It’s Monday, August 26. I have a sneaking suspension that I’m pregnant. After suiting up for CrossFit, I ran to Target “to pick up a few things,” is what I tell my husband.

I head right to that aisle. You know the one. The one filled with all the embarrassing jellies and creams and condoms and pleasure packs … “Holy crap. There are so many choices, how do I pick one?” is what I think as I scan the rows of pregnancy tests. I go for cheapest – Target’s Up & Up line.

I return home, to an empty house, thankful my hubs went to the early afternoon CrossFit class. I needed to tackle this alone. Within seconds (literally seconds!) of peeing on that little stick, a plus sign appears.

I’m stunned.

Call me/us naive, but we really thought it would take longer. For YEARS, I have worried that I would never be able to have children. Not that I ever went through fertility testing, but it took my parents years to conceive and more years for them to conceive my sister. I’ve had numerous cousins miscarry and aunts unable to get pregnant. And so many friends who have faced the full range of pregnancy challenges (adoption, in vitro, surrogates, miscarriages, special needs births)  I figured we’d be dealt similar challenges. Never in a million years did either of us think we’d be pregnant within two months of trying. And we weren’t really trying. I mean, we weren’t not trying, but given our ages, we thought we’d get a head-start, expecting it to take longer. A lot longer.

Back to that afternoon.

I am paralyzed. Stunned. In tears. Unsure of what to do, think, say. I looked at pictures of CrossFit women and cried knowing my physique was no longer mine. I cried because I’m unemployed and “who’s going to hire a pregnant girl?!” Selfish, I know. I know we’re extremely lucky and blessed and all that jazz, but in those first moments, all I could think about were about the career and fitness challenges I would face the rest of my life.

Endless questions ran through my head – can I CrossFit pregnant? What about yoga? Running? Could I hurt the baby doing any of this? How much would fitness have to take a backseat? I was Googling everything and trying to absorb as much as I could.

Needless to say, I didn’t make it to CrossFit that night. I waited, stick in hand, for the hubs to return. His reaction of joy and excitement washed away some of my uncertainty.

And guess what, you can CrossFit while pregnant. You can also run, hike, do yoga, walk the dog, have sex … all my fitness favorites!

I created this site to focus on my CrossFit + pregnant nine months and the share stories of those who walked before. Because CrossFit is still fairly new, the resources and research are limited. It’s my hope that by telling my story and the stories of other CrossFit moms, we’ll pave a path for information, sharing, inspiration and joy for the women that follow.

CrossFit and Pregnant. Here’s to the next nine months!