I spent most of 2022 preparing for pregnancy, getting pregnant, carrying a healthy baby for 40 weeks and two days, and then raising a newborn for two months. Our baby has just turned three months and this blog post was composed for an unreasonably long time in small increments during her nap times.
We managed to do some low key travel locally and in the US. We went back to San Francisco in May and visited Portland and Canon Beach in Oregon for the first time in the summer.
Dwayne completed a half and a full Ironman and we used the races as an opportunity to do local travel. The half Ironman was held outside of Victoria in May; we also visited the BC capital in February. We traveled to Penticton for the full Ironman in August. It was my first time in this region of Canada and late summer was a lovely time to visit the Okanagan lake and explore local wineries and fruit farms. I plan to write about the experience of supporting someone through an Ironman event and our visit to this part of BC later in the year.
I got to work on some interesting large scale projects in my job and learned a lot. Learning is one of my values and being able to continuously learn at work makes any job more interesting and satisfying to me.
Speaking of learning, I signed up for two online courses at the start of the year–a French class and a class on story-telling. I managed to attend about one half of the French course but then had to stop due to severe fatigue and all-day morning sickness I experienced in the first trimester of my pregnancy. I downloaded the content of the story-telling class and will work on it at my own pace in the future.
Pregnancy and getting ready for birth and to take care of a small baby have largely become my topics for extra-curricular learning this year. I did read outside of this “genre” too and the following books stood out to me in 2022:
1. The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
This work of fiction was haunting and made me cry more than once. I loved a profile by the New York Times on the author that highlighted the work that goes into publishing a novel.
2. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
3. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
I am becoming more and more convinced that memoir is my favourite genre. A couple of years ago I read another memoir about dying from cancer–A Bright Hour by Nina Riggs. This year, before reading When Breath Becomes Air, I learned on Cup of Jo that Paul’s wife started a relationship with Nina’s surviving partner.
4. Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Fun fact: I picked this book up for free in London while walking along the Regent’s canal in the summer of 2019.
5. Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
6. The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin and Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth
These were the most helpful books about pregnancy and getting ready for birth.
In terms of adventure and physical activity, I did Yoga with Adriene at home during January. Adriene creates a 30-day challenge every year and shares great yoga videos for free. I also signed up for some yoga sessions at a local YYoga over the summer while in my second trimester. I don’t think I have ever hated yoga more: I could no longer go into deep twists, lie down on my belly, and experienced heartburn all the time. Annoyingly, I found that most instructors did a poor job at adapting the class to a pregnant body.
I managed to squeeze in some short runs on both sides of my pregnancy last year. My cardio through most of the pregnancy was doing repeats on an especially steep hill and a staircase in my neighbourhood. I also kept up with weight training and mobility exercises at home.
I did one hike while pregnant — the first view point of the Diez Vistas trail in Port Moody. A week or so later, I attempted the Grouse Grind and had to turn around a quarter of the way up.
I shot a one second video on most days, but won’t post it online this year because I don’t yet feel like having our baby on the Internet. I still very much appreciate the practice and have been consistent with it in 2023 so far.
