have too much reflux or heartburn during this pregnancy so far, but I have noticed that if I eat a meal or even snack before bedtime, I am more prone to getting reflux in the middle of the night. So I try to give myself at least an hour or two before bedtime, I am more prone to getting reflux in the middle of the night. So I try to give myself at least an hour or two before bedtime to digest food and let things settle before lying down.

Week 35

I’m 35 weeks pregnant with twin girls! I’ve started having some musculoskeletal pains in different areas … wanted to share how I have been combating them! 

1. Last week I woke up with a pretty significant pain and muscle spasm in the left side of my upper back near the shoulder blade. In addition to shoulder blade squeezes and stretches, I used a tennis ball to self massage the area – either standing against a wall or semi-reclined on a wedge pillow. With the tennis ball on the painful muscle, I then performed active movements of my left shoulder to really work it out. It hurt in the moment, but helped in the end!

2. I am having a harder time squatting down to pick things up off the floor, due to increased weight on my legs and pelvic floor. To be able to still reach the floor, I am focusing more on using my glutes to perform a hip hinge motion rather than a deep squat. That being said, I am still giving myself plenty of breaks and coaching my boys more than ever on how to pick up after themselves when they make a mess 😉

3. My lower back has been getting more tight and uncomfortable as the weight of my baby belly is pulling forward. I try to do posterior pelvic tilts when standing to counteract the forward pull on my pelvis and low back. I also have been keeping up with my hip stretches (hamstrings, piriformis, glutes, etc) which helps reduce the tension in my low back