Pilates and Pregnancy – Weeks 35 and 36: Big Baby on Board!

Welcome back to our Pilates and Pregnancy blog! It has been quite the eventful couple of weeks around here. We moved to a brand new, larger studio. It’s beautiful and allows us to offer more classes – including new Barre classes and expanded yoga and Pilates options. Life was a little crazy during the transition and so Carey and I weren’t able to sneak my private in, but we’re back on track now and excited to share news from my last ultrasound.

My doctor thought that the baby might be measuring ahead and so we scheduled an ultrasound for 35 weeks and 3 days. I could tell right away that something was up because baby measured in at least the 97th percentile for every measurement the ultrasound technician took! Baby is completely fine and healthy – but he’s big! He was measuring 8 lbs. 3 oz. with four and a half weeks to go. My doctor isn’t worried about gestational diabetes (I was tested and passed) and said that it just might be that we’ll have a big baby. The news isn’t completely a surprise. The men in my life were big babies too: my husband was 9 lbs. 13 oz.; my dad was 9 lbs. 12 oz.; and my 15-month old nephew was 9 lb. 13 oz.

So with the news of a big baby, Carey and I jumped into our private lesson at 36 weeks pregnant. Although I shouldn’t be surprised at all, I was excited about how good it felt to move! I move much slower now that I did during the first and second trimesters. My low back is tight, my feet and ankles are often swollen, and my outer hips hurt if I stand too long or do too many strenuous movements. Taking everything into account, Carey tailored a perfect Pilates session that was gentle and therapeutic while still challenging.

We started with standing stretches: rolling my shoulders front and back, twisting gently side to side through the spine, and rolling my neck in easy circles. Just those simple movements loosened up the tension I didn’t even realize I was holding. We then moved to the Chair and warmed up a little more with Footwork and a Piriformis stretch.

Our new space has a designated Barre/yoga room and so Carey and I used the barre to do two ballet-inspired moves next. To begin, Carey had me place one hand on the barre and stand about an arms-length away with my legs in a wide turnout. We did two sets of squats. During the first set, I kept my feet flat on the floor and during the second (which was more challenging) we did the squats with our heels lifted. Both versions felt nice. I was able to get a deeper hip stretch with my feet flat on the floor, but the extra work through my quads to squat with my heels lifted felt good too.

The second ballet-inspired move was a big kick back. Carey had me face the barre and hold on with both hands. Keeping one leg bent, we kicked the leg back and then drew it forward in a big arc front to back (see photo below). The movement helped to stretch out my low belly and front of my hip while simultaneously working my glutes and standing leg.