Pregnant runners' club

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  • Perhaps this will make you all feel better: today I have already eaten 4 pieces of toast with marmite and I am now eating a Terry's chocolate orange while I work at home ;o)
    I am convincing myself that I need the energy (??) for my marathon prep........

    Enjoy your healthy lunches ladies,
    Hegs x
  • Thanks for all your comments, advice and reassurance, i don't feel too bad now. I have always been on the large side, size 14/16 and somewhere between 12 and 13 stone (which is just over BMI of 25 for my height of 5ft 9in). My Mum and Granny and sister are all the same, fit healthy etc, but probably always at the bigger end of normal weight ranges for their heights, so no way i'll ever be svelte and sylph-like, its in the genes i guess. I do know i probably have been having too many treats and will need to try to curb those, but its hard, however have been piling my plate with veggies at meal times to try and fill me up and keep me away from the snacks !!!

    Thanks again for all your comments, this forum is great and you're all brill at handing out advice and reassurance, i don't really know any other pregnant women at the moment, none of my friends are and only one other woman at work that i know to speak to (work in science so a lot of blokes about and younger single women who aren't that interested). However hoping to get a place at an ante natal yoga class so will meet other mums to be there.
  • Have watched my sister through her 3 pregnancies, so am under no illusions of springing back into shape quickly and have a good idea of how wobbly and blobby i'm going to look for a while until everything goes back into place, saying that she has got her figure back after quite a few months without too much hard work between the first two, however the third came along rather quickly so she didn't regain it after the second before she was pregnant again, however she is getting back into shape now (third one about 6months now)
  • mrs o - i'm also on the 'large side', normally weighing in at just over 11 stone and am 5ft 9. in my skinny minny days, i was about 6 stone, but clearly that was NOT a good thing. since i've got back to normal eating, i have plateau'd at just over 11 stone, so it seems to be the right weight for me, and i maintain it with exercise and not really watching what i eat!

    having said that, i have now put on 15lbs - as of last week. probably more now. i put on 10lbs in the first 25 weeks, and then 5lbs in the next 2 weeks!!

    anyway, it WILL have to come off afterwards.

    hegs - if i ate a terrys chocolate orange, i would spend the afternoon on the toilet. that's what i get for having a bit of a milk intolerance. it's quite handy sometimes!
  • Ewww... quite glad I had finished it when i read that Caramel ;o)
    I am a fairly "normal" size too - 5ft 8 and weigh in at 10st (size 10/12). I went up to 12st 8lbs whilst pregnant but in the past have been up to 13st and NOT pregnant!

    I actually don't blame celebs for our obsession with weight loss particularly after childbirth, but I do blame the press & media - we have to accept that most of the celebs that we see miraculously shrinking back to size 8 within weeks of childbirth are just really returning to their normal size. What is so damaging is that a lot of people look at them and think that they too should be size 8 after having a baby when they were actually always a size 14 before.

    I have had a very unhealthy relationship with food in the past (not anorexia, but fad dieting, abusing laxatives, binge/ starve routines, etc) and actually I credit running with getting my perspective on food and eating. I do eat quite a lot and I LURVE my sweet things (chocolate, biscuits etc) but I no longer tend to go mad on them (forgetting the chocolate orange that I just scoffed, of course). Pregnancy was quite good for me in a sense as it was out of my control and actually I really didn't overeat that much.


    Yet another landmine for us poor mums and mums to be!
  • it's amazing how many people do have 'issues' with food. i certainly had from about the age of 11 or 12 until i was in my mid twenties.

    i was interested to see how being pregnant would make me feel because you suddenly have no control over your shape (well, at least not the bump bit anyway!). i think because i had had a good few years of coming to terms with my normal body shape (ie that i am not naturally a size 8, and am only a size 10 in monsoon!) and controlling it through exercise, the transition to blimpy fat belly has not been too bad. i don't panic when i see myself in a mirror - although i'm NOT a pretty sight in a swimming costume at the moment. how DO these models in the maternity wear catalogues manage to look so glam?? GRRRRR!!!
  • Hi all

    Just seen this interesting thread.
    I am 16 weeks pregnant and already have a 2 year old. I was very fit (at least I thought so) before the pregnancy as I had trained quite hard for the 2005 FLM and Amsterdam marathons.
    I've had a really good first trimester, no tiredness or nausea, but my fitness levels have plummeted as I really just cannot find the motivation to go to the gym. Has anybody experienced this or am I just being lazy?
    I have put on a lot of weight (17lb) which I am not too bothered about as I am hoping to run it all off afterwards. Just hope my plan works and I don't regret my take it easy approach.
  • Has anyone got any cravings?? I am not sure I would call mine a craving, it is not like I turn into a demented woman without it..

    I cannot stop eating home made (must be)ham, mature cheddar, tomato and advocado sandwiches with dijon mustard.

    Anyone else?

    Welcome Tonia - I felt like that during my 1st pregnancy and did very little. This time I was determined to stay fit and active but cannot run this time due to bleeding. I am sure you will run it all of after. I got huge during my 1st pregnancy burnt it all off again.
  • MinksMinks ✭✭✭
    The downside to being a 'skinny Minnie' like me is that if/when I fall pregnant I will find it hard to disguise the fact and may end up having to tell people sooner than I'd like. I'm only a size 6 (5'1"), very small-framed and hover around 7 stone (I'm a bit under that at the moment due to marathon training). I appear to be very healthy, though - and most people can't believe the amount of food I pack away.

    I have three friends who've recently given birth. The first, whose baby arrived at the end of November, is tall and naturally very lean (not an ounce of fat). Five weeks post-birth she looked as though she'd never been pregnant. She was also extremely flat-chested before she got pregnant so her boobs still looked small and neat even though she's breast-freeding.

    Friend #2 is 'normal' build - she's 5'6"ish and not skinny but not really large either, except she has a tendency to gain weight and has enormous boobs. Five weeks post-birth, she's still in maternity trousers and still has quite a belly. Her boobs are even bigger now she's breast-feeding and she can't wear any of her pre-pregnancy tops as although they fit everywhere else they won't fit across her chest!

    Friend #3 has fought a constant battle with her weight ever since she ballooned in her 20s. She's probably around 14+ stone and 5'8". She carries all her weight between her neck and her hips - classic 'apple' - but is also unfortunate enough to have taken after the large-breasted women on her dad's side of the family. They truly are enormous - even before pregnancy she struggled to find bras large enough. I dread to think what she's doing now! Her baby was born less than two weeks ago and she blew up massively during and after the birth - face and legs in particular extremely bloated and swollen. This doesn't seem to have gone down much - does anyone know what it could be? The hospital are monitoring her blood pressure but it doesn't seem to be that.
  • Towards the end, I blew up like a balloon with Sadie. I could not get shoes on - only brikenstocks - which was not ideal in January when snowing. My fingers swelled and I even after loosing all the weight had to have my wedding rings made bigger. My face looked like a pumpkin!

    I have one other friend who suffered like this and she swam daily. So exercise did not affect help her.

    My BP shot up a few weeks before Sadie was born, so she was induced a day early. In saying that my BP calmed fairly quickly after. I was given not reason for the bloating and neither was my friend. Perhaps some of us just turn into bloaters rather than bloomers :-). At least it will be summer this time, if it is back to the birkenstocks!

    It took me a month or two for the swellings to calm down, hopefully that will be the case for your friend too.
  • Minks - just to reassure you. One of the smallest, most petite women in our church has had 3 children now and you could only tell she was pregnant from about 7 months. Seriously I don't know where she hid those babies (in each pregnancy they worried the babies were small but in no case were they) so when your time comes you may not have to declare yourself too early!
  • clare - the swelling up doesn't sound good. i naively thought that if you exercised you were more likely to avoid swelling. but the case of your friend doesn't seem to underpin that. eeeeek!

    minks - you will probably find that on your first baby, you don't 'show' too early on because everything holds itself in place quite well. the uterus doesn't really start heading northwards until about 14 weeks, so you are very unlikely to show that much. at the worst, you may look a bit bloated round the middle, which you can disguise with baggy tops.

    i've just been to the GPs to get a certificate to say i'm fit to fly on saturday, and put on a normal top (not maternity) over some normal trousers (not maternity, but quite baggy) and thought - honestly, if you didn't know i was pregnant, you might just think i'd had one or two pies too many! there's really hardly any bump at all.

    anyway, heard the baby's heartbeat again - which is always nice and seemed to make the doctor's day. he had a huge grin all over his face. and apparently, the baby is head down on the right handside - although if that's the case, what is this really hard lump under my right ribs???!!!

    oh and - something which made me crack up. the GP asked me if i was having braxton hicks contractions and i said 'no'. he had his hand on my stomach and he said 'you've just had one then'. hey?!? i didn't feel a thing? how does that work then?? is it possible not to notice them? or was he just making it up?
  • Did your friend have a girl, Minks? I noticed that all my friends who have had girls got quite bloated faces, ginormous boobs and fat tops of arms regardless of their original size/ shape. Nothing scientific about this, just my observations!

    I, on the otherhand, carried all my weight around my bum and hips and boobs only went up 1 - 1.5 cup size (to a HUGE 34C ;o)).

    caramel - one of my friends had exactly the same thing with the braxton hicks contractions - really common not to notice them at all. Was watching Home and Away earlier and giggling at the totally useless representation of the onset of labour (Hayley, for those of you who watch). She went from nothing to screaming, doubled agony within the space of 5 minutes!!

    The truth is that contractions are more like period pains, dull, tight aches or crampy feeling that become tighter and less dull as they go on (I only got to 3cm dilated when i had my c-section so can only talk about my experience here). But certainly no screaming agony in the initial stages!!


  • I don't remember ever feeling any Braxton Hicks contractions :-)
    Agree with Hegs re contractions - 12 hours at home before even a whiff of gas and air :-)
  • i feel reassured now. my husband is now convinced that i'm retarded because i can't tell the difference between a movement and a braxton hicks contraction!

    we did the whole labour thing AGAIN in our ANC last week (for about the 5th time). apparently, 48 hour labours are not uncommon for a first baby. oh joy. and spending 18 hours or more labouring at home before you go into hospital is also completely normal. sounds like an AWFUL lot of hard work to me!
  • Caramel - honestly, early labour is not really that painful. I was in labour for 12 hours with zero pain relief and having contractions every 4 minutes for 1 minute each. It is soooo hard to explain the feeling - it takes your breath away, but is not sharp pain. Everyone is different though and responds to the feeling differently, so some people need pain relief earlier than others.

    I think the best thing is to try and keep as relaxed about the whole thing as possible (not easy at the time!) - I was just so relieved to be having my baby that I was actually enjoying it - until things went a bit pearshaped and I had to have him out the sunroof!

  • MinksMinks ✭✭✭
    Thanks for the reassurance, Sian and Caramel. Can't believe I'm thinking about things like that already when I'm not even remotely pregnant!

    Hegs, yes, my friend who swelled up did have a girl. So, however, did my 'skinny Minnie' friend, and the only swelling she experienced were her feet/ankles in the last couple of weeks. Friend #2 had a boy. She also said labour wasn't nearly as bad as she'd expected, and likened the contractions to the kind of tummy cramps you get if you have a dose of diarrhoea - pretty uncomfortable but at least you get recovery time in between. And as she said, you don't get gas and air for diarrhoea (well, maybe the gas!!)
  • Hello ladies, I haven't read all of the previous messages about labour, but if I may, I'll give you me tips based on my experience: if you're in pain, but feel that it's too early to go, make sure you keep eating, as you may need the strength if things last quite a lot.
    I think that for most women it's the exhaustion more than the actual pain that is difficult. Sooo make sure you relax and try to sleep as long as you can, and as for the food: I had a bit of pasta, but couldn't face a proper meal, so I kept eating dried apricots and drinking Lucozade. That really helped me. And make sure to take some to the hospital to keep munching until they tell you you can't anymore.
    And then I found having the rest of my fruit and Lucozade in the postnatal ward quite comforting when the hospital food wasn't too appealing.
    That's something they don't really put on the list: make sure to take some nice comforting food for when you're in hospital, after you've given birth. the couple of toasts and tea given by the midwife were welcome, but not enough for my sweet tooth!!

    Caramel, don't worry too much: I spent my whole pregnancy convincing myself I'd have an easy, fast labour and that helped me being quite relaxed on the day. Now I look back and all I can remember is the intensity between me and my husband while he was helping me with the breathing. And of course, the moment my baby was put on my chest: AMAZING!!!!!!!!!
  • thanks for all your reassurances. my husband seems to think that i will panic like mad about being in labour and expects me to be useless. what with him telling me that and my mum telling me i'll be a useless mother, i'm beginning to feel a bit inadequate. ;-)

    i'm actually feeling quite relaxed about it. around here there's a 25% c-section rate anyway, so there's a fair chance he'll come 'out the sunroof' anyway (great term hegs!), so i am not getting any ideas in my head one way or another about how it's going to be.

    but he has to come out somehow! and that's all i'm focussing on.

    we're having our downstairs bathroom redone at the moment, and i've just watched our bath, toilet, sink, shower etc being walked out the front door. hurrah!!! the lilac bathroom suite is no more. yippeeee!

    the only trouble is that the water has been switched off, and i keep needing a pee...
  • I hadnt even considered food in the whole labour thing. Will definitely bring some with me now!
    SO cannot wait for that moment when they put baby on my chest.

    Minks re size and bumps showing early on etc.. I'm not quite as tiny as you..pre bump I was 8st 3, 5ft4..small build..I was showing at 7, 8 wks(sorry!) but I managed to just buy work jackets a size bigger and always wore black t shirts underneath..which disguised it quite well in work. Only 1 girl in work actually guessed I was preggers b4 I announced my pregnancy so am very proud of myself!

    So far I have put on 10 lb..so I look massive..good massive tho..I love having my bump. On my last visit with m-w, the baby bump measured about 2cm bigger than it should be...argh!...she said not to worry just yet about big baby/diabetes..so am putting it out of my mind..well I'm trying. In the meantime am cutting down on fruits,biscuits and trying to replace with raw veggies..not quite so yummy :-(
    Hopefully the measurements will be fine on my next visit.

    CM well done you on your diagnosis on my pains!





  • Yikes CM..no loo ..get out to your neighbours house fast

    You're right to be relaxed about whats going to happen on labour-day. I'm the same. I've heard some friends of mine really determined on the way they want the labour to be..and end up being really disappointed with the whole experience.

    All we want is a healthy baby after it all..so whatever has to happen to make that possible..then thats fine.
  • mrst
    it's not quite that bad - we have 3 other toilets, although one is outside and full of spiders (haven't got round to clearing it out yet this year - that's on the list for friday. oh joy!). if we didn't have a toilet at all, i'd be in dire straits by now!

    when is lunchtime? i'm STARVING again!!
  • Hi folks

    Just wondering if I can join in. I found out on Sunday I was pregnant (first month of trying so a little surprised) and I was supposed to be running the Reading Half, but didn't as I hadn't had a chance to read up on whether it was safe or not! Decided to err on the side of caution and not do it. Then had to make up a fake illness to friends and colleagues as to why I didn't do it, and why I've made a miraculaous recovery.

    No symptoms just yet apart from the incredibly sore boobs and slight bloated feeling (and needing more sleep - I wasn't expecting that so early).

    I plan to keep running and do pilates etc but have slimmed down both the miles and speed. (Mind you, speed was never up to much anyway!) Can now actually go out running with hubbie as he's the only person I know of who is actually slower than me - so it could definitely have benefits!

    Good to know I'm not on my own or mad for wanting to keep running. Have bought the runners world book on the subject when we started planning so I have a good reference!
  • congratulations!!

    we also conceived on our first month of trying - you never think it will happen given that you spend all your life trying to avoid it!

    i'm sure you would have been fine to run the reading half, but erring on the side of caution is always sensible.

    you may find that as things progress you start to feel worse from nausea and running becomes a challenge, but some people sail through with no problem.

    pilates is a great thing to do while pregnant but you should really tell your instructor because there are some moves that aren't recommended while you are pregnant and some other things you should only do after 16 weeks. maybe you know about them already, but if you don't and you mention it to your instructor, hopefully they will manage to be discreet about it and not holler out 'and for you pregnant bird at the back...'. normally they will be quite good and say things like 'for anyone not wanting to put too much strain on <x body part>, then do the following'...
  • Thanks Caramel!

    It's all a bit surreal to be honest. I've already spoken to my Pilates teacher, and he's going to leave out the 'dodgy' exercises for the next couple of weeks so no one notices, and then customise my workout for me as I get bigger. Bless him!

    It feels strange telling a relative stranger when I've not told any friends and family yet! Waiting for a while before I tell them all - I want to make sure everything's okay first.
  • LozF

    that's great news. i was terrified about telling my fitball instructor in case she blabbed to everyone but she was actually very good!

    i found it really hard telling people - and do even now (and i'm now approaching 28 weeks!). i think it's because you worry they think you are only telling them so that they can congratulate you. and, certainly, until i'd had my 20 weeks scan, i didn't want any congratulations because i was worried about things going wrong! i waited until after that scan to tell all but my closest friends (whom I'd told after the 12 week scan), because there would have been nothing worse than having to un-tell them if there had been a serious problem detected.

    i did tell my mum and hubby told his mum as well as soon as we found out. we figured we'd probably want their support if something went wrong. but we didn't tell anyone else until after 12 weeks.
  • Running when Pregnant question

    Hi, i may have asked this already, but how hard do you run whilst pregnant. Don't have a hear rate monitor and not sure how hard to push it without overdoing it. Most of the time i feel a wee bit puffed and go a bit red as usual but can still hold a conversation ok. There is the odd steep incline on a lot of the routes and i have been walking up these, if i was to try and run up them i would definetly be puffing really hard and my face would be purple for about 30 seconds and i would be knackered at the top. None of the inclines or wee hills are very far, you're only talking about 30 secs to a minute to get up them, but is it ok to push yourself a wee bit for a short time or should i just stick to walking up these steep bits ??
  • mrs o

    this is just my opinion - but as long as you FEEL ok when you are doing it, i think it's fine to push it a bit, as long as you are not overheating or pushing it for too long. at the end of the last race i did, i put on a bit of a sprint down the last straight and round the bend into the finish (well, no-one would have identified it as a sprint, but *i* felt like it was!) and i felt fantastic at the end of it.

    in fact, some of the research that i've read has said that even periods of sustained intense activity (such as speed sessions) have caused no problems to pregnant women, but most people wouldn't actually recommend them.

    and if we had been prehistoric pregnant females, we'd have needed to run pretty fast to get away from predators, so i think short burst of intense effort are fine.

    believe me, if you are doing too much, you will almost certainly feel it yourself before you have a chance to do any damage to the baby!!
  • We're thinking of telling parents at around 10 weeks - they'd be so excited I'm not sure I could cope with it! That way they get to know before anyone else, but it's not right away.

    I'm sure they'll also tell me to give up cycling to work (dangerous - even though I use a cyclepath), give up running (dangerous, I might pull a muscle), give up my motorbike (dangerous, I've only had one for 18 years) etc etc and get some nice velour tracksuits, start watching all the soaps, dressing in pink, must eat more red meat, and eat until I burst.....sorry went off on one there. They already think my lifestyle is mad, so I'm sure both mothers will now expect me to conform to what THEY expect from a wife and mother (to be)!
  • After my run today, my lower abdomen feels a bit achy, not crampy, more like a kind of dull ache like things have been stretched a bit. Could this be the baby and womb bouncing about and stretching my abdominal muscles while running, or possibly just my womb stretching as the baby starts to grow (14 and a half weeks now). Wasn't aware of it when running, after lunch i was working at computer for about half an hour, noticed it when i got up and walked about.
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