Pursuit of Wellness - Pregnancy Week 26: Pelvic Floor Therapy, Fish Eggs & Workouts

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

In this special solo episode, I’m recording from home (comfy in bed, laptop in hand!) to catch you up on everything happening in my life right now. At 26 weeks pregnant, I’m reflecting on how my journey is unfolding, the emotional and spiritual connection I feel with my baby, and how this sacred season is shifting my approach to health, career, and even this podcast. I share the highs and lows of pregnancy so far, from nesting mode and hypnobirthing classes to my first pelvic floor therapy session (and the wild stats I learned about strength training while pregnant). I also talk about why I’m making some changes to Pursuit of Wellness during this time, how I’m thinking about maternity leave, and what you can expect from the show moving forward. If you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to balance wellness, work, and life while preparing for motherhood, this one’s for you. For Mari’s Instagram click here! For Pursuit of Wellness Podcast’s Instagram click here! For Mari’s Newsletter click here! For Fi’s Instagram click here! Topics Discussed 00:00 Introduction and Personal Updates 02:47 Pregnancy Journey and Nesting 05:43 Career Reflections and Podcast Changes 09:04 Hypnobirthing and Pelvic Floor Therapy Insights 11:53 Closing Thoughts and Future Plans Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Pursuit of Wellness Podcast, and I'm your host, Marie Llewellyn. Hi, guys, welcome back to the Pursuit of Wellness Podcast. It's Mari. I'm actually recording from home today. I'm in my bed. Very chill. No cameras, just my laptop. So if you hear a difference in quality, that might be why. And that kind of of intros just what I want to fill you guys in on today. I feel like we have a lot to catch up on. I haven't really spoken to you guys in a while. I miss this community so much. So I'm really excited to be here today and in a comfortable environment. So I'm currently 26 weeks pregnant as of today. He is the size of a spaghetti squash, which is one of Greg's favorites. So we were

very excited about that this morning. I honestly feel so good. Like I have had a very pleasant pregnancy. I feel him moving all day long now. I definitely feel big. Like I feel like in the last week, he kind of had a growth spurt and so did I. So I definitely feel like I'm bumping. It's so funny looking back on pictures of myself at the beginning when I thought I was bumping and I most definitely was not. But, you know, it's such a fun journey. And honestly, one of the most beautiful spiritual connections I've ever felt in my life. Like, this little human is living inside me and I just feel so connected to him and just so appreciative of this experience that I'm having. And, you know, obviously I worked so hard to get here and it took so long that I just can't believe it.

And I'm so grateful for it. We were in Colorado in Aspen for a whole month, and that was amazing. I was hiking every single day. The altitude was a little tough. Like, I definitely couldn't breathe. Trying to keep up with Greg on the hikes was so hard. But I had the best time. The weather was perfect.

So much nature, so much outdoor time. And I just felt very at peace there. And it was so fun to see friends and go. into town and just have like a really wholesome summer experience so it was lovely and i'm back in austin now it's so hot it is 100 degrees and i've been really delving into nesting getting the nursery set up probably to a weird degree like ordering my diapers the glider's in the crib is in the rug is in so I am definitely nesting. I'm like obsessing about everything in the house, making sure it's perfect. I've also been doing hypno-birthing classes, pelvic floor therapy, kind of going on

deep dives with formula and breastfeeding and learning as much as I can. I'm very hopeful that I can breastfeed successfully, but I want to have a formula as a backup. So really just absorbing so much information. When it comes to my career, this is, I mean, you guys know how it's weird. Like I feel like I'm only 31 years old and have just had such a crazy career. I've gotten to do so much. My life has been so crazy since, you know, 2017. And I feel very grateful to have had that period of time where I was really hustling and doing everything 110% and really like putting aside my personal needs and socializing and all of that just to focus on my business. And I probably wouldn't be able to take a step back if I hadn't done that. And now I'm definitely in a place where, you know,

Obviously, I'm still involved with Bloom. I'm on the creative call every single week. I stop by the office. The vision's definitely still so important to me, but I'm not in the day-to-day. And Greg is the CEO, and I'm so grateful to have a partner who loves what he does. And in terms of the podcast,

I actually have already recorded this episode once before, and it was a goodbye for now episode because I thought, that maybe I should just pause the show until I was done having the baby. And reason being, it might be difficult to explain, but the reason I do this show

is because of impact. I care about getting information out there. I love learning. I want to get information out there for free for people. I feel privileged to have access to experts in information, and I love sharing it with you guys, and I love interviewing. And yeah, it's a very much

an impact-driven show. I don't do it to make money. And you may notice that this episode doesn't have any ads on it. That is a decision I've made purely because I don't really enjoy monetizing the show, and that's not why I do it. It's, like, difficult to make a lot of money with the podcast,

and that was never my goal anyway. So I am just here to share information, chat with you guys. And I do need the structure of the show to change a little bit. My mindset has just changed so much in the past couple months being pregnant. I feel like I've waited so long for this moment to be a mum. And I just want to soak in this special time. I want to enjoy it. It's a sacred time.

And I feel like, and I had some of the moment. amazing guests lined up for you guys. And I'm really sad, honestly, because I was excited to get that out there. But at the same time, being on camera and the way I like to interview, I like to be very prepped and prepared and on. And people flying in or driving in, it just feels like a lot of pressure for me right now. And I also think the concept of learning lifetime. time. Like, for example, my acne journey, I very much, when I had people on the show, I would ask them, you know, what do you think could be causing my acne? How can I fix it? And I was learning with you guys. And that can be hard sometimes when you get such a big influx of information every

single week from different people. It's like, okay, well, what do I listen to? Like, I was feeling that myself. And I don't really want to feel that way while I'm pregnant. I kind of want to have the ability to seek out information on my own, take what I resonate with, and sort of do it in a bit more of a private manner. And of course I want to come on here and share with you guys what I'm learning. Like my first pelvic floor therapy session was so mind-blowing for me. And I want to share what I learned. But I think I need to sort of experience this myself, take my maternity leave, have my baby, and then come back and share once I've actually applied it, if you know what I mean. Like, I don't feel qualified enough to share yet because I don't know yet. So I hope that

makes sense. To put it simply, I'm going to continue showing up for the show when I can, recording solos, giving you guys pregnancy updates, and maybe that won't appeal to everyone. And in 2026, I'll come back how I used to with amazing guests for different topics. But for now, I just want to record at home with no camera and just kind of be really real with you guys. So I hope that's okay. It may not be every single week. It may not be the same day every week. But I don't want to just drop the show.

I want to keep going as long as I can until I'm too pregnant to do so. And I just love you guys so much. I know I disappeared a couple times this year because of IVF and whatever. And I just so appreciate the patience that you have with me. and just showing up for me. It really means a whole lot. So anyway, just to give you guys a couple updates, as I said, I have been diving deep into nesting and pelvic floor therapy and hypno-birthing. And I think a lot of people, when I say I'm doing the hypno-birthing class, think I'm doing like an at-home unmedicated birth, which I'm not. I think it's so cool when people choose to do that, and I have so much

respect for it. I think with my IVF experience, my doctor just recommended that I don't go that route because of IVF, and I'm just feeling more comfortable about doing a hospital birth. I have certain feelings on certain medications. I'm open to an epidural. We'll see. I'm still learning, but I still want to go into my birth with a great mindset, with some techniques, breathing, affirmations, that kind of thing. I'm hoping for a vaginal birth. So I'll keep you guys posted. Pelvic floor therapy was so, so interesting. And I've never done it before. I truthfully didn't even really understand what the pelvic floor was. But I learned so much. One of my favorite facts, we were going through, like, my current health history. And she was asking about my

exercise and I told her I've been weightlifting three to four times a week and she was like strength training is amazing for pregnancy your baby will come out with more lean muscle and be stronger and healthier this statistic I may get the number wrong but I'm pretty sure she told me your baby's also 60 percent less likely to develop diabetes or asthma in their lifetime from strength training how insane is that my jaw was open And she also said, obviously, you'll have a better delivery and recovery, which was so exciting. So really, really loved hearing that. I found that to be so interesting.

And, yeah, my pelvic floor is definitely a little tense, I think, from weightlifting. So she basically described it as, it's like a door on hinges when giving birth. Mine might be like part of the way open. We want to learn how to open it all the way to prevent tearing and things like. that. So I'm still at the beginning, but I'll definitely keep you guys posted on what I learn. I've honestly been spending a lot of time at home, a lot of time with Greg, walking, cooking, I haven't been as social. You know, going out at night is a bit of a challenge for me right now. I get really tired. But I've been popping to the Bloom office. We have a new Bloom office here

in Austin, which is amazing. And, yeah. I'm feeling really good. My baby shower is in September. I have family coming, people from L.A. coming. I kind of went a bit over the top with the baby shower. I'm not going to lie. But I've waited so long for this moment. I was like, you know what? We're going to go, we're going to full send it on the baby shower. So I'm excited for that. And I'm excited to kind of have this new approach with the show. Let me know what you think. I would so appreciate a DM from you guys, just let me know if you're okay with this setup, what you think of it, if you're interested in it. I see a lot of requests for episodes coming in and I feel bad that I'm not doing guest

episodes and things might be a bit different, but I just want to show up for you guys in the way that I can right now. And I'm so appreciative again of the flexibility with that. And I just love you all so much. And if you're not following me on Instagram and TikTok, you definitely should. I'm doing a lot of live updates with my pregnancy and everything I'm learning. So yeah, I think I'll close out the episode here. Let me know any requests of things you'd like me to talk about. I'll be checking my DMs. Love you all so much. And I'll see you in the next one. Bye. and share with your loved ones. If you want to be reminded of new episodes,

click the subscribe button on your preferred podcast or video player. You can sign up for my newsletter to receive my favorites at marieloellen.com. It will be linked in the show notes. This podcast is a Pursuit Network production. Love you, Power Girls and Power Boys. I will see you next time. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice

and does not constitute a provider-patient relationship. As always, talk to your doctor or health team.