DO NOT DESPAIR!

It will get better, I promise. Yes, the first trimester will make you tired/bloated/sick. Just ride it out the best you can. My big problem was getting super breathless, even just walking the dog. Asking my mom to slow down while we were walking was embarassing/annoying.

Find foods you can think about/eat without getting nauseated. If you can't "work out", go for a walk/swim/do light weights. If all that is too much - just take the nap and enjoy it.

Try not to let it bum you out too much, do what you can & be excited about the little human you are making.

I won't tell you to "enjoy pregnancy" because even though I had a relatively easy pregnancy I just didn't like it. I felt weird/yucky/uncomfortable. I felt so much better as soon as the little parasite was out of me. :P

Hi, I am now 11 weeks pregnant and I felt exactly the same way. I was exhausted and wanted to throw up all the time, although I never did. Around week 9 the doctor called to me that I have a mild hypothyroid and that probably was adding to the problem! I take thyroxine now and it helps it bit. I managed to ride my bicycle to work, about 30 minutes, but thats all I could do. I hated going to the pool because I felt so unfit and fat. It felt horrible and my partner kept encouraging me to go the gym or the pool and it just depressed me more because I felt like he was calling me fat (not exercising as caused me to pack on a lot already, which is also depressing). Since last week I suddenly feel better. I was able to run on the treadmill last night - albeit at an embarrassingly slow speed! I still don't want to go to the pool though...

It is too soon for me to say if I am into the feeling better stage of months 4-6 but I understand completely how you feel and want to say hang in there! At least in my case, it got better around 10 weeks.

Everything you typed is completely normal!! There are people who can do everything they did and eat everything they did pre pregnancy, others who modify what they did and ate, and others who just have to throw "normal" life and eating habits out the window and just do and eat what they can to survive during pregnancy! And others who are somewhere in between all of those. And every pregnancy is different (even from pregnancy #1-3 and beyond!). Usually somewhere between 12-16 weeks women start to get some energy back, quit being nauseous and can do a bit more exercise wise. Some women can't get back in the swing of exercise until after the baby is born (this was me). Some food aversions last throughout pregnancy (and sometimes beyond). Don't worry about the weight gain at this point - if the only thing that makes the nauseous feeling go away is eating those comfort foods then eat those comfort foods!! The best thing you can do now is to listen to your body (which is sounds like your doing a good job of). Right now naps are trumping exercise and comfort foods are trumping fruits and veggies - that's ok!! Hopefully your second trimester things will normalize a bit and you'll be able to eat a wider variety of foods and do some exercise, even if modified). Try not to worry too much right now!! Many of us have been in the same boat your in now and got through it one way or another. I will say enjoy your pregnancy! I am a lucky one and loved being pregnant. Especially after the first trimester was over!!

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Harry: "I expected the Rocky Mountains to be a little rockier than this."
Loyd: "I was thinking the same thing. That John Denver's full of shit, man."

Yes, it is.

It is normal to feel nauseous and very, very tired all the time. It is normal to be unable to lift yourself off the sofa. It is normal to feel like retching just because you've caught a whiff of foods you used to love being taken out of the fridge. It is normal to crave nursery food (I lived on rice pudding with tinned peaches, and potato pancakes.)

For me, it didn't get get better until week 15 or 16 (can't remember which). It was sudden. I woke up one weekend morning, expecting to feel as dreadful as the day before, and found that I didn't. I hopped out of bed and felt fine. I had lots of energy for the rest of the pregnancy (both times). Cycled, swam, walked loads. (I didn't run because I wasn't a runner then.)

But the food aversions didn't go away until a few days after the birth.

Please try not to feel bad about not working out now. Do what you can. It doesn't matter. You will be come through the whole process as fit and thin as you ever were, if those things matter to you.

so normal. Make sure you listen to your body. Don't push workouts that don't feel good! It might mean going down in weight or going for walks instead of running. There's so much pressure on women to continue what they were doing before they were pregnant these days! It's crazy to think you can just carry on as normal, you are GROWING A HUMAN. Eat well when you feel good and rest when you don't. It's tough. I felt trapped in my pregnant body, but it's temporary and the end result is incredible.

Even while prego I attempted to workout 7-10 hours a week as long as possible just so I could feel like my normal self. In the first trimester, I found that getting my blood flowing actually helped the nausea. It was usually about 3 miles into a run that I felt much better and started to enjoy still being able to do what I love. Citrus also helped settle my stomach. Although my first trimester was not bad, the second was even better. Looking back, I was able to do a lot more than I expected to, even as my belly got bigger. In the first trimester, I know you're totally overwhelmed in coming to terms with what will be your new normal, but it does get better. As far as food, I just tried to stick to real, whole foods, even if they contained more fat and calories. Comfort food doesn't have to be processed.

In my experience, it was hard hearing "relax, you're creating a human" often in response to my fitness and weight gain concerns during pregnancy. I went from finishing an Ironman in 10:51 to being pregnant in a little over a month, and dropping off the competition scene completely. Now I am 11 weeks postpartum and actually SEEING the human that was inside of me gives a whole different perspective, and I understand why people say that. I am no longer concerned about checking the workout boxes, but I do try to fit in quality workouts when possible.

Every pregnancy is so different. It's a total cliche, but you just have to listen to your body. I have to be a little cautious about what I say here, because one of the OBs in my practice is active on the ST forums, but my rule during my pregnancy was basically this: if it physically hurts or I'm really gasping for breath, stop or back off.

I was super sick during my first trimester, and the only way to somewhat manage my nausea was to basically eat a bagel (or something equally carb-y) every two hours. I wasn't tired, though -- instead, I had ridiculous insomnia. I'm not sure if it was my body adjusting from years of 20 hour training weeks, or just the hormones, but that insomnia was killer. I tried to do something active for 45-90 minutes every day, but if I felt terrible, I rested. I immediately noticed a difference in my runs -- my heart rate shot up a lot higher than my normal Z1 HR within a week or so of conceiving. Swimming and cycling were mostly okay -- my heart rate was still higher on the bike at the same watts, but the difference wasn't as drastic as it was on my runs.

The second trimester was better, in that I wasn't nauseous anymore. For about 6 weeks, I felt relatively good, and was able to enjoy being active again. Around 20 weeks though, I developed symphisis pubis dysfunction. SPD really messed up my plans for how active I was going to be during my pregnancy. I couldn't run more than 2.5-3 miles without feeling like someone was jabbing an ice pick in the middle of my pubic bone. Rolling over in bed at night became one of the most painful things that I did every day. I kept hiking a few miles on the weekends, swimming, lifting, and riding my mountain bike on rail trails just to get outside until about 32 weeks. I gave water running a shot for awhile, too. Since about 34 weeks, my SPD has just gotten too painful to do much. Even swimming hurts. Could I push myself to keep swimming and walking? Yes, absolutely. And if it weren't so painful, I would still be doing 3 or 4 hour hikes every weekend. Last weekend, I walked for an hour, and paid for it for three days. It's super frustrating. But, I have a couple of friends who pushed more than they should have with SPD, and both ended up with a separated pelvis and 6+ months in PT before they could start running again. It's not worth it to me. I've got a date with IMMT in August, and nothing I could have done between 34 weeks and giving birth is going to help prepare me for that race. But, a separated pelvis could be the end of that race for me before I even start training again.

I'm 37 weeks now, and he's just about done cooking. At this point, I'm really uncomfortable and puffy, and ready to start the long, slow process of feeling like myself again.

Good luck with the next phase. By the end I was SO DONE being pregnant that all the post-pregnancy stuff felt like a breeze (relatively of course).

Hi! I think you don't really need to "stop" but more like slow down a bit. You might need some changes with your workout routine. Generally, you'll feel better on your 2nd trimester. Good luck!

Love this post! I'm 7 weeks pregnant and feel completely useless. It's all I can do to drag myself out of bed, go to work, come home from work and fall back into bed. I went from working out about 12 hours a week to getting exhausted just walking the dogs a mile. I'm going to cry if this lasts longer than the first trimester.

It's worse when it's your second/third/etc baby. Don't worry, things will improve eventually.

Jordon just posted an interview on another thread which you might find helpful.

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...;;page=unread#unread

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Jen

"In order to keep a true perspective on one's importance, everyone should have a dog that worships him and a cat that will ignore him." - Dereke Bruce