Sorry... I'm not preggo (yet!)... but I am TOTALLY curious. How did it go? With your last pregnancy, I mean. You worked out until the last days from what you described. How did you feel? Any things to look out for? How did the birth go? Do you think working out made a significant difference with your pregnancy? Your health? Weight? I'm hoping this doesn't divert your tread, but rather encourage it.

Go girl!!

Jodi

Working out while pg definitely helped with my first. Mostly from the standpoint of it kept me feeling better physically and mentally. I had a relatively easy pregnancy, I was nailed by morning sickness in the first trimester but then was pretty much problem free. My blood pressure stayed low, I gained about 25lbs and delivered naturally. Probably the thing I noticed the most was how quickly I recovered from the birth. I had a great midwife who encouraged me to get out and walk the first week after delivery and I did. I started running again within 2-3 weeks but then went back to walking with my daughter b/c I was so exhausted from lack of sleep! ( Months after delivering I was down about 5lbs below the weight I'd been before trying to get pregnant. I attribute most of that to breastfeeding and my jog stroller.

The one physical issue I had was groin pain while running outside. The ups and downs of curbs and other small bumps was too much for me to handle with all that extra weight pressing down in that area. With my first I wore a heart rate monitor and set it to go off at 155 (I came up with this number thru a bit of trial and error after determining that 140 would never work for me) if it went off I'd assess how I felt. If I was really hot and pushing it I'd slow down. If I felt fine I'd keep going. This time I haven't busted out the HR monitor yet and may not. I'm mostly concerned about overheating so I just pay attention to how much I'm sweating and how hot I feel if it's too much I slow down. I will say that it is hard to slow down! After years of always pushing ahead in those situation it's hard to back off.

I hope that helps, feel free to ask many more questions. There aren't many people I get to 'talk' about this with.

Finally a thread I can get into! My baby will be three months old on Wednesday, so I'm not pg anymore, but it's still recent enough in my memory. I walked and swam until pretty close to the end, maybe the last three weeks I didn't do anything, and I was a week overdue, too. I found I was really tired, and I had just moved from the desert to Austin, TX, where the humidity really seemed to get to me, not being used to it and all. So no big workouts for me the whole time. I also figured better safe than sorry, this was my first baby and my dr. discouraged any actual running and definitely was against any bike time right from the beginning. I think he was probably pretty old school, but I figured why take chances.

Recovery from it all has been great, and I did not have an easy delivery. I only have about 10 pounds left, and I gained 50! I started walking about a week after and was able to swim at about 5 weeks after. I started running at 6 weeks, but I was still carrying around that weight and my knees hurt, so I took a break and have been back at it for about 3 weeks now.

Definitely, I think the shape I was in when I got pg and even the low level of fitness I maintained during the whole thing helped with the recovery and the weight loss. I have been amazed at how quickly my body is coming back.

Good luck with your pregnancy! It's really amazing what your body can do, isn't it? That just blew me away, how it knew all on its own. Pretty cool. I know it's your second, you probably know more about this than I do, but anything I can do to help, just ask!

I am due in August with my second, too. Small world. :) I worked out until the end of my last pregnancy, too and am trying to keep some semblance of a workout plan this time as well. Aiming for 2 swims, 2 bikes (indoors), and 2 runs a week. Doesn't always work out, but without a goal....I am lost.

Runs are slow, but not painful yet. Swims are great...being a slow swimmer to start with is finally a good thing. The belly hasn't slowed me down yet. I do have a question for other ladies about the bike though...how long were you able to ride your tri bike (on the trainer) into your pregnancy? I can imagine at some point your belly just gets too big to make it comfortable.

MJ -- when is your due date? August 12th here.

My due date is August 25th. Congratulations to you Mrsparker!

I didn't ride my bike much at all with my first and probably won't much this time either. For me it was partially just feeling so huge when I leaned over to reach the handlebars. Maybe if I rode a more upright mountain bike I'd feel better. I also prefer swimming and running to biking so I had a lot less motivation to ride. For me swims are great too. Already I can feel the extra weight while running but it's not there swimming.

Hi, Congratulations on your 2nd pregnancy!

My son is now 3.5 y.o. but I can still tell you about training and pregnancy. I trained during my pregnancy, after the 15th week when I regained some energy, and up until I gave birth. I just made sure I was not overheating ( the poor thing can not sweat in my belly !), hydrated properly and wore a heart rate monitor not to over do it.

I was due for August 3rd, so all winter I was able to do some winter sports, i.e. back country and skate skiing ( even a bit a downhill skiing), some snowshoeing also. Swimming has always been my favorite sport, and it was paradise during my pregnancy, even managed to keep up the flip turns all the way to the end. I kept running, if you can call it running and not jogging! At a certain point I had to use a Belly belt , which helped a lot, but at 8 months I had to stop running due to back pain after the activity. I also kept cycling, at a very leisurely pace, and on safe roads only. We have a nice 13 km paved road not accessible to cars close to my house, so a few out and backs and you have yourself some nice safe riding. I did a 2hour ride with my neighbour the day before I gave birth, the poor man could hardly keep up at 20km/hr average!

I had a great pregnancy, and managed to trained enough to stay fit, enjoy myself, and keep good moral. Due to some minor stitches and the novelty of beeing of mother I did not train after the birth for a month. I started slowly after wards and quickly regained my weight and fitness, I managed to do pretty well on a sprint race when my son was not quite 2 months old yet!. I must admit I had a very helpful husband, and a good baby who was sleeping nights after 8 weeks.

I kept the training up, and managed to do Ironman NZ in March, crossing the finish line with my 7 month old in my arms...the best feeling EVER....after giving birth ..of course!

Best of luck to you, enjoy this special moment it does not last that long.
Cheers
Irontitanik, Montreal
Anik Mercure

Wow....impressive. An IM 7 months post partum! You're my hero. :)

I am hoping for a half IM PR 8 months PP this time around. I keep wishing someone would write a book called, "Training Your Way Through Pregnancy to your Half IM PR." ;)

So you have to tell me - how did you fit in training for an Ironman with an infant? Right now I am signed up for a really short sprint in May and that's it. I'm starting to think I may have to give up tris and stick to single sports for a while because I just can't seem to fit everything in. I haven't been on my bike, for instance, in at least 3 weeks. This is also my second week back at work, and since I've been back here all I've managed are a few runs at lunch. I keep hoping it will smooth out and we'll fall into a schedule, but I am just not seeing the light at this point. I would love to hear how you did it all...

Oops! On my first post ever on Slowtwitch I accidently used my husband login ( he's logged automatically on this computer, and of course I did not know that!).
Needles to say , he was not too impressed with me :) particularly by posting in the women's forum with his email ;-)

At least I signed with my name

CHeers
Anik...irontitanik

Hi Shelby,

I know that finding time to train is difficult with an infant. I was fortunate enough to have a year maternity leave ( governmental program here in Quebec). Plus as I mentionned earlier, I had a great baby, who slept through the night after 8 weeks. I could also have a great night of sleep every other night as my husband took care of the baby feedings every other night, even in the first 8 weeks. We tried breast feeding for 10 days, but this did not workout, as I was not producing enough milk and the baby was loosing too much weight. So with the bottle it became a lot easier on me, as Dad could also take over. When the baby was almost 6 months we left for NZ, I had a good 6 weeks of training there before the race. My husband was on research sabbatical, and although he did work, he was working from our appartment, and able to take care of the baby a few hours a day while I trained. I would nap with the baby everyday :) Having zero obligations, to work, family and friends made our schedule easier to manage and provided more training time. Of course we did not benefit from any babysitters, but we did not need anyone, we were happy with our new little family. After 4 months in NZ, we spent 3 months in Australia travelling in a motorhome. I had the best maternity leave ever....maybe I should think of having another one :)...just kidding !

So my magic recipe was a very understanding husband who was happy to see me getting back in shape, and ideal training environment.

Keep up the good wotk, sleep when you can, wherever, close your office door for a 15 min power nap, look the conference room door what ever, you need to be rested to have the energy to train, and enjoy your little one :)

Kindly
Irontitanik...Anik Mercure, Montreal

I am so jealous! I was just in my HR department today finding out that I technically only get 6 weeks leave and after that it's using vacation time. I don't qualify for FMLA (which is only 12 weeks unpaid) b/c I work part time. The US has the crappiest maternity leave policy. It is seriously like 4th worst in the world!

I'm jealous, too. I took the whole 12 weeks for my maternity leave - ooohhh. It really doesn't seem like enough.

My husband does work at home, so while I was at home it was easier to get workouts in when the baby was sleeping or whatever, but now that I'm back at work it's just really hard. I think I may look for a job with more flexible hours. I just feel like I spend most of my life at work and have no time for my baby or husband or anything else that I enjoy. Definitely jealous your situation, that is awesome!

Maybe you don't have a good maternity leave program, but you can see your doctor early in your pregnancy... I'll see my Dr for the 1st time after 12 weeks only. BUT YES! I'll take 1 year off!

I'm in my 1st trimester with my first and i've been sssooo tired that after work I can barely get off the couch let alone train....how did the rest of you deal with this? Did you take it easy in the 1st trimester and pick it back up in the 2nd? Or did you just force yourself to get out there? Sometimes I worry that i'm just giving myself an excuse not to do anything!!!

Hi MJ,
I'm also in the first semester (I begin week 10) with the 1st one and I'm also very tired. Don't have the energy to go to the pool in the AM. I try to do 1hr of somthing every day, but the truth is that I do more or less 4-6 hrs per week (and used to train 10-14hrs). They say that we'll have more energy after 12 weeks. I can't wait. I go to bed at 9:30PM, and have hard time to wake up at 7AM. So I just think that our body needs some rest. In addition, during my week-ends, we are looking for moving out, so we spent our week-ends visiting houses. No time to train. I don't really care anymore, I know I'll have time to train later (maternity leave). Good luck!

Holy crap, 12 weeks? We get 12 MONTHS in Canada... I can't imagine 12 weeks. Wow.

AP
PS: Yeah after about week 13, you will feel a million % better...

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

I am now in week 15 and I can tell you that what they say about the second trimester is true! You really feel much better. Except for the fact that I am gaining weight and my chest keeps growing, I feel like my old self. It's really hard not to push myself in workouts because I feel like my old self.

However, in my first trimester I had to force myself to do my workouts and I was exhausted all the time. It's not an excuse, the "little parasite" as my doctor called our baby, is sucking a lot of energy out of you. If you feel like you need sleep, then sleep.

I mostly agree on the 2nd trimester but I am SO much more drained after a workout. And it's a lot tougher to run when you're 15lbs up on your "fighting weight".
I love having most of my energy back. I even feel like cooking once in a while and picking up after my two year old.
Snotrocket make the most of this trimester! The third one slows you down quite a bit more...

Hello Irontitanik,

I'd like to chat with you about your IM training after you gave birth to your child. I think I will sign up for IMLP09 via the charity registration and need some tips. My daughter is almost 4 months old. You can PM me. Thanks.

Hi, I would be glad to answer your questions. Email me at irontitanik@gmail.com

Cheers
Anik