Third Trimester

Welcome to the Third trimester!

My stomach is squirming and nausea is creeping back in… 75grams of sugar in one 300ml clear liquid drink… feels like a weeks worth of sugar in one go for this sugar conscious person.

I cringe as I swallow it down having to place all my instincts of how bad this is for my baby and me and drink it all as instructed.

Welcome to week 28 and to the third trimester… its time for the diabetes screening test!!

It all seems a little surreal to be honest and I feel like I should pat myself on the back or something. Similar feelings of achievement creep in as to when I finish off a complete training block or phase in a build up to a big race.

The only difference is that instead of feeling physically toned and strong as a result of the training, I can feel and literally see my rather large stomach squirming and moving around…

That’s right little one… yah for us we only have 12 weeks to go J

Feeling the baby move has been a bit of a lifesaver for me really. As I struggled my way through the first trimester the one thing that really has helped me get to know my little one has been through its constant movements. I felt its first kick at only 14 weeks and then from then on it has been amazing feeling and seeing it find its strength and coordination and sense of self through movement.

I will never forget sitting down to eat breakfast after a swim session and putting my hands on my tummy to play a little drum like beat on it and getting the biggest and strongest and most visible kick to date into my hand as if to say ‘Bugger off” at that point I thought fair enough you take after your Mum and like your space J

Things that have noticeably changed in the last 2 weeks or as I transitioned from the 2^nd trimester to the third are:

o   Almost over night it suddenly became hard or uncomfortable to bend over…meaning my belly is now starting to get in the way of movements I normally take for granted!

o   Putting on shoes is not just an automatic action. I now have to make sure I either sit down or focus on staying balanced and up right and working around my belly to get them on.

o   My puffer jacket suddenly started looking like it would burst if I kept trying to zip it up! So I had to get a new one… not necessarily a bad thing J

o   Sharp stretching pains similar to that of the first trimester have returned in my stomach muscles …sometimes feeling like I have ripped something major!

o   Struggling once again with tiredness or more accurately pure exhaustion and would happily sleep past 8am if given the chance or opportunity.

o   Emotions are revisiting the unbuckling stage again so having to work hard to manage those… yah… not!

o   I have had to stop ignoring or putting off the fact that I now need to start buying things for the baby and getting things ready and prepared!!

o   Training wise, things have had to slow down a bit with the torn ligaments in the ankle, but I am still swimming 3-4 times a week, getting in Pilates sessions and building back into the walking as the Physio rehab allows.  So I have had to slow down a lot earlier then I had hoped or planned, but just trying to roll with where the body is at the best I can.

o   And finally the most obvious is the acceptance that I really do look pregnant now. Gone are the encouraging comments of “Wow your how many months pregnant? Your hardly showing!” To “Oh Wow you have really popped”, “Wow your really big now” and “Oh wow you REALLY look pregnant now” just to go over a couple of the many blunt comments that people now use to greet me with.

(Not always easy to handle some days when your emotions are on a third trimester roller coaster and you’re a person whose identity and career to date as both a professional athlete and Pilates instructor has been about the health wellness and performance of that body!!!)

Lets just say the Glamorous side of been pregnant - if there ever was one - is definitely over!! 

On the positive side of things…

·      The ultra sound scans now show a rather cute looking little human inside…

Trimester Two - Autumn 2017

Trimester Two

Supposedly the best part of pregnancy… and looking back over the last 14 weeks from my 1 week in the 3^rd trimester I would agree… Although the good parts all seem to have been condensed into about 4-6 weeks at most… so I have come out the other end feeling a little shortchanged!

Finally the dreaded nausea cleared up around the 4 and ½ to 5-month mark. I had been hanging out since day one of week 13 for it to finish as all the pregnancy week by week readings online said that was its due by date for most and I desperately didn’t want to be one of the unlucky percentage that had it all through the pregnancy!!

Eventually I got sick of actively willing it to pass and at that point almost over night it did and with its disappearance the tiredness started to ease and then  just like that I woke up one day and felt almost my normal self.  I of course had a baby bump and it was growing rather rapidly but it was still in that relatively comfortable stage and I felt like a new person… Nausea free J

Weirdly running and swimming felt a lot more comfortable despite my bump been bigger and I felt really pretty agile, active and energetic and if I didn’t look at my Garmin to see how slow I was running I could almost feel like a fit athlete again!

At 21 weeks with an all clear from the 20-week anatomy scan, Marc and I headed off on a delayed honeymoon and had the best holiday ever!

To be honest it was the first time since I was 21 that I was heading out overseas on an actual holiday and not with my bike or running shoes in toe to a training or racing trip!

I did struggle at first been at a beach and in a beautiful tropical place getting into a bikini or wearing summer clothes when I was still trying to comes to terms wit the massive changes that were happening to my body shape and trying to find some confidence within those changes. But I think been away and taking that time out from the normal stressors of my day to day life really helped me take the time to come to terms with my pregnancy and the changes that I was going through both physically and career wise as well.

I was able to run, walk, swim and play in the water and be so active despite what my body was going through and although it didn’t suddenly turn me into a glowing pregnant mum to be… it just helped me accept the changes I was been confronted with and be happy where I was.

Plus a good suntan always helps one feel happier in them selves in any situation J!!

Once back in NZ, I was still loving and enjoying some decent running, swimming and strength sessions. I was using the swimming to get the HR up and push myself where as the runs were slowing and were harder work and I was enjoying them but was having to take breaks along the way on the longer ones and every now and then walk up the steeper hills so I could catch my breath. Whereas in the pool I was not swimming to far off my normal training times, the running was quite a bit slower and my strength on the hills fading.

I however still loved been out there and running. That is until at 26 weeks 3mins into a 1hr 30min trail run I rolled my ankle and just like that the golden phase of the second trimester was over and so was my running. I of course thought it was fine and kept running for a bit (30mins to be exact) but I was wrong and the result was a very slow, painful hobble back through the bush to the car and three torn ligaments - laterally, medially and in the spring ligament along with some possible medial bone damage.

So there it was I was stopping running at 26 weeks, roughly about 10-12 weeks earlier then I thought I would need too…

Of course it was only a projected 7-8 weeks off running with the extent of the damage and then a return to run program but it didn’t take long to do the calculations in my head and wonder at what state my ever growing belly would be at 34 weeks and would I really be able to get back into much running at that time…

Injuries are tough – I should know I have had my fair share of them, over the years, but What I didn’t realize was at this stage in my pregnancy my running and my exercise was my form of nesting

I was using my running as my outlet for my emotions and anxieties or at least my means of managing them. In amongst the beautiful trails and with the ever familiar movement of my body it was my sense of normality amongst all the changes my body was experiencing. Even though it felt far from my normal running pre pregnancy it was still my home and my sense of relief and where I felt most myself.

I was coping best here while I ran. I was already on some level nervous of how life could change once the baby arrived and how much access to this running home and freedom I would have so I was nesting and doing this as much as I could, and suddenly way to early I couldn’t.

I suddenly felt very left out or left behind from my normal life. I had already dealt with some massive changes with the pregnancy but these runs were my way of dealing with those changes. I was expecting at some point in the pregnancy to have to stop running but the reality of stopping so much earlier then I planned was a big curve ball to deal with and left me feeling quite lost.

So yet again in this pregnancy I have been confronted with some big personal challenges and sometimes this has been pretty tough. But as with in all life’s tough situations we just find a way to get on with things, and so that’s what I have been doing.

The reality is my baby and I are still really healthy and although I may not be as fit as I want to be and I am missing something I love in my life- Life is still really good.

Green Chia Bowls were the Hawaiian lunch staple 

The compulsory post run beach swim!!

 The baby Bump and Me :)